Cora...AKA Belly

My baby is turning seven years old tomorrow. I can't believe it! She is such an amazing little person. In her seven years, she has grown her hair out not once, but twice to donate to Locks of Love. She has developed a sense of humor that resembles the Royal Tenenbaums or Monty Python. She has an incredible sense of style "do these combat boots go with my dia de los muertos skirt?" and I say "ABSOLUTELY" :-) We were discussing today what she wanted to serve her party guests tomorrow...pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese (yum) and caramel apples with mini M&Ms, chocolate chips, chopped peanuts...Mark asked if we were just melting caramel squares and she said "no daddy - we are doing homemade caramel because homemade tastes better than store caramels." Geez, I love her! She is kind, she is beautiful, she is so smart, she raises worms, she loves to garden, she is my daughter.

I got the itch!

The itch to buy the farm...the itch to take my plants out of their pots and let them root into the ground. To let my children plant their roots in a home. To have a place that Mark and I can forever call our home.
I wish our path would switch on a light or point an arrow or SOMETHING! How frustrating to stand at this fork in the road and truly have no idea which part of the Y we should go on. I despise this place. Hate it. Am willing to do just about ANYTHING to get out of here. I'm ready to go pitch a tent in the middle of nowhere. But my fear is that the moment we take fate into our hands and buy our piece of Heaven, work will say "BUT we need you HERE" UGH.
I do not enjoy living in limbo. I'm a planner.
We spent a couple evenings at my parents' campground this weekend - it is really beautiful there. Lots of stars, a cutie little pygmy goat and the best Trick or Treating ever! Yup, the kids got to do a trial run with Halloween this year and start stocking up on candy early. This is an annual event at this place and it is FUN! My parents found a really great location to store their RV and spend some nice time with neighbors and friends that they can get along with. Funny thing is that the people that live right across the "road" - the woman works at Cora and Drake's school...SMALL WORLD!
So today I went to the store and grabbed some more yarn to finish Cora's sweater...I'm dreaming of the day when I'll have a big enough kitchen to spread out, cook, can, preserve and prepare..a yard where Mark can play with the kids without fear that the neighbors are going to say or do something harmful. On a beautiful day like today...I'd love nothing more than to be knitting on my back deck and looking out over our land.

SICKO

It’s cold here…cold, grey, and a little rainy. It’s a good day for snuggling under the covers. But we were out of bed by 8:00am…UGH! Mark and I are both sick…just a cold – but sick enough to mess up our weekend. We love weekends, especially fall festival weekends. It sounds good to put on a pair of jeans and wear a hoodie, hold hands while our children run around and burn off some steam. For now though we sit on the couch in our pjs, sneezing, coughing and blowing our red noses.
Oh! BTW we FINALLY sat down to watch Food, Inc. last night and lets just say I hate Monsanto a little bit more now...need to get our land A-SAP!