{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

For today's posting I am linking up with the gals at Like Mother, Like Daughter.  
Join the fun!

{pretty}

This is from one of the weddings I shot this summer. I love the clothesline. I love the strings of lights. The twilight....very pretty.

{happy}

 I captured this tender moment between brothers yesterday. Both of my boys are suffering from illness.  My man child has just returned from a mission trip to Mexico, where he must have been bitten by a dog or a seal because he is barking up a storm.  He sounds terrible but that didn't stop him from reading a little of  "The Sneetches" to his baby brother who has a mild case of Conjunctivitis. 

This makes me so happy.  I love that my oldest isn't too cool to snuggle on the couch and read Dr. Seuss to his brother.  

{funny}

 This is my youngest child; dramatic and funny are his middle names. We have been standing in the July heat for 1.75 hrs waiting for our local parade -in which he is participating-to start.  Someone just told him he is allowed to "shoot" the crowd with a squirt gun.  He was excited, to say the least.

{real}

My friend Miri and I have a tradition.  Every October, we  make a birthday (Miri's)  pilgrimage to the Sylvia Beach Hotel.   We lounge. We read. We take photos.  We sip tea and take in the glorious ocean air. Otherwise,  we enjoy the quiet lack of children, animals, cell phones and T.V.   
Note:  The hotel, from-which my friend is basking in the ocean sunset above, is remodeling.    Alas, there will be no pilgrimage this year.  There will be no sipping of tea or lounging. There will be no photographing. There will be no lack of noise.  This year we must make other plans.


 (Insert loud sigh here)


Dear Sylvia Beach Hotel,
Hurry up with that remodeling! 
Love, 
Katie and Miri


Happy 20th Anniversary of your 20th Birthday my dear sweet friend! May it be wonderful even without the quiet ocean view.

Caught: the weekend lens

  Captured my own reflection in this jar of Spiced Golden Plum Jam this afternoon.

     Sneaky Katie, caught these two friends (Lexie from the Back Acher and the lovely Em) snapping shots.

                                        Caught my youngest sneaking to town in her jammies.

 

Got my curls caught in the blackberries while getting in my car.  Had the kids run grab the camera so I                      could take a picture.  My children think their mother is nutty.

My darling beloved snapped this, the only shot, of the man child sporting his first big catch. And what a tasty catch it was.

Rednecks live here

You might be a redneck if....

...you wear your seat belt as an accessory (Why yes, officer.  I always wear my seat belt) .  And you decorate your yard with old tires.


Photo courtesy of Mr. Dailey and his way cool, totally non-Redneck, iPhone.

The green eyed monster is female.

Earlier this week my children and I made a pit stop in town at the local magazine swapping spot.  I had great hopes of finding some colorful magazines ripe for the cutting.  There were collages to make.

We searched the stacks of discarded magazines.  We rifled through pile after glossy pile, searching for just the right pictures.

Then I spied it!  There between the Dog and Cat Fancy and Sports something-er-other was the cutest Woman's Day I have ever seen.  The cover was swimming in cupcakes so cute they could melt butter. With eyes as big as saucers, my youngest boy pulled the book from its resting place. I promptly snatched the glossy pages from his chubby fingers.  He protested only briefly.  I told him it was for girls only.  Chock full of cooties, that one.  He looked up at me with his best puppy dog impersonation and said  "green eyed monster".

Now, normally I would have scolded the young mister for such sass but something in knew that it was a true statement. So, I let it slide.

Fast forward  a few days.

Taking a much needed break from the school brain melt, I pulled out the coveted, cupcake smothered  magazine from its hiding place.  I poured myself a fresh cup of coffee and set down in my favourite comfy chair.

And there it was.  In large bold letters.



The green eyed monster is female!


Well now.

According to the magazine women are more prone to jealousy.

Or...

Some women are prone to rip magazines from the clutches of babes.

Bloggers help eachother out

Well friends, my dear, farm sweet friend is under the weather. She is ill with the nasty flu/cold/who-knows-what bug. She is home suffering and writhing in pain resting quietly on her chic new sofa, sweetly sipping her red wine tea, whilst her engineer husband puts out the fires adeptly handles life on a hobby farm. And, of course her children are behaving like perfect angles.



Fellow bloggers, the only thing standing between Miriam and certain death is comments. It's all about comments, I tell you. Won't you head on over to the Suite and give the girl a little comment love? Let her know she is missed. Cuz honestly I can barely blog for my own dang self, let alone TWO people.

Farm Girl Friday

A tale of two monkeys.

On Wednesday night, the Farm Suite girls decided to join the Calamity fun and have dinner at The Little Farm in the Wildwood. While we were all (only an assumption as you will see later) enjoying a little of this:

These two yard monkey's were doing a little gardening. Aren't they just the picture of innocence?

We found a little of this:

And a bit of that:

Yes, even some of this:

This is my "courtyard", for lack of a better word. It is a small strip of (sorta) grass that runs right in front of the house. It has now been lovingly planted with beans and nasturtiums, that I know of.

If you look way at the back of the yard you can see a large puddle. The two little monkey's had the smarts to even water-in their little garden.

These two monkey's are now so proud of their little "garden" and have as a result caught the planting "bug", constantly begging to "plant" seeds.

Alternative lawns are really popular around these parts. Whodathunk the two yard monkey's were so.... in the know.

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.

Expose me?

This should be the big finish post! The post in which I rave about how fabulous it feels to be fully Exposed. The ever illustrious post wherein, I post glamorous photo's of my house, sans crap. Well...



I suck!


So, the Big City Wide Yard Sale just happened to interfere with a previously (like say, 8 months ago) scheduled dentist appointment. Not only am I a clutter bug, I am unorganized. If I was organized I would have had the forethought to reschedule said dentist appointment. But since I am not organized or famous for well, forethought, the Yard Sale O' Ramma was laid by the wayside (my Farm Suite friend still got ride of her junk, what a punk lucky girl) in order to achieve better oral health. Alas, my inability to sell my crap this last weekend has not daunted me greatly...there will be another Big City Wide Yard Sale on Aug. 9. This just means that all of the piles will remain stacked around my abode for THREE more weeks. *sigh*


OK back to the dentist...



Fern, (You might remember this incident, from a few months back.) was the lucky recipient of a checkup at the unholy hour of 7am, some 70 miles away in town. This meant rising from my un-sleep at oh say... the butt-crack-of-dawn. (Read: If you have not experienced rising at the butt-crack-of-dawn, I suggest you give it a try at least once. It is quite liberating. And dark.)
'Who has a dentist appointment at 7am on a Saturday?' you ask. Umm, I do OK! It's the only way to get an appointment that I don't have to cart all twelve kids to the dang dentist office.

So...

Fern and I went off to town. Fern was a little nervous, but the hygienist was quite sweet. All is well with the child's mouth EXCEPT that she is going to have to have some of her baby teeth pulled. Talk about awful. My poor daughter has been through the ringer with her teeth. But that is a much longer story than I can share right now. Just know that Fern has had a zillion dentist appointments already and she is only 9.



I think I was posting about yard sales...what happened?? What day is it?? Have I had coffee??



Umm, so.




No yard sale for a few more weeks. Tooth drama. No coffee. Happy Monday!

Happy Monday?

Let me just start by saying this: There is not enough soap in the entire world!!

Happy Monday! (said through gritted teeth, sporting a psycho, crazy person smile)


After a very long day at the baseball field, yesterday, my children must have suffered sugar/hot dog induced brain damage. As a result of this, consumption/brain damage, they all four must have pee'd 10 gallons of Kool-Aid in the night and not a one of them (in their sugar induced coma) thought to FLUSH!!

So, you might be able to imagine the utterly disgusting greeting I received when I arrived at the throne to do my mornin' business. YOWZA! I jumped back in horror. My hand flying to my nose and mouth, in the hopes of deterring the stench of Kool-Aid pee.

Lordy! I uttered under my breath as I reached to flush the offensive mix. Quickly I reached for the toilet brush and cleaner.

I was scrubbing away like a mad hatter when all of a sudden, it hit me.

Literally.


Toilet water, that is.


Oh, yes. Gasp. Choke


I jump back as if burned, (which wouldn't surprise me) sputtering and cursing.


What? What!! Oh my word!


Vomitrosious!!



Like I said: Not enough soap in the world!

Joy Rush

My farm sweet friend found this great blog, So, the thing is, that challenges us all to take a minute and reflect on those little joys in our life. Thank you Barb, for inspiring such a lovely list.


Here is just a small sampling of mine.

For me there is nothing like finding the first blossoms of spring. When the apples bloom I am assured that God has yet again, brought forth new life.

There is no greater joy than lying on my back in the sand, watching the kids blow bubbles; the peaceful feeling of watching the bubbles drift up to heaven, the children laughing and giddy.

Everything about this makes me happy. Cakes made from scratch, fresh strawberries sprinkled with sugar, real whipped cream made in my new KitchenAid, all lovingly served on my brown transferware.

Blue skies.

Snow ball fights in June.

Watching my kids work hard on their studies. Teaching them myself, is an amazing gift. It brings a smile to my face every time I see my twelve year old crack open his High School Biology book. Seeing his wonder and excitement brings me a great big joy rush.

Building Sandcastles at the beach. Could life get any more perfect? I love to watch the kids rush for water to fill the moat, returning to find the last bucketful has disappeared. The sadness in their faces, when the waves wash their masterpiece out to sea, replaced with the hope of Sandcastles to come; pure heaven.




What is your joy rush?

That Girl

I am that girl that you saw in Walmart today. The one with the screaming, mimi throwing, toddler. That was me, trying in vain, to convince him to shut up long enough to grab some rice, applesauce and folder tabs, with only a quick jaunt over to fabrics. I, so desperately wanted to go down the aisle with the duct tape. The temptation was too much for me to handle. My threat's met deaf (most likely a side effect of the blood curdling screams) ears. But how would you know any of this? You just lurked in the shadows, watching. Waiting.

I am that girl you saw standing on her head, butt crack showin', trying to force a billion pound bag of Jasmine Rice under the shopping cart. You gape in wonder at my behind. (yes it really does make African girls jealous, and NO I can't find pants that fit the dang thing) I am the one who, standing up red faced and adjusting all of her clothes, gave her 12 and 9 year old children the look of death for laughing. 'Just wait till your FATHER gets home'...........

I am that girl at the check out with the danger mite child who is determined to climb out of the shopping cart. You look to see if I notice the escapee. You draw in a sharp breath as I deftly snatch the air born toddler from the stratosphere and plop him back into the seat of the cart, barely saving his life. He is ungrateful. He screams like a banshee. You wonder if the clerk can move any faster.

I am that girl you saw in the feed store wearing pink cords, a sparkly shirt and ballerina flats. You gave me THE look. I was trying my darnedest to load the chick starter, oyster shell, dog food, rabbit food, chicken scratch and layer crumble into the back of my Suburban. I was trying not to get too schmutzy. You were repulsed by all of the Juice Boxes, Pull-Ups, Toys, McDonald's paraphernalia, extra Clothes and Shoes, I was trying to force out of my way in order to shove all the feed into the back of my truck. You wondered when I would go back to the city from whence I came.

I am that girl you noticed in the Goodwill. The one with a gazillion kids. The one whose kids were either pickin-N-flickin' boogers or peeling the price tags off all the glassware. Yes, it was I, who meandered over to the book nook, the one next to all of the noisy toys, just to annoy you. I told my kids to have at'ter. 'No fighting now, there is plenty of annoying junk for all of you.' You had the nerve to glare.

I am that girl.

The pesky shopper. The ridiculous farm chick wanna be. The goodwill stealer. THAT mom with the screamin' kid.

SERENITY NOW!!

Man has it been a day!!

I just don't know where to start........ I seem to have mediated one screaming fight after another all day long. There has been slapping and other hitting, bitting and clawing, and an emmence amount of tears. Even Cinna-bun (aka: Charro) the rabbit was clawing and got Fern on the hand with her Charro like claws!

My right eye has had a twitch all day I wonder why??!!

Have you ever read the book No fighting, No biting? I quote just that to the kids all the time......"no fighting, no biting". Today it did no good to even threaten them with "DAD".

I think that spring break has lost its lustre......I need some serenity NOW!!