eight and a half acre farm

I didn't exactly get up at 4 am to watch the wedding, but I was up at 6 am and turned it on. It was recording so I had the luxury of not paying close attention at this particular time in the morning. When I was 7 Charles and Diana got married, and I remember watching it on tv. I remember dreaming of becoming a princess and how beautiful Diana was. She really was a beautiful person inside and out. (I do have to say, her being here on this earth still would have made today that much more perfect.) And yes, I am a girl so I did shed a tear for her and missed her while watching her son arrive at the Abbey. (ok, so I caught a bit of it even though I knew I was going to watch it later anyway) I loved the hats! I wish we wore hats here, why don't we? I guess that means I either need to go to London so I can wear a great hat, or go the Kentucky Derby. I would prefer London, but would settle for Kentucky... The day has been hectic, and I have been running around everywhere, lite...

Again, this post will have obnoxious and bodily descriptions that are not the most proper things to talk about. So beware. I warned you. Day three of this "body cleanse" has me seriously wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to submit themselves to this torture and exclusion of bodily toxicity. I never would have known how much crap I literally have in my body. Seriously, I have knocked off 5 pounds already. Ok, not knocked off, but I don't want to gross you out too much. (Let's just say I have flushed 5 pounds down the toilet.) again, I warned you, you only have yourself to blame. Maybe I should just camp out in the bathroom and live in there till this is all over. The bad thing is I am doing this to myself on purpose. It isn't like I ate something and have food poisoning, or something doesn't agree with my system that I did. I am drinking a liquid that flushes out your system and with all the stuff you eat day in and day out, I hate to ...

Have you ever woke up, looked in the mirror and wondered who that was looking back at you? I have...this morning. Like every morning, I dragged myself out of bed, went into the bathroom, turned the lights on and went up to the mirror. It was not me. The face was old and worn. Wrinkles that grew from the corners of her eyes and went down around her cheeks. Pores that seemed so large I could actually store things in them and dry frizzy hair that surrounded a face looking back at me. Old. She looked very old. That can't be me, I am only 36. But it was me, which leaves me to wonder, how did this happen? How did time sneak up on me and take away my youth. Where did it go? I feel young, like a kid still playing house... Maybe that is all that matters.

Well, here I am at the end of day two of my "body cleanse" or whatever you want to call it. Right now I think I will just call it uncomfortable. Hear my warning now dear reader. This post will involve bodily sounds and obnoxious words, something some people like to call "to much information" Since I wrote yesterday before I actually drank anything I will start then. I take my first drink and wonder how in the world I am going to drink this for 7 days straight. it tastes like unsweetened prune juice. The only other time I ever forced myself to eat prunes was when I was pregnant and so constipated I thought I would explode. (In more ways than one.) But I drank it anyway. Maybe a little too fast, but I wanted to be done with the 32 oz I needed to drink a day. I was eating my lunch when I was getting through the last of the drink, probably not the best lunch, but it was lunch. Warmed up steak from the other night, brussel sprouts and a piece of easter cake. Oh-man...

The other day was a rough one for Jakob. Not only was he dead tired from staying out so late the night before, but the universe was just doing everything it could to do harm to him. It all began with the toe. His pinky toe. Dragged on the floor and into the coffee table leg which produced a little cut. He was fine, I was upstairs folding clothes and heard him cry, but once I called down to ask if everything was ok, both boys yelled up that they were. Jakob just stubbed his toe. Not five minutes later did Jakob come into my bedroom and I eyed the blood on his little toe. "Let mommy look at your toe Jakob." The hysterics started. "Let mommy at least wash off the blood." The hysterics continued. Well, being a mom, there are sometimes you just have to do something you don't like doing. For me it was picking him up and running his toe under the water with him kicking and screaming. Once this was done I placed him on my bed and told him I would prop his foot u...

Today I have started to detox. Gluttony has ruled my life since Thursday, and today seemed like a perfect enough day as any to start. As I mix the "solution" together with the water I wonder if I am going to be spending the next 7 days in the bathroom. If so, that will not be good, as to the fact that my children get into the most things when I have my private time.( as noted here ) I take my first drink and wonder how I am going to drink this for 7 days straight. It is for the greater good of my health I tell myself. To cleanse my body of all the crap I have been continuously putting in. oh-boy, day 1 is going to be interesting... My husband naturally thinks I am crazy. But he can't argue, his mom, my mom and myself are all doing this at the same time. He seems to be the odd man out. Or should I call him the smart odd man out...

I have been asking Rick for the past couple of weeks to make sure that he can take Good Friday off. Krischan was out of school so we could take Jakob to zoo class as a family, then spend the day together. Finally, a nod of his head and I knew he was in... Little did I know, so begins the day of total overindulgence. Now to set it up a bit, Thursday for me is always hectic. I leave the house at 10:30 so I can get the two young ones to grandmas, pick up some lunch, then head off to class. By the time class ends I am starving, but can always wait till I get home to eat. Which is usually around 8:00, 8:30. I couldn't make it home, so I had a wendy's hamburger. Lunch was chipolte. A big bad double food day. April is holding up to it's saying and it is raining as we wake up friday morning. Everyone ready, list of things we need to get done in my head (which is never good, I always forget something.) Jakob is getting better, and he goes into zoo class, yells "mommy!...

I have been looking through old photos this week. I remember as a kid I would spend hours sitting on the floor flipping through the photo albums looking at all the family photos. Even as an adult I would do that here, then when Krischan was 4, we went digital. Which means now, I sit at my computer and flip through old photos. every once in awhile I still sit down and look through the photo albums. Precious pictures of when Krischan was a baby and Rick and my life before kids. I came across this photo and it is one of my favorites of all three kids. Just two days after Kadence was born. The picture to me is peace, sweetness, and it always reminds me what is most important.

The morning had me dragging myself out of bed, half stumbling, and throwing a sweater on to go down and make breakfast. Wednesdays are good and bad. Good because Krischan gets on the bus at 9:40 instead of 8:40, bad because Krischan gets on the bus at 9:40 instead of 8:40. You get my point. I took one look at the living room as we were waiting for the bus and I started grumbling immediately. Always a mess, toys everywhere...so on and so forth. That is when I made the decision. I would put on my project woman cape and start a project that entailed all of the toys removing themselves from the downstairs and relocating into the child's room of ownership. I put together my Arbonne energy fizz drink for that extra boost I would need and went to work. First task: Gather all the toys. This was about a 1/4 of the toys I gathered and took upstairs. I swear they reproduce, so for every toy I grabbed, about 2 went into a bag for adoption. Finally, after many trips up the stairs and th...

I walk out to my car today after class, get in, throw my stuff in the seat next to me and pick up the phone to call Rick so he knows I am on my way home. That is when it happens. I see a slight movement out of the corner of my eye, and there it sits, a large hairy spider, just staring at me. Me, being the arachnophobe, starts freaking out, looking for anything I can use to smash it. This thing is huge!! I am screaming into the phone for help and sensing that I am going to be attacked at any second. I reach down for a book that is close at hand and the spider goes into a vent in my dash. I don't know how it fit, but it slid right in there and disappeared. I began slamming the book into the line he went into and that is when the book was ripped out of my hands and thrown to the back of the car. The spider slowly came out from the vent, got into my purse and came out with paper and a pen. I think this spider must have escaped from a lab or something because it then proceeded to wr...

There are just some Mondays that swing from top to bottom quickly. The bottom is the bottom and there is mud there that sucks you in. The top is happiness and joy that makes you smile to yourself and think "Can it get any better than this?" To start the day I wanted an alarm that would gradually wake me up and not give me that startle. I hate starting my days with a startle, but what I picked didn't exactly work either. I chose the chirping birds on my phone, and I woke up to Rick telling me that he was sick of listening to the birds...for the past 45 minutes. Then we both made a mistake and layed there talking rather than getting up. You guessed it, by doing this Krischan missed the bus. When Krischan misses the bus, we have about 20 minutes before we need to get in the car to take him, no big deal, but today speed time began. I process in my head that I need to go to the bank, Jakob is in his pj's, Kadence is dressed and I just need to get my shoes on and brush ...

* Sorry, but this won't be my usual post. Just a piece of writing I have been working on for a bit of time now. Let me know what you think. There are some days that I stand and stare at the wall in front of me. Describing it as a wall is the only way I can make sense of it, because it isn't really a wall. On one side it is serene, lucid, understanding. Closer to the wall it becomes quiet, peaceful, pulling. I think these feelings are emanated so close to it because it wants you to come over, to run to the other side, past this wall. For those that head toward it so fast, they don't sense this and run straight in and are lost forever. Some move toward it slower but still steady, fooled they become by the peaceful feeling and the pull, that they don't pause, but walk through. They might come out for a bit here and there, but always go back for longer periods of time. Then there are those like me, that hang around or walk along the wall, sensing the change, stopping to s...

Car rides are always interesting. If you have ever talked to me on the phone while I was driving you would know why. Kadence, Jakob and Krischan feed off of each other, or "talk" to each other. (Okay, so Kadence will scream, then laugh and Jakob will yell at her to stop it.) Or Jakob will yell, then Kadence will yell. After a couple minutes of this, Krischan pipes in, almost crying that they are giving him a headache and he can't read. So then he is yelling at them at the top of his lungs for them to stop. Kadence and Jakob think he is playing with them so they try to yell louder than Krischan. And this goes on, usually most of the drive. I just sit in the drivers seat ignoring it all. How? Earplugs. It is all about earplugs.* *of course I really don't drive with earplugs, but I have learned to tune them out as to where I really don't hear them anymore. So in context, you could consider that talent earplugs.

Now, Rick and I had decided to stop at two kids. Two boys and we were perfectly happy. God thought otherwise, so then came Kadence. There is only one problem. She is missing her sweet tooth, if I had not experienced the birth myself I would have thought she was another's child. Maybe there was a switch in the hospital... Last week after dropping Jakob off at zoo class I thought it would be nice to take Kadence for a Krispy Kreme donut. (Nothing better than a nice warm donut on a cold rainy day). So I pick out a sour cream cake, and an original glazed, split both in half so that we could each have a taste of both. As I ate mine enjoying the sweet warm candied sugar as it danced on my taste buds, I slowly began to notice out of the corner of my eye that Kadence wasn't touching hers. I simply thought that maybe the bites were to big, so I broke off a little piece and handed it to her. She tucked her chin to her chest, gave a little pout, turned her head away from me and said...

Everyone leads you to believe that it is all about the woman. If she isn't happy, no one is happy. Things are done for her, and all that other crap. Sure it might go that way and I admit, to some extent it is that way in my household. (I am high maintenance, it goes without saying.) But listen closely, I am here today to tell you that it runs both ways boys. We are just as miserable as you are when the shoe is on the other foot. Of course you have no taste in shoes so that would be one reason we are unhappy. (Interpretation: I wouldn't want to wear your shoes.) For the past two or so days my husband has been doing nothing but stomping around, grumbling about time, cursing when he doesn't think anyone can hear him and crawling into bed late at night saying "Don't touch me." I know, so pathetic. But I do love him so and hate to see him stretched so thin. He really does do it to himself though. Just like all of us women do. We try to do everything for every...

Today, I lost it. Possibly in more ways that one, but I will only admit to one. Every spring we have ants that find their way into our dining room. I will not admit that the fact that my children can't keep food on the table, or that they love to step on it once it hits the ground, has nothing to do with the ants interest in my house. (Only because that is probably the main reason, no matter how many times I sweep after every meal. Carpet just holds that much more for some reason.) After serving dinner today I bend down to pick up a piece of food I find as I am walking to the table. I then notice that it wasn't a brown piece of food, but a piece of food covered in ants. I scream, and at the same time let go of the food which sends it flying onto the tile floor in the kitchen. Quickly I scramble, grabbing a paper towel to end the life of 10 little ants that just wanted a bit of food. I huff as I grab the cleaner and instead of eating, start scrubbing down the table, for the 20...

As a family, our tightest time concerning money is the winter. For me, the end of the year slows down because everyone has blown through their budget. For Rick it is because not many people go cycling in the winter months. January comes around and it starts picking up, but for my work in January, I won't see the pay for it til february, or march. (I know, the woes of working from home.) So In January I was looking for ways to save a few pennies and came across a recipe for homemade laundry detergent. The recipes of course are everywhere and they are all the same. So I did some price comparisons and after making the stuff checked out my laundry. Here is what I have: Recipe for powder. (There is a liquid recipe, but it looked too complicated to make and knowing my kids, I would find them sitting in the 5 gallon bucket you need to make it in, with laundry detergent all over the floor): 1 bar ivory soap 1/2 cup Borax 1 cup washing soda (not baking soda, it has to be washing soda...

I absolutely love it when I can go shopping by myself...for myself. Yes, I was able to run off to those shopping places that sell adult clothes...completely and utterly alone. Although I have been finding it hard to buy clothes for myself. I most definitely cannot buy closes in the "young adult" section because I would look like an adult trying to look like her teenage daughter...and I don't even have a teenager. I don't like going into certain stores "adult" sections cause then the clothes are frumpy and have no shape. Just because I am older doesn't mean I need to hide my curves. I do like that I have them. I slowly walked around, went into a few of my favorite stores...it was so nice to stroll. I can't remember the last time I strolled, I am always in a hurry it seems. And that is such a strange word...stroll. Now it sounds even weirder because I am saying it so much. When I was a young one I would go into express and limited. Then I stopped...

As you know, back when I went through all of my unfinished projects list , one of them was turning my office wall into a chalkboard. And if you have kept up you will know that I finished this project.( all in a day ) It has turned out that this has by far been the best thing I have ever done for my kids. Ok, maybe not the best thing, but pretty darn close to it. Rick has been using it to get Krischan to learn long division. (Yes, it is advanced, but remember he is a genius.) Jakob has shown his blossoming artistic talent. This is a self portrait. And here is a great one of suckers. I am going to have to make a print of this somehow...I wonder if he copywrites his stuff. Kadence loves that she can finally draw on the walls without getting in trouble. Although she still does turn her body and tries to draw on the file cabinet, and the door, ok, also the floor...But chalk wipes up. Those of you who know me, know I am lying through my teeth and that I didn't do this wal...

Today was lunch with 3 dear friends celebrating one fabulous woman's birthday. There is always a bit of time catching up since we can't get together as often as we would like, then the conversation inevitably turns to odd non-lunch topic things. Today the topic turned to "Bodily Quirks". No not the rumbling in the gut trying to hold onto a fart quirk, or swallowing back a belch so you don't breath it into someones face, but true "I have no idea what is going on" quirk. I will politely go first. My thighs itch when I run or speed walk. Yup. And no it isn't the fabric, because even when wearing shorts this happens. I could be doing this naked and it would still happen (scary as it might seem seeing me run naked.) Personally I think it is the fat being jostled up and down pulling against the layer of skin. Although wouldn't that mean that my butt cheeks would itch also? My boobs, not so much, I tighten them down pretty good when running. So ther...

When I was a little girl, I thought Sunday was called Sunday because it never failed that the sun came out and shined on that day. It could have rained all week, but on sunday it was sunny. I am sure it didn't work that way really, but as a kid I remember it being that way. Coming home after church with a dozen donuts(chocolate frosted cream filled were my favorites) which again I am sure it wasn't every sunday, but it seemed that way. The sun coming in through all the windows eating a donut, now that is happiness. As an adult, I still love the Sundays I wake up and see the sun peaking through the curtains. I walk around the house and open them all up to let the rays warm the house up and get ready for a nice Sunday breakfast. This Sunday was french toast with strawberries. mmm, yum. One of Krischan's favorites. Odds are that I can bet Jakob, as much as he says he wants french toast, will only really eat his sausage, and maybe his strawberries. Kadence, just like...