McKillipKlan

Seed starting indoors on a budget

  This guy does exactly what I do for inexpensive seed starting before I heat the greenhouse, however with a couple great ideas!  He uses reflective insulation around the shelving plus a painters clear plastic tarp in front of the whole thing to regulate temps.  duh!!  Now why didn't I think of this?  Anyway, great ideas.

 

The Garden Hound blog....a very fun place indeed.

What a difference a year makes....

     Last year I posted this rather pathetic attempt at cheerfulness....  while it was my anniversary and all, we did have a small celebration.  This year I'm glad to report that we took a wonderful quick trip to the mountains for an overnight vacation at the hot springs in

fabulous Idaho Springs, CO.

 

   It was our first vacation alone in over 16 years.  It was too short!  And there are no pictures because we were busy reminding ourselves of why we actually got married 22 years ago.  :) 

Thankful

     Sometimes you have to just keep on keeping on.  No analyzing, no more tears, no more questions.  Just one foot in front of the other.  And find the elusive blessings, because they are everywhere.

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, and may the rain fall softly on your fields.  Until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.  Irish Blessing

 

  

The home place on the right side of the picture....lots of great memories, and a few sad ones too.

    And surprisingly, the sun still comes up every day.  And I still smile at this site out my front deck every day.  God has abundantly blessed us with family, friends and faith.  And this year?  Despite the most emotionally, physically and financially stressful times I have ever experienced in my life, I am more thankful than ever, and that is what it is all about. 

 

 

Football

    Football season is all done.  Surprisingly, I miss those three evenings a week spent outside a small field in a smaller town chatting with my neighbors while the young boys played.  It has been a season of friendships and fun for all of us.  As homeschoolers, we tend to forget that we are part of the community at large, despite our long-running involvement with 4H.  Football season and one 4th grader has reminded me that we have an awesome rural community and that if anything, in these tough times, we are stronger than ever before.  It has been good.  And Jake?  He might be the smallest kid on the team but he loved every single day of it.  Next, on to wrestling....which is not nearly as fun since we travel to another town as our small town does not have wrestling available.  Jake is the short, blond in the middle of the group. 

 

Working on the food budget

  We had a very sad day here yesterday.  Our small town lost a young man.  His family is our neighbors.  We are all feeling the sad effects of such a senseless tragedy.  Lindsay is at Mass.  Johnny?  I guess he does what the guys do around here when they are sad.  It is nice to see him smiling.

 

 

Raising Kids

  As a forever homeschooling family, we have been there and done that, on just about every single idea that has come down the pike.  We have weathered illness, post-partum depression, lack of work (i.e. broke), unschooling, enrolled schooling, and everything in between.  I have personally lacked housekeeping skills and read every book I could find on homemaking.  I have scheduled time with each of my children every day to review their studies and listen to their catechism.  I have dutifully driven kids to co-op classes and paid enormous sums for private music instruction.  None of which I regret. I have read books and prayed with each of the little people entrusted to my care.  I thought it would be more than enough. 

 

  But now I am entering into the next phase of parenting, which has caused me to rethink my arrogance of my younger parenting days. I now have one adult child and one more near adult, as well as an assortment of teens and youngers.  I am much more wise now.  Life is so messy at times.  One thing I was guilty of for most of my homeschooling life was the arrogance of assuming that homeschooling would cover a multitude of ills.  I assumed *my* kids would never want a tattoo or question our family morals.  I assumed that just by the sheer weight of my homeschooling the children would just be saints!  I forgot that whole free will thing.  Totally forgot.  And the saints have all been people with some pretty amazingly strong personalities.  St. Peter denied Christ, THREE times!  St. Paul persecuted the early Christians.  And what about St. Augustine?  What a guy.  He was busy living as a rather wild sort before his conversion to Christianity.  I forgot that free will is something given to all men, even the sheltered homeschooling ones.  And this life is about MY sanctification, not theirs.  My job is to get to heaven and sometimes kids help sanctify us because we learn how to really pray while raising them.  Their path is of their own choosing.  While I've done my absolute best, as they grow into adults, it is now their turn to choose and I cannot be responsible for every mistake they make. 

 

  I think that Elizabeth Foss states one thing we, as homeschoolers, overlook many times.  Her blog post spoke to me.  http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/2011/11/what-im-never-going-to-tell-you.html

 

  Free will means just that.  Free. will.  Free to choose, not just the good, but to choose.  The good, the bad, the ugly.  But it also means that we are always free to choose His abundant and never ending mercy. 

   He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.
Saint Augustine

 

Living History

  I have been blessed to be able to work at a skilled nursing facility that cares for a large number of retired military.  One of my favorites is a resident we call "Colonel"   He is fast approaching the century mark.  He has all his mental faculties.  I believe he is the oldest living full bird Air Force colonel in America.  He was at the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, and as a pilot flew 5 missions over Japan.  In WWII.  Wow.  His sort of living history stories are not long for the discussing.  Although I have read some awesome write ups in military journals about him featuring pictures of a dashing young man crouching beside some sort of bomber plane, his real life tales are beyond magazines, and I happily carry them home every week where I'm greeted by my boys who say, "how is your colonel this week?" and "how is the colonel doing?"  Sadly, I am so swamped so that I can hardly spare a spare moment (pun intended!) for this charming gentleman and his wonderful tales of life.  He wears his pressed shirts daily and his wings neatly pinned to his collar.  Bed is made and meds are to be delivered on time.  (and if you knew the price tag of the facility you would agree, meds should be delivered on the minute!)  I call him Colonel and kiss his bald head where he assures me once sprouted a wonderful head of red.  I'm partial to red heads you know :)  And I long for the days where honor and duty and sacrifice all meant something.  Today I had a wonderful experience.  My colonel is ailing a bit and at that age ailing today might mean funeral tomorrow.  The boys scouts came.  Troop 404 from Colorado Springs.  They visited each and every resident of our facility with dignity and good will.  They delivered cards and sweets, diabetic and regular.  They were not in a hurry and were interested in everyone, confused and alert alike.   One old cowboy resident of ours was having a particularly difficult day and those boys chatted and cheered him up more than they might ever know.  He had been crying most of the day and those boys came in and he cheered right up and talked for almost an hour to several of them.  I'm sure that those boys were uncomfortable, I could tell they were, but the residents so long for any sign of youth and beauty and their smiles of love and joy were a sight to behold for me.  Those boys don't know, but they cheered the days, the last days, of some pretty awesome folks.  Folks I'm honored to call "my" residents every weekend.  And you know, when I was wheeling my colonel out for dinner tonight he said in awe to me, "that leader (of the scouts) was a Dallas cowboy!" and I replied that lots of folks here were Dallas fans, he said most emphatically, "NO!  a real cowboy, a retired Dallas football player!!"  (my colonel was raised in Austin, TX, hence the Cowboy football worship).  How ironic, that that same man, the boy scout leader, was in awe of our colonel and wanted to bring some of the boy scouts back to visit the colonel some day.  Soon I told him, please come very, very soon. 

 

Please don't get so busy you forget to visit the lonely and infirmed.  It IS a corporal work of mercy.  They so love it.  It is our own insecurities that get in the way of cheering some of the most lonely folks in America today, the sick and elderly, the confused and combative.  Love goes such a long, long way in my work world.  Please consider generously giving of your time. 

College Education and Debt

  I tend to get fixated on ideas or projects.  Right now I'm fixated on higher education.  Why?  My kids are growing up and that tends to happen.  My daughter who is in 11th grade has the idea of a four year university education.  In music education.  And it's not cheap.  But I am, cheap that is.  So while it is natural to want and desire to give our children all the things their little hearts desire, I can see that debt is nothing but a burden, but in some cases reasonable debt with a reasonable outcome (i.e.income expections) CAN be good.  Make sense?   Is there a cheaper option?  After all, when I interviewed for my very first job fresh out of nursing school, the basic questions were: did you pass your boards? (in other works have a nursing license) and can you work night shift.  Wow.  After three years studying my butt off in a rigorous, private nursing school I was hoping for at least *some* recognition of my excellent education with it's attendant price.  Nope not one word!  So that leads to my next thought.  Can my daughter teach music at a school with an associates of arts degree from community college?  Could she potentially acheive her goals with a much lower price tag?  Perhaps continue a bachelors degree online while actually earning an income?  Or is this four year college education a must have?  I see so many homeschool families who talk about the need for the mother to remain in the home to raise children (which I agree with), yet encourage those same young girls to incur financial aid debt while waiting for Prince Charming!  I do not wish to see my sons strapped for money in these difficult financial times after taking on a wife with burdensome debts to be repaid.  So I went looking for some wisdom and honest insight, not some glitzy idealistic babble about formations of young minds ( isn't that what I committed to? forming these past 15 years?!) and "good" colleges/universities that all good Catholics must attend.  Oh yes, don't forget the well meaning advice that I just suck it up and "pay my fair share with joy".  Not happening.  I'm already working, the idea of working MORE to pay "my fair share" of their higher education is an absolute joke. 

Here is an article that addresses my thoughts, that while an education equals higher income, at what cost?

 

Is it worth the time and debt level for potential income in the chosen field?  And what if a student bases his/her entire career on a choice made as a young and naive 17yo?  And then doesn't like that career?  And after reading these ten personal stories of kids just like our kids, good kids who have been sold the American dream of higher education, I am very reluctant to encourage them to go this route!  I think it might be prudent to calculate potential wages and then adjust for 30 years of student loan payments and see what the actual wage would be, given that they can ever find a good job after their four years (or five years the way it goes these days) 

Summer pics

Our little wild man turned 10 this summer, Kathleen made a gluten free cake that we could all enjoy!

hiking at Garden of the Gods park with my cousins and their kids.

Grandma turned 79 with six of her favorite grandkids :)

Jake started football.  and loves it.  Me, the "never doing organized sports, ever, Mom"  I'm enjoying his love of the sport.

Kathleen got to nanny for her cousin in California.  Her tales of explaining our family size of six kids in the "land of one child" are hysterical.  Thankfully, she still prefers a big family with it's necessary financial restraints.  :)  And her cousin is darling and very girl-ish so they both had a great time.

Lindsay bought a colt a couple years ago, finished him all herself, showed in her last year of 4H, between college years since her 4h age was still 18 this past summer (try not to hear the sniffles from me, as my first baby is all raised) and just sold him for a very nice profit two weeks ago.  Boe will be missed but is loved by his new family and Lindsay's business of horse training is doing excellent. 

My youngest and his "friend" that he has grown up with, this was her first horse ride. 

Lindsay getting ready to for her last 4H gymkhana ride on Misty the wild horse.  She won overall Grand Champion and got another belt buckle in her last year.  Not a bad showing for her 10 years of 4H.  Lots of great friends and good times in 4H over the years, and Anna is right behind her with her horse riding.

Anna running poles.  I think I held my breath the entire time, that horse is fast!

Johnny and Jake getting ready for chicken showmanship.  OK, chickens, piece of cake right?? No.  The judges are uber anal about chicken conformation, parts, and all sorts of odd chicken minutia.  And since Johnny and I both have this odd love affair with chickens, he keeps on coming back with different breeds every year.  This year was the year of the Bantam Black Rosecomb.  As well as several duck breeds and a couple more chicken breeds.  Next year?  Turkeys.  and maybe goats. :)  We will see.

Don't mess with the brothers...just sayin' 

Jake and his chicken. 

Anna and Chisholm, baby Anna named for....

Grandma Anna, who is still doing horses at 79 years young!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna looks so tiny out there, but she is pretty darned tough

Julia, exchange student from Germany, trying her hand at milking!  Darling, funny girl staying at a horse farm down the road.

Jake, #33, playing football.

our summer trip to mountains was chilly, boys fishing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big John and Jake, John still loves getting up before the dawn to fish....and I'm so NOT a morning person!  Trust me, there are no Starbucks where these boys go.

but I am always awed by God's beauty when I do actually get up (fast) with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and usually it IS worth it :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiking at dawn far beyond most roads...Hello Moose!

and whoa...bull moose, scared me for sure!  They are very agressive many times.

vacationing with the younger four, and missing the olders...sure is odd and lonely, which comes with kids growing up I suppose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonfire with family from CA and grandma, good times :)

And that is all for now! 

God Bless us everyone. :)

 

 

Turkey Time

   Already?  Not quite, but due to the cold, hard fact that a large male turkey can eat several POUNDS of feed a day and that feed is up to $.50/lb, it was apparent that this bird had to go.  We will save the slightly smaller hen for Thanksgiving since it tastes so much better to cook a fresh bird vs. a frozen one.  After a freak snow storm yesterday, today dawned clear, cool, sunny, and wind-less.  Speaking of windless...if you know eastern Colorado you know that windless is pretty darned rare and not to be wasted.  The boys all caught and killed Mr. Tom turkey and now he is resting peacefully in the refrigerator for a couple days before we have a feast.  He weighs in at 30 pounds dressed out weight.  Fed only soy-free, corn-free, non-GMO organic feed he might just be the most expensive bird we've raised, but certainly worth the time and effort in safe food.