Clothes Line and Wind

When I was a little girl and we would go to the "farm" I remember helping my grandmother hang clothes on the line. Sheets and towels mostly. She grew up on a farm and they would wash their clothes and after putting them through the wringer, they would hang them on the line so the sun and wind could dry them. I would play in between the sheets and towels and I remember the smell of the sun, air and cotton. It's a good smell. A clean smell. It was also cooler in that shade mixed with the wet cotton. She also had a clothes line at her house in the city.

When I got old enough to have to wash my own families clothes I always wanted to have a clothes line in my yard. But sadly, in the city, most of the people have a clothes line because they can't afford a dryer and most neighborhood associations don't allow unsightly clothes lines. It makes my heart sad that so many people miss out on this simple joy.

Well guess what??? Now I don't live in the city. Now I live in the country and the house we are staying in has one right in the back yard!! I can't tell you how my soul sang at that very simply sight!!! It takes very little to make my soul sing!

One of the first things I did when I came up for a visit was clean the toilets. Hey! There were 3 boys living here without any female touches and those puppies were dirty!!! Yuck!!

Next, I washed everything I could get my hands on and hung them on the lines. Sheets, quilts, comforters, towels...everything except our clothes. It does make the material a little stiff. Oh the joy!!! I go around smelling everything when I take them off the lines. You haven't slept until you've slept in sheets and a quilt right off the line.....


As you can see, the wind blows pretty strongly here as there are no trees to intercept the winds. Only flat land...so the wind blows constantly. It blows hard. It blows soft. See how the towels are parallel to the ground? It's blowing very hard! I have actually laughed out loud while trying to hang quilts or comforters on the line fighting that wind!

There is just something so calming and peaceful to me about watching clothes dance on the line. The heat of the sun, the smell of the air...it's just so soothing!

Here's a comforter I wash on a regular basis. It's our dog's. Buzz is a husky/shepherd mix so he sheds alot. Just look at that shadow! Makes me just want to lay down there knowing it's warm but cool and clean....Ahhhhh! But then I start thinking about all the spiders and creepy crawlies around here and I get over it!! Notice spiders have their own catagory now?

This comforter has danced alot on that line...they will probably get married one day they've spent so much time together.

This just draws me. By the way. When you have a child that is struggling with allergies and has to take medication just to stop sneezing every 5 seconds, it's NOT a good idea to hang his bedding outside to dry. Just in case you ever need to know....heh....

The sky, the clouds, the wind, the grass. It's just another symbol of the country to me.

It just doesn't compete with a boring electric dryer.

Except in winter, ice storms, and rainy days.

Eggs, a toad and a storm

Something that I am quite excited about is one day soon raising chickens. Now by someday soon, I mean within the next year instead of within the next decade now that we live in the country. But like I said in an earlier post, we have seen a few foxes around here--which reminds me!

The poo on our porch was NOT from a fox, it was from a toad. That same toad has been hanging out on our porch eating an all you can eat bug buffet at night and apparently is eating so much it leaves little surprises. The same toad that jumped out and scared the living daylights out of my sister in law as she made a trip to her car at night. The same toad that is as big or bigger than a rat because that's what I could only imagine scared her so bad as she described a black lump that jumped out in front of her...~snicker, snicker~ That is all.

Anyway, on the chickens...I need to figure out how to keep those little chickens safe from the foxes and since we are renting this house temporarily, I don't really want to have to move all the chickens and the nests and the eggs...well, you get what I mean. So the next best thing to getting fresh eggs from your own chickens is getting fresh eggs from a co-worker's chickens. On occasion my husband comes home with fresh eggs for us. Now I have to tell you a funny story about these eggs.

My Trey has a little bit of trouble eating these fresh eggs. He just can't get past the visualization he has of where the egg comes from.

Here are the fresh eggs on the left and the store bought eggs on the right. Well, when I lived with my dear friend in the big city while my kids finished school, I came home from a trip visiting the boys in the country with some fresh eggs. My friend's sweet little city girl was so excited about "fresh eggs" until I told her "I brought fresh eggs straight from the chickens butt". Now I'm sorry if this may offend but that's where they come from whether they are store bought or from a co-worker...right? She could not believe this and was then even more excited about these fresh eggs.

I thought that was quite funny as to how these little kiddos think about things...I'd hate to tell them where bacon, burgers and hot dogs come from. Sometimes it's just best not to think about that stuff.

Aren't they pretty? The difference between fresh and store bought is all the difference in the world. Fresh eggs are so much better tasting. The yolk is usually bigger and yellower (can I say that? yellower instead of more yellow? Well I guess I just did didn't I?)

Not to mention they sure look prettier than store bought. They are blue, brown, speckled, green, and white.

You can see the difference. The one on the right is the fresh egg and the one on the left is store bought.

I wanted to post some pictures of a storm that came in yesterday evening. It was so beautiful rolling in. As you look at these pictures try to imagine the smell of rain, the wind and the sound of thunder and lightening. Wished I could have gotten a picture of the lightening but it was playing shy. Just couldn't time it right!

So pretty!

Luckily I had just finished grilling our chicken. Isn't that cell tower so beautiful? I think it just makes the whole picture! NOT!!! But I guess I appreciate it when I'm making a call now don't I?

By now the bugs are going wild and the birds are no where to be seen...

Here comes the rain! Isn't that gorgeous? You can see the rain sheeting down.

We got a really good downpour. It was refreshing and clean. I love summer storms. Especially when there are NO tornadoes and I don't have to drive in it.

Relay for Life

Last night we went to the High School stadium to participate in Relay for Life. We all wore shirts we ordered from the hospital but had ordered them before we knew we would have two more kiddos. They also lost Ryan's shirt so Brittany graciously gave up hers so he could wear it.



You can't really tell because of the sun but they are all really excited about being here!

They started off with the Pledge of Allegiance and then these sweet ladies played The Star Spangled Banner on these hand bells. It was really beautiful and different.

Then The African Drum Crew entertained us. It was very cool. When they played you couldn't help but move your body to the beat...in your feet. Sorry. I can't help stuff that pops out like that.

Now before you get any crazy ideas about this little town...they have men dress up in women's clothing and they go around to the crowd asking for dontations for the cause. They tried to talk my husband into that...hahahaaaaa! Right! Like that would ever happen! This guy totally caught me taking his picture even though I was trying to be all ninja! Um...okay...please carry on with your crazy ideas...

Here's Ryan, Gabby and Dylan walking the track. The weather was good. It was warm but the wind was blowing, as it always does here, which kept it pretty cool and the pests away.

"Hey Britt! You want to walk the track?? Huh??? "

Oh! By the way...Just in case you ever want to know...

This is what a pink paintball looks like when a paintball gun "accidentally" goes off inside the house.

Yep. It got on my quilt too. It washes out pretty easily and wipes off the walls and dresser and floor really easy too. Not so easy to get off the chalky ceiling though.

I'll let you decided who "accidentally" shot the gun....

Child's Play

First off, I'm sorry about not getting posts up. Not to make excuses but I do have two extra kids hanging out and I'm just not as young as I used to be. Needless to say, I've been busy okay?

Yesterday, we went to the library where it was cool and then we went across the street to the park where it was hot. 30 minutes in the library, 10 minutes at the park. It was hot!
This park was very nice.

Besides having some really cool stuff to play on, it has scriptures randomly placed along the structures. Here's Brandon reading one now...

I have no idea what it says. Sorry. I mean come on...I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast...wait...did I even have breakfast???

Little trampolines.

Ryan's turn!

This was fun! Wall climbing. Gabby had little problem just jumping right on.

Neither did Dylan.

Balance beams...

Each piece had the name of where the money donated towards the structure came from.

Even my girl got into the fun.

Who say's 18 is too old to play? Here she is dancing her heart out on the trampoline...

Dance away baby girl....dance away!

Shooting, Fishing, and Riding

My niece and nephew are staying up here for two weeks so over the weekend we met my parents half way to make the drop off. This is the place our family goes to get away from it all. We get to do things here that we don't normally get to do. Things like shoot guns, ride on the back of a truck, fish and there are no phones, no computers and one local channel with the news. It's very peaceful and quite.

This is the place where my grandmother was raised and my daddy spent his summers here. It's a very special place.

Here's my baby and my niece learning to shoot a bb gun. Pops is supervising.

Next comes the four wheeler. This actually came back home with us. We were keeping it up here because in the big city there was a big bad wolf called a Home Owners Association and they didn't much like it. Plus there was no where to ride it so we just left it up there. But now!!! We have plenty of room in the country so we brought it home with us. That's my crazy husband by the way! I just couldn't watch anymore! The dare devil...

Wait a minute!!! Who is this??? My momma is riding the four wheeler!!!! WooHoo! Go Grandma. It was her first ride. There's Maddie right behind her...

Next is Ryan. He gave his cousin a sweet little ride. Hi guys!!!

And then comes fishing! I have a confession...I really don't care for fishing. I don't care for eating them either. That is all.

Pretty slow sometimes. I don't care for that either by the way. I'm sorry okay? I just have other things I'd like to be doing. And they don't involve sticking a worm on a hook and getting worm guts all over your hands and a stinky fish that you then have to de-hook...bleh!



Okay...my dad has a saying that if you kiss the first fish you catch than the next fish you catch will be bigger. I don't know if that is true or not but here was one of his next catches!!! Bigger, yes?

I just wanted to throw this in there. This is my dad and I have to say I was very happy about spending Father's Day with him.

He loves this tractor.

He really loves this tractor. It's his baby. He probably named it secretly. Probably something like...Christina.

Hope everyone was able to tell someone they love Happy Father's Day!