I Didn’t Fall Off the Face of the Earth!!

Have you missed me?  Been wondering if I was still alive?  It’s been nearly three weeks since I posted anything other than a blog hop or contest opportunity here!  (BTW…Have you entered to win the Gourmet Brownies yet?  Get over there as soon as you’re done reading here!)

Good news – I’m still here!  Turns out that the decision to attempt to blog every day for two months in a row was a bad idea for me.  Blogging became a chore – one I dreaded.  And the more I felt obligated, the more I put off writing.  AND, the less this blogging thing felt like something I wanted to do.

 

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So, I stopped the Blog Every Day in May Challenge mid-stride.  Oh well.  I’m trying to take it easy on myself and learn from this experience rather than do what I would normally do – tell myself that “I’m a failure”, “I’ve always been a failure”, and that “this is just one more example I can look back on as proof”.  I don’t really like that mean voice inside that tells me all that bad stuff about myself; it’s far too easy to believe it.  That voice isn’t nice – ever.  And it needs to be quiet so I can hear the whispers, teeny tiny as they are most of the time, of the voice that tells me, “you’ve got this”, “you’re loved”, “you’re just fine”, “you can do it”, and more.  I need to get that little whisper of a voice an amplifier.  And I need to slow down and be still so that I can hear those whispers often enough that I begin to believe them!  I’m trying…

 

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Guess what!  I’m another year older.  A few weeks ago I turned 39…it wasn’t easy for me.  For whatever reason, the realization that in just a few hundred more days I’ll be 40 years old seemed to just creep up on me, surprise me and then sit on my chest like a ton of bricks (black bricks)!  Now that the b-day is over and 39 is settling in, 40 doesn’t seem so bad.  But for a few weeks there, I was struggling.

Here’s what’s been happening around these parts since I got out of that funk!

We’ve been cleaning up a lot of stuff and organizing in and around our house.  A couple weeks ago, DH took a trailer full of trash to the landfill and discovered a pile of play set pieces that had just been dumped off!  Thankfully he dragged them home, I searched around on Google, and we assembled this super-cool play set for Little Man!  I was amazed that all the pieces were there and that someone had just thrown away a play set in practically new condition (it retails for over $500)!!  SCORE!

We went camping over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate Baby Girl’s 22nd birthday!  DH, Little Man, The Cuddler and I camped out Friday night and Saturday night; Baby Girl , Wrench and a couple of their friends cam and joined the fun Saturday.

This is what Little Man looks like waking up at 5:37am on a Saturday morning!  Notice how bright it already is?  Yeah…the moon was full and bright all night and then the sun had the gall to rise at practically 5am!  Makes for a looooong day!

Check out that bed-head!!

I just love watching Little Man play in the dirt…and he’s such a boy!  He loves to get dirty!

As Saturday morning passed by, I could tell Little Man was getting tired under the hot sun.  He came and got his sippy cup of milk from me and disappeared into the RV as I was sitting just outside appreciating the sun on my face!  A minute or two later, this is what I discovered – a very asleep Little Man in the dog bed!  We’re pretty sure Little Man thinks he’s a dog, too!

Wrench brought his family’s ATVs out with them and we got a chance to take Little Man on his first trail ride.  We putted around a few trails and before we knew it, Little Man had fallen asleep riding with DH (he’s asleep in the photo below)!  He gave DH and I a bit of a scare because we never imagined a baby could fall asleep on an ATV.  Little Man can!

When we came home from camping, it was obvious that the weather at our house hadn’t been as nice as it was where we camped.  Little Man’s play houses had been blown away!  One house was in pieces strewn about – some pieces were as far away as the neighbor’s driveway (which required flying over a waist high fence)!  The second house you can see in the photo below – had blown from the “X”, crashed into a fence post and broke the post, and then landed on it’s side in the middle of the field in front of our house!  Needless to say, the play equipment has been relocated to a less-windy area of our property!

Did I mention Little Man likes to play in the dirt?  This is his face when we arrived home from camping!

On Memorial Day, Little Man did the doggie-bed naptime thing again!  DH has asked him if he’s a boy or a dog – he thought for a minute and replied “Dog!”

For the summer, I’m providing daycare for “Miss A” – a 3-year-old little princess who lives further up the mountain from us.  She and Little Man enjoy spending time together and annoying each other!  I love having her around, but can’t park my hiney in front of the computer to write while she’s here.  And she doesn’t nap, either!

Last weekend DH’s sister and her husband, SIL and BIL, arrived in our area for a visit!  They had never met Little Man or seen our house out here in Colorado.  It’s been lots of fun having them around – we have been busy!  Sunday (the day after SIL and BIL arrived) – SIL, DH, Little Man and I drove about an hour away from our home to visit a former Florida neighbor of ours at the ranch he stays at out here.  We got to check out the ranch and view the local mountains from a much different angle!

This little snake was slithering across the walkway while DH was watching Little Man.  According to DH, Little Man stepped right over him!  (NOTE how tiny he really is – those are pine needles he’s laying on!)

I got to help Little Man discover pine cones!  He was amazed briefly.

The view from the top of the hill – the afternoon was overcast and the mountains are hard to see in the background (SIL has an awesome camera and took this shot as well as the one of Little Man below).

In the few days since SIL and BIL arrived, it feels like we’ve been going non-stop.  The first few days they stayed in a local hotel, but for the last couple nights they’ve been staying with us.  It’s been great to have time to visit and for Little Man to get a chance to meet his Aunt and Uncle.  We have a couple more days to visit and then they’ll be headed back to the East Coast.  I’ll be posting more regularly after they leave.

In the meantime, check out the Gourmet Brownie Giveaway and stop back in tomorrow (or after midnight EST tonight) to link up for the Tattler Thursday Blog Hop #4!!

Until next time…