{Thankful, Nov 2, 2015}

Day 2

These 2.  They drive me nuts, and wear me down, but I am still incredibly blessed, and thankful that both are in my life.  Need I say more? ~Emily

{Thankful, Nov 1, 2015}

Things have been beyond hectic and crazy here.  One of those exhausting crazies, where your head aches slightly always, and you avoid making a to-do list because you just might cry.  And you're just not sure if you're really getting ahead, ever...

Example.  My 12 year old car (I loved that thing, lol) died.  So through a lot of hard work and heartaches, and fights, we managed to buy a newer car... Which was a big deal, I'd been in an SUV for over a decade... And then a week later I am asked to join a new job, with dogs, in my car, ALL THE TIME.  (opps, maybe a tiny car wasn't the best idea)  And then my newer car breaks down, and we fight with the dealers, and it's fixed, for now.  And then the husband's car dies in the driveway.  Dead dead.  Two steps forward, a billion steps back.

This waltz has been going on all summer, and now fall, long.

With so many steps back happening all the time, the steps forward, the blessings tend to get forgotten rather fast.  (Like being thankful that you have a newer car that runs, when all you can think about are the two car payments you now have, as you shove 3 Golden Retrievers into you much too small back seat.)

So I'm going to do something I always hate doing... following memes.  My apologies in advance.  :)  Here's the beginning of my attempt of a month of remembering the good things, everyday.  Photo style.  (And maybe I'll remember not to ramble on for 2 hours with every picture)


Day 1 (November 1, 2015)

This summer I took a job with a therapy dog ministry (more on that one day, I'm sure).  In short they send me lots of Golden pups, and I train them.  Their main focus is to provide a shoulder to lean on, to comfort people no matter what, and it's probably one of the most amazing ministries out there... But I'm thankful to steal little moments with these pups, to be able to get my own little comfort sessions with them, as things go crazy around here.  This one I have bonded to the most (shhh don't tell), and even though I have to give her up soon, I'm thankful fo these little moments with her.  <3

What are you most thankful for this hectic holiday season?
Please feel free to share in the comments, or to link to your own thankful posts!

~Emily

May in the Garden ~ 2015

May was an extremely busy month in the Garden.  Not so many great photos, as half of the month was spent dashing between raindrops.  And my hands covered with mud, and then spur of the minute complete changes to EVERYTHING... But we now have a fence around the garden.  It's a start.  I'm still hoping that lovely chicken wire turns into pickets as time goes by.  :)  The fence was an impulse buy as my husband discovered trampled crops with stray dog prints dancing around in the mud.  Cedar poles that were on sale, and chicken wire... it works for now.  

So with a sporadic fence building after one has already started planting the garden, you end up with some funky spaces to fill.  Like what was going to be a simple marigold border around the garden, became an underwhelming start to an herb garden.  Good news, or bad news, depending on how you look at it, most of these are annuals so next year it can be planned much better.  But for this year we have Lavender, Rosemary, Sage, Lemon Balm, German Chamomile, Lemon Verbena, Parsley, Dill, and Cilantro.  And of course grass that I'm still working on clearing out.  The original garden only went to that oh so lovely log on the right hand side, lol.  Behind the herbs is a first year raised strawberry bed.  Like I said, we've been busy.  :)

There's been many challenges and successes already this year.  The great part was the half of the garden that we started with last year was super easy to weed, and the soil is already looking more like dirt and less like clay.  The disadvantages beyond all of the rain, was putting up a fence after the garden was mostly laid out, which is leading to crowded spaces, and unused wasted space (because apparently I can't garden straight, lol).  So getting in the max crop probably won't happen again this year.  And then I started late, and forgot to order seeds, and... well it wasn't a priority when it should have been.  

So with bad planning, and lots of space left to play with (awkward spaces of course) we have planted:

• 3 types of tomatoes, which sounds like a lot, but isn't even enough to feed us and can.
• Sweet Corn 
• popcorn
• green beans (pole and bush)
• potatoes
• onions
• garlic <-planted last fall
• lettuce/spinach/radish
• zucchini
• cucumbers
• watermelon
• pumpkin <- not enough to count, I'm filling in the huge gaps around the fence, hopefully the vines don't destroy the fence, lol.
• herbs
• sweet peppers
• egg plant
• strawberries
• Raspberry bush <-permanent plants from last year, but I'm still counting them.  :)

And then I might have planted lots of things that have nothing to do with food, beyond they feed the bees and butterflies, which help the food.  And they're pretty, which makes me happy.  And ummm, there was lots of awkward spaces to fill.  :)  So farm-ish garden is starting to turn French cottage-ish.  

And they're annuals.  I never buy annuals, but seriously, who could resist?  And they were on clearance.  

We also constructed a compost bin, and have worked in just enough room to build a sort of garden shed, just big enough to toss all the rakes, and shoves, and pots in, to keep them from rusting away.  There's still lots to do.  I need a movable raised bed for carrots, and I'd like to expand on the outside of the fence with cutting flowers, or roses, or something to #1 keep down on weed whacking, and #2 to continue on with the cottage portage garden look.   But at last there is some progress.  We've come a long way since this was taken a year ago:

And then just because, the goat:

And a guest that hung out with us on Memorial Day weekend:

How's your garden growing?

~Emily

Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!

Book Review ~ #Girl Boss

Part of our Beachbody Team's "education" <-for lack of better words. includes reading personal development type books, when you can, if you can. But I'm not into that sort of "Self Development Mojo" type thing.  So I might be dragging my feet at this task, although the fact that I get an excuse to buy myself new books, almost makes it worth it.
First up is Sophia Amoruso's book, #GIRLBOSS.  Can we be honest real quick?  (I had never heard of her)  Apparently Sophia Amoruso is a famous, young, CEO and founder of a shopping empire known as Nasty Gal.  (I was still clueless, fashion queen, I am not)  
The book highlights how Sophia went from your everyday teen, hating society, fads, and trends, dumpster diving, and even stealing, to starting her empire selling vintage clothes on Ebay.  (Have I mentioned that White Goat Ranch has begun to list things on EBay this week?  :)  )  

Her book is neatly broken down into themes.  Creativity, Working for others, Taking care of your own business.  In these, Sophia writes about her own past life experiences, and her feelings and thoughts on how it's all relevant today with Nasty Girl, and how one might see a change in their own goals.

What her book isn't is a go-to guide on how to follow her footsteps.  There are no step by steps, do this or do that.  Which at first can be annoying, because the build up is so strong in the first few chapters, you really think that she's going to really take you somewhere in the book... But then you realize at the end, that even though she's not telling you what to do you, you feel a heck of a lot more motivation to do SOMETHING.  

That something could be to wash your hair.  (seriously, lots of crusty grunge talk from the 90's) Or to pop in some Betty Davis on the stereo.  Or to put in some umph into everything you do.  She might not offer all the answers or tips, but I defiantly got a pick-me-up from the book, and was ready to light the fire again.  I'd have to say the book would be a good read to most everyone.  Guys might get bored, in general, there's a whole lot of fashion talk.  But I think most will walk away ready to tackle something, even if one had no desire to ever be in business for themselves.  And bonus, there's no hokey "self development" talk.  

The entire book reads more like a memoir, or a story, than a how-to, which made for easy and light reading.  A keeper for sure.  And yes I'm listening to Betty Davis right now.  :)  

Be a #GIRLBOSS (click on the photo to purchase now!)

Have you read #GIRLBOSS ?  Will you be reading it?  Any favorites for business building and motivation that you'd like to recommend?

~Emily

Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!

~May~

Another Winter done, thank you God.  One of these years I will just wake up one day and haul off to some place where the snow doesn't fall.  One day.  But for now, I'm too busy enjoying the beautiful Missouri Spring, and wishing it would never end.
It's been a super busy Spring in the garden, we built a rock bed for a new strawberry patch, planted potatoes, onions, spinach, lettuce, radishes, green beans, corn, tomatoes... and some more trees, because, ummm, trees.  :)  We also just begun work on a fence (yes five years in the making, we have a semi-garden fence!).  And then there's the yearly clean up of what I call, snake traps.  (Leave piles, branches, dead wood, dead plants, blech).  Always so much to do.

I still really want a wildflower garden, big enough to cut from All of the Time.  Although I love my natural spring bouquets of Daisies and Queen Anne's Lace, that luckily the goat does not like to eat.  :)

We have a a field, about an acre, give or take, that used to be an old pasture before we moved in.  I tried once to garden there, but the dirt is more rock than soil, and the snakes pretty much refuse to leave.  Without fencing, the land is pretty useless.  Grand plans are for a mini orchard one day.  

But for now, I'll just continue to loose hours taking photos of the "weeds" that claim it.  

And I have to say the most exciting part of this spring, has been watching the way too many trees and shrubs I planted last year, after their bloom, come back to life.  (Hello clearance half dead plants!)  And things like my white tea rose, bloom for the first time in 2 years, PINK flowers.  (I'm assuming the grafted top half died, during the bad winter of 2013, and this is the root portion of the plant coming back, I don't care, I have roses again!!!)

My toddler has been stalking this one for a year now.  Our first Raspberries!

And Spinach, because I'm a garden nerd, and I love pictures of my crops.  Spinach!  :)
How has spring been treating you?  

~Emily

Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!