The Extremes

I'll be honest.  They are kind of kicking my butt lately. 

Here they are: 

15 year old boy becoming a man but still hating anything in 'the box'.

10 month old baby becoming...well...bigger. *sniff, sniff  - and THANK GOD all in the same breath.*

12 year old girl starting to notice clothing, makeup, and hair.  And care about those things.  A LOT.

10 year old girl who is still trying to figure out if she wants to play with farm animals, dress like she's color blind (LOVE IT now that I can appreciate it), chase butterflies, or care about the stuff that her big sister buddy is into now.

Everyone needing LOTS OF WORDS.  Ack. 

I know they're all normal.  Maybe I'm the one who's slightly 'off'.  I'm needing to up the anty, so to speak, and I'm not remembering where the heck I stored my 'anty'.  Each of them needs me in a different way and I'm feeling rather pathetic in this multi-tasking realm. 

Charlotte's diaper bag is a funny visual for me.  I have diapers, wipes, baby toy, bottle, formula - then there's the book Love and Logic for Teens, hair stuff for the big girls, someone's ipod and headphones that they stashed in there so they wouldn't have to carry it themselves, and some school supplies. 

There's not the glorious flow from one color to the next like those pictures of crayons melting as gravity has it's affect and the color just seeps to something new, bright, and beautiful. 

It's more like that Jackson Pollack picture of splatters of paint colliding or crashing on and around the others.  I'm not fond of that one.  (Don't hate me, please.  I never said I was a great art aficionado.)  That picture has *always*, always reminded me of vomit.

Yikes. 

It's all artwork though right?  Somehow or another the picture that emerges will be amazing to look at.  I'm just hoping and a prayin' that it's not put in the 'What NOT To Do' or the 'WHAT THE HECK??" section of the museum of our family life. 



I just made myself snicker at something as I wrote that last paragraph.  I never did well in art class. Yeesh.  God does have a sense of humor. 

Here I raise my glass (okay, coffee cup and Charlotte's bottle) to a new learning curve in  'Art Appreciation Class', all of us crammed into the same 'boat'.  I hope we have some fun while doing it. 

Eggs

Our chickens are going to town.  Not literally....

I love having fresh eggs.  Even better that I can walk out the door, and around the garage and get some of our own if I need to.  For the most part, the girls collect the eggs for me and we have a steady stash in our cupboard. 

Our flock consists of 22 chickens and 2 turkeys.  I'm not counting turkey anything in this post as those are Riley's; lock, stock, and barrel. 

Here's what we started with:

5 Rhode Island Red
5 Golden Sex Link
5 Black Sex Link
5 Buff Orphington (2 wound up being roosters and one died last week.  He was mean so there were no tears over his demise.)
2 Barred Rock

I'm not great yet about tracking who's doing what laying but we've seen all the 'brands' doing their job in laying and we're getting anywhere from 15-22 eggs a day so something is working right.  :)

Oh - and it's a total joke that 'chickens lay eggs in the morning'.  Not necessarily.  Nor will they always lay in the great nesting boxes you have set up for them.  Some will prefer the corner behind the one of the trees in the back 40, some will prefer to lay on the bag of wood chips you have set aside for winter.  Another funny was that up until a few weeks ago you could go out to the chicken coop and see several hens lined up for one particular box (never mind there are 5 other nesting beds right there).  They'd be squawking at each other and in particular, to the one who was laying at that moment and holding up the line.  Just like a regular Ladies Room.  :/ 

Anyhow - they're figuring it out and so are we.  Alan's jimmy-rigged the fencing for them and us so that they won't be coming up to the garden anymore unless I let them.  We're going to be playing with their feed to see about some added nutrition and keeping them super happy and disease resistant.  A cost ratio spreadsheet is coming on.  I can feel it.  Although, Alan and I have decided that we'll keep chickens and do eggs even if it's not 'cheaper', because we believe that it's much better to have/raise our own. 

If you're interested in more egg info: this is a great blog I found through another friend.

Mud Room

I've always wanted one - a room specifically designated for all that 'enter the house' mess that comes with bodies entering. 

We don't have one - but a couple of weeks ago (yes, I'm behind) that is what my kitchen was.  I was taping and mudding.  Who knew how much fun that stuff is?  It's like making mud pies as a kid only with something you can actually use after the fact. 

Here's the blank canvas....so to speak. 













Ready. Set. Tape. 













These spots were slightly akward in that our celings are pretty high without those soffits in there and even with the step stool, I was having to be pretty careful and stretch to reach. 




















This picture I thought was funny. 

That would be my husband's shoe print.  On the ceiling.  He's uber talented, I tell ya.  You get fun surprises when you repurpose materials.  :) 

Playing in the mud....



Basically ready for paint.  This was about 3-4 coats of mud.  I can't remember how many days in.  OBVIOUSLY it's not gorgeous.  It was going to be behind cabinetry so I wasn't going for glamourous.  I *do* love that we chose to do a 'textured' look on the walls that you do see.  Imperfection at it's most perfect.  There WILL be a blog about that as soon as my thoughts become somewhat coherent on the subject.  Hasn't happened yet, though. 

It was one more step down the 'redone' kitchen yellow brick road.

Random bits: 

After waiting for that all to dry, I attacked it with paint one evening at about 10:30pm.  I don't recommend it.  Especially if you've been excited about breaking into that can of red paint you bought A YEAR AGO.  It may or may not come out looking like a giant Rasberry blew up on your wall and you will freak out slightly, apologize to your husband, and have nightmares. 

Yikers. 

It looks better now - 3 coats later and with a giant white cabinet in front of it- but wow...it was dicey there at first. 

Another sneak peek.  Here's the backsplash we're trying.  I love the look of it...just not sure if it's *too much*.  We both prefer simple and well...there's a lot going on there. 

I Hijacked My Husband's Saturday

One of many. 

This was two weeks ago.  As we were sitting there quietly enjoying our coffee in the sunroom on a Saturday morning, I said, 'Hmm....I bet it wouldn't take too long if we just....'.

Snort.

And we were off.....













Salmon colored cabinetry???  Guess what year. 

Amazingly, it seemed as though these wood cabinets were held on only by two screws and about 28 layers of paint.  Weird.

Cabinet out.  

"Do the soffit smash.....".

Yes, he's practically Atlas.  

No. More. Soffit.  WHOLE LOTTA MESS.  Dang.

SuperAlan - able to leap stoves and cabinetry in a single bound - and reach into long stretches of drywall to fish out the honkin' screws that were holding up the ginormous microwave. 



Here's a pic of the boys bonding over drywall installation.

And there went the whole weekend.