Stupid Radio Station

I don't often blog about diabetes anymore, I mean, there isn't much to say, highs, lows, shots and checks...life goes on. Anyway on the way to school today we were listening to a station we don't normally frequent (we usually listen to the Christian station) but we were half listening, kind of talking, dropped the big boys off (Thank goodness) and continued on to Ryan's school. The skit was some small character, it was strange...weird voice...whatever. He was talking about bad Christmas movies, the first one was rude but nothing tweaked my radar. The second one. oh my. "how do you know you're watching a bad Christmas movie? If Santa loses his foot because of diabetes it's a bad Christmas movie" Excuse me? seriously? I thank God that Lane Michael wasn't in the car, Ryan asked if that can happen...what do I say? I told him that if Lane Michael doesn't take care of himself then someday it can but not today. I'm angry. So I wrote to the radio station (I waited until I calmed down). I explained what happened, and how Lane Michael has a hard enough life and what they've just done is made him an easy target...made it cool for kids to joke about this...and told them how they've impacted my families life...I even explained how important ratings are, and I'm sure their concern is not my child but I just wanted them to know how they had effected us. they said the morning show is from Columbus Ohio and they'd address this as soon as possible. I hope they do.

1 Week Old Sprouts

If this is just a week, I can't wait to see what they can produce! I'm excited to see what we get this year out of these little starts!

Garden Sprouts already!

Planted the seeds last Thursday. Watered them that night, watered them Saturday and again today...when I went to water them today I noticed these little beauties! In the bottom row, the 2nd plot has a sprout and in the next row up the 1st and 4th have sprouts! That didn't take long! Ryan was so excited and honestly so was I! they started so fast! I'm excite to see what we get!

Garden Starts

Living in the country is NOT a foreign concept to me. I grew up in the country, my closest neighbor (our only neighbor) was on the other side of the cornfield. After living in the barracks and in apartments for most of our military career, I couldn't ask Todd to live in town. We bought a farm, a small 5 acre farm with 5 horses, a drafty house, and an over the road truck driver for a husband. I had 5 horses (mischevious, escape artist type horses), twin 2-4 year olds, and worked full time, there was no time for a garden. So this summer, while Todd and the boys are home for the summer, we want to put out a garden, a small one to start with, grow from there. When we get to our permanent home, we plan to put in a much larger garden. Planting enough to feed us through the summer and can for the winter. We also want a small orchard to eat and can from, we talked about it this weekend and I think we want 2 cherry, 2 apple, 2 peach, and 2 pear. I also want berry bushes...but that's someday. Last week Ryan and I started our garden starts. we planted rows of beans, snap peas, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, peppers, accorn squash, onions, and a few other odd and ends. Our best friends are putting in rows of sweet corn so we did not plant sweet corn but hope to trade for some. Ryan loved helping me plant the seeds, hope he enjoys weeding the garden just as much!  

Financial Progress

We are AGAIN credit card debt free....our tax return came in and we were able to pay off 3 credit cards. This time last year I had planned to get and stay credit card debt free. We got there...we just didn't STAY there. One credit card was used for supplies to renovate the Wapak house basement (still a work in progress), one was used to fix the transmission in the Suburban, and the 3rd was used to replace the front end of the Blazer. This set me pretty far back in meeting some pretty big goals. BUT new year, new goals. This year my goal is to maintain the NO credit card debt. I'm not worried about paying off the Suburban right now. I'm more interested in selling the Wapak house, and will reassess our financial goals once that is sold. I have a few things I'd like to accomplish but after we sell Wapak house the first is paying off the suburban and buying Todd a new vehicle (probably a jeep). I'd like to start paying cash for all our vehicles so to avoid going into debt but we all know that isn't an easy feat. A few things we're going to do this year to hopefully change our finances in big ways...obviously selling the Wapak house is going to be the big change. This summer getting pigs will short term increase our expenses (our feed bill should be HUGE), another batch of broiler chicks to butcher and maybe having a side (or 2) of beef butchered for the freezer. We have NO interest in having cows but we have enough friends that have cows we should be able to get one, we're also putting out a garden, nothing big, just enough to get some fresh veggies out of th1is summer....maybe increasing it as we go so that we have enough to can for the winter...last night I made a meal of eggs (from our chickens), potatoes, left over ham, ground turkey, onions, and peppers...this fall there's a chance that meal could be 100% from homegrown ingredients...how cool is that! Oh and dessert was apple crisp (made from apples I canned last fall). Renting a house in the country has really allowed us to trial and error what we are and are not interested in doing long term. We definitely want a fruit orchard (and 2 of each fruit tree is more than enough), we definitely want chickens for eggs and for meat, and I think we're going to love having hogs...the garden will be our next hurdle...how big can we go without getting in over our heads.

Country Living

There isn't anything easy, or convenient about living in the country. My boys don't have friends less than a block away. There's no 24 hour stores, and the closest gas station is 10 minutes away. There are no side walks, I can't go home for lunch every day and start dinner, can't run home to change clothes when I spill something on myself. The kids can't ride the bus home every day and we can't just take a long walk ending in a trip to the ice cream parlor. Instead we have chickens to feed and water every morning at 6 am and again at 4, we have endless yard to run and play. We have a pond to walk to in the summer and an orchard to enjoy in the fall. But most of all what I'm enjoying is this amazing transformation I'm seeing in my children. A few weekends ago we went out of town for the weekend leaving our children with my mom. My step dad was in the wood shop working, Mom was at her store working and all 3 boys were in the house hanging out, watching TV and relaxing. Ryan, about 4 oclock starts getting sick. Big boys jumped in and just handled it! Didn't run out to find Grandpa...they just handled him, getting him to the bathroom, and then settled in with a show, a blanket and a bucket (just in case); when my mom got home she found their bed folded up, their dishes in the sink and Ryan snuggled in. I'm so proud of them for handling this so well. The next day, Lane Michael came down with the same flu, without being asked Ethan fed and watered the chickens. When cleaning out the hog pen the boys worked in the barn for 5 hours straight and the next day an additional 3 hours...never complained, never whined, just worked. I know some of these changes are just mellowing into middle schoolers but honestly I've never been a fan of that age (5-8 grade) and with these guys I'm becoming more of a fan! Their sense of humor is changing, they'rebecoming more independent, they're thinking of ways to help and doing it before being asked! I think everyone might be at my favorite age to date!

Calm Before the Storm

This season, this end of winter...this is the calm before the storm. The period of time when we should be relaxing and enjoying this end of our season "off". Everyone has the change of season flutters, itching to get out and play, work, create, grow. The kids have cabin fever, the grown ups are waiting for the great thaw and  with each thaw we get hopeful...maybe this time it'll stay warm. It doesn't but...maybe? Spring and summer...even fall will be non-stop for us this year...perpetual movement. we'll start by getting pigs this spring. 15 to be exact. immediately after they arrive we'll start baseball, 4H has already kicked off, we'll get a new batch of broiler chickens to fatten up and butcher. baseball will end. the next week is fair, and a week later we start football! phew! are you tired yet!?

on a side note I just got off the phone with Little Miss and Girlfriend! I love love love them! It's so good to have a continued relationship with them! We are so grateful to have that continued connection!