An Ordinary, Great Day!

Sometimes we are blessed with times that aren't anything special, but a blessing all the same. Tonight is one of those nights. Because of the rain, there are no track meets, baseball games, or practices. We ordered pizza and we are just sitting around watching one of our favorite movies. Nothing special. Nothing exciting. Nothing memorable. But it is great all the same. I am not even thinking about what I should be doing with this extra night at home. I am sitting around doing absolutely nothing and loving it.
Unfortunately, Jeff is having to work tonight. Rachel has done her blogging for the day and is actually taking on one of her parents' tendencies and putting off her homework. Alex is doing quite well since his little incident Saturday night. He is drinking lots of water and eating plenty. He looks and feels good. He is actually bugging us to play a game of Uno, which I think I'll go do because the ordinary, everyday things are what make life great.
Have a great evening everyone!

Having Fun Being Sick

I know that from the title it may seem that I am either playing hookie or a little warped. Really, though, I am only trying to follow Alex's suggestion. Monday, I predicted to Alex we would have leaves on the trees by the end of the week. With the bursting buds and the warm temperatures forecast for the week, I immediately began to feel like my allergy medicine wasn't really keeping up with all of the pollen. I felt fine Tuesday night at the baseball games, but when I woke up the next morning I had a terrible sore throat and a fever. I toughed it out for school all day yesterday so that I wouldn't feel guilty about going to Rachel's track meet that night. As long as I kept pain relievers in me, I felt fine. I had myself convinced I might not actually be sick. But, even before I went to bed last night I decided to stay home from school today just to rest and recuperate. When I told Rachel, she cheerfully commented, "Oh! So you are going to just stay home and do laundry and stuff." She acted as if I wanted to stay home and do laundry just for the fun of it.
As I was sitting in my pj's at 7:30 am this morning (we have to leave at 7:40), Alex says, "Are you going to work?" He's a real observant fellow. I told him I wasn't feeling well so I was staying home. "What are you going to do?" he asked.
"Sleep," I answered.
"Aren't you going to do anything fun, like watch movies or play something?" (I'm assuming he meant video games.)
"I don't feel like doing anything fun." What is it with my kids? Do they enjoy being sick? Or have they figured out that being sick is a complete waste of time so if they stay home from school they might as well enjoy it? I don't know the answer to those questions but I tried to follow their advice. After sleeping until almost noon, I woke feeling like I should have gone to school. Then I stood up. It was then, that I realized I was definitely sick.
In spite of the fever,aches, weak legs, and sore throat (which is actually much better), I did do one load of laundry, baked some cookies for the kids for an after school snack and watched some CSI-- nothing too strenuous. I picked them up from school and took Alex to practice and then I slept for two more hours. Having all that fun really wore me out.
I guess I'll wait until tomorrow to decide if I should work or stay home and have fun. I'm just hoping tomorrow's fun is a lot more fun.

Pioneer Woman Reject, Part II

Well, surprisingly enough, we are at home for the evening. I guess the below freezing wind chills and snow flurries were enough even for our head track coach. He decided to move the meet to Wednesday which is calling for a 68 degree high. I don't really know if the weather or the NCAA Championship game was his motive, but either way I like his thinking. Because of this wonderful gift from Coach Carney, we are enjoying the evening in the warm, comfortable home of my in-laws watching North Carolina. Alex has become a big Tarheels fan in the past several years because of Tyler Hansbrough, the Missouri Boy. I have always enjoyed North Carolina and Duke, but Alex is not a Duke fan at all. I keep telling him that it is possible that the Cameron Crazies are named that because a distant relative was an important person in that area, but it doesn't sway his thinking.

In the late 1700's I had a 7x great-grandfather, John Heagerty, who left Ireland and settled in North Carolina. As far as we know he left every family member he had. We do not know his reason for leaving, but he married a Mary Cameron with Scottish roots. Later the Heagertys moved to Lawrence County, Missouri. When I read about our family's history (or any history for that matter) I often wonder how I would have survived, which brings me back to the blog that I promised. I know the Heagertys (and all pioneer families) were made of something I don't think I have. As discussed in my last blog, I know they had perseverance, determination and grit. When I think about what these people endured and how hard they worked, I am just not sure how I would have measured up. It's not that I am completely stupid or lazy, but I know that I am not the risk taker that would have been required to leave my comfortable home and most likely my entire family.

Leaving the comforts of my home would have been the biggest factor in me being a pioneer reject. While I am definitely not a risk taker and wind would have driven me slowly insane, I am really spoiled. (I prefer to think of it as blessed.) I really enjoy and appreciate my modern home. I also love being close to family. With this being said their are "things" besides the perseverance, determination and grit that I would not have had back in the days of pioneer women. These "things" have been part of the conversations I have had with different women in the past week about what we wouldn't want to be without. They aren't necessarily character traits, but we don't want to be without them all the same.
#1 Running water. I am the first to admit that I would not want to have to trek to the creek for the water needed to wash, clean, bathe and launder . I would certainly not want to go on the cold days when you had to break the ice and then haul it up to the house. Can you imagine not being able to take a relaxing hot bath just for the luxury of it? And let's not go there on being able to flush. (Especially for those of us who are up in the middle of the night!)
#2 Appliances. Now, we tended to lump the appliances all into one category, but if I could only have one, I think I would choose the washing machine. I realize that we would have less clothing back then, but let's think about this. You have to either haul water or scrub and wring at the creek. Either way, how clean do they really get? This seems like a lot of work to get semi-clean clothes. The chore of laundry with appliances is so dreaded anyway (because we know that it is never truly "caught up") I can't imagine making it even more work than it already is.
#3 Heat. I know that people had heat, but maybe I should be more specific. Heat that is evenly distributed throughout the house.
#4 Electricity. This is lower on the list than you might think, but I do think I could survive this one, except for the fact that my washing machine would need it to operate!
#5 Ibuprofen. I am not one for taking medicine of any type unless I absolutely have to. The older I get, though, the more appreciation I have for this little friend. It is amazing what those two little pills can do for you. There are just days when nothing has helped my tired, aching body more than ibuprofen. After a hard day's work, don't you know the pioneer women would have loved it, too?
#6 Epidurals. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies the natural way and I would like to keep it that way. Even under the best of circumstances, on the first go around, Jeff would have passed out and unless we had a neighbor there I probably would have had to cut the cord myself. (He gets a little woozy around that kind of stuff.)

There are many other modern conveniences that I am quite attached to, but these items top the list. It remains difficult for me to believe that I would have survived quite so well. I have to thank the Lord all of the time for my husband. Even with all of the conveniences of modern life, I have been extremely whiny during the past couple of weeks. If we had lived back then, he may have left me behind to explore, seek fortune or fight in a war. That could take me down another whole road of things I don't think I would have survived very well, but I think you get the picture.
Suffice it to say, I am ready for warm weather to stay. Even though they are not crucial to my family's survival, baseball games, softball games and track meets are just so much more fun when you can sit back, relax and enjoy. Surely the pioneer women would agree.

Here are a couple of videos--kind of long--sorry about that! The first is of a nice hit Rachel had and the second is of our pioneer men hunting turkey in our yard.

Pioneer Woman Reject, Part I

I have always said that I would never have made a good pioneer woman. There are many reasons for this. While I feel like I am a fairly independent and self-sufficient woman, there are "things" I depend upon for surviving my simple lifestyle. However, those things may not actually be perseverance, determination, and good old fashioned grit.
Instead of "perseverance", it may be more of what I call duty. We have made commitments which we will honor. Those commitments in turn bring a schedule, which brings activity. It isn't so much that I am resolved or "determined" to complete everything on our calendar because these activities will be of historical consequence. We just do them, because we said we would. These activities will not advance our great country in any manner such as preserving a people or rights or liberty. They are not even crucial to our family's survival--they are simply just for fun.
In fact, in the past week I would have personally cancelled every activity that was on our calendar if possible. If you live in Missouri you know that the weather in the past few weeks has been fluctuating between sunny and 70's and snowy or rainy, windy, and low 30's almost on a daily basis. Now realize that the activities on our family's calendar are held outdoors. I suppose you can guess which days were the snowy, windy and /or freezing days. Absolutely correct. . . the days we were scheduled for some type of outdoor activity. Of the four days of baseball and three nights of track meets, I will say that two days of baseball were cancelled for the snow and two nights of track meets were postponed due to low temps and rain. Although it was not technically the 32 degrees kind of freezing, I hardly had the "grit" to tolerate the nights that activities were still held.
The only "grit" I had was at Rachel's softball games yesterday that covered me from head to toe, including my teeth. Yesterday had looked like the most promising day to have some fun outside because the weather called for upper sixties. I didn't recall the part of the forecast that called for
gusty winds and that the sixties would be later in the day. When we arrived at the ball field early Saturday morning we found it located in a plains area with no trees, buildings or any type of windbreak for that matter. It was quite chilly and very windy. Our girls had the dugout in which they and their fans were facing into the wind. It wasn't long before there was a layer of silt in the bottom of my glass of water and Rachel's nacho cheese looked as if it had been peppered.
It was there that I had the conversation with my mother about how I wouldn't have made a good pioneer woman. I had the same conversation with my mother-in-law at a baseball game Tuesday. I also had the conversation with some of my friends at a track meet on Monday. In each of the conversations the topic of the wind was broached. We all agreed that the continual wind would driven each of us crazy.
Besides the wind driving me crazy and the lack of perseverance, determination and grit, there are other several other factors which would have kept me from being a successful pioneer woman. (By successful I mean staying alive or the ability to keep a husband.) Those items discussed with my family and friends will appear in another blog. Don't expect to read that in the next day or so because we are scheduled for outdoor activities for the next two nights and the weather is supposed to be nasty. Obviously, that means we'll be busy!