Old School Update

22 April 2018

Back in the good old days of blogging - before the advent of instagram swipe ups and curated streams and all the gizmos that have spiced up social media - I used to actually post.

I would just start typing my little online journal and scroll through my iPhone photos and try to be funny, and I would never think about reach, in fact I had no idea that was a thing.

And it was fun.

And reading those old posts is fun.

So here is my effort to get back into the friendly, rambling kind of blogging.

We've been working on the garden. We've planted onions, bush beans, carrots, beets, and tomatoes. About six carrots have come up, the bush beans and onions are spotty, the tomatoes look like this:
So basically, I'm just a black-thumbed sucker for punishment.

Jacob's vineyard is filling in, it is happening so quickly and is so fun to watch. We have a small peach tree with all kinds of baby fruit, a giant rosebush that is flourishing, probably because I haven't touched it, and an apricot tree with two whole apricots!!!
We got a tiny bit of rain yesterday that won't put a dent in our perpetual drought conditions. We always need rain and you can hear all the ranchers talking about it around town. Everybody's so thankful for the rain. How 'bout this rain? Sure needed the rain.

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Our washing machine stopped spinning a couple weeks ago and I had to cart our laundry next door to my mom's - and I've never been so on top of laundry. Why is it that certain things get more doable when they're more difficult? Is this just a personality trait? It is completely true for me.

Our washing machine was old and a little too tricky for us to fix, so we debated buying a new fancypants washing machine. In the end we remembered my grandmother's old washing machine which has been sitting on the back driveway for the past eight months. (Between trenching projects, broken kid bikes, and appliances on the patio, our place is a stunner!) My grandmother's machine - which is older than me - still works like a charm, or it did as soon as we replaced the washer dogs in the agitator. #hopelessDIYers

Now every time I do laundry, the past and the present kiss, and I hear my grandmother's voice: DON'T OVERLOAD IT.

She was ornery.

Gosh, I miss her.

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KIDS
Jakeboy is as industrious as ever, always doing, making, directing, wakes up at the crack of dawn and is asleep within seconds of his goodnight kiss. All in, all the time. He and his dad have been working on a "fishing shack" down by the creek and he's very into making desserts - which his siblings all love because he rarely strays from three primary ingredients: powdered sugar, cocoa, nutella.

Lucy June - true to her babyhood - just wants to be with people. She's sensitive to everyone around her and because of this she's become brilliant at hiding. She will hide and I literally can't find her -  especially because I have to act like I'm not looking. She is so quiet and knows just where to disappear. I don't think she's fully aware of her superpower.

Romie is all delight. He's obsessed with skunks - which he pronounces "dunks." (Of course if you mimic him and say "dunk" he looks at you like you're some kind of idiot.) He's very tactile and will grab your bicep and smash his face against your skin. He hates to be left behind and always waits for stragglers. The other day he thanked me for folding and putting his clothes away - exuberantly, jumping up and down.

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Awhile back I jumped on the Beautycounter train and loved it so much I recently became a consultant. I NEVER thought I would do any kind of network marketing, but here I am selling Beautycounter and racking my brain about whether I've ever gone on any public rants about direct sales. :-/

I put a basket of fun products together, and I've been dropping it off at friends' houses giving them a big shpiel about how I want them to spa it up and not feel obligated to buy things. I mean this so wholeheartedly. I'm the kind of person who if I didn't buy anything in the basket, I would duck and cover whenever I saw that person in the grocery store. And in my town, you always see people in the grocery store.

But honestly...as nervous as I am about it, the process has been really delightful. I reach out to people because I think they might like the products, and then all of a sudden I'm texting someone and joking about launching mascara at them at the farmer's market and feeling...connected and excited to share products I really really like.

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We've been working through some gross illness stuff - bad colds and coughs and impetigo. Delightful that. Now I'm wondering whether the impetigo was some kind of weird karma since it hit within days of me signing up to be a skincare consultant.

Do other people think thoughts like this?

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Jacob is currently building a cabin on our property that we will rent out as a bed and breakfast. It's coming along well, if slowly, and we're in design decision mode.

Traditionally we just argue over every design decision and then end up disliking our compromise, but this time Jacob had a different idea for a compromise: I make all the design choices for this cabin. If we build a second cabin, he will make all the design decisions, so far...it's been an ok idea.

Our budget for this project is a little higher than normal, and because we want it to be nice for guests,  it's proving to be more fun than our previous projects which needed to be cheap/durable for renters. I want it to feel fresh, modern, minimal, but also rural and quaint, maybe some southwestern vibes. I've really nailed this down.

So far the design process has looked like me clicking back and forth between Wayfair and West Elm and Chairish and then I'll see how beautiful it is outside and abandon it all to go pull thistles.

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And last but not least - did you see that Madewell is 30% sale styles right now?? Which means these jeans are a steal. Of course Texas temps are skyrocketing soon so I'll be sitting tight and waiting for these shorts to go on sale.

Oh and one last last thing. The prickly pear is blooming.
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