Whale of a Week!

You should see my house right now.

VBS prep and the County Fair just collided on our schedule and my house looks like Hobby Lobby on Black Friday.

I have pool noodles in the dining room, glue bottles on the kitchen table and a shark costume on the living room floor.

There’s piles everywhere.

My mind is just as cluttered as my house.

This year’s VBS prep includes costumes for a turtle, a shark, and an octopus.

I’ve never made a shark costume before and the instructions on Pinterest were vague. “Put the shark fins were you think they should go.”

Seriously? I’ve never even considered where shark fins should go!

You don’t want to know how many times I’ve ripped out Sharky (as we now affectionately call him!)

And then there’s the octopus.

I kind of went a little wild with the tentacles and the entire costume has a life of it’s own.

Every once in a while I take off the VBS hat and put on the 4H leader hat and help with projects, design the club’s backdrop and help write project reports.

And occasionally I’ve even put on my mom hat and cooked.

But more often than not, when one of the kids will ask about food and I’ll tell them to cook something.

We’ve eaten a lot of hot dogs.

My poor husband should get a medal.

Our conversations have been a bit one-sided this week and have gone like this –

“How’s the best way to attach elastic straps to a turtle shell made of cardboard and flannel?”

“Can you print the 4H sign?”

“Would you make some coral reef from this spray foam? And paint it?”

“What should we use to pad sharkie’s head?”

“Can you find the 4H backdrop?

“Can you pick up elastic on your way home?”

“Where do shark fins go?”

“Can you tell me again that I’m wonderful and that I can do this?”

And he does.

And I do.

And little by little we’re gaining on it.

The next 10 days are gonna be crazy!

But one way or another – we’ll make it!

PS: Where do shark fins go?!

A Super Soup Supper

It started with a random comment at a 4H meeting.

The swing set at the park in our small rural community was in sad state and the baby swing was broken.

“We should take it on as a 4H project!” they said.

Great idea! But we’re a very small club. We would need to raise some money.

The easiest fund-raiser for a club of six kids? A soup supper.

Excitement built as we set a date, planned a menu and and printed hand-outs.

The kids made posters and the leaders and the moms (all five of us) started baking, cutting veggies, and making soup.

The food started arriving early on the night of the supper.

And so did the community.

Lots of them.

On a raw March evening with the skies threatening snow, we packed the tables in our community hall.

Moms dished the soups, but our 4H kids were a part of everything else – keeping veggie plates filled, plating desserts, pouring drinks, busing tables, washing dishes.

And they were excited! You could see it in their eyes. This was big. Way bigger than we imagined.

Half way through we started adding to the soups to stretch them.

And still they came.

A cross section of community. Retired couples, young families, grandparents with grandchildren.

All there for the kids. For the park. For the future.

Some even brought desserts to add to our offerings.

The tables were never empty and our donation box was filling up.

When the last guest buttoned up and headed out in the cold and those now exhausted kids had helped clean up, we opened up the donation box and counted the money.

Their excitement was infectious as the pile of bills added up!

And up and up.

The total surpassing our expectations by many, many dollars.

This went way way beyond just a new baby swing and some fresh paint!

This could get memorial trees for our two 4H members killed in a car accident last summer!

This could get a handicapped swing!

The ideas were flying as we turned out the lights and headed home.

Exhausted but exhilarated.

Those six kids learned some very valuable lessons that night.

About having an idea and how to make it happen.

About working hard and serving others.

And about community and what can happen when we work together.

It was a pretty super soup supper!

Christmas Grab Bag Gift Exchange- Wampum Version

Our Christmas season kicks off tonight with our 4H Christmas party. It will the seventh one that we’ve hosted.

So – what exactly does a successful 4H Christmas party include?

Food – definitely food.

Seasonal is good. Lots of sugar is better.
Tonight we have homemade caramel corn to hand out, mini sugar cookies and a big batch of elf food to share.

A craft is always a good idea – something they can do to keep their hands busy and take home with them. Angel girl has a Christmas tree craft ready to share.

And of course – you need a grab bag gift exchange.

That’s when things will start to get a little crazy.

Every member will need to bring a wrapped grab bag gift and then you will need to find a way to exchange them.

Sometimes we play Bingo – similar to my our White Elephant Bingo Gift Exchange at my family’s Remix every spring.

And other times – if I’m feeling very adventurous and brave – we play Wampum.

It’s pretty simple and loved by kids of all ages.

All you need is a newspaper rolled up and taped together to make a club-like object that looks cool but doesn’t cause injury. We call it the Wampum stick. (Pretty creative – huh?!)

Choose one person to be It – everyone else puts their chairs in a circle and puts their wrapped gifts under their chair.

The person who is It can put their gift to the side.

Starting with the person who is It, go around the circle and have each person choose something from Christmas – Santa, shepherd, tinsel, lights, etc..

Everyone must choose something different.

Then give It the wampum stick. Choose one child to start things rolling by saying their Christmas item along with another one. For example: Tinsel likes snowman.

The person who is It must then try to wamp the person who is snowman with the wampum club (on the legs – of course!) before they say their Christmas item with another one – snowman likes star.

The game continues: star likes tinsel, tinsel likes manger, manger likes angels, etc… until It manages to wamp a person before they can finish.

If they wamp the person in time – that person goes to the center and becomes It while the previous It sits in their chair and starts the game with their item and another: shepherd likes tinsel.

If they call the person who just called them – tinsel likes star, star likes tinsel – they become It.

And if they accidentally call the item of the person who is It – they automatically become It.

Things can get a little wild – depending on how much sugar you’ve served! 🙂

Then – when everyone is hot and sweaty and has moved into a different chair – you call the over and let them unwrap the gift under their chair they are sitting in.

Then I would highly recommend you send them home quickly with bags of homemade caramel corn, clean up the mess, grab a mug of hot chocolate with double whipped cream and curl up on the couch – thankful the 4H Christmas party is over for another year!

Kettle Corn

What do you serve a crew of hungry 4H kids who have just walked over a mile along the highway and through the ditches picking up trash for a community service project?

It needs to be cheap, portable, filling, and appeal to all ages.

How about kettle corn – bagged with peanuts, M&M’s and candy corn?!

Served with pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies and a juice box, these snack bags were a hit with my road crew this weekend!

And the left-over bags were so handy in throw in lunch boxes this morning!

Kettle Corn

1 tablespoon oil (we love coconut oil for popping corn)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup unpopped popcorn
salt to taste

Place in the oil and sugar in your popcorn popper. Add the popcorn and pop according to directions.

The sugar will melt with the oil and coat the popcorn as it pops. Toss the popped corn into a bowl and salt to taste. Let sit for a few minutes to cool before breaking it apart.

This stuff is fabulous when hot – and holds up well for 3-5 days depending on the humidity.

Let the kettle corn cool completely before you mix in the candy corn and M&M’s so there is no melting.

When we mixed in all the extras, they fell to the bottom of the bag leaving the popcorn on top – but no one seemed to mind. They just shook the bags until their favorites were on top.

Enjoy!

Photo Finish

Can I be a proud momma for just a minute? Again.

(I know – I know – it’s two weeks in a row – but it is really exciting!)

Angel Girl got a blue ribbon at the state fair. 🙂

The blue ribbon itself isn’t what I most proud of – she’s gotten those before. But this ribbon is in photography.

Her passion. Something she”s been working very hard on.

Last year none of her photos made it past the stiff competition at the County Fair.

But her judge was wonderful. He spent a lot of time looking at her pictures and gave her some very construction criticism.

And then he told her that she had a natural gift for photography – the artistic eye needed to find the great shots. All of the other aspects of getting a good picture can be learned – but the ability to see the shot is a gift.

And Angel Girl has it.

(Why do those words make me want to cry – even a year later?)

She soaked up the encouragement, studied the criticisms, and took thousands of pictures over the next year.

And one was chosen for the State Fair.

And got a blue ribbon.

And I just had to share it. 🙂

Embracing the Craziness

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.

I hope it’s true – ’cause a picture is about all I have time for!
So what’s going on?

My friend Kimmer’s here! And 2 of her kids. And Dagmar’s friend Lainers and a random nephew.

9 kids. At my house. Eating.

That’s the fun stuff.

Then there’s –

The county fair. 4H projects. Dead calf. Vet visit. Blown tire. No rain. Stinky pigs.

But God is good.

And Kimmer and I picked up more chocolate last night. (sshh – don’t tell the kids or they’ll eat that, too!)

We’re loving the craziness and making some memories!

Lunching the Tractor Ride

We spent Saturday at the local park with the 4H Club lunching the Waubonsie Tractor Club’s annual Tractor Ride.

There’s nothing quite like spending the better part of a day listening to the putt putt of old tractors, the banter of a bunch of retired farmers and serving food.
So what exactly is a Tractor Ride?

Well, first you take a bunch of guys who love restoring old tractors, then you invite them to bring their “babies” to the local park on a Saturday morning.

While the tractors are all getting lined up – just so – you wander over to the shelter house and buy a cinnamon roll (baked that morning by yours truly!) and some juice or coffee from the friendly 4H kid. (Yes – that’s Pedro with yet another hair style!)

Then you sit around in lawn chairs with your buddies and talk.

And laugh.

And talk.

And get up and buy some more coffee or another roll.

And admire the tractors.

And talk some more.

And tease the 4H kids a little.

Then someone will say, “I guess it’s time boys.”

And everybody gets up, brushes the cinnamon rolls crumbs of their overalls and heads for their tractors.

Soon the air is filled with the smell of gas and oil and the putt putt sound of old tractors.

You line those tractors up like a parade and head down the street, around the block and out of town.

Smiles on your faces. Wind in your hair.

You come back hungry and after parking your tractor – just so – you head back over to the shelter house and buy a beef burger or hot dog.

And tease the 4H kids some more.

And sit in lawn chair in the shade eating and talking.

And laughing.

Then you get up and buy another cookie and a can of pop.

And you talk.

And you laugh.

After a while you load up your tractor and head home.

Smiling.

And the 4H kids pack up the remaining food and clean up.

And count the money they made.

And head home.

Smiling.

County Fair 2011

It’s that time of year again.

The time of year when my kitchen looks like a war zone but smells heavenly.

When oven space is a hot commodity and that recipe that we’ve made a million times together without failing – fails.

When my table is covered with entry tags and project write ups and we’re scrambling to find the 4H t-shirts.
When a year’s worth of work is condensed into a few paragraphs and pictures.

When this mama is weary – but proud.

It’s time for the county fair and today is 4H judging.

Fasten your seat belts – here we go!

Blue Ribbons, Free Food and a Flaming Monkey

The one reason my kids go through the blood, sweat and tears to produce 4H projects can be summed up in four words – The Iowa State Fair.

Their goal is to get at least one project to advance to the State Fair so that Daddy has to take them. It worked again this year!

The first stop is always the 4H building – always. “Go directly to the 4H building, do not pass go, do not collect $200.” These are men on a mission – just follow the red shirt.

Once there – we begin our treasure hunt to find our 6 projects in the midst of the thousands there.

We only found five of the six – but those five did well – 3 blues and 2 reds.

The missing project was Matt’s editing work on the grandkid’s video for my parent’s Golden Anniversary. One 4H staffer said they were playing the videos this year on TV screens for fair goers to see. Oh my – they will get an eyeful watching that video! Some of his cousins might be just a little embarrassed…

Once we leave the 4H building – we’re on the livestock barns to see the biggest boar, the biggest bull and the avenue of breeds. We pass a one-man band in route to the butter cow.

My favorite part of the fair – the free food samples! We ate quite a variety this year – brats, meatballs, cookies, popcorn, salsas, a wide assortment of dips, and even a whole hard-boiled egg at the egg producers booth. If there’s free food – my kids will find it!

Speaking of food…we hiked up the hill to eat our sack lunch while watching the amazing Sinbad diving show. It was a seriously funny show featuring pirates and a cool monkey searching for the golden pineapple. Aarrgghh….my kids loved it!

Really loved it.

They loved it so much that as soon as Sinbad announced that at the 6:00 show they would light “Cool Monkey” up in flames – they started lobbying to stay.

Even though they were exhausted from hiking from one end of the fair grounds to the other, wiped out from heat and humidity, nursing blisters and out of water, they still wanted to stay.

And who could blame them?! A flaming monkey is a pretty incredible way to end a great day at the State Fair!

4H Judging at the County Fair

The County Fair.

The very words put fear and trembling into the hearts of 4H moms.

It’s marked in red on my calendar.

D -Day.

This year we have all five children in 4H. That means a grand total of 19 projects and all of those projects are due at the same time on the same day.

In a perfect world my diligent children would have been working on projects all year – on their own – with little assistance.

My world isn’t perfect.

We worked on projects the week before the fair like our lives depended on it. (For some of my children – it did!)

Despite the stress and the rush, each child was completed on time even if we did had to use duct tape. 🙂

Judging went very well. Very, very well.

Six projects were chosen for the State Fair.

One was an Outstanding Junior exhibit.

And all the rest were blue ribbons – except Buddy’s – he still a Clover Kid and only gets a rainbow participation ribbon.

And now it’s over for another year.

We’ll take a couple of days to rest up and savor the moment.

Maybe by then I will have all my brain cells back…