Grateful for Today

(One of the flowers in my yard...a dahlia I believe)

Sometimes life can be pretty overwhelming.  Thinking back on the last 4 weeks and what I have accomplished since my kids got out of school gives me a sense of satisfaction that can only be reached when you do really hard things.  Rather than give you the big long list, just know that I accomplished more than was humanly possible.

But today, I'm just grateful that I have made it.

I am grateful that I am ok with just 90% instead of 100%.

I am grateful for the spine that I have grown.

I am grateful for my yard.

I am grateful for the overwhelming love I have for my ward.

I am grateful for all the friends I made in Sherwood.

I am grateful for the development of patience.

I am grateful for this gorgeous home.

I am grateful that my husband makes a good living.

I am grateful that I know my Savior lives and loves me.

I am grateful for forgiveness and the healing that it brings.

I am grateful that I get a month off of school.

I am grateful that the kids have found new friends already.

I am grateful that our cat waited to have babies until we moved.

I am grateful that I am strong and that I did it.  And that I know, I will never be given more than I can handle....

(A lily right outside my kitchen window)

Home

A house is made with Bricks and Beams...A home is made with Hopes and Dreams...

Once upon a time, a little girl lived in a  red brick town-home in between a lake and a river.  

It wasn't a fairy tale but her 3 year-old memories were fond.  She clearly still remembers the time she had to get stitches in her head and hoping the Marcus Welby would be on staff at the hospital.  She moved but remarkably ended up back in the town with the lake less than a year later.  As a 4 1/2 year old girl, her home was paradise.  She had a friend down the street and was tormented by her older brother's friends often.  Oh the memories of swimming in that lake and bluebird meetings at her house!  Her family moved down the street in this same little town a few years later.  By this time, she was walking to school and spending her pennies at Rosewood market.  As a first and second grader, she always walked to her friends house alone.  Oh the horror!  Somehow she survived without being snatched.  She still remembers the banana seat bike with the flag attached.  She could fly!  And of course her house had an enchanted backyard filled with fairies and flowers.  What 6-7 year old doesn't dream of a fairy castle amongst the ivy and fir trees?  Life got really complicated, so right after she turned 8, they moved away from the little town by the lake.

Then as luck would have it, her family (minus a few members) moved back into the very same house in the town by the lake when she was 15.  The fairies were gone and walking everywhere had become  torture.  But the magical kings, queens, prince and princes, were still living there.  Living in the little town by the lake was like wrapping up in a warm blanket on a cold night.   So for 3 years, she lived here until she was old enough to be on her own.  She gained life long friends, and several surrogate parents.  But it was time to leave the nest.  No sooner than 2 years later, she was working in the little town by the lake teaching dance while she went to school and worked.  She lived in the next town over but still went to church in the little town by the lake.  She decided to serve a mission for her church and left the little town by the lake but came back after her mission and decided to live, once again in the little town by the lake although her family was gone.  She needed all the support she could get at that time in her life and thankfully, the little town by the lake provided.  While attending church there, she met her husband and they lived happily ever after in a different town.  But happily ever after exists only in fairy tales and life threw this little girl, who was now a mother, a few curve balls.  She was used to it by now though.  She didn't move to the little town by the lake.  But she loved the big town she was in with her three kids.  And as time went on, the little town by the lake provided her with yet another husband.  He was going to church in the little town by the lake  and they married and moved far far away.  

8 years later, they are moving back to the little town by the lake.   It’s been a long, hard road to come back here.  She had to try every other town to finally come to the conclusion, that a house is just a house and a town is just a town, unless it’s home.  This town that held her hand when she got her first set of stitches, where she got to hold her newborn brother, where she fell in love several times, where she got her heart broken several times, where she graduated from school, where she found her husbands, where she mourned the loss of her "mother", where she learned to love nature, where she became independent, where she discovered her talents, got to know her God, and now where she is going to raise her own babies...in the little town by the lake.   

Home is not a house for me, it's a town filled with people that have raised me into the independent, free thinker, with a heart as big as a mountain.  I cannot give my own children a greater gift than being raised in this little town that can never be removed from me.  It will always be my home.

(hope you enjoy the pictures of our new home...on July 10th we will be moving)

City of Roses

We've had 3 sunny days in 3 months...literally. It doesn't seem to affect the roses that I love so much. Not a fan of hybrids but love a good garden variety shrub rose or cabbage rose. Can't get enough of these beauties.

My Magic Place

Me likey the dirt.  Even though I own more than a dozen gardening gloves, I almost always just stick my little digits in the ground without protection.  It's like hugging your child in a snowsuit, you just can't feel them the same.  My first garden memory was as a 6 year old child and weeding a very large backyard with my brother.  Back in the day, our parents would kick us out of the house at the crack o dawn to weed.  This is when Kip got his first set of stitches because evidently, footsy pajamas cannot grip mossy, wet, deck wood.  Yes, they kicked him out too at the ripe old age of 1.  Now as a parent myself, I know exactly what they were doing on Saturday mornings, but still, I think it was a little over the top.  Anyway...so began my love affair with the green stuff that grows in Oregon.

We had Rhodedendron trees, not bushes.  And in the corner of the yard was an old shed that was completely covered in ivy.  There was also an old church pew and at least 15 tall evergreen trees.  It was my own enchanted forest.  Many a day was spent singing and frolicking in that backyard while filling up a bucket with weeds.  In many ways, all my daydream fairytales take place in that house and that backyard.  I even remember hiding from my mother because I went to a friends house and didn't tell her.  I knew she was going to be mad so I hid, and then pretended that I was there the whole time.  So that backyard was also my protector.  It's magic to me.

Today I put on my sweater and ventured outside.  Trying to say this as politely as I can...the yard is a mess.  We inherited a yard that was not fussed over and I refuse to let the first impression of my home be a 90% mossed covered lawn or overgrown bushes.  So today, armed with the clippers and rake, I went to work.  Found cute bushes underneath overgrown St. Johns Wort and raked away wet slimy leaves, all the while, watching Anderson and his friend ride bikes on the sidewalk.  As I was cleaning out a flower bed, I uncovered a little treasure.  Right before my big blue eyes was a whole bunch of tulips.  My heart leapt out of my throat and I might have did a happy dance right then and there ( plus I was listening to Justin Timberlake so I was in a dancing mood).  Earthworms and tulips, can a girl expect anything better?

Why was I so excited, well every home I have ever lived in long enough, I've planted bulbs.  I don't like winter...February and March suck the life right out of me.  So I plant bulbs because they are a reminder that Winter is ending and Spring is just around the bend.  Gone is the feeling of endless brown yucky death and hello to green, pink and yellow.  As I filled up the yard debris can to overflowing, I was left with a deep sense of satisfaction.  I can make this ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.  My plans include heather, shrub roses, holly hocks, a flagstone path, a birdbath, and some lavender for starters.  We are going to tear out the moss/grass and go for the cottage garden front yard.  And maybe, just maybe, my children will look back 30 years from now and remember this yard as their enchanted garden, filled with magic too.

Canning

So I know it doesn't look all that impressive and it isn't organized like I want, but this is my pantry. Well at least it's one half of my pantry. What have I been doing lately? Isn't it obvious? When a batch of tomatoes ripens, I drag out the canner. When the peaches were at there peak? I dragged the canner out. After I picked raspberries? I dragged out the canner once again. We were lacking an apple tree to get free fruit off of this year, so I purchased a bushel off of a roadside stand on my way to McMinnville to buy the last Juicer/Steamer on the continental USA or so it seemed. So in between coring, peeling, and cooking apples, I steamed grapes for juice. I thought I might get a couple dozen quarts out of the vines at our house, tops. But what I realized is that I am poor judge of amounts. After canning 44 quarts of white grape juice and 10 quarts of concord grape juice, I took back my kitchen. 17 quarts of applesauce, 7 half pints of apple jelly (which is really apple syrup since I forgot to add pectin but it still tastes divine) and 54 quarts of juice, I think I need a little break...like eat a whole package of cookies break...like drop a bomb in the kitchen rather than do the dishes break...like just go buy new drip pans for the stove instead of scrubbing off the burnt on fruit sugar break....

But alas, we have grapes growing on the deck and over the trellis that still need to be picked....so in reality, I still have more to do. Hazelnuts to roast, grapes to pick and jelly to make. Don't get me wrong, I love fall. I love canning, so much so that my canner is starting to peel off it's impervious coating from the bottom...but part of me is doing this because I cannot stand seeing things go to waste. It makes me vomit a little in my mouth. All these luscious apple trees around my community with their windfall fruit circling around their roots, makes me want to cry. So if you hear of a lady who died from mushroom poisoning, that would be me. I think I am going to go out to the forest and forage for the little poisonous buggers just so I can feel like nothing is going to waste...did I mention that I have 2 huge crabapple trees that are calling my name?...Somebody save me from my insanity!!!!!

Em's Garden in July

I'm too sexy for my garden boots!


Only a few more of these left...


We have a few hundred of these baby grapes...I could have a vineyard up here.


Baby Acorn squash beat all the rest.


Very first ripe blueberry...it promptly got popped into my mouth...yumm!


Most of them still look like this.


It's calling my name


The first tomatoes hiding.


These are such a great snack.


Not enough to freeze, but enough for a sweet salad addition.


You cannot imagine what these smell like!


This lavender one is so fragrant, it's intoxicating, especially in the hot sun.


There is beauty all around.


Shastas are over 4 feet tall.


And the lavender is covered in bees and bunches are drying in the pantry.
I love my garden!

The First Unofficial Day of Summer

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It's the last day of school for these kids until Sept 8th. Brighten has the dreaded puffy eyes from allergies.

Madeline's last day of Elementary School. She coordinated outfits with her friend while she was "chatting" with her online last night. When did she grow up? Next year, I'm teaching her how to curl her own hair. (She is starting to proofread my posts, the little stinker!)

These Foxgloves are like a weed in my yard. They are gorgeous. If you've ever driven up to Mt. Hood in the Summer, you'll see these along the road.

My Peonies in full bloom. They have to be one of my very favorite flowers. I really love their fullness. They remind me of what roses used to look like before they hybridized them all. I love roses, but only heirloom ones. They bloom full and thick and you just don't get that in hybrids.


I have 2 clematis vines growing in the front...they are so fickle. If you can grow one then count yourself as a good gardener. Keep the base cool and shaded and you'll get these gorgeous, huge flowers.


I made my kids empty out the RV after school. I plan on putting them to work on a project everyday just so they will look forward to school and give me a break from listening to the WII. The California Lilac in the middle is covered by bees everyday right now. It's so cool to see them at "work" and yes, we have a red barn. We are getting rid of the RV this month so our yard wont look so white trash anymore...


Look what I found today! Underneath dirt and bushes, I found these stairs leading up to the road. Yes, even in the country, you should have some steps from the road. It's got to be bad Feung Shui or Karma or something that you let your stairs get covered. I unearthed them for a few hours this afternoon. Made me feel good to accomplish something today...just look at that pile of branches and bushes I pulled out!

Family Home Evening...The benefits of Hard Work

Do any of you remember picking strawberries as a kid? I do, and I look back with fondness at the sweet warm berries that exploded in my mouth. Well strawberries have long since gone from the Willamette valley, but blueberries are still in full swing. In a small way, harvest time is starting. Raspberries are nearing the end of there season, and blackberries are taking there place.
I love Oregon in the Summer. I love teaching my kids the rewards of working together. Now my freezer has one whole shelf dedicated to frozen blueberries. If any of you have a great recipe with blueberries in it, feel free to give it to me.




As you can see I have plenty to go around. That huge grin is because I am living my dream! I get to live in Oregon where stuff just grows no matter what. Isn't it Awesome!!!

Howdy, from Old McPatrick ... EIEIO! :0)

So ... like my dear, sweet, jam covered, dirt-plastered, hand-blistered, compost heap building, garden growing, fresh-bread baking, domestic goddess of a wife explained, I'm really NOT much of a handyman (or, at least, I really haven't been in the past.... I've been a firm believer in hiring professionals to do what professionals do; after all, time is money, right?). That being said, however, living on a farm brings out the best in folks, I guess, and I'm finding all kinds of interests (and talents) I never knew I had, or even knew that I wanted.

WHEW. That was a mouthful. I do have to admit, though, I'm actually really ENJOYING building stuff here on this farm we are so happy to call home. We built a fence around Em's garden (me and Christian, with a little forced help from my family while they were here for the Fourth). We built a kennel for Wilson (our dog, aka Aslan, the Lion) and his escape-artist side-kick, Roman the Lab. And NOW--the masterpiece, to date at least--our 5 x 6' chicken coop, for the other seven "memberini" of our family (that's 'little family members,' in Italiano, in case you're curious).

(The view from the back side)

I mean it, though: I'm finding a great deal of satisfaction in building things from scratch and making lots of sawdust and wood shavings fly. Yours truly ... who didn't put in his own yard in Utah, didn't finish his own basement (yea, right) in South Jordan as well, doesn't even change his own oil or fix broken sprinkler heads, etc...! Now I'm telling Em that, "as soon as we can afford it, I want to buy a whole wood shop full of equipment" so I can get serious and build her tables and chairs and things like that.

In reality, I think my favorite part is just working with our kids, talking, laughing and sharing stories, etc., while we measure, saw and hammer on stuff. Christian absolutely LOVES creating stuff, and I really enjoy seeing him so excited. Anderson, Brighty, Madeline ... even Evan: they all pitch in. They all enjoy helping, and it's really satisfying seeing them all so happy and so excited about where we are living and what we are building of our lives.

(The Big Siblings: our 4 largest)

Heck, we stood outside last night for almost an hour after the coop was done, just admiring it, joking about the chickens "enjoying their new 'mansion' versus the tiny condo they were in before" ... not wanting to say good night and go in; it really was a lot of fun. The kids are learning how to work harder. We are spending more time as a family. We're, little by little, creating more independence and greater self-sufficiency, which is our ultimate goal. It's wonderful. Like Em said, as we were building the fence early this month, "We're not building a fence, we're building a family." I echo her thought: "We're not growing crops or livestock, we are growing kids." So they have a few extra slivers, grass stains, mosquito bites and bee stings." They also find snakes and lizards and chase squirrels each day. They're eating fresh veggies, will soon have fresh eggs and we're looking at getting a dairy cow as soon as we can. Yummmm! I can't help but believe that it will all be worth it one day when they look back on these early years and--we hope--say they never would have wanted to grow up any other way.

(Daddy's little helpers...!)

So far they are THRILLED ... and we are too! Our own little brood--Maddy, aka Intellibella, Christian, aka The Big Brain, Brighten, aka Doctor "B" (our future veterinarian), Anderson, aka "Speedygonzawesome," and Evan, aka Budda--WE LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU...!!! And, Emmy, aka Wonder Woman ... you know how much I adore you, babe.

Thank you for sharing your lives with me. I love each of you with all my heart.

Daddy-Patrick

Old MCLaing had a farm...E I E I O!!!!

....with a peep peep here and a bark bark there and a spit spit there and a Moooommmy Mooommmy there....what exactly does eieio mean? Now our little family lives in a 3 bedroom farmhouse with a huge barn and 30 acres to explore. The dogs are loving it and we have had no issues with keeping them on our land. They actually serve a useful purpose now. No Coyote or deer will wander onto our yard in the near future. Our laundry room sink has served as a bath for our youngest three children. Mud and dirt are constant companions of my sweet children. The second bath on the main has been housing our chickens...7 of them. We have had 2 fatalities and two elaborate funerals in the past two weeks. How do I break it to them that the bbq chicken we eat once was a baby chick too...ahh the circle of life. Well they are now in a lovely makeshift coop in the tool shed with a heat lamp for the next few weeks, then in the next few months, we will have all the omelets we want. I have performed more sliver removal surgeries this month than in all my motherhood years combined. I have conquered the fear of bugs. I have come to believe that weeds and thorns are really meant to torment man. I know why farmers get up at 5:00 in the morning. I am filthy by noon and....I LOVE EVERY STINKING MINUTE OF IT!!! My garden is in...at least all that could be planted this late in the season. Patrick dug post holes for a deer fence...23 to be exact. The blueberry irrigation is messed up so I have been trying to salvage 25 bushes . I think they will whether the storm but not produce a crop this year. That is all ok because we will have blackberries coming out our ears. With 3 apple trees heavy with fruit, 4 cherry trees and a Bartlett pear, I think we are set for fruit. Llamas....I have already chased them into the pasture from a escape attempt that resulted in meeting many of my nice neighbors. They tolerate me and spit at Patrick. I have yet to find a use for them and would still prefer a milking cow and some nice beef cattle. As you can see, I am busy. So busy and sweaty and sore that I don't have time to write or do much of anything else.
But as you can see I am surrounded by beautiful things. And God said, "It is good." And this summer will be a great one. Hope this all finds you happy and healthy and enjoying this wonderful summer.

Waterfalls are a staple of the Laing household. Everytime we pass Multnomah Falls...Patrick has some excuse to stop and take a look. Now that we actually live here, we have to experience the fruits of this obession as often as weather permits. In October, we hiked Silver Creek Falls, the south one, and had a grand ol time. This was during the "hotel" stay so anything that took us away from the ROOM was fabulous! Just last week, the sun was shining bright and it was 60 degrees so we got out the WATERFALL BOOK, and yes there is such a thing. Well to make a long story short we found the "falls" (which were really more like large rapids) after asking for directions from this nice lady from the Feed Store in Eagle Creek.
The kids and I learned so much about the guard dog abilities of a very loud donkey and the habits of chickens and even the funny little pigeon, who they had sold twice, but had flown back to the Feed Store both times within days. They can't sell her anymore...so she hangs out with the fattest chicken I have ever seen and a old rooster with a broken foot. Baby chicks were cute, but the don't start laying eggs until 17 weeks, so I think that I will start with an older set of hens first, and then work my way up to the babies. But that is a story for a different day. ( I wil be a farm girl if even if I have to do it on rented land, dang it! I already got my pea seeds today and made a place in the garden for them!)