Free, but not easy

A month and a little bit later finds me sitting in my brand new kitchen typing on my long lost computer. Little man is down for a nap, the builders (who are now part of our family :) are outside on a break from working on the side porch, and I finally have a phone line! Yep, I'm crawling along on my free j*uno dial-up, but it's better than being stuck without any access to the world! I will, of course, post again today! Yes, because I can! But, I can't wait to tool around online and see what I've missed after being away too long. Can't wait to post pictures later and catch up with everyone! Love to all!

Jackie

Chaos

So far we have managed create an entire house thanks to the help of friends and family. Little man is a zombie; he's so tired. We are still running on adrenaline today, this last Sunday in May. Don't have much time to write, as we are still doing last minute hauling trips today, cleaning and then unpacking. John's first night in his new home was not stellar. It rained cats and dogs, but first the lightning and thunder woke all of us at midnight. We are hoping to sleep better tonite! It's a beautiful day here today and we're almost finished with this chapter in our lives. We are so content with the peacefulness at the farm. Speaking of peacefulness, we'll not have internet right away...or cable, or phone! So, it will be a quiet week or two until we are able to join the 21st century again. Can't wait to post pictures of all that has happened in the last month!

Love to all and happy summer!

Poem

The Canonization

by John Donne

For God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love ;
Or chide my palsy, or my gout ;
My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout ;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve ;
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his Honour, or his Grace ;
Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate ; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.

Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love?
What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?
Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?
When did my colds a forward spring remove?
When did the heats which my veins fill
Add one more to the plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.

Call's what you will, we are made such by love ;
Call her one, me another fly,
We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.
The phoenix riddle hath more wit
By us ; we two being one, are it ;
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.

We can die by it, if not live by love,
And if unfit for tomb or hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse ;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms ;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for love ;

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love
Made one another's hermitage ;
You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage ;
Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove
Into the glasses of your eyes ;
So made such mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to you epitomize—
Countries, towns, courts beg from above
A pattern of your love."

My English professor in college would scoff at the description at W*ikipedia, but it's a blunt analysis. I never thought I would enjoy deciphering poetry. Life has a funny way of turning the tables, doesn't it?

And, at this point I am reading your mind..."what is she thinking posting poetry when we want a glimpse into the house?!" Ha! Here's a little tidbit...

Wait for it.

You guessed it! We picked out kitchen cabinetry several weeks ago and it's scheduled to arrive the first week of May. Yikes, that's soon. My husbands folks were down all last week to help us with drywalling, etc. I can't believe we are to the point where we are sanding and priming! The end is in sight! Now, if we can all make it through this last month we're in the clear. That's a big I.F. Reinforcement will arrive in the form of my mom in a couple of weeks. "I think we can, I think we can, I think we can..."

Friday

Today was better...much better. Library reading time with little man and several of his friends, then Kroger for some yummy foods, then lunch with 2 special friends. Not finished yet! Then on to the farm to enjoy the beautiful day (with a little insulation dust floating around too) and my family. Needless to say my boy and I were wiped o.u.t. We came home, ate, and fell into bed. Totally made up for yesterday!

This.Is.My.Day.

So, I don't journal, though I probably should. You'll say the same after reading what I have to say next. Two facts: first, my personality type is an INFJ, & second, certain personality traits just come with my genes. Therefore I have accepted several facts about myself. It takes me a little while to process some things. I think I've come a long way in defeating the ugly monster in me that wants to lash out when I'm hit with something that I just can't deal with...like a bad driver in front of me, or an instant change in plans that life throws my way. And, I have accepted the fact that I am a loner. I just like my privacy, my alone time (which I can't have too much of), and I have had none of that since becoming a mommy. Now, please don't read into that. It is what it is. I love mommyhood. But, I cherich (and I know we all do) those several hours in the evening after I've put little man to bed. I can do what I'm doing now, blog. Or, I can surf on the www. Or I can veg in front of the tv. Or, I can sit on the porch in the cool evening and read a good book. It takes so much for me to break the silence and call a friend. BUT, I'm always so glad to talk to a dear friend and laugh and commiserate on life. I just don't do it enough. (I can hear you all groaning in acknowledgment. Hush.)
On to my point. Today I could not deal. First, my coffee pot acted up. It kept shutting off mid-brew! What!? Oh. Back up. FIRST, I woke up at 3am to little man crying b/c he was hungry. 14 months. Need I say more? Oh, ok, I will b/c maybe I need to vent a little. He's teething - can't see or feel any teeth after 3 or 4 weeks of this contstant drool. He's becoming "the man." Or, so he thinks. It's cute and sweet...to a point. After awhile I'm over it. He's become bored with his toys. (I spent all of yesterdays naptime rearranging and organizing his toys so that it would be like Christmas morning. He was excited for an afternoon and evening. Now he's over the excitement. Geesh.) His eating likes/dislikes are changing. And, while it's new and neat for both of us at times, it's maddening for mommy at other times. I think that's it. Back to my morning. I came downstairs to dirty dishes that both hubs and I had left in the sink overnight. Ick. I am trying SO hard not to do that since becoming a mommy! (You know, the whole do as I say, don't do as I do thing I'd love to beat. Yeah right.) Then, my boy was so cranky today! He was tired at least a whole hour before his morning nap. But, I can't risk putting him down b/c if I don't time it just right he'll stay awake crying. Bless his heart. No, wait, bless mine. I had to go get my blood drawn today for my 6 month thyroid check-up. And, lo and behold I arrive (at John's afternoon naptime) and discover that my dr. has ordered a 10 hour fast for blood work, cholesterol, etc. My hubs made the appt. for me and failed to mention the fasting part. I was not pleased. I spoke calmly, but firmly to the receptionist and told her in no uncertain terms that I have never had to fast in all my years of having yearly check-ups. I then called my husband to ask him if anyone had mentioned fasting on the phone when he made the appointment. Silence. Then, "oh, you're going to kill me." Yep. I returned to the receptionist to appologize for my husbands gross error. She had already sent the dr. out by this time. We agreed to check cholesterol another time. Yeah. THEN, I arrived at the blood bank. (It was a new blonde chick. She was ok. Nice, I'll give her that.) As I left the office I smelled something suspiciously like a dirty diaper. Wonder who that could be? So, we pulled over and stopped to change. Laura, are you sure you are ready for motherhood?! Little man had had the BIGGEST #2 I have ever seen. It soaked his pants, his shirt, all the way down his leg and onto the stroller. I just stared. I was in shock! I've never had anything like that happen (in public)! And, I've stopped carrying a change of clothes (we were only gone from the house for an hour and a half!) b/c he's so GOOD and never has accidents! This. Is. My. Day. By the way...there wasn't a changing area in any of the bathrooms so the lap was it. And, I thought I WAS totally grossed out. The socks ended up with some grossness on them. So, my boy was naked for a large part of the ride through the medical building. Before we went outside I bundled him up in his sweater and my sweatshirt. Cute.

Another little gem from the day: the lady behind our apartment likes to walk her dog in OUR backyard. Yes, folks, you guessed it...she walks him for the sole purpose of going to the pottty. I asked her to please pick up her dog's poo, as our children (many) play in OUR backyard. She meandured on back to her home, dog in tow, and eventually came back with a plastic bag. Ick.

So, are you thinking right now that I should begin to journal? You don't want to hear any more of this type of thing, do you?! I don't blame you. I wouldn't either.

As Scarlett always said, "Tomorrow's another day."
It can't come soon enough.

Joy

Easter weekend was extra special this year as we celebrated the sacrifice of the cross and the gift of our son. Church was wonderful again, this Sunday, and John Weece, our pastor, never fails to deliver the Reason we live. John is sleeping better in the car, thankfully, and we traveled to Charley's family in Shelbyville, KY for dinner. John was pooped by the end of the day! His 3 older cousins (4, 6, 8 - or something like that!) had 3 egg hunts! We even had a round where the kids hid eggs for the adults to hunt. John (and mommy!) were finished after the first hunt, so we found a green spot of grass and discovered eggs, our shoes and outfit. Here are a few pix of the day. We surely missed the family we didn't see, but it was so nice to be together as a family of three.

View from our front porch

Before ~ January

After ~ April

Our front yard is the site for this years X Games dirt bike competition
Didn't know that, did you?

Another view of the front

Another view from front porch

Welcome home!

Insulation, drywall, finishing from here on out!

Oh my!

It's been forever since I've posted! We have been working fast and furiously on our house. Plumbing is in and electric is almost completed. We've done loads of little stuff here and there also. It's coming along nicely and we hope to be able to hit our target move-in date even if trim isn't finished, etc. We're looking at kitchen cabinetry now and that is tons of fun! John has made friends with every single Lowe's sales associate. Literally. They see us coming and smile and wave. Below are a few pictures that our dear THOGL friends (who are just plain friends now!) took at John's birthday.



Taking it pretty easy



Digging in deeper



A complete mess

I think he enjoyed his birthday cake as much as his crowd of cheerleaders enjoyed watching him devour it! Our friend, Sue, encouraged him with, "John, where is your head?" It was all over!

I've also been working on a Shutterfly album of our journey to John. Thanks to Jyll for her inspiration at her little boy's birthday party a few weeks ago, I finally made myself finish our book. You can find it here: www.3neals.shutterfly.com. I have to add members, so send me an email and I'll add you! Thanks to several THOGL friends we've made over the past year, the pictures we collected and added are such a wonderful depiction of Taiwan. We didn't get to travel around the island as much as others. So, we appreciate and are thankful for pictures that others have shared of their travels!

Friends

Cake + John = Ham

Mmm...Spinach!

My baby is a little Popeye...he loves spinach! Of course, I mix in a little whole milk and technically it's more of a creamed spinach dish...but, we'll just say it's pure 100% veggie goodness. And, yes, he is indeed building stronger muscles day by day.

P.S. Um...yes, I'm asking the same question as you right now...where is his bib!?

My boy's first birthday is tomorrow! Who would have thought that one year ago today I would be holding my forever son? It seems surreal. It IS surreal. 50 weeks ago I was still a foster parent and I was holding a newborn, Eli, that I thought would be my forever child. We picked him up from the hospital NICU and brought him home on Christmas Eve of 2008. He was my world for 2 months...round the clock feedings and all of the joys and changes a newborn brings into a home. (And, I might add into the equation, maternity leave from work for me.) He was returned to his birth mother 2 months later.

While we were in the throws of the surprise of Eli potentially returning to his birth mother we began to fill out the paperwork for Thogl. And, one miracle after another led us to receive the call 2 weeks after John was born that he was ours! Yes, ours! What more could we ask for after 4 long years of life in the foster lane?! The Lord is good and always faithful to provide in our darkest hour of need. I know that firsthand.

Another neat glimpse of Him today - I finished loading up the car to drive down to the farm to work on some things and as I tucked John in and pulled my seatbelt on I realized I needed to take a minute to pray. I was feeling a little frazzled. So, after we'd taken a minute to ask the Lord to be with us I heard my cell phone ring loud and clear. My head popped up and I looked around and realized that it was still inside. (Big surprise...I am so forgetful when it comes to that little piece of modern thing I call...mmm...you don't want to know what I call it.) Sure enough, there it was on the kitchen table waiting for me to leave him behind. Again. Hmmm...I wonder "where" that ring came from!? When I think He's hanging out down the street I realize I'm oh so wrong. He's just around the corner of my mind.

The daffodils are poking their noses out of the ground here in central KY! Hurray for Spring's little surprises!

Qdoba

I adore the Mango Salad from Qdoba. It's a seasonal dish, and they don't serve it in the winter. So, I thought I would try to make it myself. It turned out to be yummy. It's not the exact recipe, but it's pretty close! Thought I would share...

Mango Chicken Salad

Black Beans

Corn

Tomato

Mango

Onion

Chicken

Lettuce

Azteca Tortilla Shells (in cold section of grocery)

Lime Juice from 2 limes

Orange Juice (3 or so Tb)

Vinegar (3 or so Tb)

Olive Oil (3 or so Tb)

Toppings:

Sour Cream

Shredded Cheese

My First

We're talking baby and award, people!

I was reminded today of the song that came alive for me when Faith Hill recorded it this Christmas 2008..."A Baby Changes Everything." Wow. What an amazing song! If you haven't heard it...now is the time ~ check out Faith Hill on CMT.com. And, for sure, I have shed many a tear as this 2009 begins anew with our precious baby in our arms.

My dear friend and family, Laura, gave me an award! Each day I am reminded how blessed I am by my husbands wonderful extended family. We are closer than most families in this hectic daily rush of life. Talk about quick - sometimes I think that I am feeding my blog addiction and jumping in the fast waters of the wide web as I skip from one site to the next. But, then, I'm reminded that it's a blessing to be able to connect with others around the world - in ways we have never been able to do in the past. And, what could be more wonderful than reconnecting with old friends, typing quick love notes to our families, and receiving awards from special friends? I ask, what could be more wonderful than connecting and understanding and wading through this life with others walking our same road that we might not have otherwise discovered?! Thank you, Laura, for the love! XOXO's back at you today and always. (And to K and G too!)

The text accompanying this award is as follows:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I tag, with love:

Laura

Lisa

Jenny

EV

Cydil

April

Jyll

Amy

Amy is the last, but not least, on this list of great friends. She is an inspiring woman, who, alongside her husband, founded an organization that will one day bring many orphans to their forever home. Please pray with us that tonight as we sleep, their twin girls across the ocean are brought home quicker than all of us can imagine.

3 Days. No Power. No thanks.

I still can't get over the Winter storm of 2009...3 days without power was not fun. I repeat, not fun! But, it was peaceful when the power was still on for a morning while the snow was falling. It was clear Sunday and yesterday, and then more snow today! Just snow, though, thankfully. We have about 3 inches on the ground. The pictures below are from last week.

Birthday Boy!

Please drop in!

Ice, ice and more ice!

Ugh...we've been without power for 3 full days. Not fun after the first 24 hours. We're cleaning up snow, ice, changing the oil on the generator that's kept us afloat, shoveling sidewalks, doing the mounds of laundry that have piled up, and so much more! The sun is out today and the ice is melting a bit. I'll be back later with pix of this winter storm! I've never been so excited to clean in my life! Hot water here I come!

Asleep

Our Pride and Joy

1 Month

Almost 1 Year!

Served!

Hello! My husband served a reality Celeb today! We're sitting here in the family room watching tv tonite and he says, "Oh, hey, I forgot to tell you...I served Eric from MTV today." Excuse me? Elaborate? He thought this guy looked familiar and after Eric left, Charley's coworkers asked who served the guy from MTV.

Eric is the dude in the middle. He's most recently been on the Gauntlet.
Not that I have seen it or anything.



It's not really that big of a deal, but I thought it was worthy of a little post.

How to Share

No, I'm not posting a lecture on how John attempts to share toys with his friends. I could I guess. But, I won't. Instead I'll share a few pics of our exciting next-step-in-the-ongoing-saga we like to call "Our life." To quote John and Kate Plus 8 (and, yes, she's overbearing and slightly mean to her sweet, non type-A personality husband...but I still like the show nonetheless), "It may be a crazy life...but, it's our life!" We are making slow, but steady steps toward our dream of living sustainably and making a living doing this...Au Naturel Farm...someday. The SSAWG (Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group) page is a great website about individuals making a successful and profitable living from modern-day farming. Another great site with tried and true practices is found at http://www.polyfacefarms.com/.

The farm gate begins a half-mile road to our house site with the water line to the left of the road.

The electric company installing lines...and the road has gravel!

Charley is putting in an electric fence around the site to keep the cows out!
Right now, one of our great neighbors is renting the land for his cattle.

Below is an interior look at our cottage with Charley and the babe on the left and our builder on the right.

This last picture below was taken a few nights ago in the snow.

There is still so much work to be done...windows, doors, porch, siding, roof...and that's just the exterior! We are finishing the interior ourselves. Right now we are installing the electric. Next, we'll work on the plumbing, insulation, drywall, flooring, not to mention all of the finishing work in the kitchen, bathrooms, trim throughout the house, and so much more! Needless to say we are busy!