this cuckoo's nest

my kitchen table....

i read other ladies blogs..i visit friends..i see the look on visitors faces when they step into my kitchen. i know the truth. my kitchen table is not normal. it is not like most kitchen tables..as i sit here writing,  i survey the surface and there is a pumpkin, my coffee cup, thomas the train,a roll of craft paper, a copy of "to kill a mockingbird", a bowl of googlie eyes, a pipe cleaner spider, a bag of crayons, and a small quilt i am finishing up. seriously. listing all these things, one would think that we have one of those 6 ft long farm tables..where everyone has a seat and has room to spread out and do their thing..or hold hands around the table before a meal...but no.it seats four people..unless you are little, then it can seat five or six if we squeeze.

every morning, i sit here, drink my coffee, read my emails, my facebook,cnn and tmz (in that order. and yes, i just admitted to reading a useless, trashy site...we all have our vices, mine are tmz and sheeps wool...that's a whole nother story) this is where most of our home school happens, even though we have a designated spot that we rarely use. the kids make things here, glue, paint and markers rule the space most of the time. river squishes playdough here. fable stands on the chair and watches the chickens in the rain or snow. she worries here. i pay bills here, so at any given time i could be sitting writing out checks, stamping & addressing, and maybe even shedding a few tears, trying to figure it all out.

there are times, more often than not, that we are ready to eat and the table is full of chaos. its those moments that i want to pull one of those "crazy lady" arm sweeps across the table, pushing it all on to the floor. i envision myself placing the plates on the table, maybe even lightng a candle, sitting delicately at my spot and enjoying a meal....with all the crazy on the still on the floor. i have never done that, and i probably wont.

as i am sitting here, fable is asking me what i am writing about..i said "our kitchen table and what a mess it is." she looked at me in confusion and asked "oh, are you asking other ladies for advice? like how do they keep it clean?"

i laughed. no, i am not asking for advice. i am thinking about our times here and how THIS is the heart of our home. our hub. "where the family magic happens", so to speak. are there ways to declutter our lives? i'm sure. and i am even interested in how that could be done. but to me, this cluttered kitchen table is not only a tribute to the fact that i am domestically challenged..but it is also evidence of our happy,crazy,messy life...and even though its a mess, i think its a mess i am happy to live with.

...what we put out there..everything isn't always what its seems.

i was looking at our pictures that i had put on my facebook page of our family at "homeschool day" at Old Sturbridge Village..and i had to laugh. as i looked over the photos...i thought about what i "put out there" for others to see and how they (for lack of a better word) judge (or maybe view) my life, my family...how they view me.i laughed because the photos show this idyllic day of wonder, in which we all soaked up information about life in the 1800's, sat and pondered simpler but harder times..us enjoying one another and living this life to its fullest. was this the day we had? ummmm...emphaticly, no.  i was with my good friend and her children...THEY seemed to soak it up. "thank you mommy for bringing up here today." one of her little daughters sweetly said to her. in my head i bitterly repeated "thankyou mommy for bringing us here today" (i exaggerate, but looking back i may have felt like it.)  what the photos dont show..is ME getting the entire group lost right before the girls were supposed to take a class so we had to RUN across the entire place in order for them to make it.can you say sweaty pits!? it didnt show my daughter begging for things in the gift store, later refusing to sit in on a laura ingalls lesson (gasp!) or my son getting soaked at the water pump...the pictures show the HIGH POINTS of our visit. and that's what i'm thinking about today.

for a long time any social network was extremely off putting to me. i was really resistant to it and gave  steve a hard time for succumbing to it. facebook made everybody look...interesting, happy, beautiful, witty...the list goes on. i remember my sister telling me..."think about it jesse, everyone is just putting their best foot forward, creating the way they want to be seen. " ( my sissy is so wise.) we let others see our high points.and i caught myself today..here i am creating how i am viewed..how my kids, my marriage, my wisdom ( or lack of) are viewed. now, do i think i am a "real" person, someone who is honest with life struggles and victories? yes, i like to think i am. but will i put all those double chin pictures from christmas up for all of you to see? hell no. i want to be real and thoughtful...but God forbid i look fat or sound stupid.

so, i have decided to be real..but continue to put our family's high points out there. i have much more grace now..for the lovely photos and the witty posts. i have NO bitterness towards them at all. i find them comforting....its means everybody else puts their best foot forward too, but at one time or another has had an insanely messy house, given in to their kids just to stop the whinning, taken one or more photo that looks like a mugshot..all of it. as for Old Sturbridge Village and my daughter deciding she was gonna buck the system and play with mud and sticks instead of wearing a prarie dress and bonnet...i'll always love and treasure my daughter for who she is, but for today i'm gonna close my eyes and pretend my friends daughter said to me "thank you mommy for bringing us here today"...
(christel's daughter...soaking it all in.)  

baa baa black sheep..have you any wool?

Here at our little dot on the map, we are lucky enough to have a wonderful farm/park close by that fills our need for "life in the country."

i grew up on a farm, with chickens and sheep, a few cows and lots of cats.... i went to a small tiny school house and we made fun things, and grades were combined and shared classrooms..i remember girls lining up at Mrs. Helmer's desk to have our hair put into ponytails on hot days...we had my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Schlie over for dinner....it was all very sweet and homespun. It is an aspect of my childhood that i adore and it helped to mold me into the person i am today...the mother i am today.

So we have this little farm/park and we go there mostly to picnic or play or feed the animals...but sometimes they have festivals or classes..and fable attended "farm camp" this past summer and loooooved it. we made friends with "farmer vinnie", as she calls him. this past week, we were lucky enough to attend a homeschoolers class with some of our close friends..it was on maple syrup tapping. the kids learned all about the native americans in our area and how they discovered the sweet sap that would eventually become syrup. the sugar shack was open and they boiled and stirred the sweet sap and it was all very fun. but what i am writting about tonight, is what happened next...

we were back by the sheep, just hanging out and talking and farmer vinnie came to feed them. so the kids got to help and talk to him.(river walked straight into the goat pen, no fear, that boy.)  a another friend that was there asked vinnie the magic question: "what do you do with the wool after it is sheared?" (gasp!! christel and i just looked at eachother...waiting..) his response: "ehhhh, it's just in garbage bags in the barn..i dont know what to do with it." (WHAT!!!!?? WHAAAAAAAAAT??) at this point my heart was racing...i could have easily broke into a cold sweat...i took the leap and blurted out "I'll take it!" he said "sure!" and we were glowing...you'd think we were given diamonds. we took our bags of wool and stood in the lot peering into them with amazement.  so exciting..lots of work but so fun for two "old woolies" like us.

we have all sorts of plans..but just for fun i cleaned the wool and made a few fun things...the real work i  will save till spring. here is the wool before it was washed:(greasy and kinda poopy.)
i had fable pick out the hay and poop and other things...then i put it in a mesh bag and put it in a bucket with dish washing liquid and gently washed and rinsed three times...it was filthy!I spun it in our washer to get the water out and  i hung it to dry and then it looked like this:
the next step should have been "carding" (brushing and smoothing) the wool, but i dont have the correct tools ( we tried using my metal dog brushes, but they were'nt quite right)so i did the best i could and just brushed it out..then sat and made these:
so fun! i have a good bit of clean wool left so i'll be making them some friends. vinnie asked us,  in exchange for the wool, to give the kids a wool presentation at their fall festival...we are looking forward to it..but in the meantime, youtube and library books will be our guide as we learn about felting and spinning and whatever else we can do with our wool. it started out as a fun homeschool day and we ended up getting a treasure trove of wool. so wonderful. the spring will bring much more, so we'll keep you posted on our creations...