Witchy Wednesday

I'm not a big fan of Wednesdays. I have class in the morning, then class in the afternoon, plus chores, and kids. It's not a great day. This morning actually started out pretty good. I got up when my alarm went off (ok, I hit snooze, but only once). I got my calves fed and got a shower before I needed to get the kids up. I got the kids up to discover that both of them had leaked through their diapers and needed new sheets. So I sent Cole downstairs to go potty while I took care of their bedding. Apparently "go downstairs and go potty" when translated into 3 year old lingo means "help yourself to a yogurt drink and go play." So when I finally made it downstairs, I got Cole in the bathroom while I got Tate dressed. We're still running on time at this point. While I was trying to get Cole dressed, read diaper on "mom, I need to go potty" diaper back off. Tate discovered the kitty puked last night. I won't fill you in on the gory details, but you know how little kids "discover" things. So I finally had Cole dressed and Tate cleaned up and them both eating cheerios when I mad the mistake of thinking I had time for breakfast. I should never sit down. Anywho, Cole made it to school on time and I slid in the door just in time for my 8:30 class. After that things went fairly well. I needed a break and I got it when my mail arrived with my Cake Wrecks book. If you don't read her site, you should and I highly reccommend the book. Page 135 is my favorite. I laughed so hard I nearly had tears in my eyes. Here's hoping the rest of the week goes more smoothly!

Chid Labor

Odd coming from the child who used to tear up at the word vacuum.

All Alone

Pat and I took off yesterday for a night WITHOUT kids! We headed the big metropolis to see Mike Birbiglia. We actually left yesterday morning and did a little bit of shopping before we stopped off at the hotel for a nap. We had a nice lunch and a nice supper and even a nice breakfast this morning. Every time we got the bill Pat commented "that's not bad." It's amazing how stinking much kids' meals add to the bill. Anywho, the show was great. His opening act was ok, a little raunchy for me. His act was pretty good. It was after 10 by the time we left and I was exhausted and very thankful I don't live in metropolis. I just don't think skinny jeans, leg warmers, and crimped hair are a good look for me, or for anyone really. But, I am no fashion guru so what do I know? This morning we didn't get out of bed until a quarter til 9! We got home after noon and our kids survived. I don't think they even knew we were gone. I think we definitely need to do this more often.

Stepping Out

Tate has decided to attempt walking. He took his first uncoerced step on Tuesday, but I thought it was a fluke. Today he proved otherwise. While he hasn't managed more than 2 steps in a row, he doesn't go straight down to a crawl anymore. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Granted it will be nice when he can walk outside on his own since that's what he wants to do, but he is already into everything and now there will be more things within reach. Although he really doesn't crawl now if he doesn't have to. He cruises and then pushes anything he can, chairs, trash cans, boxes, large toys, to get across the room.

Earlier this week, the weather was gorgeous, so we took an opportunity to play outside. Tate had a blast going in and out of the playhouse. This was also when he decided to attempt his first solo step.
Other than that, this week has mostly been recovering. I ended up with a migraine on Monday and Cole has been sick since Tuesday. It was kind of nice having a 3 year old with laryngitis. He could still squeak and he didn't understand the concept of resting his voice, so it wasn't total peace. He did miss his preschool screening on Wednesday because of it though. He's been waking up every morning this week telling me he needs medicine because he's old. This morning he proceeded to tell me he was 3 and that when he was 4 he could go to church camp. Maybe I should tell him he has to wear underwear first...

First Day of Preschool

Cole started preschool yesterday. He wasn't terribly excited to go. He wanted me to go with him, then he wanted to stay at GG's house with Tate, but he went. I dropped him off and he did fine. When I picked him up and asked him what he did at school, he told me "I don't know." Then he told me how they had goldfish at snack time and he went pee in the potty. So all in all, I guess it was a good day.

Going Organic

So the other day one of my FB "friends" posted this article by Time. For those of you who thought the article was well-written, you really need to get out of the city and come visit America's Heartland where your food really comes from. My biggest laugh was this quote "The crop is heavily fertilized — both with chemicals like nitrogen and with subsidies from Washington." Nitrogen?? Really?? Nitrogen is your big complaint? Did you not know that nitrogen makes up 78.1% of the earth's air? That's darn harmful if you ask me. And those subsidies from Washington? Don't even go there. America's farmers certainly aren't getting rich, Wallstreet bailouts.

Ok, let's think this through. Do you like to eat? Ok, then we need genetic engineering, fertilizer, and chemical weed killers in order to produce enough of that corn syrup in your coke, or the wheat in your bread. You want your chickens cage free and your cattle raised on grass, (which you really don't, but I'll get to that)? Where are you going to put them? We don't have enough land to graze our cattle and with land prices still at record highs, we certainly can't afford to buy more land. Oh, and that land means less corn, less soy, less wheat for you, and less alfalfa hay to feed those animals in the winter.

So you want your meat and dairy products organic still? Do you like your meat lean and tender? That doesn't happen to grass fed cattle. There are reasons cattle producers went to feed lots. That's where the tender, lean meat comes from. You want your meat free of antibiotics? Do you give your kids penicillin when they get an ear infection? Why should our animals be different? We have to raise animals in feedlots, and like our kids in school, being around lots of different beings of the same species means illness abounds. Why does organic cost so much? There is a lot of death loss to figure in to that equation. Do you vaccinate your kids? Why shouldn't we vaccinate our animals? We don't use BST on our cows. We feed them what they need so that they produce the most and stay healthy. If we have to treat a cow, that cow's milk gets dumped so you, the consumer, never get that antibiotic in your milk, cheese, or butter. That's what good farmers do. There are good organic farms out there, but even they can't produce enough for everyone, keep their fields weed free, or their animals perfectly healthy. Organic doesn't mean clean and healthy.

We work hard every day so the world can eat. Before you criticize the way we work come for a visit. We start at 4:30 AM and are usually done for the day around 9 PM. 7 days a week. 365 days a year.

A Little Too Quiet

Yesterday I was attempting to do some homework. Cole had gone outside to play so it was a chance for me to do something question-free. Tate had slept in, so there was no morning nap to be had, but he usually plays pretty well when big brother isn't around to boss him around. So I was thoroughly enjoying the silence. Suddenly it hit me. It was a little too quiet. So I headed straight to the bathroom where I discovered this:
At least he left all the sticker backs on!

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In other Tate news, he is getting oh so close to walking. He's starting to pull himself up and let go and the other day he actually went from the coffee table to the couch . It was more of a lunge than a step, but we're getting closer. Last night he was trying to stand up without pulling up. It was actually pretty funny watching himself try to lunge himself upwards.

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One more story for today and then I'm done! Last night I was on FB and the boys were playing. Tate was in his usual spot by the toy box pulling out all the toys one by one. Cole walked over, pointed, and said "Can I have that tractor please?" Tate kept right one pulling out toys and now was handing them to Cole who would take them, say "nope," and throw them on the floor. He was being pretty patient waiting for Tate to get the tractor for him. Finally he says "I said that tractor I want." Tate pulls out a few more toys, then gets to the tractor, hands it to Cole who says "Thank you Tater Tate" and walks away.

Weekend Warriors

Since I didn't accomplish much this summer, I decided to pack it all in this weekend. I finally got Pat's bathroom painted, a nice clay brown color. Since I was in painting mode, I decided to get at the downstairs playroom. I've wanted to get at it for a while, but wanted some fun colors down there. It's a low ceiling (about 6 1/2') and not a terribly large room. It does have some windows, so there is a little natural light down there, which helps. Anyway, the local hardware store was doing a 2 for 1 on paint, so I figured it was time. Plus I had a gallon of blue paint that we bought for our bedroom in the old house and never opened. So this is what I came up with:
The boys used their hands for the border. The main color is orange with the one big wall blue.

Here is a closer view of Tate after he laid his mark on the room.

Just Like Riding a Bike

So yesterday the plan was that I would drop the kids of at Pat's grandma's (from now on known in bloggyland as GG), go to class, go home, feed calves, pick the kids up, and head to school for the open house. Things went mostly according to plan except that about a quarter mile from home Pat called to tell me I didn't have to feed calves. He had actually called earlier, but my phone didn't alert me to the new message, like one of the few jobs it is supposed to do. Anywho, so I turned myself around and headed to GG's to get the kids. It's only like 3 miles away, so it wasn't a terribly long detour. My new route took me up to the blacktopped county road. As I was turning on to said road I met a girl casually riding her bicycle down the middle of the lane of on-coming traffic. My lane, to be exact. Now, I spotted her, and like the perfect driver I am, I slowed down and kept an eye on her since if she had been older I would have suspected she was drunk due to her meandering course. Anywhoozle, she swerved into the other lane and rode past me. I watched her in my rear-view mirror trying to figure out who she was, where she was going, and what the hell she was doing. Only what I spotted was her turning around to give me the finger. What the #%$&?!? Gee, I'm so sorry I was driving down my side of the highway and paying attention to what was going on around me. I laughed, called Pat, who wasn't nearly as amused as I was, and went to pick up my boys. The direction she came from indicated the town she came from, which is one of those places where parents typically let their kids run wild. Now, I'm all about giving my kids freedom and teaching them responsibility, but I'm also about giving them limits and teaching them manners. She obviously knows neither. What I really wanted to do was slam on my brakes, throw the van in reverse and scare the leaving bejeebers out of her, but I didn't. Kids these days!!

The Sound of Silence

I'm down to just one child so I thought I'd hammer out a post for you all. Unfortunately the child I am down to is Tate, so this may be short lived. The gates are all up and the bathroom door is closed, so hopefully I'll have more than 2 minutes for an update.

Potty training is. We had 2 dry days, followed by a one accident day, followed by yesterday. Yesterday involved wet pants in the morning. We did fine through the afternoon, mostly because he was sleeping in a pull-up. In the evening, he pooped and of course he had boxers on which meant the poop went down his pants. A little while later he peed on the dining room floor, not just a little pee, a big pee. That was followed up with some more pee on my coffee table (his new game is jumping from the coffee table to the couch). It wasn't a good day. Today he's out in the tractor with Daddy, in a pull-up, so I don't have to worry about it. Maybe he's not ready, but he knows when he has to go. Our hardest part of the day is during chores. We run a pretty tight time schedule so I don't have a lot of time to stop and take him potty. He usually pees outside, but yesterday I knew he had to poop so I took him inside. He didn't poop and he threw of my chores so I sent him to play in the yard so I wouldn't have to drag around 2 kids. I guess I should have known better.

Tate is doing fine. He's cruising furniture now. His favorite game is the trust fall. I stand him up and he falls into me. He thinks it's hilarious. He's discovered the fun of going up stairs so I now have 3 gates up in my house on the main level. He loves unrolling toilet paper and playing in the potty. Right now he's busy with his brother's tractors since his brother isn't there to yell at him and take them away.

School is going ok for me. I have 2 classes. One is Differential Equations. Nuff said there. The other is an ed class. It's going to be a lot of busy work, but should be an ok class.

The farm is much the same. We have another nutritionist coming tomorrow to see if he has any advice for us. We've had three heifer calves, alive, which is an improvement although they aren't terribly smart. Typically heifers are smarter than bulls when it comes to pail breaking, but I've got a couple of dumb ones that don't like drinking from a pail. It's really annoying. Anyway, we are hoping to get some answers from this guy and hopefully we can get things turned around. It only takes a couple of months for things to go really bad and usually takes years to get it back where it was. Here's hoping!