Debbie Downer

Sometimes I grow weary of being the kind of person who keeps it together
(most of the time).
Sometimes I grow weary of trying to see the glass half full.
Sometimes I grow weary of the lemons life hands me.
Guess what? I don't even like lemons.
Every now and again I would like to throw a good old fashioned fit.
Complete with floor laying, kicking, screaming, weeping, wailing, and
gnashing of teeth.

Just in case you were wondering.

post script
and then sometimes just
after you've thrown
your cyber fit your
dad calls with news of
a possible
part time job for your
husband and all
hope doesn't seem
so lost.
but i'm still sick of
lemons.

Decor.

So, here's something weird.

Mike, Adam and my brothers went to the mountains and got Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving. Okay, that's not weird. It's nice actually. Ours is a little Charlie Brownish, but I'm okay with that. I think it's kind of cute, and with the lower ceilings in this house it's either that or a bush. So, Charlie Brown and his tree are welcome here. It is still sitting undecorated, but lovely all the same.

I've been thinking about Christmas a lot. You know, when all the stuff is out in the stores before Halloween it kinda gets me started. I had been thinking about how fun it was going to be to decorate the new abode. Fresh canvas, so to speak.

Yesterday I spent the early morning cleaning my house. Then I went down to my mom's to do my laundry and make bread. That's not weird either. I was working toward today being the day I would decorate.

So, this was it. This morning I tidied up the house, pulled on some boots, gloves and a coat to brave the cold and collect all the Christmas paraphernalia from the old barn where it has been stored.

I turned on the Christmas music and opened the boxes. Here's where the weird thing happened. Completely unexpected by me, I was overcome with the memories so much of my Christmas junk carried. Decorating was bittersweet this year. Thinking about where I put everything up in our house in St. George, where each item originated from. Before I moved to St. George all my Christmas stuff pretty much fit in a shoe box. I've collected all sorts of things. But mostly, dear friends I will always cherish and years of wonderful memories.

I'm done decorating now. Except the tree- that's a family project. The house looks good. I like it. I do, I really do. I love this house, actually. And I know we are just where we should be.

But today...today I'm missing the things that used to be.

Making a list and checking it twice.

I am not, by nature, a list person. I used to take some sort of pride in the fact that I could remember things, I was just naturally an organsized person. Of course I've always had a running mental list, but not really a paper list kind of a gal. That, my friends, has had to change.

After birthing 5 babies, 16+ years of mothering, almost 3 years of high-stress survival, nearly 37 years of life and a current super-uber busy calling I have thrown in the towel. I am a list girl now. I'm more of an 'organsize and don't forget' lister rather than a 'to do' lister.

Really, once you embrace the life style it's not so bad.

In my fancy new listy listness life I have accomplished much. Mostly it's Young Women stuff, but let's face it- that takes a lot of brain power. Here's the great thing about writing a list: once you write it down you can set it free. What? What's that you say??
Once you write it down you can set it free!
Hallelujah.

I know, all you list people already knew this. Whatever. It's a great discovery for me.

So, my question to you is this:
If I write 'Turn brain off occasionally' on my list will I be able to accomplish it??

Please tell me there's a way.
The gerbils that run around in circles in my head in order to keep me
going are oh so tired.

Done and done.

On this the 18th day of November, in the year of our Lord 2011,
I have created
(by myself, mind you)
a recipe blog.

See?
Look to the right, I even linked it.
Your welcome.

Another note worthy event of the day,
our first major snow storm.
About 9 inches since 9:00 this morning,
and still coming down.
We are SO not in Kansas any more Toto.

:o)

oh, and p.s.
don't be
shy on
the comments.
me likes to know
what's ya
think.

This could be the beginning of something wonderful....

Do you wanna see how amazing I am??? Look up and a little to the left....Do you see it? Well, do ya??
I created a page on my blog.
TA DA!!
And here's the super amazing part....NO BODY HELPED ME.
Thank you. Thank you. You are all too kind.
Go ahead, click on it and check it out.
It is the small beginnings of Farmgirl Food, I'm thinking I should maybe do another blog for it...but for now--it works.
And I did it all by myself!
And, even if I do start a different blog for food stuff, really, my chocolate chip cookie recipe is a signature item so it should be on this blog no matter what.

The first of many....

SNOW DAY!!

Winter is here.

To Grant snow=winter, and he has been
anxiously waiting for "winter" to arrive.
Much to his delight the white stuff started falling late last night.

Everyone layered up and headed out.
(except Elsie, she was having a cousin sleep over)

Adam was there too. He was just doing this--

Scraping the windows

Instead of this---
participating in a good old fashioned snowball fight,
(probably for the best any way, it usually ends in tears when the big boys get involved)

so that they could all go feed these--

the calves at Grandpa's.


It was a group effort this morning due to
to the surge of these...

several new calves born the last few days.

Speaking of calves...
There is one child of mine that loves the animals
a wee bit more than her siblings.

The other day she took the camera out and got some
self portraits of her and the new calf she named Autum.



Goose loves the cows.

She has a notebook with spreadsheets she has
created to keep track of all the heifers
at our house and the calves down at Grandpa's.
Every Saturday you will find her in the barn
with her uncle helping with the milking.
Lucy: the cow whisper-er.

Welcome Winter.
Welcome cozy time in front of the wood burning stove,
Welcome cup after steamy cup of hot chocolate.


You have been much anticipated, excitement is in the air.
:o)