Farmstead Chronicles

WHY am I so tired?!?! He can stay up all hours of the night     We are back in the full swing of school and work in the Irvine house and of course the farming never stops. School has been in session for 3 weeks now and I am still not adjusted to getting up earlier! I need to get up at 5:30 a.m. to have ample time to do what I need to do in the morning. Let me tell you what time I have been getting up... 6:30 😒. I have the best of intentions every night to go to bed by 10:30 so that I can get the 7 hours of sleep my body requires (it's currently 10:25 p.m. - let's see how fast I can write this blog, lol) but for some reason it rarely ever works out for me. By 9:00 Charley and Noah are both in bed and Drake is in his room watching Tiktok.  That is when Garrett & I have quiet time. It's important to us to spend time together, just the 2 of us, even if it is on the couch. He's usually watching something I am not the least bit interested in on YouTube and I'm either...

  Addy couldn't handle it Jogging Noah gets to stroll The views - they're amazing! It's like a window into heaven     On Saturday Charley, Noah, Addy and I went for a walk to the Walkers Creek Fire Department. I have never walked there and wasn't sure how far it was, but we were up for the challenge. We don't live that far from it (if you're driving!) Where we live really is a beautiful place. I know I've said that in previous blogs, but you should take a "Sunday drive" out to see it. The pictures above are just a glimpse and definitely don't do it justice!      Charley and I are trying to move our bodies more and get more exercise. So, Saturday morning we set out to see how far it was. Now I thought this walk might kill me like the first walk at the beach did. The pace wasn't as fast. I was pushing a stroller and trying not to get tripped by the puppy. We didn't do too bad though. We made it to the WCFD and back home in exactly 1 hour...

It's a mud puddle. It looks greener already. My 80's hair     We got rain Friday morning early about 6:30 a.m. I heard this rumbling noise and thought "what in the world is that noise?" Then I looked at the weather app on my phone and it said Thunderstorm. Then I heard the down pour of rain and said Thank you Jesus!! We haven't had rain in what seems like forever! We need about a weeks' worth of what my mother-in-law calls a "sheep's rain," you know the slow and steady kind. But we will take every drop we can get! It's still going to be 90 degrees in Middlebrook today. The sun is shining as I'm typing this and it's so humid my hair looks like Tina Turner's, but I'll deal with it 😄. When big 80's hair comes back, I'll be ready. I've had it my entire life!  P.S. I always take pictures of the hill behind my house because it is the prettiest view, and you should see the view from the top. When the weather cools down a...

  Atasha, our mom, & myself Atasha & I     Today my sister Atasha turns 40 😐. I am two and a half years older than her; however, everyone thinks she is the older sister, LOL. She was my best friend growing up. We could play babies and barbies together all day and then chase each other down the hall pulling each others hair by the evening. She has always known what she wants and goes after it. She's a hard worker! She and Josh have overcome the odds of being teenage parents. She was very young when she had my niece Kaley, her and Josh have been married for 20+ years. Everyone said they wouldn't make it. I think they even wrote a few country songs about their life 😂. She was my shoulder to cry on and the person that would be the first to laugh at me too. We haven't always seen eye to eye but I don't know any siblings that do. I've always known she has my back and I have hers. I'm thankful God gave me sisters and especially her. I didn't grow up with ...

Last first day of school He loves the beach Noah loves Drake     On Monday my middle son Drake turned 17 😀. When I look back over the last 17 years sometimes I can't believe how fast it has gone by and other times it feels like its taken forever to get here. Drake is my child that will push every single limit just to see how far he can get before I lose my mind. He is also my child that made me a more attentive mom. The parenting books would call that being a helicopter parent, I guess they are right. That's another thing on my list of things to work on. I'm a work in progress in case you haven't figured that out yet. Drake is such a diverse young man. He can love me and hate me all in the same conversation. When  he finds something that he loves, he loves it with all he has.  When there is something he doesn't want to do, you will drag him kicking and screaming to get it done. He's got a big heart, he's an onion, you have to peel him back a layer at a time...

  My 4 GREATEST blessings and an imperfect picture     I have been on a parenting/motherhood/spiritual podcast kick for the past week. I was introduced to podcasts from a much younger co-worker at Marks & Harrison (where at one time I was the "baby" of the office) when I returned I was NOT. That took some adjusting, but Chloe had a lot to teach me, podcast being one of them. So I am a daily podcast listener. This week I listened to a podcast called "SHE" with Jordan Lee Dooley. The title was "Taking care of you while raising them." She interviewed a lady named Alli Worthington who wrote a book titled "Remaining YOU while raising THEM." I've just started listening to it on Audible but in the podcast she talks about Mom guilt. Every.single.mom that reads this blog has suffered from mom guilt and the feeling we are failing. She says modern motherhood is broken. PREACH sister!! I feel guilty for yelling at my kids, even if that's the only...

    I recently listened to a book titled "The Life Council" (see photo above) that was sooooo good! I listen to a lot of "self-help" books, probably entirely more than I should. Sometimes self-help books can get in your head and make you feel worse instead of better like you intended it to. I also listen to books because then I can still do other things while "reading." Now don't get me wrong, I still love a good book to hold in my hand and turn pages and what not, but I don't always have time for that AND I usually fall asleep 30 minutes into it. I especially like to listen to books when I'm prepping at the store in the morning. I will listen to books, podcasts and occasionally music. I love a good murder podcast, however, on multiple occasions my mom has shown up with desserts and scared me TO DEATH!       I heard about this book on the Crystal Paine podcast and thought it sounded interesting. So over to Audible I went and found the book, lu...

     I have had a blog to write in my head for several days now. I had planned to sit down tonight and get it out on the web for ya’ll instead of just revisiting it in my head 100x a day (partially so I wouldn’t forget it) but as you can see from my picture (and from this post) that didn’t happen.  I worked all week last week after being on vacation the week before and the weekend went by entirely too fast. So this week I planned on getting some things marked off my to-do list as we had a pretty uneventful week PLANNED. We are still trying to find forever homes for 3 puppies and hope to have that accomplished by the end of the week. They went to the vet today and are all good to go. Nancy is on vacation this week so my parents are watching Noah for me while I work this week and of course school is back in session. That means early mornings for all of us.       Noah must have had quite the day with Naynay & Granddad, he fell asleep on the way h...

Charley - 4th grade Drake - 12th grade Noah included - just because he's so cute!     Today was the first day back to school for Augusta County kids (and I'm sure some other areas as well) and I HAD to participate in the obligatory 1st day of school pictures. I told Drake this morning he could not leave until I took his picture. Today was his last first day, hallelujah, praise the Lord! Drake has never been a big fan of school. There were lots of school years I wasn't sure we would make it to his senior year, yet here we are. Charley on the other hand, loves school! She loves to be the teacher's helper and worries about doing everything right. She was so excited to get up this morning. After I got through the drop off line and was on my way to take Noah to the sitters I thought "where did the summer go?" I'm usually the mom that is marking off the calendar to the day school starts again because what am I going to do with these kids all summer? If I'm b...

Noah & Mom Noah boogie boarding Checking out the Ocean for the first time Garrett & his babes Beach naps 💖 The Ocean is quite peaceful Drake checking out the water temp Caleb & Hadley Horsing around Beach sunrise The fam (minus Dylan) Atasha, Kathy, Tom & ME 😀 Charley & I The Irvine's (again minus Dylan) Atasha & I         The last week of July my family got to take a vacation to the Outer Banks. There were 14 of us total. Dylan & Megan were there the week before us with their friends and couldn't take 2 weeks off of work. We missed them terribly. We did get to see them Saturday night and have breakfast together Sunday morning before they left. We can't seem to coordinate our schedules to get a beach vacation in, but I'm so grateful that we got to spend some time with them.      We arrived on Saturday afternoon. My mom & Tom had been there since the Wednesday before (they had to have a vacation before we all arriv...