Seasons

The season outside is definitely spring. For a while, it felt kind of like summer and before that, it seemed that winter would never end; now, though, it is definitely spring. While summer is my favorite season because of the warmth, I think there are things to appreciate about every season. Winter brings beautiful snow, spring shares its beauty, summer sings sunshine, and fall displays all the colors. There is a time for every season.

The word season has other meaning to me, though. It brings to mind a familiar set of verses in Ecclesiastes 3.

This past year, I have been in a season of waiting and building and embracing. I have been waiting on a teaching job, building my faith and knowledge, and embracing life and the people in it. For the past four years I have been planting seeds here in Berea. I've spent some times laughing and some times weeping. There have been times to mourn and times to dance. 

Very soon though it will be a time to uproot, gather, and let go. I will be moving into a new season of my life at Oneida as a teacher. Just like spring is not better than winter, Oneida will bring new experiences that will build upon my time in Berea. 

Cheers!

A Day in the Life

Recently, Granny Eyre tried out a new blogging technique by choosing a blog post idea and running with it. I was curious about the ideas in the links she attached in said blog post, so I looked them over. One that stood out to me, because of the photographer in me, was to take a picture every hour of one day and make a blog post from the photos. Martha S. also made an interesting post about her daily schedule, so mine may be similar to hers, in photo form.

I forgot to begin the day with photos, so I began around 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon and continued it until about 7:30 that night. I also didn't take them exactly on the half hour every hour, but I did my best. I hope to try this again, beginning the photos not long after I wake up and continuing until I go to bed!

Thrift store shopping in Spg!

Yum! Hazelnut iced coffee! 

Mom shopping in the garden shop!

Examining my finds from the thrift store..I found several
books with pretty covers, they were 10 cents each! 

Met up with my beau; he needed a car battery

Had some Mexican food, he ordered an interesting stone bowl meal

Wednesday was a pretty good day! Gosh, I sure love summertime! I hope you enjoyed my day in photos! I'll try to do another day like this again! The Farmer's Daughter

It's About Time

Time is something that I am always needing more of. I spent Thursday-Sunday camping...the first two nights with the wonderful Twenty Somethings, and the last night/day with my bf and several of his friends at a cabin in the woods. Sunday evening, I stopped by my sister's house and went for a swim in her pool for the first time this year. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle and just relax for awhile. I enjoyed having some time away from working and all the stress that comes along with a huge to-do list and no time to complete it.

 That being said, today was my first day back to work after a weeks vacation. We are starting summer work, which means that we are cleaning the high school from top to bottom. Today we cleaned out every single locker in the entire school, which took FOREVER, but so far I really enjoyed working with all the new workers (mostly high school students or recent high school grads). They seem like a very fun bunch of kids who will work hard, but like to have a good time while doing so. It is kinda weird for me to be gone for a week and suddenly come back and be sort of in charge. I was at the bottom of the totem pole (so to speak), and now I have moved up some, but my hourly pay has been decreased, since summer work doesn't pay as much as custodial work does during the school year.

After work, I went to my sister's Mary Kay debut party in Nicholasville, which was interesting. I was in a bit of a grouchy mood due to hunger, but I ended up having a pretty good time and getting a free pedicure and some eye shadow out of the whole ordeal. I am proud of my sister for going out on a limb and trying something new. All of the women there were very nice, and I hope that continues to enjoy it and do well. If any of you ladies are interested in getting a free facial or ordering from her, then feel free to let me know. I can hook you up with one of her business cards and a catalog so you can see what products are available and the prices and such.

Once I got home, I took multi-tasking to a whole different level. I simultaneously washed two loads of laundry and applied for a job while in the bathtub! Haha! I'm now getting ready for bed, since I have to be at work at 7:00 am in the morning. I will also be house-sitting tomorrow night, which I am sorta looking forward to, since I will get to be around all sorts of neat animals. I am still kinda stressed, though, because I don't have my clothes packed or lunch for tomorrow.

-Miss Ellaneous 

Transitioning

Monday was my last day of substitute teaching for the year!! Probably my last day of substitute teaching period, but you never know. So today I started manual labor with my dad. It was hard work today but we don't work that many hours in a day, as I mentioned in a previous post. He doesn't have lumber for the barn work yet (he went to get it today), so we did some odd jobs that needed done including cutting down a tree in the back yard. It was a learning experience to watch the process of cutting it down. Then Dad cut it up into firewood and we stacked it into the carry-all on the tractor and moved it to the wood pile where it will "cure" (dry out completely) for a year or more before we burn it for heat. There were also many small branches and limbs that I dragged down to the burning pile.I also found a snake skin in the barn where we were cleaning out old pieces of wood from the rafters. It was almost as long as I am tall. Scary!

I am super pumped for our camping adventure this week. As most of you probably already know, I had my first smores of the year on Sunday and it was a great taste of what is to come over our open campfire this Thursday!

Speaking of smores, I tried the new smores oreos! They are not as good as the real thing, of course, but I think they make a pretty tasty cookie. I also bought some Honest Tea brand Watermelon Lemonade and I am here to tell you, it is awesome! It is all organic and some of the ingredients are even fair trade. But that's not even what makes it awesome...its the taste. It actually tastes like watermelon and lemons, not watermelon flavoring. I actually like it so much I was considering buying a whole case of it!

That's all for now!
The Farmer's Daughter

Happy Blog-iversary!

First of all...

 Happy 1st Anniversary Tidbits From TwentySomethings! 

I just realized that exactly one year ago Granny Eyre made the first post on our blog. I'm really excited that we have stuck with this for a whole year and have been fairly dedicated to keeping it up-to-date. I hope we can continue to keep it that way. I have never written on a blog so this has been a new experience for me, and I really enjoy it!

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On to my blog post...It's the 21st day of my summer break. It's been great!! I've been getting into a variety of activities including seeing some really great new movies, shopping with my Mamma, going riding, fishing and more.

My beau and I don't go to the movies often, but we do enjoy going to the theater occasionally when there's a movie we're wanting to see. This weekend we set a record, we went to see a movie on Friday night and then went again, to a different theater, on Saturday night. First-run movie theaters are expensive, but it is so nice to kick back in their comfy chairs in the chilled room and watch a movie on the big screen. We saw Tommorowland and Age of Adaline. They were both Awesome!

Tommorowland just came out last week. Most people know I have an obsession with Disney and this Disney movie didn't disappoint. It's a really cool story; the actors are good, the videography is cool and the way the story unfolds keeps you wanting to know more. I'll just let you watch the trailer here to find out more about the story. I recommend that you see it if you're into Disney and/or sci-fi.

Age of Adaline has been in theaters for a month now. Blake Lively (who I love from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies) plays the main character. She is stuck at age 29 and she lives nearly a century being the same age; her appearance stays the same, her body remains functioning like a 29-year-old's body would, while everyone around her ages normally. It's full of history, love and romance. We actually saw the 9:55 PM showtime and I stayed awake through the entire movie (well...at the very end I may have drifted off for a couple of minutes), but still...that's really saying something for me! It was that good! I liked this even better than Tommorowland! The trailer is here. Seriously, you should see this movie! Have you seen any really great movies recently? 

In other news, I have been spending some time outside with my beau. We went riding his four-wheeler down in this picturesque creek/wooded property called "Jig-Water". He drove his old farm truck down there with the four-wheeler in the back. It was very bumpy and rough at times. We rode down a rocky road and parked beside the creek. Then we took the 4-wheeler out and rode around the woods and through the creek for a couple of hours. It was awesome! When we were finished, we loaded back up and crossed the creek and drove to town to get wings for dinner. It was pretty neat and it was a beautiful creek. Plus, riding is really fun! 

Last weekend we went fishing. It was another beautiful outdoor adventure. We were at a pond, on a gorgeous, hilly piece of land (my neighbor's). We caught several large blue-gill and a couple of bass. It was a successful fishing trip; although we didn't keep them because we had told my neighbor's we wouldn't be. It would have made a delicious meal though!  

See Nova in the weeds there?

I've been trying to take more walks, both with others and with the dogs. It's been really great weather for being outside too! I hope it stays like this for a while longer. Speaking of which, I hope the weather is lovely for the 5th annual Twenty-Somethings camping trip! 

Adios Folks! 

The Farmer's Daughter

Sweet Summertime

I'm really enjoying this whole not-having-homework part of being off school, but I'm not really enjoying the substitute teaching EVERY day part. It's my choice to work, and I want to as much as I can before school is out, but being a substitute is sort of stressful. I just don't like not knowing what the situation in each classroom will be like until I get into the room for the day. Most days the students I get are not bad. This job is definitely  helping me to exercise my willingness to be flexible and be able to practice my judgement to react to various situations quickly. It's valuable job experience, much more so than working at a grocery, restaurant, or department store. I'm thankful for this job, but it can be stressful. Speaking of which, I am trying to decide exactly what my summer job plans are...

I plan on working with my father on barn repair, but he likes to just work in the mornings (when it is cool) so we can both have the second half of the day to do other things. He needs the help and I'm available, so I will be doing this with him for about 4-5 hours each day. I am also wondering if I should take another job. My mother was talking to someone she knows who is a manager at Cracker Barrel. They are hiring servers, cashiers and other positions. I'm trying to decide if I should also apply to work somewhere else (like Cracker Barrel). What do you all think? The thing about working at Clare's Barn Repair is I will only be working part-time and there will be at least two weeks when I will not be working (Mom & Dad will be going on a summer vacation and Dad will be cutting hay). I could also decide to try to sell some handmade things or try to book some photography sessions this summer which would help me make some more money but not tie me up as much as working somewhere like Cracker Barrel. The question is, should I be some-what lazy and just work part-time or take another part-time job and possibly be very busy because I have two part time jobs? I'm almost leaning toward the lazy-summer option, but we'll see.

I have accomplished a little bit in my week of being homework and class-free. One of the first things I needed to get done was groom Nova. Her hair has been cut and she got a bath..I think she looks better and probably feels much better too! She was beginning to look like a homeless puppy. I meant to get good before & after pictures but she wasn't cooperating with me taking her picture. I've worked 5 days in a row as a substitute and I'm still going strong. This past weekend I was able to meet up with Captain Something Fun and Granny Eyre in B-town and go for a hike. It was great!

I got to try the smores frappucino
(& it was happy hour!) Delicious! 

I also got to go to my first drive-in movie last weekend. I was really excited about going, but it wasn't quite what I expected. We didn't have the best parking spot and it was a warm night. We were too far away from the screen...there were just several problems. Next time we will probably bring chairs and bug spray and sit up closer to the screen. Several people in trucks fixed up the bed of their truck to be comfortable and watched the movie from there. The truck beside us had what looked like a blow-up swimming pool in the bed of the truck and lots of pillows and blankets in it and they watched the movie from there. It looked cozy! We saw The Avengers and The Longest Ride was coming on second, but it was 11:30 by the time the first movie was over, so we didn't wait for the second one. I really wanted to see The Longest Ride though!

My summer photo-challenge is going pretty well. I've already skipped one day accidentally, but I haven't given up yet. It's much harder than I thought!

This girl is looking forward to more time celebrating summertime! 

The Farmer's Daughter

Is It Summer Yet?

It was a beautiful afternoon full of hammocks, books, and fresh air laundry.

Summer Photo Challenge

    I know I just posted a couple of days ago, and I'm probably setting a record for myself with these posts so close together! Today is my first official day of summer break because I took my last final yesterday! Yayyy!! I plan on substituting all I can this month and working with my dad to rebuild a different barn this summer; so I spent my first day in the classroom.
      I am pretty excited about a break from school work and driving to school every other day of the week. I found this article today about a fun, summer to-do list..."Summer Bucket List: 2015" One of the items on the list was to take a picture every day. I read this right on time, since today is my first official day of summer break and I can start it out right! I wanted to challenge you all to do the same. I really enjoyed seeing Captain Something Fun countdown her last days at college, and I hope my "count up" of my summer days is as consistent and entertaining as her count-down was!
     As you probably know, I love to take pictures (even if they are with my phone). It is still an expression of an art to me, even when it isn't the highest resolution photo. Plus, it is so convenient to use my phone for pictures because I nearly always have it with me! So join me if you like. I will be posting mine to Facebook and possibly Instagram, but of course- you don't have to share them on these websites. You could always just share them with your friends or with this blog! (Just a thought!)

Here's Day 1:

Day 1: An evening walk

Adios Amigas!
The Farmer's Daughter

Summer Bucket List

With less than six weeks left in the semester, I've already started thinking about what in the world I'm going to do with myself this summer. There's a lot that needs to be done around the Freeman household but nothing that will take more than a dedicated week. So, I've started a list of things that I hope to do this summer and I'm sure I'll be adding more to it as the end of my first year of the MSOT program nears. Here's what I've got so far:

• Day trip to Danville
• Day trip to Cincinnati
• Buffalo Trace Distillery and Wallace Station
• Eat at Pasture
• Weekend trip to Nashville
• King's Island
• Hike the Pinnacle with Marvel
• Do the Red River Gorge scenic drive in the VW Bug with a GoPro <-- This one was Lucas' idea
• Shop at the Farmer's Market at least twice a month
• Get a temporary secondary job
• Watch the third season of OITNB

That's all I've gotten so far. Hopefully, that'll kill some time and come with some great memories in the process. I also plan to update the blog on a more regular basis since I have failed at doing much of anything with it for the past several months besides reading it. Do you all have any exciting things planned for the summer?

On another note: In honor of 

here's a nice little tune---a little song called Black Cat Blues.

Until next time,

Finally!

Today was a very exciting day for me in more ways than one. But the best thing that happened was this morning. In my line of work it is really easy to become attached to the little children I work with on a daily basis. So when a toddler just happens to hit a big milestone in their short live I get really excited. I need to back up a few months to the month of February. I had been working in the 1 year old classroom for about a month when a new little friend transitioned over to my room. (Transitioned means he had the cognitive and physical developments appropriate for him to be able to move up, i.e. he could crawl well, and eat table food among other things.) When the new friend arrived he was not yet one years old so he still had to sleep in a crib unlike his other one year old friends. Also among the group of then seven friends only four of them could walk so the new comer was not alone. A month later on his birthday however my new friend was still not walking and all my other little friends were leaving him in the dust so to speak. These past few months have been somewhat of a struggle trying to get the little guy to just take some steps. He has definitely become comfortable pulling himself up and standing there still but he would not walk. I was personally beginning to get worried that the teenie little babies from the smaller room were going to catch up with my little friend on the walking. Today however my worries vanished. I came into visit my little friends in their classroom and the little boy I've been talking about he walked to me! Exciting! Oh my goodness! And then to make the moment even better, one of the little girls who is about a month older than he goes up to him and holds his hand as they start walking. It was so sweet. I just wanted to grab them both up and give them hugs but I didn't. I did hear though from the teacher grapevine that they were able to catch the little guy on video walking and they were able to show his daddy, who was very excited!

In other exciting news I am finally finished with my summer class!! Now just six more credits and I can graduate. It is a strange feeling though. I thought I would feel better when this class got over but yet I still find myself sitting here wondering what in the world I am suppose to be doing. Maybe this will get easier as the summer goes on.
Signing off for now,
Captain Something Fun

DIY Necklace & the Rock Quarry

Here goes with an update on some activities I've been getting into: 

Tennessee... I went to visit brother in Tennessee last Thursday through Saturday. Originally we were planning on going to a place called The Beach and some natural waterfalls in Tn. We changed our plans, though, when we heard it was supposed to rain. Instead, we went somewhere closer to their home (in case it started raining). It was a beautiful rock quarry.

The water was a beautiful greenish blue looking down at it and it was very clear and cool in the water. Poppy, my niece, really enjoyed the water once she got used to it. Most of my family loves water..I am pretty sure she will too!

Poppy gets cuter & more independent every day! 

Crafting.. I was attempting to weed out some of the jewelry I don't ever wear and I found a long necklace chain without any charm on it. It reminded me of a necklace I had been wanting to make but I thought I didn't have all the materials for. (Of course this craft was found on Pinterest.)

What I used for to make this necklace: 

Jewelry (small) pliers, scissors, paint chips, necklace chain & a needle

What I ended up doing with the necklace chain I found was shortening the chain and using the links in the excess chain to attach the paint chips cut into triangles. Otherwise, I followed the directions of this blogger: Sincerely, Kinsey I was quite pleased with the final product! :) 

Stay Crafty! 

The Farmer's Daughter

Shenanigans with Miss Ellaneous

This week I have been on a sort of stay-cation, I haven't been working and have been home. My parents took a trip to Asheville, NC. and left me at home to take care of all the plants and animals. It's been an interesting and HOT week. I hadn't seen most of my college friends for a while, so Miss Ellaneous and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday together.

The loose calves. After coming back from swimming, Miss Ellaneous and I heard a cow bawling. If you know much about cows, you know they make a lot of noise when they're separated from their calves. I didn't think too much about it because I was hungry and wanting to fix dinner. After dinner though, it was still bawling so we had to go investigate. We hiked the hill to the barn and went through the field to see the mother cow facing down the hill. Across the fence we could see her calf. It had somehow managed to get through the fence and into the other field (away from it's mother and the rest of the herd). We spent at least an hour chasing the calf, attempting to send it through the open gate so mother and baby could be reunited. After lots of running up and down hills (Miss Ellaneous and myself were all exhausted and covered in sweat- the dogs were panting and looked very hot themselves). It was so hot and the air was so thick from humidity, it was no fun running after the calf. Finally, the calf, with me trying to herd it toward the open gate, ran into the woods. I went after it but didn't see any signs of it. I went a little ways into the woods, collecting several ticks and mosquito bites. It was getting dark, so we left the gate open in hopes that the calf may come out of the woods and find its way back to it's mother......The mother cow stopped bawling around midnight that night and the next morning we assumed the two must have been reunited. The next evening, we heard more bawling...This time, two calves had come through the fence and away from the herd. Calves can be so frustrating!

Crafting. Miss Ellaneous and I also had some craft time during her visit. I made some necklace pendents from corks (I've been itching to try making these!) I found the idea through Pinterest of course. You can find the link to the original craft idea here. I had the corks & paint already, and found the eye screws at Lowe's for $1.24 (for 10). I began doing just as they had instructed:

1. slicing the cork with a knife using a vice grip
2. using stamps and paint to decorate the cork
3. using the tiny screws to create a way to hang the cork on a necklace

The trouble I had was getting the stamps and paint to cooperate on the cork surface. I skipped the step of sanding the cork because I couldn't find any sand paper. Perhaps the smoother surface would make it easier for the paint to leave a clean mark. I asked Miss E. what she thought I should put on the cork and she suggested buttons. So, I put a new twist on the craft and hot-glued buttons onto the corks. I ended up painting one cork slice, leaving one just as it was, and putting buttons on the rest. I think they turned out pretty cute:

 A visual of the screws:

Miss Ellaneous and I had a fun visit! I hope to see her and the others again before too long!

Come read again soon!
The Farmer's Daughter

Summertime Sadness

The thunderstorms are offering a really nice, cool breeze, but they're also encouraging me to sit inside on the computer. It's not necessarily a sadness I'm feeling, but I'm so overwhelmed with projects I would really like to work on. It's as if I have so many enjoyable projects I'm not sure where to begin on them. I also have chores since I'm living with my parents now. And still sometimes it feels like my whole afternoon just disappeared because I was sitting inside on the computer.

It's crazy for me to think about, but I've been graduated for almost a month. I'm not exactly sure where the month of May has gone! Since the week following graduation, I've been working on renovating an old tobacco barn with my dad on my week-day mornings. Besides this work, what have I accomplished? I have unpacked all my things from living at school and put them away. I've exchanged my summer and winter clothes from storage. I helped my parents host a graduation party at my house with neighbors and family members. I got ready for and went on a camping trip with four good friends (Miss Ellaneous, Martha S., Granny Eyre & Captain Something Fun). I've helped my mom out in the garden. I've met up with friends and my beau several different times and had fun eating out, seeing movies, going riding & going fishing. I've started Bridge to Haven by Francine Rivers. And now I'm planning a wedding shower for a good friend from high school. 

Looking back at this list it seems like I've been fairly busy, but I still want to do more. I want to relax and have a fun summer, but I also want to accomplish some things. I want my months of June and July to be full of enjoyment and all these things: crafts, more gardening, adventures with friends and my beau, campfires, swimming, summer celebrations, preparation for school year months, reading lots of books, star-gazing, lightening-bug watching and much, much more. I want to cut back on my screen-time and increase my time outside enjoying friends, family and my time off. I know in the blink of an eye, my summer break will be over and I want to look back at all I have done and smile.

That's all for now!

The Farmer's Daughter