A calm down basket

I came across the idea of a calm down basket. It includes some reading books, coloring books, a candle, a mind jar, a jar with slips of paper with calming ideas, a rice container (dried rice with lavender bits that they can sift through to find marbles and other "treasures"), a seek-and-find bead bag, soothing music CDs, a puzzle.

The kids will go to it on their own sometimes (or we remind them) when they are upset. The biggest hits right now are the candle (matches) and coloring books.






It has helped.

No joy right now

I am weak. I am worn out. I am tired. I get angry. I yell. I threaten. I can't find it in myself to stop. I know I need to. I want to. I hate the way I react to my children's behaviors. I try to talk to them, see what they need. They shut me out. I walk away.

I can't wait until they go to school each day. I don't look forward to having them home in the afternoon. I anticipate the time when they are in bed, asleep. I stay up late wanting the peace to last and not wanting to go to sleep and wake up to do it again.

Everyday is a challenge. Everyday I fail.

Don't try to fix it. Don't give me advice. Don't tell me it will be okay. Don't mention this post to me at all.

I just want to say this on here for myself. It's my blog and I'll rant if I want to.

Let sleeping cats lie

Taking a cat nap in the warm sunshine.

Eating from the freezer

The freezer was too full. And I didn't even remember what we had in there. I emptied it and identified all but one thing, making a list.








I was surprised that all this came out of that small space.


I picked out some kielbasa and diced green peppers, corn and peas for dinner. I put some beef stew in the frig for Gary's lunch tomorrow.

We will continue to eat from the freezer.

Something Interesting

I don't know if she just likes looking at herself or if she finds the fireplace doors nice to look at. She sits here often. Just staring at the wall.

Asleep

We kept Josh home from school today to make sure everything is out of his system. He's watched some TV. I did dishes and took a shower.

When I came out from my shower, the boy had fallen asleep. He finds the most interesting places to take a nap. I guess he's like his Poppop and his great-grandfather, sleeping anywhere.





This was another time when he was sick.

Here he is taking a break from playing.

Even at a Phillies game, the boy takes a nap.

We decorated

We have our tree up and other decorations. The kids have been asking to decorate. Usually we have Christmas music laying in the background and it's a festive time.

This year we had Ice Age 2 playing instead.





This is the angel I use for the Nativity set. Obviously it didn't come with the set, since it is actually a silver candle snuffer. I noticed that it was tarnished. [It's hard to tell in the photo.]

Here you see it cleaned. [Again, hard to tell.] Next to it is what I cleaned it with. Toothpaste. You can bet your teeth are clean too, I guess.

Turned a corner?

Dare I say, Josh has turned a corner in the potty department. He's used it properly three times today. But he still had to change underwear, because of . . . not making it in time due to intestinal issues. The poor guy.

Better

Turning the kids' beds was a good idea. Instead of the trundle bed being in the way when it's out, it helps.

Before when it was out you couldn't get to the dresser, the other bed and the closet without shifting it and you couldn't shut the door without moving it. It was tiresome.


With the beds turned 90 degrees, we can keep the trundle bed up and it isn't in the way. The dresser, closet, and other bed are all accessible without moving anything. And the door is not blocked. And Ellie and Josh have been sticking to one bed instead of switching back and forth like they were doing.

Plus, we have storage space under the beds now.

Moving sticks

The kids are on a walk with Grammy H. and her friend to the playground. Gary and I have some time alone. And what do we do?

We chopped wood and gathered kindling. You can guess who did which.




I moved some of this . . .

. . . to this bin in the side porch.

Here's Gary's work. Notice the sled. It still works to move wood, even without snow.

He was wrong

After several days of still changing pull-ups, I reminded Josh that he said he was going to use the potty now for all his needs. He considered that and said, "I was wrong."

Five years today

My boy turns five. He seems so small, but yet he is so big. And just plain adorable.

And he told me today that "I think I'm ready to use the potty, now. I understand now. I don't have to be afraid." He's wearing underwear. Please pray that this is for real. It would make my day, my month, even my year!

My rough and tumble boy, who loves dirt and making noises. Who can make anything into a road for his vehicles. Who gives me the bestest hugs, especially when I'm sad. Who can talk your ears off. And then talk some more.

Happy birthday!

A new look, a better feel

The cabin is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And the Kulp family is getting crankier and crankier and crankier.

I've been wanting to do something about how crowded it felt in here for awhile. I asked my parents about getting rid of a few pieces of furniture. They agreed and out it went. [Trying to actually get rid of it is another matter.]


Don't you feel less crowded? I do!

Next is the kids' room. Since we can't eliminate furniture in there, we thought we'd try moving it around.

A beer bottle

Gary used his very scientific method of using a beer bottle to measure the amount of snow we got. 10 inches.

The second snow

It's been snowing since around 10:00 this morning. The kids wanted to go out to play, so I made a trip to the attic. Coats, boots, and snow pants came down.














The leaves aren't even all down yet.










A little cabin in the snow.






Sledding down the driveway.

Really?

It snowed tonight. Not a lot but still. I had to sweep off the steps. It even started sticking to the ground. Josh asked if it was winter now.

An opossum

While in Honesdale for our CSA pickup, it became clear that the kids weren't going to make it until we got home for dinner. We ate pizza at the local pizza place and brought home the extra.

In not wanting to make extra trips up from the car, I had my hands full, so couldn't stop at the basement to put the pizza box in the fridge down there.

After the kids were in bed, we cleared the table and Gary put the pizza box on the porch for me for when I went down to put it in the fridge.

I didn't go right away. But all of a sudden I heard a scraping sound on the porch and I jumped up and flung the door open. In the dark, I heard a creature started scurrying. I quickly shut the door lest it scurry into the house by mistake. But since I wanted to know what it was, I went back out. The light came on and I saw an opossum lumber down the steps and take off once it hit the ground.

It had passed by the leftover pumpkin head and tried to get at our pizza. We believe it was the pumpkin killer. We also believe it was the one to leave tracks on the porch several nights ago. The little brazen thing.

Note: Not my photo. Ours didn't stick around long enough.


Second note: I did get the applesauce and pie made and both are delicious.

Making applesauce

I think I am finally going to make applesauce today. I've talked about making it for a month now. I've procrastinated because I want to keep the skin on (less work and more nutritious,) but I don't have a mill. I have been trying to think of way without using one. Haven't come up with one. So, no applesauce.

When visiting my parents, I forgot to bring my mom's press back with me.

Today I bought more apples. Today I bought a food press. Today I am going to make applesauce! And I might as well throw together an apple pie while I'm at it.

Just after I take a shower and make a fire.

Poor pumpkin head

When visiting with my parents this past weekend, the kids and my dad carved a pumpkin. Ellie drew the face on, and Poppop cut it out.

Once back at the cabin, we proudly displayed it on the landing of the steps up to the porch. And there it sat for almost two days.



Sometime between 3:30 and 5:15 today, some creature decided to snack on the face of the pumpkin. This is all that's left.









The kids and Gary devised a trap to catch the scoundrel should it come back to finish the job.

New links

I have found three new sites that have transformed the way I want to parent. Teach through Love, Aha! Parenting, and Positive Parenting.

Check them out.

The first fire

I was cold.

So I made me a fire.








He agreed to a photo, if he faced the fire.

49 inches, I think

Gary's mom came up for a visit and we drove to see an old saw mill. It is powered by the creek next to it. It was nifty to see it in action. You could have too if my battery wasn't dying.

I don't know all the history of the mill. It was a chilly day and I didn't pay much attention to all the specifics.




I did hear that the saw has replaceable teeth. It is powered by the creek running along side the mill. I thought the water moved a wheel thing, but it doesn't. It is diverted through a pipe to a potbellied turbine, which then pumps the water through a pipe up, over to something else, when the operator turns a wheel level thing. He (the lumber man saw guy) then pulls another lever to move the device the log is on. He pulls other levers to move the log around to properly saw it. He also uses another groovy tool to spin the log, quite effortlessly. At least it looked effortless.


And like I said, you could have seen for yourself if I had a charged battery. You'll just have to use your imagination.










I did, however, get a video of the lumber man saw guy using the groovy tool.



And I also heard that the saw can saw logs up to 49 inches, or close to that anyway. And the belt that moves the saw blade is 12 inches wide. There was also a machine to trim off bark but that wasn't working. The thing that moves the saw dust out of the way wasn't working either.

Sorry if my use of technical words is confusing.

My hike

After dropping the kids off at school, I drove to Shuman's Point. If you remember, back in March, we took a family hike there. If you don't remember, you can refresh your memory.

Today, I went by myself. In my new hiking shoes.



The trail.














A spider web covered in morning dew.









Me and my beloved lake.

We like pizza, so we keep trying

Friday - My dad (happy birthday!) was burning old papers of my grandmothers in the outside fireplace. I suggested to make a wood fire, find a grate and cook our pizza over the open fire. I started mixing the dough around 4:00. I think we were all done cooking pizza around 8:30.


Here are the first and second pizzas. The first one didn't agree with the grate and became a stromboli. We lined the grate with foil and tried again. With a lack of space, the second one became a stuffed crust pizza.






The foil blocked the heat too much. So we tried the stone wear. That worked well.









Turned out that the foil worked better on top. Here is pizza number three.









End of the line. Half of pizza three and pizza four.









An unrelated photo.

The King and Queen, with their housewarming crowns, posing with the papersmith.

And down it goes

I stopped at the lake today. I sure do like taking photos of it and my rock.

PPL needs to do upkeep maintenance on the dam, so they had a controlled water release planned. Then the storms came through.

Before Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, lake capacity was at 63%. After the storms, it was over 90%. For the past week, they have opened up the spillway to release much of this water, to bring the level back to where it was before. Then they will continue to release water with the generators working, (the dam is a hydroelectric dam) to take it to the needed level for repairs.



Here is the debris line from Hurricane Irene/Tropical Storm Lee.










Here is my favorite rock, nearly all exposed. If you go to this post, you can see a photo where you can't see it at all.









The long expanse of exposed rocks.


I'll be taking more photos as the water continues to decrease. PPL plans to have the lake at the need level for repairs in two weeks.

Frightening?

Josh saw me and ran. And asked that I take it off. And not do it again.

Encouraged to write my story

Today was the first meeting for MOPS. We did a writing exercise. A quick write about our names. We were then encouraged to take time this year and write the storyboard of our lives. Take 3-5 minutes and write, no stopping. Write about a favorite Christmas, a favorite teacher. The birth story of my children, how I met my husband. The list is endless.

I have decided that this school year, I am going to write. I am going to put my life into words. I am excited.

Then maybe someday, I can add photos.