Pieces of our “Heaven”

          I sit here this evening trying to get my thoughts together. I started this blog in January of 2019 with every intention to keep my thoughts down. Well... to be 100% honest, life just completely got in the way. Last year (2019) we lost my Mom due to a fall that resulted in a large brain hemorrhage. That was hard.. devastating.. the circumstances were not great. We will leave it at some siblings don’t talk anymore. You can use your imagination to how that all went.
          Throughout the year, I took a day at a time. Showed up for work and my family but there wasn’t much more i could muster. It was a lot. A lot of time getting my head in the right mental space. As Fall rolled around, Jason and I decided it was time to sell our home we had been in for over 10 years.. We are currently in a home where we can have our horses... and start the Little Snip of Heaven we live on. All my dreams are coming true.. its truly heaven. Since moving here in November of 2019 we got 2 new kittens... MEET

 Meet Daisy and Minnie.. Minnie is the black Kitty.. They are sisters and the sweetest little Kittens and are already making the best Barn Cats.

Two baby Nigerian dwarf goats who were born in March of 2020.

Meet... 

                                                              Bruce and Bob... 

I have a confession... our goats and Chickens (most of them), are named after our parents/grandparents... So Bruce (the white goat) is named after my Dad who passed away in July of 2011 with Alzheimers and heart disease.  Bob (The tan goat) is named after Jason’s Grandpa who passed away last year. These boys like to investigate and climb on things.. especially cars/trucks.. They are super friendly and fun to watch!

Our farm continues to grow. Our heaven sits on an Acre and a half... this is the stepping stone/trial property to see how much land we want our forever home to be on. In March, we all, and by we all I’m referring to the world.. we all dove head first into the Pandemic.. That was fun. NOT! Quarantined, toilet paper shortage, limited food in the grocery stores, restaurant’s,  fast food , malls, stores and everything else you can think of closed. Our world shut mostly down. The economy plummeted. We were all told to “Stay Home”. I work from home so quarantine wasn’t that new for me, but it was weird. We all know.. anyone reading this knows what i am trying to say and refer to. 

Right before quarantine happened.. we decided to get chickens.. I am pretty anti-chicken but living on a farm you need chickens to help keep your bug/spider problem down. We decided to raise baby chicks.. so much fun.. lots of work and many learning curves but we ended up with 5 cute chickens along with our two full grown hens. 

This little chick is “DeAnna” .. she is named after my Mom who Passed away in March 2019. Funny story is .. my Mom hated chickens.. like HATED them. When she was a little girl, she would have to go out to the outhouse and she would say, “The chickens would chase me and peck my bum”.. I can’t decide if she would be mad or embrace it that i named a chicken after her.. This little hen has some of her characteristics so i think its quite fitting! 

This is Little Verda.. She has always been the smallest. She is a Silky. She  is so soft and sweet. I just love her. Verda was my Dad’s mothers name.. She was a little lady, only 4 ft something tall... this little Hen is our “runt”.

Meet Eileen. She is the cutest frizzle chicken.. All black and fluffy cute. Funny story... she is not  a SHE... Jene and I were saddling the horses to ride the other day and we heard a rooster crow... She is a ROOSTER! Our kids say she is now a Trans Chicken.. we cant change her to a boy name since she has been called Eileen since she was a couple weeks old. 

Thelda is our other Silky. She is soft, shy and just a little ball of fluff. When you look at her tail it reminds me of the song, “Shake your tail feather”..  or is that lyrics? Who knows.. all i know is that her tail looks like a big fluffy cottonball and she is so cute! Thelda is my Grandmothers name (My Mom’s Mother)

Beatrice... oh sweet Beatrice... She is a Polish chicken.. her feathers on her head are so freaking cute. She is adorable and a beautiful Hen. Beatrice was Jasons Great Grandmothers name.. Let me add a current pic i took of her the other night.. her Mohawk is getting bigger... She just makes me smile.

How can that cute head not brighten your day! Who even am I .. i was never a chicken fan.. now i love them so much. 

We have two older Hens that lay eggs.. One we inherited .. it adopted the property and has never left. Jene and Jace named that chicken “Jim”.. there is no Grandparent name of Jim.. not even sure why they started calling it Jim.. but you guys, Jim is a Hen that lays eggs.. so you guessed it... Jim is a transgender chicken too.... haha haha... 

Jason is holding “Jim”... Friendliest chicken EVER! We love her..
Jene is holding Shirley. Shirley came with our first batch of chickens. We had 5 Turkin Chickens (Chickens with no feathers on their necks)... i told Jason and the kids that if we were having chickens they had to be “cute” chickens.. so I picked out the breeds and we were on a hunt.. We kept Shirley though... she and Jim became friends and we didn’t want to split them up.. now we love Shir as much as Jim and she has become so friendly and lets us love on her quite a bit. She is also our vocal gal.. she is always talking.

I didn’t realize how many animals we had until i am here trying to introduce them all... oh boy... I don’t want to make these posts too long, so i will save the horsey intro’s for another day. 

I am really excited to take you on a lot of farm adventures.. the work, the fun, the play, the relaxing, the decor tours, gardening, cooking, baking, ... ALL THE THINGS.. 

Saturdays are for Naps...

As I have grown older I love naps. I often find myself thinking... how did I not love naps as a child. Sleep is amazing. It helps heal your body, refresh, revive, and often times will just reset your mood. Most Saturdays, Jason and I make it a priority to take a nap. Sometimes I climb into bed, I am not tired at all... and the inevitable happens.. I fall asleep!  How many others out there love naps?  It’s our reward to ourselves after the long work week ... there is a ton of crap to do around our house, horses that probably need to be exercised, things to be cleaned and decluttered..... but a nap is so much better, that stuff will still be there when I wake up.

The title of this post should probably have been something different because I didn’t intend to talk about napping and sleep for a whole post... but it’s what was on my mind to start with, seems I had just climbed into a nice warm bed after a morning at the barrel races in the freezing cold!

Barrel race? Some know what that is, some don’t... for those that don’t know... a horse and rider run a  clover leaf pattern  timed..  it’s not just a get on and run. Takes skill, connection and teamwork between horse and rider, and so much more. Jene runs barrels on her horse Libby. They have come so far this year. The first part of the year she wasn’t completing patterns... combination of naughty horse and rider error.... fast forward a whole year of commitment, hard work, great coach (best Aunt ever) and a whole lot of heart and passion this girl is doing amazing. Not as fast as she wants, but clean runs that she has put time and dedication into.  She has won some money and prizes this year... so fun to see her get better and better! The other piece of it that I love wholeheartedly is watching how great she is at riding and working with Libby.

Best Aunt ever!!

I used to blog all the time.. it was a way for me to document as my babies were growing. Fast forward 7 + years and a whole lot has changed! Jurnee is married with a 17mth old little boy, Axle, with another baby on the way! Janson is 20, living at home recovering from yet another bull riding/fighting injury, Jace is almost 17, a junior in high school, and Jene is almost 13 and a 7th grader. I could go write a ton to update our life here, but that is really not the intent of my blog. Do I have a specific purpose for this space?  Not necessarily... just a place to lay my thoughts, write about events, and share our happenings. Often we joke that we could have our own reality TV show.. we are that family... (I’m sure a lot of people say that)..  this will be a space to lay out what’s on my mind, reset and move forward.
I will introduce you to my therapist in this post. He is the best therapist, and as expensive as all get out. I feel like everyone should have some sort of therapist.. no matter the cost, no matter how healthy you think your mind is.. it’s great to have a sounding board that is not your spouse, child, parent, sibling, friend, co worker, etc.. granted, anyone of those would work, but for me.. he connects to me.. he senses my mood before I even say anything, he doesn’t get offended... and in our sessions we don’t even have to talk much and I go home feeling 100% better, sometimes even exhausted. I can look in his eyes and feel a sense of peace wash over me.  The eyes are kind, gentle, and can speak to my soul without uttering a word. How in the hell does a therapist have that effect on someone?

                          
That’s right loves... meet Oj! The most expensive therapist, but worth every damn cent!  A thousand plus pounds of pure love and understanding.. a connection that helps me to release the stress of day to day life...   besides my family, I live for my horses! He is mine, Jene has her own horse, Libby, and Jason, my better half, has Annie! You will hear lots about our 1000+ pound fur babies!

I work a full time job as a registered nurse for an insurance company ... I teach horseback riding lessons 5-6 hours a week to share my passion of horses and help others learn about and gain confidence on and around horses.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with Hashimotos  disease. It has caused me a lot of grief and problems with my health. I have been doing a lot of research to try and help myself feel better. My thyroid is struggling, I have a large nodule/goiter growing on the left side of my neck.. i could write for days about this and the effects I struggle with. I know there are so many others out there that are dealing with the same thing, so I will blog about my journey of this too... #hashimotoswarrior

My goal each day is to live my best life, be kind, love big, serve others and be humble! Always do my best, try my hardest and live with integrity.

Intention ... my word for this year. Live with intent, have good intent, and focus on being present in my day to day life. Time slips by way to fast and it’s important to really live in the moment!