So tired of this artic vortex...going to think spring!

We love to work outside. When we were looking for a house I don't think we saw any of the flaws in the house. All we saw was the double lot of yard with the lack of landscaping (even though the real estate papers said "professional landscaped"). So we had a blank canvas and were so excited.

Every warm day we have brought tons of dirt (31 tons to be exact) onto our lawn. Created flower bed and berms. We planted trees. We laid sod. My husband watered loyally to have a plush green lawn.

We saved every poorly planted shrub planted by moving it and giving it life. Right now I look forward to the hundreds of bulbs bursting at the first sign of spring. We have 15 varieties of hosta and over 200 day lilies. Last year I potted 56 pots around the yard.

So with it sub-zero outside, I will have warm thoughts of getting in my garden and digging in the dirt.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Holy Cow, it is windy! 

Today we had a lovely day. After church my husband got out the 4-wheeler out and cleared the sidewalks and driveway. They were almost dry then around 6:00 p.m....icy snow started falling and the wind went crazy. Welcome to Illinois in January. Most of the area school have cancelled class. I love snow days and sadly there won't be one for us tomorrow. Steve said the roads will be fine so we are going in. :-(

I love snow. It is pretty. It is apart of central Illinois. But this crazy sub-zero temperature; no thank you!

Friends that live in Washington are having issues keeping their kids calm. This has been the first heavy winds since the tornado swept through the area November 17, 2013.

Well if our trellis that is on the west side of our house survives, I will be happy. 

Have a great last week of January, and remember February is a short month!!!

Witness Protection...

Growing up, our sheep were a family project that consumed so much of our time. It was a 4-H project for my brother, sister, and me. I had allergies. I love to cook. So it began at a very young age of 12 that my mother would go to the barn in the summers and help with the sheep and leave me to tend to the laundry, cleaning, and cooking of family meals. I loved to cook, I was good at cleaning, so it made sense. As a small child I would follow maternal grandmother around as she tended to her chores. She taught me how to be a homemaker, I knew what to do.

Forward a zillion years. I am dating a wonderful man who was a city boy but spent summers, weekends, and after school working at his local park/zoo in Indiana. He would bail hay. He feed the zoo animals. He did a lot of "farm" things. So when I started talking about our family farm, often I didn't know the answer.

One day Steve (my now husband) and I were at my parent's home. We were all there; my parents, my brother and his wife, and my niece. We hadn't even been dating a year. Well anyway, we were talking farming. Steve piped up, "Is Susan part of a witness protection program, because she knows nothing about farming?" 

Yes, I admit it I knew nothing about farming. My dad owed a Lennox business that was growing so fast he had to stopped farming our ground when I was about 6 or 7. In my defense, I knew more than Conrad (my brother) would admit but that is another story, another day.

Conrad burst out laughing. He loved it. I think his response was "yes she is, but don't tell anyone!" HA!

Day off from work and snow days

I work in a top 100 company where there are times of the year when I work 14+ hour days for days and days and days. The bonus to all the craziness is when work suddenly stops (end of a software release) I can "work from home," which means I am on call. But for all practical purposes I have the day off with just a few strings. I love these days. Today is one of those days. I had plans to really tackle my house, which is beyond dirty from those 14+ hour days. I was looking forward to it; a day all about me.

My sweet hubby had different plans. He is home sick. He is not so sick he is comatose in his chair. He is "under foot" sick; bit of a fever. I love him here but it seems like I am easily distracted, which is really my problem not his. So here I sit trying to get back to my well planned cleaning day, a fresh 3" of snow lay on the ground, and my thoughts are about snow days as a child.

We lived in the country. As a kid in grade school and junior high, my brother and I would be so excited about snow days. My mother taught in Canton school district and they never had snow days so we were on our own at  home from about 4th/5th grade on (we were a year apart).

Back then the hard road that ran by our house was not as busy as it is now. Conrad and I loved to play in the deep ditches by the road. They would be completely filled in by the blowing winds so tunneling forts was awesome! We would play outside 'till our toes were numb and then go in to warm up and then back out again. What a glorious life. Funny I don't remember the responsibility of checking the animal waterer's, the ewes close to lambing, or even supplementing new lambs with milk. Though, I am sure we did. I just remember playing in the snow with my best friend. 

Let's Get Started

I have been thinking of starting a blog for some time. I am not sure I will even tell anyone I am doing this (though since my name is in the title someone may find me) little blog. I just want to capture thoughts of memories from my family growing up and a diary of my life now. Boring huh? Well not to me, and I guess that is all that is important.

For the last few days I have been cleaning. Really cleaning. I have removed everything from above the kitchen cabinets: washing, polishing, admiring. Everything up there has a memory. It is a vase that Mother had in her cupboard and rarely used when I was a kid, to a piece of a collection I carefully pondered and decided to start, to a rare piece from my husband's family. I want Nichole and her future family to know and love the treasures from my side of the family. The stories. The history. So, I decided as they come to me I should write them down.

I don't consider myself a writer. Struggled with writing while in school. But through the years I have improved. So hopefully this little blog will hold someones interest someday.

So for now while my husband is off to the farm to "check on things" and I am cleaning for the bug man (yes four times a year I clean for him - probably better than I do other days) I will decided what memory I will add to this post. Kind of exciting!!!