Whispered Little Comment

2010
03.08

I had another whispered little thought recently. Yesterday morning, I believe it was. I’ve been getting a lot of these lately.  I’m hoping at least half of you shake your heads in disbelief and think something like, “She’s losing it, folks.  And it’s no wonder, with all those little kids…”  It’s a nice visual.

Anyway, moving on, the little thought was something like, “I wonder what would happen if I only logged in to facebook once a week.”

Answers:

a) My world would come to an end.
kaboom

b) Your world would come to an end.

armageddon
c) My kids would have to blame their emotional problems on something other than a neglectful mother.

Sing with me, "Love.....at....home...."
d) My house would get cleaner.
not my house
e) I might actually win that race.
slushpiledemotivationalposter
f) My huband would have to stop teasing me about being a facebook junky.
facebook-not-book

After careful review of the choices above, I decided that e) and f) tipped the scale and I shall be refraining from facebook until some designated time – like, say, Wednesday nights when hubby is at his all-night Bishopric meeting.

the-end

I’m pretty sure that answers a) and b) might prove to be false, but admittedly this is something of a gamble.   You might want to say your prayers tonight, just in case.

My Miracle

2010
03.06

You know how some things stay towards the top of your mind and get thought of often? 

Gardening is one of those things for me.  Here’s why.

The last three years (or is it four?!) I have sworn “THIS year, I WILL have a garden!” and I’ve really hated it.  Most of it, anyway.  I would occassionally feel satisfied with something, but for the most part I really, truly, disliked yardwork of all kinds.  Blah.  Yardwork was our A#1 favorite thing to whine and complain and moan and groan and HATE when my parents tried to make us. 

As an adult now, I kept trying because I felt in my heart it’s a useful skill, and part of “provident living” as the Lord would have us live.  Self-reliance and all that jazz.  We have dirt of our own, we should be making it productive.  I’m not going to take the time to find the quotes, but you and I both know they’re out there. 

(Yep!  We have prophets today, just like in the Bible.  They have great things to tell us.  And if you don’t go for quotes-from-prophets, just take a look at the economy and tell me it isn’t a good idea to grow your own food.  Mm-hm.  That’s what I thought.)

I felt -

100% obligated.  100% committed.  100% grudgingly so.

Gotta love that cheery Primary song, “The prophet says to plant a garden, so that’s what we’ll do…”

And so I did.  But not very well.  There was always a pregnant tummy or a newborn baby in the way, either of which don’t make for good gardening.  That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. 

Last year we started the season off fairly well, thanks to our handy & helpful neighborhood yardworkers-for-hire, and then left the thing completely to itself for a good three months.  The weeds were somewhere around 5 or 6 ft high, in case you were wondering, and a sight to behold.

Each year we tried, we learned a little.  Got a little more fruit for our labors.  Emphasis on little, though.  Last year’s jungle was pretty amazing.  (In case you’re wondering, err on the side of spacing a little too far apart, not the other way around.  Especially where tomatoes are concerned.)

And that brings me to this year. 

Not preggy.  Baby is 5 months old.  Big kids can entertain each other exceptionally well outside.  Early March, and we get phenomenal, beautiful gardening weather. 

I ignore it for a week.

(Lalala, I can’t hear you!)

And it came to pass that I, Anita, sighed unto my Father, FINE, I will go and dig the dirt as the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord sendeth no such perfect weather unto the children of men, save it be for the purpose of letting the kids romp and play while I get these weeds taken care of. 

So with the sun on my face and a breeze on my back, I dug.

And the more I dug, the more I found myself enjoying it.
?!
Yep.  I did.  And not the “pretend to enjoy it” that I did last summer.  Nope, I really liked it.  The next day, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I did it again.

And enjoyed it even more!  I went to town!  I dug and dug and weeded out my whole garden plot, and then I fertilized it and tilled it and put lovely, light topsoil all over it, and I covered it up in hopes that all those millions of weed-seeds from last year might not come up and take over.  

AND I did it all with a happy little song in my heart and a healthy little spring in my step. 
?!

What’s more,

I found myself disappointed that the afternoon was spent when there were my great big weed-filled garden boxes to be dealt with.

Me!  Disappointed that I couldn’t keep working and digging in my dirt!  The “me” of last year would have thought the “me” of this week had gone stark, raving, totally mad. 

100% proof positive that the Lord can and will change our hearts if we put forth a little effort.  Even half-hearted, grudging effort, apparently, can be turned into joyful, grateful, happy & whole-hearted work.

Did you want to see some more of said handiwork? 

Of course.  No problem.  Happy to oblige.  First, the strawberry terrace that sucked me into this whole yardwork business on Monday.  I dug that plot and filled it (that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it, John) while 5 months preggy with Freedom, so I was determined to finally deal with last year’s weeds.  Lo and behold! there were strawberries under there!  I hadn’t completely killed them off, evidently!  Huzzah for perennials.  How I love them.

Grow, strawberries, grow!

Not much to look at, but -believe me- SO much better than it was before.

This is the garden box with the top right corner left unfinished so you can get an idea of what the rest of it used to look like.

  Yay!

Since the picture was taken, I took care of said corner and tilled/fertilized carefully around our tulips.  The tulips we didn’t even know we had until at some point last summer, we saw them in the midst of all the foot-high weeds.  Wow!  Who knew we had tulips in our garden boxes?!  I’ll probably dig them up and place them a little more strategically in the near future… I’m still figuring out what will get planted where.  I’m thinking, wildflower-herb mix in the flower-boxes. 

Anyway,
that’s my miracle of the month, and it happened just in time for a good 6 inches of snow Thursday night.  Whew!  I love the way the weather here in spring is so wild and unpredictable.

Thanks for listening, friends.  I know I can be awfully long-winded at times all the time. 

Here’s hoping this newfound love lasts!

Ah-ha Moments

2010
03.06

Aren’t they great?

It took me a while, but I figured something out last night.  The little lightbulb in my head went “DING!” as my thoughts were winding down before I fell asleep.  Ready for the revelation?

Okay.  Here it is.

I am not a  seamstress!

Those sleeves were just a smidge too long, eh Doodle?

And why is that so profound, you ask?

Well, because I’ve been hoarding fabric as thought I am.

Don’t get me wrong.  I do sew, and I’m grateful (very, very grateful) that my mother took the time and effort to teach me how… but it’s a seasonal thing.  I do Halloween costumes.  Maybe an occassional “hey, let’s make the kids matching Christmas jammies.” 

C's will fit her for at least three years...Then there was the quilt top I finished 2 months before my best friend’s baby girl was born — and then actually finished the quilt somewhere around the kid’s first birthday.  Finished!  Binding and all!  It even got mailed, which is a BIG deal.

So although I enjoy it, sewing really is not a passion.

You get the idea. 
I know enough to see potential in fabric (can we say “garage sales”?) and think, “Ooh!  There could be a use for this, someday, probably!” I squirrel it home and shove it in with the other fabric, and then waste a lot of brain power wondering why our office/library/craft room is imploding.  That room has such potential for being a useful room… but it currently looks like… well, I’ll spare you the description.  Suffice it to say, company is kindly invited NOT to pass that doorway.  Last week a little 6 year old friend got past my radar and quickly pronounced, “Wow!  This room is a MESS!”

I agree.  That’s why I went to sleep with a big smile on my face, realizing that I didn’t actually need all that shtuff.

Guess what I did today?
I gave my housework helper (the same one that helped me gut my house last year — she’s back again, yay!) 98% of my fabric stash.  Yep.  If there wasn’t extreme sentimental value, or if it wasn’t already slated for a specific I-really-want-to-do-this project, OUT IT WENT!

Mmmm, it feels lovely.  So freeing.  It was my best friend that started it, and we’ve both been cheerfully adding to our “I don’t” lists ever since.  It really is amazing how declaring what you aren’t helps you see what you are.  Would your life be blessed by similar declarations?  Only you know the answer to that one.  Just for the record, though, here’s my slowly growing list of “do and do nots.”

I don’t scrapbook and I’m not really a “sew-er.”

I do read and I write.  How I love them both.  I’m getting published someday.  Really.  Wendy and I have a race going on.  I think she’s going to win, but since I tend to be a bit competitive, it helps that I think there’s a race.  In fact, she may not even be aware of said race.  Thankfull, she’s the kind of friend that would be okay with it.

I don’t make little handouts for lessons taught in church.  Nope, not once in my year and a half as Relief Society teacher.  Thankfully, the Church is still true.

I do try to get thank-you notes out, though probably half never get mailed.

I only rarely don’t make treats for the gals I visit teach.  But, hey, I try to do my visit teaching.  Getting better, slowly…

Speaking of teaching, I teach my children.  (Yeah, like, everything they need to know, including school stuff.  It’s way fun.)

I love my spouse.  A LOT.

I am determined to have a clean house… in due process of time.  That may very well be when the kids are grown and gone, but until then I’ll just keep plugging away.  And you’ll keep hearing about it, sorry Blogland.  I know it isn’t the most exciting of things, but it’s important to me, k?

Oh!  And a new one!  I garden.  And I love it!  Talk about a miracle.  Here’s to newfound loves, like gardening…

And here’s to letting go and moving on. 

What’s on your “I don’t…” list?

Wordless Wednesday

2010
03.03

I can't tell you how sad I am that this turned out blurry.

Wordless now — But just you wait until you hear the story behind it. 

Ooooooooooh, man, is it a good one.  So good, it’s hard to imagine doing justice to it in the written word.  So good I can’t wait to try.  So good it inspired this facebook group, although it’s too big to share just on the wall there.  So good…

Nevermind.  I’ll stop.  This is supposed to be wordless, you know.  (ha!)

PS: Facebook junkies – go join my group!  And share something on it!  You know you want to!

I dig it!

2010
03.02

My hands feel weird.
Specifically my fingertips.
Is this what work-roughened hands feel like? Hm! Good to know!  It’s very, very different, and I feel almost guilty for just now discovering this feeling at the ripe old age of 28.

Note to self: 
Maybe I should wear gloves the next time I till my entire 15×9ft garden the old-fashioned way.

But in case you were wondering, my garden looks fabulous.

feb 156

I even covered it with the black-fabric-stuff I found for $18.99 at the store today — but did I pay that much?  NO. Heck no. I bought mine last fall for $0.50 at a garage sale. Same stuff, still in the shrink wrap even.

MAN, I love garage sales.  (Maybe this year I’ll find some stakes to hold down said weed-preventing black stuff.  Then all that random junk holding it down can go to a better place.)

And I love digging in the dirt.  Cue the oldies!
Icandigit,shecandigit,hecandigit,theycandigit,wecandigit… Can you dig it, ba-by?…

It was seriously SO much fun working in the cool almost-spring weather, and to not be pregnant.  What a difference!

New Look

2010
03.01

Disclaimer: I don’t actually have any tag from “Bad-whatever.” Maybe the BlogFairy will fly by and fix it for me.

Aside from the text on that funky tag thing, I love the new look here. John helped me find it, and made sure that THIS layout was tracking traffic.

That’s right – my last “new look” wasn’t tracking any of you lovely visitors.   Imagine the heart-stopping panic that hit me the first time I checked my “stats” here and saw that NO ONE viewed my dear old blog. 

No one?!!!!  Not one single person?  In, like, three days?  Is that even possible?!

“Okay, breathe in, breathe out…  The world is not ending.  Not really.  This is just for me anyway… breathe in, breathe out…  I’ve had four babies w/o drugs, I can handle a little rejection…”

And then, slouthe that I am, I realized that people had COMMENTED during that supposed dead-zone.

“Waaaaaaaaaaait a minute.  If someone commented, then surely they were also viewing it.  Ah-HA!  The darn new layout must have busted something. 

“Boy, am I glad I wasn’t on candid-camera just then.  No one will ever know how bad that scared me.  Unless I blog about it, of course…”

But I left it broken for a while.  I tried to tell myself it didn’t matter.  I just blog for me, you know, as I said… but the truth is, I just love knowing the patterns in hits here. Some days of the week get ~80+, some days get, like, 5. It’s fascinating.

Oh, alright.  It’s only sort of fascinating.  Bottom line is, you make me feel loved, just by coming here to read my ramblings.  All of you.  Whatever your motivation behind it.

And I missed all those people-love-me-even-if-they-don’t-comment statistics.

So John fixed it for me.

Thanks, Sweetie. You’re the best.

Carry on, readers, carry on knowing that your reading this has been carefully logged by my Akismet Stats thingamabop.  And just for the record…

I love you, too.

Super Easy, Cheap, CUTE Easter Garland

2010
02.28
The supplies you need

The supplies you need

Step One

Step One

Step Two

Step Two

 

Keep going...

Keep going...

Ready for some amazing cuteness?

Ready for some amazing cuteness?

Ta-Da!!!!!!!

Ta-Da!!!!!!!

Talk about bang-for-your-buck!  This is super simple, super cute, and it’s

Cheep Cheep Cheep!

Sorry, couldn’t help myself. 

Be careful with your pets whilst you are making it, though, or you might end up with this:

Naughty naughty!

Naughty naughty!

What?  We have a dog?  Who thinks she’s a cat?

No, of course we don’t, Silly!   We have four kids under six years of age.  Like we’d add another small, hairy body to take care of on top of all that…  (Yes, we have chickens but that’s only so we can eat eggs all the time w/o running to the store.  And when we get tired of them, we can eat them.)

And -actually- this wasn’t my idea, or even my pictures.

I’ll give you one clue:
I’m going to manage her Etsy Shop and become filthy rich someday.

Yep, dog, pictures and fantastic idea all belong to my fabulously creative mother, who graciously took all these pictures and sent them to me right away so we could put this here for you.  Today.  Because neither of us could wait until you people are ready to put Spring/Easter decorations up.

Aren’t you glad?