Wednesday, January 30, 2013

January? Nope. April? Maybe. No...

It doesn't take a degree in meteorology to realize that this weather is crazy.

I love Facebook posts about the weather as much as I like writing about the weather...translation: I loathe them, and would love to comment once in awhile along the lines of, "Thank you Mr. or Mrs. Obvious."

I guess my snarkiness in regards to the weather is because for us it isn't just an inconvenience for us. The weather affects every decision, aspect, plans: day-to-day, long-term, social, meal time, etc., of our lives. We are at the mercy of the weather always. Period.

Especially now.

It's calving season, and while we have had success despite sub-zero temps, 65 degree temperatures, now muck and mud, and soon to be frozen snow and ice, the weather and its ups and downs can create challenges much more great than just for my hair and shoe choices (I did love wearing flats with no socks yesterday, by the way).

Take today, for instance. Joe has mamas calving left and right. He has been checking them, shutting in the "heavy girls" (strike me down if he ever refers to me as that...actually HIT HIM!!!) who look like they're ready to pop. However, on a day like yesterday, while the rains were welcome for the water supply, calving in the muck and mud is hardly ideal. Now today, while it is still muck and muddy, it's now cold and getting colder and windier, thus creating an even less than opportune environment for calves to be born. Instead, days like today are especially stressful for Joe, as he is constantly hoping, thinking, checking those mams that are ready to birth, hoping they don't end up somewhere they shouldn't.

Joe is really good at keeping calving in less than comfortable circumstances at bay, however. Joe has prepped an area for prime calving conditions with skills that would rival a professional interior designer. While the conditions inside this area are prime, some times, some mamas are just...well...for the lack of a better term, not very intelligent. They are still not smart enough to get in to the area where Joe has spent countless hours re-strawing, checking, fixing, and then shutting them into this fenced, sheltered area in order to stay safe and healthy.

Thus, our life is now a series of stops and starts, as he goes out every few hours to check and recheck, shut in, restraw, feed, etc. While a typical work day during our non-calving season is pretty predictable: chores in the morning, and a flexible, although labor intensive day, and then in for the evening, during calving season, we see each other and enjoy events in small, short bursts. Tonight, in order to get away for a work event, Joe has scheduled his day to the milli-second, and we will not tarry at the end of the festivities...we will need to be home by 9:00 in order to do checks, possibly in dress pants and rubber boots on the way home to save a trip.

Ahhh...the life, huh?

Regardless, this is an exciting time. The kids are pumped about the new babies around here. Even Jack got in on the checking last night. While it may affect my social life and dinner times, this is the time when Joe gets to see the fruits of his planning and breeding schedule.

So, if you want to get together with us, good luck...give us a two hour time frame and a babysitter, and don't mind the smell of manure and straw if you want to ride with us.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

15 Degrees and Balmy

This morning, as I was fumbling out to my car in the darkness, I realized something.

It was warmer.

Notice I didn't say warm, just warmer.

So, I looked at my car's thermometer, and it was a balmy, 15 degrees!! Whoo-hoo! Double digits, and it's the early morning! What will it be like when the sun comes out??? 25? Dare I say 30 degrees?

It's been cold around here, like, really, really cold...so cold, even the kids notice and want to wear their coats. Have you ever had this happen: it's 25 or 35 degrees, and the kids leap off the bus, sans coat, in short sleeves, and complain of being hot? I'm in three layers, socks and slippers, cracking the door open just enough to let them in the house, and they're HOT???

Anyway, I'm digressing...

it's cold.

And, of course, it's the beginning of calving season, so little calves are being born during these cold conditions. But on a day like today, when it's a whopping 15 degrees, life on the farm is just slightly less stressful during calving season. While Joe is a good herdsman, always checking, shutting in "heavy" girls who look like they're about to calve, trying to keep them warm in the comfort of the barn, one can only do so much when the temperatures are sub-zero.

But today...yippee! It's 15, and only 6:00 in the morning! What promise a day like this will bring, right? The calves who might be born today won't have to brave snow and ice and wind and bitter cold, because 15 is balmy, right?

Sure.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Well, Shoot

So Saturday I got to go to the Chicagoland area.

By myself.

All day.

Sounds like a dream, right?

Well, I had a purpose, other than a potential Pottery Barn/IKEA/Nordstrom stop. That purpose was an event with Illinois Farm Families. We were to meet and greet and answer questions with suburban and urban (aren't those one and the same?) moms, and through this interaction, give these moms a better feel of who is growing their food.

Sounds perfect, huh?

Well, perfect if anyone would have shown up!

Seriously.

Our first stop was at a suburban library, where we met with two (YES, TWO) moms. They had great questions, and I think we made good connections, but there were just two.

Onto the next stop, where we had 10 moms RSVP to the event. We were thinking that this would be a fun one, in the city, young moms who had concerns, some of them with whom we had met before, some new.

So we arrived, parked, set up...

and waited..

and waited...

and waited.

For an hour, we waited while patrons of the Bucktown/Wicker Park library walked past me and my over eager-I'm-here-to-share-my-story-with-you-smile plastered on my face.

Maybe that was a reason why no one came...that weird smile.

Anyway, it was a bust, but a good learning experience.

If you are reading this and were one of those moms who RSVP-ed, but didn't come, I'm not upset. If you're an IFF believer and are disappointed, don't be.

This even solidified my belief that we have bridged the first gap in agriculture advocacy. The moms we previously met know that we are neither hee-haw nor evil. They are spreading that word.

Onto the next level.

I equate this to sorority rush...we have the founders (farm moms, advocates, believers and workers on this project). Our pledge class, i.e., the field moms, have gone through the program and are doing a good job spreading the word, so now we founders and first pledge class members need to go out and rush new faces. We know the program, so now it's OUR turn to do the recruiting.

I'm all for this project, and although was disappointed with the turn out, and then the impending ice which cut my Pottery Barn time to ZERO (for which, Joe is happy), I realized that this is a learning opportunity, and while some groups may continue to want to keep doing the same thing over and over, I feel like IFF might be different. They may realize that a bust like this is a learning experience, and we HAVE to change the outlook, and the outreach.

This is still necessary, and advocacy is critical, but we can't keep trying to do the same thing over and over when our group is growing in their knowledge and understanding.

Plus, I can't waste another trip to Chicago and NOT have time to hit Nordstrom's shoe department.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Freeze and Thaw

It's January 9th, and I'm getting spring fever.

It's nearly 50 degrees; it's sunny, and I'm wearing flats with no socks.

It's crazy.

However, it's fleeting, because we are in Illinois.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying this crazy batch of weather, because with every thaw, there's a promise of a new spring, a new beginning.

We need this after 2012.

There was the drought. Then there was the crazy fall that seemed to never end. Lately, there has been a family issue that is going to steel our nerves and strengthen our faith for sure, so with this thaw, I have not been as annoyed with the slop on my road (Did you know that there are probably only 30 pellets of gravel left on our road...great, huh?). I have looked at this thaw as an opening to be positive, and see that this year, 2013, is going to be something different.

While different can mean several things, I am choosing the happy definitions today...as I have mentioned above, this thaw is fleeting, and unfortunately, sometimes is my optimism.

However, this is how farm life is. There are freezes and thaws, each bringing its own set of challenges, but equally bringing happy little tidbits that push us onward. While the drought may have been disconcerting, to say the least, it did bring us the pleasure of not having to mow our lawn. While this thaw may have made my car so dirty yesterday that you could hardly see the color of it through the muck...and then to add insult to injury, my Josie, age 6, said, "Mom, aren't you embarrassed by your car?" Oh, Josie...she is her mother's daughter... this thaw and its muck has done wonders for my psyche. A clean car because the muck has now dried a bit in the sun. This thaw and its muck has   allowed Joe to chore in more pleasant conditions, and Dad to haul grain without having to stand in the biting wind while he loads up.

There are good things, right?

My point is, life is freeze and thaw, good and bad, challenging and easy, and never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever perfect...no matter how much concealer I put on, how clean I keep my house, and how hard I try to slap on a smile. Life is up and down.

So, here's to a good day, friends. Here's to a thaw.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

On Having A Big Family...

While we are not the Duggars with our brood of 18 (or is it 19?) children, we Webels do have a lot of kids: active kids, loving kids, healthy kids, sometimes naughty kids, kids who need naps, kids who need to go, kids who need to stay, kids who want to go, but should stay, kids who are helpers, and kids who need to be helped.

Any way you look at my kids, they're great, but there are times as a family with four kids, although close together in age, when I feel like I can't figure out how to cart them around to various events, games, practices, lessons, church functions, grocery shopping, shoe shopping, preschool pick-up...etc.

So, there are times like this morning, when I choose to stay home. I choose to be here, and Joe's there with Anna, at yet another basketball game that I have to miss because Amelia's a train wreck from going to see Josie dance at the high school basketball game last night, and Jack is...well, 18 months old, and doesn't want to be restricted to a stroller and/or one area for more than three seconds.

I want to be that mom who shows up to the Saturday morning game with all her well dressed, bathed, color coordinated kids, on time. I crave to be that mom who can also be showered and color coordinated and calm, cool, and collected as my perfect children watch their sister's second grade basketball game, cheering at appropriate times, and not trying to run out onto the court because he is obsessed with basketballs, or crying because her sister won't share the pink haired Barbie with her at the appropriate time.

However, I'm not that mom, so I sit here, still in my jammies (because who has time to run on a Saturday such as this?), and blog about the fact that I am trying not to be a deadbeat mom who doesn't show up at games, but I feel like it today.

This is in no way any reflection on you parents who drag your kids to all events, entertaining them with Cheerios and Legos. Kudos to you. This is also not a negative post to you parents who chose to have one or two kids (because sometimes...I wonder what your life is like, playing man-to-man defense). I just wish I could do it all. That's why I was a music/athlete/class president type of high school kid. That's why I sing and teach Sunday School at church. That's why I am working and raising four kids...I like to try to max myself out, and when I make the executive decision to say no and stay home, it's disconcerting.

Regardless, I am home today, and although my Anna is understanding and loves to be alone with her dad, I want to see her make that shot. I want to see her face when she's cruising up the court. I want to hear her feet slap against the floor as she hustles, as she still runs like a little kid...the harder you strike the floor, the faster you seem.

I will make it to a game, no doubt, but it will take some creative child juggling. It may take a babysitter, a grandma, and a lot of Goldfish if they all come. I want to remain present, but I want to remain sane.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Resolutions and Gravy

On a day when folks are trolling the internet for ideas on how to eat healthy, I went all Miss Kay (does anyone else love Duck Dynasty?) on my family and made country fried steak, with mashed potatoes…and

Gravy.

Oh yeah…take that January 2nd!! Take that resolutions!!

I made gravy today for two reasons: 1) my meal begged for it and 2) out of spite for the resolutions I have made in years gone by.

Because you know what, I stink at resolutions. Remember my post last year? I said I was going to pretty up my blog…and use coupons…and neither of them stuck, as witnessed by my “end of the year” meeting with my husband. On the agenda: how much I spent in groceries. No, I will not be on TLC for Extreme Couponing. Also, notice my blog? It isn’t prettier…or more user friendly…or even correct! Poor Jack, he still isn’t on the main pictures. I assure you, he’s cute, but as I type, he’s destroying the office…bit by bit. You try figuring out how to make blog look prettier with an 18 month old ripping off stamps as he unloads the desk drawers.

Perhaps my resolution this year should be to get a handle on my kids and their behavior?

I am digressing.

My point for today is that even though I generally err on the side of healthy when it comes to eating and exercise, I am going to enjoy a nice hunk of country fried steak tonight…with gravy, because, that’s what was in my freezer.

I know, lucky me, huh?

I’m going to fight the good fight when it comes to keeping myself fit, but don’t you worry (especially my husband who is starting to get nervous that I’ll try to go all crazy healthy on him), I’ll bust out a good gravy now and again.

Even on January 2nd!

Resolutions and Gravy

On a day when folks are trolling the internet for ideas on how to eat healthy, I went all Miss Kay (does anyone else love Duck Dynasty?) on my family and made country fried steak, with mashed potatoes…and

Gravy.

Oh yeah…take that January 2nd!! Take that resolutions!!

I made gravy today for two reasons: 1) my meal begged for it and 2) out of spite for the resolutions I have made in years gone by.

Because you know what, I stink at resolutions. Remember my post last year? I said I was going to pretty up my blog…and use coupons…and neither of them stuck, as witnessed by my “end of the year” meeting with my husband. On the agenda: how much I spent in groceries. No, I will not be on TLC for Extreme Couponing. Also, notice my blog? It isn’t prettier…or more user friendly…or even correct! Poor Jack, he still isn’t on the main pictures. I assure you, he’s cute, but as I type, he’s destroying the office…bit by bit. You try figuring out how to make blog look prettier with an 18 month old ripping off stamps as he unloads the desk drawers.

Perhaps my resolution this year should be to get a handle on my kids and their behavior?

I am digressing.

My point for today is that even though I generally err on the side of healthy when it comes to eating and exercise, I am going to enjoy a nice hunk of country fried steak tonight…with gravy, because, that’s what was in my freezer.

I know, lucky me, huh?

I’m going to fight the good fight when it comes to keeping myself fit, but don’t you worry (especially my husband who is starting to get nervous that I’ll try to go all crazy healthy on him), I’ll bust out a good gravy now and again.

Even on January 2nd!

Resolutions and Gravy

On a day when folks are trolling the internet for ideas on how to eat healthy, I went all Miss Kay (does anyone else love Duck Dynasty?) on my family and made country fried steak, with mashed potatoes…and

Gravy.

Oh yeah…take that January 2nd!! Take that resolutions!!

I made gravy today for two reasons: 1) my meal begged for it and 2) out of spite for the resolutions I have made in years gone by.

Because you know what, I stink at resolutions. Remember my post last year? I said I was going to pretty up my blog…and use coupons…and neither of them stuck, as witnessed by my “end of the year” meeting with my husband. On the agenda: how much I spent in groceries. No, I will not be on TLC for Extreme Couponing. Also, notice my blog? It isn’t prettier…or more user friendly…or even correct! Poor Jack, he still isn’t on the main pictures. I assure you, he’s cute, but as I type, he’s destroying the office…bit by bit. You try figuring out how to make blog look prettier with an 18 month old ripping off stamps as he unloads the desk drawers.

Perhaps my resolution this year should be to get a handle on my kids and their behavior?

I am digressing.

My point for today is that even though I generally err on the side of healthy when it comes to eating and exercise, I am going to enjoy a nice hunk of country fried steak tonight…with gravy, because, that’s what was in my freezer.

I know, lucky me, huh?

I’m going to fight the good fight when it comes to keeping myself fit, but don’t you worry (especially my husband who is starting to get nervous that I’ll try to go all crazy healthy on him), I’ll bust out a good gravy now and again.

Even on January 2nd!