Coming Soon!

I will post soon. I will!
I have several things to post about.

Peaches

Football

The wild JoJo monster

Soon, I promise!

Running

No, I haven't taken up jogging again, although my tummy and behind keep reminding me that I should. I feel like I have been running through each day for about a week. We spent Labor Day weekend in Montana, and I did enjoy some much needed down time, but I no longer have the Internet connected in that house, and no one in the neighborhood had a wireless signal that I could catch.

September is harvest time... for SO many things. Sweet corn, apples, tomatoes, peaches. It's the tomatoes and peaches that have stolen my days lately. I would love to have sweet corn in the freezer, but I have canned corn that badly needs rotating out of food storage, so I chose not to put the good stuff in the freezer this year. Ditto on the applesauce.

Still, lately I've felt like my life is running me instead of me running my life. I purposely leave my weeks wide open, and all of a sudden they are filled with commitments I somehow didn't intend to make. Do you know what I mean? This running feeling produces in me a resentment that usually puts the brakes on everything.

Whoa, there! This is my life, thank you very much, and NO I'm not going anywhere today. But, then the peach tree in the driveway says, "Fine with me, but the peaches are ripe." Plop! Off they go onto the ground, and then I have the fruit guilt that Earlgirl so perfectly captured last fall. I'd forgotten about that bit of rural life-- the fruit need and the fruit guilt. (Use it all, can it all, don't waste any!)

If tomorrow, between loads of laundry, dishes and digging myself out of the canning mess, I have a few moments to sit down, I might blog for real. With photos. And no sentence fragments.

Corny Smiles

Late crop sweet corn is just ripening. Nathan took off on the four-wheeler the other day and came home with the most wonderful dinner surprise! Josie ate three of these half-ears and loved every bite. Mazie, now toothless in front, struggled a bit, and was mad when I finally cut the corn off the cob for her.

Give me more!Ethan is enjoying his newly-grown front teeth. (He didn't have them last summer.) Dylan speeds through his ear. He knows that if he finishes before dad, he might get a second.

These happy times and corny smiles brought to us by the Sabin Farmily. (Like how we pick first and ask later?) Vicki, tell your hubby, he's the best corn farmer around!

Note to self

If you want to enjoy the only alone time you get in a day....

...don't day the S word in front of Josie....

... because then you have to share.

Once she's decided the shower is for her, there is no dissuading her.

The Second First Day

Finally, Mazie was able to start kindergarten. Waiting that extra day was really a trial for her. This morning, she rolled out of bed excited to put on her new uniforms and let me fix her hair (a rarity). Yesterday we made a new set of white flowers for her hair to match her white polos. She was so proud of her cute jumpers, and I'm proud of myself that I found a website that sold them for $7.00 instead of paying three times that at Land's End. I managed to convince Ethan to step into the picture, too. Yesterday he wore a black polo. They are allowed black, white, gray and maroon. Today he settled for white-- maybe because it was supposed to be in the upper nineties, and black is dang hot.

The exciting wait for the bus...
OH, there it is, again!She was so glad to get on that bus and go to school that she wouldn't even pause for a picture. See her running for the door!I have to admit, I've been waiting a full year for this day. If I could have, I would have sent her to school last year. She was so ready. (I'm sad that she missed out on having Mr. Hayes in Big Timber. Nathan keeps threatening to take us back if he doesn't start liking his job.) Still, watching that bus drive away, I'll admit I was a little sad. I didn't feel any pangs of regret with my boys. Maybe it's different because she's a girl, or maybe it was the bus. It's not quite the same as handing the kid off in person to a teacher.

However, she had a great first day. She loved school, and she told me she made new friends, although having her cousin Emma in class is the BEST!

Kelly asked why Dylan was home schooled but not the other kids, so I'll answer that question publicly in case anyone else is wondering.

Dylan's cousin Hyrum has been in this district since kindergarten. He had great kindergarten, first and second grade teachers who recognized that he was above grade level and tried to challenge him. That stopped in at the end of second grade. He has been bored at school for a year and begging to home school. Dylan came out of a gifted and talented program in Montana. They have nothing like that here. They have a sort-of advanced reading thing, but that's it. I didn't think it was fair to dump Dylan, a high-achieving child, into a low achieving district and have him be bored and develop a bad attitude about school. And anyway, there was still Hyrum with the same problem. Home schooling was the natural option. My goal is to have Dylan back into public school by middle school, but in a different district, even if I have to drive him an hour to a real city.

Mazie and Ethan were placed with those great kindergarten and second grade teachers that we knew would give them a challenging year. Ethan will struggle if he stays in next year. He is also a gifted student. He wants to home school, but I couldn't deal with it, and I knew his teacher from when I worked in district, so I told him he had to stay at least until January. He'll love her by then and won't want me, I'm pretty sure. Mazie's teacher is our primary president and she's awesome. No worries there. Mazie will be reading by the time she leaves kindergarten.

I had this realization last year. Your child's elementary education all boils down to this: it is as good as his/her current classroom teacher.

On another note, when I went into the open house, Ethan's teacher recognized me and said, "Oh, I bet you know one of the other second grade teachers." She took me over to her classroom. This teacher saw me and jumped up to give me a hug. Yes, I knew her. I taught her. She was in my "survivor" class. I wasn't surprised to see her as a teacher. She'll be great. She's already in her third year teaching second grade.

Another of my students is in her first year teaching high school. It gave me a little bit of satisfaction. I may not be teaching anymore, but my students are.

The Newest Adventure

Today was an odd first day of school. Only one of my school-aged children actually went to school. You can't see his uniform polo shirt because he's wearing a sweatshirt. I drove him to the road on the four-wheeler to wait for that newest adventure...Here is Ethan with his three cousins. They're all watching and waiting... Ahh, yes there it is!
The school bus! My kids have never lived where they had to ride one. Now they're "farm kids" and the bus is a must! Ethan stopped to pose right before stepping on. The batteries in my camera died right before the bus pulled up to our driveway. I switched the camera off and on again, and managed to squeeze one more photo out of the batteries. And look, there I am in shadow-- the dorky mom with the camera! (Did I mention that the bus arrives promptly at 7 a.m.? I used to wake up at 7:30 in Big Timber, and still have the boys to school by 8:15.)

Kindergarten starts tomorrow, so Mazie will have her first bus adventure then. Meanwhile, back at the house, Dylan and his cousin embarked on their first home school year.

Books everywhere! It took me awhile to get us organized and going, but they were great, and loved being done with school by noon.

Of course, while my back was turned.....Josie took up climbing on the couch.
And, jumping off. I was so relieved when Dylan was done with his school work and could go outside to play. The first words I said were, "Take Josie with you!"

Stay tuned tomorrow for another first day of school.

What Tooth Fairy?

I am the worst tooth fairy in the world. Losing a tooth at my house usually turns out like this:

Child loses a tooth and is ecstatic to receive a visit and $$$ from the tooth fairy.

Child may lose the tooth before bedtime and have to leave a note instead of the tooth, but no matter. This tooth fairy doesn't take the teeth. She's always let the kids keep them as souvenirs. (Gross ones, mind you. Once Josie came out of Dylan's room chewing on what I thought was a rock. When she spit it into my hand, I realized it was one of his ousted molars. GROSS!!!)

Child goes to bed.

Parent goes to bed.

Child runs into parents' room first thing in the morning crying, "The tooth fairy didn't come!"

Parent thinks, "OH, crumb. I forgot-- again." Parent says, "Go back and look around. I'll come and help you."

Child leaves and parent digs through purse to find quarters, which she hides in her palm. She then goes to the child's room and makes a great show of searching the blankets, meanwhile dropping the quarters into the mess. Child exclaims, "I heard something!"

Ta-da! "Oh," parent says, "I guess the tooth fairy came after all."

I can't wait until they no longer believe in the tooth fairy.