when you are three

Summer is about playing

and sleeping.

belly laugh

We’re back. It is so, so silly to drive away from all these smiling faces. The kind of silly when you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I did both I think. I miss them.

My sister and my son, all the cousins run to her like she is the ice cream man.

We are getting back into the groove at our little ranch. The heat index is 109 today, that just might be hotter than heck don’t you think? We have been working hard, there is much to be done. But not too hard where I couldn’t go to an estate sale on Saturday. It was really a gift from the heavens as we have seen 2 tarantulas and a yucky snake and I was feeling a bit wiggy about this.

Anyhow the sale I shall share later as it was totally awesome, dude. Or as they say back home….wicked cool.

See you later alligators-- I shall check out some of your blogs and maybe if I’m not feeling too lazy I will leave you a comment.

sewing challenge excuse

Happy Birthday, Molly.

Molly is growing up fast…she is seven. Six has been a good year. She is learning not to be shy.

She is probably the most mature person in our family.

She has been given the gift of kissing her own elbow. Can you do that?

Ho Hum is a happy sort of day

Henry’s five senses today...

Seeing

Reading the same book 25 times. This has been going on for six days.

Hearing

Art Garfunkel Breakaway. Only 25 cents for that melodious Little

Town voice.

Smelling + Tasting + Touching

Banana Oat Bread Using the rest of the bananas.

Even though I use wheat flour and steel cut oats Henry

calls it cake. Don’t tell him it might be healthy.

Now he is...

Sleeping.

chicken coop

As you can see I’m not much of a carpenter. But this is our chicken coop. In the past at other homes we have lost hens due to raccoons, foxes and snakes (the snake was here in TX). I was very concerned about keeping them safe and in the end I think this coop is the sturdiest building on our property. If there ever is a tornado those hens will be just fine while my household belongings will be blown up to Oklahoma. I sifted through a lot of pics on the computer when we were building one and thought if anyone (with no carpentry skills like me) googles CHICKEN COOP—maybe this will help.

The sides are hinged for easy egg gathering on one side and coop cleaning on the other. The wheelbarrow fits right under the drop side and makes cleaning the coop very easy.

The other two sides have hinged windows lined with chicken wire that stay open pretty much all summer. We elevated the building to provide additional shade and so my imagination wouldn’t envision a snake-all-expenses-paid-resort-hotel under it.

We feed them a tray full of laying crumble in the morning and a small pail of scratch feed in the afternoon. Four times a week I give them organic greens --as much as they can eat in 10 minutes- usually a couple handfuls. Also they love any scraps of bread and vegetables, especially tomatoes.

Being a military family we move often, it might seem strange to invest in a coop or even have animals. It just makes sense to us to “live” in each place we move to. Having chickens is part of that.

So is seeing a warted toad in the yard.

And catching your first catfish in the pond.

The turkeys have been visiting us nearly everyday. I think because someone made a deal with them that we wouldn’t eat them. This was a vocal contract which was made by a six year old with good yelling skills.

Shall I close this post with a funny but not so funny chicken story?

Remember when my son had his toenail removed? (I can’t find this post)

A couple days later he was sitting in the porch letting his foot air out and on a whim decided to check for eggs…in flip flops... and a chicken pecked his toe really bad. It was terrible. I had to take him back to the DR and was extremely embarrassed. When he asked my son what happened he told him a chicken pecked it and all my nervous energy came out in hysterics. Of course I was the only one laughing. Can you say mother of the year?

This is like a pictorial essay about, like…prom, duh.

Maggie and Dalton are best friends. He often drives to our house in his camouflaged jeep and is nice and talks with a drawl.

Like if I said: “Dalton, do you want a bowl of chili?”

He would say: “Did y’all already eat?”

Then he would say: “Thanks Ma’am, I reckon this is mighty good.”

Alright he wouldn’t say reckon or mighty good but when he comes over next I will ask him:

“Dalton, can you say you reckon these kibbles are mighty tasty?”

And I’ll be a horse's BEE-hind if he doesn’t say it.

Five Things/ Three Pictures

1. Molly is sad.

2. It is very windy and feels like you can lean into it and not fall over.

3. She has bendy elbows that bend the wrong way.

4. She likes the wind and for a moment forgets she is sad.

5. But then she remembers.

Dress pattern: Butterick 5019

Tweetley Tweetllou (that's me whistling)

My oldest is in the beginning stages of her fabric addiction. She holds up bolts in the clearance section and says wouldn't this make a great bag? How about this as a skirt?

Don't you remember being that sweet about buying fabric? And she is really sweet. We drove to Hancock's last night, actually she drove that is how sweet she is, and spent a couple hours there. If you have been to that particular Hancock's you would reply "Say What???" to the couple hours thing. It's a messy store...the employees always act surprised when they see you at the cutting table and they cut fabric at a snail's pace like they have never done it before. Then they act even more surprised when you walk the 12 steps forward to the register and stand there and ring the bell for them to ring you out. Once when I was there they were giving their Taco Bell orders to "Carol" over the intercom...one at a time.

Let me get back on track. So yes we bought a whole bunch of clearance fabrics (that by the way, didn't ring up on clearance oi oi oi) and it was fun. Until we got home with a large bag of fabric and I had to face the reality that the only thing I have sewn this week is three coat hangers which only needed .025 yards of fabric. Nonetheless I washed and dried it last night, paying no heed to the basket of dirty towels I had to climb over.

This is Hadley, she is the oldest. She is in her school library by the looks of it. I had her when I was 20 and like to tell people we are sisters. She doesn't like that (at all). She is very determined but yet very quiet.

Sometimes I think about Hadley and how she helps so much with her siblings and feel bad. With her Dad traveling often and me being pregnant much of her childhood she has always stepped up and been so responsible.

This is why I bought her some fabric and like 12 sets of knitting needles that were marked down to 62 cents on clearance. It's okay to show love with fabric, isn't it?

These are the old hangers someone gladly gave me at a yard sale. She was selling her great grandmother's things and didn't seem to interested in the "vintageness" of everything.

Recovering hangers is very easy, it's hard to make a mistake. There is a good tutorial in this book:

This is my favorite buy from yesterday, it's a McCall quilted print with a cute reverse side. The style number is 30527, but I couldn't find it online.

Thanks for letting me talk so much. Blah blah blah, see you later!

here's lookin at you, kid

Someone recently asked me why I show pictures of my family but not myself. Why is this? I dunno. Except that I feel most comfortable as an outsider looking in. It's mysterious to wonder who says all these words. I could be the lady next to you in line at Target. I don't like people looking at me, nor do I like pictures of myself. I thought maybe this would be freeing in some way. And maybe just maybe after this we will see each other in line and become fast friends.

By the way, it's very nice to meet you.

Lavender Dreamer asked on the post below who my daughter looks like.

Our kids are a pretty good mix up of both of us. Some are tall, some short. There is brown hair and blond hair, green eyes and brown eyes. Some have lots of freckles and some creamy smooth skin. Some are shy and some LOUD. And one is neither. And for the record Ken is pretty tall and has a loud booming voice and gray hair and he always gets the remote all wiggy by pushing too many buttons.

I remember sitting in a boring class during college ( I was a music theory major--I did a lot of day dreaming!) and writing the names of my future children in my best handwriting. Some days I can't think straight through the noise of my life, but when I think about those names I realize I am living the life of my dreams. It was like I knew them already.

You didn't think I would end this post all sappy like that did you? There must be something grotesque and/or funny. This is a swollen lipped young boy who was doing one of those hippity hoppity tantrums and flung his head into my dresser, putting three teeth completely through his lip.

It was so cool.

I had just told my friend a few days before how I thought he had the most beautiful lips in the world. Also note I didn't even crop out the boogery nose, just because if we are going to be friends we have to be real friends and kids w/ boogery noses are a big part of my life.

See you later, great pals-o-mine.