A Walk Down Memory Lane

It has been 2 years, 5 months and 18 days since we packed up a motorhome with the 3 girls, 2 dogs, a huge tub of homemade cookies and an ache in my gut and left Oregon for Minnesota.
You would think that would be enough time to completely unpack, thoroughly decorate, erase any longing for home and acclimate to the frozen tundra.  I've yet to do one of those things.  I still have decorations sitting on my bedroom floor where they have been since the day we got here.  I still have bins and boxes yet to be unpacked.  I can't get used to this cold and my heart is still unsettled.

The other day I was going through a bin in my sewing room and I came across some "original" Lollibags, the Lollibags Lauren and I first made back in 2005-2008.  We had the craziest fabric combos, but it was oh so much fun making them. I've listed 3 of them in my Etsy Shop.  I'm so thankful we jumped into Lollibags, went on girls trips to find vintage fabrics, and just freely created.  Good memories with my daughter.

Here are a few pictures of some of the originals....

We found these vintage fabrics at a thrift shop.  I know it's a crazy combination but I love it!  Lauren made this one.  I'll have to ask her what happened to this bag.

Oh my goodness, look how little the girlies were!  Portia is almost 12 now and Sophie is 6.  Boy I sure do love that bag Portia has on.  I must have sold it at the Sunday Market.

It is so easy to blow a couple hours looking at old photos.  But I must get back to sewing and finishing up a scarf I am making.  Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm wherever you are!  I think our high on Saturday will be in the negative......sigh

Peony

My favorite, favorite, favorite flower!

These are the two I have at the farm.  I am going to fill my new yard in Minnesota with Peony bushes!

I love how the bud is so tight and it slowly opens.

What is your favorite?

The Move part 2 Goodbye part 1

You can't move without saying goodbye can you?  The sun is out today and as I walked out back to see just how warm it was the realization hit me...............I have to say goodbye to all this.  And while we want to move and believe we are in God's will by moving... it does not make it easy.
And I am starting to count "my last's".

This is THE LAST time my hubby and son's will put out the irrigation.  Yes, yes, yes, we have had our fair share of arguments over farm work and how it's done, actually SEVERE arguments over this issue, but it is still a bittersweet last.

Goodbye small pasture, you are bumpy and full of ruts from the cows, but we faithfully irrigated you to keep you green and growing.

Goodbye beautiful view of the "hills".  I will miss you most.  In the soon to be 9 years we have lived in Oregon, I have never tired of these hills, it has never grown old or just....oh ya there are the hills again.  Nope I have thanked the Lord thousands of times for how beautiful they are.

Goodbye magnolia trees, I have enjoyed the huge saucer blossoms every year.  Although my children have not enjoyed picking up your leaves day after day.  I don't care, I love you!

Goodbye passion flower vine.  You faithfully came back every year from new shoots that started.  I finally had to make  up a huge trellis for you out of an old bedspring and an old barn gate.  I sure hope the new owners keep my set up!

Goodbye bush, I don't know what you are called but I love you too, you are my favorite, especially when your branches bloom with tiny yellow flowers!



Goodbye river rock path, that I painstakingly put in one rock at a time, while I was 8 months pregnant with Sophie!!  You are my favorite too.  That is why I planted you with steppables, my favorite plant!

Goodbye river rock.  We brought you up load after heavy load from the McKenzie river.  I wanted to do so much more with you, like build a river rock wall out front.......sigh, that is not to be.

Bittersweet from websters says:  2. both pleasant and painful or regretful: a bittersweet memory  5. pleasure mingled with pain.

I'd say that sums it up perfectly.

The Move~ part 1

I have waited so long to be able to say these words, and those of you with a house for sale KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING!!!  I have several blogger friends that are selling, have just sold or have moved into the new house and are still waiting to sell the old.  It is a gut wrenching, hand wringing, trust testing, emotional experience, no?

Well, here goes......we are closing on our farm on May 31, and I would really like to be able to tell this story in that time.  But it cannot be in one post, there are to many miracles to share.  And when I say miracles I'm not talking parting the Red Sea kind, it's the little occurences, that you almost have to do a double take to make sure you read/heard/thought right. 

Now, mind you, there are HUGE things occuring here, but it's the little things that are the biggest sometimes.  I am going to link up to old posts now and again, because God has seemingly woven this tale together over quite some time and I hope I don't lose you as I am trying to tell it.  It is all there in my mind, but sometimes I don't convey my thoughts exactly right.  I have to remember that you have no idea what has been happening.  I've wanted to shout it from my farmhouse rooftop, and at times whine and complain about all this waiting and trusting. OH wait I did whine and complain didn't I?

I have experienced Mt. Everest highs and Death Valley lows in the last few years, I say few because honestly I don't even remember when this all started, but the further into it I get, the more I realize, God started this process long before I had any notion of it at all!

Remember this post?  This is a precious gift from God.  It may be neither here nor there as to what is happening now, but I did always wonder why God sent us to Oregon.  I don't know if this is only part of the reason or the whole reason, but it meant the world to me to discover this.

And that is where I'll begin........

pending

I know so many questions, right?  I promise I'll have a LENGTHY story in the weeks to come.  Until we are closed I can only show you this happy picture!  The things God has done over the last 6 months are truly miracles.

Waiting for Summer

I am longing for warm weather.  This year, the rain is just hanging on and lingering, it is so unwelcome.  So when there is ONE nice day in the midst of 6 days of rain, I have to celebrate.

It was so nice on Saturday, I said to the girls......Girls, lets go play by the river!  And that is what we did.

We packed up some snacks and drinks and started off walking.  Dad was already down there, so he came to pick us up in the Ranger.

But not before we walked down through the Christmas trees.

Our first stop was at "the beach".  Sometimes the boys camp out here with their tents.  They build a fire and fish  for their dinner.

A view up the McKenzie River.  It is so beautiful and such a clean river.

The girls have a lot of fun playing here at the beach, they usually take sticks and draw in the mud.  They just run around, finding sticks and rocks.  Who knew it could be so much fun to find a stick??

Then we move up river to our "bench spot".   Hubby brought my rocking bench down here and made me some tables from a tree that went down.  I love to bring a book down here and read while the girls play.  It is so relaxing just staring at the river and listening to it too.  It is so much better in person, I wish you could come and sit with me.

The view down river from where we just were.



I love the river rock.  We have brought tons of it up to put in our yard.  If you follow the McKenzie River east it is the most beautiful site.  There are places where the river dries up and the whole river bed is huge river rock!  I love to take that drive, it is absolutely breathtaking.  There are so many places in Oregon I still have yet to see.

The boys rode up, thumbs up kid, is Nic's friend Kenny.  Nic is in the middle and Josh is on the right.

Sophie ran up and down, up and down, up and down, so many times I lost track.  She would yell, GO, GO, GO! 

There are lots of fishermen on the river.

We took the scenic route back up to the house and saw the new baby cows, soaking up the sun.

I didn't want to go back to the house, but the girls were excited to color easter eggs.  I could have sat down in the sun for hours.  So back, we went.
Please pray for sun on Saturday, we have people flying in from California to see the farm!  They want to walk the property and that is no fun in the rain.
Thanks friends, I know you will.

Have a great week!

Home Staging

As you know our farm is for sale and......not one nibble. 

But that doesn't worry me, all in God's timing.

So, I have been watching HGTV's Get It Sold and I've learned some good tips!

 I have been painting. I hate painting.

 I was a fun mom and let my boys choose their own room colors when we added on to the house.  They each got a new bedroom and a new bathroom. 

Josh chose BRIGHT green.

Nic chose macaroni and cheese orange and BRIGHT green.

Isn't that awful??

It was all I could do to look at those colors, I can't imagine what people have thought at our open houses!

So I painted them, Gentle Cream from Benjamin Moore.

Then I thought, well people may not like the waves in Portia and Sophie's room either, so I painted their room the same color.

My dilema with the girls room is their ceiling is the same green as the top of the walls. 

I HATE painting ceilings.

So I left it green.

We also added neutral light fixtures in the girls rooms and the entry way.

And I have taken down a lot of my decorations around the house.

Neutral, that's what they say!

You will have to stay tuned for after pictures, I am not done "staging".

My Spider Friend

This was our new spider friend.

Every year at this time in October, someone finds a HUGE spider either right outside a window.

Or up on the garage ceiling.  We always adopt them and name them.

I was so hoping for that with this spidy.  But she has disappeared!  She has abandoned

that beautiful web.

Honestly, it gives me the creeps just looking at it.

Can you imagine it crawling up your neck??

Or across your face while your sleeping? 

I went to check on her the other day and she was gone, and she has never come back. 

I hope she did not crawl into the house somehow.

The fun was just going to start.

Usually we find a fly and throw it in the web and watch her go to town.

I know there is not alot of thought going into this name...

But we usually name them all,

Charlotte

Where are you Charlotte?



A Sunday BBQ

I LOVE summer BBQ'S!  We had one Sunday.  It was just hotdogs....

But the weather was PERFECT.

I just enjoyed watching my girls play in the yard with grandpa from Hawaii.

Eating our hotdogs.

Sophie insisted on wearing her Olive Juice dress.

I found that dress at goodwill!!! 

 What a find..... go check out their prices and you'll understand how excited I was when I saw it.

Playing yard games with grandpa.

Lauren trying to juggle.

It was a beautiful afternoon.  I am so blessed.

As I am writing this, I am eating a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

Lauren had an itch to make cupcakes after watching Cupcake Wars last night.

I love having a 14 year old daughter who bakes!

Odds & Ends & Updates

Sophie is getting so big I can hardly believe it!

I don't think I have ever had a week go by between posts.  Well that must be how summer blogging goes.  I cannot believe July is here!

I know I have alot of updates, I told you a few weeks back that I was painting my bedroom and making my headboard.  I have the bedroom painted, but hubby has yet to do the headboard for me.

I will post before and after photos when that is done.

My grandpa is still hanging in there in hospice, stubborn as a mule.

Only God could turn his heart around, were still praying.

Remember I planted some flowers in May in my wagon?  I do have a photo of them now.

Ok, so the before photo wasn't that great!

The flowers are getting big! and so are my girls.

Also I have a couple before and after photos of my garden.

That was my loofa gourd spoon and my zucchini spoon.

I thought it would be fun to grow loofa gourd!

The zucchini row turned out to be way to small, so I transplanted them to the other garden bed.

This is the whole view of the garden, the two raised beds are in the back corner, someday I will have this whole area into a garden.  I am dreaming of many beds with flowers around the fence line and either pea gravel or bark o mulch in the walkways, with chicken wire to keep critters out and an old garden gate.

I am lucky that when hubby irrigates the coral my garden is watered too.

What I have growing are:

cherry tomatoes

zucchini

italian parsley

corn

watermelon

loofa gourd

beans

carrots

peppers

lettuce

There is so much more I would love to grow, but that is a good start for me this year.

I've never had a successful garden, so it's looking good.

What do you gals have growing in your garden this year?  Even if it's just a couple pots of herbs on your window sill :)