10 Things

For the kind handful of you who subscribe to this here blog, and for the other kind handful or so who click in occasionally, I am thankful.

Because of you, I feel obligated to post every now and again.

I generally dislike obligations, but because I like you, I will post something today.

Actually, I will post 10 somethings today. But be warned, it will be random and maybe even convoluted. However it will likely give you an idea of what we have been up to.

1. I have always been a much better starter than finisher. Which explains why I have 6 incomplete blog drafts, only 3 One Word Wednesday posts, a half painted upstairs bathroom, and a very short stint as a salesperson in my employment history.

2. Even during the second week of June, North Dakota lake water is f-f-f-f-freezing! So cold that only one other group of people at a nearby public lake spot dared venture into the water. They stayed for just a few minutes before heading to the heated public pool. My water-loving kids however, played in and out of the water for a good 4 hours.

3. This appears to be a relatively popular North Dakota sport that I never heard of in Florida.

4. If you decide to play disc golf in a puddle filled park alongside a flooded river, with young children in tow, you should be prepared to shed your shoes, hike your pants up and wade in water to retrieve your discs. You might even retrieve your blue disc from thigh high water near net 7, and toss it onto dry ground where your 4 year old boy will grab it and throw it even deeper than where it was to begin with. After yelling at your son, you might slip and slide through murky water getting wet up to your hips, and while looking for your blue disc again, you might find a pink disc belonging to a stranger with enough sense to write his name and number on his disc with a permanent marker and leave it in the water for some nice sucker to find and return. After you toss this disc onto dry ground and turn to continue to search for your own, you might feel and hear a splash behind you – the splash of a disc landing in the water – because your 6 year old girl attempted to toss the pink one across the water. After chewing her butt and making it very clear to both your kids that they better not touch these discs again, you may finally have both discs on dry ground, but be so disgusted and wet that you call your hubby, who was shopping, to come get you asap. Then while your kids play on the playground and you have a moment to regain your breath and sanity, you may decide to call the number on the frisbee and tell the guy where you will leave his disc, even though he laughs at you because he knew exactly where it was when he decided it wasn’t worth retrieving. He might still be laughing when he shows up with his friend to pick up his rescued disc and waves at the wet woman pushing her kids on the spin saucer. Hypothetically speaking.

5. This band is really good.

6. Mr. Nodak enjoys the eardrum blasting, chest vibrating, breathtaking noise of standing 15 feet from the stage at concerts.

7. Mr. Nodak’s wife feel like she’s going to pass out from the eardrum blasting, chest vibrating, breathtaking noise of standing 15 feet from the stage at concerts. No alcohol necessary. So we moved further back.

8. When Mr. Nodak’s boy was 16 months old, we celebrated Independence Day at Epcot Center. During the last moments of the the fireworks display, you know, the finale with all the popping and booming, this poor overstimulated child yelled out at the top of his lungs one loud continuous cry straight from his gut, for what seemed like an entire 30 seconds.

That’s what I felt like doing when we were standing close to the stage!

By the way, when the fireworks and my boy’s disturbing accompanying shout ended, he didn’t whimper and wail like other nearby children, but he did appear to be shell-shocked, all wide-eyed and silent, causing me to worry exceedingly and check on him excessively as he slept that night.

9. Carefree, fun times out on the town with your spouse may remind you of how awesome he is.

10. Carefree, fun times out on the town with your spouse may remind you of how old you are and why you usually get to bed prior to 2 am.

The End.

Two For the Price of One

The sun was shining this morning when I woke up.

Both times.

You heard me right, both times. I dragged my groggy butt out of bed with Mr. Nodak early this morning, made some sandwiches for his lunch, spilled some coffee and saw him off to bring home the bacon, then dragged my groggy butt right back to bed for 2 more hours…until my kids awoke, crawled in bed with me for snuggles and feet-warming, then fussed and fought over rights to my frontside rather than my backside, until I finally sat up and dragged my still-groggy butt out of bed, again.

Another day begins.

Since the sun was shining and since I mowed most of the day yesterday and since it seems I have been going non-stop without a break for weeks, I thought to myself and made the mistake of saying out loud that today would be a good day to go here to see the buffalo.

Then Mr. Nodak called and gave me his honey-do list.

And the sun quit shining. Literally.

So to my chagrin, plans changed.

I wish I could say that I am more than happy to tackle all the tasks my dear hubby thinks up for me as he bounces over fields in tractors, and doing all the things he does which bring him home looking like a chimney sweep. (No exaggeration!)

After all, he too has been going non-stop…almost 2 weeks now without a day off…with just a bit of a break last Sunday, not starting work until noon. But even then he worked an 11 hour day! So I know he’s doing his share and more, and I can certainly accomplish what he asks of me. I just don’t want to!

So I’m having a moment of childish defiant sulkiness…I’ll get over it.

(Deep breath.) All done. Thanks for listening.

In spite of all the hours he’s working, Mr. Nodak has been chipper, plum-peachy, even going so far as to ask if I’ve noticed how happy he’s been lately.

Would you like to know why he’s so upbeat?

It’s because of my mom. That’s right, his mother-in-law (hereafter MIL), otherwise known as Grandma Share…my dear sweet mom.

Now before I go any further, let me make clear that Mr. Nodak (hereafter MN) does experience some annoyances with having my mom here and there’s plenty of fodder for MIL jokes. But apparently the benefits of having her here, especially during busy times on the farm, far outweigh the cons. Let me lay them out for you:

1. MN is gone all day and doesn’t have to endure engage in much conversation with his MIL.

2. Yet MIL keeps on top of the laundry so well, that MN never has to sift through a basket of clean laundry to find what he needs. Nor does he feel the need to question his loving bride if his work clothes are gonna be ready for him in the morning. With MIL here, he knows they will be.

3. MN never has to step over toys on the floor, which his loving bride neglects having the kids pick up. Since MIL only uses her prosthetic when going out, she zips around the house in her wheelchair, picking up anything in the way as she goes, resulting in clear pathways all throughout the house.

4. We have an extra adult in the house. So when MN lays his list of find, fix, pay, call, check, send, etc…on me, I can get to it knowing that my boy won’t be emptying a can of nuts all over the living room floor by bombing his sister with them.

So Mr. Nodak is happy.

During our little chat about all this before falling asleep last night I had to point out, “So you’re saying it takes two women to keep you happy? Sounds like your considering something along the lines of Sister Wives.” We laughed and went to sleep.

But we all know there’s a little bit of truth in every joke.

Because It’s Nice to Share

Every now and again I like to make use of the WordPress Tag Surfer feature, always searching “North Dakota” to see what comes up.

It’s been nearly 18 months, ya know?

18 months in rural North Dakota. Don’t know why I feel the need to add the word rural in there…it’s all pretty much rural! But I guess since we don’t live in town, we are even more rural?

Anyway, I clearly recall the departure scenes, saying goodbye to our beloved neighbors, tearful hugs with my sweet sister and her family in the Wal-Mart parking lot (why is it that all our road trips involve Wal-Mart somehow?) our trusty Honda Odyssey (which is now worthless on these water-logged, mud-rutted gravel roads!) packed to the gills…. we picked up Mr. Nodak at the little Orlando Sanford airport and drove and drove, racing to arrive to our new home before the first big snowstorm. Mr. Nodak’s best friend, an agronomist, is every bit the stereotypical weather-obsessed North Dakotan, and thankfully so, since his weather updates were what pretty much kept my husband going when his new-adventure adrenaline-rush waned.

So yeah, that was a year and a half ago. And although it was hectic to get us moved up here, physically, it was done. The move was made, here we are…commence life.

Unfortunately, the soul – that ofttimes troublesome immaterial part of our being – doesn’t transition as quickly. At least mine didn’t. Mine hasn’t.

I really didn’t want to move. Nothing against North Dakota, it’s just that I was content in Florida. But I sucked it up, have tried to have a good attitude and make the best of it. What has taken me somewhat by surprise is that I have gone (am going) through a sort of grieving process. I don’t dwell on it, but I honestly do feel a sense of loss. The loss of my home, my neighbors, my family, my comfort zone, my conveniences…. the loss of my Florida life. And (at the risk of sounding melodramatic) it grieves me.

Lest I come across as ungrateful for the present, let me say that I realize that although there has been a “loss”, there have been “gains” as well. There is so much for which I am grateful! But still, the old is gone. And after a year and a half, I’m still adjusting to the new.

So, to connect this chain of thought, something that seems somewhat helpful to me is to read and learn more about North Dakota and North Dakotans and even some South Dakotans whose lives are similar in some ways to mine. I like to hear others’ perspectives and experiences. Somehow it helps a little to read something to which I can respond, “I know exactly what you mean! I felt that way too!” It’s relating…relationship…not in the traditional sense, and not very deeply, nevertheless, blogging – this putting thoughts and ideas in print and sending them out into cyberspace – and receiving and responding to the thoughts and ideas of others, is indeed a way of relating and I like it.

My tag server search this morning led me to a few posts of interest…

This one for example which reminded me of some of my thoughts on encountering what appears to be vast nothingness here in ND. I particularly liked this sentence: “It feels like at any moment, you make a sudden move or go over a hump too fast, you would break gravity’s hold and simply float into the great big sky.”

And this one, which had me cracking up. It is from a blog which appears to be relatively new, is well-written, the topics look interesting and so I subscribed.

I keep saying I will get my blogroll list up soon, and I have actually started it, but since I’m sharing Dakotan related info here and now, I’ll go ahead and link a few of the favorites I currently follow…

Get your fix of horses, dogs, elk, music, wildflowers, beautiful untamed western ND scenery, ranch life and soulful descriptions of it all with Jessie.

South Dakotan Country Wife shares heart-warming and often humorous stories of her simple country life.

A photographer with great decorating sensibilities, Christa, a South Dakotan transplant, blogs about her life and a variety of informative, helpful or plain ol’ interesting topics.

BTW, if you know anyone planning a wedding, Christa is featuring an awesome wedding photo/videography giveaway offer. Yes, giveaway! It’s a cool deal. Go check out her blog!

So there ya go!

A few more reasons to avoid the dirty dishes and that refrigerator that is likely growing science experiments. If you’re like me anyway. Which I hope you are not!

But if you are like me, tell yourself:

“Prioritize!”

“Step away from the computer slowly, and nobody gets hurt.”

“Work first, play later.”

Feel free to keep the list going in comments…I need all the help I can get!

The Park in My Backyard

Spring

Season of growth. And overgrowth.

Gardener’s ally. Groundskeeper’s opponent.

Yes, it’s the season in which many humans go to battle with the earth. Mowers and trimmers buzz. The attempts to subdue ensue. And the battles rage fierce until mid-summer or so, when the grass agrees to slow its growth and we, hot and tired, accept a truce of sorts. Anything less than this mowing every few days is welcome.

While Mr. Nodak is in the fields planting, attempting to harness the power of spring in orderly rows of corn and beans, I am head groundskeeper. A title I don’t particularly cherish. But I do love that when the mowing is done, our backyard looks and feels like a park, a sweet lilac scented park.

A lovely place to pick crabapple blossoms as we picnic.

The perfect place to climb and play…

explore and discover. See the tiny inchworm my girl discovered?

It’s a place where one may appreciate the wildlife up close.

Yes, even using Grandma’s wheelchair to do so.

Our backyard park is a place to read and relax…

and just enjoy the results of groundskeeping…

subdued North Dakota style.

Just When I Was Feeling Like a Loser….

Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired?

For years my mom has listened to preachers of the shouting, stomping, tongues-speaking, hand-laying, faith-healing persuasion and it seems that question invariably comes up from time to time.

My faith in God is strong; my faith in the motives and tactics of these preachers/healers…not so much.

But today I am so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, I’d almost be willing to consider what they suggest.

Um…no, actually, I wouldn’t.

When I was 9, I had a horrible long-lingering case of bronchitis. My very concerned and well-meaning parents tried the faith healing route. It didn’t work. In addition to still being just as sick as before, a 9 year old girl was left feeling like she didn’t have enough faith for God to heal her. That’s a burden no child should have to bear. And just for the record, I DO believe God can and does heal people and I DO believe in praying for healing and having the church leaders place hands on people in prayer…that’s all biblical. But I don’t think God rewards people who have stronger faith by healing them and punishes those who are weak in faith by letting them remain sick. God’s ways are not our ways. He may choose to remove the illness or we may just have to go through it.

But I could sure go for an instantaneous healing now!

We have spring colds. Headaches, sniffling, coughing, sneezing…you know, all those symptoms you read on the Nyquil bottle…we’ve got ‘em. Except my mom and my boy. My mom just got here, hopefully she won’t catch the gunk. And my boy has a super-duper immune system. So good that in all his 4 years we have never had to take him to the doctor. That’s right. I took him to one newborn check-up, but that’s it. And now you know just how “crunchy” I am.

Since I’m outing myself as a fringe-dwelling freak, I might as well tell you that I’m a big believer in extended breastfeeding. The La Leche League defines extended breastfeeding as anything beyond one year. I’ll avoid shocking your socks off by keeping mum the exact age to which I nursed my boy. It’s really no one else’s business, but I will say it was well beyond one year, yet less than the worldwide average mentioned in this video.

My girl nursed until she was 20 months and it seemed like a blink of the eye compared to my boy. So yes, with my boy, our breastfeeding was extended… and extended. I was ready to be done months before he was, but I was patient.

And I’d do it all again.

I actually miss the relaxing effects. I could use a good dose of nursing induced oxytocin today! And of course I’m thinking the prolonged breastfeeding may have something to do with my boy’s super strong immune system. My girl is quite healthy as well. She is more likely to get sick than my boy, but her colds tend to be mild and brief. In all her 6 years, she has been to the doctor just a handful of times and been prescribed antibiotics just twice.

Wow, I didn’t intend to run down that rabbit trail! Suffice it to say, I’ve personally seen or experienced numerous benefits of breastfeeding – physical and emotional – and highly recommend it!

And I meant it when I said I could sure use some nursing induced oxytocin about now! This cold has thrown me for a loop and I’ve been feeling like quite the wimpy whiny loser.

But I’m not a loser…I’m a winner! Antique Mommy said so.

One of these days, I’ll get around to posting links to my favorite blogs. Antique Mommy will definitely be on that list. Her topics are interesting and her writing is real and heart-warming and funny. And if you are a mom, her love for her boy will rub off on you and make you want to go squeeze your children. Or it will at least make you smile. So go give her a read. Who knows? Keep reading and you may even become a winner like me.

(Can you tell I’m enjoying calling myself a winner? Hee hee. Doesn’t happen often, so indulge me, please.)

Since you are here, you are already a winner in my book. Thanks for reading!

Have a great weekend!

Hooked on Rhubarb

Last spring, my first spring here in North Dakota, a neighbor arranged a big ol’ rummage sale in one of the big ol’ shop buildings on her property and I was one of the handful or so of people to participate in selling.

In addition to my junk I gathered some of the fresh rhubarb from our patch, bundled it and set out for sale.

Then Mr. Nodak informed me how common rhubarb is up here.

It’s so common that there are nearly as many rhubarb dessert recipes as there are apple dessert recipes in our new local cookbook. Those who don’t have a patch of rhubarb usually know someone who does. So Mr. Nodak doubted anyone would buy my rhubarb. He was almost right. But one kind soul bought 2 bundles. Likely out of pity for the pathetic Florida girl who placed it out for sale. Perhaps she made Grandma Alice’s Rhubarb Cake, a recipe she submitted to the cookbook and which I am baking tonight.

My kids picked me a bouquet of rhubarb a few weeks back and I advised them to let the stalks grow bigger and thicker. After we picked some today, my boy wanted to measure how long the stalks were. So out came the ruler.

A little bit of basic math anyone? 10 – 2 = ?

Once I informed them that we want pieces about 1 inch long, my girl was very exacting.

Yes, darling dirty-fingernailed boy, that’s a good size!

Don’t worry, the rhubarb will be washed, then heated to germ killing temps…and the table he’s crawling all over gets washed occasionally as well. But I won’t hold it against you if you feel the need to refuse my dish at the next potluck.

So that’s what’s going on around here. We will soon be scarfing down Grandma Alice’s Rhubarb Cake. Maybe we will save a piece for the grandma (my mom) who will be arriving tomorrow! Maybe.

Remembering Priorities

1990

The first year of the last decade of a century.

The first year of the last decade of a millennium.

I was completing 10th grade.

My dad had been gone for 3 years. Gone as in left. Gone as in not coming home anymore. Gone as in wife and children abandoned. (Cringe.) I hate that word. I hated how it felt. I hate how it affects me to this day.

1990

21 years ago.

Babies born that year may now legally drink.

I visited the hospital where my mom had been receiving treatment for an infection that developed from open sores on her foot. Wounds that refused to heal for over 3 years. Much like the wounds in her heart.

The battle was over. Infection had spread from tissue to bone. Osteomyelitis. That meant it could easily spread throughout her body, a potentially fatal condition. The site of infection had to be removed. Her right leg below the knee had to go.

1990

She was only 37.

It was the last time my mom had two flesh & blood, muscle & bone legs.

Recovery wasn’t easy. My brother, sister, and I were at school and couldn’t help. So she fell a couple of times, busting open her stitches. Eventually different living arrangements were made, so Mom could be with my grandparents and get the help she needed to fully heal. Then it was really a relief. The infection my mom had dealt with repeatedly was now gone. She learned to use a prosthetic leg and got around quite well. Life went on.

As technology improved, prosthetics changed. What may seem like progress though has actually hindered my mom. She has had difficulty adjusting to newer style prosthetics. She wants her old clunky heavy one, which of course is obsolete. So a change is necessary. Change is often painful.

I remember when my mom first received a water-proof leg. We decided to test it out at the small pool at my uncle’s apartment complex. We weren’t alone there. An older couple was sunning nearby. I steadied Mom as we descended the steps into the water and once she had her bearings we left the shallows and attempted a swim across the pool. We managed to reach the other side, but not the same as we had left….something was missing. We looked back and there bobbing like a cork in the middle of the pool was Mom’s leg. We looked at it, the shocked faces of the couple and just burst out laughing. It felt good.

This dear lady, who has endured so much loss in life yet has not lost faith; this kind lady who has virtually nothing yet is rich in what she holds most dear, Jesus Christ; this loving lady who since her childhood has been the recipient of many wrongs yet seeks to bless others in her own simple way is coming to visit next week. I have been busy making preparations, which is one reason why I have not been blogging lately.

She will read the Bible to my kids, try to engage me in spiritual discussions, pass out tracts at Wal-Mart, brush my girl’s hair, give hand massages with lotion, color with my kids, look at books with them and nag at them to pick up their toys.

She will blast her radio and GodTV, use obscene amounts of condiments, and ask to go somewhere way more often than this homebody intends to go.

She will likely do our laundry and dishes, remove the garbage bags from the cans to be taken out every day whether they are full or not, and if it rains and Mr. Nodak gets some time off, Mom will gladly stay with the kids so we can enjoy some much needed alone time.

She will be a sometimes annoying yet lovable presence in our home, just like I am sure I was many years ago as a kid am at times.

We are looking forward to her being here.

In addition to enjoying Mom, I intend to hone my philosophy of education, solidify some homeschooling objectives, spend more time outdoors enjoying the warmer weather and heed my own Mother’s Day admonition.

So please pardon if the content here is a little scarce for the next few weeks.

Wishing you memorable moments with your loved ones!