Farm livin' is the life for me

Green acres is the place to be. Farm livin' is the life for me. Land spreadin' out so far and wide... 

I've been debating how to paint the picture of my newest "farm experience." The best example I can come up with is how many hours our children log in front of the tv. Studies show that by the time a child is 5 years old they have seen gory murder, nudity, betrayal, infidelity, profanity, incompetent fathers, worthless mothers, and children who know everything. Crazy?!? Sadly, it's true and uncensored. So how does this have ANYTHING to do with farming you ask?!  

I'm GETTING there. Please be patient.

I tried something new and out of my league this past weekend. I even had Tim snap a picture with his handy-dandy cell phone camera. I was excited and ready to post it online to share with my few avid readers. Suddenly I was flooded with doubts. How would people react? Would they shake their heads in disgust or chuckle and roll their eyes.  Then, I had my epiphany! It can't be worse than what we expose our kids (intentionally or unintentionally) to on television on a daily basis.  So here's my over-analyzed farming experience:

I am a slayer of roosters. Neck wringer, feather-plucker, ax swinger, and giblet extractor. Wayne, my father-in-law(pictured behind me) taught me a seemingly lost form of bringing the meat home. 

I, the dainty city gal who LOVES her heels and spa treatments, got a lesson in taking the chicken from the roost to the kitchen table. Timidly observing Wayne, I had no idea if I would have the guts to participate in this endeavor. Surprisingly those guts did appear...and not just from the feathery fowl hanging next to me. 

I managed to take the challenge and plunged head first into the process.  Ax in hand, I knocked off 3 rooster heads and not so expertly skinned and gutted one lucky rooster. I am first to admit that it was messy. I kept my nose wrinkled and a close watch on the expert as he patiently demonstrated. It's not exactly charming to reach up in the rooster's business and take out his innards or wrestle with firmly attached armory of feathers. We did, however, play guess this organ to keep the mood light. 

Now tucked away is this valued skill and of course a tiny notch in my farming belt. So folks, next time you see me swinging through with my coordinating purse, earrings, bracelet, and shoes, no ruffle out of place... WATCH OUT. This gal has blood on her hands.  ;) 

Fried chicken anyone??

... I get allergic smelling hay. I just adore a penthouse view. Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue... Good bye, city life. Green Acres we are there.        -Green Acres TV Theme

A look into the future perhaps...

This was supposed to be big brother hugging little brother and smiling for the camera. Needless to say we never actually got that far... guess I'll try again some other day.

10 months old

Wow how times flies! My boys are such a joy. Of course I can write that since at the moment there are no screaming babies tugging at my legs or demanding my undivided attention. THEN there are days that I live for nap time! :) The house stays cluttered and any attempt to pick up as we go is futile. Well I'm getting off topic a bit. TODAY it's about my 10 month old, David.

He eats ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. Feta cheese, grapes, avocado, fried rice, spaghetti, dead leaves, fixodent wrappers, dog food...

He LOVES the outdoors. Anytime we even go near the door he falls apart if we don't exit to the porch or yard.

He loves to swing. We have a classy tikes swing hanging from our shade tree in the yard. He would swing all day if allowed.

He's firmly attached to his pacifier and blanket. Just this month he has also started sleeping through the night. BLISS for mommy and daddy.


He is FINALLY crawling. This of course leads to constant new discoveries -the good kind and the scary kind.
     Funny example: Samuel had to go potty. A SLOW and non-progressing learning curve. So we head to the restroom and David was left to play contently in the living room. But how much fun is that?!?! So he makes a beeline for the dog water bowl in the kitchen behind the door and trash can(which is technically out of his reach, right?). He dumped the water, swam around on the kitchen floor and then proceeded to get mad and upset. I left Samuel unattended on the toilet and took off for the kitchen. I found David soaked from head to toe face down and flailing. Samuel's toddler curiosity sent him running after me, bare from the waist down .  Thankfully no more puddles were "discovered" on the way back to the bathroom. That was a busy 2 minutes!

and last but not least, David's a momma's boy! He gets excited when he sees me and as soon as I scoop him up he cuddles into my shoulder and dishes out the baby love.

Summer Recap from my Mobile

I always tote my camera around and I always forget to get it out and snap pictures! Thankfully my cell phone is usually handy to get a grainy image of our most treasured moments.  As I was cleaning out my images I thought I'd recap our summer. 

My brother Caleb left for Iraq this summer. We went to his sendoff in southern Alabama and then saw him just once more on leave before he headed out. Thanks to modern technology he has actually called once and talked online once since arriving in Kuwait. It's hard to believe he is halfway across the world defending (whats left) of our American Freedom.

Here we have Poppi, David, Caleb, and me sweating BUCKETS at Caleb's  military sendoff.

NEVER DOUBT your children are watching... I was making Chicken fajitas as Samuel sat at the island in our kitchen and chatted in toddler language to keep me company.  I turned my back for a mere .00002 of a second and when I looked back he was taking the remaining cilantro and shredding it over his peas and rice.

We played outside a lot this summer. Rain or shine. Heat or more heat. The boys have a serious diaper tan line.

 I sold my Honda Pilot this summer as we reduce eliminate our debt and prepare for unemployment. Now we drive an older Jeep Grand Cherokee that has challenged our checking account already. Samuel and I got stuck at my Dad's one Sunday afternoon. Dad, Samuel and eventually Tim spent the afternoon replacing the starter and battery.

Please notice Samuel's hands and clothes. I'm glad I changed him out of his sunday best (a last minute thought)!!! HE "helped" with the jeep and LOOKED as if he made a difference!

After dragging Samuel in to rehydrate I styled his hair with sweat.
DISGUSTING. 

Still working on crawling... he prefers the army crawl

How to make Chores fun

Even now I can here my mother's voice telling me, as a child, that I could make chores "as fun as I want them to be." Of course I listened closely, rolled my eyes, and stomped off to grumble my way through toilet scrubbing and bookshelf dusting. NOW as an adult and Biblically-minded wife and mother, the list of chores only grows longer and more tedious. I want to pass on a bit of my mother's advice to my children. Often this is best shown by example. 

Today I needed to wash our flea invested dogs. UGH-UGH-UGH! I also needed to blast way spiderwebs, dead bugs, and leaves that had accumulated on our outside toys. Oh! And wash the porch and water the flowers. I dressed the boys in fast drying clothes and we headed outside for our water party. Since we live with Alabama summer,  we must stay hydrated to beat the sticky clingy heat that even a shady tree can't chase away.  So we brought along...

Ice cold water (arrangement by Samuel)

I planted David somewhere safe 

And proceeded to wash the dogs. I do NOT have pictures because it was an ugly mess. I tether each dog to the tree and make a soapy mess all over the driveway as I wash them down. Upon release of their captivity they both promptly go roll in the grass to remove the nice smelling flea and tick soap I've used. Hopefully I've killed the army of unwelcome pests. 

Then Samuel "helped" me wash down all of the toys. His giggles were worth his impeccable aim as he showered me with cold hose water.

The giggles could have been due to his mom shrieking and running while shielding the camera.. 

Mia helped dry the toys while Dakota stayed far away from a possible re-bathing.

I then reacquired the water hose and doused the plants, porch, and Samuel. We finished off by filling up the pool and came in for an AC break and lunch. I'd say today's chores were worth the gritty wet mess the kitchen floor now displays.