New Life Old Farmers

There is sawdust on my slippers, my ‘inside’ shoes.  We’ve been mixing Christmas activities such as cutting down our own tree in the forest, with work on THE bathroom.

I would say, that it is the longest bathroom remodel/addition in the history of Ellensburg, but I know someone who took 8 years on theirs.  We are way ahead of that!

The bead board trim and base boards are up, so the floor just needed to be sanded.  I took this task over, as someone was laying down on the job.My knees and back held out for all the sanding of the floors, so I applied the filler to the floors as well.  Giving My Loving Spouse time to put the finishing touches on THE Grandson’s Christmas present, a replica of a present his Grandfather made for him, when he was a small boy.  We are pretty excited to be giving this gift.  No, I cannot tell you what it is, it is a secret.We have mixed our time off from school and driving with a renewed determination to finish the damn/darn/beautiful bathroom.  Work and play have been in balance.  Number Two Son took me to the Gard Winery Christmas party.  Great wine, great food and fun down to earth people.  I was more star struck by the Farm manager who grows their grapes, than I’ve ever been by any famous actors I have met.  An Ugly Christmas sweater party, proved a bit more challenging, as we are too cheap to actually buy anything ugly.  I made My Loving Spouse this Ugly sweater and then ‘made’ him wear it, while I literally stole the tree skirt from under our Christmas tree.  I am grateful for these days, of working and playing together.  I am well aware, that this season, this season of hope can be painful and bleak.

I easily remember different Christmas days.  The desperate time of deep sadness, that after years of marriage counseling, my children would be having parents that divorced.  It hurts my heart still.

Where do we find ‘hope’?

I believe hope is given to us.  Given by those who walk alongside us, especially in our darkest days.  Hope is not thrust upon us, but believed for us.   I came out of my darkest days, with hope that life would some day be different, because dear, compassionate, trusted friends believed it for me, shared it with me and helped me to see, that our God is a God of love and second chances…even for me with all my mess…and even for you.

If this season is bleak, I want to share my hope for you.  I believe your life will get better and that you are loved, in all your mess.  After all, Jesus was born in a stable, and we all know that there had to be some mess in there.

Thank you for walking along with me,

Merry Christmas,

Agnes is home and Alice is here!  Whoo and hoo!  I had been saving pumpkins to share with them as a homecoming treat.  They were very appreciative.

Alice is a Black Angus Cow, that we purchased from Our Friend the Farmer.  She is from the same year as Agnes, so they are sort of sisters.  Alice missed her date at the prom this year, so she was available for purchase.  Alice will be Agnes’ companion and sent to the prom again next year for another ‘try’.  Agnes, on the other hand, is ‘great with child’, due in the spring.The ‘girls’ are easy to tell apart, as Alice (on the left) is a tad beefier than Agnes, but don’t say that to her, as that is a bit rude.  She is meant to be ‘cow’ (calf breeding machine), not ‘hamburger’.

We’ve named her after My Loving Spouse’s Grandmother, after all we’ve already named a calf after my Grandmother (Clara).

I am so excited to be expanding my herd and will enjoy them every day, until they get ‘out’, then I may say a Bad British word.  I have learned however, that is part of the cattle business.  

The chickens have had plenty of time to decorate as they are on an egg laying sabbatical!

Alice is home for the holidays and we are very blessed.

The Blue Rock Saloon.  Saloon, as in western bar, John Wayne watering hole.  Swinging doors, yep, they have those.  Door handles that let you know, this is a ‘saloon’, not a salon.

I’d define the atmosphere a ‘Western Whimsical’.  Unlike Glory Farm, the Saloon has completed their Holiday decorating.

Every end of the Saloon is decorated.

Not completely a John Wayne style hang out, as a few servers have ‘Man-buns’ and there is ping pong.  

…and corn holes.A free pool table and shuffle board invites folks to play…

..or to just sit a spell.  It is My Loving Spouse’s new favorite place to eat.  The food is yummy and inexpensive.  Our Taco Tuesday feast, included 2 beers and the bill was under $20.

We’ve even managed to run into Number Two and Number Four Son here.

Well, not here….I suppose it is possible for My Loving Spouse to run into them here.  (Yes, he did take this picture of the urinals for me, proving ‘true love knows no bounds.)

There is a calendar of events posted to the wall and I cannot wait for next summer, when ‘line dancing’ will be re-scheduled.  I’ll be showing up in my dancing boots (those would be the ones that don’t have cow/chicken/horse poop on them) and do a bit of stomping and shuffling and having some fun!

…and I am blessed!

We are back to ‘normal’ after having over 300 people traipse through our home during the Homespun Holiday Boutique 3 days ago.  ‘Normal’ meaning, we haven’t managed to put very much away…We cannot find the ironing board.  (I know!  Who looses their ironing board?)

The dishwasher is also missing.That’s not true, I know exactly where it is.  It is on the porch.  It stopped working….a while ago.  I wish this next picture had been staged, but unfortunately, it is all true.  I just snapped this picture as I ran off to work today.My Loving Spouse went off to procure a new dishwasher, so all is good.  I am almost as excited about the new dishwasher as I am these bulletin boards I re-purposed out of feed bags.

…and we are blessed….messy, but blessed.

Last year a few of you said,

“Hey, there should be a ‘virtual boutique’ for those of us, who don’t live in Ellensburg!”

So…it got me thinking…as I got ready for our boutique here, what if I sewed more…

…and so I did.

You folks stretch me.  It only took me all day to figure this out, technical stuff is not my strong point.  Just ask Team Offspring, I can almost hear/see their eye rolls at the thought.

Welcome to your virtual boutique.

New Life Old Farm

Just click the link, that one up there.

See…I did it!  More to come later, but it is a start.

Thank you friends, you do indeed bless me.

Our schools here are run a bit differently than those my children attended.  The kids here get more music, more recess and more library.  Two thumbs way up!

These schools also have school buses and transportation is a huge department.  The buses that go out into the country don’t ‘go’, until they have all ages of kids (high school, middle school) on the bus.  This creates a unique transportation situation.  On a few buses some of our kids get on them at the end of school and drive around town for 45 minutes, only to come back to our school, whereby they meet up with some other buses.  Kids transfer buses and then go home.  Some of our elementary kids are on the bus for 1 hour and 15 minutes every afternoon.  As a Mom and an Educator, I’ve always been downright appalled at this situation.

Long story short, my heart got ahead of my mouth and I now have a longer day at school.

‘Kids Club’ is comprised of kids that were driving around town, only to return to school.  Aged 5 to 10, it has been a bit like herding cats and this week, we had a pretty clear talk about who was the Boss.  (In case you are wondering…it is me.)

So far, so good.  I run my  own program, (which is the way I like to do things).  It is a combination of what I think kids need at the end of the day, as if they were coming home.

First, they get a snack.  Second, they check in on my rooster with a happy face or sad face to tell me how their day went.

Their delight in simply playing with play dough, told me that this is the right thing for me to be doing for right now.

I had plenty of pumpkins to share for jack-o-lantern carving and for some of my kids, this was the first time, they’d ever carved a pumpkin.I brought in reinforcements to assist with the adult child ratio and to help ensure, that the only thing that was carved was pumpkins.

My Librarian toasted the pumpkin seeds for them.  The seeds were devoured and only a few seeds were found in random spots among the library.

The program is supposed to be providing additional educational support, so I fool the kids with play.  Good play is almost always good learning.  We went on a hunt.  The older kids had clip boards with words, the little ones had the Alphabet.  They all had markers and some serious magnifying glasses.  We took off around the school with squeals of “I found a…”

Math is disguised as art and I tell the kids, 

‘an artist always sign their work’.My Librarian is part of the secret sauce as the happy chaos is in the library.  She gets pulled in for technical assistance and most importantly dance party Fridays.  We are seeing a difference in many of these kids, that is the good news.  The bad news is that a bus was missed, when we made the program and there is another 30 kids riding around town.

Realizing that I cannot take them all was a hard reality for me, but I am trying to add a few more.  The kids responsibility is to be kind to each other and have a good attitude.  My responsibility is to stay one step ahead of them.

When a brusque 8-year-old girl, reached to hold my hand while walking to the buses, I know that I am making a difference at least for these, and I am blessed.

My sewing room is finally, just that, a reflection of me and a hard-working room.  It really started by removing the book cases (I hated) into the family room.  This move put them where they belong, pulled the family room together and now I LOVE them!Just goes to prove ‘right thing-right place’.

This meant the sewing room needed a fresh coat of paint.  With the help of My Loving Spouse and Sherwin, I got a bright blue.  Honestly, way too bright for me, but I am living with it.  I also nabbed a new hutch for my space.  It all started to come together and I started getting a bit giddy.

My fabulous cutting counter, I could not do without!  The only time there is not a project on it, is when THE Grand kids visit and then we turn it into a changing table.  (Win-win)

I love when those I care about come into to ‘perch’ with me, while I sew.  It is important to have a chair just for them, but truthfully, sometimes it does look like this.Because it is all about me….During the sewing room re-organization, I really drank the organizational kool-aid.  I sewed 6 color coded baskets to store smaller fabric pieces.They fit in this wire storage container.  Although, I got tired of sewing these baskets, I am quite glad I did.  The fabric stays cleaner in this dusty house.  Looking for a bit of fabric is so much easier this way, as is clean up.  I also made  more trash cans.  It is a small room, but having trash cans and scissors at the sewing machine and the ironing chest has made removing stray threads so much simpler and the trash goes into the trash, just like that!

My sewing machine gas pedal, now stays put with a bit of tool box liner from Harbor Freight.  Any piece of rubbery material will probably do.This is a very happy place….

I do not follow many quilt patterns, so I use my design wall all the time.  This Christmas quilt is waiting for my new batting to arrive.My Uncle’s old seaman’s chest stores some of my bigger pieces of fabric, just as it did for my mom.  If you’ve known me a long time, you’ll remember these pictures, they were the first thing most people saw as they stepped into my parents home.

I couldn’t do much without my fabulous Janome.  This teak sewing table is the one thing we will probably replace.  My Loving Spouse and I are dreaming up a bigger sewing table, possibly made out of an old desk, with the sewing machine sitting inserted into the desk.  Stay tuned….

Yes, I am counting them…

It has happened.

I believe it is now official.

It is not because we have more critters than people sharing our evening.

It is not because My Loving Spouse and I have just recently both been listening to the same local (ie. Country/Western radio station) and saying words like,

“That’s a good station!”

It is not because our free range chickens poop on the porch.

It is not because we have more barn cats than dogs, and I am not a cat person.

It was the line item on our budget for this month.

That one line item brought it home to me, that I am now a country person.

Planning on a purchase….

….the item simply spelled out…

Cow.

Indeed,

and I am blessed.

Quilters hug with fabric.

In celebrations of joy and in struggles, that is often our journey, my response is to hug.  When the loved one is not near, the response is even stronger to sew.Sew a quilt, that I hope will express my love.

Sew a quilt designed uniquely for the receiver.  This one is for one who is red/green color blind.  These colors and pattern designed with extra care of how he sees the world.I long to let you know, that you are not alone.Quilts do not mend bones.Quilts do not remove cancer.Quilts can keep you warm with cozy flannel on the back, the weight adds a unique calming and comforting feel. Love and prayers with every stitch.  His initials sewn into the fabric…JSF.Many miles separate us and it has been a few years since this picture was taken…

Get well…With great love and gratitude for who you are in my life,

your little sister.