When you get close to fulfilling dreams!

One of the barns, about 30 minutes away, decided to offer greatly reduced Horse Back Riding Lessons to Home Schoolers. This deal includes tacking (grooming, saddle with blanket, bridle, and girth belts), one hour ride time, un-tacking and return horse/pony to pasture. Isabella was up well before me the first day of lessons, bouncing with excitement.

Their first lesson in tacking took a long time, and I almost got kicked out of the barn. I went to help the instructor as three of the girls where so excited they could barely stand together. The point of this barn's program is to teach the children to do everything independently. I must admit being this close to these beauties got me a little excited too and I started to help the children too much.

Safety is very important, so Ms. Doria reminds them to check their girth belts for tightness. The children all wear helmets and remember the three T's - "Teeth, Toes, and Tushie". Basically don't stick your fingers near their mouths, watch your toes, and avoid the horse's back side where they might kick if startled.

Isabella and Anton's Momma's blood kicked in fast as they both started to sail through the lessons. At first, Isabella boasted to her Daddy about having Scooter, the 16-17 hands high horse as her mount while Anton got Spirit, a larger pony. Anton was paired with a little girl in order to handle the pony more independently. Spirit also has some handling issues, not wanting to listen to the less dominant riders. But now, both kiddos are on Scooter.


When Anton got his new mount, even though he had to share with Isabella, he just beamed from ear to ear. I am also glad to see this barn starts with English Saddle so as to not pick up lazy habits from Western Saddles. They have begun three point trot and next week the whole class might get their own mounts, instead of being in pairs. If the weather is nice, they might venture out of the arena and onto the trails.

Another Frequent Visitor

I was able to snap a picture of our Barred Owls perching on the trampoline bars.

This rather large guy, 17-20 inches tall with a wing span of about 40 inches.

I guess it is good the field provides enough mice and snakes for this twilight feeder.

The most interesting thing about these guys is their ability to nearly turn their head completely around. Their calls sound like "Who, Who cooks for you!"

I am fine with their pest hunting but it is a big reminder to get our upcoming chickens or ducks sheltered during twilight.

Finding the Good!

First, I do like having the snow, especially when Karl is here with us. The world is shut out and we snuggle together with family time. Usually a mixture of movies with popcorn or board games/puzzles with hot chocolate or hot tea. But when I have important things coming up, Karl is not home, and I am trapped, I start to get down.

So what do I have to be Thankful for:

-Shelter - the winds continued throughout the night moving more of the drifts from yesterday.

-Health - We are all healthy at the moment. One of my girlfriends has three in her house vomiting.

-Food - I was able to get to the store, we could survive comfortably for a week or more.

-Electricity/Propane - We have heat, hot water, and the ability to cook.

-Love - Karl sent me messages from his computer throughout the day to tell me he wished he was with us. Friends and family called to check up on us.

- Happy Children - those two are the silliest of kids!
Isabella pranced around with a long blanket around her shoulders saying a very dramatic voice, "I am the queen!" Anton corrected her with "Your the princess. Mommy is the queen!" I in a mopey tone said, "Oh my, I seem to have lost my crown." Isabella reappeared with a tiara on her head and a crown a top a pillow for me. I had to laugh.

Alright, no point in feeling sorry for myself.

It is just snow. I need a new perspective!

I rearranged the living room!

Trapped!

When the winds started to die down, we took a look outside.

The wind blew the snow back to all the shoveled places.

It is really difficult to determine how much snow we got because the covering is uneven due to the drifts. Those nice lower branches you see are really the ones 18-24 inches from the ground.

The walk to the front door is now... buried! No one coming in or out at this point.

The children were having fun with the nature made moguls.

Isabella fell on her face a few times.

Notice the trampoline, it is suppose to be open underneath.

After the ears were tingling with numbness,

I suggested we go inside and warm up with some hot chocolate and warm soup.

Here Comes Blizzard #2

Karl left early Monday and the weather forecaster predicted "just 5 inches" this time.

By Monday afternoon, they were changing their tune.

I rushed out to the store to pick up three dozen eggs and tree gallons of milk,

along with a few other things.

By Monday evening the predicted totals were fluctuating between 12 and 30 inches.

I just chuckled, "But of course another blizzard, Karl is gone!"

This is a White-Out!

Snow Falling at around an inch or two an hour

with wind gusts up to 60 mph with sustained winds at 40 mph.

Yes, Karl did feel bad!

He wished he would have taken us with him this time!

There is no point in fighting the wind!

As soon as you scoop the snow, the wind brings it back.
Maybe it won't be so bad.

What to do when snowed in!

Isabella was very busy with her newest project, she decided to open shop in her room. Knowing her father was very busy with work and commitments, and her brother professes his lack of creative crafty skills, see saw an opportunity. She made Valentine cards and decorations for purchase!

Notice her open sign! Every time she left her room, she closed shop, and when she wanted to read, she went into her room so her shop could be open. After the first day though, she saw he problem, lack of customers. Karl, Anton, and I made purchases, with Karl making the most comical comments. But who now? She asked if we could invite friends over to the house to visit. I think she wanted to expand her business! Oh what does the future hold for her?

The event that took place during the storm was a new computer. Our desk top actually shut down last year. Karl and I have been using the laptop but recently the graphics card was failing, so it was going to quit soon too. I made a plea to my brother-in-law for advice since Karl told me in a moment of weakness to jut go purchase something. When Karl came home with the big meeting moved and now giving him a block of free time, he took Curtis' advice and purchased one from Best Buy. The monitor we ordered is to arrive next week, so one of our friends is letting us borrow a spare monitor from them in the interim. The companies have really made setting these new computers up pretty easy, I wonder at the need for the "Geek Squad" instillation services offered.

Or maybe I just have "special" kids!

(OK, busted! Karl was helping the kids!)

Snow-Magedeon

Karl was finally able to share a blizzard with his family! As the weekend was drawing closer and the impending storm, the Navy decided to have the major meeting scheduled for Friday moved to the Thursday before. This allowed Karl to work from home on Friday in the comfort of his safe warm home. We had already stocked the house with milk and eggs as I put a large ham in the oven to become the basis of several meals during the home confinement.

So what makes this storm different than December storm, this one had ice and white out conditions. For those not use to the term, "white out" means the snow is falling and being blown at such a speed that on can loose their direction due to the lack of being able to see clearly. Karl and I tied to keep up with the snow, but eventually we had to just cozy up in the house and wait it out. The next day was bright and beautiful with 30 inches of fresh powder.

Finally we can see the path of the deer to see which areas where we need to build barriers to move them in a different direction!

The one above is taken from the driveway towards the area behind the fort. The one below is the gate from the house to the orchard.

In the early morning, the frost coverings were delightful against the fence.

Apparently this is the most snow this area has had in the last decade or two. So we should not expect it again for quite a long time. Of course this did not prevent s from getting out as we needed to find a solution to a problem creeping up. Karl was flying out early Monday morning, leaving the house at 4am. Not an ideal time to drive for most of us, so we needed to get Karl's car mobile. This meant moving large amounts of snow so his lower to the ground car could move. Solution, we borrowed our friend's snow blower and made a slightly larger than vehicle width path from the garage to the main road. It took us all day, even with a blower. Partly because the truck got caught in a snow drift when we returned due to the county plows dumping more snow onto the entrance to our street. After four hours I told Karl I did not think I needed to work out today, I was sore enough from the scraping to get down to the pavement before the sun started to drift down and ice up everything again. And Karl was still able to get a flight out, even if he had two re-bookings and an unintended layover in San Francisco on his way to..... Honolulu. He had better bring home some fresh pineapple!!

Pine Wood Derby 2010

It is that time of year again! The mad dash to get the blocks of wood in some design, carved, painted, weighed, and checked in. Isabella, following her "girly" passions, entitled her car "Horse in Pasture". It consisted of a Lego horse, green hollowed out block with a black board fence around the edges. It you look closer you can see the horse eating a painted on carrot.

This year, Anton went for scary but normal looking car. His is a typical slanted cut design painted black with a Lego Skeleton with a mace in hand. The most ingenious one came from new comer, Jacob, who painstakingly chiseled his car to look like a rabid squirrel with bushy tail and red eyes.

This year was not as quiet for us as before. Due to chaos from the boys excitedly turning in their cars, reweighing the, and finally turning them over, we were all busy. Karl set up the track and lights, I filled out paper work on each car, Isabella helped run the concession table and Anton was trying to keep the younger cub scouts from the track.

Anton seemed to have fun with his fellow Webelos even if his car did not win every race.

Isabella did break from the concession table to watch a few of her car's races in which she "smoked" the other sibling cars. Interestingly, her haphazard designs and construction seem to be her secret because she nearly always wins.

March For Life 2010

After a crazy run around for tickets and plans to attend the march, we finally came up with a plan. Apparently, the confusion started when a few extra tickets to the Youth Rally appeared at our church. One of the priests mentioned giving them to our family. The problem is meeting the bus to attend at 5:15 am and not returning until 5:30 pm. A very long day for my kiddos who are not extremely early risers. Well, the tickets slipped through our fingers during miscommunication. It all worked out! We decided to meet Karl at his work for lunch then take the Metro to the March.

Through the aid of cell phones and luck, we managed to meet up with our close friends who departed from their bus three blocks away. With over 300,000 people in attendance, this was short f miraculous. We passed many groups; Baptist and Catholic church groups, youth from various states, many sisters and friars, etc., all sharing in a common goal - end abortion.

We waited for about an hour or two before the actual march began. One group used a potable speaker to lead a rosary, another started rally cheers of "We love babies, Yes we do, We love Babies how about you!"

The vibe was one of love and hope. People coming together to express their belief in the smallest of the small. There was no violence, the police actually looked bored as they made mental counts as people walked passed the Supreme Court and Capitol buildings.

Karl took the opportunity to make the outing a history lesson by explaining our Bill of Rights to the children. How in other countries people are shot for demonstrating their views but in our country we have this right, this freedom to petition and show others our views. When so many, but the numbers are dropping, look at a pregnancy, a child, as a disruption or inconvenience to their life, that they feel empowered to destroy it so they can continue as before. Instead of looking at the hope of the future, they focus on their current self-focused world crumbling. If more could hope and love their neighbors as themselves, the Golden Rule, think of the peace that would come!