The Always Blue Studio and Farm

A pretty roadside picture

2013-05-14T11:33:00.001-07:00

I like to take the kids on a drive during the afternoons most days so that they will take a nap. It's the only sure fire way I can guarantee sleep! Today we happened to pass by this beautiful field of "weeds" and I had to snap a shot.

Baseball practice

2013-05-02T12:03:00.001-07:00

I love my kids. They are both very different individuals, and I love every inch of their unique attributes. Lincoln at four years old is very affectionate and loving, and loves to snuggle. He takes care of his little sister, but he can also tease her until she cries. He loves to roughhouse with her like she is a brother, but he watches that others don't get too rowdy. He is cautious and quiet, observing most situations before jumping in when most other kids are running ahead. With family and friends he is funny and energetic, with a beautiful sense of humor. He is athletic and strong, and runs around the yard like a crazy man. He is always looking for dad, and waits desperately for the moment he finally gets home from work. When his hair grows out he looks like Wolverine from X-Men and tans as dark as Adam as soon as the weather warms up even with sunblock slathered on an inch thick.

Trinity is two, almost three coming up in June. She is like her brother in that she can be quiet and surveys an environment before taking a plunge. But, she enjoys her personal space and her own bed. She has always slept through the night, where as Lincoln still struggles to sleep eight hours straight without calling for mom. She is easy going and care free. She loves to laugh at her brother's jokes, and doles out hugs and kisses without reserve. She loves to help, and wants to be a part of daily chores and activities. She tans in the summer while running through the grass chasing after her brother, and her hair turns a beautiful blonde. She hates her hair getting brushed, and prefers two ponytails to one. She is my sweetheart, and a lover of babies.

So, why is this blogpost titled "Baseball Practice"? Because that is what it's really about, but to get the full picture I think the background information is helpful. Now for my story.

We signed Lincoln up for baseball this summer, and he has started practices. The first practice went great, although he was a little slow to start. He waited to see how the others were acting before deciding how he would fit into the situation. By the end he was running the bases and hitting the ball like a big boy.

The second practice did not go as smoothly. He unfortunately fell asleep on the way to the diamond, and sleep is to Lincoln like breath is to our ability to live. I tried to roust him, and he woke crying that he wanted to go home. It also happened to be our snack night, not to mention we had missed the last practice-I did not know what to do. I couldn't really leave, but I hated to see Lincoln upset. Thankfully, Adam was able to show up that night, and we at least got to the field toting a stroller, two kids, two coolers, and a baseball bag (not sure how I would have done that myself even if Link had been feeling well, but that is one of motherhood's mysteries). We walked up to where the other families were waiting for an earlier practice to wrap up, but Lincoln was not having anything to do with baseball. He was tired, grumpy, and his personality of being naturally reserved was working against him.

At first I was angry, but I knew deep down this is my son and this is a normal reaction from him. And honestly, it was really my fault. At four years old he is one of those kids that still needs a daily nap and I should not have put it off like I did. But I was doing damage control at this point, and racked my brain for a solution. How in the world was I going to get this kid out on the field?

I am still growing as a mom. There are a lot of things I do wrong, I lose my temper, and I yell when I shouldn't. But I do pray that God will continue to work in my heart a spirit of compassion and patience. That night, I grew a little as a mom by God's grace.

I bribed Lincoln, I begged him, I pleaded with him-please, just get on the field and participate in practice. He finally went out grudgingly, but as I went back and sat with my husband, Adam said it looked like Lincoln was crying. His back was to us, so I couldn't tell, but after walking back to him I could see his shoulders shake. He turned his face to me, and I saw his tear stained, blotchy cheeks and I felt horrible. He was miserable.

I pulled him aside, and gently hugged him trying to calm him down. At this point I was about ready to leave the snacks and get out of there. But I asked one more time if there was anything I could do that would help him to finish practice. He said, "Mommy, can you please just stand over there and not leave me," pointing to first base. After all the things I had tried to offer him, all he wanted was for me to stand on the sideline where he could see me.

I did as he asked, and like a trooper, he finished an hour and a half long practice. The coaches were so patient and caring with him, and they were okay with me staying on the field. As long as I was out there, Lincoln was willing to finish practice. He still looked miserable the entire time, there were a couple moments I saw him tear up running the bases, and at one point he refused to bat, but he stayed out there the whole time and he put forth a good effort.

Now, I know we cannot do this every practice, and really I believe this was an isolated event because he was so exhausted from playing all day before baseball. But I think we both learned something from that evening. Lincoln learned he can push himself physically and still survive! And I hope he also learned that his parents are willing to walk through difficult times with him, even though we are not perfect and don't always react like we should. As for me, I learned to make sure my kids get naps in every day that we have an event in the evening! Even when other moms laugh that my four year old still requires a two to three hour siesta. Seriously, otherwise the end result is obviously not pretty.

I also learned something else. This situation and many others with my kids have tugged on my heart-How am I answering my call from God as a mother?

Sometimes, I really do not feel like a good parent. I am not naturally maternal, but I love my kids with all my heart. I was never one who enjoyed to babysit, I quit after one week working in a daycare during college, and to this day watching other kids is not really my thing. But with my own children, I love them desperately, and pray that God would show me how to be a better parent.

That night, my first reaction was anger, and I was wrong. In the end, love won out, and after I listened to what my son really needed with a loving and patient heart, he was able to finish practice. Unfortunately, love is not always my first reaction. Usually it is anger or frustration, but I pray that God would continue to show me the error of my ways and lovingly apply correction as I need to do also with my children. I am not perfect, will never be perfect, but can and should grow by God's grace into a better parent. Even if it does not come naturally to me. He answers prayers according to His will, and I thank Him for the blessing of being a mom. It's not easy, and most of the time I mess up, but I do pray I can use my mistakes to point my kids into the direction of God's forgiving embrace by using myself as a prime example.

A goat drama

2013-05-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

So, you may have read, we live on a small farm. We own a dog, three cats, and two goats. The goats (one Boer and one Pygmy) live happily in a pen and have the run of most the bottom half of the barn. Blue and Dandy are best buds, and Blue in particular is very friendly and loves to be petted.

The other day, I decided to tether Blue out so he could eat grass outside of the pen. He hasn't been out much, so he was a bit skiddish but I thought he would be okay. He was a little edgy, but he quickly focused in on eating the yummy weeds.

A few minutes later however, the kids came running around the barn, and scared the hookey out of the animal. By the time I rounded the corner as well, all I saw was the leash flying up in the air, and landing on the ground with no goat on the end. Lincoln yelled, "Mommy, he's in the barn!" At first I was relieved, but that quickly turned to fear. I entered the barn only to see Blue run up the loft stairs, which is an unfinished second level that opens to the lower level where the goats stay with no rails. All I could see was him taking a nose dive off the edge and making a splat on the ground.

At that point I went into survival mode. I yelled at the kids to back up so I could sneak up on Blue and hopefully prevent a catastrophe. I regret now being so angry with them, but in the moment I was operating out of sheer terror that this goat was going to jump to his death. Kids, I'm sorry!

Seriously, this loft is a disaster waiting to happen, and trust me I know it needs some work. For now it's blocked off temporarily-but back to the story.

I had him down almost the whole way twice, but the first time the kids scared him back up and then the dog scared him a second time. After again begging everyone to please back up and get the heck out of here, I finally was able to get the collar back around his neck, dragged him down the stairs, and said a thank you to God when he finally trotted back into his pen.

I always said I wanted more animals, but with stories like this I am not so sure anymore!

A little market

2013-04-24T20:18:00.001-07:00

I attended a small market festival this past weekend, and while a bit chilly it was a nice outing! There was lots of attendance and I sold several items while making a few new friends! I hope this will be the first of many in my future.

Teacher appreciation

2013-04-24T20:17:00.001-07:00

My MOPs group helped put on a teacher appreciation lunch, and here are a few pictures of the tables set up with our gifts to the for their wonderful service. There are two groups that meet at the sponsoring church in Columbus on two different days, and both groups help put on the lunch. Our group made the scarves in the middle and the other group made the little cactus planters.

A few Easter pictures

2013-04-04T10:04:00.001-07:00

Chocolate, please?

2013-03-19T12:37:00.001-07:00

Why yes, thank you!

My latest necklace crafts

2013-03-19T11:46:00.001-07:00

My seeds

2013-03-19T11:42:00.001-07:00

I started several packets of seeds this year. I have started a few seeds before, but never on the scale of what I am attempting this year. And it's not easy. Or maybe my thumb is not as green as I thought.

An oldie but a goodie

2013-03-19T11:09:00.001-07:00

This picture was taken the summer after I graduated from college. It was taken with three of my friends who were majoring in ceramics, which I basically double majored in along with oil painting.

We were on a study abroad trip to Italy, a two week excursion I am very glad I experienced. Pictured: Erick, Me, Melissa, Erin.

The world's best dad . . .

2013-03-17T21:17:00.001-07:00

. . . Covered in silly string lol.

The last snow?

2013-03-16T10:25:00.001-07:00

I took these pictures a couple weeks ago, realizing this may be the last snow of winter. Some may think I am crazy, but I will miss seeing the beautiful white fluff. I heard once that if you live in a cold weather climate you might as well embrace chill. Not just accept-but embrace. Life is certainly more beautiful when we are in love with something rather than just tolerating it.

I am never truly satisfied with winter unless we get a crazy big accumulation at least ONCE during the cold weather months. This year in southern Indiana we got several smaller snowfalls, but never the kind that merited being snowed in a couple days. Oh well. This will have to do!

Valentine's Day craft

2013-02-18T17:50:00.001-08:00

A lot of times if I am painting, the kids want to paint too. So, when they want to get creative I pull out a large old sketch pad and let them go crazy with the paint on their own sheets of paper. I also let them paint multiple times on the same sheet so that it gives the page a nice layered affect. The end result is that I have several beautiful paintings that need utilized. Sometimes, I cut them into squares and give them to family members as miniature paintings they can hang on their fridge or have for a keepsake. But for this holiday, I decided to cut hearts out of the paper the kids had colored and give them as valentines to our extended relatives! Check out the pictures.

A trip to the dentist

2013-02-18T17:26:00.001-08:00

We took our kids to the dentist for the first time last week, and I was very nervous because both our children are really shy. Lincoln, who is four years old, went first, and although reluctant, he did great. He was brave to be honest. He went into a situation he had never experienced, allowed someone to work closely on him whom he had never previously met, and came out of it with a smile! I was a proud mama. He did unfortunately have a small cavity just starting to form, so the next time we are in they will probably need to do something about it. But according to the technician it should be no big deal!

Trinity was next, but she would have nothing to do with any of it. At the ripe old age of two she is very set in her ways and determined that no one should touch her unless invited. And there were certainly no invitations being dealt out today. The only reason I took her to the appointment with her brother was because I noticed a couple spots on her teeth that worried me. (Yes, probably more cavities are in our future. I swear, I brush these kids' teeth religiously!) Thankfully, the dentist did not seem concerned, and said we would just check her out next time. As long as her teeth did not seem to bother her, most likely for her age it has not had time to develop into anything serious.

An artist lives in this house

2013-02-11T20:18:00.001-08:00

And it's not me!

My daughter seems to be something of a prodigy. To my chagrin. And joy lol.

Anytime I get out ANY paint to work on a craft, it's as though she's drawn to it like a bee to honey.

Recently, I began to paint pendants on some beach stones and shells. On more than one occasion I have walked away, only to return to several of my pieces with a new layer of paint on them courtesy of my little girl. *sigh* Oh well.

In between painting projects I have been perusing the Internet for some overdue shopping. I finally placed my seed order for our garden, bought a couple new pairs of jeans, and winter boots are now on clearance so I snatched up a couple pairs of those too. It's so much easier to shop without two toddlers hanging on you in the store. Instead, they were hanging on me in the comfort of my own home, whining for the iPad, while I yelled "Five more minutes!" every ten minutes thereafter.

Tick tock

2013-02-04T22:26:00.001-08:00

Something I have missed hearing in my house is the sound of a ticking clock. You can hardly buy one anymore that makes the wonderfully peaceful clicks pronounced without fail every gentle second. It is certainly a reminder of the heartbeat in life. I have heard of people placing an old clock close to a baby or a young animal to help them not feel alone or to remind them of their mother's own beating heart. I can see why that would be a comfort, because I was surprised at how it warmed my own soul to hear that very sound coming from my shelf this evening.

This all came about as I went through some things I was trying to clean up so I could place them for sale on eBay or Etsy. The clock was one of several items I had collected from the garage and barns out of the disarray of our storage. I believe it was from my grandpa who is a pack rat like me (or maybe I should say I am like him-because it is surely in my genes). It is one of those old bedside wide up's with an alarm and a beautiful large face. I had thought about selling it with the other items, but I think I change my mind and will hold onto it a little longer.

That is the problem with going through old stuff for me. I end up wanting to keep most or all of it when I need to get rid of it! At least the clock has sentimental value.

Something else I am up to lately: seed catalogue season is here, and I am drooling! I can't wait to place my order. Gurney's, a company from Indiana, is my current favorite after scouring several others I had sent off to for information. They have an amazing deal right now, half off up to $200, which still beats the competition even with the sales tax (since I am a fellow Hoosier) and their fair shipping which they do cap (some companies let the shipping get WAY out of hand). Not to mention they guarantee all their plants, and will send you new replacements no questions asked if the original product fails. This actually happened to me once, and I was very happy they had my back. Also, you can be sure anything you buy will be of the highest quality.

Snow pictures part 2 of 2

2013-01-28T08:40:00.001-08:00

Snow pictures part 1 of 2

2013-01-21T19:40:00.001-08:00

DIY kid's growth chart

2013-01-21T18:05:00.001-08:00

I decided to make growth charts for all the kids in our extended family, and also for our own little unit. We have a lot of old barn wood out in our buildings, so I picked several of the best and cleaned them up with some water and a rag. Then, after they dried I cut them to size (about five feet is all you need), and then I gave each plank a thorough soak of lemon oil. Starting at one foot, I worked my way up with tick marks writing out only the feet measurements so there is room for future height recordings. I wrote the increments out in black sharpie marker, and printed the numbers out beforehand in a font I liked for a calligraphy reference. I attached a picture hanger on the back and hung our board a foot off the ground synced with the one foot mark on the growth chart. The beauty is, even if we move, we will always have a physical record of our kids height (and my husband and I's-we joined in and marked off ours too lol).

My reading nook

2013-01-21T18:00:00.001-08:00

Every girl needs one!

New products I am trying

2013-01-21T09:53:00.001-08:00

Adam and I started a diet. It's based off the book The Maker's Diet (http://makers-diet.net/), which is a Bible based meal plan. We could stand to lose a few pounds, but mainly we just want to feel good again. Adam still struggles with not feeling healthy, and if you recall from some of my previous posts we have never found answers as to why he has been achy and tired. But hopefully this diet will help, because I am definitely a big believer in fueling your body and not just feeding it. It's not always easy to practice, however.

As a result, I have come across some new products through my own research and a few offered by the author of The Maker's Diet. The idea is to try and maintain as much of a natural lifestyle as possible. Here are the current staples in our cupboards:

-Ezekiel Bread: usually in the freezer section of the health food aisle (I have not found it at Walmart). It is a sprouted, protein packed bread that comes in loaves, buns, pita pockets, cereal, etc.
-All natural 100% yogurt, honey, maple syrup, salad dressings
-Chia Seed: order from Amazon or buy from a health food store (not carried by many groceries); great for baking breads or put it in your favorite liquid for a pudding consistency
-All natural frozen yogurt. Our favorite is Caramel Praline Crunch by Blue Bunny which I have only found at Walmart
-Frozen coconut milk ice cream
-Locally grown meats or venison bought from friends during deer season
-Fresh fruit and vegetables; every meal we try to eat one fruit, one veg, and a meat
-Coconut oil and olive oil for cooking; coconut oil is also a great weekly hair treatment
-White Distilled Vinegar-I use this for hair conditioner (1:4 vinegar to water ratio), fabric softener (measured out of a recycled softener bottle with a few drops of essential oil), Fabric softener "sheets" (a reusable sponge soaked in vinegar and thrown in the dryer)
-Best beverages: raw milk (goat and cow), WATER, all natural smoothies, hot green tea, any hot naturally decaffeinated all natural tea, whole milk, all natural half and half
-Natural sweeteners (i.e. stevia, monk fruit, etc.)
-Raw nut butters
-Grass-fed cow's butter (Sam's Club)
-Nuts and seeds
-All natural cottage cheese, sour cream, salsa, and block cheese (good for slicing and grating)

DIY Stenciling

2013-01-20T19:49:00.001-08:00

In my 'moving in' post, I had some similar pictures of our stenciled walls. I wanted to revisit the pictures of our walls because I am in love with the whole-wall stencils that I used. It is a large stencil that you roll over with a roller brush instead of using the smaller flat brushes that take forever. It goes so fast with a roller brush, and the effect is awesome! Check out the stencils from http://www.cuttingedgestencils.com/ which is where I bought mine. They are also on Amazon. These pictures are the birch tree stencil and paisley stencil.

DIY bookshelf out of old ladders

2013-01-20T19:42:00.001-08:00

These rustic bookshelves are so easy to 'make' and can be free (or at least fairly cheap) if you have an old wood ladder holed up in your garage.

One set I used was a very tall, straight pair that extended rather than fold up. I also used one single, flat ladder that was a bit shorter. The tall pair was too tall to fit in my bedroom, so I cut them down, and then leaned them against the wall. Voila! Bookshelf. Now, some of the books leaned against the wall, causing the ladder to push away making it unsteady. My solution for this was to tack a wide ribbon to the backside of the ladder from one end of the books to the other, and this held the books in place and off the wall.

The short cut pieces and the single ladder I used for shelves off our living room. I drilled in some screws at various intervals (sure to find a stud or use those plastic holders made for drywall) and using a tape measure made it all level by finding the same distance for each screw from the ceiling. Then, I hung the ladders by placing the screws directly under the top side of the ladder. VHS tapes stayed on really well, but the DVD's and a lot of books had to shelved tightly so they would not fall off. But these are all items we do not use very often, so I was not worried about the awkwardness of removing things from the shelves.

Long time no see!

2013-01-20T18:45:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile!

As I write this, my little girl is curled up on the couch beside me (how I wrangled the iPad from her, I'm still not sure) and we are watching one of our new blue-rays from Christmas (the latest Bourne installment) with daddy while Bub sleeps upstairs. I love the snuggle nights of winter.

I posted sometime back that we were 'moving' into our remodeled part of the house, but I can now say that the bedrooms are settled, organized, and the nesting has subsided. It feels more like home than ever before! I am so grateful for this house, even though it has been a long journey and admittedly at times I have not been as thankful lol. But the state it is in now-yes, I can deal with this!

Big news on the book front-I guess I can now say I am a published author! I self-published my book, The Fire Fox Tablet, a week ago. If you want to check it out it is located at http://www.smashwords.com. Its under my pen name Zaidey Cooper. I currently have it priced at $0.99 but you can also download the first few chapters for free! I started a blog for my writing hobby at http://zaideycooperbooks.blogspot.com so that I would not have to share my personal blog with random people. That is also why my profile is not visible at the moment, but I am working on that.

Have a great week!

Vacation is almost over

2013-01-01T22:16:00.001-08:00

After this week it's back to the ol' schedule. But the kids will definitely need the next few days to recoup. They are wiped after all the family get togethers!