Parade Images from a small town...

Much better....

So you are a stay at home mom...

You have four kids?

What do you do all day now that they are all in school?

Yes I live with slobs...

I still hate laundry...but I am getting better...

kitchen sink...did I tell you my kids have chores? One does include doing dishes.

Lovely...at least he took them off before tracking all the grass through the house.

Bathroom after church.  Can you tell...belt and tie thrown about...

Lovely dining room table after breakfast.  We love to read the paper while we eat.  We have no time to pick it up...

Bedroom desk...uuugh.  I am not cleaning that.

ok my plan is to clean this stuff up and retake some pictures.  You will know if I actually cleaned if I do that...if no pictures you will know that I am hiding in my bedroom for the day!

Trip to the Zoo

Here is Curt at the zoo.

He has a few more years until his arms are the span of bald eagle wings.

Can you tell which is the real penguin????

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

My mom and dad came to visit this week.  Here is my Dad and Maggie working on her lap loom. 

Dad and Curt sharing something funny.

And finally the picture of all the grandbabies that is always so hard to take...this one wasn't so bad.  I guess they are getting older.

It was a fun week.  No pictures of mom because she hates her picture taken...

Garden Time

Here are some of the raised beds that have seen better days.  They have lasted a long time...but it was time for a makeover!

Steve and his Dad worked on the beds for a few days.

Now they look so much better.  They made a wider row between so the mower will easily fit.

There is still more than a few beds to finish...perhaps next year.    Hopefully these will hold up for a long long time.

Maggie at the Mile Run!

The camera is still being a pain but it did give me one picture of Maggie at the run. 

National Run a Mile Day

Here is Doug running on National Run A Mile Day.  He did great.  I think he came in third (although it wasn't a race)

Here is his time...Not bad!

Curt's turn.  I was afraid he wouldn't make it around the track!  Steve said he would be much faster if he could run in a straight line.  :)  Steve and the boys ran with him to encourage him and cheer him on.  He finished!!!

Here is his time.

Maggie also ran and finished...but my camera is being a pain and won't download the pictures!  She did great too!  It was a fun day!  We went and had slushies for a treat afterwards.  Oh yeah Jacob...who didn't want to run...ended up probably running more helping Doug, Maggie and Curt finish.  I was proud of him that he was willing to run beside them on the edge of the track and keep them going.  It was a beautiful thing to see them all working together and encouraging each other.

Peacock and Rooster!

Here is Mr. Peacock. Up in the window of our barn.

The neighbors rooster.  I call him Mr. Fancypants.  He thinks he is "All that" and then some!

Him trotting across the lawn.  I just hope some day he doesn't attack me or the kids.

Painted kitchen

Here is the old color of the kitchen. 

Here the kitchen is after we painted it beige

I even organized some cupboards.  Yeah me.

chicks getting bigger...and uglier

 All their poof is starting to go away...feathers are coming out and they are definitely growing tons.

Little Cuties!!!

These are our little chicks.  They are golden comets and they will lay brown eggs.  I can't wait until the kids get home and see them.  They have wanted chicks for a long time.  I hope this chicken thing is as easy as they say...

Steve's Uuucky Foot... Warning graphic pictures ahead...

Here is some pictures of Steve's foot...had to take him back to the doctor today because it was getting red and ooozy...and he was running a low temp we found out.  Warning...

This on the bottom is where the drain came out after surgery.  The doctor opened that blistery thing up and it drained gook out.  Very cool. He says it feels much better now.  Lots less pressure.  The doctor also upped his antibiotics.  Return appointment on Mon.  Hopefully it will be looking better by then!!!

To Do List Today...

I feel the need to organize myself. 

1. Laundry (most done yesterday) but need to get to sheets etc.

2. Kitchen...shouldn't take too long...just have to get going

3. Pick up dining room and living room...sweep floors

4. Clean bathrooms

5. Pick up our bedroom...how does it get so messy when we only sleep in there???

There only 5 things on my list.  Problem is it could easily take me most of the day to do one of them.  Time to get dressed and get moving.

update...

Steve did great yesterday.  He is feeling fine and has had no pain at all. 

...Water softener second opinion...they fixed it for $80. 

Now on to the car situation...waiting for it all to work out.  Van fixed for $300.  Not too bad so far.

Things are working out fine.

Our Crazy Life...

This week has been crazy.  Well lets start out with a few weeks ago we found out Steve's car would cost about $700 to fix.  Since it is only worth way less than that we were formulating other plans...so he began driving the van to work.  Last Fri the van broke down on the side of the road.  Still waiting to here if it is worth fixing...Then the water softener broke that softens the water for the whole house.  Our water is terrible and this is not something one can live without for long.  They could fix it for about$600 but didn't recommend we do that as other things could go wrong since the system is about 20 years old.  They recommend a new system...I keep blanking out what they said that would cost...a couple thousand.  Steve is having surgery on his foot tomorrow and will be out of work for about a month.  Not only are they going to use all his vacation for his recovery but then he gets disability at 60% of his pay.  It is going to be a tight month to say the least.  Still trying to figure out what to do...where to spend or not spend the money...We thought we would be ok with the surgery because we have some tax return left...now it looks as if it will all disappear quickly.   For whatever reason we haven't been able to make any decisions right now.  I think denial is where we are at right now.    My plan is to get Steve through the surgery and then maybe we will be able to make some  other decisions.  It isn't like me to be so calm about this kind of stuff or to not jump in and make a decision about what we should do first and how.  I have been doing a lot of praying about it and hoping his weird calm is because the Lord is going to open up a way to accomplish all the things that need to be done. Trying to be patient that I will get some answers soon.

Giving in to Demands

Here is Curt's picture.  He was mad after seeing the last post without a close up of him.  Well here it is!  Happiness and Harmony  at (almost) all costs!

Almost Spring...

Winter thaw

Fun in the waterWho knew sticks and dead leaves could be so much fun.

My beautiful country girl...

Hope for spring!