Once upon a time...

Once upon a time a goose drank wine,
a monkey chewed tobacco on a street car line,
the street car line broke,
the monkey choked,
and they all went to heaven on a billy goat.


This morning Joseph said, "Sing me a song." And I started belting out that sing-song riddle thing. Where did it come from, and how do I know it? I have no idea. Guessing from some childhood weird thing. Anybody know?



This is the bathroom floor upstairs that took me months to finish. Don't have a clue why it took me so long. We used all "found" tile...meaning it took me quite a while to collect it from yard sales...thrift stores, etc. This way it was cheaper for me to use nice tile.


This is the beginning of our siding outside. I started on the back of the house so I could mess up without anyone knowing. I love how it's looking. It's Cedar...I think it's very rustic looking...just what I wanted. I almost have the Front of the house covered, and half of the east side...but I can't do much more because the scaffolding is too slippery and it's just too scary.


And this is the best picture of our dearly departed goat. I think we somehow poisoned him with all the weird produce we've been feeding the animals. The pigs and chickens are fine. We had our first large animal butcher with the goat and saved the meat for the cats, since we didn't want to eat an animal that we didn't know the reason for death. We will never raise goats for meat. NEVER.

Kids are so cute.

Before I forget...I wanted to write down a few of the things my kiddos say that are cute...wrong, but cute. For example, when we get to the grocery store and there is an empty parking space close to the entrance, they say..."Look the handy captain space is empty!" And when they want to throw a frisbee...it's really a "crispy". C'mon, let's go play crispy. And Terra always calls an umbrella a "Dinderella". Cute!

So, we did NOT celebrate Halloween. We have every year until now...but I just do not like the holiday. I mean, why go out into the cold, dressed in creepy costumes, just to collect sugar from our neighbors? Then, while everyone is feeling screamy, I have to somehow convince the kids that they really don't want that candy...uhhh...not a good idea. So this year, I never even mentioned it, and no one knew the difference, until we had a trick-or-treater come to our house. That kind of spoiled it...but then I told the kids about the Harvest Festival that we would be attending the next weekend and they were allright with not getting any candy. At the festival we made applesauce, apple cider, some soft pretzels, painted pumpkins, listened to stories being told, and had some homemade butter on cornbread. Yay!! No candy at all this year. I think we'll make that a tradition.


Here's Garrison and Aila after a good night's sleep, just having fun with each other. They really get along well. She turned 2 and he turned 8 this last month. So now all the kids are even...2, 4, 6, and 8.



This was Garrison's Birthday. We went down the road to Sand Creek Ponds. It was really beautiful with the changing leaves.



This is just a picture of some baked oatmeal I was making, but I was amazed at the difference between the 2 store bought eggs and our last 2 eggs from our own chickens. Can you guess which is which?



And this is my 4 year old Terra really concentrating on her painting.



And this is the very last picture I have of when our garden was green this year. Now it is covered in snow.

Finally...sort of.

No pictures...I am having camera problems. Mostly it's that my camera is never where I want it to be when I want to take a picture...and partly because my rechargeable batteries are getting to have a very short lifespan.

But anyway...thought I would just update that we did finally pass our inspections and got to move into our house. We got our official Certificate of Occupancy, which I really thought would be an actual certificate that I could frame and put a back light on or something. But no, nothing... Just a pat on the back...wait, no...didn't get that either. I am feeling pretty proud that we actually pulled it off. Now I plan to spend whatever good weather we have left (by "good" I mean not horrible) to finish up the siding and the attached greenhouse. After that I get to focus on the finish work inside like mudding and texturing drywall, tilework, trim, painting, etc. Hopefully I will have that all done before spring comes and I want to be outside all the time. (Uh, oh...I am already looking forward to that.)

As much as I hate winter, I think I have decided that I DO like the changing of the seasons and that I AM looking forward to a more restful winter. I plan on reading, catching up on schoolwork with the kids, actually getting to play my cello and maybe my guitar...oh, and I guess all the finish work on the house. Maybe it won't be restful after all.

I am Shaking in My Boots.

I don't really have boots on...but I am shaking. I'm a little cold, but I'm REALLY nervous. Today I have the rough electrical and plumbing inspections scheduled. They'll be here sometime today...don't know when. I am terrified. What if they say we did it all wrong?!?!? What if they say we have to rip it all down and start over?!?!?

I guess it's more likely that they won't say those things, so I should just relax. This is worse than going to the dentist. I always get nervous at the dentist...the kids have dentist appointments coming up...hmmm.

So we did end up moving from our house to an apartment in town. We are right above a bookstore, overlooking the main street. It's kind of fun. It's kind of like going to a hotel room every night.

Okay...I should go. Wish me luck today.

P.S. Okay, I am silly. Just found out that I messed up the Inspection Requests, but I cleared it up and they WILL be tomorrow. So a whole day of pacing back and forth and not eating and biting my fingernails was for nothing. We'll start that again in the morning.

I Just Can't Sleep

Okay it's 3 a.m. and I can't sleep. Ughh. Well, it looks like we are going to have to move out of our home for a month or so. We lasted as long as we could and now the Planning and Building people have caught on to our plan. Darn. Now we have to waste money on renting another place just so we can say that we "officially" don't live here at our house. Hopefully it's only going to take a month of hard work to finish up...

Anyway, this month will be hectic.

My Plan is Working!

I am sneakily trying to get us all to eat better. And it's working! Today for lunch I was eating a salad and Terra started begging for some, so I made her her own salad, and then Garrison and Emery wanted their own as well. They were bickering over who got their salad first!!! Yay! Love it. Of course...they still had to have some cheese and croutons on it, but we are getting better. I usually have to hide the greens in a smoothie or some kind of sauce.

Just Some of the Little Moments

It's the little moments in life that make it all worth it. Life has been really good lately. Really, really good.
And then the Planning and Building Department decide they need to get more involved. But, we'll make it through this little adventure too.
The weather is just starting to really cool off at night. I am now in fast forward to get things done before winter sets in. I have sold a lot of trees...at least enough to pay for most of the expenses this year...which means our own trees were paid for by the ones I sold.


Here's a picture of us at our favorite place to be on a Sunday afternoon. Sand Dunes Lake. Love it. We always have the place to ourselves on Sunday. There are trees to shade us, the water is clear, and we get a great parking spot.


This is my newly installed kitchen sink. I still have to figure out what to do about the walls in the kitchen...the "backsplash" area.


And This is Emery with one of my Roses in her hair. She always has a flower in her hair these days.


Some more pretty flowers in the garden...these are hollyhocks.


And this is after a fun filled day in town. Garrison sits up front so he chats with me on the way home, but the girls all zonked out.