These are the Days of our Lives

The kids' days are filled with so many things that its impossible to go through them all.  Caleb goes to preschool, of course, but after that and on weekends, the days are as random as the weather permits!  Here's just a sampling...

On the occasion that the four wheeler is being used to do a job (usually fencing or checking cattle), the kids always beg for and almost always get a ride.  Nothing risky; there's no tricks, no jumping, no swerving, no craziness... just a nice slow ride!

Many Dutch families are known for their twice daily coffee times and, though Josh's family isn't pure Dutch and I'm very far from pure anything, we've carried on the tradition.  Around here, its roughly at 9 in the morning and anywhere between 3 and 4:30 in the afternoon.  There's always a treat of some sort along with a thermos of coffee.  If we know the kids are going to be around, we (Rhonda or I, depending on whose day it is for the job) pack a juice pouch or water bottle.  But sometimes spontaneous visits from the kids mean they drink coffee.  And they don't mind!  Teaching them young! 

Also notice the wagon of toys in the background.  These toys are handed down from Josh's childhood and they have added hours upon hours of playtime to their record by our kids.  They LOVE doing field and construction work in the rocks!

They also spend a lot of time on their wheels: Caleb has his bicycle (still with training wheels, but this summer we'll fix that!), Sarah has her tricycle, and together they have a "baby" tractor with scoop (perfect for the rocks!), bus, toy four-wheeler and Josh's hand-me-down pedal tractor.  Notice Sarah pulling Caleb along with a tarp strap.... somewhere along the line they invented this game and both were happy playing it, so poor Sarah just kept pulling.  Whatever, haha!

Not a very good picture, but this invention is the grand idea of grandfather and grandson: Josh had an old tachometer that no longer worked, so when he took he out of his tractor to replace it with a new one, Caleb grabbed it up and duct taped it to his bike.  A tachometer is an instrument on farm equipment that monitors the tractor's RPMs and tracks how many total hours that piece of equipment has been used.  Sort of like the odometer/speedometer on your car, except it measures hours instead of miles and RPMs instead of MPHs.

Between his tachometer and the piece of plastic my dad help wedge in the wheel spokes to make a noise as he rides, Caleb has one suped up bike!

Two pieces of steal rod, an air tank and an old tree stump makes for perfect drums and thus perfect shop music!

No afternoon is complete without chicken petting!

And after we pet the chickens, we go steal their eggs!  Last summer, Sarah was petrified of the henhouse, but this summer she has really hurdled that fear and now loves to help gather the eggs!

Caleb's preschool class hatched several chicks in their classroom as a spring time project.  Each afternoon, we would bring in the chicks that had hatched that day to add them to the rest of the chicks in the chick tubs.  Here's Caleb fast on Daddy's heels, ready to introduce the new chicks to the rest of the chicks.

Speaking of chicks... there they are.  Not a whole lot for the kids to do here, just fresh food and water daily.  But they do enjoy checking on them to see how fast they're growing!

This is Sarah's first ride on the back of a truck. Daddy had to move some wagons and being the very slow ride that it was, they kids got the thrill of riding in the back of the truck. 

Sarah enjoys her lunch hour with Daddy!  Here she is checking the forecast on one of the many weather websites Josh frequently visits.  See the smirk on Josh's face?  That's because Sarah kept rubbing his new buzz cut.  She couldn't get enough of the pokey feeling!

The kids play alot of hide and seek, too.  Here's Sarah Rose looking for Caleb.  Can you see her?  It looks dangerous that they're playing around the equipment, but Josh and Loren were on a completely different job not having anything to do with the haying equipment.  The three of us (Josh, Loren and myself) are very keen on knowing exactly where both kids are and being able to see them the entire time something is moving so as to keep their safety the utmost of importance.  Nothing moves until we all know where they are.

We had an extremely early first cutting of hay this spring and even though it was still in April, it was warm enough that the kids were searching out a shady spot to take a rest while waiting for Daddy to finish his round.  They've learned young that the shade of a wagon is an invitation for a cool rest!

There is a strip of alfalfa that separates my garden from the hayfield.  Its the perfect spot for kids to run in and when its gardening time, they waste no time in taking advantage of the fun.

Here's the before mentioned pedal tractor.  This tractor was Josh's when he was a lad and his parents gifted it back to him a second time by having it restored.  Now his kids are enjoying it!

Sarah's favorite food is anything fruit or vegetable, but at the very top of that list is strawberries.  This is her very special dessert of this particular day, strawberry shortcake.  Needless to say, she loved it!

We have a cookie thieving hen!  Look close and you will see a chocolate chip cookie in this chicken's beak!  This hen finds the guys for every coffee time they have on this yard. Not only that, but it comes up to the back door and bullies the cats for their catfood.  Our MamaCat (who is now more like a Great Grandma cat, complete with being 95% deaf) is terrified of her and will run away as soon as this pesky red hen with attitude shows up!

A little gate climbing never hurt anyone.  My mommy gut was wanting me to tell them to get down and stay away, but kids have got to be kids and my kids are now old enough to climb.  *tear sniff sniff tear*

One pretty proud little girl to be going to work with Daddy after lunch!

My little garden helpers.  Here they were helping me carry buckets to the garden so we only had to make one trip.  I have some hard workers here!  See how far away the house is?  Well, the garden is a ways beyond that.  They helped the whole way and didn't complain once.

Isn't she pretty?  Here's my garden.  So far, there is lettuce, radishes, spinach, turnips, onions, green beans, green peppers, zucchini, and giant pumpkins.  I have more seed that will go in the ground soon.  They'll also be another post about the garden, be assured!  But for now, I'll share two tidbits:  1) one pack of radish seed makes aLOT of radishes... good thing I like them as much as I do! and 2) I only use the turnips for their greens, so if anyone enjoys and wants some turnips come late summer, let me know and I'll thin the plants out and let them grow for you. 

This is just a sampling of our days, nowhere even close to all that we do!  But that's the great thing about having a blog... I get to keep adding to the story as the days ahead unfold!  I do so enjoy spending time with my kids outside.  Being able to teach them the wonder of God's creation, how to respect and nurture it and how to cultivate it for our use is priceless. I'm blessed with children who love country/farm living as much as their parents do!