June 14, 2011 @ 9:40 am | Filed under: Country Life,Family,Pure Sunshine,Uniquely Me
“Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.” ~Leonardo da Vinci
In the past four months:
- We moved to a new town, away from family, friends, and church
- Said town is a rural town where I need to drive to yet another town in order to visit Walmart
- I finished a five year college career and GRADUATED
- Our youngest finished a four year college career and GRADUATED
- I witnessed my first snake and then…my first mouse
- I built a deck, with a *little help from my man. Okay, maybe it was the other way around…
- We spied newly born buzzards in the window of the old haybarn
- We planted our first-ever garden
- I have sat many mornings and evenings on the deck we built and delighted in the cows in the back pasture
- We’ve hosted several rich and fun-filled family and friends weekends at our country place
- I got a TEACHING JOB!!
- I witnessed my first newborn calf
- We’ve begun to harvest the vegetables from our garden – such deliciousness!
All of this has happened in the past four months and I’ve not blogged about any of it. It’s been the equivalent of a thick tongue and dry mouth…LOTS to say but no real way to put it all out there and feel like I am doing any of it real justice.
I woke up this morning though and – as I walked through my house, with the sunshine splaying happily on the floors of this old house, my coffee cup warm and cradled in my hands – I realized I am doing more of an inservice by not at least attempting to journal all this newness.
All this wonderfulness.
I am not an ordinary farm girl. What is the antithesis of a farm girl? Find that word in the dictionary and I am sure you’d come much closer to finding my picture attached. Yet I am experiencing such a deep-seated contentment and sense of wonder these days that is making this transition a true adventure.
Google has been my point of reference for everything in the last few months. How far apart should I space my zucchini plants? Google. What does poison ivy look like? Google. What are the nesting habits of buzzards? Google. What kind of flowers do I need to put in my garden to keep away the bugs? Google. What kind of snake is this? Google. Pros and cons to having a farm cat? Google. Recipes for thing to do with zucchini when you have a bumper crop? Google.
Trust me, it goes on and on. And this not-your-ordinary transplanted farm girl/teacher/writer couldn’t be happier about it all. That’s not to say that snakes and mice bring any sort of happiness at all. I do, however, accept that they have their specific place in this wild new territory I now call home, and I respect that.
And that, my friends, may be the newest new stuff of it all.
I may not have all the right words to introduce this new life to you, but I do promise to try. I will leave the bits of pieces of writing that is happening now that my soul has found this fresh inspiration in the country air. I will upload pictures of birds and of projects and of any variety of animals and/or pests. I will share glimpses of the joy and wonder we are finding here as we make memories we’ll treasure forever with family and with friends.
This promise is brought to you by a not-so-ordinary farm girl.
contentment, Family, laughter, living simply, memories
September 27, 2010 @ 4:52 pm | Filed under: Uniquely Me
I’m trying to slow things down, even if for only a few minutes.
School work slammed me last week, and I was pretty much held hostage by a whole host of papers, exams, research topics, and projects.
In between all the craziness, though, there were moments of pure bliss. And even though I missed blogging about them right after they happened, I certainly don’t want to miss mentioning them because…they were THAT special to me.
So…to recap…
1.) Madie turned 11! In true family fashion, we celebrated BIG.
Then after that HUGE meal and even BIGGER amounts of LAUGHTER and LOVE, it was time to head back to the grindstone for several more days of hard work and deadlines. Boo.
Friday DID finally arrive, however, and with its arrival came a very special evening. Our dear friends were installed as the new pastors of a great church. Our own pastor delivered a touching keynote message. The entire night was amazing on every level and MJ and I were so honored to share the night – and the experience – with some of the BEST people we know. Dawn and Kevin – we LOVE you dearly!
We arrived back home in Commerce a little after midnight, and were back up at 6:30 the next morning. I would say, bright n’ early, except there was nothing bright going on at all. It was a dark and stormy morning, to be sure, but the Bois d’ Arc Bash 5K Run was on – rain OR shine!
So we pulled on our shoes, caps…and rain ponchos…and lined up at the entry booth to receive our bib numbers and race maps. Then we stretched, chatted, and tried to stay out of the rain until the call came to approach the starting line.
Then the next thirty-five minutes were some of the MOST fun I’ve ever had with my husband. I had to laugh as I thought of all the weeks of training I had endured and how NONE of it had prepared me for running in a torrential downpour and leaping deep and wide puddles with a single bound…
We managed to cross the finish line TOGETHER and we must have been grinning from ear to ear because amid all the cheers I made out, “Look at those smiles!’ And I have no doubt we WERE smiling. It was fun, plain and simple.
MJ didn’t have the luxury of the same amount of training times so the effort he put forth is all the more to be praised. He’s my hero! He also makes me laugh – a LOT.
I walked into the living room late Saturday afternoon and found him sitting in his chair. “How’s your body?”
“It hurts.” He patted his lower stomach. “Everything from my navel down.”
Like I said, he makes me laugh.
And when I laugh – with MJ, with our family, with friends – I gulp in big breaths of fresh air.
Just the remedy for an intense week, don’t you think?
September 16, 2010 @ 6:21 am | Filed under: Motherhood,She said,Uniquely Me
A few years ago I started making random confessions to the world. Blogging is like that. It brings out all sorts of personal things you would normally only tell a best friend. Suddenly you are perfectly comfortable sharing things like the fact that you just went to Wal-Mart and – midway down the bread aisle – couldn’t remember if you’d changed out of your pajama bottoms before leaving home. Disclaimer: I did, however, change first. I was fully clothed for the bread run. Just not necessarily in my right mind.
At the time you are typing the aforementioned sensitive information into your laptop (thinking of it as a sort of therapeutic exercise) it seems like you are just writing for yourself. No harm done. But then you look at the stats from the day and realize hundreds of people you don’t know and everyone googling “funny Wal-Mart stories” forevermore now know the embarrassing truth about your declining state of mind and the fact that there are just those days that you don’t have it all together. They know you are (gasp), REAL.
I have also revealed over the past few years that I suffer from a disease.
“Hi. My name is Staci and I am recovering from perfection-itis.”
Okay, so the disease is fake, but the symptoms were very real. Suffering from Perfection-itis years ago meant I based my contentment in life by how nearly perfect I could bring every portion of my life. How perfect my home was. How perfect my daily word was. How well-behaved my children were. How well I could orchestrate all these things at once. And let me tell you – it was, like, um…never!
Over and over my expectations were dashed on the rocky cliffs of attempts and failure. Exhaustion and dismay kept me bound, held prisoner by the unseen hand of the impossible.
Cooking and writing and nesting are things I love. There is nothing wrong with being passionate about how God has gifted us. Creativity is a blessing and I am grateful for it every day. But when the creativity became more of a burden and less of a joy, it was time to examine my priorities. It took a while (and some days I still have to “go to a meeting”) but I finally learned the important lesson that a happy mama makes a pretty perfect home. And time spent on the knees is what helps Mama get her happy on. And with a good dose of happy, the well-behaved children and the word count and the picked-up house all seem to find their respective spots on the list of priorities.
It’s a constantly changing list and – for each season of life – the changes seem to only grow. My system isn’t perfect, nor will it ever be. But I’m learning to to wholeheartedly embrace this one amazingly beautiful and imperfect life that I have been blessed with.
And that’s my random confession for the day.
contentment, laughter, life lessons, living simply
August 26, 2010 @ 6:19 am | Filed under: Family,he said she said,It's funny!,The Fit Life
“Hey, Baby, look.” MJ walked into the living room and struck a pose. “I’m wearing my…skinny jeans.”
Now – ordinarily – he has me at “hey baby look,” spoken in that deep, husky voice that I love so much. Ordinarily I would melt immediately and be his love slave for the remainder of the day.
But no. My man had to go and add “I’m wearing my skinny jeans,” which produced a totally different effect on me. A fit of giggles.
Images of Rachel Zoe and fashion mags danced through my head and, even though I am certainly no expert on skinny jeans since I own none, I’m fairly confident that MJ’s aren’t the ones that are currently trending.
However…
I must say that the man is definitely rocking his version these days!
Like everything else in his life, he decides what he wants, goes for it with gusto, and almost always succeeds. MJ decided about four months ago to get healthy and began to implement small changes. Small changes that have begun to reap large rewards.
Changes like this one. And counting points. And eating healthy meals that his most diligent wife prepares for him.
MJ had a physical two weeks ago. These small changes?
Paid HUGE dividends.
In four short months, his blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglycerides (which had all been high before) are now all within the normal, acceptable, praised-by-your-doctor range. To celebrate, he’s planning on running a 5K with me next month!
So my guy wants to rock his skinny jeans, huh?
I think he’s earned the right. Rock on, Baby!
healthy lifesty, healthy lifestyle, laughter, marriage, running
August 16, 2010 @ 8:46 am | Filed under: Family,It's funny!,Pure Sunshine
Carter and Kendall arrived yesterday.
So much can be read into that first sentence! We’ve been anticipating this week for over a month now, counting down the days until the grands come for their week-long stay. They radiate such energy and sparkle and unconditional love that me and my trusty camera have a full-on love fest anytime they are around.
There were a few welcome goodies waiting for them on their beds when they arrived yesterday. After all, what’s a trip to Nana & Pops’ without a little bit of good ‘ol fashioned spoiling, right? Some NFL trading cards and a novel for our boy, and a bucketful of craft beads and a couple of readers for our girl.
There is no lack of conversation with the four of us. They are lively and fun and – quite often – informative. For Pops and I, that is! Carter, fresh off of a week of sleep-away camp, was full of stories and funny antecodotes. The kind of things that fill up rich, full little boy memory banks in the most wonderful ways possible.
Stories of the unlikely Bible superhero, Gideon, and how – through him - we learn all about faith and trust in God. Carter’s eyes sparkled as he excitedly said, “Hey Nana, did you know…” about four hundred jillion times. But I never once grew tired of shaking my head in wonder. “No, buddy. Tell me.”
Kendall is six going on sixteen. Like, quite literally…talking about “when I turn sixteen I am going to…” Pops and I cut our eyes at one another and mentally sent notes to one another to be sure to send up lots and lots of prayers for her parents over the next decade! She is a fireball of animated conversation that always keeps me laughing and always has her Pops muttering beneath his breath, “She is just so beautiful.”
Kendall: “When I am sixteen I am going to have a Jeet.”
Nana: “You’re going to have a what?”
Kendall: “A Jeet. You know. The cute cars. It’s going to be really, really cute.”
Carter: “You know you’re going to have whatever I have. You do know that, right?”
Kendall: silence
Carter: “And I’m going to have whatever Mom has. That’s how it’s going to be.”
And there you have it, in a quaint, precious nutshell. Our two grands.
A cute combination of dreams and realism. I told them last night they are absolutely perfect, and what an amazing brother-sister duo they make…
With a head in the clouds and feet firmly planted on the ground, these two will no doubt do amazing things!
They are grand, after all!
Family, grandkids, laughter, summertime memories
June 21, 2010 @ 7:18 am | Filed under: Family,Pure Sunshine
“You can’t teach genetics. But you can overcome genetics. I know, because that’s what I did.” ~ Kevin Rogers, 2010
Whoever first coined the old adage: “Family. You can’t live with them, you can’t live without them” must surely have known what it means to be smack-dab in the middle of a group of folks that are capable of making you feel virtually every emotion known to man, times 10.
It means that maybe while we shouldn’t live always within the exact same four walls as them, we should most definitely surround ourselves as often as possible with these people who have our back through thick and thin. We laugh, cry, remember, laugh some more, accuse, apologize, laugh even more, tease, tease, tease, and – LAUGH.
My brother is full of dead-panned one-liners that make me laugh out loud. His sentences are almost always deeply philosophical. So much so that if you didn’t know him you’d be leaning back in your chair trying desperately to make sense of this long string of words that just slipped from his lips.
And Jordan wonders why I so often slip and call him “Kevin…” It’s because his words, his antics, his mannerisms transport me back a few years and it’s conversation and time around my brother all over again. I see glimpses of my childhood in my son and it fills me with wonder at this miracle of family.
It is the sporadic and unexpected spurts of laughter when the conversation turns to Johnny James. We share the awe we feel in the presence of a man so brilliant that he can walk to the podium, speak for 45 minutes on the dot without the use of a watch, can quote the entire Bible, and – in the midst of it all – leave us with an impromptu English lesson as only a truly great grammarian can.
“Grammaria?” My brother pipes up in the middle of my dad’s JJ description. “Is that near Ethiopia? Do you need your passport to go there?”
Laughter.
It’s that deep, gut-wrenching hiccup that grabs you around your middle and makes the faces around you light up, tears to puddle in your own eyes, and holds your heart in its tight, joyous, amazing grasp while you savor it all, drinking it in with a great. big. sense of wonder.
It’s the bubble of uncontrolled mirth that grabs you again after you’re in bed at night. It’s the glee your heart feels as your mind replays the day and the words of your two-year-old niece – like her daddy in so many, many ways – that have you and your husband wiping your eyes in the dark from the sheer deliciousness of shared laughter.
My mom gifted each of the men with Polo Black for Father’s Day. Now – in moderate applications – I’m a fan of Polo Black. But when all three of men open their brand new bottles and apply a squirt or two, joking all the while that we now have a “family fragrance,” it can become a bit, well…fragrant.
So when two-year-old Andi walks into the room, sidles up to her grandfather, and honestly declares, “You stink!” it’s a moment that sticks with you. It’s one of those delightful little pockets of time that we tuck away for days when we’ll all need a moment of levity. A moment to pause, remember, and know.
Know that through it all we are family.
Family.
They are the ones who share our past, our middle, and – if we’re very fortunate – our futures. They’re in it for the long haul – no questions asked. There is no other place on the planet that offers that kind of security. No wonder family is God’s great gift to His children. It is a wonderful thing.
It is, after all, where you learn about gentetics, grammarians, and other stinky stuff!
Family, Father's Day, laughter
June 27, 2008 @ 4:53 pm | Filed under: Family,Pure Sunshine
A smile is worth a million dreams,
And laughter a thousand heartbeats
Lifting the spirits and chasing the blues away
With every smile a chance to open doors to laughter
An elevator ride up through the clouds
Where dreams can come true
and heartbeats erase the blues.
–JoJo Bean
