a day in the woods...

Blessing Indeed

This boy.

Words cannot even describe the emotion I feel when I look at this picture, when I think of all that he has brought to our lives.

He is:

Spunky

Kind

Imaginative

Active

Inquisitive

Outgoing

Creative

Helpful

Loving

Brave

Intelligent

Goofy

And I could go on. Each day with him, literally, brings something new to experience. He is a ball of fire. He is on the go ALL.THE.TIME.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

For all the frustrations and failures that I sometimes feel as a mom, I wouldn't trade any of it for a world without my Little Man.

I am truly blessed beyond belief.

Our BCYLS Story

There is a reason we do our county show. Every year it seems that something happens that teaches us something, shows us something about ourselves, or offers us the opportunity to help someone else. This year – it was all 3. But at the end of the show – we were blessed beyond anything we ever could have dreamed.

This might get long, but I don’t want to forget one single part of how it all happened so I’m going to go into as much detail as I can.

The first 2 pigs that K2 showed didn’t do well at all. One was very stiff in his leg and the other placed very low in his class. We had one more to go. K2 was 4th place in her class with Wilson. The cut off for the sale in that class was the top 3. So, originally none of our pigs made the sale.

The day before the sale we got a text message that said “she made the sale!” Right away we knew which pig made the sale, but we weren’t sure who it was that would have dropped out of the sale to bump her up.

The little girl who placed 3rd in Wilson’s class is about 10 years old. She's precious. She was involved in horse judging with K2 a couple of years ago when she judged with her 4-H group. This little girl had 3 pigs in the show, and all 3 had made the sale. The limit is 2. She had to pick one to drop from the sale. As her mom relayed to us, when the little girl saw K2’s name right below hers in that particular class, she knew THAT was the pig that she would drop from the sale. Her mom told K2 that her little girl admired her so much and really, really looked up to her. She was excited for the opportunity to get K2 and her pig into the sale.

That in and of itself was enough. It made our entire show weekend. K2 was ecstatic to make the sale. So many did not. It’s truly a blessing.

But, there’s more. As I have shared with several people today – here is “the rest of the story”.

My dad has always loved watching "his kids" show at BCYLS. He was there Saturday night at the show. He shared in our disappointment of not doing as well as we had hoped. But he was very encouraging to K2 and told her she still had one more year and this was just a bad year. No big deal. Monday morning after we found out that she was actually on the sale list, I sent a quick e-mail to my dad to tell him the good news because I knew he'd be happy for her. And he was - he called me yesterday morning and told us good luck.

Last night was crazy for us - as it is for everyone I'm sure. We had 1 at baseball practice, I had a meeting, husband had to work late and K2 had to be at the sale. I finally got there just in time to rinse her pig off for her just before they lined them up. I rushed back to the stands and took a deep breath. I was sitting with my sweet friend, just chatting and catching up, waiting for my girl’s turn. As K2 got into the pen and the bidding started - I was busy taking pictures. It's what I do ;)

Anyway - the bidding got slightly over what the previous few had been. I started to perk up a little to hear who it was that was bidding. I heard that one of the bidders was our bank. Yay for awesome bankers who come support these kids! But someone else was bidding against our bank. They weren’t announcing the name, evidently, because at the time they did not know the name of the bidder. It finally sold, for what I thought was a REALLY GOOD price, but still no name of the winning bidder was announced. So I put the camera down and tried to watch who was giving their name to the auctioneers. I couldn't see very well, but when I did finally focus in on who it was - I jolted straight up in my seat. IT WAS MY DAD. He did not tell us he was coming - he lives a couple of hours away. I could barely even see to get myself out of the stands and down to the buyer's circle. I was so overwhelmed that he would do that for us. I was a complete mess of a mom towing a 4 year old with a cowboy hat full of animal crackers and grapes. I’m sure we were quite a site. I made it down to the floor, found my dad, and gave him the biggest hug!

K2 at that point still had no idea who her buyer was. She had not seen him and she could not hear the auctioneer after she exited the ring. She left the arena to return Wilson to his pen and took quite a while to come back. All exhibitors are required to return to have their picture taken with their buyer and to personally thank them. I called her to remind her to come back and take her picture with her "buyer" and she said "Oh crap! I forgot!" She came back into the arena and saw her PawPaw and just started crying. It was precious. ABSOLUTELY priceless.

And all this happened because of the thoughtfulness of one very precious little girl. This is one livestock show that we will never, ever forget. Someday, I hope that we are able to bless someone else as much as we were blessed this year.

Getting closer

It’s that time of year. Yes, you all know what’s coming -

it’s show time.

Pig show time.

MY pigs.

The time of year when my sweet things are yanked away from their happy home and their momma who loves on them.

Away from their momma who feeds them nilla wafers and graham crackers.

It hit me this morning.

It was shaving day today. Not my favorite. But it has to be done.

See the difference? Mr. Curly looks good! My pigs were very well behaved while they were shaved.

And here is my buddy – Wilson. Wilson was so laid back he actually sat down most of the time. I think he thought he was at the day spa. He didn’t put up much of a fuss.

Look! I think he’s actually smiling!! It’s because his momma was taking his picture.

This one on the other hand – is king of the buttheads. But we got ‘er done.

Now – I know – you’re thinking that you’re going to have to listen to me whine and cry over my little pigs. You won’t. I promise. I know the big picture – most of the time. The big picture is that this is for the kids – their projects. It’s part of life. And with 3 of them weighing close to 300 lbs each they have become very expensive as of late. I can barely afford to keep my boys fed – much less these guys. So – when they go, it will be ok. I will be ok. Maybe. Eventually.

Oh who am I kidding – I’m going to be so sad when they are gone. They are so much fun. I will miss my piggies. I think I’ll go cry myself to sleep now….

Party Time

I don’t even keep up with my own life in real life, much less here on the blog. But every now and then I am overwhelmed with blessings to the point where I just have to write it down. There will surely be a day when blessings will be hard to see, hard to find, hard to identify. It is for that reason that I try to take physical note of all that God has done and continues to do. My circumstances will change, but HE never will.

Today we celebrated the birthday of our youngest. His actual birthday is Tuesday, but not if you ask him. His birthday is complete now that he has celebrated with friends and family.

The two of us began preparations by baking his cake and cookies as a team.

He’s quite the helper in the kitchen. I love it when he helps me! For DAYS he has been asking us, “How many more sleeps until my birfday?” We have been counting down and getting excited for a long time.

These were the funnest part! We have a new love for sugar cookies.

The barbeque pit is usually the “guy” hangout.

While the fire pit is a nice shady spot for the “girl” hangout. See my sweet sister-in-law – the runner? She came straight from running a half-marathon to come to the party. Seriously. I was shocked that she was still able to walk! I’m so proud of her – she really has worked and trained very hard to accomplish her goal and she did it!

Sorry – they just don’t come any prettier than “my girls”. And they are mine – I love every one of them so much.

And this precious photographer was everywhere. She takes some really good pictures!

Cousins and college kids – the more the merrier.

Handsome boys!

Little Man was just overwhelmed with everyone singing to him – he grinned and grinned.

And then he blew out his candles – one at a time.

Presents. Fun!

Cake & ice cream. YUM!

Time for some fishing! Not sure how many fish we have left after the drought – but I can guarantee you that we’ll be out there trying first thing tomorrow!

Pawpaw gave him a short casting lesson in the yard. I think he’s ready!

Yep – he’s “hooked”!

It was a beautiful day to celebrate one of God’s biggest blessings in our life. So thankful for the 4 year old, for family and friends who celebrate these events with us. Once again – my cup runneth over.

Marathon Enough

I have several dear friends involved in a half marathon tomorrow morning, bright and early. I would love to be a runner, really. I’ve tried. Running doesn’t agree with me, or my knees. Walking I can do. I probably should be walking the 5K tomorrow. But, alas, another marathon called kids’ sports calls tomorrow.

Lately it’s been non-stop. Last week the chaos began with a basketball tournament.

Basketball this year has been a roller coaster. But the end of the ride was the best part.

My #20 and his team played quite well. They were up against some tough competition, the least of which was the officiating crew. But I try not to be too critical of officials. I know it’s not an easy task.

 

I think he called this a “reverse layup”. Whatever it was, it worked. His coach named him tournament MVP. That was quite a surprise and quite an honor.

Literally hours after his last game, we were on to the next sport in the next town.

Oh yes – we were ready. First baseball game of the season.

 

So exciting to watch.

Baseball takes us to all different places. This time – we got lucky and drew the home town of Hubby’s brother’s family. They rarely get to watch K3 in action so this was a real treat to have them!

Their sweet boys were with us too. Yes, it was COLD. Their middlest is on the right under that camo blanket.

And this little one just had everyone wanting to scoop him up and take him home. He is one of the happiest little guys I’ve ever seen! Pure sweetness.

A little post-game talk from the coach. These boys had a good start to their season, up against some very good defenses and pitching. They held their own and won 2 of their 4 games.

This weekend – more baseball with a little barrel racing thrown in.

Very good bunt, only slightly foul, but foul nonetheless.

He  made up for it with a double. Actually, he hit 2 doubles today. Fun stuff.

 

And tomorrow we do baseball and a barrel race – all in the same park. So you see, our life is one big marathon from one sporting event to the next. Who has time for running those “other races”?

We had good intentions…

4 years ago today we set out to adopt a new member of the family.

We came home with the most precious little girl! She even had her own blankie and her own bed.

I can’t believe she was ever that small.

This morning I saw on Facebook that our local animal shelter was offering FREE adoptions TODAY. Little Man and I have really been wanting to adopt something cute and furry. When I saw the offer, I was all over that. I went to their website and sure enough – they had FOUR guinea pigs available for adoption.

I announced to the boys we were going “out”. Loaded them up and off we went. We joyfully arrived at the animal shelter and announced our intentions to the first employee type person we saw.

“We want a guinea pig,” I said. Little Man stood next to me holding my hand nodding his head as hard as he could and giving the employee man the biggest smile he could. The man responded, “We have guinea pigs.” He proceeded to show us to the right building.

We walked in and employee man came back to us and announced that they did NOT have any guinea pigs available for adoption. The look on my face was, well, it was that look that you make when you really, really, really want to just push the rewind button and have a different outcome and you think if you stand there with that look long enough that it will actually happen and he’ll come back with the answer that you were after in the first place. But alas, that didn’t happen.

He delightfully went on to explain that they had 2 momma guinea pigs in L&D nursing babies, but they were only a week old. We could go fill out an application and wait for the babies to be ready to adopt in 4-5 weeks. I looked at my 3 year old, back at employee man, back at the 3 year old.

Uh, no. 4-5 weeks was NOT acceptable. We wanted our guinea pig. We were not going home without our guinea pig.

So, we loaded up and headed to the pet store. And there we found not one, but two bundles of cuteness.

This is Cupid. She’s the feisty one. She’s still a little unsure of her new surroundings.

And this is Valentine. She’s a little older, calmer, wiser than Cupid. She likes to be held. You’ll have to be sure to ask K3 what happens when you hold them a little too long. Heehee!

Little Man is beside himself with his new pets. Big Man? (aka Hubby) He’s not so beside himself. I tried to explain how it all evolved – I really tried to do something GOOD. We did have the best of intentions. But these 2 needed a home just the same.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

The Project

It was time.

Time to clean out and organize the pantry.

Waaaayyyyyyyy past time.

So “way past time” that I was too embarrassed to even take a “before” picture. I should have. But I didn’t.

Pinterest is NOT helping the “to do” lists around the world. Instead of getting shorter, it grows longer by the minute. Such is the case at this house. Poor hubby.

He announced that he needed to burn some vacation hours this weekend so he would be around. Wrong words to say to a wife who has a Pinterest wish list that is pages long. I got busy gathering up all my ideas and pictures for my soon-to-be newly renovated pantry. I presented them all to him one evening last week. He hid his complete emotional outburst of excitement quite well. Now that I think about it, he was really much calmer than I expected him to be. His only response was, “Oh.” For him, that one word can mean a thousand different things. I chose to define it as “I’m just so excited over this project I hardly know what else to say to you right this minute.” I know that’s what he meant.

This was my first step. My pantry has too many bags and bags are just hard to keep neat and tidy. I’m a baker. So the bags of cookie chips were the first to go. I have been saving jars for awhile – I just can’t bring myself to throw away a perfectly good jar. I put some of them to use. They now hold my cookie chips. What you can’t see is that I also cut out the recipes on the back of the bags and put those on the back of the jars. :) I’m just so clever.

The next morning hubby got to work designing.

His part of the project was to build me a fantastic new spice rack that would hold ALL my spices. They were everywhere and it was hard for me to know exactly what I had. So I gave him a picture and said “build it”. Please, I know I said that too. As you can see from this picture, the 3 year old was already busting at the seams to “help”.

My part of the project, other than completely emptying the pantry and organizing everything in it, was to PAINT the pantry. Some of my “idea” pictures had painted walls in their pantry and it just looked awesome. So, when I announced that I would also like my pantry to be painted, while we were at it, hubby kindly said, “Ok, I’ll buy you a paint brush.”

Oh contraire my sweet pumpkin – lest you forget – I’m allergic to paint. Actually it’s the latex. I batted my eyelashes as sweetly as I could and tried to look apologetic about that fact. It didn’t work. Here’s what he did:

Yep – that sweet man of mine bought me a WHOLE BOX of latex-free gloves and loaned me one of his work shirts. Then he said, “have fun!” And off he went to build my spice rack.

And then it got complicated. I have a 3 year old who LOVES art projects of any kind. When he heard the word “paint” he was raring to go. Let me make it a little more clear – he was JUMPING FOR JOY at the thought of getting to paint with me. He was under me, behind me, all around me. Finally, I had to pull the “Daddy really needs your help building my spice rack” excuse. It worked.

And I was off! It’s actually a lot harder than it looks – I got quite a workout contorting my body to positions that would reach under, above and between all the shelves. But I was on a mission.

Hubby finished the spice rack and I finished the painting. While we waited for paint to dry, I continued to organize and get ready to put it all back.

 

Thanks to a clearance sale at Kroger, which I stumbled upon on a trip to the store for milk, I found some great stackable containers and cute wire baskets that were perfect for my project! It’s the little things…..

 

And then I started to fill the shelves. I was giddy. It took me forever.

Because hubby also added another shelf at the top, I had lots more room to store those bulky things that never have a good place to go.

Everything in its place.

Ahhhhh…..now all I needed was that spice rack.

TaaaDaaaa!!!!!!! It’s PERFECT. It is exactly what I asked for. He did a fantastic job! What a handy man I have. I think I’ll keep him.

13

#3 turned 13 yesterday. It was momentous.

Several times he reminded us NOT to get him birthday presents before his birthday – he wanted to go shopping on his birthday. Um – Ok.

Yesterday morning when I woke him up with his happy birthday song, I asked him what we were shopping for that day. His response?

SOCKS.

Yep – you heard it right. {Or rather, you read it right.} Anyway – he wanted to shop for socks. Now, granted, he was VERY specific in the type of socks that he was looking for – you know, they had to have SWAG.

SWAG?

I think I have officially recognized the generational gap between me and my children.

So, after his shark dissecting session, we went shopping. For socks. And we found socks.

And then we had to have shoes that matched the socks.

And then we had to have a hat that matched the shoes.

It’s all about the SWAG.

I am getting old. It’s official.

After the shopping trip, we headed south to watch the birthday boy play basketball. I don’t know what it is, but all of a sudden he has found his niche on the basketball court. It’s so much fun to watch.

See the SWAG on his head? Nice huh? Like we needed ONE MORE HAT in our house.

I wish someone would tell me exactly what SWAG is. Because the kid is cracking me up with it, whatever it is. The dimples get me every time.

But on to the basketball game. Good game. I got some fun pics. I am still trying to figure out my new camera – I really need to just read the manual. It does so much!

Nice shot #20!

VERY good block here. Not easy to guard a guy twice your size.

Focus.

Now – in this picture you can see what’s coming. Kade is doing a good job guarding #23. But check out the guy on the left – he’s on a mission. And here is the progression….

Poor thing! He didn’t stand a chance!

I got a good laugh out of those shots. So did my player.

It was a fun game to watch. He has loved playing with this team. I love that he loves it.

After the game we headed to the birthday dinner. For the next pictures he cannot blame me – he’s the one who chose the destination.

They made him do it.

And then they gave him a big YEEHAW.

Happy birthday to my K3! It was a GRAND day!!!!!

Hunter/Gatherers

I could have been a pioneer woman. I think. Maybe.

Ok, maybe not. But I enjoy pretending sometimes.

One beautiful December afternoon found Hubby, Little Man and me all home at the same time. Hubby needed help gathering firewood – a cold front was coming! We had to prepare because this is the house in which we DO NOT turn on the heater until the temperature drops below 20. And I’m being almost completely serious. Actually – the rule is – no heater till Momma gets cold.

But Momma loves, loves, loves a fire in her fireplace when the weather turns cold. Hubby knows this. So off we went in the jeep to tackle some dead trees.

Little Man is in heaven in the jeep. I’m not entirely sure that K3 is going to get to keep his jeep – Little Man has laid claim and doesn’t let it leave its parking spot without him perched in the backseat.

And this precious face hops in the jeep anytime she gets the notion. She kind of takes up the entire back seat. Little Man usually has to push and shove to hold his ground.

For his size, he is the hardest working little boy I’ve ever seen! He loves to help – with anything, and everything, and then some. He even helps when you don’t need it. But it’s usually the case of you just don’t know you need his help. He knows.

And this one? Well, she’d love to be a big help. Really she would. But her little legs are so short that by the time we load and move to the next spot, she’s just catching up to us. She has to scout the area for varmints first. That’s her job.

 

And she’s quite good at her job. She takes it seriously.

This was my favorite view of the day. It was just beautiful. I found myself so thankful for quiet afternoons with my boys, life in the country, wood for my fire, blue skies, and on and on and on. Blessed, I am.

My Birds

I am like my mother, in a lot of ways.

She loves animals.

I love animals.

She has animals.

I have animals.

She loves birds.

I…..like….birds.

Now, I say this to point out the subtle difference here. She loves birds to the point where she enjoys them in cages in her house and outside of her house. She loves to take care of them, talk to them, watch them. And they love her.

Me? I like the birds, but not in my house. And I’m certainly not enough of a bird lover to clean a cage every other day.

But I love to watch them in my back yard.

My mom actually gave me this bird feeder. I have started keeping it filled with sunflower seeds on a regular basis. And the birds love me for it!

These are the bossy little ones that fuss at each other just like hummingbirds do. They make the red birds wait their turn. The red birds are my favorite.

Thanks mom for passing on your love for nature!