Thursday, July 30, 2009

space


the big question is do we fix this beautiful space now while he is little? i personally think it gives him character, but i have never had one so i don't know if eventually one day he might hate me for not fixing it when he was young and i had the chance. let me know.

Monday, June 8, 2009

first official day of summer 2009

summer has officially arrived. i didn't count friday because it was way too cool. i lay in bed this morning until 8, just because i can and even though i can't sleep past 6 i just read my book, but i really have no impending reason to get out of bed before the sun comes up unless its to ride my bike or something. avery is sitting on the couch playing his gameboy (pokemon seems to be the flavor of the day for the past week) and i immediately have to rain on his parade because thats what parents do right? i inform him that he will not be spending the entire summer playing gameboy or watching tv constantly and usher him in to practice his violin. he has a little meltdown and decides that he wants to quit the violin but recovers quickly when i tell him that if he quits violin, i get his gameboy. i know, i know cruel huh? i toast some leftover waffles from a week ago and put strawberries on them and have to drag anna away from reading her book in her bed. if you ask her what she is going to do this summer, she'll say "read" very matter of fact. so, i am not real worried about her losing anything over the summer, but avery on the other hand can waste a whole day doing nothing productive (he gets that from his mother). so, i have decided we are doing homeschool everyday (just an hour or so, i'm not that mean). i just want to improve his math and reading skills this summer.

i heard the baler going this morning at 5 a.m. (maybe that's why i couldn't sleep) and it brought back many summer mornings when we sat on the tractor with my dad while he baled hay early in the morning (it was him baling this morning too, but i didn't get up to sit on the tractor, i know i've grown up). blake had to work last night and didn't get home until 6:30 this morning and my dad had already baled half the field, it is kind of nice having him retired, he is a pretty good hand. my brothers have resorted to calling him "blake's boy." i told blake its just because they are jealous.

i write this to the sound of "perpetual motion" on the violin and the muffled sounds of anna's guitar coming from the other room. blake made a deal with them this summer that every morning that they get up and don't make their beds, they have to pay him a quarter and at the end of the summer if they never missed a day he'll give them 5 quarters (i didn't say anything as to the unfairness of the deal). so first thing this morning before blake has even graced us with his presence inside (he's too busy counting bales outside with my dad) i notice avery's bed isn't made and point it out to him, he returns with a quarter for the jar, i secretly tell him to just go make it and i won't tell dad this time because it is the first day of the deal. so when anna gets up to eat and runs to her room halfway through breakfast to make her bed, avery smiles covertly at his mom because we share a little secret. he dodged a bullet today.

coupons

ok, i will put a little bit about couponing here, but not much, because that would take way too much time. here are some of the useful websites that pretty much walk you through the process so that even people like me who are totally impatient can use coupons.

hip2save.com
moneysavingmom.com

printable coupon websites

smartsource.com
giantpa.com
coupons.com

i will try to update and let you know when things go on really good sales.

Friday, April 17, 2009

more of anna with her lambs
















this was anna every afternoon working them on the lamb stand. she got sick of feeding and working them everyday and really talked tough about being glad when they were finally gone, but in all reality when we dropped stella off at lyn wren's house (she bought her alternate as a pet), anna cried all the way down to the fair grounds. it was pretty sad because i knew how it was kind of bittersweet for her because on one hand she was sick of feeding them and taking care of them, but on the other she had bonded with them because of all the work that they were. needless to say, she cried again on sunday when they put shep in the trailer headed to the butcher. the cutest thing ever was when they marked him with the pink stripe to indicate which trailer shep went in and she was extremely worried whether or not that spray paint would come off. i didn't have the heart to tell her that it really didn't matter, i just told her that it would.

easter 2009
















easter morning was kind of rushed because we had to get down by 8 a.m. to the sheep shearing contest. anna did really well in it, but it was her first year, so we didn't expect huge things. maybe her mom should have let her hold the clippers a little while doing her own lambs. it was a learning experience if nothing else. the easter bunny hid the kids baskets, avery's was in the oven and anna's was in the garage by her baby chicks. i finally had to tell avery that it was in the kitchen and it still took him 10 minutes to find it because he was looking in the cupboards, even the top ones, but didn't even think about looking in the oven. it was pretty cute. overall, i think we had a pretty good fair experience, we were all exhausted by sunday night, but we all had fun.