Simple Pleasures that Really Make my Day!

(Note: Reader input will be like totally appreciated...for sure! You all are so Rad! I don't know what I'd do without ya!) That was written in my best valley girl impression...one of the "little things" I love to do.


You may call me a simpleton, or say I'm just plain weird, but the fact is, I get great pleasure out of the little things in life.  The other day I was ecstatic about finding a hidden compartment for my iPod inside my new jogging shorts.  It absolutely made my day! I told my Facebook friends that it felt like I had just found a twenty dollar bill  in the washing machine. Thankfully, my friends understand my weirdness, and don't de-friend me because of my high volume of seemingly random, insignificant posts.

Honestly, if I just wrote about the really big stuff that happens in my life, I'd be silent for months at a time. Besides, I'm a firm believer in celebrating the little things.  They're the stuff that life is made of!

I love it when I treat my kids to a 1/2 priced Sonic drink during Happy Hour, and I find out that  I'm the lucky recipient of a coupon for an additional free Large Drink at the bottom of my receipt! That makes my day!

I like cleaning out boxes and stumbling across  really old pictures where my hair was ridiculously big.  Then I like laughing about it with my kids.

I enjoy reading the Sunday comics in the newspaper after church.

I love painting my toenails in outrageous ways with my girls.

I get a kick out of loudly singing every single word of a stupid old song that was popular when I was in Jr. High while holding a wooden spoon microphone...while cooking dinner...while my kids laugh and hold their hands over their ears and roll their eyes. (Evidently, I love run-on sentences too.)

I love to mow my lawn diagonally into diamond shapes.

I love collecting warm eggs right out from underneath my hens.

I enjoy putting Cheetos in the middle of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's a delicious week day delicacy.

I like drinking out of mason jars.

I like putting decorative sprinkles on our oatmeal.

I love to write mushy love notes and put them in my husband's lunchbox...complete with XOXOXO.

I could blab on and on about the simple things I enjoy, but I'm going to turn this over to you, my prized readers.  I want to know about the little things that you really love. Whether you are one of my faithful followers, just a blog browser, or a silent blog stocker, just shout out one of your simple pleasures in the comments!

Thanks for being a participant,

Nell

The Heart of Our Homeschool

This morning started out much the same as every other school day.  It may have been our first day of the new school year, but among the ever changing flow of our lives, I try to keep one thing constant. Each morning we start the day off with a time of devotion to God.  I've written many times about how much of an impact that daily prayer and scripture reading had on me as a child, and it's the one thing that I've tried to pass down to my own children.

I'm not trying to boast about my holiness, or convince you that morning devotions contain some type of magical powers.  On the contrary, I'm here to tell you that I'm just a sinner saved by the grace of God and I desperately need a daily dose of scripture to keep my heart and attitude focused on Christ.  Without it, I'm a disaster waiting to happen...and that's the truth!

Some days, completing devotions is like pulling teeth! And sometimes my kids get into an argument five minutes after our prayer time and I feel like the whole lesson went in one ear and out the other. But then I remember that even on those days, my kids are developing the habit of starting their morning off with God.  They're learning about what it takes to develop their own relationships with Him.  And I'm still learning too! 

I can't count the number of times that I've been reading the morning devotion to my children, and have been deeply convicted, blessed, or moved by its message.  Even so-called "Kid's Stuff" can speak volumes to parents when the Holy Spirit is at work.  There have been times when devotions were boring, dry, and routine, but we still do them.  There are also times when devotions are fun and captivating to the point that my kids beg me to keep reading.  Either way, it remains a constant presence in our lives.

Our time of prayer before the school day is so important as well.  Petitioning Heaven's gates with the prayers of three small children might not sound like much, but it's powerful.  One of the quickest ways to understand the heart of a child is to hear their little prayers to Jesus.  It will bless your socks off!

We've used a number of tools to help us with our morning devotional times, and there are many great books that we've used in conjunction with our Bible reading.  Right now, we've been enjoying "The Building on the Rock Series" by Joel R. Beeke and Diana Kleyn.  Each book has a biblical theme that is thread throughout it's daily stories.  Each chapter starts with a Bible passage to read, and then tells a captivating  true story that relates to that particular Bible truth.  There are comprehension questions and prayer points for each story as well.   I love the eternal truths that the stories provide, and believe me, my kids remember virtually every one of the stories!  I would recommend starting with "How God Used a Thunderstorm".  My kids enjoyed it so much, we've read it twice!

Whether your children attend public school, private school, or are homeschooled, you will be blessed by taking a few minutes each morning to learn more about God through his Word, and by seeking His face through prayer. It's a daily lesson that your children will keep with them for life.


Nell

Stuck in My Head

♪♫"Hmm Hmm Hmm... Hmm Hmm Hmm... I love you."♪♫

This is the tune that has been stuck in my head for three whole days.  I had absolutely no idea what the words were, or who sang it.

It all started at the Sonic Drive-in. I was waiting for my kids outside of the restrooms when I heard a catchy tune playing on the speakers.  It was soooo catchy that I couldn't get the beat out of my head. But for the life of me I couldn't remember the words.

So for three days, I've been tortured by the only snippet of the song I could partially remember...running through my head like a broken record.

♪♫"Hmm Hmm Hmm... Hmm Hmm Hmm... I love you."♪♫

Don't you just hate when that happens?

I couldn't even remember the lyrics, which made it more torturous!
So I started searching for it on itunes.  No luck.  I searched the internet.  No luck. I tried Pandora. No luck.

I don't know what I was expecting. I was like a detective with no leads in the case.  I had nothing to work with, and it quickly lead to a dead-end.

Finally, last night I couldn't take it anymore.  At the expense of sounding totally ridiculous and having to hum a tiny line of the stinkin' song, I decided to approach my musical husband.

I said, "I've got a song stuck in my head, but I don't know the words, the artist, or the name of the song! It's upbeat and kind of Reggae inspired. All I've got is ,"Hmm Hmm Hmm... Hmm Hmm Hmm... I love you."

"Ridiculous, I know. But by chance do you know what song I'm talking about???"

Then my husband's face lit up, and he hummed a little bit more for me.

"Ya, Ya...that's the tune!", I said with a desperate plea for help.


Then he hopped on the computer and searched for it. And searched for it.  And searched for it.

I finally gave up and went to get ready for bed.  Then, miracle of miracles...my husband found the song!

He found it in the most obscure place on itunes: Best work-out music of 2009.

What?!? Whatever.

This is GREAT news!

The mystery is now solved, and the song now has a name and words to go along with the beat. I can now go on with my life, no longer tortured by the small snippet of humming and the rockin' beat that was stuck in my head.

I'm free to move forward to humming other songs, singing other melodies, tapping my toes to other beats.

Today is a great day!

What was the name of the song, you ask?

Are you sure you want to hear it? It may get stuck in your head.

Alright, alright!

It's "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti and Spearhead  All Rebel Rockers

You've got the information now, so take it or leave it.  It's definitely not George Strait, but you have to admit that it IS catchy.

Now Free to Hum a New Tune,

Nell

Tooth Fairy Makes a Midnight Run for Cash

 That's my baby.  She's carefree, and full of sunshine.  She's gonna be six next month and she's been working hard on wiggling her very first loose tooth.

Day and night, night and day, she wiggled and wiggled and wiggled that tooth.

And last night, when we least expected it, she worked up the courage to yank that baby right out!

Here she is yesterday morning with all of her baby teeth intact.  Just look at those freckles! She calls them "angel kisses" and she's in love with them.

Here she is at bedtime after a full day of  wiggling.  All of that hard work really paid off big!

At our house, the tooth fairy pays $5.00 for the first tooth lost.

Rumor has it that the Tooth Fairy had no cash in his wallet to purchase the tooth with.  He hit up Mrs. Tooth Fairy, but she never has cash either.  So at 11:30pm, he got in the truck and drove to the grocery store to get some money. By the time he flew over to the house, our princess was fast asleep, and he made the trade under the pillow.

This morning, when I woke my baby for church, she jolted up and immediately tossed her pillow to the side to see if the Tooth Fairy came to visit.  She woke the whole house up with her proclamation, "I've got five bucks!" Then she showed everyone at church who would take the time to look into her mouth.

Today, my girl has a pocket full of money, and gap in her teeth to stick her tongue through.  Life just doesn't get much sweeter for a girl who's getting ready to turn six.

7 Random Things

 1. It's officially football and soccer season at our house. This means the following things:
-The truck engine never cools down.
-I empty my wallet at the sporting goods store.
-The crock-pot is always on.
-The prayers for safety never end.
-I live in my lawn chair.
-Sunflower seeds are my main form of sustenance.
-44oz Thirst Busters are my vice.

-The truck gets a mind of its own and tries to steer into the Taco Bell drive thru every night after practice but I strong arm the steering wheel and speed home to eat whatever's in the crock-pot.


2. We've been celebrating this week! Every six months my husband has to pass a grueling welding test with 100% accuracy in order to keep his job. On the day of the test, my stomach is full of butterflies for him.  I pray for him and try to stay busy until I get the call that he passed.  Then it's like a thousand pound weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and I do the happy dance. I told my husband that the only thing I could compare it to is cheerleading try-outs. When I was a teenager, I would work so hard the week of tryouts in preparation for the "big day". Then after try-outs were over, I'd sit by the phone and wait until the results were in.  When I finally received the call that I made the squad each year, I would cry and cheer and jump up and down in celebration.  I feel the exact same way when my husband calls me to say that he passed.  I'm not sure if he understands the whole cheerleading metaphor, but it's the best I could do to convey my excitement for him.

3. There was a knock at my door last night.  When I answered it, this mysterious gift was greeting me at the doorstep. It glows a lovely shade of nuclear meltdown green.  I'm not sure what to name him, but I'm thinking that he will be re- gifted in the near future.  He's too..."special"... to keep him to myself.  He will bring good cheer wherever he goes. (Wink, Wink.) I'd like to say a big thank you to whoever shared this metal work of awesomeness with me. He's one of a kind...definitely one of a kind...or he was on clearance somewhere...one or the other.

4. We're finally starting to harvest food from our garden this summer which feels like a small miracle!  Growing gardens above 7,000 ft. in elevation is challenging.  We have a really short growing season, and extreme weather conditions. Some days I'm surprised that anything besides rocks will actually grow on this mountain.

5. The hair is starting to wear off  in some places on my cowhide bling belt and I'm freaking out about it! My cowhide belt is afflicted with baldness.

6. My hens are old. They're approaching the age of the dinosaurs but I can't bring myself to butcher them yet. I think I have chicken attachment issues.

7. I'm currently drowning in a sea of housework that never ends, and therefore this blog post must end.

And that folks, is the latest news from the trenches.

Nell (The new owner of glowing metal frog art.)

I hate Dog Hair.

My old dog is hairy...like Guinness Book of World Records hairy. And he's shedding. Really bad. In fact, I'm convinced that 97.3% of his dog food intake is going straight to fur production.

The sheer volume and magnitude of fur that is being shed right now is overwhelming. It's gargantuan, preposterous, and maddening!

I love my dog. I hate his fur.

Because of my deep devotion and unconditional love, I allow my dog inside my home. But because of my hatred for his fur, I vacuum and dust religiously every day.

And I own "The Furminator".

"The Furminator" is the only weapon I have in my arsenal for combating the hair monster. It's like a grooming comb and blade that pulls out the undercoat of beasts.  Every time I use my secret weapon, I fill a grocery sack with hair.  But my dog's hair growth is so prolific that even "The Furminator" can't keep up with it.  When my dog sees me approaching with my secret weapon, he diverts the eyes and tries to make a quick get-away.

In between grooming sessions, I find myself picking small chunks of loose fur off of him the way that primates pick fleas off of each other's backs. It's like an obsession.  When my dog was young and vibrant, I didn't have to worry about any of this nonsense.  He practically lived in the back of the truck.  Traveling down the highway at 65mph blows all of the offending fur right off of him. Cars traveling in our wake probably had to use the windshield wipers to clear the flying fur away, but it was an effective grooming method.

Gone are the days of wind grooming in the back of the truck.  Now Boone is too old to jump in, and whenever I have to lift him in the truck, my outfit gets covered in dog hair. Needless to say, his riding time has been greatly diminished, but I do occasionally give in to his sad eyes and sacrifice my outfit to put him in the back of the truck.  If it weren't for the invention of the lint roller, I'd never be able to show my face in public again.

Just writing this blog about dog hair is making my nose twitch. That's how much I hate fur.

I hate dog fur in the spring.
I hate dog fur in the fall.
I hate dog fur in the winter.
I hate dog fur most of all. 

I do not like it in the park.
I do not like it in the dark.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them Sam I am!

Wait. What?!? ( Sorry. I got a little carried away there.)

My sister-in-law made the observation that our entire family has a tendency to stretch the truth about some things when we're telling stories. I like to think of it as merely using my all-time favorite literary device of "hyperbole" to get the point across.

Hyperbole - "Obvious and intentional exaggeration. An extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally.

This blog post, for instance, is a great example of a "hyperbole".

I would just like to end with one last statement:

I hate dog hair.

Thank you.

Hyperbolizing the world, one blog at a time,

Nell

Wildfire Update: Re-seeding the Burned Areas

 The restoration effort continues over the land scorched by the wildfire last month. Day after day, semi- trucks full of grass seed arrive from the state of Washington.  They wait in line at our little airport to be unloaded into crop dusting planes that land on the run-way.

When the planes touch down, the workers quickly load the seed into the plane directly from the semi trucks.

Then the planes take off again and fly over the burn area.  Using computers, they coordinate the seed drops so that the whole area is covered evenly.  My understanding is that they try to spread 35 seeds per square foot.

The planes fly over my in-law's house all day long as they make their rounds. It's quite a sight to see.

 This is the heart of our monsoon season, and the daily rains probably help to germinate the seed that was dropped in the worst hit areas. As the grass takes root, it will anchor the soil and keep it from eroding off of the mountain.

The fire will scar the land for quite a long time, but in its aftermath is the promise of new life with the sprouting of fresh vegetation. The areas that burned the hottest resemble sterile moonscape now, but over time, they too will see new growth. I'm going to miss the mature trees and the beauty that they bring to the mountain.

The picture below shows the highway that acted as the fire line.  Everything to the left of the road was black a few weeks ago, and everything to the right was untouched by fire. The fire burned off the old grass, and the summer rains have brought forth new growth that is a brilliant shade of emerald green.