A New Year

Here we are, in the first weeks of 2017.  While I'd like to say good riddance to 2016, I don't think that would be appropriate. I could give you a list of all of the things that weren't good in 2016, but my list of all the things that were good is much longer. When we bought this place in the fall of 2015, we had dreams and hopes and plans.  Those first few months were filled with necessities-cleaning and painting and adding the addition.  The corn was over our heads by the time we moved in, and most of the flowers and plants were in their wind-down stages.  And really, we didn't have time to fully enjoy the property.

Then winter came.  And with it, came new concerns.  Every day the old barn seemed to sag a little more and we knew that its days were numbered.  Inside, we had made cosmetic changes, but we weren't really prepared to feel actual wind blowing through our house.  It seemed we were constantly having the old propane gas pig filled to keep us warm.  Old houses are so charming, aren't they?

In January, we added our first real pet to the family, much to the delight of the kids.  Smokey, a gray lionhead bunny, came to live with us.

Finally, in late winter, the addition was completed and I had a great new bedroom with tons of sunlight and full view of our yard and property.

Winter slowly drifted away and the days lost their chill.  Before the bean crop was planted, the kids scavenged in the field for any rocks they could carry. We had a lot of landscaping projects planned, and what's better than free rocks?

In April, we got the idea (I mean I got the idea) that ripping the main bathroom apart one week before Emerson's birthday party was a good idea.  Jason just loves my free spirit home reno projects!

And since there was a party coming, I decided I should also give our narrow little staircase a little facelift.

And then the daffodils started to bloom, and it was official.  The cold was behind us and warm weather was on its way.  This is when the real fun began.

We have learned so much in this year on our small, growing farm...

We have learned how to successfully raise tiny, fluffy chicks and how it feels to literally have them eat out of our hands.

We have learned when and how farmers plant giant fields of beans,

and how to plant our own garden.

We have learned what fresh, newborn mice look like, and that if you don't get the mail everyday, it will become bedding.

We have learned what sugar snap peas straight from the garden taste like.

We have learned the difference in quacks between a male and female duck.

We have learned that sleepy 8 week old puppies don't actually end up sleeping forever.

We have learned that turkeys grow really quickly and if you aren't planning to eat them, they're better off living elsewhere.

We have learned that you should never go check on the garden without a basket or wagon.

We have learned what tiny box elder bugs look like.

We have learned that tiny mews coming from an overgrown ditch can turn into sweet, tree-climbing, snuggly pet cats.

We have learned that eggs come in all shapes, sizes and colors and that collecting them never feels like a chore.

We have learned that even when the beans grow tall, there are still ways to walk among them and explore.

We have learned that some chickens have furry feet.

We have learned that making pickles is just as fun as eating them.

We have learned that tragedies can happen so quickly and that we can't always save our beloved animals, but sometimes, we have luck (and a bathtub for healing) on our side.

Personally, I have learned that, yes, indeed, I am deathly afraid of heights, even only a few feet off the ground.

When we decided to give up subdivision living and try our hand at a different kind of life, I don't think we actually knew what we were undertaking.  It is hard and not always fun and sometimes, it's downright awful (ask Jason about crawling around in the musty, 130 year old crawl space filled with mummified spiders), but we are doing it, and we are learning as we go.  I have constant questions about gardening and insulation and chickens and ducks.  In a day and age where you can have anything at your fingertips in the blink of an eye, we're going old school.  We want to grow what we eat, and know that it's good for us.  We are willing to put in the effort every spring to ensure we have food throughout the summer, fall and winter.  We want to add to our flock of chickens and hopefully experience our own chicks hatching.  We want to know more about bee-keeping and making our own soap and detergent.  We want to grow berries and fruit for pies.  There are some things you can't learn in school, and it's our job as parents to introduce our children to everything possible.

 It might be the dead of winter here in Michigan, but farm life doesn't stop because of weather.  Egg production has slowed, but the girls left two for me this morning.

The changes and reno will continue around here, but look how far we've come in a year.  We went from zero animals to having a bunny, a cat, a dog, nine hens, a rooster and a duck.  Oh, and there might be a turtle also living in my house.  The property has also changed and we are planning a much larger garden this year, with lots of new vegetables.  And the house?  The house is coming along, slowly but surely, as we find the time and resources to complete projects.

Right now, the field is barren, but we still enjoy bundling up to walk the perimeter,

and the chickens are a little freaked out to put their feet in the snow,

but we are looking forward to the future when we can once again get our hands dirty and explore in the sunshine of summer.

By The Book

BREAKING NEWS:  I have a teenager!

I think it's completely unfair that the year I turn 40 I also have to have my first teenager.  Boy, did I time that one wrong!  If you're looking for an emotional wreck of a person, look no further.

I will say, though, that I couldn't have picked a better child to have as my first teenager.  Owen has been by-the-book since he was born.  He slept through the night when he was six weeks old, sat up at six months, walked at one year, potty-trained before he was three, and when he started school at age five, he was a model student.  All of these years I've watched him grow and change and try new things.  I have watched him ride a bike for the first time and catch his first fish and play t-ball and basketball and swim.  I have listened to his stories and his knowledge and his jokes.  He has taken this past year in stride and has just been a lot of fun.


This year has been all new for Owen.  He is now in seventh grade-the dreaded middle school years.  He has learned how to juggle books and classes and time and how to be accountable for himself.  He has also joined the cross-country team where he went from a timid newcomer who wanted to quit in the first week, to a comfortable, confident runner.

Owen continues to amaze me in his role as "big brother".

He trained for a 5k all summer with Emerson...

He shared the golf cart with Greyson...

He wrangled our birds in the yard with Alayna...

And he even took time to play with Nash in the shallow water at the lake.

I really got to know a lot about Owen this year.  I hadn't realized that he wasn't a little kid anymore.  We share books and then go to see the corresponding movies, always agreeing that the book was way better, we talk about running and how it challenges you, we tell jokes the younger kids don't get, and he's the only child so far that has gotten up on skis behind the boat!

I have always thought that Owen was the spitting image of his dad, but lately, he's been showing signs that he's my kid, too!  He loves to joke around and he is highly sarcastic.  When Emerson went off on one of her supermodel posing episodes on the beach, he even jumped in and stole her hat and imitated her, much to my amusement.

I love that he loves being outside.  This farm life has been so good for Owen.  He's always scooping up a chicken or a duck or a turkey and carrying them around and I can always get him to walk with me around the property.

He's also not too big to jump in the leaves, and I hope he never thinks differently.

I've always said that he's not a big talker, but really, he's just not one to initiate a conversation.  He's actually always up for chatting, but you'll just have to make the first move.  He really is a hilarious kid, and if the mood hits him just right, you'll get to see a genuine, uninhibited smile, and those are the BEST.

As usual, Owen asked for chocolate pie for his birthday instead of cake, so chocolate pie is what he got.

He could hardly contain himself when, after he blew out his candles, I handed him a fork and told him the whole pie was just for him.  I had made a second pie for the rest of us to enjoy.  How many times in your life do you get to eat pie like THIS?!

If you see Owen, mention that you heard he's a teenager now.  He's pretty proud of himself and it'll show.  And me?  I am pretty proud of that boy, too.  This year, I'm not spending too much time thinking about what's behind him, because I am really excited to see where he is going.  This kid might have done things by-the-book growing up, but he is ready to tackle the future and he's going to do it in his own unique way.

Happy birthday, Owen.  Mama loves you!

Find the Good

Thirty Days of Thankfulness, Day 30

Well, I made it. Thirty straight days of writing.  Thirty straight days of things past and present that I am thankful for. About seventy of you readers out there followed along, every day.  I thank you for your consistent support, motivation and comments.

I chose to write these thankful posts this year, because it's been a tough one.  I am not the person I was a year ago, and my family is not the same family.  If I'm being completely honest, there were days I didn't want to write about what I was thankful for-it seemed easier at the time to just chuck my computer across the room and give in to the bad.  Sometimes I think, if only for a moment, that I'd like to erase this past year.  But that thought is immediately drowned out by all of the good that has happened: we have grown together in our new home, we have cried happy tears, we have gone on amazing adventures.   I wanted to prove to myself that I really do have so much to be thankful for.  I have amazing family and friends in my life, my children are happy and healthy, and I've got a good man to go through life with.  The rest?  Well, the rest will have to be figured out in time.  And it will be figured out in time.  I know that the current struggles we are facing will come to pass.  After all, I've got a lot more living and loving to do, and as I look to the future, there is one thing that will always be with me: HOPE.

This is Forty

Thirty Days of Thankfulness, Day 29

The internet is a strange thing, isn't it?  If you're missing someone, you can often access their life with a few clicks.  Of course, it's not their whole life.  You really only get to see what they choose to show you.  We are all made up of our past and our present.  Who we are, in the eyes of others, is how we are remembered.

How do you remember me?

Do you remember when I was the only child in my family?

Do you remember me as a shy toddler?

Do you remember me with goofy faces when I lived in Clio?

Do you remember me with fluffy curls and how I had to be forced to walk down that long driveway from our house to the bus stop when I lived in Muskegon?

Do you remember me with a toothless grin from when I first moved to Flushing?

Do you remember playing softball with me throughout our childhoods?

Do you remember piano recitals, where it was just a very big piano and a very small me on stage?

Do you remember me with permed hair and how much I loved my Flushing jacket?

Do you remember running up and down the court with me, playing basketball against other Big 9 teams?

Do you remember me when my antics earned me the Class Clown title?

Do you remember playing basketball and softball with me at Mott and in West Virginia?

Do you remember me as a bride?

Do you know me only from Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram?  Or have we become real-life internet friends?

Do you know me as a mom from MOPS?

Do you know me as a mom?

Do you know me as a runner?

Maybe I fit into a few different categories in your memories.  I am a daughter, a granddaughter, a mother, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a parent, a friend, a teammate, a classmate, a coworker.

I am old enough to say that I remember when Pluto was a planet in our solar system.  I remember when the latest music was sold on cassette tapes.  I remember when telephones had cords, and not for charging.  I remember using encyclopedias to look up information.  I remember going to baseball games at Tiger Stadium.  I remember when watching television required turning a knob on a box to move the antenna on the roof of my house to find a channel.  I remember when the only thing to do on road trips was read, sleep or play the license plate game.  I remember playing outside all day and not returning home until the street lights came on.  I remember when the wait in a restaurant for a table in the smoking section was longer than the wait for a table in the non-smoking section.  I remember when making it across the street in Frogger was something to brag about.  I remember how the dog I grew up with used to smell. I remember my first kiss.  I remember singing on stage on Graduation Day.  I remember cutting the net down after we won the championship in college.  I remember the weekend I met my husband.  I remember those first pink lines on a pregnancy test.  I remember the big and small moments of being a parent.

Today is my 40th birthday.  I've got 40 years of memories stashed away.  If you're reading this, chances are, you are a part of those memories.  When I think back through the years, I can't tell you that all of my memories are good ones-highs and lows are a part of every life.  But what I can tell you, is that the good ones far outweigh the bad.  All of these past memories are a part of who I am now, in the present.   That shy toddler and that goofy teenager and that piano player and that first baseman are all parts that I continue to carry with me.  That's the best part about  life-all the things that you used to be stay with you and as you age you just keep adding more to the list.  I hope in another 40 years I can tell you all of the new things I have learned and all of the new people I have become.  Right now, though, I'm living life in the present.  I've got a hard-working husband, five amazing kids, a growing farm, and the support of family and friends who always seem to know just what I need, and for that, I am thankful.