My Custody Weekend and Pickle Recipe

Dan left for California last Sunday and will be there for about a month helping his brother with his house. While he's gone I still have to go to work so my parents have been watching Lilyana on the days I work. I jokingly refer to the time I have her on the weekends as my custody time because we have to arrange pick up and drop off locations for her.

So I worked last week Tuesday through Friday. My parents were scheduled to bring her home on Saturday morning. I was in bed on Saturday when I heard the doorbell ring. Even though we have a doorbell, rarely does anyone ring it. They just knock and in our house, unless we're in the kitchen, we don' t hear knocking. So I was surprised and wondered if it was my parents or a friend of Dan's who does ring it. I deduced that it wasn't his friend based on the rhythm and as I was climbing the stairs I saw the time was 7:30 am so I knew it wasn't my parents. I get to the door, dressed only in a long t-shirt, and a man is standing there. I open the door a crack and he says that one of our barn cats has a jar on its head. So I thank him and go back and put pants on and go out and pull the cat out of the peanut butter container. The cat is fine and it's not the first time one of our cats has gotten something stuck on its head while trying to lick the last remnants out of a jar or can. We just don't have very smart cats.

My parents arrived about 10:45 am and we spent the day pulling weeds, picking vegetables and getting green beans ready for canning. Calsey arrived about 6:00 pm giving my parents about 30 minutes to visit with her. By the time everyone left and it was just Lilyana and me I was exhausted.

Tomorrow (Monday) I will meet my parents in New Prague and hand Lilyana off to them for another four days, thus ending my custody weekend.

Here's the pickle recipe from my mom with which I am preserving my tons of cucumbers.

6 cups cucumbers
2 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons salt

Mix the sugar, vinegar and salt together until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over cucumbers. Pour into jars. They will keep for 9-12 months.

Identity

On our way to Zumbrota we stopped in New Prague for Dan to discuss some work with a potential client. He dropped Lilyana and I off at the park. As I looked around I realized I am a fish out of water. All I saw were latte drinking, cellphone toting, sun worshipping moms with kids dressed to the nines in playclothes. It got me realizing that I don't really fit into any group. I'm about 15 years old than most moms with toddlers. The moms my age have teenagers in youth group and I am no longer a youth group mom. And I am about 15 years younger than your average grandma. I guess I'll start a new group. Lazy moms who let their kids out of the house with their shirt on inside out. And, yes, I put the shirt on.

Solitude

I had exactly 80 minutes of solitude tonight. We drove five hours from home to Bemidji, MN to attend part of the Oak Hills alumni weekend and visit my father-in-law. Lilyana was not a happy traveler this time. We were all ready to exit the van and not return to it until tomorrow morning. After checking in and eating Dan proceeded to the chapel and Lilyana to the nursery. I found my way back to our dorm room to work in solitude. I might actually get more work done in the next two days than I do at home. Dan brought Lilyana back at 8:20 and then left to reminisce with his fellow alumni (is that the plural?). So as I finished working, Lilyana is watching a Veggie Tales sing-a-long trying to follow with her finger the pea that is bouncing above the words.

Tomorrow morning I'll get another bout of solitude as Dan and Lilyana travel with Dan's brother, Floyd and their Uncle Lee to visit his dad in the assisted living facility he's currently in. Tomorrow afternoon is an open house to celebrate the retirement of Dan's mentor, Ken Wold, and then hopefully a little lake time for Lilyana before we head home.

And before I got, Lilyana has decided to try climbing up to the top bunk in our room. And she is doing a fine job as she always does with climbing. She managed to make it to the top by herself. I think some wading in the lake is in order.

Farewell to Chickens

Dan started a fire under a pot of water. My parents and niece Maria came to visit. All for the purpose of thinning our flock of chickens. We had 8 broilers that we nice and plump. So about 10:30 began the thinning. Dan and my dad played the part of executioners which mom and I dismembered. We were done with the cutting and first two washings by 12:30. Just in time for lunch of .... beef (hamburgers), potato wedges, fruit salad. After lunch was the final washing and sorting. We have 16 each of breasts, thighs and legs in the freezer. We have about 6-8 quarts of broth for soups, gravy, casseroles, etc. It felt good to get that done and have some chicken variety in our supplies.

After they left we decided to go for a walk. For some reason Lilyana will not go near the road without one of us holding her. So we came back and Dan finished up a bike he was working on for someone. Lilyana got bored watching him so she sat down in a puddle and started playing. Since she needed a bath I decided to let her. I did draw the line at her drinking out of the puddle. We finally went in and did the bath. She is now clean.

All in all a very good day.

Memorial Day 2010

Memorial Day 2010 was a working holiday. I worked midnight to about 5 am. I've gotten the strawberries weeded and even though they were transplanted just this spring there are small strawberries on them. I finished cleaning the kitchen and on to the dining room tonight. Dan tilled in between the plants in the garden.

We had a week reprieve from wiping Lilyana's nose and now it's at it again. Not sure what's going on with her. She also has a cough. But she's not lethargic, doesn't have a fever, doesn't have diarrhea and is eating and drinking as usual. So I don't really think there's anything to be done but wait it out.

I really need to get the pictures that we took on Saturday off the camera. I have one more day off of work and then I work two days and am off three after that. Next week is back to normal for working and wondering when the next round of layoffs will come. They seem to happen about once a month. There aren't too many people left to lay off.

12 hours on a Saturday

In 12 hours on this Saturday we:

1. Drove into three states (only a few more miles and it would have been 4)
2. Drove past a sign for George 12 (hi dad)
3. Drove past the highest elevation point in Iowa at 1670 feet (it still seemed flat to me)
4. (I) had my first experience at being a road kill leaver (not a deer but some smaller animal -- hope it wasn't someone's dog, that would be horrible)
5. Met our grandson for the first time!!!

We had a great day even though we got a late start because Lilyana and I slept till 10 and got woken up by Dan. We only stopped once on each direction of the trip. Calsey looks great (within 5 pounds of her prepregnancy weight -- who does that???). She is a great mom, very attentive, protective and caring. We've seen real growth in her these last nine months and we are looking forward to seeing it continue as she nurtures Ayden.

We met her biological mom and her boyfriend and young son. They showed us some great hospitality and kindness. We are very grateful that Calsey has a great support system there especially as Tuan (Ayden's dad) gets ready to go through training this summer and deployment in November. The only thing better would be for her to live in MN.

We arrived home at 2 am because I wanted to spend as much time with Calsey and Ayden as I could knowing that leaving at 10 pm would be me driving as that is my time of the day. We'll see if we make it to church in 8 hours. Calsey was successful in giving me directions to the highway, something that didn't always happen in the past. YAY, Calsey!

Calsey, we love you, we miss you and we are so glad we were able to see you. You are doing a great job and you have great instincts. Listen to all the advice and use what you can and leave what you can't. I hope that you'll get a chance to visit soon as Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa need to see Ayden and there are oodles and oodles of other people who want to see you and him too.

Summer Reading

In case there's anyone out there near a Half Priced Books or Borders I just wanted to let you know about their summer reading programs.

Half Price Books is jumping on the summer reading program bandwagon with their Feed Your Brain program that runs from June 1-July 31.

Kids age 14 and under can earn a $3 Half Price Books shopping card for each week they read at least 15 minutes a day for 5 days. Just get a reading log at Half Price Books for each child or download and print your own.

At Borders kids ages 12 and under can get a free book this summer through the Borders Summer Reading Double-Dog Dare Program. Just have your child read 10 books of his/her choice and list the titles on the reading program form.

Barnes & Noble is hosting their summer reading program again this year. Kids grades 1-6 who read 8 books over the summer will be able to choose a free book from a select list of titles provided by Barnes & Noble.

I am fanatical about reading and wish there was a summer reading program for me. I will still read and read to Lilyana and participate in these programs for her even though it means a trip to the cities.