That Big Brother is so loved

#1 and #2 were invited to a sleepover last night. They had a blast. I was sitting in the living room working on my computer when #1 sat down next to me and shared that he stayed up "all night." At least until 5 am. OK That is part of sleepovers.

He did some chores for me and must have sat down on the couch. As I type I am listening to slight snores. He was reading a cookbook when he fell asleep. It is laying open on his tummy. The funny thing is his baby sister gave him a baby doll to sleep with-just like she sleeps with one. He must have been asleep when she gave it to him. He has been snoring away for close to an hour now with baby doll at almost age 14.

Updated: I did get a picture but I have to figure out how to download it from my phone. AND after the sleep with the lone baby doll, #5 came up and gave him ALL the baby dolls in the house. I have pictures. They are coming.

Some days just require graham crackers and milk

It is 6:28, the big guys are going to the library and then scouts. The little have been banished to the basement with the TV on-so no banishment really, just quiet for me. I took out my stash of expensive graham cracker and I am eating them. by.myself.

I love being a mom. I love where we live. I love the husband. I don't always love the noise that comes with being a mom. The noise level today was FANTASTIC. I am pressure canning some ground beef so add 2 pressure canners to 7 children (#3 had a friend over and no one was bad) it was enough to drive me to give them free reign of the TV and graham crackers and milk.

Happy Birthday Nona!

Today was my friend Nona's birthday. She decided she wanted to spend it with me. I was so incredibly tickled. :)

Since she is the mother of 9, she rarely travels alone. Not only did we get Nona, but we got Dan, and Jon, and Heidi and Alex and Travis and Aubrey. I was not the only person with a friend in the house-everyone got a friend. We celebrated the day by sitting and cutting up cucumbers for limewater pickles and cutting broccoli and cauliflower for the dehydrator. We made pork and bean chimichangas for dinner. Then she took a nap and Aubrey made banana pudding with nilla wafers.

The kids swam, we laughed and talked and talked and talked. We looked at all the gardens and talked some more. They left after the fire flies and the stars were out. We stood out in the driveway dancing to a Jason Okuma (?) song. I was holding #5 and we were dancing. She loved it. Alex loved it. The kidlets were all tired and extremely happy. Nona is making plans to renovate the hay loft so she can move in.

It was a great day.

it was Justin Nozuka.

Know what these are?

pretend you see a picture for a blueberry because I cannot figure this new computer out....grrrr....


BOOBAs!

He is home

#1 returned from Philmont on the 19th at 12:01 a.m. He is 10 pounds lighter, quite scratched up on his shins and relatively proud of his accomplishment. I am proud of him too. His first time away from home and he traveled 4000 miles and was gone for 14 days. His leaders say he did great. He did share that he had altitude sickness but was better after he barfed on the second day. He said he wasn't wobbley after the 4th day. 4 bears were seen and one mountain lion. Many card games were played on the train ride and a new love for Strawberry Guava Fuze was discovered.

Garden

5.7 lbs of cauliflower harvest, 3 lbs of broccoli, 5 gallons of cucumbers, making dill pickles today and limewater pickles later in the week. I am planning on freezing or dehydrating the cauliflower and broccoli.

A call from Baldy Mountain

#1 called us from the top of Baldy Mountain. He sounded very confident. I mean, after all, he had just climbed to the top of a mountain!

MOM! She is becoming a hooman!

That was from #5 regarding #6.

Mom! She isn't a baby anymowa-she is a hooman!

I love this

The chickens ate the swiss chard in the kitchen garden. We should be having chicken and dumplings for dinner later in the week but I have restrained myself. At dinner I told #2 to put up a fence around my kitchen garden. He did it with Aubrey helping but he did it and I didn't have to supervise. I love not having to micromanage. I love that he was competent with tools and building enough to think the plan through and made sure there was walking room around the garden bed. I love having competent young adults in the house.

Let the canning season begin

Two weeks ago we (Rebecca, Margo and families) did strawberry jam. Yesterday a friend let us pick her raspberry patch. Today I picked the currants. I juiced the raspberries and currants and then made jelly.

Yesterday at Breakfast

I leaned over and mumbled to DH, "The roosters are getting frisky." He nodded. We ordered all pullets but have ended up with 3 roosters.

#3 overheard and very loudly said, "WHAT IS FWISKY?"

I just looked him in the eye and said, "Chicken sex."

He grinned HUGE and his eyes lit up. "Ohhhhh, that means more babies. Yahoo!"

that kid and babies.....

He is gone

#1 is off to Philmont.

I am being cautious about this announcement

but I am not sure I can contain myself any longer. The laundry is finally under control!

Now, I know that some of the readers will think that is no big deal. How come this is an announcement? Let me just remind you:

6 children
farm work
toddler

Since our move to the new house the laundry bomb went atomic. The mushroom cloud dropped socks and boxers, willy nilly, all over the house.

Regular cries of, "MOM! were are my socks?" were heard.
Regular grilling of children happened: Why haven't you changed your clothes today? their response was, "I can't find any clothes."

ARGHHHH screams the mother as she pulls her hair out!

For Mother's Day I requested shelves over my upstairs washer and dryer. There are now 7 baskets on the shelves, 6 with a child's name and one with "socks" written on it. All the socks have a home. All the clothes have a home. I installed a hanging rod to the right of the dryer so I can hang all those dresses and Sunday shirts when they come out of the dryer. Even though this was a huge improvement over the laundry before Mother's Day. It still wasn't working right. For some reason, my children love to mix dirty clothes and clean clothes. They were dumping clothes in front of the washer, in front of the dryer, in the hamper, 12 inches from the hamper, 6 inches from the hamper (you get the idea).

Two weeks ago I put in 2 more hampers in the upstairs bathroom. Now, not only is their a white hamper (for whites), a dark blue hamper (for darks), there is also a tan hamper (for lights). I can go through in the morning and see if I have to do a load (or three) and it is already sorted, ready to go in the washer. When it is done in the dryer I assign a big boy (or do it myself, most of the time) to put away the laundry in each person's basket and DH's and mine goes on our bed.

It is working! People have clothes, there are not mountains of clothes being walked on in the upstairs hall. I am breathing a sigh of relief.

As a side note to this entry, I am convinced it takes a year to figure out all the housework again after a move. The systems that worked in the old house don't necessarily work in the new house and it just takes time. In my old house this wouldn't have worked because I didn't have room for the 3 hampers. It just takes time.