Where do we blog from here?

Following up such an eloquent post as the one my verbose hubby authored makes me feel like a blathering idiot. And really, how does a non politically driven blogger girl move on from here?

Well she does what she knows best. She gets a little crafty.

Last weekend while my darling was blogging away in my stead, I took up residence in my craft studio, also loving dubbed "Mom's Craft Hole". Between showing Dick Daring the inner workings of Google and Blogger's photo uploader, (because ya know, I am a technical GENIUS!! muwhahaha) I managed to whittle a path to my sewing machine, where, to my great surprise, I pieced a twin size quilt and stitched up a sundress for a worthy cause.

My bloggy friend Jade has stared a group called Craft Hope. Being always a willing joiner where crafting is concerned, I happily pledged my crafty prowess. The Craft Hope group is stitching up handmade clothing for the Pan de Vida shelter in Mexico. If you are the crafty sort and would like to help out please hop on over to the Craft Hope site.

Here is dress #1.

(read:Go here to see my sweet Fern ironing this very pillowcase for me this past summer when I attempted my very first pillowcase dress, it very scintillating reading.)




The armpits looks weird and lumpy. I think that maybe I didn't cut the arm holes deep enough or maybe I cut them too deep.....whatever. I am hopeful that the next one will have lump free pits.

How's that for eloquence? It may be all blather but who doesn't love a good cause and some crafty goodness?



Ya know, I think my hubby will be proud of me for being so Socratic. And such a stellar seamstress.

Frontier House

I am a big fan of the PBS "House" series'. Frontier House being the hands down favourite. I have watched the "Frontier" families struggle and swear, triumph and toil, over and over again for the last several years.

I turn this viewing into a big homeschool event during the summers. We "camp out" and watch TV. Ironic I know but my kids love it. We wrap ourselves in the cloak of history, teeming with adventures unknown. We snuggled up with good books and one great reality TV show. We have "camped out" and experienced the hardships of living in the dirt. But. None of my past experiences or readings have prepared me for the frontier life quite like Frontier House.

A little over a year ago my family had to move back home. We had to admit defeat; that our little wagon trek to the place of our dreams, the Napa of the North, was a failure. Moving back into my old home was very difficult. Settling back into the old way of life became drudgery. It was as though I was a reality TV participant, I was lost in my current reality...I longed for the frontier from whence I had come. I dreamt of those good old days living 3 doors down from my sister in crime. I longed for Dutch Bros runs, Sunday suppers and Church Socials. And for light switches....that work.

One of the interesting things about Frontier House is that it takes modernized people back in time to stake a land claim in Montana during the 1800's. They build their houses and privies from trees they themselves cut and hue. They grow their own food. For all intents and purposes they are living in 1860. Except that, they reach for that blasted light switch every time they enter their cabin.

Travel forward in time with me to October 2008.

Katie heads to the privy and hits the light switch. The light bulb makes a terrible hissing, then a pop and the light goes out. This little event is annoying but Katie is sure that a new light bulb will remedy the dark situation. Upon replacement of old hissing bulb with a shiny new one, shiny new one performs the same action. Katie is befuddled. Katie employs the talent of live in handy man. Handy man is also befuddled. Handy man says: screw it, use the light on the other side of the room.

Travel forward January 2009.

After flipping that blasted light switch for three months with no result, handy man has had enough. One afternoon of struggle, and some cursing....viola! The magic of modern living is restored.

Katie and family are still in shock when the switch responds with illumination. (It's only been a week folks.)


In Yahoo news this morning, thousands of families are predicted to be facing "frigid, light-less nights" till mid-February. MID-February!


I think it's time to "camp out" and watch a round of Frontier House. With the lights on....

Overheard

Phone conversation between my husband and myself.

DD:Hello?

K: Honey! I am in love. I am sorry to tell you this at work and all, but I really, truly, am in love.

DD: WHAT??

K: Yes, its the truth. I spent the afternoon staring at him with big moony puppy-dog eyes, hanging on his every word. I am totally, irrevocably, in looovve.

DD: Oh..really...

K: Yes, it can't be helped. Don't even try to stop this budding relationship. It's a done deal.

DD: Hmmm...

K:He has Black Belts in several different Marital Arts, I can't even pronounce them all. He is inspiring and philosophical, he's relateable , he's a great storyteller and he's just plain brilliant....

DD:He's all that, eh?

K: Oh, hooooney.....

DD:Yes?

K: He's so full of wisdom... The new tutor is...well, astonishing!

I am so in love. Although, I think my husband loves him more than I do...

Love/Hate relationship

I have issues. Yeah, yeah, don't we all. BUT...These issues are ragged and painful and more often than not get me in big trouble with the man I share my life with.


I am going to share but don't take offense at my opinions, friends, as they are just that, mine. Mine and mine alone. Don't harbor ill will for me if you don't agree, just do as any good girlfriend would do and shake your head and say .....'oh, you poor thing'...MmmK?!

****

I am a pretty easy going gal. I maintain calm on all levels most of the time. There are few things that make by blood boil. Very few issues, bring up the bile. That is, until, you turn on the computer/video games. Let me tell you, I get full on vehement, when the games go on.

My man is a gamer. A game-a-bob. He is passionate about video games. He wastes spends all of his free time on video games. He flies planes, sails ships, spawns and morphs. For hours on end. Daily. Well, to be fair almost daily.

Ahem.

We are a one computer family and my blogging only suffers a little.


Call me crazy. And hypocritical, really, it's OK for me to have computer time but not anyone else in the family. well yeah That isn't the case really. If my family were writing/researching instead of just gaping at the computer, I wouldn't mind. As much. It's just that I hate, HATE!! video games with a passion. Name anything about them and I guarantee that I abhor it.

Ay, there's the rub.

My hubby loves. LOVES. his video games.

This breaks my heart. My heart, that was born in the wrong century. Obviously.

So, call me old fashioned or technically challenged. Or both. But, the whole idea behind video games, makes me sick. For crying out loud, if you want to "play"(virtually) golf with your kid, then for Pete's sake take the kid out to play golf. You want to fight and kill and sneak around in the dark hunting things.....then get off your a$ and GO do it.


Even the argument of getting a Wii is lost on me. Moot.

'It's a workout! You can bowl. You can dance.'

Well then for the love of God... get up and workout, put a freaking bowling ball in that grubby little hand and go to! Turn up the volume and dance till you can't dance no more!!

Put down the FLIPPING controller and not one gets hurt!

****

Every day, as I watch my family stare blankly into the screen, I have passionate visions of massive bonfires in my driveway. Fires in which all of the disks, systems and controllers are all exploding into flames. Then, once the ashes have cooled, I will drive over the whole mess in my jacked up Scout, (the one I look so dang cute driving) back and forth till there is nothing but dust left. Then I will hand out the baseball gloves and we will all live happily ever after....


Yeah, I have issues.

*Courtesy of Dick Daring*

Let's see...

• passed rigors of advance belt testing for Tae Kwon Do.

• survived demise of space aged washing machine AND eighteen trips (you can't afford) into town to have it fixed.

• Planned and executed, several play dates for the kids at Gram's.

and...

• your husband has been hijacked and replaced by someone who dresses like a tree and washes his clothes with dirt scented detergent.

Yah- there's just nothing to blog about.



This post was brought to you by the letter D (for Dick Daring) and the number 712 (that's the number of loads of laundry left to do) And by our sponsors: The makers of dirt scented laundry products.

The Trojan War

Oh my friends, I am Helen of Troy. I have been swept off to a foreign land. A land in which there is no computer time for me.

My computer is down again!


My saga begins with the visit of a dear friend.......


Our kingdom has been plagued by a constant state of guerrilla warfare, small irritating clashes with the Greek king Melaneaus and his brother Agamemnon. ( also known as 'the computer',the Internet',and stupid, blankety-blank connection problems.)


Then came Peace. Peace in the the form of Hector, the Hero of Troy and his luscious brother, Paris. (Also known as my darling hubby, and his alter ego Dick Daring)


These brothers of Troy saw my plight, and attempted to rescue me; whisking me away to their city, protected by the legendary Firewalls of Troy. Of course the Greek armies came and surrounded the city, phishing for weaknesses and making a nuisance of themselves.


Through it all, the walls held, and I began to feel secure. Then came a day of calm and quiet. Reinforcements arrived in the form of Boyd and Betsy, all seemed well within my world. I sat at my desk, contentedly pimping my blog and checking my site meter and snooping on all the Lurkers who view, but choose not to stay, share, or comment on Katie's Calamities.



Quite suddenly I noticed a large wooden horse left behind by persons unknown. I was curious, and I also am quite fond of large wood horses. I did have a nagging feeling, however, some warning I had heard about Greeks who bear gifts. And as I pondered this, the great walls came down. My security software flashed warnings that escalated from threat detected, to firewall breach, to informing me of a Trojan horse infection!


Troy has fallen. I now speak to you from exile; awaiting salvation ( a solution will have to wait till after Labor day). I bid you good day, and good bye, for now.

Because someone has to do it...

Before we get ahead of ourselves, go ahead, slap me with the slacker of the YEAR award! Just smack me with it, and get it over with...K.


OUCH!


Well, my sweet baby girl turned 6 this weekend and as we celebrate birthdays like the Suite Family (week long partying) I thought that I would be uploading all sorts of cool pic's from our weekend of fun, right about now.


BUT NOOOOOOAH!


We have a problem. My little family, it seems must take a weeks worth of crap survival gear along with us. Where. Ever. We. Go. No joshing here. On Saturday we ( I mean the Gallant Inspector General or Dick Daring as he is now calling himself ) ahem, we, were loading up our 9 passenger SUV to spend the day at the lake partahhh-in' with our friends and fam, our checklist looked something like this:

• sunscreen
• 3 coolers w/drinks, food, cupcakes, frosting, lots and lots of ice.
• BombBQ
• blankets
• coats
• towels and suits
• goggles, life vests, noodles and various other floating thingies
• plastic wear, cups, paper plates, paper towels, wipe-ups
• cute vintage sheet for table cloth
• salt and pepper
• chairs ( something in the neighborhood of 20)
• extra change of clothes x6
• extra shoes
• birthday gifts
• laundry basket for hauling stuff to and fro
• magazines and books to read while lounging on the beach
• lighter for the BombBQ
• CAMERA......don't forget the camera!
• Memory card!!!!!!!
• sunglasses
• hats
• ice cream cones

OK. So. All of this crap survival gear got jammed into our 'Burban and there was barely any room for the kids. And yet we managed to forget the:

• Hats
• lighter
• tongs (plastic forks don't work well for moving boiling hot food around)
• birthday candles (thank goodness for a Dollar Tree along the way)

and, we were short one chair.

I did however manage to squeeze in the camera and I did (really I did) take lots and lots of pictures of all the festivities. But....for the life of me I can't find the camera now. I shoved it into the car as we were leaving the lake. I even had to pull it out at the last second to retrieve a Band-Aid for poor, HeadLong. He sat on a Hornet that was lounging peacefully on his car seat. (read: Poor little guy took the stinging personally. He kept saying, 'Why did it want to hurt me so....Why? I didn't do anything to that bee. Why?) So, I know the camera made it back from the lake...I just don't know what pile of crap survival gear it is lurking in. Frankly I am too lazy tired to go tearing into the piles.

Thankfully I have friends who blog. At least my suite friend had the wherewithal to post about my darling daughters birthday bash. Someone has to do it.

Let's review...

When I was thinking of what to post for today I thought to myself, Self, make it easy on yourself, just put up some pictures of all the fun stuff you have been doing lately. Super easy, shmeasy. Well I started the ever so easy process 2 hours ago. Hmmm....

So,here is a somewhat short summary of what our summer has been like so far and Sally sold sea shells by the sea shore....could I have added any more "s" words to this sentence?? Hah! I guess so. :)

Here you go.

Fidget learned to fly.

The kids got lost in the Loch.

I tried out my mad photo skillz on The Fourth. This is my darling, showing me a little love.

The masses; playing in the sprinkler.

On Memorial weekend we camped with a group of friends. I thought I would play Martha Stewart Rachel Ray and make a cake. Note to self: don't make cake while camping. We had lovely chocolate charcoal.

You can read more about this adventure here.

Teaching kids to ride without training wheels is harder on the parents than the children.

One night I strolled into the bathroom to find this thing flapping against the window. From the size and shape of the shadow I thought it was a bat. I, yelled for help. Because it is a well know fact that bats can eat through glass, and I was freaked out by all the freaking flapping. Inspector the the rescue. He yells, (doing his best impression of Mrs. Doubtfire) help is on the way! Being intrigued by the size and shape of it, the Inspector decided to GRAB it. This caused me to suffer a mild coronary. As it turns out I lived and so did the most bizzare, ginormus, hairy moth I have ever seen in my life.

Pretty foxgloves.

I have had altogether too much fun photographing the flora on the farm.

Last, but certainly not least, was the most recent fun; watching my son play ball. Notice home (paper) plate? (That was the Inspector's idea.) Oh, and of course the man child's form. Doesn't he have good form?! I am so proud of that kid.

There you have it folks the longest, short post ever! Have a great weekend.

Word filled Wednesday: Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life.

My lover is mine and I am his;

Song of Solomon 2:16

On this, the Anniversary of 14 years of marriage, I dedicate my WFW post to my amazing husband.



Cheers, to us for sticking together through all the good, the bad and the ugly.

"I love you more than ~ Froot-Loops!"

For more Word filled Wednesday posts check out The 160 Acre Woods.

Rain

It has been raining off & on and nasty for days n' days. Before the rain we had 100 degree weather and before that we had snow and before the snow we had 90 degree weather. What gives??


How is a farm girl supposed to get anything done with such wacky weather? I should do some more spring cleaning but that wouldn't be any fun. I should see if I can find the box that has all of the gardening books and my old garden journal. Most of our books, other than those pertaining to homeschooling, are still in boxes in the attic. This will prove to be a daunting task. I kid you not when I say, there are probably 50 boxes of books up there. Ohhhhh, and the spiders and various other creepy crawlies. Maybe I'll wait for the weekend and ask the Inspector General to help with that. Wow, way to talk my self out of that one. :)


This rain has really got me in a funky mood. I really need to be outside working the garden or planting something. All of my pots of 'things' that I brought with me when we moved back here last fall are starting to take root. The other day, I went to grab a large pot of creeping thyme and the thing was rooted solid to the ground!


New garden tip: Don't let plants set in pots on top of dirt for 8 months before planting them out.

Yesterday, between storms, I took a walk around to see what was blooming. So many things I have never noticed before. I am not sure if I just wasn't paying attention (that ones for you Farm Suite) or if things needed a few years to regenerate after being neglected for so many years. (READ: The woman we bought our house from had M.S. and had been unable to care for the gardens for years, to say things were bad would be an understatement. Things were so badly overgrown with blackberries that the true beauty of the place was hidden.) Anywho, I just found that we have a huge (hence my surprise, because it really is dang big) White Dogwood. It has never bloomed before this year and it only set 3 flowers. We have 2 trees that I was sure were peaches (from the leaf shape and size) but now I have no idea what they are, as they have done nothing but grow leaves. I dreamed and plotted my new rose garden. I made plans for the sunflower gardens for the girls. I discovered the perfect place for a reading bench. I made note of the best place for a secret garden.



As I walked about, I was surprised by the smell. The wind had died down and all was extremely still, truly the calm before the storm. The scents from the plants seemed to settle around me. I could smell everything: the chives, the roses, mint, rosemary and the sweet, heady scent of an unknown vining plant. It was almost dreamy, the air electric and sweet. The sky dark grey as the storm moved over the mountains from the coast. Amazing.



It is raining again now. Puddles lay on the ground everywhere. The garden is too wet to work. The children have long since grown tired of the joys of mud. The chickens are wet and grouchy; they protest the rain by not laying eggs. I am grouchy. I want the sun to shine, so that I might return to my beloved garden.


I press my face to the dining room window, singing softly like a child:

Rain.......Rain.........Go away. Come again some other day!

Mice and Dogs and Chickens. Oh, my!

This last weekend, my little family took our Airstream wannabe trailer and went camping. We didn't go far, just to our local church camp. This was our first trip taking the trailer. We have owned the thing for 2 years now but have put it to use as a guest house for mice, mothers and friends. The Inspector General spent hours sucking out the mouse droppings and spraying Lysol on everything. With this being a big camping weekend the Inspector was too antsy to wait for the trailer to be loaded, before taking it to camp. Being afraid all the good spots would be gone by the time I got my bum in gear, the Inspector General decides that we must take the trailer out to camp to secure our spot. So we haul our Airstream wannabe out to the woods, plop it down and head back to the farm to pack up all the STUFF we will NEED for the weekend.


Needless to say, all that is needed to outfit a trailer (that was completely empty) a family of six, coolers packed with enough food for a small army, toys, clothes, chairs, camera, and a dog, don't all fit so well into a 8 passenger Suburban. With the poor 'burb packed to the gills, we still didn't manage to get our clothes or blankets in, but we did get the dog, and that is all that matters, right??? So, about 4 trips later, we are finally confidant that we have all we will need for say, ten years, so we relax and set up camp.

We had a wonderful weekend with friends and family, gathered around the campfire. Our two youngest children learned to ride bikes with out training wheels. We got soaked to the skin in a huge thunder storm. Everyone froze their keesters off. We ate some of the best camp food ever. We even got in trouble with the camp host for bringing our dog (anyone want a dog? you can have him cheap, oh come on....)

I celebrated my birthday with a day of doing nothing, that's right, no dishes or cooking, no cleaning up, just sitting by the fire eating marshmallows, my girlfriends insisted that I (gasp) just enjoy the day. My darling, amazing, sweet, thoughtful, (ok, I know, I am making you sick) hubby had to run to town for "something" and came back with gifts for me and all my girlfriends; I got two pairs of earrings and the girls and I all got the most wonderful chocolate truffles.


We were home by midday Monday. Everyone was glad to be home and not so glad to have to clean all the junk out of the trailer. I decided that the blackberries needed to be hacked back, and the roses need deadheaded and the dogwood needed to be brought up a bit and well you get the picture.......I got busy doing other things. I hacked and chopped through the briar's till my forearms were bleeding. I made a huge mess then decided it was dinner time. (he, he, see how I am) So I proceed to the kitchen to make us up something non hamburger/hot dog/beans. I thought that Burrito Supremo's sounded good. (O' the gastric intestinal delight, since the only thing not in this concoction is hot dogs) As I am rooting around the kitchen for a pot that I might have left behind (they are all in the trailer) I discovered that the mouse had a dog food party in the oven drawer, while we were gone. Nice eh?

Here dogie...... (what? I'm not touchin' that stuff)

After the gastro delight was done and the dishwasher started, I went out to check the status of the chickens. They were all very happy to see me and chased me around the yard clucking and chirping. Then I noticed it. One of them is missing. It's one of my Hamburg chickens, the Inspectors favorite. SHOOT. What shall I do? I am a total mess, I spend the next hour outside calling for the dumb chicken and looking in the bushes, (that big red spot on my arm is either an infected briar scratch or poison oak) hoping that she just went over to the neighbors for a visit. I didn't find the Hamburger but I did find a few eggs.

What a lively weekend!

Addendum: Caution! Explosives ahead!

I am still slightly shocked and amazed at myself for writing such a novella. I have received nothing but kudos from all my Chicky friends and yes even my Inspector General. The I.G. is the reason for this particular post. While he did pour on the love, he also thought I was unjust in my telling of the story. The part of the story directly involving his leaving "the planning meeting", that is.

The daring Inspector General stood fast in the face of his enemy. (He did wonders for my sad, wimpy, self.) He took the foe by the throat and didn't back down. (for a while, any way) He stared hard into the face of the wavering and subject changing Martha. (while I meekly watched the goose bumps rise on her arms) With shaking hands she dodged his mighty sword. Victory was close at hand. Hark, the Martha affords no mercy. After he felt he could push no further, he conceded. The mountain (of paperwork) was too tall. Sir Inspector General rode off on his gallant white horse. Alas, he did not relent only to lick his wounds in private.

While his damsel was in much distress.......wringing her hands and wailing (shuffling paperwork and arguing)........

My most amazing knight, made our children finish a weeks worth of lessons in 'nary an hour.

This made me one happy damsel, considering........

Thoughts for a Thursday

I was dragged from my slumber at about 2 am this morning.

I was SLEEPING!

Actually being asleep is a big thing for me. I don't sleep, I nap. I have Fibromyalgia and laying down for long periods is painful.

So, needless to say, I was sorta ticked off when my 4 year old came crawling into my side of the bed. Icy cold! "I am fah,fah, fahreeezzing, I need to sleep in your spot" he said. Being all sleepy and such I obligingly rolled over to make room, and am shocked out of my whits at the ice cold feet planted firmly on my behind! I had forgotten that I went to be in a tank and unders. Now these were not the normal everyday underwear us girls choose over those "special" panties. My washer is on the blink and has been for nigh on 2 weeks. Yes, you guessed it, I was wearing date night chonies. Around these parts we call them Friday Night Panties. These are much smaller than my day-to-day's, to which I lovingly refer to as my "Grannies".

I suddenly feel exposed. Very exposed!

So I decide that maybe I could tuck the blankets between us. What was I thinking? This disturbed the Inspector General who scoops up our poor frozen offspring and carts him off to his own bed, screaming like a mimi.

Well, I am a smart girl, so I stayed put and tucked my flabulous self back into the blankets. Several LONG moments later hubby comes back "freezing". Snuggling into my bubble space, he for some reason grabs a hold of my baby paunch. Not just that sweet little snugly fondle thing but a full on football hold. (Was he thinking touchdown??) I laid there frozen. Mortified. Should I jerk away in my shame, or just act like it wasn't me he was grabbin' and play dumb in the morning..........a thousand different escape plans ran through my head. Not one of them was feasible.

"Think... think. Think like James Bond!!" my mind screamed.

By now my darling husband is snoring like a lumber jack, hand still firmly grasping the hated pouch. After a few failed attempts to loosen his grip, I try to get up. The man won't give up. I am beginning to think that I will be stuck like this 'till 5am, or until he rolls over~heaven forbid! Visions of flying through the night air, not unlike a football to touchdown, flood my sleep deprived brain.


Now my hubby drives truck for a living. As a side effect, he also drives truck in his sleep. On many, many occasions I have been jerked (literally) awake, while my love is peacefully shifting his dump truck in his sleep, grasping a huge chunk of my hair!!


** Gasp you say? I have to agree.**


The fat glob grab is no different. With a firm hold on the "shifter" (IE: fat glob) he commences to "shift". I had to stifle a scream~leaping from the bed, I make haste for the commode. Trying to tuck my grossly stretched out fat back into my less than adequate undies.

( I am sure it wasn't that floppy before)

Lest I raise suspicion, I return to bed. Contemplating the purchase of a girdle and a new job for hubby.

I did not go back to sleep for fear of being "shifted" again.

Mouse

Dear mouse,

I thought I might warn you of your impending doom. The Inspector General has procured sticky traps and has full intentions of scattering them about the house. As you might have noticed your friends are no longer coming for dinner. They found a nice quiet diner at the back of the house.

I must apologize for screeching so loudly at you this morning. I did not expect to find you in my dresser drawers. Nor did I expect you would eat a puzzle, what with the chick starter so close by. To each his own...I hope you will enjoy your selection on the sticky trap provided for you.

Please be sure I have no hard feelings about all of the things you and your friends have eaten.

Kindest Regards,

Mrs. Inspector General

Country tidbits

As I am still getting used to blogging, I was unsure of what to write. My mind was swirling with ideas. There is so much to put down. So I will just spit it out in "tidbits".

On Saturday last, I picked up 3 black lop eared runny babbits, an assortment of 15 chicks, and headed off to visit my mother. She can't come to the farm, so I took the farm to her. We had a great visit. Mother fussed over the babies all afternoon. She even found a basket to put all the chicks into, wrapped them in a towel and took some great pictures. Aren't they so cute?? Husband says " you say that now, just wait till they start pooping on the front porch and eating your plants". He is, as always, right.

Spring has sprung. Or so we hope. Things are popping up everywhere here in the Banana Belt. I was slightly worried yesterday for the state of the fruit trees, as it was snowing 10 miles north of where we are. Alas all is well. We got the torrential rains and cold winds but no snow. It is a somewhat sunny day out today. Only in the Pacific Northwest!

I am making my way through the Territorial Seed Catalog, trying to decide what to put in the garden this year. My brother-in-law has started a "bunch of seed" in his greenhouse and is going to share. I am excited to see what he has. We are moving the garden this year. My daring husband has taken out a few over grown fruit trees from the orchard, thereby opening up a larger area for my garden. I say MY garden because hubby wants nothing to do with it. I have to beg for the garden every year. So, I am very happy to have a much larger, sunnier location. The soil here is hard pack clay, not very conducive to gardening. I tried the Lasagna method year before and really had good results. I will be using the Lasagna method again this year. I am hoping to get a fence put up to keep out the chickens, the deer and our ding-dang vegetarian dog. It would be my dream to have a quaint white picket fence surrounding my perfectly planned out Kitchen Garden. Suffice it to say, "perfectly" I am an overachiever at but "planned" is a word that gives me panic attacks!

The daffodils have "naturalized" most of the property now. They are everywhere. I am so blessed by this as it means I don't have to stress out about where to plant spring bulbs. It is such a sight to come up the driveway and see their sunny little heads bobbing in the breeze. The kids have kept a constant bouquet of them on the dining table. My youngest, bored with just looking at them, tried pressing the petals in the garlic press. Man that was a mess. I also have a bunch of paper whites scattered about, that weren't here before. Paper whites smell so amazing. I love daffodils so much I dug a bunch and took them with me when we moved the last time. Then, dug them back up when we moved back here. It's not as though there weren't any here to come back to. They are everywhere.

There are lots of building projects to finish up. The "Honey Do" list is getting longer every day. The shop needs to be enclosed. The woodshed needs built. The R.V. shed needs gutters. The greenhouse is without a door. Our guest cottage/studio/workout room needs a heater. Inside the house, things need finished; molding in bedroom, caulking around the tub, paint here and there, tile the entry, drywall extra bedroom and in what ever spare time can be had, reconfigure the laundry room. I need Martha and here crew to come in here a spruce this place up. Wonder if she would........

I am busily (sorta) preparing (well, maybe) for the first Sanity Savers meeting. This group is the brain child of my friend Miriam. Sanity Savers mission is to provide a little piece of sanity to women with children at home. I am the guest speaker and slightly nervous. My lovely friend Miriam (thank you) got me this "gig". My first speaking engagement ever! I am going to share about Investment Cooking. What I am going to share is still a mystery to me, but who knows it might come to me still. (Don't panic Miriam. I work well under pressure! HAHAHA! ) I love the idea of Investment Cooking and have used it with great success in the past. I am currently not employing a well stocked pantry and thus not investing in my cooking. It might prove helpful if I was practicing what I am about to preach.

Spring Break is over for us on Tuesday. With that comes the rush back to the daily grind. I am in charge of two field trips for ACE. There are a few birthday parties to attend. I am a helper for a Creative Memories Workshop. I have a few more chicks coming in this next week. I am going to enjoy these last few days of spring break while they last.......