quiet

Yesterday evening the hubs and I took 30 minutes for ourselves.  Just the two of us.  We went for a drive, slipped away for a little quiet time. A break from the rowdy, energized cowpoke that we created.  As we cruised down the road, listening to the wind whip through the windows, I had a simple thought.

Here, right now, in this moment we are seeking a few minutes of piece and quiet.  In a blink of an eye, a few short years, we will be taking a drive because of the quiet.........I was ready to head back home.  

mixin' it up

The Davis Herd cowpoke are mixin' it up a little...kickin' off their Wranglers and cowboy boots, laying their hats down.
In an effort to motivate people to start moving, a local business has organized a great little run for our small rural community. It's open to all ages & athletes of varying abilities.

The 2 younger cowpoke ran the 1 mile and did GREAT! Honestly, I was amazed to see them round the corner and finish in the top 10. The photo is of the start of the 1 mile group.

Dex, the cross country professional, ran the 5K. He's come along way with his running. Watch out for him, he has caught the running bug!   

5 Question Friday

I picked this up off a blog I frequently tune into and thought I would give it a try.  5 Question Friday.  Lets see how long I stick with it
.  

1. Did you make any fun purchases this week?

Fun purchases?  After breaking the bank with school enrollment money, lunch money , football registration money and cross country t-shirt money I did go all out and purchase a small bag of dark chocolate covered almonds.  And I ain't tellin' where I stashed' em.  No-sir-e!  They're ALL mine!  Just the thought of those hidden indulgences makes me smile.
 

2. If you could go to any musical concert, what would it be?

Hmmmm I haven't been to a concert in years. Do I really have to pick just one?  I'm STILL a Bon Jovi fan(does that date me) but listening to The Zac Brown Band with my a** in the sand and a cold drink in my hand sounds fun and young and fun!  WAIT!! Elton John!!!

3. What is your least fav/ most fav house chore?

Least favorite, without a doubt, toilets!!!  Do you have boys? Then you KNOW what I'm talkin' about!  If you're boyless, let me explain: cleaning toilets used by boys=scrubbing floors, walls, trash cans AND toilet!  No joke! 

Favortie: Laundry!  Yep, I can get'er done!  What you wore today may be clean by morning. But, your clean clothes may hang on the drying rack for a week or set in a mountainous pile....but they'll be clean:)    

4. Would you prefer new appliances or clothes?

I WANT a new oven but I NEED new clothes! 

Seriuosly, shoping for clothes stinks. I try on clothes at one store and the muffin top hangs over, the butt crack creeps out.  And, I forbid to show any amount of butt crack or expose my under-roos. Yes, I STILL wear cotton panties.  I'm out on the butt floss. I will never get used to having anything between those cheeks! The other problem I have when shopping for new clothes, that I oh so need, is I walk out feeling like one of those cute ole' church ladies from the next store. How old am I?  

Middle-age motherhood dilemas.....

5. Miracle Whip or Mayo?

Mayo!  Don't even try to fool me with the sweet stuff! Give me the "mayo challenge" I 'll call the sweet stuff out every time!

monkey tails

Do you ever snack on this old treat?  I think I can remember buying this healthy snack at my favorite childhood amusement park.  I'm not sure if I enjoy them because of my younger years, or because they are chocolate and banana! OR, maybe it's because monkey tails are appropriately named to fit into my daily life....which can be a zoo? Anyway, try them sometime.

6 bananas peeled & cut in half
insert popsicle stick
dip in orange juice
freeze on pizza pan(30 minutes)

melt 1 good cup of chocolate chips with 1 TB shortening

dip frozen bananas in melted chocolate
return to pizza pan, return to freezer

resist 30 more minutes, if you can.

TIP:  Hide 1 or 2 monkey tails in a baggie in the freezer under the frozen veggies for yourself! Once discovered they quickly disappear! 

taming the cranky cussin cowpoke

I think the first week of school is wearing my 8 year old out.  He seems to melt about 7:30. Or should i say explode?  The  last two evenings have been a challenge.  The fella goes 110 all day, right up until the moment. Last night the moment proved to be around 7:30 when the crankster came out and the cuss words started flying.  You know them, the D word, the S word, and the H word.  I'm not sure if he used them in frustration, or to sound cool, but I'm told they roll right off his 8 year tongue.  Of course, he has yet to try this in front of his parents, but while interacting with his bros he will shout them out.  Oldest child takes it upon himself to discipline...this, undoubtedly, fuels the blazin' fire!

So, in an effort to tame the cranky cussin' lil' cowpoke,  I marched the cranky cusser up the stairs to his bedroom where he had to stand with his nose in the corner.  This led to cryin' and complaining which inevitably landed him in his cozy bed.

Honestly, I think that's right where cranky cussin' cowpoke wanted to be.  Once his head hit the pillow it wasn't 30 seconds before he was sound asleep.

Now, say cranky cussin' cowpoke 10 times as fast as you can ;-)   

boys

The boys made their return to prison school yesterday.  Although they were eagerly up and ready for the big yellow bus they would do and say anything to convince you otherwise. (see above)

Dex entered 7th grade and had very little to comment about at  the end of his first day.  His latest joy has been participating in cross country.  During his last time trial, of roughly 3 miles, he finished just over 22 minutes.  Whoa!  This Mama thinks that's smokin' fast!!!

Jax entered 5th grade, he is now an official middle schooler.  He claims to have mastered opening his locker. Although, when practicing, it was a task that gave him a great amount of frustration.  Because of this newly accomplished skill Jax informed us that going to his locker is his favorite part of the day...and lunch is his favorite class.  Wait! Is lunch really considered a class?  Jax also thinks the school could do away with physical education as his journey between classes to and from his locker is enough exercise.  So he says.

Daws climbed the stairs to the second floor of DC Elementary.  His second grade classroom is on the upper level.  Huge thrill!!!  He also gets to play on the upper playground durning recess, another huge thrill!  Along with these super thrills came a sliver of disappointment as Dawson started his 2nd grade year.  Three of his bestest buddies moved away this summer.  This had DW feeling a little lonely gearing up for day 1.  Never fear!  As Daws ran through the house door after school he shouted...Got a new friend.......ANOTHER DAWSON!

the processs

Introducing.....the honeybee gals.

Meet Hive West and Hive East. As you can see Hive East has excelled in productivity and created quite a high rise for living accommodations.

As one might guess, all of my extracted honey has been taken from the East Hive, where there appears to be a surplus of honey. Because I'm working solo I have no photos of the actual removal. It involves,smoke-lots of smoke, heavy lifting(who knew honey could weigh so much),

mucho praying, hoping 98% of the little darlings stay at their home, and rushing the capped comb into the house without getting the entire 60,000 family members buzzin' m-a-d! I was fortunate to only bring 4 bees into the house, but for every bee came 10 flies. So is life on the farm:) I DID not get stung on extraction day, but did find my arms sticky to the elbows along with a smudge of honey through my right eyebrow...good bye salon eyebrow waxing;)

The capped honeycomb.

Honey beeing extracted.

The finished product.

6 frames=17 small bottles & 8 medium bottles

18 frames to go......Would you like honey for your biscuits friends?

out with the old, maybe?

We finally upgraded the 13 year old dinosaur. I'm loving the new sleek, portable laptop. However,I still do not have all of the updated software mastered. Honestly, I'm finding blogging rather frustrating. I compose on the new machine but post from the dinosaur. My new laptop seems to have an error with javascript. Also, I can't seem to figure out how to add my photos to the post either. Do not give up on me! I'm determined to master this new machine. I'm hoping after I click on the publish post botton, this post will be there for all of you to read???? Here goes nothing.......

oodles and oodles of honey

Yesterday, after an early a.m. bike ride, I suited up to rob my bees of their delicious sweet sticky golden stuff. It was a hot endeavour but the payoff was superb. I couldn't be more happy with how hard the little gals have worked. I've harvested honey from 6 frames of an 8 frame hive and bottled oodles and oodles of honey. I honestly can't believe how much honey I have! Pictures will come.