And the clock keeps ticking.

Where did the month (AND YEAR) go?  It's already June!

Ahhh!  June.  I'm telling myself just take a deep breath & relax.  Enjoy the days!

 

I love school being out the middle of May. (Our last day was the 18th) I was so happy to see the end of the daily rush & two trips to town every day!  I also like to have a bit of free time between when school is out, and our annual 4 day trip out west the first part of June.

Kaela's last day of school with her teacher.  I missed getting a picture of Kara :(

Meshayla had a recital (guitar) and the little girls had a piano recital the end of May and then everyone has a break from lessons this summer because of being gone.  Meshayla left to go spend several weeks at her sister's in Sidney, doing some babysitting and odd jobs to earn some money for her trip to Finland.

 The girls with their piano teacher.  Thanks Jane!!

It finally stopped raining enough to get our garden in, and my flower gardens worked in and more flowers planted.   Our chickens are all in their outside movable pens now--a bit crudely put together, but at least it works!

We got to have little Z boy here for a long weekend while the rest of his family went off without him.  It was quite fun, and he got along just great.  Fun to work on that bonding with Grammie thing! :)

We've returned from 4 wonderful days of Spiritual feasting and along with that I was happy to meet a few individuals that I've heard some of my blogging friends mention!  Special to see lots of my facebook friends & others that I have known for years.
And I flunk. Majorly.  I did not take a single picture.  I'm really annoyed with myself because I let it slide.

It's pretty quiet here for the time being--Kara and Morgen both went with one of their older sisters for a visit, & Kara is visiting some new friends.  We're looking forward to a trip up to see Jana sometime later and bring her back home.  Meshayla and her cousin Nathan left today for their trip to visit Laura in Finland.  They'll be gone until the 9th of Aug.  I'm looking forward to hearing of their adventures!  It wasn't as nerve-wracking to send the girl off this time as it was two years ago--and obviously not for her either.  The kids totally forgot to call us when they boarded their flight in Newark NJ.  And they'd already turned their phone off!  I'm pretty sure that Laura will remember to call me when they arrive there tho.    It sure brings back memories of my trip last fall! This time I'm able to relate to just where she's at.

 Yes, the girl looks a bit blurry eyed.  She stayed up on the phone too late the night before, and we had to get up early to catch their 7:45 a.m. flight along with being at the airport ahead of time for.  The mom's flunked--the alarm clock failed & we left an hour later than we planned on.  Thankfully there was no problem with traffic/roads or waiting at the airport!  Yay for "small" airports!

 They wouldn't let us mom's go down to the gate with the kids.  I suppose they figured if they were old enough to be flying overseas by themselves that they didn't need to be accompanied to the gate/plane either.

Now Kaela is going to be an "only child" for a few weeks.  I'm not sure how that's going to go with her or me either one!  I'm thinking I may have to call in the grandkids!!  On the other hand, just think how much I should be able to accomplish!

A couple more pictures before I quit.  A couple times a year the old steam engine goes thru NE.  I saw it one morning this spring when I was running some errands.  There were people stopped at the crossings waiting for it, so as soon as I got home we jumped in the van to go see it. (we live about 1/2 mi. from the tracks)  Wouldn't you know after sitting on the tracks for some time, it was ready to move, and we missed it at our crossing.  We took off zig-zagging cross country, trying to make it to another crossing to be able to sit & watch it.  We made it about 25 mi. away and the kids enjoyed standing out on the country road watching and waving to the conductor and passengers as it went by.
Silly--yes, but one of those fun spontaneous things we should all do sometimes!
I love to hear the trains.  Many of the houses we've lived in have been close to the tracks & my ear is always listening for the whistle.

I'm looking forward to a summer of many different things. Gardening, preserving.  I hope some scrapbooking & sewing.  Additionally I became a Norwex consultant and am looking forward to some fun presentations.
If you haven't heard of Norwex, you can check it out on my website:  www.maxinejelinek.norwex.biz
I'm loving their products for my own use, both at my house and cleaning for other people.  I'm also loving being able to share it with others!

I hope you all are having a great summer!  I plan on enjoying every minute of mine, busy or relaxing-whatever the day brings.

Sweet memories

The photo on this page has remained one of my very favorites of Laura.  She was about 4 years old here.   I can still remember her running in the house, all smiles with a bouquet of dandelions she'd picked for me.  Remember your favorite pink corduroy overalls Laura?  You crawled into them every chance you got, and wore them totally out!

A random snapshot-

A forever memory

Any moms out there with small children?

Trust me.

I know how busy you are,

How frustrated you get

How there's not enough time

or money

I know how much laundry you have to do,

How dirty or cluttered your house gets.

I know how you just get one mess cleaned up and there

behind you is three more.

I know how miserable it is when you have sick kids

I know how difficult it is when YOU are sick and have kids.

I know how many meals you have to make, and how you just get one meal 

cleaned up from and it's time to make the next.

I know how you can't be on the phone, the computer or in the bathroom for a minute

before someone starts hollering for you, fighting, or disaster strikes.

I know how tired you can be and how much sleep you miss.

I know alot more than just this too.

I know how fast 30 years goes.

I know how many things really don't matter.

It's like being in labor.

You think you can't do it,

It's going to never be over--

Until that baby is placed in your arms

And you know how much it was worth it,

and time dims the memory of the pain.

And one day somehow you find yourself

in a far away place.

Somewhere you never expected to be

Because you never imagined your child there

Saying goodbye.

And realizing....

In spite of everything

They grow up 

in the blink of an eye.

Realizing that you don't remember

the work you left undone;

but  you remember moments

that you took the time to love.  

To play, to hug,

To read, to be silly.

To let them be little,

To let them sleep in the middle.

And to exclaim over a small dandelion boquet

cluched in grubby sweet little hands

by a barefooted, tousel headed little child

who just tracked mud all thru the house.

Again.

Who left the door open for the flies to come in,

and the toddler to escape out.

Again.

Who woke up the baby you just got to sleep

Again.

with a joyful cry of
"Look what I brought you mommy!"

Happy 30th Birthday Laura--With Love from your Mama

27 years ago

 Mothers day, May 13, 1984 after a lovely day spent with Leon and our 4 girls, my grandparents & mother at my in-laws house, Baby #5 decided it was time to come on the scene.
At 2:15 in the morning, Monday May 14  we welcomed our first son into our family.
Derek was our 2nd homebirth but he was in a hurry, and didn't wait for our midwife to arrive.
She had a 3 hr. drive from her house from ours, and although we called her at the first sign, She arrived an hour after he was born.
Leon was initiated into the role of "midwife" without a whole lot of prep time!

Now this year he helped his own little guy celebrate his 1st birthday already!

 (April, 2011)

Happy Happy Birthday son-- We're wishing you the best year ever ahead!

Scenes that make me smile today

Mothers day

 My lovely mother in law with 2 of her 7 kids--Leon, and Elaine.

 A lovely dinner--prime rib, mashed potatoes, cream cheese corn, fruit and salad.
My family knows that Mothers day is the one day a year that I really prefer NOT to go out.  Too long of waits, too many people.  We've done alot of things over the years--when my older kids girls were home, they made several memorable mothers day meals.
This year my husband said he and the kids were going to cook.  well.........o.k. it's not they don't know how do do any cooking or kitchen work,  lets just say that even tho they know the basics, pulling the whole thing off and getting it all done and on the table at the same time is a bit more complicated than they are used to.
 The boys did bring the drinks, Ryan the pies, & Derek flowers for me.  Leon cooked the steaks & Morgen peeled the potatoes, so that was pretty good for starters! Elaine brought the fruit salad, and mashed the potatoes, Meshayla got the salad on the table and made an awesome cheesecake.  I tried a new recipe for Rosemary bread.  It was good, but needed to bake a bit longer.  I'll try it again when I'm not in such a hurry.  The younger kids did the clean up and dishes--thankfully the parts for my dishwasher came the other day.  Days like this are 3 or 4 full load runs!

 Derek, Dawn & kids

 

 Desserts--Strawberry, chocolate, banana cream pie and berry cheesecake!

 Me with my boys--  They make me feel small!

 Our group today--Mothers day, May 2011  I'm so thankful that I have a few of my kids close enough to us to spend special days together--(or any days!)

 Flowers from my son--Thank you Derek!

 And Longaburger from my husband!
It's been a beautiful day, and I am very blessed!

Beautiful Spring

 Some of my earlier planting

 The lilacs popped today!  I do love lilacs!

 Everything is just bursting! We've finally had some sunny days and higher temps.  The Iris are popping out of the ground at a great rate, Flowers just burst into bloom the last few days, today I saw blooms on my strawberrys --do you suppose I'll get more than 1/2 dozen of them this year?  This is my 3rd picking of Asparagus, I could eat it nearly every day!  Clematis are finally turning green & have buds and my transplanted raspberries are doing great!

 Our first batch of chickens are growing quickly!  They are ready to go outside, only we don't have the pen ready for them yet.  These are our fryers

 2nd batch of chickens (our layers) are doing great too.  We were happy it was warm enough that they could go straight to the chicken house without them being in the house.

Today Kara preformed in the Central District Music Festival.  She has been taking lessons for about 2 years, and this was the first time she has done something like this.  The students had to memorize their songs they played, they also had sight-reading & scales heard by the judge and then there was Theory Ear training exams.
We don't know what the results from those tests were, but she received a 1- rating on her playing!

P.S.  In case you're wondering--the cool clock on the wall was a Mothers day gift from one of my special daughters :)