Lookie what I made!!

I am so proud of myself. It is well known in my family that I CAN NOT sew. I have tried and tried in the past. Both my Mom and my Step Mom have tried to teach me... numerous times, but usually I just make a mess!

The sewing machine somehow manages to get away from me and stitch things that aren't supposed to be stitched. I stick and poke myself with the pins, pin things together that don't go together and on and on and on...

BUT suddenly I CAN SEW! I took on this little handbag first, just for fun. I have been knitting for a few years and enjoy designing my own things, like sweaters for my little dog, scarves, washclothes, pretty easy stuff... so I thought "I can design a little hand bag and I'll just sew it by hand!" And I DID it! I am so proud of myself right now, I just had to share =)

This is the front of the little hand bag. I used brown felt for the outside with raspberry embroidery floss to sew it all together. I lined it with a pretty bright blue felt.

Here is a picture of the inside. There is a pocket on each side...

I made this little applique out of other felt and the center of the flower is a button. The handles are just foot long dowels! I think it's so cute and it works well too! I plan on painting the dowels brown to match and then it will be finished!

So after that, I thought I was pretty impressive. I moved onto a drawstring back pack. I've been needing one for when I go on walks and bike rides with the boys, but they are so expensive! I looked one over at the store the other day and thought it couldn't be too hard. Well it wasn't exactly easy, but I did manage it!! Again, no pattern, I just looked at the draw string back pack that my boys have and figured it out as best I could. I had to make up a few things, but it WORKS! I am so excited!!

It's a linen fabric, double up to make it a little stronger. I embroidered the flowers onto the front by hand, then sewed it all up, by hand =)


It's not white, but a nice off white. The cording is natural cotton clothesline cord that I had in the closet! (This is all stuff I had around the house, I didn't have to go buy anything except an embroidery hoop.)


So there you go! I DID it! I have all kinds of ideas in my head now. I can barely cut up t-shirts fast enough to provide myself with fabric! I found an idea in a magazine on how to make grocery bags out of used t-shirts. I've sewed up a few, it would go faster with a sewing machine, but I enjoy doing it by hand.

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

"The North Wind and the Sun"

The North Wind and the Sun had an argument one day. They disputed which of them was the stronger. A traveler came along the road at that time, and the Sun suggested a way to resolve the argument. Whoever was able to cause the traveler to remove his coat would be the stronger. The Wind accepted the challenge and the Sun hid himself behind a cloud. The Wind began to blow. Yet the harder he blew, the more the traveler clutched his coat about himself. The Wind sent rain, even hail. The traveler clung even more desperately to his coat. Finally, in despair, the Wind gave up. The Sun came out and began to shine in all his glory upon the traveler. Quite soon the man had removed his coat. "How did you do that?" asked the Wind. "It was easy," said the Sun, "I lit the day. Through gentleness I got my way."

Aesops Fables

When I was a young gal I used to go up to a ranch outside of Livingston, on the Bridger Mountain side, and participate in a Natural Horsemanship Clinic. I was the youngest to participate, at the age of 11.

I continued to participate through High School, they had it annually, I learned a lot from the clinician, Bill Smith, and had a great time with all the people. The clinic was 4 days long and every day was FUN!

When I turned 22 or 23 I bought my little Arabian mare. Her name was Abby. I trained her from the ground up, myself and thought it would be fun to take her to the clinic up at the ranch.

I had chosen to ride Abby English, instead of Western, she was a small mare and the English saddle look nice on her and she was such a wonderful mover, I wanted to use her for Dressage (this is a French word that means "to train"). Dressage is actually a precise way of training that teaches the horse to be supple and harmonize with it's rider. I LOVE it =)



Anyway, the people that come to this clinic are Cowboys and Cowgirls mostly. Or people that like to trail ride and desire to have a better relationship with their horses. They all had big western saddles on their horses. Most of them, including the clinician gave me a hard time about my little saddle. They ribbed me for all of the 4 days. On the last day we were taken into the big outdoor arena with a big bunch of cattle. They were steer ropin cattle and didn't much like us being in there. Our assignment was to go, cut a steer out of the bunch and take it all the way to the other end of the arena, away from the group. Everyone took their turn, they rode up, cut a steer from the group and tried to chase it up the arena. Working as a team with their horse, of course. No one managed to do it.

Then it was my turn. They all ribbed me, teasing and asking if I needed to put a different saddle on, one with a horn to hang onto. They teased and told me not to fall off, and hooted and hollered at me. I took it well I must say.

Abby hadn't ever seen a steer before. I took her slowly up to the group so she could get a good look. A white steer with black spots caught her eye. She headed directly for him. He stood his ground watching us. Abby walked right up to him, nuzzled him with her nose, then started to lick him! He stood there enjoying the attention. Then I turned Abby and started walking up the arena... and that steer followed us! He followed us all the way to the other end of the arena. And all because Abby made friends =) We didn't use force or try to scare the steer. She just gently went in and made friends.

I will always remember that. Oh! We shut them right up too. No one else teased me about not having a horn to hang onto the rest of the day =) Abby made quite an impression on that group of Cowboys and Cowgirls and on the steer!

All Things Bright and Beautiful,

All Thing Wise and Wonderful,

All Creatures Great and Small,


The Lord God Made Them All.

Bling

Angus has grown! He weighed 5.6 pounds just a few months ago. Yesterday I took him in again and he weighs 7.2 pounds! I had just told Hubby that his collar was too small and we needed to get another one. Then he was weighed and in fact he has grown!

So... he got a new collar. It's so cute. It's turquoise with BLING =) It's his first BLING.

And BLING gives me an excuse to do a photo op! So here ya go... I couldn't pick, so am posting a few of him. He is so photogenic =)

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

When I was 12 my Grandparents took me to China. It was at once, exciting and terrifying. We went to Hong Kong, and all over China. We flew in big jets and tiny little out board motor planes, the kind with the propellers on the wings. That one was thrilling to me! So loud that if the person next to you turned to say something, you could only see their mouth moving, but couldn't hear the words. We went to Thailand and Nepal. In Nepal there were TONS of red monkeys everywhere. They climbed around on the temples and followed you, hoping for a hand out. In Thailand we were in the city and there were men that drove these little three wheeled vehicles, whiping in and out of traffic at terrifying speeds. But to a 12 year old it was invigorating!

We climbed the Great Wall. I was 12 and could barely manage the "Women's Side" of the wall. At times you would be standing up straight and could darn near reach out in front of you and TOUCH the wall. The going was tough. We had a women with us, she was in her late 70's and her name was Myrtle. She climbed that wall like she was going on a Sunday stroll. Amazing. It was funny because to look at her you never would have guessed at her tenacity!

The "Woman's Side of the Great Wall." The "Man's Side" was amazingly steeper.

That is Myrtle there all the way to the right with her hand on the wall.

We were in the Tiananmen just before the great massacre. We signed autographs for the students. I remember they were so excited to be talking to "Free" Americans. They smiled HUGE smiles and were so talkative. Then the next day, they were dead. They showed it on the TV there. They showed some of the bodies still smoking. I remember my stomache rolled and I thought I would be sick. Coming from America, they don't show that kind of footage on our TV's, well they didn't used to anyway.

The Forbidden City. It's made all of wood, so was closed when we were there because of the demonstrations. This photo is looking out across Tiananmen Square.

The students were camped out in the Square. They had been living there for awhile. It didn't smell very good...

These were 'tents' they had made for shelters.

We rode Elephants. The man that handled our elephant was very attracted to my blonde hair. He allowed me to ride on the elephants neck, with my legs tucked in behind it's ears. If I squeezed too hard with one or the other leg, the elephant would do things, bow, nod it's head, turn. My Grandmother thought that he allowed me to sit up there so he could better see my hair. I had on short overalls and one of my straps kept slipping down my arm. He would gently reach forward and move the strap back up to my shoulder and then touch my hair. I got to feed the elephant bananas. You put the whole thing directly into their mouth!

We rode camels. At the Great Wall there was a double hump camel that we got to ride around. My Grandmother got stuck up there! She was wedged in between the humps (Mind you she is a little woman.) She was yelling "Jim! Jim!" to my Grandpa and he had to climb up there to get her down. I was standing on the ground laughing and laughing. As my Grandpa pulled her off, the camel opened it's mouth and let out a HUGE yawning groan. It was so funny!!

After the massacre, we had to be shuttled around under the cover of darkness because the Chinese people blamed Americans for the students death. Saying that if it wasn't for American's putting the idea of Freedom into their heads, the massacre would never have happened. If they saw us, riots would start. We were shot at, with real guns. We had to run from our vehicles to the hotels and they would take us to undisclosed airports at night, to fly us around.

I didn't know this at the time, but China had closed it's borders after the massacre. They were not allowing anyone in or out of their country. I hear that it was a terrifying time for my Mom and Dad back here in America. They didn't know if they would see us again. The president stepped in and got us out. And here I thought we were just having so much fun sneaking around that we decided to stay longer!

The best memory that I have of that time is when we were in a small village way out in the middle of nowhere. We had been to a tomb of an emporer and were now in this village to see an art gallery. I was bored, as were a few others in the tour and we headed back out to our bus. We were just standing around chatting, when we noticed that we had drawn quite a crowd. Many of the people in that village had never seen a white person and they were facinated. We figured that we weren't much to look at just standing around talking, so we gave them something to see... We did the Hokey Pokey! They LOVED it, clapping and trying to sing along. We even grabbed some of the elderly out of the crowd to do it with us. I will never forget that. It was amazing.

I also remember in Thailand, I think it was, we were at the airport and I saw one of the people from our group, hiding in a luggage rack, being wheeled out. I turned to my Grandmother and said something about it. She shushed me, then when we got back to the hotel she told me that he had been caught with drugs. They were smuggling him out of the country because if you where caught with drugs there you were executed. He was the second youngest of our group, probably 19 or 20. I was the youngest. I was astonished, as I thought these things only happened in the movies.

Typing about this keeps bringing up more and more memories! I will stop now as I never intended this to become a book. But maybe it should some day... I hope you enjoyed my little trip down Memory Lane!

Footsteps

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. I enjoy reading blogs written by teenagers for Christ. I have also been reading other blogs about women for Christ. I revel in their words. I revel in their desire to follow in Christ's footsteps. I revel in their desire to be more Christ like in their daily behavior and the choices they make. It is so easy to read this and desire it. It is another thing entirely, to LIVE it.

How do you know that the daily choices that you make are what Christ is asking you to do? How do you know that the decisions that you make, big or small, are what Christ wants? This is something that I struggle with, daily. I want to follow him, walk in his footsteps, but how do I know that I am?

It is difficult raising a family in this uncertain world. We don't have a church as we haven't found one that suits us as a family. We talk about God and Jesus all the time in our household, I read Bible stories to my boys. They ask questions and we look up the answers in the Bible. I feel that belonging to a church is not a prerequisite to following in Christ's footsteps. Although I DO understand the idea of having a group of like minded people that are YOUR people. I do crave that sometimes. Then I head out into the Blogishere and find them here.

The women that I find online are so awe-inspiring and filled with Christ's love that I feel that I have my people here. Thank you to all the women that touch my life on a daily basis, either through my blog or through your own. Thank you to all those that I know through my blog and those that don't know me, or that I "stalk" their blogs. Thank you.

I will continue to walk in Christ's footsteps, knowing that if I have a misstep, he will welcome me back with open arms, a warm loving smile, and a twinkle in his eye.

Please Help!

I sat down to read a few blogs this morning and came across this... I Need A Kidney Now. It touched my heart and so I am putting it on my blog, hoping my friends will help spread the call for help. Maybe you know someone that knows someone that could help this beautiful couple. Please post a link to their web page on your blog and help communicate their need.

Thank you!!

Lost Tooth

Logan lost his first tooth!! Oh the excitement around here!! He has been waiting and waiting for this day... He was most proud because he didn't even cry. He then listed kids at school that told him they cried when they lost their teeth, and he witnessed his brother becoming a bit hysterical when he lost his first tooth. So he puffed his little chest out and repeatedly told us that he didn't even cry!

My baby is growing up....


The tooth fairy left him $5!! The first tooth is worth the most =)

Sigh... I wish I had some teeth to lose...

Great Prizes, Great Blog!!

Tara over at kidz is hosting a HUGE party next week and everyone is invited!! Please head on over to see her, read all about it and join in the fun! You REALLY don't want to miss this =)

The really big prizes are:

2nd Runner Up: $50 gift certificate to Zappos (A great online shoe store)
1st Runner Up: $100 gift certificate to IKEA
Grand Prize: $200 gift certificate to Target!!

Go check it out to see the other daily prizes... kidz!

Reading

I just love the fact that my oldest, Ben, can read to ME. I love the fact that he loves to read. He reads to me, to Hubby, and to Logan. We all enjoy it. He will even act out scenes for us! If there is an exclamation point, you can bet that he will notice and read the sentence appropriately!

Ben loves to read books that are scientific. He loves to learn while he reads. He checks out books about Chameleons, Dinosaurs, (after all he is going to grow up to be a Paleontologist, a fact that he shares with everyone he meets...) Volcanoes, Crocodiles, Cats, ect. He just enjoys these books so much. I think it's great as I happen to find these kinds of books, boring =) I LOVE a good story book. So to me it's doubly fascinating that Ben likes such scientific books.

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

This is me and John perched on the side of the mountain. This photo was taken from our driveway!

When I was in High School, we lived in a small neighborhood, way up in the mountains. We were about 20 minutes from town, but tucked away, down a narrow, winding road, snuggled into the mountain. I had horses and rode pretty much every day. When it was nice out in the spring I would skip school, to go home and ride my horse. I was LUCKY!

I had two very good friends, Erin and John. We were inseparable after school. We rode in the afternoons, sometimes well into the evenings, sometimes at night! We rode for hours and hours and never hit a fence, unless it was an old broken fence half buried in the ground.

We raced and played tag through the trees. We saw all kinds of wild life, chased deer, and tried to chase elk. Once when I was by myself I was chased by a bear! Luckily I was on a VERY smart horse and he got us out of there!

This one night will stay in my memory forever. It was a relatively warm fall evening. It was still getting dark early, but we didn't mind. Off we went for an adventure, Erin, John and I. At this time I had my trusty Mustang, Katie, who was the BEST mountain horse EVER! John rode a little Arabian gelding and Erin was riding her Quarter Horse mare.

My Mustang, Katie Garza.

John thought it would be fun to call in some elk. They were in rut and we could hear them bugling all around. John let loose with a very good imitation of their call and we waited, holding our breath waiting for.... something. John let loose another call. We waited. Suddenly, very close by, we heard crashing and grunting. Then from a different direction we heard more crashing and grunting.

John had managed to call in TWO angry bulls.

We spun the horses and took off. You DO NOT want to be in the middle of that!! We ran as fast as the horses could run. By this time it was getting pretty dark. We sprinted across a small meadow, back into the thick trees and burst out across the dirt road that ran through that part of the mountain. We headed across the road and into another meadow just off the road. It was good and dark by now. All I could hear was Katie's breathing. I held my own breath trying to hear John and Erin. All around me was heavy breathing! Just then the moon came out from behind the clouds and I saw eyes glinting at me from the darkness...

We had run smack into the middle of a herd of elk! The cows raised their heads, snorted and took off. The horses moved with them, there was little choice in the matter and we were off again. John and Erin were right in there with me. It was the MOST thrilling thing to be running with an entire herd of elk. The only way to get to do that in the wild, is to surprise them, as we did. They are wiley and quick. It's nearly impossible to sneak up on them. With all the bugling and bulls around they didn't expect the running animals to be US!

We weren't able to keep up with them for long. They hit the trees at top speed and disappeared. The horses were unable to keep up when moving through the trees, plus they were getting worn out. All that running around in the dark!

We walked the horses home, excitedly talking about what had happened. We all knew that we would never experience anything like that ever again in our lifetimes. We were glad that we had had that chance.

What great times we had in those mountains!

10 things I like about Me

I just want to remind you to head on over to the 10 Things I Like About Me post and write your list in my comments!! Be sure to read the rules so you understand how it works... You will have your name entered into my drawing at the end of the month for a FUN prize =)

I am going to do this on the first Monday of every month, so check back often!

Exercising

On Saturday I exercised. I HATE exercising. But this day, both my boys did it with me. We were doing kicks and punches, breathing exercises and stretches. Then we moved onto sit ups. We were in the middle of 100 sit ups when Logan announced that he couldn't do any more because his skull hurt.

I thought that was strange. Why on earth would your skull hurt from doing sit ups?

He walked over to the door to let Angus in, and holding his stomach he again said, "My skull really hurts!"

He meant his rib cage hurt! He thought it was called his skull. LOL

I love the things he comes up with!!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Hubby,
Happy Birthday to yoouououou!!

We had a pretty low key day today. We all laid around this morning, watching August Rush. If you haven't seen this movie, then you really should. It's wonderful!!

Then we headed into town, so Hubby could play his basketball. On the way home we stopped at the Good Food Store and bought a yummy organic pizza and some organic chocolate covered almonds. Yum!!

Now we have eaten and feel fat and quite happy. We are also quite enjoying the movie, The Three Amigos. Funny!!

My Hubby ROCKS!!

Something that Hubby does for me when I'm feeling sad or even mad is, he brings me home my favorite flowers, daisies. He is very thoughtful this way and knows how much flowers mean to me. What a sweet Hubby!

Sunday is Hubby's 32nd birthday. Finally he will be 32!! (I've been 32 since November and believe me, I hear about how I'm the "older" woman LOL I'm such a cradle robber!)

For his birthday, I covered a composition book with some really cool alligatory paper and then wrote him a letter inside. Every year I will write him a birthday letter inside this book, so he can go back and read them whenever he wants! I thought it was a pretty ingenious idea, since we don't really have extra $$ for a present, I NEVER know what to buy him anyway and we can see what changes our lives go through over the years.

My Hubby Rocks!

Thursday

Both the boys have colds and woke up feeling pretty yucky. But today at school they were going on a little field trip into town to see a Chinese Acrobat Circus. They didn't want to miss that so, I took them to school, they went on the trip and then I picked them up. In the middle of all this... one of the other Moms' and I were talking and she told me that Strep Throat is going around school right now... WHAT!? Ugg... I had that twice when I was in 4th grade and again the beginning of 5th grade. It's terrible. It takes forever to get over it. Yuck!

So after I picked them up, we headed into our Cost Care facility in Stevensville, thank God for them! They are half the price of our regular Doctor. I am really so very thankful for them. The boys were checked out and all is well! They don't have Strep, just really nasty colds. So I will keep them home tomorrow too so they can get some rest. Poor guys!

On our way to Cost Care, both boys were pretty nervous about seeing a "Doctor". Logan asked me, "Mom! Will they cut a chunk of my neck off?"

WHAT!? It's so funny to hear what their little imaginations are thinking. He thought that to check for Strep, the Doctor would have to take a piece of his throat. LOL

Kids....

Dandelion Wishes

How well this goes with my Wednesdays Walk Down Memory Lane!

This is a favorite things swap that Dandelion Wishes is hosting and it sounds like FUN! Since I'm not spending money on anything lately, I think I will participate in this. I can do it!! I think you should do it to0... not only do you get to share YOUR favorite things with someone, they will share THEIR favorite things with you!! What a way to try new things. I'm always up for that =)

Go to Dandelion Wishes to learn more about this GREAT swap!

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

Flowers. Everyone likes flowers. They are pretty to look at. One of God's most simple and beautiful creations, I think. They smell delicious. Some even smell good enough to eat! At least my boys think so =)

When Ben was three, he learned that you can eat certain flowers. His Nana, my Mom, and Mooma my Grandma, his Great-Grandama, taught him about eating Johnny Jump Ups and Dandelions. He loved to eat flowers! We had to watch him so he wouldn't eat anything not etible. He would toddle outside and hog down dandelions. Then he would come up to me, grinning and his little mouth would have a HUGE yellow ring around it. Obviously we have never sprayed our dandelions around here. =) When we walked go over to my Grandma's, Mooma's, he would eat her Johnny Jump Ups, that line her sidewalk.

Then Logan came along and Ben happily taught him this neat trick. Now they both eat Dandelions and Johnny Jump Ups. When we go to other people's house they love to show this off. People get the funniest looks on their faces. Kind of like.... YUCK! I laugh because growing up my grandma, Mooma, would often put Johnny Jump Ups in our salad. They really do spruce up a boring old salad!

Did you know that Dandelions are a natural liver cleaner? Horses love to eat them as well. Their tongues turn black when they eat them. My kids' tongues are usually green after eating a bunch of them =) The boys pick them and chomp off the heads. They leave the stems behind. They don't like the taste of the Dandelion milk =)

Have you ever tried a Dandelion? They are actually sweet! Both my Mom and I tried one, to see what the boys liked so much... well no wonder! They really do taste good =)

So around here, we can't wait for the Danelions to show their fuzzy little faces. Luckily we grow more Dandelions than grass in the spring. It keeps my boys busy!

Here's to Hope

Here's to hoping that the rest of this year only gets better for us! Actually I guess that will have to wait until spring, when they officially kick us out of our home... Maybe after THAT things will get better for our little family!

The month of January was a kick-you-in-your-guts kind of month around here. I barely had time to post. And when I did have time, I felt that there wasn't anything nice or good to share.

THEN I forgot the first Monday yesterday!!! I can't believe it!! I had thought it over, wanted to have the 10 Things I Like About Me post and the winner from last months drawing posted... and I never got to do it!

So I'll do it today. I know it's not tradition, but you know what! Sometimes you have to go with the flow... and the flow is that this week, Tuesday is our Monday!! So here we go...

It's Monday!! You know what that means =) It's time for the 10 Things I Like About Me! Here is how it works;

1) I will start us off with a list of 10 things that I like about me.
2) Then I want YOU to write 10 things that YOU like about YOU, and post them in My Comments.
3) Then, I take all the people that play, put their names in a hat and my boys draw a winner! I'll post the lucky winner on my blog, the first Monday of NEXT month. Yes! You get a PRIZE for telling me 10 things you like about you!!

I know, I know, it goes against everything we were taught as kids about being "humble" and "not tooting our own horn"... Well Toot Away!! I WANT you to!!

I'll start:

10 Things I Like About Me

1) I like my smile. Even my eyes twinkle when I smile.
2) I like my laugh. It's loud and obnoxious, but I don't care!
3) I like my eyes. They are light brown with gold flecks in them.
4) I like my eye lashes. They are black... I hardly ever have to wear mascara.
5) I like my simple way of living. We don't have much, but then again we don't need much!
6) I love my families. I have a few =)
7) I love my sense of people. I mean just look at my BFF, Teresa, I REALLY know how to pick em!
8) I like my pudgy body. It's soft and snuggly.
9) I like my wardrobe. Simple and comfy! My two favorite words when it comes to clothes =)
10) I like that I'm so funny... I really get a kick out of myself!


And the WINNER from last months post is.................... (Drum...... roll......)...............

Annie from writers and witches, and words,Oh My!

You have won a hand made 100% cotton scarf!! It's multi-colored and very sassy =) So please email me (theladybugfarm@gmail.com) your mailing address and off it will go.

Thanks for playing my game with me. It makes life so much sweeter to have people to play with =)

So on with the show!! I have a great prize lined up for this month!!

New Pictures of Angus!

I haven't posted pictures of Angus for awhile, so I thought it was time! Here ya go!