Spring, Farming, and Projects!

Life gets a little busy at times for any mom, but I regret that I haven't had time to blog lately. I've been busy with a lot of little (and some big) projects, kids and work. Eric is busy out in the field and on the farm, and I am busy with refinishing furniture, painting bedrooms and the bathroom, and keeping up with the house and gardens. We've spent very little time outdoors until a week ago because it rained almost every day. Now that it is nice, it is hard to sit still knowing that there is so much to be done!

 

Memorial Day 2014

 

Clara's birthday was a lot of fun. We did a farm theme, of course. I'm shocked I hadn't done that one yet! The cake took me FOREVER, or at least 3 hours. And Clara got a nice black eye for all of her birthday pictures with a minor incident on the stairs. But all in all, I'm really enjoying this whole throw a big birthday party thing. Let's hope I outgrow this phase in a year or two.

 

 

 

 

 

The kids really enjoyed the piñata... except that they couldn't break it. A bunch of little girls vs. piñata equals an adult needing to get involved.

 

 

Memorial Day was enjoyable.  There are a lot of birthdays in the month of May, so a lot of time was spent with family this month. Family is such a joy, and I truly appreciate how close we all are on both sides.  I took some pictures of the girls on Memorial Day with their red, white, and blue outfits because they were so cute in coordinating colors.

 

 

 

I will have to post some pictures later of the furniture and house projects. I have been having a lot of fun with a coffee table and television cabinet. I'd bought these two units for sale at the Crawford Furniture liquidation, and they weren't quite the right stain color. So I sanded with an orbital power-sander, stained, and sealed... I've never done any of that before so it was quite a learning experience!

 

We also bought a Hoosier Cabinet: 

 

 

If you're like me and not familiar with Hoosier Cabinets, Wikipedia can explain it to you. It is in good condition, and I was really excited to get it home, cleaned up, and stocked with some of our overflowing kitchen items that I never seem to find a good home for.  We'll eventually put this in our new kitchen or pantry area when we get to that house remodeling project.

 

We haven't planted our vegetable garden yet, but hope to do that soon. I did buy some rhubarb (about 14 pounds of it!) and made rhubarb sauce.  I froze the rest, and intend to make a few (or several) batches of strawberry-rhubarb jam, which Eric claims is better than regular strawberry jam.  More precious than gold, I realized last year, when he hoarded it and wouldn't let me give any away! 

 

 

Happy Spring!

 

 

Happy New Year!

I've been so super busy that I feel like New Year's Eve should be just about Eric and I sitting in front of the television.  We might make some glogg and watch a movie, but probably not.  Right now I'm thinking about making my mom's birthday cake instead of waiting until tomorrow, but I probably won't.  I just want to veg.  Luckily it's a "no bath" and "no fussy dinner" evening.

Christmas was a blast!  I truly enjoyed everything this year, although Anna and Clara were just getting over colds and I was fighting off a really strange flu bug that made me achy everywhere but had no other symptoms (I'm grateful!).  Santa Clause came and brought Anna some play dough.  Of course that is what she remembers Santa brought her out of all of the other gifts.  Clara has learned how to clap in joy whenever you say "Yayyy Clara!"  And our tree has dropped a lot of needles and must go.  We spent a lot of time with family during four Christmas parties. 

I am feeling extremely blessed in 2012, and I am hopeful that 2013 will be just as great. 

Happy New Year!

A Swedish Christmas

I am a quarter Swedish and Eric is a lot Swedish and so we both enjoy the Swedish traditions.  My family has always made Glogg (hot spiced alcoholic beverage), served sill (pickled herring), decorated with dala horses, and probably miss-pronounced all sorts of Swedish words and phrases during the Christmas season.  I ordered two books from Amazon.com called Swedish Christmas Crafts and Christmas Crafts Scandinavian Style.  I eagerly browsed the books and picked the easiest craft ideas to do, because I have to admit that I have wayyy more important things to do than craft.

 

In our front window I strung a festive ribbon and hung the word "Jul," from "God Jul," which means "Merry Christmas." 

 

I also arranged some heritage swedish ornaments in the window nearby.  I bought this "Julbok" at the Scandinavian Festival at our local college.

 



 

Our stockings are hung on the stairs with care.  A couple of simple bows and a couple of pine swags.

 

 Our newly purchased "children's tree" is even adorned with "Tomten," which we pronounce "Toompta," again probably incorrectly.

 

A live tree is a must-have in my opinion, despite the fact that I am allergic to evergreens.  I always decorate our tree fairly simply.  A silver glitter ribbon, silver beads, and red, silver, and bronze ornaments.  White lights.  At the end of the day, simple is usually equivalent to easy.

 

My favorite feature of our decorations this year, another craft idea from the Swedish craft books, are the little gingerbread hearts I've hung in most of our windows.  The hearts are made from foam paper, and hung with a red and white ribbon.  I hung them with suction cups.  Easy, cheap, and cute! 

 

We are all ready for Christmas.  Now if only it would snow!

A work in progress

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.
Benjamin Franklin

 

The outside of our house shows a work in progress.  Actually, the inside does as well.  The lack of molding anywhere, the lightbulbs hanging bare of fixtures, and the windows bereft of curtains tell the story that we are slowly but industriously restoring our farmhouse home. 

But inside this house lives a happy family. 

 

 

What I've Been Up To...

Here are some pictures that will capture some of what I've been up to the past month...

Working Hard

In September I took a trip with other agricultural agents in New York State.  One stop was Hurd Orchards up near Lake Ontario.  This room was located in an old re-built barn, and was where they did some entertainment events.  I just loved the decor!

I also got to pet a zebra at Hidden Valley Animal Adventures.  Definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

 

 Getting my Sister Hitched!

Julia got married on September 29th.  Here is one of the few pictures I took on that day of her and her Maid of Honor.  She looked beautiful in her dress!  Everything went so well and it was such a beautiful day.  I will definitely post about this later...

Anna really loved dancing at the reception.  She was a flower girl.

 

Building an Addition!

We decided to do a mud room project this fall, but the project evolved into a much bigger undertaking.  The garage was in sore need of repair and we thought we'd tear it down eventually.  The mud room was supposed to be built within this old structure, but we were worried that it would be too difficult to remodel the garage around the new mudroom.  So here we are- a torn down garage and the shell of a new addition!  One half will still be a shop and the other side will be a new mud room and laundry room.  Yipee! 

 

So so excited!  I can't wait!

A Happy Mess

Here are some recent ways that my life is a happy mess:

1.  Baking with a 2 year old is MESSY.  I still have grated carrots on my kitchen floor from yesteday's carrot cake cupcake baking session.
2.  Pink Eye Can Happen to You!  Yes, I caught pink eye.  I have no idea from where, but the kiddos didn't get it!  I am luckily on the mend...
3.  Diaper Bag Messes.  I picked up my girls from my mother in law's house the other day.  She told me that she cleaned out the bottom of my diaper bag.  I was extremely grateful, but also slightly embarressed because I know how dirty it was.  Think broken cheerios, leaked milk, squished fruit snacks, and crushed crayons messy.  Thanks Mom!
4.  No Shoes?  I have lost Anna's gym shoes, which I'm not sure would even fit her right now.  She has been wearing sandles all summer, which are great because she can take them off and on herself.  This morning the temp dropped to 45 degrees, so she rocked the socks and sandles look.  I really need to get to the mall and get the poor girl some warm kicks!
5.  Mixed DVD's.  Anna knows how to open the tv stand and remove dvds from their cases.  She even sometimes successfully accomplishes loading said dvds into the dvd player.  Usually she calls me over to help her, but not before she has gotten into many of the dvd cases, moved the discs from case to case, and scratched a few up.  Life is a box of chocolates- or a dvd case in my house- you never know what you're going to get!
6.  P.J.'s every day.  More often than not, Clara goes to the sitter's with her pajamas on.  On a baby, who cares, right?  It cuts down on laundry for sure, and it's a lot less work in the morning to not have to pick an outfit out.  I spent what seems like hours dressing Anna in the cutest things.  Poor Clara! 

Introspective Thursday

I've mentioned that my life is pretty usual.  I might even ponder using the word "simple."  But the honest truth is that whose personality is ever simple?  A single person can spend their entire life analyzing their own mind only to find doors that still remain closed. 

I've spent my entire life struggling to grow up.  Again, not unusual.  And now that I am the age of 25, which is such a young number but feels significant to me, I finally feel grown up.  I have a job that I've retained for over three years now, a husband whom I've been married to for three years as well, and a daughter that I've nurtured for well over a year.  But have I really grown up?

During the course of a conversation with my dear husband, he pointed out the root of my growing up problems ("now don't get mad") that I tend to skip from one thing to the next.  He summarized the root of my problem, not knowing that it would stimulate all of this deep thinking, by saying that I get bored or tired off repetitive things.  Now that is certainly true of my teen years and I can still see it today.  I easily tire of the daily grind.  I constantly want new and exciting projects to keep me busy.  There is a fair amount of repitition in being a mother- feeding, changing diaper, feeding, bathing, repeat.  There is also a lot of repitition in keeping a house with sweeping (I loathe sweeping because it needs to be done so often!), cooking, washing, folding...  Get up and get ready for work, work, come home, dinner, bath for baby, bedtime.  Sure there's a lot of stuff in between that varies from day to day, but sometimes I go out of my way more than I should to find a distraction from the daily chores.

Farming is a lot of repitition.  I honestly think that it suits my husband well.  He takes pleasure in simply doing what he has done for most of his life and will probably continue doing for the rest of his life.  Growing up, I hated doing barn chores because it was always the same thing, sometimes done in a slightly different order but usually not.  Milking was the worst!  Sure the cows are living beings and will always through you a loop, but there is always the repeat repeat repeat.  But I think he likes having the constant daily list of things to be done.  He knows what to expect and appreciates that.

I wish I could be so easily content.  My job has the advantage of never being the same each day.  I work with people, and people (did I mention already?) are never simple, nor are they ever boring.  But I do miss my daughter, who I must admit does add a fair amount of spice to my life! 

So maybe I haven't gotten the hang of blogging yet because this is turning into a novel of self-analysis that anyone else reading will probably find pretty boring...  But like I said, this blog is probably 90% for me!