On:
In: fitness and health

Ever think about training for and running a half marathon?  Yeah, me neither 😉  My running career has been less than illustrious to say the least and I was positive I did NOT have it in me to run a half.  But, as they say, never say never…. So, my running has looked like this over the years : Start training in March Barely get up to 3 miles Run a local 5K in June Take a couple more runs in June Quit until next March I could barely eke out the energy to completeREAD MORE

On:
In: autism

My baby turns 11 today!  How is that possible??  I don’t feel old enough to have my youngest child be that old!  And to put a different perspective on it- my youngest brother was 11 when my twins were born!  Crazy how time flies.  I had so many people tell me that when I was a young mom deep in the trenches of babies and toddlers, but I don’t think I really believed them? Anyway, I’ve been spending the morning reflecting on the day Lindy came into our lives and what my expectations were forREAD MORE

On:
In: homemaking, organization and cleaning

Ok, so technically, we do have chores around our house and farm, but the farm jobs are the only ones we deem “chores.” I have never implemented the “chore chart” idea or assigned anything to anybody.  I’ve often pondered it and once bought an expensive magnet chore chart system at a homeschool convention, but after attempting it for a week, I gave up and a couple years later, I sold it. Yet, my kids still help me around the house daily. How do we do it?  Everything I’ve read maintains that assigned chores are theREAD MORE

On:
In: Uncategorized

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

On:
In: autism

Ten years ago, our family experienced a sudden shift in our life journey that no one saw coming.  Our son became autistic.  There were subtle warning signs starting when he was about 15 months old, but nothing jarring that really made us question his development.  That’s for another post. But, the fact of the matter is, at age 3 1/2 our only son swirled into autism and our life was changed. I tend to gravitate towards challenges and I always like to be great at everything I do (or I won’t even attempt it- itsREAD MORE

On:
In: farming

About a month ago, this thing called “Fall Harvest” started around here.  On our farm, we grow wheat, milo, soybeans, cotton, hay and have cow/calf pairs.  I grew up on a farm in the neighboring county and we had a similar operation, but without the cows and hay.  Since we are in southern Kansas, we plant our wheat in the fall and harvest it in June.  But the milo, soybeans and cotton all get planted in the spring and get harvested in the fall.  Hence, “Fall Harvest!” Unlike wheat harvest, which is a fast paced,READ MORE