It's noon and...

I'm just now having my morning coffee.  My house is explodingly messy.  I'm feeling a bit discouraged about that.  

Edit:  Daniel is home from work and I am going by myself to hobby lobby!   Yay!  For some reason Ezekiel has been super clingy/fussy all day and I need a break.  

Coffee and rambling

I had to make a coffee run this morning.  Oh house-wife that I am, I just needed out PLUS we were OUT of (fresh) coffee (I still have 3 bags of coffee from when I worked at starbucks like over a year ago... and they expired, oh I don't know, sometime last year.  One expired sometime in 2007. They're really gross now).  So out I run with soaking wet hair and no makeup, looking pretty frumpy and mom-like.  But that's ok.  I got my tall-no-room-raw-sugar-americano and a bag of Pike's place (the best name for coffee ever).  And I feel better now.  Mmmm coffee.  And now Ezekiel is taking a nap and laundry has LITERALLY taken OVER our house.  I mean it's reallllly bad.  So you can guess what I will be doing today...  

We're getting really excited about our "joseph garden" idea that's been brewing in our brains.  My friend Natasha suggested calling it "Gateway's Garden of Eatin" and I love that name!  Our church has quite a few acres behind the building/school, and we have a vision of turning it into a community garden type thing to provide produce, chicken, eggs, and milk for our congregation/church & school staff/or the community (obviously we won't be able to do ALL that right away).  We've talked to the pastor and he said to write up our plans for the elders to read and approve, so Daniel's been working on that this week.  Writing isn't one of his favorite things to do, and last night Natasha offered to type everything up for him, so he's just going to dictate it into a voice recorder and she's going to do the typing!  How very sweet of her!  I love how in the body of Christ everyone's talents fill a need and work together.  Anyway, we're really excited.  Daniel looked up some of the codes and it's actually legal for us to have a cow back there!!!  Wooo hoo!  Yay milk!  We don't have any experience with milking a cow, but I imagine that SOMEONE in our congregation does. Building community with this project is one of the things I'm really excited about.... Daniel and I know how to do everything chicken related, but we don't know squat about gardening or milk cows (ok we have book/head knowledge... but we don't have much experience).  But I KNOW there are people in the church who do know how to do this stuff.  Which is so cool.  I'm hoping everyone will pitch in their knowledge and ability and that we can have a really awesome thing going on back there... I'm also hoping it will be a teaching/learning experience for all of us as we share our skills and abilities.  I would love to see everyone at church keep a few chickens and a small garden in their own yard, and one of the points of this project is to teach the Church that they are able to do this!  Anyway, I am just rambling now.   I probably should make paragraphs or something.  I'm really excited.  In my head it's super cool... I really hope we can make it that way.  :) :) :)

In other news, my brother David is going to be in Wichita Falls on Wednesday touring with his band, The Crimson Armada.  That's only about 6 hours from us, but I don't think I can go.  I'm really sad, I would love to see him.  Here's a video of their music (caution: very loud and scary-sounding).  Totally not my style, lover of all classical music that I am, but I do love my brother.  He's the drummer.  The music actually starts at 16 seconds if you wanna skip the yelling people.  

I <3 failblog

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The new gals

Let's hope they're gals, anyway.  I really don't want to eat them.  

This is the little girl our neighbors brought over to us!  Isn't she too cute?  If I stick my hand in her box she runs over and jumps into my palm.  She's a sweetie.

This is our second chick from our friends the Turners.  They "accidentally" came home with 6 little guys from their trip to tractor supply, and I asked if we could have one to keep our little girl company.  Notice she has feathers on her feet!!

Here they are together on the kitchen counter (I couldn't get a good picture of them in their box!).  They are just so fun and cute!    

I think the first one is a rhode island red, but I'm really not sure.  The second is some sort of bantam, I think, with the feathers on her feet.  I really don't know though... we'll see when they grow up!  If you know what they are, please let me know!  

Today is just lovely-- it's misty and cloudy, and it's thundering!  I think we're in for a storm... the perfect day for lounging around in jammies, drinking tea, reading books, cuddling Ezekiel, and folding laundry....  

Finally some pictures!

Those two of Zeke are from today.  My little pumpkin is 7 & 1/2 months old!  Last week at the doctor's he weighed 13.5 lbs!  Oh my goodness, what a big boy.  I can't believe how huge he is.  Today when his occupational therapist was here, we fed him banana for the first time, and he liked it!  She said he ate well and she doesn't think he will have any problems eating.  

Yesterday Jessy came over and we made soap!  We made a batch of lavender for her, and after she left I made a batch of jasmine-orange.  I wasn't sure if the combination would turn out well, but let me tell you, it is scrumptious.  Mmmmmm!  It's prodominately orange smelling, with jasmine undertones.  I could just eat it.  :)  It's all sliced up and sitting on a window sill to dry out.  And we had a lovely time, Jessy and I.  (I'm so glad you came over!)
Nothing much else is going on... just ho-humming along here in Pikeville.  I feel like there was something else I was supposed to write about, but I don't remember what it was.  Oh well.

Edit:  I DO remember!  Our neighbor showed up at our door Monday night with a baby chick!  She didn't know what to do with it so she gave it to us.  So we have a sweet little baby chicken now.  I haven't taken a picture yet, but I will put one up later.  She's a sweetie pie, I think she's lonely with no chicken-friends.  :(

Dancing!

I just got home from the women's retreat (to an empty house... Daniel and Ezekiel went hiking without me!) and I had a very relaxing time.  I just love spending time with women- we had lots of fun!  I think the best part, though, was that I spoke with a lovely woman at our church named Laura... and she told me that she is going to a park downtown tomorrow to attend a country english dance!!  She invited us to come, too, and so I think we're going to go!!  OOOoohh I am so excited, for many reasons.

1)  If we're going to be homesteaders we're going to have to have barn dances... right?  So we need to learn how to dance!

2)  A long time ago, when I did not yet have a crush on my dear husband, he took me to a barn dance.  That's when I started falling in love with him.  :)  I think it was mutual.  

3)  It will just be so much fun!

I am really excited.  I will let you all know how it goes!!

Oh and I would like to officially welcome Spring to our neck of the woods, since the bluebonnets have started popping up.  I'm glad you made it here, Spring!  I love you!

All better!

I feel absolutely better today.  Thanks for your prayers and love guys!  I actually felt all better late last night, but decided not to make it official until after a good night's rest.  And Ezekiel has had NO fever and doesn't seem to be sick, which is wonderful- I am so thankful.  I would hate for him to get sick.  I know it's inevitable, but I would like to hold it off for as long as possible.  :)

Daniel has been gone since eeaarrly thursday morning, and he will be back tonight.  I am also leaving to go on a women's retreat tonight, so today is all about making food for Daniel's weekend all alone (ok, I get back Saturday night... but still!).  On the list is pizza for dinner tonight, stir fry & lasagna.  And I got him frozen waffles for breakfast which he loves.  There is also plenty of fruit around and some triscuts, so he will not starve at all.  I'm sure he's ravishingly hungry from only eating MRE's the last few days (that's military lingo for crappy nasty dried something-or-another that is supposed to be edible).  So I want to make sure he has yummy food to come home to.  He's supposed to be home at 6, and I have to leave at 6:30 for the women's retreat.  :(  I miss him!  

Alright I'd better go get started on all my cooking/cleaning.  The house exploded the last few days while I was sick, and the cleaning fairies didn't come last night.  We must have forgotten to stick their check in the mail.  

Oh and can I say how much I just LOVE having my volvo running well again?  I seriously haven't driven it more than 3 or 4 miles at a time in like 8 or 9 months.  It's such a great car!  

the flu

I AM sick!  I have a fever (101.5) and everything.  Chills, headache, achey body, listlesness.  Sigh.  I am really nervous about Ezekiel because Daniel is going out of town early in the morning and I will be all by myself.  I don't know what to do!  Should I take Ezekiel to the doctors to get started on antivirals so he doesn't get sick??  I don't know.  :(  Suggestions please!!!  Thanks guys.

Just another Wednesday...

I've done nothing productive today... and it's nearly noon.  I woke up feeling horrible for some reason (nauseated, achey, headache... not pregnant for sure!!).  I'm a little worried I may be getting sick.  Anyhow I haven't been able to snap out of it yet... normally coffee does the trick.  

My little volvo is in the shop today getting fixed.  We weren't sure we would fix it because it's old and needs a lot of work.  But you know, volvos are supposed to run forever and mine only has 193k miles so far!  We decided to fix it and I'm excited to get it back today.  I'm also excited because we have spent 2 texas summers with the volvo withOUT air conditioning... black leather seats... oh my goodness, there were some awful times in that poor car.  But no AC is not an option any more with our little guy.  So I am thankful for that!

So I hosted our church's supper club last saturday, and everything went well.  I met a sweet old widow named Barbara who is going to teach me how to sew!  I'm "sew" excited!!  :)  I think she is too, as she lives all alone and seems a little lonely.

Alright baby's crying.   Gotta go!   :)

Oh the joy

Last night I had the privilege of spending HOURS on end with these two lovely ladies...

Rachel & Natasha

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had!!  They both have 3 little ones at home, and rarely get to have a girls night.  Oh my goodness... it was just wonderful!!  FIRST we went to a lovely yarn store, then to a used book store, then to a yummy restaurant with a real, live harpist!!  We asked to be seated right next to him, and the music was so relaxing and beautiful!  We had so much fun together.  I spent more money than I probably needed to on yarn and a book, but that's ok.  Daniel wasn't mad at me ;)  

Let's do it again soon ladies!!  

This morning I went to Melissa's baby shower to celebrate the soon-to-arrive baby sprocket.  It was just lovely to see you two weekends in a row, Melissa!  I then rushed home to clean my house because I am hosting our church's supper club tonight!  It's just a ladies potluck our church has once a month at different people's houses.  I'm excited- I love having people over. And my house was mostly clean from last weeks birthday party, so as long as no one wants to go upstairs, I'm ok.  (The upstairs is so rarely clean.  But I'm ok with that.)  

Alright I have to go get started on my spinach mushroom pizza for supper club!  I hope you all are doing well out in blogger land.  :)  

Rain rain, don't go away!!

It's rainy and cold and dreary and windy here... almost blustery.... (anyone remember winnie the pooh and the blustery day?  One of my favorites!  I love the word blustery, too).  It's the PERFECT day for warm jamies, fuzzy socks, hot cups of coffee, and stacks of books.  Yay!!  I don't think I have to tell you what I will be doing all day... 

Happy B-day party!

  

We had so much fun Saturday at Daniel's birthday barbque!  I just loved it.  Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures.... I was very busy enjoying all our wonderful friends.  I am still just amazed at the wonderful people God has brought into our lives.  I am so thankful for sincere, caring, thinking, loving friends.  We had such a good time... I think I need to throw a party every weekend.  :)  Thanks to everyone who came and made our time together so joyful and happy!!

Abby and Anna watching the chickens at the party!  The kids (all 14? of them) loved the chickens.

Natasha, Lexi, and Jessy (visit Jessy's blog to see this picture of Zeke and her husband, Greg!)

Ezekiel and our new garden!  It's still unplanted, but I'm glad that we haven't planted it yet because today is really cold (lows in the 40s) and wet and windy.  Blah.  We were going to do a wooden border, but we already had all these bricks so we used them instead.  My only concern is the bricks falling over... Daniel says we can stick a rod or something (through the holes in the bricks) into the ground to keep everything in place.

Just as I was writing all this, I heard my chickens squabbling very loudly outside... I could tell something was wrong!  I ran downstairs and out into the backyard, only to see a hawk trying to get into my chicken coop!  If you don't keep chickens then you probably think it would be pretty cool to see a hawk in your yard... but hawks EAT chickens... he was down on the ground trying to figure out how to get in and have a nice afternoon snack.  Luckily I scared him away and my little babies are all ok, but I imagine this hawk will be back...  I will be really really upset if he gets one of my little girls.

Oh what do you all think of the yellow background?  Does it hurt your eyes?  I keep trying different colors and can't decide what I want...

Banana bliss

Have I mentioned my love for the game Banana Grams before?  It's just lovely.  Sometimes I play by myself, and this...

... is what happens.  Bliss for me is curled up around a cup of coffee in a clean house in my jammies with banana grams.  If I could knit at the same time I don't know what would happen!  *sigh!*

So I am busy getting ready for Daniel's party tomorrow.  I still need to: mop the kitchen & entryway, clean the downstairs bathroom, and vaccume the stairs.  THEN I need to go to the grocery store.  I'm going to try to get as much food as possible prepared tonight so that tomorrow I am totally NOT stressed.  The only thing I plan to do tomorrow is lay out the food, and in the morning I'm going to bake the cake (yum!).  That's all.  We still need to finnish mowing/weedwacking the yard, but that won't take too long, either, and we'll do that tonight. Oh and I need to start marinating the chicken sometime today.  Ok now that my mental to-do list is all typed up for you to read....

We have discovered that Ezekiel loves the saxaphone!  There is a sax player at church, and whenever he plays Ezekiel just smiles and waves his arms... when he stops, Zeke stops.  I love it!  I hope he wants to play when he's older.  He already has to take piano lessons (from his momma) but he's allowed to choose his second, third, and fourth instruments.  ;)  Man I cannot wait to start lessons for him!  It will be great.  I love him so much.

Alllright I'd better go start mopping and such.... Hmm... I wonder how fast I can get all that done....

Geodome fun!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Today is Daniel's 24th Birthday!  Happy Birthday Darling!!!

I hope he is enjoying his day today.  He got the day off work, we slept in late, got up, I gave him his presents (3 books- what else would my husband want?), made a cake, it overflowed in the oven (so we ended up eating a half-baked gooey cake! Yum!!), I made him steak and potatoes for brunch (while he read out loud from one of his new books to me and Ezekiel), and now he's off to get a massage with the gift certificate I gave him LAST valentine's day.  I hope he enjoys that- he needs to relax!  When he gets home we plan to do some yard work together and FINALLY start our garden.  Daniel and a couple friends went on Monday to go get dirt for all our different gardens, so we have a lovely mound on our back patio waiting to become useful.   

Since it is my husband's birthday, I thought I would write a list of a few of the reasons I love him!  Here it goes...

He loves God with all his heart.

He is sincere.

He is very relaxed.  He stays calm and collected no matter what.

He loves to learn.

He loves to apply what he learns.

He is intelligent and wise.

He isn't caught up in wasteful activities- he spends his time well.

He is handsome.

He is frugal.

He values simplicity.

He is a wonderful father.

He overlooks my faults.

He's honest.

He works very hard to provide for our family.

He's funny.

He has goals in life.

He loves people well.  He's a good friend.

He's fun to be around!

There are a million more reasons...

I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband!  Happy Birthday Daniel!  I love you so much!

No garden yet...

We did NOT put a garden in this weekend... I'm disappointed.  It was super, super windy on Saturday, our planned garden day, so we decided to wait lest our dirt blow away and our tender little plants break.  Sunday we ended up being busy (ehem... with Sunday afternoon naps, knitting, and taking food to friends in the hospital) so we didn't do it then either.  But I still consider Sunday a very productive day regardless.  You're supposed to rest one day a week anyway!  I THINK today Daniel and our friend Terry may go get dirt.  If they don't do it today, they're doing it Thursday.  Either way, hopefully a garden sometime this week will be started in our yard.  

Wednesday is Daniel's Birthday!  There have been many a year where I've forgotten his birthday until the day before and had rather lame plans.  But not this year!  I started planning like 2 weeks ago, and I've already gotten him a couple gifts and invited people over for a barbecue on Saturday. I hope he feels very loved and special this week.  I do love him very much.  

Well since we're having people over this weekend, I am extra motivated to clean...  I think I am actually going to get all the laundry done, mop the kitchen floor, clean out my pantry, vacuum the stairs, you know, all the stuff that generally gets neglected to do other more important things like cuddling with my baby, knitting, reading, cooking.... Daniel's extra happy about the planned "week of cleaning" because he REALLY wants to call a realtor and get our house on the market, which we still haven't done.  Selling our house is the biggest piece of our "leaving the military" puzzle... We're planning to call the realtor NEXT WEEK while our house is still super clean from our party.  I think this is a good plan.  

So Ezekiel has gotten big enough for a jonny-jump-up.  You know those hanging chairs on springs that you put in the door frame?  Someone gave us one, and he loves it!  He doesn't do any jumping yet, but he does bounce a bit on his feet, and he likes turning around to look at different things.  Basically he likes being in a vertical position.  I've been able to get a lot more done lately because he is so content in that thing.  He's in it right now!  :)

Ok I'd better go be productive!