Worth Stopping For

I was just looking out my window and a fella was riding his bike by one of my neighbor's houses. He stopped his bike, got off, walked to one of their lovely rose bushes, and took a deep sniff.

He has the right idea, my friends.


Oh, and much gratitude to my neighbors for creating such beauty!

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That Chicken Look

I walked out to our chickens' yard holding a bowl of goodies. They eagerly ran up to me clearly expecting cottage cheese or at least some yummy seeds. So when I put the bowl of fresh organic green beans down for them they gave me the same look that my kids used to when I'd give them green beans.


Chickens: "Um, really? This is what we ran over here for?"


But being chickens they went ahead and ate it...unlike my kids.



I was looking at Juliet Crane's work on Pinterest and found myself inspired to take a left-handed stab at painting my chickens.

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Eggcellent!

It happened! One of our chickens finally laid an egg!!!!!

It's not a huge egg, but it's a perfectly fabulous egg. And tonight we shall dine on this mid-size oval eggstraordinaire.


Hard boiled? Nope.

Over easy? No way.

Poached? Not a chance.


No, this special egg will be scrambled and divided into four equal servings.


I just know it'll be eggcellent!


P.S. Painting an egg with your left hand when you're right handed is much harder than you'd think! Loving my lefty challenge!

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The Other Side

My right wrist has been hurting for a while so I figured I'd make lemons out of lemonade and take on a personal challenge. I decided to do a series of paintings with my left hand. I've done it before, though not for this reason. This is one of my prior lefty pieces and here is another. Interesting to me how sweet and childlike those pieces are...and how this one is so not.

I wonder what opposite hand creations reveal about us over time.


Look for more lefty pieces this week.

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Going Nuts

Dave loves mixed nuts. They go in his cereal. He'll pop one or two in his mouth as he waits for his coffee to be ready. He'll even grab a handful after a workout. Yum!

Know who else loves mixed nuts? Our dogs, that's who. While our dogs are totally clearly hard of hearing when we want them to stop barking or to come inside when they aren't quite ready, when Dave takes the jar of nuts out of the cupboard and just begins to unscrew the lid, our dogs dash to the kitchen faster than you can say "cashew".

And there they wait, willing to sit, shake, down, play dead, or speak in anticipation of a Brazil nut (Nothing against Brazil, but do humans even like those nuts? I'm convinced they're designed to be dog snacks.).

Yup, our dogs go nuts for nuts.

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For the Love of Oatmeal

Little known fact, at least a little known fact to me, chickens love oatmeal.

It's been hovering around freezing here lately and being the uber concerned chicken mom that I am, I did a wee bit of googling. I read that oatmeal is the perfect winter snack for chickens.

So I cooked up a batch. No salt, no brown sugar, no butter, no raisins...and cooled to room temp...bleck. But for those chickens it was the best breakfast ever!

Tomorrow, waffles!

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Double the Love

Our dogs.

They are so freakin' adorable.

Dave was sitting in his chair watching a football game or some such thing. Scout walked over and stood before him. The sweet old girl looked at him with the intense love in her eyes that only an old dog with cataracts can. Dave raised one foot and rubbed her chest with his foot.

This did not go unnoticed by Hazel, and she ran over and stood before Dave. So up went Dave's other foot.

Happy, happy dogs...much loved Dave.

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Christmas All Year Long

We still have all of our holiday decorations up. Not that that's a huge deal as all we put up were two strands of lights that I tacked to our walls in a whimsical way. It's not like one year when I was a kid and our Christmas tree stayed up ALL YEAR LONG when my brother and I refused to help my mom put it away. Now a Christmas tree in August...that's a fun thing to explain to your friends when they show up for a summertime slumber party.

Anyway, I think I might just "pull a mom" and leave the lights up all year long. Not because no one will help take them down, no, nothing like that. I think I'll just leave them up because every time I look at them I feel all happy inside.

Yup, this might be the year my kids remember Christmas happening all year long.

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Asleep

You know how when your kids were little you could just stare at them for hours on end...as they played, as they ate, as they sang and danced. But once they become teenagers if you attempt to stare at them, you're greeted with, "What are you looking at?!?!"

So while I'm not always a huge fan of teenage hormones, I have to say that I've found a perk that I particularly love...the "sleeping in" perk. When I go into their rooms at noon on the weekends to wake them up so they can finally start their day, I'm afforded uninterrupted staring time. I can leisurely take in the serenity of their sleeping faces, the way they sleep as though they know they're safe, the shadow of a mustache appearing, and the small twitches of their dreaming eyes. Occasionally they'll wake up and catch me, admonishing me with a "You're creepy, mom!" But most of the time I'm able to lean in and kiss their cheek to wake them up.

Pure mommy bliss.

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Bandanna Love

Bandannas.

They might not play a huge role in your home, but at the Parsons' house...they're superstars.

How many ways can we use a bandanna? Well, here's ten just off the top of my head.


1. as a cloth napkin
2. to blow a nose
3. outfits for our dogs
4. a tool to attempt to control my hair
5. a mask when we're working with sawdust, etc.
6. a spill sopper upper
7. a potholder when doubled up
8. a dust cloth
9. something to "whip" your brother with

and our dogs' favorite...
10. a chew toy


Bandannas...I highly recommend them.

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He is Not Amused

So we've had our cat door for a couple of weeks now. Our little cat, Tommy, is pretty much grooving on it. He can go out when he wants, come in when he wants, and exercise his independence as the awesome teenage cat that he is.

Pug, on the other hand, is not amused. While he understands the concept of independence, he prefers to have things the way they've always been.

You know, the way in which the humans were his minions. He could stand at the door and stare at it and we'd get up and let him out. He could stand on our back porch staring in and we'd open the door for him...and he'd invariably stand there a while considering if we were worth of his presence...or not.

With the cat door we humans are no longer, well, minions.

Bless his stubborn little feline heart....

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Meant to Fly

I do so love chatting with strangers.  Late yesterday I was walking my dog and caught up with a lovely woman with enchanting tattoos and a fabulous skirt.


Me:  "I like your wings and your bird."  She had wings on the outside of her ankles and a bird rounding her neck.

Lovely woman:  "Thank you...but they don't make me walk any faster."

Me:  "That's because you were meant to fly."

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Seeing Orange

Last night on my walk I passed the cutest fella.  He was a total ginger, hair a lovely shade of light auburn.  And he was wearing a Longhorn orange polo shirt.  And the icing on the cake?  He was walking an equally ginger Golden Retriever.

They were awesome...and I told them so.


And when I did, he looked down at his shirt and at his dog, and appeared to have had no idea that they shared the same shade.  That made them even more awesome.

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