After a lovely little cold and some house cleaning, I finally feel like I'm myself again.  For some reason, I feel the need to catch up on some past stuff before I can move on to the new year and future plans.  I forgot a few things that I made for Christmas.  The pictures were still on my camera until this morning.  My siblings and I have a gift giving rotation.  Last year, I tried to finish a quilt that one of my sisters had started.  The top is finished, but I haven't finished quilting it yet.  Maybe by the time the rotation goes around to me having her again?

This year I took another go at finishing an unfinished project for another sister.  Several years ago, she had started working on a wool saddle blanket, like this one.  I knew she had stowed it away in her attic, so sometime in October, I snuck into her house and swiped it.  Sort of.  Actually, I broke a shelf while trying to hoist myself into her unfinished attic access door.  It took some stealthy gluing and sweater rearranging to cover my tracks as well as a more flexible and tall husband to finally get up there and hand down the project.

I also made her some sheep potholders from old sweaters.  I originally planned on making a pillow, like some of these, but I just didn't have it in me.

I found a picture of the ninja suit, which was an even bigger hit than I expected.  Too bad we left the pants at Granny's house.

And here's the football cake that he requested.  The kid didn't pick a theme, unless it was just "BOY".  He wanted a dress-up party with a football cake at a bouncy house place.  So that's what we did.

We've been enjoying this July January weather.  Yes, that is my husband wearing a t-shirt outside in January.  We actually got outside to do the fall clean-up that didn't happen in the fall because winter was here then.

My husband and I celebrated our 8th anniversary.  "Celebrated" gives the impression that we did something special.  We cleaned the bedroom.  It really needed it since that was the dumping place for all Christmas projects and supplies.  He also brought me some flowers and a sweet card, once again proving that we have completely switched places on the card giving spectrum.  I guess "special" is all relative.  He also called me into the office and surprised me by playing 'our song' and dancing with me right there.  That was special to me.

I have a few other things on my mind too, such as trying to figure out why the salt is sabotaging my baking.  Is it possible for salt to be saltier than it should be?  Everything is coming out too salty, no matter how much I cut the salt back.  Maybe I have a little kitchen elf "helping" me...

I'm also needing to go through my pantry and figure out what I need more of, and how much has been used, but I'll probably never get around to that, so don't hold your breath.

End of Summer Cramming

Phew!  We've been busy, busy!  Mostly traveling, but I also started a new job doing graphic design.  It's a nice, stay at home type job, but I am out of practice.  It's kind of like stretching a muscle you haven't used in a while, so that has been taking up lots of time.  Actually, I should be working right now, since the kiddos are asleep and the husband is doing husband things, but my brain seems to have reached capacity for today.  I realized as I was cleaning out the fridge and dumping out moldy, forgotten food, that I must be avoiding my work if I was actually cleaning out the fridge.  I never clean out the fridge if I can help it.

So, I figured I'd take advantage of my shirking of work to post a quick thought here on my blog.  I have been trying to check in with the blogs on my reading list, but I know I've missed some good stuff.  I was all set to post a garden update, but then I lost the camera for about a week.  I found it again, at my mom's house, so hopefully tomorrow I'll share some pictures of what's going on there.  Or maybe it will be the next day after that.  I'm hoping to cram one more activity in tomorrow before school officially starts.

Fishing

About two weeks ago, we suddenly realized that school was upon us and we hadn't accomplished a fraction of the things on our list that we wanted to do this summer.  I hate how school abruptly ends summer like that.  Can I homeschool my kids until October and then send them to public school?  I'm not ready to be tied down like this.  There's still so much nice weather ahead.  Trails to be hiked, marshmallows to roast, creeks to swim in, fish to catch!  It's a panicky feeling knowing that the freedom of summer is nearly over.

Anyway, we tried to cram as much in as we could.  We've been fishing and hiking and camping and museum exploring and grandma visiting and I think some fun memories have been made.  We did discover that the baby is not yet responsible enough to sleep in a sleeping bag, or anywhere else that allows too much freedom of movement.  We did not sleep well because she did not sleep well... that and we forgot any padding to sleep on.  I am amazed at how uncomfortable the ground is now that I'm past 30.  I used to camp all the time as a younger person.  We would sleep right on the ground without a tent.  I don't remember ever being uncomfortable.  I am  now joining the -camping with an air mattress- club.  My 16-year-old self is ashamed, but my back insists.

Aerospace Museum

Tomorrow, I hope to go for one last hiking/fishing expedition before I admit defeat and surrender to the inevitable start of school on Thursday.  Who starts on Thursday anyway?  Who starts before Labor Day, for that matter?  Obviously, nobody asked my opinion on this matter.

Family reunions and pink puffy sleeves

It feels like I've been gone for a month, but it was only a week.  I spent the weekend with cousins and other relatives at our annual family reunion.  It is a camping affair, but we had a great time in spite of being dirty.  My dad nicely offered his camper to me.  There was a time in my life that I would have scoffed at such an idea.  I thought tents were for sissies.  Then I grew up and had children.  Life is different now.  My older two kids really wanted to stay in the tent, so we pitched it too.  They woke up at 6:30 am, ready to play.  Mom was not pleased. 

There was lots of visiting and catching up.  A big pot-luck dinner and an evening listening to stories of my grandpa, since it would have been his 100th birthday this month.

This is the only picture I can find of Grandpa.  With his team of horses.

After coming back, the reality of my daughter's 5th birthday was looming.  I decided to make her a princess dress.  While shopping at the second hand store, I discovered a great big, pink, girly curtain.  It wanted to be a princess dress, I could tell, so we brought it home and I started thinking about how to make this dress.  Usually, I start a project, thinking I can do it by myself and it ends up in a great big disaster.  This time, I decided to follow a pattern.  It turned out to be the most difficult sewing project I have ever done.  What was I thinking?  Sleeves?  Zipper? Miles and miles of gathers?  The amount of fabric on this little dress is simply ridiculous.  But, it's finished. 

I need to thank my mother for keeping the princess for a few days and my husband for hanging onto the baby most of the day so I could knock this project out.  This dress sets the record for fastest project, clocking in at two full days of crazed sewing.  I did stop for meals.  Oh, and I did give my husband some sewing lessons.  He sewed the lining of the bodice, and did a great job.  (don't tell him I told you).

And that is what I've been up to for the last week.  Now maybe the dishes and laundry will get done, but first I need to vacuum up all these little pink strings...

Cards

I like cards.  Maybe it's because I come from a family that doesn't express feelings well, so we need to write them down.  I don't know, but I come from a card giving family.  I have often spent well over an hour in the card section of a store, just reading, looking for that one card that captures exactly what I would want to say to someone.  I love that feeling of finding one, or more that are just perfect.  I remember the checkout lady starting to cry once when she read the card that I was buying for my mom.  It was my first year away from home at college and her daughter had also just left home. 

One day, I was burning a bit of time before some appointment by reading cards and I bumped into my cousin, doing the exact same thing.  It was kind of funny because we usually didn't have much to talk about.  Apparently, card reading is a strong family trait.  My Grandma has the talent of making a birthday card arrive exactly on your birthday.  Even now at 90, my baby's birthday card arrived her right on the day. 

These are a few cards that I liked, but haven't sent to anyone yet.  Sorry it's a little blurry on the words.

I keep lots of cards that were sent to me, especially ones that meant something special.  I have shoe boxes stashed away that I sometimes look through and remember how much it meant to me to get that one from my sis when I was feeling down, or whatever. I like to keep them to remind me of my other Grandma and how she would underline the parts that she really agreed with.  Sometimes she would underline the whole message...or maybe that was my Grandpa fooling around with her.  I can see him doing that.

My husband, on the other hand, is not a card person.  He tries because he knows I like them and he has purposefully gone out just to get a card for me for our anniversary.   I think it's cute that he tries and I love him for it.  He apologized to me this Valentines Day for not getting me one.  What's funny is, I have quit getting cards for him.  He doesn't know what to do with them, and I'm not going to keep them for him.  So, he who doesn't understand the card thing is looking for them, and she who loves cards is no longer looking. 

Marriage, ain't it grand?  :)

Fun family weekend

What a lovely weekend of family time and injuries.  We had a fun Saturday, starting with watching a bunch of six year olds try to play basketball.  It was very entertaining, since the only real rule was that you couldn't double team.   That and any blatant fouls.  I got such a kick out of watching those little faces light up when the ball that they had hurled with all their strength actually went into the hoop.

In the afternoon, we went sledding.  My little man was having a great time, when he noticed some college students starting up higher on the hill.  Of course, he thinks he's invincible, so up he went and down he came, only he didn't make it very far before he wrecked and scraped up his wrist.  It was a nasty looking scrape and of course I was worried that there might be a more serious injury that I couldn't see.  But, after a movie and a treat, (and a bandage and ice pack -which the kids seem to think is the cure for everything) he was back to his normal happy self.  Kind of cut our winter sports short though.

On Sunday, our family had been asked to speak in church.  The kids even got to take part, which they loved.  Not much stage fright in my kids, it seems.  After all our meetings, the little man informed me that everyone told him what a good job he did, and after a passing person said something similar, he said thank you,  and then turned to me and said, "see!?" 

With my husband in tow, I ventured to do some serious couponing this Monday.  He has the kind of mind that can strategize how to get the best deals.  It's a bit much for me, especially when I have the kiddos with me.  We did not get any amazing deals, or come out spending only pennies, but we did knock a few bucks off of the diapers that we were running low on.  Yippee.  They say that you get a high from couponing.  My high is finally leaving the store, buckling the kids in and then standing there, outside of the car, enjoying the quiet before I have to actually climb in the car with them.  That's my enjoyment while shopping.  The checker at Walgreens assured me that I would catch on quickly.  Apparently he's seen people like me who wander the isles wondering what they're supposed to do become pros.  We'll see.

Also on Monday, thinking that we should maybe cool off on the sledding for a bit, we decided to finally go cross country skiing.  My sister collects skis of all varieties and sizes.  I don't think she can help it.  It's like an addiction for her.  It's nice for me though because I can ask if she's got any skis that would fit a six and four year old, and be pretty confident that she does.  And she did.  We brought them back with us about a month ago and the kids were so excited, they tried to ski in the backyard that had barely enough snow to cover the grass in some places.  Almost everything melted back in January right about the time we finally got the kids skis and the various parts of my skis gathered and brought here.  I have been dying to go all winter.  Finally, finally!, we got some more snow!

Let me just go off on a tangent here and explain why I love cross country skiing.  We get a lot of winter here in the mountains. It can get kind of depressing.  Cooped up inside for some of the fall, all of winter, and most of spring can get really old.  I needed something to keep me from becoming depressed.  I like to sit in the afternoon sun in the kitchen to get some vitamin D, but I just start to feel so fat and lazy in the winter time.  Cabin fever can make you crazy.  We decided to try cross country skiing as a way to get outside and enjoy the beauties of the ranch, without having to wade through the deep snow.  It's amazing how my perspective of winter changed just by skiing.  I actually enjoy the winter and even though I'm excited to get gardening, I was really happy that we got so much snow this weekend.

We drove to a nearby park with lots of open areas and got ourselves ready.  It was lucky that we were at a park since the dancing queen was done before my husband and I had gotten our skis on.  She was in no mood to try yesterday and would fall over and then flop like a fish, screaming her head off.  (unfortunately, I didn't get a picture)  It was clear that she was not going to enjoy it.  Thank goodness there were swings right there.  She had a great time while we skied nearby.  The little man took off like he's been doing this forever.  Twice around the field and he decided to sled down a tiny slope.  The baby got to relax in her sled and be pulled around by mom and dad.  I was worried about how she would react, but she never made a peep until we would stop and then she would screech for us to get going again.  All in all, a fun day.

Motivation

We're a bit slow here today.  I'm finding it difficult to get motivated to do anything.  Anytime I start to do something, I get called back to assist in the lego Ironman construction.  The little man was so excited to spend his Christmas/birthday money on a lego set.  I should have thought it through a bit more.  It's tough for me to find all those pieces and get them assembles correctly.  It's dang near impossible for a six year old.  I should just turn him loose with the pieces and see what we end up with I suppose.

The dancing queen spent her Christmas money on a princess journal that comes with stickers, stamps and glitter glue.  Oh boy.  It's pure joy.  At least she was able to entertain herself this morning.

At least the baby enjoyed her blocks.  I always worry about something I make not being enjoyed.  She likes to throw them.

I'm so slow, the kids got dry cereal without milk for breakfast.  I'm working up some energy to at least warm up some leftovers for lunch.  I'm having to really fight the inclination to put on a chic flick, wrap up in a blanket and eat cookies.  As nice as that sounds, it wouldn't be, because the kids would be constantly asking me to explain why somebody in the movie did that, or went there, or said that... they would be asking for popcorn, or wanting to eat my cookies and they would no doubt be in my lap, which wouldn't be so bad if they could actually sit still.  Besides, I should do something today.

And we don't have cookies.  We need cookies.  What is a house without cookies?

I thought it would be a great idea to make some sugar cookies and the kids could help cut out valentine shapes.  It is a tradition, after all.  I was getting all excited to do something when I discovered that we are out of butter.  1/2 cup in the whole house!  I always have butter on hand because I use it so much.  So now, I am deflated again.  The baby is napping so I can't run to the store.  Besides, it's almost lunch and the little man has to get ready for school.  If you need me, I'll be under the blanket in the recliner... watching a cartoon... I can compromise.

I'm too sick to cook chicken noodle soup recipe

Wow.  This cold has smacked me down hard.  Picture a cartoon character after being hit by a hammer, or anvil... That's how I've been feeling.  It came fast too.  Usually, I can keep these colds off a little, but not this one.  Saturday, I had just enough energy to throw the remains of a rotisserie chicken and some veggies into the crockpot for some chicken soup.  My first time actually making home made chicken noodle soup.  For some reason, I had it in my head that you had to actually make the noodles from scratch in order to make chicken noodle, or I probably would have done it a long time ago.    It tasted really good.  We ate it again Sunday and probably will again today.

Just in case anyone else suffers from a misunderstanding of how easy home made chicken noodle soup is, here's my "I'm too sick to cook Chicken Noodle Soup recipe"
  

1 leftover rotisserie chicken, or some chicken stock, I suppose would work
2 chunks of frozen chicken because there really wasn't that much on the leftovers
Carrots.  I didn't even chop them
Celery -I had some frozen
Onion - chopped
Salt and Pepper
Parsley
Basil
Put all ingredients in the slow cooker.  Cover the chicken bones with water and cook on low all day.  About an hour before dinner time, during a burst of energy, I sorted out all those little bones, chopped up the chicken and carrots, added a bunch of dry noodles and turned the crockpot to high.  This was really brothy.  Add more chicken and veggies and less water if you want a chunkier soup. 

Other than the soup, I have my morning and nightly ritual of some tea and the netti pot.  Have you ever used one?  It took me a long time to actually try it.  I didn't think I would actually be able to because I have a little fear of water and a fear of things touching my nose, so pouring water up my nose seemed quite impossible.  It took a really bad head cold about a year ago to make me try it.  When I got to the point that cutting the top of my head off seemed like a nice thought, I figured the water in the nose thing couldn't be any worse.  It's really gross, and not all that pleasant, but it does give some relief.  My husband still is afraid to try it.  Chicken.

I woke up from a long Sunday nap to find dinner almost ready.  At least I'm sick on the weekend when my husband can help out so much.  The house is amazingly clean.  What a guy... a nap, dinner and a clean house?  Too bad I'm not feeling better to enjoy it.

I also woke up to some strange project in the works.  He has filled a few old 2 liter pop bottles with water.  They are sitting on the counter.   I asked why, but he was too embarrassed to tell me.  That's okay.  Usually it's him trying to figure out what on earth I'm up to with all my shenanigans and half finished projects.  I'm dying of curiosity though...

Hope you have a lovely, healthy day.

Random thoughts: Movies, Bathrooms and Scrabble

I don't feel great today.  I stupidly stayed up late watching a lame movie, but I kept waiting for some action to start.  Nope, waste of two hours.  It's one thing when you know that it'll be a slow moving movie, but when the description makes it sound like a James Bond/Jason Bourne mix, you expect a little more.  Then of course, the baby decided to wake up a little early this morning.  Little stinker.


I'm also trying to figure out why my little man cannot 1) flush the toilet and 2) close the bathroom door, especially when the toilet is not flushed!  The baby monster can somehow tell when that door is open.  She will come from the far corner of the house to gleefully splash in the toilet.  shudder...  I guess I should be happy that we can get into the bathroom at all.  I like to think I can take care of myself, but my husband had to rescue me yesterday.  He knew the secret location of the tiny screwdriver.  I have my own toolbox here in the house that I am used to using for household things.  I should have looked in his tool box I suppose, but I forgot about it.  However it was done, we are again able to go into our bathroom, for which I am thankful.

We have lately enjoyed the "re-birth" of another time wasting activity.  Just over seven years ago, my husband and I opened a wedding gift to find a board game, Scrabble to be exact.  We were not overly thrilled, and it has stayed in it's plastic in a forgotten drawer under the birthday wrapping paper ever since.  I have only played the game once before in my life when I was not quite a teenager.  It was against my wordy uncle, my English major sister, and her friend.  I won.  And I love to remind them of that fact.

I had not considered playing the game again until we were visiting family for Christmas.  While there, we were introduced to the touch phone application, Words with friends.  It's just scrabble on the phone and you can challenge others to play.  It's actually a lot of fun, especially when you win, and our evenings have become games between my husband and myself. He beats me almost every time.

Our iphone is actually an old one that was given to us.  We don't use it as a phone at all, it's mostly for games to keep the kids occupied during long trips and boring waits.

This new game, however, has cut into their game time, and they have noticed.  They want to get in on the word fun as well.  So, this morning, after several requests to play the word game, I dug the old scrabble game out, set it up and the kids and I made some words.  It was a little tough considering the four year old is still just mastering what letter is what, but with my help, we had a nice little game going.  Of course, we didn't pay much attention to points, or the double word spots.  And I let them stretch the rules a little.  Seeing how words go together is the important thing.  Adding up the points will come later.  All in all, we had us a good time.

Anniversary and a slumber party

I have been married for seven years now.  We observed our anniversary just over a week ago.  I say observed because we didn't really celebrate due to the number of sick people in our house, including my husband.  Celebrating an anniversary without him seems kind of un-anniversary like. 

I guess saying that we didn't celebrate isn't exactly true.  You could say that we celebrated a week late by building a fort in the living room, using chairs and a big blanket.  Under the canopy, we gathered around the recently found wedding scrapbook to show the kids how much they have aged us since that day.  It was a fun and different way to celebrate, I guess.  Maybe not the most romantic getaway in our history, but certainly memorable.

The kids liked the fort so much, they begged to spend the night under it and since today was a holiday, we let them.  They offered to make room for us under there too, but I find that the excitement of a sleepover no longer makes up for sleeping on the floor.  Does that make me truly grown up?

Monkey see monkey do

My almost 10 month old baby has learned a lot of fun things lately.  She's walking with a rolling toy, makes motor noises, and can now reach the table top and pull down whatever isn't hooked down.  "So Big" and clapping are still  crowd pleasers, but she's expanded to waving hello and goodbye, giving five, or knuckles, and her most recent gesture is wagging her finger and saying "no no no".  I did not realize I even did that. 

Catching that finger wag is harder than you would think.

 After I laughed at her starting something like that and wondering where she learned it from, I caught myself doing that very thing.  She spit her food at me and before I could even think, I was shaking my finger at her and saying "NO".  I wonder what else I do without realizing it?  I'll probably know before long, when she starts doing it.

In other news, my disposal decided to quit me.  It still works, but it fell away from the drain.  It's just hanging out down there until my husband comes home to fix it.  I guess it just couldn't handle grapefruit rinds.

I almost finished a peasant girl dress for my niece.  It took a little longer than it should have because I had a four year old helping for most of the time.  If I had some dark thread, it would be completely finished.  They are so simple, I can't believe I've never made one before.

We are still not decorated for Christmas.  We really aren't that busy, but we just haven't found a good time when we are all home.  Maybe I will just do it myself.  Not that we have much to put out anyway, but now that it's officially December, I want to feel Christmas-y.

Wow, that was fast!

Those books that I've been going on and on about... that I screwed up...they arrived today!  I ordered them late Monday night, technically, I think it was Tuesday and they are here today, Wednesday.  Wow, and, the one doesn't make sense, of course, because one of the pages is all out of order.  But the one for my son turned out great.  He loves seeing pictures of himself and his reading is taking off, so I can just see him loving it.  Unfortunately, I have to wait a whole month to give it to him.  I'm so bad at waiting when I'm excited about a gift.

I planned on posting the whole thing, but I'm having fits with the photos, and I'm out of patience, so you only get two pictures.  It looks a lot shorter in this format, but when you add more pictures, it's about the perfect length for a six year old boy.

The Little Cowboys

Every year, on the ranch, there is a big gather to bring all the cows and their calves close before the branding.

 It’s a long day on horseback, over a hill, through sagebrush, down into a valley and then to the pasture near the corrals.

 

For such a long day, the little kids have to stay at home, or be led by a grown up.  But this year, two boys are finally big enough to make the ride on their own.

The little cowboys helped gather the cattle and get them moving up the hill.  Their job was to keep the cows moving on the back end, while they crossed through the long sagebrush flat.

Keeping the cows moving takes a lot of trotting and bouncing around.  Finally, they drove the cattle down into the valley, across a creek and into the pasture.

Riding alone on the gather is hard work, but these little cowboys did it, and made everybody proud.  They are the next generation of cowboys to work on the ranch.

Another failure and a lesson learned

After several rather rough days, I'm happy to say that today was a good day.  And I think I know why.  As I stood in the kitchen at 3:00 this morning, warming up a bottle, I had a thought.  First thought was, "why is my baby awake right now?", but my other thought was much more profound.  Because of a deadline, I was working on my projects like a mad woman.  When I'm so focused like that, I can't focus on anything else.  It does no good to have a plan, or lists, or anything else because I won't look at it.  The house was a mess, we didn't have good filling dinners, we ate fast food a few times... my entire household organization went to pot.  I became frazzled from the pressure of the deadline, but especially from the feelings of failing in everything else.  As I stood here early this morning, I realized that my priorities had gotten all out of whack.  I was allowing a project, which is important, and it will get done, take precedence over everything else. 

Have you ever seen the little object lesson where you try to fit rocks, sand and water into one jar?  The lesson being that if you put things in the jar in the right order, everything will fit, but if you start with the small things, it just won't work.

So, first things first.  Feed my spirit, feed my marriage, feed my family (physically and spiritually).  I read a post today at Give a Girl a Fig about being spiritually thirsty, and I realized that I am too.  First on my list... study scriptures and pray with more meaning.

Feeding my marriage is second on the list.  Someone gave me great advice before I married my husband.  He said to make sure my relationship with my husband is a priority, right after my relationship with God.  It is easy to allow children to take over everything and monopolize your energy and time, but if the marriage relationship is kept strong and sound, so much the better for those children. 

Third comes the children and house.  I let it fall apart and the kids were crazy as a result.  Which then made me more crazy, and the cycle continues.

Then, comes the extras, the projects for Christmas, the activities, etc.  And, as a side note, I did make the deadline for my book project (the buy one get one free sale was ending that night) BUT, as I was drifting off to sleep, I was brought straight out of bed by suddenly remembering that I had been messing with the page order and hadn't fixed it before I submitted it!  Too late to cancel the order, too late for the sale.  So much for that great idea, huh?  We'll just add that to that "failure" list.  I'm okay about it though.  I needed more time to work on it anyway and I should have been smart enough to just let it go, but I didn't because that would have been too easy and I like to do things as difficult as possible.  Or so it seems.  I am excited about that book though.  I'll post more about that soon.

Someday...

It was a rough night last night, and I found myself making a mental list of all the ways I am a failure.  Why does everything seem so crappy in the middle of the night?  So today, I'm needing to make a list of  positive things to look forward to...someday.

Someday, my kids will be grown up, and I will be able to take a step without hearing the squeak, rattle or crunch of some toy.
Someday, my little monster will sleep through the night.
Someday, I won't be living in a basement.
Someday, husband will finish school.
Someday, I won't constantly have cheerios stuck to the bottom of my socks.
Someday, I will be able to garden like I want to.
Someday, I will be able to have some chickens, and maybe a milk cow.
Someday, I will actually prepare for things instead of always flying by the seat of my pants.
Someday, the kids will be able to reach the cups and pour their own milk .
Someday, I will finish a project.
Someday, I will learn to play guitar.
Someday, I will remember what I walked into the bedroom to get.
Someday, I will remember that Friday is early release day at school.
Someday, I will remember where I put my sunglasses.
Someday, I will do all the things that I just can't get to yet.
Someday, we will make it through an entire meal without spilling something on someone.
Someday, I will reach my goals.

There's no place like home.

I drove to my childhood home yesterday.  My home is a constant in my life.  It's always there, mostly the same.  Something I can always fall back to and count on.

I love this time of year on the ranch.  The air is so crisp and cool, but the sun is still warm.  The leaves are mostly gone, and the grass is yellow.  The willows along the ditches have dropped their leaves and the branches have turned bright red and orange.  The animals have become fluffy looking with their winter coats growing in.  The birds are gone and it's so quiet, like nature is coasting along before dropping off to sleep.  As I drove closer to home, I knew just what I would find when I got there.

My dad would be off doing some job with cattle in preparation for winter.  My mom would be at her desk, catching up on bills and letters.  There would be a fire burning in the fireplace to "take the chill off the house" as she says, and there would be a pot of soup on the stove, ready for whenever dad finishes his project and comes in. 

The same; comfortable, safe, welcoming, constant.

A closet blogger

I used to be a "closet blogger"!  Not on purpose, it just happened that way.  I started this blog just to get my thoughts down and maybe get some new ideas.  I didn't tell hubby I was doing it, didn't seem important to.  I didn't tell him later because having someone that I know read my writing felt embarrassing.   Never mind the fact that he already knows about everything I write about, and totally supports me in all my crazy projects.  Then, I felt a little silly for not telling him, but it seemed strange to say, "I started a blog a few months ago."  Would he ask why didn't I tell him sooner?  Would he be upset that I kept something from him?  I know, I'm a dork, but I felt dumb telling him.

I'm happy to announce that I am no longer in the closet - so to speak.  I told him all about it, and of course he said, "Okay."  And then, "That's nothing to be embarrassed about."

And that's my husband.  He has learned to not be surprised at my silly little quirks, and my making simple things completely complicated.  I love him.

And now, ironically, I'm so excited to have him read my blog and give me feedback, because I realize that his input and support makes me a better person all around. 

I know, I'm a dork.  Just be glad that you don't have to live with me.