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.



Sunday...

Normally I like a Simple Sunday, but today doesn't seem like it's going to be very simple.  The dog is snoring while sleeping in my chair--she's so loud I keep going to check on her.  It doesn't sound good.  Geesh.   Maybe she's having a bad dream.  I wonder what dogs dream about.

I slept in a little because I was out very late last night at a charity event, and that was after I worked in my school's garden for three hours.  First things first.

My school had an event where families and volunteers came and weeded out our huge organic garden, used landscape timbers to build frames for the garden beds, laid down boxes, newspaper and mulch in the pathways and generally cleaned up the whole garden.  With all the rain this summer, it's kind of gotten out of hand, and the beds weren't delineated in any way, so everything kind of got overgrown.  It is really amazing what a group of people can do in a short period of time when they work together.  Pictures to come.

The charity event was really nice--it was a casino themed dinner, and I learned to play craps (kind of)--I rolled for a long time, which other players said was good.  It's a very complicated game.  I also played Black Jack, and overall I won quite a bit, but I don't really find that game fun.  I wanted to play Roulette, but I didn't really understand it and there were too many people at that table to ask.  I didn't win anything, although my date tried really hard to win me a Dooney and Burke purse in the silent auction.  He got outbid at the end though.  It was fun.  

I'm doing some laundry now, and I think I'll plant some cool weather veggies today (broccoli, beets, and lettuce, maybe carrots), and everything needs a good drink.  Later I think I'm going to pick my mom up and take her to the bookstore and Sweet, the cupcake store.  She can't eat much, but she does love a cupcake. 

It turns out that my son can't come home for a visit before he leaves for Japan, which is sad for his wife especially--I think she's a little overwhelmed, but for me too.  I like to SEE my kids now and then so I can see for myself that they are okay.  It's a mom thing, I think.  

I'm still a little tired, so I may lie down and read this morning for a little bit--my favorite thing to do!  I'm kind of a lucky girl today.  I hope everyone I know and love and who reads my blog has a great day too.  

What to do... what to do...

I've been stressing out all week.  I'm getting sick of myself.  I just need to relax and let whatever is going to happen just happen.  Sigh.  It's like I've been in this loop of feeling stressed, which causes me to stress over every little thing that comes up.  I know that some people work best under stress or seem to enjoy it--I DON'T!  So my motto for this weekend is "let it go".  

Speaking of this weekend, I have a busy one, but in a good way.  Today after work I'm going to visit my mom--I just don't get to see her enough.  I want to see what she's been knitting.  She sounds really good, so that's a definite blessing.  Then I'm going to come home and do some laundry or maybe go see my sister (if she's home).  

On Saturday morning my school is hosting a volunteer day and I'm going to pick up my niece and nephew to come with me.  We will be working in the garden, building planting boxes, digging up beds, etc.  My job is to wood-burn signs for the centers outside.  Very exciting. 

Saturday night I have a date to a casino charity event that should be fun.  Maybe I'll win something.  

Sunday I'm going to relax--wash my sheets, read, whatever.  I'm hopeful that my son Brett will be home that day and he's requested lasagna for dinner.  

I also want to plant some cool weather veggies this weekend at some point, probably Sunday morning.  It's not too cool here, but I'm trying out year-round gardening.  

I'm going in to work early this morning to get ready for Ms. Spider's Tea Party.  My class is really looking forward to that, and we're kind of known for our awesome parties.  

Not much else to report.  Everyone is fine.  Work is fine.  My hair looks pretty good today.  What else can a girl ask for?

Challenge: Day 30 (Last Day)... and a few other thoughts.

Today, as a final nice thing, I'm thinking of spending the day in bed.  A nice thing for me.  It's kind of too late to spend the whole day actually IN BED, but I can spend the day in my jammies and read all day.  Or watch movies.  Or knit.  It sounds lovely. 

I've learned a few things during this challenge--as stated below:

1.  If you do nice things on a regular basis, it's difficult to think of "special" nice things to do every day.  I think I'll stick to doing regular nice things every day, and just do something super-duper nice when the opportunity comes up.

2.  Some days you just have to give yourself a break.  

3.  It really did make me feel good to be doing all those nice things.  It was worth doing.  

4.  I didn't tell other people (except on this blog) that I was doing this, and if I ever do this again, I will tell everyone I know.  It didn't really occur to me until a couple of weeks into it that I decided to do it after someone else did something nice for someone, inspiring me to do the same.  If I had told everyone, I might have started a revolution of nice things.  You live, you learn.

I didn't go out and work in the garden this morning, so I will have to get out there tonight or tomorrow when I get home from work, I guess.  I woke up with a sore throat and didn't really sleep well last night, so I've been lazing around all morning.

It seems to be cooling off a little outside, which is nice because the electric bill has been a little crazy the last couple of months.  Also, it will be nice to be able to work in the garden other than very early in the morning and very late in the evening.  That gets tedious. 

I've been pinning things like crazy on Pinterest this weekend--looking for nice gift ideas for Christmas, and especially good ideas for my classroom.  We have a lot going on this week in my class.  A firetruck is coming to visit on Wednesday, and on Friday, we are having Ms. Spider's Tea Party.  Those will both be a lot of fun.

What the heck did we all do with our time before we had the internet?   

I'm also looking forward to my son Brett coming home next week(ish) to spend some time before he gets stationed in Japan.  He's in the navy and I miss him a lot.  I wish all of my kids could live close by.  

Well, that's my Sunday update.  I hope everyone has a great day.  Does anyone want to share what they do on Sundays?