Normal Days...

My little garden helpers!  Kamie quickly went from digging up weeds in her little square to throwing dirt at Blake, which really shouldn't have bothered him much considering the amount he was eating.  He prolly thought it was chocolate.
We ran and picked up Bronz this morning which should have taken 5 minutes but turned into more like 45. He called for a ride just as Kamie pulled a whole glass of chocolate milk on top of herself... which didn't help with communication much. So after chatting with the neighbors for awhile I find I'm not at the right spot. Then I specifically asked hay field or V's place? "V's place", so I pull in and no one is around.  I call in, and find out that there's a difference between V's place and the place he lives.  Who woulda thunk it....  All this with my pathetic stick shift driving.   Oh well, more steam coming from my head than the truck.  
Loving, loving having the barn cleaned out.  The kids spend lots of time riding trikes, playing tag and drawing out there.  Last night after a bonfire we played a couple games of hot potato with Kamie, she had a blast.  Mostly she was pretty happy to have both her parents undivided attention.  Which meant we were listening to a lot of stories.  She is absolutely hilarious once talking... describing her dolls imaginary car she said it had a "Behinder" (otherwise known as a truck box.)
And right now waiting for the little Miss to fall asleep in order to throw together a peach pie, to have with coffee in the barn tonight.  The white lights have been practically begging for it.  Oh whatever, so it's my tastebuds...


The kidlets had a ball playing with these adorable puppies yesterday.

Grown-Up BLT's

I'm keeping my fridge stocked with bacon for the moment my big tomatoes finally up and decide to turn red.  This is slightly dangerous.  Cuz' I'm willing to make compromises for a BLT.  So currently I'm all about being a test kitchen and getting the perfect BLT down pat as I wait on the real tomatoes.

Today's Amazingness:

Toast

Cream cheese, spread on one piece

butter and mayo on the other

(like I said this BLT testing is dangerous business.)

Bacon (Duh) 

-I snip mine into little pieces so I have more even flavor-

A few drops of flavored vinegar

(I use red wine vinegar, it's milder and sweeter than balsamic, which I wanted to like but just didn't.)

lower-case-t tomatoes

Onion greens

Lettuce

Chervil 

(which is like parsley only milder, and not gone to seed yet...)

Cheese

and

*drumroll*

Lemon Basil

I planted it because I'm not a huge fan of basil but love herbs.

Then it grew and I had no idea what to do with it cuz it smells so lemony.

After a little experimentation...

It doesn't really keep it's lemony flavor in baking, and I like the basil flavor a lot better than, well, basil.

Uncooked it has a fantastic lemon flavor and is pretty soft on the herby basil side of things.

Yum yum!

 

Barn Party (and Random July Happenings)

 

Our favorite Aunt Inga had a birthday last week.

Schedules were hectic, two siblings were out of state, fair was going on...

Soo we decided to do a sneaky surprise party.

(Make-up for having a dud birthday)

Bronz, the kids and I worked overtime on the barn.  Blake even got in on the sweeping.

But there was also a lot of this.

(Note, Blake's balancing act.  Is it any wonder our kids are constantly nursing lumps and bumps?)

 

 
 

Her boyfriend, Blake L. completely handled the surprise part of things and did a good job as you can tell by her face!

(My apologies for photo quality... all off the smart phone.  Which happens to have an easy.to.charge.battery)

I just love birthday parties.   

It's like an extra special chance to tell them how much they mean to you.

That said, I didn't get a card written and nary a present wrapped.



Nancy & Layla went all out with a gazillion cakes and salads.

(Lucky me, I found leftovers in my fridge this morning!)

Blake L. had pretty much come directly from a business trip to Kansas, so he was not without fireworks.

This was pretty exciting for the younger crew.

All in all we had a pretty fabulous time.

And we might have pushed our bedtimes a tad...

as in crawling in at 1:30...

 

Here's the Queen Bee.

Her Royal Highness

Miss Kamie

Miss Pam signed her up for a parade float...

Which thrilled her little heart.

She practiced her princess wave on the back of the four-wheeler.

Modeling her hair.

She's soo beautiful...

(No apologies for bragging, you all know her faults.)

And now she wants her hair curled

the crown hurts her ears,

it gets stuck in the back of her trike.

Then my gorgeous little blondie

furiously pedals away

(Blake doing his best to dodge)

(No wonder everyone comments on how fast he walks, it's survival, people)

Happy July!

What I'm Laughing At

Me: I want to run a 10k
Wally: I don't think you can do it.
Me:  99% percent of the time I underestimate myself, and I really think I can do this.
Wally:  But what if you're wrong 1% of the time?
Haters gonna be haters

Kamie sitting on the counter, hand in the candy jar, almost loses her balance...
Oops! I almost fell!  This counter is dangerous for little girls.  We need to cut out this counter and build a new one. 
And now I exercise great self control and don't get all political...

Listening to three repetitions of  'Don't close your eyes', waits until the chorus comes around again and then echoes 'Don't close your eyes' with

'Keep Your Eyes Open'

Kamie is getting quite argumentative, for an example:Holding up a package of bottle rockets
"Mom what are these called"
"Bottle rockets"
"Nooo." "They're called Bowel Rockets"
As they say 'you only embarrass yourself'

We have a neighbor who could double as Si from Duck Dynasty, he has a brother.  So picture Si with a Willie & Jase dynamic.
Last year 'Si' accidentally cuts off half of his brothers finger in a machinery accident.  (Rumor has it that 'Jase' felt worse about this than 'Si')
This summer 'Si' and 'Jase' are working on something and somehow or other Jase accidentally knocks 'Si' out cold.  So 'Si' is laying flat on the ground and starts coming to.  "How many fingers am I holding up?" asks 'Jase'.
"9 and a half" comes the quick reply.

Kicking -er- Hitting The Bucket

Agh... So we thought Blake had food poisoning, until a day later Bronz got sick... Then Kamie, and myself.  It wasn't your ordinary garden variety flu either.  Wham Bam Slam.  Whew. Blake was back to feeling normal and since two of us were lying prostrate over buckets, and Bronz was a delicate shade of yellow, My family graciously took Blake for an overnight.  We are all up and feeling pretty good today.  Kamie has her doctor kit out and is happily pretending that her dolly 'lil' Aaron had to go to the E.R. because of the flu.  I'm working on the laundry pile. Try washing every blanket in your house twice in one weekend. 
Kamie was a trooper, and really caught on to the art of 'how to be sick'.  Including one incident where she woke me up to tuck her into bed.
"Sure, honey. How come you're up?"
"I went downstairs drank some juice, it was really good. Then I came up, threw it up in my bucket, wiped my mouth, and now mommy, could you tuck me into bed."
Feeling sick makes me:
Empathize in a tiny way with the struggles my friends with chronic health issues have.
Appreciate my overall very good health.
Enjoy the ordinary.
It felt so good to be able to sit up and feed the kids oatmeal, and cuddle in bed, and crawl chase the little guy, and find hidden pictures with Kamie.
And I think I kinda fell all over, in love again, when my greenish/yellowish husband was holding my head up, and brushing my hair out of my eyes while I was tossing my cookies (or kidneys, or possibly toenails.)

How To Create A Calm Environment

(When The Piles Are Bigger Than You)

 

I’m writing this because yesterday was the kind of day where the kids would leapfrog their naps.

Where I actually prayed for Kamie to go back to sleep. 
Bronz sensed my desperation – After subtle hints. Oh whatever, Yeah, I don’t really do anything subtle. 

So he took Kamie with him to run to the feed store… I knew I had at least 40 minutes of peace and quiet. 

I surveyed the disaster. 

And…

>Drumroll<

Here’s my 40 minute recipe for making a stab at restoring order.

Use Bleach Like Perfume

Dab strategically. 

I put a squirt of dish soap a splash of bleach, and some water in a bucket, and go to town.

(Actually I use splash-less bleach.  Amazing.  It’s completely saving my wardrobe.  I found it at my grocery store, and it has a gel like consistency.)

 

Beautiful Music

Even if you’re not really into the classical music thang. 

(I did that on purpose, they’re all grinding their teeth.  And you can tell what genre of music I prefer.)

While you’re at it light a couple candles, and if you have any yummy scented plug-ins get those going too.

 

Attack The Worst Area

And keep it to an area.  When it’s completed move to the next. 

Don’t go and try to do the whole place at once.

 Y’know there’s only one of you.

 

Use Your Time Saving Devices

Washing Machine

Dishwasher

Crockpot

Breadmaker

These are your servants, put ‘em to work.

 

Hit The Floor

I bleach scrubbed my kitchen floor, and ran a vacuum over the rest of the main floor.

Much, much better.

 

Don’t Take A Bubble Bath 0r Sit Down

This is a sure-fire way of guaranteeing someone will immediately wake up or come home.  I know it’s unscientific, but believe me, it’s been proven my whole life.  Even, back to the days of babysitting siblings.

If you absolutely have to relax,  Do what I did.  Make coffee.  Ice it.  Pour some yummy creamer in there.  Look at the three rooms that look amazing.  Lean against the counter.

Don’t think about the porch which proves evolution wrong –nothing, spontaneously gets better. 

 

Ta Da!

 

Postscript:  Then last night, or rather early this morning Blake woke up.  I put him in bed right beside me, about 5 minutes later he started getting sick all over me.  Disgusting.  After bathing both of us.  And then taking him downstairs so I could clean our bed up … he started all over again.  All night long this was repeated.  Bronz and I took shifts.  Whoever he got sick on had the following nap.  By 5:00 a.m.  We were running low on blankets to wrap him up in.  Bless my man’s very sweet heart.  (Cuz’ he hates puke even more than I do.)  He took the 5:00 to 8:30 shift and I finally got some sleep.  I didn’t even get called down to help with more clean-up assists.  And I bit my tongue when I heard about his Nyquil dosage.  The little man has been sleeping a lot today.  Leaving me lots of time to attack the laundry. 

 

So, this housekeeping stuff sort of feels like treadmill material.  Yet, it’s these things that create a serene environment for our family as well as ourselves.  Keep it up sisters.   How many great things were created without little steps?