It’s All Free Today!

February 1, 2012

Bib-lio-phile: noun a lover of books especially for qualities of format; also : a book collector

That’s me! :)

So when a home schooling friend offered me over 1000 home school books and resources for FREE – I was almost giddy!

So what does one do with boxes and boxes and boxes of books?

Books
First you spend hours pouring through every box, touching each and every book and resource. This takes hours because you get distracting and start reading them.

Then you make big piles of the books that you cannot live without and try to fit them on your already full bookshelves.

Meanwhile – your children are also going through each and every box, touching each and every book  and also have large piles of books that they cannot live without – because you trained them from a young age to love books – especially when they are free. :)

More BooksThen you take the many, many, many boxes of books that still remain – and lay them all out neatly in the basement. All over the basement – as in – you must rearrange the basement to make room for them all.
FriendsThen you call your homeschooling friends and invite them over for a book party – an “everything is free so please fill as many boxes as you wish and take them to live at your house” book party.

Would you believe they went through each and every box and touched each and every resource and made big piles of books that they just could not live without?

And then their children did the same thing. :)

After a wonderful afternoon  they took their boxes of books and stuffed in the van with all the children and are probably – right at this very minute – trying to fit them on already full bookshelves.

How do I know this?

Because I’m a bibliophile. It’s what we do.

By Country Gal | Posted in Friends, Home School, Thrifty Ideas | Tagged , , | Comments (7)

Hearing Elephants

September 14, 2011

I heard an elephant last night.

No – seriously – I’m not crazy.  I was sitting on my back step and heard an elephant, a lion, and some unknown wild bird.

And I’m not the only one. Pedro heard it first. I told him it was probably just the guineas at the Amish neighbor’s. But there it was again – an African safari in our barn yard.

Jan heard it. Angel Girl heard it. Buddy heard it. I heard it.

Maybe we’re all crazy?! Can eating too many ears of fresh sweet corn cause one to hear strange noises?!

No, of course not. We really heard it and we have a sneaking suspicion we know where it’s coming from.

Are you ready for this – (lowers voice to a whisper) – our Amish neighbors.

Yes – I’m serious. You remember these neighbors – the ones with the train horn that they blow at all hours.

Those Amish.

We think they may have – (lowers voice to a whisper) – a hidden tape player.

Or a CD player, or a record player.

They have something that they’re playing -probably battery operated – and this isn’t our only evidence.

A while back when my friend Kimmer was here to visit with her kiddos, we all heard what sounded like an auctioneer practicing- and it was coming from their house.

We knew there wasn’t an auction for miles.

Mystified, we jumped in her pick-up (so they wouldn’t recognize our vehicle) and drove slowly up the road – checking out their property without looking like we were checking out their property.

The place looked deserted and the sound disappeared when we got closer. It started again later when we got back at home. It sounded just like it was coming from their back building.

Very suspicious.

Now – some time later – we hear the sounds of a safari coming from the very same location.

They have to be hiding something back there.

Unless of course – they actually have an elephant in there – and a lion – and some strange bird – and an auctioneer.  Which sounds more like the plot of a crazy 1960 Disney movie.

No – I’m thinking they have something hidden back there – and sooner or later we’ll discover just what it is.

I’ll keep you posted.

Stay tuned…

By Country Gal | Posted in Community, Friends | Tagged | Comment (1)

Trend Setters

August 22, 2011

We had quite an interesting discussion at the lunch table yesterday. (I should say that the kids had quite an interesting discussion because it was one of those times that made Jan and I feel a little like a ping-pong ball as we tried to keep up.)

Dagmar, freshly home from her wonderful week at TeenPact Endeavor in Colorado, was trying to inform her siblings what was hot – and what was not.

Just in case you were at all curious about what the newest trends are among the youth in our country – here is the lowdown as I understood it. (But be advised – this could change at any minute!)

Planking is out.

PlankingPlanking – quite popular at our 4th of July get-together – is when you lay face down like a plank on something, take a picture and post it on Facebook for all your friends to see. The object is to find the most obscure thing to plank on – like a tree limb or the wing of a bi-plane.

Also out is  “Toothpicking” – when you take a picture of yourself standing on your head next to something – like by a telephone pole or street lamp. Of course – you put it on Facebook so all your friends can see how creatively amazing you are.

“Owling”, however,  is in.Owl“Owling” is when you crouch down, preferably in weird places like the roof of your car or the mailbox, use your arms as wings and pretend to be an owl. And – you guessed it – you put these pictures on Facebook to impress all your friends.

I’ll have to admit that it’s hard to stay on top of all this, let alone participate. I mean – really now- I get dizzy when I put my head down to tie my shoes, how in the world would I put my feet above my head to “toothpick”?!

And honestly – even if I could get on top of my mailbox – I’m afraid that my “owling” would look more like a chicken trying to lay an egg.

Let’s face it people -the only way we’re going to be “with it” is to beat these kids at their own game.

So I propose that we come up with our own “ing” activity. Something easy to do for all ages. Something that can be done anywhere – in any obscure or random place.

Something like ….

NapNapping!

Seriously people – just think of the possibilities!

There’s napping in the recliner, on the couch, in the hammock, at the table, while waiting in line at the grocery store…

Napping…mouth open, mouth closed, sitting up, laying down, inside, outside!

Then we can take pictures of each other and post them on our Facebook pages and all of our friends would be impressed at how cool and hip we were!

Finally – we would be the trendsetters.  :)

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Friends, Teenagers | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Be Careful What You Wish For…

July 20, 2011

Just look at what happens when you confess on a blog post to being unable to grow zucchini…
zucchini

…in less than 36 hours you are given 9  zucchinis!

BIG ones, too!

As my friend Martha said to me as she handed me a bag full of the veggies, “Be careful what you wish for!”

Right now I’m wishing for roasted Italian zucchini with Parmesan cheese – and thanks to my sweet friends – I’m going to get it!

By Country Gal | Posted in Friends, Gardening, Harvesting, Rural Realities | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

Fruit Basket Upset

July 18, 2011

What a crazy weekend!

You could describe it a bit like fruit basket upset.

Let’s start with Friday,  Pedro’s 15th birthday.

Matt is gone to Summit for 2 weeks, Dagmar is on the couch with a 24 hour bug, and Jan & Pedro are frantically trying to get some hay baled before the rain comes.

Oh – and the heat index is about 101.

We pause in the craziness to sit around the dining room table in the air conditioned house with Nana and Poppa, eat grilled chicken and birthday cake, and watch Pedro open his presents, before heading back out to the hay field.

Crash's birthday cake

Saturday morning – Dagmar’s 17th birthday.

She’s feeling better so we prepare for her noon birthday party.

Jan is back in the hayfield. Buddy is on the couch with a migraine. Matt is still at Summit.

The heat index is 103.

We pause in the craziness to sit around the dining room table in the air conditioned house with Nana and Poppa, eat sweet and sour chicken and birthday cake, and watch Dagmar open her presents, before getting back to work.

Meg

Nana and Poppa head home.

The girls and I clean up the kitchen as fast as we can.

My friend Cinnamon drives in with some of her crew and a couple of extras. The teens disappear, the little’s disappear, and I get to relax a few minutes, play with baby Rosie and chat with Cinnamon.

Cinnamon packs up the crew -  leaving Gunnar and Daniel to spend the night with Pedro – and offers at the last minute to take Angel Girl to their house.

Okay – so I now have 3 teen boys in the basement, one 10 year old with a migraine on the couch, an exhausted husband on the tractor in the excessive heat baling hay, one daughter at a friend’s house and another daughter who is supposed to be celebrating her 17th birthday.

And Matt is still at Summit.

Sunday morning. The hay is baled. Nathan is better. The teen boys finally wake up.

The heat index is 105. We drive to church with no air conditioning (you may remember last weeks adventure!).

Daniel and Gunnar go home. We collect Angel Girl and head home in the excessive heat in a van with no air conditioning.

My sister Tee and niece Mil are waiting when we get home. We pause in the craziness to sit down at the dining room table in the air conditioned house and enjoy ham and potatoes and ice cream cake.

The kids disappear and I get to relax a few minutes and visit with my sister.

Jan and Pedro head out in the van with no air conditioning in the excessive heat to the fairgrounds to pick up all of the 4H and open class exhibits.

Tee and Mil take Dagmar home with them head for a few days in the big city.

Jan and Pedro return, hot and tired, just in time for our traditional Sunday night meal of popcorn and sandwiches.

I now have one tired but happy  husband who spent a long weekend baling and missed his Sunday nap, one happy daughter in the big city celebrating her birthday with cousins, one tired but happy daughter who had a great overnight with friends, one tired but happy son who had a lot of fun with his buddies, one tired little guy who was just glad his migraine was gone, and one tired mom who would be quite happy to singlehandedly finish off the left-over ice cream cake.

And Matt is still at Summit.

I told you it was a fruit basket upset!

 

By Country Gal | Posted in Children, Friends, Memories, Summer | Tagged , , | Comments (8)