So long 2013 and HELLO 2014..........

So long 2013 and HELLO 2014, I have great hopes for you!!!

See you in a year

It is finished, at least that is how I feel it is. On Dec 23rd at my last reconstruction post op appointment, the Doc stated "see you in a year"...a whole entire year, not another six months or less, but an entire year.

You see this is significant to me for many reasons. I will give a timeline since 2006 (for 7 1/2 years)

May 2006 - Tuki comes home, I am a first time Mom at the age of 42 (BIG adjustment, yet it was awesome, but all first time Moms understand the bitter sweet time of adjustment)

December 2008 - wild child Ve comes home at the age two weeks shy of 5 years old.

July 2009 - I have an active case of Lyme's disease

October 2009 - My feet are hurting me so bad (like walking on glass) that I had to give up running, because I could barely walk, and 20 lbs immediately seemed to have leaped onto my body within 2 months

November 2009 - Mim comes home at the age of 12 1/2 years old, honeymoon lasts only 6 months..and then you can imagine a teenager with emotional baggage

January 2010 - I have developed such severe allergies (sound like a smoker) that I now need weekly allergy shots

ALL 2010 and early 2011 - Thyroid numbers are really high and can't get them normalized, feet and allergies problems are ongoing

August 2011 - I am diagnosed with LCIS breast cancer. Mim has only been home for 1 yr, 9 mos and Tuki is 5 and Ve is 7.

September 2011 - May 2012 - saw many doctors trying to choose my best option

June 2012 - Double mastectomy and first reconstruction surgery with abdomen tissue, left one failed due to undetected chronic lyme disease

July 2012 - 2nd reconstruction surgery to correct left breast failure

November 2012 - My eldest brother dies at 55

December 2012 - Removes issue expander and replaced with left thigh tissue

January 2013 - Confirmed that I was still just as positive with lymes's disease and co-infections as I was originally in July 2010 and it has been creating havoc in my body all this time, thus the many illnesses.

March 2013 - Started treatment for Chronic Lyme disease for six months

March - October 2013  - Lyme disease symptoms start reversing...I can actually start walking the dogs and attempt to start running again but in awful shape

June 2013 - 4th reconstruction surgery attempting to make left and right the same

December 6 2013 - 5th reconstruction surgery

December 23, 2013 - "see you in a year"

and I am feeling well enough to continue the long road back to get into shape...but as I have heard I need to allow for a "new normal" for my fitness level.

My inner peace level is awesome. For years probably since 2008 I have had this inner unrest, weight on my shoulders, can't take a deep breath, etc...and all for really good reasons that one just followed the other and it may have all been compounded by the Lyme disease.......it is finished, it is finished....sounds so sweet to my ears..this has been the best break I have had in years, years YEARS as well, very rested and at peace...I say good buy to 2013 and my word for 2014 is "Better".......better health, better family dynamics, better peace, better love, better communication, just BETTER!

Nothing much

We have been laying pretty low since Christmas.....really low since my face is peeling a little more every day, but doing well. We are expecting visitors Brenda and her kids in a few days, that will get us going. I fear that I can become a real hermit when given the opportunity...and my daughters are also feeling fine with how lazy we have been. Mim had a party she attended yesterday, but other than that nothing. We will clean the house for our guests and then work on 4 more gourd ornaments. We ave several out for Christmas, our first ever, but for some reason I didn't take any pictures of them. Other family members expressed interest in getting them so we will make more before New Year's day in which we will all get together again.

Christmas

Ve turned 10, Sixteen people came to our house for our celebration, we have a TON of snow so it definitely was a white Christmas, my face is peeling from the chemical peel, it was the sanding joke yesterday, and my girls are happy with their gifts and I am touched by Mim's gift to me which was a Christmas CD she had burned for me at school i her Video Production class of how she joined our family and a big thank you to me. It was very touching and one I hope to remember when she and I are at a standstill in understanding each other. It was a good Christmas. My wonder is how come it take so long to make all the dishes but withing one hour we are done eating......

Tonight

The two wee girls and I made our cut out cookies while my eldest debuted in baking 2 batches of puppy chow. We are nearly ready for the crowd on Wednesday. Tomorrow a lot of cooking and baking, Christmas eve service, and then the final touches for our Christmas celebration.

Today I drove to Milwaukee for my post surgery recheck, then I had a touch up on my breast tattoos and finally I had the chemical peel. It was some of the worst driving today that I have experienced in  along time. I went through 2 1/2  gallons of washer fluid. It was treacherous, and I am grateful to be back safe and sound.

Tuki's Rudolph story that includes how wrong bullying is.

Pretty original for a 2nd grader!!

Ve's 5 years home

Ve (codename), my middle child is celebrating her 5 year homecoming day today..5 years already. This is a very significant year since it marks that she will now have been home for as many years as she was in Haiti. She was 2 weeks shy of 5 years old in 2008 when she arrived in Wisconsin on a plane that took her from a country with 80 degree weather to a country and state that was having -30 degree weather with the windchill...just as she adapted so smoothly to the extreme differences in temperature, she has adapted to her new life in our family. Happy Homecoming Ve!!

Today

I am sitting here in the hospital in Milwaukee, recovering from my last reconstruction surgery. It has been an journey. It has lasted 2 years, but now I am coming out at the other end. My friend Barb will be picking me up today around noon, and then I will be heading home. Grandma stayed over with the girls the last two nights since I was at a conference in Madison before I drove to Milwaukee yesterday. They ended keeping me over night since I was vomiting in excess as I was waking up.

I had fat grafting to finish constructing  my breasts,and guess where they got the fat, right leg, right and left hips.. I am oozing now and will have to wear a girdle for 3 weeks, but will come out a slimmer bustier beauty. On Dec 23 rd I am scheduled for a chemical peel on my face..yes, as my sister states..just call me plastic, but I call it making lemonade from lemons and maybe a 50 yrs old mid-life crisis.

Tomorrow is Tuki's first BB tourney..we'll see how it goes.

Our Christmas Tree

We don't go out and cut our Christmas tree, but the girls and I do walk two blocks, pick out our tree and then walk home proudly carrying our tree as though we chopped it from the woods... we accomplished this homesteading  feat tonight in the drizzling rain, so I sit here warm, relaxing, the tree is anchored in the stand, and I smile and breathe in the smell of fir permeating our home...:) sometimes life truly is amazing.

Now it just needs to be decorated

Tuki turned 8 today!!

We had a busy day today. First it started with walking dogs, then Mim went Black Friday shopping with Grandma, Cousin Eden, and aunt Darla. She wanted to experience it so she went. The wee ones, and I went to a nearby town, I had some blood drawn for the Lyme disease check up and then we went to Grandma's home with the rest of the family to send quality time with them.   

Yesterday we had Thanksgiving at my sister's home and it was real nice because my brother Jeff and his wife and daughter came to visit from Louisiana for the holiday.

photos to follow one I get them downloaded

We plan to buy the Christmas tree and put up the outdoor Christmas deer and tree, along with a few stands of lights.

The Nutcracker

The girls and I attended a local jazzier version of the Nutcracker yesterday. What was so extra amazing about it to me was there were at least over six students that I have taught over the years in this ballet. The lead, Clara, who is now an 8th grader was in my science class last year, One of the dancers I had several years when I taught 7th and 8th grade and she is now a Junior...I could go on and on. It was wonderful as always. I love the Nutcracker in all its versions. Now I am in the mood for the Christmas season....I am thinking we try and get a Christmas tree over our Thanksgiving break since we are right on top of December.

Conferences

Tonight was P/T Conferences...for all 3 of the girls....

The elementary is grading based on the Standard Based Assessment. 4 - 1, with 4 the highest.

Tuki earned all 4's and 3's. A ton of praise from her teachers about her behavior. She is at a DRA reading level of 34, which is 500- 800 lexile, which is about mid-3rd grade level.

Ve earned 1, 2 and some 3's. What I didn't like is she had 2's on her effort. So she came along tonight and we talked with her teacher about her effort. What came out of the conference is that the teachers feel now is the time to check her for ADD since it is now getting in the way of her learning. Her DRA is also 34, mid 3rd grade while she is at 4th grade. She wastes a lot of time with everything around her and doesn't get to work, especially on her own. So I will be calling her doctor tomorrow to start the evaluation process for her ADD diagnosis. Her classroom teacher even had the school psychologist conduct and observation and it is her report that confirms she needs help focusing.

Mim earned all A's & B's in her classes. Not bad for her sophomore year in a new school.

Other than that we are all doing well.

Comeback - 2

run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 6 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
run total of 33 minutes and feel good, at a pace of 5.5, 5.6, 5.7..getting there :)
Little more tire tonight since this running day back the previous increased workout

Comeback - 1

I have decided to chronicle my comeback to running. Since I had stopped 4 years ago, I have had some major health issues which were due to Lyme disease.

I am not under treatment for it, and have been since March and I am feeling great. I have also requested prayer from my church to help restore my health. Believe what you want, but I can feel the healing power of God as I am making a comeback to not only restoration of my health, but then to running. A way to keep myself healthy as I enter the second half of my life.

I have been walking 2 miles daily with my dogs since this summer, which was after the June reconstruction surgery. Before that since I had 7 surgeries last year, I was doing no exercise to speak of, simply because I was so tired.

As of two weeks ago I started to consistently run/jog. I attempted to start before school, but then the start of school exhausted me and I didn't keep going. It was at this time I started making prayer requests from my church body. My workouts the last two weeks have consisted of 2 - 3 times each week for 35 minutes of running/jogging and 10 - 15 minutes of stretching and strengthening.

My workout looked like this:
walk 1 min
run 1 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 1 min
walk 1 min
total of 25 min running

but today I stepped it up and my running pace stayed at 5.5 (10:45) the entire time, so now my owrkout looks like this
run 1 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 5 min
walk 1 min
run 4 min
walk 1 min
run 3 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
run 2 min
walk 1 min
total of 26 min running

My goal is to increase minutes by walking less and increasing my pace. So far I feel strong and my feet are holding up. I do stretch them A LOT after I am done running and then again throughout the day. I know I am dealing with scar tissue as well as other issues, so my stretching is quite involved and I am ok with this. At 50, it is imperative to stay limber. My left shoulder and arm started tightening up since 6 of the 7 surgeries were from that side, and now that I am stretching it, my mobility is returning.

Dog Walkers

"Are you the dog walkers?" we heard hollered at us, as my daughters and I were leaving the yard for our nightly romp with the five, yes five pooches. I stated adamantly "no they are all ours", to ensure she would not request our employment in walking her dogs, that is if she had any.

She then stated with joy "yes, I know that they are all yours, people around here (here meaning our apartment neighbors) call your family the dog walkers and we are so envious because we all want dogs too”.

Nearly my whole life I have been called some sort of animal knick name, "bird lady" or "owl lady" when I gave programs to schools around Wisconsin, then "chicken lady" most recently by co-workers since we have chickens and we sell chicken eggs, thus the code name Aves (order for birds) but this is the first that I and we have been called "dog walkers"......I just may need to change my code name to Caesar...:)

BUSY BUSY

Busy week. The two wee ones have started HOOPS. That means Monday and Thursday nights are Tuki's practices. Tuesday and Friday nights are Ve's practices. Plus on Tuesday nights it is also Ve and Tuki's Skating practices. In addition on Wednesday nights Mim attends Youth group at church. This means we (me) are running every night of the week. Tuesdays nights are especially crazy since Ve's skating is at 4:30 - 5:10, then Tuki's skating is at 5:40 - 6:10 and then again Ve's BB practice at 6:30 - 8:00 pm, and I am running on the treadmill during the time they are at practice....busy and tired but doing well.

Report cards came for 1st quarter. On a scale of 1 - 4 (1 lowest and 4 highest), Tuki received all 3 & 4, meaning she is achieving or has achieved grade level expectations, and Ve earned mostly 2's and some 3's. What bothers me most is she earned 2's on her effort. That means she isn't trying as hard as she could. I don't worry about their comprehension grade, as long as they are working at their best. She is not. I have given her until the end of December to earn 3's on effort or she will not complete her basketball season.I want my girls to know that I value athletics, but I value academics more. Mim earned all A's and B's, which I think is pretty darn good for her first year at the high school. She works hard for her grades.

Tonight Mim is at Pam's house helping to clean it, and the wee ones are bathing and getting ready for bed. I am blogging and finishing a literature review that was due Wednesday...only 2 days late, thank goodness the prof has given me an extension. We has parent teacher conferences last night and then again on this coming Monday,

Our neighbors who have girls the same as my two wee ones are moving since their Dad has been moved to another town. Ve and Tuki are emotional about it. They are moving on Nov. 20th so now we wait for our new neighbors.

Zamboni has been neutered and slowly he is settling down..thank goodness

and of course the holidays and birthdays are around the corner!!!

Mim's 4 years

home was yesterday. It has been a good road and yet at times a bumpy bumpy road. In the good times, I get to see what a sweet girl she is and the woman she will become. She is maturing daily and I think that along with attaching to a new family at 12 1/2 has made it all so hard. We are getting there ever so slowly. I have had to "Let Go, Let God" in all areas of my life but I feel especially with Mim.

When she first came home I had to be involved, protective and on top of all aspects of her life because of her age, her lack of schooling and because of not understanding or speaking English. Many times my family and others didn't and still don't understand, but then again all they could relate to was the rearing of their biological children who never had a major loss of close family members at a young age.My health issues scared us all in thinking yet again my girls will lose their parent, so that set us into another tailspin, but I think we are seeing our way through this as well.

As she matures and is a home longer, the more she seems to settle in and she also is beginning to relax a little. So all in all it has been worth it for her and for me.

It is all a learning adventure and I think just when we get Mim through these years, Ve, and then Tuki will be teenagers...but hopefully I will know better as to what I am doing as a parent.

Wild Weekend

Thursday morning my 1st and 2nd hour went on a field trip to McDill Pond..in sub 30 degree weather. WE WERE COLD, Thursday night I chaperoned a trip to Saw-whet Owl banding. Twenty-four people from school attended and in the time we were there the banding station caught and banded 10 saw-whets and 1 long-eared owl. It was a big night!!

 Tuki with a saw-whet owl...yes full grown

Tuki looking at a long-eared owl

 Tuki again...her class is studying owls so we took these and then sent them to her teacher....she was able to talk all about owls...she loved it

Then Friday night me and the wee ones chaperoned the Halloween dance at my school.

Today we attended the Sectional CC meet, we were able to watch the meet and helped work the t-shirt stand Both boys and girls teams made it to state..

Tomorrow, we are ushering at church in the am and then trick - or- treating is in the evening 4 - 7 pm....

NONSTOP GOING........

I have been tired, cold and stiff from all this activity in the outdoors and into the evening.....so before I started blogging tonight I tried one glass of my homemade plum wine..and I am a little blitzed.....

plus now I am wrapped in my robe I received from my lovely daughters two years ago watching Ghost Buster (love this movie) and feeling TOTALING RELAXED..except for Zamboni's barking in an attempt to get something going with someone...thank goodness he is getting neutered this Wednesday..the boy has been pushing his luck with all of us lately.

I am feeling so relaxed that I think I am going to try some of my homemade pear wine...don't worry I am only slightly relaxed and blitzed, but I must admit it feels good to let go now and then.....

Weekend update

Friday night Ve and Tuki attended their cousins annual Halloween Party...came home tired but content with much candy.

Mim ran their last race of the season, she didn't PR but she had a good race and a finish that was on a high note.

We came home and harvested pumpkins, cabbage and egg gourds int he rain. Today we are planning to go to church,  line the inside walls of the chicken coop with the our 35 hay bales, rake and gather more bags of leaves for the duck bedding, laundry and pull hoses, stakes, lights etc form the garden..and clean the house..I have told the girls we won't have rest time to rest on weekends until we are done winterizing.

Photos from yesterday.

 our Muscovy duck flock...Matilda (chocolate in back) Lucinda, Omar, Beyonce and Lovely.and the wild Mallard duckling...now a teen hen Daisy. Ducks are the best hawk watchers around....haven't lost a bird yet this year and we have had a juvie red-tailed hanging around for several months.

 Big Omar and one of the hen Lucinda...he watches out for his girls!!! :)

 some of our somewhat ripe pie pumpkins

 our ripe jack and knuckled pumpkins - total of 47 pumpkins

 our too many to count egg gourds - wait we counted 217 gourds

Zamboni at nearly 8 months

Flower shots from the summer

Old and new photos

 inside the red carrots

 chickadees from this summer

 begging for food

 a better photo

 another photo

 2 weeks older - fledged soon after this - over 4th of July weekend

 sign from the 50th birthday

 Zamboni's graduation

 our carrot harvest today

so far our pumpkin harvest, but many more green ones in the garden

It's been a while

since I posted. I found a PBS video girl, adopted, that Mim and I watched together. It was about a young girl around 13 that had been adopted into an Arkansas family. It followed her from the time of adoption to post high school and cosmetology school graduation. The young lady struggled with many of the same things Mim does and I imagine many of our black children struggle with living in a family with almost all white people.

It was funny because Mim stated that the family never got upset with her even though you could easily see that the girl was sassy, mean and disrespectful at times. I did point it out to her that it was a film and there is such a thing called editing rights....

Anyway we had a good discussion and she shared that she feels that no matter how good things are she always feels like there is a hole in her heart. I shared with her that is normal and I understand since I have also lost many people and more than likely the hole will never disappear but a person does learn to live with it and still feel happy.

We are also talking about emotional maturity when it comes to me allowing her more freedoms. I have told her that it isn't that I don't believe she can learn (to drive) but rather right now with the behaviors she displays at home I don't trust her decision making skills and that is where I am looking to see emotional maturity...she admitted she does like to blow frequently and enter into a very immature state....

Last weekend we went kayaking and I hope to go one more time before we lose this great weather.
This weekend we have to finish harvesting from the garden and Mim has a CC meet this morning. I am typing this while we wait to go tot he meet.

The wee ones are more than excited about Halloween and a Halloween party next Friday...school is going well for all 3 and that I am happy about

Today

Mim is reacting to missing out on everything yesterday, and she has reverted back to "mom's fault" I have been trying to show her, though unsuccessfully that "her style" that she claims she has a right to (which she does) is not working for her...her style is slow moving, kumbyha mentally and yesterday for example it evens hurts her and what she wants, as well as the family and her studies...but the problem is she does not process or analyze mistakes, so she never figures out "what went wrong" she just complains and says "why does this always happen to me"....well I know it is because she never seems to finish anything to the end, partially end, almost done but not all the way and it costs her time and time again...but she doesn't take the time to figure it out and she hates when I point it out to her....so here we are again dealing with "her style"

Rough week for me

but not with the girls, just work in general, but it helped in reminding me what is truly important...and not exactly what I focus on at times..that is work related..Thank you Lord for always reminding me that work is fleeting and you will promote when the time is right......in your timing for your glory!!

Tough lesson for Mim.
She had a CC meet this am and was to leave at 5:30am. I informed her to set the alarm (her responsibility), wake me up and I will drop her off. I had a 3 hour class today so I had friends keep Ve and Tuki over night on Friday. So this morning was totally cleared for Mim to go her way and me mine...EXCEPT Mim didn't wake up, and I woke without the alarm at 6:00am...30 minutes past the departure of her CC bus. She was very disappointed, and initially she blamed me, which she loves to do whenever anything goes wrong, but then she realized it was her fault since she did not set her alarm....she has been a little sad all day, but well behaved..this just might be a maturity breakthrough for her..... and better for this to happen for a CC meet rather than a job...

Midway

through cross country season with Mim, and she is really setting some good goals for her races and is meeting them...Good for her!!

Ve and Tuki just went to their second skating class last night and we registered them for Hoops basketball Sunday night. This will be Tuki's first year and Ve's second.

I am applying for a 10,000 fellowship from our local university in hopes of applying the money to my STEM Branching class that I am offering this year for 2 sections that I am teaching for the first time.

I also plan to submit a grant for 1,000, also for that class and I have also submitted entry questions to Samsung again in hopes of making it to round 2 of their competition.

My admin class is a hybrid, but mostly it is on-line which saves me from having to run to class weekly. I have decided to conduct research on how effective our school implements RtI. I can use this research in place of taking the graduation test so I am really excited about this...my class work is real and not just for homework..

We are in the final stages of harvesting the garden but we will leave the carrots for a few more weeks and the pumpkins, squash and gourds until about the second week of October.

Calming down

Once again Mim and I had a knock down disagreement and then finally we talked it out and for a while I think we will be fine. She feels that I am very strict and I should allow her to do whatever she feels she want to...sounds like attachment issues or teenage..probably a co-mingling of both, but I finally told her "live with it or get out". She kept insinuating that I change and not her. At first, I felt like she might have some merit in what she was saying (for a year or so, maybe I was too protective), but now I finally am just saying no, this is the way it is. She is not mature enough to handle all that she insists she is old enough to be able to do. We have been doing so well for 4 weeks, but this last blow up came from her exhaustion from school all day and cross country practice and meets at night or weekends...and I am seriously considering not allowing her to do track in the spring because of the stress she feels from juggling it all. Boy do I know how that feels too...

I think about how for the last nearly 4 years I have been carrying" Mim...in school, in sports, around the house etc.,...you know what I mean all that goes along with parenting, but then you add the layer of learning a new language and a new culture on top of that....we as parents help them by supporting and maneuvering them through this new life, and it is hard, and it is a lot, and it is stressful some days. It is all worth it when they achieve success like Mim being able to take French because she has a high enough reading lexile and access score in only 3 1/2 years of being home versus the statistical 7 years and when they say they love you and appreciate all you do for them.

Yet she tells me her life has been terrible and I have done nothing for her....she is good at the insults....it is then that I feel it has not been worth the stress of the last 4 years.....it has not been worth it at all.

But to see the bright side, I think, I hope we are going into a good spell, at least for awhile now.

Why

is it than time can go by and all seems to go real well, and then all of a sudden you are dealing with a ton of adoption related issues...... that is how it has been the last week or so....exhausted!!

8 hours

of canning, freezing, washing (laundry and dishes) and baking today. Today canned 6 pints of pear jam, 1 pint of pickled summer squash, 5 pints of sliced spiced pickles, froze 10 cups of peppers, froze 10 cups of tomatoes, and baked 20 loaves of pear bread. We also have the pears cut up for the wine, but I need to purchase a mesh bag to hang the pulp in while it is fermenting. In addition to this we have 3 crispers full of fresh peaches, plums and pears, and we are expecting to pick up the 1/2 beef this week. actually feel like we have a ton of food...like where are we going to store it all yet, especially since we still need to harvest the carrots, 3 types of pumpkins, butternut and spaghetti (volunteer plant that was quite prolific) squash, sunflowers and the egg gourds (not edible).....our cup runs over with yummy food. Our potatoes were killed off by the monster pumpkins and our cabbage may not fully mature by freezing since they were delayed from the rabbits and out tomatoes harvest has been low and late his year so I may purchase a bushel from our local farmers market so we can freeze more for chili over the winter.

Mim

gets to take French I in school. She has been wanting to do this for several years now, we even tried last year but then she wasn't in ESL support classes and within 3 weeks she was failing 3 classes. We took her out and put her in supported classes. This year she started at the high school, the ESL teacher stated at Back to School the other night that Mim didn't need ESL support for reading anymore since she is doing so well...she is now in French...and way excited about it and I am very happy for her since her hard work has really paid off for her...Way to Go MIM!!

Today

was Mim's cross country meet, her time improved by 40 seconds...a real improvement. Since it was a home meet, me and the wee ones helped manage the course for all the races. Ve and Tuki ran the mile fun run for elementary students. All three ran hard and did a good job. Once we came home, I canned 2 quarts of yellow beans, 4 pints of plum jam, set up the start of the plum wine, and tasted while moving the apricot wine. In addition I am baking about 20 some loaves of plum bread for the freezer. So far we have about 40 some loaves of blueberry and peach bread and now another 20 plus and tomorrow I plan to bake another 20 some more loaves of pear bread.....did I say that we love this bread...it is our weekend treat. Besides the pear bread tomorrow, we will can more pickles, pickled summer squash and start the pear wine, and freeze peppers. Next week our 1/2 beef should be ready for pick up, so our freezers are filling up once again for the winter. It feels good to know that things will quiet down for a while, just like I get excited when things heat up in the spring.

Tired

...all last week and now this week. We had back to school night last night so we were at school very late. I am amazed as to how tired I get even though I never really take a break all summer. I think it is different kind of tired, emotional and mental exhaustion and then the hard floors don't make my feet feel great, so it tires out my whole body. We are still walking the dogs 2 miles every night but I have not been running.....I know I am not proud but at least we have been dedicated to walk the dogs..better than what we did a year ago.  Hopefully I will work up to a more active life style again..like years ago.

Made it

through the day, and on fancy shoes, and my feet handled it just fine and we took the dogs for their nightly walk as well. Tuki made it through her first day of 2nd grade, Ve through her first day of 4th grade and Mim through her first day of her sophomore year. Typical of Mim, she did get lost but eventually worked it out...she is sort of direction deficient and I have learned to let her work it out according her to way..which BTW is very different than mine. But we are all ready for day 2 and I will be heading to my admin class tomorrow night...so no dog walking!!! :(

First Day

of school with students tomorrow...whew, not completely sure how I feel, on the one hand glad to be around all the action again, but on the other hand not quite ready for the crazy schedule that we will all be having. We all feel really tired today already and the week has yet to begin....

Bountiful garden, though late in the summer

Fourteen quarts of salsa today..I will post a picture soon, but I made 3 batches all at once...good to go on the salsa front. We also counted our yellow beans and we ended up canning 16 quarts of them here and there, so I feel a good number for us and add that to the green beans and we will have a ton for over winter.

I will have to post pictures soon of our ENORMOUS pumpkins and our gazillion egg gourds...a bountiful year for some vegetables and not so much for others.

We have had enough cucumbers on a every other day pick that we have given many picks away so that has been good as well...

Update

Haven't run since Monday, for some reason became very flu like sick everyday and then Wednesday we went all night with Mim's orientation and Ve & Tuki's Back to school night and then Thursday night Mim had her intrasquad run..she didn't do so well even though she ran all summer..I think after some discussion with her, she misunderstood something with her running technique and obviously it didn't pay off for her. Today after another morning at school (not scheduled) and and afternoon 3+ mile walk with the girls and dogs, we are going to our friend Pam's farm and pick some fallen apples for the chickens, eat supper and relax...my head is always spinning the first week of school with all the things I need to have ready for the students plus with this new class I am teaching and all the planning with it. I feel over whelmed before I have even got started....in a week or two things tend to settle down and it isn't so overwhelming.

I plan to run tomorrow so I don't get out of the newly formed habit....it is hard to keep exercising when just starting to recreate the habit..I forget this once my body craves it but now...not so much.

23

minutes of running and 2 miles of walking with the dogs after my first day back to school. I was tired and I didn't want to run but I made myself do it and I am glad for it...on a really hot and muggy summer day too.....summer has finally arrived weather wise and I am not off to enjoy it....oh well!! Life sure moves forward in a warp speed fashion.

End of summer update

I am on my last weekend off and then the craziness begins. I haven't really taken much time off this summer anyway since I am teaching a new class this fall in which I developed the curriculum and activities that will meet the learning objectives. It required a lot of running around to surrounding community members this summer, but if the class turns out like I envision it, it should really be fun and yet a thought provoking class, and real world application thus hopefully the learning will be more meaningful.

We are still finishing the final stages of the chicken coop, a few loose ends from the garage and still a lot of garden harvest and more bread making. We also have 1/2 a cow and 1/2 a pig coming for the freezer.

In addition our fall will include:
Mim's CC season until November
Ve and Tuki's skating season until next April
Ve and Tuki starting Basketball in November
My weekly admin class that will meet every Wednesday night until the end of December
Hopefully some more kayaking weekends as well

I am going to try and keep building up my running time and also attempt to keep our nightly family walks with the dogs as often as possible.

I decided to keep Tuki in before school care located at the school, but this year I am allowing Ve to walk to school (3 blocks away) about 1 hour after me and Mim leave for school. She is going into 4th grade and she wants to do this on her own and I think she can handle it and it will teach her to watch the time more closely and hopefully give a better sense of time since she seems to struggle with this concept. Both will walk home together.

Mim will be biking to high school until the weather doesn't allow for it anymore. This will make it easier for me in not having to pick her up after practice and it gives her some independence. She has been biking to her high school all summer for summer school so it shouldn't be a big deal for her.

Tomorrow in church we will be ushering and Mim will help lead the worship in the 11:00am service. She is both VERY excited and VERY nervous. I'm proud as to how focused and serious she is taking this. I can tell she really, and I mean really enjoys this...I have never seen her this excited about anything else except boys.

That is all the update for now...

21

minutes today of running and I feel pretty good too!! Slowly but surely.....and certainly turtle pace.

16

minutes of continuous running..and it felt good too, so I plan to run again tomorrow as well. I decided since I have tried many different types of workouts for very long lengths with little to no results, my workouts will now only consist of increasing my running time, abs and arms. This way my running feels good and I haven't worn myself completely out for the next day's workout.....Running has been the only real effective workout for me to trim my lower part of my body in a decent amount of time. Walking works too, but it requires a good two hours of walking to get the same effect that 1 hour or less of running can do....so my altered workout..we'll see how it goes.

Poop

Too much information...I think not!!
I just learned or maybe just focused in on it today at the dentist. Bacteria from your surroundings is attracted to the food that is left on your teeth (this part I knew), so, as the bacteria eats the food or any food left over even after a mediocre brushing they defecate....i.e. plaque, this acidic plaque (poop) hardens and because of the high acid content of the poop in your normally neutral body, the acid starts eating away on your teeth, thus creating a cavity. It is especially important to brush and floss well at night because your saliva, neutral, is a natural buffer against this acid, and your body creates less saliva at night. You can bet I broke this down real nice and simple for my daughters and will probably discuss it in my science class this year when we talk about acids and bases...and anyone who really knows me well, knows that naturally when I tell my girls to brush their teeth, I now say go brush the bacteria poop off....easy compliance...why a fancy word like plaque when a simple word would do!!!!

Camping in Waupaca

We attended a camp about 45 minutes away this time. We kenneled the dogs and fed and watered the chickens plenty to last them 2 days. I ended up dropping Mim off at my friend's farm since she was acting up again and I had decided that she was not going to be allowed to ruin another trip..something she did every time we went on vacation this summer. She told me yesterday that she thought I was bluffing about not letting her go, so it was a good thing I followed through and it was a good thing my friends were there for me so I could do that. She has been much better since we have returned and for the time being she appreciates being here instead of always acting like her life here is so terrible....

I have started speaking with my Pastor's wife, who is a counselor at church. I plan to meet a few times with her so Mim is more willing to see her since she sees me doing it. She has already agreed to go and has admitted she needs help which is a HUGE step since she had been refusing to go for 2+ years.  Hopefully we can get past her lack of trust in me as a parent, so she can take guidance from me without always fighting me every step of the way and her lack of trust in general so she can discover that life has a lot of happiness in it.

She has officially started CC practice today and also Worship Band Camp this week, so she is a busy girl again..Plus we checked out the school she will be attending in a few short weeks and boy or boy is she nervous, especially knowing that I won't be working in the same school...so we'll see how it goes.

Garden harvesting is picking up...just in time for school to start...a little late so my fall will be busy!!!

Peaches

We ordered about 5 different types of fruit again this year. So far we had the blueberries and apricots arrive. Two days ago the peaches came, and today amidst the continual chicken coop remodeling, I made 16 loaves of very yummy Peach-Peanut (double p) bread...it really does taste great, plus I am setting another gallon of peach wine and canning about 5 pints of peach jam....and we still have an entire box left over so we will continue to eat the fresh peaches over the next few weeks. We are getting ready for out camping weekend, our last hurrah before our life becomes super crazy again....BTW - because we have been working so focused and intensively on the chicken coop, I haven't been able to sneak in a work out this week...so I better get some in next week.

It doesn't appear that I will meet my weight goal...I knew there was a reason I needed to be conservative...I am much more toned (yeah I know hard to tell from the previous posted pictures of myself), but believe me I am more toned than maybe 3 month ago...it was that bad, so I am trying to stay positive and keep taking baby steps forward to overall health and fitness.

Dog Days Photos

with DaVinci, Rembrandt and Zamboni

 the crew ready to compete

 Ve with Zamboni carrying a spoon and potato

 Tuki dressing up Zamboni

 Mim all smiles for Uncle W

 Mim competing with DaVinci

 The 3 in back in the command competition

Playing musical hoola hoops

Around the "Farm" in the city

 Insulating the coop walls with the old feed bags..finally we have found a use after many years of looking..I just couldn't in good faith throw the old ones away to eventually end up in a landfill..never to decompose.

 another view from the inside looking out the door

 from the outside--eventually we will cover this will polycarbonate sheets that shade the feed bags from view.

 Matilda, our chocolate Muscovy hen has adopted an orphan wild mallard ducking that was brought to us by a local wildlife agent this past Sunday.

 Louise, one of our original 10 hens that are now 4 years old..pretty old for a chicken.

 Second stage, the bagged walls are now covered with a heavy insulating tarp that I had for years.....also our newly built perches from recycled materials. The hens aren't sure of them yet..taking their time in using them.

 here they are hanging outside because they don't like the "new" look to their coops.

 Hanging out in the middle coop because we hadn't built the new perches in this coop by yesterday evening...and this is the one this group of birds usually sleep in.

 Omar....in the back out Muscovy drake...he is quite the character

Copper.our Campine..just because I think she is beautiful