Potting Table in Progress....

This is the potting bench, in progress (view #1 on the left, view #2 on the right, along with the Hubbs).  

Jessica the chicken "helping... the finished table.  Hubbs wants to add another shelf under the top one, but I'm going to live with it and see if it's necessary.  LOVE IT!!!

Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year

I'm sitting at my computer this morning, drinking coffee with my annual holiday treat (leftover whipping cream) looking at the Christmas tree, enjoying the quiet after the family Christmas Eve get-together at my house.  I can't help but think how lucky I am this year.  I've spent several Christmases alone after my divorce because the kids spent some Christmases with their dad, and those were okay.  I would go to the extended family party the week before Christmas, go to the immediate (mom, her kids and grandkids) on Christmas Eve, sleep in, and go to my sisters for dinner.  It was okay, not nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  I could read, bake, garden, whatever I wanted to.  But this year was just FANTABULOUS!  No comparison, really.  

I got married last New Year's Eve, which means that my paper anniversary is coming up next week.  Three of my four kids were here including my son who is serving in the navy.  He SURPRISED me.  When I went over to my daughter in law's house for dinner one night, he casually came strolling out of the bedroom.  BEST.  SURPRISE.  EVER.  I don't know how they kept it a secret.  I usually stress myself out over everything holiday....gifts, food, money, decorations, anything else I can think of.....but not this year.  I just felt too blessed to let things weigh me down.  

I have a superior plan for putting away the Christmas decorations this year.  See previous post.  I'm going out shopping tomorrow for any bargains that I can find, and for bins for my master plan.  Next year will be a breeze.  

The only thing that didn't really go according to plan this year was the lights on the house.  Devan swore he wasn't going to put lights up because he has to do all the lights at the condos where he works.  But when we were looking at lights for the tree, he saw some he liked, and bought them.  He put hooks up on the house, put the lights up, but it stormed that night and all the hooks came down, along with the lights.  He fixed them, it rained again, and they are still hanging down in front and back of the house.  It's funny.  Next year I'll put the lights up, I guess.

The best thing is that the hubbs made me a potting table for the backyard.  It so far exceeds my ideas that I almost can't imagine using it.  (Don't worry, I'll get over THAT!)  It's warm today so I think I'll go out and putter around in the yard for awhile.  It's like 78 degrees already today.  Doesn't feel very Christmasy, but I'm not complaining.  In August I'm not very happy in Florida, but this December has been lovely, if a little warm.

So basically, right now I'm feeling very content.  The coffee is yummy, the dogs and hubbs are snoring, the chickens are clucking, and my heart is full.  

Merry Christmas everyone.

Pinteresting Things....

I kind of consider myself an expert Pinner on Pinterest.  I have more boards than anyone else I know, and a lot of pins.  I've tried a lot of things on Pinterest that were absolute FAILS.  (Let's don't even discuss the "Cake in the Mug" incident!)   I also tend to really avoid holiday-specific pins because they always look better and easier than they are.  However, this year I found some real gems that I want to share.  No idea where they originated.  

• Christmas Cards On A Ring--I always struggle with what to do with holiday cards as they come in.  We used to tape them to a wall (not ideal, leaving tape marks all over the wall of choice...), but this year, I used a hole puncher to put a hole in the upper left corner of each card, put them onto a binder ring (the kind that snaps shut) and added a little bow.  It looks so pretty, I keep the ring right in a basket on the coffee table (not a very clear picture, I know, but you get the idea....).

• Hot chocolate in the crockpot.  HELLO.... where has this idea been all my life?  Make the hot chocolate (recipes abound on the internet) and put it in the crockpot for the Christmas eve party.  
• SHOPPING!!!!--I saw something at WalMart last night that was absolute GENIUS.  A little late for this year, but next year I'm all over it.  A woman was walking up and down the aisles and she had two carts with gift bags open and labeled with names.  As she walked around, she put the gifts she wanted into each bag.  Naturally, I asked her what the heck was going on, and she let me take a peek.  For her grandkids, she had pajamas, slippers, their favorite treat, a small stuffed animal and a game in each bag.  She said she chooses a theme every year and sticks to that for everybody.  When the bags are full, she takes them to the cashier, who rings up each bag, putting the items back into the already-labeled bag.  When the woman gets home, she adds tissue paper and she's done.  Each person's gifts are in ONE BAG.  I was just amazed.
• Decorating--every year when I decorate the tree, I get out all the decorations, choose the theme of the year and the color of the lights and go through everything to find what I want on the tree this year.  (Yes, I am aware that having so much stuff is ridiculous, but it dates back to when we had a tree in every room, including bedrooms--now I'm down to two trees)  This year when I take the tree down, I'm sorting every theme into it's own bin, and white lights will go into one bin and colored in another.  Can't imagine why I haven't ever thought of this before.  

Gardening Advice for the Day....

So disappointed....

Here are two photos of my Christmas cacti.  This is the one that I babied through the year, letting it live in my kitchen, making sure to water and feed it regularly.  

This is the one I threw out in the yard in a bed I planted, actually FORGOT it was there.  Yesterday when I got home from work, I could see a pink mass in the bed and since it's December, I naturally thought, "That looks like a plastic bag, I better get that out of there."  I found this amidst the overgrown weeds and other plants in the bed....

Sigh.  

My advice is after the holidays, throw your Christmas cacti out under a tree and don't think about it again until next Thanksgiving.


This is the tree that my class decorated...100% with recycled materials.  Those are ALL water bottles on the tree.  Also, keep in mind that my class is FOUR-YEAR-OLDS!!!

GORGEOUS!!!  Also, if you look behind the tree, you can learn how to say "pumpkin" in nine different languages.  I'm all about the learning opportunities.

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap Up

We just had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend.  We shopped, got a lot done, ate a LOT--it's the American way!  

The tree is up and looks gorgeous, as well as the small tree in our bedroom.  There is just nothing that makes me happier than a Christmas tree in the bedroom.  When my kids were little we used to put small trees in all the bedrooms and one in kitchen as well as the regular tree in the living room.  Nobody else really wants that in the house now (meaning Kaleigh) so it's just my room and the living room. They sure do look pretty though.  Because of all these trees, we have a choice as to the "theme" of the tree each year, and Kaleigh and I have extensive discussions before Thanksgiving about what we want to do that year.  First we decide on whether we want white lights or colored lights, and go from there.  Here are our options:

1. Red and white tree.
2. Americana tree
3. Ocean tree
4. Everything goes tree
5. Candy tree
6. Sparkly tree

Wow, I am ridiculous.  When I see them listed like this, I realize how very ridiculous this is.  When I put them away this year, I am going to put them into bins according to theme, which I have never done before...should make it easier next year.  

Today Kaleigh and I are hanging out.  I need to send Hillarie her Christmas package, which makes me a little sad, but it's full of things I know she'll love.  I try to send her all my positive thoughts and prayers every day, and I hope the day will come that she can come here and be closer to us permanently.  

Speaking of Hillarie, she did something so funny with her cell phone that I just have to write about it.  For each person's phone number, she found an age-inappropriate photo (usually from their Facebook) to attach to their names.  So Devan has a photo of when he was sixteen, I have one from when I was a senior in high school, etc.  It's funny.  But she's really funny.

Devan and I also went to some estate sales and yard sales over the weekend--I got a big collection of terracotta pots of all sizes from various places.  It seemed like everywhere we went there was a pile of them there.  So today (I'm off today) I'm going to clean those up and decide where I want my potting bench and garden beds.  I want to start prepping the area and getting some amendments into the soil now so I'm ready for action in the spring.  Also, the chickens have OBLITERATED the herbs and flowers I planted along their fence--I expected them to eat them, but dang!  So I want to plant some more out there for them.  They really looked pretty and the chickens sure enjoyed them.  Still waiting on my first egg from them.  

I hope everyone had as lovely a Thanksgiving as we did.  

Peace, love, and compost.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  

It's 5:45 a.m.  The stuffing is in the bird, the turkey is in the oven, everyone here (dogs and chickens included) are still sleeping, so I have a little time to reflect on the year and think about how thankful I am for everyone and everything in my life.  At the risk of being cliche, let me list what I am thankful for (not in any particular order)....

1. Four healthy, happy grandchildren.  I think of them every day.
2. Four HEALTHY, happy kids.  Although they are all grown up, they are all on good paths and I'm so pleased with where everyone is on their life journey this year.  Last year... not so much, making this year even sweeter.
3. A husband who is perfect for me in every way.  Before I met Devan--brutal honesty here--I thought my life was what it was going to be.  I was okay with that, my life was good.  I couldn't imagine a scenario where I met a man and settled down to marriage.  That's why he is such a gift to me.
4. A job that I love, and that is rewarding  every day, even when it's hard.  This week, I saw many things in my classroom to be thankful for and many really beautiful moments.
5. The homestead.  Improvements are being made all the time, and it's looking pretty good around here.  New furniture, a new floor, a new roof, a new backyard, in the spring a new garden--it's all adding up to a great place to be.
6. The chickens.  I just love those ladies.  Eggs any day now!
7. Toast.  I like toast.

Okay.... maybe I am still tired, that last one was weird.  

Simple Sunday...and getting organized.

Sunday morning-6:25 a.m.  Having a cup of coffee and looking around my little house, and thinking how lucky I really am.  The coffee is really good, and I love these moments when I get up early and I'm all alone in the house (not really alone in the house, but I'm the only one up!), and I get to putter around and think about things.  Even the dogs and chickens aren't up yet.  

I've always wanted to be an organized person, and while I am very organized in some ways, there are some that I'm afraid will always elude me.  Add to that, I am a study in contradictions...

1. Time management is a problem for me but I work well under pressure.  I have to have "percolating" time to think about something before I get it done, which looks like procrastination, but it isn't.  
2. I make endless lists of things I need to get done and promptly lose them or leave them somewhere where they won't help me at all.  
3. In spite of having a LOT of food in the cabinets and fridge, I never have any idea of what we actually HAVE. This means every time I cook or bake, I have to actually go look through the cabinets to see if we have what I need.

So I've decided to get a little more organized.  I resist using a planner, in spite of the fact that it has worked for me before.  I am taking on more and more projects with work, presentations that I'm doing at conferences, personal stuff that I plan, and a couple of new ideas for projects that are percolating around in my mind (refer to #1, above) that are going to require some keeping up with.  I got a pretty planner, and I'm all over it.  

Later today I'm having lunch and a pedicure with a friend.  SO looking forward to that.  

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year, and we are pretty much ready for that.  I'm thawing the turkeys, the Cranberry-Orange relish is made (it needs time for the flavors to mingle), everything is bought and ready to go, and the house is decorated.  The yard looks good and everybody will meet the chickens--it'll be fun.

Not-So-Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!  Although it's not super happy for me.  I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything going on--I have so much to do and it seems like not enough time to do it...I guess everyone feels that way sometimes, but add to that I took a BAD spill last night, so I'm bruised and lacerated literally from head to toe, and I'm not feeling productive.  

It started out so innocently...let the chickens out of their coop and run while the Hubbs and I putter around, feeding them, playing around with the dogs, putting some treats in the chicken yard, etc.  It was getting dark, so we started rounding them up to put them back in the coop.  I was chasing (not really running, as some of you know, I don't DO that), but scurrying and herding my girls into their yard, when I tripped over my own slipper (who the hell chases chickens in slippers!?) and fell face first into the wooden privacy fence.  When I say face-first, I literally mean that my forehead, eyebrow, eyelid, cheek, jaw and neck are cut and bruised and swollen ridiculously.  As well as both elbows, my hand, my knee, and both feet.  Not sure HOW all of that happened.  I guess on the pavers.  My poor Hubbs was beside himself.  So guess who won't be chasing the chickens into the coop from now on?  They can stay out all night if they want to I guess.

This weekend I have a lot to do.  Finish the decorating, clean up the house for Thanksgiving dinner, shop for the food, buy a few things for my classroom, and just generally run around like crazy.  I am having lunch with my friend Marybeth, and having a pedicure (if my feet can take it).  I might do a little baking too if I can find the time.  I'd like to send cookies and treats to my son Brett in Japan (in the navy), and my daughter Hillarie in Delaware.

Okay, my face hurts, which is not pleasant, so I think I'm going to try to get a little rest today before the weekend madness starts.  I hope you are having a happy Friday, at least.

Random Tuesday....

Thoughts for this Random Tuesday....

• Laundry is my favorite (if one can say they have a "favorite") household chore.  For many reasons...first, you can do other stuff while you are doing laundry--theoretically, fun stuff.  Realistically, other, less favorite chores.  Second, if you are doing it right, it smells wonderful when you are finished with it.  Third, it gives me an opportunity to stay home and revel in my homebody-ness.  I use all the laundry extras...real fabric softener that you put into the rinse cycle, delicious-smelling detergent, bleach (when appropriate), and Shout Stain Stick to get out the inevitable spots on my t-shirts.  I call it the zen of laundry.
• Work Life....I have been contemplating the work/life balance problem I have in my life.  There has to be some way for the two to coexist happily.  If I'm stressed at work, it affects my home life, if I'm stressed at home, it affects my work life.  And the kicker is... there isn't any real reason to be stressed at either place.  That is literally my perfectionism speaking.  Comments welcome.
• My chickens are probably cold tonight.  It's about 48 degrees out, and the girls clucked at me accusingly when I went out to feed them, water them and let them peck around the yard when I got home today.  We put the heat lamp out in the coop, and I think it's funny that they all snuggle into one nesting box every night.  They are good girls.  I am so looking forward to my first egg from them.  
• Getting ready for Thanksgiving around here.  We bought two big turkeys today.  I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving--we have so much to be thankful for this year.  Marriage is wonderful, which is a revelation after feeling like marriage wasn't for me for so many years.  My kids are all well and happy, if not as close to me as I'd like...maybe next year...but healthy and happy is good.  I'll take it.  My grandchildren are all beautiful and healthy and safe and that is a wonderful thing.  My life feels like a gift to me.
• My class is starting on a recycling project that I'm really excited about.  We are making (mostly the kids) all recycled items on our class Christmas tree.  Will post pictures as we get some things done.  Can't wait to see what it looks like.  

That's it, I guess.  I have ornaments to sort through.  Have a lovely night.

Update, and a commitment...

Okay, a commitment.  I am now a real blogger.  Meaning REGULAR blog posts.  This is my promise to the universe.  I'm putting it out there.  Throwing it against the wall.  Hold me to it.  

My husband says I should be blogging daily.  I'm not sure about daily, but I will spend some time every week, especially after he and my daughter Kaleigh set me up a nice "office space" for the computer.  It seems pretty official.  

This weekend was not what I planned at all.  We started decorating the house for the holidays.  As far as I'm concerned, Thanksgiving is late this year so we aren't really too early.  And since I don't have the week of T-giving off this year, I'm going to have to do it piecemeal until it gets done.  Now the tree is up with the lights (no ornaments), and the Christmas lights for outside are ready to go (not actually ON the house yet), and there are various boxes all over the place.  Perfect.  Also, there is the fact that when Christmas is over, I put everything away.  Like on December 26th (it has happened).

So work life is going well.  I've made several proposals to speak at early childhood conferences, and I've been accepted to two so far.  Two more to go.  I really enjoy that.  

The chickens are growing like crazy.  We are down to three now, since two of them turned out to be boys.  And no boys are allowed in the coop.  I was so sad to let them go, but I had to, they were my faves, too.

My personal life is awesome.  My first anniversary is coming up on December 31st, feel free to celebrate with us if you would like to.  My husband is really the best man I've ever known.  At least the best one for me.  We are so compatible, and he is totally helpful and sweet.  I don't know what I did to deserve this man, but I'm glad I did it, whatever it was!  I think he kind of picked me, and I'm glad I went with it.  We are making a long term plan right now, and I'm loving the feel of it.  

More to come, I need to get to bed.  Since the time change from daylight savings I am ready for sleep at 7:30.  I'm ridiculous.

Fluffy Butts, Chickens, and General Life....

What a gorgeous day we are having here in Orlando!  The dogs (our big girls) are lying around just looking happy, the chickens (the little girls) are happily clucking out in the yard.  I sat out with them for a little bit this morning.  Our backyard is really taking shape, we planted some rye grass because it's fast growing and it's really looking nice.  We planted a bunch of herbs and flowers out there, so the chickens can have them and so it looks nice out there when we spend time out there.  I am DYING to dig a garden bed out there, but everything is a process around here, so I haven't started that project just yet.  

These are our ladies.  Aren't they beautiful?  They are usually so good at avoiding getting their pictures taken that these are the only good photos of them.  I just adore them, and they crack me up like crazy.  Yesterday we added onto the coop, building a lovely nesting box for the girls.  When I say "we", I mean that Devan did all the work and I watched and fetched tools and sat in the shade and generally thought about how lucky I am to have married this man.  We've been spending a lot of time out back because the chickens are so entertaining.  I've learned a lot about chickens at this point.  For example, fluffy butts are a good thing--it means that they are healthy.  Hopefully mine will start laying in a couple of months (my CHICKENS, obviously).  

Devan and I started this new thing--we actually have started collecting something together.  Little figurines of "Me and Him".  It started with these....

Devan is a curmudgeon.  And I'm happy and talk to anyone.  This is so us.  Then we found this one....

And finally, we found this one.... which is for Thanksgiving....

So now we are on the hunt for them for the other months.  

I'm having lunch with my friend Marybeth today--can't wait.  So much news to share and she went on an amazing trip last month that I want to hear all about.  Gotta go get ready.

  

I'm BAAAAACCCCkKKKK!

Okay, here I am again, after 10 months of marital bliss and setting in together, I am ready to take up my blog again.  My whole life has settled down so much that I am feeling very blessed and ready to start a new adventure (okay, it's not EXACTLY new, since I've been blogging awhile, but I'm ready to get back to it...poetic license, okay?).

I have no pictures to post at this time, sorry--but I have a lot to talk about.  

1.  My life has taken an interesting turn.  (At least I think it's interesting!)  I have become a CRAZY CHICKEN LADY!!!  I finally made the leap and got five adorable chicks (photos later, I promise).  Kaleigh got me a gently used chicken coop for my birthday, and we cleaned it up, did a few modifications (thanks Hubbs!), and jumped in with both feet.  We planned on 3 chickens, but that just didn't seem like enough.  They crack me up!  They are all trying to be so bossy with each other, they grow so fast, and even the dogs are fascinated by them.  And by fascinated, I mean they stand at the gate, salivating over what I can only assume looks like the best chicken dinner ever.... Kaleigh is madly in love with them--she considers them hers, and we will probably never eat any of them, as they all have names, but we will enjoy the eggs for sure.  More about the chickens to come....

2.  After a long gardening hiatus--I was a newlywed after all!--I have thrown myself back into gardening with a vengeance.  We had cleared out our little backyard (it's only maybe 12' deep X maybe 70' wide) because it was horribly overgrown, and it was pretty much down to dirt.  I found it overwhelming to start anything, but once we fenced off a third of it for the chickens, it was looking weird, so Kaleigh and I went on a shopping spree to the garden center, and spent a "little" money, and now we have planted rye grass, which won't last, but will get us through the winter with some green, mint, marigolds, lavender, oregano, rosemary, some lettuce, and a few other herbs out there.  Just here and there, mostly for treats for my girls.  I also moved a few things from the front where I usually do my gardening out there--tomatoes, and my meyer lemon and peach trees (they are in pots).  It's looking really good out there.  We also laid out a path of pavers to the chicken gate, and have plenty left to make little paths between the veggie beds I'm going to put in (they will obviously be small).  I am just going to layer the beds with organic matter (leaves, cardboard, etc.) and get them ready for the spring.  I'm hoping to get (make?) some kind of hoop greenhouse to start seeds early there.  I am also going to ask for a composter (the rolling kind) for Christmas.  It turns out that the chicken's bedding generates A LOT of compostable "stuff", shall we say?  So, I think the fast composter is going to be the way to go.  Lots to think about.

3.  Sigh.  This part is going to be hard.  But I do want to share what else is happening.  I feel I NEED to.  Devan and I just returned earlier this week from Detroit.  We went to visit my daughter Hillarie, who graduated from a year-long intensive program called Life Challenge.  It's an amazing program helping addicts find God and a better life.  Whew.  I know there is going to be judgement out there, but my daughter has done so well, and has come so far, I feel that she can do anything.  We had a nice trip and a lovely visit with her.  My husband had never met her and he adores her now, as does everyone who knows her.  I was so proud of her--she seemed like such a leader among the girls in her group.  Maybe I will talk more about this at another time.  I'm teary-eyed already.

Married Life and Other Nonsense....

So, I got married.  Six weeks ago on New Year's Eve.  We thought it was a good idea so the whole world could celebrate with us.  My life is vastly different than it was a few months ago, and I'm wondering what happened....?  It's good, of course, but very different.  Just sayin'.... I definitely wear better underwear these days. I also do more laundry.  But I don't have to cook, so it kind of equals out.  

I forgot how wonderful married life could be.  I think I was super smart to have married this amazing man I found.  

We are working on home improvement projects.  The yard is now cleared and ready to garden.  We bought the laminate for the living room and dining room (VERY expensive--you KNOW how frugal I am!), and are doing some stuff here and there.  Devan finally unpacked all of his bins that were stacked up in the bedroom--I was starting to think he was afraid to commit to living with me!  (LOL!)

Well, my break is over, I PROMISE to blog more again.  And I really mean it this time.