A quiet few days

Princess Bear went to school for a 1/2 day on Monday and it completely wore her out.  She actually had started to fall asleep in science class so I was glad I picked her up at lunch time.  She came home ate, played a bit and then took a very long nap.  Yesterday morning she was still very tired so I kept her home again.  It was a day filled with lots of sleeping for both of us.  Today school was cancelled due to the snow that happened in the middle of the night.  Once again PB slept for 12 hours.  This ick is really kicking her bottom.  Right now she's sitting here in the family room coloring and watching The Sound of Music.  She's become a bit obsessed with the Julie Andrews version.  She loved the Carrie Underwood version much to my chagrin.  My mom DVR'd the Julie Andrews version at Christmastime.  I adore that version and ruined my copy of the album from playing it so much when I was growing up.  So, here we sit watching this ageless film and I'm trying not to worry about the fact that my daughter is sitting still for a decent amount of time.  It's so unlike her.  I'm glad she's giving her body the rest it obviously needs but it scares me a bit (ok a lot).  Tomorrow is supposed to be frigid temperatures so I'm hoping that school is cancelled again.  Once I get past the worry it's nice to have some quiet cuddle time with my Princess!

Superbowl 2014

I will be the first to say that I didn't get to watch nearly as much of the game as I would have liked.  Peyton is my backup man so I was rooting for the Broncos.  Too bad they never really showed up.  Seriously what happened?  It would have been really nice for Peyton to get a 2nd ring with a different team.  He is deserving but last night was no showing of that. 

Now let's talk about the good stuff.  The commercials.  I had to wait until they hit online last night and this morning.  First let's go with the biggest yum factor.  Beckham you've still got it babe!  The man is 38 years old and still has a rockin' bod!  Also, can ANYONE tell me if the photographer in the ad is Ricki Hall?!!!?  It looks like him.  Two for 1!  (Yes I love my heavily tattooed Brits!)  Just in case you missed the commercial you can see it now.



As usual Budweiser did a fantastic job with their commercials. Being so close to St. Louis is was a big bummer when such an American icon was sold to a German company. That said they still do an outstanding job of showing American interest. We've got to "meet" the Clydesdale's and their handlers many times since we're not too far from the Lou and those horses are damn impressive (yes I'm biased since I'm a fan of draft style horses but regardless they are amazing animals!). The two Bud commercials were great. The puppy adoption was too cute.
The soldiers homecoming had me in tears (dang PMS). It was a beautiful example of patriotism. Now lets talk about what I found to be the one big "miss" of the evening. The America the Beautiful sung in different languages. Whoa! Bad call Coke. No one can ever say that I'm not proud of my country and what it stands for. I also think that one of the things that is lacking in general is the feeling that America is as beautiful and wonderful as it it. I believe that there should be a national language. I believe that anyone who wants to become a citizen should be comfortable and proficient in using the English language. This morning going through my facebook feed I saw this post from Chicks on the Right. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this same way about the Coca Cola commercial. You can see the commercial here




You can read the Chicks on the Right post HERE.

I especially love the update on the Chicks on the Right post and think this sums it up beautifully.

 UPDATE:  It occurs to me after thinking some more about it that Coke could have simply shown people of all walks of life, and of all nationalities and races singing in English - TOGETHER - and it would have sent a far more powerful  message.


I haven't even said anything about the Half time show.  I will say that I like Bruno Mars.  I'll listen to and perhaps even sing along when he's on the radio.  That said I'm a much much much bigger fan of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.  I grew up listening to the RHCP and they know how to rock.  They are an amazing live show.  Bruno Mars based on last night....not so much.  I wish there would have been more RHCP.


Other honorable mention ads go to the Chevy cow true romance commercial and the U2 Invisible download commercial.  1) because how can you not like getting a U2 song for free and 2) it reminded me that it's been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay tooooooooooo long since I've gone to a U2 concert and that it's about time.  Perhaps U2 would make a good first concert for Princess Bear.  Hmmmmm.....




So that is what my thoughts and feelings were on the Superbowl.  Aren't you glad you know?  lol 

Sunday Scramble

Everyone here is still suffering through whatever this evil ick is.  We're slowly but surely making strides towards health but the residual cough is insane.  I'm sending Princess Bear (PB) back to school for a 1/2 day tomorrow.  My darling daughter is still taking a couple of naps a day and the Dr. is not wanting her to be pushed since he lungs seem to be so sensitive anyway.  Tomorrow was supposed to be a Lukie and Aunt Sarah day but the boys are still sick so no adventures on that front.  It feels like forever since I've seen the boys!


Today was Groundhog's day.  I must say that I never really thought he was going to say that spring was coming soon.  It's been a pretty tough winter and I just couldn't picture it wrapping up quickly.  I did read an interesting post at Granny Miller A Journal Of Agrarian Life & Skills.  She always has very useful information and tidbits.  Today she discussed that today is the 1/2 point of winter.  You can read her post HERE.  Somehow it seems easier to think we're 1/2 done with winter and 1/2 towards spring.  For whatever reason it's easier to wrap my head around that.  I also don't want time to keep on flying by.  Seriously where in the world did January 2014 go??!!!??  Wasn't it just Christmas?  As PB gets older I tend to notice the time flying by faster than ever.  Now while I will admit that winter ties with summer as the least favorite of seasons I'm trying not to wish it away.  I'm trying to be content with my seed catalogs and garden plans knowing that that time will come soon enough. 

Farm Kings Season 3 Episode 7

I've got to say this was a bit more of a "heartwarming" episode if you will.  A big portion of the episode dealt with the fact that John is growing up.  It's his senior year, he needs his own car and it was senior night for the football team.  I completely understand the rite of passage of wanting his own car and the necessity of it with as spread out as they are with farm locations, home and school.  While it might in theory be nice if he could share with Lisa I don't think anyone would want to be put in that position.  She's literally all over the place all the time.  Could you imagine if you were the person who made it so she couldn't get her stuff done?  Tim says that he's going to take John car shopping.  OK.  Lisa overhears this.  This apparently wasn't ok.  This might be one of the times I think the boys were in the wrong.  Lisa is the mom and one with primary guardianship (I would guess).  She kinda has a right to have some say.  It was hilarious when they tried leaving without her but no go on that.  I liked it when Tim told her that she was just supposed to sit there and look pretty.

(Side note: Now that Tim has a little bundle of joy coming anyone think he'll care enough about the child to quit using chew?!!?)

So they get to the car lot and Lisa picks out a nice big SUV looking vehicle.  Something that most of us want our kids in for their first car.  More metal around you protects you, right?  Unfortunately it's 14k and John wants to pay outright.  I guess Lisa could have offered to pay the difference but nothing was said about that.  The saleswoman gets John in a bitty car and he likes it.  SOLD!  Now my question is can that sale possibly be legal since John isn't yet 18 and went into the office and did the paperwork by himself?  Again hilarity ensues when both boys try to ditch Lisa on the other for the ride home.  There was a touching moment when Tim was just explaining to Lisa that she was sad because she's almost at the end of the line for getting to firsts with her kids.  One more first car after this.  It has to be hard.

It was also Senior Night for the football team.  Lisa looked great and held up beautifully so big props on that one!  Another one of those definitive "the door is shutting on childhood" moments.  It was great that all the brothers that could attend were there.

A few side stories this week:
-Bitty and Cameron taking some dance lessons in preparation for their wedding.  While Tim shared nothing of his big day Bitty is obviously willingly to let the audience in some.  She's said she's not sure how much she'll allow but clearly something which is lovely.  She and Cam have a natural ease around each other that envelopes them even when they aren't feeling graceful- for example when learning some "formal" dancing.  The fact that they continued to laugh and kiss instead of get intimidated or short bodes well for how they are as a couple.  I loved it when the instructor was trying to get her to put "herself" in it and she smacked his ass.  Don't think that was what he was talking about but it was funny!   I was surprised that the teacher suggested and Cam went along with dancing together bit.  Cam's reaction was great and the fact that he went along with it for the greater good was so cute!
-Joe making tomato basil pot pies.  OK now when people say that it seems more staged this year I think this is what they're talking about.  First of all it's pretty clear that the boys don't cook.  I know, we all know that Lisa doesn't use recipes at this point.  SOMEONE for the love of G-d write down her recipes??????  It was pretty clear that Joe followed the "suggestions" well.  I did love it when he asked Lisa to pick up the paper and show him where it said "heaping".  Go Joe!  One of his more human moments. 
-Dan working for the radio station.  OK, so Dan isn't a partner so he needs to get a job in the winter BUT he still has to the the farm chores like the pigs?  Is he getting paid for that?  Once more it seems like Dan was getting the short end.  The radio thing was fun but personally I don't see Dan doing that for any amount of time.  I wonder if they'll show anymore jobs Dan tries.  He loved construction so why doesn't he go back to that?
-The boys went shooting to celebrate John's senior year.  I love the joking that they all seem to have with each other.  Pete's gun was misfiring so the co owner of the range loaned him one of his with the words that it'd never missed a bird.  It stayed true to form and Pete was back in the game.  Tim immediately wanted to trade.  Is that a brother thing?  There was also some discussion between Sam and John about whether John was going to go on to college.  Sam said something about John being a smart guy so that would be a good idea.  Those kids seem to downplay their intelligence a lot.  It's so sad.

So there you have it.  My recap on this weeks episode.  What did you think?

Poor Princess Bear

The ick in our house is still running rampant and Princess Bear just isn't feeling well.  I made an appointment with the pediatrician because her cough was starting to sound croup-y.  The Dr. said he lungs wheezy and he wasn't happy with her cough.  He's put her on Prednisone, a new inhaler and ordered a cough medicine so she can get some sleep.  He also sent me home with a prescription for an antibiotic in case we need it over the weekend.  He's relatively sure that she's coming down with a  secondary infection.  This is what my baby girl looked like when the Farm Kings were on tonight:

I also decided it was WAY past time for her bangs to be trimmed so I took care of that when she woke up. She did wake up for the last 20 minutes of the Farm Kings. I think we'll be checking that out tomorrow. I was going through some things last night and remembered this video that PB was in for Easter Seals. Can you recognize her? She was so itty bitty when she did this video for them! I can barely watch it without crying. It just reminds me how far she's come and how much farther she's going to go. I think back to those Doctors that told me shortly after she was born that she'd never be independent and live on her own. The kid is so independent it scares me! She's going to do just fine in this world! 

Things in the blogospher & internet in general this week

As I've mentioned there is some serious ick making its way through the house.  Princess Bear (PB) and I are fever free but still sound like we're going to hack up a lung any second.  We're also at the point in which PB feels well enough to be bored.  Being the awesome mom that I am I brought home one of those little activity kits in a box that you can buy at Walgreens.  In PB's case it doesn't get much better than Hello Kitty.  Yeah, that worked for about a half an hour.  We've played Candyland and Sorry.  We've watched copious amounts of TV and read a fair amount too.  I also have been hanging out online because, hey, it's just what I do.  I've decided to share some of the things.  Scroll all the way through.  It's a pretty varied list. 


There's been a fair amount of chatter about the dismal closings on Wall Street.  You combine that with Obumer giving the SOTU and things look not so peachy.  Scary thing is Matt Drudge dropped this one before any of that.  I read about this over at Rural Revolution.

What do you think about this?


Here's an interesting article on how banks are dealing with people trying to make withdrawals.  Never a good sign since it seems as unrest seems to hit in Europe before making it's way across the pond.  You can find this article HERE.



Let's talk about the cost of food and the weather a bit.  I'm thinking things are going to get very dicey in the next year or so as food costs keep on rising.  Now I'm not a prepper per se.  What I am is a gardener who believes that you should grow as much as your own food as possible.  It's safer.  You know exactly what is and more importantly what isn't in your food.  Who needs extra chemicals in their life????  While I'm not what anyone would consider a prepper there is also something to be said for having enough on hand if things hit the fan.  Perhaps it's from living through a few hurricanes and seeing how irrational people get when there is no electricity and low supplies of food and water.  That being said it's not a bad idea to have some extra on hand.  So I've definitely been checking out some gardening articles and posts.  Take a pic if gardening is your thing.
Granny Miller discusses why a snow heavy winter is a good thing!  Who knew!  Read it HERE
The Midland Agrarian discusses some gardening books he likes and why he likes them.  Anyone who is a fan of Gene Logsdon and Herrick Kimball (Whizbang guy) is ok in my book.  Read his gardening book suggestions HERE. 
Fine Gardening has some tips on why it's not too early to start HERE.
If you aren't a gardening you might want to read this post and reconsider gardening HERE


When you're not feeling well and the weather is cold as all get out is there anything better than soup to warm you up?  One of these came via my inbox yesterday and the other my blog reading list.  Check it out and see if they sound good to you.  Find them HERE and HERE.  PB is completely enthralled with the slow cooker.  Something about putting the food in it in the morning and leaving it alone only to come back to a completed meal just thrills her.  It's so cute!


As I've mentioned before I'm all for giving natural healing a try or trying it in conjunction with traditional medicine.  I've been taking Sambucus every 4 hours.  If you haven't tried it before you can find it HERE.  Great for supporting the immune system and even works against some viral infections (up to and including the flu).  PB loves when she gets to take Sambucus.  You can do a daily maintenance dose but frankly it's too expensive for us for that purpose.  When the ick hits you can bet the it's forefront on the counter.  In the past two days once again the blogosphere and my inbox came through with great herbal information.  Check out the post HERE and article HERE.  Speaking of herbal remedies I thing I've got to give these sore throat drops a try because I'm sick of artificial color in the store bought crap.  Check out the recipe HERE.



Jenna from Cold Antler Farm has a new book coming out this spring.  She posted the news HERE.  I read her first book Made From Scratch many moons ago.  Want an inspiring read on what you can do with only a small amount of land I encourage you to read it.  You can find it HERE. 


For your "awwww!  How freaking cute is that!" go to The Country Chick and check out Playing with Goats.  You can find it HERE.  PB is completely in love and wants to know how soon we can move outside the city limits!  It truly is too cute! 


MindBodyGreen had an article about some simple ways to get happy today.  Always a good idea even better if you're stuck inside sick and dealing with artic like temperatures! Check it out HERE. 


Just because I feel like being a bit snarky.  Check this out.  Baby face wipes made with all kinds of stuff- albeit natural so your child tastes sweet.  Seriously???!!!!???  You know some idiot first time parent is going to buy this too. This is just one of those times that even being natural isn't enough to redeem it.  You can see more about Neat Cheeks HERE. 


I adore One Good Thing by Jillee.  She's always whipping up something useful and gives you her opinion on what works and what does (like when she tried 4 different ways of cleaning her iron to come up with the best method!).  She was having trouble with her hair getting very dry in winter.  I've been rubbing coconut oil on PB's hair for the same reason but hadn't thought about adding essential oils.  I actually have several containers of coconut oil with lavender essential oil whipped into for my uber dry hands.  It's a go to in this house since it is very moisturizing and very healing.  Read about her hair care remedy HERE. 


I also came across this darling tutorial for lined bags on In Color Order.  I have 2 count em folks 2 sewing machines that I have absolutely no freaking idea how to use.  My sister has 1.  My mom refuses to teach us because she's scared we'll hurt her machine.  My sister and I keep saying we're going to take lessons.  I think the time is NOW! :)  Check out the darling little bags HERE. 



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Ick and the icky SotU

Well, the ick that Princess Bear (PB) had is working it's way through house at a rapid clip.  I was at the Dr. yesterday because whatever it is has really compromised my lungs and triggered my asthma so I'm now on my 3rd or 4th round of prednisone since the week before Thanksgiving.  It's truly evil stuff but it does work.  I'm not a wheezing orchestra.  I did wake up running a 102.4* temp this morning.  So not a happy camper.  I've been doing the alternate advil and tylenol every 3 hours and now am in a normal range.  I am more than willing to let  a temp run it's course- to a certain extent.  102* is past what I'm willing to deal with.  My parents are both coughing like made which is how PB & I both started this.  Fun and games.  I also had a bunch of appointments this week that I had to cancel.  The pulmonary function test that is pretty dang important in the scheme of getting my asthma under better control is off until at least March.  My Dr said there is no way my lungs are going to be ok for at least 3 weeks.  I love it when the Dr. is so positive- NOT!  Fortunately I love my Dr.  The office was deader than all get out since we're once again having artic temps here in the midwest.  Any appointment that weren't completely necessary cancelled. Therefore Dr. Adams and I sat there discussing gardening.  He's a pretty big gardener too.  He asked if I'd ever used seeds from Seed Savers in Iowa.  I told him where he could get them locally to avoid shipping.  I also told him where I'm getting some blueberry bushes this year.  The sell the bushes at 3 years of age so you get berries the first year.  I'm so not big in the patience department!  So, PB and I have been holding down things by just trying to get rest and play it low key.  I've been tearing through magazines and most of a book.  PB is having a ball playing her leap pad and watching TV.  She's not going to be well enough to go back to school tomorrow so I do think I'll have to declare at least 1/2 the day a technology free time.  Here's a pic of PB hanging with her leap pad

Now let's get political for a few minutes.  Tonight is the State of the Union Address.  For anyone that has been reading my blog for awhile it's no secret that I do not like Barak Obama and have zero, nil, nada respect for the man.  He has no respect for our Constitution so he's unworthy of my respect.  His comment about just needed his phone and pen to change things a few weeks ago just proves how arrogant this man is.  He has no respect for the law of the land or the Constitution.  Why he hasn't been impeached yet I really don't understand.  I did like it that Boehner reminded him that the country does in fact have a Constitution.  You can read about it HERE.  I'm also not a huge Boehner fan but for once it seems like he has reached down, grabbed a pair and manned up so I'll give him props on that.  In all honesty I can't say I'm a fan of the SOTU under most Presidents.  It's been turned into a dog and pony show with who is having what guest and what it stands for.  Who stands and applauds and what time.  Who bucks there party and stands and applauds although there party doesn't really support whatever it is.  Under the best of circumstance I find the SOTU hard to watch.  Under this President I find it almost virtually impossible.  Unless it's going to be a drinking game (take a shot every time the Idiot in Chief says immigration reform!) or something to that effect I just can't handle it.  My parents who are pretty in line with my feelings on this President will watch the SOTU.  More power to them.  I just don't want to have my blood pressure go that high.  So will you be watching the SOTU tonight?