Ramblings

Yes, yes. I'm a mess.

2012-09-05T02:30:05Z

It's time for a confession.

I'm a mess.

Quite literally, I'm a mess.

Our house is a mess. My hair is a little flat and frizzy, and my blog is a construction zone.

To make up for it, I decided to throw in a pretty flower picture. (above)

I happen to believe that throwing pretty pictures into just about any blog post will redeem any other blogging faux pas one might have. And in case you haven't noticed, my blogging as of late has been sporadic at best. Right now, in fact, I should be writing a blog post to wrap up the final adventures of our summer, but I'm so much a mess that I just can't bring myself to do it.

So, tonight, I decided to confess what the sam heck is going on around here.

It all started about a month and a half ago, when I spent my last day as a daycare provider. I think I've mentioned before (vaguely) that we had some career changes on the horizon, and this would be that of which I spoketh. I left my career in corporate America... No wait... That's not me; that's Nicolas Cage in The Family Man. What I meant to say is, I ended my day job as a daycare provider to embark upon starting my own business as a web designer.

I very much enjoy designing websites. If you've been around here for more than a year and witnessed the metamorphosis of my blog, you may have surmised as much.

Anyhow, web design is the new frontier for this cowgirl, with a side of teaching piano lessons.

So, basically, ever since the end of July when I ended my illustrious daycare career, we've been in one whopping state of transition. We've transitioned Little Blue Eyes into being a kindergartner. We've transitioned the kids into different sleeping arrangements. I've begun to think about the transition of having a new baby arriving in about four months and spent several moments thumbing through baby clothes in preparation for the little one. (Yes! That's right... I'm still pregnant!) We've been rearranging things around the house, organizing, sorting, packing up things for Good Will, etc., etc... (And it should be noted, in my increasingly rotund state, all of these things take me longer than they normally would.) And, last but not least, I've been transitioning into my new career rolls.

Mmmmm. Rolls. I'm pretty sure I should've spelled that 'roles'. But now that I've made the typo I can't stop thinking about how good a cinnamon roll... No! No! A pecan caramel roll! Yes! Yes... a pecan caramel roll sounds soooo good right now.

Sorry, I digress. Just consider that a little glimpse into my psyche now that I'm gestating a wee one in my womb. I love food. I love to eat food. I love to even just think about food. It gives me joy in my soul.

And here I am digressing again...

It's no wonder I can barely gather my thoughts enough to write a coherent blog post.

All I want to say, really, is I'm sorry for the current mess around here. Well, I'm not really sorry for it. I'm actually thankful for it; excited for it; thankful for this new chapter in our lives. However, I am sorry that my blogging has been negligent. And now, in case you haven't noticed, I'm in a state of current blog-design overhaul, with a goal of getting this site all spiffed up, as well as my new web design business site, before I officially launch myself as a web designer.

So that's where I'm at. Thank you for being patient. Please continue to be patient. And I hope you are doing well. One of these days I plan to become not only an avid blog writer again, but also an avid blog reader, so I can catch up with y'all.

Events of the Summer - A Little Getaway

2012-08-23T13:15:21Z

It's a strange sort of morning.

Strange because it rained and thundered last night.

Strange because it's still gloomy and breezy outside.

Stange because when I look through the screened-in window, I keep thinking it looks like it's raining. I'm sure it is actually raining. I swear I see raindrops falling. And then when I look at the sidewalk I see no water droplets and determine that it is not. Does anyone else have this problem when looking out screened-in windows?

Strange because my little boy has started kindergarten this week, and our schedules are all kiddy-wompus. While I have actually enjoyed the last couple days of getting up early and sending him off, I realized last night that he needed to stay home today. He has a cold with a little cough, he's been having growing pains in his legs and arms, he got a chancre sore on his bottom lip, and last night he was just utterly beside himself with exhaustion. This kindergarten business is hard stuff.

Despite being under the weather, he is up playing with his sister this morning, happily reunited for a day. And what are they playing? School.

So, it just seems like a good morning to sit and eat my toast (with homemade triple berry rhubarb jam, btw... scrumptious!), sip a little tea, and blog a little.

So let's get back to what I've been writing about... The events of the summer. Today I wanted to share with you a little getaway we took in July, with the kids, to a cozy little German town.

A cozy little German town with... A Holiday Inn. And a Holiday Inn with... A pool.

My husband, God bless him, keeps them busy in the pool for hours. They jump in, and he catches them. They jump in, and he catches them. They jump in, and he catches them. They jump in...

You get the picture.

It makes them very happy.

It was also a Holiday Inn with... Room service!

Room service made me very happy.

We only stayed for one night, so after our night of pool time and room service at the hotel, we toured the town the following day. It was especially fun for Mr. Blue Eyes and I, as we used to live in the town and it's where we were married. We showed the kids the somewhat scary looking apartment we lived in the first year of our marriage...

I think everyone should live in a somewhat scary apartment once in their lifetime, especially one where the upstairs neighbor has snakes as pets. It builds character.

We took the kids to the restaurant where I worked...

Miss Peaches had her first taco salad, and since she loves to assemble her food, this was quite exciting.

We toured the charming little German town...

Toured the local brewery (because that's what you do while on vacation with small children)...

...where the kids and I enjoyed the sweet libation of root beer, and Mr. Blue Eyes enjoyed root beer as well as non-root beer.

We even did a little shopping and squeezed ourselves into a small dressing room while Mr. Blue Eyes was trying on shorts...

Somehow this is my favorite picture of the whole trip. It may end up being our Christmas card this year.

It was a lovely little getaway. I so enjoyed it.

Up next... A smattering of other events of the summer to get us up to speed and back to the present!

Events of the Summer - Birthday Party!

2012-08-15T19:55:51Z

In the middle of July we celebrated Miss Peaches' 4th birthday, and basically it was... wonderful.

Why so wonderful?

Wonderful for so many reasons...

Wonderful because we just love our little girl.

Wonderful because for one blissful, shining moment in time, my house was clean.

Wonderful because we had pancakes.

(I think the adults were more excited about that than the kids!)

Wonderful because our house was adorned in splashes of princesses and pink.

Wondeful because it's just wonderful to be surrounded by family and friends.

Miss Peaches, the budding little culinary student that she is, was in on the action of preparing some of the food...

(helping with the cake... buttermilk strawberry... yum!)

(constructing fruit kebabs)

...which, in addition to the cake and fruit kebabs, included cupcakes, pancakes of three varieties (rainbow sprinkle, chocolate chip, and blueberry), juicy maple orange ham, cheesy hashbrown casserole and deviled eggs.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, as I was the creator and cook of the whole menu, but...

Yum!

I think I could eat that meal every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

There was birthday cake...

A pile of guests...A pile of presents...

(Yes, that's me and my baby bump in the pink stripes!)

There was bike riding and playtime with a bunch of her favorite people...

And a puppy in a tu-tu...

Can a girl ask for anything more on her 4th birthday?

She even took time to get a picture with her old mother...

Sigh. It was such a lovely little birthday party.

(I may 'sigh' and comment on how lovely our events of the summer have been for all of these posts, so be forewarned.)

Up next... A little family getaway! Stay tuned!

(I told you it's been eventful around here!)

Events of the Summer - Lake Time

2012-08-14T00:11:36Z

Well, hi there!

How are you?

And where has the summer gone?

I'm really sorry I haven't been in touch. The past month and a half has been a whirlwind of activity, events, photographs, landscape projects, gardening, parties, lakes, pools, sandals, puppies, kittens, lions, tigers and bears.

Oh my.

Not really the 'lions, tigers and bears' part, but the rest is true.

I wish I'd had time to blog it all along the way, but here we are, blogless for almost two months, so obviously that didn't happen. Instead I'll get you up to speed with a little synopsis of some of the bigger events via a smattering of blog posts.

Up first: Lake time!

Over the 4th of July (yes, like six weeks ago... could I be more behind?) we spent a night at my sister's lake cabin and we. had. a. BLAST! Well, the kids has a blast. For me it was mostly just relaxing. Which is sort of a blast, as far as I'm concerned, just in a low-key sort of way.

The kids swam and swam and swam and swam...

They caught their first fish...

Little Blue Eyes and Mr. Blue Eyes went tubing...

...while Miss Peaches and I were quite happy (or not quite so happy, in her case) to just stay in the boat...

There was ice cream...

Raspberry lemonade...

Wet dogs...

And fireworks over the lake...

Sigh. It was such a lovely little lake getaway.

Up next...

Miss Peaches birthday party! It was all about princesses, pancakes, pink, and perfection. More tomorrow!

Still Here!

2012-07-19T21:12:49Z

Quick FYI: I'm still around! Blogging has simply been at the bottom of the list of things to do these days... So much activity with all this summer weather! Also, wrapping up some personal business details, and busy checking out Squarespace's new platform, Squarespace 6! So... I'll be back soon! Hope your summer is going well!!!

If You Should Ever Find...

2012-06-29T20:41:28Z

If you should ever find that you have become bored, lethargic, and generally tired of your current state of being, I might offer you some friendly advice...

1. Have a couple kids. (If you are happily married, that is.)

2. Move to a farm.
3. Procure yourself some dogs.

4. And some horses and goats.

5. Take care of three other children other than your own, the ages of two and under.
6. Decide to start another business.
7. Plant a garden and grow an obscene amount of tomatoes.

8. Add some fruit trees.

9. Buy some ponies.

10. Get pregnant again.
11. And secure yourself yet another puppy.

You will be many things... Happy, tired, overwhelmed, blissful, confused, entertained... But one thing you will most certainly not be... is bored.

I'm just sayin'...

Take it from someone who knows.

Representations

2012-06-18T19:51:06Z

Today, I wish that the animal in this picture that best represented me was the horse... Full of energy, strength, vitality, vim, vigor, and surprising muscle tone despite his lazy lifestyle. I have so many things to do, I could use a little bit of that sort of hutspah.

Is hutspah a word?

If it isn't, I'm going to submit it to Mirriam Webster.

Let's just say it is. It could have so many interesting meanings...

Hutspah (n): a zest and vitality for carrying out daily tasks. She happily weeded her garden with hutspah.

Hutspah (n): an utterance used when lifting heavy objects. As Norm, Sal and Joe began to lift the sofa sleeper, they all grunted, "Hutspah!" as they hoisted it into the air.

Hutspah (n): an exclamation yelled while dancing at weddings. The wedding party circled around the bride and groom with wine bottles in hand, and while kicking one knee in the air and then another, called out, "Hutspah!"

Hutspah (v): the act of throwing up without prior indication or warning. Janice and Ed were driving home from the lake, when out of nowhere, Janice hutspahed all over the car.

Good word.

What was I talking about?

Oh yes... This picture...

What I was going to say is, even though I wish the animal in this picture that represented me was the horse, running wild and free and full of hutspah, I actually feel much more like the dog, skittering out of the way in fear, while the horse represents all of the projects I have to work on. I feel as if they are chasing me down, their hot breath on my neck.

There's organization of the kids' clothes... The ones they've grown out of. The ones they will grow into. The ones they still wear. The ones we have inherited from cousins.

There's umpteen yard maintenance projects. There are things to be mowed, weed-whacked, pulled, moved around, disposed of, organized, fence to be torn down, fence to be built... You name it, we got it.

I don't really know what 'it' is, but when it comes to yard maintenance around here, we are up to our eyeballs.

Then there's garden maintenance. This is not the same as yard maintenance. Garden maintenance is it's own category of projects, although at this point, it mostly all revolves around weed control.

And then there's... Well, there's more. There's so much more. But I won't burden you with the details, other than to mention... Oh yeah! I'm having a baby! At some point we're going to have to prepare for that. I just thank the good Lord that I'm due in the middle of winter. Every livin' yard and garden project will be buried under two feet of snow by then and will be the farthest thing from my mind.

The thing that is the most frustrating about it is that the reason we progress so slowly at these projects is because we work all. the. time. And truth be told, I get pretty frustrated that my pregnant self can't do certain things these days.

Anyhow, today I had to have a little talk with myself. I told myself that I need to change my attitude, because we need our jobs, and being pregnant is a blessing. Without our jobs, we wouldn't be able to live here, feed our children, or have any money to enjoy ourselves. We need to keep working, and it is good to keep working. It is something to be thankful for.

And as far as being pregnant... Really, the rest of it just doesn't matter. My first job right now is to spend time with God, which I have been sorely negligent in, making the excuse that I just have too much to do to sit down with Him. And my second job is to take care of myself and this little one, and to take care of my husband and children. The other stuff is just side work that we'll get to when we get to.

This is what I told myself, and myself listened.

And then myself digressed a bit and started wondering why I can't just have a maid, gardener, maintenance worker and cook live with us.

But then myself came back to reality and remembered, if wishes were horses...

Happy Monday, everyone!

Soon and Very Soon

2012-06-14T14:24:29Z

Soon, and very soon, our garden is going to be a cornucopia of vegetable bounty, despite the fact that I'm almost certain I am the very last one in our great state of Minnesota to get things planted. The kids and I planted the last of the tomatoes and carrots the other day, and now that I come to think of it, I still need to plant some cucumbers and summer squash.

Yes, I'm fairly certain I'm the very last one to be planting these things.

However, I got an email from Burpee just the other day that said it's not too late, so I feel confident.

I'm also confident because it seems like our Minnesota soil makes vegetables grow like weeds.

It also makes weeds grow like weeds. But you gotta take the good with the bad.

This year's crop: several types of squash, several types of pumpkins, several types of green beans, baby bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions, shallots, scallions, garlic, turnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and twenty-plus different types of tomatoes.

I went a little crazy with the tomatoes.

But I have the feeling no one is surprised by that.

Some Things I Haven't Told You

2012-06-12T23:00:01Z

I realize that I don't tell you every leetle deetail about our lives.

I mean...

Snooze alert.

I'm fairly certain that you don't care much about when I trim my toenails.

(yesterday)

Or when I go grocery shopping.

(sent the hubs on Sunday)

Or what kind of toothpaste I use.

(colgate)

However, I also realized that I have recently neglected to tell you about some fairly significant and interesting goings-on around here. First of all, Twins game...

We went to a Twins game over Memorial Day weekend. I'd like to tell you who we played against, but I'm ashamed to say I don't remember that particular detail.

One thing I can tell you, however, is that going to a Twins game is epic, for several reasons.

Target Field, for one...

...is epic. It's an amazing place. It's the only place I've ever been that looks like it's in HD in real life.

Also epic...

...because we went with some friends and took our kids. For us country bumpkins, driving into the big city, taking a train, and being in the presence of thousands of people is an epic adventure. (Note the death grip I have on Miss Peaches hand... The place was buzzing with stampedes of people. I was in hypervigilant mode. In a place like that, you gotta be.)

Believe it or not, I don't personally feel the need to sit through the entire three hours of baseball, so having the kids along actually worked in my favor. We ended up walking around and enjoying Target Field...

That's my husband wearing the pink backpack. Real men aren't afraid to wear pink. Pink backpacks. Seriously! It's the only one we have, and he wasn't going to make his pregnant wife lug it around.

(Insert, "Awwww..." here.)

It was one of those events where 'fun' might not necessarily be the best way to describe it, whereas 'successful' is a better word. It's stressful to do all that traveling with kids and keep them happy for three hours of baseball game, but it did go well and we had a good time.

So, as if that weren't enough for one post, on that same day, we had a terrible fate fall upon one of our little farm friends...

Myrtle, the goat, kicked the bucket.

We have no idea what happened... One evening she seemed to be fine, the next she had gone off to goat heaven. It was a little sad.

Now we just have one goat, Magnolia, and I'm wondering, do we get another one (or ten) to keep her company, or do I give up on goat ownership? Magnolia seems pretty happy in the company of the ponies, so for now we're just going to leave well enough alone.

R.I.P., Myrtle!

My Girl and Flowers

2012-06-11T13:20:29Z

I have no point this morning, other than to tell you that it's a beautiful morning, looking to be a nice (albeit breezy) day, tomorrow looks even nicer, and my girl... She likes to bring me flowers.

Delicate little flowers in delicate little hands.

I love this.

Happy Monday, everyone!