eight and a half acre farm

Wow, Christmas is already passed and the decorations will need to be packed up soon. A perfect chance to talk about a gift that seemed innocent, but caused a big mess. Christmas morning the wrapping was flying and it was hard to keep track of who was getting what, even with me passing out the gifts. In the end I sorted through everything so I could see what each child got from Santa and the grandparents. Jakob got this cute Dino dig box. It had 4 sifters, 4 dust brushes and several skeletal dinosaurs. I thought how great, place them in the playground sand and he can dig them up in the summer. I thought of how many hours he will get lost playing with them. He couldn't wait until summer. The bag of ashes that was by the fireplace... on the floor... dinosaurs placed in there... sifter sifting them out of the dirt...ashes... on my carpet.

This is our elf's name. He doesn't look like that horrid elf in a red one piece outfit with white starburst neckline though. Ours is much cuter. Curly blonde hair, stripped stockings, red coat with bells on his shoes. I haven't moved him for 3 days now. I told my kids he must be depressed from not having snow. Can an elf get depressed? And should I tell my kids that we have to get him an anti-depressant? (I can see it now, the depressed elf on a shelf, comes with his own prescription drugs.) Part of me can't wait until they are old enough to place him around the house themselves and turn it into a family tradition of finding him. I bet they would be really creative with what he gets into. I haven't been too creative this year, just the typical sprawled out on the counter because he overdosed on christmas cookies, crumbs surrounding him. There must be a pattern here, cookies, depression, prescriptions. Would it be wrong to put him with an empty beer bottle one mo...

Wow, This season is just whizzing by. (what a great word, whizzing.) This season has been a little rough so I have been turning to the comfort of my bed, peppermint hot chocolate, or peppermint mocha's and holiday movies. I have just about had my fill of Hallmark movies (I have been a bit desperate, and november christmas is actually pretty good.) So I have turned to Netflix to send me my favorites. Favorite number one: A Christmas Story. If you haven't seen this one, you are missing out on life. I love the movie, and now my oldest loves it. It is not Christmas until you see this movie. Favorite number two: The Santa Clause Not sure what it is about it, but it pulls me in every time I watch it and I always feel good after watching it. It is a great curl up in bed movie. Favorite number three: Fred Claus Don't knock it till you see it. It actually took me a bit to see it cause I was thinking it would be another stupid Christmas movie. I happened to catch it in Ju...

I love this time of year because of only one thing. Well ok, that is a lie, there are many things I love about this time of year...that isn't what this post is about. THE ULTIMATE SANDWICH. I had to write that in all caps because I hear it that way in my head with a little bit of an echo. So just imagine a deep, booming voice right now. So, to my point. Are you sick of the turkey yet? the stuffing? any cranberry sauce left? Then we are good to go, and you are about to experience THE ULTIMATE SANDWICH. Cranberry sauce, stuffing and turkey, sandwiched between two pieces of toasted bread. OH-YUM!!! Talk about heaven in your mouth. The whole time I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner, all I could think about was this sandwich. The day after, as we were getting lunch ready (leftovers like everyone else in the world) my husband was looking at me like I was crazy. He wouldn't even try it, he is so not the adventurous type. He says it's the soggy bread in the stuffing. By the ...

I LOVE the color yellow. It is sunshine, happiness, bright, and fun. For the past couple of weeks I have been updating my kitchen. Painting the cabinets and walls and re-doing the counter tops. The color scheme I picked is yellow, black and cream. Today was the day I finally got to paint the walls with the "applesauce" color I picked. YEE..OWZA. I have never put a color on my walls that made me doubt my sense of design and decision making in my home. This color is doing that to me. I love yellow, but is it right for my walls? I am unsure. I need to place the second coat on and live with it. Beginning to think I should have picked a very light warm grey color instead. Yellow is definitely Yellow...

So, I have a little challenge on my hands. My husband, about a month ago, mentioned to me a cycling challenge called the Gran Fondo. It is in New York and that was what perked my ears up and made me say: "hey, can I do it?" That question brought on the look in my husbands eyes that has kept me thinking that I should go for it and just do it to prove to him and myself that I am strong enough to train, and do this challenge and do a good job at it. There are a lot of "have never done's" in this race though. have never done #1-Ridden 100 miles. have never done #2-Ridden up a hill that takes longer than 2 minutes to crest Those are two giant Have never done's. But it is that look in my husbands eye, that gleam that even though what is coming out of his mouth is "you could do it" the gleam is mocking me saying there is no way you could do it. Now, I am not stupid, I know there is no way that I could even measure up and beat or even be a cha...

I have been rebuilding my website which has taken me into a new realm of css and html and xyz and flip. Basically my brain is applesauce right now. But not so applesauce that I can't think that I deserve some cookies. The cookies will give me strength. If I drink a coke zero with them it will cancel out the calories that the cookies have in them. Yeah, that's the ticket.