Thankful Thursday

Right now everyone of my kids is crying their eyes out.  Corilynn is mad that she has to clean up the mess she made in the living room.  Lyman is upset because he got in trouble for trying to pick up Ruby when I told him not to (resulting in her fall from the chair she was sitting on).  Ruby is crying because of her fall that, though did not hurt her, did remind her of how terrible life is right now while she is waiting impatiently for lunch to be ready.  I feel like crying because I have a billion things to do today to get ready for our vacation tomorrow and I feel like I am getting no help at all.  Until the corn dogs (yes I know what a pathetic mother I am for feeding them to my children) are finished cooking in the oven, I am blogging. 

I can be thankful for one thing though: I got an email acknowledgement from one of the publishers I submitted my book to saying they received it and it is under review now.  Yay!

Thankful Thursday

Last week I wasn't thankful apparently because I forgot to post.  It wasn't true, but it is summer time and the days just slip by and I forget what day of the week it is with all the fun we are having.

Today I am thankful for the fun day we spent together last Friday as a family.  We went on an adventure to pick strawberries at a pick your own farm 40 minutes south of us.  Just love getting strawberries - sweet, juicy and delicious - for only $1.70 a quart.  Each quart was over a pound so it was a great savings.  However, after having done it once, I appreciate the novelty of going to the store to get them a little better.  The kids did great and Ruby only discovered that they were food towards the end when she bit into one and so we only had to fend her off eating them the last few minutes.  We made plenty of delicious freezer jam and frozen whole strawberries for smoothies. 

The only picture we took of our whole family.  Lol - yes that is an unfortunate location for a shadow on me. But shadow it is!

 Amish people are cool.  Makes me want to bust out in song singing Amish Paradise!

After our adventure to the strawberry patch we went to Amish country a bit more south.  It was fun to go to the Amish cheese store and get lots of free tastes and come home with fun cheese varieties.  We saw lots of Amish in their buggies as we got lost for a while in the back farm roads.  We also went to an Amish store with lots of fun wood toys and other products.  It was an eventful day and I am thankful that I got to spend it with my family.

My own Mr. Darcy

On Saturday, Andy and I went on a date together.  We got coupons for two English style horseback riding lessons each.  We went for our first lesson.  A few observations about the English and their style riding.  It is hard.  Okay not just hard, but really hard.  I have ridden horses before and I guess I rode "western" style as the saddle was like a lazyboy recliner in the way it molded nicely to my backside and there was a horn to hold on to.  With English style there is nearly nothing to the saddle.  No horn either.  If you wish to remain upright on the horse - and indeed on the horse at all - you have to use quite a bit of your leg strength to hold you there.  It takes a combination of leg presses into the stirrups, thigh squeezes and good old fashioned British-stick-up-your-ladedah posture. Is that why they call it English style?  My back and abs got a major workout has I held myself in the right posture to stay balanced on the horse.  About halfway through the lesson (after teaching us how to start and stop and steer thankfully) they proceeded to make us learn to "trot" the horse. 

Now a moment for trotting.  Apparently if you do not trot right you will kill your bum.  For a goodly amount of time, we did not trot right.  My bum feels like a rode a bike to Alaska without one of those lovely padded bum bike shorts.  It wasn't until close to the end that I think I got the hang of it and therefore the right rhythm.  However with English style riding you don't just bounce naturally on the horse; you have to do little squats up and down - engaging your thighs in a battle of "I hate your guts" and your bum muscles in a workout that could make the creators of "buns of steel" cry.  Don't forget to keep your posture straight too and as the 2000 pound moving mound of death increases its speed, you must not allow yourself to pull up on the reigns in fright.  This makes them slow down (what? sounds good to me) or gets them confused and agitated (that doesn't sound good to me). 

I will never scoff at horseback riding when it is labeled as exercise again.  Before this experience I would have told you "What exercise? The horse does all the work."  Not so at least with English style riding.  It was a good workout.  Despite my daunting descriptions above we actually had a really fun time.  It was a challenge, something new and actually kind of romantic if you can get past the poop smell.  I loved seeing Andrew on the horse.  I could easily redress him in regency clothes with my eyes and kazaam! he was my very own Mr. Darcy.  I just wish I had a top hat for him.  I'll have to find one before our next lesson.  That's all for now.  Enjoy the pictures, I'm going to go ice my bum.

Superfun with Cousins

Last weekend we went to Wisconsin to visit with Andrew's brother and his family.  They took us to lots of fun places and the kids had a great time with their cousins.  It was a relaxing weekend and we were glad to get to visit.

 Ruby was so cute with the baby goats.  She even tried to give them kisses.  This is her uncle Jared holding one for her.

 They had pony rides and the kids were very eager to try them.  Corilynn, who is pretty nervous around animals, refused to touch any of the animals at the farm.  When it came to riding the horses, she was also afraid and didn't want to until she learned that one of the horses was named "Princess".  As long as she got to ride Princess she was fine.

 Ruby gives the baby chicken a kiss.  We sincerely hope she does not contract any diseases for all the affection she gave the animals.

 Ruby loved feeding the goats.  She laughed so much when they would eat the corn out of her hand.  She wasn't afraid at all.

 I pretty picture I took of one of the blossom bedecked trees at the farm.

 By far the part of the farm Lyman liked most.  He loved that you could chase the chickens around and catch them.  He first put one on Andrew's shoulder.  He thought that was hilarious so we put one on his head for a picture.

 Our fun hosts!  Jared and Kristen and their family: Brielle, Nathan and the sweetest, chubbiest, most huggable baby Jacob.

Thankful Thursday

Last week I mentioned that I was thankful to be going to visit Andy's brother in Wisconsin and his family.  It was fun to go this last weekend and I am thankful for the opportunity to share memories and develop relationships with them.  The kids had so much fun.  I will post pictures soon of our adventures.

I am thankful that today I got to go with the girls to Lyman's school for his Kindergarten picnic.  We brought subways and sat on the lawn to visit and eat lunch with Lyman.  It was fun to talk with his teacher and meet the friends he talks about all the time.  He was always so cute when he talked about his friend Lela and his little boy crush on her was always a source of amusement for us.  I met her today and spoke with her parents.  It was funny to hear that she talks about Lyman just as much and refers to herself as Mrs. Lyman sometimes at home.

When I told Lyman about that in the car on the way home, I asked him if he thought that was cute.  He said, "No." with obvious embarrassment and a small amount of "yuckiness" in his expression.  He may have a boy crush on her but it seems girls are still gross.  Here is a picture of her with him.

Pictured below: Lyman's man pals - Colin, Noah, & Ben.  I love how each of them are missing teeth.  If you click on the picture I think it will come up bigger and you can see.

This is Lyman with another one of his many lady admirers, Madilynn.  It was really funny to see how many girls liked to be around Lyman.  He is no fool either, he gathered more girls around him when he brought Ruby out into the field to play a bit.  The girls flocked to him then.  I just hope that someday he can be taller than them.

This is Lyman with his teacher, Mrs. McHenry.  She has been a great teacher and gave me one of the best mom moments I have ever had today.  She was very expressive in how good a reader Lyman is and how she thinks he ought to be able to do chapter books.  She was very impressed with him and it made me feel proud of my little boy.

I am thankful for a successful first year in school for my oldest.  He is growing up so quickly though.