Relocated Californian

I had an interesting experience today. Maybe it was because I was alone shopping at Costco without my 5 kids distracting me or maybe I would have noticed anyway. As I was walking out, I saw a guy walking in wearing an Encinitas Surf Shop hoodie. I had to suppress the urge to jump up and down and run over saying "Hey, we're from San Diego!!"; overcrowded San Diego with it's really clean cars (no kidding), beautiful hip people who look like movie stars, busy freeways, and lots of craziness - all things that I am glad we got away from. I realized at that moment, that although I am glad that I don't live there, I am happy to be FROM San Diego. It seems odd that it was somehow important that I was from that place that his shirt was advertising. It wasn't that there was anything interesting about him, in fact, it had nothing to do with him at all - I have no idea what he even looked like. Maybe it is because we spent so many years there or that all of my kids were born there or that I'm still on auto pilot when I drive out there or that we love visiting or that there are many people we love there. Or maybe I just had too much coffee yesterday. At any rate, I am truly glad that I am a relocated Californian living now - and forever (God willing) in Montana.

2 moms, 9 kids, 342 pounds of apples and 120 quarts of apple sauce

And an all day into-the-night experience. When I told my kids "just keep picking" until all the 5 gallon buckets, laundry baskets, boxes and bags in the Expedition were full, I proved just how truly terrible my spacial reasoning /eye balling measurement skills are. I was just hoping that I had enough to make the applesauce experience worthwhile like it was last year - how could I be expected to remember what the 215 pounds of apples we had last year looked like? Well, I can tell you that it couldn't have looked anything like that pile of apples I hauled in, because we had 342 pounds....hello!! We pulled in the Rickel's driveway at 10 am and left at 2am; 120 quarts of applesauce later.

The kids pared apples for 8 hours!!


NO wonder they look psychopathic here.


At 6pm, when it looked like this, I knew it was trouble - we had two ovens and 2 roasters baking apples so that we could run them through the mill; 2 large pots of cooking applesauce on the stove; 2 cannisters of canned applesauce processing (with 7 quarts in each); and all those apples UNcooked on the counter - still needing to be cooked in the roasters/oven. It was bad - very bad. About that time, I started apologizing for my over-zealous, apple picking episode.

The really crazy thing is - I don't even like applesauce, in fact, it grosses me out. BUT 4 people in my family do LOVE it and that makes up for it, I guess. And that's just the kind of self-sacrificing mother that I am. It had nothing to do with the fact that I am just a little bit social and spending all day with some of my favorite people sounded like a party to me, and I can't stand to miss a party - no, it had nothing to do with that - it was all a sacrificial, giving kind of thing on my part.
I don't think anyone will let me pick the apples next year (or any year after) without some very strict guidelines and supervision.

socialization and patience - the two biggies

This post appeared on Pioneer Woman this week from a contributor. I love her explanation of the questions that all we homeschoolers get asked on a regular basis - I think that her answers are the best I have heard. The one that really gets me is the patience one. I am certain that when my kids are supposed to be doing math and I enter the room and they are ALL doing anything BUT math and my head spins around and sub-human noises spew from my mouth, that no one in the world would confuse that with patience. We are not born with it, nor do any of us just have it - well, Jessica Mallery I think might and Rebekah Tolopilo, but the rest of us got stuck with a little more of that sin nature than they did. I do believe that, although tough days make us wonder, that we learn patience through homeschooling - we just don't have any other choice. Anyone considering homeschooling their children should not determine they ought to do so based on their level of patience....it is a much larger decision than that. As the above blogger so wisely mentions, it is a family conviction put into action - don't let the reason you don't homeschool be your lack of patience. And forgive that previous double negative, grammar no-no!

Hobo Point

Our friends, the Meulis, have a great 40 acres on the shore of Lake Mary Ronan - a perfect, lovely place where there are not many boats and almost NO people around. They affectionately call it Hobo Point. Every year (well, this was the second, but it has been tagged a yearly event now) we all get together (the Millers, Meulis, Rickels, Sibelruds and Dunhams) and camp for three days on the water. We waterski, tube, swim, canoe, float, eat, play airsoft, and get really dirty. We decided to start taking a group photo each year so that we can see everyone growing up as the summers go by - but maybe next year we ought to do it at the beginning instead at the height of our grubby-ness.

Grinnell Glacier

It was our hope to hike once a week this summer, but that hasn't been the case. We did, however, hike to Grinnell Glacier. BEAUTIFUL 10.4 miles. There's nothing like Glacier National Park....gotta love it.

Hiker Boy

Hiker boy after a three day backpacking trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. You should have seen his hair up close. He wore a bandana for three days - wet hair, dry hair - and slept in the woods with no shelter. His hair stood on end when the bandana came off. Even with high winds, cold weather, and a little rain, they had a great time. This mom prayed a lot in those three days - the wind we had at the ranch had me thinking that trees were blwoing down all over them, that he got swept away in the river and that he was suffering from hypothermia - silly mom. Nothing scary happened - except the hair. And all the dirt.

Bridge Jumping

Here in Montana, you do crazy things and they are legal....like bridge jumping. Well, I am not actually certain that it IS legal, but I am fairly hopeful.....considering our pastor was with us - it wouldn't look good for the pastor to go to jail for such things, eh? Josiah left church the other Sunday with a couple of older young men to go bridge jumping. I thought they were going to jump the Bigfork Bridge (which I jumped myself appx. 18 years ago - yikes. About 40 feet into super cold, fast moving water - not the smartest thing I'd ever done. BUT, I did wear a life jacket), but they ended up jumping the Swan - about 15 feet max (I'd say 10 more likely). They returned to a friends' house where we were having a party. Then, we all went back together so they could do it again on the way home. Had it not been 9:30pm and cold I probably would have jumped myself! We laughed hard at them all freezing their patooties off - the water here isn't even warm in August in the daytime.