Angels In Unexpected Places

Life as we know it in the Michel house is about to change.  We are staring down what looks like the end of Jeff’s job.  And as a single income family this is an extremely stressful position to be in.  Soon I will be going back to work after being a Stay-At-Home-Mom for 12 years which is going to be a big adjustment for the boys & me.   Add to that all the stuff that’s been going on with Jeff’s family and the four of us were pretty much on stress overload.

Jeff decided we needed to go do something to get our minds off everything for a little while but we’re trying to save as much money as we can since at this point we don’t know how many more paychecks he’ll be getting. (And I don’t start work until December.)  I called my Mom to see if there were any free activities noted in the paper and she suggested we go someplace different for ice cream than our local DQ.  It’s not free but pretty darn cheap.  This was a great idea!

We headed out for Jordan’s in West Kittanning, not even sure that they would still be open this late in the year.  This is where I think the divine intervention stepped in.  The glowing neon OPEN sign was such a welcome sight.  The four of us and the owner were the only people there.  We all ordered our ice cream and since he was getting ready to close for the night and had already cleaned the dining room we just hung out around the counter and chatted with him.  An angel sent with just the right words.

While we were standing there talking about how big the ice cream cones were the conversation shifted a bit.  He told us how he would be closing for the season soon and had already laid off his employees for the winter.  So it was just him for the next week or so.  I think he noticed that we had that worried & weary look about us and as we talked Jeff started telling him what was going on in our lives.  Along with the laughter and ice cream he gave us some wonderful words of wisdom.  Among was this bit of advice….

“This is big. Bigger than you can handle alone.  So give it to God and let him show you what to do.” 

We talked for about an hour while we tried to finish our giant ice cream cones before they melted all over us and by the time we headed home we were all feeling much better.  While we are facing some big changes to the routines we are used to in our lives we will make new routines and while big changes are scary life is full of change.  So we have to learn to adapt and one way or another it will all work out.

I would like to sincerely thank Jeff from Jordan’s for being so kind and offering such caring words to our family. 

Those are "small" ice cream cones!

                                                          

Something New

     Last night I did something new with the boys.  We have never been to an art museum or a gallery but a friend was having some of her paintings put on display at Deer Creek Winery at the mall.  I wanted to go to see Marcia and show her support (and to see some of her wonderful work in person.)  I wasn't real sure how that was going to go with the boys.  Taking two energetic boys to a place where they can't run or touch things is just asking for trouble sometimes.  But Jeff wasn't feeling well and I really wanted to go so off we went.

     I'm so happy to say that the boys loved it!  Marcia's work was beautiful!  We all loved it!  Shane decided that "The Tree of Extra Life" was his favorite.  JJ said he couldn't decide. I think they were especially impressed that they got to talk to Marcia, who was wonderful with them.  They had lots of questions for her about how she got to be an artist and how did she get so good.

     We couldn't stay too long, that rambunctious little boy nature started to appear, and that's not a good thing in a store filled with breakable items.  But I'm so glad we went.  It was so nice to see Marcia & Travis.  And the boys are now totally inspired today.  Shane was up at 6:30 and drawing pictures on the front porch.

New Hay Rake

        It's been a good 3 years since the gear box on our old hay rake shattered.  It jumped into gear while being towed down the road and that was basically all she wrote.  Every summer getting the hay made became a particular challenge since we had to find a kind soul willing to loan us their rake each time Jeff wanted to bale.  Finally this year we were able to replace the broken rake!

          I'm hoping that since Jeff now has all the machinery that he needs for baling hay that getting this job done won't be so stressful for him. 



He looks so happy with his new toy.



Our First Camping Adventure!

       Earlier this week we took our first camping trip!  We didn't go too far, we thought for our first trip we should stay fairly close to home just in case.  I mean we did just replace the transmission in Jeff's truck and we only got the truck back on the road a week and a half before we bought the camper. 
        So Tuesday after Shane finished his PSSA test the boys & I finished loading up the camper so when Jeff got home from work we could head out.  We got off to a little later start than we wanted because Jeff wasn't able to get the route that he wanted that day, but it really wasn't a big deal since we weren't travelling too far.  We got to the campground around 7:00 PM and we all proud of ourselves for getting camp set up before dark.  That's when things got a little interesting.
         I brought a Schwan pizza with us for supper that night.  They come on a little disposable pizza pan and fit perfectly in the tiny little oven we have.  20 minutes and we would be eating and no dishes to do!  Well, there was 1 major flaw in that plan.  The heating element is too close to use the disposable pans. About 5 minutes into the baking time we noticed a little smoke coming out of the vent at the back of the stove.  We didn't think anything of it since it was the first time we ever lit the oven.  We just assumed there was a little paint or dust or something.  A few minutes later smoke is rolling out of the vent, the kids are bailing out of the camper, coughing & rubbing their eyes.  Jeff grabbed the pizza out of the oven while I opened the windows & roof vents trying to get the smoke out.  The center of the pizza pan had burned away leaving only a 2 inch ring at the outer edge and the bottom of the pizza was like charcoal.  Hahaha.  Leave to me to catch dinner on fire! :)  First thing the boys said when they came back in was "So much for the new camper smell."  (They crack me up!)
         After that the trip got much better.  We went hiking and biking during the day.  We played board games and watched a movie when it got too chilly to be outside.  Wednesday evening we had a fire (outside this time) and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  We all had a great time and can't wait to go again!!

               I know it’s been a while since I’ve written anything in this blog.  Life has a way of getting really busy.  I’m sure you all know what I mean.  So I’ll catch you up on the major stuff and we’ll go from there. 

                In February we bought a camper.  We decided that we needed to spend more family time and this would be a great way to do it.  I’m sure this will lead to many adventures!  My family used to go camping all the time when I was a kid and we always had a great time. 

                   The boys finished up their bowling league and their team came in 2nd!  They did a great job and I'm so proud of all four of the boys on Team 8!  But I'm also a little sad.  I miss my Saturday mornings chatting and laughing with my friend Dawn.  Her son, Michael, is on our team.  So while the boys bowled we could have a couple of hours to sip coffee and talk with another adult.  (Something that we Stay-at-Home parents don't get to do often.)

                    March brought a couple weeks of unusually warm weather that allowed us to get a jump start on some of the Spring Work for the farm.  All the oats have been planted for this year and have already started to come up!  Hopefully we don't get too much more of the cold weather that has moved in for the last week so they keep growing.

                    We seem to be settling back into a routine again so I am hoping that I can get back to keeping my blog going.  As summer approaches farm and family life promises to get interesting.

Spring Cleaning, Early

            I don’t know what got into me yesterday, but I suddenly got the urge to do some serious cleaning.  It probably has something to do with the fact that we are spending so much time inside right now.  I set out to clean my family room and boy did I clean it. 

            I noticed that it was dusty in here and thought, “I’ll wash the walls down.”  That led to washing off everything on the walls.  Then I looked up at the textured ceiling, (I hate our textured ceilings) and saw dust and a cobweb or two.  So then I figured I might as well wash the ceiling as well.  That meant that all the furniture had to go so that I could move the ladder all over the room.  Well, you can probably guess what happened next, since the ceiling and walls were clean and the furniture had already been moved out, what better time to scrub the carpet. 

            It took me all day.  I finally got everything put back in the family room at about 8:00PM.  It looks so good I think I’m going to do the living room today. 

            Everyone always talks about spring cleaning but I don’t have time in the spring.  Once spring gets here there is so much that needs doing outside I don’t have time to clean inside so I think winter is a fine time to my heavy indoor cleaning.  And it will stay clean longer after I finish in winter since the windows are all shut. (Living on a dirt road does have a couple draw backs.) So I’m off to tackle another room.  If you don’t hear from me for a couple of days I’m probably doing battle with the dust bunnies.

Snow day, Slow day

          These are the kind of easy, slow paced days I love.  We have a fresh blanket of snow, about 3”-4”, and I just got a message that bowling was cancelled for this morning.  So we don’t have to hurry out into the cold to shovel the walk and clear off the car.  These things will happen but all in good time.  Days like this don’t come along too often.

          I lit the wood burner, grabbed a fresh cup of coffee, and started some oatmeal for breakfast, because this just feels like a good day for some hot steamy oatmeal.  The boys will probably curl up on the couch under quilts with their DS’s and have epic fossil battles all morning.  I’ll be in my sewing room working on a few more blocks for the quilt I’m making, the state flowers.  Eventually we’ll make it outside but not for a while. 

          I’m thinking tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch and then will head outside.  I’ll shovel off the front porch steps and the walk while the boys feed Matilda, the lone surviving chicken from 2 years ago.  (Matilda is more like a pet to the boys so we can’t butcher her)  Then we’ll all bring a wheelbarrow load of fire wood. 

          Later, after Jeff gets home from work, we’re going to load up the boys sleds I his truck (which is finally running properly and legal to be on the road) and head over to his Mom & Dad’s house.  They’ve got a good sled riding hill in their yard. 

          Yes this is a welcome change to the hurried pace we’ve have been keeping lately.  These relaxing days don’t happen often so I plan to enjoy this while I can.                                              

Chickens

            Here we are again, the week that the McMurray Hatchery catalog comes out and Jeff and the boys start planning their poultry empire.  Some of you know me pretty well and you know how I feel about poultry, for those of you who don’t let me fill you in.  I prefer that poultry come already dead, de-feathered, and frozen.  I don’t know why (maybe I saw Alfred Hitchock’s  The Birds one too many times as a kid) but chickens scare me.  There is just something about those sharp looking claws and pointy beaks that just makes me think that I will soon be in pain.  Besides, they’re dirty and smelly.  Protest as I might, I learned a while back that I have been completely out voted on this matter and had better just learn to suck it up and deal with it.

            This year I think I’m finally starting to get used to the idea.  I do have one request though before Jeff goes ordering 30-40 peeps, I want to build a proper coop for them.  We have had a lot of trouble in the past because the pen couldn’t keep predetors out or the roof leaked, etc.  So if we’re going to do this, and it appears that we are, then we should do it right.

            Now all I have to do is figure out how to build a good sturdy coop to keep our chickens safe and pay for it.  Hopefully I can convince the men of this house that maybe we should start out with 10-15 chickens so we don’t bite off too much at one time. 

            One a totally unrelated topic, I think I’ve finally found a series of books that Shane really enjoys.  We bought him 2 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for Christmas and he is already over half way through first one!  He actually sits down to read without my asking him to.  I think I’m going to have to pick up the rest of the series for him soon.  He’ll probably be ready for #3 by Easter!  Joy!

It's a beef day

            So yesterday was a very busy and very farmy kind of day.  I started off with my usual morning routine.  Get up, let the dog out, start the fire, and get some coffee.  But there was no time for reading yesterday because once Jeff got home from work we would the cutting up a whole beef and prepare it to be ground into hamburger today.  So with only 1 cup of coffee in me I hurried to get a couple loads of laundry done.  Cutting up beef creates lots of extra laundry (dirty wash rags, towels, and aprons) so this was no time to fall behind.  Then I got the kids up and ready for class.

            JJ & I discovered the coolest thing on the new microwave that my Mom & Dad got Jeff & I for Christmas.  It has several presets to cook certain foods.  #1 is Oatmeal.  We love this!  I always made oatmeal on the stove before and it always seemed to take a while and just be kind of a pain.  Now we just put the oats, water, salt and we like a little maple syrup in a bowl, pop it in the microwave and poof, hot breakfast. 

            Then being Wednesday it was bill paying time.  All I can say is blahhh. Time for more coffee.  Usually 2 cups is all I need for a day but I caught this nasty head cold that I have been trying to get rid of for almost 2 weeks now and a little extra hot coffee, or hot anything to drink, seems to help a little.  I am so ready to be done with this cold.  I have had a headache since Sunday and it’s getting really old. 

            We had friends coming to help with the beef so I filled the crock pot with beef tips and gravy for supper for everyone.  Made lunch for the kids and made sure they got all of their tests and homework done.  Then we headed to the basement.  Thanks to Derrin, DJ, Ron and Heather for all their help.  We managed to get the entire beef boned out and ready to grind by supper time.  It was great!  Whenever it’s just Jeff & I cutting up a beef takes all day and most of the evening.  Since we had help this time we got it done in an afternoon.  Everything is packed in tubs in the refrigerator ready to grind today.  

            So this morning’s plan is for me to quickly run to Aldi’s to get groceries for the week while Jeff get’s the boys to class on time and puts the grinder together.  We’re hoping that we’ll have a chance to make some beef sticks and bologna made from some of this beef as well.  But that will have to wait until I can go get some more spices. And spices have to wait until the truck is inspected.  (Can’t go spending money on spices and casings until the truck is paid for)  So with any luck at all the truck will get done this week too.                       

Time

            Slowly but surely I am reclaiming my daily routine.  I had been sleeping in a bit over the past week and I’m totally going to blame the head cold but in reality it’s probably just that the house is chilly by morning which makes it hard to get out of a cozy warm bed.  I’m not quite back to 5:30AM which is making it difficult to get my morning things done.  Even today, I got up at six but by the time I got the fire going again and let the dog out the kids were up.  The calm quiet morning was over and the epic (and loud) battles to save the universe had begun.  Darth Vader was taking a day off today but Voldemort was picking up the slack. 

            Somehow by 8:00AM everyone had eaten some breakfast, and despite a few networking issues with JJ’s computer, made it to class.  Then peace will return to our house for the duration of classes.  The battle to save the universe from the forces of evil will undoubtedly pick up again once all their homework is done.  Once I’ve gotten a second cup of coffee in me the noise level won’t phase me a bit but until then it kinda grates on my nerves.  I have to get up earlier tomorrow.

            So I’m off to do a few loads of laundry and probably some ironing today.  I have a dress and four shirts waiting to be pressed and I’ve been putting it off for a while now.  Besides that I’d like to get back to work on the state flower quilt I started making for Jeff & I and I need to iron and cut some more fabric for quilt blocks.  Although I’m not sure I’ll actually get as far as sewing today with everything else that needs done, but at least there is no deadline for that. 

            You wouldn’t think the day could get thrown off schedule so easily but somehow it does.  Jeff must have been dragging his wagon last night too.  When I got up this morning I discovered he left his cell phone and Bluetooth on the kitchen counter.  There must be something in the air over here.  Hopefully his day will get better too.

A busy week

            Once again time seems to have quickly gotten away from me.  This past week has been a busy whirlwind and the coming week promises more of the same.  Don’t get me wrong busy whirlwind is not a bad thing it just leaves little time to write.

            The boys started back to school last Monday after Christmas break.  I think we were all ready for that.  We need the structure in our daily schedule.  When that goes away we all get less done and they tend to start bickering with each other.  (I think mostly out of frustration or boredom)  So they now have a full week of class under their belts and things are getting back to normal as far as school goes.

            We finally got Jeff his own bowling ball and got it drilled to fit his hand.   Now we just need to find some time for him to practice.  I feel bad that he gets so frustrated over his scores.  Hopefully he will be able to get some practice in during the next month or two and see some results.

            Plus this is soup season.  This is the time of year when there just seems to be nothing better to eat than fresh hot homemade soup. I don’t know if it’s just the weather or the fact that every time I turn around one of us has a cold we’re fighting but soup is just the thing to have.  And you just can’t make a little bit of soup.  It always ends up being the biggest pot in the kitchen when you finish so we’re having leftovers for the rest of the week, but with no complaints.  This past week it was beef vegetable. This week I’m thinking ham & bean or chicken & rice.  Then or course we have to have fresh biscuits or rolls to go with our soup and all of this cooking and baking just makes the house smell warm and delicious.

            Then we get to Jeff’s truck.  It’s a farm truck in every sense of the word.  It’s big, filthy, and looks well used.  And it is.  Jeff uses this truck to haul everything from cattle to firewood and anything else you can possibly think of.  All of this use and abuse has been taking its toll on the poor ol’ truck this year.  For 9 months it didn’t move at all because the transmission went and had to be replaced.  Then we got it running but the brakes all had to be replaced so that it would stop when we needed it to.  But even being a farm truck it still has to pass inspection.  This is proving to be a challenge.  SO we have added tires, several assorted light bulbs and fuses and some body work to the list of repairs we’ve had to do to the truck in the last 12 months.  I really hadn’t planned to spend the evening of my birthday in my in-laws garage patching rusted holes in the bed of Jeff’s truck while he and his brother replaced another rotor and several other little things.  But we need the truck and it has to be road legal. 

            Saturday showed some promise for being a day to relax and hopefully get over this rotten head cold but not so.  By the time Jeff got home from work we were in full out butchering mode.  Sunday the boys had a bowling tournament.  I’m so proud of them.  They did a good job bowling and made some new friends. 

            Hopefully, my head cold will let up some and I’ll get a little better at managing my time this week so that I’ll do a better job of keeping this blog updated.

Back on track and back in order

            Call me a neat freak or OCD, whatever it is I am officially over having all the Christmas decorations up and I need to put my house back in order.  This year we put the trees up at the beginning of December because we had a small Christmas party so I have had trees up and lights strung all over everything that held still downstairs for a month.  Besides the lights in the rafters are part way down already.  The kids tried to hang their Carharts on the I-beam in front the wood burner to dry and caught the string of lights.  Close pins just can’t handle that kind of weight and the whole thing came down. 

            School is back in session and life is getting back on schedule.  It’s time to put the house back in order too.  On top of all that I need to get the downstairs tree out of the way so that I can get my treadmill back out.  It has been folded up and pushed into the corner for the last month.  It’s time to get that worked back into my routine too. 

Start 2012 Off Right

           

            So here we are at the start of another year.  I can’t say that I am sad to see 2011 go.  I am so that for my friends and my family and all the love and encouragement they gave me last year. (And boy did I need it.)   2011 was a tough year for me and I’m glad that it’s gone.  That being said I’m ready to have the best 2012 that I can.

            Over the years I have found that just making a blanket resolution doesn’t really work for me.  So this year I have set a few goals that I would like to achieve and I’m going to work on them one step at a time, rather than trying to change too much at once.  (Which never lasts around here)

            The first thing is to get back on a schedule.  While the kids were on Christmas break we just went totally off the rails here.  We were sleeping in, eating meals at all sorts of odd times, and NO ONE went to bed at a decent hour.  So since class starts back today and that helps a lot with giving our day some structure, we are getting back on our schedule.  And yes, 5:30 seemed to come extra early this morning.

            I would like for our family to eat a little healthier.  We don’t do too bad but after having all the sweets and snacks over Christmas we need to get back on track.  So I’m going to try to get us eating a few more fruits and veggies and less chips and cookies.  That probably won’t come into effect too much until next week.  Since we still have some of the snacks and sweets left from Christmas and my birthday is this week too, and I am not about to waste any of those good desserts.  Yes, that one will have to wait for next week.

            I also want to read more this year.  I love to get lost in a good book and I’m hoping to instill some of this love for reading in my boys.  JJ has definitely caught the bug, but I’m still working on Shane.  Although, I think the “Wimpy Kid” books that he got for Christmas may do the trick.  Besides just reading more in general I have also decided that this year I am going to read the Bible, the whole thing, cover to cover.  This is something that I have never done yet, and thinking about it I felt that I really should read the whole thing, at least once in my lifetime.  (Having gone to Catholic school from kindergarten through 8^th grade I’m almost surprised that I haven’t done this yet.)  Thank you Dawn, for telling me about the online reading plans.  Having a schedule with a few chapters to read each day makes this seem much more doable. 

            And of course I have added a couple of places to the list I have of places that I want to take the kids.  I hoping this year we can get to either Gettysburg or the Fort Pitt museum and The Heinz History Center.  I know it won’t be this year but someday I want to take them to see the Smithsonian.  I’ve never been there either so that will be something new for all of us but I think that will have to wait a couple years.

            Well, it’s that time.  Class is starting for the boys and the laundry seems to be calling out for me to get busy so we are off.