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The Aardsma Weekly
April 27, 2008
Writer: Rachel Aardsma
A Day In Spring
Today is Friday, April 25, 2008, and today you get to follow me around and find out what I do on a mid-spring day in the middle of April.
My day begins at 5:59 a.m., when I awake from a sound sleep to discover that my alarm is going to go off in exactly one minute. Afraid that if I stay in bed very long, I will quickly fall asleep again, I bounce out of bed so fast that I forget to grab my glasses on the way to the floor! I turn my alarm off before it has a chance to beep, locate my glasses, throw on a bathrobe, and emerge into the silent house.
Everybody but Matthew is still asleep. Matthew, who has probably been up since 4:45 a.m., is busy doing school in his room, but I pass by in the hall without disturbing him. Arriving at my closet, I select an outfit and hurry to get dressed, as the morning is very chilly.
Once I am dressed, I find my cat and join Matthew and Buddy in Matthew's room. (This happens every morning. I enjoy having a few moments in Matthew's room to snuggle with Buddy, get warm under the blankets, and chat with Matthew before the rest of the household awakes.)
Matthew and Caleb work together on a project in the driveway. Photo by me.
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Timmy joins us around 6:15. He proudly announces that, for once, he is up before Beka (his sole motivation in getting up so early), and joins me on Matthew's bed, managing to get his feet, elbows, and rather sharp toe-nails everywhere uncomfortable for me at once.
While we wait for Beka and the others to join us, I begin reading a mystery from 'The Return Of Sherlock Holmes'. I am in the middle of the story about the dancing men, when a sleepy Beka appears. Caleb is only seconds behind her, and the four of us attempt to stay warm and comfortable together on Matthew's twin-sized bed. I soon forget the warm and comfortable part, and just try to stay on the bed. Numerous shoves and kicks from all directions make that difficult.
By 6:30 Beka decides she needs to get ready for the day, and her departure quickly breaks up the group on the bed. Timmy and Caleb leave soon after she does. I remain behind, engrossed in my mystery. Action can soon be heard in the kitchen, where Beka is putting muffins in the oven and mixing up some yogurt and apples for her breakfast. While eating some yogurt and apples of my own, I try hard to finish reading the very interesting mystery in spite of distractions. I do not succeed.
Mom and Dad appear by 6:45, and the day really begins. I finish with breakfast, put my story away until another day, and head into my room. There is laundry on the floor, and my room needs a general tidying up. It only takes me a few minutes to put everything in order, and then Mom has a project for me in her room. That takes a while, and it is nearly 8:00 by the time I go back to my room to start my real work.
While Beka does the dishes, Mom works in her office, Timmy and Caleb do chores and school, Dad heads over to the office trailer, and Matthew leaves to work on lawn-care, I settle down into my comfortable chair and begin work on my Mulberry Lane Farm website. This morning, I am making product pages, but before I can start that I have a few spelling mistakes to fix, a space or two to add or delete, and other clean-up of already-existing pages to complete. Soon, I am ready to begin making the page for Mom's delicious homemade yogurt. (She recently found out how to make yogurt without a yogurt maker, and overnight it has become one of our staple foods! Everyone loves it!)
As I get everything set up to take a picture for my yogurt page, Mom and Dad leave for a 9:15 doctor's appointment. Beka picks asparagus outside, and Timmy and Caleb busy themselves spreading grass clippings on Mom's flowerbeds. It doesn't take long to finish taking the pictures I need, and I head back to my computer to edit, resize, and fix up the yogurt photo.
When I am done with the yogurt page, I spend a while working on a page for Matthew's frozen, organic lamb. I lack the photo I need, and spend quite a while searching for one on the Internet, but do not manage to find one.
A beautiful bouquet of flowers, all grown here! Photo by Beka.
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At 11:00 Mom and Dad arrive home from the doctor's. They stopped in town to pick up some groceries and run a few errands, and Mom (thrift-store shopper extraordinaire) found out that our local thrift-store is having a bag sale--50 cents a bag! Mom can't resist, and stops by to pick up a few bargains. She doesn't stay long, but says we can all go back after lunch. I am happy about that, as I have a few birthdays to shop for, and I am also always on the lookout for new things for my room.
I work on my website until lunchtime. I manage to complete a few things before Beka calls everyone for lunch.
Today we are having rice with hot turkey gravy--a family favorite. Beka and I, however, have something more along the lines of rice with hot non-turkey gravy; for fun we decided to go on a vegetarian diet this week. Turkey, unfortunately, isn't quite vegetarian enough to be included in our diet.
After lunch and family devotions (we are currently reading in 1 Samuel and have just started the life of Saul), Beka, Timmy, Caleb, and I tackle the dishes. Timmy cleans up the dining room, while Caleb has the small kitchen, and Beka and I share the larger kitchen, which includes un-loading and re-loading the dishwasher, washing pots and pans, and cleaning up the stove area.
As soon as the dishes are completed, about 1:00, Mom, Beka, Timmy, Caleb and I pile in our van and drive to Paxton, a small town five minutes from here. We are all excited about the bag-sale, and spend the next hour in the crowded thrift-store. I don't end up buying much: a skirt or two, several coloring books, and a novel called 'Summer Of My German Soldier'. We watched the movie of that novel several years ago, and I can't wait to read the book.
The rest of my afternoon seems very long. As I struggle with website issues, my new book is calling my name! A few sneak peaks during my fifteen-minute break have done me in, and I know I will have little peace until I can read it undisturbed. While I battle it out with my website, Beka cleans the house, Timmy and Caleb work outside with Dad, and Mom does medical research. I can see that some of them are having less fun than I am, so I feel a little better about the work I have to do!
Busy hands in the garden. Photo by Mom.
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At 5:00 I am done work for the day. Before going to find something for supper, I write a long e-mail to my aunt in New Hampshire. When that is finished, I rummage around in the kitchen for some supper, and return to my room with half a grapefruit and three scones. I begin reading my exciting new book while I eat supper. The rest of the family is busy in the kitchen and dining room finding something to eat as well.
I find some clean clothes and go take my Friday-night bath. When I appear again nearly an hour later, Beka has locked herself into my room and is happily watching video-clips online. I announce I have come to comb my hair, meaning she needs to leave, and we exchange our usual banter. Since Beka does not have a computer with Internet yet (she plans on purchasing a lap-top come July), she uses my computer for all of her Internet stuff. Because we have our free time at the same time, this often causes a slight problem: we both want to be on the computer at once! No matter which of us ends up on the computer, Beka generally spends all of her free time in my room, which always leads to jokes like: "I sure can't wait until you get your own room, Beka."
When Beka departs to talk with Matthew, do Mom's hair, and generally waste time, I settle down to comb my hair and read my book. I stay holed up in my room for the next three hours, reading (and crying over) 'The Summer Of My German Soldier'. It is 8:30 by the time I finish the book, and I am feeling very tired. It has been my experience that crying over books generally makes me tired. I quickly get ready for bed, do a little writing, and then shut things down and settle myself in my comfortable and warm loft-bed.
There is a fierce thunderstorm going on outside my window. My room keeps bursting into light as white streaks of lightning zip around the sky. Beka lies awake in her own bedroom and watches the lightning through her window, but I take the opposite approach and keep my eyes tightly closed! I am very tired and do not feel like lightning watching at 9:00, when all sane people should be sound asleep. My mind is still busy digesting everything in the novel I completed only minutes before, and I decide that I am not in much of a mood for sleeping. I mentally switch gears and begin thinking about more peaceful things. It only takes a few minutes for me to drift off...
The Weekly Bible Verse
John 4:13-14: Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The Weekly Poem
This poem is unique: not only is it the type of poetry that comes hardest to me, it actually turned out okay! I wrote this, as usual, in Matthew's room, after walking around singing the phrase "Tell me a story!" all day. Beka says it needs to be set to music as a lullaby. As that is, however, not my field, it will remain a poem for the time being.
Tell Me A Story
Tell me a story of days that are gone,
Of young bashful maidens at tea on the lawn.
Tell me a story of silver-filled caves,
Of wig-wams and chieftains and Indian braves.
Tell me a story of ships on the sea,
Of dim future lands and the days yet to be.
Tell me a story of tigers and men,
Of dragons asleep in a treasure-filled den.
Tell me a story of night for my dreams,
Of lullaby coaches with lullaby teams.
Tell me a story of counting the sheep.
Tell me a story--and send me to sleep.
(© Copyright Rachel Aardsma, March 2008.)
Bits and Pieces
We have been busy this week with innumerable little things---things that take a great deal of time and trouble but don't make very interesting material for a Weekly. A few things worth mentioning have happened, however, so here we go!
This week Beka and I made donuts---tons of them! This was all that was left after everybody had eaten their fill (which was about six donuts each!). Photo by me.
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Some great things have been happening in the area of Dad's health lately, and we appreciate all of you who are praying for him.
We have some big things in the works as well: Matthew's SAT is on May 3rd, and he has announced that he plans to get the highest score of any of the kids so far. I know he can do it! I mean, good grief! I got most of the questions right when I was reading through the SAT preparation book a while back...in the English and grammar section, anyhow. I stayed far, far away from the Math, which was filled with all sorts of impossible things like triangles and funny-shaped letters and the all the stuff Beka and Matthew have been tearing their hair out over in their Math all year.
Mom's bleeding hearts plant is always beautiful this time of year. Photo by me.
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The garden is now officially started. We had our first customers this week and have been selling our delicious asparagus as fast as it grows. Everything is coming up, blooming, germinating, and getting greener and greener! Asparagus is, so far, all that we are selling, but green onions and rhubarb are just around the corner. Mom has been experimenting with other items at our vegetable stand, and so far has sold several hand-made cotton washcloths and some of her best-in-the-world strawberry jam.
We planted potatoes on the seventeenth. My poor shoulders have only just recovered! We use a hand-planting method for potatoes, and it requires somebody to dig six-inch holes every foot for all twelve of the one hundred and fifty-six foot rows! The digging is done very fast, so that the planter, who comes behind, doesn't have to wait around. Generally, it is one hole every three seconds. It is also done without any digging help from the feet: the shoulders provide all the strength that gets the shovel into the ground and out again. I somehow got volunteered for the digging job this year, and found myself not quite up to it. I managed to survive to the ninth row, and then Matthew took pity on me and dug the last three while I sat in the shade and groaned. I was all right the next day despite serious aching in my back, and a painful shoulder, where I had pulled something early the day before. I'm okay now, but I have to say that I hope I don't have to do that again for a long, long time.
Matthew sheared his sheep last Sunday. Photo by me.
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A Word About The Weather
I'm not quite sure what to say about the weather. It has fluctuated so much all week it is impossible to sum it up in one sentence! We got an inch of rain, quite a bit of sun, and a few tons of wind. We also got some cold and some warmth.
"Dad, The Cows Are Out!"
Part Two.
“I’m dying.” Victoria declared flatly, spreading herself out on the green grass and massaging her aching muscles. “I am simply dying.”
“Poor darling.” Jodi sympathized in her most sarcastic voice. “Poor, poor baby. Just save room in the grave for me, will you?”
“Sure.” Vicky replied agreeably. “And the headstone will read: ‘Victoria and Jodi Barnes, two young girls--worked to death.’”
“Killed in the prime of life.” Jodi took it up. “But we served faithfully, even unto the grave.” Jodi collapsed beside her sister in the shade of the apple tree. “Oh Vic. Why do we do this to ourselves every year?”
“Good question.” Victoria answered, surveying the rapidly forming blisters on her hands. “But I think you need to re-word it. Why do our parents do this to us every year?”
The girls sat in sympathetic silence for a moment. A robin alighted on the ground nearby and watched them suspiciously.
“I think,” Jodi rejoined, after the robin had flown away to look after its own business. “I think Mom and Dad believe this is a great way to raise children and keep us out of trouble.”
“True.” Victoria agreed. “They may think it is a great way to raise children, but I think it’s a great way to raise…to raise…” She paused, searching for the proper phrase.
“Future in-mates of the state prison?” Jodi suggested in her most helpful manner.
“Hardly.” Victoria answered. “But if we were to become prison in-mates, we’d have an advantage over the other prisoners. By the time we leave home, we’ve already served eighteen years hard labor.”
On the other end of the farm, in the cool shade of the farmhouse porch, Robert, Peter, and Jacob lounged around with all five of the family dogs. All of the dogs but one were mutts; the only purebred was a black Lab. Most of the dogs were waifs or strays that had been taken in by Victoria, who could see no animal go homeless, helpless, or starved without first attempting to do something about it.
“I love spring.” Robert remarked, calmly attempting to pull the tail off of one big, sleepy mutt.
“Do you really?” Jacob replied wryly, wondering just how much more planting, watering, tilling, and weeding needed to be done before the spring planting was completed.
“He likes it because he is too little to do anything.” Peter said, in his most grown-up and mature air.
“Am not!” Robert protested, instantly bristling.
“Am too.”
The argument was brought to a rapid close before it could even begin, as Robbie launched himself in Peter’s direction, and a general wrestling match took place.
Things were just calming down when Mr. Barnes appeared on the porch.
“Okay.” He said, surveying the panting dogs and excited boys. “We have plenty to do before night-fall if we hope to get the rest of the seeds in before the rain tomorrow. Jodi and Vic are going to finish planting the lettuce and spinach. Jacob, I need you to till the last section in preparation for the onions. Peter and Rob, let's head over to the strawberry patch and finish with the straw removal.”
The family was soon spread over the two-acre garden. Jodi and Vic sprinkled lettuce seeds in carefully prepared rows, discussing life in general and their lives in particular, with much joking and laughter. Jacob directed the large tiller back and forth across the garden, singing “Michael, Row The Boat Ashore” as loudly as he could to be heard above the roar of the machine. Peter and Robert helped Mr. Barnes in the strawberry patch, often ceasing work to bombard each other with armfuls of straw, or chase each other through the rows and pathways. Mrs. Barnes hung out laundry in the sunny back yard, keeping one eye on the twins, who were peacefully eating dirt and gravel by the back door, and the other eye on the rest of her busy family in the garden.
Spring had come to the farm, with all its usual bustle, confusion, happiness, fatigue, work, and beauty. Apple blossoms formed on the trees, flowers burst into bloom, robins sang and courted in the sky, and all was busy and happy below as the Barnes’ worked hard to make their hay while the sun shone.
To be continued...
A Word Of Wisdom
There can't be a crisis next week; my schedule is already full! ~Henry Kissinger
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