Sleeping like a Baby

These guys really know how to spend a weekend!

Cherished

That is me.
I am the one cherished.

My beloved built this beautiful bed for me.
We've always had very comfortable beds, but never a headboard and foot board.

I showed my man a picture of roughly what I had in mind, and he undertook
to create it.  I am so thrilled!

Meanwhile this nesting urge made me buy fabrics, hack into them, and begin
sewing like mad to complete this quilt just in time to christen the new bed.

Now when I walk into the room,
when I climb into bed,
when I pull up the down comforter and quilt...
I think only one thing.

I am cherished.

I know I am loved.

When what's important... isn't really that important.

The fall season is drawing to a close, believe it or not.

Just tonight, my children entered the kitchen in a fevered frenzy, exclaiming that there was "this much" snow on the porch!  What?  I wasn't expecting snow - not yet.  I'm not through with brightly lit trees and not quite ready for freezing temperatures.

As the summer was closing in on us, AJ and I discussed all the things we'd like to have wrapped up before winter: fence stretched, gates set, culvert replaced, bridge completed, pit dug for next years outhouse...
Just a "few" things that shouldn't take "much" time, and as we half-grinned at each other and shook our heads, we came up with a plan.  It was this:
Let's just enjoy our children.

To make the fishing, hunting, hiking, wrestling, reading, and Sunday fall color drives the first priority.
After that, whatever gets done is bonus.  The time is passing too quickly.  We' aren't going to remember The Fall of 2012 as the year we set gates or replaced culvert pipe, but I bet we remember the apple picking trip with Gramsie and Pops.

The implementation of our goal has taken more effort that I would wish, but deliberate planning and action is required for we two who'd happily sit on the porch with coffee and follow that with tractor work and some clothes-sorting.  We had a couple precious days between business travels lately in which to cram in stuff needing to be done, and this is how we spent it...

Yesterday we took the family and went fishing with Clay.  He's been wanting to try a new spot where the fish were less predictable and the scenery fresh.  No fish on the hook, but Zack hooked Clay in the ear.  Apparently there were large trout flirting around the bait, and a beaver and muskrat to be seen in the river.

This morning AJ and the boys went deer hunting up the ridge behind our house.  No deer, but a good 5 hours of tromping in the woods, which some of that party really eat up! :-D  "Lots of sign mom... of elk and deer.... and we saw thee most gigantic Snow Shoe Hare!"

There was even a bit of time this weekend for culverts, and moving rock, and buying a bear-proof garbage containment solution. 

These couple days have felt like Christmas!  Clayton had made some apple pies which we indulged in nibbling throughout the day, and we sipped cider.  Put Whipped cream on top of our coffee, and ate soup.
This evening it's time to lay out the day (and week) ahead, to plan school assignments, and send sibling-elves off to their secret corners in preparation for Carolina's birthday.  Treasures are dug out of drawers and wrapping paper bits fly.

Lots of mercies to revel in these days and nights.
I'm reveling.
Cold temperatures, snow and all :-)

He said he wouldn't buy one...

...Didn't need one... couldn't use one.

But he forgot to factor in his fondness

for his three strapping young boys

and four lovely little girls.

I guess there are other reasons to buy a quad after all.

Yup.

He's a daddy.

And now I give you... The Larch

Have you seen Larch?  Also known as Tamarack?
It's a deciduous tree that blends right in with our evergreen, yet loses it's needles after
turning the mountainsides brilliant shades of gold!  The birch are done for the year...
behold The Larch.

Okay.  I know y'all must be tired of tree pictures, but I'm trying to entice family and friends to visit.
We happen to think this one of God's most beautiful countrysides anywhere, and the pictures are just
for proof :-)
In other tree news, we're still putting away firewood.  There's more logs to be cut, rounds to be split,
and split wood to be stacked under cover.  The boys have been working very hard (mostly) at this
job, but I've been getting out there to raise the bar on pace.  It's nice to have a reason for putting on
the ol' overalls and hoodie sweatshirt (I "borrow" my Great Guys' because it's a big, comfy, already-stained
hug I can wear and be warm while thinking of him).  I should wear some kind of gloves, but I don't.
That might change tomorrow because my thumb finally got in the way of a hunk o' wood I was stacking.
Thankfully it gashed my cuticle pretty good so it bled like the dickens.  If I smash my thumb it's going to
hurt, so it may as well bleed and LOOK like it hurts HAHA!
There was a bit more to be completed, but that curtailed my career in firewood for the day.
Hopefully the weather will hold off on snow a while longer so we can fill the woodshed and be relatively
certain of warmth for the entirety of the winter months :-)

One last fall picture:  a moment I spied when I walked past the window some weeks ago.

I've decided...

That I love the fall!  It may just be my favorite season, for sure while it lasts :-)
On Sunday we took a drive, and with the window down to catch the last hints
of balmy air, I noted a distinct crispness that wasn't there just a week ago.

And the GOLDS!  Oh the golden hues lighting up our landscape.  I swoon!
(and couldn't help sticking the camera out the window)

 Another view I like in the fall:

He's got his work cut out for him, but what a guy!  And now there's a ripe harvest of help.

This new toy tool is the perfect size for a couple pint-sized men, and boy are they splittin' the wood
and gettin' it stacked!  I just hope the novelty sticks until the shed is completely full :-)

Getting back to our Sunday drive...
We spent some family time; the kids took over the playground,
and mom and dad took in the beautiful lake view!

You know what we did after all this fun?  We had more fun!
We did.  We went to a local brewery and ate dinner together - but not just any dinner, no.
It was a "dad" kind of dinner.  A memory-maker for sure!

First we ordered about 6 appetizers or so; things like Buffalo Wings, and Calamari, and Cheese Sticks
OH yes!  That was dinner.  But wait...
Dad followed up our appetizer-entre with a humongous Brownie heaped with ice cream and whipped cream
and drizzled with chocolate syrup.  Two.  Two of them. We put one in the center of a table
and removed the chairs so our whole tribe (or Pack of hungry Lions, as they were referred to by the waitress) could gather around it with spoons.
The other was for me and dad.  What a guy!  (I keep saying that)  And it was an amazingly quiet dessert
despite the copious amounts of grease and sugar they consumed and it was just plain ol' good times.
What more can I say?  It's very hard to beat a Sunday outing like that.

Give us a week to recover and we may try though :-)

I do not see the dirty socks.

Dirty socks in pairs draped over leather boot tops
are not a bother.
They are a sign of life.
They are evidence of a man who comes home.
Who understands me:
a mom who needs a break
a wife who needs a cry
a girl who needs a laugh
a friend who needs a hug.
A man who understands kids who need to wrestle with their dad. 
All at the same time.
A man - living and breathing, an every-day hero
who puts chains on tires in the snow
takes on the compost toilet maintenance
carries in the groceries
hauls trash to the dump
keeps the fire lit in winter
and takes us to the lake hot and dusty in the summer.

Socks beside the green recliner mean
there is a man with feet up, eyes shut resting there
confident he can relax in his own home after a day full of
meetings
emails
spreadsheets
phone calls
research
numbers crunching
putting out fires
reinventing the wheel
or
felling trees
stacking logs
bucking up firewood
pounding rebar
pouring cement
building a porch
a closet
a crib
a bunk bed
a shed.
Moving dirt with a shovel
moving it with a tractor
moving mountains.
He needs his rest.  He earns it.

Big smelly socks laying neatly in pairs on the floor
mean something the casual observer wouldn't know;
the pair of feet which those socks protect
and warm
and cushion
hold up a man
who carries the weight of the world
and holds the heart of his beloved.
When I see them there.  Or here.  Or here and there
I know he doesn't wish to add to my dirty laundry
protest when I pick them up
grimaces when I do
smiles when I tell him I don't mind.
I know he intends to wear them another time before sending them to the wash
even if he never does.

Dirty socks on the floor are nothing romantic
unless you can see beyond what the eye presents
to what those large gray woolen things mean.
They are signs of life.
They are evidence of a man who comes home
to me
he comes home.

And has comfortable feet :-)

*Written for my man.  That man who comes home to me,

in honor and celebration of our 14th anniversary this week.

I am so grateful to be picking up YOUR socks!  I love you.

    

Another Birthday

A Dad's birthday.

And a Birthday-dad's project of choice...

was choosing just the right tree stump,
pressure washing it (which is a pretty dirty job)...

and moving stump to a better work location,

so creative geniuses could put their skills to work.

You're curious now aren't you!  WHAT are these guys creating?

We watch.

We need a sink stand near an outdoor faucet, and AJ thought it would be fun
to put a sink inside of a cedar tree stump.  These are pictures of the beginning, and now the inside
is mostly chipped out, but I hope it will be a beautifully useful piece of yard art!

A little cool-off (scrub-down!) at the lake was needed when the sun began to sink in the sky.

Happy Birthday dearest of dads!

Fort Marvel (not really)

The log cabin project is nearing the end of this phase.  Our Colorado crew returns to their home
day after tomorrow, and the walls  are not completed.  To some ears this may be music.
In fact, this is a sweet tune to more than a few pair of ears because there are a lot of sore
parts creaking and hobbling around here.  Sore shoulders, sore backs, sore hands,
sore knuckles, sore buns...
I hear that logs are not conducive to sitting on while pounding rebar with a 10 pound sledge hammer.
So yeah. Sore buns.

Despite the walls being little more than half built, I am totally impressed with all the hard work
which accomplished this much!  The men were just perfecting their method and finding a groove,
when height added a new challenge.

Then things slowed down a bit.  Some of this difficulty will be solved with scaffold planking.
Speaking of scaffold planks (since you asked), this new toy mill will be used to fashion them.

These pictures are for you Stephen:

Not to worry - the heights will soon be scaled.  Cessation is merely temporary until we figure out this
way-awesome mill and an education is procured through experience coupled with more soreness
most probably.

You have to admit this is pretty impressive though, eh?  I think so.  My Honey built this Stockade looking fortress!
What a MAN!