I want to be like a dandelion

On Sunday I was pulling weeding...clearing out all that "didn't belong" in my bulb garden and I started thinking....I want to be like a dandelion.

The dandelion sets down roots where it sees fit. In the middle of the lawn...amid other flowers...ya know, where ever. It reaches toward the sky with no shame. Just pure joy in self. It stands alone surrounded by grass. Doesn't need a well manacured purposed and tilled garden area....no! Any ol' spot will do. Doesn't need others around...grouped tightly with others like itself. Nope. The dandelion stands alone. Unique...a rebel.

How could you not like the dandelion? Bright yellow circle...just as the sun. Shining and swaying in the breeze. Defiant. Little does it know...there are many more just like it...across the grass...standing tall, independant and unique. Unashamed....yes....I want to be like the dandelion.

Buddy story, picture heavy-chicken and garden

We'll start with the Buddy story because I'm so proud of him. Our neighbors....our ONLY neighbors...have either gotten a new dog or some of their family that's in town has brought their HOUND dog with them....this poor dog....I don't blame him (or her...) but the poor thing has been baying all day yesterday and most of the day today. It quickly got to the point where Pete and I are grinding our teeth just ready to shoot this stupid dog. (we would NEVER shoot a dog....but you better believe we'll talk about it.) Well this morning...Pete says to me...."I just HOPE that dog comes into our yard and goes after our chickens so I can shoot him."

Yep....dog got off his chain/rope/whatever the hell...and hauled ass into our yard. Buddy was out on his chain and he knows good and well that no one is suppose to be in our yard. Our baby birds free range, so they have full run of the entire yard. We only knew that something was up because we heard one of the baby birds FREAK. Both Pete and I bolted outside to see what was messing with our chickens (we've had hawks come down before) and I saw nothing. No feathers, no mess...nothing. Buddy was "pointing" me in the direction of whatever creature had come into the yard and he was HOPPED up and ready!! I went and looked where he was pointing me...nothing. So I went to count the baby birds...we had all of them...I was confused! Pete saw the dog on our street and went and told the neighbors that their dog had come up in our yard. Buddy had scared the dog out of our yard! And this hound dog is bigger than Buddy!!! Needless to say Buddy got plenty of praise and a few extra treats. This is the first time anyone/anything has come up into the yard. Well...people have come up and he acts the fool..."oh pet me, pet me, love me!!" He's such a doofus. So we fully expected that he wouldn't protect nothing from no one. The running joke is that he'd help a burgler! I'm pretty darn sure that Buddy just wanted to play with this dog that came into the yard...but whatever, the dog left and no harm was done to our chickens so...good enough!

I had the best of intentions today...and then got hit upside the head with a massive dose of fatigue. I fought through and got some work done on the bag...much closer to being done. Not as close as I'd like for it to be...but I know it will come together quickly from here. God damn fatigue...driving me crazy. Got Pete all worried...it comes on so fast and hard that it must look a little worriesome. He brought me some juice and some melon in hopes to "wake me up" a bit. Sucks.

Anyway...pictures! I have a ton because I left my camera charger in Portland at my mom's house and she just sent it back to me. lol..

My five big girls in their house getting some treats

Them in their yard. It's pretty good sized I'd say!

Some of the baby birds. They've gotten to the point where they just look like little adults. They're so cute!!!

This is my favorite girl! She's darker than everyone else (of her breed) which makes her unique. She's a Barred Rock

See, this is the normal color of the breed. This is one of our roo's.

This is one of the Whynodott girls. The light brahmas won't let me hold them. They're very skiddish. So pretty though..

They all have noticed that Pete's the one that feeds them...so they follow him around the yard. It's so cute!!

Our yard was looking like crap last year. All just...over grown weeds. This year we've put down alot of clover and it's starting to fill in the bald spots and such. I had to take the weed wacker to the yard. Yea...this whole yard...with a weed wacker. I'm finally recovering from doing so! But it looks good...

Our garden is looking pretty good. On the left bed is broccli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and leeks. The next bed is carrots and beans, the one right next to that is watermelon, and next to that is tomatos

We've got these wild irises growing in the yard. Well...maybe they weren't wild to begin with but we didn't put them there so they're wild to me! I cleared out the area around them. There are more than this and I'm so happy about them! I'm going to turn this little hill side into my flower garden. Yay!!!

We've got all these wild rose bushes everywhere. They're so pretty and in bloom right now.

Someone at my work gave me a bunch of daisys that had taken over her yard and the chicken dug them up, dug them up...destroyed them left and right...so we finally put the tire around what was left and as you can see they took!! They're kind of just in the middle of the yard but I really like them. They're pretty.

I hope that tomorrow isn't so "fatigue-y" so I can work hard on this bag and show you something that resembles a bag! Cuz seriously...I need to learn to say no girls...lmao!! I'm just not getting things done as fast as I used to...that much is for sure. And so I've got to stop saying I can turn out work like I used to because....it's clearly not true and I'm embarressed but thankfully I am SO blessed with wonderful understanding friends who "get" that some days...far too often anymore...I just don't have enough spoons.....

Because I love me...

I am going to lose weight. I am at high risk for high colesterol...I am at risk for diabetes. I do not want these things. I do not want to huff and puff at a blocks walk. I want to be healthy! I want to feel my age! And yes...I want to be sexy and attractive. (even if I'm already damn smokin cute...there's always room for improvement.)

I'm serious this time. I am going to lose the weight. I've been climing and climing for years now. This has got to stop. Otherwise...where will it end?! I am going to do South Beach. I am going to suceed. I am going to fight my food demons and I am going to win.

I weigh 225 lbs right now. I am 5'8. My goal is to get back to 145-150. The "chart" say I could be healthy at 125 and I think the chart is smoking crack. FOR ME...that wouldn't be healthy. They don't take breasts into consideration. I have ample breasts. So...my goal is to find self love. My goal is to find a healthy body. I want to be able to jog on the treadmill for 15 min and feel GOOD instead of feeling like I could collapse after 3 min.

I want to have the energy and the strength to meet my farming goals and not be inhibited by my lack of muscles. I want to build, and grow, and weed and tend and care.

These are my goals. And I will suceed. Because I love me.

Yule tree!

Today you have many pictures to choose from so here ya go!

hehehehehe this just cracks me up. We wanted a small tree. That was the plan. We were going to go and pick a small tree from our woods. I got all small ornaments for the tiny little tree we were going to get. We went into the woods and...with as big as the woods are...the tree we picked out looked really little. LMAO its like an 8 foot tree! HA. This pretty tree was right between two other trees and was needing to go in order to give more room for the other two. This makes me happy.

After its all trimmed down.

Pete hanging an ornament

Putting the star up

Yay!

Ta-da! All finished.

Pete made us a wreath out of the trimmed parts from the tree. Its the first wreath he's ever made. We don't waste around here. Nope.

Okies...back to my sewing! I'm WAY behind!!! Yikes!!! My parents are coming up next weekend and I want to just hand them all the wrapped presents so I don't have to ship them down. Here's hopin....

OMG dies of cuteness!!!

I was at Wally World today (its always freakin something when you have no memory...always something.) and I was getting out tree stand and I walked past this display that I hadn't seen before. It was all Christmas related animal clothes. There was a Mrs. Santa's outfit that was in Lily's size! I couldn't WAIT to get home. A few years ago we did Yule/Christmas cards that had Lily posed on the front in a santa hat. Still one of the best pictures I've ever taken of her. I was thinking of doing a whole family picture this year...(or at least a most of the family picture!) but I think Lily may lend herself best. We'll see. For now....enjoy some cuteness!

This may be "the one" for the card...we'll see. I really wanted to do a huge card list like a few years ago and open it up to all of you who might want one but...ermm....umm...we can't really afford it this year....I got a set of 15 cards and I think that's all I'll be able to do. The fridge and other assorted mess was in the back of this picture, but I cut that out and added the trees! Yay trees!! hehe It looks so grainy even though I made it huge and tried to make it not pixely...annoying.

More cuteness.

Mo refuses to allow the couch to stay as it should. He constantly makes a mess of the back cushions!! lmao.

Buddy has to be everywhere I am of course! And if I'm paying attention to something clearly he should too!! I was looking for a tree topper today and this was the closest I could find to a pentacle. Pretty nice I think! Can't WAIT to get our tree. We hopefully pick one out this weekend. We're cutting our own from the woods. We're going to take one that is otherwise encroaching on other trees and wouldn't do well otherwise. That's what we're looking for anyway...We'll see what we find. Yay!

You must be joking

Most of you know of my buisness Flutterby Gifts where I ran a website (no longer up and running...sadly.) that made clothes, baby carriers and other assorted goods. Well there's a new law in town folks...

You see, when last year's lead scare came...there were many people who flocked to home made toys/gifts/items to avoid lead poisoning for their children. Well guess what!! Someone did something about it. Unfortunitly the way the law is written....small buisness (like so many other laws...) Have been hit hardest. Do something! Write something! Make noise!!! SO many mamas will be put out of buisness!! This effects everything that involves children. Including diapers and other cloth items!!! If you value this important home based work force please...please educate yourself and do something. Spread the word. This is not a joke. I wish it was.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Congress have just passed a law which requires ALL MAKERS of CHILDRENS' PRODUCTS in the US and importing to the US to have their products (and components) tested by a CPSC-certified, Third-party testing laboratory FOR LEAD CONTENT.

On Feb 10, 2009, all businesses which do not comply with said testing (which is incredibly expensive and unecessary for textiles as fabric does not contain lead) will be in violation of federal law, guilty of selling banned products and subject to fines and jail time.

This affects ALL of us. WAHMs, Etsy sellers, crafters, wooden and organic toy companies, baby carrier makers, etc., and everyone who buys from them. On Feb 10th, the handcrafted movement dies. WAHMs are out of business. The economy sinks even lower.


If it sounds unbelievable, believe it. Here are several links for you. The kids industry has been slow to realize how serious this ruling is because it sounds so ridiculous. But it is real, and incredibly sad.

A good summary of the situation from an industry leader: http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/national-bankruptcy-day/

Actual CPSC law: http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/legislation.html

Easier to read summary of law: http://www.apparelandfootwear.org/reports/CPSCproductsafetylawsummary080902.pdf

Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/index.html

Contact the officials of the CPSC: http://capwiz.com/toyassociation/dbq/officials/agencies/?id=4886&dir=toyassociation&command=depresult2&submit.x=10&submit.y=12

Animal cuteness

Today was a day of much slacking...I had alot to do at work and I just really didn't feel like doing any of it. I taught two classes today...my first was the class I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. I ran through all the slides I had which...I wasn't expecting it to go that fast...damn. That means I have to bust out ALOT more slides than I thought I had to...damn it damn it. Well...there is the time they'll spend doing the assessment...so that will eat some time. Hmmm....Ok, cute pictures of my animals from today!

I've been working on redoing all of our picture frames and have gotten very very obessed with pictures as of late. With the upcoming holiday, visits from family members ect...I want to make sure I have a wide variety of pictures of everyone who might be stopping by! So I stole some pictures off SILs facebook of the children (yea...tis the only way I get good pictures) and changed over a few frames but not all of them. I don't have any REALLY good pictures of the animals recently so I decided to take a few tonight. Mo was absolutly starving for love, so he cuddled up to Buddy for this one.

Look at just how pudgy he's getting!!! Winter fat no doubt. He's so sweet though...

The puppies.

I'm very pleased with this one. She NEVER sits still for pictures!!! Never ever ever. She's quite convinced the camera is going to eat her or something...and books it for under the bed. I have to keep the flash off so we can see her eyes so she has to sit still and its incredibily hard so while yes, this is just a picture of a cat....you don't know this cat!!!

Also very stoked on how this one came out. Yay!

We have a set of three matching frames. We've always used them to do sets of pictures. At first it was a set of me and my two siblings, Pete and his two siblings, and a picture of he and I in the middle. Then it was a single shot of me, single shot of him and a shot of us as a couple. Now its a picture of us kissing on our wedding, a picture of us kissing on our first anniversary, and you guessed it..a picture of us on our second anniversary. (so that's all of them so far :D)

I'm hoping to do a set of four...one single shot of each of them. There's just no way in hell to get all four of them in one shot. Just no way. Meep will not have it.