Breathe Deeply

Ahhh...Smell that?  Spring is in the air.

What is Spring to me? It's a time of melting snow, suck-the-boots-off-your-feet-sticky mud, and dirty kids tracking said mud around my spring-cleaned house.  It's a time of dirty-ness.  All that clean white snow is disappearing only to reveal dull brown grass, half rotten leaves, and (due to a home renovation project last fall) a swampy muddy back yard with various piles of construction debris intermingled with the remnants of our wood pile. 

Yet, soon, hopefully anyway, that brown forlorn pasture will provide a lush clover meal for grazing cattle. Bare branches will be clothed in vibrant shades of green.  My soupy back yard will be transformed into a smooth grassy play area with a new sandbox, clothesline, and flower garden. (Okay maybe I'm dreaming a bit here on that last one.)

Mother Nature likes to Spring Clean too.
Just hope she doesn't put it off like I usually do.

Spring Cometh...Or not...

Spring 2012
The days were warm and sunny.
The garden was growing and bird were singing in the oak trees behind my house.Cows were grazing in the lush green pasture.
My wardrobe was T-shirts, capris, and flip-flop sandals.

Spring 2013
Yuck...
Muck...
It's snowing...again...
I'm still wearing my winter sweats, warm socks, and knee-high rubber boots.

There's going to be plenty of irritated people if that forecaster who predicted 60's and (gasp!) 70's for this weekend turns out to be wrong.

Words, Words, Words

Here's something you may  or may not have known about me. I read ALOT.  I can't go a day without reading.  For me, reading is like breathing-it's necessary for daily life.  And I've always been like this.  I have childhood friends who will tell you they had to hide the comic book box whenever I would come over because I would literally grab a stack and go hide in a corner to read instead of playing. Really. My favorite job in high school was working in the local library. I was so sad when I graduated because I couldn't work there anymore. In college, the classes I enjoyed the most were ones in which we read actual books instead of dry, dull textbooks. I've been known to read a book from an encyclopedia set and will even page through a dictionary now and then to learn a new word or two. Even now, despite being a mom of two busy children and a farmer's wife/black-thumbed gardener/errand runner/so-so sous chef/farmhand extraordinaire, I make a near weekly trip to the library for a fresh supply of reading material. (I've worn out two book bags already.)

I read because I absolutely love words and how they somehow come together to paint a picture in your mind. There's always something new to learn-a new knitting pattern, a new recipe to try, a new idea for decorating, or even just the definition of a new word. There's always another world or time to visit-historical London, early Plains settlements, wild and wooly frontier towns, modern day cities, or fantastical places that don't exist other than between the pages of your book. After suffering several miscarriages, I read all I could get my hands on about the subject in an attempt to understand more about what was happening. I've read biographies, recipe books, and I even have to admit to reading the occasional Harlequin romance. (I prefer the really old ones.) There's always something to make you laugh, something to make you weep, and something to make you go Huh, I didn't know that.  That's the beauty of a book-you never know what you'll take from it when you are done.

I have always felt like I have all this creative energy but no outlet for it. My painting talents are limited to a single solid color on a wall and, while my cooking won't kill you, it's simply mediocre. I can't sculpt, I usually copy other people's decorating ideas, and my quilts are made for warmth not display. I can knit but it's nothing to write home about. I am a lackadaisical gardener with a high plant mortality rate and photography isn't my forte. Since I have little artistic, culinary, or other talents, I have fallen back on the one thing I do know I'm good at-words. (Not one of my siblings will play Boggle with me for that reason.) I have long harbored a secret wish to write a book but never seemed to find the time/energy/etc to finish the ones I've started.  It doesn't help when the author has just decided to sit down and type only to find her plot won't make it past the first paragraph without characters, a plot line, or even a deciding which genre it will be. I have been told by more than one person that I should write a magazine or newspaper column so I started this blog to see if I could write often enough to make that dream a reality.  As you may have noticed, I haven't written even monthly at times so that idea sort of fell by the wayside.

However, lately odd things have been happening.  I've been reading about acquaintances who have written or are writing their own books and I see that anyone can find the time to write if they truly want to. Many years ago, my mom gave me an idea for a children's book and lately it's been knocking around my brain like it wants some attention.  At a recent mother/daughter weekend I attended, we had to draw a talent to practice for next year's retreat.  The paper I drew just so happened to say Write a Children's Book.  Just today, I was sorting through some papers I saved from college and came across an old note from one of my advisers saying she thought I should look into writing as a career because my easy, breezy style of writing was enjoyable to read. It's almost as if fate is trying to tell me something.  Wonder what it is...

Just kidding.  Seriously though, wish me luck! I have a feeling I am going to need it...that and a good editor.

One thing always leads to another

It's been a whirlwind of a month. We all started the new year sick. L and I coughed, wheezed, and slept for two weeks while the kids battled the stomach bug that was going around. Once we were all recovered enough to at least sit up in bed, I settled down to start working on our income tax paperwork.  That was when we found out the zip drive with all of our 2012 farm records (and necessary information for some tax paperwork with a quickly looming deadline) on it was conspicuously absent.  Panic, on my part anyway, ensued. My husband's clear head prevailed, however, and we spent the better part of a week spelunking, treasure hunting, and peering into all those dark, dusty corners you forget are in your house in an attempt to find the missing zip drive.  Just when I was beginning to think it had gone to the same mysterious place dryer-eaten socks go to, we found it...in a box I had dumped out and searched during the first hours of our week-long hunt for the drive.  I breathed a deep sigh of relief anyway as I filled out the necessary forms and sent them in with plenty of time to spare.  Apparent tax crisis averted.

Then, just as I was sitting down to enjoy my sparkling clean house (well as sparkling clean as a house can be when it's in a renovation/construction mode), the hubby springs a new project on me-we were going to paint our living room floor and install laminate flooring.  After a few days of sweeping, furniture moving, and floor painting, we decided to amend our initial plans and install new flooring in our kitchen as well.  Contrary to my initial worries, it only added a few hours of work and moving the cabinets proved easier than I expected.  Due to the furniture moving portion of our flooring project and the addition of a new doorway, I now am enjoying a larger kitchen and living room.

It's been well worth the hassle of the last weeks. Due to the cleaning necessary for the flooring project, my laundry pile no longer resembles Mount Everest, the sink is empty of dirty dishes, floors are staying relatively clean, and all of our tax stuff is corralled in one place.  I can now sit down and work on just tax paperwork without housework intruding.  I think it's the first time I've ever looked forward to tax season.