eat sleep and farm

Blogging feels so weird to me now. In the same way writing a hand written letter feels weird and texting a quick message feels normal. I hate to say it, but I've become one of *those* people.  When I was introduced to Instagram I knew it would take over. Only because I know the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles really only care about photos since we keep in regular touch on the phone and via skype. And I was really only blogging in such detail for them and for my own memory sake; I still keep journals for each kid and a silly quotes journal to remember all the hilarious that goes on in our home.  I'm going to throw some pictures in here randomly for those of you who aren't on Instagram and haven't seen my kids in over a year...  since I last blogged, Rachel turned 11! This was taken a few weeks ago at her Essentials class.  I also feel like, without babies or toddlers, life feels much less "note worthy", if that makes sense? Each day is differ...

I think I found the secret to helping January go by quickly and feel less... depressing. 1.) Don't overly decorate your house for the holidays .  Just a little here and a little there goes a long way and when its time to clean things up, your house won't look like you took away all the fun and brought back all the boring ;-)  2.) Travel .  Nothing extravagant or expensive. Just leave. Go somewhere further away from home so it really feels like you're getting away. Ethan and I went to LA to visit friends and family and I'm telling you, between the getting ready and anticipation of that trip, the going and returning, it really helped January feel fun and exciting!  I feel bad for January. It gets such a bad rep because it comes after all the holiday crazy, it has winter weather (hello! its a winter month) but for some reason we all expect maui temps to return simply because Christmas is over.  3.) Don't cram every little thing into December.  Beca...

Need I say more? ;-) Sometimes we have days where we just need to be out.  Away from the kitchen table.  Away from chores around the house.  Away from the everyday, mundane.  My kids recently told me they love doing their art lesson out in  nature, so I've been trying to do just that on the days we do art.  Sometimes that means we go sit out on our trail, behind our house.  Sometimes I means we drive to the beach.  This beach is called Seahurst Beach Park and its one of our favorites.  It helps that one of my favorite coffee shops and used clothing  stores it just up the street from it :)  We use an art program called Artistic Pursuits and we love it.  Its taken us a while to figure out which curriculum we like most and this  one has been a favorite.  I read the lesson and the story, then we talk about what we learned,  we try to find real life ideas and then they draw...

I saw the title and intro to my last post and laughed out LOUD. Oh well. I'm not even going to talk about it anymore. My only defense is that for most people, blogs are a thing of the past. I refuse that to be true for me (I still sit once a week and catch up on my favorite blogs). To me, it is as personal as you can get, without being face to face or talking on the phone.  My run-down for how 2016 has gone so far can be summed up in 3 words. Wonderful and unexpected. I think when you come close to death the way I did last year, it takes a lot to get you in the depths of despair (as Anne would say), so while parts of this year have been beyond sad; Jason's Grandma passed away, my health continued to cause major issues, etc... I am still forever so grateful to have life. I see my kids growing each month, learning new things, struggling with big kid issues, having "the best day ever" many days over I've lost count and I realize those things alone are blessings we...

I'm getting better at this blog thing!  I think its because I updated my side bar with all the blogs I read and now I come here to check those out and read up. Its a win-win situation. The New Year started off fun with a trip to the Children's Museum in Olympia. We drove an hour south to this museum for 3 reasons. Its tradition for us to venture out to a new place every new year's day. We've heard uh-mazing reviews on this museum and I've been wanting to check it out for a long time. I found a Living Social deal that we couldn't pass up! So we drove down and we all had a blast, not just the kids. We spent several hours there and needed many more to really cover the whole place and enjoy each spot, so we're definitely going back. We also visited the state capital for the first time. I felt really bad doing that (finally) after living here 7 years, but my good friend who's lived here 38 years told me she's never been, so... guilty feelings averted! ...

Remember that song? "Christmas time is coming, the goose is getting fat... please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny a hay penny will do, if you haven't got a hay penny, God bless you!"  My Mom would probably laugh so hard if she knew I walk around my house singing the silly songs she taught us when we were little. I know so many more like that one. My kids think I'm super cool at this point and I'm hanging on to that opinion as long as I can. Christmas is a few days away and since I'm still in "healing" mode, it doesn't fully feel like Christmas. The other day I found myself saying "I miss NORMAL!" and as I said it, I asked myself, "but what IS normal?" Like, isn't normal where we are right now? Why do we always think normal was the last time we were happy or stress free? Before I was married I was single. Single at one point was the norm for me. So why didn't I freak out after I ...