"Farm" Life

I love my life!  It is so rewarding to work in the yard, or take care of the animals.  I love watching the kids hard at work doing their chores or playing in the pasture.  I know right now we are just "want-to-be farmers", but I am looking forward to adding pigs, cows, goats, bees and anything else Brett deems necessary to add to the mix.  I do have cowgirl boots with really horse poop on them, if that counts for anything...
I never would have guessed I would enjoy feeding the animals in the morning and spending time petting and talking to our horses (not in a weird way:), but I do.  It has been so fun having Hank our mule be born and watching him grow and his personality develop.
I actually look forward to sweeping the long driveway or mowing the lawn while the kids are raking piles of twigs and throwing them in the burn pile, or following Brett around and helping with the various tasks he is doing.
There is something so rewarding about being exhausted at the end of the day due to hard work.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want to feel that way every night,  but I do love looking around at work that has been done and knowing I accomplished it.  One of my favorite things is working along side my kids and Brett. I sometimes drag my feet when Brett suggests it, but once I start I'm always glad I did.
There is so much to do on our little bit of land.  It seems there are always weeds or something that needs to be fixed or made better.  It is not how we plan on having it look by the time we are done, but we love it regardless of the way it looks now or how long we know it will take to get to where we want it to be.  Part of the fun is planning and dreaming and of course tackling one project at a time, knowing you had something to do with the outcome.
I am so grateful for the blessings in my life!  This home, this land, our neighbor and ward!  Every time I turn around I see another blessing from my wonderful Heavenly Father.  I am thankful for such wonderful kids who don't seem to mind too much when we give them a hard job, and I am extremely glad for my husband who is loving, kind, and hard working.

*Speaking of Brett:  and I realize this is completely off the subject so think of it as a separate post!
One of my favorite things about Brett is he loves to know things.  He is always researching something he wants to learn about.  He decided he wanted to have honey bees, so of course, he reads all about it.  One night at 11:30 (after I had been peacefully sleeping for a good hour), Brett woke me up to inform me of some amazing fact he had just read about bees.  Apparently they are the most fascinating of animals.  When I'm not so tried I would love to learn more about them and agree they are incredible.  It's my fault really, I can sleep with the light on, so he forgets I'm actually sleeping.
This actually has inspired me to learn more... about anything.  Brett seems to know everything, so just once I'd like to have an answer he doesn't know.  It use to be that the kids would ask me some random question and I would say, "ask your Dad?"  I didn't really expect Brett to know the answer, but since I didn't know it, having them go to him, let me off the hook.  Well, Brett DID know the answer, almost always!  And when he didn't he would look it up!  So typical!  I started googling the questions myself so I would know the answer and be able to give it to the child (usually Jeb) myself.  Unfortunately, my brain doesn't work that way.  I could give them the answer alright, but later when I tried to recall it to  impress Brett, I could not remember for the life of me.  Very frustrating.  I can say one thing I have gotten better at (and I am only kind of bragging because I'm still pretty bad), I am much better at spelling.  Now, you will only know that if you knew how it was before, so don't go re-reading this and judging me.  I do not know how to use my spellcheck, so instead when a word lights up... I look it up in the dictionary!  Or I just keep guessing until the red goes off.  Which would explain why sometimes I get the word spelled right, just the wrong word.  Considering though, I could hardly use a dictionary before, since you have to at least guess the first couples of letters right in order to find your word... I'd say I've made huge progress. :)