These are a Few of My Favorite Things (Summer Edition)

Now that we all have an image of Julie Andrews prancing around in a field stuck in our heads, let's proceed, shall we? 

I enjoy my morning run by the corn field.  It has finally grown tall enough that the blazing sun doesn't scorch me until it has risen fairly high in the sky, by which time I am certainly done running. 

This is quite possibly one of my favorite pictures ever.  We went as a family one evening to move hay bales off the field.  I let the kids out during one load to 'blow some stink off' and they played tag and ran to their hearts' content. 

Question: What is better than an impromptu party with your cousins?

Answer: Not a dang thing.

Also quickly becoming another favorite of mine: the dreaded cousin hangover.  When you play so long and so hard that your earthy existence hangs in the balance for the following 24 hours at a minimum.  Symptoms include: falling asleep at the supper table, crying for no apparent reason, scowling at the general public, and drifting off into daydreams of the fun times had while clutching your princess heart shaped mirror. 

Fishing as a family with our dogs.  They are so awesome.  

Does he have a future as a racecar driver?  His mother says NO. 

I love that child #2 has taught child #3 to slant at an unnatural angle and ruin any attempt to take a decent picture of them while clean and dressed in church clothes. 

She enjoys 'writing' letters to people and reads the letters aloud to me as she scribbles away. 

MOST of the time, he's the world's most helpful big brother.  He doesn't take that responsibility lightly. 

These kids have been feather-finding, egg-finding, nature-finding fools that summer.  It seems like I constantly have an egg, lizard, feather, toad or bug shoved in my face to admire. 

If I take a morning run in one direction, I see nothing but corn.  If I run the other direction, this is my view.  On mornings when I know it will be a magnificent sunrise I usually opt to run this direction.  I've yet to be disappointed. 

Her little smirk makes it difficult to parent in a stern manner sometimes.  

Our kids fell in love with snapping beans with their grandad.  Kenyon snapped for two hours solid and never wanted to leave and play with his siblings. 

The world's very best goodnight hug. 

Very similar to a cousin hangover, a grandparent hangover can also be quite lethal.  Beware. 

These are a few of my favorite things.  (Sorry, I couldn't leave you without that little earworm.  I hope it gets stuck in your head the rest of the day.) 

Get Ready

Last night while sitting at the supper table I heard that oft heard, oft dreaded phrase once again uttered.

"Well, get ready" he said.  "It's fixin' to get busy around here for the next six weeks."

Really?  Like the last six weeks haven't been busy?  Or the six before that?!

I rolled my eyes when I heard this.  It's one of my least attractive qualities and one of the reasons I wear sunglasses so often.  As my eyes turned towards the heavens; however, my gaze landed upon a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for years:

This one - she gets me.  We're kindred spirits born 125ish years apart.  We've both had to bust our tails on the same soil.  Both probably rocked babies and wondered where in the world our husband was at and when he was coming home.  I saw the pooch in her belly and wondered if she was 4 months pregnant or just had acquired a permanent 'shelf' like mine after having 3 kids in 3.75 years.  It's not lost on me the countless ways my life is filled with more creature comforts than hers, but I appreciate the biggest commonality we share - we're both just trying to raise good kids and eek out a living.

I wondered if she breathed a huge sigh of relief when someone else offered to take her kids to the nursery during church so she could have 30 minutes a week without being in charge of someone else (but let's be honest, she probably didn't) and then I wondered what she would have done for self care, a phrase that's become so over-used and abused that I've come to despise.  Truth be told, we're probably looking at it in this photo.  She got 30 minutes to herself and decided to pick up cow chips for firewood and she was relishing in the quiet until someone interrupted her solitude and asked to take a photo.  I feel you, girl.

"Are you listening?  Hellllooooo?" my husband asked as I snapped back to reality.  I didn't realize how many moments I'd been lost in my thoughts with this prairie woman.

"We've got it.  We're ready.  Bring on the next six weeks of haying and shipping and fair and life."

Now that I've 're-found' this book on my shelf I imagine that I'll be glancing upward at her quite often for a little inspiration.