Maplestone Farm

Blog Addiction

2010-12-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

It's time I admitted it...I am always whining about how I don't have any free time, and I just have to come to grips with the fact that much of the free time I could have is spent reading blogs. There. I've said it. I am addicted to reading blogs.

This might not seem like such a bad addiction, but for someone like me who succumbs very easily to "compare and despair" syndrome, it's a hazard. You see, I like to read blogs by poeple, mostly other moms, who are doing all the things I would like to be doing - having tons of children, homeschooling them, keeping a tidy house, being a good wife, cooking all whole foods from scratch, and making all gifts and household items by hand, all the while keeping the household budget balanced and her spiritual life enriched. Adn don't forget the one or two books she has published as a result of the faithful band of blog reading groupies she's built up pver the months of writing!

I first visit these worlds of unattainable perfection looking for tips and encouragement. I want to know how to make a whole food snack, or I wonder if anyone else's children are bickering as much as mine are. I want to know if I am parenting correctly or could be improving. Why reinvent the wheel, I always ask. But I quickly end up with stinkin' thinkin', as FlyLady would label it. If they can do all that, why oh why can't I???????!!!!!!! Probably because I spend all my extra time reading their blogs instead of doing things I could then blog about!

I would love to get to know the women who write these blogs. I am blessed with many wonderful friends here where I live, but not many of them long to live the handmaid life I moved up here to live. Without resources and support down the road, I find I am glad to have my cyber friends to turn to. I am happy to contribute to their success by becoming a fan, and I hope to enjoy their ranks!

I think these blogs are so great, and I would love to share them with you. So, here's a short list. Pour yourself a cup of tea and waste some lovely time with me.

More later...Jarret needs me to help him with killing chickens and the baby is awake.

All Hallows Eve Approaches!

2010-10-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Only a few more days until Halloween and I still have a bit of sewing to do for Riley's Obi Wan Kenobi costume to be complete. Thanks be to God, a friend came through with some Indian dance costumes for Rose to wear - she is really into Bollywood right now - and so I didn't have to sew her costume. If I had, I'd be a wreck and so would my house (ok, more of a wreck!). I promise to post pictures here once I am finished.

Wasting Time...

2010-10-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

That's what I have been doing a lot of lately. Now, a lot of you who know me might be thinking, "How could she possibly have time to waste?" But, it's there, and I'm wasting it.

I'm not really talking about time in general, but time that I would like to use to do something not related directly to my job as a wife and a mother - writing, for instance. It seems I have just been going at full speed ahead, trying to get the clean clothes out of the baskets and the hot food onto the table. While I am doing those things I am thinking of things to write about. And I do come up with a lot of really good ideas! But when the quiet time to arrives at the end of the day during which I could gather my thoughts and put them on paper, and perhaps even manage to see some of them to an editor (who'll send money in return!), do I write? No!

I organize my desk, finish up the cleaning, check out Facebook, read some blogs on the kind of cooking and organizing I will never have the energy to do. Sometimes I spend hours looking up freelancing jobs that I tell myself I could never get because I don't know enough or don't have the time to write. Why don't I just use that time to write? That, friends, is the unanswerable question. But I am determined to conquer this and to spend some quiet winter evenings writing away, and I'm sorry, but you'll just have to bear with me and my ramblings! Come along...it's going to be a fun ride!

A Year and then some...

2010-03-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

I was looking over the photos from last spring and I can't believe it has only been a year since they were taken. I know it sounds cliche, but I guess all cliches have some basis in the truth or we wouldn't say them so often. It feels more like ten years have passed, rather than one. If I wasn't so tired right now, I would post some pictures to illustrate my point, but for now, you will just have to take my word for it. The kids have grown up, and there is another one on the way!

I chuckled to myself when reading my most "recent" (If you will) post, and how I went on and on about using things up and making everything from scratch. Lately, I have been wondering how I'm ever going to have time to get the laundry folded and put away, much less baking our bread and whipping our butter. We do still get our milk from a nearby farm, but that practice too, alas, may come to an end, as baby number 5 makes his or her presence more known over the next few months. The farm has become so popular that Farmer Frank (as Jack has dubbed the farmer after a beloved library book) has had to add another day to his weekly distribution schedule and I had to wait in line for 45 minutes today to get my measly 5 gallons of milk! This is no mean feat when you are seven months pregnant. On top of that, it's a 40 minute round trip drive to get the milk. So Jarret and I estimated that we paid about $5 a gallon for the milk, all things considered. As mush as we love the milk, this is too rich for our budget! So, we may just have to streamline the milk-getting right off the to-do list. I actually am quite relieved and amazed that Jarret and I are on the same page about this. Usually, I am the one wanting to throw in the towel on something that was fun for awhile, but the rural charm of which has long since worn away for me. He keeps at it a bit longer. But, I have tried to warn him that this summer will not be like the others.

You see, all our other babies were born in the depths of winter, when we had nothing better to do than keep warm and try to sleep. This is after all, what you try to do in the winter. But this baby is due when things just start to warm up around here for Jarret. And while I am looking forward to taking things at a slower pace (that is one of the wonderful things about babies, they give you an excuse to slow down a bit) summer is Jarret's time to live out loud and I think he will have a hard time tempering his summer self. I am not worried though. Jack is an outdoors-man like his father, and the other three are big enough to tag along pretty much anywhere. So if I am left on my own with Baby most of the time, I won't find that too bothersome at all.

Enough on that for this evening.

I have thought a lot about this blog over the past year (again, I can't fathom that a year has passed!) and I realized that I need it to do more for me. So, if you will indulge me, I will let you in on my plans. I am going to use this space to write about whatever strikes my fancy - crosses my mind while I am mopping the floor or ironing Jarret's shirts, or tending the kitchen woodstove. That could mean a family update, but it could also mean an essay on the wonders of my faith and how I am sharing it with my family, my latest feats in the kitchen (and failures too, of course!) or comments on my favorite or current books and magazines. I just need a space to vent, and if you want to share, by all means, you are welcome here. I just ask that you keep your comments thoughtful and polite, because one thing I have noticed over the course of the past year is that everyone seems to have a place where they can think out loud, if you will, and they all seem to have an audience. I have gained much from reading the thoughts of these people, seeing how they live their lives in different and similar ways from the manner in which I live my own. I figure I have just as much of a right to speak out. So, hang on to your hats because here we go!

Homemade Happiness

2009-03-10T14:05:00.000-07:00

I have a few rare minutes of quiet since Riley and Jarret went to the feed store in search of chicken feed, Jack and Molly are sleeping, and Rose is at a friend's house, so I thought I would get at least one of the many blog posts that I've been mulling over down on "paper." Whenever my good friend Kim updates her adorable and creative blog (www.pairslices.blogspot.com) I am motivated to get to mine. I think I will have time to get at least one post up before I have to get to my noodle-making for dinner, which brings me to the theme of my post - homemade!

I have to admit that I am indulging in a bit of bragging here, but I have to say that I am quite proud of my efforts to stretch our grocery budget and keep our diet healthy and local by making as much food as I can from scratch. I have also been working on that Depression-era philosophy: "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without," and learning how to turn leftovers into other scrumptious entrees and desserts, like veggie soups and bread puddings. Some of my latest endeavors include:

A weekly batch of homemade bread. I make two to four loaves at a time. It's easy and so yummy! I am wearing out my kitchen-aid mixer though and have had to go with kneading by hand, which is a great upper body workout!I found a recipe for making English muffins in a cookbook my sister-in-law, Kara, recommended to me : More-with-Less Cookbook. It's wonderful and very helpful for cooking on a dime. The muffins are so pricey in the store and we love them for breakfast. They were not hard at all. You make the dough and let it rise, roll it out and cut it with a glass or a biscuit cutter, and then let them rise again:
Then you cook them in a pan for 5 minutes or so on each side. I love my cast iron!

And here they are - don't let them cook too long! Oops! But it still tasted good.

They even look like muffins from the store on the inside, after being split with a fork. (Those are our farm-fresh eggs in the background.)

I've been making butter from the cream that rises to the top of the milk we get raw from a nearby farm. Put it in the blender for about 8 minutes:

Strain the buttermilk out and press the butter with a spatula while running it under cold water:

And then put it in a nice bowl. I would love to find an antique butter mold to use.

The More with Less cookbook has some great recipes for buttermilk pancakes and biscuits, so I feel I am truly using everything to the fullest. And the food tastes so yummy! My next projects will be to work yogurt into my weekly schedule. I already have made it from time to time, but I would like to stop buying it and just eat homemade stuff. And next month Rose and I are going to learn how to make cheese at our homeschool group Little House in the Big Woods book club.

While the Molly is busy helping me in the kitchen, Rose tends Jack or helps with other chores and Riley has been helping his dad with the wood splitter. Aren't they so cute together?

Well, the timer is going off and it's time to make noodles....For dessert tonight - bread pudding, homemade ice cream, and topped with homemade hot fudge sauce. Enjoy!

Let me just run...

2009-02-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me the other day that this is a phrase I should stop trying to wrap my life around. Especially since it now involves clothing at least one child - if not all four - in hats, boots, scarves, mittens, coats, and then fastening them into the car seat; making sure I have diapers and spare pants (for Molly, not me!); making sure the baby has been nursed, that I have my purse, my list and items that pertain to the errand (usually library books to be returned). So you get the idea. I can no longer "just throw on my coat and just run to the library for a minute" while dinner simmers on the stove.

I am trying very hard these days to pay attention to the clock and have a real grasp of reality with regard to time. I am one of those people who drastically overestimates the amount of things I can accomplish in a day or a week or ten minutes for that matter. I don't think this frustrates anyone more than it frustrates me, bless my husband, who is very good about showing up on time, or at least he was until he had to start bringing me with him!

I look forward to the days when I can again throw on my coat and run down to the post office or the library, but for now I choose to embrace the cumbersomeness of my life because those are some awfully cute faces framed by those pesky winter hats. One day, I'll be able to dart here and dart there and I'll be complaining that I don't have anyone for company!

The Blank Page

2008-12-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

All through the day as I am doing my regular housekeeping things I think of things I want to blog about. And then, when I sit down to do it, I can't think of anything to write about and am nagged by the thoughts of all the other thousands of things I should be doing (tending the fires, putting away dishes, folding the laundry, playing with the kids, checking my Facebook page!). Of course, this is the case now. So, I'll just post some pictures from the recent festivities around here and spare you my religious ramblings this time! Thanks for indulging me on my previous post, however.

Molly loves her new present from Grandma Jean - Copper Kitty.

Here she is on the phone with Grandma Jean saying thank you.
Our birthday cake...

A trip to see Santa at the Gorham library. Here is why I love this season. Rose truly believes that she chatted with Santa here, and she told him she wanted more Barbies for Christmas. So she was confused when I was looking at some pcitures on Facebook of other people's children with Santa, and heartbroken when she realized that what she really wanted was a Webkinz poodle, and she had told Santa the wrong thing! I reassured her we could send him a letter. Now I just have to remember to have her write it!

I don't know if it's Christmas in the air, a new phase of some sort, or answered prayers (I am sure it's at least a bit of that!), but Rose and Molly have been playing so nicely together for the past couple of weeks. Rose offeres and Molly willingly lets her dress her up and put on her "makeup" some Halloween leftovers I picked up at Wal-Mart for my fashion maven six year old (I don't know WHERE she got that tendency from!). Then I let them play with the camera. It's funny, thought-provoking, and sometimes a bit disturbing what the world looks like through the eyes of a child...

Riley's self portait...

He thought it was hilarious that he took a picture of the back of the cereal box.

All Molly needs is a hair net and a cigarette!

Ah, the beauty of normalcy...

Until next time, life continues on at the homestead...

My First Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

We've been busy here at the farm these last fall months. We've had a trip down to Walden to see friends and family in October (and of course we got in some great yard saling!), our first chicken slaughtering day, the first snowfall, and a wonderful Thanksgiving, celebrated here at the farm, just us. In between all those events has been the usual daily work of school and cooking, and cleaning, and laundry, and keeping the homefires burning (literally!). Life here is good. I am exhausted after preparing our feast today, so I'm going to keep this post short and to the point. Here are some pictures to enjoy. Please come and visit us!

The family assembled for the first Thanksgiving meal which I prepared all by myself. I did a good job if I do say so myself!

The turkey this year was a Butterball, but next year we plan to raise our own!

Last weekend we gathered family and friends to celebrate Jack and Molly's birthdays.

We had a family celebration for Jack on his actual birthday, November 19. Jack got a Radio Flyer bike from Grandma and Grandpa Winum, which he loves. Mimi and Pops sent some balls and wooden trucks and cars, which have also been a big hit (although I didn't snap any pics of those).

Our first snowfall of teh season, and Jack's first trip out into the snow. Last year he was just a wee babe during the winter months...

Chicken harvest 2008. Here is our nasty rooster, who attacked the children on more occasion than I care to admit, on his way to the chopping block. He made the most wonderful chicken and dumplings I have ever eaten! There really is something to be said for grass-fed meat!

Henny-Penny in the holding pen. R.I.P.

More summer highlights

2008-09-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Jack is waiting to for me to get him out of the crib, I need to get lunch on, and we have to wash eggs and take them to the farm where we trade them for milk, but I have to steal five minutes to post the rest of these pictures from the last few weeks or I will never get around to it! So, here are more summer highlights. Enjoy!

Rose and Riley try their hand at croquet at the Genesee Country Museum, one of our summer day trips.

And Jack tries out the game where you roll the hoop with a stick, yum!
Riley and Jarret work the two man saw (Jarret says a prayer of thanks for his chainsaw!).
It was Laura Ingalls Wilder Day at the Museum and their special guest was the actress who played Nellie Olsen. She was hysterical. And let me tell you, it's weird to hear Nellie Olsen's voice coming out of a grown woman!

Molly and Rilley belly up to their Shirley Temples at the wedding reception of our friend Jay Tackabury.

Rose and Ashley Gibbs take a break at the Empire Farm Days in Seneca Falls.
So, we are in the market for a tractor, what do you think honey?
Watching the equipment demos at Empire Farm Days.
Aidan Prendergast oversees the fire starting operation at Camp Winum, this was before the thunderstorm rained on our cookout.

The next day, the kids and Jarret throw in a few hooks at Keuka Lake before we head for home.

Our 4-H club's booth at the Ontario County Fair. Rose's decorated apron, hanging on the wall, went to the New York State Fair!
Her painted bunny and wood cart with zucchini from our garden.

Rose ended the summer by losing front teeth!
Tomatoes and diapers keep me busy these days!

So much to say, so much to say...

2008-09-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've been putting off doing this entry for so long because it seems so much has happened around here over the last two months that I didn't have time to type it all out. But my wonderful husband, who always gives great advice, told me to just pick something and start there. And so I will!

It's Friday and Riley's bus will be coming down the road in a few minutes. I didn't have time to go and restart the fire in the furnace, so I will have to do that after the bus arrives. Until then, I will just have to freeze. It's one of those cloudy drizzly days that makes you want to curl up under a blanket and never come out except to eat chili with homemade cinnamon rolls. I was planning to have tuna casserole for supper, but I think I just talked myself into a new menu!

Let's see, Rose and Riley are loving school. Rose is in first grade and Riley is in pre-kindergarten at Gorham Elementary school. It's so cute to see them run to get on the bus holding hands. Riley has a half day of school, so the bus drops him off at the door at noon, and Rose gets home a little before 4. It's quiet in the mornings without the two of them here, and since Jack takes a nap, it's quality time for me and Molly to spend just hanging out, folding laundry and listening to Dr. Laura solve everybody's problems!

Summer was great for us. We did a couple of day trips and one overnight camping trip, during which we were rained on for breakfast and dinner (I should say stormed on, deluged upon, if that is proper grammer) and let me tell you that if you haven't slept in a wet tent with four kids then you haven't lived! Ha! Ha! We decided against staying a second night and came home after a quick fishing excursion. I will try to post the pictures if I can, but that seems to take more time than I have these days...

Anyway, we were also so excited to have my college roommates visit for the weekend with their children over Labor Day. All together there were nine children here, with Rose (6) being the oldest! It wasy busy to say the least, but we all enjoyed getting together and watching the kids get to know each other. It seems that with the girls, we can just pick up with our visiting right where we left off the year or two before. E-mail helps! Here are some pics of teh occasion courtesy of Larry Winum. Thanks Larry!

Riley and Simone check out the rabbit cage:

Adrea hangs out on the porch with Catherine and Lucci:

Molly, Vincenzo, Rose, Riley and Simone chill out in the living room:

Now I am just trying to keep up with the produce from the garden. So far, we have filled the freezer with about:

50 quarts of green beans
4 quarts of beets
25 quarts of corn
5 quarts of tomatoes
25 quarts of zucchini
15 quarts of peppers

and canned, so far, 11 quarts of tomatoes, with many more to come. I also have to process the apples from our apple tree. I think I am going to make sauce out of those. They are quite juicy, so the crisp I made from them a couple of weeks ago was not too crispy.

In my "spare" time, I have taken on the honor and duty of educating the folks who are going through RCIA at our church (there are only two this year) and teaching the religious education classes. I have one woman and her daughter who graciously answered my call for help with the little kids, and another more experienced lady is helping me with RCIA. I am also a co-leader for Rose's 4-H club, which is the only extra curricular activity we are in, to try and curb the craziness!

I have also been doing some sewing - making some pajamas for Riley with a pattern that I bought last fall thinking that I would have time to have a baby, unpack from moving and sew a few garments here and there! What was I thinking!!!!!!! Anyway, now I need lessons in alterations because the pants are too baggy for him and I am not entirely sure how I should go about trimming them up.

Jarret is enjoying teaching this year, as usual, and he is keeping very busy with his other full-time jobs - cutting wood for heating our home and hot water, and doing contracting work as the Holiday Handyman.

So, I think that gives you a good overview of life here at Maplestone Farm. I will try my best to blog more so that I can give you more details of daily life, which are far more interesting to read and write than an update!

Check back often!

Long Time No Blog

2008-07-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy keeping up with life that I haven't made time to blog. Keeping up with a small farm and four small children - garden, laundry, mowing, animals - leaves one too exhausted to put words together at the end of the day. In fact, Jarret and I have been falling in to bed at 10:30, not up watching too much TV, but racing the sun to get work in the garden done, feeding the chickens, cleaning up after the adventures of the day. But to adapt a cliche it's better to blog now than never, so here's an update of what's been keeping us busy for the past month at Maplestone Farm.

Rose graduated from kindergarten at Gorham Elementary on June 25, 2008 with a lovely little ceremony. My camera was acting up, so the pictures are not great, but here they are nonetheless. Mrs. Sloth was a great teacher and Rose will always remember being a member of her class.

The PTO hosted a nice little reception after the ceremony, great for those Kodak moments, and then we headed over to our friend's the Prendergast's to celebrate the start of summer with an afternoon by the pool!

Here is Rose with her best friend, Emily Lehman. Aren't they cute? Nothing is more pure than the affection girlfriend's have for each other at this age.

I mentioned in one of my last posts that I was going to have to cook goat for the party for our departing priest who is from Kenya, where they regularly feast on goat. The party was wonderful, and we do miss Fr. John, but we are happy to welcome another Fr. John, also from Kenya. I will not however, ever cook another goat. The cooking fat has an odor that I don't find pleasant or appetizing. But the goat itself did taste very good. Here I am seasoning and cutting up the goat. This was only my portion - my friend Mary cooked up the other half. Jarret had to use a jigsaw to cut in half the 90 lb goat that was delivered to my doorstep, as you can see here.

We celebrated the fourth of July with a long-standing tradition we have of attending the parade in Auburn, NY, a small city about 45 minutes east of Stanley where Jarret's sister lives with her family. It was through visiting with them that we came to know and love the Finger Lakes region, which I really feel is a piece of heaven on Earth. The parade was great - the kids got a lot of candy - but you can see that they are used to the quiet of country life and not the noise of the city! This is how they spent most of the parade. Luckily the lady standing next to us helped me pick up candy for the kids. I don't know if you've ever tried it, but it's nearly impossible to gather candy and cover your ears at the same time! We followed the parade with a great party at Laura and Frank's.

I jammed up the strawberries we picked - 12 quarts of them! And while I was making jam, Jarret was brewing beer from scratch. I know, we are insane. If you want a great recipe for making your own graham crackers I can give it to you. They are very tasty. I am not kidding. Take that Martha Stewart!

Jarret does an all-grain brew in the garage:

We have also come by some Bantam Cochin chickens, which I bought at a yard sale. Ten to be exact. Bantams are mini chickens. Perfect for you city dwellers who want to own a flock. They should also lay eggs, although it would take two eggs to equal one regular chicken egg, but I think we have about four roosters, so I am not sure what will play out there.

We got our first eggs from the regular-sized chickens last week! We got them as chicks in February, so we've been waiting for a while for eggs. Here is Rose showing them off. They taste great, and I love to have a glass of farm-fresh milk with my breakfast of fresh eggs and homemade jam on an English muffin (I haven't attempted to make these yet, but I promise to let you know when I do!). Production should steadily increase, until we are getting about two dozen per day. That's a lot of protein!

Last Tuesday we went to watch our nephew Noah play on the Little League All-Star team in Geneva. It was Auburn vs. Waterloo and Auburn creamed Waterloo easily. I don't even think Waterloo scored any points. Noah played great! An all-star among all-stars. The kids enjoyed the game, and dinner at the concession stand, and visiting with Uncle Frank.

Other than that, we have just been enjoying some beautiful summer weather, spending a day or two at the lakes, having dinner with friends, entertaining some friends here,

Tomorrow, we are headed on our first camping expedition to Keuka Lake, which is about 15 minutes from here. This is our first trip since Molly was born, and we are tenting it, so I am sure I will have some stories for the next post. Here, we air out the tents, and Riley makes sure we have all the stakes accounted for while Jack oversees. Check back soon to see how our trip went!

Don't you just love those fat thighs!

2008-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

A Perfect Day

I can honestly say that today was about as perfect as it gets. I got up, skipped the shower since I was headed to the church to help shape up the flower gardens there, and headed out the door. (Of course, I got my breakfast in, you know I don't skip a meal!) The volunteer crew and I, headed up by my friend Miranda, really did great job on the beds and they look awesome for our farewell party for Fr. John next weekend. Jarret stayed home with the kids and cleaned the chimney.

In the afternoon I took the girls and we headed to get milk from a farm about fifteen minutes away. We get raw milk from a farmer who milks 23 cows. This is a very small dairy, since the farm across the road from us milk 850 cows! We love the raw milk because we are supporting a local farmer and the benefits of not pasteurizing or homogenizing the milk are wonderful. You can read all about that at http://www.realmilk.com/. Anyway, on the way home we stopped and picked 6 quarts of fresh strawberries. Rose and Molly did a great job, and it's really hard to put into words how deeply happy I felt watch my girls covered in mud and strawberry juice, hair damp from the rain, hunting for the reddest berries they could find. And of course, I ate a berry right in the field, because there is nothing like a just picked strawberry. Now I am going to make a strawberry pie, since I have never made one, and make some sugar-free strawberry jam so I don't have to buy that stuff in the store anymore. I am sure I will have to go out and make a couple more picking trips this week. I should look up how to freeze the berries too...

Then we stopped at an antiques place I have been driving by longingly since we moved here. Since I was without the baby, and they were having a great sale, I went in and lost myself. They have so much stuff! I have my eye on a punch bowl set for $5 and a child-sized roll top desk for $50.

After a dinner of leftovers we all headed out to the garden to spread straw on the tomato patch. Rose and Riley threw more straw on each other but at least most of it got where it was supposed to go. Jack supervised from the stroller. Then bath, dessert (sherbet from the Schwan's man!) and a couple of books, Jarret and I headed back out to the garden to enjoy the stunning sunset and some weeding. The mosquitoes were ferocious though, so tomorrow at Mass I will be sporting one lovely giant bite on my jaw, and since I forgot my purse over at my girlfriend's house last night I won't have any lipstick to distract from the bite. Well, as my Grandma Bette used to say about her wrinkles, I earned every one (bite, I mean, not wrinkles...yet).

I really don't think my life could get any better.

2008-05-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

First Communions and Smokin' Jim's BBQ

Well, we had a wonderful time in Walden a couple of weekends ago (I spent Memorial Day weekend out of town with some friends so I am just getting to this Walden news now, sorry!) celebrating Adam Winum's First Holy Communion. I was very proud of him, he's my godson, and I was very happy that I was able to be there at the Mass. Then we celebrated with a great party at Nat and Karin's. Here's Adam and me partyin' it up!

The cousins had a great time chasing frogs and riding the wagon down the hill. How we escaped a trip to the emergency room I'll never know!

We had a great time showing off how much Jack has grown since many of the family saw him at his baptism in January. At six months, he weighs in at 20 lbs...!

We enjoyed a tasty breakfast with the Santo family. It was great to see how much everyone's kids have grown just since last fall! And I have to tip my hat in thanks to Mike and Sarah for introducing me to Pandora. I know a lot of you techie people might know about this music software tuner thingy, but I had never heard of it before. You can create your own radio station, pretty much! I have been listening to it all afternoon and loving it.

Anyway, we got to meet the new Santo addition, Caroline, who I think had fun watching Jack bounce in her johnny jump up and somehow managed to sleep through all the commotion.

But the best story about the trip has to be the story of our dinner stop on the way home. It's late and I will try to make this short, so here goes...

We decided to take a different route home. We love the adventure of finding new quirky places to eat and shop, and it's also new scenery. The day was cool and partly sunny, rain here and there, not picnic weather, I assure you. Especially where there are little kids to consider, and I needed a place to nurse the baby. We don't eat out often, probably once every couple of months at most, and so it's a big deal for the kids.

So in Candor, NY we come across a sign for Jim's BBQ Chicken.

Jarret's mouth started to water at the mention of barbecue, and I was game for a new place so we drove around the block to check it out. Here's what we saw:

Now, on a hot summer day I would be totally into a place like this. Have some barbecue, a beer, listen to some tunes, and chat with some locals. But it's raining on and off, it's 49 degrees, and I've been in the car for 2.5 hours with four children, one of whom needs to nurse sometime during this stop. Despite my reluctance, I agree, and Rose bursts into tears, crying out that she wants to go to a real diner! I tell her that this is where we are going to stop and we are going to make it fun, and we head off to the bathroom:

(I am not kidding! At least it was clean, with a little hand cleaner sprayer to boot).

Jarret then heads off to use the facilities, so I am left to walk up to the trailer door and order some chicken and rib dinners with some beans and cole slaw for sides and a few sodas to wash it all down. The kids are excited at the prospect of soda and are happily playing in the gravel. Rose has forgotten her tears. We pull up a table in the picnic area and dig in.

We are quietly eating and I offer Jarret a bite of my baked beans, wondering if he'll enjoy them cold, because I don't. Hey Jim, I think you forgot to turn on the burner! The rest of the food was fair to middling. I've had worse salad at the diner in Damascus, NY right off the Quickway (thankfully, and not surprisingly, that establishment is no longer open). But it wasn't the glorious barbecue experience we were hoping for. I think it had all been cooked the day before, as I didn't see any smoking grills, even though Jim seems to have an adequate supply of wood:

The kids were happy with their soda, and we had food in our bellies, which is more than some people have these days. But we decided that we won't be recommending Jim's place to anyone, unless you are looking for material for a good story! According to an article in the Ithaca Journal which is framed and hanging on the wall in the picnic area, Jim's used to be quite the place - a frequent caterer for the ubiquitous upstate chicken barbecue. But I think that the glory days are over. As our experience was vastly different from that of Michael Stern, whoever he is. So we snapped a picture with Jim to remember him by and headed home.

All in all, it was a great weekend spent with friends and family, and we made some great family memories. Needless to say, I will be selecting the next dining establishment, and I can assure you it will at least have real silverware!

Thanks to cousin Natalie McQuilton for the guidance on how to work the pictures in here a little better! I'm off to bed, as tomorrow we are bidding farewell to our priest from Kenya, who is moving to another parish about an hour east of us. We are presenting a goat to him during Mass, honoring a Kenyan custom, so be sure to check back for news about how that all goes!

Newfangled

2008-05-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, I can't figure out how to make the pictures that I spoke about in the last entry follow that entry, so if any of you experienced bloggers out there can help, please do! Scroll down to see the pics...

2008-05-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

Some days I am just bowled over by the amount of work I have gotten myself into ...I have to start a fire before I do the dishes so that I will have hot water (long story, I'll explain later!), and all this while I am trying to nurse a five month old, keep tabs on a precocious two year old and navigate the ins and outs of sharing for my kindergartener and preschooler. Well, my mother in law was right about so many things, mostly that my life will never be boring! Most days, I can't beleive how blessed I am to be living my dream.
Anyway, today was a glorious day, the sun was shining, the ever present wind was warm, we gardened...Since the chicken house is not ready yet and the chickens are housed inside the barn where the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, I have been letting two or three out into the yard to peck aroudn while I can keep an eye on them. One of my buff orpingtons stayed right near us as I weeded the garden, just like a dog! It was great to have her there and fun to find her worms and snails.
I realized this morning how much I needed to get done in order to get us all off to Walden this weekend and only got a few things done (the daily frustrations of having a thousand interruptions). Thankfully, I was able to pray my way through it all and managed to be kind, firm, and not lose my cool.
Jarret has been busy trying to finish up his job at the library in Gorham. It's beautiful, but because of the hours and school still being in session he has been doing the job for a month now. He has loads of work to move on to, for which we are thankful. And I am thankful that God has answered my prayer of being able to handle bedtime by myself, in fact, I even enjoy it these days! I do miss having Jarret around in the evenings, but work must be done and bills must be paid...which reminds me, I have bills to pay and an I pod to load up before our trip.
I took some pictures of our daily adventures, and here are a few pictures that Rose and Riley have been taking too. I think they both have a pretty good eye, what do you think!?

2008-05-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Today it's raining and stepping outside you can smell the soil from the tilled up fields. It's overwhelming, how it fills the air. I have ironing and cleaning to do, and the kids are all napping. Now that I have a place to write my thoughts I can't think of anything to say! Of course. Mostly what I am thinking is that I shouldn't be here typing up a blog entry when the ironing is waiting, dinner needs to be started (ugh! I didn't defrost the ground beef) and it's only a matter of time until Jarret comes home and I have to run off to my cleaning job. More later!