Milk and Cookies 2023

 Just in time for the end of the year here is the 2023 happenings on and off the funny farm. We hope this finds you rested, loved, & full from the holiday season. 🎄

Milk and Cookies 2024 by Melissa Kane

Milk and Cookies 2019

Another year has come and is almost gone as I remembered it was time for my annual holiday letter and I had not started it yet. I was also too tired and pregnant to argue with the other people in my house about a family picture in front of the Christmas tree so you will just have to enjoy the pictures at the end of the slides from our various family adventures throughout the year.

We hope this post finds you stuffed with fun, food, and family during this holiday season! 

Milk and Cookies 2017

Well I guess last year was an anomaly when it comes to Christmas cards as we just got around to taking the picture on the 21st of December this year. So I think cards might just have to be digital as well this year or maybe a little something to ring in your new year. We will have to see how this week after Christmas on a Monday goes.

The two big G's had some fun Black Friday shopping with their Aunt Michele and found these fun reindeer jammies for all three of them. They have had fun wearing them to school, dance, and cookie baking weekend (when the littlest G was warned about wearing a deer costume outside on opening deer season weekend) So we decided to have fun with these comfy PJ's in our annual around the Christmas tree family picture as well. Hope you enjoy!

Also enjoy the annual Milk and Cookies letter to see what we have all been up to this year. 

Milk and Cookies 2015

Well here we are with me writing this blog after Christmas again! I thought about just changing to sending a generic card for 'all' of the holiday season, but I am afraid my procrastination would be even worse and we would end up with Christmas in July like last year every year. But as long as I get Mark to sit down and be in one family picture each year than I have accomplished something.

Mark He continues to grow the dairy farm by keeping us all busy painting the barn [in the colors of white and chocolate milk]  and having close to 30 calves to feed this summer. All the girls took turns combining with daddy this fall and the bigger girls said they got to drive for one pass of the field.  He gave the girls some more animals to love when he said it was okay for me to give two kittens a new home on the farm this fall.  He is still on the hunt for that big buck he caught on the trail cam this fall as he decided to save his buck tag for late muzzleloader season with the new muzzleloader he picked up as an early Christmas/Birthday present. We continued our annual get away to Country on the River where Dierks Bentley was the show that rocked the stage this summer and we took a trip down our country music concert memory lane with Alabama on the first night.

Melissa I am on my second year as Reading Specialist at AHS. With construction to the high school mostly finished, I was able to move to my own room this fall. I have really enjoyed arranging and making my room student friendly for all the kiddos who come through my doors. I wrote and received grants from Wal-Mart and Dollar General to add some fun seating in my room with exercise ball chairs and hokki stools - sometimes I even get random kids in to check out the chairs which makes it fun for me to meet more students than the ones in my reading program. My co-workers continues to amaze me with the work we are doing to help our students achieve their goals after high school and had a boost to this work as we bonded together this fall to win our school $100,000 from State Farm in their Celebrate My Drive contest. Outside of school I keep myself busy reading, crafting, and ‘just’ being a mom and farmer’s wife.

Gracyn Even though she wouldn’t touch the crayfish in Science she was able to pass 3rd grade and started 4th grade this fall. We are very proud of her for getting above the fluency mark in reading! She learned that mommy might know a little something about teaching reading as when she listened to her and read aloud more at home her scores went up ;) She is taking 2 dances classes this year with 3 types of dance so is learning how to tell the difference in steps for tap, jazz, and hip hop plus she made her up own dance routine at home after being inspired by the song “Better When I’m Dancing” She is also trying out 4H this year for the sewing, crafts, and cooking so we look forward to that adventure this summer at the county fair. And she is continuing her 3rd year in Girl Scouts so be ready for cookie sales in February again.

Gretchyn 2nd grade continues to grow her skills in learning. She loves to read and learn about new ways to do math. Our little farm girl continues to learn more about helping her dad on the farm. She can even tip a bucket over to stand on in the parlor and milk her favorite cow #605. She even tried out hunting by spending some time in the blind with daddy this December, but even though there was a doe close enough to shoot she worked on her patience skills by not shooting it because daddy said it was too small. Daddy found her a pink BB gun for Christmas so she is excited to practice some more shooting with it. She is busy learning new moves in hip hop and tap and decided to try out Girl Scouts this year too. She is quite the sales girl so it will be interesting to see how she does selling cookies the same time as her sister in February.

Gwyn Our sassy youngest gives her spunky middle sister a run for her money. She is not afraid to let you know what she wants and sometimes finds herself in time out as she continues to learn the best way to express her feelings. But her excitement and giggle are contagious and if you ever need a laugh she is the one to go to as she can always find the best thing to say. She loves to read before bed and has Pajama Time memorized to read with mommy every night! No chair or blanket is safe in our house as she can turn them over and cover them up in no time to make a house to play in. It is so fun to listen to her imagination work overtime as she plays and grows.

What has been the best part of time with your family this year?

My heart belongs to a farmer

I have been thinking about writing this post all summer, but I have sort of slipped off of the hit and miss routine of writing my blog to only one post at Christmas time when I went back to teaching full time. I thought I would have more time in the summer, but then I took an English class, shifted back and forth between being the fun mom and a mom ready to pull her hair out because her girls seem to not know how to listen, and of course as I learned early on in my relationship there is always something to do on the farm. Which is where the idea for this post popped into my mind.

Over the last 12 years I have really perfected this look from a picture at our wedding that is one of my favorites and have probably given it to Mark over 830,012 times since August 30, 2003 when we officially started this bumpy tractor ride of marriage and family on a dairy farm.

I give him a lot of these looks when he calls me out to feed calves in the rain, expects me to hear him yelling to stop the trailer in just the right spot to put a round bail of hay on, (over the diesel truck, skid loader, and three girls fighting in the back seat) drive the loader to jump start a tractor on a 20 below Iowa winter day, or trying to keep up with our three year old when she is ready to go to the house after chores and he says it will be late tonight....

But there is no one I would rather bump along the field with and help navigate the rocks and weather that pop up and change our plans with. I can never thank him enough for loving me through hormone changing causing 2 1/2 battles with postpartum depression and pushing me to get out of bed each morning when I would have rather pulled the covers back over my head and disappeared from all my awful thoughts and feelings. And even when I  think I am so mad at him I could scream he can say something to make me laugh so hard I cry because I am happy. Like just yesterday when he said our anniversary would yet again be spent chopping corn, but it had to be done because he planted the corn on his mom and dad's anniversary so  chopping had to begin on ours I couldn't help but laugh at his logic, because it is something I would have thought of too.

We may never agree on the amount of time he spends on the farm or why the girls don't always listen to me, but change their actions as soon as he says their name. Marriage is not about changing for each other, it is about finding that sweet spot where you can both exist. He keeps me moving when I feel like sitting still and I help him take a step back and relax when he wants to keep moving. For that I know we found our match as we vowed to love each other through the sunny and rainy days 12 years ago today.  I am glad we can continue to twist and grow our roots together for many more planting and harvesting seasons to come.

   

And without him I would not get to be the mom of these goofy girls that fill up my heart and make us a family that can tell you 'tails' from our funny farm.









What does your spouse do to balance your relationship?

Milk and Cookies 2014

As I tried to take care of two things at once this year and help Gracyn with her Girl Scouts fall product sale AND get my holiday cards paid for I should have known better. Because then I got busy and didn't realize it was past time to order our picture shirts so they were not ready in time for the usual post cookie baking picture [which was actually OK because Gretchyn and Gwyn had far too much sugar!] Thanks to Marcia for coming out again that week to try to wrangle us for our annual craziness of trying to get five people to look at one camera without sticking their tongues out [like their dad taught them!] After a short rest from the insanity my insomnia kicked in that night and I got the photo loaded, rhyme written, and card made then ordered in the wee hours of the morning. But even paying the extra $10 for quick shipping, the card is still not here or ready to mail.

So here I am with Christmas over finishing up the letter [as my procrastination kicked in even more when I knew the card was late so the e-letter did not have to be done] hoping to email out the link to those I have in my electronic address book and send cards out when they come for some extra holiday cheer after the big guy and his reindeer have jingled their way back to the North Pole.

Happy Holidays from us on the funny farm - and if you are reading this now or later we hope family and friends filled your homes, , you can still get your pants zipped after all that good cheer and food, you are down from your sugar high, Santa made all your wishes come true, and you continue to pass on the true reason for the season as 2014 comes to an end and we hang on for another trip around the sun in 2015!




The 'tail' end - What would you share about the wonderful things that happened with you this year?

Sometimes questions are more important than answers ~ Nancy Willard

With a house full of giggly girls we have some pretty colorful conversations. And being a former teacher librarian I am pretty used to fielding questions. But lately I have been baffled by a few things I have had to explain to one girl or another or heard as a response to something I asked them. So I have been keeping a list and decided to turn it into a post of girly wonders.

I asked G2 the other day why it was so hard to flush the toilet after she went to the bathroom. As I am constantly finding it unfleshed when I find time to go. Her response was so that of little girl born in an automatic society. She said "the toilets at school flush automatically, so I am not used to it at home." And she was so dead serious as if that explained everything. Never mind the 15+ hours she is home at night, the 48+ hours on the weekend and the 2 1/2 months we just spent at home for the summer! Those 8 hours at school where she probably goes to the bathroom no more then 3 times a day make her forget! But to her that made perfect sense. (For $900 you can get a no touch Kohler toilet in your home - guess I better have the girls start saving their pennies!)

Just after school started G2 came home and informed me she now knew the F word (which was bound to happen because she had already told me the a and s word before) So I calmly asked her where she had heard it and without missing a beat she launched into letting me know a boy got on the bus that afternoon and as he was putting his window down he yelled "it's f#*%ing hot out!" While trying to keep a straight face, I let her know while it was rather hot that day, she should not be using that word as she was describing the heat that had so pleasantly hit Iowa just as school started. The even better part of this is when I told my husband the story that night his comments were what do you expect to happen on the bus, at least she could repeat it in the right context, and it was more than f#*%ing hot out today so it was at least a true statement. I guess riding the bus in the country with all ages of kids and riding the bus across town with only kids your age is a very different experience.

My husband would tell you that the girls and I watch entirely too much TV and G1 probably does, but despite what he may think we do spend time doing other things as well even if G1 is at times glued to the TV, but that would be a different post entirely! (Yet another difference b/w growing up in town and growing up in the country.) But I grew up watching soap operas with my mom and begging to stay up and watch the newest episode of Star Trek on Sunday nights with my dad. It was just one way we spent time together doing and then had another common thing to talk about during down time. So I guess that is something I started to do with my kids too. G1 and I enjoyed many episodes of Sesame Street when she was young and more often then not you can find the Disney channel on in our house. But the TV is not usually a babysitter in our house. We always talk about what we learned or what was happening on the show  (it has actually a good connection for some kiddos at school when I teach reading strategies - it gives us a common ground to meet on before we dive into reading an article/story I hope they are interested in but may fall flat with some.) Anyway there are some times I do get control of the remote and watch shows I enjoy and the girls sometimes wander in and out or sit on my lap and watch with me. I do not censor what they watch, but would rather be there to explain to them what is going on. (Which is sometimes lost in their childhood minds) But even occasionally I am caught by surprise at what they see and understand. One night I was catching up on General Hospital just before bedtime and G2 very honestly asked me why the two men were kissing? (Which was actually an innocent question for a six year old growing up in a small rural town so I hope this does not offend anyone) But rather it lead to a good talk about how we love who we love and we should not be afraid to share that love because of what others might not understand. I am not sure at the age of six she truly understands, but it gave us a starting point for when she does understand. 

Since my husbands job is dependent on the life cycle of the dairy cow there are many questions that center around birth and death on our farm. Why do we have only one boy cow? If you don't milk the bull why do we keep him? Why is that bull trying to ride that cow? Why is a steer different then a bull? Why are you flipping that calf over and putting a rubber band on it? How do you know when a cow is going to have a calf? How do the calves get out of the mommy cows? Why do you have those long rubber gloves on? You are going to stick your arm where? Why do you have to use a rope and chain to pull the calf out of the mommy? What is that other liquid coming out with the calf? What is that reddish/creamish pile of yucky thing on the ground where the calf was born? Why don't the mommy cows stay with the calves? Why is that cow not getting up after it did the splits in the holding pen? Why is that cow just laying in the yard? Why is their a trail of blood from where that cow was laying to the now dead cow waiting for the rendering truck? The calf I named Domino is not moving in his hut, what happened? Why did the vet come and cut that dead calf open in the belly? Where do the steers go after they get on the semi? All of which lead to a pretty honest conversation that I hope they will be able to make the connection to as they grow and learn about the life cycle of humans. (But sometimes that connection does not always come and questions from teenagers can still amaze you as I will never forget the reaction of a student at school as teacher I was working with tried to explain to him where all the babies in Africa come from when he asked why the population was growing so rapidly there!)  

Oh and I almost forgot - after hearing Dierks Bentley's 'Drunk on a Plane' 453,127 times on the radio G2 stopped to look at me wanting to know what this 'drunk' word - she had been shouting out so many times she belted out the song - was and why was this guy getting that way on a plane? I try to be up front with questions, so I gave her the high school health answer about how the alcohol changes your brain and makes you feel and act different if you drink too much at one time and it can be dangerous to your body if you do that too often or drive a car after you have been drinking. And of course at age 6 she think that sounds like a bad idea - so I hope that thinking continues when she is 16! 

The 'tail' end - What is the most surprising thing you have been asked by your child? 

"There are two lasting gifts we can give our children - one is roots and the other is wings" Hodding Carter Jr

As summer has officially ended and we have had a few weeks to get back into the swing of being away from the farm at school each day, I was thinking about the things we do over the summer that I never thought I would do until I became a farmer's wife. I grew up a city girl. Some may even say I was a pool rat as I lived only a block away from the swimming pool in town and sometimes spent more afternoons there then in my house. Since this is my sixth summer as a farmer's wife, here is a list of the top six things for you -

6. Going for 'asleep' on a big RED tractor - Even when we first started dating and Mark still lived in the basement and then when we moved in together, I soon found out if I wanted to spend time with him I was going to have to learn to farm. One of my first experiences was helping chop corn - which involves many trips back and forth between the field and the bag to hook and unhook wagons full of corn silage then unload them into a VERY large plastic bag. It was such a fun day, by the end of it I was curled on the tractor floor sleeping! Now my girls have taken my turn on the tractor (and I believe all of them have fallen asleep in their daddy's lap - a place I am now a little too big for -at some point in time too.)

5. Pretending I have the muscles to 'throw' around some bales of hay and straw - Anyone who knows me knows that I have little to no muscles, but every summer I break out the ones I do have to help unload bales of hay and straw from the many wagons that make their way from the field into the yard. My girls have always liked to watch and now my middle one really wants to be big enough to help. (I hope that enthusiasm continues for the next five years until she is able to help!)

4. Mixing up 'milk' in a 5 gallon bucket (or two or three) twice a day - This was one of the first jobs I learned how to do on my own on the farm and now my six year old has done the same. This summer she had about a two week stint when she got up with her dad and learned how to mix up milk, fill bottles, and put the nipples on all by herself - I was not allowed to help with the preparation. It was neat to watch her take charge and learn how to do it on her own. You can also often find her up in the new free stall barn petting her favorite cow (605) or telling the cows what 'movie' is playing on the imaginary big screen she said was in the barn when her dad asked why all the cows were standing together on one end of the barn on a hot day!

3. Knowing my husbands mood by the weather outside - I am not sure I can ever count the number of times I have heard 'Did I ever tell you I hate the cold, snow, sleet, rain, heat, sun, clouds (insert any weather word here!) And because we live in Iowa we burn both ends of the candle. When the Polar Vortex marked extreme cold temps this winter the snowmobile goggles came out to ride the tractor when feeding the cattle and the calves needed coats, but last summer when the temp marked 100+ almost daily a sprinkler system traveled along the fence line to keep the cows cool.

2. Planning life around the cows - Cows need fed and milked two times a day 365 days a year - there is no day off. This includes all major holidays. Christmas has become the most interesting to work around. Last year we added making homemade cinnamon roll dough in the breadmaker and baking the rolls so we had something to do to wait for daddy - and usually stockings get dumped out to play with what is inside ;) I heard an idea from a friend about a scavenger hunt they do with their boys to make opening presents a little more exciting and I think that may make its way to out house next year and maybe even get us out to the barn to help daddy get done sooner! We are lucky enough to have family close enough to help if I can convince my husband he needs to have a little time away so we usually take at least one or two overnight trips in a year. And we also do some really fun day trips that I hope my girls will remember. One of the best I can remember is a day we took a ferry with van and all across the Mississippi on our way back from Cabela's in Prairie du Chien - the girls (and mommy) found it fascinating the van could float across the river. I hope these are the things my girls will remember when they grow up and have families of their own.

1. Watching my girls hold their daddy's hand as they follow him around and learn the 'way' of the land - It is pretty handy that we can walk out the door and find Mark somewhere working most all times of the day. (And on occasion he can take a break and join us for some fun as well.) They see him in action most all the time - as he never seems to slow down. (which has given me the idea for a different post - so stay tuned for that!) I am not saying that I did not learn A LOT from two of the hardest working parents when I lived in town, because I did. It was just that I did not live the job and that is what we do here. They can join in and help and anytime which not only makes us a family, but a family who works and plays together.

 

The 'tail' end - what do you like the most about where you raise your family?