Because I love it!

I have a new J-O-B! When you hear what it is you might want to stutter for minute then ask WHY? That's okay, you won't be the first to react that way.
I took a job at a horse ranch...shoveling horse crap. I mean...that's not all I do, but that's mostly what I do. I also feed the horses bright and early in the morning and then after shoveling copious amounts of crap from stalls I get to turn out the horses. So, why you ask. Well, because I love it. It's kind of a long story how it came about. Really, the story probably starts back when I was in high school and my friend Coy would take me horse back ridding on Sunday afternoons and I would go to 24th of July rodeos and when I watched my bff Marcie crowned Miss Alamosa Round-up. One Christmas my parents got us a Shetland Pony. She was naughty and we didn't have her for long, but I've always loved horses. They are so powerful and beautiful and graceful. This summer I made a horse painting for my vision board (the vision board I haven't made yet) and I set an intention (that's the new cool thing to do right? Set intentions.) to have my own horse by the time I'm 40, that's one year from tomorrow by the way! So, there's some back story. Fast-forward to September of this year. A lady, Kathy, whom I knew of but, didn't know, posted on a Facebook group that she was look for volunteers for the grand opening of the Equestrian Center that she was opening. I thought it might be fun to check out so I volunteered myself and my big girls. We went to the grand opening and I manned a bouncy house. While standing at the bouncy house telling the children "No, wait, only 6 at a time." My friend Nicole came over to chat. I mentioned that something about the place "was feeding my soul" (I'm very dramatic like that sometimes). Later, that evening while having some dinner with my friend Heather I told her, I think I'm going to ask them for a job. A job doing what, I had no idea. I knew nothing about working on a horse ranch.
I went home and got on their web site and filled out an on line application. Then I waited. What you have to now about me is I'm not typically the most confidant person in the world. Usually, if I didn't hear back about something like that I would of just assumed they didn't need me or want me and I would have moved on, but not this time. After about a week I sent the owner, Kathy, a PM on Facebook and asked if she had seen my application and told her that I was very interested in talking to her. Seriously people, I didn't need a job. In fact, a job is probably the last thing I needed. I have a needy 4 year old. I'm homeschooling 3 kids. All 6 of my kids are in 1,000,000 different activities. I have no time for a job, but I wanted this. Kathy said she hadn't had a chance to look at the applications but I could come in and we could chat. So, I came in and we chatted. Kathy is so great and so easy to talk to and we had a great conversation about what things they were looking for and what things I was hoping for. They needed an office assistant and a mucker, AKA horse crap shoveler. I was hoping to just pet horses and brush houses and ride horses; they didn't need someone for that. I knew I didn't want an office job so I said I'd like to try mucking, and here I am. I wake up before the sun; if you know me at all you know how miraculous that alone is. I'm at work between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning, in the freezing cold, something that I hate even more than getting up early, and I seriously love it. The people are amazing, however, I don't see them much. Most of my time is spent completely alone, except for the horses, and it's completely quite, except for the horses. As a homeschooling mom with 6 kids I don't get a lot of alone/quite time, and apparently I've needed it. When I do see the people though they are so nice and supportive and just great people. There is just something about the ranch, it does feed my soul.

68*

Today was a lovely 68* January day. We got all of our school work done and then I spent 2 1/2 hours sitting in the sun in my back yard talking to a friend on the phone while the kids and the dog played. Gracie actually finished her school work sitting in the wheel barrow. It was one of those days where I felt like I might survive winter. I need more 68* days please. Tomorrow is saying 64* and sunny. I guess that will do.

 

 

Why did you decide to homeschool?

I've started to very much dislike this question. I feel like I don't have a good answer. That's not true. I feel like I don't have a short answer. So unless you have about an hour to sit down with me over a cup of... wait, a can of Dr. Pepper, then It's a really hard question to answer. You probably also don't have an hour to sit and read a blog post so I'm just going to touch on my top 3 reasons for choosing to home school 3 of my kiddos this year. In no particular order.

Number 1- Last school year life reached an all new level of CRAZY. I felt like my main interaction with my kids had deteriorated to the  the yelling as we tried to rush out the door kind of interaction. If you have kids, you know what I'm talking about. The, "Where are your shoes!?", "Is your homework done!?", "Let's GO! We're running late!" kind of stuff. Mornings were crazy. Evenings were crazier, and in the middle...well...I hung out with Leah, took naps, walked around Target, went to lunch with friends. All good things in moderation, except for the hanging out with Leah, that's always a good thing, but the other stuff, well it was leaving me felling very unproductive and empty. Something needed to change. I needed less crazy time, more quality time, less empty hours and more full living. I thought that homeschooling might be the answer.

Number 2- The kids wanted it. Their good friends are home schooled and made it look really cool.

Number 3- God told me to do it. This was not an easy decision or one I took lightly. A lot of prayer and soul searching went into it, and in the end I was very clearly lead to know that this is what my Father in Heaven wants me to do right now.

So, that's the short list.

The other two questions I get are, "How do you do it?", and "Do you like it?"
The how is a post for another day, mostly because I'm still figuring that out, but the answer to the other question is a resounding YES. I actually love it most of the time. Sometimes it is challenging, but exactly the kind of challenging I was needing. I'm defiantly getting the less crazy time more quality time with my kids and I'm learning so much with them. For right now I know that this is what we are supposed to be doing. It has been such a blessing to me and I hope my kids feel like it has been a blessing to them also.

guilt and gratitude

I'm feeling like after last nights post, that may have sounded a lot like complaining and may have included a threat of violence, I need to add some balance by posting something positive. Leah did lots of rolling over yesterday. She did it as though she has always been able to do it and just hasn't been given the chance. She claps her hands a lot (when she's not crying), and loves to see herself in the mirror. She likes listening to music on my iPhone but she wants to hold the phone while she listens and more often than not she drops it on her face. I love having a baby in our house again even when I feel like my brain is being liquefied.
Thank you to my friends who offered encouragement/empathy and to my local friends who offered help. I might take you up on it. Today is our ward Temple Commitment Day, which means that we have been asked to spend as much time as we can today serving in the Temple. It couldn't have come at a better time, not that I couldn't go to the Temple any time. I'm looking forward to spending some time there (read: time away from my children) and hopefully gaining that ounce of peace that may be the difference between me surviving this day or not. Today will be a better day!

Random Stuff

McKay just climbed in my bed and fell back to sleep. He started talking in his sleep. He just said "I'll see if Mrs. Davis has it." (That's his Kindergarten teacher). He's so sweet.

Yesterday while Leah was crying Gracie picked her up and in her sweetest voice said to Leah, " Leah, you are really disappointing your mother. After 9 long months she doesn't deserve this from you."

I've noticed that when Sam isn't really listening to me, a lot of times he will respond by saying "You're cute". On Sunday we were both sitting in our bed and I was nursing Leah. I commented that I really needed to go to the bathroom and it wasn't helping to have a baby laying across my bladder. He's response, "You're cute." Ummm, yeah I know I am, but I don't know what that has to do with my bladder.

Speaking of Sam, he was just called to be the Elders Quorum president in our ward. He will be great at it!

I think that's it for now. Abby took Leah downstairs and I have about an hour and a half before I need to get ready for the Temple so I'm going to crawl back under my covers and pray for sleep.

confessions of a tired mommy

This post is going to sound a lot like complaining, but I want to make it clear that I am not in fact complaining, I am simply statin' the facts ma'am. I am TIRED. Every inch of my body is crying out for peace and quite and just a little bit of rest, thank you very much. My baby has been crying for...I don't know, about...three weeks now. I hold her, I rock her, I feed her and she cries and cries and cries. I'm hoping that any minute now a couple of teeth with pop through her little gums and explain all of the crying but as of this moment I truly have no idea what is the matter with her little self. I feel awful for her and would, and have been doing anything and everything in my power to comfort her. But I am spent! Physically. Emotionally. The sound of her crying feels like it is coming from the inside of my head. It's as though my brain has been put into a blender and is currently being made into a smoothie. I can barely string two words together. The situation is leaving me with little no patients for anything or anyone else.
If it weren't for large amounts of Dr. Pepper, donuts, and chocolate today I may not have survived. If the crying doesn't stop soon I'm going to have to buy all new fatter fat clothes.
I'm not looking for advice. I may be looking for sympathy, but if you judge me I will choke you.

 

Heart day

I spend all day Valentine's Day with my newest little valentine, Doing lots of projects. She is so much fun! At noon we picked up McKay and had lunch at chick fil a. As we sat eating our chicken our blizzard blew in. It was coooold! But we braved the elements and after lunch went to target for A few things we needed for valentines dinner. We had bacon and heart-shaped pancakes and heart shaped fried eggs. The kids thought I was super cool.
Sam did a good job of pretending that he hadn't gotten me anything. Which truly would have been fine. I didn't get him anything other than a card. I really don't need gifts on Valentine's Day, But then he surprised me with some gorgeous new bling! He's a pretty good guy :)!

Nate the Great



Nate at the State TSA Competition

 Nate kind of flies under the radar around here so maybe he doesn't always get his share of recognition, so here's a post just for him. He turned 14 last month, which is just insane by the way. I mean we are registering for High School!! What!? We are having conversations about colleges and missions and careers and stuff. He wants to be a science fiction author or a video game creator. Maybe he'll be both. He's currently working on a book idea. He is also studying to be a video game creator by playing lots and lots of video games.
For his 14th birthday we went to Red Robbin and had cake and presents of course. He got a model airplane, a rocked and a paintball gun which we will use when we go paint balling (is that how you would say that?) soon. Last week he was ordained to the office of a Teacher in the Priesthood.
He is part of the TSA club at school, which stands for Technology Student Association not Transportation Security Administration. They had their State Competition a couple of weeks ago.They stayed two nights at the Marriott. They didn't win anything but he had fun.
I was looking through old videos and found one from 2 years ago when we got our bird. I heard Nate talking on the video and was shocked by how much his voice has changed. He sounds like a man and I have to say it freaks me out a little sometimes. He's a great kid. He helps out around the house a lot and is always willing to take care of Leah when I need help. He isn't always so willing to get his homework done but he's working on that. He has so much potential. He loves science and understands things that I have never heard of and could never hope to understand.
He has taught me things about myself and about life that I couldn't have learned without him. I'm so grateful that he is in our family. It can't be easy being the oldest of 6 kids. He has a lot of responsibility and he handles it beautifully, most of the time :)

6 months!

A peek at the impromptu photo shoot with Leah today.

My happy baby!

I fully intended to document every moment of Leah's life on this blog, but clearly that hasn't been happening, and somehow she became 6 months old. It must have happened while I was blinking or something.
-Here are her 6 months stats- Head: 17 1/2" (95%), Height 26 3/4" (80%), and Weight 17 lb 4.5 oz (75%). Yap, she's a big girl!
-She is a talker. Lots of barking noises and squeals and of course da da da.
-She likes peas and carrots and sweet potatoes. She does not like peaches or pears or bananas or apples. Too tart I think. After getting over the initial shock she sucked on a dill pickle slice for 10 minutes and loved it.
-She rolled from her tummy to her back once a couple of weeks ago and sits up a little bit with help. She's a little behind on her gross motor skills but it's probably just because she has an army of people to hold her most of the time.
-She's a pretty good sleeper and sleeps through the night about half of the time. Yesterday morning she took about a 3 hour nap in my bed while I cleaned the house and did laundry. It was fantastic, but what is even more fantastic is that she usually naps so much better if I'm snuggling her, which is the only excuse I need to lay down and nap with her most days. It's a little slice of heaven.
-She's full of personality. She lights up when she sees her brothers and sisters and they are just a smitten with her as she is with them. Sometimes she acts shy and embarrassed when people talk to her. She smirks and hides her face in my neck. She likes scratching thing because of the sounds it makes. She likes playing with hair. She tries to lick everything and if you hold her up on your shoulder she will lick you until your soaked.
-Her favorite toys are rattles and balls and she's learned the dropping game. You know... she drops her toy, someone picks it up, she drops it again, someone picks it up again, and so on.
-She has been a supper healthy baby except for the bout with RSV about a month ago. There was a lot of coughing and sneezing and stuffiness and a couple of miserable days for her where she could only sleep while being held and listening to Adel. But other than that a very healthy baby.
-Her hair has grown back in and is very fuzzy and darkish blond. She has dark blue eyes and the squishiest cheeks and thighs.
Well, there you go. That's my Leah girl at 6 months old. At least once a day I look at her and my only thought is to thank God for sending her to me. She is such a gift to our family.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving rocked! The plan was to go to the parent's house and have Thanksgiving with my brothers Trent and Tysen and their families. When we got to Sanford we found out that my brother Burke and his family had driven in from Kansas to surprise us all, and my brother Carson and his family had decided that they could make it also. We were all there. All 29 of us! Thursday morning we got up and packed up all of our guns and headed to the prairie for some target practice and skeet shooting. Bryce and Nate shot a pistol and a shotgun for the first time. McKay shot the .22 for the first time. It was loud and dirty and fun! Then we headed back to my parents house and took family pictures then we feasted! The turkeys were amazing. One was from the oven and one was from the smoker. Both of them are really good. We stuffed ourselves silly. Then the boys rode four wheelers on what they call the "woopdie doos" Friday we went back to the prairie for more shooting and more four wheeling, and of course a trip to the cave. It was great to be together. I loved seeing the cousins getting to know each other better and seeing the four new babies together. It was one of my favorite thanksgivings ever!

Halloween

Why does Halloween have to be a weeklong holiday? I know That's just the old lady in me talking, but really.

Any way, I have to post some pictures.

They are out of order, but what ever.

Sooo Scary

Bryce dressed up as a Chip and passed out candy.

Gracie was an Egyption Queen

Abby was a Zombie Cheerleader. She's a little too good at that look.

Ready for Trick-or-Treating

My baby Elephant slept almost the whole time.

my first Halloween shirt from Uncle Carson, Aunt Chelsi and Chloe.
I love that fuzzy head!

McKay was Ironside the Transformer!

Nate was missing from the action. He wanted to be Slinder Man but we couldn't find a costume so he just played on the computer all night.

I'm still a runner!

Today I ran! Okay so it was more like a walk/jog/run, but I did it. All 3 miles of it. We got a treadmill from Kathy last weekend, so now I can get back to running without the fear of being seen by the general public. It felt great. I am ready to start setting new goals. I'm excited to run some of the races that I have done in the past, only faster! I'm grateful for a strong healthy body that is capable of running, even if currently it is slow and can't go very far.