Things are changing

Walking home from the bus stop last week, I noticed that leaves are starting to change color.  This red was vivid against the green of the leaves.  As much as I don't want to admit it, Summer is over and it is time for Fall to creep in and color our world in preparation for the Winter months.  I cherish Fall because I know that it is our last hurrah of any color before the bland gray and brown, mud covered world we will experience for a good 4 or 5 months.  I've heard various predictions about the winter - as usual, I'm hoping for a steady stream of snow - about one inch daily to keep my husband busy and our business steady.

Other things around the farm are changing too.  Animals are coming and they are going.  We've experienced a tremendous sale season this year.  All of our goat kids born on the farm this year have been sold.  We've even found some regular customers looking for farm fresh meats - chickens, ducks, goats, etc.  Erik has been keeping busy attending various auctions at night trying to keep up our supply!  Here is one of our old mama hens. She's got a slew of eggs under her that she is protecting.  A few months ago, another hen hatched out 5 eggs and she kept them safe and we recently sold them to a new family who will raise them and eat their eggs!  That's cool!  She is fiercely protecting her eggs from the new Silkie chickens Erik bought at the auction last week.  These silkies are very soft and fluffy.  They are Maggies birds.
Another change here on the farm is the addition of "Sniffy."  That is his unofficial name.  Sniffy is a 10 month old Alpaca that Erik got "for a steal" at the auction.  We're not sure if he is going to become a permanent part of our farm, but he is definitely something new.  Rest assured, if he stays, I'm changing his name.  Oh- and he got his name because by nature, Alpacas are curious and sniff at anything that comes across their path.  Everytime Walker goes into the barn with him, Sniffy puts his nose in his face and sniffs away.  If he was a girl, I think Gertrude would be a front runner for the new name, but for now, I'll have to think about a good boy name.  Our general rule is that we only name animals names we wouldn't name our kids.  
Here's another shot of Maggie's silkie chickens.  The white ones are really pretty. 
This poor Mama goat is depressed.  Her baby was one of the last to be sold and ever since, she has not been eating well and she spends her day roaming the pasture, bleating for her baby to come to her.  She is the wildest and meanest goat we have, but she sure is a good mama!  Her unofficial name is "Crazy Mexican" because she is a mexican/spanish cross breed.  
Erik picked up these unusual ducks at auction last week.  Unfortunately, they have already departed the premises - they are probably now tucked away in some lucky families freezer.  I know many people will find that unappealing - but that is our business.  The majority of the animals on our farm are here for a specific purpose.  Either they are to breed, to eat, or to sell for someone else to do one of those things.  We don't oppose having barnyard animals as pets - they just don't seem to work out as pets at our house.  Probably because we have so many dogs and cats already.  
Here is a picture of our number one crop here at Goodness Grows Farm . . .  Poison Ivy.  We have poison ivy everywhere!  To say it is prolific is an understatement.  I only wish we could somehow turn this noxious plant into a profitable crop.  I believe that the US military has underestimated the potential of this plant as a biohazard.  Erik is severely allergic to the stuff - basically if he looks at it he breaks out in oozing sores.  He recently had a horrible reaction to it.  I don't feel too sorry for him though because for the most part, he avoids it.  The #1 way he gets poison ivy is by handling the goats (who, if you've read this blog before, LOVE poison ivy and eat it like candy) or by playing with the dogs.  Two Sundays ago, he was playing with the dogs, batting at them and rolling with them in the grass.  Monday he woke up with huge welts and they swiftly turned into extremely annoying and itchy sores.  My reasoning for this plant being underestimated is that not only does the allergy affect an individual, but it also affects anyone sharing sleeping quarters with this individual.  All night long, I hear Erik scratching.  We've had the air conditioning on in our room for over a week now because we have to keep it so cold in our room so Erik doesn't get overheated and itchy.  Not that I mind the air - it's just funny that we are running the air conditioning more now than we did all summer.
Here's our barn.  Can you tell we keep the doors slid open to the right and the left most of the time?  My goal is to someday paint it a deep, traditional barn red.  I'm just afraid of how much paint it will require.
Here's Willie James - he climbed into the dog kennel with Hank/Roscoe.  He looks up to something.
Basically Will's philosophy is that if he bothers Hank enough, Hank will become his BFF.  I believe Hank perceives this treatment as torture.
Finally - the changes that matter the most . . .  our outdoor living space.  We finally got our fire pit area set up.  Erik used this stone that he salvaged from a wall in Fox Chapel that was built over 150 years ago but was falling down.  The owners wanted a new "modern" retaining wall, so he hauled all the rock here in anticipation of what we could do with it.  We decided to use it as our fire ring because the wall had been mortared with cement at some point and we could not break off all the mortar.  Erik is especially proud of his "stick rests."  He's placed four rocks on top of the ring so that when we have a campfire, we can rest our sticks on those rocks and use them to turn the sticks without the stick touching the actual burning logs.  I have to admit it works really well.  That man o mine has some smart ideas!

Erik also leveled out the back and side of our house to create two levels of living space.  The bottom level is our dining area - we'll have tables to one side and the fire pit at the other.  On the top level, just above this beautiful stone retaining wall, is another flat area that leads to our hot tub deck.  We plan on putting sod down on this flat part and using it for our lounge chairs that we purchased three years ago on clearance at Sams club.  They are your typical community pool lounges - perfect for our lifestyle here at the farm.  Someday when we don't have so much mud, dirt and manure, we'll have "nice" things.  The wooded furniture at the fire pit, I bought at an estate auction two years ago.  We've had it stored for these past two years because we didn't have a place to put them so Erik didn't have to mow around them.  Now we do.  I have a whopping $30 invested in those pieces so far.  They cost me $15 (and it may have been less than that) and I had to spend another $15 on chains and S hooks for the gliders.  Next year, I'll restain all of the furniture and strip and stain the wooden picnic tables we have.  But that's a project for next summer!
Saturday, we managed to get the hot tub deck framed out with the help from our neighbor, Keith.  He graciously came up to help bang that out for us so we could get that job done.  It is surprising to me that Erik can tear apart and put back together, or build, he is so hesitant to start a construction project involving framing.  Once something is framed, he can do anything, but the framing just isn't his thing.  

This is Maggie after I told her I thought her she stepped in manure because I thought her boots smelled.  I believe this expression is, "What you talkin' 'bout, Momma?"
In an effort to prove me wrong, she displays the bottoms of her boots.  I do believe that is a little bit of an "I told you so" tongue she is sticking out at me!  
Will and Walker had a great deal of fun helping us get the decking on the frame.  We used an air gun to blow in the nails, but the boys were in charge of hammering in any nails that didn't go in the whole way.  Which to them was all of the nails.  Will, at this point, has stolen his sisters hat.  He doesn't care what color it is.  It's just a hat to him and one he absolutely had to wear to torture his sister.  Will is into torturing his sister.  A lot.  And there's not much I can do to help her because I don't even know that what he is doing is torture until she starts whining and screaming.  

Will looks out the window . . .

Maggie:  "Momma!  Will is looking out the window and I don't want him to." 

Me:  "Maggie, you don't own the outside and Will is allowed to look outside if he wants to."

Maggie: "Well, I don't want him to.  He's not awowed!"

Me:  "Ok, Maggie.  Whatever you say."
Hello.  My name is Will and I am a weapon of mass destruction and extreme torture.  

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.
This is my favorite picture of the weekend.  All three children wanted to help Erik hold boards while he was cutting them so this is the compromise.
My farm girl.  She is such a princess but she will do whatever is necessary on the farm.  She doesn't mind getting her hands dirty as long as she can still get her fingernails painted.
A celebration with popsicles after we finish nailing down all of the decking.
The hot-tub that all of this outdoor living space was created for!  It will still be a while before it is up and running but we can't wait for it.  It will be such a great treat in the winter time.
It was a hard day so the kids had to take a break after all that hard work.   

Lunch on the patio.

What could be better?
Well, maybe having the hot tub running.  Someday . . .

Someday!

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Today is my sister Katie's birthday.  

Kate and I have had our ups and downs over our lives as sisters, but it has made us stronger as individuals and has made us better sisters.

This picture is circa 1992 maybe?  It was probably one of the last times we went to Florida together - just us four girls with our grandparents.   This is a cropped version of Katie with our Papa.  Those trips to Florida, although at the time were probably pretty tense and not as much fun as they could have been - I was a tad  bossy and very intent on getting the most out of our trip to Disney World so I may have over done it a little.   I remember the four of us lying on our bellies on the floor of the hotel room at the Grand Floridian and looking at the park maps, each of us saying what we wanted to see the most (and me vetoing a lot of it I'm sure) so we could have a game plan for our brief stay at the park. 

This picture was taken by the valet at the Grand Floridian - at the time they had a beautiful vintage carriage sitting out front so we climbed inside and had the valet take our picture.  This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.  My most cherished memories of my sisters is when we were with Grammie & Papa in Florida.  They would make special arrangements for us to stay on the Concierge floor at the Grand Floridian because one time, while at some sort of seminar, my Papa stayed there and at 4:00 daily at the Grand Floridian, they had tea time on the Concierge floor.  This meant a wide variety of English tea and scones, juices, milk and the dinner plate sized chocolate chip cookies.  My Papa, who always thought about us, knew we would be "tickled" to go to Disney World and have that experience.  And we were.  I don't know if the cookies really were that delicious or if their general size and the fact that our Papa specifically took us there to show us those cookies was what made them so good, but I remember out last tea time, we tried wrapping some cookies up in napkins to take home with us to show our mom, but, as they are apt to do, the cookies crumbled and they didn't last.  
So, my grandparents did a lot of stuff like that for us girls as we were growing up.  I think all of us girls have so many special memories of the kindness and generosity they showed us.  We have all been shaped so much by them.  

I was always the prim, proper, oldest, responsible grand daughter.  I was very close to my Grammie and would go to her with all of my sibling woes.  And boy did my outgoing, spontaneous, creative and humorous sister, Katie, give me a lot of woes.  Boy did we fight a lot as kids.  I know my mom seriously thought we would never end up being friends.  But, you know what?  I grew up, went to college at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and three years later, Katie started her Freshman year at Pitt.  Our relationship changed a lot then.  I was always a caretaker, but this time it was different.  Instead of it being me and her against each other, it was me and her against the city.  Two small town girls braving life in what we considered to be a pretty big place.  Pitt is way bigger than Duquesne, and I developed a protective relationship with Katie.  I helped her find her way a little around campus, got her and her friend from home drunk a little bit at my apartment (on wine coolers - we were hard asses!) and I even helped her with an English term paper.  What started out as a little bit of help turned into me rewriting her whole paper.  Which, I proudly will add, earned her an A on the paper - I think the comments by the instructor were something along the lines of "excellent edit - A!"  After that semester, Katie transferred to a different University and took up Interior Design.  She truly found her calling in this profession.  She now has her own design business and has even done a television spot for the local news redesigning a room on a budget!
Kate's not going to be happy about these pictures, but they are the only ones I have of her on hand.  Katie and I have a relationship that I guess you could relate to the flow of the tide.  We ebb and flow - sometimes we are super close, sometimes we are close at heart but for one reason or another we drift in our day to day contact.  There's so much I admire about Kate, but I'm not sure if I ever come right out and tell her.  Our conversations usually drift towards how our children are doing, our other sisters, extended family and life in general.  Plus, we're not really the kind of family that says outright the things we admire and love most about each other.  We'd rather throw out a sarcastic barb to try to make people laugh.  
Sometimes it is hard for me to understand Katie.  She is definitely way opposite of my personality.  She is a people pleaser - very much like my mom - and even though at first glance you would think I am a people pleaser, it turns out that I very much get my way when I want it.  I have just learned what battles are worth fighting and which ones I can afford to let go.  There are times I very much wish I was more apt to please.  Sometimes I worry that Katie is such a pleaser that it almost becomes a flaw.  I get upset for her because I think that she needs to stick up for herself - I think that she gets taken advantage of - but that is just Katie's way.  Katie also has such a gentle way with her children.  I admire that so much in her.  Not that I'm not gentle and loving, she just has a different way about her.  My kids adore their "Aunt Didi" and never pass up an opportunity to sit on her lap or steal a cuddle from her.  I guess it has to do with the fact that she is the most forgiving person I know.  She's definitely a "turn the other cheek" kind of gal.  I am the "woman scorned" kind of gal.  She's forgive and forget, I'm forgive but I never forget.  
Katie has and always will be the life of the party.  She's so funny - always has been and always will be.  She can make me laugh like no one I know.  There have been many of times that I have spit out food or drink because of something she said because it was either spit or choke.  Katie was the kid, that when we were little, would try anything.  My Uncle's would offer her a dollar to try a hot pepper, or eat raw onion, or something else gross.  And she would do it and collect the dollar.  I always sat on the sidelines, wishing I was brave enough to do things like that, but knew deep down that I never could.  Katie is famous for the impressions she did as a child.  Her most famous is probably the Incredible Hulk.  My Uncles would always ask her to do the Hulk. She was always so witty also - still is.  A memory from childhood that I recall clearly is one time at my Grammie's house, my Uncle David came in and said to Katie, "how about a hug for your favorite Uncle?" and she dead panned, "I would, but Uncle Mike isn't here!"  If I was to be honest, I would say that I have always felt a competitive jealousy with Katie - mostly because she is so well liked.  There's something about Katie that everyone likes.  She's sweeter than me, kinder than me, more open than me.  I know sisters aren't supposed to be jealous of each other - and I can guarantee you that Katie has probably never felt that way about me.  And when we were younger, I suppose out of adolescent retaliation, I did not treat Katie the way I should have, and for that I'm deeply sorry.  At the time, the three years difference in our ages just seemed too much to overcome.  I deeply regret not being better friends in our childhood and adolescent years.  
This is the most recent picture I have of Katie.  This was at the birthday party she planned for our girls.  No one else I know can come up with a theme and pull of the decorations and activities so well.  She is a gifted decorator and party planner!  She planned a little cupcake party for her little cupcake, Olivia.  

Kate had to do the bravest thing ever this August.  She had to send her firstborn, Christopher, to full day Kindergarten.  I honestly don't know how she did it!  Walker is only going half a day and it tears me apart.  

My salute today is to my sister, Katie.  It is because of her (and our younger two sisters) that I desire to give Maggie a sister.  I'm not sure if that will happen, but I cannot imagine going through my life without the beautiful relationships I have with my sisters.  I feel true sad for people without sisters!  Yes, we have our ups and downs and ins and outs, but through thick and thin, we are blood and we are there for each other.  We don't always see eye to eye, but we have learned to agree to disagree.  We shake things off now, that would have strained our friendships in the past.  We have found a new respect and love for each other based on our family history and who we've become as independent women.  And we love each other deeply.

I found this quote a while back, when my sisters and I were dealing with some issues within our family.  It really struck a chord in me because it was so true. 

To the outside world we all grow old.  But not to brothers and sisters.  We know each other as we always were.  We know each other's hearts.  We share private family jokes.  We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys.  We live outside the touch of time.  ~Clara Ortega 

It's funny, because I see myself getting older, but when I look at my sisters, I still see those little girls I bossed around as we played "Little House on the Prairie." The laughter and love that we shared and the promise of the memories we have yet to make.

Love to you, Katie, on your birthday.  I hope it was everything you wished for!

Will Wields a chainsaw

Random moments

I haven't been keeping up to date too well, but while browsing through my photo files today I thought I'd just post a bunch of pictures and tell you about the moment.  Basically, the summer in review!

Swimming at Armco Park in Slippery Rock on one of the few nice days this summer.

The kids wait on the side of the pool until adult swim is over.
Will was such a little fish this summer.  I'd love to put him in swimming lessons but he's not old enough yet!
The sad reality of what happens to little boys when they don't make boy dress up shoes.
Will at a parade sucking on his lollipops.
Nana plays bowling on the Wii
Chris's 5th birthday party.
Will eats at the birthday party.
The friends and family at Chris's birthday
This was just after the wind blew out Chris's birthday candles before he got to!
More family!
Will tried so hard to hit the pinata at the birthday party but he couldn't reach.  Heaven forbid I try to help him though - he screamed and cried when I tried lifting him up so he could actually hit the pinata.
Waker takes a turn.
Katie made this adorable carousel cake for Chris's birthday.  unfortunately, the heat made the colors of the candy on the cake.

Walker's first day of Kindergarten.

Walker makes headlines again

I was going through photos tonight, organizing the month of August into a folder, when I came across this picture.  

Erik casually commented, "You should send that into The Boer Goat Magazine."

So I did.  Here is what I wrote.

Dear Editor,

Below is a photo I took of my son, Walker,  age 5, as he reclined in his dad's chair and enjoyed the latest issue of The Boer Goat magazine (just like his dad d

oes every time he receives a new issue in the mail).  Although Walker doesn't know how to read just yet, he sure did a good job of studying the pictures accompanying the articles and advertisements.  In fact, he'll be using photos clipped from your magazine for his "All About Me" project for his first day of Kindergarten on September 8.  

We appreciate the quality of The Boer Goat magazine and look forward to receiving each new issue. 

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jennifer R. Schwalm

Imagine my surprise when I almost immediately got this response:

Your son is adorable! (Don't tell him. I know boys hate that.) I don't know whether to put Walker's photo in "Kid Corner" or in "Letters to the editor" but you can count on seeing it in one place or the other!

Thanks for writing and a special thanks for your praise. I usually don't hear from the readers until I do something wrong.

Billye Viner

If you'll send me your address, I'll send you an "uncut" copy.

Now I know none of you get "The Boer Goat Magazine" but as a goat farmer, trust me, there is no greater honor!

Walker's going to flip.  Now he'll have something cool to show at "show and tell."

Walker, if you are older and reading this, be thankful I was running behind that day.  If I had not been running late, you wouldn't have gotten exasperated with me, sat down in Daddy's chair and picked up the magazine to keep busy.  Then I wouldn't have seen you, gotten

 emotional seeing you sit in the chair like your dad and I wouldn't have run to get the camera and take your picture.  Then I wouldn't have had a picture to submit to "The Boer Goat"

 magazine and none of this would have happened.  So there - don't be mad at me when I'm running late!

Thanks to Billye Viner for being so nice and putting Walker in the magazine.  

And if you think I'm avoiding the fact that this little monster will be starting Kindergarten in 4 days, you're right.  We're not talking about that right now.  In fact, Walker and I have made a deal.  He is convinced that he is going to be bored at Kindergarten and he is angry that he will not have time to play with his sister because, (Please read the following and insert giant sobs, blubbering words, and sniffles.  Oh, a few hiccups would make the effect more realistic also). "She will be in preschool in the mornings" (two days a week), "and I will be at school after lunch.  We will not have time to play with each other!"  

Sob, sob, hold breath, hiccup, wail.  

Oh, sorry.  That's not me describing Walker's conversation with me anymore.  That's me imagining my baby getting on the big school bus and going to school.

Allright.  Enough.  I'm headed to the firesafe to look for Walker's birth certificate.  I think I have the date wrong.  It is not possible for this baby to be old enough to go to Kindergarten yet.  He can't be 5.  I think they recorded his birth year wrong.  They must have because I'm sure five years have not passed so quickly.  If five years went this fast - how fast will the next 12 go?  

That's it.  Maggie & Will are not allowed to grow up.  Do you hear me Maggie & Will?  I forbid you from getting older!  You will not go to Kindergarten.  You will stay little and live here forever!  END OF DISCUSSION!  YOU WILL NOT END UP LIKE YOUR BROTHER - going to school like a big boy.  Who does he think he is anyway?  A big kid now?  Well, I got news for him.  No matter where you go, no matter what you do, Timothy Walker Schwalm, you will always be my baby!

Maggie's first day of 2 day preschool

Today was Maggie's first day of Preschool!

We started off with the breakfast of her choice.  Chocolate pannycakies.  

Look at those hoodlums.  What a trio.  Can you tell we were out later than we planned doing corn at Travis & Julia's?  We were only 1/2 an hour off, but Maggie was really the only one happy to be awake!This girl loves her chocolate pancakes (chocolate chip pancakes to the rest of the world).

Here is Maggie's back pack.  She got this last year for Christmas and decided she didn't need a new one.  Part of me is glad to have saved the $10 but part of me feels like she should have gotten a new one.  For what?  I don't know.  It just must be that "mom guilt".

She did get to pick out a lunch box even though she really didn't need one.  Ok, I've absolved myself of the mom guilt - she got an unnecessary lunch box.   Her world is complete with princesses and tinker bell.   On  a side note:  we were at Kmart on Sunday and Will pointed to an outfit and kept saying "bell, bell" - I looked up and it was a Tinkerbell outfit.  He's so smart!

Here's my angel all dressed and ready for school.  I stayed up last night and made her new korker hair bows.  She didn't want her hair pulled back - just one barrette off to the side.  I can't believe how long her hair has gotten since last year!  She's getting so big.
Walker wouldn't pose with them today.  He was a little jealous of the fact that Maggie was going to school before him.  He doesn't start until next Tuesday and even though we were headed to His School after we dropped Maggie off for HIS orientation, he was still being a bugger and refused to take a group picture.  Next week will be an entirely different story though when we have HIS first day of Kindergarten!  Look at that Willie J posing with his big sis!  What a cutie.  He absolutely loves those crocs even though they are purple and are Maggie's - he thinks they are his and they are doggies so he loves them.  Who cares?  I'm happy he has a pair of shoes he can put on all by himself!

Now Maggie gets to pose alone.  Nana got Maggie this outfit at Old Navy on Sunday.  She has been so excited to wear it.  I found her the peep toe shoes at Walmart and she's even wearing new panties.  I had to get her some school panties b/c so many of her panties are stained - not from accidents - but from falling in  or playing in the mud and dirt here at the farm.  I never thought to pre-treat them for stains until I realized how many of her panties were stained and dirty and thought about a teacher seeing them.  So, we bought a brand new package of Tinkerbell panties too.   

Phew!  Now at least if she has an accident at school, she'll have had clean panties.
Willie had to get out his lunch box just in case.
Maggie showing off her back pack again.
If you can imagine it, we were late getting to school.  As I was ready to pack up to leave, Walker all of a sudden decides HE is ready to have is picture taken.  I try to calmly explain that "we do not have time for individual pictures.  If you wanted a picture today, you should have taken one with your sister on her first day of school like you did with her on YOUR first day of school!  Now GET IN THE CAR!"  

He was not happy about this and dragged his feet until I actually got in the car, put it in gear, and said, "See ya!" then he came running.  

We got Maggie through the door a little bit late.  That's why I like going back to places I'm familiar with - they know what to expect from us Schwalm's!

So we leave Maggie at preschool, rush home to meet Kevin & Jacob - I'm babysitting today, and get ready to go to the Primary Center where Walker will go to Kindergarten.  While we were home for that 15 minutes, Walker manages to get stung by a yellow jacket.  We unfortunately had a yellow jacket problem - it wasn't bad until it started getting so cold out, but Sunday night, they started coming in looking for warmth in the house!  I called a guy yesterday and had it treated, but even though they are dying, they are somehow getting in the house.  We have them in the laundry room and the dining and living rooms.  Walker was innocently pushing his truck through the dining room and accidentally put his hand on one and got stung.  He freaked out and then freaked out worse because the ice pack I gave him after I treated the sting was  . . .  wait for it . . . 

TOO COLD!

So I load up a 5 1/2 year old, a two year old and a one year old and rush over to Knoch listening to the 5 1/2 year old wailing like a banshee.  We get to the turn at the school and I say, "We are almost there" and the tears and wailing instantly stop.  We get unloaded and go right into the school.  Walker's room is the first one on the right and Mrs. Minner was waiting for all of us to arrive.  She led Walker right to a little desk, gave a small speech about the school year, told us what she needed us to do and have for the year and then the kids got to look for their cubby and explore the room.  We then headed out to the front of the school so the kids could take a bus

 ride to get some experience with the school bus.  That was pretty wrenching for me.  Walker climbed up the steps to that big bus with no fear and got right on - I could see him walk down the aisle, choose a seat and slide over to the window to look for me.  He had a small moment of panic when he couldn't see me right away, but then I waved and he smiled that toothless grin back, and all was OK.  They went off on their ride, came back and unloaded and our orientation was over.  One hour of complete calm, happy, NORMAL, Walker.  

We load up again, pull out of the parking lot and all of a sudden, "WAHHHH!!"  Walker's finger started to hurt again.  We had some time to kill before picking up Maggie, so we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some popsicles and milk and then went to pick her up.  The crying and wailing commenced yet again.  And again, the ice bag was too cold.

Once at Maggie's school, I saw one of Walker's old preschool buddies, Kendyl.  I said, "Hey, Walker, I see Kendyl.  Want to get out and see her?"  and the crying stopped and he came into the building with me.  We waited patiently and soon we saw these little critters emerge from

 their classroom, not quite understanding how to proceed in a straight line.

Maggie of course, hose nose Harriet, had to separate from the line so she could see out over everyone to make sure she knew what was going on!  She was funny!

All the kids were so excited to see their mommies and/or daddies and all had smiling faces - no tear streaks were evident at all.  It was a good day.  

Once home, Maggie told me she learned about the "letter song, sitting on the carpets, and kiss koss sauce." Which is "criss cross-applesauce" the new terminology for sitting "Indian style" or crossed legged on the floor.  

Overall, she had a very fun day.  I feel a little guilty because the day was not anything like it was Walker's first day of school.  There was no moments of quiet and calm - we hurried through the morning and there was little time to anticipate how Maggie was doing at school while we waited for her at home.  I suppose it was a good thing - it's inevitable when you have multiple children.  I try to remind myself of the saying that "Fair" isn't that everybody gets the same thing but that everybody gets what they need - and Maggie did.  She doesn't know that her first day of preschool was any different than Walker's first day of preschool - but I do.  I guess I'm just going to have to get used to all the differences and realize ways to make the differences special.  It's hard for me because I'm the one that wants to make these memories special for the kids, but I don't think they really will remember anything I did or didn't do.  Who knows? I'm

 sure in 10 years, I'll get an earful from their therapists.

Maggie got to pick what we eat tonight since it was her special first day of school and of course, she chose "Rabioli."  Hopefully over supper we will all be able to sit down and talk about the day in a more calm manner, let the kids tell their stories and have some fun.  I'm sure if I ever look back at this blog and read this entry, I will be shocked at what actually happened vs. what I remember happening.  

Hopefully I'll never forget this:  

What happens when a landscaper & a girl w/a family with in the construction business marries?

Erik is a landscaper and my mother's family has a retail home improvement store.   You would think we have the perfect backgrounds to make something beautiful, wouldn't you?  The problem is that both of us know how fleeting trends are, how the economy effects prices, and well, we both have our own ideas on how we want things and we don't always do such a good job of expressing ourselves.  And let's face it - I'm cheap.  I'm willing to wait for something to go on sale OR wait for a "knock-off" to be made so I can get it cheap.  

Case in point:  our home.  

We have been renovating this space since we bought it.  What started out as knocking down one measly wall turned into completely gutting our 140 year old farmhouse all the way down to the amazing balloon framing.  Erik confidently gave me the reigns as I selected materials, designed rooms, and scraped plaster off the four original brick fireplaces.  We chose what had to be done, got it done and left other things for later.  Things that were not required for the immediate comfort and occupancy of the house.  If you see something unfinished at my house, it doesn't really bother me because I know it will get done when I find exactly what I am looking for.  I waited three years until I found the perfect vintage inspired chandelier light fixture for my bathroom.  It was perfect and cheap.  

One of the things left on the to do list has been the landscaping.  You would think the first thing we would and could do was the landscaping.  But we both agreed that our decisions had to be the right ones and we wanted to live with the place, see how we would use, how the children would use it, before we made our decisions.  

It took us about three years to build a deck outside the dining room.  We had beautiful French doors and they led to no where!  

When we first bought our home, there was a pantry off the kitchen.  In this picture you see the original room.  Outside the frame, there was a large grape arbor with grape vines that produced grapes until about August, then they would start to shrivel up even though they did not reach ripeness.  The arbor was in our way, so Erik dozed it and we turned the flattened area into my "car port."  Except it is just a parking space.  I refuse to buy, build or create any type of car covering until I know it exactly what I want and whether I want it where I currently park my car.  Since leveling the area, I managed to transplant many orange day lilies and get them to grow on the steep bank that leads from the yard to my parking space.  If you should ever transport day lilies, a tip:  the first year that I did the lilies, they looked dreadful!  I thought they were dead and would never come back.  The following summer, they grew in greener and thicker and produced gorgeous orange lilies.  They are the perfect cover for that bank.
Back to the pantry:   It was rather large, but at the time we could not see a use for such a large pantry.  I do NOW, but at the time, it seemed more practical to convert the space to something useful.  So we did! We added an exterior door, moved the window to the right, moved the propane tanks and turned the pantry into a laundry/mud/bathroom.  It's really perfect because dirty farmers and farm children (and occasionally, the farmer's wife) can enter through this room, discard their filthy, dirty farm clothes, and take a shower their filthy, dirty bodies.  Then the clothes don't have to travel anywhere except from the dirty body to the washing machine.  It's PERFECT.  Except now it is too small.  That is a project I will address another day.

Fast forward about 5 years.  We added a nice big deck and steps down to the yard.  The only problem was that the yard was slanted and not an easy place to entertain or play.  Plus, we had built and landscaped an area on the other side of the house for the play ground.   So we haven't been using the back of the house too much.  Earlier this summer, we acquired a hot tub. Erik has been too busy to focus on any projects here, but now that things are slowing down a bit, he decided to start working on our back yard patio project.  We came up with a plan we could both agree on and Erik is in the execution phase.  Ideally, we want to do a stamped concrete surface for this patio, but since I cannot decide where I eventually want to put on the addition we are planning, we are not spending money on concrete that we may eventually dig up for a house addition.  Instead, we are going to use pea gravel.  It will not get as weedy as mulch, and we will have a semi-hard surface to put our outdoor furniture.  And no one will have to deal with wet, grass covered feet!

And the boys will enjoy having yet another place to play with their "heavy equipment."

Erik started digging last night.  These are the before pictures.

See how bad the weeds got!  He actually dug this area out earlier this summer on a day when we thought we were going to have time to get the hot tub installed in June.  Excellent topsoil and windy days make for BAD weeds!

We spent the day at the beach at Lake Moraine and this is what we came home to!  My honey got done with his real work early and got started on our patio area!

You can't tell so well here, but we're starting off with three tiers. The first tier is going to actually be a wooden deck that the hot tub will sit on.  The second tier will be for casual seating.  The bottom tier will have a fire ring in the left foreground surrounded by casual seating (I'm hoping to start scoping auctions and yard sales for vintage metal porch furniture) and the left background parallel with the deck will be our outdoor dining room, so you can walk down the deck steps, down the stone step to the outdoor dining room.  We need A LOT of space for outdoor dining when we have family and friends over.
Erik is so talented.  These stones came from the back of our property where it was piled up - discards from actual work projects and treasures found around the farm.  He hauled them to the house and laid them out and managed to get them into this nice little wall.  Once everything is graded and set, we will plant HUGE pom-pom hydrangea around the deck to hide the openings.  We cannot cover the openings because our dogs need that cool, damp, dark space to hide out in the summer.
I'm getting excited just imagining what the hydrangea will look like when it grows in!  
As you can see, in front of my lily bed, Erik has created another stone wall, and part of that stone wall will be a set of stone steps leading from the parking space to the patio.  We'll also put in a small stepping stone path to go from the back door to the steps.  This will come in handy because around the perimeter of the patio, we have to add some practicality by putting up my clothesline.  It will serve double duty because I can hang clothes and sheets during the day and at night, the clothesline will act as a lighting source with paper lanterns hung from the line.  So neat!
Here are two of the flat stones we found for the steps.  They aren't set yet - still waiting to be installed.  I love that the boys cannot resist big piles of dirt and have all of their excavation and digging equipment out working with their daddy!  
That far right corner of the dirt is where our fire ring is going to go.  
Erik's going to work on this project all weekend.  Hopefully we'll be hot-tubbin' by Labor Day!  Woo Hoo!

Nothing good can happen . . .

Death by Chocolate Zucchini Cake Muffins 

Recipe can be found at www.tastykitchen.com 

Erik's grandfather, Ches Walker, has a saying, "Nothing good can happen if you're out after midnight!"

I'd like to revise that saying for the bakers out there and make this rule:  "Nothing good tasting can happen if you're baking after 10:00 p.m."

We finished off the last of the 3 dozen chocolate zucchini cake muffins I made last week.  This cake is so delicious.  I have only had the cake two times in my life and it may possibly be my new favorite cake.  The trouble is that it is very rich and my kids can't get enough of it (well, to be honest, neither can I). In fact, the last two muffins went missing courtesy of Willie James.  He saw them on the counter, moved the step stool over to them and devoured them right there in the kitchen.  I came out only to find a boy with a chocolatey grin and empty muffin wrappers. He grinned at me and said, "All don" - his version of "all gone." 

 

So, hankering some muffins at 10:30 tonight,  I ingeniously decided to make another batch.  I even had to send Erik out to the barn in search of two eggs.  (Eggs are a rarity on these parts right now.  The old chickens are molting and the new chickens haven't started laying yet and those chickens that are still laying are hiding them in feed troughs, hay bales and other non obvious places.)  I began whipping the muffins together and thought to myself:  "Self, why don't you add some whole wheat flour to this recipe to see if you can healthen it up a little bit?"  I realize "healthen" isn't really a word, but I was talking to myself, so what did it matter?

So, I zoomed through adding the ingredients and as I added the flour,  I had that "AHHH!" moment when I realized as I just finished dumping the last scoop in that I had added almost ALL whole wheat stone ground flour instead of 1/4 whole wheat stone ground flour and 3/4 regular all purpose flour.  

I had another strike against me anyway as instead of having a small box of chocolate pudding, I only had a large box of chocolate pudding.  I figured - well, maybe the extra pudding will help even it out.  It was not nearly as liquidy as the first batch I made, but I figure it would all work out.

I got the first batch out and I put the toothpick in, and it came out indicating it needed more time in the oven.  I put the tin back in and licked the toothpick (Don't judge me, you know you all do it!") and it did NOT taste good!  And by that I mean it did not taste chocolatey and gooey - it tasted like whole wheat stone ground flour.

So while those muffins finished cooking, I decided to doctor up the rest of the batch.  I added some more cocoa and sugar and some extra chocolate chips.  Then, I got the first batch of muffins out of the oven, re-lined and filled the muffin tin, and put the second batch in the oven.  I then dusted a first batch muffin with powdered sugar and tasted it.  And it was warm and chocolatey and gooey.  Not quite the same as the original recipe, but almost as good.  You know - the kind of good tasting when you know it is healthy but it also feels a little decadent.  

So, I just got the second batch out of the oven - the batch that I doctored up.  Hopefully I didn't ruin those ones! Ok, the suspense was killing me, so I went in and tried one from the second batch.  You will be happy to know they are very good also.  You can still detect the healthiness of the stone ground whole wheat flour, but the rich chocolate and moistness of the cake makes it feel very decadent.  

The moral of the story - don't bake after 10:00 p.m. because you are likely tired, confused, and not paying attention well enough to follow the directions you make up in your head.  You will make a mistake in your recipe and waste time and ingredients trying to doctor up your mistakes.  Then you will worry about your mistakes and wonder how you can justify throwing out perfectly good muffins just because they don't taste like the original recipe.  Then, you will taste the muffins and they will be fine and you will have wasted an hour of your time baking muffins, blogging about your mistakes and then realizing your mistakes weren't so bad after all and all of this was for nothing.  

Consider it a lesson learned!  I promise to never try to make something healthy again.

Wait . . .  that didn't come out right.

I guess I should also make a rule that nothing good can come from blogging after 10:00 p.m.!