Reubs First Deer! and That's a Wrap

Reuben got his first deer yesterday!  With that and two others the guys got Friday, the season ended early for us, all the tags filled!  Praise the Lord!  The freezer is full of chops, burger and roasts.  This is the first year ever there was a day and a half left of the season and the guys did not hunt.

November? Are You Sure?

The weather has been so absolutely balmy for November that we have had several fires in the pit this week (and probably another for tonight).  It is unbelievable that Thanksgiving is less than a week away, yet in a few minutes I will be heading out to the deck to sit in the sun (50 degress, skippy doo) and read more of this great book:

I LOVE this guy's (Joel Salatin) attitude and writing and of course the subject matter speaks to me for sure.  I have another of his books requested at the library and yet another on my waiting list at Paperbackswap.  Think is it too late for me to become a real farmer? Me either ;-)

On Monday I dropped Molly and Jackie at Basketball practice and then off to 4 different school conferences.  Our four special needs kiddos go to public school.  Something I swore would not ever happen in our family.  I deplore the public school habit of glorifying halloween. I abhor this institution turning the absolute miracle of God becoming man into a santa fest.  (Did I mention that last year a teacher took me aside and asked me to have Matt STOP telling kids there was no santa?  Said he was ruining it for the rest of the kids and she had some mad parents!!  Yeah?!  Well, how about the simple fact that santa is a fat lie and you are having my kid participate in that by coloring pictures of this lie, bringing a dressed up version of this lie to the classroom, telling my kid that his parents are wrong... there IS a santa and he is NOT ALLOWED to say that CHRISTmas is the celebration of our Lord's birth??!!!  The HECK?!)  I destest the paying homage to a bunny (??!!) when the almighty God has shed His blood to save us and then rose from the dead!! making a way for us to live forever! (Now I ask you... is that not amazing enough??  We need to dress that up a little with a bunny delivering candy??)
Ok... where was I??  Yes, well in spite of the fact that my heart longs  for a Lutheran school and that would probably be the one thing in the world that might induce me to leave my loghome up north, I love my kids teachers.  I love our special ed people.  I am probably one of the few people who think the IEP meetings are great and my kids' team members a fantastic, caring and professional group of people.  We are so blessed in that way.  And our special needs kids NEED the structure the day in an institutional school setting gives.  They thrive on it.  They LOVE school and their teachers. These teachers have really gone the extra mile to understand Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Frontal Lobe Damage and Reactive Attachment Disorder.  And the conferences have shown how wonderfully it is all paying off. 
Melissa continues to improve in reading comprehension.  She works hard and her teachers had nothing but praise for her efforts.
Matt, though he is a magnet for mischief, readily admits when he has done something wrong.  He is also doing well in his reading and is well liked by kids and teachers.
Mary, well despite her RAD/FAS, she is astounding her teachers (and us!) in the area of academics.  She is head and shoulders above her class in reading, math and all things school (say what??!)  They are moving her in to more difficult reading things and I fully expect she will impress us all.
Jaime... oh how happy my heart is to see how well she is doing.  She is slow, that is sure.  But when allowed to take her time (and write in giant, not very clear letters/numbers) she is performing about 1 grade level below her current grade.  I am so very thankful.  It was not two years ago that I wondered whether she would ever progress beyond writing her first name and a few simple spelling words.  Here she is reading all the time.  Doing map studies, science, language and spelling.  And she is in the regular classroom much of the time.  I am thankful beyond measure that kids are nice to her (they have all known her for many years for the most part... small town, doncha know).
Oh Lord... I was/am/have been so stressed over this huge thing of sending my kids to public school.  Thank you, Lord for these terrific teachers and for being there with my kids.  Thank you for the ladies who meet every month and pray for all the kids in public school.  Thank you, thank you for the progress our kids are making there.  Bless our efforts to combat the world's attempt to undermine our children's faith in your saving grace. Help us to bring You back into the public realm wherever/whenever we are able. In the name of Jesus our RISEN LORD I pray!

A snowy, sleeting day yesterday... Just right for some baking. Here are my little bread makers, waiting for the final raising of their loaves. The little loaf belongs to our little friend Jackson Alexander, who is napping during this picture. Notice they all wanted to simulate the "split top" store version :) Nice afternoon.

Even my little Mary had a good day yesterday. And another good day again today. Once again her change has been in response to my changing how I act towards her. We started back at the therapist last Friday... she is a great lady. I will expound on this, but first I would like to see how our week goes.

Basketball and the WRONG way to get a deer:

Tonight was Jackie and Molly's first basketball practice. I am hoping for some better pictures next time :) They were so excited and such a good time. Top picture is Molly in the yellow/green shirt and bottom is Jacks in the maroon.

Well we have another buck to cut up and put in the freezer. The bummer is that John got it with the mini van (which I had renamed the "sport van" in an attempt to get around the fact that I said I would NEVER own a minivan) instead of with his rifle. A crabby "dammit jim" as I was figuring to drive that thing to a sunny clime getaway at the end of February. I have not seen it yet, but I hear the only damage is a headlight out. And when I said it seemed odd that a large animal was killed with nothing but a headlight, it was mentioned that also the door would not open too well anymore. I did not ask more. Josh and Tom are on their way now with the Suburban (another beat up vehicle that has hit several deer) to bring the deer home... aaaaaahhhhhhhh....I hate driving a beat up piece of ...well, you know... nuts.

Deer Hunt 2009

Count so far, Old Guy: 1 spike buck, Josh: 1 spike buck, 5 others: nothing yet.

This year we are fortunate to have an electric meat grinder from The Old Guy's folks so we are making our own ven burger.
Note the unhappy look on Melissa's face as the guys cut meat. This is not because she dislikes venison, quite the contrary she loves it. This just happens to be the face she always wears when she is daydreaming or mulling something over. I have asked her many times over the past 4 years: "What's the matter, Mel?" Only to have her answer, "Nothing!" with a big smile. hmmm.At any rate, hooray for the meat grinder as money is tight this falland we would prefer to process our own deer and save some $$. Happily, I have already fully paid for a January trip with my friend to Cancun :) This could possibly be the first time in memory that I am actually wanting January to hurry up and get here.
And on a more gentle note, chilly weather has me using this very cool teapot, a gift from Kat, Becca and Josh for my birthday last summer. Last night I brewed a lovely pot of Cinnamon Orange tea, another birthday present from my dear friend and traveling companion, Sobra, purchased at the Pike Place Market in Seattle... mmmm, a delightful flavor. Since you must only steep your tea in this pot, not use it on the stove, I heated my water in a whistling tea kettle given to me by another dear friend, Beth :)

The Good Earth

So I thought I read this classic by Pearl S. Buck before, in high school. For some reason I remember it as being pretty good. When I got a chapter or two into it, I realized that I have never read it before. And though I read through it in two days, barely putting it down to make supper and throw in some laundry (sick kids so easier to sit around the past couple days), I did not like it. If I gained anything from it, it was a new appreciation for hard work and a simple life. Otherwise, UGH... I hated how it went. I hated how he decided to steal to get back to the land and I hated how he made such poor choices when he thought he had plenty of money and grew discontent and thought it ugly that he told himself "everyone else does it and in fact I am better than most" when his conscious was smiting him, and he was treating his wife like crap. I definitely didn't think it was anything my kids needed to read.
Anyone else read this book? What did you think?

I am reading what so far is a pretty good book: The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs.

I love this passage "...literally every single person I interviewed had consciously and with clear purpose designed their lives to coincide with their ideals. They live deliberately. They know full well what they want out of life, and they take creativity and determination to impressive heights in order to accomplish their dreams. Not one of them waited around for someone else to make things better, and not one of them blamed other people or other systems for keeping them from what they deemed important. Nor did any of them absentmindedly wake up one day wondering how their life came to be. They live consciously...deliberately...and thoughtfully. This is what Thoreau meant when he said "I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life..."

Ah... I so want that to be me...

I had a lot of things to blog, but now that I sit in front of my computer screen my mind is blank. Perhaps I can attribute that to my little Mary, who is once again having some huge regression. It is unhappy anniversary time, so many losses for her having occurred in the fall of the year. Unfortunately the behaviors are such that most in our home have a hard time mustering up sympathy. Personally my ears are ringing and by kiddo bedtime I have a pronounced facial tic (ok exaggerating... it is a slight tic). How anyone can open their mouth and just SCREAM for over an hour, with but a few pauses for air... well I wouldn't believe it if I didn't live with it. gosh...
Mary is in first grade now, with a great teacher and an equally swell aid, but I, paranoia victim that I have become, was worried they would never see a bad behavior (typical of a Reactive Attachment kid to show nothing but sweet to all but family). Most parents would be thrilled if their child did not misbehave at school, but not me. I need Mary to show her colors at school not only so people will realize what we live with at our house but so that she will get the appropriate supervision, intervention and resources enabling her to address her challenges ...rather than cover them up only to have them emerge at a later date in some sociopathic form (no, I no longer think that is an over reaction). I am happy to report that she threw a nice (though short lived) fit at school today, so at least they got a feel for what we have happening here... sigh...
In other news, homeschool has been going very well :) I have only 4.5 kids at home for school this year (Becca is doing some post secondary options at the community college). It seems like there is next to no one here! I feel like there is some good education taking place this year :) I decided the kids should be reading some classics, you know, rounding them out a little bit. That has been a lot of fun! We have read To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Outsiders, The Good Earth, Great Expectations, My Side of the Mountain. Oh I love to read.
Pete and Josh are running a trap line again... 6 beavers so far, 4 over 50lbs.
Sure would like to spend more lazy days doing this:

What We Watch

when the little kids finally get to bed:



I recently saw this as a suggestion on our Netflix. Tom and I decided to search it on Surf the Channel to see if it was worth a watch. Oh. My. Goodness. We LOVE this show :) It is just a hoot! There is some "not for little kids" language, so we wait until the young un's are down for the night. Then we go ahead and watch two or three or four episodes.

A Very Cute Puppy...

And a very beautiful birthday girl :)

Jackie Is 10!!!

My birth baby is 10... How is that possible? Oh how I love her. She is the one who keeps me sane when the parenting of special needs kids gets me to feeling low.

It was soooo much fun to give her a puppy for her 10th birthday :) She said several times: "I can't believe this! Thank you thank you thank you Mom and Dad! I think I'm dreaming!!"

A Brief Moment of Sun... Two Days Ago

And when it finally came out...however briefly... I took a walk down the trail. The tamaracks have hung on a long time this fall. They are so beautiful when the sun shines on them. They are the first to get their needles/leaves in the Spring and the last to lose them in the Fall. Still today their needles have not yet fallen. This trail goes around the perimeter of our property. We first started mowing it 5 or 6 years ago (I think) and we could see clear across the property to the house (and in the house I could see the kids skiing most of the way around the property). Just look at these trees now. I am starting to wonder if we will have the courage to cut them down to save our view of the sunsets in the west... And you sure can't see the house from the trail (or the trail from the house) any more.

A Fond Farewell, A Sad Goodbye

On Sunday we had to say goodbye to our very dear friends, the Palmers. I can hardly post this without crying. We will miss them like crazy. Our kids have known each other since birth/adoption. John and I have known Mark since he was a 20 year old kid, and Beth since she and Mark were engaged. In all those years we were pretty close geographically so got together a lot. We kept saying 'this is not goodbye... we will get together again...' And it isn't like they are across the country from us... but we all know that seeing each other again will be a rare occurrence now... rats... This will definitely be on my list of life's unhappiest events.

Paul and Becky Get Married

My mom's cousin's daughter (making her my cousin twice removed or ?) was married last Saturday and they asked John to officiate :) It sleeted and rained all the trip down on Friday, but on Saturday the weather abated enough to keep the ceremony outside. Becky (bride) was beautiful! Elaine (bride's mom) made the bridesmaid dresses that were just gorgeous!


So much fun to see my mom's family again. I did not get pictures of everyone, and one person who would like to remain nameless (Kathy) didn't want me to take her picture. But here are a couple anyway.

Bedroom Trading/Rearranging Home Reclamation: Take 6,900,809

Jaime has taken over Kat's bedroom. Kat left several things in there and gave the room to Jackie while she (Kat) is at her last year of college. For various reasons we needed to once again change the sleeping arrangements and this seemed the best spot for Jaime. Kat's stuff got a new home with Becca, upstairs, for its own safety (jaime has a tendency to bust up whatever is handy when she is upset about something, one of the unhappy consequences of her brain tumor as an infant). Jaime's bed is around the corner to the right, built into the wall.

In this room, Molly and Jackie are back together. I got the princess bed curtains/mosquito netting at a garage sale for a total of $1.50. The dresser on the left is the one from Freecycle that my sons rolled a vehicle on the way to pick up. The green chair to the right is all you can see of a two chair and round glass table set usually on the deck, another freecycle item.

I finally located my camera (after increasing my bribe amount from a small chocolate treat to: chocolate, coffee with cream, $1, and a breakfast at the local cafe, it turned up in Matt's bag of stuff from fire prevention week at school. Matt was the one that "found" it in his stuff, so I took back the offer for breakfast)... anyway... I finally located my camera so tomorrow I will try to take pictures of Mel's bedroom makeover. We are just coming off of a 4 day weekend (Minnesota Educators yearly get together) that dang near did me in. Adopted kid fall anniversary issues combined with Jaime's meds seemingly losing their effectiveness made for four Hellish days... Melissa has screamed so much recently that yesterday John finally had enough and assigned her the job of the dishes forever!

Organic Kraut

A 10 gallon Red Wing Crock being filled with healthy, organically homegrown cabbage, sprinkled with sea salt. We had a great crop of red and green cabbage, both of which went into this batch of Kraut. I came across a pretty neat site when I was checking out some kraut making methods: Wild Fermentation. You can see the old guy pounding down the cabbage in the background... I was chopping it up at the counter while we all watched what turned out to be a tense and disappointing Twins/Yankees game.
Even though we trash talked Jeeter, Inge and A-rod at the top of our collective lungs, the Twins lost in a close game. The Yankees are a tough team to take on, after all they BUY their talent. We GROW our talent here in Minnesota and are way proud of our Boys! We are puttin' on the rally caps and preparing for a great come-back today! GO TWINS!

Joshua Totals a Bronco

Thanks be to God, no one was hurt. You can see in the first picture the road was coated in ice. If I had any idea it was that bad, I would not have sent Josh and Tom to pick up a "Free Cycle" dresser. Becca, already on her way to work, called home and told us the roads were terrible, but too late... the boys were on their way. At only 35 mph they slid sideways across the road, caught the edge of driveway and slowly rolled. They had to push themselves off the roof to get their seat belts unfastened. The gas was running out of the tank into the inside of the truck. But though they smelled like a gas can, they were unhurt.

Once again we are praising God for bringing Joshua (and Thomas, too this time) through yet another unfortunate event. What a year it has been for him...

Rebecca Buys A Car!

Now she is working on mastering the manual transmission :)

It doesn't get much more suspenseful than it did tonight! Yea! Twins! Here we come New York!