posted by Chelsea

Our little tip of NE Oregon.  It’s always been home to Buck, but only for the last 6 years has it been to me.  When we first moved here I had just finished college and had moved 7 times between leaving home and moving here.  When we packed up and headed this way, I knew we were probably going to live here for awhile, but it took me more than a few months to settle in and call this place “home”.  In fact, it wasn’t until the summer before last, when I drove “home” after being gone for a few days and I topped the final hill that gives you a bird’s eye view of our valley and our mountains, did I let out a big ol’ sigh of relief and say “Ahh… I’m home”.  This recently happened again and I’m grateful that we’ve settled here and are raising our family in this beautiful place.  I love coming home.

That to say, this whole idea of coming ”home” and how good it feels to be where you belong has been heavy on my mind this last week.  The feeling of “coming home” in this world is just a taste of what we’ll experience when we “come home,” spiritually speaking.  The kingdom of God is something we can experience, should experience, in the here and now.  We can get little tastes of “coming home” even while we walk on this earth.  I’ve gotten little teases– enough tastes to want more– to crave more.  And yet, I know this life is but a breath and quick exhale and it’ll be over.

Another thing, that’s related, but won’t seem like it, is the labor I have ahead of me.  While I’m wrapping my mind around the thought of doing that again, I’ve still been a bit apprehensive.  Let me rephrase that- I had to excuse myself from the childbirth class I was teaching a couple of weeks ago.  In the midst of trying to explain a few things to my class of eager first time parents, I started sweating and my face got flushed.  I couldn’t seperate myself from the explanation I was giving them and therefore needed to exit the room.  They were impressed or scared or something.  Then, Aunt Jean reminded me that labor is really just a little blipp in time.  When it’s happening, it feels like more and obviously it’s a significant blipp in time, but nonetheless, it doesn’t last forever.  Just like life– we’re here for just a brief time and it feels like we’ll be here forever, but really we won’t.

So, now my kiddos are awake and I need to sum this post up.  I guess my point is this,  just like at the end of labor when I get to say to our little man “You’re home!”  So we’ll hear at the end of this life, this breath, this blipp in time, “You’re home!”

posted by Chelsea

When I was in college I had a math professor who was originally from somewhere in the Middle East.  He had a thick accent, was a phenomenal math teacher, and to top it off, he was hilarious.  If he made a mistake in class he would say things like “It not my fault! No wife! No breakfast!”  One time, a couple  years after I had been in his class, I was standing in the hall outside of his classroom and he walked by and said hello and made some joke about being my “old enemy”.  As he was talking, he threw a big stack of stuff into the garbage can that was sitting close by.  He headed to his classroom and came back a few minutes later quite disheavled.  He started rummaging through the garbage can and when he found his stack of stuff he said, “So busy talking I throw away my students papers and take my garbage with me!?”  Anyway, if you happened to miss his class, even just one time, he would come in, see you, and say “Where you been my whole life?!  You think you just come when you feel like it?!”  This was particularly annoying to Eli (as in short for Elijah) who was a cross country runner.  Eli missed class fairly often and when he came back he would hear “Ellie! (as in short for Ellen) Ellie! Where you been my whole life?!”

Anyway, ALL of that to say, if you’re sitting there wondering about me and the rest of the crew here at CC and you’re saying, “Where you been my whole life?”  I’m here to tell you.  Charlotte has been moving lilacs.  Lets all hope she’s about done with that project.  Ann has been trying to finish her homeschool year strong and get outside projects done.  Me, I’ve been trying to get everything I possibly can finished before this baby arrives.

As I’ve mentioned before, Buck is currently working long days outside of cell-phone range.  Needless to say, he calls as soon as he gets into cell range everyday, to make sure I’m not having contractions or something of the sort, and when he finds out I’m not he says “So… what ARE you doing?!”  Simply because he knows I’ve been organizing, sorting, gardening, cleaning, and sewing…

…. like a mad woman… or rather like a pregnant woman who doesn’t have much time left to get EVERYTHING done.

I wasn’t going to make a crib skirt (I thought I’d buy one at some point) and then amidst my organizing frenzy, I came across this fabric…

…and since I also organized the closet that houses my sewing machine and it, along with all of my other sewing paraphernalia was suddenly handy…

… I pulled them all out.  And I sewed a crib skirt as well as curtains.  I also stumbled upon a quilt I started 6 years ago (?!) and just needed to sew the rows together.  (Who does that?! Who keeps a quilt that close to completion for SIX years?)  So I sewed the rows together and now I will deal with the rest of it.

So that’s where I’ve been your whole life- obsessed with whatever project of the day I’m working on.   Today I’m cleaning out the fridge and working in the yard.  While I find it unnecessary to show you my fridge, sometime today (or tomorrow morning!) I will give you a garden tour– Emily did one of hers yesterday and while mine is on a much smaller scale, I’d really like to show you what I’ve been up to.

Now, go start a project and be obsessed with it.  I highly recommend it.

posted by Chelsea

Now for a sure fire way to delight your kiddos (or self!) this summer.  It’s cool, refreshing, and fun.  It’s a “Mock” Italian Soda.  Mock because it doesn’t contain syrup.  Here’s a look at our rendition of the coffee shop favorite….

First, a cup with ice in it…

Then about 1/2 the cup filled with juice (100% is best, of course!)….

Then the rest of the way with sparkling water…

Then topped with a little dollop of whipped cream….

And the final touch, a straw…

Ta-da!  Kiddo delight!

posted by Robyn

Spring is in full bloom now and I love so many things about it.  Like froggies in the water dish………

Or dragging meadows getting them ready for the hay to start growing….

I know it is crazy but I like Dandelions.  Yes, they are a weed and if I was a farmer, I would still spray them and try to get rid of them.  But I like  when they bloom in my yard and cover it in yellow.

Another thing I like about Dandelions are the Yellow Finch who come and eat all the little seeds.  Sorry I don’t have a picture of the little yellow bird.  But while I was taking pictures of the weeds Dandelions, I was being watched stalked by a dandy lion……yikes!

No, just kidding, not this dandy of a lion but a more innocent one…..

or is he?  Welllll…… I will let you decide that.

posted by Chelsea

Last week, while driving to pick up my husband from the shop where we were having our pick-up worked on, I was listening to the radio.  I heard this statistic:

“Americans who commute more than 15 miles to work each day are 60% more likely to be obese than those who don’t have to commute”.  They went on to say how driving leaves less time for exercise, and how people tend to eat in their vehicles, not to mention the stress of traffic, etc. etc.

I laughed.  Then Buck jumped in the car with me and I patted his leg and told him the statistic- just giving him fair warning :-)  He drives at least an hour, if not two, everyday to “work”… his office just looks a little different than those in the 60%, I’m sure.   Our cows are out on summer range- a long way from anywhere.  Packing salt, fixing and building fence, and riding/hiking in and out of the canyon doesn’t exactly pack on the pounds.  His spray work is almost all deep in the canyons and he hikes with a tank full of water on his back.  As far as the stress of “traffic” goes, it consists of a few ranchers, lots of deer, some cows on open range, and boulders in the dirt roads.  Between hiking the canyons, working cows and calves,

keeping our “machinery” running, and starting the summer season he’s already lost 15 pounds, and that’s just been since we turned out cows, not even a month ago, when his “commute” started up again.

I suppose the statistic depends, in part, on what you do on the working-end of your commute. :-)

posted by Chelsea

An Ode to Ranch Wives.

Cleaners of all things brown, gooey and/or red.
Explainers of why animals are alive as well as dead.
Early risers and sack lunch makers.
Excellent branding med givers, photographers, and bakers.

Her husband’s right hand man
For jobs that are often more than she can stand ;-)
Lover of her man’s encouragement and praise
For all of her cattle-handling ways.

A gal with a grasp on reality
One quick to find a horse trailer when she needs to pee.
A ranch mom can catch and saddle a horse for her kid,
only to watch ‘em ride and be so glad for all the times she did.

She can ride, rope, and sort
Or she can stay home and build the best home-grown fort.
Dinner: she can make on a whim,
even when her schedule is filled to the brim.

She can work around a rancher’s time frame–
A task that should bring any ranchwife fortune and fame.
She understands a job that will take “an hour”–
something that ends up taking all day, and yet she does not sour.

A ranch gal knows that becoming a “ranchwife” doesn’t happen overnight,
And she learns quickly that it isn’t a job to be taken light.
She learns to take life in stride,
And her tolerance for problems grows increasingly wide.

So on this Mother’s Day and in life,
An ode to you- ranchwife.
You handle your fair share and put up with a lot
and as we all know-  you are the best catch your husband has ever caught!

posted by Chelsea

I startled him right out of his dreamy near-sleep state.

“Buck!”

“What?!” he asked, startled (like I mentioned above).

“This baby boy can NEVER ride rough stock.  I’d like to establish that right now.”

Buck- laughed.

“I’m not kidding. He can rope. He can bull-dog.  No roughstock.  Let me be more specific: No bulls. No broncs. No steers. No sheep.”

A mental image for you:

“No sheep?  He can’t mutton bust?”

“No sheep.  I can’t handle it.  AND it will only lead to bigger and worse.  No bucking animals whatsoever.”

“Lets discuss this when you’re more rational… like how about in the morning?  Or better yet, maybe we should meet the little guy first.”

“It just hit me.  We’re having a boy.  He’s gonna wanna do crazy things.”

“Umm…. Yep…”

And now,  I keep thinking about the crazy things this little man will want to do.  And how I might persuade him not to.   And how I never thought about this before.  And how he hasn’t even entered this scary world yet and I’m already planning his safe life.  And how that’s probably not going to work for us.  And how my prayer life is going to get a lot more intense.

….And how every crazy boy has a mom.  So today and on this Mother’s Day weekend, I salute you.

posted by Donna

Everyone has a Mom; it’s plain God planned it that way.

For He created our innermost being when He knit us together in a mother’s womb that day.  {Psalm 139:13}

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden

but He knew it would take someone special so that his heart would not harden.  {Genesis 2:15}

He decided to make man’s helper so God used organic matter like dirt and the very rib from one man’s side,

and for a helpmate, He chose the latter.  {Genesis 2:19, 21}

And whatever man called a living creature, that was its name

but bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, this woman he would never tame.  {Genesis 2:19, 23}

That’s because from this point forward, God knit people together there;

deep within the womb of woman and in due time, life she would bear.  {Genesis 139:13}

Yes, God took us from our mother’s womb because He, too, did not want to be alone.

Each life so very different; His pattern He refused to clone.  {Genesis 139:14}

Sons are indeed a heritage from God, children a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, children are a gift from the Lord.  {Psalm 127:3, 4}

So take this day we set aside to thank your Mom or another,

because in all the world there is no one as special as Mother.  {John 19:27}

Dedicated to my Mother ~ Marie Florence McLeod Arsenault

posted by Chelsea

My breakfast (or lunch or snack) obsession this pregnancy has been nothing other than an egg sandwich.  I eat one just about every day.  I love them.  I can’t imagine my life without them.  Today, I want to show you and tell you how to make one just right.  Your life will never be the same.  And you don’t even have to bring another child into the world to enjoy one… you can eat this pregnancy-free.

First things first.  A picture of the glory….

Second things second.  How to make it:

A whole wheat english muffin.  Toasted.
An egg.  Cooked to over-medium perfection.
A slice of medium cheddar melted on top of the egg (official instructions: set the slice of cheese on top of the egg during the last couple minutes of egg cooking).
A slice of canadian bacon- cooked (warmed, really) until slightly crispy.
Avocado- sliced and slathered on top of muffin.
Kosher salt- to taste.

Perfection. 

posted by Chelsea

Here’s a look at life from my perspective these days….

Actually, it usually looks more like this…

Life from my perspective, at 36 (nearly 37!) weeks pregnant, includes….

*No more work (as in the kind that I get paid for) until post-baby.  Hallelujah.
*Baby preperation mostly done… room ready, newborn clothes washed and ready, bassinet washed and ready, wipes bought, diapers still to buy.
*Two girls who are looking bigger,

and less like babies, each and everyday…

*Getting comfortable, something that gets harder with each passing day.
*My house= my favorite place to be… especially when it’s clean or I’m cleaning it.  I’m feeling slightly neurotic about cleaning these days.
*Wonderful people in our small town.  ie: Yesterday at the grocery store the checker called for carry out and looked at me and said “I knew you’d say no if I asked if you wanted help out.  She will be helping you- I’m making that decision for you today.”  Love that.
**And finally…. The excitement of bringing a little boy home to our family… so close, yet so far away!!