Summer Vacation 2016

Something big happened today.

For the first time since I started homeschooling (8 years ago!) I declared this week that we are going to take Summer Vacation.

In the past, I've avoided it. I hate the thought of them forgetting the last 6 months' work for the sake of 3 months off school. Instead, we've taken one or two week long vacations throughout the year, when we just felt like we needed it. It's always worked well and we've always been happy with that arrangement.

But things change. Kids get older and busier, life situations take new turns, and needs change. And right now, we NEED a break. A really, really long one. One that involves sleepovers on the trampoline, staying up late, sleeping in, and not keeping any kind of schedule. And for those of you who know me and how much I really, honestly adore schedules, you'll realize that's a pretty serious thing to say.

Once upon a time, I started this blog and named it "The Little Things" because I wanted to focus on all the wonderful, mundane things that made our lives special in my eyes. I keep losing those things. Life is a game of Tetris, trying to fit in school, farm work, house work, extra curricular activities, and whatever else needs to be done into the finite number of hours each day offers. And I'm tired. They're tired. We aren't enjoying these days like we should be.

Having "big kids" is a whole different ball game than the Two Little Girls I used to write about each day. Those Two Little Girls are now Two Little Ladies, and they have lives of their own that I'm struggling to keep up with while I'm still trying to live mine, and somehow keep them all intertwined the way I feel like they need to be.

I've spent time over the past year prioritizing and re-prioritizing, and something clicked for me this spring. Math, English, History, Science... those things are officially off the top ten list. Cora is reading now, above grade level and has (mostly) mastered her math facts. In homeschooling, that is a HUGE hump to get over. It's time for a break. We've earned it.

I have goals for this summer, though. It's not all going to be days of freedom, traipsing around the property in the sunshine. (Thought plenty of that is certainly on the to-do list.) We will focus on real life. The girls will be cooking, cleaning, practicing animal husbandry and gardening. We will spend time each day reading our Bibles and doing what we call "Character Study" - which I am convinced is even more important that finding common denominators in fractions. We will put everything we have into their 4-H projects, from art and knitting and sewing to raising poultry, training dogs, and riding horses. They will spend this summer learning how to learn, learning to follow through with difficult tasks, learning to put others before themselves, and learning how to be responsible for themselves and their actions. Those things are things schools forget about sometimes, but they are what makes life good and worthwhile.

It's also going to be a summer spent forming habits. I have a list of habits I want them to form, and a list I want to form myself. I want them to read every day, no matter what it is. I want them to help someone else each day, so that some day it becomes natural to them. I want them to start looking for what needs to be done and do it without being asked. I want the house to stay clean and the food to be cooked from scratch and the dishes to be washed. Above all else, I am raising Two Little Ladies to become excellent wives and mothers. They need skills that aren't going to be found in any curriculum, and they need attitudes that allow them to accomplish tasks with joy.

As for me, I want to teach myself to approach every task in my life with love, joy, and gratitude. I want to model those things for my girls. I want to take time each day for myself and my own hobbies, something I have been ignoring since we moved here. I want to show myself and my children the value in helping and giving to others. And I want blogging and taking daily photos to become habit again. I want to document these sweet, precious moments in their lives - in our lives. They may not be toddlers anymore, saying adorable things and just starting to experience the world. But each day of their lives should be treasured because honestly, they are flying by much faster than I am comfortable with.

So here we go - welcome to Summer Vacation 2016!

Trying New Things: Cross-country Skiing

There are some things that are just unacceptable. Like the fact that I've lived in Colorado for nineteen years, and had not been on skis until yesterday. (And no, I don't snowboard, either.) In fact, I can count the number of times I've been sledding on one hand. Honestly, my favorite thing to do when it is snowing is drink coffee and sit by the fire. I'm a sissy.

But alas, it was time. And so we decided to rent some skis and take the girls cross-country skiing. Fact of the matter is, I married a man who actually enjoys this sort of self-inflicted pain in frigid temperatures. And he wanted to share that, um, pleasure, with our daughters. And me.

To be fair, it wasn't as bad as I expected. And happily, I can still walk today which I thought was a nice bonus. And I wasn't actually cold the whole time, despite the fact that it was 25 degrees outside. Probably because cross-country skiing is an incredible amount of work, and using muscles I didn't know I had makes me sweat.

The best part was watching the girls though. Giving them new experiences is so much fun. And unlike me, they really, really love anything to do with snow.
 
The Oldest was a natural. She was ahead of the rest of us the whole time, going up ahead, then coming back to see where we were, then off she went again. She's apparently fearless, going down downhill slopes without a second thought, never afraid of falling. It was good fun watching her. I just hope she doesn't think this is something we'll do regularly now...

 
Littlest One wasn't quite as adept. The good news though, is that she thought falling down was all kinds of fun. Good, because that's mostly what she did. Over, and over again. But at least she didn't get upset.


Eventually we traded in her skis for snowshoes, mostly so The Daddy could actually ski instead of just holding her up by the back of her coat. Then The Daddy and The Oldest could go up ahead, while Littlest One stayed back on her snowshoes to make sure I was doing okay. She was concerned about how slow I was going, I think.
 
All in all, though, it was a good day. Life is about trying new things, which is something I'm really not good at, especially when it involves something I'm guaranteed not to be good at. Or when it involves snow. I want my girls to try new things fearlessly, and this is the kind of thing we have to do to give them that confidence.

Also, it made them sleep really well. 

A New Year's Eve Bash - Family Style

It was the first New Year's Eve that both girls would be staying up until midnight, and so I decided to make a celebration out of it - one that we will all remember for years to come. We're not cool or social enough to have anyone to get together with, but we made plenty of our own fun!

I started off early in the day hanging balloons - each one marked with the hour it was to be popped. Inside each balloon was a strip of paper with an activity written on it. Then I placed corresponding gift bags filled with "supplies" on the hearth. Doing it early meant they were forced to wonder All. Day. Long. what was to come. The suspense was wonderful.


At 6:00, the festivities began. The first activity was to decorate the living room. The bag was filled with streamers, balloons, ribbons, etc. plus leis and "Happy New Year" crowns. It is apparently tremendous fun to get to do the decorating for a party. We also turned on some good music, and had snacks and appetizers laid out on the table. Throughout the night, The Daddy played guitar for us.



7:00 started the "Craziest Party Hat Contest". The supply bag was filled with every craft supply I could find in the craft room - feathers, pompoms, pipe cleaners, stickers, buttons, glitter glue, sequins, ribbon. We spread it all out on the kitchen table and set to work creating the wildest hats imaginable.

Each hat was indeed pretty wild!

 It was promised that the winner would receive a "Big Surprise" after we were finished and had voted on the best. The Daddy won, and he did indeed get a Big Surprise.

The girls had as much fun giving him the surprise as he had receiving it... probably even more!

After that, we spent an hour looking through all of the pictures from the past year on the computer, talking about the things we did, re-telling stories and remembering some of the highlights of the year. Then we made our Top 10 list of our favorite events of the year. Topping the list was our first year of baby goats, and also much to do with our other animals: getting new horses, a milk cow, a puppy, gymkhanas and rodeos, and plenty of fun experiences. After our Top 10 list was made, the girls opened an envelope that held little cards I'd made for all of us to write a wish for the coming year on. Then we attached our cards to helium-filled balloons, and sent our wishes up into the sky.

Next was an hour of more snacks and some board games. We let the kids pick the games and sat amidst the balloons and streamers and enjoyed some friendly competition.

At 10:00 we sat down to watch a movie together after making some root beer floats.This was probably not my best idea. It was hard to stay awake while trying to watch Hercules, at a time when my body was sure it was bed time. So I had some coffee.

But at 11:30, the celebration took off again. I filled that last balloon with confetti, along with the slip of paper. The supply bag held noise makers, plastic champagne cups, and party poppers (the kind that shoot confetti and ribbon everywhere.) We filled the cups with sparkling grape juice for the kids, champagne for the adults, and tried to stay awake until midnight.



 The Oldest barely made it.

But then came the countdown to midnight - we blew our noisemakers, shot confetti all over the living room, and toasted to the new year. The Littlest One changed our 2013 banner to 2014, and we all hugged and kissed and promptly went to sleep.



It was a blast planning all of it, and seeing it play out. The girls - despite the fact that it was just our little family - were thrilled to have so much excitement. And The Daddy and I enjoyed sharing all the smiles and laughter with them. I think we can chalk this up to our best New Year's Eve to date!

Here's wishing all our friends and family a happy, prosperous 2014!
 


On a side note: All this stuff came either from the dollar store, or from my craft and party stash. This had to be the most inexpensive party I've ever thrown. Also, the dollar store is my new favorite store. I'd never been in one until this year. But seriously, who wouldn't love a place where you can buy cans of silly string for a dollar?

Fall Splendor

It's fall up here on our mountain... a little earlier than normal, even. It's amazing to think that we are so blessed to live in a place where folks come just to look at the colors of the trees. Our little piece of paradise is surrounded on all sides by hills and mountains just covered in golden aspen and red oak. Truly, a glorious view.

But we decided to go for a drive the other day, and immerse ourselves in the colors of fall. And it was beautiful.

This whole country is covered in fall splendor right about now, but my Colorado heart is certain there is nothing more beautiful than mountain after mountain glowing with aspen. 

 Happy Fall, everyone!

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

It seems like every time I turn around, there is another opportunity to relive a bit out of the Little House books. I would tell you it's for the children's sake, you know, for homeschool, except that I usually enjoy it as much as they do.

We had our hay cut, back about the 4th of July. A neighbor did it. Unfortunately, between the time the hay was cut, and the time it was to be baled, a different neighbor's irrigation water flooded our pasture, so the haying neighbor couldn't bale part of it for a couple of days.... except then he was going out of town for two weeks the next day, at the start of monsoon season. Rain + hay = bad. We could've called around to find someone else to bale the rest, but for the 20 or so bales we would have gotten, we hated to bother anyone.

Which meant that we had a whole lot of hay laying on the ground, all dried out and needing to be put up.

So we called upon our knowledge of Ma and Pa and Laura and Mary, and off we went out to the pasture. Remember when Laura helps Pa bring in the hay in The Long Winter?

 "[The hay] came tumbling loosely over the high edge and Laura trampled it down. Up and down and back and forth she trampled the loose hay with all the might of her legs, while the forkfuls kept coming over and falling... The sunshine was hotter and the smell of the hay rose up sweet and strong. Under her feet it bounced and over the edges of the hayrack it kept coming."

Ma wasn't all too pleased that her daughter was out doing man's work - "She did not like to see women working in the fields. Only foreigners did that. Ma and her girls were Americans, above doing men's work."

But Laura was glad to have been able to help Pa, even being the "Half-Pint" that she was. While I'm not sure my girls have the stamina to keep at it for days, they sure did enjoy it for a few hours! (Here's hoping we have no need to twist this hay into logs for the fire this winter...)

Our experience, of course, was a high-tech version of that. We had a pick-up truck, and instead of Daddy driving the horses, I drove the truck along.

Daddy pitched the hay into the back of the pickup...


And then Two Little Girls jumped and stomped and danced and packed it all down tight.

With their help in doing this, we were able to get most of the hay in only four pickup loads.

And of course, they were rewarded with a hay ride over the bumpy pasture back to the barn.

Huck and Izzy supervised (read: napped in the tall hay)

And Bandit tried to figure out how he was going to reach just a little bit further to get to that big ol' pile of hay by his stall.

We managed to get finished just as the rain (rain!) started to fall. It was the first rain we'd had in months, and it came down like it meant it.


This whole farming thing is a lot of work, the hot and sweaty kind of work that leaves you exhausted... but on days like this, when the work is accomplished all together as a family... well, that's why we're here, doing what we're doing.

“It is a good idea sometimes to think of the importance and dignity of our every-day duties. It keeps them from being so tiresome; besides, others are apt take us at our own valuation." 
 --Laura Ingalls Wilder
 

The Girl and her Horse: The First Gymkhana

My sweet Oldest One can best be described as "cautious". She thinks through things before she does them, considers every possible thing that could go wrong, and then decides whether it's really worth the risk. Most of the time, it's not. While I appreciate her wisdom, there are times I'm afraid she's missing out on fun things because she has a tendency to be a bit overly cautious - like not playing on the jungle gym at McDonald's because she might fall, or not going on some of the rides at Disneyland.

But this life out here in the country has done wonders for her. She's still cautious, and careful, but she's coming into her own and she's gaining huge amounts of confidence and independence. It's thrilling to see her growing this way.

And Bandit has a whole lot to do with it.

This little girl, for the past number of years, has been Horse Crazy. She has spent so much time reading horse stories, drawing horse pictures, learning everything she can about horses, and dreaming about some day having a horse. She took horse lessons, and then joined a horse club, and now she's got a horse to ride whenever she wants to... and it's taken a lot to get her comfortable actually riding him! I don't think she was expecting all that riding really is. Horses are big animals, and while this one is well trained, he still has a mind of his own and occasionally tries to get away with some things. Riding can be hard work, and there is a very real possibility that she could fall off, and she knows it. Since we brought him home, she's just been a little timid about riding him.

===

Yesterday was her first gymkhana. Gymkhana is "games on horses" - different events set up for kids (and adults) to ride through, and try to score the best time. Cora did the last one, but Chloe missed out on it, so this was her first time.

I was nervous for her. I mean, I was wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night nervous. What if he didn't do what she told him to? What if she hated it? What if she forgot the pattern mid-run, or heaven forbid fell off her horse? It could go two ways - it could be a wonderful experience, or it could be an epic disaster.

I worry too much. I know where she gets it.

So we got Bandit down to the rodeo grounds, got her signed up for all the events. The special race of the day was the Egg and Spoon race - hold an egg on a spoon without touching it, take your horse around a barrel and back to the gate without dropping it. She didn't want to do it. She might drop the egg, she said. I assured her everyone might drop the egg, and signed her up for that one too.

Then it was warm up time.

She was still nervous, but around she went, with Daddy next to her the whole time. Bandit was happy as a clam, but a very calm and relaxed version of happy. He knew he wasn't there to win any races today. His job was to walk around like the best-behaved horse in the whole world, and that's exactly what he did. I think being in that arena with a hundred other people on their horses calmed her. And she felt like she was really a part of something.

Next came a lot of waiting, and watching, and finally it was her turn with the egg. Her very first event. Off they went, at a slow walk, down around the barrel and back...

with the egg still intact at the line!

 This likely has something to do that Bandit has the smoothest gait of any horse I've ever ridden. He's amazing.

After that, the events came more quickly. She did pole bending...

And then flags.
 
There was nothing fast about this. She walked him all the way through, and whether he wanted to run or not, you couldn't tell. And she learned the patterns, and she built up some confidence.

After much more waiting and several "I'm boreds", she was finally up on barrels. By this time, her confidence was soaring. Which for The Oldest, means she felt like she could trot. And she did. Daddy, Grammy and I stood at the gate calling to her which way to go - I think she forgot the whole pattern once she got in there. But she got it right. And on the way back from the third barrel, she kicked him again and he took off at the sweetest, gentlest lope you've ever seen.





She loped! The only other time she loped, it ended in very scared tears... but this time there was a huge smile on her face! When she was ready to, she slowed him right back down. She had finished all four races, she hadn't fallen off, and was smiling at the end.

Yes, I was jumping up and down and yelling like a crazy person. Or, well, like an excited mama watching her little girl at her first gymkhana. And yes, the other horse parents were laughing at me. But they don't know how huge that was. Oh man, the smile on her face meant the world to me. Such a huge breakthrough for her, such a huge boost to her confidence. No, she didn't win any races. But that's not why she was there. She had so much fun, and she learned so much, and she was a part of something. It ended in great success.

She's come such a long way from when she first started riding, feeling afraid to even get up on the back of a horse even after all that time spent dreaming about it. I'm thrilled for her.

===

And yes, Littlest One rode too, this time with Daddy lead-lining her through each event. I was glad not to have to do the running this time, and just get to watch.

She kept her egg on the spoon too (which is quite a feat, most of them got dropped!)



She did the flags


And Daddy trotted her through barrels and she didn't fall off this time!

Two Little Girls had such a grand time. I'm glad we're able to let them do this, to have these experiences and create these wonderful memories. And I'm glad we've found a sport that everyone can be involved in, keeping us together as a family and sharing in one another's success.

A Happy Easter

Today was Easter.

I know this, because the Easter Bunny came. The girls are fascinated still by the fact that the Easter Bunny knows their favorite things, and provides them with gifts in their baskets perfectly suited to their interests and favorite colors. Funny how smart that Easter Bunny is.


We hosted Easter dinner at our house this year. This is a Big Deal. We've never had the space to have family over for a holiday before. But up here at our Forever Home Farm, space isn't hard to come by.

First, we hunted eggs. 78 of them, to be exact. Well, 77. The puppy found the first one, as evidenced by the small wad of half-chewed bubblegum we found lying next to an open egg. Silly puppy.


We flew kites in the hay field.


We held target practice.

Even the dogs played happily. (Yes, that's what happily looks like.)


My mom hid eggs again, this time with lottery tickets for those that found the Golden Eggs. I don't have pictures of that - I was looking for Golden Eggs.

I made dinner. This is actually a big deal. I've never cooked a holiday dinner before. It was a sort of coming-of-age experience for me. I feel like a grown up now. We had ham, roasted potatoes, macaroni and cheese, homemade rolls and parmesan green beans, along with some snacks and appetizers and such. It turned out pretty well, I think. Anyway, everyone ate it without complaining.


And we all ate in our dining room. Because we have a dining room now, and that's exciting.

There was some more kite flying, a bit more walking around, and then someone found a recently dead snake and Littlest One decided to bring it in.
It really was a wonderful Easter. Reading back through all that makes me realize we sound amazingly redneck - hay fields, lottery tickets, target practice, dead snakes... I promise, we have more class than it sounds like. :-)

The Top of the Hill

We finally found the time to hike to the top of our little mountain last weekend. Between the snow, the mud, and all the work, spare time hasn't been all too plentiful, but we decided we had to see the top.



It's a rocky hillock, covered with cedar, pine and juniper trees from about halfway up. Truly beautiful, in typical Colorado fashion.

We found the picnic table that the man we bought the ranch from told us about.

The girls cleared the snow off of it, and we found it was still in pretty good shape, especially considering how long it's been out in the elements. It won't be long til we can enjoy picnics up there.


We also discovered the view.



It's amazing how far you can see if you just get high enough up.

We came back down the southwest side of the mountain and got a new view of our house and outbuildings from the back side:



Really a nice little hike, and one I look forward to doing more and more as the weather warms and the mud dries out. There is a lot of space to get to know up there, and we're all looking forward to it.

Family Game Night

After a week of work, school, and unpacking, it was time for Family Game Night.

Glad for Two Little Girls, a Daddy who plays with us, warm fires, snuggly pets, and fresh popcorn. It was a good way to spend an evening.