I am back.

I am back!  I have returned to my Blog after a long break.

I didn't intend to take such a break, it just seemed like Facebook stole my blog.  Then as human nature would have it, once some considerable time passed, I lost my account info.

A lot has changed in the seven years since my last post.  

My Artist is in college working on his multi-media production degree.

My Bookworm is finishing up her senior year in high school and will be leaving the nest this fall to study chemical engineering.

My father passed away last year a few months after celebrating his 100th birthday.

My love and I keep carrying on, working in the vineyard and working at our jobs.

I will once again try to capture the moments of our lives and work on the craft of writing.

Bookworm and Artist

The Mystery of the Missing Frying Pan

A story from last summer's heat wave...
Each night for the past week I kept looking for my medium size frying pan.

I have been looking every where.

I checked with my mother, I scoured the cupboards, I started to believe I was loosing my mind. Where could it be?

Several nights I would end up cooking one item in the large frying pan then transferring the food, followed by washing the pan and cooking the next item in the same pan.

HELP

Fast forward to Friday night, I finally get around to asking my two guys about it. They quickly respond " oh yeah .. it's outside by the truck on the lid of the trashcan." My son continues "I was doing an experiment to see if I could cook an egg in the pan on the hood of the truck in the high heat and it cooked most of the way!"

Mystery solved and I am relieved I am not loosing my mind, at least not this week. Why both family members of the male persuasion thought it was perfectly acceptable to leave the pan outside by the garbage is beyond me.

Gum Alley

In a neighboring town there is an alley the locals call gum alley.

A little alley tucked away in the downtown. It is called gum alley because since the 1960's people have been putting their chewed gum on the wall. We finally remembered to show our kids the alley last fall.

Most of the gum is just a single chewed piece, but some people get elaborate and write words and draw pictures with the chewed gum.

It is weird, gross and sort of amazing all wrapped into one. My offspring who are germ phobic and love hand sanitzer, voted for mostly gross!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

The Christmas Tree Farm

Going to the tree farm and cutting down our own tree.
A tradition born with our move to the country twelve years ago.

My Bookworm found a baby tree.

We finally decide on a White Fur.

To see more Photostory Friday posts head over to

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Pressing the Wine

Watching the wine be pressed is oh so fun !

Now it will go into a barrel for approximately 24 months.

I am playing Wordless Wednesday at five minutes for mom.

Check out other Wednesday posts.

Worth The Wait - Update

For Tackle it Tuesday, I am showing the after pictures of our front yard project. With all the projects on our property, our little front yard had been largely ignored over the years. This summer the kids, my love and I finally gave the front yard some TLC.

One Sunday afternoon In July, the kids and I rolled up our sleeves and helped my love construct a dry creek bed, complete with stones, boulders and weed fabric underneath. The kids and I have finished the job little by little in the mornings. I am so glad to have the memories of the kids and I accomplishing this task together.

It needs some more plants, but it is finally 90% done. Around here 90% is pretty darn good!

To see what other mom's are tackling check out 5 minutes for mom.

Sunday Enlightenment -Treasuring the Moment Now

Yesterday, Sunday - home from vacation, I was back to my routine of holding babies at early church. This is something I do every summer. I prefer to volunteer my time with the babies, it fits my summer rhythm of low structure. In the infant room there is no curriculum, lesson plans, or prescribed snack time and no structure.

Yes, sometimes they cry, but I love the challenge of trying to get them distracted and happy so the parents can enjoy their time at church.

I love babies, but I am not interested in any more of my own. My love on the other hand, would like more so we could "have more adult children coming home for Christmas some day!"

While I sat there with two little boys who were crawling around, I played with them and talked to them all the while admiring their feet (baby feet are so cute).

I realized how quickly time goes by, I know everyone says it, but it really is true that a baby is only a little baby for one year. That is one Christmas, one Easter and one Summer. I tried to remember my first baby's feet once so small. What I would give for my bookworm's time machine I would zoom back and hold those baby feet once more.

I am reminded to treasure the moment I have now. I will relish the time I have with my thirteen year old and cherish this moment with his big old man feet. The Artist's feet are as big as his fathers, but I will focus on enjoying his sweet spirit and growing responsible nature sprinkled with some teenage angst and attitude.

Hit rewind to three weeks ago, I was at a baby shower and six of the women from church in attendance were pregnant, all due in late July & August. At the shower, it dawned on me that I would most likely miss holding most of these babies because next summer they would be walking and walkers go to the walker room not the infant room. I marvel at how fast humans develop muscle control and change so rapidly in front of our eyes. It is a true miracle.

After early service, I noticed one of the young mom's from the shower holding her precious bundle of joy in her arms instead of her belly. I felt a tug at my heart, does she know what's coming or how fast it will go? Of course not and neither do I. I will wander on in my journey with parenting my tweener and school age child and try to enjoy every stage knowing that before long they will be grown. The physical and emotional transformation goes so fast from baby feet to man feet.

He's only a boy, and yet when I do the laundry, I can hardly tell who's pants I am folding my son's or my husband's.

Some Things are Worth the Wait

Living in the country on a large property and doing most of the work ourselves means many, many, many projects are never finished. I am blessed to share this country life dream with my husband and brother, two men who can build anything and have a fantastic work ethic and vision.

Over the years we have accomplished much on our land including putting in a five acre vineyard, planting trees and putting in irrigation. They have also built fences, a sunflower house, retaining walls and a stone entry gate. The guys have done a lot of work to improve our lake.
On a grand scale, they built the barn, it is beautiful. Maybe, more beautiful than our house. I was a barn widow for three long years.

So with all this work to do, our little front yard has been largely ignored over the years.

As you enter the property, you drive through the vineyard past the beautiful roses and then arrive at our yard. Our yard however, consists of mostly dirt and a few piles of rocks that make it look more like a construction zone. Once a stranger visited our house and asked if we were the "caretakers " for whoever owned the vineyard and lower land. I have often been frustrated that our front yard was so overlooked. Being a goal oriented girl, I need reminding to enjoy the journey and not get so hung up on the concept of having something FINISHED.

Last weekend, I begged my husband just to move the rock piles so we didn't look like the local stone yard. What a nice surprise when he said, "If I move it, we might as well use it and implement our landscape design."

Sunday afternoon the kids and I rolled up our sleeves and helped my love construct a dry creek bed, complete with stones, boulders and weed fabric underneath it all. The kids and I have continued the work an hour each morning before it gets really hot. We are hoping to finish some of it today! I must admit, I am not traditionally good with plants and don't usually do much of the work outside. I am proud of myself for getting involved.

It sure helps that the kids are older now and can really help.

Timing is everything in life and I believe this experience was worth the wait. The four of us, myself and my three great loves accomplished this together!

"The Best Ham Steak Ever"

These were the words of my love, pontificating about his own cooking talents.

My family and I are all really into the food network. My son actually likes to cook and will often try his hand at new recipes.

My love, on the other hand can usually only handle frozen pizza, or one left over recipe from his college days. He has never been the one to cook in our house.

One fateful day in May when school projects were at their peak, after work was really crazy. I had things going on with the vineyard, was on and off the phone with a winemaker, two kids with stressful projects, and a household that was dying a slow and painful death. This was on the heels of my longest day at work.

When my husband arrived home, I announced he was cooking dinner. It was already seven o clock. He looked disappointed and said he could make a quesadilla. I corrected him to explain he had to cook dinner for all of us because we had not eaten yet. The look on his face, as I started barking orders for him to get out a ham steak and some frozen veggies. I gave him instructions, while typing on my laptop about vineyard business and helping my son with his project. I also informed him after dinner he had to help our daughter with her project, while I continued to assist my son with typing.

It was one of those days that I really questioned the sanity of all we try to do. My husband surprised himself and all of us with an excellent dinner. The only trouble was we had to listen to him expound about what an awesome job he had done.

"It has a great texture, and flavor. This might be the best ham steak I have ever eaten."

He was like a judge on Iron Chef narrating the perfect balance of the meal. He was so proud of his basting combination of black pepper, brown sugar and butter.

Thanks to teamwork we all got everything done that night. The added benefit is that now my love is willing and eager to cook "the best ham steak ever" for dinner once a week or so.

I'm so glad it is summer and we all get a little rest from those crazy over scheduled nights.

"Don't Mess with the Black Belt!"

Those were the words of my husband this morning as I was needling him about his wardrobe. Tuesday night, after three years of Karate training he tested for his black belt. He arrived home from class proudly wearing his brand new belt. Quite an accomplishment, and I am so proud of him. He started to take classes when our kids were both enrolled. Both kids eventually lost interest and stopped their training as red belts. My man continued on, and often commented that training was hard on his 40+ year old body . This training came with some injuries along the way, but he made it. I am happy for him, even if it comes with a little attitude.