Back to Life...Back to Reality

Pretty sure those are song lyrics from some 90's song I remember hearing.  Couldn't tell you the title or artist, but they pretty much sum up this last week.

I know you're tired of hearing about the fair...heck I'm tired of hearing about the fair...but

when I walked out to the mailbox to get the paper this morning, and walked back up the sidewalk to the front door, noticing all the weeds in my flowerbeds, the suddenly luscious green grass that wasn't there a week ago (due to much rain in the last week...Praise the Lord...my brown grass is suddenly green again...),  and the drooping flowers on the porch...I thought, Oh yeah, back to reality.  Back to the real life.

It's like we've been in a bubble, a fog if you will...this last week.  Trying to survive the endless laundry, endless packing of lunches and drinks, and endless fatigue that goes with fair week.

The kids would say it is the best week of the whole summer!

Sure, they are with their friends, riding rides, eating junky fair food, but I guess we are too.  The parents of the friends they made, we hang out with too.  This IS the biggest social fest of the year for our County.

Even though the kids work with their 4-H pigs from April through July on a daily basis, feeding, washing, walking them...I think each year it gets easier to let go.

But maybe not.

Probably because of the money they get at the auction on Friday, which goes directly into their savings to pay for their pig the next year, and to save for college, car, etc.

They did well this year, netting more than they have in previous years.  We felt blessed.

To end fair week, yesterday we had to work in our club's food booth.  We enjoy this part every year.  We sign up to work with friends for a 4 hour shift, and at the end of the time, you even get a free meal.  That's Brent and Evan's FAVORITE part of the whole deal.

After working, Grace rode rides with friends, and the rest of us sat in the grandstands...get this.....4 hours BEFORE the start of the demolition derby.  It's THAT big of deal.  It's a little bit hillbillyish.  Who doesn't like to watch cars and trucks slam into each other for fun, huh?  However, our butts revealed to us that after the event was over, sitting in the stands for 7 hours was a little much!

Today is all about relaxation.  Today is about recharging.  Yes, we skipped church this morning.  I feel bad, but we are all EXHAUSTED.  The kids had to get up this morning and feed the 3 pigs we brought home to be butchered tomorrow.  They thought their pig chores were over.  Ha!

Tomorrow...it's all about weeding flower beds, mowing, and grocery shopping for my totally empty fridge, and putting away sweet corn in the freezer from my budding sweet corn patch.

Ah, back to reality.

Fair...continued

We've been living it up at the fair all week.

Sometimes I think our time there will NEVER end.  It's been hot, and hard on the pigs and us.

However, Brent is LOVING all the food...especially the ginormous haystacks we split for lunch the other day.

We've seen Evan's DREAM car...a bright yellow Chevy Camaro...

the kids have been in several shows, with one more tomorrow...(Evan placed 5th in his class today...a BIG achievement, considering the Grand Champion of the entire day came from the same class.)

and they have both taken advantage of wristband day and ridden the rides... (Grace was with her friends...so no pics of her.)

Three more days to go, then back to reality I guess...

At least we won't smell like the pig barn anymore, and there won't be endless piles of stinky laundry every night, and the kids will have a nice little paycheck in their pockets.

So,what have you been doing with your week?

Spotty at best

So, needless to say, we've been a little busy.

I'm posting this to say it'll be spotty posting this week...

I'll highlight with a few photos of the fair when I'm not feeling like I've been hung out to dry.  (These early days and late nights, and all the laundry each night because we all smell like we've been living in a pig barn...are quickly getting to me.)

Like this for one.

How's this for tight quarters...nothing like feet in your face!

These two were pen mates here at home, and can't seem to be without each other this week.  (Snickers on the left, and Elmo on the right.)  If one leaves the pen for a show, and the other is left alone...they act like they don't know what to do.

Of course, the fair is all new for them too.  There are hundreds of strollers and thousands of people going past their pens everyday.  There are new smells, hard floors, and they just don't know what to make of it.  They got used to running down our lane for their nightly walks.

Evan seems to be making a go of it, though.  He's a great helper and loves his pigs, even when they get a little annoying. (I think he still loves them...)

He and Grace have done great getting their pigs ready for the week.  They have fed them 3 times a day for months and walked them, washed them, and loved on them to get them used to us.  But then I see this...

If I were to name this it would go something like this:  "Texting IN a pig pen, while trying to look busy" by Grace Yoder.

I'm trying to remember back before cell phones, when I was in pig club and we sat around with friends playing cards all day, acting like we were taking care of our pigs.  It seems like such a long time ago.

So... sorry for the short post.  I'm trying.

Until later.

Not the way to start a morning

Yes, I'm a farm girl.

I grew up on a pig farm, and now I live on a farm with 4-h pigs, lambs, chickens, a dog, and a cat.

I should be accustomed to what gross things can happen with an animal.

It's just that 3 of them happened to me this morning within about a 1/2 hour time span.

Since it's summer, and I'm home from work, I usually sleep most nights on the couch.

I stay up later than Brent, and like to watch TV or read a book.  I'm a night owl, he's a morning person.

Still can't work out the differences after 15 years of marriage (but that's not the point.)

So, I awoke this morning around 6:15 when I heard Brent being loud in the kitchen.

I knew he wanted the kids to get up at 7:30 and wash the pigs.  (YES, there was ALOT of grumbling about this particular subject.  Not just the fact of getting up early, but of washing the pigs...each morning until we take them into the fair on Friday.)

So, when 7am rolled around, and I called upstairs, and heard NO ONE respond, my day took a nosedive.

I finally roused them, and looked down the hallway towards the laundry room, and the door out to the garage, and saw the first disgusting animal thing....cat puke.

Our cat Oreo, as cute as she may be, can also be incredibly stupid sometimes.  She usually eats quite a lot, and then deems it necessary to run around the house as fast as she can.  Then she pukes.

I guess that's what happened this morning.

I cleaned it up, and by then Grace and Evan were both downstairs.

I told them to go get the wash pens set up, and I would handle getting the pig's feed.  While they washed a pen of 2 pigs, I would feed that pen so that when they were done being washed they could eat.

While the kids were getting the wash pen set up, the family that keeps their 4-H pigs at our house showed up to feed and walk theirs.

As I was getting our pig pen shut, they were getting theirs opened, and this little nose...

went right up my backside.  A wet, cold, clammy, and muddy kiss.  Right up my shorts.

Gross animal thing #2.

I shook it off, and went to help the kids get the washing taken care of.  As I picked up the hose off the grass, I stuck my hand right in a pile of pig poop that was clinging to the hose.  Seems one of their pigs walked past the hose and took his morning dump.

Gross animal thing #3.

It's now 7:30 in the morning, and I've been grossed out 3 times.

When Brent called after we got inside to ask me something, I was pretty upset.  He asked what was wrong, I told him, and he couldn't contain his laughter.

I hung up on him.  

He called right back.

He laughed again.  As soon as I answered the phone he was laughing.  

Not really funny. 

Probably REALLY not funny for someone not accustomed to a farm.

Still, it's gross, and not a way to start the morning.

Hope yours was better!

Saturday...it's what they are for...

I started the morning with 3 cups of coffee.

I DO NOT have a problem.  It's just that some days, I desire more coffee than others.

After my 3rd cup, I headed outside to water my flowers around the house.  (Yes, we are STILL experiencing a drought.  We are officially 8 inches of rain behind where we should be at this time...or so I  heard.)

I had to water with a watering can instead of the hose because the hose was attached to the sprinkler watering the sweet corn.

I made about 10 trips inside to fill up the can and go back out.

That's ok.  It's good exercise.

After that, I headed out to the garden.

To my patch.

They say daisies are the "friendliest flower," so what does that make zinnias?  The "best friends" of the bunch?  The "tried and true, never let you down flower"?  I think so.  They hang around till the very end of the season, and they just keep on bloomin.

I LOVE THEM.

After I cut some and brought them inside, I did some laundry, washed some dishes, and went to town making 9 more things for my etsy shop.

If I didn't have a certain child asking if I would take her and her brother swimming, (like 20 times), I could've maybe cranked out a 10th item.  Just kidding.

Now, it's supper time, then time to weigh the pigs one more time before we take them into our County Fair next Friday.

Later, a magazine, or book, or maybe my decorating binder will call my name as I aimlessly flip through TV channels.

This is what Saturdays are for, right?

A Social Life...what's that?

I'm pretty sure our kids are having the time of their lives right now.

That is to say, it's not anything they are doing...it's the age that they are at.

Sure, there is pre-teen angst with Grace...

and a little jealousy with Ev

 since Grace has spent the majority of her summer shuttling between friend's houses and ours...

But for the most part, their social lives are FAR busier than ours.

What with shopping trips to the mall with friends, sleepovers, sleepovers at our house, swim dates with friends, etc., etc. 

I'm just the shuttle bus that takes them where they need to go, and then picks them back up.

A week ago I went out with some girlfriends for supper.  We were so excited to be out...we stayed out for 3+ hours.  It was great!  No, it was Heaven!

I guess I shouldn't complain.  My kids have friends.  My kids are having fun.

It's summer after all.

So, kiddos,

 

when your dear mother asks you to get ready to go to the library tomorrow to return our books/movies...I don't want any grumbling.  I want smiles, and no fighting in the fan, and NO TEXTING friends.

Oh, and we might need to go to Wal-mart for a few things as well.  Just a fair warning.

----Signed

           Mom (the under socialized one who takes care of you and drives you places...like ALL the time!)

Where I've been...my new venture

I've been MIA for a week now.

I know.

I've been working like a slave to get my Etsy store filled up and ready to go.

I've seen more of this little lady than I have for months.

It's been near sweat shop like conditions (but with air conditioning!)

I've filled the shop with 29 things, with more ideas floating around in my head everyday.

Like this kind of thing...

and this...

I've got the greatest assortment of fabric (vintage and new)...

and rigged up my old scrapbook organizer to keep some of it in.  The rest is just overflowing drawers.

I'm totally excited for this new venture, and totally scared out of my mind.  Will my stuff sell?  Will it sit there for ages and ages?  I just don't know.

It took me several hours to list everything, describe it, price it, figure out shipping, etc.  I hope I did it right!

Wish me luck!

And keep looking at it.  The link is on my sidebar.  I'll add new things when I make them.

Have a great week!

You are my sunshine...

It's no secret the newest "saying" going around (or at least I think it is...) is YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE.

I've seen it on Pinterest in various forms.

I LOVE all of these for various reasons.    

The shabbyness.

The Yellow!

The fonts.

The other day, while I was in the garage helping the kids get the pig feed measured out, I walked past a forgotten board that has been leaning up against the garage wall like FOREVER.

It had 4 nails sticking out of it that I tried and tried in the past to pull out, but I think they are in there permanently, so I left them in.  

For some reason, the other day, that board told me I needed to rescue it and make it into the Sunshine sign I've been thinking of making.

I took it inside, brushed off the cobwebs (much to Grace's total disgust...how could I even touch them with my bare hands??????) and just hammered those four nails flat.

Then I took it outside and spray painted it totally white.

Then I got out my vinyl for the cricut, and printed out the words to use for the sign.

Then I took it back outside and spray painted it yellow, right over the vinyl words and everything.

I let it dry, then brought it back inside...

and stripped off the words.  They came right off and left behind WHITE words.

Pretty slick, huh?

I got out my sandpaper and distressed it a little.

I didn't want it looking too perfect and new.  Then I took a thin black marker, highlighted the words, and distressed it some more.

Then I hung it up above the doorway from the foyer to the dining room so everyone sees it when they come in the front door.

Bad thing about that is...everytime Brent walks in the door he sings "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."  Funny the first time, but not so much anymore.

Now Evan's doing it.

Really!?

Maybe I would've done it a little differently if I would've had a taller board, but this looks ok for now.  I can always spray paint over it....