...a New Beginning

The time is here. My children and I were able to stand tall and celebrate the accomplishment of my husband. On Saturday, June 12th, Mark walked for his graduation. His degree made it through 5 children, a crazy wife (that's me!), a move to Florida, a move back to Ohio, and switching of the degree from high grades to lower ones. During this time, we've experienced Cora being born into our family, Gage's tonsils being removed, Drake getting his first set of stitches, Tiffany moving on to adulthood, and Kait moving to be with her mother and choosing to come back to us. We've had struggles in our marriage, just as any other couple does...but we've made it. Today, Mark and I are both college graduates. Through all the struggles - we have taught our children and hopefully others around us that if something is important enough, you will work hard enough, focus well enough, find those little pockets of time to relax and rejuvenate enough to prepare for the next wave, and claw your way through until you reach that goal. I spent most of Saturday morning with tears in my eyes and running down my cheeks...filled with emotion, filled with pride for my husband, honored to be a part of this accomplishment for Mark, excited to applaud him, wondering what the future now holds for us, knowing that fate is watching this step in Mark's life and hoping that our next door will soon be opening.
Someone once asked Mark if he was "walking" for graduation and my response to that was "Fuck YES he's walking"!!!

We've Added to Our Orchard!

Yesterday the Home Depot had a bunch of their fruit trees at 50% (or more) off!!! So we took advantage and bought two yellow delicious apple trees and one each of peach, pear and tangerine.
I can't wait to make pies and fresh fruit salad and can for the winter and make applesauce, peach sauce, pear sauce and...Oh! Let's just say "I can't wait!"
The kids picked some OH SO YUMMY raspberries today. I still haven't tried any raspberries yet this year - but I hear that ours are DELICIOUS...

There's no place like home...but where is that?

Being away from our apartment makes us all realize how that is truly NOT our home...just simply a place where we lay our heads while our land waits for us to be ready. It's all up to money now...we've readied the family members that might have have issues with us potentially moving away - we all feel like where we are isn't where we are meant to be. Maybe we are wrong - but it just doesn't feel like us anymore in Ohio. I feel like work will be coming with an opportunity for us. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking...but we feel that there is a better place for us. One where we can utilize the Earth, sun, water, air and land to best the needs of our family. Mark and I sat down today with the plan that we have developed for our barn home. We compared room sizes to those in my parents' home to see if we are being realistic and...we are. We know that we want space for our family as it stands now - but we also want space to fit our family in the future and guests for the near future - but we also don't want to be overwhelmed when our family is grown and has left the farm. We want to be smart about how we position the home, how we run the electricity (and making sure our home is conducive to being "off grid"), take advantage of the rain water run off, and utilize our gray water.
I got my motorcycle permit this weekend. Kait got a scooter and in Ohio you need to have your motorcycle endorsement in order to ride on the street. So since Mark and Kait will both be able to ride - I figured that I would just try it out and take the test and I passed. Now I just have to work to do the "road test" and I'll be road worthy...FEAR ME PEOPLE! Just kidding! I mean, it's a scooter...how bad can it be?!
I'm feeling the need to be creative - since the garden is growing (for now) and I don't need to get my hands dirty there - I feel like creating something with yarn and a hook! I want to try a sweater - crocheting a sweater. I don't know when I'll start or how it will go or how much cursing there will be - but I'm feeling like it is soon.

Summa Cum Laude Cords

11 more days! Mark will be walking down the aisle in his cap and gown, grabbing his diploma with his Summa Cum Laude Cords draped around his shoulders. Yup - that's right...I married me a smarty! I'm so excited about what this means for our lives.

Crafting playground and Big Fish

I need to make a skirt today...I've made my daughter, Cora, a few items in the past; however, when one of my friends saw the skirt I made (made with Dia de los Muertos fabric) she and her daughter fell in love with it! Now, I need to make her daughter one! They brought the fabric last weekend...and I haven't had any time to set up the sewing maching (much less actually sew) - this is another reason I can't wait to have a house - the plan is to have a set crafting area. Imagine a place where all my fabric is sorted out, yarn (along with my crochet hooks and knitting needles) will be easily accessible, the sewing machine will always be set up and ready to go and a list of started/potential projects will be pinned into the board on the wall. Ahh sound nice doesn't it?

We went to Grand Lake St. Mary yesterday - I actually had to do some store visits in the area (for work) so I grabbed the family and off we went. It's such a nice (long) ride...but what an amazing sight when the lake peeks out from the farm land. It's too cold to get into the water yet - but we plopped down on the rocks and just stared at the water. Ever see the movie Big Fish? I dry out too if I'm out of the water too long. My energy is drained. This place has me drained. I don't understand the nonsense destruction - for example, we went to our garden yesterday and someone had disconnected our hose from the rain barrel and turned the barrel to ON - so it drained all 55 gallons into the ground around the barrel. There was no benefit to them for this. Just waste. Just disrespect for other peoples things. It's disappointing to say the least.

However - AUGUST...sweet August. That is the plan - out the door August 1. We've been waiting for work to give us the word on when/if they want me to move to another location for a new program...but we are going to take control of our own destiny. If we haven't heard anything by the first of August the plan is to move to another place and go month-to-month for a while - hopefully we will hear something before then though and give us new hope and new dates to look forward to.

Mark graduates in LESS than three weeks (2 weeks - 6 days to be exact) - JOY! We are going to be doing the graduation announcements today and hopefully sending them out Mon/Tues!!

MOOSE

So sad...took a walk to the garden with Blue this morning and found that someone or something had eaten a good majority of our strawberries. I was so mad. I immediately assumed that one of the nightmare neighbors had something to do with this. However, I saw one of my favorite little guys and we talked about how the strawberries were gone - he seemed genuinely surprise by this. But then our conversation quickly changed with a "guess what I saw!!!!" - "what?" I said just as excited..."A MOOSE" - this little guy was so excited to tell me about the BIG moose he saw (of course I assumed he meant TOY moose) - but then he proceeded to tell me about how the moose got scared and ran down the road toward the park. WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE!!?? Have I mentioned that I live in Southwest Ohio and last time I checked...moose ain't from around these parts!? So I looked at him and said "do you mean a deer?" and with the CUTEST grin, like he just realized how silly he sounded (and he's only four), he goes "oh yeah...deer" (grin). Aww my heart just melted - so cute. I laughed and we talked about deer and how neat that was to see a deer just walking around in our suburban neighborhood and that MAYBE just maybe it was actually the deer not the little bastards that ate our berries. We talked about how he shouldn't go up to a deer (as memories of my first deer approach flooded my brain - along with the snort and hoof pound "challenge" that the deer offered me). I also told him to tell me when he sees Mr. Deer again - because I'm a little jealous!
The pots might be on the move...I don't know - I just don't want to lose EVERYTHING...ALL the time. It's so frustrating.

Masochist

Ok...ok...I posted to FB that I must be a masochist because I did it! I planted the garden. I spent three hours in my garden yesterday with Drake, Cora and one of the neighborhood boys weeding, cutting back the grass that surrounds the area, planting all kinds of goodies, adding the wire "protectors" around the planting hills and installing tomato stakes. FWEW! We planted corn, beans, butternut and acorn squash, pumpkin, tomatoes (regular and cherry), cucumbers, green peppers and carrots. I need to get some good compost to add a layer to the potato boxes. There is one bed that we aren't going to use this year and I need to pull down the rest of the leftover lettuce from last season. I also need to build a couple trellises We should be good to go after that.
While I hate to put so much energy into something, just to have it destroyed or to move away from it - I just love watching it grow. I just love the taste of fresh fruits and veggies. I love our walks to the back of the building and watching our children explore the gardens for signs of life. I just keep thinking about our home with our gardens and our animals. I keep thinking about the Florida potential in our lives and imagine this beautiful lush farm mixed in with neighbors who are struggling to grow grass in sand. I imagine us composting and collecting our rain to grow the food that will feed my children.
On a side note - we received a letter about Gage - he has been accepted into the Math honors 7 program for next year. If he does well - then he will go into Algebra I in 8th grade (PROUD MAMA)...in addition, his art teacher sent us a hand written letter requesting that Gage join the art club next year, due to his unique style. Cora and Drake are doing amazing too! I'm really excited to see what this next year brings us.