The Lazy Days of Winter ~

First of all, I know it's not officially winter yet, but there are a few kids, two dogs and 14 pigs around here that would argue with you. We've spent the past two days in the coziness of our home with a fire crackling in the wood burning stove and it's been wonderful. I was thinking about how nice it's been and how lazy we've been and started to wonder where the saying "lazy days of summer" came from. I don't know about you but our summers are packed with fun and very rarely do we sit around being "lazy" but give us a few days of snow on the ground and ice on the roads and we do lazy really well.

This was Jack's first snow and from what I could tell, he loved it. Don't let the sad puppy dog eyes fool you, he looks like this all the time. :)

I'm pretty sure if they could talk they would be complaining about the cold. The one on the right is named Thor (we also have a Hulk and an Ironman.) I found Thor in his pin buried under hay; all you could see was a little of his back...smart pig. I woke him up, that 's when he went to discuss the frigid temps with his neighbor, Chester. 

The rest of the day included a snowball fight, being pulled behind the four-wheeler on a disk, frozen fingers, hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows. Here's a little secret...I can't resist a roasted marshmallow and for the next week I'll be detoxing from all the sugar. 

After supper we played several hands of spoons (the Farmer won them all) and a mean game of Farmopoly. K won  and ended the game with over $3000!

New Friends and Tailless Pigs ~

Holy mother of icicles it's cold outside. I knew it was going to be cold today but are you ever really ready for that wind chill factor to slap you in the face? I'm not! We left about five minutes early this morning just in case the roads were bad, they weren't but it was still nice getting to school and knowing my kids wouldn't be racing to beat the tardy bell.  

This morning it was my job to feed our show pigs...14 pigs to be exact. Why was it my job you ask? Because my farmer is on a "pig trip." I was very quick to remind him before he left that our pig hotel is full. Our pig quota has been met. We need zero more pigs. Did I mention it's sub-zero outside. Oh I did? Ok. So I pull up to the pig barn and sit in my car for a few minutes wondering if I was going to survive. I took a deep breath and went for it. I honestly think if it weren't for the gloves my fingers would have fallen off. 

Speaking of "falling off," the nice man who carried my groceries out this morning asked me how my morning was going and after I apologized for buying groceries today in turn creating a reason for him to have to be in this frigid weather, I told him my sob story of having to feed 14 pigs. He asked me if I put Vaseline on their tails. Excuse me what? Yes, he says, if a pigs tail gets too cold it will fall off. I'm sorry, but this is where I draw the line. If my kids enter the show ring with tailless pigs, you will know why. :)

I have to share a picture that as of yesterday is one of my favorites...

I was standing at the kitchen sink watching K and our new friend M jumping on the trampoline and had a strong urge to grab my camera, not my iPhone camera but the big one that rarely, if ever, gets used anymore. I knew I had to capture this moment. I've been trying to put my finger on why I thought this moment was so important and as of right now I still can't explain it in words that can make you understand why at this very moment my heart was so happy.   

M is new at our school. She's in R's class. I love it when we get new kids at school. I try to force myself out of my shell, meet the new people and make them feel welcome; so when I saw M and her family the night of "Meet the Teacher" I just walked right up and introduced myself. Of course K was right there announcing to the world that it looks like her brother might have a new girlfriend. Yes, embarrassing, but what are little sisters for right? Fast forward a couple of months and I would adopt this girl if I could. She's super sweet to K which goes a long way in my book. She's helped feed and walk our pigs the last two days and helped me make gluten free cornbread...then, get this, she said it was good! I told her mom she is welcome at our house anytime! As far as the whole R has a new girlfriend thing goes...they act more like brother and sister which is just fine. :)  

Back to this picture and that moment...I think it's the smiles. :)

Harvest Time ~

One day last week the kids got out of school at noon; just in time to take their daddy lunch in the field. This is a very exciting time of year for the kids. They love going to the field; I mean who wouldn't love being around all that large and loud equipment with dirt and debris flying around everywhere? 

We have been blessed to have a couple of guys who have worked for us for the past several years. They work hard, love on our animals and watch out for our kids ~ they're awesome. Here is one of them bringing a load of cotton in the boll buggy to dump into the module builder. R's favorite thing to do is help build modules. It really bugs him when his daddy is not running the module builder and he's not able to help. 

Here's K helping to pick up cotton and throw it back in the module builder. She certainly doesn't mind a little dirt; in fact, the dirtier the better. :)

Pulling of the module and making sure the tarp lines up...

My farmer tying down the tarp. Let's talk about cotton modules for a second. When I was growing up, I used to see these giant rectangles of cotton in the fields and wonder how the heck they didn't just fall apart. I had no idea how they were made so I didn't know how rock solid they were. I remember my dad telling me if a car were to crash into one of these monsters it would total the car. I've never tested this theory, but I'm pretty sure he's right. Hey, I think I just had an idea for a segment on Myth Busters.

Here's R running to stop the tractor after pulling off the module. The tractor is set to a slow roll (and unmanned) while the module builder pulls off the module. 

Out here in the country, we call this "strippin'."

The cotton stripper dumps all that fluffy white stuff into the boll buggy. It takes about 7 of these big ol' baskets to make a module.

So there you go; a quick little lesson in cotton harvesting in case you aren't blessed to live in cotton country. I'm on my way out the door right now to pick up lunch for all those hungry men in the field. 

Happy Harvest ~

July Wrap-up ~

Yes, I'm wrapping up the month of July in the middle of August. And Yes, I haven't blogged in almost a month. Everyday I feel a gravitational pull towards my laptop, but never seem to find the time to actually sit down. We've been busy over the last several weeks and now that the first day of school is breathing down my neck, I'm starting to feel that all familiar urgency/panic that I feel this time every year. Is it just me or can you literally feel a surge of energy or some kind of momentum pulling us into September. It almost feels like a snowball rolling down a hill and I'm stuck in the middle; you know like in those cartoons where all you can see are the arms and legs sticking out. Anyway, in an attempt to slow down a bit and savor every last morsel of summer I thought I would recap what we've been up to the last few weeks...

We've helped Daddy on the farm, watched the cotton grow and prayed for rain...

We spent a fabulous yet exhausting week at VBS (I was suffering from a sinus thing and thought about throwing in the towel many times during this week, but somehow I just couldn't not be there.)

We've played Play-Do. This is K's creation...

And R worked on this masterpiece.

We spent 5 glorious days at the lake. K learned to knee board and ski, R learned to ski and wakeboard; he even started jumping the wakes ~ pretty awesome! We also logged many boat hours pulling the tube around and around and around. K is one little dare devil and once we convinced her there were no sharks in the lake, she was unstoppable. :)

This is what we look like after a day on the water. I know ~ scary.

We came home from the lake on Christen's birthday, so we made our trip to the cemetery the next day. K went with me to buy flowers. She picked out some funky zebra striped daisies that I'm pretty sure her sister would think were totally cool.

So, that's it...July in a nutshell. 

I'm working on a blogging schedule. Still haven't put anything in writing yet, partially because I don't know if I want to limit myself to certain things I have to post on certain days. So far I like my "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda blog, but I feel like if I had a schedule more thoughts would get recorded. Anyway, just a thought. Hopefully you'll hear from me before the end of August. :)

Blessings ~

12 Random Things ~

For several months now I've been following this fun blog. She has lots of great ideas for those of us who love digi stuff. :) Right now she's in the middle of her "Summer Tour" where everyday she features a new site that she loves. Her "Tour" posts are not all about digital scrapbooking and I have loved learning about these fun sites. So, on the 12th of every month (but not this one because she's touring) she takes and posts 12 pictures she has taken that day. This challenge started a few years ago (not sure where;) the point is to take 12 photos on the 12th of each month and it just so happens to be 2012...pretty cool. I have not been doing this, but yesterday when I got my email photo prompt from Katrina Kennedy at Capture Your 365 I thought I might as well...12 pics of 12 things I love (not in any particular order.)

The first thing that popped into my head when I grabbed my camera was a dozen eggs. How appropriate ~ 12 eggs on the 12th day of 2012. Seriously, I love eggs! I eat 3 eggs in some way, shape or form every single morning. If I don't, I feel bad and my day is off. If you think this is too much of a good thing, I encourage you to dig in and do a little research on the health benefits of eggs. They are, in mine and many others' opinions, nature's perfect food. 

This picture is a two in one. :) I love my camera! This is my second Canon Rebel. My first was stolen out of my vehicle. It was horrible and I don't want to talk about it. What I will talk about is how much I love my camera and my new haircut. I feel like 10 lbs has been removed from my shoulders; literally. I have really thick hair. I'm really wondering why I ever let it get that long. Oh well, let's move on...

Not a morning goes by that I do not have a cup of this...with a little spoon of Xylitol, a Tbsp of coconut oil and a dash of almond milk. I really love half and half, but I've had to back off the cream because it makes me crave carbs later in the day. Yes, I know my body that well. Don't laugh.

Happiness is a few squares of this chocolate about 3 o'clock in the afternoon...just sayin'

This has been consuming my life for the past week. For the past 8 years I have led music for VBS. It's a lot of work learning the motions, but I love it! The kids and I still sing songs from past VBS's. I can still remember the words and motions to the very first year. It was called "Dig Deep," and I was an idiot because I didn't realize there was motions to the music. Imagine my horror when I got there the first night unprepared. It was horrifying, but I survived and here we are 8 years later, so I guess I survived. :) I pray that the music this year touches little hearts and opens their eyes to the wonders of God's creations!

No, my kids are not glued to this stuff all day, but I am glad that they are learning their way around the web and are able to enjoy the technology that is all around us. 

R has been working on a string art project. I finally remembered to buy him some more nails, so yesterday he sat down and hammered away at it. :) I will post the completed project one of these days. I love that my kids love to create. We haven't crafted this summer nearly as much as we did last year, but it seems we've been busier. R's been helping his daddy more, they've spent way more time with grandparents and add in the camps that K is finally old enough to attend and *poof* the time is gone.

There are few things I love as much as a good love note from my girl. This one about made me cry. It's posted on the fridge for all to be reminded of this simple truth.

I really should have posted this up by the tea pic. Oh well. I consume alot of this stuff. I promise you it's good for you. Again, research it. Not to get too off topic, but all through my twenties and most of my thirties I suffered from adult onset acne; or whatever you want to call it. I called it a major pain in the patootie!! It was only after I cut out grains and added coconut oil to my diet that my face cleared up. My skin has never looked better. Love love love coconut oil!

I love that the cotton is growing. It's crazy how after a good rain you just wake up one morning and the plants have almost doubled in size. The plants are happy, the farmer is happy, which in turns makes the family happy. Rain is a good thing!

And here it is ~ the embarrassing picture that my kids will kill me for posting. No, I didn't take this one yesterday, but I had to include this funny little story. Several weeks ago my dad and I were reminiscing about how my sister and I used to lock ourselves in the bathroom and stuff our back end with wash clothes and hand towels whenever Dad was after us with his belt. Gasp!! Yes, we were spanked as children. On this particular day, I had had enough! I marched to the closet to grab a belt and when I returned to the living room both kids were locked in the bathroom. I thought, "Good, as long as they're quiet and not killing each other." So I went about my business with the belt under my arm. The next thing I know they are locked in my bedroom...again, all is quiet all is good. Before long they started running up behind me trying to scare me, I would turn around and chase them with the belt. This went on for a while. I finally decided to hide in K's room and jump out and scare them when they came by. I wish I had thought to grab my video camera. The looks on their faces when they realized I was behind them (with the belt) was priceless. The look of shear terror was hilarious. The picture above shows what they were up to in my bedroom. R is wearing my favorite GAP t-shirt stretched out about 5 sizes with a twin size blanket stuffed in it. They had towel and pillows stuffed everywhere. On this day they learned to work together to avoid the wrath of the belt (which they rarely get btw) and I get a funny story to tell.

I hope you've enjoyed my "12 little pics" project. I encourage you to do it too. It's fun to capture the details of everyday life!

ps ~ thanks to spell check I will never have to learn to spell the words embarrassing and reminiscing. :)

Hoping for a drink of water...

Once again lots of things happened today that went unphotographed; basketball camp, playing in the blow-up pool at a friends house, enjoying a chocolate coconut mocha with a friend at Target. We do so many things during the day and I'm constantly on the look-out for "the picture of the day." I finally decided on the subject of today's photo just before sunset. 

This is our livelihood

This baby cotton could really use a good drink right now. Oh sure, it's irrigated or it would never have broken ground; what I mean is a really good drink from above. As I was taking this photo the clouds were rumbling and hopes for a rain was off in the distant west, but as I am writing this our rain chances are gone. We'll keep irrigating and this baby cotton will keep growing, but a good rain would make things a whole lot better...in the meantime we'll also keep praying.