The Traveler Has Returned!

The Traveler Has Returned!

 I've come back to you, my dear readers! Yes, indeed I have! Y'all probably thought I ran off and left you without any warning...*ahem* OK, maybe that's exactly what I did. Perhaps you can find it somewhere in your heart to forgive me? 

Maybe you will overlook my absence if I enlighten you to where I've been lurking for over a week? 

My brothers and I took a extended dual-purpose trip to Tennessee to visit Atlanta, Jordan, and darling Marian & to attend a friend's wedding. 

Now that you know where I've been, I will skim over the highlights of the trip:

• I got sick.
•  I got to goof off with my darling niece, and be the crazy Auntie that I am.
• Attended a wedding.
• Visited with some new/old friends.
•  Went to a WWII reenactment.
• Rode in a German motorcycle sidecar.

^Be jealous. Be very jealous!^

 

 

And there you have it, a quick summary of what I've been into this past week.

I have gobs of updates, farm news, and scrumpious recipes to catch y'all up on, so stayed tuned for those!

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Sour Cream Cheddar Biscuits

Sour Cream Cheddar Biscuits

Recipe credit: Mary ~ The Egg Farm.

I've been following Mary for as long as I can remember. I absolutely love her blog. Her photography skills are out of this world, as are her mouth watering recipes! However, most of her recipes use ingredients that taste amazing, but aren't too healthy. So I just content myself by drooling on my computer. Because it would be too hard to health-iphy them. BUT, recently she posted two recipes that could easily be healthiphied! (< how do you like my new word?!?!) So of course I made them almost immediately! I present to you: Sour Cream Cheddar Biscuits ~~~

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp. coconut sugar
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup water, milk or buttermilk
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
• optional: cooked, crumbled bacon - I opted out on this one because 1). I didn't have any bacon and 2). I don't like bacon. 

If I made these again, I would add some minced garlic, and some green onions. You can play around and see what you like.

Preheat oven to 450F. Mix dry ingredients, add bacon fat, sour cream, and liquid.  Mix thoroughly, if mixture looks dry add more milk by the tablespoons (the dough should be slightly sticky).  Stir in crumbled bacon and grated cheese.  Drop by a large spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

My tip: Eat them hot from the oven, slathered with butter.

 Thanks Mary for a lovely, and delicious recipe!

I made these for supper last night, and served them alongside gravy...they are all devoured and the natives are screaming for more. I think they were a hit! ;)

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Saddening News: Belle Lost Her Calf

Saddening News: Belle Lost Her Calf

Yesterday morning I went about my normal routine, of milking Belle at 10:00 AM. She was already waiting on me in the milking chute, when I finally got out there. I noticed her rear-end was swelled up, that was odd, and she had some *stuff* coming out the back. Hmm...I went about my milking, finished, then went back inside. Later, Carolina went out to feed her horse, Radar, and came running, breathlessly inside to tell us that Belle was having a baby! I ran out to the barn to see what was afoot. She had been laying down, and acting restless, the same as before, except it looked like part of a sack was showing. Through out the day I continued to keep tabs on her. Evening came, and still nothing. About 11:30 that night, I was getting ready to hit the hay, but heard Blizzard and Barley (the milkcow's gigantic calves) bawling, and that reminded me of Belle. I thought to myself, well I'd better go check on her one last time before I turn in. Mom went with me, and we both tromped outside in our pjs, with boots on that were way too big for us. So out we go, before we'd even made it out the gate I shined my flash light across the flat, and saw Belle and Bessie grazing on the flat. Ah! So that's why the calves were bawling. We came back inside, grabbed a bucket of feed, and proceeded out to the barn. Before too long, the girls were back in their pen munching on alfalfa. After we'd fed the bawling calves, who had alerted us to something amiss, we went back into the milkcow's pen to check on Belles be-hind. In the middle of their pen we found a tiny calf, dead. It was premature, and very tiny. It looked fully developed, just really tiny. We guessed it to be about 7 months along. We rubbed on it to see if perhaps we could revive it, but we think it had died inside of her, and she had just now got around to having it. We attempted to carry the dead baby out of the pen, but once Belle saw that we were messing with her lifeless calf, she came running over and tried to fend Rusty (who had followed us out there) off. We decided it was best (for our safety) to leave the calf with her until morning, when the guys could haul it off. 

I was almost in tears, after we tried to take her calf away, she started licking it all over and mooing that sweet-gentle-momma-cow-moo. It was so heart breaking!!

After dad inspected her this morning, he found a small lump underneath Belle's chin, a sign of iodine deficiency. We're guessing she lost it, due to lack of nutrition. 

It shouldn't have taken something like this to wake us up to the fact, but it did. And we learn by our mistakes, sometimes the hard way.

We didn't know Belle was even bred, in fact I had been lining out some miniature Jersey semen to AI them with, just days before all this happened. We're now assuming Bessie is pregnant as well, so we're going to make sure she has a healthy calf.

Anyone know of some good, all natural vitamin and mineral supplements to give pregnant cows?

Yesterday we didn't put either of the calves on the milkcows, so I knew both of them would be full this morning.

Since Belle just had a still-born calf, we suspected that she might have some colostrum this morning. Sure enough, it did look like she had some, so I milked her out and stored her colostrumous milk in the freezer. We like to keep some handy, in case we ever have a bottle calf, or something that needs it. 

Now to the problem, we're debating whether or not to buy another calf for Belle, since she lost hers. When I milked her this morning, she had more milk than she's had all week, so it's possible that this still-born calf she had "freshened" her milk supply, in which case she'll be in milk for another year. However, both their calves from last year are huge now, and since their both steers, we won't be keeping either them, unfortunately, but they are both little darlings~ Anybody need a pet steer, who thinks he's a dog???

SO, I can either start milking her twice a day, we can keep one of their calves from last year, or we can sell all the calves, buy some smaller calves to put on them..or do nothing. Suggestions?

The only problem is, I'm leaving for Tennessee on Friday (19th), and will be gone at least a week, and won't be here to continue the twice a day milking, and Mom isn't too keen on the idea of milking twice per day. 

For now, I'm thinking we'll just keep both calves, then when I get back, we'll decide what to do.

If we do end up getting a calf for Belle, I would like to either get a Jersey or a Holstein heifer for her, that way we can have another milkcow coming up. Or, another option would be to get a Jersey bull calf, who wouldn't be related to either of our girls, and have him for our bull, that way we'd have pure Jersey calves from our two girls, instead of half Jersey calves like we've been having.

However, I would like to buy a little heifer to put on her, that is like I said above, either a Jersey of a Holstein, so she can be a future milker, and so when I get married and move off, I will already have a milkcow. Score one for my future homestead. ;)

So many options! So little time! 

Rest in peace, little calf! Your Mommy and I miss and <3 you!

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

The Happenings In My Sunday-School Class

The Happenings In My Sunday-School Class

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures to share with you, sorry! I will try and snap some next time. ;)

Several weeks ago our church announced that they needed some new teachers for the various Bible study classes, I felt like I should take one of the classes, so I did, the kindergarten class. Normally, I just have one or two children, but trust me, they keep me on my toes!

This past week we learned about how king Saul disobeyed God, and had his kingdom stripped from him and given to another. 

That morning I had printed out some coloring pages for the children; it consisted of several soldiers in the midst of a battle.

I also brought with me some play soldiers, a shallow cardboard box, and some sand. Why, you ask? You'll see!

I told the children I had a surprise for them after they finished their coloring pages. After they finished, I laid out the cardboard box, filled it with sand, and gave them the pile of toy soldiers. OH, and did I mention I brought along a small toy catapult..that actually shot things? Yeah..well..fast forward about 5 minutes, they had managed to find several small rocks in the dirt, they proceeded to launch them across the class room...

Later, once they tired of the rocks, they started filling the catapult with dirt and attempted to fire it upon the heads of the toy soldiers, but failed, and instead ended up scattering it all over the floor and table!

After class was over, they asked if I would please bring the soldiers and sandbox again next time..oh and to please bring some bigger rocks!!!

Oh dear....

*ahem* Yeah, it looks like next time I think I'll be bring some bigger rocks...and a vacuum!

I'd better find me a bigger bag to tote around! When I first started I never dreamed that I would actually fill it up with stuff, but oh well! Sometimes, I confess, I shock myself at what I take to church!!

Person: "Why do you have a bag full of rocks?"

Me: "Well..errm..it's complicated!...."

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

I've Just Got One Thing For Ya!

I've Just Got One Thing For Ya!

. . . .

I am Izzie of Asguard, and I'm burdened with glorious hair.

 

 

Too fabulous for you peasants! ;)

 

 

 

 

 Blessings - 

~ Loki

 

Closet Refashion : The Writing Nook

Closet Refashion : The Writing Nook

I recently had a revelation, a remodeling revelation that is! I've been wanting to do something new and different with my room for awhile, I just never could come up with a theme or a style that I liked; until last week!

I invite you inside my mind for a bit, where I've been storing all my crazy remodeling ideas, enjoy!

 It all started with a ridiculously messy closet. I decided one morning that today was the day that I was going to tackle that closet...except I couldn't fit my arms around it, so I settled for the next best thing: cleaning it.

I spent the entire day (and part of the next), cleaning it, going through clothes that I had no idea I even owned, wiping the floor and walls free of filth, and so on and so forth. 

Many dirty rags, and a full trash can later...I had a clean closet!! Hoorah!!

Tada!

Now then, now that you've seen my nice, clean closet, I will share with you the details of my mind's newest idea invention! Aren't you excited? Of course you are!! 

Now I must ramble a bit in order to get to the point so please bare with me as I try'n explain...I am a writer, and I simply adore writing, BUT I cannot work and concentrate on what I'm writing if there are distracting noises (or *ahem* people around) or other such things about. However, much to my dismay, I am constantly exposed to these noisy elements, so I have come up with a solution to my problem. I am going to turn my newly-emptied closet into a reading/writing/blogging nook!!!

Not only will this give me a place of refuge, in which I can work in peace, but it will also clear up my room and give me lots more space, thus making me happier and my room more clutter-free! A win/win if you ask me! And, even if you aren't asking me, I still insist it's a win/win!

Inside my closet are two shelves, both of which are out of my arm's reach...yes, I am a tiny hobbit of a person, get used to it! 

Sooo...I'm going to have my dear brothers build me a ladder so I can reach the high shelves. I would also like to have another shelf in there, for even more storage space for...BOOKS! Yep, those shelves are going to hold all our precious books. That will leave me the entire floor space free of book shelves, and other clutter.

Oh, and in case your wondering, the small stand-up shelves will be vacating the premises, along with the hideously ugly plastic shoe hanger. 

 Also in our hobbitishly tiny closet, is a small window. I would like to construct some wooden shutters for it, so I can block out the natural lighting if I want, or I can have it open.

 Now on to the more whimsically awesome part of this whole project!

When you walk into our room, you will not even know we're in possession of a closet/writing nook. No siree! Wanna' know why?

Because this gorgeous piece of (wood) work is going to be blocking it's view. 
You may be asking yourself why on Middle Earth, I'm remodeling my closet, just so I can block it off. Hold your horses there! And don't be prejudice! Honesty.

 Remember C.S. Lewis' Narnia? Remember the wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe ? Yes well, what happens in that story, and why is the wardrobe important? Well, if you remember your (fictional) history correctly, it's the entryway to Narnia, or in my case, to my secret, secluded writing nook! 
Do you get the picture now? 

Yep, you must walk through the wardrobe in order to gain access to the secret writing nook! Of course, it isn't really secret anymore since I've shared it virally, BUT that's beside the point.

Oh, and the wardrobe will be undergoing a paint treatment, of chocolate/dark brown. I'm afraid I'm not overly fond of white, or pale (sea-sick) green. Ick.

Now, you may've been thinking that I was only remodeling my closet, but alas, you are gravely mistaken. I fooled you with the title, didn't I? Yep...I've also taken it upon myself to give the rest of my room a redo! Would you like to take a peak into that?! OF course you would!

Now, just a little back-story into my interests (some would say bordering lining obsessions...but whatever), I love Middle Earth and all things associated with it. Go on, ask anyone who knows me personally, they will confirm this. I also adore the middle ages (FIY it's not at all connected to Middle Earth...) a.k.a the medieval era, and I have a passion for all things forestry. SO, in view of the fact, my room will be resembling some of my favorite things.

Now, first off is the door. You are looking at it from the inside of the room.
 Each side will be painted differently, the outside will closely resemble Bilbo's door, complete with Gandalf's mark and everything. The other side will be painted to match the inside of my room. It will look like a grey, uncut piece of stone, with a tiny hidden key hole within it...*ahem*  a.k.a the key hole to the lonely mountain (Erebor).
 

Our walls look like individual cut stones, so considering the fact that I adore castles, we're going to make it look like the inside of a castle. So everything gets a coat (or several) of grey paint.

 

We have two different windows in our room, both of which are covered in a thin, white sheer curtainy material...thing...whatever...we are tossing those out and replacing them with some heavier drapes. Two of my favorite colors are blue and red, and coincidentally happen to go together beautifully! I will layer them, the red being a softer, light silky fabric will be underneath, and the blue will be draped over it, making for a beautiful medievalish window hanging, that flaunts two of my favorite colors!

Now, since all of our books will be residing inside the (secret) library, located in Narnia, we will no longer have need of this bookshelf:

or this one:

And I will no longer be needing my desk either, which doubles as a bookshelf and a laptop holder.

All that will be remaining really, is our hair brushing station, our two beds, a small dresser, and the wardrobe. That will leave me with a free wall, that I can later turn into a sewing corner for the dear little 'sis.

I got to thinking, all I really do in our room is read, write, blog, craft, and sleep. Three of those things can be accomplished inside Narnia, we already have beds so we're good there, but one thing that I do not have, that would be very helpful, is a place to craft. Well, remember that free wall that we're going to have? I plan on finding a sturdy wooden table that will add to my medieval theme, provide me with a place to store my crafting materials and a space to unleash my craftiness...I mean that in the best possible way! Hehehe

Stay tuned, I feel another post coming up soon, on the other ideas I have floating around in my head, concerning our room refashion. Oh wait, what? You thought we were done with this whole room refashioning thing? Wrong.

Blessings - 

~ The Soon To Be Narnia Dweller

Homemade Donut Treats for Birds

I decided to make my little Parrotlets some special treats today, and everybody likes donuts...YES even birds! So, naturally I decided to make them some!

Ingredients:

• Spoonful of almond butter (or another nut/seed butter - just make sure it doesn't have any salt or sugar added)
• A dozen cheerios
•  Spoonful of their favorite seeds (I chose millet)

 Directions:

Using a butter knife, spread a tiny amount of nut butter atop each piece of cereal, then dip it in your bowl of seeds. Repeat until you're out of cereal. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to let it set-up, then serve.

Freeze extras and use as needed.

Quick, simple, and your birds will love it! Mine sure did! 

I'm thinking about starting a miniature restaurant! I had way too much fun makings these!

Emmie's suspicious of this new treat.

But, she soon gave it a try and seemed to like it!

Charlie wasn't far behind Emmie in trying out this new goodie.

They ate about half of the donuts, the little messy pigs...and I do mean messy! After their snack time was over, my entire bed was covered in nut butter, seeds, and cereal! So I suggest you spread out some paper towels or some newspaper to make the mess easier to clean up.

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Ask Me Anything!

Several of the bloggers I follow have done something similar to this, and it sounded intriguing to me, so here goes!

Normally, the blogger (i.e me) gets to choose and post what ever topic they have in mind, correct? Yes, well I'm going to bend the rules a scosh. ;)

I would like my readers to ask me anything they want. My opinion of a certain topic, anything you want! But, I reserve the right to not answer a question if I so wish.

You have two weeks people (ends the 21st of September)! 

Simply post a comment and I will go through them and do a post with my answers.

Enjoy!

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Midnight Puppy Midwife

Midnight Puppy Midwife

So, if you remember from my past post, I told y'all that Coconut was pregnant and due to have puppies (last month). Yes, I've been keeping y'all up to date haven't I..yeah no. BUT hey! At least I'm finally getting around to telling you guys about it right? Of course right!

So, it was two day before Mom and the Littles would be leaving on their trip to Tennessee, that night Carolina and I had stayed up doing...errmm..doing ya know "stuff" *ahem*, and we didn't actually hit the hay until about 1:00 a.m ish. Little did we know we wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. Rewind to that evening, Coconut was restless and kept going around to all the darkest, most secretest corners of the house and digging (trying to make a nest). We knew she was getting to dropping some puppies, we just didn't know how close.

So fast forward back to that night...long about 2:40 or so, Carolina wakes up and starts screaming at me to wake up. I'm of course wide awake by this time...or not, I'm actually half asleep still, and little 'sis is yelling at me that Coconut is having babies. I think she is exaggerating, but I pull myself up and switch on the lamp, to see Coconut lying on Carolina's bed surrounded by a pool of blood. Me: "OK! I think she is having puppies!" I jump out of bed and rush to Mom's room and wake her up, by the time we got back to our (my) room Coconut had already had her first pup. A solid black, slimy, rat creature it looked like to me, and I began to question if Coconut had really had R.O.U.S (Rodents Of Unusual Size), but no they were truly puppies. We cut it's umbilical cord, and long about 10 minutes later the 2nd puppy appears, another black one. So far she'd had a male (a tiny little runt), and a bigger black female. 

Coconut is still huge fat, so we know she can't possibly be finished. So we wait, and we wait, and wait. She didn't seem to be showing any signs of having another, instead she was happily licking and nursing her two babies. We didn't want to leave her unattended, so we just laid around my room staring at Coconut..that is how we spent 1 1/2 hours. Finally, what seemed like ages, she started having contractions again, and soon another wet, black, male puppy emerged. He was breach, in their backwards, so that was probably why it took him so much longer than the others. We thought perhaps she was finished, but no, here in about an hour she starts with the contractions again, and a little while later a cute little brown puppy is born! Sadly, I missed it's birth because I was outside tending to the birds, and when I came back inside she'd already had it. Most of the next day was spent standing guard over Coconut and her brood, and getting Mom and the Littles packed for their trip. Even though what we really wanted to do was sleep and be lazy after staying up all night. 

The first day went well, she seemed to be nursing them without any trouble, and was an excellent little mother.

The night before Mom and the Littles were going to leave, Carolina and I went to bed, but neither of us could really sleep because every few seconds one of the puppies would start crying, so we'd have to get up, switch on the lamp and see what the issue was. Sometimes there really was a reason for them to scream, other times they would just scream..because they could I suppose. Either way, I didn't sleep, but instead stood puppy watch.

Then at three, I was up again to see Mom and the Littles off on their journey. Then back to bed..only to stand puppy guard again.

Basically, this routine continued for the next 4-5 days. I would get a restless (literally) night of sleep, then have to get up and go the next morning. Since I was the only human being here at the ranch for that week, I had a lot of chores to do! About the gist of it is, I became a sleepless zombie, who ran off adrenaline for the entire week. Truthfully, I'm not sure how I made it, but obviously I did because here I am relating it all to you!

OK, enough jabber. Enjoy the few pictures we took throughout their birth (August 22nd):

 

 Blessings - 

~ Aspen

#ALSIceBucketChallenge With A Coconut Oil Twist

#ALSIceBucketChallenge With A Coconut Oil Twist

So I'm sure you've all heard of the #ALSIcebucketchallenge that's been going around. Thousands of people are having a bucket of ice water dumped over their head in order to help raise awareness (and money) of the Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Now, being the natural foodie that I am, I'm a firm believer in all natural remedies...for all diseases/ailments. I immediately assumed that there was just such a natural cure for this disease. Come to find out I was correct. The people who suffer from this disease are starving their brains by not giving them enough healthy oils/fats. Try starving your brain sometime and see how well you can function. ;) Now, watch it, I may go on a doctor/medical rant. If people would research stuff for themselves and not take their doctor's word for everything, they would find that we already know the cures for all those deadly diseases out there. BUT, are the doctors going to tell you about them? NO WAY! That means that all that money that they receive from the radiation treatments, pills, etc would go down the drain. So they may indeed know how to prevent and cure these diseases, but they keep hushed up about it because if everyone was enlightened to the fact, it would be a drastic pay cut for them. So folks, do your research! 

It makes me sad that there are SO many wonderful people out there that think they're donating to a great cause, but in reality they are donating money to an organization that experiments and uses human babies as their guinea pigs, and are therefore supporting abortion, which is morally wrong. So wake up people! These people already know how to cure this disease, but they are still taking your money and pretending to be finding a cure, and are killing hundreds of babies in the process! It's wrong! Let's stop this madness and create a movement of awareness for the all natural cure for this disease!
 This is my own personal opinion, if you would like to join the movement, watch the below video, and take the challenge yourself by dumping coconut oil over your head and nominating at least three other people to do the same. Let's make this go viral!
 

A few intriguing articles on the topic: this link, this link,  this link, and this link.


If you read this post/watched the video, consider yourself nominated. 

Simply film yourself being dumped with coconut oil, giving a short explanation of what/why your doing it, and nominate other people. Then post it on your blog, Facebook, twitter, google+ account, etc with the tag #ALSIcebucketchallenge. 

If you do the challenge, let me know, I'd love to see other people get dunked in oil! ;)

FYI, the day after I did the video (and got doused in oil), I felt like Loki. I even slicked my hair back like him. *ahem*

And a shout out to my two brothers who helped me with this. 
 One filmed while the other doused me...I wish I would have taken a picture of Cim, who was standing on a bucket just outside of the camera screen, he had a HUGE grin on his face the entire time. Yes, I believe he had way too much fun pouring ice cold liquid on me. ;)

Blessings - 

~ Aspen

Good Times - The Tales of A Girl Playacting Momma

Good Times - The Tales of A Girl Playacting Momma

There was a time, not so very long ago that a girl was left in charge of the household while her mother went on an extended trip. This girl awoke every morning (just about) 6:00 a.m. and started her morning routine of fixing the men of the house breakfast, and a sack lunch to take to work. After this tiresome ordeal was accomplished, she waved them on their way, and continued with the rest of the morning's (exciting) activities. She would mosey outside and let out all the feathered creatures on the farm, pet the tail-wagging farmdog, check water, and then come back inside to grab a bit of breakfast because driving her brother's bad-out, black, muddy, awesome pickup down to fetch the mail. Afterwards (if the menfolk remembered to separate the calves the night before...), she would milk one of her beloved cows, Belle. By that time it was usually about 10:00 am, so she would spiff up the house, do laundry, and plan that evening's meal. Then if she had any free time left at t'all, you would generally find her lounging on her comfy bed, staring at her laptop, devouring a book (she has a deep appetite for good books!), or musing ideas around in her head for the book she is currently writing. After an hour or so her eyes would be tired from gazing at the computer-screen, her hands stiff and cramped from all her scribblings, her finger's stained with ink from her pen, her head swimming with the melodies of the rich-music she'd been listening to, she would wander into the other part of the house, and while washing dishes she would let her voice free, and she would bellow (yes bellow) out opera, or whatever tune was currently lodged in her head. 

This was how she spent most of her days. Oh, yes! We must'nt forget the puppies that were born the day before she was left in charge of the house! Yes, what a long night that was...four puppies born in the wee hours of the dark-morning. But I'll save those details for another post, dear readers.

Yes, the girl spent many a sleepless night, waking to check on the puppies, who at random times and on any given whim, would scream like banshees, thus waking the sleeping girl from her much needed sleep. She would blindly reach for the lamp by her bedside, and wearily pull herself up to see what the puppies' issue was this time. This routine usually happened about every 5 minutes, usually until the girl's alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., and she had to get up and fix lunches and wake sleepy men from their peaceful slumbers......

Soooo....in case you couldn't tell, the above^ narrative is about yours-truly. Mom, and the two littles (my word for my two young siblings), went to Tennessee for (just over) a week, to visit the darling niece and grandbaby, of my dearest sister. <3

So, even though the past week was tiresome and toilsome, I relished it (somewhat...)...depending on my mood. But every once in awhile a girl (especially this girl), needs some peace and quiet, something you don't get much off when living in a large household. ;) Don't get me wrong, having tons of siblings is amazing, but everybody needs a vacation.

I truly enjoyed playing mom, housekeeper, cook, laundry woman, midwife, milk maid, and alarm-clock..whilst mother was away. 

After a few days I got on a morning routine, and usually had from about 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. to indulge my whims and amuse myself. One day I practically did nothing but read a book (that I promptly finished that day), another day I locked myself in my room, blared out music, practiced my opera (good thing nobody was here....and luckily the windows didn't bust!!), and did what ever random thing popped into my head. One day, I headed down to the end of our road (several miles) to meet the FedX guy, to pick-up some packages. Along the way I think I counted more vehicles (mostly pickups...of course) on our road then I ever have. That, more than likely, being due to the fact that the day before we'd had an inch or so of rain, and all the ranchers were out checking their rain gauges...and possibly out mudding... ;) On that same morning, after I'd picked up my cargo, I bumped into a neighbor who lives about 10 miles down the road (yes, here in Texas we consider someone a close neighbor if they're several miles down the road..people who live next door to you aren't neighbors, they are stalkers...creeps me out just to think about it!...now where was I?...), we chatted about this and caught up with the goings on of the other.

Oh yes! I thoroughly enjoyed being here by my onesies! That and that fact that I got to spend some time with my dear brothers. We had several late-nights together where we'd stay up listening to music, watching movies, talking, or in some cases laughing our heads off over a noise that one of us made. I may, or may-not have laughed myself silly, and until my stomach hurt. And then afterwards we would put on a serious face and try and contain our laughter, but one look at the other one's face would send us into a fresh wave of hysterics. Good times.

Well the night is no longer young, in fact it's down right late, and way past my bedtime. 

Thank you dear brothers for the lovely memories we made together, and to Coconut's banshee-screaming babies who caused me to become a sleepless zombie due to my lack of sleep...something I'm still trying to catch up on.

Blessings - 

~ Mommy Playactor - OUT.