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.

Sorry for the Delay!

Oh my goodness, it's been a long time!  I have been a horrible blogger--and I have a lot to say.

The last few times I tried to blog, blogspot just froze and I couldn't save my work or edit it, or anything, so I kind of gave up.  Whatever, it's working now.  So I'm back, probably with a vengeance.

A lot has happened since I posted last... I am in "a relationship" now, and nobody is more surprised than me.  I was just minding my own business, living my life, enjoying my job and coworkers, loving my family, and BAM!  An innocent dinner date with someone I had met months ago and didn't really hit it off with started it all.... I decided to go to dinner with him because he made a special effort to email me a happy birthday message and that seemed really sweet.  Thank God I did!  That has been maybe the best decision of my life.  I did not think this was in my future.  I'm almost 50 years old, for goodness sake! 

So let me tell you about him....Devan is quiet and shy, but very funny, and so smart he can hardly stand himself.  He can fix anything and likes to cook, which is good since I don't.  Everyone he knows thinks very highly of him, which I think says something about him and he loves dogs, old people and kids.  All pluses for me!  Plus he's crazy about me, which is difficult to resist.  He has the sweetest face of anyone I know--I'll probably marry him one day.  And yes, I do see the irony in my making that statement, but it just is what it is.  And what it is is wonderful.