what do you feed yourself?

When I ask you "what do you feed yourself?", I'm not just talking about food.  Sometimes, when we feel rotten, wore down and unhealthy, it is majority of what we are putting in that is giving us the bad outcome.  Not just what we eat, but what we watch, talk about, listen to, and even read.  I am sure, by society standards, that we feed ourselves plenty of bad things like news stories of violence and sickos, fast food, soft drinks, gossip, alcohol, processed foods, porn, or self-criticism.  If we keep putting bad in to our minds and bodies surely the outcome is not going to be good and stressing over things that we can't control will also run us down.

Why not make an effort to purposely feed ourselves with only what makes us feel good, be it healthy food, a favorite song on cd instead of the morning news, a glass of water instead of diet mountain dew, a walk around the block after a long day at work, yoga or a good stretch?  I feel like if we turned  off all the bad and turned on the good for a full week we would each begin to see a huge difference in our individual worlds.  It could actually change the way we eat, sleep and treat others.

Before all my diet changes, I had never really felt like I fed my body foods that made it feel good and refreshed.  Stopping to get a biscuit and an energy drink on the way to work was just the way it was.   But now I can truly tell a difference in the way that I feel.  Now if I can just make myself exercise!

Why not try it for one week?  Make a small list of just a few that make you feel "not-so-good" and replace them with something better, something that has a more positive twist on things.

days of our play care

So, when we were out at the dirt pile the other day, I noticed that there wasn't much mud leading up to the water and thought "we could actually get close enough to set some a-sail".  I almost couldn't wait for nap time to drag out my computer to see if I could find an easy origami boat tutorial.  I wound up finding a really good DIY and after nap time it was on.  The kids colored sheets of white copy paper and as they finished I neatly folded each one while I explained the rules of the pond.  

As we were lining up at the gate to head out the thought hit me.... "are you nuts woman?  You are taking these kids to water!  They could wind up wet.... muddy... wait and build something that can hold water in the yard or get a pool."  But if I listened to the sensible angel on my shoulder we wouldn't have had a ton of fun setting our paper boats in the water, with the wind blowing them just right, and having a terrific time.  We had to get our the black pipe we found at the dirt pile to help when one of them started to sink and all boats were retrieved with success except for the toppled one.  It was promptly crushed by it's owner.    

I wish the boats would have sailed all the way across the longer way of the pond but they chose to stay closer to the edge.  I did think ahead to warn the children that we may have to leave them in the water if we weren't able to get to them but luckily this wasn't the case.  When we got back to the DC we pinned them to the clothesline to dry.  I have a feeling this will not be the last boat race we will have!

HERE is the wonderful tutorial that I used to learn how to easily make paper boats that float!  Too cool!

bad news

Yesterday I came home and bee-bopped up the back steps after a happy jaunt into town to fill up Black Rose's gas tank not realizing I was being watched.  Shortly after I came home, Shaun went down the back steps to crank up the grill and saw something out of the corner of his eye.  A very large black snake had somehow slithered it's way up the 12-15 foot pole to the Eastern Phoebe nest where three fuzzy headed baby birds were.  I showed you all the pictures last week of feathered friend's nests around our home.  As I looked around to spy the mother and father Phoebes close by.  I felt their loss and fear of seeing that snake up there.  Shaun pulled it down with my sturdiest walking stick but for the babies it was too late.  How sad.  I have enjoyed watching the Phoebes feed their little nestlings and hurt thinking "now what will they do?"  The same thing I do I guess... move on.

Last year their first nest fell and tragedy for their babies struck as I came home and found their little bodies on the concrete.  Their second attempt at a nest and little ones proved wonderful.  So maybe their second set of eggs will be better than the first.  Nature can be unfair and hold brutal truth in life.  The snake is the only one who came away happy.  Shaun let him go.

I didn't even notice that you can see one of the parents back to the left on the fence.  Breaks my heart.
So help me if I find the snake visiting my hen house for eggs.  It will not be so lucky a second time.

potting sink redo

My ever fantastic potting sink just got a little sassier!  The sink came out of the same house that my claw foot tub came from... a house bought by my sister and her husband as rental property.  I originally wanted to put the sink in our spare bathroom but that idea got shot down so my loving Father built me a heavy duty stand to hold the heavy duty old sink.  Before now, it's never been painted or stained and I got a squirrely hair to paint it a sassy color and plant some trailing petunias in the sink.  My sister Mary Evelyn and I browsed through her spare paint and grabbed a color, came to my house and slapped it on.  I must admit it is pretty bright but for sure in a shabby chic kind of way!

We had to create a barrier with junk to keep Kate from being blue too!  She was in the mood to play.  She's staring at her frisbee willing it to move here.

I promise I helped.

The finished product!  I added one more petunia plant to thicken the pink color and also an asparagus fern potted in an old colander.