Yesterday as I went to pick up Pumpkin from school, I observed how green and wonderful everything is getting. You know how sometimes just the right grey of day really brings out beautiful colors? The apple trees on our road are so full of blossoms. They look nearly like huge white puff balls. When you step out my door and the wind blows just so, the heavely scent of the lilac tree on the other side of Mom C and Papa's house carries through the breeze. Along side the road, you can see the beginnings of the lupine in their purples, blues, pinks and white. Some of the lupine fields around here are amazing.

With the changing of the seasons, I've been looking around for a new background and just couldn't seem to find just the right thing. I guess you could say that the nature around me was inspiration!!!

Lupine fields around here often bloom out in the first weeks of June and last through mid July. Across the road and down into the field, there is a beautiful lupine spot. Unfortunately, with horses arrival, they will all have to be removed. Lupines are toxic to horses... Our next door neighbor, too has her bank covered in lupine. That could possibly be a problem because she loves them so. Double fencing to the right!!!!

Okay... well, if you can get past the fact that the singer is being dragged on the ground by her feet backwards around the world, it's a soft and fun song.. although maybe a bit strange....

Song: Nine Million Bicycles by Katie Melua




It's a fun day full of wonderful memories for Honey and I today... Those who have read the Inner Fire for awhile know that Honey and I celebrate our anniversary in February when we were sort of secretly married. (and it's kind of fun that that is when you bloggers celebrate it with us, too!... just one big secret!) Today is when the rest of the family THINKS we were married. Truly, I recommend this method to everyone. 15 years ago today we renewed our vows and had our family with us to celebrate. It was fantastic! I wasn't stressed or worried or anything. All I felt was happiness and joy and love. Because I was all ready married, I could stop and truly step back and ENJOY the day for what it represented. tee hee!


*Photobucket Graphics

Cheers, Everyone! ~MacKenzie

It's been an interesting past couple of days. Sunday we did a lot of gardening. In the vegetable garden there's a carrot row, a bean row, a "green" row (lettuces, beet greens, swiss chard, etc), a zucchini/summer squash row, and a small potato plot. Germination is just taking place and many little plants are beginning to pop through the soil. Lots of weeds are trying to take over, too so we began plucking the unluckies.

We also did some container gardening for the herbs. And that was really nice because it was mainly just Honey and I in the end. It was nice to chat about everything and nothing at the same time. Let's see we planted lemon verbena, dill, basil, mint, cilantro, chives, thyme, and parsley. Small and simple. Over the next few weeks we are going to slowly begin picking up canning supplies that way when the time comes it won't be panic at the last minute. Honey makes really delicious dilly beans and zucchini relish. Can't wait!

Honey also bought me a really gorgeous purple plant to hang by the front door. It's so pretty! I hope so much that I'll be able to buy just two more to hang from either end of the front porch as well, but if we can't afford it, no biggie. I'm thrilled to at least have the one.



The building of Mom C and Papa's barn seems like is it is NEVER going to end!!!! There is so much electricity being pulled from this side of the house that I run the risk of the breakers they are using to pop any time. This is extremely frustrating. For some reason, the crew only likes one of the outside plugs and so two of my windows are cracked with cords hanging out of them. For the moment it's working until they bring yet another tool in.

Part of the reason I wanted the clothes line up so bad was so I could SAVE electricity (and it's really frustrating when I think that we are the ones who pay the bill from this side of the house.. I have a feeling I will be talking to Papa about next months bill...) so right now if I run either the washer or dryer, the breaker goes causing one of the men to drag sand and dirt through the house with their work boots. I am really hoping that if I can get Steve (the foreman) aside I can get them to come through the back door. I've mentioned it to the other guys, but apparently they are super creatures of habit. They must really like the front door (maybe it's that purple plant that's attracting them.. ha ha !!!) This morning I finished making the girls beds and walked out of the room and there was one of the guys walking back through my kitchen from being downstairs with the breakers once again. I didn't even know he came in. What if I had just gotten out of the shower and had attempted to slip from the bathroom to bedroom in only a towel??? He seems to be a really nice guy and all but.....

No washer, no vacuum, no shower???? I'm feeling a little frustrated and caged. I've been running the washer in the evenings now, but I hate it so much because I feel as if I'm wasting all that electricity in having to use the dryer when the clothes line is sitting there empty. When I was younger, I didn't really care if the clothes were left out at night... until some animal got sprayed by a skunk... yep... right next to the clothes line. I swear those towels retained a slight stinky skunk smell until I had the opportunity to finally throw them away. Horrible!!!! and never again.... And the very second those guys go to lunch... it's the shower for me. (Did I mention I really hate having my days messed up? It shouldn't be a problem but today, anyway... it is!!!! )



One fun thing about this whole situation is that as the barn is slowly being put together (and this thing is absolutely huge, btw.. I had no idea; it's nearly four times the size of the place we are living in right now... ) is that Mom and Dad are really trying to prepare for the finished product. They want to get a few barn cats and it just so happens that one of their staff's cat had kittens that are nearly ready to go. But with Chloe and Fred (their actually very possessive cat) roaming their side of the house, they asked if perhaps we could raise a kitten for them. How could I possibly say no??? I have never actually raised a cat from a kitten before. All of our previous cats were strays, well on their own, who found us so this will be rather new and exciting for us. The only problem doing this is that I know I'm going to get really attached. I'm just going to deal with that later. I'm also nervous about Fred but, the hope is that since this will be a kitten that he sees growing into a cat, he'll be okay with it. Again, time will tell.



I guess that's about it for today.....
Happy Tuesday!
Cheers! ~MacKenzie

*All graphics from Photobucket

Song: Don't Wait too Long


You can cry a million tears
You can wait a million years
If you think that time will change your ways
Don't wait to long

When your morning turns to night
Who'll be loving you by candlelight
If you think that time will change your ways
Don't wait to long

Maybe I got a lot to learn
Time can slip away
Sometimes you got to lose it all
Before you find your way

Take a chance, play your part
Make romance, it might break your heart
But if you think that time will change your ways
Don't wait to long

It may rain, it may shine
Love will age like fine red wine
But if you think that time will change your ways
Don't wait to long

Maybe you and I got a lot to learn
Don't waste another day
Maybe you got to lose it all
Before you find your way

Take a chance, play your part
Make romance, it might break your heart
But if you think that time will change your ways
Don't wait to long
Don't wait
Hmm... Don't wait



Okay... isn't this photo from Photobucket neat? Top notches to the creator. It's been a grey quiet day today with periods of light to very heavy rain. Honey has been sick in bed all day with some sort of bug. We can't seem to make it an entire week without some health issue going on these days. Monkey and Parrot have been making farting noises and blaming their stuffed animals for the past hour or so. Okay.. so when do they tire of this stage????? Pumpkin has been wandering around aimlessly going from activity to activity being bored as only an 8 yr old can do. She wishes to be outside to practice her jump roping skills as she did the best in her class yesterday. She loves doing things she knows she can do well and gets annoyed a bit with the things she REALLY has to practice. It was so absolutely wonderful to visit with family, but they wanted to get going early this morning. They are missesd all ready.

At least today the garden is getting watered. There was also a high fire warning in the area so the rain is actually very nice.



The tone of the song really fits today. Not too down, not too yippy, not too slow but nice and sort of mellow.



Cheers! ~MacKenzie

Your Life is 29% Off Track

In general, your life is going very well. You're quite happy with where you are and what you're doing. And even if you get a bit off course, you're usually able to get back on track easily.

Okay.... again... just a silly quiz. But that number isn't so bad... I figured it would be higher!

We're having company today! It's going to be soooo good to visit with Lil Brother, SIL and Abby. I'm sure I probably won't get Abby much away from her grandmother, but hopefully I'll be able to sneak in there every once in awhile. (Psstt..... I went and got some fun toys that the girls used to have. )



Hooray!
Cheers! ~MacKenzie

It's just been one of those really weird mornings. Parrot was sick to her tummy for a few hours this morning resulting in needing a complete bed change, shower and later on couch clean up. I don't know how I kept anything down as usually I'm one of those sympathy vomiters.... After her tummy stayed empty for awhile, suddenly she wanted FOOD! And now, it's like this morning never happened for her. All righty then!



And later on in the morning, I could be found running out into the field trying to catch some of the clothes that I put out on the clothes line. Unfortunately, for some reason if I run the washer and the dryer together and the crew who is working on the frame of the barn run their compressor, the breaker down stairs turns off. I'm still trying to play catch up with laundry from vacation. The sun is wonderfully warm and the wind was blowing, but not so bad when I first put clothes on the line. Wow did it pick up though, taking my clothes along with it!!!! All I can say is that it must have been quite a sight for the "barn" crew...



Everything I seem to touch today I swear is magnetized to the floor. I have done more picking things up today then in the past month. I was actually working on a different blog post earlier, but for whatever reason after I reviewed it and wanted to modify it, I closed the whole window losing everything because I had forgot to copy it rather than pushing the modify button. PMS rather than waiting patiently at the door, decided it was better to just barge right in and make herself at home, which I'm SURE isn't helping a thing, either. If it wasn't for the fact that I have to pick Pumpkin up from school today, I think I'd go back to bed and stay there until tomorrow where we'd try this all once again. Seeing as that's not an option, all I can simply do is... laugh. What a Crazy Day!



Cheers! ~MacKenzie