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.