wogoman weekly - volume 4 issue 10

Well good morning on this bright and sunny shiny day.  Things are good.  It is always awesome to start the day/week/month feeling as blessed as I do.   So I thought I would start with the obvious realization that I had about myself.  I decided that I wanted to take a picture off all that I have put away in the freezer so far this year.  I am feeling pretty good about it actually.  So it order to make the freezer "photo worthy"  I thought I should organize it.  I put on the gardening gloves and in 15 minutes I had this beautiful freezer.  I was also faced with the hard truth about myself.  So here it is.  I'm a bread hoarder!  After pulling out all the bread I found the rest of the food.  I have enough bread to completely fill this other freezer in the garage.(And there might be a little bit more in the freezer in the house.)  Hmmmm... guess I like bread and am afraid we will run out. :)  You might ask, isn't that the same refrigerator that the freezer broke back in the middle of the worst snow storm in the winter?  The answer is yes but it magically fixed itself and now work.  hmmmmm I know that doesn't happen so the bread went in there because I am sure if I put something more valuable in there it will surely stop working again.  Maybe the mice fixed it when they were in the garage last winter.   Speaking of mice we have had our run in with them this past couple of weeks.  Several weeks ago I moved some things outside only to find a mama mouse and her babies scurry away.  What do I do?  Grab Tenille and have a ohhhh look how much lesson.  Followed by J saying, why didn't you kill them.  You know they will be back in the garage in the winter eating your bird and garden seed again. I hadn't thought of that.  So when Tenille asked last week to see the birds in the bird houses I was surprised to open one up and find the mama had moved her babies there.  So this time I reacted better.  I told J and got a bucket to put them in.  We left the actually killing up to J but Neille helped put them in the bucket with a stick.  J step on them in the bucket, only to break the bucket(Tenille's favorite part of the story) and sending two mice jumping for their lives.  J squashed them right in front of Tenille.  She watched and didn't say much.  Then calmly asked what we were going to do with them.  What ensured was a mice throwing contest and ended up with yes all ducking because Tenille didn't know when to let go of the tail.  :)  Apparently dead things don't bother her.  So four dead mice and a mice contest.  Not a bad day.  :)   Other than that we have been enjoying the pool for the last few dips. I have been canning whatever comes out of the garden.  Yesterday I had 36 tomatoes.  I cooked those bad boys done to a spaghetti sauce that is finally thick.  Guess how many quarts I ended up with?  2!  and a small relish jar in the freezer.  But boy will that taste awesome come February.   The other picture of me is the mirror in our garage.  It is from the bathroom of the gas station in Bristol, by the bridge.  My grandparents used to own the gas station and some how this piece made it to their house and I got in from Grandma at her garage sale.  Sweet huh?  And speaking of mirrors. I finally found a mirror for our 1/2 bathroom.  I have been looking at every garage sale and resale store for one that I like and I found the perfect one on Saturday for the bargain price of $4.  I'm just so excited.   One last funny thing for me.  I started a new book called Made from scratch: Discovering the pleasures of a handmade life.  The book had a preface that made me laugh out loud. It goes like this: "The general opinion is, if you want a more self-reliant lifestyle, then you'd better run off to the country and buy a log cabin on five pretty acres.  It should come complete with amazing views, a fixed-rate mortgage, and a porch swing - all of it miles away from the nearest shopping center of strip mall.  Of course, we all know postcard property and an address aren't enough.  You should also get a barn full of livestock, rolling fields of vegetables, and an old pickup truck with lots of rustic character.  It also wouldn't hurt to have a shed stocked with every tool imaginable and a cellar stocked with rows of canned goods.  Make sure there's a nice elderly couple next door to dispense advice.  You know, someone to help you out when you need a cup of sugar, that kind of thing."   So there you have it, our house minus the live stock (still holding out for a couple pretty chickens or bees) and the rustic truck. (want one haven't found it yet though)  and the neighbors, oh we have them and they are the nicest people!  So do I feel grateful, you bet.  We have want this lady only dreams about.  I guess it is just a reminder to be oh so thankful every time I return home.  I wish you all the best week ever and hope you are living your dream. :)  Or at least realize that someone somewhere only wishes they could be you.   Tracy "The difference in who you are and who you want to be is what you do."   check us out on the web: wogomanweekly.blogspot.com   13551 CR 12 Middlebury, IN 46540 t - 574.361.2334 j - 574.596.8144

wogoman weekly - issues 8 and 9

School has offically started at our house.  I went all last week with kids three days.  The first day I got home and forgot how tiring teaching can be.  I was asleep by 8:45.  :)   Tenille is now tall enough to reach the light switches in most rooms.  I think, wow!  When did she get so big?  As J has said many times, she is starting to look like a real person.  Not a baby at all anymore.  This is so true.   We had a shower for my cousin Jordan this weekend.  It was nice to see all our family and share in good times with Jord.  She made out well and should have a ton of stuff for Luke. :)   We ate at the White Pigeon Tavern or Inn not sure what the second word in the name really is.  Anyway, we love it there.  They love Tenille so it works well for all of us.  On the way home Thursday she very inocently looks at us and says, we are getting ice cream right?  Guess we don't pass Yups by much without stopping. :)   We worked hard outside this weekend.  J cut up a tree that fell and pulled up 5 loads of wood for us to split.  Guess we are just stock piling for next year.  Yep, we already have this seasons wood ready to go.   I have been canning tomatoes as they come out on the vine.  I made 3 quarts yesterday.  Sounds funny, 3 quarts.  Well that is what I had ripe and they didn't go to waste did they? :)  And that is three meals that will be AWESOME this winter.  Because ladies and gents, if you have listened the bugs aren't talking so much anymore. hmmmm autumn is on its way.  Are you ready?   The last photo is from July but I wanted to add it somewhere and here we are.  We all went out to breakfast  from Mom's birthday.  We had a great time.  Yummo on the food.  We went to Karens Cafe in Middlebury.   Hope your week is awesome and that you remember everyday is a good day, you just have to make it that way!   Tracy "The difference in who you are and who you want to be is what you do."   check us out on the web: wogomanweekly.blogspot.com   13551 CR 12 Middlebury, IN 46540 t - 574.361.2334 j - 574.596.8144

wogoman weekly - volume 4 issses 5,6,7

Well it officially happened.  I got a text from a friend saying my blog needed updated.  I thought how could this be .. lets see didn't send one the week we were getting ready for Maine, didn't send one while we were in Maine (absolutely no Internet at our house) and now it is Friday of the week we got back.  Oh my, that is three weeks.  You people must be sitting on the edge of your seats wanting to know what is going on in our lives!   Well Maine was absolutely awesome.  We did two days in Boston, a week in Maine, and one crazy long day driving home.  We ate lobster almost every day and had so much fun with our family.  In Boston we stayed at a waterpark with a hotel, we ate lunch at Cheers (met Jeff's there) and toured Fenway park.  We took along a flat Stanley from the library and took pictures of him everywhere we went. He even got shot out of a cannon at General Knox's house.   Our house in Maine was great.  It had plenty of room for Jeff's family and ours.  It even had an addendum (small house you send the boys to when they get loud)  Alec and Luke slept out there every night until they saw a chipmunk coming out of their shower and said no to that.  We were on the water so we got to see so much.  The kids played in there all the time, where are the kids . . down by the water. :)  The boys spend much of their time fixing a lobster trap, fixing a row boat, and trying to catch lobster.  They caught a crab. :)  The girls, colored played with musical instruments that they found, and ran around a bunch.    We toured wineries (most were on farms so the kids looked at the animals and we tasted!), rode on a lobster boat and watched them haul in the lobster, did the Rockland lobster festival,(it had a touch tank and Tenille got to hold a lobster, 2 star fish, a sea urchin, a crab, and a scallop.) and ate more lobster.   We saw the lighthouse that Forest Gump ran to.  I know I am missing so much to tell you all.  It was amazing however, when asked on the last night what their favorite part of the trip was, everyone mentioned something that was done at the house or just being with family.   The weather was awesome up there.  We had fires out by the water.  Tide would come in and was away the wood if you stayed out too late. :)  We had fires in the house to take off the chill at night.  No one up there has air conditioning because they only need it like 3 days a year. :)   Once we got home it was back to work for everyone.  Tenille "moved up" classes and now is with the big kids.  It is so awesome to see her do so well there but so said that she really isn't a baby anymore.  I go and get my fix by visiting Kate in the nursery.  She even smiled at me this week.  J was back at both jobs and is in the full swing again so to speak.  And me....yep, I got the letter that says I have to report back to work.  So Monday I give up my summer and head into work.   On the way into type this I figured out why I haven't got this out yet, I have frozen 2 bushels of corn, put up 6 jars of pizza sauce, weeded my garden so I could actually see what I had in there.... 3 weeks is bad on the garden. And cleaned up around the outside of the house.  We lost two big limbs while we were gone and J had to chop them up.  But I think we are ready to all be back in the swing for school, work, and daycare.  At least I hope so.  Goals for this school year   1) Enjoy my family before they grow up! 2)Make it through the year without losing my marbles    (always need to be reminded of that in march) 3)Teach a better IB class     (got to see my kids scores from last year. They were good but I am sure we can do       better)   Well I think that is it.  Hope you like the pictures.  I had to sort through so many good ones. :)  I hope this finds you all ready for the next stage of the year! Tracy "The difference in who you are and who you want to be is what you do."   check us out on the web: wogomanweekly.blogspot.com   13551 CR 12 Middlebury, IN 46540 t - 574.361.2334 j - 574.596.8144