New (to me) Oven/Stove

On a bad day, when it was hot out, and I got flipped off by a driver (and this never happens to me)...my oven broke.

Just imagine me without an oven for a moment.

It's a sad thing, isn't it?

Devastating really.

Three of the burners still worked and the oven was fine but I knew it was just a little bit of time before it broke for GOOD.

I've never liked this flat top stove. If you ever are considering one and you also are considering canning, do NOT buy a flat top stove. This one had actually cracked a long time ago when I canned on it and I knew eventually it would break for good...but I did not think it would break this badly.

I became the ultimate hunter on craigslist. Karen from Stairstep Boys would have been so proud of me.

I came across some awesome retro stoves that I mighta drooled over a bit but knew would never work, found a few crazy people (one guy wanted me to meet him at an abandoned house to get the stove...uh, no). By the time I came across "Stove, $50" my hopes had dwindled significantly.

Finding a raised stove or whatever they are called is harder than you think. And this one had no picture, and I never click on them if they don't have photo. When the woman answered, I'll admit right now, I was rude.

I was tired of dealing with people and a little freaked out by the crazy guy so I drilled this woman on the phone.

And, bless her, she was as sweet as she could be to me and I found myself fully trusting her and thinking "I think she could be one of my best friends."

When the text picture didn't come through to my phone, she apologized profusely and said she would have someone more "tech savvy" than her send it. I knew I liked this woman!

We drove the good long distance to get the stove on a Friday night when both my hubby and I had to work the next day. When I called to say we were on our way, I could hear kids screaming in the background. Her house sounded like mine.

We pulled onto the narrow little road and found her quaint little house. It was kinda easy to find due the kids all in the front yard.

The stove actually looked newer than I had thought it would be. (Hip hip hooray!) AND it was bigger than my stove by a lot (BONUS!) and it was clean even after sitting in her garage. The reason they were selling it? Because she likes a gas stove better....

This woman rocked.

Her husband offered to help load it and my first thought was the guy was retired military or something. He was soft spoken and seemed really laid back, which was nice after our frantic drive over there. My husband got to talking to him (as my husband does with any and everyone) and he mentioned he was between jobs. I felt bad they were just selling the stove for fifty dollars, they probably really needed the money and six kids means that fifty dollars doesn't even buy pizza out for them!

The woman offered me a seat on her deck chair and we idly talked while the kids played baseball in the front yard. Her teenage daughter and I exchanged tips on our love of coffee and my heart melted a bit at the little toddling girl in the play-school car.

This was by far one of the nicest families I was happy to have met.

Craigslist rocks after all.

As we drove away, S1 handed me up some baseball cards. "Where did you get these?" I asked, a little panicked one of the boys forgot to give them back while we were there. I was already forming my embarrassing apology when my husband said "Didn't you hear? He gave them to us!"

"Really? That was nice...."

"Look!" My husband said, "He played professionally. These are HIM on the baseball cards."

I looked closer and could totally see that guy I though was x-military on the baseball card.

His name hadn't meant a thing to us, we knew nothing of his career...but we had just met Chad Curtis. (Look him up on google, it' a great read.)

And his wife sold me the best stove I do believe I have ever owned.

(Please note, that's not my coffee pot. It's the campers. It just happens to be there in the picture. I'm a tea kettle and french press sort of gal. And yes, I suppose my fridge and bulletin board really is that cluttered....I'd never noticed that before. But, hey, this is real life here.)

Funny how God takes a moment you think "Ug! God, do you see us down here? Do you know I can't take much more this week?"

And then He says, "Well, look here, daughter of mine, I'll give you a BETTER stove than you dreamed you would get and let you meet some great people just because I can."

I love how God works like that....

Walnut Baseball

This weekend, as I was just getting out of the shower to face the day, S4 came up to me, baseball glove in hand and said "Hey, Moma, wanna hit some balls with me?"

Now, S4 has THREE brothers, all older and much, much, much more athletic than me. He has a Daddy who is home and he is much, much, much more athletic than me. Let me stress this again...nearly anyone, anywhere, at anytime is much, much, much more athletic than me!

But I digress.

I told him I wasn't very good at baseball. "I know," he agreed solemnly, "That's why I'll only pitch you the easy ones."

Great vote of confidence from my four year old there!

I told him I had to finish getting dressed (literally was still in my bath towel) and then I slowly got around to putting in my contacts and a little mascara so I didn't look too frightful when my husband came in from the field in need of more coffee. Honestly, I was secretly hoping S4 would forget.

But he didn't. He followed me around, glove in hand. He even asked S3 to stand behind me and catch all the balls I missed.

Now my confidence was soaring.

But then I thought, hey, why not? Why not just try to hit a few?

I purposefully chose not to remember how I pitched him balls on Thursday and he got onto me for not throwing them at his bat.

So I bundled up and headed out. S4 was gleeful to say the least. He told me where to stand, how to stand and how to handle the big plastic black bat. Then he ran around the yard gathering balls up to throw at me.

By balls I mean walnuts.

Seriously.

You have seen our Walnut War. (And just so you know, S1 decided that he was going to have him against all his brothers, it really wasn't a gang up on the big brother sort of thing.) You know how we are, uh, blessed with these walnuts.

At our farm, fall is baseball season because we have an unlimited supply of baseballs.

S4 gathered up a huge pile and he started tossing them at me. I may have let a few surprised "eeks" as they came flying for me, but imagine S4's surprise when I hit one.

Yes, I hit a walnut being thrown at me with a big plastic black bat.

And then I hit another. S2, our most athletic child, came jogging out of the field where his garden is and his jaw nearly hit the ground. "Moma?" he asked. "YOU hit that walnut? I thought it was Daddy!"

S4 also could not believe it and it wasn't long before instead of me getting any to sort of hit, I was getting hit by the walnuts.

Walnuts can hurt, I found out. I don't know why the boys like those wars so much.

But all in all, it was fun. It was great seeing their reaction. I hit some pretty far! I missed a ton of them but considering I NEVER hit a ball, I hit walnuts rather well, I'd say!

So, hey, maybe you should get out there and try to play with your kiddos. I think you'll surprise yourself and them with some hidden talents you both didn't know you possessed.

I leave you with this video. Just to prove to you that we are surrounded by walnuts. Alas, I wish I had the video of me hitting the walnuts, but I was sort of too busy to video it. Here is S4 (with help from Jr) explaining how to throw a spit ball. Seriously.

A Day off

It's been a busy week here on the farm. Not with farming, but just with errands. Wednesday I went to the other cement city and ran errands with my mom. I cannot remember the last time I ran errands with my mom. We went to Sam's Club and she was happy she didn't have to buy a huge thing of toilet paper and I was happy to buy a huge thing of toilet paper because I am tired of always running out. Wednesday night we had church. Thursday I watched Jr and we had school conferences. School conferences times three. And today, oh today, we had a day off!

I talked with Jr on Wednesday and again on Thursday to remind him that Auntie would really appreciate a day of sleeping in. When he arrived on Friday he smiled big for me and his cute little dimples did still make me melt but I reminded him we had a deal. I made up his bottle and he sure enough kept the bargain and slept in. So, after making lunch for my hubby, I returned to bed where S4 woke me up to let me know he had peed the bed so could he please sleep with me, S3 woke me up to ask me if he could have cereal or if I would make him breakfast, S2 wanted to watch tv and S1 let me know he was headed out hunting. So, yes, I slept in. No, I didn't really sleep much. But I was in bed and never got up till quarter after seven. Bliss!

After making the boys a big breakfast, to which they thought they would starve before the bacon was done, I began to conquer the mountain of laundry. Literally a mountain of laundry. I could not see out my window it was so high. That is just sad. Anyhow, after hours of reminding myself I had said I would not do this to myself again, I have it all folded and I have been told it is all taken care of upstairs too. I have not wanted to check, I prefer to believe them right now.

It's fun to have this day off of school. It's a 'bonus' day, you can just feel it. S1 has spent a good portion of it hunting or practicing his aim. S2 has been playing ball with anyone who will play and practice if he is the only one who will play. S3 has wandered around playing on the swings, playing in the sandbox, playing with S2.... S4 has been faithfully practicing his lassoing. He has successfully lassoed a “metal stick” (fence post) and S3. S4 considers this great success.

Right now all the boys are playing baseball. It's fun to hear the ball hit the bat and hear the boys laughing as they run around.

There is something to be said about a full day home where no one leaves the driveway. There is something healing in having a day of laziness. There is something that warms your entire heart hearing the boys laughter.

I want to bottle up the day and treasure it.

They are getting tired...and since all the laundry is folded (just had to add that big hooray there) there is a huge basket of socks to fold so I do believe tonight I will be making brownies and we can eat them with ice cream and watch a movie and fold socks as a family. Does that not sound delightful? Okay, you obviously can see I will have to bribe the boys with sweets and movies to get them to help me fold socks but it'll be so worth it to not have the boys looking for socks and underwear on Monday morning.

Sometimes, it's the little things that make life wonderful...like a day off and folded socks.