Try new things!

WTF was he thinking? Motorcyclist nightmare!

Chilling with the car keys while daddy buys all the plants. 3hrs of shopping without a fuss! What a trooper!

I love our plant selection! Can't wait to get them planted!

Dan's hard work! All I did was bring the stone from around the house after digging it up.

I've been silent for a while because we've been getting stuff done....well sorta. More work on the patio garden. Hard when the mate works full time & has Irish skin. 😏

I can't do much because of Aidan with equally Irish skin & his desire to be near me. Can't play with puppy in the shaded part of the yard. Oh no. Too far away from mommy! 😂 I got no one who can (or wants) to come entertain him while I get some yard work done!

Luckily yeaterday Dan had off so he worked all morning (till he fried 😢), I helped during Aidan's 1st nap by trenching the border of the garden....I need to redo (extend) part & go finish it. Then after some dr visits he went down for his evening nap. I went out and finished moving the large stone slabs for Dan to sort as he will for the steps. Even though Aidan woke up he got some daddy time which was nice!

The garden is growing. A boat ton of volunteers this year, including a plethora of persline which I ended up pulling. The only space in the garden for a me only is for beets!

So many projects started right now! Still have work on the kitchen to do and curtains to attend....& as you can see it might be time to clean the studio. OMG it's killing me. 😵

Preparing for the studio overhaul. 

What a night! Poor Aidan kept waking up. I'm pretty sure it's the teeth coming in. He keeps nomming whatever he can get into his mouth! Waking up & nomming his fingers. My poor li'le fox!

6:30 he was up for good....until 8:30 rolled around and he passed back out! Sigh. Now I've had my coffee and am up for the day.

Aftering getting Dan packed & caffeinated I made myself some food & of course coffee. Then got inspired to take a quick photoshoot. I didn't have time to bust out the big camera so they are only web worthy but I like how they came out.

Please comment and/or like on Instagram or facebook! Feed back is always welcome! Also, I have 2 small jars of marmalade I didn't waterbath so must be eaten. If you want it come get it!

I guess I'll clean up now & make that strawberry jam before we take Georgia to get a puppicure!

This one needs some color correction!

My favorite!

Morning ramblings:  Well the only thing I got sprouted was chia....I would love to blame the seeds but sadly I think they got to hot. Or maybe to cold to grow....idk. It gets up to 78°F in the patio during a sunny day and down to 30°F on some cold nights. So maybe they are still thinking about growing....if not garden center here we come.

So our day was rather full. Aidan slept in (till 8:30am) so I got some needed shut eye after the rough start to our night. We had planned to visit daddy at work & bring him some coffee but those plans changed to us getting groceries.

I find it a fun and yet somewhat frustrating task to cook and coddle a clingy baby! 😏 With his little teeth coming in he's always wanting to be held, hugged or just close to us. So the slaving over multiple boiling pots can get sketchy.

We disassembled a chicken and made stock from its carcass. We made a lovely blood orange marmalade. Some orange cranberry poundcake. Started soaking soybeans. Did some laundry. Washed the dishes. Knit a shirt.

I'm setting myself up for failure! Starting my dependency with such vigor! Busy busy bee!

Anyway, I still have strawberry jam to make, lavender shortbread, chocolate biscotti and some cookies for Dan! So much to do besides that even. Like get our taxes in, get people called and paid, and make deliveries.

My personal goals:

Make $200 a month so Dan doesn't have to pay my life insurance policy & my retirement account.

Make something for myself each month.

Relationship goals:

Do something special for Dan each week!

Life goals:

Get better at making lunches! Regularly!

Make more dinners.

Career goals:

Get 1 new business client a month! (Is that to ambitious?)

 Today is a day for cleaning & making! Aidan quietly plays with his blocks as I sew up his tree spirit! Then while he sleeps I finish cleaning the kitchen. ..just to dirty it again. Sigh!

Busted out the sippy cups and the tiny Tupperware. Clean and ready to go.

So I made Aidan his first batch of puree. Apples and avocado. The food processer didn't like the apples so Aidan is a bit unsure. I'll just have to remember to mash before feeding!

Weighed out the butter for a new poundcake and prepaired the rest of it's ingredients that require some special attention.

Made myself an affogato and of course took some photos for Iron Shot Cafe!

That of course is as far as I got before Aidan woke back up. So we're eating lunch and playing! Lunch with tea also required it's own photoshoot!

On a side note my last day of a 15 year career is next Saturday. It's time I focused on my family. Pray for focus! I'm a terrible procrastinator!

Another side note. It's about time to move my citrus to the patio. Their new home. I need to find a way to protect them at night as it still gets cold.

Clean me!

Affogato

So I find that I'm posting to Instagram with far more frequency then my blog. O.O Sorry about that! Please follow @PatientFarmer

So a bit of story for the following images.

My father found the handmade rocking horse and brought it over. I'm sanding and going to repaint it to better match our style. There will be a bit of Celtic knot work I hope! I'm just gonna do a rough sand to help the new paint stick better.

The bags of milk...ya that's my bomb ass mommy skills. Normally I can only get 3-ish oz while at work. That day I got 6oz. Whoot!

I made some oat milk in preparation for making my own soy milk. Super easy! Can't wait till my soy beans come in. Also, Dan made some pickles! Hot cucumber, Hot beef and Hot eggs! Note:  Hot as in Spicy hot!

& finally since puppy claws killed our sheets I'm repurposing them into shirts! XD

Rocking Horse Pre-sanding

Bomb mommy skills!

Oat milk:  not recommended with coffee!

Spring?

Just yum

Pickles

"I decided to run around in the mud!"

Repurposing

I love slow mornings. Sleeping in, doing some morning yoga and making a nice cup of tea (or rather nooking last nights)! With a delicate snow fall as my backdrop!

Yesterday Aidan woke up at 3:30 then every half hour to hour later till I said freak it and took him down stairs. Were we played till he passed out around 9-10am. Since I had to work last evening I just got my day started. We ended up getting Georgia's nails done and stopping at Ace for a furnace filter. Our poor furnace was a whistling and that filter...oh boy. They had a very convenient sale!!!

That was Aidan's big nap and he didn't sleep a wink after (I don't really count the car rides). While he was at it I took Georgia out to play in the snow fall and shoveled the drive and sidewalks up to my neighbors' drives. I'm such an awesome neighbor! I almost shoveled the Fishers' driveway for them since they are super kind to us but they like doing yard work and stuff. They went back used their fancy snow blower thingy ... stopped at the edge of their yard of course. *shrug* The one thing I don't like about living in the berbs...shoveling sidewalks.....

Grandma entertained him while I worked. Had some fun customer interactions! (see end note!) My schedule was all messed up (got shorted 1hr which I worked anyways). Then we went home to a puppy in time out (she peed on daddy's office floor) and some homemade sliders! All in all not an eventful day.

This morning proved that wee Aidan had tuckered himself out good. Woke up at 6:30 hungry then promptly passed back out till 9. In fact I woke up before him! By like 5 mins but whatever! I got the changing table cleared off and his humidifier refilled. He was watching me! LOL! Changed his diaper and he let me lay him back into his crib to preform my morning bathroom rituals (minus shower. That waits till his nap time). It was glorious! He's currently bouncing away in his jumparoo while I take care of Georgia's morning routines, get myself breakfast and reheat my tea from last night!

Life's an adventure!

breakfast of champs!

Breakfast:  rice, fried egg in hamburger grease, ground flax, sunflower seeds & sweetened coconut oil.

End Note: Customer interactions!

1st:  Super tall chap. Got his life story! He divorced, his kids call one day (mom had kicked them to the curb....literally) so he has them now. He asked the Dublin schools if they would allow the kids to finish out their school year even though he doesn't live in Dublin. They said nope! They can finish out the week! So 6 days later he was living in Dublin! Awesome dad! He found himself a winner with the new wife. She makes awesome stuff from scratch. Pirogue, ravioli and the like. Actually established a relationship with the kids rather then trying to govern over them. I got photos. Then we talked about my being a new mom! It was just a great conversation. I got a kink in my neck though. Chap was like 6'5" at least! He told me his name too but I completely forgot. I suck at names!

2nd:  She walked in as I was trying to figure out a bundle to put "The Name of the Wind" in. I ended up giving her that & flushing out her reading list with some of my fav fantasy with male leads. We had very similar reading lists & a similar opinion on Anita Blake!

I'm loving all this snow we've been getting. My drive into work on Saturday was fun. I had to turn my poor SI into a snow plow at damn near every roundabout. If it was less fluffy and more compact icy shiz I'd have thrown my girl into reverse and to hell with work. I don't get paid enough to jack up my bumper! That puppy is a good $300!!!!

Yesterday we had a well deserved lazy day. Watched "The Dark Tower" as a family. Did some renovating plans for my studio and our bedroom. We'll also be rearranging Aidan's room but that's just a matter of moments to do. All the furniture in my studio will be going and some built ins will be coming. I'll get some shelves as well. Details must be hashed out! In the bedroom we'll be adding some shelves on that silly li'le ledge above the doors. We don't know what else to put up there that won't just end up covered in dust...so books! They like dust!!!

As you can see we have a long list of projects for this house! 3 categories too. 1 per page [Cleany Crazy Prep, Beautifying & Construction]. If you see spelling errors just ignore those! XD Construction is the longest list of course...sigh I should track the $$$$ for all this!

Then today I have lots planned! Sitting on my butt, typing this up, calling JSB and figuring out what the fuck is going on [they told us 2 weeks start to finish & it's been 4 bloody months] calling drs offices and getting bills squared away....hmm I think I forgot something....OH! sipping coffee! It's nice and snowy outside so I don't think we'll be going anywhere. Maybe I'll get some garden planning done! Oh I should order a new top for my greenhouse so I can get my garden plants started!

Wee Aidan has been a bit fusy the last few days. Not sleeping well, noming his hands, not wanting to drink, spitting up and lots of crying for grammy & auntie. Daddy had to go pick him up yesterday he was so distraught. He's having a better day today. Besides waking up early & spitting up he's eating well & has been sleeping for the past 2 hrs.

While he sleeps I've been working on my patterns. Fixing errors, adding embellishments & in general preparing them for sale. To do this I am required to reknit all of them! Well not really but I am! Some of my patterns are more notes then pattern.....& some I forget what was common to me when I was kniting them for sale! Shame on me!

So this bonnet was a game in yarn chicken. Truthfully I failed! The band I would liked to have thicker & I would like a scalloped edging. Still looks cute with all that! The pattern is ready for typing and may get posted in the next few days. Keep a look out if you like it!

Aidan's curtains are done and the video process is uploaded.

Grandma had things to do last night so we got to go see the newest Kelley addition. & what a cutie she is. Jet black, straight locks!!! Squishy li'le cheeks. Charlie was being a ham & a proud big brother! Li'le Aidan was giving her smiles too. I think she'll be well loved!

On our way home wee Aidan slept the while 1.5hrs then again till 11pm. I should have slept with him but wasn't tired....well now I am! Ugh! & he's so not. In fact he's here trying to type this up for me!

I finally have Aidan's curtains finished. That only took ... what...4 months!? They look good...in my opinion. What do you think? I'll be posting a video of the process. Tedious but easy.

For now I'm gonna go try to finish making my coffee!

I'm so tempted not to compost this winter. My barrel's contents are frozen! I had hoped to empty it out & was filling a bucket beside it with my fresh scraps till the compost was ready to dump.....not happening if I can't even spin it anymore! & walking out there...it's ouchie cold! It's been a while since I've HAD to go out into the cold to take care of anything besides my car! *note to self knit more wool ... everything!

The patio was staying in the 20's + until last night. It dropped down into the low teens. So not staying much warmer then perhaps 5-10 degrees warmer then the outside. I blame this on the lack of proper calking. Sigh. Probably won't happen till spring. Which means they ain't getting paid till them. The guy in charge of our project now (this makes #3, so much for 1 contact throughout the project) is a contradictory mess. He was like "I'll be out there tomorrow. We need to go over a few things and get it signed off", then when tomorrow came ... and went he was like "sorry we didn't make it, blah blah, we will be out tomorrow 100%". That didn't happen either and this time no contact! Lame.

Note to anyone wanting an enclosed patio. If you have any little bit of building know how, just take the time to build it yourself! It takes them the same amount of time it would take you! (2 weeks my rosy ass) In fact if you took a week off work and were diligent, you'd have it done! & save yourself thousands of dollars! (byer's remorse .... if only I hadn't been pregnant. I would have pushed we do it)

When we get around to building then fence....WE are so building the fence. Contractors be damned! It'll be cheaper and less of a headache even with purchasing a $700 pin survey and the permits to build!!!!

So onto better things! Aidan's curtains are complete! *happy dance* I finished them yesterday while he slept and hung them up! I measured a bit off on the right side and so when I shifted the tabs around it pulls up. I don't think it's all that noticeable. What do you think?

His elf socks are done and were a hit! I messed up my toes a bit so there are some holes but I got it fixed in the pattern. I'll try to write that up today and post it.

On the last day of 2017 we took a trip to the Zoo for the Wildlights! Aidan was loving the lights and the fishes. He lasted a whole 1.5hrs before passing out in his snuggly snow suit!

We got a lovely snow storm here on Sunday which lead to a white Christmas! All things considered, a decent snow fall, though I was expecting more! I took Aidan out and got a picture with his balaclava on. So cute!!!

Sunday Aidan and I got together with grand-da, Terri, uncle Kyle and Alisha for lunch and presents. Grand-da is a super happy, proud man who lavishes his grand-baby! It's so cute!

Christmas day Aidan woke us up early! Cooing and giggling! So we made some flapjacks and opened gifts. Dan of course got me stuff even though I told him NO. I feel so weird receiving things, especially since I'm a poor woman who's whole check goes to bills! [side note: I need to start making things for next year] After lunch we racked the strawberry mead! Now to bottle it.

The patio crew came out today. They got the screen doors on, the inside calked and the upper windows installed. There will be no outside calking due to the freezing weather (>.>) and the thingies that seal up the upper windows won't be complete, again due to the freezing weather. Foreman says that they may be measured and cut in the warehouse then brought out and installed. Also, all my wee grievances apparently are already aware of and will be corrected at completion. We shall see. I can only hope! Though cleaning up along the way is a great business practice they should think about implementing!

So I was making dinner when I noticed that our neighbor was mowing on this very cold day. Not only that but she had dragged her very tiny child out to follow her along. She wasn't watching him though so I had to go outside and made sure her child didn't hurt himself in the construction zone that is my yard. WTF was she thinking. If she wanted to snoop she should have left her damn son inside or put him into the safe fenced in back yard that she has. Not let him, destroy my garden beds, possibly dump my compost barrow onto his head [I have nocked it over before] fall into curing concrete or climb onto my wood stack on the other side of the yard......What do I do about neighbors like this? If the kid gets her because of her negligence she can still sue me!!!! I should just call the cops. Bitch waited till I was up on her child in the middle of my yard before she said anything to him. Didn't even fix the garden logs.

Footers cured the brick laying begins. The concrete crew covered their work, said it would be dry enough to work on in a few hours. I had a fun conversation with them, comparing fence building techniques. Plus the knife they had to cut the plastic that was to cover the then wet footers was dull so I lent them a pair of scissors. Nice guys even if they did damage my house...and leave concrete in my yard.

Turns out the loud crashing I heard when they were moving the logs further out was one hitting the corner of the house. I though it was the shed. The conversation with Andy was amusing and pissed me off. The man, IMO, contradicted himself & if he noticed the damage [he knew right were it was without me having to specify] before they began work I feel the smart move would have been to have informed me immediately. Especially if it's were they were to be working! I don't expect much;  pride in ones work, professional curtesy and quality work. Apparently it's too much to ask for.

The masons, of the 3 men it looked like the old man was doing all the work. At least one of the younger men mixed concrete. They had to stop for an early lunch because the JSB crew didn't bring enough bricks and concrete bags the night before. All in all not a bad job. They did pull the plastic up off the footers before they began! but left it to fly all over my yard....sigh. I have a cold so I'm not gonna go get it. Besides what am I paying JSB for if not to build an overpriced 3 glass extension and clean up after themselves!

Saturday was a horribly rainy one. Severe thunder storms which Aidan woke up early to hang out with me before work and enjoy. We had our drinks and giggled while the guard dog hid under the covers! I have no idea why that dog is afraid of storms. I love them and Dan is indifferent to them. I wonder if she has bad memories? Anywho, on my way to work we had flooded roads. That was fun. I almost had to find a detour so I didn't drown my car!

Work was boring and painful with my cold moving into my throat. Once I got home Dan informed me that we had a blow out in the bounceroo! Worse then he thought. It had just happened as I was pulling in and Dan was just removing clothing as I came inside. So I put everything down and gave the poor thing a bath. Right as I'm dressing him he starts throwing a fit [so unlike him], I settle him down and the lights flicker....flicker...and die! Pitch black! Holding Aidan and Georgia darting right under my feet. Still don't know what happened! All the stores sold out of generators so Dan called Joe so come save my books!!!! and everything else in the basement! The power finally came back on around 1:30am. I admit I slept/napped while poor Dan guarded/monitored the subpump!

Then I had to go back to work....double sigh. My Sunday boss is really trying to make me question the solidity of my mind. When I got there I was no longer on the schedule....so I called Dan back [he was taking baby to grandmas and then dropping off Joe's generator]. I'm sure Dan was like WTF get your act together!!!! Bless his heart for not speaking it allowed. As I get to the truck my coworker runs out and says that I'm actually working today! LOL! It gets explained that boss lady didn't realize I was extra help and when Tim wasn't on the schedule she just changed my name to his!!!

The source of the loud crash

Flash flood and black out

A little back tracking is in order.

I pulled out the bouncaroo for Aidan. He's been holding his head up rather well and has been standing with some assistance so I figured it was time. Sadly, on the lowest tab it's still too tall for my 2 foot boy. That doesn't stop him from having fun in it!!! He kicks his little legs and makes the music start then coos to it!

Poor guy has a cold though. I'm impressed with his attitude considering he has trouble breathing through a stuffy nose. Said stuffiness makes it hard to eat and sleep. I got a new boogie sucker coming. Hopefully it helps.

Georgia is a bit jelly that Aidan gets all the fun toys. Ones that she could tare apart in a few hours or less!

While he was napping I managed to finish Michael's Tabby Timbuck. Hopefully in time for the convention he has [or possibly had] this month. He's going to take commissions for me and let me keep all the profit so I figured I'd at least try to get him some sells on his books. Posted to Instagram on both my personal [just created] and Iron Shot Cafe's is an offer of a discount on the plushie if you buy his book. I was thinking $10 off. & I need to perfect that sweater so it looks much better!!!!! If interested shoot him an email at FehskensComics@gmail.com. I'll be making his William Purburger OC once I finish a few other WIP.

While that was going on we had JSB beginning their work on our patio. So all that decking was taken away by a lovely young man who was going to build picnic benches and animal shelters to donate. I was super happy to know they were getting reused rather than filling a land fill. What was left JSB relocated to the corners of the house and started digging.

I messed up a bit by procrastinating on relocating all those damn rocks....now they are buried and likely will be hard to find. I might get lucky but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

JSB made a hell'a mess though. In stead of locating the dirt into the center were the patio is going [where they need to raise the ground quite a bit] they covered my grass and some of the rocks that were going to stay pretty.....Clearly not any more. There will be lots of beautifying and landscaping going on in the back yard this spring!

Georgia isn't thrilled by their work. She stands at the back door, did some growling at them and the hole since. Even outside she glowers at the mess. It's adorable!

Ok so then last night once Dan got home and frowned at the mess he decided he needed a drink. I made dinner [bbq chicken, with a delicious potatoe, mushroom soup] and got him that drink. Toasted marshmallow mead in a hot coco! Warm, tingly goodness!

Aidan's new toy

Commission/Trade

The mess

The work begins

Dinner

Mizer's Coco

Georgia being silly at dinner

Typed while sipping a peppermint mocha and eating a pumpkin/mushroom/cheese omelet!