I have found my husband's kryptonite….

….this.

Girl's hair.  Our girl's long hair.  To be exact.

Okay, let me explain.

My husband is a phenomenal corporate business person.  He is very good at his job.  He can talk numbers, stats, stock market matters and all that other lingo, I know nothing about, with the best of them.  But….get this man, this tough business man, in front of his daughter's hair and he's like a deer in the headlights.

Case in point.

With four children, inevitably you will have scheduling problems that will cause you as parents, to which we affectionally call, "divide and conquer".  This weekend is a perfect example of that.  Our youngest daughter has a soccer tournament in Kansas City while all the rest of the crew at home has other engagements that need to be attended.  I gave my husband the choice.  Go to Kansas City with one, or stay home with three.

 Hmmm, he thought for a moment.  "Go".

"Okay, but you have to do her hair for a few days".

Nothing….

You would have thought I just told him that his favorite basketball team just got suspended.  His blank panicked look said it all.

Kryptonite.  Simple as that.

And just because I saw this man of steel finally bending under the weight of which I just placed on him, I said…."don't forget, you start at the top of the head with the brush and go all the way to the bottom".

"What?"

You would have thought I said it in a foreign language.  This was bordering on way too much fun.  Smiling I said, "or you could stay here and do the other girl's hair".  You choose….

Kryptonite.  Simple as that.

Pumpkin patch fun

Friday was a great fall day.  It was overcast and slightly cool and so we headed out to go to a local pumpkin patch/orchard.  I found this train of thought funny considering we just bought a farm/orchard, but my kids do not think our farm is any fun without all the animals around.  Plus, they think it's just no fun to go and do farm work when you are suppose to be having fun picking a pumpkin.

Okay….noted.

But this pumpkin patch, well, it was a bonanza of fun.  They had, of course, a corn maze, pumpkin patch, all the farm animals you could think of, as well as a giant slide, go-carts, and everything else in-between.  The kids had a splendid time and I have to admit, so did I.

In the back of my mind though, I was thinking.  (My husband always says that's trouble…)  Wouldn't a pumpkin patch be a fun thing to create and run?  There were shouts of "Yes" and an emphatic "No" from our oldest girl in the car ride home when I asked the kids.  (I don't think the oldest wants to share her animals)

Later that evening, I ran it past my husband to which he said "you haven't even grown a pumpkin….ever."

Okay….again, noted.

Hmmmm….might be an issue.

Well anyway, enjoy our pumpkin patch fun in pictures.

  

Oh yes we did….put my mother on the giant slide.  Heh, heh, heh.

Is it wrong that I find the girl in the front face planting funny?

My teenage son missed out on all the fun this day.  He played the "Mom, don't be ridiculous I'm too old to go" card.  Teenagers…..Nuff, said.

What is that called??

When your Mom tells you that she's dating again…oh, and at the same time your teenage son tells you that he's found someone he would like to date as well.

Oh, that's right….

….insanity

Let me tell you about this one….

This one.

Is her Daddy….

Everything about her screams him.  She is determined, strong willed, self-motivated, and put her in the water and she will hunt…you….down.  Yet in her own rite, she is herself.  She loves animals.  To the point that we "need" to have every animal on the planet to make this farm complete.  She loves the Lord with all her heart.  And her kindness….oh, my goodness.  That child is the kindest person to anyone in need.

Lately, she has been busy.  Okay, technically that's the understatement of the year.  She has been swamped.

She takes her high school classes online through Stanford….yes, like the college.  She is just that smart.  Totally her Daddy on that one.  She has had a full load of courses this semester.  She is a great student and works LONG hours on her school.

If that's not enough, she has just finished up her Sophomore year in high school swimming.  Swimming everyday twice a day.  She had a great year!  She is a breaststroker.  Loves, loves, loves it.  She finally broke through the plateau she'd been at as far as her time was concerned on her last swim meet.  She swam a 1:13 on the 100 Breast.  She was ecstatic.  (If you're not a swimmer, this all might sound like greek to you…but trust me, it's a good thing)

You know, it's easy to forget the child that is so well-behaved, so smart, so responsible and so good and just focus on the ones that are "needing" your attention the most (i.e., a five year old who for the life of me, doesn't stop talking….ever).  But that's just not fair.

This one.

She is something special.  And she stole my heart 15 years ago.

So if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go and hug her.  She'll look at me like I've lost my mind.  I'll tell her "I wuv her" and that she's my "itty-bitty-cutie wootie" and how I'm so very proud of her.

Because that's just what this Momma does.

Costumes, done….check

Today, I just finished my youngest daughter's costume for this year.  Elsa of course.  I probably would have bought it if it weren't for the fact that one….she's like, mammoth tall for a 10 year old and two….all the adult ones were crazy expensive.  Enter, door number three.  Sewing.

Altogether for the pattern and the fabric, I was able to sew this for only 21 dollars.  Not bad, huh?

We made it a little bit long in case she wants to play around the house or be it again next year.  My kids do that quite often with costumes.  That part I love.

Our little man….well, he wanted to be a super hero.  With the puffy muscles.  Ugh.  Enter Target.  I could probably make a super hero costume but he REALLY wanted to be this one.  Plus, if I made it, it would probably look like a flabby hero in need of a diet instead of a muscular one.  

I don't know much about super heroes but come to find out that besides this hero's anger issues, I was told he's a good guy from a worker at the store.  Whew, I'm glad about that one.  The claws kind of threw me off on this one. 

So costumes are done.  Until next year….

A sneak peek….

Here's a sneak peek at what our new house is going to look like.  Full deep front porch for rocking chairs.  A farmhouse, southern living kind of look.  Love it!

I wish I could say that we are breaking ground tomorrow, but the reality of it all is that it takes a lot longer than you think.  For now, we are almost done with the inside plans….still tweaking a few things and then the builder has to price everything out.  That's where our budget will come into play.  Wish I could have everything, but I live in the land of reality and our kids gotta eat, go to college, wear clothes….those rascals.

Still….it's gonna be a great house.  Real soon.

Did I tell you about the old well we found?

The other day when we were knee-deep in mowing and trimming we found one area that the previous owner had mowed around and had never trimmed back the weeds.  Upon further inspection, and the fact that I about fell into it, we found an abandoned well.

Ugh!  Just what every farm needs with a rambunctious 5 year old boy around.  You can tell a boy not to go near it, but then what do they want to do….go near it.  Crazy fearless things.

So while the company was here tearing down the house, we also had them take out the old septic tank and haul it away, as well as tear down a very old falling down garage.  We are going to use the concrete pad from that garage as our basketball court.  SWEET!

The old garage is located just behind these two.

Gone.  The pad is nestled in some really tall oak trees (which of course need to be trimmed) but it will be a great place for the kids to play basketball.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand…. the old septic tank just happened to be located nearby the old well and I asked the demolition company if they could put a couple of scoops of dirt (from the big ol' scooper thingy they had) into the well.  No problem.

It's just funny though.  Here I was so worried that my five year old would fall into the old well when I turn around and find my oldest in the hole where the house was.

What is it with boys and holes in the ground????

Today is a great day….

….to tear down a house.

Say what?

Yep, the old farmhouse bit the dust today.  I know.  I know.  It's a weird thing to do considering we just bought it and all.  I also know that some people are just crying out at the fact that we destroyed a 1920 piece of history.  But the truth be told, it was not worth saving at all.  Trust me.

For starters, it had no heat and no air and was extremely tiny.  We live in the Midwest, people, where we get snow for five, six, seven months of the year.  Ain't no fun without heat.  Secondly, the inside of the house had been remodeled, I think, somewhere in the late seventies, early eighties and they had stripped the house of any and all architectural details.  There was nothing.  Zip.  Nada.  Not even a doorknob that was original.  Nope.  Lastly, it smelled funny.  And not funny ha, ha, but funny weird.  Not cool, man.

So it had to go.

The house was in the perfect spot for our new house.  So now, we are working with our builder to design the best home for us.  Forever.  The more we work on the plans, the more excited I get.  My husband and I have never done this before so it's all very new to us.  The hardest part I'm sure is if I can stay within the budget.  Oooh, so many cool kitchen things.

So goodbye house, ya funny smellin' old thing.

No wait, I changed my mind….don't tell me.

These are apple trees.  Neglected, overgrown and so in need of….well, something.

I am NOT an expert on apple trees by any stretch.  Heck, until buying this farm I can't say that I've been around too terribly many.  But I do know that you can't leave them like this.  Duh!  So I decided to take a stab at "pruning" some of them.  Thankfully, I did read some information on pruning prior to this so as not to get too crazy with my chopping.  What has resulted was this…

Most of the dead branches I was able to crop off, however I needed the chainsaw to do the biggest ones and my husband at that moment was working on some other trees.  So, I'll have to save that for another day.  But I did clear all the underbrush away from the bottom and cut and cropped a lot of the lowest branches.  Immediately, it began looking so much better and even healthier.

The funny thing was that while I was doing this my youngest daughter comes down to the orchard and asks if she could do something.  We were almost done for the day and I was finishing up, but I thought for a moment and said…."why don't you go and count all the apple trees we have in the orchard".

I had just finished cropping and trimming 4 of them when she comes bounding around the corner saying…."guess how many apple trees we have?"  To this I can honestly say, I had no clue.  Never not once did I think to count them.  They're trees.  It certainly didn't look like too terribly many.

So I said, "25".

"Nope".

"35".

"You'll never guess this one, Mom."

"Okay, I give.  How many?"

"62".

Thumph.  I had to sit down for a moment.

"No wait, I changed my mind….don't tell me."

The selfie….

Sometimes a photo comes along that is so spontaneous and perfectly fits your children that you just gotta post it.

Crazy bunch of hoodlums….