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!

30 Bags in 30 Days ~

A few weeks ago my sister asked if I wanted to join a group on Facebook; the goal of the group: decluttering. I said sure! I love to get rid of stuff! I get rid of clutter constantly around here. Clutter makes me crazy and drains me of my creative flow. So when I joined the group I didn't really think I had that much to get rid of because like I said, I'm always in the process of getting rid of stuff.

A crazy thing happened a few days before the challenge began (on Oct 1st) I started noticing drawers that wouldn't close. I started thinking that maybe I could benefit more from this challenge that I thought. And then I started thinking that if I went through a major purge around here our home would be ready for the holidays. Score!!

I've already made a trip to Goodwill and have two more bags ready to go...then yesterday I hit a road block.

I decided I would go through "the drawer." You know the one. The one that gets something added to it every time you walk by it. Before the day was over our king size bed was covered with piles of papers, pictures, receipts, little toys, birthday cards, thank you cards, report cards, broken pieces of who knows what...you name it, it was in the drawer. Not only was the bed covered, but the dresser was piled up as well. I told my sister that out of the entire house and all that needs to be decluttered this drawer was going to be the hardest thing to tackle.

I thought you would benefit from a visual (a grainy picture taken with my substandard phone camera because I didn't want to have to download from my real one.) Please take note of the pacifier on the bottom left of the photo. Yes, that was in the drawer along with a Christmas ornament, a ball of yarn and several pieces of canvas artwork. I really have no idea how all that got in there. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who has been using that drawer as a catch all.


Let's move away from the problem and look towards the solution...I took a scrapbooking class at Big Picture Classes several years ago. The one thing I took away from the class is how to organize your kids' school papers. R and K both have plastic file boxes with files for each grade, so as I sort papers (from the last 3 years thank you very much) I'm filing them away. That's the easy part. I'm stuck with what to do with all the other little odd bits; that's why I'm blogging right now. :)

Here's the file boxes. Nothing fancy, but they do the trick (when used correctly.)

Now back to all the other stuff. I have no idea. I wish I could wiggle my nose and it all be gone. The inner hoarder (I think there's one in all of us) wants to get a plastic tote and with one swipe of the hand it all be neatly stored away in our storage building, but I know someday I will have to deal with it so that's not an option for me. I'm just going to have to suck it up and muddle through. I will be checking in with my FB group from time to time to get cyber support and inspiration.

Why, you might be asking yourself, would I share such an embarrassing picture of clutter on my dresser? Well, you know I'm all about keepin' it real and 99.99% of the time the top of that dresser is clean. I guess you could say that picture is the storm before the calm...or whatever. :)

Ok, I'm about to hit the publish button and get back to work...have a happy day. :)

Our Tire Swing...

There are two things I remember always wanting as a child ~ a tree house and a tire swing. One day about 5 summers ago my awesome husband came home with an old tire and a long rope and before I knew it we had a tire swing hanging from a very old cedar tree in our front yard. Fast forward a few summers; the kids and I were sitting on a quilt in the front yard, under that same tree shelling peas when I looked up and pictured a tree house in the other cedar tree. All I had to do was mention how awesome it would be for the kids to have a tree house and a few days later big R pulled a trailer into the drive full of materials to make it happen. Two days later we were perched in that tree house high up in the cedar...you could see a long long way ~ it was so cool. 

I wish everyone could enjoy a shade tree and tire swing in the summer.

We were sad to leave our tree house behind when we moved last year, but one of the first things we did was pick out a spot just right for our tire swing. I've learned the last few days that it's the perfect place to hang out during these unbearably hot days of summer. It's perfectly shaded, the kids can play with the sprinkler under the trampoline (without sunscreen) and I can sit and enjoy watching them play (without sunscreen.)  We've gone through what seems like hundreds of water balloons over the last two days and if it weren't for all our beautiful shade trees we would be stuck in the house on these sweltering days.

I have the perfect view of our tire swing from my kitchen window. On those days when the kids are at school and I'm in our quiet home standing there doing dishes, my mind will wander into the future when our children are grown and the only thing swinging the tire will be the wind. For now I will slow down and enjoy the lazy days spent together under the shade, swinging on the tire...