Game Time

Basketball, basketball, basketball. The boys are busy playing basketball, playing NBA basketball on the Wii,  watching basketball on TV and in person.  

 On Saturday morning they got serious. Noah got out their microphone, a water bottle, the kitchen timer, the computer, a black bag and Levi got his basketball uniform on. Noah got the announcers table set up with his stuff while Levi changed. Then, while Noah got some basketball tunes on Spotify ("Space Jam" anyone?), Levi warmed up.

 After that, there was a long time of announcing players including the one-and-only Levi Jordan. It was hilarious! Noah kept score on the computer, too. Wonder what the bag is for? Well, it's where they store the microphone and other scores table stuff.

It's rare that they let their imaginations take them this far into something. Noah always keeps his imaginative play to "real" things but this situation still required a lot of creative thinking.
The game commentary was hard to follow if you weren't paying really close attention. Levi was the only player for two teams. It went something like this:
"The Miami Heat have the ball, he shoots, he misses. Ok, now the Chicago Bulls have the ball. He shoots, he misses, shoots again, misses again. Now the Miami Heat have the ball, they make it! The score is 2-0." It went on and on and on.
Eventually they switched and Levi announced for Noah. The whole thing happened again on Sunday afternoon. Now the bag is packed up and ready to go again whenever they decide it's game time.

Tag along

Every morning, Ben goes outside to feed cattle and Harold tags along. Most of that work happens out back and the barns block my view from the house. But, when Ben takes off down the driveway to feed the cattle at Bruce's you can count on Harold being in the lead, or hurrying to catch up!

I wanted to get a photo of this because I've enjoyed watching it so many times from inside the house. Then the one day I was outside and ready with my camera Harold got distracted on the farmyard so he was actually running really fast to catch up to Ben. He usually leads the way down the driveway and onto the road. It's a miracle that he hasn't been run over by the tractor. The bonus is it's a great way for Harold to get a good run in every morning. The bad news is that he gets distracted, makes visits to the neighbors and chases coyotes (which has ended up with him being outnumbered by a pack of coyotes....).

Celebrating 90

We spent time over the past several days celebrating my grandma's 90th birthday. Her birthday is Feb. 28, and I was sad that work meetings kept me from seeing her on that day. Regardless, the boys and I took her flowers on Thursday evening - a few yellow tulips to brighten her room.

 My grandma holds a special spot in my heart. I grew up with her house just across the backyard. I ran over there to play, to snack, to jabber, to help dig potatoes, to eat a second supper and to learn so many things by simply watching her. Certain hymns remind me of listening to her play piano and sing, certain TV shows remind me of eating a second supper with my grandparents while "The Lawrence Welk Show" entertained us.

And now I live in her house, the house she lived in nearly all of her life. I garden in the space that was merely her flower garden, let alone her vegetable garden. I smell her Cover Girl liquid foundation in the drawer by the back sink as if it were still in there.

I try to make time each Friday to visit her. It doesn't always happen, and sometimes she's busy playing Memory/Matching game or she's at Read Aloud Time. But often we visit and look at old photos. She always knows who I am, but otherwise the quality of her memory just depends on the day. I'm thankful that she is pleasant, that her eyes and ears work well and that she still has her sense of humor.

Last week we talked about what she planned to plant in her garden this year. Sometimes I show her my cellphone and she's amazed that it can take pictures. She's 90 and it was wonderful to celebrate her birthday on Sunday.

We looked at lots of old slides and learned about the changes made to this old house we live in and the yard that surrounds us. It's good to look back and appreciate the time, blood, sweat and tears given to build and grow this farm. The back-breaking labor that was put into making it what it is today is humbling.

And while this house is simply a house, an old (and let's be honest, crumbling) structure it is a place where thousands of memories have been and continue to be made. It's a place that grandma intends to return to, yet a moment later when I tell her that I live in her house now she's always happy for us.

She didn't always remember why we were together on Sunday. But she sang along and knew nearly every word by heart of the old hymns we sang . In every photo she was in during the slide show, she was working. Always working on something - milking, cooking, typing, sewing - always doing.
It felt a bit odd celebrating her birthday. She is present and yet so much of the grandma I've always known is gone. My other grandparents died when their bodies failed them long before their brains/memory had. And grandma is just the opposite. I cherish my times with her, appreciating her life example all the more now that I'm an adult/mother/farm wife.

A sunny Saturday

We soaked up as much of the warm sunshine on Saturday as we possibly could. We did some farm "exploring" in the morning down by the creek. While the boys sloshed through the icy-slushy creek, Ben and I stood and dreamed about clearing this space. We started a while ago cutting out trees, but we've made very little progress otherwise. Someday we'll get to this project....

 We're working hard on getting Levi and Harold to get along. Harold's knocked Levi over a couple times - out of pure excitement, nothing mean spirited - but Levi was terrified by it. But lately, Harold's cooled off a bit and Levi's listened to our encouragements of being "brave".

 On Saturday, they got along really well. Levi confesses to "loving Harold" even if he doesn't like everything he does. :-)

 We've had a few days of spring-like weather and in just that little bit of time the wheat has started to show more green.

 We stopped by the de-construction spot....the de-construction of an old grain dryer, that is.

 It's been quite a process of dismantling.

 Levi found a warm sunny spot to relax while the other farmers worked.

 In the afternoon, the boys played barefoot in the sand and mud over at our new house construction site. I didn't think about sunscreen, but on Sunday morning I realized Noah's arms were slightly sunburned! Oops.

This is definitely a tricky time of winter....spring seems so close, but elusively far away. Thoughts of gardening have been popping into my head since Christmas...and a sunny, warm Saturday is a really good way to get me wishing it was gardening season.

Basketball on the slab

We were blessed with warmer weather this week, which meant we actually got to play outside after work! Crazy goodness!  The boys are really into playing basketball these days. 

 Mr. Harold is too! He thinks the basketball is toy to chase after and eat. So he often ends up being penned up in the old milk barn while we play. That doesn't stop him from watching the action, though!

 Ahhh....to play without interruption, now that's better!

Spring Program

"It's a Jungle Out There!" or at least it was last night in the gym while the boys (and all the kids in their school) gave their spring choir concert. The kindergarten and first grade classes started off the night with several songs. Levi led his class on stage and took a lot of pride in his important job. 

 There were cute kids, cute songs and lots of cute actions.

 Next up was the 2nd-4th grade choir. They sang a bunch of songs with tricky rhythms, percussion instruments and fun animal sounds.

 Noah wasn't excited about being in the front row and having to stand on the stage, but he did a great job!

I've been hearing bits of these songs for weeks! It was a fun evening listening to and watching all that they've been working on in music (a class they both love).

8 is Great

Look out world, this kid is 8!

Saturday was a busy morning in my kitchen, bread and vanilla cupcakes with blue butter cream frosting. The house smelled amazing!

Noah had his friend Jake over to play and for lunch he wanted to eat frozen pizza and apple slices. I added in veggies and ranch dressing in an attempt to round out the nutrition level of the meal. It turns out that watermelon Kool-Aid isn't that great, fyi for the next time you're in the Kool-Aid aisle at the grocery store.

And of course, cupcakes for dessert, yum!

 

 We totally forgot to have Noah open his present at lunch, so before the boys headed out to play he quickly opened his package from us. Adidas pants, baseball/football gloves and the promise for going out to the movies as soon as we can make it happen.

 The gloves got put to use right away on the football field!

 Then we moved on to bale jumping!

 The boys had a great time and burned a lot of energy.

 In the evening went to watch one of Ben's basketball games, then out to iHop for dinner. Noah thought it was delicious!
Sunday we celebrated with my family.

 And I only managed this blurry photo of him blowing out the candles on his apple crisp.

 He got a KU basketball and pen, and some cash. He'd already received birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Schrag in the mail and was very excited to add his money together to buy an NBA Wii game.

Happy birthday Mr. Noah. We love your honesty and how you strive to do the right thing. It's amazing to watch you learn to play piano and get better at reading and writing, even though you hate to write complete sentences.