What I'm Thankful For

What I'm Thankful For



This whole month I’ve read on Facebook all the things people are thankful for.  I didn’t participate in the daily giving of thanks that most people did. I can rarely do anything routinely.  I’m lucky to get a shower on a daily basis let alone remember to post on Facebook what I’m thankful for every day.  I’m sure I have Twenty-something things to be thankful for, but by the end of the month I would probably be digging pretty deep for something, or forget that I had already said I was thankful for that earlier in the month.

I’ve been thinking a lot about just exactly what I am thankful for.  So if you bear with me I will share some of them with you.

First of all I am thankful for most of the same things all of us are.  I am thankful for mine and my family’s health.  We have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies.  Those are all things that some aren’t so fortunate to have, and we shouldn’t take for granted the fact that we are fortunate enough to have them. 

I am thankful for my kids, all five of them.  Every one of them brings something to the table and I can’t imagine my life without them.  We are so lucky to have the laughter, noise and craziness that goes along with having five girls.

Oh, and I am thankful for my husband too! Without him I wouldn’t have these five girls!  And I wouldn’t have somebody to blame for a least half of the things they do that drive me crazy.  They each have half of his DNA and let’s face it their mother’s DNA is flawless! ;)

I am thankful for my mother and father in-law, yes you heard that right! I am thankful for my mother and father in-law.  I can honestly say I don’t know what we would do without them.  They are here to help with anything we need, pick kids up from the bus, help when one of us is sick.  It doesn’t matter what we need they are ALWAYS there for us.  The Husband is often gone hauling cattle, so it is wonderful to know that they are here when I need an extra hand.

I am thankful we have a bus that comes to the end of our road to pick up the kids to take them to school.  Without it I would make a 60 mile round trip 2 times a day to get kids to and from school.  Again, I don’t want to take this service for granted, I know people who travel further and make the 2 trips a day to get their kids to and from school.  I think I’m crazy now. I can’t imagine what my house would look like if I spent 2 hrs a day in my car. It already looks like I run a small zoo from my house.

Now this is where I might get a little petty, but honestly these are some of the things I am thankful for because they make my life a little easier or simply maintain what little bit of sanity I have left. 

1.       My large capacity front load washer and dryer.  The washer and dryer run about as hard as the furnace does in January.  My only hang up with a large capacity washer and dryer is eventually you have to fold all those clothes!  I’ve always told The Husband, I may be open to the idea of “Sister Wives” as long as the other wife does laundry.

2.       My Polaris Ranger with Cab and Heater!  The Husband had always wanted one, and decides to buy one two days before my birthday, and calls it “MY birthday present”  Since I can’t remember the last time he’s bought me a birthday gift I know that’s a bunch of bologna! I have to admit that it’s pretty nice to have.  It makes going out and doing things in the cold with a one year old a whole lot more tolerable.  And it was really handy this summer to have to do some of the gardening.  So I am thankful for MY Polaris Ranger!

3.       My little Sorrel mare Carmel.  For a long time, we always put the kids on the nice safe broke horses.  I always ended up riding something I didn’t trust or didn’t trust with the kids.  For the last several years, I have wanted to buy a horse that I enjoyed riding and I could trust.  Thanks to a wonderful friend who sent this mare our way, I finally have one!  I’ve never had a horse for myself that I loved; now I do.  I like knowing I can crawl on her and we can go do what we need to do, and all come back in one piece.  That’s worth more than Carmel’s weight in gold.  Let’s face it.  If momma gets hurt the whole world as we know it comes to a screeching halt.  Plus riding her puts a smile on my face!!

4.       My I-Phone!  Without it, I would never remember anything, we would never be on time for anything, and I wouldn’t have any spur of the moment snapshots of my children.  Next to my Husband and my sister, I think Siri is my next best friend.  If I ask her she will remind me of whatever I ask her to, such as turning on the dishwasher, returning phone calls or pay a bill.  I love her even if she sometimes doesn’t understand what I’m asking and reminds me to do some pretty crazy things.  I never remember to take my $800 camera that I had to have with me, so at least I have my phone. That way I don’t look like a completely negligent mom who doesn’t have any pictures of her kids at different events.

Well those are just a few of the things I am thankful for this year.  I’m sure I am thankful for some of the same things you are, and yes I know some of them are silly.  I mean, I know my mom didn’t have an I-phone to keep track of all of us kid’s crap, but come on…I hardly know my own name some days.   I need all the help I can get!

Here's the Crew!!

Here's the Crew!



 So I was thinking…I started this blog, and told everybody I had a husband and five kids.  Through a couple of my other posts I’ve talked a little about me and what makes me tick.  So I thought I should take the time to introduce you to the rest of squeaky wheels.

The husband and I met shortly after I graduated from High School.  That was 16 years ago, and now we’ve been married for 13 ½ years and have 5 beautiful little girls.  He is a hardworking, honest and loving man. He does his best to keep my feet planted on the ground, he’s a wonderful father to our children and he makes me laugh.  Sometimes I feel as if he’s my sixth child, but honestly what wife doesn’t feel that way.   

Our oldest, KJ is a very smart, beautiful, talented young lady.  She has been or parenting guinea pig.  We are probably the strictest on her, and expect the most from her.  I know what we expect from her sometimes seems like a lot, but as the oldest we expect her to be responsible and set a good example for her sisters.  In the end I don’t think that is too much to ask.   KJ loves the ranch, her horses, and the cattle.  If given the opportunity to skip school to work or move livestock, she wouldn’t have to think twice.  Especially if it meant she was going to get to ride her horses. Much to her father’s dismay, she is starting to grow an interest in boys too. 

Then there is TB, she is one of a kind!  TB has the most beautiful eyes that show right into her soul when she smiles.  TB is kind and likes to stick to herself.  For the most part TB is quiet, but don’t tick her off.  She has a temper! WOOOHOOO!  Just ask daughter number 3, CM.  CM seems to get the brunt of most of TB’s tirades. The two of them can be like oil and water one minute, and the best of friends the next.  TB likes helping with the baby, and enjoys reading and playing with her friends.  Things she does not enjoy: working and moving cows, and will only ride a horse when she darn well feels like it, which isn’t very often.

Then there is CM, the middle child, which she proclaims whenever she possibly can.  CM is a little blonde dynamite.  She has always been tiny, only weighing in at 5lbs 12oz. when she was born.  CM has always made up for what she lacked in size by using her mouth as a defense.  Let me tell you, sometimes she is the most brutally honest 7 year old you’ll ever meet.  She’s very much a “tell it like it is” kind of kid.  CM has her Dad’s blue eyes and sparkling personality, she is so much like him it’s scary.  

Number 4 is BR.  BR was the baby of the family for 5 years. Now she’s not.  She has always been a thinker, and has kept us on our toes since before she could walk. She is a very spirited little girl, whose sole goal in life is to give her mother gray hair.  A little blonde with big brown eyes and a beautiful smile! That child will never be a wall flower.    BR loves the ranch too.  She loves her cows, and her horses, Midnight and Pete.  They are her two best friends.  Midnight is old reliable, and Pete still likes to go fast once and a while.  Nothing makes BR smile more than going fast!  When she turned 4 she told us she wanted the fastest horse for her birthday, we waited till she was six to get her one.

Next is our little surprise, RJ.  We hadn’t planned to have five girls, or five kids.  Sometimes God has plans for us that we can’t even imagine.  I am sure glad He planned this!  I wouldn’t change a minute of having our littlest peanut.  RJ has a tendency to be a little bit of a momma’s girl.  As long as I am nowhere in sight her and Grandma and Grandpa get along great.  She loves her Daddy too!  One would think God himself walked in the door when the husband enters the room.  RJ drops everything to greet Daddy at the door.  As she grows so does her personality.  I think she will probably try to give me a few gray hairs too.

That’s all the nuts in this shell, pretty normal family just a lot of us.

Name of the Game, Procrastination!

I am a natural born procrastinator.  I try and try and try to get things done ahead of time, but it seems to be out of my nature to actually do it.  I always mean well. I really try to get things done in a timely manner, but it seems as if the harder I try the further behind I get.

I help as a leader of my girls’ 4-H club, one of the fundraisers we have is our Community Birthday Calendar.  In fact this is the 40^th year that it has been published.  After taking on this project for the last 3 years, I have a great amount of respect for the leaders before me who tackled this project.  I imagine because of modern technology, I probably have it easier now than they did 40 years ago, when the first calendar was published.  Or the technology simply allows me to nurture my procrastination.

I usually send out ad letters in September, and try to have all the ads ready to go by the middle of October.  In theory all the changes and corrections on birthdays should be done by then as well, and printed and ready to go by Thanksgiving.  In my mind this is the timeline the non-procrastinator in me would like to keep.

However, Thanksgiving is only 1 week away, and I have it ready to print.  It seems that getting this done before Thanksgiving is just about in reach.  As you can see I am on the computer typing my blog rather than working on the calendar.  (Actually I am watching it print.) That is the problem, I am so easily distracted and then all at once it needs to be done, and then I enter crazy panic mode!

It’s the same at everything I do!  I think that’s why my house is always such a mess.  I do what I have to on a daily basis, dishes, sweep, a load or two of laundry.  Next thing I know my phone rings and I am on the phone, and if it’s my sister on the phone, better bet it’s not a quick call.  Somebody’s got to solve the world’s problems.   Or I end up outside, and if it’s a nice day, why would I want to go inside and clean.  Or the kids get into something, next thing I know I am asking the baby to spit out the marbles to the Hungary Hungary Hippos game and putting every pan that was in the bottom cupboard away.  The only time I ever get the house “cleaned” is if I know somebody’s coming to visit.  Then, of course the pressure is on. Let’s be honest, with a crew of 7 here, who wants to get to ahead of themselves in the house cleaning game.  I might as well wait till the last minute so it stays clean until guests arrive.  So maybe procrastinating isn’t so bad?

I have procrastinated so badly that I didn’t get done what I needed to.  Christmas cards are becoming my Achilles heel!  Two years ago I put it off so long I didn’t get them sent until after New Year’s.  My thoughts were better late than never, right?  Last year Christmas kind of snuck up on me, I ordered the cards, typed up a letter, and never mailed them.  Now it’s time to start thinking of this year’s card, and I still haven’t sent out last year’s.  I wonder what people would think if I sent this year’s and last year’s cards together.  They get a two for one deal with a note that says “In case you forgot what the kids looked like last year!”

I really don’t have a legitimate excuse for my procrastination.  I could probably make up a few to make myself feel better, but honestly I think I must enjoy the pressure.  I am beginning to think that’s what makes me tick.  Perhaps one day I will be prepared, and on time…or not!

Blame it on my ADD

I’ve made a discovery, besides the fact that I’ve always enjoyed writing; this blog may be a good place to express my Mommy ADD.  So if you are reading along and think, hmmm that’s really random.  It probably is and I completely blame it on my ADD.  I think there is a song that goes a little something like that.  Anyway…

I’m sure I’m not the first or the last mom to suffer from Mommy ADD.  Really who hasn’t put the milk in the cupboard and cereal in the fridge?  I am sure I’m not the only one who has started the washing machine went to get clothes and forgot what you were doing and the washing machine ran a whole cycle with no clothes in it.  Or made a pot of coffee and didn’t put any coffee in the coffee maker?  Maybe I am the only one and I just ratted myself out.

My kids tell me I forget a lot, and I do.  But to my credit I have never forgotten them someplace and I have always remembered to feed them.  I can’t always guarantee they have had a shower or clean clothes.  Thank God the oldest 4 are able to shower themselves now, and I am teaching the oldest to run the washing machine.  So the next time I hear, “Mom you forgot to wash my clothes!” All I have to say is, “And you know where the washing machine is.”

 The oldest came home from school one night with a note that needed signed, she informs me that if she doesn’t bring this note back tomorrow signed she will get detention.  My thoughts were, “Here my 5^th grader is more responsible than I am, has never had detention and the first time she gets it will be my fault.”  I hear her say, “I need this signed”, as I am trying to make supper and can’t sign it at that very moment. So I say, “Put it on the counter and I will sign it later.”  Later, as in I will find it in the morning after you’ve gotten on the bus.  Oh well, my intentions are often good.

It’s not always my fault my ADD is so bad.  Trying to do bookwork or anything that requires your complete attention for that matter is almost impossible in this house.  I am constantly bombarded by fighting or pleas for help or just endless chatter.  I can’t be the only one who has filled out a check and then looked down and realized instead of making it out to who you were supposed to, you have written it out to “Grand knock it off”.  I’m not sure if Grand Electric could’ve cashed that one?  I have filled out the insurance check and dropped it in the mail on my way out the door only to have the agent call about 4 days later to inform me I had forgotten to sign the check.   No distractions here!

 If I don’t return your phone call right away, please don’t be offended!  It’s not that I am dodging you or I don’t want to talk.  I honestly listen to the messages when we get home, and because of the 5 whining children I have just drug in the house with me I am unable to return them at that moment.  My plan is to call back tomorrow when kids go to school, go to bed or are tied up someplace. Of course I would never really tie them up, but the thought has crossed my mind.  Then the morning comes and goes with the same old routine and I have forgotten to call.  As soon as something jogs my memory that you have called, I promise I will call you back.

Thank the Lord for modern technology.  If it weren’t for being able to set reminders to go off on my phone, I would be in so much trouble.  Everything is set on there, practice schedules, game schedules, when show and tell and library books are due for each child, doctor appointments, 4-H meetings, deadlines,  and hair appointments, are all on my phone.  I have even set reminders on my phone to remind me to check the washing machine to make sure the clothes got put in the dryer.  It’s almost my crutch.  And I almost always have it in my pocket.  Because let’s face it.  I forget a lot, and need all the help I can get.

007

It’s been a super busy weekend around here!  We spent Saturday weaning our last bunch of calves. Sunday we spent the morning trailing our heifers to fresh pasture.  It’s a lot of work, but feels great to have it done. 

On Saturday, after spending the day sorting and weighing all the calves we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to tally up the numbers and visit for a bit.  While talking about cows and how the calves looked, Grandpa tells us that this will probably be 007’s last year here on the ranch.  007 is the girls’ favorite cow! She is 14 years old, older than my oldest daughter, and I have never met a cow quite like this one.  The idea of losing this beloved bovine breaks my heart.  I truly believe this cow loves these girls as much as they love her.  I have seen this cow walk out of the herd on the way to the feed ground to stop where the girls are playing to say hello and get a rub.  I have pictures of her sharing a soda with my 4^th daughter on the back of a 4 wheeler.  She had a late calf one spring and came up dry the next year.  She survived being culled that year only because there would be some very heart broken girls here on the ranch.  007 probably won’t escape being culled this time.

My oldest, KJ came to the breakfast table this morning and told me she had a hard time sleeping last night.  She said she thought about 007 all night long. KJ wants to make sure to get out to the pasture at least one more time to see 007 before she is sold.  She asked me why Grandpa couldn’t let 007 live here until she died?  She knows that that’s not how business is done, but these cows and horses around here aren’t just equipment to be used to make money.   We grow special attachments to them and they become part of us. This isn’t just a way to make money, but rather a way of life.  Our children learn the hard truth about life and death at a very young age.  They watch these cows and calves be born, help take care of them and are devastated when one is lost, but they quickly learn that is part of life. 

They often learn it, and then remind you of what it is exactly that they learned when you least expect it.

 My husband’s grandmother passed away almost 2 years ago.  She was a bit of a prankster, so I am sure she would’ve enjoyed this story.  When she passed away, the night before her funeral we went to the visitation.  All of my kids paid their respects to Great Grandma and good stories were shared.  The day of the funeral we were headed out to the cemetery for the burial.  My husband was a pall bearer so he rode with the rest of the pall bearers to the cemetery.  So I load up 4 sobbing, upset little girls and made our way to the cemetery.  All of the sudden from the back seat #4 says “Mom, I have a question.  How come Great Grandma didn’t die with her tongue sticking out like a calf does?” I quit crying and a smile crossed my face, her innocent question made me forget how sad we were to have lost Great Grandma.   Instead I started to think of how Great Grandma would have laughed at that, so the girls and I told happy stories about Great Grandma the rest of the way to the cemetery.

Loss is tough, whether it be a loved one, or your favorite cow.   So we suck it up, and try to remind ourselves how blessed we were to have them in our lives.  In the end memories are all we are left with, so all we can do is try to make as many good ones as we can. (Even if they are from a funeral.)

Here we go again!!!

I have always enjoyed writing (hence starting a blog almost 2 years ago) but honestly just because I enjoy writing doesn’t mean somebody will enjoy reading it.  About a month after my first post on my blog, I discovered I was about to become a mom again!  Not for the first, second, third or fourth time, but the fifth time.  The word “fifth” child didn’t roll so easily off the tongue.  I had a great amount of difficulty accepting the pregnancy.  We were able to keep it a secret for 4 months.  The only people who knew were my husband and my sister.  My sister is the only other person other than my husband who keeps my feet planted firmly on the ground.

As the pregnancy went on I found myself trying to just keep to myself, I didn’t write, I didn’t go places, I didn’t do anything that I didn’t have to.  I have never been a very good pregnant lady.  Hard to believe somebody who doesn’t enjoy being pregnant has managed to do it 5 times.  The closer I got to having the baby I think the more worried my sister got about me.   I think she believed I may try to eat this one, you know, like rabbits eat their young.  I was that unhappy!

We had our 5^th baby girl in August of 2012, needless to say I didn’t eat her.   And I love her as much as I love the other 4, and can’t imagine life without her.  She added a whole new level of crazy to this house, as if it could get much crazier.  I just had no time for writing with 4 kids in school, and a brand new baby.  So once again mom’s life was put on hold.  It’s not like all moms can’t relate.  What mom hasn’t sacrificed themselves for their children?  I think that’s an unspoken rule once they pop out.  No longer do you put your wants and needs above theirs. 

I think this was the root of my “depression” for lack of a better term, during my pregnancy.  My youngest was due to start school 2 weeks after the baby was due.  I was looking forward to doing something for myself again.  I had already had a taste of it through the summer.  I had spent the better part of the summer on the back of a horse with my oldest daughter checking cows.  I looked forward to working outside more with my husband, and doing some things for myself.  Or simply cleaning the house in the morning and having it stay clean until 3:45.  Now I was taken back to ground ZERO.  

It turns out ground zero isn’t such a bad place to be.  I am enjoying spending some quality one on one time with my baby since the 4 older ones are in school.  We snuggle when we need to, something I didn’t always have or make time for with the first 4.  I have also learned that a clean house is nice, but not necessary.  They are only little for a while, soak it up.

 I took my oldest to her first JR high volleyball practice and held her hand the whole way! She looked at me like I was a crazy lady (I probably am).  I said I remember when you were a year old like your sister. Now you are old enough to saddle your own horse, help roundup and work cows, drive a 4 wheeler, wear bras, shave your legs and now I am taking you to your first JH volleyball practice.  Where did the time go?  I can remember the first time she rolled over oh so vividly, however, I don’t so much remember those milestones with the middle three, but that will be our little secret.

Now it is two years later, and I am thinking about wanting to write again.  I have been thinking about it for a while, I never told a sole that I had started this blog page and made one post.  Nobody has ever read stories I’ve wrote unless you count my Christmas letter, and Facebook.  In fact I got up yesterday morning and was looking up tips on blogging, when my sister calls me on her lunch break.  She tells me about a blog post she read from another young mom.  She tells me if she didn’t know better, the words could’ve just as well come out of my mouth.  Then she says, “You should start a blog!”  I hadn’t told a sole, not her or my husband that this was something I had always wanted to do.

So here we go, I’m going to give it a whirl.  You all get to be my guinea pigs!

I hope to post about parenting 5 girls ages 11, 9, 7, 6 and 15 months.  I hope to share about my life with my husband, being the 4^th generation to make a living on a cattle ranch in Northwestern South Dakota. 

I write because I enjoy it, I choose to share it in hopes you enjoy it as well.