pink porches

How are YOU?

2012-02-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

So in January I took a break from blogging. I thought I would put together some projects and awesome posts and start out all gung ho in February.......

Sorry I just had to go look up Gung Ho in Wikipedia. Here, if you're interested....

Gung ho is a slang term in American English used to mean "enthusiastic" or "dedicated" originally used in Marine slang. It is an anglicised pronunciation of "gōng hé" (工合), the shortened version and slogan of the "gōngyè hézuòshè" (工業合作社) or Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, which was abbreviated as INDUSCO in English.

Now we know.

Anywhoo...

The weather here has been warm, wet, cold, icy, melty, muddy. So yeah, that's been....nice. Everybody's been sick. We lost Stan Lee, the duck and so now we only have The Other Duck (whose name makes no sense at all anymore). Jake the Dog has developed an imaginary friend named Uncle Frank. Don't ask, it's weird. AND I've determined that there are just too many bodies in this house and they're all out to get me.

So essentially I have been wandering around in my bathrobe mumbling, "What the hell are you doing now?" whenever I enter a room.

I mean come on, they're just messing with me right? Right?

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

It Started With An Aluminum Tree...

2011-12-25T08:54:00.000-08:00

...and kind of got out of hand from there.

Some of us were more excited about the theme than others.

I'm pretty sure we're going to stick with this look all year long.

Really?

Mom? I'm pretty sure none of my friends do things like this.

Love the double-knit.

The fondue is ready!

Is this tie wide enough? I think it needs to be wider. Much, much wider.

I could use a Tab.

A Very Polyester Christmas Special.

Here's hoping your holidays are full of smiles and totally lacking in itchy slacks.

Shhhhhh....

2011-12-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure if I don't change my November banner, Christmas will not come and I'll have a chance to finish everything.

Yeah, and maybe these two will find a way to be useful.

Smiles,
Lisa

I Prefer Herbivores...

2011-11-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed the owls? Everywhere are these googly eyed owl pillows, owl pin cushions, owl pot holders, appliqued owl underpants. Ok, maybe not that last one but who decided that owls were cute? Owls are predators, they eat cats, small dogs and little old ladies. Just carry them right away. Not cute, is what I say.

That's right grandma, owls are cuddly. Let's hug.

So I've been thinking...scary, I know. I think we need a new trend. New pillow fodder, if you will. So here you go. Goats are the new owls.

You're welcome.

(All available in my Etsy shop)

Smiles,
Lisa

Poor Ernit....

2011-11-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

Scene: Kitchen of a drafty old farmhouse. Middle-aged man sitting at table acting crabby. Teenage girl enters room, takes plate from cupboard, walks toward pan of lasagna on stove. Middle-aged but very attractive and young spirited woman observes from doorway.

Middle-aged man: You hungry?

Teenage girl: (rolling her eyes) Yeah.

Middle-aged man: Do you want some lasagna?

Teenage girl: (rolling her eyes even more than usual) Yeah.

Middle-aged man: (more crabbily than usual) I made that you know.

Teenage girl: (sighing heavily) Yeah.

Middle-aged man: Well, what did you do to earn it?

Teenage girl: (sighing even heavilier than usual) Oh my God! I don't even know who Ernit is!

Middle-aged man looks confused. Teenage girl looks snarky.

Middle-aged but very attractive and young spirited and also brilliantly smart woman: Snort-snort, laugh-laugh-laugh-laugh. Ernit! What DID you do to Ernit? Bah-hahahahahah.

True story

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa (I was the attractive one-just so if you was wondering)

I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks

2011-10-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

Here are a few true stories of my very own ghosts....(Really, I know I'm prone to exaggeration, but these things really did happen to me)

The little farmhouse was built in 1900, so the chances of lingering spirits is pretty good. Unfortunately in the 12 years I have lived here, I have only seen two. Though actually, it may only be one because the second one was that guy in the fedora. I had seen him once before at my grandmother's apartment and truth be told, I'm not a big fan. He was standing in the small hallway that leads out of my bedroom, but in his favor he did go away when I asked him to. But the first ghost I saw was outside, in the middle of the afternoon. Down in the back corner of our yard before it turns to fields is an old screen house. We converted it into the goat barn by boarding up the screened windows and putting a solid door on the front. A few weeks after we did this, I came home and as I drove along the front of our property I looked down into the field and saw a man with tan work pants and a baseball cap walking into the building. He looked to be in his early 60's and he just seem curious. I drove into the driveway and took the kids inside and went down and there was of course no one there. I'm pretty sure it was the man who lived here last, his name is Milton and he died in 1976. I haven't seen him again but sometimes after I've fed the goats at night and they are all settled in, something will spook them and I'll have to go down and convince them to go back inside. I'm hoping this spring to build a new goat house and we'll probably tear that one down. It will be interesting to see what Milton thinks of that.

Another ghost of mine was at a rental cottage we leased for a week a few years ago. The cottage was situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The building had originally been a store in Canada and the owners had actually brought it over by barge in the late 1800's for the owner's wife who had been prescribed ocean air for lingering illnesses. It was a really cool place, but I could always feel this weird expectancy that there was something about to happen. It was kind of like we were there with another family and we were doing our best to ignore each other. On the last day, my husband took the kids home and I stayed behind to clean up. As I put everything back where it was supposed to be, swept the floors and straighted the furniture I could feel someone watching me. It wasn't scary, I was just aware of her. As I stood at the door and looked around to make sure I hadn't left anything behind, I don't know why I did it but I said, "Thank you for letting us use the cottage. We had a wonderful time." As I turned to leave, the smell of butterscotch surrounded me. There was no candy or anything left in the cottage that smelled like butterscotch. I think it was the wife telling me "You're Welcome".

My husband thinks I'm nuts, but the most haunted house I've ever been in was the one he grew up in and even he can't deny it. In the middle of the ceiling in his old room there was a light fixture with a string you had to pull to turn the light on. You had to pull it quite hard, wait for the click and then let go. One night I was sleeping in the room alone and the light came on all by itself. Rattle---wait---click. The next morning I mentioned this to him and his parents and that was when they shared that they heard sounds like people walking up and down the stairs and how the appliances turned themselves on in the middle of the night.

How about you? What are your ghosts like?

Happy Halloween!
Lisa

I'm a Friend of Bill Kindle...

2011-10-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Got virus...

Computer in repair place...

FOR SEVEN DAYS!!...

Forgot how to use buttons...

How does internetz work?

Why am I talking like this??

Because it was tragic, TRAGIC, I say.

Though, I did learn that I can read blogs and Facebook statuses (statusi...stata?) on my Kindle. Not easily, but say if someone was having some sort of, oh I don't know, withdrawal symptoms...it can be done. Kind of like when an alcoholic with no cash has to drink hair spray. Sort of. That's my totally appropriate analogy of the day.

I sincerely apologize to the alcoholics that read this blog. My broken computer was probably nothing like drinking hair spray.

Smiles,
Lisa

Halloween Mantle...

2011-10-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

Today, I have to work. I have to clean the hen house and get it ready for cold weather. I need to clean the bathroom (the one in the house, the chicken's don't have a bathroom-they just poop wherever they want-hence why I need to clean the hen house...actually, that's kind of the same reason I need to clean the bathroom-AIM people! Jeesh). I need to clean the summer clothes out of the boys' drawers and replace them with warm clothes.

So, of course, I did none of that and played with my mantle instead.

In other news. My husband says he will either kill me or leave me if I bring this 3-legged muffin head home.

I think he's bluffing.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Herder...

2011-10-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

I herd ALL the goats...

Oh yeah, all of them...really?

Yup. I very good at herding goats.

Are ya' now?

....ummm, yes.

You?

Why you laugh at me?

'Cause you're dumb.

Smiles from the farm,

Lisa

My Weekend...or Two Boys and a Drooling Cow...

2011-09-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went out of the house, out of the town and out of the State. I drove a lot and ate a lot of the required traveling foods. Gummy Bears, Blazin' Buffalo Doritos and Throwback Pepsi (it has REAL sugar-so you know, good for you). I took the old teenager to her very first concert. We saw the Avett Brothers...and iffin' you don' t know the Avett Brothers, they are two very nice young men from North Carolina who sing a sort of country mixed with ummmm...lots of gummy bears and real sugar Pepsi. These boys have lots of energy is what I'm saying. Here, see for yourself...

Actually if you watched that whole thing, that doesn't even begin to show the energy they put into a live show. These pictures aren't my fault. The dude would not stay still...have you ever heard a screaming banjo? So exciting....

They did a wonderful job and since I don't think their momma was there, I will say that I was very proud of how polite and kind they were. My only problem with the show was that they are pretty well known for their beards and Seth was clean shaven, so I kind of feel cheated out of a beard. I'm pretty sure the box office will be refunding half of the ticket price shortly.

It was a lovely weekend and from now on any concert that I attend that does not have a cow with a saddle on it wandering the crowd, well it will just not measure up. (We have tickets for the Drive By Truckers in Portland next month...I should call the box office to see how many cows they'll have.)

Yup, she's drooling.

Oh and somehow I broke my Kindle while we were there. My heart was broken, 'cause I sure do love my Kindle. See those lines at the top, NOT supposed to be there and they won't go away. BUT I called Amazon this morning and they're sending me a brand new one that should be here by Thursday. So it's all good.

When the customer service lady asked me if I needed anything else, I should have mentioned that true satisfaction always includes a drooling cow... but they probably teach them that in Amazon Customer Service College.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Nitpickin...

2011-09-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually a nitpicker. I embrace the imperfect. But when the silverware drawer face came off this week and I asked Husband to fix it, this is what I got. With weird head screws and Gorilla Glue, and it was late at night and I had to walk down to the shed to get tools to rip it back apart. Then I let him fix it again. It's still crooked, less crooked, but still crooked. I'm going to let it go. It's just a drawer. It's not a big deal. Deep breaths.

In other breaking news, I bought a scroll saw at the auction this summer for $7.00. AND because I'm evidently a narcissistic 13 year old, I set to work making my own name. Jake disapproves.

So I'm still working on my big secret project and I have actual plans to put on clothes without stains and go outside the house this weekend. Hope your week is going swimmingly!

Smiles,
Lisa (really, that's my name-in case you weren't aware)

Michael!

2011-09-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in my day when I am alone in the house. I pause to take a breath and relish the three hours wherein I have hoisted the responsibilty of everyone onto someone else's shoulders. During that time I wonder what it would be like to live alone with only my OWN dishes to wash, my OWN underwear to pick up, my OWN sorry butt to get to and from wherever it needs to go. I fantasize about how lovely that would be.

Then I see something like this on the refrigerator. Since we had the cable disconnected we don't watch a lot of TV. However, we do have Net Flix and I, on some days, have watched entire seasons of The Office--day after day until there are no more to watch.

As I lean against the sink, I giggle over my mug of tea. If I lived alone, now who would leave me notes in plastic letters on the fridge? They're weird, but I sure do love my family.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Many different hats...

2011-09-13T09:02:00.000-07:00

Ok not MANY but, like, two hats.

Don't you just love hats? I sure do. I made these two last week. You know who looks like a weirdo in hats? Me. I just keep thinking that if I make or find the right hat...but alas, all hats look stupid on me. I think it's because the hat needs to be an accessory, not the thing that everyone is looking at. Do you know what I mean? I have a little head and washed out skin and tired eyes so when you put a great big hat on my head...well it just looks very, very sad. Sigh....

Oh, nope...wait a minute. Let's see if this one will work...

That's about as good as it's going to get.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Brief bursts of creativity...

2011-09-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling crafty lately. What I haven't been feeling is rich. So all my projects have to have a little more thought put into them since I don't want to spend any money. My office chair was looking pretty...gross.

So here are the step-by-step instruction on how I made it look better.

1. I unscrewed all the screws on the back and ripped it apart.
2. I put new fabric on it.
3. I put it back together.

It took about 10 minutes. I broke the black plastic that holds the cushions in a couple of places. I think if I had hit it with a blow dryer, I might have been able to pry it off without cracking it. I didn't do that. It cracked. I care little.

For it looks much better and I am happy. Also the first picture I took of the chair is weird and I'm pretty sure my living room is haunted.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Strange Fruit...

2011-09-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

My garden suffered terribly this summer from weed infestation, potato bugs and neglect. However, my goat tree, without any tending from me, is just flourishing.

I think this one is just about ripe.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Back to School!

2011-09-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

Some of us are less enthused then others...

He actually had a very good day. He was just very tired.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Summer blogging...

2011-08-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

Yawn...is anyone out there?

I'm looking forward to fall. I know, I know, but there are SOOO many kids here and they all need to go places and I'm just ready to take advantage of the money I pay in property taxes and send the lot of them off to bother other people.

I am working on a project that I'm not ready to share with anyone yet. Don't you hate that? I mean why mention it at all. Well, the thing is, is that it's pretty big and if I say anything now, then the whole excitement will be gone and I'll quit and I don't want to do that...so soon I will tell you. Other then that, this is what I've done this summer.

I made a skirt from an old curtain. It is a skirtain. Yes that's copyrighted, don't even think about stealing it. Unless you say please, and then ok, go ahead. I would have modeled it, but I don't feel like combing my hair.

Then I made this cuff, because my bees all died last winter and I miss them. (Sorry Kelly, I killed your bees) I guess it was a pretty rough year for old Apis Mellifera (see how smart I am? or Google is...whatever) and even some professional beekeepers lost their entire colonies. I'll order more this winter and try again next spring. IN THE MEANTIME, here is my memorial for my darling Bea and also for the other Bea.

Did you know that you can print right on fabric? I'd do a tutorial, but since I can't take the fabric away from you and sigh dramatically because you're obviously doing it wrong, I'm just not very good at them. Pretty much all I did was take some thin muslin and glue it to a piece of card stock with one of the kid's glue sticks, smooth it down and run it through the printer. I don't know if it will stand up to water, but it looks cool for now. The bee is embroidered, the latin name is what I printed. I should teach classes.

Then I babysat my favorite basset hound, Ruby. It was hard work.

Haley tried out for the High School Football Cheerleading squad and Ruby helped her practice. Well she helped her at the end of the practice, that counts you know. Did I mention how hard it is to care for basset hounds?

Jake has tried to eat us. Really. He's turned into kind of a jerk.

I castrated this goat. Newsworthy? Well he is about ten weeks old and has/had (will shortly no longer have) balls the size of a small planet...what? Too much? Sorry.

The fun just never ends. So, I'm gonna go work on my big secret project now and I sure do hope everyone is having a (big castrated goat) BALL this summer! (Again, sorry)

Smiles from the farm,

Lisa

Organized!

2011-08-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of sewing patterns. Enough that they need their own place to be that isn't a cardboard box or plastic tote. They need their own pretty little home.

This dresser came from...wait for it...gasp...the auction. I think I bought it for $17.00 along with a set of dining room chairs, drying racks, a 50's tin dollhouse and miscellaneous other treasures. I tried to strip it, but it wasn't a great quality piece and looked pretty crappy afterwards.

So I painted the drawers black and added some script to mimic vintage Singer sewing machine decoration. The dresser didn't have any knobs, so I used old wooden spools.

It worked out pretty well. Except for the fact that I wasn't able to fit all the ding dong patterns into the four drawers.

I need more storage...or less patterns.

More storage, definitely more storage...

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

That's What I Thought You Said...

2011-07-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

"What are you doing?"

"Above the aroma of green that pervade's this waterway, I have captured the scent of the wild rose. It's fragrance reminds me of you as does the stubborn fortitude as it clings to the rugged stream side--it's roots just tickling the gentle lapping waves. The innocent beauty of silken petals protected by the sharpened thorns is but a token reminder of your strength and independance. One would risk the wound of abundant spikes but for one small breath of the beauty within. I would suffer the threat of mire to capture one fragile bloom to press against your palm, a testament of my love for you-the mother of my children, my best friend, indeed my wife. "

"I cast my damn tackle into this christly prickle bush."

"It's a rugosa rose..."

"What?"

"A rugosa....oh never mind."

"I got it!"

"---yay."

Smiles from the farm,

Lisa

Willows...

2011-07-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

There's nothing . . .

absolutely nothing . . .

half so much worth doing

as simply

messing around in boats.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Appropriate dinner conversation...

2011-07-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is how it all started.

We go through two packages of baby wipes a week during the school year. The school uses them to wipe hands and wheelchair trays and, of course, butts. When school is out we only go through one, but Husband (who does all grocery shopping) kept buying two. This in turn created an abundance of baby wipes. So after unloading the groceries and stacking two more packages onto the already abundant pile I turned to husband and said, "Are we stocking up for the Poopocolaypse?" Of course this brought much mirth and merriment to...well...to me. I amuse myself greatly.

Well the aforementioned Poopocalypse has taken on a life of it's own. Things such as this are being overheard on a daily basis:

"Do you smell that?"

"Oooh, I think it's an impending sign of the Poopocalypse."

And...

"Where is (insert random family name here)?

"I'm pretty sure he/she's in the bathroom preparing for the Poopocalypse."

Or just random pronunciations at awkward times such as:

"REPENT-FOR THE POOPOCALYPSE IS NIE!"

So, yeah, we are that weird.

On another note that is eerily similar...

Cy Twombly died a few weeks ago. Our last name is Twombly and I've been told that my husband's family is related way-way-way back. If you don't know Cy Twombly, well you're out of luck. He's dead.

What? Too soon? Anyway he was a very successful abstract artist known for work such as this...

Yeah, I don't get it either. Anyway, with the heat we sometimes put boys to bed with just a diaper and sometimes they get tired of waiting for us to get to them in a timely fashion and take things into their own hands. The day of Cy's death, such an occurence presented itself and as I put the afflicted boy in the tub I hollered to Husband to please take care of the bed....walls....floor

Husband: "Is it bad?"

Me: "Well I think Uncle Cy left Matty his artistic propensity...So there's that...yay!"

Again, we are that weird.

Thank you for reading an entire post about poop. Oddly, it's not my first....

Why don't I have thousands of readers?

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

Readers...

2011-07-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

I wasn't a big fan of school. The math and science and---ugggghhh gym, hated it. If school had consisted of art, English and Home Economics, well I would have been at the top of my class. As it was, well I was somewhere at the bottom of the middle. Not because I wasn't capable, it was just that I didn't care about elements or wars or algebra. I'm sure it matters, just not to me. DISCLAIMER: To any teenage children that I may or may not have given birth to--IGNORE this post. Thank you.

There were a lot of parent/teacher conferences when I was a child. The school thought that perhaps I had a hearing problem, probably today they would assume I had a learning disability. I entered kindergarten when I was 4. At that point I had been reading for over a year. Surely, I was gifted. If gifted meant letting me sit in a room alone with a stack of books, not to be bothered by the yelling and smelliness of other children...well then I guess I was. But mostly I was weird. A shy, prone to bouts of unexplained tears, little weirdo, who read.

Then I grew up. And became...a quiet and sometimes socially awkward (I hate being called shy), prone to bouts of unexplained tears, big weirdo, who reads.

I read quite fast and usually finish a book a week if I'm busy-three if I'm not. I also passed these genes on to my oldest daughter. At 6 she read Harry Potter in two days. I'm pretty sure it weighed more than she did. Now I'm not saying any of this to brag. As with anything, if you do it all the time, you become pretty good at it. And I am so not a book snob. I like romance and action and young adult and mystery. I've read Danielle Steele and Tolstoy. I prefer Danielle Steele. My daughter prefers medical mysteries and fantasy. Our tastes rarely overlap. Until she handed me Harvest by Tess Gerritsen.

Tess Gerritsen is the creator of the Rizzoli and Isles series. The TV show characters bear little resemblance to the books. I definitely prefer the books.

On Saturday we traveled 30 miles to a small book store to buy the latest Rizzoli and Isles book and to meet Ms. Gerritsen. There were a million questions I was going to ask her. I have never been to a book signing and I have to admit, I was starstruck. She walked in through the squeaky screen door and laughed as she apologized for being late because she was stuck in traffic. She talked for about 30 minutes and was so very kind and intelligent and lovely and when she asked if anyone had any questions, well the concept of communicative language joined my mathmatical comprehension and I knew that if I opened my mouth I would just embarrass myself. But I did get a picture of Kass and her favorite author.

Which is pretty darn cool. Kass read the book Saturday afternoon. I finished Sunday. One book, two days--see I can do math. Just don't ask either of us to join a game of dodge ball, we'll be in the corner...reading.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa

So VERY VERY busy...

2011-07-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

MY MOTIVATION

I can't go to the auction. I don't have any room for even one more thing. Things have got to go. This is not a pretty picture.

In fact this is indicative of a very troubled person. I am having a yard sale. I am cleaning out this space. I am not bringing one single thing into this space until I have finished all the projects I have.

MY PROGRESS

I started making a for sale pile. It is a very large pile. It will get much, much larger. I'm so proud of myself. I went to the Goodwill and bought a perculator.......wait....oh crap.

STARTING AGAIN

Ok, back to the task at hand. My pile is getting larger, I actually have a path in my space. Nice. I have to run into town for a prescription. I will not stop at a yard sale. Oooooh, I think I just saw an aluminum Christmas Tree....damn.

STARTING AGAIN, ONE MORE TIME...

Dig, dig, dig, pile, pile, pile...hey look a vintage Barbie Doll clothes pattern. I have to sit down right now and make Barbie Doll clothes. What?

LA, LA, LA, DOOP, DEE, DOOP, DEE, DOO...NOW WHAT WAS I DOING?

Holy crap, could someone please arrange an intervention for me? Saturday, July 8 and 9, 2011. Yard Sale. Unless this all collapses on me and I am buried alive beneath it all or I get sidetracked and end up making tutus for yappy dogs. I have a pattern in here....somewhere....

Smiles from the farm,

Lisa

These are a few of my favorite things.... well this week at least....

2011-06-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

Stuff makes me smile. Vintage stuff makes me giddy. Cheap vintage stuff makes me gasp, giggle and pat myself on the shoulder! I wonder why people look at me funny and then back away slowly?

This week I found a Number 3 Barbie and Ken with clothes and case...$17.00. Oh yay! Did you play with Barbies? From the time I was about six until I was ummm too old to admit to it and then when I was too old to care either way--I have loved Barbie. I have a very good body image, by the way. I love her little clothes, and the zippers on vintage dresses and the way her voice sounds a lot like mine but more confident. Oh Barbie, someday I wanna be exactly like you, till then I know just what I'll do, I'll make believe that I am you!

I grew up in a small northern Maine town and we had to travel about 15 to 20 miles to Lincoln, Maine to shop. Newberry's was a five and dime on Main Street. I never knew that it was a franchise and there were stores all over the U.S. I thought ours was the only one. I remember sitting at the lunch counter on a swivel stool and ordering french fries and watching the soda fountain pump red and orange fluid like a waterfall and being pretty sure it was magic. I remember shopping for canvas tennis shoes to get me through the summer "and you know they would last longer if you wouldn't use them as bicycle brakes!" The toys were down in the basement and I could sleepwalk right to the Barbie aisle. It closed in the late 90's and that's very sad. But this little basket makes me happy. Giddy-happy.

Oh, from 1984 to 1988 I also bought my weight in Aqua-Net hairspray from Newberry's. Did you see MY hair? Why so much hair?

So did you have a Newberrys? Another store like that? Do you remember the smell and the asbestos floor and the aqua painted walls, the stairs?

Oh, and have you found anything cool lately? I love neat find stories--Go ahead share with me!

Smiles,
Lisa

Always Prepared but never organized...

2011-06-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

This is my TO-DO list for this morning.

It is now 11:20. I have one thing scratched off. It says Animals. Which means to feed, water, shovel poop, scratch behind the ears and call them shmoopsy. Check.

Then I was supposed to do the dishes. Not just wash them, but I bought new-old dishes at the auction yesterday and I need to banish the mismatched, chipped dishes from the cupboards. These are my new-old dishes...It is a pattern called Blue Heaven by the Sebring Co. Oh, how I love them. I got plates and bowls and teacups, saucers, coffee cups, lunch plates, berry bowls, soup bowls all FOR...wait for it....$5.00. Oh yeah...

Then I should be cleaning off the various drift that collects on the sideboards.

Clear off the overflow that lands on the table, sweep the floors, fold the laundry, clear off the computer table, change the boy's beds and become a Boy Scout. On my honor I... No, wait that's wrong. I need to sew badges on a boy scout shirt for a customer.

The list probably should have read...

Wow, look at how much I've accomplished this morning! I amaze myself sometimes.

Smiles from the farm,

Lisa