Why you should make your teenager buy their own clothes

Years ago, when I was growing up, my parents instituted a rule that when we turned 13 we were responsible for buying our own clothes.  The farm would provide us with a pair of work boots and every day coat (meaning the coat you wore to do chores and farmwork) and Mom and Dad would make sure we had a decent “good” coat (meaning it was nicer, but you wore it forever!), but all other clothing purchases were your responsibility (we did get underwear at Christmas, though, so that helped, lol). I had no otherREAD MORE

10 random things about me

Ok, so I love to read other blogs where the blogger actually tells you something about themselves that is random or funny or just ordinary!  So, today, that’s what I’m doing! 1  This is my daily summer uniform…. I care very little about fashion and when I spend most of my summer day outside doing farm/yard/gardening stuff, then this is what I wear!  When it’s muddy, I trade the Redwings for my awesome Muck boots 🙂 2 An accessory you can often find hanging out of my back pocket are my gloves!  I grew upREAD MORE

Anybody know the Kenny Chesney song “Back Where I Come From”?  It’s an older one but one of his best, in my humble country-music-loving opinion 🙂  So, a couple weeks ago I spent two weeks of my life redecorating our community hall and this song kept playing in my head. Why, you may ask? Because our community hall is one of the symbols of “back where I come from.”  See, I’ve been blessed to come from a long line of people who settled in southern Kansas during the Homestead Act of the 1870’s/1880s!  And myREAD MORE

What are you scared of? There’s the usual list of things, I’m sure.  Snakes, spiders, tornadoes, fires, floods, speaking in public, etc.  I generally consider myself pretty tough and daring (I AM a farmgirl, after all!  We pride ourselves on being a tough breed, lol!).  I don’t flinch in the face of most of those.  But there is one thing that absolutely paralyzes me…. FAILURE! Because of that very real and debilitating fear, I don’t let myself do anything that I think I *might* not be good at. I have no problem experimenting in myREAD MORE

I’ve thought about a blog for years…. I even started one with blogger about 5 years ago.  I wrote maybe 3 posts or so then a month went by, then another month, and it was hanging over my head that I had a blog but wasn’t writing on it!  So, I quit.  I hate having undone things in the back of my mind, you know? Time has passed and the desire to write is still very strong, but due to changes we’ve made in our life I’ve decided to try it again.  I’ve researched andREAD MORE