The Last Night of the Year...

2009 is coming to an end. Am I ready for this year to be over? Yes, and then again No! So much has happened to my family this year. I went on a business trip in April and got mugged! I can honestly say that is the first time that's ever happened! An even better part of the story is that boss and I (being both fearless and extremely stupid) fought him and chased him down. I got everything back and he got arrested. I got the news in November that he got ten years in prison. If I had gone back to testify, he would have gotten life. In August, my beautiful daughter got sick with what we thought was a bug. We were then told it was Flu A (the swine flu). Yet, my mother's intuition still told me it wasn't and when she didn't get better with that treatment we took her to the hospital. The third time she was seen by a doctor, after a billion tests....they found that her appendix had been ruptured for probably ten days (almost the entire length of her illness). Her little body had protected her by forming a sac around the appendix and it had filled with all that fluid and five kinds of bacteria. She had immediate emergency surgery and stayed in the hospital for 10 days. We were home for 3 days and she started feeling pain again, back to the hospital for a second emergency surgery and another 9 days in the hospital. Then she had to start school later than everyone else and it was her first year in sixth grade. Poor Skylar! She has pulled through like a champ and all her Doctors were amazed that she wasn't writhing in pain....She is one tough cookie! I went back to school this year to complete my Bachelors in Education and it has been hard and fun at the same time. And then there are the really great parts of the year that I will miss. Clark has been so much fun this year. His personality is amazing. He is funny and stubborn and so smart. I will miss this year of his age and the stages he is going through. He makes me laugh and want to pull out my hair on a daily basis. But the love he gives in return is worth every ornery little thing he does. David and his business are doing well this year. It was a big leap of faith for us to make the decision that he quit a good job to start a company. I am proud that he did not let fear stand in his way and I am glad that God is blessing us with the ability to get by. Just to help out...don't be afraid to go shop at his store (JP Archery in Sapulpa). We have a great family and group of friends and I know that 2010 will hold just as many challenges as '09, but hopefully also just as many rewards. I am starting so many life long projects. The Love Dare for one, I am on Day 4. I think that the strategies and skills I am learning through this will stay with me forever. And I am changing the way my family eats and lives. I have started making more foods from scratch to get away from both the cost and the unhealthy additives of so much store bought food. I will be planting a garden this year (my hubs has promised not to mow over like he did last years). By the way, I don't really have any idea how to Garden so....feel free to send me tips and hints! And I will be canning and preserving everything I can get my hands on. I want to get back to the simpler things of life. Not depending so much on material and store bought items. And teaching my family (hubs included) that homemade and handmade things are better! I am trying to decide on what grade I want to teach and pretty soon David and I are going to have to decide how to get rid of some of our stuff...or add on to our house! So that is my year in a nutshell and my hopes for the year to come! I hope all of you have a great 2010 and that all your wishes come true! I will continue to march down this path of mine and hopefully clear some of the moss off....

Wait! I Have to Vacuum!

This is what happens to your hallway when a 2 1/2 year old gets a toy vacuum from his Nana. One day while you are minding your own business, he will start throwing EVERYTHING in his room out into the hallway! "What are you doing?" you will say. "I have to vacuum my room right now" he will say! At this point if you are anything like me, you will walk away, take a picture and let the little clean freak go about his business! (Note to all of you panicking out there, I made him put it all back). Also, of major importance today he and I went another round in the Battle of Nap Time Ring....The score was previously, Clark:2 Mommy:0....Today-I WON!!!! Granted it took me an hour of sitting by his bed telling him to lay down and the nap itself only lasted an hour, but I made my point! I probably wouldn't have been so strict on the whole nap thing today if I had gotten any sleep, but I didn't so a nap was essential.
Next, of great importance it was Day Two on my Love Dare challenge. My challenge was to still say nothing negative to my spouse and to do something unexpected as a gesture of kindness. I gave this a lot of thought and worked within my boundaries. There is currently the leftover conditions of the first Blizzard EVER in my state and I am stuck at home. Therefore, I made the kids a "kid friendly" dinner and made him a special dinner. I also had the crazy two year old in bed before he got home. This gave us a little quiet time at the table together with only one interruption from the older kid. I was going to make another recipe from my NEW favorite cook book The Pioneer Woman Cooks, I wanted to make Iron Skillet Corn Bread. A few problems arose, no buttermilk....no problem she says I can make my own! Great, I will do that! Oops, no vinegar or low-fat milk! Okay, scrap corn bread plans! Hubs will be happy with a hot home cooked meal. I think I succeeded in my challenge. Hubs did ask if I was on Day Two and I said Yes...then he said "Why are you doing this?" "Do you think we have a bad marriage?" Heck NO!!!! I think we have a great marriage and I think when you get to the point in your marriage when you think you don't have to keep trying...you should try something new and fun! I think we will grow and learn!
I have decided to put in here what I am currently reading and what my kiddos are currently reading. Reading is big in our house, so I hope that we can inspire you to pick up a new book. I am currently reading Out Of The Dust which so far is a great book about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl! My 12 year old daughter is reading Wuthering Heights and the two year old is currently reading a whole collection of classics ranging from Dr. Seuss to Eric Carle! Please, Please, Please read to your kids-until they are grown and out of your house! My daughter and I read the same books and have "mini" book clubs over them. We are the only members of the book club, it is very exclusive! We would love it if you wanted to read with us and chat about any books!
Thanks for listening....more tomorrow...

Oh My Heavens...

What a day! The two year old is in some kind of stage that apparently requires that he go almost naked most of the day. Then at nap time, course he must get completely naked. He used to be a great napper....like three hours a day for me, but alas that seems to be over! My heart is broken! I do love nap time! And please don't think that it is because I use the time to get so much done. It is not.....I really like to take naps too! This is a list of the Top 5 Funniest Things he said at nap time today (he talked to himself for quite a while, to trick me into thinking he might crack).
1. Someone come save my life.
2. Oh, Come ON!
3. What's happening here?
4. I am a hero.
5. I am the real Buzz.
Okay, obviously the last one came from Toy Story 2, but it was funny that he threw out in this situation!
But enough of that, onto my projects. Today I cleaned out all my kitchen cabinets and threw away things, consolidated, made a stack of things to return to my mother-in-law...(sorry it took so long), and made room for my canning supplies. I felt great, accomplished, like I could take over the world. Then that whole nap thing up there happened and kind of deflated my ego! Oh Well. Next, I did indeed try very hard to focus on my Day One Challenge from the Love Dare...Resolve to demonstrate patience and say nothing negative to your spouse at all. Okay, I thought this would be a piece of cake. Not to brag, but I am not doing this because I have a failing marriage. I am doing it because I have a great marriage and I want to keep it that way. We rarely fight and we didn't fight today, but it was strange that my patience was tested a few times. Was it simply because I was focusing on it? Or was it because I have never thought about it in this way? And while I don't think I said anything negative, what if I said something I don't remember? Things do sometimes just FLY out of my mouth! Bottom Line: Day one...harder than I thought! I also started to wonder today "what would happen if I did the Love Dare on my kids"? Next, I made dinner...still reeling from my great cleaning project apparently I thought I would tackle Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Following my rules for a simple life, it is homemade from scratch and I had everything I needed. I got my recipe from www.thepioneerwoman.comI adore her. So her recipe calls for an 10 to 12 inch cast iron skillet, so I drag mine and throw everything in there. Apparently mine is smaller than that, there was so much butter and brown sugar in there it looked like heaven. Then there was too much batter, so I filled it up to the very top of the skillet. Yum I said and threw it in the oven. About 15 minutes later, the hubs decided the smoke alarm was about to go off and flew around opening windows...I checked the cake. This was a site, the brown sugary goo was seeping up around the batter and sliding off the skillet onto the bottom of the oven. No problem, I place a cookie sheet under it. Problem solved, the center was still completely raw though. No problem, I set the timer for another ten minutes...then checked again. A little longer maybe....then a little longer....Okay so 50 minutes later I had a perfect Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Here's a little secret, the extra butter and brown sugar made the most heavenly syrup that dripped all over and was like sin on a spoon. I encourage you to recreate my accidental masterpiece. I guess on my journey you would call this a upturned stone on my moss covered path. Or maybe I just stopped to look a butterfly or something. More tomorrow.....

The Start of Something New...

This is it! My first day to blog. I have been thinking about this for quite awhile, but didn't feel that I had anything truly newsworthy to blog about. I still don't really, but I thought I would give it a try. I am starting two new things in my life, and this blog will be the story of my Journey. My Journey along a moss covered path towards a future I myself am still unsure of. Here are my new projects. I have decided to start leading my family to a simpler way of life. I am a country girl at heart. I prefer a good pair of jeans and cozy, soft sweater to any dress or suit. And while I like my jewelry, I go most days without makeup. This suits me, and luckily it suits my hubs. I am setting out with a goal to change the way we eat and live. My husband and I enjoy spending time together hunting, so this process is not new to me. I will however be adding in the adventure of gardening and canning/preserving as much of our food as possible. (It is my goal to prove to my hubs that he could move me to all the land I want with all the animals I want...and I could survive). When I tell him now that I want to get chickens and cows and pigs...he just says "NO". Well, actually he says more than that, but I thought I would keep things clean at first. Next, I am starting the Love Dare. I am so excited to begin this and I am anxious to see how my hubs reacts to things. So that is it. I will fill you in on more about myself later (I'm sure we have plenty of time). But for now, I will leave you with this....yesterday I went to get my son out of bed from the nap he never actually took. I found him with nothing in the bed, completely naked!!!! Two years old and already getting naked in bed. Note to self, consider grounding him from 13 on.....