Year of Changes

This has been the year of changes. After working over 6 years for our brother, I found myself unemployed Dec 31, 2009. I saw it as an actual blessing, so never was bothered by the lose of my job. Then in January my oldest son started part time at the local community college and found I had children from elementary school to college in my house all wanting my help on something.

The year continued with me being underemployed as a evening/night manager at Dollar General. Working "part-time, intermittent, seasonal" work for the US Census bureau as an enumerator and a crew leader. In August I quit my DG work to continue working as I have for the past 3 years at another community college converting books for Learning Disabled workers. And my year with the Census finally came to a close.

In June, I had an opportunity to go to the Central States Synod assembly for the ELCA as a voting member of my congregation. I took this and thoroughly enjoyed the process of watching church based politics and being involved. But at this same assembly I was asked to become the pastoral care giver for a small, rural, church 65 miles from my home. After much discussion and prayer I decided to take the opportunity. By the time I returned home from the retreat I had an email from the seminary I'd started the process of applying to, had sent me an email asking if I was still interested in their distance learning program. If so, I had 5 days to get 3 letters of references in along with my essay. I achieved this and was again hit over the head when synod asked me to also finish my initial candidacy process. Luckily for me I could use the same essay for both, because I've never enjoyed writing and two essays in one week seemed more than I could handle.

In July I started serving at the church in a shared ministry with a retired pastor who is a member of this congregation. Between July and August I preached 6 out of 9 Sundays and truly had my research and writing skills tested. Two weeks ago I preached for the second time at my home congregation and tried for the first time to preach without reading from my sermon. Although my sermon was cut in half time wise, I found I felt more comfortable doing this and did it again last weekend at my rural congregation. I have also preached my local church's sister congregation which is Presbyterian and found I could lead that service almost as easily as a Lutheran one.

Today is my last day doing book conversions at the community college and I must say I'm glad. Until this point I've worked an average of 70 hours each week, with some weeks totally over 100 hours.

I started my first seminary course at the beginning of September and am now finishing off my 4th week of 14, with the first exam. Studying has easily taken the 15+ hours the professor suggested, but I am amazed by the students who are studying 6-10 hours daily. I'm also glad for all the previous time I've spent studying Koine (biblical) Greek, because it's helped me greatly as I tried to work multiple jobs, study, and have time with the family.

As I go into fall, I'm now serving the congregation 25 hours or so each week between, services, adult Bible study, confirmation classes, pastoral care giving, and sermon preparation. I feel that I've been called to this ministry and blessed by the initial push I received by our brother. Without that I'm not sure I would every have started what I've wanted to do for years. And the nice thing is I have the support of my husband, children, and two churches as I move forward.

I look forward to hearing more from each of you. I know life hasn't been easy for any of us, but I will admit I'm thankful we each received our own different challenges because I'm not sure I could have handled either of yours.

Have a blessed day and know that although I'm poor at communicating with either of you, I miss you both, and would love to have a little sister time to get together and share some knitting time.

-Myrtle

More Than a Year - Little to Say

I looked at the blog several days ago and realized that I have posted nothing for more than a year. I could claim I have nothing to say, but that would not be true. Actually, I am trying to follow the guideline that if you have nothing good to say, you should say nothing (or at least very little).

I will share that my life has been challenging over the last year... no two years... no 5 years. Things have gotten particularly difficult since last spring and I have been struggling with how to parent a challenging child without loosing my marriage and my sanity. Some days I just hope to make it to bed so I can pull the covers up over my head.

I apologize if I have ever offered any parenting or relationship advice to anyone. I also suggest that you had probably best forget what I have said. It has become abundantly clear to me in the last 5 years that I know little about either subject. I still have my opinions, but unfortunately no one in the house seems to agree with them.

I have started to try to find more things outside of the home to keep my brain occupied. Work is almost always a good distraction. I have also taken up rowing, which is usually pretty relaxing. I have been reading alot. There is nothing like a good book!!!

Maude

Life as I live it

Well long time no talk.

Lots of 'fun' going on here. As you know we did the hospital thing with my son. Everything is much better now, but the ripples throughout the emotional well-beings of all three around here have been significant. We all had some past stuff to work through as well as the current situation. Talk about energy drain.

Energy drain seems to be the name of the game in this neck of the woods. We are all on edge in our own ways. No idea what is up with any of us. I think it may be an uncertainty in the air. We really need a cleansing rite around here.

Twenty-four hours before P was sent to the hospital I got an email with an acceptance to one of the schools I applied to this year. I felt numb, then terrified - this was the third year of applying. I finally was able to tell the kids and got a resounding groan followed by NOOOOO. The next 4 days pushed having to deal with the feelings surrounding the acceptance to the background.

Then a week ago I got another second acceptance to the second program I applied to. And I got the invite to interview for the third program. It doesn't seem to rain, but pour. eek!

This morning I accepted the offers of both MHCC and PCC. PCC starts Sept 2010. MHCC starts in January 2011. I have to decide between the two, but am delaying that a bit longer.

MHCC has been using the OCNE curriculum for 3-4 years, PCC starts this year. PCC has been attending meetings with the other OCNE schools in the area since the curriculum was codified so they are aware of what is expected.

I am torn for various reasons. Mileage to the different programs is an issue. Both in fuel utilization and more importantly time utilization. The big concern of the kids is that they will see even less of me. I get that. In many ways less travel would be wonderful.

The other thing I am having a horrendous time with is that I know it was only me and my record that got me into PCC. My former manager and friend said he would write to MHCC and tell them why they needed to accept me. (His wife graduated with a great reputation from the program a year ago.) The week of my interview at MHCC I told him that if he was serious about sending the recommendation that the time had come. Now I feel that I only got in because of his recommendation. I'm not sure how to say this without seeming ridiculous... I feel I didn't get into the program on my own. I know I am far too independent and self-reliant. I know this is taking it to an extreme. But I am having a hard time letting go of the feeling it wasn't ME that got me into the program. Why was it OK to ask for recommendations when moving from high school to college, but not now? I am such an idiot sometimes.


Enough blathering. I am still knitting, working two jobs, and trying to keep three people together. Maybe I will figure out at least some portion of me sometime soon.

--Mavis

2nd round of chicks

Spring is in the air. Our first batch of chicks hatched March 20th. Our second batch of chicks has started hatching today. Our third, and probably final for this year, will be hatched in the chicken coop versus the incubator where the previous two have hatched at some point over the next 10 days. Those are a little more variable because there are both chicken and guinea eggs being brooded by 7 guineas and one black australorp chicken. DS3 and DH put chicken eggs under her along with the guinea eggs she was sitting on so we'll see what appears.

The first round produced 10 cute chicks that are now being house in our larger chick box in the garage. The second round has 2 hatched and 3 in the process of hatching. We'll see what we get there. One of the ones that has hatched probably won't survive, but we always live in hope around here.

Other news at our homestead is fur being shed by the pound. Cibola is constantly shedding and so are the horses. We are finally seeing their none bleached out colors and they are much darker than we ever though. It's funny looking at them because the new hair is coming in a dark tan color and the winter coat is a light beige.

The only other thing I'm up to is finishing applications for two different seminary programs (Luther in St. Paul and Wartburg in Dubuque) along with scholarship and candidacy applications. All of these are due by May 1 and I'm pushing to have everything in so I can possibly start in the Fall. I'm currently taking an online course through Wartburg on discerning your call, which is helping me to see if online classes work for me along with figuring out the nature of my call.

I hope all is well for my friends and family. Who knows maybe Mavis and Maude will update me on their lives as well.

-Myrtle, whose knitting and spinning has fallen by the wayside as I work on other things.

My baby is growing up

I officially have a college student. This year has been one of multiple learning experiences for us as a family as he went about getting his learners permit, learning how to drive, and finally obtaining his drivers license. And now he's enrolled for two classes as a dual enrollment student at our local community college. He's planning at this point on becoming an engineer of some sort. He's still not sure exactly which field of engineer he wants yet, but that too will come.

He's accomplished many things in the past 17 years and taught us so much along the way. I just can't believe that he's starting classes on Tuesday. I still remember his being born and at that time I wasn't thinking about what lay ahead of us. I was just so excited to hold my first child and smell that new baby smell.

Time has moved quickly forward and in several years he'll be off on his own, but for now I'm still enjoying the hugs and his wanting to tell me his joys and frustrations in life.

So my baby is growing up; time moves forward; and I'm enjoying the small things in life that make me realize how lucky I am to have the wonderful family I have.

-Myrtle

Day 2 - new harnessing

They went out again today for awhile. Slightly warmer temperatures than two days ago, but still darn cold. They did not go out yesterday when it was horribly cold.

Sorry for the shaky video, but they are starting to master the art of sleigh riding. And it's fun watching and filming even when I am freezing my hands in the process.

-Myrtle, looking forward to warmer temperatures tomorrow that might melt the snow.

One Horse Open Sleigh

Here is a video showing the guys with their One Horse Open Sleigh. It's one of the slower moving times, so I was actually able to catch more on this video. I have an even better one to share, if I can figure out how to remove voices from my video.

-Myrtle, who needs to remember to size the needle before starting the project. I knit 20 rows on a cowl yesterday on size 7 needles thinking they were 4s. Needless to say the project was way to big,I ripped it out, sized the needles, and am not starting again on the RIGHT size.

I'm so humiliated

"I can't believe they are making me wear this! I'm so humiliated! And worse yet, I have to show my face in public." (Thoughts of Tini)

We are experiencing wind chills of -9 right now and Tini has a horrible case of Rain Rot* that we are still trying to clear up. With her hair falling out massively on her rear end, I decided we had to do something immediately to protect her skin. Ultimately the blanket will be cut down to a horse blanket shape and covered with ripstop nylon to make a horse blanket for her. But this is what she gets for today.

Hopefully later I figure out how to upload a movie and you all can see how boys with horses entertain themselves after the first decent snowfall of the season (4 inches maybe).

-Myrtle

*Rain Rot - A fungal infection caused by too much water next to the skin on the coat of a thick furred animal.

For us, Tini (an now Izzy has a lesser case) had been growing her winter coat of fur when we had lots of late fall rain. This wonderful, wet, weather caused many animals in our area to end up with Rain Rot.