So how was your Mother's Day?

Mine was... well... lets say it was interesting.

I had just finished a 65 hour work week and was looking forward to spending the day at my Mom's (without my children) putting flowers on Grandma's grave, going out for lunch, maybe go for a ride on the pontoon; just relaxing.  But instead the chaos started even before I got out of the shower.

I was in the middle of a shower when there was a knock on the bathroom door.  Typical, I never have had the luxury of using the bathroom in peace.  It was Hubby telling me something was up with Alison.  She woke up with her eyes swollen shut and couldn't open them.  After I got dressed I went out to the kitchen to see what was wrong and her whole face looked swollen.  My first thought was pink eye.  I tried to pry one open so I could see if they were blood shot but even the lightest touch had her in pain.  Hubby suggested I cancel my plans with my mom and take Alison to urgent care.  So we jump in the car and head to the clinic.

We were roomed fairly quickly, they were probably thinking pink eye also.  After a short wait the doctor, who spoke in broken English, came in.  He examined her for less than 5 minutes before telling us he was referring her to the ER.  Then sent the nurse in to check her vision but they did it without her glasses so of course she couldn't see anything.  The doctor checked in on her again one more time before sending us the the ER and said something about it being stress related, but he didn't know how to explain it.

So off the ER we went.  It must of been a slow day in the ER because we were in a room in less than 30 minutes.  By this time she was able to open her eyes, but her face was still hurting.  The ER doctor came in, looked in her eyes and said at least it didn't look like an infection.  After looking at the swelling in her face, she asked what happened to her forehead.  It was very red and scared or blistered.  Alison, being a typical redhead with very fair skin, had been out in the sun a bit to long on Friday for a school event and sunburned her face.  The doctor said the severity of her sunburn was probably causing the swelling and the skin was so tight there was nowhere for the swelling to go but her eyelids.  They gave her some ibuprofen and some Bacitracin for her burn and sent us home.  A sunburn sent my daughter to the ER; sounds like a show on TLC. 

As we were walking out of the ER my phone rang.  It was my son, Jim asking where I was and if he could get some driving practice in today.  He had his driver's permit and we really haven't had time to take him out practicing as much as we should.  So I told him if he wanted to go grocery shopping with me he could drive.  But today really wasn't the best day for driving practice.  I really didn't have the patience and he seemed to have forgotten how to drive.  As we were going down the road I kept wanting to grab the steering wheel and stomp on my imaginary brake.  Finally after almost having a heart attack I told him to pull over in the nearest parking lot and I would take over.

It was already after lunch time, so we decide to get lunch.  While waiting for our food I was writing my grocery list.  Alison grabbed my pen and wrote "Delightful granola bars that don't make me poop if I eat more then one" on the list.  See a few weeks ago I bought a big box of Fiber One granola bars, she took a few  to eat at school and had to make several trips to the bathroom that day because of them. When I read that I started laughing and couldn't stop.  Then Jim said something that made no sense and I meant to tell him to stop talking stupid only it came out "Top salking tupid."  That's when I completely lost it.  I was laughing so hard I had tears, and then they turned into real tears, and I was crying in the middle of the restaurant.  The people from the nearby tables were staring at me wondering if I was having a mental break right then and there.  And in a way I think I was.  The extra long work week and all the stress of the day had finally gotten to me and I was cracking up.  When I was in college I went through something similar.  I was so tired from going to school and working all the time that it was causing me to behave in really weird ways.  It was like I was on malfunctioning auto pilot.  I worked in a fast food restaurant at the time working the drive-thru and would answer the drive thru by randomly giving out my phone number, answering the the phone by saying "Thank you for stopping at..." and at it's worse I forgot where I lived or how to get there.   I was in full blown tears trying to explain to the kids I was either having a mini mental break or a stroke.  If anybody was suffering form a stress related illness today it was me.  Luckily it passed after a few minutes and I was able to function again.

After lunch we went to Walmart.  The kids were fighting and driving me nuts so I sent them each in opposite directions to find the things we came there for while I waited by the garden center.  I texted a friend to tell her what a sucky day I was having and jokingly asked if I could just leave the kids at Walmart.  As soon as I hit send I realized I sent it to the wrong person.  I accidentally sent that text to Alison, who was walking back towards me giving me a nasty look.

Jim insisted on driving home and even though I really didn't want him to,  I was to tired and overwhelmed to argue so I handed him the keys and said a little prayer he'd get us home without killing us.  We made it home and I'm still alive but that's all I'm going to say.

We've been trying to spiff up the yard for Alison's graduation this summer and I have yet to mow the lawn this spring.  We've been trying to start the mower for 3 weeks now  The first week, the battery charger we needed had been left out all winter and was no good anymore.  The second week, the new battery charger I bought was the wrong one.  And this week with the right battery charger,  Al  just couldn't get it started.  So we decided to try and finish the screen house we started putting up

on Saturday. It's like a screen door tent with a canvas roof.  We had it almost done, just need to put the roof on. Easy right?  Wrong!  Once we got the heavy roof spread out over the roof supports and started to secure it, I realized we had the supports in wrong.  Note to self:  Always re-read the instructions after your husband has read them to make sure he understood them.  We pulled the roof off and now it's in a big pile on the ground and Al said "Screw it.  Lets finish this next weekend."   I said the permanent  one I found at Costco was looking better and better because once it was up we never had to mess with it again, and I was having second thoughts about putting this one up again next summer.  That's if it survives this summer.

After the day I had, Al decided to go out to eat for dinner.  We went to a local pub and I ordered a cocktail.  I was pleasantly suprized when the waitress brought me my drink with a ton of moonshine soaked cherries.  Normally with this drink you get 2 or 3 cherries, but the whole top of the glass was covered in cherries.  I told Al, after I eat all those cherries and finish my drink I may not need a second one.  I had about half my drink gone when I realized there was something else in my glass beside ice and cherries.  I fished it out with a fork; it was a beer bottle cap.  Al asked the waitress for a new drink for me showing her the bottle cap I found.  She took my glass back to the bar and brought me a new one but this time with the normal amount of cherries on top.  Dang, I lost all my moonshine cherries.

I hope you all had a better Mother's Day. 

Going on a prom dress hunt...I'm not scared....Well, maybe just a little

My daughter has announced she's going to prom.  She doesn't have a date, but that's not going to stop her.

Why am I scared?  I like to think of myself as thrifty.  I hate to spend a lot of money on something that will only be used once.  Case in point, my wedding dress was under $300 and I thought that was a lot of money.  I liked how we did it last year.  She didn't have any particular style in mind, so we went to a used dress sale, and she was able to find a brand new dress (still had the tags regularly marked at $500) for $30.  Then while we were at Goodwill, we found another dress, that I liked more, for $30.  So for $60 she was able to get a dress for morp (kind of like prom but for the freshman & sophomores) and a dress for prom.

Morp 2014

Prom 2014

This year she's decided to more picky about her dress.  It has to have shoulder straps (nothing halter top or spaghetti straps.  Nothing to low cut in front or back and must be about knee length.  These are all her requirements for the prefect dress, so I really can't complain about modesty.  And it must be alternative, whatever that means.  She showed me one she found online some where, but I've never heard of the site before and was a little leery about buying one online because of some of the horror stories I've heard.  I'm trying to talk her into a cute vintage inspired cocktail dress from J.C Penney's.  If I'm going to spend the money it should be something she could wear again.  We'll see how it goes.

Prom 2014

My daughter and her boyfriend went to prom a few weeks ago.  I guess you could say I was living

vicariously though her since I never when to prom.  I was just as excited about everything as she was, from finding the dress, to dreaming about how romantic it was going to be.  Yes, I guess you could say I still have some Disney princess fantasies about how things are suppose to be.  

I didn't get to go to the reception hall to take pictures of the actual prom, but I did get to play photographer before hand.  There was a real photographer there to take pictures of each couple, but my daughter decided his prices were outside of their budget, and she wanted more than just the standard prom pose.  I don't think I did to bad.

The Leprechaun Tree

I was going through some old photos looking for something and I ran across this photo of what we call The Leprechaun Tree.

The Leprechaun Tree on my parents farm

My parents have this tree in the woods behind their house. 

They went for a walk in the woods with my kids when they were little and my dad convinced them that a leprechaun lived in the hole at the base of the tree.  There was even a little fire pit, table made of stone, a bed,  and some treasures inside the hole of the tree. 

Every time the kids went to Grandma's they would ask to go out to the leprechaun tree and see what treasures he had for them.  Sometimes it was little trinkets, sometimes it was chocolate coins.  This went on for a few years until they were old enough to realize it was Grandma & Grandpa who were leaving the leprechaun's gifts for them to find. 

My kids are teenagers now, and don't go out to the leprechaun tree any more, but he's still there.

My first craft show; Lessons learned

So I had my first craft show yesterday, and I'm a little disappointed but I'm not looking at it as a failure.  Lets call it a dress rehearsal.

First of all, it wasn't very well advertised.  The show was in conjunction with a school competition and wasn't advertised to the public, but I thought for a $10 entry fee what do I have to lose. The organization of the event wasn't the greatest.  From what I understand the event planer wasn't even sure if the craft show portion was going to happen at all due to all the rules from the school and liability laws.  Also, my booth and about 7 others were put in a room out of the main traffic areas, which cut our visibility in half.  We did get some traffic but there was never a steady stream of people, and I'm not sure if the booths in the main areas did any better because they were packing up early.  Lesson one: Research the event

Stitch 1 Stitch 2 booth

Secondly, it was me.  Although I think my stuff is pretty darn cute, it seems I was targeting the wrong audience.  The show was during a dance competition, so the things that were selling were very girly girl things.  Sequenced headbands & mittens, jewelry, Scentsy and of course any booth that sold food.  I took baby clothes, mittens, totebags, and some key-chain wallets.  I got a lot of "cute stuff, but I don't have babies to buy for anymore" comments.  Lesson two: Target the expected audience.

But it wasn't all a total waste of time.  I did get to make a few new connections, see some people I haven't seen in awhile, and practice setting up and tearing down my booth.  I'm already thinking of what I can do to make improvements for next time.  Being able to accept credit cards would be one, although it wouldn't of done me much good yesterday because those who did; had trouble getting a cell signal.  A tv tray would of made a nice little table to put the cash box behind the display table or even as an extension of the display table to put business cards and my portfolio.  A framed sign with my name and business info would be nice too, so I don't have to print a new one each time and looks more professional than a handwritten one.  And the last thing, when bringing a mannequin for display purposes, don't forget the stand.  I had a baby mannequin I was going to use, but forgot the stand at home so the mannequin was pretty much useless.

Poor Kitty

My poor cat, Puddle, had to have half her tail amputated on Friday, and I feel just awful about it.  I went to start my car, Friday morning and didn't realize she had crawled up under the hood.  When I started the car, she got her tail caught in something, and lets just say it wasn't good. I rushed her to the vet and they confirmed my concern that yes she did have to have an amputation. 

I brought her home after the surgery Friday afternoon, and we gave her lots of cuddles and attention.  Normally she's an outside cat, so the kids (especially my son) are enjoying having her in the house, where she'll need to stay for 2 weeks, while she heals. I'm supprized that for an outside cat, she's doing very well being indoors.  Saturday and Sunday, she seemed content to stay in her carrier, normally we have to force her in there.  We would take her out to feed her and give her meds and when she was done she would go right back to the carrier.  Even with the door open, she choose to stay in there.

By Monday she was a little more social, and came out of the carrier by herself to cuddle, and we let her visit with the dogs out on the porch for a while.  Our other cat, who refuses to come inside no matter what temperature is, is worried about her; she keeps meowing/calling for her.   She's getting little better everyday, and looks kind of funny with that short little tail, but she'll come out of this just fine.

Getting ready for a craft show

Mittens by Stitch 1 Stitch 2

I'm getting ready to do my first craft show in a few weeks.  I started looking at my shop and noticed I didn't have very much winter stuff.  This is Minnesota after all, where winter lasts for 6 months (or so it seems).  So I got to thinking, what could I make for winter wear that I could make several of in a short time.  The answer, fleece mittens.  I attempted mittens a few years ago, but the pattern and instructions were so confusing and resulted in lots of tears, frustration and only 2 pairs that didn't turn out all that great.  This time I went looking for a much simpler pattern and I found it at FleeceFun.com.  She offers free downloadable patterns in different sizes and easy to follow instructions.


I made a test pair out of some old fleece I had and was a little disappointed that it didn't seem true to size, but that was my mistake because I forgot to change the scale to 100% instead of scaled to fit.  I went back and downloaded the pattern again, this time correctly, and I figure I can use the first pattern for kid's mittens.  I've been very busy the last week and a half cutting, pinning and sewing mittens.

Chicken wire frame from knack.org

Also as I'm getting ready for the craft show, I started reading about craft show tips.  One thing that stuck out for me was displaying things at eye level to draw people in.  I started to think about how I could do that.  I have a table to set thing out on, but how was I going to be able to hang things so people could seem them from a distance?  Then I started looking on pintrest for display ideas and really liked these chicken wire frames.  I started to think about how I could put something like that together.  First I thought about a couple large picture frames hinged together, but I didn't think that would be big enough.  Then I thought about building something out of lumber, but (a) I'm not very mechanically inclined and neither is Hubby and (b) I really didn't want to spend a lot of money on it.

Repurposed closet door

Then one morning as I brainstorming ideas, I remembered the bi-fold closet door that used to be in my daughters room.  The hardware that held it in place broke and the door sat in the basement hallway for years waiting to be thrown out, but the basic frame was still in pretty good shape.  I removed the shutter slats and sanded it down.  I was going to paint it but I liked the distressed look the sanding gave it.  My daughter helped staple the chicken wire to the back of the frame and now I have what I think is a pretty cool looking free standing display all for under $5.

If I ever get my own sewing room this will be a permanent fixture, because I can think of so many other uses for it.

They just don't make them like they used to

I know it's kind of silly, but I'm feeling a little sad today because I took my old 1985, rabbit ear, 13" analog TV to be recycled this morning, and not because it didn't work.  It worked perfectly as long as it was hooked up the cable.  Sure the UHF dial was missing, and it wasn't capable of being hooked  up to modern devices like our now obsolete dvd recorder/vcr, but it still had a decent picture and worked for watching tv in the sewing room.

It was the first big purchase that I bought with my own money, that I earned from my paper route when I was 12.  It was a big deal for me then, I felt so grown up walking into Best Buy knowing that I had finally saved up enough money to buy it.  It cost me $110 + tax, which seemed like a lot of money back then.

I had this tv for 28 years and never had a problem with it, in that same amount of time I'd also owned 4 vehicles and was always happy to upgrade.  The only reason I decided to part with my good old trusty tv was because we just hadn't used it in the last 2 years.  We upgraded our main tv to a digital flat screen, moved the one from the living room to our bedroom and the one from our bedroom downstairs to the sewing room.  My little tv just sat on the living room floor unused.  My son wanted to put it in his room, but there's no cable hook up in his room so it wouldn't him any good.

I took it today to the recycling drop off and handed it to the guy.  He said, "I used to have one just like this in my room when I was a kid.  Brings back memories."

It sure does.

Orange and lavender spots?

My daughter is just finishing the class room portion of Driver's Training.  On the way home last night I was quizzing her on what different signs and signals mean and what you're suppose to do.  She was doing pretty well until I posed this questions to her...

 

When the light is green you go.

When the light is red you stop.

But what do you do

When the light is blue

With orange and lavender spots?

~Shel Silverstein 

She had never heard that poem before and gave me a strange look.  I told her to ask her driver's ed teacher for his advice.

Ice fishing and I don't mix well

Ice fishing is a way of life around here and as a kid I never thought twice about venturing out on to a frozen lake where the water beneath you could easily be 20 feet deep or more.  I never had the fear that the ice would break, but as I've gotten older I've acquired an irrational fear (or maybe just a healthy dose of caution) of the ice.

Hubby has been trying to get me to go ice fishing with him for as long as we've been married, but I refused to go because I wasn't going to sit outside in the cold all day with no bathroom in sight.  Then he bought a fish house that is more or less a camper trailer with some of the comforts of home.  There's a table that turns into a bed, an upper bunk, a furnace to keep warm, a small stove with oven and yes a bathroom.  Although the bathroom is really a closet size room with a portable toilet.

The first time we took it out we had planned on staying the whole weekend on the lake, but as the temperature dropped, the ice began to creek and crack and I started to freak out.   To me cracking ice meant one thing, get off and quick.  Hubby tried to calm my fears by telling me the ice was expanding and it was nothing to worry about, it happens all the time.  But when a loud crack came from right underneath and shook the fish house a little, that was it; I was done.  I was not spending another minute, much less the rest of the weekend on the ice. That was several years ago and I refused to ice fishing again until recently.

We had gone out a few weeks ago and spend the whole day out there with out any freak out on my part, so when he mentioned fishing again I said sure.  We pulled out onto the lake yesterday and as usual I waited in the truck while he drilled the holes and warmed up the fish house.  Everything was fine, until I got out of the truck and noticed a crack in the snow above the ice running from right under the fish house.  I tried to kick the snow away to see how deep the crack went, but I just ended up shoving snow into the crack.  I figured it was just on the surface, it still bothered me but I tried not to think to much about it.   While fishing, every so often I'd hear the creaking I heard years ago and stare wide eyed at Hubby asking him "What's that noise?"  I don't know if he really didn't hear it or if he was pretending or if it just didn't bother him like it did me, but he'd say he didn't know what I was talking about.

We had just heated up some lunch and were getting ready to eat, when I heard the creaking again.  Only this time it was louder and continuous and I could see the water in the ice hole moving and I really started to freak out.  Hubby got up and looked out the window and told me it was just somebody driving across the ice.  But it got louder and louder and I swear I could feel the fish house move and panic set in.  "We got to go, we have to get off the ice NOW! WE GOT TO GO!"  I screamed on the verge of tears, but suddenly it stopped and there was a knock at the door.  It was my brother-in-law coming out to fish and just stopped by to see how it was going.  I was trying very hard not to cry or let my fear show but I think he could see something was wrong.  Hubby told him he made me nervous by making the ice creak when he drove out there.  Brother-in-law laughed.  After he left, the tears came and I was done with fishing.  I put my headphones on and turned on the radio to drown out the noise from the ice and eventually fell asleep.  It wasn't long after I woke up that Hubby said he was ready to go home and I was more than ready to leave.  I've had enough ice fishing for the year, if he suggest going again, he'll have to go by himself.  You won't catch me on the ice again any time soon.

Peasant Loaf

We do a pot luck kind of Thanksgiving, and I'm always in charge of bringing the pies. A few years ago I discovered this wonderful bread recipe, and now I'm also responsible for bringing the bread.  With Thanksgiving just a week away, I'm busy baking.  I put together an apple pie earlier this week and froze it, I have 2 more to make and I'm on my second loaf of bread.

I wanted to share this recipe with you.  Although time consuming, it's very simple and makes a European peasant style loaf.  The best part is you can add ingredients to make just about any flavor and works well with white or wheat flour.  I could of let this loaf bake a little longer, but I like my crust a little lighter otherwise it tends to get hard.

Peasant Loaf     

Time: about 1 ½ hour plus 18 to 24 hours’ rising

Ingredients:

3 cups	Flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon	Instant yeast
1 ¼ teaspoon	Salt
1 ¼ cup	Water
	Cornmeal as needed

Directions:

1.  In large bowl combine flour,  yeast and salt.  Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let dough rest 18 to 24 hours at room temperature

2.  Dough is ready when surface is dotted with bubbles.  Lightly flour a work surface and place and dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold over itself once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

3.  Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.  Generously coat a cotton towel (not terrycloth) with cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more cornmeal.  Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 to 3 hours.

4.  At least ½ hour before dough is ready; heat oven to 450°.  Put a 6 to 8 quart covered pot (a covered casserole dish works well) in oven as it heats.   When it ready, carefully remove pot from oven.  Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into a pot, seam side up.  Shake pan once or twice to evenly distribute dough.  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake until brown

I had no idea how dangerous dry skin could be...

Until I almost ended up in the hospital.

I've always had dry skin, I don't like the greasy feeling of lotion so I've just dealt with it the best I could.  This summer I developed a itchy patch on the bottom of my foot that I scratched until I built up a callous.  The  callous cracked open so I started to peel some of the dead skin off causing it to bleed.  I didn't think to much about it because this has happened before.  I put some antibiotic cream on it, covered it with a band aid and forgot about it.  Sure a sore on the bottom of my foot hurt to walk on, but I figured it was just the tender new skin being exposed that hurt.  It started to heal and I completely forgot about it.

Fast forward about a week later, I woke up one morning feeling fine. I had plans to meet a friend for lunch.  I took a shower and immediately after my shower I started to shiver.  I knew it was chilly in the house but I didn't think it was that cold, so I went to check the thermostat and it was 69 degrees.  Not excessively cold for our house, but yet I was freezing.  Still undressed, I curled up in my robe and a blanket hoping I would soon warm up enough to get dressed.  I laid there for 20 minutes, still shivering until I finally had to force myself to get dressed.  I dressed as quickly as I could between uncontrollable shivering and put on the warmest sweatshirt I could find but I was still cold, and I was suddenly feeling tired and nauseated.  I laid down on the couch with a blanket, hoping I'd start to feel better before I had to leave to meet my friend.  After about an hour I realized I wasn't going anywhere expect back to bed.  I canceled my lunch date, crawled in bed with several blankets, still chilled to the bone, and now feeling dizzy and nauseous.  I thought it was the flu.

My son, who was also home sick that day, woke up about 11 and I told him he had to help me. I had to get to the bathroom, but I couldn't get myself out of bed.  He helped me to the bathroom and back.  Feeling that I could pass out at any moment, I told him if that happened to call his dad/my husband.  He was very sweet, he took care of me the rest of the day, bringing me water and anything else I needed.  When my husband came home I was still very sick and once again couldn't get myself out of bed.  Some time during the day a pain had developed in my lower leg, it felt like a charlie horse, but I couldn't remember having one.

The next morning I was still sick so I stayed in bed, while everybody else went to work and school.  The pain in my leg had gotten worse to the point where I could barely stand on it.  My husband came home to check on me around 10 and I showed him my leg, which was red all the way from my foot to my knee, very hot (you could feel the difference between the skin temp above and below my knee) and very painful to the touch.  I called the doctor and they were able to get me in right away.

After spending most of the morning in the doctor's office, having my blood drawn, and an ultrasound of my leg to rule out a blood clot; she concluded that it was cellulitis.  A staph infection of the deeper layers of skin, that if left untreated can spread to the blood causing blood poisoning and death.  Since it had spread to my whole lower leg and I was as sick as I was, this was serious.  She said we could do one of two things, she could put me on an antibiotic and I'd have to come back in 24 hours or she could send me to the hospital.  I really wanted to stay out of the hospital, so we choose to come back in 24 hours hoping that there was some improvement.

The next morning we when back to the doctor.  I had my blood drawn again and my white blood cell count had gone down a little so we knew the antibiotic was working.  She suggested that I have some penicillin injections to help boost the oral antibiotics.  I had 2 injections before we left and I had to come back the following day for another 2 injections.  She told me to stay in bed as much as possible  with my leg elevated over the weekend, and to go right to the ER if things got worse.  After going back in for the last 2 injections, I stayed in bed most of the weekend.  By Sunday afternoon, I was feeling strong enough to venture into the living room for a little while.

Yesterday morning I had to go back to the doctor.  My leg although still sore looks quite a bit better.  The redness had gone down to about mid-calf, but it's no longer hot so we know that the infection is going away.  I still have to watch it though to make sure it things don't make a turn for the worse, and it all started because the dry skin on my foot cracked open.  This was a hard lesson to learn;  but I've learned the importance of taking care of my skin and protecting any opening on my skin from now on.

Writing a book

I'm starting a new project, but not a knitty one.  I'm writing a book, or at least trying to.  I've made several trips to my home town this summer; my parents still live there.  Due to road constitution I've had to take a different route though the back roads and farm country and I've been hit with a very severe case of nostalgia. As I drove though the farm country that I couldn't wait to get away from as a kid, I've come to realize just how much I miss it.  My book will be memories of growing up in rural Wisconsin, with my own experiences and some of my Dad's stories that he's shared about his childhood.  I have a feeling his will be more entertaining than mine.

I'm having a problem though.  When I sit down to write, I have a memory in mind that I want to write about, but the words just don't flow.  I can see it in my head like I'm watching an old home movie, but I can't describe it.  Then when I'm in bed and I think about what I want to write, the story just flows beautifully and I think I have to remember this, but it's gone by morning.  I'm a much better writer in my sleep.

Finding happiness on top a tractor

My husband along with his 3 brothers and mother own and run a sod and landscaping supply company.  In the 15 years that we've been married, I wanted every little to do with the family business.  I had my own job and my own life and I didn't want to feel tied to the farm 9 months a year.  But that all changed this spring, when I lost the job that I absolutely loved working as an Education Assistant at a local elementary school.

Due to some changes in the family business, they had an opening for me, if I wanted it, mowing the sod fields.  I really didn't know if I wanted to take the job or not, because I knew I had to work even when it was hot and I don't do hot, I knew it was going to be long days (10 hours), and I had never driven a tractor before.  I reluctantly  took the job, saying that I'd give it a try for the summer as long as I could start looking for another job after the the kids went back to school in the fall.

Here we are it's the beginning of August and the unthinkable has happened.  I realized yesterday as I sat in my tractor in 90 degree weather, that I really do like this job.  I don't feel the heat to much as long as there's a breeze.  I like that despite the noise of the tractor, it's peaceful, I know that sounds weird but it is. I like that I get to see wild life that I normally wouldn't.  Yesterday a bald eagle was roused out of some near by trees and swooped down in front of the tractor, I'd never seen one so close.  It made me wish I had my camera.  I also get to see some wonderful sunsets. Every day I'm in awe of how beautiful the farm really is, and I never noticed before.

Me and my tractor

Shepherds Harvest Festival

I spent my Mother's Day wandering around the Shepherds Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.  This was my first visit there and it was a lot of fun.  There were many yarn vendors with beautiful yarns and I discovered corn yarn.  A yarn with the look and feel of cotton, but made from corn.  There were sheep sheering demos, spinning demos, stock dog demos (sheep herding), and others that we didn't get to.  We walked around the barns, looking at alpacas, llamas, sheep, goats and rabbits.

One of the fiber rabbits.  This one was huge.

Sheep sheering demo

Fleece skirting

Just one of the spinners

A baby lamb wearing a sweater

Llamas

My daughter riding a llama