Rockies Game

 We celebrated Joe’s 65th birthday with box seats at a Rockies game. It was so good to all be together like this after more than a year of being so careful and not being able to get together like we usually do. 

There were even a couple of extra tickets for Dave and Tom. I loved seeing the three brothers watching the game together and just being able to hang out. Such a blessing…

My favorite picture from the game is this one with Tom photobombing… It makes me laugh every time!

 

Mother’s Day

 We celebrated a belated Mother’s Day today. The kids had planned an outside (secret) activity for the day, but the weather was cold, foggy and wet so we moved the plans to E’s house so we could use her garage. (Warm, dry...perfect!)

My gift was several beautiful (foldable!) benches to put around the fire pit, but best of all was that they decorated the benches with drawings, sayings, etc. for me. They are so beautiful... as soon as I get some clear coat on the paintings, they’ll go around the fire pit. I can’t wait...

Here are a few random photos from the afternoon. (R was struggling with some anxiety so kept to herself and didn’t make it into any of the photos 😢) 

Oldest granddaughter and boyfriend...

...and youngest granddaughter and grandpa!

Silly faces!

E, hard at work...

M entertained himself briefly with a dog in a stroller... yes, it’s a little weird,  but it kept him occupied for a bit! 

B smiled right after I got this shot of her giving me the look... really. 

I love the picture of J and baby T in the kitchen. 

What a fun day it was... It’s such a blessing to be able to get together, in person, inside, without masks. Having to be apart for so long was hard... it will be awhile before I take these kinds of days for granted. 

mid-winter settling in...

The holidays are over...

The tree has been taken down, ornaments packed away for another year, the tree itself waiting to be turned into mulch.



We celebrated Christmas three times in two weeks, and celebrated Thanksgiving once during that same time.

We're kind of all celebrated out...

It was a lovely Christmas though... our daughter K was home from the Peace Corps for two weeks (which is why we celebrated Thanksgiving on New Year's Day... she's missed the last two Thanksgivings and really wanted a Thanksgiving dinner with all of us), and it was so good to see her and have the whole family together.

Besides the many Christmas celebrations, and our January 1st "fakesgiving", we all went to see the new Annie movie together, and K and R ice skated afterwards while M and I watched and enjoyed...



We also went out to eat TOO much, had a great time shopping (and introduced K to "Freddy's"... she's a fan now) and spent a lot of time just hanging out, being together. The visit seemed to go quickly...K left on Saturday for Ghana and the house has been pretty quiet since then.



It has been good though to have all the Christmas ornaments and other decorations packed away for another year. I always enjoy the mid-winter calm after the holidays... after the busy-ness of December, I always feel rich with time in January. (I'm already happily planning this year's house projects!)

One last picture... our whole family... Joe and I on the left, with three of our grandchildren sitting around the table (our oldest granddaughter is behind her brother next to R), and our kids, including our son-in-law standing behind.



Happy New Year!

We're back!

Yes, we left for our trip to NE, despite M being sick the night before. (Miserable gastroparesis!) I had decided not to go (about the time I posted this), thinking M just wasn't well enough... but as the day went on he seemed better, so we decided to just go for it and hope for the best.



It was a good trip... I got to visit with my niece and her family, and with my cousin who recently moved back to NE after living in Denver for many years. We did a little thrifting, went out to eat (a lot!), and really enjoyed our visit. We only stayed a couple of days but it was good to connect with family I don't get to see very often.

It was good to get home though too (why does home always look SO good after being gone?) although I don't think anyone was as happy as Cody was when he finally realized we had turned onto our road and were almost home again.



The past couple of days I've been busy catching up on work that didn't get done while we were gone (and while I was working on the shed) but things are started to feel caught up again. I should also post an update on the shed, and another project I'm working on... I'll do that soon.

Enjoy the day! (and stay warm and dry if you're in Colorado... it's cooooold this morning!)

company coming! (and a gorgeous sunrise...)

This blog will probably be a little quiet this week... my younger brother gets here today for a short visit.

We don't have much on the agenda... just lots of catching up, hopefully some mandolin playing (he gave me my first mandolin!) and just some good family time.

See you next week!

Happy Monday (Nebraska trip)

What makes me happy?

Wide open spaces...

I especially love the wide open spaces of western Nebraska. My Great-Grandpa homesteaded in the lovely rolling hills of central Nebraska, and I was born in Nebraska... although I moved to Colorado when I was still a little girl.

But I think those wide open spaces must be in my blood.

The kids and I traveled back to the Scottsbluff area over the weekend... It was a sad occasion (a funeral) but it was good to see family I hadn't seen in years and to catch up a bit with them.

We took I-25 north from Colorado, but left the interstate in Wyoming and took the "back way" in... through miles upon miles of nothing but the huge sky, wind, prairie and the buttes in the distance.

When I was 17 I would drive my old '63 Chevy out these back roads to visit my sister (through all kinds of weather, never checking a forecast... it's amazing I survived some of those trips!) and the beauty of those going-on-forever spaces would fill me up.

It was no different this time...

It's nice to be home, of course, but it was oh so good to be driving along those roads again... hardly another car in sight, tumbleweeds careening crazily across the road driven by the constant wind, watching the buttes lining the horizon growing bigger and bigger, until finally the road snaked through them, then coming out on the other side to find another butte waiting on the horizon.

It was a good trip...

(The third photo in this post was taken by R.)

goat pen wisdom (or semi-coherent ramblings)

I've got this post rattling around in my head, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get the ideas and thoughts organized into words and sentences... I guess I'll just do what I can and hope for the best. (And if it turns out sounding like nothing more than semi-coherent rambling, I'll just chalk it up to lack of sleep and post some pictures instead!) 

 I have a really great family... I feel very blessed that my family is a close one. We really like each other and enjoy spending time together. Unfortunately we are scattered all over the western United States (and Ireland), so I don't get to see my side of the family very often. (Dh's family is mostly in town, so we see them all the time!) 

 So... my sister and her family (kids, spouses and grandkids) will all be in town next weekend for a graduation. I've been looking forward to seeing everyone, and was sad when I realized that most of the graduation plans wouldn't be manageable for M.  (I'm not going to go into detail about why the plans aren't workable for M, those of you who have children with significant disabilities will understand without being told, and it's too time consuming to explain it to everyone else.) 

Anyway, I was feeling pretty down about it... ...until yesterday. I was out in the goat pen shoveling manure when I realized that I don't have time for a pity party. The party is over. (I do some of my best thinking working at the barn, it's second only to the garden for being a good thoughtful spot!) 

 Yeah, we can't go to the graduation or reception... Yeah, I wish I could. But this is not a crisis! As I thought about it I realized that I'm ok with not being able to go.... because I recognize that sometimes I have to pay a price for doing what I believe is really important for M.  The course we've chosen to take, that of caring for M at home, through all the good times AND through all the crises, isn't an option that comes without cost. I'm thinking there are probably few things in life that are really worthwhile, even life changing, that are free... or easy. 

 Caring for M at home isn't free or easy, but it's one of the most worthwhile things I've  done... and the blessings of being his parent far outweigh the price I've had to pay. Right now the "cost" of caring for him is very high.  It's been months since I've been able to leave him for a couple of hours (unless he's asleep!), and we've had to let go of most of our homeschool group activities because he's been too unstable.  

But the other little bit of wisdom I found (remembered) out at the goat pen yesterday is that nothing is forever. This chapter in my life... with each page telling the story of the intensive care M needs, and my attempts to balance that intensive care with maintaining some kind of a normal life for R and I... this chapter, like all chapters, will eventually come to an end. 

 The day will (probably) come when M is no longer living here. Caring for him isn't my whole life. Yes, it's virtually my whole life right now, but not forever. And the time and energy I'm investing in seeing him through these ups and downs, and the accommodations I'm having to make to keep him home, are investments in his future, in his well-being. And if those things sometimes come with a high price tag, so be it...  It's a price I'm willing to pay. 

 I'm guessing that when I reach the end of this chapter and the next chapter starts, I'll miss these days. It's a blessing to be needed so concretely, to be loved so abundantly, and to feel as though the work I'm doing (even though it may not be valued by our society) is vitally important. 

 So I'll be home next weekend... and it's ok. I'll be thinking about the new graduate and wishing him well, and looking forward to possibly sharing a quiet dinner with my family before they all head back to their homes.

Hmmm... can't tell if that made sense or it's semi-coherent rambling. Better post a few pictures.  

 The deer are back, we've been overrun with them the past few days. They're hungry... they are nibbling on the tender new leaves of my perennials that are just starting to peek up above the ground (think spring mix salad for deer!), but they are also happy with last year's dry prairie grass... I took this picture yesterday in our back pasture

:  

 This is roughly the same place one year ago...

 

 We need rain badly, it's time for spring. (I actually woke up to snow again yesterday!) 

 Here they are grazing right outside the back fence (see the corner of my kitchen garden in the bottom of the picture?). That chain link fence is ugly but it does keep them out of my garden!

 

 Maybe it's time to clean out the barn and throw the scraps of hay out for the deer to find...

Special Day

Today was a special day for R... She made her First Communion. 

 Because of the difficulty we have getting to church regularly (because of M), we decided a home Mass would be best and she could make her First Communion then. We invited family and a few close friends (and filled the house!) It was a lovely, crazy day... 

 Here's R before everyone arrived...

 

 ... she took my breath away. 

 And this was taken during Mass. We pretty well filled the living room to overflowing! 

We used every chair we had, but it wasn't quite enough...  

 R and Father after Mass. He was so very good with her, he was careful to explain things in a way she could understand, and took the time (during their visits here over the past month or so) to let her read to him. I found her reading a cookbook to him today... (it takes a lot of patience to listen to a child reading a cookbook!)

 

 And where did I find her, after Mass... when everyone was looking for her to open the gifts they'd brought?

 Outside, in her mud boots, with Grant and the goats!

It's me again...

I think I've finally caught my breath after M's bad spell this past spring. I feel like I'm starting to get my energy back and have time time and energy for things like blogging. 

After the very difficult few months we've had, it feels so good to feel GOOD again. Right now M is as stable as he gets, he's connected, cooperative with school, and able to focus on things. What a blessing just that little piece is! During the bad spells he often just wanders restlessly for hours. He doesn't seem to be able to focus on anything... if he's awake he's wandering. It's very wearing to be around him when he's like that. It's such a relief to see him doing so much better again!

**************************************************************** 

We had company from out of town the other night... my niece and her family. We hadn't seen them for more than three years so it was wonderful to get together again. The cousins played beautifully (M did so well... he was truly at his best!) and R loved getting to know the other "brown" members of our family. She is totally in awe of A, her 12 year old cousin, and is practically counting the days until she is 12 and "just like A". 

It was such a fun evening, I do wish we could see them more often....  

The kids are really enjoying softball. We have found a wonderful Special Olympics team, which makes all the difference. (It's the same team they were on for swimming.) We've participated in Special Olympics a couple of times in the past and haven't been too impressed. (One program didn't want to let R participate because she was too "high-functioning"!) But this time it's been a great experience. If anything, the kids like softball even more than swimming... There is a really nice group of kids on the team, and the coaches are very good (and patient). Both M and R are learning the skills to play softball and having a great time while they are doing it! ~ 

Here are some pictures of last night's practice...