30 days, failed.

I haven't picked up my camera or blogged in days. Too rainy, too cool and too happy to pick up the camera for pics that are not of my family and I don't like showing their faces, so those are out. The result is a failed first attempt at 30 days of blogging, even without counting the other days I have missed this month.

The girls are in bed, my Mr K is out on business, and I am playing an online game with him while watching the newly regenerated tenth Doctor. Good time for the tired mommy.

30 days, days thirteen and fourteen

This was supposed to have been posted last night but i fell asleep before I could finish writing it.

Day 13

Daddy got Berry and Bear a surprise. Berry was so excited, she seemed to think Purple deserved the inaugural ride.

Day 14

Berry managed to get my phone while we were speaking with a realtor and snapped this funky angled piece and I just love it.

30 days, day twelve combined with Theme Thursday.

This week's theme is text. I really like the variety of text, or fonts, used on this photo frame.

This was precious. She was an amazing dog and my best friend for every one of them. She kept me company, slept at my side every night I was home, and was intuitive to when I need cuddles. I miss her still, years after her death.Head over to Clan Donaldson for wonderful pictures on this lovely Thursday

30 days, day 11, and some seriousness followed by fun.

Today was a hard day when I awoke and realized it has been twelve years.

No matter how old I get I will remember the utter despair, the helplessness and the fear from that horrid day. From hearing my teachers talk about it, to walking in my front door to see my parents sitting on the sofa and seeing the first images from that morning at 4 in the afternoon as I stepped through the door. My heart broke all over again, remembering telling a good friend as we walked together to English class "We're at war. There is no way we are NOT at war now...." Then the crying. Not sobbing but the whole "tears welling, throat swelling shut silent crying."

Chris gave me a one armed hug and agreed quietly.

The years passed, the images showed up less and less each anniversary, and here, twelve years later, it still hurts as much as it did when I was in high school and learned how truly horrific foreign terrorism can be. This, following April 19, 1995 and how domestic terrorism already made me feel helpless and angry.

I have no answers, no wise words for the masses, just heartache over the hatred, ignorance, fear, and senseless tragedies that I have witnessed thus far in my life.

On to the happier part of this post.

   Today was busy and hot. We hired a local tree service to come remove two dead trees for us. It is NOT in our budget, but we both agree that the cost of cutting them down far outweighs the risk of them coming down in parts during winter storms, potentially causing damage to our home, requiring us to pay a hefty deductible to have insurance pay for home repairs. In winter. With snowfall and freezing temperatures. Yeah, paying to prevent those makes me feel a quite a bit better.
   The tree guy showed up, and Zee ran off. Again. She pulled this running off thing back during a thunderstorm in early spring. Eleven days later, she showed up 3 miles away, skinnier than a bean pole, bedraggled and scarred up but alive and well. Then today, the guys showed up earlier than expected so Zee took off. She was gone about four hours. Around the time K was coming home from work she trotted back into the yard like nothing was the matter. Knucklehead!
   After the tree guys left, i realized that in my exhausted state of little sleep, after my shower this morning, I forgot to put my pump back on, so I went hours with no insulin >.< Not good. I put if back on and spent the remainder of the afternoon until K arrived recovering from spiking a high blood sugar. K used his awesome power tool to work on the old pile of trees left by the previous owner. Good times were had by all.

My manly and lovely Mr K.

There is something simply yummy about a man properly using a chainsaw.

30 days of pictures, day 10

I picked up this small table today, super cheap, real wood, with a massively messed up surface. I was debating turning it into a side table or something when Berry chose to make it her own art desk.

30 days, day 9

Berry bids bye-bye to the bug.

Help! I need somebody....

Not exactly but I do love the Beatles.
   I need patience. When it was just the Berry girl and I here at home, it was so very easy. I wasn't outnumbered, I had enough in me to set her in a safe place and go take a two minute breather if things got to be too intense. It felt like I had life mostly under control.
   Then Bear came along. Even in my pregnancy with her, I was the embodiment of emotional overload. That chocolate bar I had craved and eaten was already gone? Beware, let loose the waterworks and stand back while insane woman rages over the injustices of a chocolate treat gone too soon. And even now, when Bear is edging closer to the four month old mark, I am still overly emotional.

   I lose my cool and my temper way too often. Things with Berry get out of hand and she is sent to her room so *I* can have a time out while Bear is vocalizing her extreme displeasure at being anywhere other than my arms.
   These occurrences are not constant but they happen too often. I feel like the world's biggest failure when I make my toddler cry because I don't have patience with her, or when I have let my infant scream because I let things get to me that probably shouldn't matter that much and she feeds off my tension and screams more instead of calming down. I am trying to find a balance between raising children who listen to me and who have the confidence to try new things; and letting them explore while having them trust me to be there when they fall.

   If you have a moment, can you pray for me please? I'm trying to have more patience and I need all the help I can get.
 

30 Days, day 8. Barely getting in here in time!

I was in bed, about to turn off the light when I realized I hadn't posted a picture today. I am digging through the archives to find a great picture.

This was taken in April 2013.
This is the view from my dining room.

I absolutely love living where I do, because in the winter, when there are no leaves, this is the view of sunsets we see almost every evening. Such beauty.

30 days, days 6 and 7

   As I sit here, Thomas the Train is softly chatting in the background, and Berry is finding a shirt to wear I didn't want to put one on her first thing this morning; after discovered she had wet through her diaper and needed a bath then breakfast and *then* she could be clothed. Bear is blissfully sleeping to the soothing tones of the Rainforest swing. Heck I'll be back later, I'm going to clean.
I'm back. Sorry it was too awesome to have happy and quiet offspring to just sit here, so I cleaned up the kitchen. I'm now awaiting an awesome friend to come over so we can make a northern style jambalaya. It's northern style because we don't have Bryan Smoky Hollow Cajun Sausage up here in the Midwest, so we are substituting Polish sausage and hoping for the best.
   After reading a fun blog post about using a stand mixer in a science experiment while teaching her children, I now want one. I want either espresso brown or bright red. However, we don't have a spare 300-500 dollars laying around so I have to rely on my trusty hand held mixer. for now.


This was started yesterday. Then my friend showed up and didn't leave til after 2, when her designated ride showed up as none of us were sober enough for driving at all.
I awoke early to bright sunlight in my eyes, my Mr K's voice telling me the coffee was brewing, and rain. yes, rain. It lasted approximately 45 seconds and upped the humidity to 980000000%. Yay.
Alas, I got up and decided it was time to run to the store for a cheap stand mixer which had the "sure, honey" from the Mister. Suh-weet! Well, on the way to the store, my van started acting up and i had to swing by previously mentioned friend's place to pick her up to get her car from our house. Once we got to the store, no mixer was in stock. Drat. I picked up the heavy cream, and we came back here. Friend left, and I made butter with the Berry. All in all, it was a fun morning.
Day 6 picture:

Day 7 picture:  Top is butter, middle is whipped cream, and bottom is buttermilk. 

30 days, day 5

This is what happens when Daddy forgets to put away his computer before leaving for work, and Mommy is still half asleep and forgets as well.

 Notice the native minion, making use of the unused-for-the-intended-purpose potty as a chair.
Notice the scraggly locks of un-brushed hair.
That would be the Berry, in all her mischievous glory, trying to Skype Mimi, or become president...who knows?

30 days, day 4?

An interesting smell lingers around this log.

The very best Berry, ever.

She really is the best Berry ever. After a rough night with bear, where I accidentally woke Mr K with my pleas for the wee one to go to sleep, for the love of all that is holy, I had my Berry. She has given me countless hugs, "I love you" proclamations, and so many simple laughs today that I feel much better.
Here is a pic of a younger Berry for your trouble in visiting here:

Does the dog's face scream "Please get her off me" or what?

A decent day.

Today was decent. Not good nor bad, but decent.
I had grand plans to wake early, dress the girls and take them to the library. But then Baby Bear woke at 4 and demanded food, then proceeded to fight the food, me, and sleep. She was ticked, people. She screamed, until Mr K woke up and took over while I crawled into bed, buried my head under my pillow and begged the Lord for patience. K got Bear back to sleep, dressed and left for work. i dragged myself out of bed to care for the minions. I got Berry fed, and worked on Bear. Berry spilled half her breakfast on the table. I said a prayer of thanks that I stuck to my "breakfast eaten AT the table" rule this morning. Bear chose to eat, then scream for over an hour. She calmed down when Berry got the tablet out and began madly dancing to Michael Jackson while screaming for me and her little sister to dance. Great fun was had by all.

Bear finally zonked out long enough for me to pick up tree garbage while Berry ruled over her play area.
 Mr  arrived home in time to eat dinner. we had the tree guy come out and give us an estimate on the removal of two dead trees. Yay. The good news is, he is giving us a great discount thanks to the help of a wonderful friend, and we are saving a good third of the total estimate by not having them remove the tree or the stumps.  K has a chainsaw, and we have an amazing fire-pit thanks to my Mr K's awesomeness.
And as a bonus, here is another pic from today:

This is one of the two trees to be removed by the end of next week.

30 days, day 3. poison!

This:

is a poke-berry plant, it seems. At least, according to my lackadaisical Google searching it is. Those dark berries are quite juicy, smell fresh when you squeeze them, and likely stain things a purple/blue color. Unfortunately they are poisonous to humans.
I ***will*** fins something edible and yummy in my foraging attempts, or I will plant something edible and pray the critters we share the woods with leave some for us mere humans.
Pretty but poisonous, don't you just love nature?

30 days, day 2

This is Baby bear, doing her best to hold down that absorbent pad. (That pad is under her so that when she spits up, it doesn't flood her bed like the Mississippi floods the plains when the levees fail.) Also, daytime sleeping, yes I know the dangers of sleeping on the belly but I also know my child and I'll be darned if the little tyrant downs't put herself in that position. She rolls people, she rolls really fast. I put her on her back and this is how she is found the moment I turn her on her back.
Yes, her sleeper is blue, and yes it is meant for a little girl. There are purple and pink bugs on the front.
This was posted about an hour later than what I thought the time was. Minions one and two are finally tucked into bed, not in a swing or on the race-car rug in the room, but in their beds. I'm going to attempt to sleep until Bear wakes up, demanding sustenance and affection, which i will happily give. Middle of the night cuddles with a baby are precious and awesome and even though I lose sleep, they are perfect for one on one bonding that is harder to come by with additional kids than they are with a first or only child.
Ok, so I am hearing the neighbor'c cow and she has not stopped mooing in over 18 hours. She was doing this since about 6am on the second.

Thirty day picture challenge?

Sure but we won't take off points for starting on day two, okay?

Day One:
This was taken from a bridge over a gorgeous little section of either river with a low water table at the moment, a creek, or a stream. You decide. Mr k and I took the girls to a state park and hiked a bit. We found this little bit of breathtaking woodland beauty near the end.


Day Two:

will be done later, after i have taken a picture.