A Little More Information

I realized, thanks to a couple of comments from yesterday's post, that maybe I haven't really been all that thorough when it came to our move from Colorado to Minnesota, so I thought that I'd try to explain myself a little bit better.

Mr. Blue Eyes and I moved to Colorado (from MN) back in 2003, back when we were free-wheeling, childless punks with wanderlust stirring deep in our souls. Since then we have led an illustrious life of resort work and child bearing, along with cultivating our love/hate relationship with home improvement.

But in all seriousness, our time here in Colorado has been amazing and it will remain in our hearts a very special time in our lives always. We have made so many lifelong friends here, who now feel more like family, and it is the place where we came into our own as a couple and in our faith, and the place where our babies were born.

Yes, Colorado is very special to us and always will be.

However, since our oldest was born a couple years ago, we have increasingly felt the pull to be closer to family and spent a lot of time trying to decide if moving back to MN was the right choice for us or not. Last fall, when Mr. Blue Eyes' parents asked if we were interested in moving onto their family farm, everything seemed to fall into place.

Since then we have been busy with putting our Colorado home on the market, life in general, and sharing some of our day-to-day experiences with you fine people.

Being farm kids ourselves, we are hugely excited at the prospect of raising our children on a farm, especially my husband's family farm, where we will be within spitting distance of grandparents and aunties. I personally can't wait to get some dirt under my fingernails and start raising and preserving some of our own produce.

But all in good time, my pretty.

(Did you catch that Wicked Witch reference? Ooooooo... I'm still scared of her. Shiver.)

I hope this fills in any blanks that you may have had reading yesterday's post. It reminds me that I need to take more time to tell more of the story of us... How we fell quickly, helplessly and deeply and love and how we have come to where we are today. I'll try to do that more often.

 

Country Roads, Take Me Home

So, first off, let me just say I really hope that this ends the snowy pictures for awhile! Colorado is slooooooowwwwlllly climbing out of the grips of winter and into springtime. However, as of the time I took these pictures (about a week ago) we had a fresh dusting of snow on the ground.

Sorry if I'm bringing down your springtime groove. Us mountain folks always have to wait a little longer for the green to show up.

However, I'm not going to be 'mountain folk' much longer.

Soon (three weeks from today, to be precise) I will be driving down this road for one of the last times to head to Minnesota, the land of milk and honey, our past stomping grounds and future home. The whole gang and I will be there for a couple weeks, doing a little -- no, make that a lot -- of job hunting. Then Mr. Blue Eyes will return to Colorado and I will stay on with the kids to continue the hunt.

Hopefully, if Mr. Blue Eyes has any luck finding a job too, we won't have to separate for long. We're just no good at that.

But, hey, I figure that if military families can make the sacrifice of being apart for months or longer, we can handle a few weeks, especially if it is for the good of our family overall.

In all honesty, sometimes I'm hugely overwhelmed by the changes that will be taking place in the next few months. It's going to be a many-layered process.

When we moved to Colorado our lives were so much simpler, making so many aspects of the move, well, more simple.

Now we've got children, animals, and more stuff. And we're just older and that sense of wanderlust isn't driving us forward as much as it used to. We're sort of, like, adults now.

The other thing that gets to me is this: When we moved to Colorado, we knew that our families would be there to go back to. Even though lots of things are different than when we lived there before, our families have remained a constant in our lives and will continue to be, even more so, when we move.

However, leaving Colorado, we know that we're just never coming back here. I mean, we might come visit sometime, but we know that's not going to be possible all that much. And even if we did manage to move back here in fifty years when our babies are grown and we're living out our golden years, things will be completely different.

I guess this just feels a lot more like 'good-bye' than it did when we left Minnesota. Leaving Minnesota was more like a 'see you later'.

But please, don't tell anybody around here this. I HATE good-byes, so as a lady at church said to me the other day, I'm going to pull a 'Scarlett O'Hara' and think about it tomorrow.

Have you ever heard the phrase 'Minnesota good-bye'? It's when the good-bye is long and drawn out and you say 'good-bye' but then you keep talking and then you say 'good-bye' again and then it still takes another half hour to get out the door.

Yeah, that's not me.

I'd rather just slip out the back door quietly.

But sometimes it's important to say good-bye. Sometimes it's important to tell people how much they've meant to you.

This is one of those times.

Darn it.

Luckily, I don't have to say good-bye to all of you, because somewhere along the way I'll keep in touch and once we get settled in MN I'll have all kinds of farm photos and such to make this site what it is really meant to be, a journal of farm life.

A few weeks ago when I talked to my uncle on his 90th birthday (and by the way, the man brings new meaning to the Minnesota/Norwegian accent... it was so awesome to talk to him!) he told me, the 'little girl' as he likes to call me, not to forget the way back to Minnesota.

I'll be there soon, and you can bet the farm that I don't need a map to get there.

Let's Get Loud

WARNING: The following pictures may trigger your progesterone to spike and convince you that you need to bear a child. Proceed with caution and at your own risk. I take no responsibility for any babies produced because of this post.

  

Sure, she looks sweet and innocent. And most of the time she is. But I will tell you a little something that looking at pictures on the internet won't tell you about Miss Peaches... The girl's got some lungs on her.

The moment she was born, I was thrilled to hear her cry... A mother always wants to hear a good strong cry come out of her thriving newborn child. It sets us a bit at ease to know that their lungs are clear and functioning correctly. So, yes, her first cries were welcome, beautiful sounds.

But when they placed her in my arms, only slightly less shocking than the fact that she had red hair, was the sheer volume and pitch of the cries she was able to produce. Miss Peaches can reach decibles that can set you back in your chair just a bit if you're not prepared for it.

Getting weighed? Screaming. Getting measured? Screaming. Getting BATHED for the first time? Ear-piercing screaming.

Yes, from the sound of her, I knew she was a loud strong little girl.

Thankfully she was never a colicky or otherwise uncomfortable newborn, or I think our entire family might have eventually neared borderline deafness. She was snuggly and consolable, and as you can tell from this next picture, quite quickly grew out of her newborn shrivled up wrinkles...

Now days she's mostly perky, jovial and completely full of herself...

But don't let that sly little grin fool you. When she wants to let loose, her little voice can shake the rafters.

We're hoping that she'll find it useful someday by becoming a singer or a motocross announcer.

Farmer Gal Ramble #2

It's All Going Down the Toilet

This afternoon I am taking Miss Peaches down for a visit with her doctor regarding her vesicoureteral reflux problem, or backflow (from the bladder to the kidneys) as I like to call it. I am really, really, really undecided about what to do, even after researching and thinking it over continuously... Put her on a daily low dose of antibiotics to prevent u.t.i.'s? Treat the u.t.i.'s as they come and hope that she doesn't get very many? I'm hoping that her doctor, who I like and whose daughter had the same condition, will have some perspective for me.

One thing that I have decided to try is early potty training.

Whaaaat? I know, it's a little bit ambitious. She's not even nine months old. But I have read about people potty training their babies even earlier than this with success. Actually, my mom told me that she had my oldest brother potty trained by the time he was a year old.

My thinking is that, if she learns to use the potty instead of going in her diaper, it will reduce the chance that E. coli travels from her poop up into her bladder, because the poop will go into the toilet instead of squishing around into places that poop just isn't supposed to go.

That's my theory.

And I figure that, even if it doesn't help reduce her risk of u.t.i.'s, at least I may end up with a potty trained one-year-old. I'm on board with that. I'm also on board with it not working at all, if that ends up being the case, but I'm going to give it the ol' college try.

But do you know WHAT? She peed on the potty yesterday. Twice! Seeing her sit on that potty seat was pretty cute, I just have to say. We had a good time... Singing songs, playing with toys, playing 'this little piggy' and 'peek-a-boo'. My goal is to start out having one or two successful potties a day, and along the way teaching her some sort of baby sign-language that she can eventually use to let us know she has to go, and also trying to teach her to understand that once she's on the potty she can 'let loose'.  

So, if you don't see me posting around here from time to time, it's probably because I'm spending a lot of time entertaining babies on the toilet.

Home Cooking

Sorry that I haven't been much of a good cooker lately. We've been more strapped for time and more behind than usual on keeping up with things around the house, so the meals I've been making haven't been all that blog-worthy, and even if they were I didn't have time to take pictures anyway. I'm really, really, really hoping to get back on track soon. I've got a goat cheese lasagna, some good fruit bread and a parsnip/turnip gratin up my sleeve that are in development (that means I'm still thinking over them in my head) so don't give up on me! Recipes always take a little longer to put together and post, and I just haven't had that kind of time lately.

Oh, and bacon wrapped pork tenderloin! That recipe is on the way. It looks like this...

And it also looks like this...

It's yummy. And it's all photographed and waiting with anticipation to be presented at a computer near you.

For those of you who like to check in on the Home Cooking page... See? I haven't forgotten about you. I just care too much to bring you anything less than de.lic.ious.

Farmer Gal Photography

This week I have been challenging myself to take part in 'My Life. In Pictures.' It has been fun to stretch my photographic muscle and seeing what others have come up with as well, but I can't say that I did very well on my assignments. Again, time has been an issue, but I have kept up with it daily and it has made me think about photographing my life a little differently.

I am yearning, longing, FANTASIZING about putting together basic photography posts for anyone who is interested to read them SOON! Today, I wish, but probably not. But SOON! I will be starting with the most basic of things that I have learned about my Nikon D70 dSLR and Photoshop, so if you have either of these things and are looking either at your camera dials or your computer screen and drooling like a neanderthal who has just come across his first fork and doesn't know how to use it, I may be able to help. The beginning posts are going to be very, very basic, but after that we'll get into some of the fun stuff, like how I edited this picture...

Did I happen to say these posts were going to start out with the very basics? Because if I didn't use the word basic, I did mean to.

Basic. Basic, basic, basic.

But we'll get through the basics quick-like so that we can start to have some fun.

If you've got photography experience you will be bored to tears. If you are just starting out -- again, in the neanderthal stage -- then I'm your gal.

Just to be clear.

Paula Deen Likes To Do a Poop Stance in Our Bed

At first I found this horrifying. I was sure she was getting ready to use our bed as a litter box. Over time we have realized that it is simply how she likes to nest. I still find it unnerving.

Oh, I should clarify. Not THE Paula Deen... OUR Paula Deen. Our cat...

See how her eyes match our (unmade) bedding? She looks so pretty in our bed. She certainly spends enough time there. I'm just so glad she never poops in it.

Someday I'll capture this phenomenon and share it with you. It truly is unsettling.

I think that's about all I've got to ramble on about today. You've been a trooper if you've made it this far. If I had millions I would give away some sort of prize at this point, like a year subscription to the fruit of the month club or the Garth Brooks box set. But I don't, so I won't. But I sure do thank ya' for stopping by to read today. You're the best.

Toe to Toe

Little Blue Eyes and me. On the deck. Barefoot. Pregnant. (Me.) Swollen. (Me.) My favorite sweat pants. Little Blue Eyes still in his p.j.'s. A typical day for he and I last summer.

Our babies are 20 months apart. Is having them so close in age hard sometimes? Sure, I suppose so. Are there benefits? Sure, I suppose so. I don't give it a whole lot of thought. It's just how it is. I know that I wouldn't change it for anything, and I couldn't anyway, so that's that.

This picture does remind me of a time when things were a bit more difficult. I was 47 months pregnant and Little Blue Eyes was really starting to get his legs under him. His greater mobility was kind of a blessing, in that I didn't have to carry him quite so much. On the other hand, it also widened his range of destruction. I cannot explain how much I felt at the mercy of toys strewn across the floor. Bending over to pick them up was absolutely the worst thing I could think of. I don't know if all women feel this way when they are pregnant, but I definitely did. Bending over, sending Miss Peaches even deeper into my pelvis and back into my abdomen, harder against my bladder, heavier in my gullet... I regarded anything on the floor, or my own feet, as completely unattainable.

Despite his mess-making capabilities, Little Blue Eyes was -- and still is -- my constant companion. We spent many days out on the deck where I could lock the gate and rock in the chair while he played with his toys, trucks, pine needles, whatever. The deck was nicely shaded most of the day... That was kind of important to a hot-blooded pregnant gal.  

When I saw this picture it just invoked so many little memories, I had to share it. It feels like everything and nothing have changed since then. Do you ever feel that way? You look back and realize how much things have changed and you didn't even notice it happening?

To everything there is a season... I know that.

This spring I am so thankful that both my babies are with us, happy and healthy and soaking up the beauty of the world. This season, too, shall pass. I just wanted to take a moment to take note of it before it's gone.