A two-year hiatus, but still alive and loving life

The time it takes to write blog posts simply hasn't been a priority for me over the past couple of years, however don't think that the business of life has taken a turn for the worse.
Quite on the contrary -- Life is FABULOUSLY busy with my three extremely active girls!  And I'm truly loving (just about) every crazy second of this hecticity!

The household now has a Senior, 7th grader and Freshman, ALL extremely active playing volleyball in the Fall, basketball in the Winter and Track in the Spring, additionally softball for Candace in the Summer.

As for most people, the realization that we have a graduating Senior this year is a bit surreal and downright crazy to fathom.  The ol' cliche "time flies" has never rang so true!!!!!!!

Cass has certainly committed herself and has been self-driven to achieve seasonly and yearly goals over the past year, both for herself and for the betterment of her teammates and the school.
Parents are usually defaulted into being proud of their children; with these three, it's so easy to follow that default :)

On the crafty side of things......
OH BOY!  Opening admitting that my quilting room NOR my crochet needles have seen much action of any sort for the past year.  A T-shirt quilt is slowly in the making for Cass's graduation, but other than that, there simply hasn't been much ambition to fire up the sewing machine.  There IS time in my schedule, however.... "ambition" is truly the key word.  Much of my evening time is devoted to editing athletic photos for the girls' teams and updating the school's athletic Facebook pages.
My sewing machine and needles will always be there and ready for whenever the mood strikes;  until then, I've gotten over the initial guilt of backing away from that part of my life.

RUNNING update --

This hobby, on the other hand, is (hopefully) going to be taking front and center stage again after having some downtime since 2013.  No crazy plans for another marathon, but reaching a healthy running stage is a goal I hope to achieve again.

For now, that's where I'm at......
Happy 2019 to all!

Forever in our hearts:  Shadow (June 2006, August 7, 2018)

2018 Family Trip - Badlands

Spring has Sprung! Garden 2014 underway!

I truly can't remember the last Memorial Weekend that consisted of THREE absolutely picture perfect days!  Friday evening was Graduation for our Class of 2014, however I ended up bowing out of the festivities;  (and yes... the guilt was almost getting the better of me!)

Instead, the girls and I tilled up and planted four rows worth of sweet corn.  I am not certain of the length of the rows -- 100 feet maybe? 

I also looked over my strawberry patch I had spent some time with last weekend.  It really sprouted at the end of the summer last year with loads and loads of daughter-runner plants.

The patch has been increased 3-fold!  Next year, I'm hoping these new rows will be growing nicely with some fresh runners so that in two years, we'll be able to have a substantial harvest.

The first lawn haircut happened on Saturday...

And the girls picked some 'flowers' for a graduation party Saturday afternoon.  Hannah is a neighbor about a mile down the road, so we ended up walking, enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather!

Paul worked all day Saturday, and spent much of the morning on Sunday tilling up gardens for friends. But by early afternoon, he was home to start helping me set fencing and trellis for our own garden.  I don't mind planting most of it, but setting fencing and trellis isn't an easy task for me.  I need m'man! :)

The upper garden is back on rotation for potatoes, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peppers and carrots, in addition to a few other small odds-n-ends (radishes, mixed salad lettuces, ...)

And y'all should be so proud of me!!!!!  I've LIMITED myself this year with the beans AND tomatoes!!!!  If all of the beans germinate, there will be about 50-55 plants (pole-beans on a trellis). Pa-lenty, right??

And as the picture shows, I have 17 tomato plants in the ground, safely protected by our infamous milk jug greenhouses.  The next couple of weeks are still touch-n-go, whether we'll get some low over-night temperatures.  The tomatoes are still quite small, too.

Potatoes, on the other hand, are back on full load with.... about 80 Lasoda Red and 56 Yukon Gold plants.  Hearty hearty hearty plants.  

Ummmm....ruh-roh folks!   More tomatoes are waiting !!!..... ;)

Both of these varieties are new to me this year.  These few stragglers will have a chance to grow some more before (possibly) finding a home in garden spot... somewhere!  15 more tomato plants.... you truly can never have too many tomatoes!

The lower garden is only partially planted.  Nine long rows of corn (100' each?), and a long row of peas.  The rest of the space is still being planned out by Paul once he arrives home from work tonight.  We have a variety of melons, squash, pumpkins, and other vine-y spreading plants.  Plus, I'm sure he's going to plant his broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages too.

We've increased the amount of berry bushes and fruit trees... I can't even keep track of what Paul is bringing home anymore.  Cherry trees, grape vines, a multitude of different arrangements of berry bushes.  All edible.  I can't wait to see this place in another 5-6 years!!!!

The goats enjoyed the fresh cut grass clippings on Saturday -- Candace tried her darndest to get Starz to sit still for a picture.  

And since these lil' gals enjoy all of our berry bushes too -- they simply need to stay penned up for much of the time.  They are allowed out on good behavior as long as they are monitored the ENTIRE time!  They ate away most of my deck flowers on Sunday!

Shadow man has also been enjoying some additional attention lately.  He ran away for the fourth time (usually about once a year around this time), but this time there was no call from any of our neighbors.  He went missing last Thursday.  Last Sunday evening, I was scrolling through FaceBook, and a friend happened to share the status of our local Humane Society.  And there was his lovely ol' picture!!!!  FB truly does have its purposes, right???

After school on Monday, we picked him up, and continued driving right to the local Vet to schedule a lil' surgery.  We're hoping his running tendencies will subside considering the myth (fact?) that males typically calm down after being neutered.  Surgery planned during the first week of summer vacation, June 13.

He wintered VERY well, so we've been out walking and running with him once (and sometimes even twice) a day.  He's seven, so he still has lots of life to go. 

My quilting endeavors have definitely been quiet, however I did get a pantograph done for my MIL's hand-embroidered quilt, meant for a friend of the family.  My crochet hook has been quite silent as well lately, but here-n-there I'm working on a lazy-wave afghan using some rich, earth-toned, fall, manly colors.

Despite having a late start to the track season, our Middle School girls team ended on a high note, bringing home the Conference Champions plaque on Thursday.  They put up 120.5 points, while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place tallied up 79, 77.5, and 77 respectively.  It was quite the defeat, and they were super pumped!  Cassie came away with three 2nd place ribbons (Long Jump (13'0.5"), 400M (1:07) and the 100M.

So, with Memorial weekend behind us, and Spring FINALLY underway... many yards are strewn with dandelions.  Cassie borrowed my camera on a walk this AM and snapped a few lovely 'springy' pictures.  

I have come to appreciate dandelions a bit more, now that Paul has taken up Bee-keeping as a new past-time.  He's had them for a couple of weeks now, and I'll be certain to do some blogging on his new adventure!

Leaving you with a few of those pics from Cassie.....

Two more weeks (and a half-day Monday 5/9) -- and then..... time to de-stress and decompress.  My amazing coworker and friend who teaches HS math has decided to move his family back closer to his alma-mater, and is therefore leaving us at the end of the school year.  With much thought, I decided to request a transfer back to teaching solely HS math in his place, so... that transition will be hanging over my head as I head back in three months.  My first 6 years were in the HS (my past 10 in the MS).  I'm ready for the new transition back to the older ages :)  The HS hallway is filled with amazing staff!  I'm truly looking forward to it.

Alrighty--- 4 days, then 5 more days, and then half-of-a-day Monday.   I got this! :D

Happy Monday everyone.  I've missed all of you :)

A crazy 24

OH BOY!  Yup...it arrived a bit after 5:00 last night

BUT, I was bound and determined to be disciplined!

First....I needed to pick up Cass from Cross Country

Then...needed to make dinner.

Then.... I supervised Homework.....

Then.... I washed up dishes AND folded a load of laundry....

AND THEN!  THEN, I was ready to play.....

But... HALT those plans!!!!

Cassie came in from feeding Shadow.....SOBBBBBING!  I'm talking hyperventilating-sobbing!!!!!!!

My first thought.....'she got stung by a bee.'  

Me:  "Cass???  What is wrong?"

Cass:......Sob...Sob....Sob......"Shadow is gone!!!!!"

Oh....man!  Talking about that heart-sinking feeling!  

I worked on calming her down......made some phone calls around to neighbors.....jumped on Facebook to get the word out..... the whole routine.

By the time I finished all of that....

I simply was too pooped!  The wind was out of my sails :(

Therefore, I simply read the manual last night.

Fast forward to this morning, 8:25AM.  My 1st period class gets interrupted by a phone call, and we did what we normally do when the phone rings during class:  We try to figure out who the phone call was for and for what reason :)

GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!!  The wife of a coworker works with a lady who is the mom of a friend of a neighbor who lives a couple of miles from me.  {{Did you follow that one?}}  Anyway......she was calling to say that Shadow had been found!    I was so happy to tell Cassie in passing her to lunch that he had been found :)

So afterschool, I had a meeting...followed by running to pick up the girls....followed by tracking Shadow down from one neighbor's house to another (because he 'ran' off again from the one neighbor).  And THEN....once I got everyone home, it was time for me to chow-down a quick meal before heading BACK to school to work the volleyball game.

Therefore......Nope.   No embroidery tonight either.  

And really.....it's okay!  Afterall.....

Are you a dog lover?

I had the TV tuned to USA channel tonight to watch the tail end of NCIS (LOVE that show, BTW). As we were finishing up dinner, the Westmintser Dog Show was starting, and we found ourselves NOT changing the channel.

I grew up with a beagle by the name of "Socks." He was mostly black with some brown and a patch of white on his chest and all four paws were white....hence the name "Socks." In 2008, the Beagle won the Best of Show; amazing headline news that year.

We have a dog now--"Shadow," a black labrador; Cassie is his main owner; she feeds him. The girls play with him, and I've tried, but.......gosh! That dog's a-runner! He bolts the moment he's leash-free :0(

We had two dogs previous to Shadow----"Lucky" a yellow labrador and "Buster" a brown labrador. Both dogs were good dogs; Buster was a wedding gift to DH and myself; AMAZING dog! And then....Lucky entered the picture. :0( Buster didn't like the new addition. But.....Lucky! He was THE BEST BEST BEST dog EVER!

Anyway....getting sidetracked from what this post really was for and about. I've enjoyed the show so far; I LOVE how the announcer gives some information regarding each breed. We've only watched the "hound" category so far, and I can't believe how many different breeds there are; many that I have never heard of!!!

The Scottish Deerhound ended up being the winner of this category tonight. {{Random google picture here}} I think the name "fits" the dog; and I'm not so sure I could see being the owner of this breed.

And did you know that the Irish Wolfhound is the largest breed in the world? Larger than a Great Dane even! Yup, definitely not a future-owner of a Wolfhound.

Both of these breeds (Deerhound & Wolfhound) were new to me tonight.

My husband has now since changed the channel, and I'm okay with that. While out googling for some pictures, I also came across this Giant Poodle picture. I hope not to offend anyone....but ....nuh-uh! NOT for me! Even some of the "hound" category breeds tonight were not appealing to me....

For instance...the Pharaoh hound.....nope. Not my style.

What WOULD I like?

The Siberian Husky has always intrigued me, although I will most likely never own one. I'm always stricken by the intense blue eyes of many Huskies.

And then I remember this little guy from watching the show last year.....The Papillon. I couldn't believe that I found myself really liking the look of this dog last year because I REALLLLLY am not a "toy dog" person......ya know......those little annoying dogs nicknamed the "ankle biters."

Anyway....are you a dog lover? A dog owner?

The Chicken count...

For those of you not blessed with a life of late nights and early mornings, you may not have read up on my "interesting" evening last night.....


I just stepped outside with some old hotdog buns and called the chickens over. {{Yes, CALLED them over. My DH has most of our animals trained by call! A little kissy-kissy sound brings the chickens a-runnin' and a smackey-smacky-lip sound sends our pigs into a riot!}} The animals know---when they hear the sounds, FOODs-a-comin'!

Anyway
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
missing at least 1; and I truly can't remember if we had 11 or 13. I'll have to touch-base with DH today (he's been out of town since Friday night) to find out. I guess I'm feeling a bit better, and will look around the property today to see if I can find any "sign" that Shadow was a naughty-naughty doggy!