The Flu Wait

I've been waiting for it all week to ruin our day and make us miserable. This H1N1 flu that has the whole country in a panic and is pandemic all over is just waiting until the day of Halloween to hit our household-I just know it. Every time one of the kids cough or complain of a headache-I'm feeling foreheads and wondering if it's the flu. Paranoidness is ridiculous, I know, but what else can you expect? Our community has been hit just as much as the rest of the country and there's still not much vaccine. Dear hubby keeps asking if the vaccine has lifetime immunity or is it just like the regular flu vaccine and has to be renewed each year. He wonders if it just isn't better to get it and get immunity to it now. That being said, I'm not going to purposely search out someone with it and get exposed! It's only a few short days to Halloween, but I'm not letting up on watching constantly for it and praying that God will spare us until Halloween is over. While I am not a fan of Halloween, I don't want my kids to be sick during it or there will be lamenting and crying by the one who can't go trick or treating (except maybe E-bunny, she doesn't quite understand yet, she just knows she likes candy and doesn't care where it comes from). As a kid, I rarely went trick or treating, so I know my kids would survive not going, but it's no fun to miss it because of the flu, either. Not to mention, if dear hubby is in the field that day, what would I do with the sick one(s)-the healthy may have to forego the event, which would definately not be fair, either. So, here I keep hoping, waiting, praying. I actually have been praying we don't get it or just get a version that doesn't land any in the hospital or deathly ill. We'll see what happens, I guess. I have to remember that God is in control, not little ole' me. I need to keep my faith in Him, not focus on my paranoia.

Birthday Party

IC got to go to a classmate's birthday party yesterday. Appropriately, it was a pumkin painting, wear your costume party, complete with a pumpkin pinata and candy. A lot of candy. But, it's Halloween and it's ok-they had a great time and IC is taking his pumpkin to school this coming week. The kids are allowed to bring a decorated pumpkin to decorate the school halls this week. He was so excited to FINALLY get to put his costume on-Optimus Prime transformer. He's really hoping for Optimus Prime for his birthday in 3 weeks.

This night, at bedtime, we put the kids to bed as usual. Miss A has a bunk bed, as she and E-bunny share a room, so when Miss A got big enough for a regular bed, we got a bunk bed for saving space's sake. Miss A has been sleeping on the bottom, but has been encouraged to sleep on top whenever she wants. E-bunny is 5 months from turning 2 and the other 2 kids have always moved to a big bed around age 2 - 2 1/2. Well, I didn't push her and she voluntarily slept up on the top bunk last night. I'm waiting to see if she stays up there or moves back down. It's amazing what she can do when she wants to!

Foot Problems

There was no school on Friday, the 23, so I took the kids to my mom's for the morning while I went to the podiatrist for chronic foot pain I've been suffering with for awhile. Turns out I have bone spurs on both heels and plantar faceitis. The faceitis is an inflammation of the large tendon that runs along the bottom of your foot, from heel to toes. I will have to wear an orthodic in my shoes, no more barefoot and flip flops and wear supportive shoes, even in the house. I will tell you now-this is one of the hardest things I have to deal with at this time-wearing shoes. I am a true no shoe and sock wearer in the house. I am still not able to go all day with shoes on, but I am working on it. I will go back in 2 weeks to get my shoe orthodics.

Wednesday Surprise

We got a BIG surprise on Wednesday-a box of gifts from good friends who had moved away to Texas a year ago August. Actually, they were wrapped in Christmas paper and I remember talking to her around Christmas last year, saying she was going to send the kids something. So, 10 months late or 2 months early for Christmas-whatever works, right? My kids loved it and they appreciated it-it was a fun project on another yucky day.

I don't think we've seen the sun a full day for almost three weeks-I sure hope the sun comes out this week-I miss it.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Tuesday, the 20th was parent-teacher conferences at school. It was nice that DH could actually go along this time (bad that it was too wet out to be harvesting, so that's why he actually got to go). Anyway, this day had started out wild. The electrician people showed up to do some work on the electrical lines in the barn and shop. My FIL decided to have them put underground for safety's sake. Should we ever get a REALLY big, also known as a newer, combine, there's a risk of hitting the lines, should they continue to hang low, so he decided to make it better. Awesome plan-bad that it was cloudy day and I didn't have power for 7 hours. With 2 little girls-they were not doing well-DH and I went to town to eat,because of course, they HAD to start the hour before it was time to have dinner, and then I took them to my mom's afterward.

When DH and I got there, we first had to meet with Miss A's teacher. She is doing well, greatly improving from last January, when we started. She has added many more words and is starting to share better with others-too bad she doesn't share much with E-bunny yet. We discussed ideas for getting her going in the morning, since she is so difficult to get a move on. On to IC's teacher, who had good reviews for how he's doing. She likes that he practices letters and numbers often at home on his own and his biggest downfall is blurting the answer out instead of raising his hand or waiting his turn. He had that problem in TYKE too, he's getting better at times, though. Both reports were good for the kids, which at least means they aren't tyrants in school like they can be at home. :)

E-bunny, the budding artist

Monday, the 19th, Miss A had been BEGGING me to let her paint. Unfortunate for her, E-bunny was awake from a nap and when she's up, it's impossible to do too much art stuff, as she wants to get into it. So, I figured a compromise-I gave E some water painting at the picnic table and Miss A got to use watercolor paints at the kitchen table. This was E's first time and she had a lot of fun-until I had to take it away when she decided to take a drink out of the water cup! Ick. She did "paint" like 4 pictures, so she did well. It was a good rainy, yucky cold day activity.

Fun in the Leaves

The Sunday of singing was busy as the guys worked in the afternoon to get ready to combine beans. Normally, we don't harvest or do much farm work on Sundays, but this atypical year caused us to take whatever day possible to get the crops in. My niece ended up coming in the yard as she was with her dad while they worked on the combine head, so the kids all played together for several hours in the afternoon. I got motivated to rake leaves together and let the kids play in them-they had a pretty good time with that rather small pile (raking makes my back hurt fiercely, so I didn't do an extensive job). We have a rather large yard that I DO NOT rake much in the fall-I let the leaves be a natural fertilizer. It saves me some back pain and I am not a lawn nut-if it gets cut regularly when it's the growing season, we're doing pretty good. I don't water in the summer and rarely allow weed killer to be sprayed on it.

Great Day of Singing

Sunday, Oct. 18 was the Great Day of Singing at our church. All of our choirs sang, the bell choir played and the praise band played. The kids did a good job, with Miss A doing quite the dancing while she sang and made the motions to the song. She definately put her whole self into it!

Pumpkin Patch

It's been some crazy days lately-it seems I take a few minutes to check email and then I'm off to do other things and there seems to be very little time to blog or do anything I really, REALLY want-like scrapbook. Sigh-it's been forever since I've got to put papers and pictures on a layout.

It's been raining on and off for three weeks. It will dry up for a couple of days, just to turn around and another front comes through with rain, cold and even-AUGGHH! snow. Harvest has been a little rougher this year with all this wetness at precisely the wrong time of year.

Last Saturday, the kids and I picked up my mom and we drove to the pumpkin patch. First, we stopped at a craft fair at my old high school, in a town just a few miles away from where we live. It's a puny town with a grocery store, bar, post office, gas station, library and bank-the basics, but it's big on pride. Which, by the way, isn't ALWAYS a good thing. This little town is actually the only one around this area not consolidated, which will be it's downfall pretty soon, if it doesn't buck up. Anyway, after stopping there, we headed to the pumpkin patch about 30 miles away. It's a small one, having more activities for littler kids, but IC still had a good time and we came home w/4 good sized pumpkins and a few gourds.

Grey Day, Go Away!

It's another grey, chilly, wet day AGAIN today. The guys were just getting good at getting restarted combining yesterday when mid-afternoon it started raining again. Out of the field they eventually had to come. It just doesn't seem fair right now. It was dry here all summer and harvest starts and then BAM! it starts raining. At this point in October, we should be 3/4 done with harvesting. As it is, we are less than 1/4 done. This makes for grouchy farmers, believe me.

Yesterday, E-bunny and I headed to medium-size town so I could go to the chiropractor. I had put it off for far too long, so I am hurting today-all over. I feel under the weather, but I think it's from yesterday, hopefully, I am not coming down with something.

The plan Saturday is to head to the pumpkin patch with the kids. It is SUPPOSED to be nice over the weekend, so we are planning to take the morning to go get some pumpkins. Here's hoping the weather will cooperate!

Baby, it's cold outside!

It's been rather cold lately,but this weekend, it only got up in the 30's and Saturday, we awoke to a dusting of snow on the ground. The older 2 kids went out and played in it. They had a good time until IC threw snow at Miss A, which caused her to cry and come inside. Sigh.

We ran to the medium city on Sunday after church to eat and get some, you guessed it, combine parts.

It ended up raining/snowing a little last night, so we're still not combining today. Possibly, we might be able tomorrow and if they do-look out-we'll not see the guys for awhile. They aren't panicked yet, but it's close. This weather is the pitts this year.

Cuteness or Naughtiness? You Decide.

I had to share this story. Miss A's been in a thing lately about going to IC's room (it's right next to hers) and camping out on the floor instead of staying in her bed. I don't know if she's scared of monsters, or doesn't plainly want to be alone, but it's been happening more often. I will go upstairs to take E-bunny to bed, about an hour after the other 2, and I'll find her on the floor with her pillow and blankie, "reading" books on the floor with IC's bedside lamp on and HE'S ASLEEP. She's been told not to camp in his room, but twice she's done it this week. Wednesday, I came home from bell and choir practice at church and she was asleep on the floor. I had to wait for hubby to come home and carry her to bed. This is how I found her, though. Sleeping on the floor, with IC's lamp on, laying on her pillow AND IC's stuffed huge Pooh Bear (he's had it since he was a baby), her blankie and books all around. Miss A is definately an interesting one, to say the least. How do you discipline them when they look so cute when they're asleep? Needless to say, she was instructed last night NOT to camp on IC's floor. She attempted it, though, and got in trouble and sent back to bed. Tonight, (Friday) we didn't have to go through that-IC decided to sleep in the top bunk in Miss A's room. It was actually something different. There was one fight at the beginning-something about IC pinching Miss A and she turned around and bit him. Sigh. After some stern talking to, they both settled down and went to sleep. What tomorrow brings will be interesting.

Kindergarten Pumpkin patch

To digress, a week ago today, I went with the Kindergarten class to the pumpkin patch. 36 students, and 12 adults crammed into one bus would have been tolerable for a short trip-this one was a good hour and it was chilly and blustery outside. It was definately an interesting trip for this novice Kindergarten mom. I was assigned 3 children-2 girls & IC and they really were good. One of the girls tended to cling to me and reminded me of Miss A, the other tended to want to run off and do her own thing & had to be reminded often to stay with our group. It wasn't too bad if you kept moving, which they did. We went through a couple of haunted houses and the girls pretty much were done with that. IC got to go with another group of boys to go through the haunted houses a second time. There were lots of things for them to climb on, a corn maze to run through and large trikes to drive. They had a good time and ended the day after lunch, getting a hayrack ride to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. IC tried to doze/sleep on the way home, he was worn out and so was this Mommy when it was all done. The kids got back to town in time to have a snack before coming home from school. I had taken the girls to my mom's that morning, so I went to pick them up before IC got home. They were kinda naughty for me the rest of the evening. It never fails, if I'm exhausted, the kids are not good-it's that kid sense thing that mom's exhausted, let's remind her how troublesome we can actually be! All in all, I am still planning to be there for Miss A AND E-bunny's first Kindergarten trip to the pumpkin patch. I think :)

Harvest time!

Since the guys were picking corn in the field just south of the house, when I took lunches out, then kids and I went out to see Daddy and of course, the kids got to ride with Daddy for a round. We have a small combine & it's old, so there's no passenger seat like they now put in the newer models. This makes for not enough room for 5 people, so I didn't ride along. I waited outside, luckily, it was nice today, so it wasn't so bad and I actually had a few minutes to just sit in the quiet, so to speak. If you been harvesting, it's technically not quiet-combines, tractors and trucks are loud, but I didn't have to listen to any children fighting, crying or screaming for a short period of time, so it was quiet for me :)

It's Friday!

It was definately Friday today. We are preparing for perhaps a yucky weekend, as the temps are supposed to dip to 34 degrees w/chances of snow-ick-and I thought 54 degrees was cold enough. With the exception of Wednesday, when it was actually nice and almost 70-it's been in the 50s for awhile. This is cold for our area, for this time of year. It usually waits until Halloween night to get cold. Seriously, last year it was warm until Halloween day and THEN it got chilly. It was still a decent evening. I remember times when it was miserable on Halloween-hopefully, that won't happen this year, but it's not looking promising at the moment.

This was actually a SLOWER week for once, with the exception of making harvest lunches and other than our busy Monday, which is the usual, the only thing going on was the 2nd fun run for this school year at school on Wednesday. IC & Miss A didn't do as well as they did the first time. IC managed pretty well, but Miss A looked as if she barely made it this time. She complained she was tired afterward and I haven't heard any excitement about the next one on the day after like I did the after the first run (which was last month). Ah well-we now have until April and May for the last 2, and time for the excitement to rebuild.

Tuesday

It's been forever since I posted, and forever since I've sat down at the computer longer than 5 minutes to check the weather or email. I will get some pictures posted soon, and hopefully, a longer commentary. We got our busy week wrapped up last week and headed full-roar into another this week, but things have slowed a smidgeon today. Sunday, we spent at my SIL's celebrating my nephew's birthday for dinner. It was an enjoyable time. Yesterday was spent running back and forth to town for the kids' 2 activities. Since it rained last night, I will not have to make harvest lunches today. With the exception of the school's fun run tomorrow after school, we have very little after school activites the rest of this week. It will be nice to not have to run somewhere 4 days out of 7. I am glad soccer is done, as it is getting fairly chilly outside, and Saturday it was really brisk for the final game. That was the day E-bunny decided to fall on the bleachers and give herself a bloody nose. She spent the rest of the time we were there being held by Daddy. She also managed to fall down the bunk bed ladder the night before and has tripped numerous times during the day lately-it's not been her luck the past couple of weeks. Hopefully, she'll be more coordinated soon and not so rambunctious to climb everything. This week's plans are to clean the house-which doesn't stay clean for long and catch up on the mending that is cluttering my sewing table. The girls' room also needs to be picked up-there are WAY too many little toys cluttering the floor-it's hazardous for the feet! I have already gotten some things together for IC's birthday, coming up in the first half of November, since we already had the Halloween costumes ready last month. I figure if I stay ahead, I will avoid rushing through Christmas last minute. It's hard to believe that Christmas will soon be here. Annoyingly, several stores already have decorations in their aisles-there should be a law-no Christmas decorations out until after Thanksgiving, or at least Halloween! But, that's my opinion. I looked at the aisles I've seen in several stores from a distance-I have no interest in Christmas stuff right now!