straight from my brain (welcome to the inside)

Spencer had to return to work after her maternity leave.  She said she was sad to leave Easton, but she did enjoy being back to work.  Which led me down a rabbit hole of thoughts.  First, it is sad to leave your babies.  I am thankful that Spencer's mom is helping them out so that we all know he has the best amount of love and attention while Colin and Spencer are at work.  And I am thankful that my mom watched our kids while I was at work too.  I never had to wonder if they were safe or loved.  I never worried about them at all.  They usually didn't want to leave when I got there to pick them up.  They were happy, loved and spoiled.  Later, when I switched jobs, I was allowed to bring the babies to work with me.  I felt blessed to be able to do so.  I was also able to watch Evelyn when she was tiny.  I loved every minute of it, and missed all of them when they went off to school.  

Speaking of Evelyn, she returned from her trip to Disney World with her grandma Rachel yesterday.  That was after a 2 day delay with cancelled flights and travel drama.  Of course, if you are going to be stuck someplace, I can think of worse places to be stuck than Orlando.  :)  I can't wait to see her so I can hear all about her trip!

Yesterday, I had to run an errand.  I let the dogs all go with me.  My car now has a funky dog smell, and is full of dog fur.  But my windows were down, the weather was beautiful and my heart was happy.  And the dogs love to go!  :)  Well, except for Ollie, who always jumps in, but then lays on the back seat or the floor because he doesn't really like riding in the car, he just wants to go because everyone else is doing it.  I had to snap a photo because their faces were cracking me up.  What a crew.  

Quincy and Landrie went to a concert together yesterday.  It is good to have a lifetime friend.  They were seeing Dream Ivory.  If you have never heard this band, don't bother- they are a$$.  But I do love that they find things in common, hang out and have fun together. 

I am both thrilled and cautiously optimistic about the state of my projects.  My elderberries are getting leaves, all of my fruit trees seem to still be alive, and yesterday, I planted 2 cherry trees in my "orchard."  I also planted 4 metric tons of garlic.  :)  We may not have much luck, since it should have been planted in the fall, but I followed advice from a master gardening friend, and I am hopeful it will work out! Today, I am dragging out the hoses, because carrying buckets of water to this stuff is hard!

We will also be relocating my blackberry bushes, planting more raspberries,  and acidifying the soil for blueberries.   And I am not kidding when I tell you that when I play in the dirt, my soul is happy.  I also have an order in a cart to get baby chickens, but haven't broken the news to Jim yet.  I am currently getting 2 dozen or more eggs per day.  We have been eating eggs for dinner, giving away eggs, making every kind of egg dish I can think of, and still have eggs!  And so I need more chickens?  Well, yes!  The thing is, some of the hens are aging, and need to be replaced if I want a steady supply of eggs.  Plus, I really like raising my own meat birds.  And, if there was accidentally a "hatchery surprise" box added to the order, I am sure it was not all my fault.  

Harper and Clayton made it home from their band trip.  Harper said she had a lot of fun, but was more than ready to be home.  I have yet to sit down and look at her photos.  I am glad she went, and I am glad they got back here safely!  We are enjoying spring break and a little relaxation from harsher schedules.  Next week, I have an appointment to enroll Saige in high school.  Time goes by too quickly!  It is surreal to me to think we are already at this place.  I guess I blinked.  

I have always loved spring because of the babies.  I love this picture of my brother, Brian with one of dad's calves.  I am thankful to Brian for helping dad during calving season (and more).  I am surrounded by amazingness.

 

Pi day

This has been a day filled with fun, excitement and plans coming to fruition after months of planning, family and work. Cameron came down for pi day. He went to Joanna’s bakery and got pies,  and also brought us moon pies.  Since he was going to be coming through town, I ordered pizza (pie) to go with it.  The girls came out and we all celebrated pi day in style.  Then Cameron asked Quincy if she wanted to go to some concert.  It turned out that she was not needed at her job today, so she was sent home and went to the concert with Cameron.    

Harper had to be at the high school at 3:30 this morning to catch a bus to Nashville with the band.  Two years of fundraising, planning, months of buying the right stuff for the trip, opening an account so she had the right access to her money, grown up choices and conversations.  And a little tiny glimmer of something that resembled excitement from my girl who is rarely one to show emotion.  It was fun helping her, and I am excited to see the trip through her eyes. Have fun Harper- you earned it!  

Harper also had a pizza party (I’m sure for pi day)  and attended a show at the Grand Ole Opry. . 

Also must point out she must have been excited because I got a hug and she stood for a picture! 

Grandma Rachel and Evelyn are living it up at Disney.  This child looks way too old in these pictures.  

Here at home, we uncovered the strawberries, then saw the weather and covered them back up - although a little lighter than they were over the winter.  I am pleased to see so many plants made it through the winter.  

Cameron and Mallory helped Jim and me haul a bunch of mulch and manure to the new raised beds.  Yesterday, when I was working on this by myself, the goats all escaped.  We had a rather difficult time getting Coco the pony convinced to go back in the pen!  He was enjoying the green grass.  I was happy to have their help. We still have a ways to go,  but I think we are getting closer and I am getting excited to get stuff in the ground.  Jim and I bought a couple of cherry trees, blueberry bushes and a couple more raspberry plants.  I am relocating the blackberries.  I have so many plans for spring break. Unfortunately, tomorrow it seems like the weather isn’t going to cooperate.  

Wrenley is always ready to do barn chores.  Girly loves her baby goat!  

Funny thing - when Evelyn was about 3 or 4 she kept telling Jim she wanted and even needed a tire swing.  Jim put one up for her. She sat on it one time, proclaimed it was a danger to her life, and the only one swinging on it was a garden spider!  Enter Wrenley.  She has zero fear.  Zero!  She was laughing like a fool and getting aunt Mallory to push her!  

Colin sent this picture to Mallory.  My buddy is filling out and looking like a big guy!  He’s adorable!  I miss him.  Gotta go to Wichita soon! 

Yesterday, I canned lemon curd.  One jar didn’t seal, so I had to make grandma Shirley’s white cake with curd filling and coconut frosting.  Wren helped me.  She turned the mixer on high and frosted the whole kitchen.  Such culinary talent.  She loves to help in the kitchen and I love that she wants to! 

This evening, Saige and I had a craft night.  I made a few Easter wreaths.  Saige painted  the little bunnies for them and a few flowers for a project I have planned.  It was fun to spend some time doing something creative! 

I deem pi day as a huge success!   

 

Wednesday ramblings

It has been raining off and on, and the dogs have tracked in so much mud.  I was thinking today about Jim’s grandma Bea telling me tbat she used to do apartment maintenance and they would spray dye on the carpets.  I’m still fully on team hard wood floor, but that isn’t in the cards right now.  Starting to think tie dye flooring would be really beneficial.  

The bottle babies are doing good.  Eating well and sleeping in the barn instead of the dining room.  Because Kansas has bipolar weather, we did have to string them up a heat lamp. Seriously the temperature went from 80 to 34 like it was being being followed by the cops.  This time of year is hard for me.  All I want to do is start gardening.  And I guess if I wanted to plant potatoes I could technically. However, I don’t want potatoes. I want fruit plants and more fruit trees and peppers, and vines.  You know, all that stuff that you’d be a fool to plant in March.  I do have sweet potato slips going though, and I noticed that my trees from last years plantings are all looking bloomed out.  Also the bulbs that Mallory helped me plant in exchange for hamburger that would have given her anyway, are all blooming and not helping one little bit with my spring fever.  

They are pretty though! 

Jim sent me this Facebook memory for our three year turtle-versary.   Of all the “versaries” that we tend to celebrate, this one is maybe not my favorite.  Turtles are a lot of work. And they tend to clog filtration systems. And they have a smell that is reminiscent of sewage and barf if the filters don’t work correctly. Their tank that they came with was way too small, so we ended up with a stock tank in the dining room for them - which takes up a lot of room.  I do like the turtles though. They are friendly and tend to sort of bond with their feeder (me) and they come up when it’s time to eat and say hi!  I occasionally let them roam around the dining room and they are quiet so that’s a little better than some of the things we have living here.  Long way of saying when they pass on, we won’t be replacing them, but until that happens I suppose they can stay. 

Today we had a bus safety meeting.  After last month’s depressing bus fire presentation, I was sort of happy that today was a fun contest on kahoots that we competed with other districts across the state regarding bus law knowledge.   I am proud to say I finished in first place for our district.  I also told my boss to “suck it” when I smoked his butt.  That’s a good day!  My boss did laugh about it, not fire me.  

We are rapidly getting Harper’s stuff gathered for her long awaited band trip to Nashville.  She has to turn her suitcase in on Friday for the drug dog check. She leaves ridiculously early Saturday.  There is no school Friday - the official first day of spring break.  I think it’s safe to say we are all ready!  Even Easton is ready - I can tell from this photo he needs a visit from his Grammy! Evelyn left today for a short trip to Disney with her grandma Rachel. Lucky girl- who doesn’t want to go to Florida for spring break? 

 

Sunday funday

I didn’t really take pictures of the goats that I 

got the girls for 4-H yesterday 

We had to come home and fix up a pen for them and we had bottle babies who were both hungry and apparently inexperienced with the bottle. Or at least the bottles we were offering.  It got dark. I had to wait until today to get pictures.  Plus, we knew the girls were coming over, so we would be taking pictures anyway. 

Cameron spent his Sunday riding around on the KC streetcar. He said it was a lot of fun and he stopped off at several places and checked them out.  I will have to join him next time, seems like a lot of fun to me.  

But not for a few weeks, because we have babies to feed and goats to tame down. 

Evelyn fed Easton’s goat.  This guy who doesn’t have an official name yet, but who have been calling Dale jr is a great eater and is super sweet and likes to be snuggled and scratched.  

Wrenley named her goat Whitey.  She loves him!   A super excited, super sweet love that brought me so much joy.  She is flat out proud of her baby!   His disbudding of horns gave her some concern, but having goat’s without horns to catch in fences is a great thing!  

Gruff ate better today, seems to have found his hungry and figured out that he can suck. Which is good, because on school days we don’t have hours to work his jaw for him.  

Harper picked out this brown goat that we will have to wether.  Of the bigger ones we got yesterday, he is the friendliest. 

Saige picked the brown doe with the speckles.  Evelyn picked this more traditional doe, but she does have some dappling in her face. She’s adorable.  Evelyn named her goat Stitch.  Harper and Saige are still deciding. 

Evie, being the excited new 4-H kid, jumped right in today teaching Stitch to walk.  It was a tough go, but these early days and hours of frustration are life altering and beneficial for everyone.  And I say that from the bottom of my heart.  

I’m glad she’s excited and super happy that we get a front row seat to her 4-H career.  

When we were done playing goat farm, Harper and I ran to her CWF meeting.  I know she is out of her comfort zone in these meetings where they force public speaking and group bonding and projects. But I am impressed with her for doing it anyway.  Life altering and beneficial. I’m sad the weekend flew by so fast when we were having so much fun, but this is a short week and then the girls are onto spring break!