QOTD

A friend ordering coffe at Starbucks: "What do you have in sugarless?"
Starbucks girl, "Blah, blah, blah"
Friend, " I will have a hazelnut...oh never mind. I want a white chocolate grande..with whipped creme."

Totally made my day!

Getting geared up for the summer!

Ok so I know I have been pretty absent (ok, totally absent for quite some time, but who's getting technical here?), but there has simply been nothing to blog about for a very long time. But now I have spring fever and I am ready to get ready. What am I doing to get ready, you may ask?
Well, for starters, I have got my garden planned out. Now I just have to wait untill the wnow melts to put that plan into action.
My chickens are getting ready too so I have to get the coop ready for them. This morning I braved the wind and cold in order to clean out the nesting boxes. Much to the annoyance of the hen who was waiting to lay in said boxes. I left all of the hay on the floor because it serves as an insulator and it is still just too cold to take it out yet. So I have one hen laying already and hopefully now that the boxes are cleaned out, the rest will follow suit.
Back to the garden. This year we are planing a new venture that will make my garden produce a thousand times more! Ok, maybe not a THOUSAND times but it will certainly make this year much better. We are going to be beekeepers! Yup, for real. I ordered my bees yesterday and with the next paycheck I am ordering my starter kit which includes my hive. I know this sounds like I am putting the cart before the horse, buying bees before I have a home for them but there is a reason. The bees will not arrive untill May but the hive will be here shortly. I have a neighbor with 20+ fruit trees and tons of flowers. I have a list of flowers that are favorites of bees that I plan on planting this year as well.
I am also working on getting back into the food storage game. Working on toiletries at the moment. A local grocery store has toothpaste and tooth brushes on sale for 98 cents so we got a few to put in the bucket.
I will keep everyone updates on my progress and hopefully this year will be a much more productive year than last year.

Random Acts Of Kindness!

Friday was a busy day for us. We were due in Utah for a family reunion of sorts. For the first time in years the majority of my husbands siblings were all getting together with their families in one place so it was all about packing and driving and going, going, going....... It also was a day about random acts of kindness. A dear friend was celebrating the first birthday of her child. Her sweet girl was born still and to honor her she and everyone that loved her were going to do some random acts that day. Having had my own losses this hit me hugely. My losses had been early and while I grieve them still in moments of reflection I have never really done something purely to honor those lost lives so I took up the call not only to honor my friend and her precious one but to honor mine and all the lost ones. It kind of became almost obsessive. I think my poor brother-in-law had no idea what to do with me. All day as we went about prepping and packing I would ask to stop here or go there as an idea popped into my head for my RAOK. He just kept going. I think he ignored me as a safety because he thought I had lost my mind. I think he also did it because the one I was supposed to help hadn't come around yet. By evening I was getting frustrated. My sunny disposition was taking on a little bit of an edge as I became more insistent that he help me fulfill my pledge. Then we stopped to fuel up. I decided as we were pulling in that my RAOK would be to fill up the gas tank of someone. I looked around. I saw a minivan pull in and perked up until they pulled to a stop and the door flew open and I saw a woman holding her infant in her arms with not seat in sight. Couldn't bring myself to want to help there when that lack of safety for such a sweet life made me mad. Then I turned around and in pulled an Explorer. Seated inside was a cute young Hispanic couple and in the back seat were twin infant carseats. He pulled out $40 which I knew would never fill that tank since I drive and SUV and I knew they were exactly who I needed to help. So I asked if I could buy his gas. I know he thought I was crazy but he said okay. As we approached $20 he stopped the pump and tried to give me his cash. I restarted it and told him no. As we hit $40 he did it again and I repeated my step. I explained that it was important to me. I needed to do this for him. NEEDED. I filled his tank to the brim and told him to take his family out for Valentine's Day. I am sure he thought I was a crazy person but I felt so uplifted and full to bursting with love. Love for my friend and her angel. Love for my little lost ones. Love for life. I also felt so amazingly thankful for my blessings. It reminded me how much I enjoy doing things for others and how truly joyous it makes me feel to see the wonder on someones face when a stranger is kind to them. So make today your day to do a random act of kindness. It can be big or small but trust me it will leave you feeling so amazingly proud!

My Mountain Man Is Planning Away!

Recently the opportunity arose for us to purchase a Weekend Warrior FT 2200 in fabulous condition and 3 Suzuki Quads. A friend hit hard times and needed money fast and we had been discussing buying at least a pair of quads and the trailer to pull them for a while so it looked to be a good thing for all. So we got our ducks in a row and made sure it fit into the current budget. We pay a lot extra on our 2 debt items: Home and Auto, so it was something we were able to do much to mine and Hubby's surprise. (We have spent so much time on the building of credit and our personal survival stuff that I guess we never actually thought about a day when the hard work would pay off.) Anyway so Hubby and BIL go to pick up the purchases and bring them home and we have encountered an unforeseen issue. When we were buying I asked BIL what he figured weight was and his estimate was well within my tow range. HAHAHAHA....... Boys were a lot low on the weight so neither Hubby or my 4x4 have the tow strength needed. BIL has the capacity and with a little suspension help will pull it with ease so we will beef up his 3/4 ton. In my logical female way I threw out the thought. Since Our plan never really called for the big trailer but merely a cargo trailer why not sell it and buy the trailer we had planned. However once Hubby saw the WW and all its trimmings he decided it was much better in a SHTF moment. Kitchen, bathroom, and enough sleeping and storage space for a small family plus the mobility to flee. So the Plan it kit out BIL for now and the new save pile will be to upgrade either his or my truck so if and when we can tow it ourselves. If the worse were to happen my rig could get it there, it would just kill my rig to do it. I see his point, lol.

Expanding Our Hearth!

I have been a horrible poster. (We all have but the girls will have to beg for your forgiveness themselves, there is a reason Bitch is in our title, LOL!) In December our household grew by 3. My Hubby's brother and his children (Ages 16 and 12) moved in after he was laid off from his metal working job. My nephew is diabetic so the choice was rent or insulin. Obvious choice. It has been interesting. The house is full to bursting. My girls are loving it. My niece is the older kid and Monkey thinks the sun rises and sets with her. BIL (Brother-in-law) is a great cook so I get to share that now. It has been good for all of us. My FMS is slowly getting figured out but on the really bad days I actually have backup babysitters, lol. Both kids are happy to earn the spending money. In fact I had to get after my nephew because he has been rushing to grab Monkey when she wakes up in the morning before I even have a chance to wake up. It is super sweet but weird too to be pampered. So now I rarely do dishes because my niece washes and my nephew puts them away. Bug picks up the living room. A lot gets done these days with so many hands.

Embracing a new day!

I tend to live in my happy place as much as I can. I try to always find the blessings even in the worst of situations. I face life with the hope that it will be bright and beautiful. I know it isn't always that way. I have had my fair share of trials and cruddy days. Part of being me are the flashes of darkness before I make the light shine through. I was once asked what I would get for a tattoo if I had one and I had to think a minute before the answer became obvious. My husband and I are very much about there being meaning in something like that so for me it would be a fairy. She would be beautiful, long hair flowing down her back, wings spread as if about to fly, arms lifted and head thrown back with a grin of sheer joy on her face. In front of her is a mirror and her reflection is the total opposite. Wings drooping low, arms crossed over her chest as her head is bowed with tears streaming down her face. I feel like those two parts of me are there every day but I just choose to embrace the happier side. I think we all have the darkness. We all have battles to face, trials to overcome. We have to make a choice. We can let those hard things rule our lives or we can look at them and stand tall and smile and press through to the brighter side. Every day I have moments where I make the conscious choice to push through. I think everyone has those moments. It can be just getting out of bed on time rather than hitting the snooze button. It can be putting the Tylenol back in the bottle so you only take a healthy amount rather than try to dull life away. It can be taking a breath in a moment of frustration rather than letting loose the words that popped into our heads. They seem like little things but in the course of the day all those little positive choices add up until you are living your life in the sun and when those rain storms come you are much more likely to see the rainbows through the clouds!

I have also recently embraced letting go of things that add to the darkness. It is okay to remove yourself from situations that cause hurt. If they can't be healed to the point that the light can shine through than it is okay to step back and let go. In fact I think sometimes the only choice is to let go. It has taken me a long time to really truly grasp that idea. I am a fixer. I want to fix it even if it hurts. It may take a while because it is our nature to not want to do something painful but I still was pressing on. I was holing on to some negativity and letting it color how I felt about myself and what I was doing with my life. I am going to change that. It may not be as fast as I would like and I know I will still have moments where I step back to that place of negativity but I plan to embrace a new way of thought. I am beautiful. I am smart and willing to learn. I am creative. I am a fantastic wife, a terrific mother, and a dang good writer. I taught myself html. I have a life full of people I love and who love me for exactly who I am.

Who really needs more than that?