The disappearance of a blogger...

My goodness, it has been nearly a week since I have posted anything. I'm sure many of you might be picturing me kidnapped, tied up to a chair, and held hostage until I give up the recipe to my secret chocolate fudge frosting. Or perhaps you have an image in your mind of me out in the middle of nowhere with a wagon full of rocks, trying to find my way back home. I am neither lost, nor kidnapped. I have simply been very, very busy....
Busy baking cookies, planting seedlings, digging up dirt, sewing quilts, tending critters, babies, feathered friends, and cats, making cupcakes and delivering them to my neighbors and friends at the taco shop and the hardware store... they give us free food and yard stuff! Busy, finding frogs, painting pots, putting up fences, scouting out the perfect books for Caillou at the library. Busy, giving tricycle riding lessons, feeding a mammary addict, ( sweet little Jasper!) scrapbooking with the goodies from mama, cleaning, watering plants, moving rocks in Boo-bah's yard, causing riots at the food stamp office...long story... a post for another day. Busy cleaning out the car from our rock hunt, busy dirtying up the car from our log hunt! Busy, busy, busy. We have been having many adventures.

Rock hunting...

Today, me and my boys set out on an adventure to collect some rocks. We didn't want to take rocks from anyone's yard of course, or rocks that we weren't sure if they had an owner or not... so we went out into the boonies... and along the way

We saw many cows! Drove through a lot of mud. Got lost a few times...

But at the end of the day we had collected enough rocks to make our front yard look like this....

Oh, and on our adventure, we picked up this too! This little corner of the Hillbilly Farm is now the Stray Cat Hotel.

Life Lessons...

Today, Caillou learned one of the most important things he will ever learn in life. How to unwrap a reese's peanut butter cup all by himself. He is a fourth generation reese's eater. The peanut buttery legacy continues.

My perfect little world....

I am in the process of transforming my Little Hillbilly Farm into a haven of all things wonderful. There are many little things that I adore. Odd little things, quirky little things, cute little things, these are a few of my favorites.

Baby food...

Here is Caillou feeding his little brother, or should I say trying to. Jasper still does not want anything to do with the stuff... and here is Caillou at 6 1/2 months, he ate everything from parsnips to prunes, avocado, zuchinni, you name it!

Today

I watched Caillou give this chicken a tour of the entire house. She was put on the bed and given a kiss, put on the table, the counters, the sewing maching, in a bowl, on a train, in the highchair, everywhere. Caillou was absolutley delighted to take this chicken with him all over the house for nearly an hour.

I bathed the two stinkers! They didn't stay clean long.

Baked some yummy brownies from scratch.

,Made a new little pathway in between my freshly planted ivy garden in my side yard.

Planted delicate little, yellow marigolds and lavender baby's breath flowers near my clothes line.
and....
Oh yes , I also tried to resuscitate my new telephone after Caillou submerged it in the toilet. Put the tupperware back in my cupboard three times. Captured the rowdy toddler that scaled my chain link fence and ran into the neighbor's house, yes Caillou did that! Chased chickens, made stew, dug holes, put up fences, got a blister, taught Caillou a new song, nursed Jasper a gazillion times, swept the floor almost as many times as I nursed Jasper! Unburied the galoshes Caillou buried in the back yard. Played patty cake, folded laundry, re-folded laundry, and nearly collapsed dead on the floor at the thought of repeating this all tomorrow!

My boys at 6 months...

Here are my little guys at 6 months of age. Jasper on top, Caillou below. I really don't see much resemblance between them. What do you think?

I don't like baby food Mama!

Poor little Jasper does not like baby food. So far we have tried rice cereal, applesauce, pears, banana, and squash, and he loathes them all! This has been quite a surprise to me... Caillou ate baby food quite eagerly, jar after jar after jar. There wasn't anything Caillou didn't like. But it isn't so with Jasper, I guess I will keep trying, but for now, it looks like he is still as happy as can be just nursing. I guess he is doing all right, afterall he is nearly 20 pounds!

Residents of the Little Hillbilly Farm

Here are four of our six scraggly old farm cats. There is Clarabelle and her husband Jim Bob, and their children John Boy and Pancake.

Here are our Chicks... Sassafras and the Magnolia sisters.

Here is Jemima, and below is her husband Moses.

Mr. Piggy, our ragamuffin duck

He eats extremely fast, therefore he was named Mr. Piggy.

Naptime Reinstated at the Little Hillbilly Farm

This picture of my darling little Caillou was taken on the way to the hospital the day that Jasper was born. From the picture, one would think that Caillou is a peaceful sleeper... Huh! Not so.... From the day this little man was born, he has held naptime in great contempt, and alas bedtime as well. You see, in the eyes of this "busy all day long" two year old boy, sleep serves no purpose. It is nothing but a bothersome hinderance in his ever so busy day. So the great naptime/bedtime war began... At the age of 1, Caillou finally began sleeping through the night. At 15 months he began catapaulting himself from his crib in protest to his afternoon nap. In the past months he has abandoned his nap all together, at the great dismay of everyone who has to be around this overly tired grouchy little being! You see, naptime was ended because of the great nap war.... Caillou detests his naps so vehemently that he would prefer to throw 4 hour tantrums rather than just surrender and go to sleep. He conquered the child proof door handle, he scaled the 3 foot dog gate, it was plain to see he was winning this war. So, me the peace keeping mommy, waived my white flag of surrender and gave him victory to round one of the nap wars. Napless days, has been a way of life over here for the past couple of months. This is no longer the case. I have folded up my white flag, and put it back in the napkin drawer where it belongs. There will be no more battles, this mommy has gotten a little something called commen sense... my two year old is not the boss of me! If I say nap, he will nap! And for the second day in a row, he is napping, peacefully in his bed. Hooray, I am victorious! Letters of praise and gifts for my heroic duty may be sent to the Little Hillbilly Farm.

At the end of the day...

Okay, I am finally off to bed after this chaotic day, but I will have you know, my house is sparkling, I baked a batch of my homemade chocolate chip cookies, and I cut out a new apron to sew. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I'm bragging, but after a wild day like today, I am very proud to have accomplished anything beyond screaming and pulling out my hair. Goodnight!

A day in the life of me....

I should have known from the way my day starte, that it would be a no good, yucky sort of day. My day began far too early, on account of my children waking up like little roosters, but what can I do... so as I started my day I slipped on my robe and put my hand in my pocket and what did I find? POOP... not chocolate, not brown crayon, POOP, real from the hiny POOP! How and when Caillou got this morsel out of his diaper and into my pocket I don't know, I don't want to know. The thought that there could be more poop hidden throughout my house in such discreet places as pockets, greatly disturbs me. Now... if I didn't have children I would have immediatey ran to the bath to take a hot sanitizing shower. But, it is sadly not so... I have to make do with a quick kitchen sink scrub, and begin my daily tasks, still wearing the poop in the pocket robe. Hey, if I had time to get dressed in the morning, I would! So... breastfeed one, make toast for the other. Chop up fruit, make the bed, which smells on the side that I don't sleep on? Hmmmm... won't name names, but you know who sleeps on that side of the bed. Wash dishes, pick raisins of my floor. Sweep, sweep, and sweep away the pound of dirt and the eternal dust bunnies that plague my floors. TIMEOUT. Caillou has began throwing condiments at the chicks that live on top of our deep freezer. Wash dishes, change diapers, TIMEOUT. Caillou has thrown his galoshes at the Chicks. Tend to the duck, tend to the chickens, tend to the cats. TIMEOUT. Don't even remember what he did, but it was bad, very bad. Loooooooong TIMEOUT! Finally showered, and dressed and on my way to my WIC appointment. Did I mention Caillou ramsacked his room during his long time out. Went to WIC, disastrous as usual. Went to McDonalds, radiantly shining highlight of my day. It is sad when a cheeseburger brings me such great joy. Grocery shopped, God save me, nightmare!!!! Came home, and boy oh boy... it all started with Caillou breaking a china plate over my head and it is all a blur from there. I do remember sweeping 5 pounds of mashed potato flakes off my floor and scrubbing ketchup out of the grout of my kitchen floor. Oh yes, and he ramsacked his room once again. This day resulted in every single one of Caillou's toys being put away! No more toys for naughty little boys. He will be allowed to play with one toy at a time, no more toy store bedroom. My house, my life, my toddler will have order! Give me sanity or give me a straight-jacket. The day ended sweetly with a series of bedtime stories being read, and a kiss goodnight. I then finally brought in my clothes off the line that have been out there for the past 36 hours. Hey if I can survive poop in my pocket, crunchy, sun-faded clothes don't bother me.

All in a day's work...

Today.... I put together my legos... bit my mommy so hard I bruised her arm, ate an oreo,
filled the bathtub with pineapple juice, chased the cats... all six of them, took all my clothes off 3 times, threw rocks at my duck, dug a hole, colored a picture, jumped on the bed, slapped my brother, mommy was MAD!!! Walked to the park, played in the sand, threw sand...at people, barked at dogs, brushed my teeth, watched some Elmo, made a French number chart, hid mommy's keys, spilled more pineapple juice on the floor, ate lots of guacamole, took a nice long bath, fed my chickens a cookie, hmmmm, what else did I do.... threw a few tantrums, gave a few hugs, sang some songs and went to bed!

The economy...

Boy oh Boy... has anyone noticed how bad the economy has been lately?

Double stuff oreo's are no longer double stuffed.

The diameter of a Reese's peanut butter cup has drastically shrunk!

and Imitation Cheese, you know the stuff that is cheaper than real cheese, I would love to know what it is imitating, because it sure as heck isn't cheese.

I went to buy a dress and it said half off. Boy did they mean it when they said half off! It was so short, I know what half they took off.

Designers are using less and less material for underwear, and I know that it is not my butt getting bigger, because my king sized fries are definitely not so king sized anymore.

Mother's Cookies has been cruelly exterminated from our grocer's shelves.

And as for the price of milk, if I am going to pay that much, the price better include a pet cow too!

It used to be cheaper to sew, now it costs more to buy a spool of thread than a t-shirt

Dime stores have become dollar stores and dollars stores have become more like $1.50 - $1.99 stores

Whatever happened to the good old days, where oreo frosting was abundant, and $5.00 could get you a supersized meal through the drive through?

Growing bigger every day...

Today, to my surprise, I noticed to little slits in Jasper's gums. He is beginning to cut his first two bottom teeth. I cried, he is growing up way to fast!

Keep on the sunny side...

There are often many things about my life that are not very happy. Challenges I can't hardly bear, hopes that go unfulfilled, However, I am going to try very hard to keep on the sunny side of life. There is a little bluegrass song that goes like this...

There's a dark and a troubled side of life
There's a bright and a sunny side too
Though we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view

Keep on the sunny side always on the sunny side
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day it will brighten all our way
If we keep on the sunny side of life

Oh the storm and its fury broke today
Crushing hopes that we cherish so dear
The clouds and storm will in time pass away
The sun again will shine bright and clear

Let us greet with a song of hope each day
Though the moment be cloudy or fair
Let us trust in our Savior always
To keep us every one in His care

So with this little tune in my mind much throughout my days, I am working on trying to look at the good in people, places, situations, experiences, challenges, etc. If one doesn't try to look at things from a more hopeful and optimistic perspective you could nearly go nuts! Perspective is a very interesting thing, its all how you look at it. So... with this new year ahead of me... I am going to try to be a bit less negative, and a bit more on the sunny side. I am also going to get myself out of the rut of procrastination and also looking too far ahead. I will get done what I can get done today and stop putting things off, thinking "someday it will be easier." I will also stop waiting for the future to bring me happiness thinking "I will be happy when" ... and create happiness in each and every day.

Silly boys...

Jasper is growing chubbier with each meal!

He loves to play in his new toy Boo-Bah and Bah-Pah gave him for Christmas!

Here is Caillou enjoying some mexican food! He junt can't get enough salsa or hot sauce. He eats the red sauce like it is soup!

Sweet Jasper going for a stroll.

Riding and falling!! Caillou loves his scooter. We walked with him the length of the town along main street, he got a lot of practice on his new scooter.

A few of our cats! This is the night they took over Caillou's tent! They have been making camp there ever since. There are 6 in all, I suppose I should name them!

Taking a nap after a long day of gardening!

Woo-Hoo he is two!

I'm a little late in posting this, but here is a picture of my darling Caillou on his second birthday. His cake was a giant cupcake, he loved the sprinkles on top the most.

Happy boys...Happy times...

Japser is nearing 6 months now. He laughs all the time and is ever so happy all day long. He gets a real kick out of watching his brother doing crazy things. He rolls all about, and is trying very hard to push himself up and scoot forward. With a baby like Jasper, it is impossible not to want lots more babies. Babies don't get much sweeter than this one!


Caillou....
On this particular day, Caillou dressed himself, and said let's go! He couldn't understand why I would not let him go outside in this ensemble. After adding some pants, and a sweater we had a great day playing out in the yard. Caillou is constantly helping me. He has gotten to be very efficient using the hoe and rake, and collects rocks and dirt in his wheelbarrow. He is getting better at not uprooting all my flowers.