It's a great day at Goodness Grows Farm

It is a great day here at Goodness Grows Farm. Well, except for the fact that Will got up at ten to seven. And that I had to get up at 7:50 because Erik went downstairs and Maggie woke up and woke me up because she wanted to get dressed and eat. But, I got a lot done this morning. Last night before bed I felt totally overwhelmed because I had so much laundry to do - actually, the doing the laundry doesn't bother me - it is the folding it and putting it away that I can't stand! Walker had wet his bed two nights ago, so I still had sheets to put on the bed (luckily there is a spare bed in the boys room, so Walker slept in that last night) and I had I'm ashamed to say, FOUR baskets of laundry - 2 to be put away and 2 to be folded and put away. Then, this morning as I was getting the little two out of my bed, Will burped and threw up all over our sheets - so I had yet another set of linens to wash. Luckily, Erik played with Will & Maggie while I did the laundry and went back upstairs to put it all away. All that is left to put away is the boys clothes b/c Will was asleep by the time I got to their stuff.

Last night Erik took the kids to the rodeo and left me home with Willie J. We had a nice evening together - and Will even managed to get in some reading time.

Despite all the laundry, we had some cute moments here today. Erik is in the process of brush hogging (mowing) some of our fields our lots that we have for sale. Some folks are interested in the lots, so they wanted to see it mowed. Maggie & Walker tagged along with him today - Walker found lots of black berries and picked us a cup full. Maggie just followed along with her baby. She is so into role playing mommy.

So, a few pictures to document our day:

Because the kids got home from the Rodeo so late, we just let them sleep in their clothes. Except they always like to take off their pants when they sleep. So, here is how Walker woke up this morning.

Wanting to play . . .


Outside


On his tractor.

WITHOUT PANTS

"No shoes, No Shirt, No Service . . . NO PROBLEM!"


And our resident movie star cow-girl . . . Heaven forbid she be seen without her glasses. Are the Paps going to be taking pictures of her like this someday?
And my sweet
Willie J

Before breakfast on the left and after breakfast on the right. He needed a bath - and decided to have a spot of tea during his tubby.



My farmers. Working so hard Maggie May fell asleep in her daddy's arms. She's a good momma - still clutching her baby.

Goodness, everyone sure is growin' fast 'round these parts. I'm not sure if I'm emotionally prepared for all this growin' up!

Miracle Update . . .

For any of you wondering, at the time of this post, the Carnie gold fish is still alive.

Miracle on Heller Road: The Tale of the Carnie Fish

It was the weirdest thing.

Well, let me back track first.

Last Friday at the Farm Show, we won 3 fish.

One fish died the first night in our home. Since then, I've managed to keep the other two fish alive by rotating them between two mason jars filled with well water.

Today, I was in the kitchen and all of a sudden I noticed one of the fish floating on the top of the water. It was the ONLY fish in the mason jar!

I looked around and lying on the kitchen counter was the other fish. Assumming it was a goner (I know, I know - what happens when you assume) I went and got the camera to take a picture of it because who knew, like the Great White Sharks off the African coast, simple, everyday gold fish can LEAP out of the water in search of their prey.

The result:

Could the fish see the food sitting outside the jar and was he/she trying to reach it?

What possible reason did this fish have for leaping out of its perfectly nice mason jar home?










See, here it is in close up - and as I'm taking this picture close-up-ish of the dead fish on the counter because I thought it was so unique and unusual

The gills start to move!

That's right folks! The fish was breathing outside of water.

Since I did not know the Guiness World Record number off hand, I quickly filled the other mason jar with water and threw the fish into the new water. And it is still ALIVE!! As you can see here!

Just call me the fish whisperer.

Maggie was there to witness it all - eating a piece of peanut butter toast. Well, more accurately, licking the peanut butter off of a piece of toast. She was not too impressed with the death and is not too upset over the loss of the fish. When the first one died, Walker declared that one was Will's fish. Now I suppose he will declare this recent loss as Maggie's fish. That would leave him with the only living fish.

Sounds pretty typical for a first born.

Erik is taking them to the rodeo tonight. I'm going to try sending the camera with them - I doubt he'll take pictures though.

Speaking of rodeo's, I am in search of toddler/youth sized cowboy boots. Oh, and did I find some cute ones at Shepler's.com. They are so adorable. I don't know how I'm going to pick a pair. Don't tell the kids, but that is what we are going to buy them for Christmas. They will be their "show" boots for when they show goats. Fun, right?!

Technology frustration

So, in all my experience in working with computers, photography and the like, everyone has always advised, "Don't store your photos on your hard-drive. Hard drives crash and then you have nothing!" So periodically, I go through and burn my photos to a CD. I did that for my July photos the other day and now only half of the files are there on the disc. I am confused because I ALWAYS check the disc for the photos before I erase them from the hard drive. I popped in the disc and BAM they were there. Today, when I was attempting to bring up some of those photos, they were gone!!

Is anyone out there computer savvy?? Can you help me or offer some rational explanation as to what happened?

I'm saddest about the fact that I lost the 3 pictures I took of Walker at his first concert. Luckily, I had blogged it, but they were such cute pictures.

On a less "pity-me" note, Will has been such a bugger today. I think he knows just how to push his sister's buttons because she has been at her wits end with him all day. If I hear, "No, no, Willie James, no, no!" one more time, I may have to change Will's name!

So, all of you out there who have already told me, I freely admit, "YES! I HAVE MY HANDS FULL!" But I wouldn't want it any other way.

How can you not love these faces?

This week is flying by!

I can hardly believe it is Wednesday already! Where does time go?

We've been busy around here. Last night we took chickens to the butcher so we can have nice fresh, farm raised chicken - no hormones! I'm excited. We have to pick them up tonight and we'll probably have chicken tomorrow for supper. YUM!

I have a photo shoot scheduled this afternoon. I'm excited to be doing some work again. It's been forever since I did anyones photos besides my family.

My funny story for the day is this. On Sunday, we were watching the Olympics - the gymnastics, of course. How do those girls do the things they do? Anyhoo, Maggie was enthralled with them. Any of you that know Maggie know she doesn't sit still to watch TV (and as I type this she is watching her first ever full length episode of Little Einsteins - usually she watches the opening song and then shouts, "Done!") so her sitting and watching the Olympics was a feat of Olympic proportions in itself. When one of the girls would finish her routine, she would yell, "More times! More times!" meaning she wanted to see another gymnast. After a while I said, "You know Maggie, little girls can take lessons and learn how to do that. Would you like to take lessons and learn how to do flips like those girls?"

Maggie's response, "Yes, Momma. And me wear my swimmin' suit?"

She thinks the gymnasts are wearing their swimming suits as uniforms.























I'm not sure any of these looks are very patriotic - or Olympic inspiring. I think the first look she has confused the summer and winter Olympics. I think in the pose on the steps she has her "I stuck the landing" look down. Tah-Dah!

I'm A Winner!

We had to go up to the farm show grounds today to pick up our animals and pick up my photo contest entries. I am proud to say that one of my photos took second place. That photo is:

Pretty cute, huh?

That's my Maggie May with her cousin Olivia. They were playing in Nana's dressing room. Ok, it was a totally posed shot - we had a photo shoot because Nana redecorated her bedroom and we decided that pictures of the girls playing dress up in her dressing room would be cute.

So, let me tell you the difficulty of this shot. First, the room is kind of narrow and the lighting is just so-so. The biggest challenge is that there is a huge wall to wall mirror above the vanity which, if not careful, the photographer finds herself reflected in. Plus, the mirror also reflects the big brothers playing in the bedroom outside the dressing room - angry because they are not allowed to play dress up too. Not that they would want to play dress-up, but because they have been specifically told they cannot play dress up, they are angry and want to. Oh, and the photographer also had to deal with Olivia's mom's feet (my sister, Katie)- she was sitting outside the dressing room with her bright fuchsia colored slippered feet resting on the ottoman. Those feet popped into every picture!

This shot is actually one taken in the mirror - I would have never been able to get their faces due to the narrow space of the vanity, so I just shot straight into the mirror. Good thing my mom is a very clean lady and the mirror was streak free.

I used some of my favorite actions to blur the background because of the above mentioned feet, but erased the blur somewhat on the girls. Very cute, don't you think.

Personally, I believe I should have won first place, but what do I know? The first place winner was really cute too, (a little boy and a little girl- possibly siblings - walking down a tree lined cobblestone street holding hands) but seriously, shouldn't these adorable pixies have won?

My prize you ask? Well, I now am in possession of an adorable red ribbon: it is 3 inches long by 1 inch wide.

And . . . I won some money. THREE WHOLE DOLLARS!!

I know, I know, don't spend it all in one place. I'll try to contain myself. I'm sure the bank teller will have to hold the check for a few days to make sure the check clears.

I don't do it for the money - I do it for the fame!!

Ha!