Summer Baseball

Buck spent last week covering for vacations others are currently on . . . that meant fairly normal work hours, and no need to go to bed at 8 PM :) Even two days off in a row!! He joined us for baseball and we discovered Brennen was the starting pitcher again . . . and his brother the starting catcher.








While Graysen was gearing up, Buck grabbed his (well, it's long-term borrowed from the M family :) catcher's mitt and helped Brennen get warmed up. 




It's not easy getting them both in the same picture, but here's my good try! 




And then B and G in the same pic, pitch and catch :)




This was a super fun game to watch! The boys were evenly matched and it ended in a nerve-wracking tie :) Brennen had to get the third out at first to end the game, as the other team's potential winning run left third and ran towards home. He did it! Just in the nick of time, too :)

The other team seemed to have a lot of fun, their coaches and catcher were all friendly and enthusiastic. The umpire was doing as much coaching as the coaches, so the boys really liked him. Brennen had a couple of slides; G$ closed out the game at catch. All around an excellent night of baseball! Even if it meant we didn't get home until 10:30. Even if showers and snacks at 11 pm are not our usual. Even if we did have to get up for VBS day five at 7 a.m. the next morning. 

Best Job Ever

Caelan worked quite a bit last week--first she helped at the school year-end party (you can see that it was super challenging--knocking kids off a stick with another stick ;)




And somehow, despite the craziness of VBS week--she managed to work Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday evenings (so much for *maybe three hours/week* :) I don't stay with her while she works, btw :) I borrowed these pics from the karate school's posts about the party.




In other news--Chauncey is shedding. And I mean SHEDDING. Like a whole dog a day. Like I vacuum three times a day and fill the canister twice each time. We decided to try going directly to the source and just vacuuming the dog himself. He didn't love this, but he tolerated it since Buck was at the helm. It really didn't work very well. The clumps--and there are clumps--remain. So again I resume my summer chant of . . . "Shave the dog! Shave the dog! Shave the dog!" :)



Not quite centered yet, and blocking the cold air return, but looking good in its new home! Buck Murphy-oiled the new-to-us piano, and wood glued (plus clamped) the broken leg. We did some research and discovered our piano was made in Japan in 1960. The tuning log was last recorded in 1968, yet our music teacher (hallelujah!) agreed to come to our house mid-VBS week for lessons. 

It was SO nice to not have to leave the house again (well, we did later for karate and to take Caelan to and from work). He said the piano is still perfectly in tune. What? Crazy! 

And Graysen got to have some private lesson time on guitar, while the other kids scattered to their rooms. He's learning a special little Star Wars inspired ditty on the electric , and it is sounding good! 

The piano--is loud. Not just loud, LOUD!! Like concert-hall loud. We have to crank the TV downstairs when it is being played upstairs. But, it is never without eager fingers . . . so all the work and stress of getting it into the house, is worth it, because it is already a much-loved instrument (at least by the kids, and us until about 8 PM ;) 

Bullet the Skink

For probably the past year, Graysen has been planning to catch and keep a little lizard of his own. In the fall, he built skink traps--that didn't yield the results he'd hoped for. Then last week, he set up a cage in anticipation of trying again. He and Brennen have searched through the wood pile and come up with nothing, but they didn't quit looking. Before church on Sunday, Buck and Gabby and I were in the garden weeding, when Buck saw something move. Knowing I no likey the snakes, he didn't say anything, just moved around to the other side of the garden. Apparently this little guy (not a snake, whew!) had been frozen, just inches from our hands as we worked away at the weeds! Buck snagged him (or her?) as he ran by and G$ ran for his cage :)



Because the skink is so fast, Graysen named him Bullet. He zipped back and forth for quite awhile the first day, then burrowed into the soil Graysen added to the aquarium. This made Bullet a less fun pet, because we had to lift the cage above our heads to see him through the floor window :) Nevertheless, Graysen added a few crickets (which we BOUGHT at a pet store after church, since G didn't have time to catch his little critter any breakfast) each day--and each day those crickets disappeared :) (Just in case you're wondering--brown crickets come in two sizes, small and large, and cost $1.57/dozen. Not each. I clarified. :)

Buck and Graysen made Bullet a beautiful, luxurious, even tropical enclosure!




Apparently the crickets smell bad :)



It's been close to a week, the neighbors have been invited over for viewings, and Bullet never did earn a spot indoors. Graysen decided he'd be happier back in the wild, so today he released him into the prairie grasses. Brennen sprinted up the hill just in time to be there for the release. They both agreed Bullet seemed much happier back in his original surroundings. 

Still . . . you just never know what will show up around here! (We actually decided to take a pair of parakeets off of some friends' hands, but as the youngster was cleaning the cage, he put the birds in a bowl and forgot about them . . . one did not survive and the other is traumatized, so we're waiting to see how that story unfolds before we take on the remaining bird :)

Garden Growing

Weeding a garden that has never been a garden is a big task. The boys planted corn, beans, and melons in this big patch Buck tilled earlier this spring. However, the native grasses seem to grow better in the uber-weird dirt than other vegetables do. We have mixed in quite a lot of black dirt, but it can't fight the clay. Nonetheless, we do have things growing--and if we can manage to keep the chickens, deer, and moles out of our business, we just might get a  (little)crop!




The two berry bushes Buck brought home are doing very well. Only one of the four we originally planted is still giving it the old college try. Tiny, but with a few green leaves. Grow berries, grow!




The pics below are actually a week or so old. The boxes have herbs and peppers planted (not exactly growing, other than the basil). We put strawberries in, but that was a failure, so we threw some brussels sprout seeds in as a second option. In between the boxes, the sunflowers Caelan planted are growing well, and on the far left, Gabby's watermelons are looking good (plus maybe one random pumpkin plant?)






Yeah, looks pretty sparse up above, but the big tomato plants Buck brought home are doing well. The peas Caelan planted are growing, along with Graysen's clump of radishes :) There is one cherry tomato plant that we planted coming up and a few carrot tops. Maybe the second round of spinach and lettuce will break through, but it may only be the big, hearty seeds that take in this clay.




Next is our cute new path to the top deck! It is a steep hill, and we climb it about a hundred times a day. We decided to dig in line with the three random rocks that the people who sold us the house didn't have any more clue about than we do. Brennen helped Buck and me dig out and level spots for these 27 lb. pavers (dude, they are heavy!) 

When we originally picked them out at the hardware store, we didn't have a good picture of the price tag. The girl at the cash register looked at the long line behind us, and charged us half the price just to keep things moving (she did try really hard to identify them in her garden center book). The first dozen didn't look like quite enough to me, so the kids and I went back after VBS one day to snag three more. 

I like our path! It looks like it has always been there and makes access so much easier! We're thinking about planting flowers along it--that will make the already challenging lawn that much easier to mow, right? ;)




Also growing really well--our potatoes and onions! We don't know exactly when to know when they are ready to harvest, and I mentioned this to my friend Mrs. K. She said she grew up helping her grandmother and dad work on fields of potatoes in Romania, so she gave me some pointers (we are a looong way away from them being ready). In the meantime, hoping the organic "mole away" spray that Buck soaked the area with works!

Because of the heat, we're giving the chickens lots of free range time, daily. They love roosting under the trees in the dust. Sometimes we have to chase them off the corn and berries, but mostly, they seem to scratch in the dirt for bugs. This is a good deal, because five of them need to earn their keep--and we're up to four eggs a day, again, so yeah for four of the nine :) The babies should be laying by September.

Another Week, Another Post

Where did I leave off? Buck had a super long day at work on Monday, preparing for a big boss visit that he wouldn't be able to attend. In the late afternoon, I met him at the car dealership to get recall work done--since he wouldn't need his car for a few days (he's been getting these recall notices for more than a year, and they've been very vague about where and when he could get the work done, despite a bunch of calls). We had just enough time to restock the guinea pig food, grab some art supplies for the kids (watercolor begins tonight!), and fix our watering situation (holes in the hose spraying water everywhere except in the garden). 

The girls made dinner and fed their brothers because we had to leave for baseball, an early game, hooray! Brennen started at pitcher--his first time ever pitching in a game. Kid looked good! He struck out a bunch of batters in the first and second innings, and then decided to resume his first base/left field duties. That's a lot of work and pressure, being on the mound. Our friends the K's came to watch the game; Gabby taught the little boys to cheer players by name, and I visited with baby D :) Our boys didn't come out with a W, but they played well during the game.


Tuesday we were up bright and early (but not as early as surgeries are usually scheduled) to head to the hospital. This time, I stuck to Buck's side and they were unable to have me wait in the lobby for the pre-op preparations :) The nurse explained they have had spouses, etc. pass out while they put in an I.V. or explained the procedure, and suddenly there are TWO patients that need attention instead of only the scheduled one. I promised not to pass out, so all was well :) 

The surgery was delayed by an hour, so Buck and I sat and watched t.v.--that is between him taking phone calls for work. I kept thinking, "If only the caller could see the guy in the hospital gown and cap with IV in hand on the other side of the phone right now." The procedure itself only took about  half an hour this time, as they only zapped two nerves instead of four. Buck looked much better waking up, and they kept him attached to all the heart and blood oxygen and blood pressure machines for significantly less time than in the past. Buck was still super sleepy, but felt like he was getting the boot :) He had talked to the anesthesiologist before the surgery, and they changed up the medicines put through his IV. This seemed to help reduce the nausea he usually experiences on the drive home, which was good, because we had to pick up his meds from the pharmacy, so getting home took a long time.

For the rest of the day, Buck rested and the kids and I sewed--and the boys learned how to use the sewing machines. Graysen helped me cut and pin and sew new curtains for Brennen's and his room. The curtains they have been using (forever!) are bed sheets that I sewed into curtains at our last house. To make them darker, I attached the curtains that I sewed for the nursery when we moved INTO that last house . . . that's more than a dozen years of blocking light :) But--they're still in use, flipped inside out and shortened to be pillow covers for Chauncey. Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? :)





With the remainders of the yards and yards of fabric (which I bought for a song at a fabric clearance sale when a local business closed last year), the boys each chose a coordinating project. Brennen chose to make his own bear--Caelan helped him along for quite awhile, and then went to play her keyboard (that bear is still in process :) Graysen decided to make a giant pillow! He pinned and sewed most of it himself. To stuff it, he ripped open two very floppy pillows (contributed by Gabby and Graysen) and transferred the fluff into his new pillow. He then hand-sewed the opening to make a cool and useful tie-in to the new curtains. By the way, we made the curtains much shorter than the last round, so that the hamster didn't have to worry about getting knocked off the furniture pieces located beneath the window. Previously, the nearby fabric bulk made his continued existence a somewhat dangerous feat.






Buck felt okay, not great, the day following his surgery. I left him home with the boys and took the girls with me first thing in the morning to . . . the orthodontist. Gabby thought she'd broken another bracket, so we took the first appointment available. Turns out, she did not, but they went ahead and rebanded her, so she's all set til (hopefully) July. From the appointment, we headed to Harbor Freight because they had furniture moving carts on sale for $7.99. We were surprised that something so small could carry a purported 1,000 pounds of something--in our case, piano--so, we sent Buck a picture to confirm.


With our rolly-carts in tow, the girls and I zipped over to the big church to help with VBS preparations. We had less than two hours, but we were determined to fill them with helpfulness. I got to hold my friend Farm S's baby (she is our chicken supplier, the baby is already six months old! Can't believe it took that long for me to see them!). The girls worked on several projects, including cutting foam into crosses to make *squishies,* handwriting names on nametags (there are literally 100s!), and counting fishing lure . . . ?? 
















At noon we dashed home again, to discover the boys had taken care of the lawn, *hilled* the potatoes (who knew they get sunburn if you don't add dirt under their leaves while they grow?!), and set up that aforementioned hose and sprinkler for watering purposes. Buck also made lunch--breakfast with our current daily allotment of only three eggs from the coop (ugh!!) Then we were off again, this time to meet and talk to his neurosurgeon.

"Is it bad?" asked Buck. "Ehhhhhhh," replied the doctor. Hmm.

So yes, Buck needs surgery. His recovery will take approximately three months, however he can go back to work after 4 to 6 weeks if he promises not to bend, twist, or lift anything heavier than 15 lbs. Otherwise, the bone that will be shaved off to give his currently pinched nerves room to send and receive messages correctly could allow the bulging disc to re-herniate, and we don't want domino surgeries. No we don't! For now, he's hoping to try an epidural cortisone shot that washes away the proteins causing swelling, which should relieve pressure from the nerves. Depending on how well and how long this works, we will determine when surgery shall occur.



After the appointment, we needed to take the kids to karate, because they are behind in their classes (because we've been so busy, have you noticed?!). It's 80s week, as you might guess from Gabby's outfit :) Bonus ticket for the gift basket raffle for those who dress up! The others wouldn't even let me peg roll their karate pants . . . lame! :)



Next, we were supposed to go to youth group/prayer meeting, but after throwing food in the oven (which I am ridiculously excited to discover, after five years, has a *delay cook* function which will preheat the oven when we are on our way back from wherever, reducing the amount of time it takes to get dinner on the table once we get home!), Buck's hard day caught up with him and his neck was sparking out (nerve ending damage from the surgery) and we stayed home. Which, we realized the next day, caused us to miss the baptism class that Graysen has been so eagerly awaiting. Sigh. I'm sure they can do the class again.

Thursday--I started the day trying to figure out the paperwork for parent-taught driver's ed. Somehow we have to prove we've been homeschooling for the past two years. After a lengthy series of emails with the DOT (and an entire afternoon working on grades and transcripts), I think we've managed to provide the proof, without having to ask the school district to call in and say, "Yeah, they don't go here." But, I haven't got the official permission packet yet either, so . . . Buck's car was done, so we dropped the kids off at the morning karate class and drove back to the dealership. Buck was unhappy to discover that the repair he turned down (broken actuator, which he told them was broken) was charged a $160 repair estimate fee. Seriously? He already knew it was broken! So now we just have to (eventually) throw the remaining $200 something dollars at it to not have wasted the original amount to find out how much it would cost to fix what we knew was broken. Sometimes . . . car places seem sneaky.

That afternoon--yes, grades and transcripts. Then Caelan had to report to her very first day of work! I took her back to the karate school . . . and left her to job shadow. It was hard to drive away. Buck asked me, "So how was that?" Way harder than I imagined it would be! And then, making dinner, only setting five places instead of six--it was like a fast forward to not having her (and eventually the others) in the house anymore. I thought I was *ready* or at least *readier* than I actually am, for this growing up stuff to happen. Sad me!!!!

While she was at work, Buck and I went to move a piano. I can't tell you how stressful just figuring out how to get that gift from point a to point b has been. It turned out that no one we called to help us load up needed to show up. The neighbors from the family who were moving came in a flood, picked the piano up, and basically threw it in the back of the truck we'd borrowed. Buck had a plan to strap it to the dollies, to wrap it with blankets, to shrink wrap the key cover . . . nope! They kicked the ramps out of the way and plopped the 500 lb. instrument in the truck bed. But, they did so securely and without a scratch (one of the guys admitted he works for a furniture store, but he doesn't like to tell people that :) Before we knew it (and before the time we'd arranged our friends to meet for the move), we were on the road--slowly driving our gift home.



It turns out, this was a piano that the giving family's elderly neighbors let their very young daughter play during visits. When the couple passed away, they left the piano to the little girl. They even hired movers to get it across the street. The parents of the little girl started her with piano lessons, and the instrument has been a family treasure ever since. Now that the three of them are moving to Florida, they can't take the piano with them. They wanted to find it a good home, and the mom (who homeschools) remembered our girls playing our neighbor Melissa's piano at a holiday party Melissa had thrown. She knew it would be in good hands at our house, so she gave it to us! Pretty amazing how God worked that out! We've been looking for close to a year, and had kind of put acquiring a piano on the backburner. This one was made in Japan in 1960 and is in really good condition (just needs some wood glue for a split front leg). The tuning log Buck found inside said it was last tuned in 1968! It still sounds amazing, if that's true! I honestly don't think it needs to be tuned, despite all the recommendations that you do so whenever it is relocated.

So, we arrive in our yard, and drive our neighbors' truck around back (that was the sketchiest part of transport, because the hills are steep!). The piano didn't move an inch, whew. We set up the planks to form a bridge from the truck bed to our deck . . . and then looked around for helpers. Ummmm. Guess we should have recruited more help for this end of the move. Actually, all our neighbor guys said they'd help, but we'd told them we wouldn't need them until after 7 p.m. Since we arrived home at like 6:15 . . . no one was around yet. Except for the fellow the boys helped build his shed over Memorial Day weekend. :) 

The three of us (I know, it was crazy) shimmied that big ole piano out of the truck, onto the dollies, and across the wooden bridge to the deck. We lifted it over the threshold of the sliding glass door. Rolled it across the kitchen, and then joked that we needed to take the piano down the stairs and out into the garage where we planned to set it up :) Funny, not funny. My back was sore from the unusual lifting, so I'm sure Buck's was screaming, but he figured he's already hurt and already in pain, so why not? I'm not a huge fan of that logic, I'm afraid. He's very strong and manly, and handsome, too, so if he wants to move a piano for our kids with a messed up back, I'll let him--praying all the while no more damage is done.



Okay, so now I needed to go pick up Caelan at work! I had exactly 30 minutes to get there, get her, and get home to get the boys to baseball. There was no way I could make it---then God turned all the lights green. I'm not even joking. I've never hit the lights green from one side of town to the other without having to slow down once! It knocked five minutes off my drive time, which gave me a little time to talk to Caelan's new boss (smile) about her first day and what she'd worked on--I also got to take a picture of her behind the front desk. 

Her tasks include answering phones, answering parent and student questions about classes, etc., organizing information folders, setting up stars and stripes for belts and achievement cards, restocking the water cooler, folding, mailers, attendance cards, entering information in the computer, point of sale stuff, an endless amount of activities! She'll only work a few hours each week, as she's rotating with other 15-year-olds this summer. However, when asked who his wife wanted to help run the end of school year party with their family, Mrs. Boss chose Caelan. That speaks of how she's viewed already :) I remember getting job offers, not because I applied, but because of observations employers made about my character and work ethic in other areas of life. No formal application needed. Super cool that our kids are experiencing that same thing now! I'm pretty sure Gabby has a job as well, when she turns 15. I can't imagine a much better place for them to get their first working-world experience--we know just about everybody, we're there all the time, she's got years of experience in the environment, and the owners are Christians, who genuinely care about people. Super cool!



Okay, so we arrived home with five minutes to spare--yay, I got to use the restroom! :) The boys loaded into the van and we drove across to the OTHER side of town (I think we hit pretty much all points of the map that day) to their 8 PM baseball game. Zero parking in our usual lot, so we parked in the boondocks (not my favorite when leaving a ballfield at 10 PM, but one of their coaches parked near us, so I felt better about walking that far in the dark). Brennen caught a pop fly--twice! The ball bounced off his glove and he re-caught it while it was still in the air. Buck asked if it counted as two outs, ha, if only! Unfortunately that inning the other team scored 10 runs, while our team was stuck on two outs. That was a pretty difficult number to come back from, but the boys worked hard and got on the board. Graysen had a couple of nice hits, and Brennen scored a run. They ended up losing the game, but it was a nice night for baseball. As you can see, Graysen was pretty wiped out and fell asleep on the drive home (or so the picture would indicate, I'm a little skeptical that there might have been some acting going on, but he won't fess up :)



Hmmm, somewhere in there we also received our first shipment of something I never thought I'd buy (much less times six)--bowling shoes! Yes, the Kids Bowl Free program is free, but the shoe rental is not included. Details, details. Our bowling alley offers an unlimited summer shoe pass for $36/person. Umm, that's a lot of money for a free bowling program! I went online and discovered I could buy brand new (not shared by who knows how many unsavory feet) bowling shoes for $23 with free shipping, that seemed like a good deal to me. The kids went halvsies, so that helped with the overall cost, and at least four of us will never have to change shoe sizes for the rest of our lives. Graysen will eventually grown into the pair Brennen is sure to outgrow. The bowling program is free every year for anyone under 18, so I think we made a good investment. Not to mention, these shoes are sweet! Even if they do say "rental" on the sides :) BTW--if you're counting, Caelan's size is on backorder until the second day of July.



Speaking of Caelan, here's a little bit of her falling head-over-heels for our new (58-year-old) piano.

And finally (at least according to the pictures I have taken to illustrate our days), Graysen and I finished the cushion for the little bench I repainted. He thought I should probably come outside and watch him ride his bike, so that I could test my cushion to see if it was comfortable or not ;) Looks cute in front of the house, and it's so nice to have some place to sit to watch for cars roaring up over the hill.

Super Fast Update

It has been another busy week, but I won't go into too many details . . . we have two more crazy weeks coming up, so I thought I should try to stay on track :) Picking up after Memorial Day--we spent five? hours at a friends' house where the kids rode a dune buggy past the cornfields, watched Peter Rabbit (which I said they wouldn't have time to finish because we needed to leave and check on the chickens, but then I kept talking with my friend G for another two hours . . . :), we had lunch, we were given a bunch of classic books in excellent condition, and the kids pretty much wanted to move in and spend the summer with their buds. When we finally ejected and returned to the homestead manor, all the animals were fine (yay!), so I'll continue from there.

1. The babies have gone to the rehabber--we tried leaving the door open to their kennel, but they were too little and too scared to move an inch. We called animal control and they picked the twins up in a little kitten carrier and took them to the humane society. Our neighbor checked when she went to volunteer and said they've already been taken to the rehab center. We were ridiculously sad to see them go!



2. Farmer Graysen harvested the first of our crops--radishes, so spicy! We spent a few hours today getting the chicken coop leveled out (the birds dug giant holes for their dust baths), weeding the big garden, watering the ancillary gardens, planting more seeds where seeds didn't come up the first time, clipping trees, Gabby learned to use the weed eater, and we moved a bunch of stuff into the shed (including the babies' kennel, whaaa!)



3. The kids' guitar instructor is giving lessons and working on some recording projects at a legit studio. Although the drive is too far for every lesson, he invited us to check out the space he's investing his time and talent in--complete with grand tour to meet his brother and another guy (startled from the quiet of his office space by a parade of children toting guitar cases :). Mr. P suggested that if the kids were able to choose a song that they could all play a part on, and rehearse it really well, that we could do some actual recording . . . they could cut an LP (or however they say it in the music industry :) Buck even got to try a pedal steel--it's like two guitar necks mounted to a piano base that sounds like electricity conducting through a steel drum, super complicated!




4. No pictures, but this morning the girls and I were called in to help fill a couple spots in the Sunday school teaching rotation. Gabby was across the hall with the four-year-old group, while Caelan and I worked with the K-5th graders. Of the three of us there to run the 9 a.m. class, Caelan was the most experienced in the room (she'd been in there once, the other two of us--zero). I ended up leading after being assured they rarely had more than 14 kids (we had 20). It was loud and crazy, but parts of it were fun (skit time!) We made rainbows; I love rainbows! Noah is a Bible hero because he obeyed (and yes, he messed up, but he messed up after God used him to help save humanity :) Buck and the boys met us for second service, where the youth pastor pulled Buck and me off the bench to serve communion. Of all the things I've done in church service in my life, I've never done that! We (ironically? :) served the gluten-free option. Quite a busy morning at the little church!

5. Conglomeration: Buck's car was shaking again, so he dropped it off to get the sway bar fixed (part of something had fallen off and was missing entirely?!) but it was under warranty since this is the second time he's brought it back to have it done properly. The needing to drive two cars thing did give us the opportunity to sneak in a quick meal for a mini-date (I can't call it a date night . . . because it was 4:30 in the afternoon :). Buck and the boys went to the off-week youth group event, which was basketball with the big boys. Buck came home with scratched arms and a scraped knee, but said he enjoyed getting some non-walking 25-miles-on-cement exercise (of course his back then told him angrily this was a bad idea, this renewing of his basketball skills). In the meantime, Caelan drove us to and from the grocery store, where we had just a dashing good time shopping for the week's food supply. Mix in some karate (with a job offer for Caelan; W-forms and everything!), a ton of time with the neighbors (with a job offer for me--but mine doesn't start for a year :), a solid round of sunburn and suddenly my super fast update is no longer a super fast read.

Tomorrow we gear up for more car repairs/recalls (air bags and seatbelts are our friends), more karate, more baseball, surgery, a doctor's appointment, youth group, VBS prep and meetings, art and sign language on a special night, oh right, and we have to move a piano. Hello, summer!