clothing education

Until recently, I've always insisted that my pants come up to my waist line. I was suspicious of anything that hit lower down. I once tried on some khaki pants that stopped around the hips; they gave me a feeling of panic. I was sure that they were going to slide down at any moment.

But now I'm pregnant. And even though this is the third time for me, I still haven't completely figured out how to dress myself. I'm in that sort of awkward place where I need bigger pants, but I'm not quite ready for maternity pants.
Enter the hip huggers.

The beauty of hip huggers is that my stomach can kind of balloon over them [a lovely mental image, I know]. When I tried them on, I still had the feeling that the first time my 4 or 2 year old grabbed me by the leg, my pants were going to end up around my knees. So while I stood in front of the mirror, I tried tugging the pants down to see how secure they really were. I tugged and tugged and they remained up. At least high enough up that I wasn't committing any acts of gross indecency.

I turned around in front of the mirror. Oh, so that's what kept the pants up. I've clearly been underestimating the size of my butt.
Very good then.
Carry on.

The return of Toady-Toad

Paul found Toady-Toad again last night. At least, Paul was convinced that this toad was the same as the one he found in the garden a month ago. This Toady-Toad was by our house.

I keep hearing people argue that females are, in general, more nurturing than males. Maybe they are when it comes to things like babies and kittens. Paul was very nurturing to Toady-Toad. He was careful to keep Toady-Toad away from Maggie. He put Toady-Toad in a bucket with grass. He made sure Toady-Toad stayed in the shade. He caught some roly-poly bugs to feed Toady-Toad. It’s not that he wasn’t also pretty rough with Toady-Toad, but in his own way, he was very nurturing and affectionate.

When we called him inside for supper, he turned the bucket upside down so that Toady-Toad had a house from which it could not escape. Bath time and bed followed fast on the heels of supper, and I’m afraid Toady-Toad was forgotten. I released Toady-Toad from his home as the sun was setting. Toady-Toad wasn’t moving so fast any more. He felt a little dehydrated. I checked back on the place I put him after a little while, and he had moved on. Hopefully he found a good little shelter and some tasty bugs to eat.

There is a part of me that is always tense when Paul finds a new little friend. I’m glad for the exploration of worms, insects, and amphibians that Paul is doing. And he has been sharing the little creatures very nicely with Julia. But I feel bad for the abuse the toads and insects take. Plus I’m a big fan of having big healthy toads living on the property so that they can eat less desirable fauna.

Julia’s fear of bugs seems to have subsided a bit from last year. We haven’t seen too many spiders yet, so I don’t know if she will still be bothered by those. Yesterday, she was very happy to check out the worms, insects, and Toady-Toad as Paul showed them to her. In fact, she has been bold enough to stomp on some of the carpenter ants she has seen near our house. Alternatively, when she saw some little ants, she called them sweet little baby ants and wondered if they were lost. She fed them some flowers.

Proper Motivation

At preschool, Paul has been learning his address & phone number. He pretty much knew his address already (as does Julia), 'cause its something we've been working with him on for a while. But he didn't really know his phone number before.

Last week, when Sarah was traveling for work, Paul recited most of his phone number correctly with a little prompting. During lunchtime today Sarah asked Paul if he could say his phone number. (For arguments sake lets assume our phone number is 867-5309.)

Sarah: "What's your phone number Paul?"
Paul: "8...8...."
Steve: "What's after the 8?"
Paul: "9!"
Steve: "No, in your phone number, what comes after the 8?"
Paul: "Its 88889"
Sarah: "Do we need to work with you on this some more buddy?"
Steve: "Paul, if you can tell me your phone number I'll give you one of my jelly beans."
(Sarah looks incredulously at Steve as if that's not gonna make any difference)
Paul: "8...6...7...."
Steve: "Yeah, what's the rest?"
(Sarah again looks incredulously at Steve)
Paul: "5309"

At this point Sarah smiled and chuckled at her own underestimation of her son's ability. And I smiled knowingly while digging out a jelly bean for my son.


Steve: "Paul, do you just need proper motivation?"
Paul: (very matter-of-factly while chewing his jelly bean) "Yeah."

Spring '09 Chicken Party

I'm pleased to announce the Spring 2009 Chicken Processing Party at the Kuhlman Farm. This year's party spells doom for 10-12 of my hens, which is a little smaller soiree from last year. But we still could use some help getting it all done, and, as usual, anyone that helps can take a cleaned and ready-for-the-pot chicken home with 'em.

What: Chicken Processing Party
Where: Kuhlman Farm
When: Saturday, May 2, starting around 9am (rain or shine)

A non-chicken lunch will be provided. Please let me know if you're able to come so we've got enough food.

Above Her Age

The scene: Last night on the couch starting our evening cartoon before bed. Julia's in my lap, and Paul's beside me.


The VeggieTales theme song starts up:
" If you like to talk to tomatoes
If a squash can make you smile
If you like to waltz with potatoes
Up and down the produce aisle..."

Julia: "Daddy, I don't like to waltz with potatoes."
- pause -
Julia: "I like to eat them up."

Hard to believe she's not even 3 yet with insight like that.

Berries & Sprouts

Many of you may remember that I ordered a bunch or raspberry plants (10 black, 5 yellow) for Valentine's day for Sarah. In anticipation of their arrival, Dad & I prepared a bed for them a couple weekends ago. Like most digging around our farm, lots of rocks were harvested in the process. But all in all in went pretty smoothly and we finished with 15 holes dug, the dirt mixed with some peat moss & fertilizer, and re-filled. Well at long last the berry plants arrived Wed. in the mail, and yesterday Dad & I got them in the ground. We finished up by mulching 'em in good and we now have a nice long row of raspberry plants. Now we just need to work on a trellis....

The garden's coming along nicely:

• 4 solid rows of peas about 2" high, and the first 2 strings are up over 'em waiting for 'em
• 1 row of 8 cucumber mounds with little signs of life save for a few small weeds...drat
• 1 solid row of lettuce & cabbage coming up and looking strong
• 2 solid rows of onions (yellow & brown) growing fast
• 2 rows of carrots just beginning to sprout
• 1 solid row of garlic (planted last fall) that looks great!
• 7 hop mounds all shooting out fast now...I need to root trim a few of these and transplant into a few new mounds
• In the house we've got some lovely sprouts from the thyme, basil, & dill we planted
• One defiant rhubarb plant has come back strong in the bed by the barn, all the intentional transplants have disappeared
  
• Blueberry plants (started last year) have been fertilized & re-mulched

The trees are mostly budding and the grass is growing strong again. Spring is roaring back on the farm. With any luck I'll get a chance to mow some grass this afternoon....

Paul's Lonely Cheese Story

Last week the children and I went to the library. One of the books we checked out was a delightful story called, "Library Mouse" by Daniel Kirk. It is about Sam, a mouse who lives in the library. Sam starts writing stories of various genres and placing them in the library. The children and librarians in the story are delighted by Sam's tiny books, and wonder who this mysterious author might be. They leave a note to ask Sam to meet them, but Sam is shy of people. He also wonders why they think that being an author is so hard. So Sam leaves out little blank booklets so that the children can become authors too.

My children loved this story, and I also found it very encouraging. I stapled some little papers together so that Paul and Julia could make their own books. Julia made a picture book about food. I drew some purple grapes, and she did a really nice job of coloring them in with a pink marker.

Paul is not really interested in coloring. At all. He wanted to write "The Lonely Cheese," which is the title Sam had used on one of his books in the story. So I let him dictate, while I wrote the text. I only gave him a few prompts like, "What did the Lonely Cheese do then?" and "Was the Lonely Cheese still lonely?" But the rest of the story is his own inspiration.


The Lonely Cheese
By Paul

Once upon a time, there was a lonely cheese. He was lonely because he didn't have any friends to play with.

He got sadder and sadder and sadder. One day he decided to go to his friend's house. The two cheeses played together. Then they fought together because they love to fight. The Lonely Cheese said, "Hi."

Then they boxed. Their mommies and daddies liked it.

The Lonely Cheese was not lonely. They ate mice for lunch, and macaroni and cheese. They went outside to run around and play with the cheeses' lawn mower with glee.

They drove away and they got to our house and hid and played. They played hide and seek with us.

They went fishing. Then they drove home and got to take a bath and a movie with popcorn and then go to sleep.

The End.

Farmhand #3 - progress report 1

I had my first doctor's visit for this pregnancy last Friday. Everything seems to be going fine. We heard the baby's heartbeat: 170 beats per minute.
I scored an early ultrasound. Baby measured 3.4 cm long and looks like a jelly bean. My due date might get pushed up a few days.

Like Weeds

Grandma and grandpa have started measuring the kids' heights. They marked a door jamb with pencil and dated the measurement.

Between February 9 and Easter day Paul grew 3/4 inch.

Julia grew an inch and a half.

So that's where all that food has been going.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

Christ was dead, and now he is alive.
He is risen.
Alleluia!

I was recalling this morning that Easter means more than just the assurance of eternal life to the believer. I don't want to belittle that assurance. It's HUGE. But there's more. Eternal life without sanctification, without regeneration, without God-likeness in our hearts is hell. [For a compelling snapshot of that, check out Sartre's "No Exit."]

Easter means inward change so that we can delight in God and each other in that eternal life.

And something more. Easter means more than just victory over death. It means victory over the ills that don't result in death too. It was during an Easter sermon several years ago, that I realized I needed to lay down the hurt I'd been carrying over a slight Rachel had given me in high school. (Not that I'd carry a grudge or anything.) The slight hadn't even been a vicious attack, but it had hurt my feelings, and left me feeling bitter toward her. I realized that if I could not forgive Rachel, then I was effectively telling Jesus that I didn't consider his work on the cross big enough to cover that sin against me.

Christ, in his suffering, absorbed even the non-death causing sin pains of this life. We still hurt, and grieve, and at times rage. But we have the hope of turning even these things over to the Lord and having them redeemed.

I haven't seen Rachel in years, but someday when I do, I'm excited to tell her how impressed I am at some of the choices she's made in her life.

That's no small thing.
That is the power of Easter.

From the letter to the Romans:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Their brains are working

We've told Paul and Julia that there is a baby growing in my tummy (due early November-ish). Their babysitter, Jenny also has a baby growing in her tummy and is due in June, so they know I'm going to get big.

Yesterday Paul and I were in the car to go shopping. Out of the blue, Paul asked, "Will the baby growing in your tummy be a boy or a girl?" He actually stuttered quite a bit getting the question out, trying to figure out all the right words.

"We don't know honey. We should be able to find out by Julia's birthday."
Thoughtful silence, and then, "I want to name the baby Paul, because I don't have a Paul."
I told him that I thought one Paul in the family was plenty. But I have to laugh. He thinks that he wants a Paul all his own to take care of and, more importantly, be the boss over.

--------------------------------------
While Paul and I were shopping and discussing baby names, Steve and Julia were having some fun at home. After a couple of rounds of Candy Land, Julia requested to play run-and-tackle with daddy.
Really?
Okay.
Steve asked her who should tackle first.
"I want to tackle you first."
He said that they had run about two laps around the upstairs when Julia started calling out, "Daddy, stop, stop! I want to give you a hug! Stop, Daddy!"
Steve played along and stopped saying, "Really?"
Julia plowed into him full force. All 26 pounds of her.
"Hey! Where's my HUG?" But Julia quickly jumped up and started running the other way, giggling.

She's about as subtle as a thunderstorm. But it is scary to me that she is already employing tactics like that.

Mouthy Week

I took Paul and Julia to the dentist yesterday. This made Paul's second official visit. Julia's first "cleaning" will be in 6 months. Paul did a great job. I'm really proud of him.

On his first visit, Miss Cindy was only able to polish about 1/3 of his teeth. It tickled. This time he let her get all of his teeth, and even do a little fluoride treatment. Yay!

When I am sitting in the patient's chair, I find my self crossing my legs and clenching my muscles. It's a defensive posture, and I have to try to make myself relax while they are working on my teeth. I was amused to see Paul's defensive posture. When Miss Cindy lay the chair back, he bent his elbows so that his hands were up in the air, and he clenched his fingers into fists.
"Sweetheart, would you like me to hold your hand?"
-"Yeah!"
So I moved the chair over and held his hand. By the end of the visit he had actually relaxed some.

Julia watched Paul's cleaning intently. She didn't want to get into the chair this time, but I think she'll do pretty well for her cleaning next time.

--------------------------------
Julia has been really hard on her mouth here lately. She recently fell and bit her tongue. It bled and she got a Popsicle.

On Tuesday she fell and cracked her lower lip a little. She got a hug and kiss and was sent on her way. Later, she fell again and really nailed her upper lip. It was bleeding more, so she got another Popsicle.

Before bed, she wanted to sit on the edge of the bathtub while she brushed her teeth.
"Oh no, baby-girl. We have had enough bloodshed for one night. Get down!"
I think one of my friends called this klutziness, "drunken toddler syndrome."

perspective

I perennially evaluate my work/home life balance. Okay, confession: by evaluate, I mean worry about. Am I giving my kids enough time? Am I being an ethical employee? Why is my house a disaster? Are we doing okay financially? What do I need to keep in my life? What needs to go?

I like going out of the home to work 2 days a week. I like keeping my foot in the door with my career. But the problem with keeping your foot in the door is that your foot is stuck in the door. You can't really run with your career or homemaking that way.

And while I have good reasons to keep my foot in the door with the workplace, I also have excellent reasons for staying home as much as I do.

I was considering the Bible and the history books. It's hard to find good female stories and role models. (I had just been reading Esther - love it.) The women are there, but you have to go through a dozen stories about men for each story you find about a woman. It makes it hard, I think, to get a good grip on the role and significance of women. The female role has not historically been a particularly glamorous thing.

You never read about George Washington's mother. (Unless you are my mom and seriously into the history of kings and presidents.) Do you remember anything about George Washington's mother from high school history class? No, you don't. She wasn't mentioned. She didn't lead in any battles. She never wrote a defiance to the king or new national constitution. She didn't preside over a country. DO YOU KNOW WHY?

She was too busy teaching George Washington HOW TO BE George Washington.

Mothering matters.

Little Surprise

Back in the fall sometime, Paul found a chrysalis or egg sack out in the field that looks a little like that spray foam insulation stuff. None of us knew what it was from, so Paul put it in his little bug box so we could maybe find out.

Yesterday after I put the kids down for nap I went out on the S. porch to see about planting some seeds in some peat pots. Right by all the peat pots and planting stuff is where the bug box sits. I happened to glance over and was surprised to find hundreds of little (1/2" long) praying mantis' crowding on the inside of his bug box, and a few that had escaped through the narrow slits on the top and were crawling around outside the bug box. I quickly relocated the bug box outside, and over the next hour or so while planting seeds & such found another 4-6 wandering around inside still. Nice.

A couple hours after I found 'em, Paul & Julia got up from their naps. I told Paul that the egg sack in his bug box was hatching...he was very excited. So we all ran downstairs to get shoes on to go outside and see. Paul thought it was very cool and enjoyed having a couple of the escapees crawl around on his hand. By the time the kids got outside, there were maybe only 30-40 of the little things left in the box...the rest had escaped into the big bush by our picnic table.

Given the impending cold weather, we decided to give the ones remaining in the bug box a better shot at survival by moving them to the barn. We then took a walk around the back acre (which I don't mow) and found another 10-12 of these egg sacks on plants. So now Paul is hoping to check back every day or two to see when these hatch. Nice little science lesson, really. And I'm all about supporting animals that eat bugs.

No planning

I'm not particularly good at planning activities with my children. We do a bunch of fun stuff, but most of it is spur of the moment and based entirely on what materials we have on hand.

I was getting ready to release Paul from "nap" time (he was awake reading or playing in his room the whole time), and I was thinking, "It's cold and windy. I don't want to go outside with the children. I need an activity for them or we're going to turn to butter. Hmm... Butter. I wonder if Paul would be interested in helping me bake some banana bread or cookies?"

I asked Paul if he would like to help me bake, and gave him the option of what to bake (within the limits of what we had on hand.) He picked "Three Bears Bread." We had seen this in one of the child magazines. In the article, they took frozen bread dough and rolled it into balls to make the bodies, heads, etc of 3 bears.

We didn't have any frozen dough, so I pulled out the homemade bread recipe that my parents always used. Paul and Julia helped me measure the ingredients and stir the dough. Since we weren't using this bread for company, I let them taste it, make a mess, and I didn't get too excited if the ingredient proportions were off a little.

While the dough rose, Steve entertained them by constructing a really clever treasure hunt. Paul put on his pirate costume and followed daddy's maps and clues to find a basket of treasure. It was super cool. Daddy has a new job. (Plus daddy constructed the hunt to include several trips up and down the stairs - always good when trying to burn some of that boy's energy.)

I handed the children appropriately sized chunks of dough, and they assembled 2 bears each. (We had decided that rather than the Three Bears, that we would make a Mommy Bear, Daddy Bear, Paul Bear, and Julia Bear).


I was a little bit concerned that there would be some trauma after we baked them. I wasn't sure how the children would handle dismantling (i.e. beheading) a bear to share it, but it didn't bother them at all.


I'm really pleased with how it all turned out.

Planning

When people redecorate a room they often pick a central element that they love and make a point of matching the rest of the room to that element.

Someday, we will renovate and redecorate my kitchen. I've found an element that I love. It is this paper towel pattern. (and not the jar behind it) I want to decorate my kitchen to match this paper towel pattern that probably won't exist any more.


Maybe I need to revisit my interior decorating thinking.

Pictures from winter

This is a cedar sapling. It turns rust brown in the winter's cold.
It looks dead.
But it isn't.



These are chrysalises. You could mistake them for leaves or parts of the bush. They look dead.
But they aren't.


There was a lamb of God that was crucified.
He looked dead.
And he was.
But now he isn't.
There's a lot of hope in that.