what's going on?

I thought it was time to just do a daily life kind of blog post and not an opinion piece.  Although I love to voice my opinion!

So I'm going to try to break it down into categories if I can.

Home:  I've been trying to stay home as much as I can.  Home is my sanctuary.  The last few months my job has been very stressful and very overwhelming.  This may seen  funny to some people,  considering I only work part time (20 hours), but it's the type of work I do.
So we haven't been running around on the off days and we've mostly been staying put in the evenings.

Work:  Where do I start?  For the longest time I worked my 20 hours in 2 days.  In April it changed to 20 hours in 4 days.   Then circumstances arose that have made the last few months with my client very hard to deal with.  I'm hoping that we have peaked at the worst of it and that we are going to get calm again.  This week has been the first good week in months.  I would love to cut back to 10 hours a week, but I just don't see that happening right now because staffing needs are so great.

Garden:  I've identified another mistake I've been making since we moved here.  It could be contributing to my poor gardening skills:  I've been storing my shredded leaves under a couple of pine trees.  (palm to forehead)  Have I been screwing up the PH?  maybe.
Otherwise, I'm happier with the garden than I've been since I moved here and built it.  It has been a struggle to spend enough time out there.  I still don't, but I've spent more than normal and the results show.
 *We expanded one bed and built another one.  Now all of the available space in that area is used.
 *We have been collecting cardboard and lining the paths and putting down straw, so weeds are less.  * It has been a dry summer here in this part of Maine and I water each day, but I know it's not enough and I have even begun to water less because if the dryness continues I don't want my well to draw down.
 *We did plant a row of high bush blueberries & the raspberry row we planted last year gave us tons of pickings!
 *summer squash seems to be a bust again this year.  There are just not enough bees in the middle of the woods.  I've planted a lot more flowers, but it's not enough.  So I either have to be a bee keeper or pollinate the plants myself.  I don't see either one happening in the near future so I will just buy my squash from the farmer down the road.
 * I've grown some greens to feed the chickens, but I've been shopping the farmers market to feed me!

Family:  Our family is expanding!  Grand baby #7 will be coming along in February! Joe & Luke will be welcoming a new brother or sister.
  AND our daughter and son in law are buying a piece of land 2 miles from my house, on my road, and I am beyond happy about this!  I can walk there & back!!!  I can get skinny?????  hahaha, that won't happen because my daughter will feed me when I get there!

Anyway.....that is a little glimpse into my world.  Have a restful weekend!

a boy who loves little einsteins!

our grandson recently celebrated his 3rd birthday and the theme was

Little Einsteins, his favorite cartoon.

bubby and grampa created the red rocket cake for him

we had fun making it!

meghan drew the rocket, grampa cut it out then meghan painted it

everyone had fun "pretending"  and getting their pics taken

lots of cupcakes!

meghan set up a musical activity center

other activities were water fun, sandbox, and just all around playing!!!!

for decorations there were balloons and colorful musical notes all over

joe had an awesome day!

diy baby dedication at home

our daughter and son in law decided that they wanted to dedicate charlie at home with family instead of a church dedication.  they got married here, so it made sense to them.
since it was on july 5th i went with a patriotic theme for the decorations

i also made a birthday cake for ethan since he was to turn two in a few days

i decorated the table with bandannas from walmart and made a cross of cupcakes.

i painted frames from dollar tree and downloaded and printed these free graphics.

i bought a youth bible and had everyone write something in it.

of course we had to feast because that's what we do!  i did a hot dog bar with chips

we all stood around the dining room table and prayed and read scripture

everyone took turns

the little boys just played while we did this

papa burrows offered a wonderful prayer

grampa  smith and jeff jr. played "jesus loves me"
then grampa played and sang a song he had written years ago & he dedicated it to all the little boys.

it was a wonderful, special time for this family.  i love how grampa & gramma smith were watching over us.

Day #15 Honoring God's name

Well, here is another topic that has given me some stress lately.

Using the Lord's name in vain.

That is how I was taught to recite this commandment.

Do not use the name of the Lord in vain.

The bible I'm currently using says:

Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God.  The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.


vain:  having no real value, worthless, without effect, futile, fruitless, profane

Now, I'm not absolutely innocent in the use of the name of God.

However, there is a difference between  a slip and remorse & constant use.

And when you say "Oh my goodness, Oh gee, jiminy cricket, jeesum crow (never heard that one until I moved to Maine), etc.  you get the idea........these are all substitutes........and I was taught that they were wrong also.

A popular one among devout Christians is "Oh my word!".................again..................just the same as you saying "Oh my ***"  (even doing that was wrong, i repent....)
"Word" is another name for Jesus.


Sooooo, I've been trying to use "holy moly" as my most favorite exclamation. If someone can let me know if that somehow is not a good substitute I would be extremely grateful.

You see, I'm trying to keep my little grandsons from growing up having a disrespectful attitude toward the name of God.  (or names of God)

In today's world that is a HUGE undertaking

Day #11 busy bags

since i am firmly entrenched in baby/toddler/preschool land for quite a while, i decided it was time to start getting my resources together

busy bags?  never heard of such a thing.  back in the day i just had a cabinet full of stuff to pull out to keep them busy.  organizing it into bags that you can just grab quickly---awesome!  why didn't i think of that?

so i made a trip to dollar tree and walmart and between that and stuff i had laying around the house i came up with nine bags this week.  five are pictured above

from top left:  pool noodles cut into 1" chunks and a shoestring
                     painted clothespins and foam sheets
                     big buttons to sort and put into the slot in the cups
                     egg carton sorter color sorter with poms
                     pipe cleaners with a cool whip container (holes drilled in top)

i also made:  melissa and doug "colorforms"  i found at tjmaxx
                    a bag with 4 four wheeler vehicles
                    a bag with 4 dinosaurs
                    color, numbers, shapes flash cards disney & pooh

i used zip lock bags of varying sizes (dollar tree even has the 2 gallon ones!) and for now i put them all in a box and they are going to ethan's house.

you see, ethan is not quite two years old and he has a little brother who is four months old.  ethan needs occupying while momma feeds calvin because he is acting out for attention.

i love this idea and the idea of making them educational.  i'm planning on making lots more and keeping them available for all of my children to borrow.
                   

day #2 feeling out of sorts

have you ever had one of those days where you just felt like you couldn't stand to be in your own body?

your clothes feel wrong, your hair feels wrong, even your skin feels wrong.

yeah, that's how i feel today.

it's been quite a while since i've felt this way.

i swear that it's directly related to what i eat.  i didn't eat extremely horrible this past weekend, but i didn't eat extremely wonderful either.

i also think that it has something to do with my anxiety too.  when my anxiety gets so high for too long i just feel like i either want to run off screaming into the woods, or just go to bed for a few days.

thankfully i have something to keep me from going over the edge in either direction.  something that gives my life purpose and direction.  something that keeps my mind occupied and makes me smile when i absolutely don't feel like it.

want to know what that something is?

post #1 My Day

I'm going to try a 30 day blogging challenge to try and get back into blogging regularly, so here goes day #1!

Saturday mornings are usually rough for me.  I work thursday and friday from 9 am until 7 pm (or so)  and then on fridays i sometimes go grocery shopping after work before i head out of town.  so on saturdays i am usually exhausted!  i'm not as young as i used to be, that is for sure!

Yesterday i had a busy day ahead of me and i was a bit grumpy about it, but i forced myself up and out of the house anyway.  A very special friend of mine organizes a Pink Tulip Festival in our little town (to support breast cancer awareness) so this was to be our first stop.

  A few minutes after getting there some of our family showed up with a few of my favorite things!  And my absolute favorite things in this whole wide world are my five grandsons!  this is charlie, grandson #4

                                 

At the Tulip Festival there was a plant sale (amazingly i didn't buy any), bake sale (i bought everyone pink cupcakes) and some John Deere mowers and such (grandson Joe loved them)  Seeing my babies improved my mood immensely!

We left the Festival and wandered around the farmers market in town.  i've been trying to make it there for the past couple of weeks, but like i said, Saturday mornings are rough :(  It's been a cool and damp spring here in Maine and the crops are slow in coming so far.  There was lots of seedlings and i did buy 8 basil seedlings.  I also bought some fermented probiotic stuff that a lady from Bar Harbor makes.  I'm gonna give it a try and see how I feel.

I decided that i wanted to go shop a little before we headed home, so we headed to Mardens and I bought an inflatable pool and some pool things for the boys.  Now i just hope we get some summer weather this year!

I then went home and prepared a delicious pizza casserole for our church supper club.  A group of ten of us has gotten together three times now to share a meal and fellowship.  Last night we hosted and we all had a wonderful time.  I am really happy that we have found a church home and family!

Well, there you have it!  My day!  

ahhhhhhh, babies!!!!!!!

This would be the reason i don't blog very often

In other news.........it is still winter here no matter what the calendar says.

The house always seems extra calm and quiet after taking a precious little boy home. We had ethan overnight and brought him home around 5 pm. He is so funny and sweet. He has become very easy and enjoyable to have stay over. Joe didn't stay the night this week. Meghan is weaning him off his pacifier ( he is 2 1/2) so we decided to wait until this is accomplished. So far, so good!
So far february in maine has been cold and snowy. The past week we've been getting storms every other day it seems.
I've been setting a weekly goal of 10 miles for my walking, but i haven't been hitting it. So far this week i've made it to 5 miles! Weight loss goals are suffering too- my motivation is low :(
I switched to some homemade deodorant a couple weeks ago and so far i like it!  Today i made some shampoo and used it this evening-it smells very pepperminty! We have been trying to cut down on the amount of chemicals we are using.  I'm going to make some air freshener spray next.