bed time excuse's

Annie's arguments for coming downstairs after I put her to bed.

"You can't leave children alone, they cry."  

"I was lonely, and couldn't find you."

"I need you sleep with me, so I not be lonely."

"I really not tired."

"I too sleepy to go to bed right now."

a cation

Annie and I had a spur of the moment cation (vacation) this weekend.   Going to a Lake house in Lichfield IL with our friends Larry, Carol and Harriet.  Annie was not very excited to go, and was a brat the whole drive because she wanted to stay home with her chickens.  Well, after about two minutes of being there she quickly changed her mind, when she found  a frog sitting on the brick wall.

We went to go collect eggs right after a few photo opts with said frog, and Annie got to pluck them from the nesting boxes by herself.   She was more than happy to help farmer Steve, carry them back from the barn.

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Of course she then thought they were hers and were going hatch into babies.  Thank you Lord for here busy mind and forgetful nature.   She moved on quickly when the cow started to moo, and I was able to take the eggs from her.     She got to feed a Long Horn Texas cow named, Mandy,

 and listen to Roosters crowing.  She was so excited.  And the trip kept getting better.  On the walk down to the lake Annie found three open Robin's eggs.

She was fascinated and very proud of her find.  I was very surprised that she didn't forget about them once and actually remembered to bring them home with us.    Soon to be named and on display in our kitchen window next to our jarred bug family.  

Up next was the boat ride!   Annie, really does love the water, and had a great time walking around on the boat with Dora their dog, Dora (don't worry a picture of them together is coming up soon).

She kept running in and out of the lake at the beach with Dora not far behind.  

I wish I'd gotta a picture of Dora and her running, but I had to hold Annie so she didn't get nocked down by Dora. Therefore leaving no free hand to hold the camera.

While drying off on the boat we got to see some real Eagles and their nests which were amazing to see.

(Annie resting after all the excitement, in a hammock outside)

After an amazing dinner Annie and I went to bed for the night.  We woke up to clouds and rain, but that didn't stop, Annie, and her partner in crime, Harriet, from convincing everyone to go out on the boat one last time before we had to leave.

Annie and Dora bonded a little to much over the weekend. It actually got kinda gross toward the end.

  The trip was amazing and yes Annie slept the entire drive home.  Even when I stopped to pick up strawberries on the way back (which will be turned into a pie here shortly).

We've been home for a few hours now and she's still past out on the couch.

house guest

Well, I'm pretty sure someone is living in my house with me.  Not sure who or what it is, but it doesn't seem interested in the peanut butter trap I put in the basement.  For a while I thought maybe he got outside and wasn't in the house anymore.  Now I wonder if he got out and has come back, or if he's been here the whole time.   We had a brief sighting last Friday (so fast all we saw was a blur moving across the floor and out of sight) followed by a peanut (actual peanut in the shell, which I don't buy) left in the middle of my clean kitchen floor the next morning.  I heard sounds from the kitchen on Sunday night, then nothing.  Well this morning I came down stairs to the picture you see above.   I highly doubt Rosy the horse did that. Strangely our guest didn't touch the loaf of fresh bread sitting on the counter.  I'm actually slightly insulted that a lavender eye pillow was more enticing then my home made bread.  

overnight?

Well the girls ended up sleeping over last night.  If I hadn't been so worn out it would have been funny.  They played several rounds of musical beds throughout the night.  Finally ending with two in my bed?  How that occurred I have no idea.   They were all sound asleep in Annie's room when I went to bed yet I wake up with Annie and Sadie snuggled up together in my bed.    The overnight of course was followed by a 6 am wake up call from Ruby (the first one to fall asleep) wondering the house looking for everyone.   I'm not sure I believe her story that she was lost and looking for me because I found her in the kitchen already munching on something.  

Home movie theatre act II

 Cheaper by the dozen two
the movie theatre seating
So my sister is a little under the weather, and I have her two oldest girls.  My sisters girls are probably the most confident little girls I know, and they have no qualms telling me what to do.  I caught Sadie literally with her hand in the cookie jar, and Ruby has been holding my hand all day kissing it.  I think she really likes me.  They have been Awesome.  But I've been running out of energy.  Thankfully we have The Projector.  Instant movie theatre.  I made a little movie theatre at the top of the stairs and set up my massage tables with pillows like a couch.   They have been up there totally enthralled with movies.  Half way through each one I make them walk around the block with me to tire them out.   We're on movie number two which isn't to bad considering they've been here since 10 this morning.

ten posts stand alone

So we put in the rest of the fence posts today for the chicken run.  It went faster than I thought.   By the end we had it down to a science.  We chopped through roots with our shovel now dubbed "the razor," in record time.  And there were a lot of roots; the shovel no longer has a point instead it curves up in a u shape at the end.  I guess digging along the line of honeysuckle wasn't the best plan, but we did it. 

 Tomorrow morning starts the wire fencing.  It's heavy gage wire and believe it or not, not even my hands (which are really strong from massage) can cut through it.   Prayers that we finish tomorrow would be greatly appreciated.  The turkeys have started flying and one flew out today over the five foot temporary fence.  Did I mention turkeys are really fast and I spent about 10 minutes running after him till he finally gave up.  Yep, my neighbors all think I'm nuts.  

Peter pan and mosquitos

                                   

Tonight was movie night, and to make things more fun we put a projector outside.  Annie did not understand what was going on.  "movies not watch outside, they all inside," but once it was all up and running she was enthralled.   Captivated on a whole new level.    We haven't attempted the movie theatre yet, I just couldn't handle a fit and having to leave after shelling out all that money (think of this as a little trial run at home).  Seeing the picture this big was really exciting to Annie.  I didn't even mind watching Peter Pan for the billionth time.    The down side was I got eaten by mosquitos.  I'll have to work on that.

                                    

chickens gone wild

Had to post.  I called to check in on Annie after I finished with my last job of the day today and I am told that three chickens got out and Annie is in the yard talking to them.   Thankfully a few pictures were snapped before Annie knew a camera was on her.    And yes we are working on the fence this weekend, so please pray for no rain.

God and Vacuums

Many of you have already heard that my sister is pregnant.  Because she is sick and there's no way she go to her job without throwing up everywhere, I took her place.   Cleaning houses isn't as bad as I thought, and until massage picks back up I need the money.   The one thing I have learned is that no two vacuums are the same, and what ever you do Don't buy a Eureka! 

I live in a house with almost all carpet, and I did not own a vacuum.  Once a week I would borrow my mothers.  I haul it here, vacuum upstairs and down, and then haul it back before she knows it's missing.  Such fun.  It has spawned many nights of prayer for a vacuum and I must tell you all, He listens!  He hears every word.  Many people who have heard that I am without a vacuum have offered me their old broken ones.  Sweet, but I am not trained in the ways of vacuum repair.   SO I have been praying.  My vacuum prayers have taken on their own unique form where I more or less converse with God about the different types of vacuum I work with during the week.   

With each house I clean, it's like a mini vacuum trial period, and I have really become picky.    Lord, please don't send me the Eureka Boss, it will make me cry when I have to lift that monster up my stairs.  

Oh, Lord, not the dirt devil, it doesn't work and I will surely throw it from the second floor window when the filter clogs.  

And if I see a Dyson I will run in fear of it's many gadgets, gizmos and strange moving parts.  

Slowly I came to the conclusion that I wanted an Oreck.  It's lightweight and simple design make me swoon.  How glorious this wonderful vacuum is, but also costly.   I would secretly lust after this wonderful machine while praying to God, "I'll take what I can get."   Thinking maybe someday, when I'm not in constant financial peril I will purchase one myself.  

Well I have no shame in telling everyone, that God is Good to me.  He is so good.  I am so thankful for all he does everyday for me and Annie.  He keeps us afloat.  He brings amazing people into our lives and blesses us with so much each day.     And I am not the upright, holy Christian you may see on TV.   I do not always say or do the right things.  I am a fallen child of God, yet he loves me.  Last week, I received an Oreck, from a family who doesn't need it until their daughter returns back from an extended trip.  Yes, he did it.  He brought me an Oreck.  I use it everyday because I almost don't believe it's real, part of me keeps thinking it will start smoking and catch fire like the last vacuum someone gave me.   Nope, not this one.  It works perfect.  

Thank you God.  I love it. 

The great escape

This morning I walked outside to find two of my chickens running loose eating all my flowers.   I guess my gardening skills are better than I thought because it looked good enough to tempt two of the most skittish girls in the flock to hop the wall (these two run inside when a breeze blows by).   Yes, they preferred the pink flowers over white.    Gertrude and Puff had a lovely morning.   My garden is minus a few flowers.

Annie 4 mom zero

Today I was determined to get Annie to wear anything but a princess dress.   They are cute, but not cute enough to wear every day.  So I hid them all, or so I thought and laid out her clothes for the day.   She was being pokey this morning; to save time I went downstairs to make breakfast while she got dressed.   She stayed up stairs until I yelled up that it was time to go.  

Down she came.   Yellow princess dress underneath the skirt I laid out.   It was to late to change, and it scares me to think she knew that at the time.   Breakfast in hand out the door we went.   Yes, Annie is the missing disney princess.  Part Bell, part gypsy enchantress with tap shoes.  "I like skirt this way, mommy."

Later today, Annie was caught drinking juice from the container!  I was stunned.  Evidently she has been doing this all week.  When I asked her where she saw that, she said, "daddy drink this way."  So has daddy been drinking from mommy's fridge?  "yes, daddy drink here," and then shows me again how daddy drinks.   Not ok!   First off, she's two, two year olds don't drink form the container.     Second, Don, what do you think your doing drinking from my orange juice container?, Get a glass (or better yet, get your own)!  Finally my third problem is that Annie thought it would be a good idea to show her cousins this little trick, I'm really sorry Greta, please forgive me.   I was picking up the mess in the other room when it started.

After that fiasco, I thought nothing worse could happen.  Oops, again.  While getting Annie ready for bed, I look at my night stand and see the remains of what was the book I hap been reading.   Yes, Annie had taken a pair of scissors to the book and cut up all the pages.  Sorry paperback swap, this one will not be reposted.    When I asked Annie if she did this she smiled then said "I not want you read that, it yucky."  Obviously Annie has some strong feeling toward Barbara Kingsolver, and not in a good way. 

(I hate this head)

My book ruined I put Annie to bed and went downstairs.   I'm sitting on the couch with a different book when a head comes flying down the stairs.   Followed by a yellow toy car.  Then an Annie not far behind comes walking down after them holding every possession she can fit in her arms.   Bunny, Elsie dolly, doggy, her life sized princess doll and two binkies.   I struggle not to laugh.   She walks up to me,"this my life and you not make it sad."  OK, how do you respond to that?  anyone?  "my heart in here and you hurt my life."  Where is this coming from?  Has she been reading books on teenage guilt trips?  I'm not able to respond at this point, because I can't stop thinking about ten years down the road when she really is a teenager.  What will she say then?  How will I cope?  I am seriously unprepared for this job.  I come to my senses after what must have been a while, because Annie is silent, staring at me with her eyes squinting in anger because she thought I wasn't listening.    "Mommy, my needs movie and a oot beer."  Of course I said no and she starts up with "you hurt life, mommy.  I need oot beer." My reply,  "No root beer, before bedtime."  "It not bed time, i not tired, I awake, I awake, I awake."  And yes, after several "I awake" protests she falls asleep mid sentence.  

Sewing, gardening, sweat and tears

Today was a long day.  After staying up last night working in the yard once again, I woke up tired and wasn't sure what the day would look like.  With my massage clients slowly picking back up (thank you Lord), I'm still not making enough so I've really been spending more time doing my many other jobs.  I've starting cleaning house's with a friend of mine and have been taking every sewing job I can find.   Anyone needing monograming I'm right here.  Turn over is pretty fast right now, so give me a call (PLEASE).   In the midst of all this it's hard to balance work with Annie.  I have regretfully begun to depend on movies, to keep Annie busy while I'm sewing, but when the movies are done watch out.   She takes over my sewing room faster than I can clean up after her.  Today she made a dress with my small makeshift dress form I use when making her clothes.  She was very into color and making a mess.   "I making a ball dress, mommy, I go to a ball."  Well, who can argue with that right?  After pulling all my fabrics down from the shelves she slowly put together what she wanted.   I may never dig myself out of this tiny room, but her dress is almost complete, "you add beads and sash mama, ok?  I wear it later."  With that she walked out of the room.  That was at 8, it's now 10:30 and I'm still cleaning up.  I think I need longer movies or a better baby sitter.  

wedding mornings and tired mommies

Well, here are the photos.  I did manage to get out of bed this morning.  My back was not happy about it, but my two year old was rather insistent.  "Wake up mama, we going to a wedding!"  I'm still not sure what wedding, but we both had to get dressed in our "finest" attire, "we got look nice for wedding peoples."   Her in an oversized paisley, ruffled shirt with brown striped pants and a pink crown, me in jeans and a t-shirt.  We then "got put your makeup on mommy," which I've discovered means brush your hair.  Then we went down stairs and she started to play by herself.  Thank you lord, for a child who entertains herself so well.  I guess I was only here to escort to the living room, because I wasn't asked in.  She's been in there by herself for over two hours now.  Singing and Dancing.  

I wanted to get back to work in the yard this morning, but my back said otherwise.  I guess digging up 40 pounds stones that were 6 inches under the dirt wasn't such a good idea, but doesn't it look nice?

Buried treasure and honeysuckle nightmares

Today was my get things done day.  I paid the bills, returned the videos and books to the library, shipped out two books for paperback swap, got my hair cut, picked up fabric for a new sewing order, made my bank deposit, and then dropped Annie off at my moms, to do some serious gardening at my house.    

Just so you know, I have a large yard, overgrown by honeysuckle and half dead ivy.   It's everywhere.  Today I focused on planting near the garage.  I wish I had taken a picture beforehand to show you.  It was bad.  Bald except for a patch of ivy and some rocks.  The original planting area must have only been 1.5 feet out from the garage judging by the stones.   I pulled the ivy and spread out the peat moss, lime and compost before tilling.   Yikes!  with every drop of the shovel I hit Rock!  it was crazy.  I eventually dug up enough stones to edge the entire bed I had planned.    Well, seven hours later it looks pretty good.  I'm so happy how it turned out and so far it's only cost me $0.  Yep, nothing.   I got the plants from my mothers yard, just one Hosta and some Lilies of the Valley.   The Hosta was so huge I was able to split it into 5 pieces.   By next spring, when things fill out, it will look amazing.   

Sorry the picture is so bad, it was dark out by the time I got done.   I'll post better ones in the morning (if I wake up).  

Mothers day and Narcolepsy

OK, I know I've been slacking.  Things have been crazy here.  The chickens are huge and threatening another hostel takeover only at least this time it's my backyard instead of my kitchen.  I'm slowly recuperating from my overwhelming state of unproductiveness.   We'll see how far I get. 

 I'm super excited to tell everyone that I bought myself a mother's day present (it's one of those things us single mothers most remind ourselves to do). I'm taking a cheese making class this Saturday and I can't wait.  I wanted to take this class last year, but didn't have the funds.  Not that I really have them now, but hey, it's mothers day weekend right?   

 Annie gave me the scare of a lifetime today when she fell asleep while eating a pilfered bag of tortilla chips.  I think she must have stolen the bag sometime earlier in the week because I had it on my shopping list for tomorrow.  I'm posting a picture at the bottom of this post.  Lets just say I went looking for Annie and the first thing I saw was her hand laying on the carpet motionless.  I truly thought she had choked and was passed out.  I'm now convinced she has narcolepsy.  This is actually a common occurrence where she'll just pass out mid motion.   The last time she did this was while pulling a dress over her head. Again my first reaction was that she was choking.  Maybe she's just testing my reaction time, and how quickly I can find a pulse.

Tapping

Annie for about six days now has worn nothing but tap shoes, and I when I say nothing, I mean nothing.  Naked and tap shoes (hence the lack of picture with this post).    I try to a least require panties, but I've been loosing the battle as of late.  Thankfully when we leave the house, she's agreed to wear minimal clothing, "to protect my bummy," (her butt).  So for the last week now, wherever we go, she taps.  She smiles when people notice and is soaking up the attention.   I however am slightly less enamored by the onlookers and the constant tapping of the shoes wherever we go, and was planning on hiding the shoes once I got them off her feet for bed.   But Ms. Annie while I was prying them off her feet the other night to go to sleep, rolls over and says, "mommy, when I was a daddy, I will marry you."   I'm not sure if she's physic or God was whispering in her ear, but it made me smile so big (of course, she got to keep the tap shoes).  Now when I've had even the slightest sad thought I just think about Annie and her marital proposal.  I am SO thankful for her.