Frustrated

I am frustrated by the recent news about this kid getting shot in Texas.  As a parent, I feel for his parents, but give me a break.  The world we live in is not the same as it used to be.  Columbine stole that from us.  Unfortunately, this kid is to young to remember watching the kids being dragged out of that Colorado HS.  So he brought a gun to school, that was a pellet gun if I heard correctly.  But, did you see the gun?  It looked like an automatic weapon to me.    I may be the minority here, but I think that the police were doing what they felt was right to prevent another tragedy.

Maybe I will get some comments today.  It is day six of the new year and I have kept my resolution.

hand washing...ugh

I enjoy folding laundry, vacuuming, and dusting.  The rest of the household stuff, I could totally hire out.  Our wonderful, had to have it, dishwasher is not cleaning very well.  I am in the process of running every possible cleaning solution through it in an effort to get it working efficiently again.  The crappy part about that is that after every cleaning solution, you have to run a load with just water...so, here at our house, that means the dishes have been piling up.  Apparently I am the only adult in the house with hands, so I am handwashing the dishes.  At intervals, of course, but it sucks.  Worst part is that we have a single sink with no dividers.  So  you have to wash and rinse simultaneously.  I am not worried about wasting the water, but it makes the sink fill up fast.  So...I have now handwashed and dried over ten sinkfuls (or is that sinksful?) of dishes, with no end in sight.  I want an honest answer from someone.  How did women survive with families of over 5 people?  There are still families that have 5+ children, not even counting the adults...we make so many dishes and we aren't even here 3 days a week...ugh.  Anyhow, wish my hands well.  My manicure is gone and my hands are at the mercy of the Dawn hand softening dishsoap...gonna give them a run for their marketing money. 

Grants

I have been a grant seeking monster lately. I have a few projects in the works that need funding, and grants could help push them over the edge. What I have found in doing all these searches, is that I feel like a total moron with no grasp on the English language. It isn't just legal jargon, it's political and government jargon which is seemingly worse. I honestly feel like I need to pay someone to help me read these things. Yikes!

Anyhow, the rest of my day was a blast. I am so pleased to be able to work in this new facility here at the hospital in Mendota. We have some amazing new radiology equipment. It makes my job so much easier to use digital equipment in a digital age. Not one short month ago we were still recording our videos on VCR tapes. Now we are all digital and have DVDs with a label printer and everything! Yippee!

anyhow, off to get the kids from school, then home to think of a cool 100 days of school poster for Bella.

farm mommy

Today is one of those days when I feel pulled so many directions.  I haven't met a fellow mommy yet who has managed to maintain a one thing at a time life.  Today is truly my "farm mommy" day. 

First of all, it's our first day back to school after the Christmas holiday.  This is the first day I have had to set my alarm for 6 days.  Even though most days I was up before my alarm would have gone off anyway, it seems worse to be woken up by an alarm.  Per usual, it was mom getting up to wake everyone up, too.  This means lots of heads covered up by pillows, lights turned back off, and blankets pulled back up.  Yet, we made it.  Somehow we managed to be out the door early this a.m.  Maybe it's because I was excited and got lunches packed last night before I went to bed.  Maybe.

Anyhow, I got the girls dropped at school, Nolan dropped at Grandma's, then headed in to volunteer in Bella's classroom for an hour.  I helped assess the kids on the dumb RTI pre-tests.  Then headed back to get Nolie and went straight to the barn. 

Here at the barn, we are testing for PRRS, a respiratory illness, by doing saliva rope tests.  So much fun to wring pig spit out of ropes, but it's better than bloodwork.  We are working with Dr. Noel today, who seems like a really great guy.  We take pride in making sure that every animal in our buildings is healthy, so it is nice to get to work with a veterinary group who feels the same way. 

The rest of my day is planned out like this.  Head home, get lunch for Nolie, try to get him to take a nap while I do dishes, laundry, and continue to try to find places for all the new toys the kids got for Christmas.  Go back to get the girls from school, head home, finish supper, bath time, bedtime, more laundry, catch up on dvr shows and try to stay awake.  First day back to work this year is tomorrow.

Despite the craziness, I love getting to spend the time doing what I do.  Until tomorrow....

Gluten Free Grocery Shopping

Getting groceries with three kids under the age of 5 is always a total blast.  Read: sarcasm.  Now that the girls are getting a little older, it is slightly easier, but I am still saying, "Put that back", "No we can't get that", etc.  Yes, I give them tasks to help.  "Bella, I need you to remember these three things, and Mae you need to remember these three things".  And, yep, it's me who puts it all in the cart anyway. 

Adding to the fun is the fact that Mae has Celiac Disease and has to eat gluten free.  She can't have any foods with wheat, rye, barley, or oats or any of their derivatives.  I am quite adept at reading labels after two plus years of doing so. 

Today, was an exception to all these things.  I was armed with my coupon binder, a list, and two kids.  John took Nolan and went to Rural King after they dropped us off at HyVee.  Now, just so you know, I am going to brand name drop today.  I am not being paid by anyone, but it makes me happy to find products for Mae that are safe, and on sale, so I am happy to share names of products! 

Here are some of the AWESOME things that we bought today that are gluten free:  Kikoman Teriyaki Sauce (this is #1 on my list because few, if any, chinese food items are gluten free), HyVee brand Soy Sauce, General Mills Chex cereals and Trix cereal, Udi's gluten free white bread (unbelievable!!!), Food Should Taste Good cheddar cracker crisps, Hodgson Mill pastas, HyVee brand mini colored marshmallows, flavored milk straws (which are just cool anyway), Betty Crocker fruit snacks (My Little Pony and Thomas the Tank Engine of course), Capri Sun, Jell-o, etc.  There are plenty of other things that we bought (like fresh produce) that are gluten free, but I could go on forever.  My point is, two years ago I spent over 4 hrs in the store almost in tears reading labels and trying to find ANYTHING that actually was labelled as Gluten Free.  A short 24 months later, we are finding many products that are labelled as gluten free and are found in the "regular" food section, not the natural food section (where they can hike up the price more). 

All this said, if you know someone who needs a little extra help at the grocery store, I am happy to help them walk through.  I wish I would have had that person with me the first trip.

New Year's Resolution

Year after year, we all make resolutions to improve something, try something new, or just to have more rest and relaxation.  I have once again joined that bandwagon, and set a resolution.  This year, I am going to try to post 365 blog posts.  Ideally, I would do that once a day.  Realistically, there will be days when I have to catch up on a few.  As the title to my blog states, I am a Farm Mommy.  I will be blogging about my life.  Sometimes that is going to be simply about being a mom, others about just being a farmer, and sometimes a mix of both.  Please help me stick to this goal.  I need you to keep me accountable.  I think that this could be a fun way for me to look back on the past year and see what we are really up to. 

So...up until this post, I had 16 previous posts.  I owe you 364 more this year to bring that total to 381. 

Happy New Year 2012 to all of you!  I'm headed back to spend precious time with my family before we go back to school and life sweeps us away again.  Gods blessings for a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Stationery card

A Wonderful Year Christmas Card

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