I Employed Some Chicks, But I Still Love My Husband.

I wish I could have some chickens.

I think.

At least in my mind I dream about a little house in the country with a few chickens running around my grassy yard full of crazy growing zinnias and other colorful flowers.

So I've gotten some chickens.

Sort of.

I met a gentleman at the farmer's market last time who came up with (what I think) is a brilliant concept.

Adopt-A-Chicken.

No, I'm not kidding.

For $5 a week, you adopt 4 chickens. Chip (the farmer) takes care of them, making sure they have plenty of grass, grain and bugs and space so they'll be happy chickens. Then he brings you the eggs for free.

Yes, I know it's ridiculous, but doesn't it sound better than $5 for a dozen organic eggs? I think it is a brilliant marketing concept that focuses the consumer on the care of the hen rather than the product. It doesn't sound like much at all to say $5 a week to care for 4 chickens now, does it?

So off I headed yesterday to Adcote Acres with my girl and "Mrs. Greensleeves", one of my clients. (She's in it for the chicken poop for her garden more than the eggs.) We took some photos of "our" chickens.

Coincidentally, we were encouraged to name our chickens and Mrs. Greensleeves proposed some biblical names:

Faith

Hope

Charity

and

Jezebel

Love it.

More Than I Bargained For

I worked out this morning, but if it hadn't been at the insistence of the personal trainer, I may not have (and probably should not have) gone to the gym this morning.

It started when the alarm went off at 5:30. Instead of popping up and feeling awake, I groggily bounced off the walls to the bathroom, found my gym clothes, dressed and finding that had taken all of three minutes, I reset the alarm and went back to bed.

Fifteen minutes later, I'm up again and on my way to the gym.

Once I got there, I decided I didn't want to carry around all the keys I own, so I found the gym card on my key ring and took that set of keys in with me--after studiously looking at them and sternly telling myself not to lose them. I put the rest of my keys in the hidey hole for safe keeping

We're cruising along in our workout when I look up into one of the mirrors and think, "wow, my shirt design really has faded. And I can read it in the mirror. That's weird....OHHH, my shirt's on inside out!" The girl I'm working out with and my personal trainer just look at me and say they thought I meant for it to be that way! Really?!

Finally (!) we're done and I head out and it's only halfway to the truck that I realize the keys in my hand will do me absolutely no good because I am holding the keys to the car in my hand. The keys to the truck are in the hidey-hole inside the locked truck.

Fortunately, since I had just worked out, I was full of endorphins and didn't panic. I walked back in the gym and tried to call my husband knowing that was a fruitless venture BECAUSE HE WAS ASLEEP IN BED AND COULDN'T HEAR A FREIGHT TRAIN GO THROUGH THE BEDROOM.

Home is so far away when you are across town with wheels you can't access.

Endorphins fast fading, I found my personal trainer who graciously agreed to ride my pitiful self home.

I bet if I had run/walked home, I wouldn't have to work out any more this week!

Life, Gurgle, Gurgle

Overwhelmed.


You name it, it's overwhelming me.



I realize that I'm just going through feelings of inadequacy right now and I need to recognize them for what they are: changeable as the wind-- feelings.

Sometimes it feels the world is going to fly apart in a million pieces.

O.K. My world is already in a million pieces. A world where carpets are half torn out, cats are throwing up, toddlers are rebelling and husbands are as stubborn and strong minded as I am. But somehow, I juggle it and keep it all aloft. I'm successful at many things, but when I'm on the inside looking out, I feel it's all a mirage; a carefully crafted scene for the world (who is on the outside looking in) to see.

I wonder if a lot of people are that way; creating mirages so others think everything is hunky-dory. I especially wonder that on days when I want someone else's life. "They" obviously have it together. Bills paid, house organized, marriage blissful (always)... I create perfect little life scenes for them to escape my imperfections.

When I grow overwhelmed, my facade crumbles. I drive to work sitting up very straight as if by holding myself so, I can hold my world together. I overcompensate my loss of control (of things I have no control over in the first place) by becoming bossy and in charge in tiny things that don't really matter. I'm this way at work mostly, where: "I say who, I say when, I say how much."

I hate when I get like this. I, the eternal optimist. The one with the can-do philosophy. I think (truth be told) the reason I get so out of sorts when life piles up on top of me, is the fact that there is no quick fix. And I'm a fixer par excellence'. I love fixing whether it's a bad haircut, a leaky faucet or your life. I'm a fixer.

Fortunately, after a couple of days, my vision shifts again, I get a second wind and I find myself breathing more normally and realizing it will even out...eventually.

Bet You've Never Tried This!

So I go to the Farmer's Market Saturday.

Among the vegetable vendors I spy a couple selling boiled peanuts. MMMMmmm. I love me some good boiled peanuts! As I was talking to them, the gentleman said, "Here, try this cake here. I'm trying something new. It's called 'Collard Green cake'."

I was torn. I do like collard greens and I do like cake. I just never dreamed they would marry up together! Unfortunately, I'm unable to resist the words "cream cheese icing", so I had a piece.

It was green.

Not a natural green.

More of a light St. Patrick's Day Green. Icing and all.

At his urging to take a big 'ole slab, I took a small one.

I bit.

Tasted like cake. A dense cake. Not sweet, so the icing was a good touch. He wanted to know if it were marketable.

I told him as long as he didn't tell anyone it had collards in it, perhaps he could.

Collard Green Cake.

Coming to a bakery near you.

Can This Day Get Any Better?!

I just went to my favorite coffee place and discovered that my mega nonfat latte was free today!

Exercising--Redefined

Instead of going to Body Pump this morning, I'm testing the effectiveness of getting dressed in workout clothes and sitting at the computer investigating different styles of exercise.

Specifically, watching YouTube Pilate videos.

I call it vicarious exercise.

vi·car·i·ous
Pronunciation:
\vī-ˈker-ē-əs, və-\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Latin vicarius, from vicis change, alternation, stead — more at week
Date:
1637
1 a: serving instead of someone or something else b: that has been delegated
2: performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another : substitutionary
3: experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another
4: occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one

Hey, I could start a new trend in exercising!

Who Knew?

Who knew six years ago that I would be wishing you a Happy Father's Day?

We had no idea what we were in for, we just knew we had been handed a gift beyond measure.

How things have changed!

I have grown to admire you so much as I've watched you grow to fill the role of Daddy. Nothing is more attractive to me than watching you as you tenderly love our daughter.

You are indeed, a good Daddy.

But it hasn't come easily, has it?

It has pulled and stretched us. Our relationship has been sorely tested. Being parents has brought to the fore aspects of us that I think we never realized were there. I've wondered, sometimes, if we would stand the strain.

Thank you for the sacrifices you have made to be a stay at home Daddy.

You've sacrificed your very manhood, unselfishly, in order to provide for our family on a higher, intangible level. I've watched you wrestle with the emotions that are a result of that, and all I can say is how grateful I am for you. For your passion and love for your two girls.

You are an incredible man.

I love you so much.