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.  

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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!