Posted By CCOAF on September 1, 2010

Being blessed with 3 sons has filled my world and given me the biggest challenge of my life.  I wouldn’t change it for the world and “No” I’m not disappointed that I didn’t have a girl.  Each one of my sons holds a special place in this Mom’s heart, but this post will be about my oldest and how special he is to me. 

What a cutie!

My oldest son has amazing qualities which includes how much he cares for others, his need to help others, his comedic personality to get people to laugh, his creative mind, his genuine heart that beams so bright, and he was definitely born to be a big brother.  No he’s not perfect because there are some qualities that are a challenge, but he’s close enough to perfect for me.

This post came about because he did something special for his Dad and I on our 12th anniversary yesterday.  When he got home from school he did is chores and homework and then got lost in his creative corner.  At the time I was laying on the couch with a headache and dozing in and out, but I remember at one point he asked for one of my rings and I didn’t even ask ‘why?”  After he was done and we were all getting ready to head out for dinner he mentioned there was something special on our pillows.  Aw!!  I told him Dad and I would check them out together after Dad got home.

I love you buddy!!

Hubby & I finally got to check out our creations that were made from his heart and boy was I touched.  He wrote each of us a letter, drew a tractor picture for hubby, and made a paper ring for me.  The letters explained his creations and ended with “Happy Anniversary.”  I was touched to the heart and so was hubby.  The tractor picture will be displayed with pride out in the barns for hubby to enjoy daily, and my purple paper taped ring will be worn on occasion but mostly kept to symbolize my son’s heart.  We thanked him for his heartfelt creations right before his last kiss goodnight, and he smiled with love and pride.

His spirit shines so bright in everything he does.  Whether it be creating gifts for others, helping Dad on the farm, giving a genuine hug to his teacher whenever he sees one of them, when his face lights up to see and spend time with a friend, going on a walk-about in the woods of the farm, wrestling with Dad, or putting his hand on top of my kisses so they soak in.

I’m honored to be his Mom, and my love for him is more than he will ever understand.

What qualities does your child have that you want to share with others?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 30, 2010

I’m noticing many searches for routines in regards to the school year and not just ones for the kids.  So I’m going to take the time now to share with you my routine that helps keep the boys on track with theirs.

Morning Routine

My morning routine consists of getting up 45 minutes before the boys do to begin getting myself put together.  I then get them up at 6:45 and put on a cartoon to give them time to slowly wake up, and in the meantime I finish getting ready for the day.  By the time I’m done the cartoon is

Heading to School!

over and then I begin coaching them to keep them moving and stay on track.  While they’re going to the bathroom and getting dressed I’m taking breakfast orders so they can be ready to eat when they come in the kitchen.  During the dressing and eating time I have to continue coaching to keep them on track.  My boys like to goof off, mess around, and piddle so I have to stay on their

tales if we want to be on time.  While they are eating their breakfast I’m putting their pre-made lunches in their lunch boxes, if I was lucky enough to pack them the night before, and then eat my breakfast.  Once breakfast is over we all brush our teeth and head out the door.

I drop the two older ones off first at the Elementary school, and then I have 30 minutes to kill before preschool starts for my younger son.  In that 30 minutes we either run errands or just park by the school and wait.

While my youngest is at school I head to Curves to exercise, or I head back up to the Elementary school to volunteer.

After School Routine

Thirty minutes before the Elementary school gets out I head that way from wherever I am.  After they are released we head home and chat about their day, what’s going on that evening, and what needs to get done for school the next day.  The boys have an organized after school routine and while they do that I become a coach again to keep them on track.  While they’re doing their routine I’m going through the mail we got that day, reviewing papers they brought home, helping them with homework, and starting supper.

Bedtime Routine

I watch the time diligently and begin the bedtime routine with the boys 30 minutes before lights out.  In this time we clean up toys, take showers, get clothes out for the next day, brush teeth, and the day ends with a good night kiss from both of us.

After the boys are in bed then my day starts to whined down as well.  I wash my face, put my PJs on and camp in front of the TV.  Sleep is the most important thing for me as a Mom and time to whined down before bed is crucial, because if I don’t my mind won’t stop and I won’t get the sleep I need to be at my best the next day.

During my relaxing time I watch shows I’ve taped, and crochet whatever I’m working on at the time.   I like having that time to, to reflect on the day and take a sigh of relief that everyone is home safe and sound in their beds.

What’s your day like during the school year?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 27, 2010

Managing my hate for the responsibility of cooking and every aspect of it isn’t an easy one since it happens 3 times a day.  Thankfully the boys are old enough to get their own breakfast unless they’re wanting something hot.  Lunch is easier since two out of the three are in school.  Now supper is the big thorn on my side.

I know I’m making mealtime harder on myself than is really necessary, so I’m trying to find ways to make it easier and less stressful.  Slowly my days of staring into the freezer at the last minute are dwindling away, because I’m taking more time to plan and not procrastinate.  Now that the boys are in karate two or three times a week has helped tremendously even though karate is right at the dinner hour.  Due to that . . .  planning is forced.

Hubby and I have agreed it will be crock pot meals or programming the oven to begin a frozen precooked meal for two karate nights, and the third night, which happens to be a Friday, we eat out.  Works for me!  This way supper will be ready when we return from karate, which means the stress of standing in front of the freezer to fix something quick is gone for at least one if not two nights.

Just because the two of the boys are in school doesn’t mean my lunch duty is really gone, but at least the clean up is.   They happen to be picky eaters so packing their lunch is a must.  The past two years I packed their lunch in the morning while they were eating breakfast, but this school year I changed that routine.  Now I pack it after cleaning up part of the dinner dishes while the boys take their old sweet time eating.  Don’t get me wrong I firmly believe we should all stay at the table until everyone is done eating, but it can’t be expected in this house until they cut their eating time from 60 to 90 minutes goes down to 30.  We’re working on that one!

My quest to find simple, quick, and easy meals is becoming a reality and I’ve even learned I can put frozen stuff in the crock pot too and not worry about thawing out.  Awesome!

How do you manage your time in the kitchen?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 25, 2010

There are many interesting farm facts I’ve learned over the years, and this one by far is one of the most interesting to this City Chic.

We’ve been on this farm for a little over 9 years now and I must say learning about farming, the responsibilities of a farmer, and the needs of the different farm animals is quite interesting.  I love seeing how other farms in the area are set up and what animals they raise as well.  Just about everyday since we’ve been in this area I’ve noticed a farm that has cattle in their front pastures with a driveway going down the middle to the farm house.  The herd grazes on both sides of the driveway, fence surrounding the pasture, but there isn’t any gate at the end to keep them in.  The set up puzzled me.  How does the herd stay in the pasture without a gate at the end?  The farmer could easily put a gate that could open and close with the touch of a button so the farm family could get in and out so why doesn’t he do that?  What’s the secret?  Whatever he’s doing is working because the herd stays in the pasture and never ends up on the road.  Go figure!

Finally one day hubby and I were riding together and I asked him how and why is the herd staying in the pasture and not coming through the opening and ending up out on the street.  He said look down on the ground.  There is a grate between the two fence posts.  Cattle don’t like walking over grates which not only keeps the herd in, but also allows the farm family to come in and out as they please.  Wow!  How ingenious!  Well that sure explained it!  I never payed attention to what was on the ground between the fence.  Interesting!

See what I mean. Potential.

After finding out the tidbit of information I got to wondering . . . does the cattle poop on the driveway and do they run over it?  Well I’ve haven’t gotten the answer to that question yet, but I may find out myself sometime in the future.   Our farm has that same potential, because we are 1/2 mile off of the road, and if hubby rotates the fields and decides to make the front fields pasture and plant in the fields where the cattle are now.  If that happens I’m really not looking forward to dodging the cow pies on my driveway or cleaning the cow poop off my van for that matter.  No thanks!

Got any farm facts that you’ve learned?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 23, 2010

I wish I would have understood personality parenting more as a child, but I know it’s impossible for a child to understand.  If there was a way to explain to your kid(s) that punishments, rewards, and the way we interact with each of them is different because they themselves are unique, then it would make parenting a little easier.

Parents realize that each child is unique and an individual, therefore the way you parent them is a little different.  This is when personality parenting comes into play.  Yes, there are many things you do the same with your kids, but not with everything.  For instance, eating habits or lack there of is a challenge in my house. I know what each of them can eat, how hard I can push each of them to try something new, and how they each challenge me to get out of eating.

• My oldest is willing to try something new, but also will be honest with me if he doesn’t like something.
• My middle son struggles with anxiety, and sometimes eating becomes a struggle.  He will try to get out of eating something that he has said he liked in the past.
• My youngest loves just about everything I put in front of him, but tells me he’s full even when he’s not.  This little stinker eats slowly and then plays on my emotions to let him get out of finishing his meal so he can get down and play.

That is just one of many examples of the things they do differently and how I need to parent each of them according to their needs.

What challenges do you face as a parent in regards to your kids personalities?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 20, 2010

Just like any child that looks up to their parent(s) that work in an office, work for the airlines, work for the railroads, are a police officer, a firefighter, or whatever the profession is the children pretend play that profession.  It was no different when I was growing up and my sister and I would play “office” since Dad worked in an office, and house because my Mom was a stay-at-home  Mom too.  Now I’m watching the pretend play with my boys which alternates between construction, farming, cowboys, and believe it or not house.

Yep . . . that’s right . . .  house.  I’m a homemaker and it wasn’t until they built a fort down the basement when I heard someone yelling Mommy and the call wasn’t for me.  Never thought I’d hear that from my boys, but as I listened it definitely wasn’t the way my sister and I use to play it and if it was then that’s ok too.

Just the other day they were playing farming and fighting over the farming figurines that consisted of cows, bulls, sheep, and pigs.  I listened to the fighting for a short time and then it was time to step in.  I heard each one crab about the animals the wanted, the ones they didn’t, and who wasn’t being fair.  After letting them say their peace I had them put all the animals in a pile, then they each took turns picking from the pile and we started with whoever was first for the week.  At the end they each ended up with 6 farm animals and all were happy.  Problem solved.

Today the boys continued to play farming, but now they were planting, harvesting, baling hay, etc.  In order to do this they needed farm equipment like tractors, combines, and implements.  They put the tractors in a pile and took turns picking equipment, and started with whoever was first for the week.  Wow!!  They did it without me!!

Now instead of breaking up a fight I went into the pretend farming field to congratulate the farmers for farming fair and to let them know I was proud of them.  Wow what an awesome moment!

When have your kids followed your lead?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 18, 2010

Running a household is one of the most challenging tasks in life in my opinion.  I doubt if any household that is raising kids runs like clockwork, but I believe we all try to do the best we can, at least I do anyway.

I can honesty say I’ve learned a lot when it comes to striving for clockwork status or another term would be perfectionism.  No one is perfect, and working hard to reach it is nothing less than exhausting.  I do however take pride in the little things that do run smoothly even though there are so many more things that I need to work on.

Getting the bills paid is one thing that has a definite routine.  When the bills come in they are sorted from the other mail and put in my Longaberger Desktop basket.  Bill payment days are the 5th and 20th of every month, and the bills are ready and waiting in the basket so I don’t have to thumb through mail to find them.  Thankfully internet banking is available through our bank so it takes me a few minutes to schedule the payment, then I log them in my Quicken software, balance the check book from last months statement, and file them in the folder for that month.  It takes a half hour to get it all done and even less, because the balancing only happens once a month.

Another routine that helps keep thing running semi-smoothly is routines for the boys.  There’s a definite school routine for the different times of the day: morning, after school, and bedtime.  By having these routines in place they know exactly what o do, but I admit they do get sidetracked easily so coaching is key to keep them moving and staying on task.

One of the major things I haven’t achieved yet is suppertime.  For those of you who have read my blog or know me you know I hate cooking and every aspect of the responsibility.  Due to my non-interest and lack of motivation to think of what we’re going to eat, getting it prepared, and served is a challenge.  This school year I’m going to try a little harder, because I’m only hurting myself by putting it off until the last minute.

I don’t know many people who like to clean and I’m also one of them that doesn’t.  I clean when things get on my nerves, but there’s no routine on when the house gets cleaned.  Other than setting chores up for the boys, which helps a lot, I also need to set a schedule for myself and stick to it.  Not looking forward to that one!

What routine works for you?  Maybe I can use it too!

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Posted By CCOAF on August 16, 2010

As the boys get older the chore responsibilities need to be updated and switched up from last year’s chore list.  I took an afternoon the other day to create a chore chart that not only had daily chores, but also a chore they’re responsible for, for the week.  Here’s what I came up with:

Weekly Chores – this set of chores is obviously kitchen help and they will have one of these chores for the week according to the calendar

• sweep kitchen after supper with Swiffer Vacuum
• unload dishwasher
• set the table

Chore Chart

Daily Chores -

• 4th graders list
  • Monday – alternating every two weeks
    • clean 1/2 bath
    • opposite week gather clothes around the house
  • Tuesday – DAY OFF!
  • Wednesday -
    • garbage pick up
    • clean 1/2 bath
  • Thursday – alternating every two weeks
    • sweep 2 bedrooms
    • clean  boys bathroom sinks & mirrors
  • Friday – mop laundry/mud room

• 1st graders list
  • Monday – DAY OFF!!
  • Tuesday – mop laundry room
  • Wednesday – alternating every two weeks
    • clean 1/2 bath
    • garbage pick up
  • Thursday – Clorox door knobs
  • Friday – sweep laundry/mud room

• Preschooler (4 1/2 years old)
  • Monday – Clorox door knobs
  • Tuesday – sweep laundry/mud room
  • Wednesday – DAY OFF!
  • Thursday – dust boys bedrooms w/ Swiffer Duster
  • Friday – alternating every two weeks
    • gather clothes around the house
    • Swiffer along the edges of the hardwood floor

Weekends will be changing sheets, putting toys away that have migrated throughout the house, and sweeping the garage.

The chart was created with the software Calendar Creator, but Google Calendar will do the job as well.  As you can see they each get one day off during the week, which they love.  These are non-paid chores because they are a part of the family.

I hope this helps if you’re looking for age appropriate chores for your kids.  Let me know!!

What chores do your kids do?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 13, 2010

Every summer we try and hit a county or state fair for some family time, learning time and not to mention fun.  This year we decided to go to the Indiana State Fair.  In the past we’ve had a good time there, so we were all looking forward to it.  The only downfall this year was August has been a HOT one and was going to be in the upper 90s.  Oh joy!

Even though we only live 90 minutes away we decided to head into Indy the night before, get a hotel with a pool, and be there bright and early for the fair the next day.  We had reservations for Fairfield Inn, but got transferred over to the Marriott with a free room upgrade and hot breakfast in the morning.  The Marriott was recently expanded and upgraded and we got and awesome 2 room suite, which was perfect for a family of 5.  The room contained a couch, chair, TV, table, desk, refrigerator, queen Murphy Bed, and separate room with bed an TV.  Oh so nice!!

After we got there we hit the pool that was an indoor/outdoor pool.  The pool room had 3 huge doors that when opened created an outdoor pool and when closed created an indoor pool.  How cool was that?!?

After our awesome hotel stay we headed out the next morning to the Fair.  We knew it was going to be a hot one, but this was the time we had available to go so we had to make the best of it.  Hydration was key with a little sunscreen to boot and a cooler packed with drinks in hopes they were still cold when we returned to the van.

Our day consisted of:

• We saw old and new tractors
• Visiting the Pioneer Village to see old time crafts (wood working)
• Chatted with some of the vendors that sold useful farm equipment (feeders & such)
• The boys enjoyed petting & feeding the goats, and seeing the cattle, horses, pigs, chickens, etc.
• Road the shuttle a couple of times
• Hit the Midway where all the rides that were operated by soy diesel.
• Bought them each a toy tractor, which was hubby’s treat for there great prior school year.
• And last but not least checking out the learning path where they pretended to harvest corn & soybeans, fed them to the herd, milked a pretend cow, harvested their crops, took their crops to market, got paid a pretend dollar, and then took it to the store to spend on a treat.  That was my favorite part of the Fair, but by the time we were whooped and ready to go so I didn’t get any pictures unfortunately of that awesome learning experience.

After a filling breakfast no one got hungry while a the Fair so we had plenty of drinks and one elephant ear.  You can’t go to a Fair without getting one of those.  At least we can’t!  All in all we had a good time despite the heat and humidity, and while heading home we all felt exhausted and salty. 

Do you attend a Fair?  Which one?

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Posted By CCOAF on August 11, 2010

Believe it or not I’ve already shared with you that we might start a chicken operation, which would add to the black angus cattle that we raise for beef, and sometimes when prices are good we buy pigs to raise for pork.  I still need to learn more about raising chickens before we actually take on the challenge, but to be honest we really don’t need a rooster for the morning alarm clock that they are known for.

Now I don’t necessarily know if roosters really “cock-a-doodle-do” at sunrise like all the stories say and what we learn as kids, but on this farm there’s really no rooster needed and here’s why.

Here on the farm the pasture wraps around the farm house.  The pasture that contains the calves that are being fattened for beef are on the left hand side of the farm house.  That pasture wraps around the back of the house and yard to a gate that connects the front and back pasture.  The gate is kept closed as long as calves are in the process of being fattened out.  The “in process” calves are a hoot at times, but can also be a nuisance.

The calves, as you may have already read, are like kids at times and provide entertainment as well.  At times they also take the place of a rooster, which is why we don’t really need one for the alarm clock purpose.

Since the pasture wraps around the farm house, when the cattle are being vocal it definitely sounds like they are right outside the window, because they are.  I remember worrying, when the boys were babies, that the calves would wake them up, and at times they did.  It’s even more frustrating when I’m woken up in the morning and I’m not ready to get up yet.  They aren’t like a dog where you can yell at them to stop barking, but I can honestly say I’ve been tempted to try or invent something so they would get the picture to be quiet.

I will be honest it doesn’t happen that often because the calves are usually only vocal when something is going on, or when they see the rest of the herd or another herd in a farm nearby.  So with that said I really can’t complain, but when they are being noisy is sure is annoying especially when they wake me up. 

What unusual thing wakes you up?

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