Cave Crawling

Friends from UNI were here over the weekend. We had an Awesome time. They brought two of four children.
On Saturday when it was so hot and yucky we went to the Maquoketa Caves.
We had an awesome time. Kat tried so hard to keep up with the older kids in everything they did.
Cave? Who cares! Run along the path and keep up with Josh. Rocks? What fun! Climb as high as I can to keep up with CC.
Then she sat with Brian and played Peek a Boo with us so that we could be entertained.
It was such a grand time, the whole weekend. It went by so fast but we enjoyed nearly every minute of it.

Business Advice

A number of years ago, I took a motorcycle trip to Ouray, Colorado. It was a fantastic vacation of camping and sightseeing, back and forth across the Rockies.
One of the people on the trip was a business process consultant from the KC area.
One night around the campfire, he was talking about work and how after he had left a contract, the company ignored his advice and continued to struggle.
I asked him if that bothered him; how did he deal with that type of situation.
He told me that “you just have to not care”. Essentially, he did his job to the best of his abilities. He then moves on. What they do is their business.
Today, I heard some news about a project that I stopped working on over a year ago. I worked on it for over a year, but as business works, I was re-assigned to other projects.
Anyway, it seems as though some of my ‘solutions’ are coming unraveled.
I got REALLY worked up about it, calling friends who know how close I was to this project and venting about it. I don’t know what they think of me, other than I must be a lunatic.
Tonight, as I drink a beer and tend my children, feeding Kat all kinds of cheese and chicken, I remembered my conversation with Dick. He really hit it on the head. Unknowingly, he gave me great advice that would serve me years later in my career.

Where did the time go?

Friday night, (WO)Menards buying tomato cage supplies. Then 2 hours in the garage cutting the ingredients for cages. Every year we try something new with the garden. This year it is tomato cage experiments.
Saturday I went to the chiro, stopped by an awesome fundraising garage sale where I bought a golf bag (score) then got into the garden, to make the cages. 50 of them. That is right, we have 50 tomato plants. But they are not all the same type of tomato, cuz that would be… extreme or something.
Eight hours later, I have the cages together and up, Jill went and got mulch, so we have the tomatoes covered. First with weed barrier fabric, then with the mulch. Then netting over the whole thing for the tomatoes to cling to.
Today, I laid fabric on the peppers (76 plants) and mulched them. Then dug up a 6’ apple tree that Jill had mowed over (different post – she is amazing on that Deere) and replaced it with a peach tree.
We laid out nearly one and a half yards of mulch in the garden.
As I type it out, it doesn’t seem like much.
Why am I so tired?

Water sports

Last weekend, Kat and Kyle were invited to a friends house for a play date. Jill was excited about the idea and packed a bag for me to take them away so that she could garden.
The play date was AWESOME! Kat got to meet (and flirt) with two of the nicest young men she has ever met. They had a pool. The older one was very friendly and wanted to show how good of a swimmer he was. He even fetched the ball and ice fish that Kat threw out. And he showed everyone how good he was on the slip and slide.
These people had ALL the fun accessories. She had SO MUCH FUN! Huge Thanks to Connor and Tyler for a great time.
Now, fast forward to Sunday. Dad went to the farm and fenced. ALL DAY. So Jill had the kids at home. It seems Kyle was well behaved, but Kat...
She wanted to play in the water again. After all, it is Sunday and last Sunday she got to play in the water. So Jill gave her a garden hose and told her to amuse herself. Well, since she didn't have her own slip and slide, she soaked a garden row and then played 'otter' where she slid on her belly in the slippy slimy MUD!
These pictures clearly show the difference between the towns folk water toys and the country bumpkins amusements. The thing is, I bet Connor and Tyler would have LOVED to join Kat in playing 'otter' in the mud, sliding this way and that!

Weekends are for WORK

What a long day yesterday.
The kids let us sleep in until 6am. Then it was out to the garden to finish planting the fruit tree orchard.
Then to the MIL to work on the board fence for the horse pasture.
Shortly after we got to the farm, Kat did a face plant on the front step. (forehead, not nose) Coincidentally, she was cranky all day.
Then move boards, help dig holes, clean out holes, pick up posts, line up posts, fill in post holes, tamp dirt down, pick up tools, finish moving boards.
Today I go back with a different crew to finish putting the posts in holes, lining up posts, painting (if no rain), and nailing the boards up to make a fence then sinking the gate posts and hanging gates.
All of my muscles are sore and my joints creak. And I think my sore muscles have sore joints.
I cannot wait for Monday and a desk job.

What am I, really?

I would like to think that the determination of whether or not a person is fat is left up to that person or their Dr.
My response to that type of characterization is, "So?".
Really, does it change how wonderful/awful a person is?
Fat, anemic, tall, short, skinny, one eye, cleft lip, all of that doesn't matter to the personality that is inside.
Tease me about being a jerk or rude or an ass or I cannot carry a tune.
Compliment me for being nice, thoughtful, or friendly or funny.
Don't charactarize me because of my skin color, my hearing, my accent.

What on earth is sleep training

Holy cow I am learning so much from reading blogs!
So many terms I had never heard of - in life and in parenting.
Thanks to Loren at SweetenedTaters I now know about donkey shows! (thanks, therapy is twice weekly)
And now, thanks to Jenny's link to Motherhood Uncensored I heard about sleep training. What on earth is THAT? And why is there a PhD for every flippen stage of childhood but not parenting?
So MU had a link to someone who WROTE THE BOOK on sleep training. WOW! the scales are falling from my eyes!
Kat went from sleeping in a nightstand drawer to sleeping in a bassinet with scarcely a howl. She moved from the bassinet to the crib with frequent screams and yells for attention. (which we gave her. still do, come to think of it)
Now I find that if we take Kat and move her to a toddler bed and move Kyle to the crib (not Kat's crib - the crib belongs to cousin Jane, Karl made it for her originally) then KAT will have fits at night and not sleep for months just to make us pay for giving her sleep habitat to the unsurper.
Not to mention that according to the experts, Kat might be a little to young for a T-bed.
So I am asking for help and suggestions - What to do, what to do!?

Seriously, Mrs. 4444, Surprised Mom, Jenny, Loren, even Mrs. Weasel (if she reads this blog), Mom, cousins, Triplet Mom in LV, Nevada, anyone - shoot me some suggestions. I don't want to traumatize or set my children back potty training or disrupt Kat's " major cognitive-emotional transition period."