It got off to a slow start. Lots of hot days followed by rain. Even with all the moisture this year the crop was poor to mediocre. The late snows and freezes in May(!) did a lot of damage and set everything back.

It’s here, it’s busy, it’s the usual. Pictures are easier than words.

We’ve been hauling hay

Swimming lessons are done but they were sure fun while they lasted

When not playing at this pool

We like to play in our pool

I have been noticing what excellent city parks we are blessed with. We, one of us in particular, enjoy exploring them with the cousins and friends.

The garden is doing pretty good. Especially considering the late snows that sat it back quite a bit. My pumpkins are growing many inches every day, it’s pretty amazing. Our one cucumber plant died which is really sad considering 8 eats, gnaws to a disgusting pulp, a slice for supper every night.

Unfortunately not much horse stuff going on right now. I keep reminding myself that when 8 gets bigger there will be time for that again. For now I try to get out and hose the poor things down with fly spray half as often as they need it and make sure they have all their legs.

And of course that means the the temperature drops from the nineties to sixties and we are all freezing. I don’t know how it does it every year. But we are tough, or maybe it’s more that the adults throwing the children into the water  aren’t wet and cold. It’s not so bad I think, as the one not in the water, they have the heat in the pool turned up and the water is near one hundred degrees.

June is almost over and with it the school summer camps. Mine is long since done. The Goblin Child got to attend another one the last week. There were so many fun sounding ones available it would be hard to choose which ones to join. The best of all though, in my humble opinion, was the one put on by my ever brilliant husband.

He did rockets.

Does it get any cooler than that? I don’t think so and neither did the gaggle of preteen boys and one very cool girl who participated. They set off rockets of every variety from match powered to mentos.  And with every launch the whole school turned out to watch.

The match rockets were cool. The idea and pattern came from this strange and interesting guy. It was precision engineering, I’m told. Each kid built there own. Some worked.

Some didn’t.

They all had fun.

I caught the tail end of the water rockets. I hear the others went higher.

The grand finale. Model rockets from a kit using real rocket engines and propellent. No home made stuff here.

They got done just before the rain. And in time for the play the theater camp put on. (It was very cute, the kids were adorable. The Goblin Child actually sat still for it.) The kids got to take home their rockets. If they have a launcher and the engine they could even launch them again. How was that not the best summer camp ever?

We never go on vacation. My husbands many jobs keep him too busy and my staying home with the kids means money for extras is limited. I must have been pretty grouchy during the hard push to get cows out and corn planted for my poor considerate husband to declare that we were going, no matter what. If we wait for all the work to be done on the farm we would never leave the place. If we waited for the work load to lighten at the job in town the results would be the same. If we wait until the kids are old enough or well behaved, well you get the idea.

So when the day came we finally managed to get out the door not too long after the time we were aiming for. Stopped in town for a couple groceries and some cash. We even made it to Hot Springs before lunch. In time to walk along the river, look at the water fall and the springs. And feed 8.

So the Goblin Child and her father walked while I fed. They got back as he got done and we went again. Unfortunately strapping 8 into the stroller, which he is totally cool with what with him being so secure and all, inspired horrible jealousy and a pretty good temper-tantrum.

After lunch we headed north. As planned both children fell asleep and we got to enjoy the beautiful drive in peace. They woke up just as we pulled into Legion Lake with all the fun things to do. And it was time to feed 8. So The Goblin Child and her father got out to explore the options while I fed.

They came back all excited to report paddle boats. She desperately wanted to ride in the white one, so we  got tickets. Luckily for her they were all white. Nobody was policing the time, we could have stayed out on the cool water as long as we wanted exploring the shear cliffs and families of baby geese. She did not want to. She wanted to splash and jump around and, mostly, to get out.

So we did. We also repeated the stroller issues.We also Walked along the lake, climbed on the playground and the rocks and waded in the water.

Once in Custer we found our hotel which had a pool. Unfortunately it was not warm, the weather or the water. We swam anyway. She plunged happily down the slide and bounced in the water where she could, just, reach the bottom until the shivers racking her little body overwhelmed her and we retreated to the room and a hot shower.

The next morning we found a large furry guest playing in our tub. We also headed further north up the iron mountain road which we enjoyed immensely. The children not so much. 8 cried then fell asleep, The Goblin Child kept wanting to know when we were going to see the dinos she had seen in the brochure at breakfast. She was not interested in the rocks and trees we were so strangely fascinated by. She was happy to find and point out deer as we passed. Finally much to her relief she fell asleep too and when she woke we were at the dinos.

And it was time to feed 8. So The Goblin Child and her father got out to explore the Dinosaurs. I wasn’t all displeased to sit in the car while they climbed clear up there in that heat. I did want to play on them with The Goblin Child having been there and played on them with my parents as a small child around her age. Not bad enough apparently and I declined the offer to go once 8 was done.

We had lunch at Hu Hots! The family next to us said they had left their children in the car watching Frozen with the nanny. It would have been much more peaceful. Despite her obnoxiousness The Goblin Child was pretty into it and loved watching the food get cooked.

The we went to Storybook Island. What more is there to say.

It’s always sounded pretty cheesy to me. Its not. It was probably her favorite. She walked as though in a daze from one thing to the next unable to believe that such a place existed. I don’t know that I can properly describe the state of sheer happiness she was in. 8 rode contentedly in the stroller enjoying his bottle.

Then the impossible happened and it got even better. A friend and the youngest of her children, a few years older then The Goblin Child and incredibly sweet, showed up and she had someone to explore the wonders with. It is an amazing and small world.

After reaching a state of exhaustion we drug her away from her little slice of heaven. To A&W. After refreshments it was time to return home. Thinking the children would be tired and might sleep we decided to go through the needles. It was beautiful to us boring and awful to the children who were not tired and would not sleep  much preferring to cry. After stopping several times to feed/console 8 we finally made it home. Trips must have been easier before this whole car seat thing. We were exhausted but had enjoyed our trip immensely.

I heard this song today, it always make me think of my grandparents. No that’s not them, they would have been much more beautiful and far more handsome.

It reminds me of a time we were all down in Silver Dollar City watching the show in the amphitheater. It was always so fun to sit as the sun went down and the day cooled watching the bats fly overhead as much as the show. This time I was sitting next to my grandpa talking, the exact details I don’t recall. I do know he  was talking about my grandma, when they met and how beautiful she was and still is.

In the middle of the conversation he stopped and sat looking off, lost in distant memories. Without another word to me he got up and went to sit by his wife and hold her hand.

or, Finally planting corn!

or Why I don’t care if my children watch TV

Sometimes it’s hard to decide on a title.

It says I started to write this June 3rd. At that time they had just got the corn planted, the latest my very old husband ever remembers planting corn. It snowed or poured rain up till then and just finally dried out enough. They were still planting in mud. We have neighbors who are still working at it. Most people who haven’t finished have given up, taken the insurance money and planted something else.

We had fun helping the very little bit that we did. It was fun to see the great big new planter finally working and to help load the seed but mostly to play on the trailer. They raced the whole time to beat the rain.

I have since then been noticing how active my child is and read a couple of interesting articles. One said that the average toddler gets forty five minutes of exercise a day. I had to laugh at that one, we get way more than that on the coldest most miserable winter days on nice days it doesn’t seem like we ever sit down, well except for the constant feeding of 8 but even that doesn’t seem like enough.

The other was this article about how to teach a child to hate reading, it talked about how restricting TV time to force them to read is teaching them that TV is candy and makes them want more. I was horrified and offended when the author of another blog I like to read said that her little girl knew the names of different birds and liked to spot the moon and a long list of things I can’t remember and all of this because she didn’t watch TV and most certainly did not would not have a tablet. All I could think was yeah well my kid can do all those things and knows how to work her tablet by herself. Plus how does anyone clean house without TV for a distraction? I must be doing something wrong.

Anyway I have found it to be self regulating, we are not capable of sitting still long enough to watch “too much” TV we are busy doing these things:

I nearly had a panic attack for the whole week leading up to it but in the end it wasn’t so bad. I didn’t have to stand up and talk in front of anyone, there were no serious injuries and no parents yelled at us for getting their kids so dirty. I’m glad someone wants to teach, it’s not something I would ever want to do. Especially not while sick and with two small children at home who don’t believe in sleeping.

In the end it worked because of the great help. I hate to even call them help because they did it all. They were old pros at this whole thing while I followed along lost and confused. Sandy watched 8 most of the time and rocked both babies to sleep as well as helping with the big kids. Jessie was a cheerful ball of endless energy. Always happy to play with the kids and even clean. Heather managed to get up at the crack of dawn and get two kids dressed and out the door before their usual time to even get out of bed, I suppose I should also thank her husband for helping with that. She, and Jessie, came up with great ideas to keep the kids occupied. Even some foolish ideas such as tag when she was the only adult playing, apparently the adult gets to be “it”every time. It’s good exercise at least. And last but not least my poor beleaguered husband whose office got used for naps and was nearly put to sleep himself having to listen to lullaby’s in a darkened room after being up all night with kids.

Would I do it again? Maybe, if everybody would come back and help again. Would they ask me to again? Well that’s hard to say.

I know we all seem ancient to young children but sometimes it can be a shock to realize how old they think we are. The Goblin Childs favorite thing to watch right now is classic Micky Mouse. Every time this one comes on she starts telling me how it’s Grammy and Different papa.

https://youtu.be/8EONTbB2ltI?t=56

Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean she thinks they’re old maybe she just thinks they’re this pretty.