A Small piece of Skid Loader, Red Tulips, and an Unknown Message.

It was exactly what was needed.

A tiny thing, almost invisible, but so big in it's purpose.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Living on a farm of any size demands the need for equipment.

Shovels and pitch forks are dandy for pictures and fine artwork,

but the real horse power of today has much more work potential in a few hours

than a man's muscles could accomplish in days, or even weeks.

As our farm has grown in animal numbers, so has our need for the farmer's "toys", as I kiddingly call them.

One of the best investments we have ever made was our skid loader.

Heavy round hay bales can be moved where needed,

 manure cleaned from the barns in one fifth of the time it used to take with a tractor.

The skid loader can turn and maneuver with ease. It always amazes me to see the strength and power that the little thing has.

It is, I think, the Farmer's best friend (old Fido contending closely).

And when it breaks down,

oh, the horror.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Gather your tulips together and put them in the back corner behind the shed with the rest of your plants.

That way we can keep all your things to sell together so when the day of the sale comes, you know where yours are," I spoke to Violet as I bent over my own garden work in progress.  "When you are done with your tulips and hyacinths and they are all together with your liatris, I want you to go through the rows of mixed plants and find my hydrangea.  See, they look like this..."

Her head came close to mine as she looked at the sticks emerging from the pots with just a few leaves poking through around the base of the plant.  She touched the leaves, as if touching them would help her better remember what they looked like.

"Okay, where do you want them?" she asked as she began to gather a few of her potted tulips.

"Put them over there next to the house in a group by those hostas.  We're supposed to get a frost tonight and if we don't cover them, they will lose all those baby leaves.  It happened last year, and then they weren't ready for the sale.  I want you to find 15 of them.  I know there are at least that many and that would really help me out.  If you find 15, I'll let you keep one to sell for yourself because they are good sellers; plus you can have 3 extra tickets on the chore chart."  She smiled and I knew the reward was a good enough incentive to get her search into action.

I scanned the horizon and saw how quickly the sun was moving toward it.  There was so much to still get done before the day could be lost and the frost came.



  I gathered the last of the plants I needed to put into pots, labeled the outside of the pots, and then scraped my trowel into the wheelbarrow full of dirt.  Levi ran by with a toad in his hand.

"Levi, you need to put that thing back where you got it from and go up to the barn and start watering the cows.  Daddy was just calling for you."  He frowned at the toad, but set him down and set off up the drive toward the barn.  Lillie stepped out onto the porch and reminded me that she was hungry.  "May I have a cheese stick?" she asked, and she disappeared back into the house when I agreed.

My elbow shot a pain as I extended it to lift a pot from the ground.  Where did that come from?

My tailbone seemed to moan as I bent over to make getting the pot easier.

"You old body."  I muttered at myself.  "Why do you have to complain so much?"

A little while later, I could hear Lillie and Violet talking.  She'd finished her cheese stick, and upon coming back outside, Violet had gotten her to help her.  "You carry this one back to where I just put the red flowers.  These are my tulips and they need to all be together."  It was nice to see them working together.  Things between them are not always so cheery.

As the darkness started to stretch across the sky, that nagging feeling of doubt began to waft through my weary being.  Was this all really worth it?




  All these hours spent digging, potting, watering, carting, and then starting it all over again.  The gardens and mulching and weeding were hard to keep up with.  Then there was the pricing and labeling, the advertising and getting boxes.

As I heard the girls, I remembered why I had started this: to help contribute some income for the family while giving the kids a way to earn some money and learn how to work;

to help make our yard beautiful while paying for it;

to do something I loved and enjoyed, even if sometimes that part of it got lost in the work part.  I always know that after the plant sale, when things slow to a normal pace again, I do love my gardens.

Still, when the sun is setting over tarps and sheets covering countless hours of potential,

sometimes,

one wonders.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The search for the broken part of the skid loader could be ridiculously hard.

Thankfully, my husband is a mechanic, so he was able to narrow it down.

After he had fixed a part or two, though, his frustration became obvious over a dinner conversation.

What could be wrong with it?

He tried to think things through and search different options on internet searches.

Finally, he thought he'd pinpointed the problem.

He placed the order and reminded me to be on the lookout for the part.

When it came, I laughed.

 Could this be it?  Really?  The whole works of the farm were stopped...


because of this?

Funny how something so seemingly insignificant and buried deep inside a powerful machine was this important to making the whole thing work.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I trudged up the stairs and could smell the hamburgers cooking.

How nice that the Farmer was such a help in the kitchen when my days amongst the rows of plants grew long.  I stopped at the computer before heading to the table to check for an email I was expecting,

and I saw a new one in response to the Craigslist ad I had put on earlier that day about the plant sale coming up in a couple weeks.  It was a name and address I didn't recognize.

"I have been waiting ALL year to visit y'all again!!!  I love love love everything I have purchased from y'all over the past two yrs!!!"    ----Fay

Funny how a few simple words typed onto a screen can make the sun shine in the dark,

make my cold, aching body feel a stroke of warmth in the heart.

She didn't have to take the time from her busy day to send a few kind words to a stranger,

but she did.

Sometimes, it is the small things:
the seemingly insignificant pieces that can get the skid loader moving again,

a kind word in an email from a stranger,

the drifting words of siblings working together over pots of plants
that awaken the heart to how simple are the joys of life.

A small thing can make all the world of difference in the everyday life.

Something I need to remember;

and I realized how a prayer of thanks must be to the Creator,

simple, yet sweet,

 like the beauty of a red tulip after a hard day's work.

And so I thanked Him.

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Puppy Dog Tails and...Greek.

I was looking through pictures this evening.

In home-schooling right now, we are studying Archimedes in science;

in history we are studying life in early Greece,

Cyrus and Ptolemy,

Greek Mythology,

Greek alphabet, coins, city-states, governments;

in art, early Greek sculpture and pottery...

It's rather...

umm...

 if I say interesting, will you believe me?

Actually, I am getting much more out of it this time around,

compared to when I was my daughter's age, but for some reason when I sit down at night to write,

here,

my brain feels like it has turned into the empty blank screen I see.

"Thoughts?

Hello....

 thoughts in this head anywhere?"
and that is how it goes.

The massive amount of Greek knowledge must be taking it's toll.

Besides that, I've had my fingers occupied with working on pieces for my new blog.

How I enjoy doing artwork again!

It isn't Greek to me. 

(Yes, okay, I'll stop with the Greek.)

I know gardening season is just around the next sunshiney day,

so I'm feverishly attacking my list of "MUST-get-done"'s,

like some baby blankets for the new babies breaking onto the scene by various friends and relatives.

 (I love making this kind because it uses up a lot of miscellaneous yarn at the end of skeins

and they don't look like the typical baby blanket. Not that the typical baby blanket isn't sweet and adorable).

 Speaking of spring, my littlest child seems to think that because the sun is shining and there isn't any snow on the ground, shoes and coats are now optional

and toes are to be dipped in freshly thawed waters...

despite the frigid degrees.

Is there a glue to keep socks on?

So as I clicked through my pictures for a bright idea to surface,

I came across these from last summer.

Some pictures don't need words,

and these,

 

well...

 

these were enough for me.

I hope they cheer your day, too.

If not, you could always stop by and listen in on some Greek.

No?

The Baby's Rattle.

As I rummaged through my cart figuring out what I still needed to get,

my son handed it to me.

"What is this?" I asked looking at a baby rattle with big eyes in front of a smiling baby.

"It's a rattle.  I want to get it for Baby Rey."

I felt like sunshine had suddenly burst through the roof of the store

and shone onto my heart as I looked into his eyes.

"You mean you want to give it to Baby Rey as a gift?"

To his nodding response, I asked,  "What made you think of that?"

As he took the rattle back from me, he replied, "I saw it sitting on the shelf, and I knew he would need a rattle to play with once he is born.  I thought he would like this one."

You see, I had worried about him.

 

Worry: the thorn of motherhood.

Both my girls are very giving, always offering to share a bite,

 wanting to make pretty pictures for whomever comes into their minds.

 

  My son, on the other hand, only seems to be engrossed in his own world.

 

I understand that.  He is like myself.  I get so lost in thought, so determined not to forget something on my endless list, that I often pass by the people in life, and then suddenly realize later how selfish I have been.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

I remember it from childhood.  It was called the "Golden Rule." 

I seemed to hear it a lot then, in Sunday School, 

the theme of many childhood stories I heard and saw on the old-time shows,

coming often from the lips of the older generation.

I don't hear it in my adult ears as much,

 and yet I need it more.

I realize it when I see the same unfocused disconnect that I have,

 reflected in my son.

I want him to realize that the people around him would be better off if he was more aware of them, but how do I do that when I often flinch when I think of the stupid unthinking questions I've asked in an effort to make hasty conversation, the short answers I've given to avoid a lengthy interruption to my "important" tasks at hand,

the rambling discourse of "me" that I've gotten lost on,

 when I realize later how much I could have given and actually benefited from, if I'd just thought about the other person standing on the other side of my moving lips.

How does one instill in a child to be a giver and not a taker...

when it isn't a well-manicured trait in oneself?

I can only pray to the Greatest Giver that He would teach myself

and my son.

 And so, when, for the first time I see him thinking about buying something, a toy, for another child,

and one who hadn't even been born yet but was growing in my sister's womb,

a moment of ordinary events became a beacon of happiness to a mother's unschooled heart.

 It was there.

  That hopeful seed of kind, unselfish thought may get buried under dirty rocks of worm searches and swampy salamander hunts,

 

but he is showing that he is thinking of others;

his heart has found a way to make time for somebody else.

 I am so thankful for that.

Now he has seen the flip side of the Golden Rule, the unexpected, sweet reward:

the happiness and joy that comes from giving.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 If you would like to see a post on how to draw the eye,

using my son's eye as the sample,

head over to my new blog, a place for artwork and house projects:
Pailsofpaint.com

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Unschooled Learning

"Line up, Class."

"Raise your hand if you want to speak."

"Sit up in your chair."

"Turn around and face the front."

"Quiet, please."

"Stop tapping your pencil."

"Finish reading the page and answer the questions...

all 5,349 of them...

in English, Spanish, and then Latin...

while standing on your head and chewing gum."

Okay, maybe I added the last bits of instructions,
 but sometimes in my child's mind it seemed like the homework amounted to that.

Yes, yes.  The good ole' school days of long, long ago.

Back in the 90's, I student-taught a handful of girls and a monstrosity amount of boys;

well, not really, but it sure seemed that way.

For some reason, 9 of the 10 boys that were in my 3rd grade student-teaching class were made of

1 part human, 1 part Mexican jumping bean; 1 part indistinguishable noises; and 1 part obnoxious, odorous emissions coming from some unearthly substances their parents must have fed them
(at least it seemed that way).

Teaching is a work of love.

When I gave birth to my own man child, I realized he would also have to be schooled.

I could see right from the start this his cerebral patterns were vastly different from my girl's.

While my girl loved dolls and imitation play,

my son liked dangerous elements, noises, bugs, intense exploration of outdoor creatures.

My curriculum for schooling would need some enhancements for his terms of endearment.

I slowly picked up educational toys as I read up on the different types and abilities.

There is a heap of great helps out there these days.

Rather than load him up on trucks and tractor toys at Christmas,

I filled the allotted money on educational things...

and was surprised at how well they reached his needs.

Unlike my daughter who needed the traditional teaching method from me to learn how to read,

my son learned to read almost entirely through these toys

and has picked up the basics of mathematics so far as well.

I do work with him, of course, and use the variety that we have for different instances.

He still needs to know the manual functions of scissors and coloring,

but I've found the abundant helps available to education a great asset to our homeschooling.

So I thought I would share a few, in case you have any young man children around tapping out a commotion with his fork, spoon, and dinner plate.

Let me start with the Leap Frog games.

We have Leapster 2 games for the kids.

(I chose the Leapster 2 over the Explorer just because the whole start up cost at the time

was less than the Leapster Explorers.  They are a bit simpler but they do the purpose of helping them educationally while making them think they are just having fun..)

 The disc he is playing here is called Learn to Draw and Write.

It is helpful for teaching the basics of writing

while helping our household and the nearby dump by not going through scads of paper.

I do have to keep checking on Levi to make sure he is holding the "pencil" correctly.

He would like to draw like a caveman if I would let him.

There are a LOT of different cartridges for the Leap Frog games.

Amazon is a great place to buy them for a little less,

but I especially like to browse there for the great reviews given about each game.

Every game I have gotten came from reading these reviews.

Another great source for Leap Frog games and cartridges is Craigs List or second hand children stores.

I have often found new cartridges at these stores for much less than the new price.

Another toy that was gifted to the kids is this

LeapFrog Count and Draw.

 

This is a very simple toy that basically teaches numbers and how to write them.

It is not nearly as loaded with information as the Leapsters,

but it is another helpful tool in learning numbers with easy instructions

and a cheerful tune.  This is great for preschoolers, but my 6 year old son still picks it up

once in a while for a change of pace.

My son learned much of his basic phonic sounds from this simple magnet game: the Word Whammer.
(There is a similar version they sell now called the Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder.)

He loved to sit here and make different three letter words and hear his creations sounded out.

Of course, the fact that it was in the kitchen, close to snacking skills,

was an added draw.

Leap Frog also has something called the Tag pen.

This little "pen" doesn't have any ink it in, but a small computerized memory

that can hold a small library of it's own books and games in it.

You can purchase different books from Leap Frog, depending on your needs

and then download them into the pen from their website.

I purchases both of the fold out, reversible maps that they have:

 One of the maps is of the world with the continents in bold print.

Touching the different words brings the pen to life and it tells the name of the place

and different things about it.

 

 The back of the map has the different countries sectioned off

and touching them will give more information and games.

 The one obvious flaw I have found with the fold out maps is that b/c of their large size and simple cardboard construction, remembering how to fold them isn't easy for kids (or folding-deficient adults like myself),

and the center tears a bit too easily.

I actually do not leave these maps where the kids can use them at their will either,

but keep them tucked away for when I can pull them out for their specific use.

Honestly, though, I still think they are worth it for the fun and great dimension in learning that they give.

The other map is of the USA.

 with the divisions of the states on one side

and information on the other.

 

 For our Tag pen, I also purchased some of the reading books

and I give them to my son to "read" with during school sometimes

to break things up.

They have stories that read themselves to the child,

or can be "read" by touching each word with the pen.

These also have simple games in them.

There are books that teach short vowels

and others that teach long vowels and blends.

There are also individual books one can buy that are based on the different movies

put out for kids.

I also just purchased the new "Human Body Discovery Pack"
but we haven't studied any of that yet, so I can't speak on that yet,
but it looks like a helpful, fun tool.

(photo from Amazon)

NOTE:  The Tag pen has a limited amount of memory it can hold.  We have the two maps, about 12 books,
and the body pack downloaded onto our pen, and it is full.  What I did with mine is when Levi grew past the short vowels and had used the books enough times, I erased them on the website by replacing them with the next set of books for the long vowels that he was ready for.  Purchasing another pen would be another option, but I just chose to do it this way since it will be another year before I will let Lillie use them anyhow since she is still a bit destructive and not ready for these yet.

 

Moving back to the kitchen, we keep Alphie up on the windowsill so he's handy at the table.

Alphie comes with some educational cards

and more of them can be purchased.

Although not as comprehensive as the Leap Frog games,

Alphie is just another toy to enhance a different approach to learning,

and for a boy who loves robots, he was a perfect gift.

Alphie is a helpful diversion when Levi wanders into the kitchen wondering when the next meal will be served.

Distraction always calms the hungry natives.

(Our Alphie has had some technical difficulties.  He hasn't been responding properly,

and having only had him for about 2 years when the problems started,

this was disappointing.  He definitely was a great help to Levi's learning,

but I don't know that he will make it to help Lillie.)

 

Of course, nothing can compare to the great creativity of crayons, scissors, and glue,
the fun of reading books and working together,

and a truckload of stickers to make a child's school day even better.

We can't forget the necessary moments of games of dress-up and pretend,

because what would life be like without imagination?

As well as sunshine,

puddles,

mud,

and

 a large assortment of germs,

because every mother needs her fair share of laundry to fill her spare time.


I'll leave you with a few video demonstrations of one of the games
from the boy child himself.

I know there is a vast amount of teaching helps out today,
and I couldn't be more thankful for the ingenuity of the makers of these great tools.
These are just some of the ones I have used,
but I would LOVE to hear if you have any favorites or great recommendations.


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