Family...

Well it has been a while.  Years to be exact.  So much has changed.  Children have grown up.  Gone are the days of high school!  Still have one in college.  

I've moved.  With my David's passing, in 2022, the need for a large house no longer existed.  A lot of my group live in different areas of the country and get to come visit once a year.  So, I sold the "big" house and moved into a smaller home that will be much more manageable when my last two are out on their own.  

I love my new home.  It has just what we need plus extra space in the back yard.  I have big plans for this yard.  My only complaint about this community is very few people have planted trees.  I'm definitely a tree lover and this year will see the addition of trees and different bushes to my new yard.  Looking forward to what I hope and plan on as being a beautiful transformation.

We're in a small community kind of out in the country, so to speak.  But its growing out here and in a few years it'll be built up and busy.

Still knitting.  Still spinning.  Life goes on!

Half a Century or more...

Started this post on August 14th and I guess with age comes the realization that its ok to do something at my leisure...

Yesterday was my birthday..... so, Happy Birthday to me!  56, yep 56 years old.  AND for 38 years I've been married to, David.  We celebrate our anniversary on my birthday.  We're pretty happy and I don't mind saying that we still have a good chuckle most of the time.

We've been back in Texas for 2 months now and slowly but surely the house is coming together.  Olivia's room is painted.  Jolie's room is painted.  I'll be starting on the downstairs powder bath soon and I picked up the paint for all the trim in the house and I've purchased material for the family room curtains.  Slowly, slowly I'll do what I can to make this house a home for all of us.



August 21 - Yep I can take my time ..... (refer to the beginning of this post)

School is starting soon, very soon... Monday, the 24th, to be exact and I'm just a bit excited, actually truth be known it can't come soon enough.  Whew!  I was almost out of breath spitting that out.  I actually got all hyped up about it.  Yep!  School is starting.... school is starting.  Sing it with me!!!







Knitting a baby sweater for C. Martin and a pair of socks for myself.  I'm sewing again!  A cushion cover for Jolie's room.  Curtain's for the family room.  Throw pillows for the couches.  I'm also getting ready to start cross-stitching for fall which will add some primitive samplers to the mix for me.  Quite the eclectic mix we'll have in the house.   Just imagine how much I'll get done when the kids are back in school? Wow!!!  (sends shivers down the spine, just thinking about it! He! HEE!)

The piano room is Asian influence and doubles as my craft room.  We're adding a Chinese screen this next week that David has inherited from his family.  My hope is that it will encircle the piano, which should help protect it.  The dining room is country southwest.  The family room is country southwest  as is my bedroom.  I guess I could post pictures for everyone.....  Ok.  So I'll do pics this weekend and get them up on the blog for everyone to see.

New Beginnings!

Its been a bit over a year since my last post.  I can't believe all the changes that have occurred.  Most for the better.

All my precious chickens are in other homes now.  (Had to place them in order to get the rental home ready for viewing, or so I thought.  At any rate... I no longer have "my girls" and I do miss them terribly.)  















I started packing up the house 6 months in advance of our projected move. (I succeeded in getting everything packed.... just not everything made it with us.  Our move consisted of 2 - 26 foot trucks with daughter #4 driving my Excursion and leaving her own car in Colorado, to be picked up later.  After the movers loaded everything they could into the two trucks we were scrambling to store the remainder somewhere!, anywhere!, we could.  So on June 13th, 2015 we drove out of  Colorado in 3 trucks with 8 people (as we brought our beloved Sydni with us.  We weren't ready to leave her just yet!), 4 dogs and one very cranky Lovebird.)

We found a new home for our brood that, I think, fits us nicely, in a little town, outside of the Dallas area.  I love that I drive through the "country" to get home from shopping in nearby larger towns.  We're enjoying dreaming of all the decorating (and making this home ours) we'd like to do in the house and will be starting some very shortly.  But I'm learning that a little decorating at a time, will make the fun last just that much longer.  So I've pulled back on all the projects and have decided to paint Olivia (orange, yellow and hot pink walls) and Jolie's rooms as the first projects.  I cancelled all the other paint and will try to do just one project
every month or two.  The next project will be getting the exterior of the house painted and ready for the winter.  Definitely don't want leaks at that time of year.  Amazingly, for a house this size, there is little to no storage space in the powder baths or "game room" area.  So we need to construct shelving.  We'll be starting in the main level powder bath.  I really want to do the floating shelves in there and keep with the open appearance of that room.   I think I'll stop here for the ideas.  Those projects will make good reading material down the road and probably show just how rusty we are with DIY's.

David is still commuting for his job.  Just now its between California and Texas.  The drive to the airport is shorter for us now, just not as pretty, and a whole lot more crowded! :)  I used to enjoy the drive to DIA on Hwy. 83 from Colorado Springs. 

So for now we're still adjusting to being Texans, again for some of us, and for the rest of us..... well we're lovin' the air-conditioners!

Dreaming...

  So with the move next year I decided to quiz all the kids on just what was important to them in a new home.  Besides the obligatory swimming pool because we all know that Texas in general is bloody hot 9 months of the year, we got all sorts of interesting desires.  One was a Jack and Jill bath, Olivia almost foams at the mouth in anticipation of this commodity.  Another was a "reading window", more commonly known as a "Bay Window".  I guess I probably don't need to say who actually said that, but I'll tell you anyway..... Jolie.  The boys came up with all sorts of interesting things.  Basketball courts, game room, theater, and their own Jack and Jill bath, the list was endless.


 I, of course, want room to expand our interests.  I envision some property where we can once again have chickens and possibly ducks, turkeys (Thanksgiving and Christmas is what we'd call them and Yes, we'd be eating them.) and maybe Button Quail.  Then there is the fainting goats that David and I would love to have.  I'm even thinking of my own Alpaca.  Just imagine being able to spin from my own animal...  Well...like I said this is just wishing.
A borrowed pic. from Covington, Ok. on Backyard Chickens.

I think we'd all enjoy a garden as well.  We, as a family, have always enjoyed working with the container garden.  The kids love snacking off of the cherry tomato plants.  So I can definitely see us with a garden large enough to feed us and allow for canning.  That would be nice.
 
The pic is from "The Modern Gardener".







So obviously in order to do what we're all dreaming of we need land.  So our hope is to find some acreage, nothing big, just a small plot where we can all have our dreams fulfilled and maybe some "out in the country" fun.
   
 

Ever Changing...

Chickens are gone.  Living in their new homes now.  I did split the flock to maintain the laws legal chicken limits for one of the takers.    Two of the girls, Goldie and Spice, went to Jacque.  The remaining 6 went to Kaitlyn's friend, Josh. Everyone seems to be happy, but me.  I'm missing my girls terribly.  The yard seems SO empty, but this was a necessary step in getting the yard back into shape prior to our move next year.  See the space between the trampoline and the shed?  That's where my girls run was....  Sunday was a Not Happy day for me.





Move?!  Yep, move.  We're moving back to Texas in the summer of 2015.  The time has come to make a step in being more available and supportive of our families.  Plus it offers us a fresh start.  We've been in Colorado since Oct. of '93.   So we'll be starting to look for a new house next year.




Knitting is still going on, as is the spinning.  (Like that will ever stop!)  Working on shawls, scarves, socks, kitchen towels, etc.  The list is never ending and I love it.  :)  This is a scarf that I've just started as a no brainer knit.  So simple and just plain lovely.  So I'm excited to be able to wear it this fall and winter.  "Vulcan" is the color!  As for my spinning I did complete the roving that Cisco and Denali played with in the yard a couple of years ago and am waiting to ply it.  I think Navajo plying will be just great for it.  Anxious to see what I end up with in the way of yardage.

I'll be spending the day in the kitchen today trying a new rice recipe.  Its called, "Tunisian Spinach Rice" and just looks and sounds fabulous.  The recipe and picture are found on Kitchenvignettes.blogspot.com.  I think I'll do a sausage link on the grill as a side to this dish.  Its supposed to be, I would think a main course, but with my group there better be a meat visible to have the meal count.   My intention is to have this for dinner tonight and today I'll be catching up on my biscuit making.  I'm terribly excited about this new recipe and have high hopes for a successful addition to our meal repertoire. 

Also on the list of to-do's is to clean the carpet in the family room, AGAIN!  The carpet was cleaned, or so I thought a few weeks ago.  We rented a commercial carpet steam cleaner at the local grocery store only to discover that it really doesn't clean.  What a waste of money and time.  Now we have a huge stain in the family room carpet that appears to be soapy residue.  The carpet is actually sticky.  So day before yesterday David and I took ourselves up to Wally World and bought ourselves a new "Hoover Carpet Cleaner".  My old one broke shortly after the move a couple of years ago.  My old one always did a great job, so I expect this one to do just as well.

The Egg Shack and More

I hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day.  I did!  The Beautiful flowers were from Bonnie.  The rest of my kiddo's did kind, loving things for me or if they were far away I got a great phone call, which of course I always love and appreciate.

I was also gifted a gift that I've been wanting for a few years now.  I have already tried it out and it fits perfectly... My new bike!  He-He! The color is fantastic, a beautiful light minty green with a white/black and mint green seat.  I just need a few accessories like a helmet and a beautiful woven basket to go on the handlebars and she'll be set to go.  I think I'm going to name her Beatrice.

Believe it or not, our eggs are selling at a phenomenal rate.  We sold out in just under a week and have a waiting list.  So I've officially named the little enterprise, "The Egg Shack" and it even has its own email address.  We are going to be doing cards as well and I'm already busy at designing them.  I am looking forward to perhaps getting a website up and going as well.  We did go ahead and purchase the domain name on 4 separate sites.  So now the task is to just get the stuff going.  I need to get a web designer, I need to get a card designer, etc.  Oh just so much to do....  Heheheheeheeeeeee. I feel better.

Knitting is going great.  Completions are adding up.  I finished a wonderful pair of green socks for myself and a shawl.  So looking forward to wearing both.  Working on a panel that I'll use for the closet opening in the master bathroom.  I spun the yarn myself and am thinking that when I no longer need the panel I can re-purpose the panel into a beautiful brown shawl. 

Kristina has obtained her second job for the summer and has been awarded MVP for her first job after working there for just about a month.  We're so proud of her.  She was also elected education coordinator in her sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma, and is looking to add a council position to her credentials in the future.  Below is my Kitchen Chicken that Kristina got for me for Mother's Day.

Frittata's and other wonderful things...

 



Frittata's are a wonderful way to cook a lovely filling meal and have it be a healthy meal as well.  Of course in our house I have to add the fried potatoes and homemade biscuits, so perhaps its not quite as healthy as it should be, but boy is it tasty!  Yum!

Our days are getting longer now.  The chickens are producing regularly enough to start selling their eggs.  I have multiple customers now and everyone seems to be happy with their purchases and they are coming back for more.  With that I've started thinking of naming our little enterprise.  I've come up with, "The Egg Shack".  It seems to encompass the whole idea of my chickens and I think its cute.

School is almost out for the summer now.  The kids have so many end of the year projects and fun activities to do that its taking up quite a bit of time.  Once "things" calm down a bit I'll get back into more of the blogging. 

I do have a couple of little surprises to tell at a later date...  check back! =)

Spring Break is almost over! Yea! Did I say that out loud?....

Cooper Estes has arrived!  Our latest addition to the family is a Shih Tzu/Poodle mix.  Drove to Denver on St. Patty's day to get him.  All 1.5 pounds of sheer dog power in a itty bitty package.  Dr. Barb and I agreed that he was way younger than I was told, so we adjusted his birthdate by 2 weeks, from now on 2/9 will be officially his birthday.
Cooper's need to eat frequently through the night has made for extremely long days, but I've had help a couple of nights from Olivia.  She has really stepped up and just done a great job so that I could have a couple of nights where I get to sleep through the night uninterrupted.  He's now eating about every 4 - 5 hours but will wake me up for a potty break if he needs it.  Yes, he is doing a great job with puppy pad training.





Spring Break has been busy.  With the kids home and annoying each other and all the pets, its been long.  We had decided that since we were not traveling that we'd do something special with the kids.  So off to Brunswick we headed for laser tag, bowling, and arcade games.  Not to mention a fine dining experience that included nachos, hamburgers, pizza, salad and soft drinks.  Every kids dream come true.  We wanted to take the kiddo's to a movie at the $1 theater, but there just wasn't anything wonderful showing.  Maybe next weekend....

Got Olivia and Jolie in to see Dr. Andrews, our favorite Orthodontist.  Parker just got his braces off and Hunter has just received his braces.   We felt we needed more excitement in our lives so we took Olivia and Jolie in to get checked.  Sure enough they are going to need braces as well.  So... I'm calling tomorrow to set up their appts to begin.  Did that sound ominous enough?

Back to Basics... I'm loving it.

I've been saying for a while that we need to get back to the basics of living.  So that's what I'm trying to do for my group.

 

Baking...  a word that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking it.  Remember homemade biscuits?  Rolls?  Loaves of bread?  Where's the butter?

 

I decided it was better to be baking our bread than buying if from the store.  There are so many additives to everything we buy today and so much of it is just assumed to be o.k.  Look at what has been discovered about red dyes and then hormones in our livestock and those byproducts.  The scientific community is always coming up with something new that we're not supposed to be eating so much of or maybe we need to be eating more of.  I'm tired of the see-saw. 

 

I've been saying for years that we need to get back to the basics of living.  So that's where I'm headed and in some instances I'm dragging the rest of the family with me.

 

I love the idea of baking and having all sorts of wonderful goodies here in the house for the kids to eat and snack on.  The reality is that I'll also eat and snack on whatever is available.  So though I'm baking all of our bread now, I'm keeping the treats to a minimum.   I have made cinnamon rolls,  cinnamon sweet rolls and "Pull-Apart Bread" from "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" and all along I've been baking our sandwich bread for months now.   

 

Butter. 

I have had the kids make their own butter and they had a blast doing it.  Giggling and laughing all through the process.
 

 

                           Homemade Butter or Whipping Cream

1 small jar

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Salt

 

Pour 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream into the jar.  Screw the lid on tightly and start shaking.  Let the kids take turns shaking the jar.  First you get Whipped Cream that you can stop and use on fresh fruit or just dip a finger for a wonderful treat.  Continue shaking until you hear a  thudding from the jar.  Oh, probably about 5 - 10 min's.  Take the fresh butter out of the jar and salt, if you enjoy salted butter.  Make sure to mix the salt into the butter with fingers.  Just a little salt at a time.  Don't want to overdo.  Have hot rolls or biscuits ready to spread it on.  Yum!   Your fresh butter should last about 3 - 5 days.  Assuming you don't use it all on those rolls you have waiting....  Enjoy!




 

Not as young as I used to be...

....And trying to take advantage of the things I've wanted to do that will have a positive impact on my family.  So what exactly does that mean?

  First of all we've acquired chickens.  Yes, chickens.  "The Girls" as my mom refers to them are a group of 8 somewhat talkative hens who supply us with fresh eggs and singing (Bragging!) just about every time they lay.  I hope the neighbors are a bit deaf.  This group is comprised of 2 Ameraucana's, a Plymouth Barred Rock, a Andalusian, a Australorp, a Production Red, a Buff Orpington, and finally a Red Sex Linked.  Now, I know those names probably mean nothing to you, but if you continue to read this blog, you'll learn a little about each one and their given names.  Out of all "the girls" we typically get about 7 eggs a day which range in color from white to tan/brown to green.  Yep!  We get an array of colors and the best tasting eggs around.  Free range/all natural.


We got the hens in April of 2013.  A friend of mine called and told me she had bought 3 Buff Orpington's to use at her school for learning, "How Things Grow", she's a librarian.  So... I jumped up and took that opportunity to run and purchase 4 fluffy little chirping chicks, one for each of the kids.  (I've wanted to have chickens for almost 10 years but at the old house we had predators to take into consideration.)  Then another friend found out.... told both of us that we were both crazy.... then later called and asked if she could buy 3 chicks and raise them with the 4 chicks that I got.  I told her yes and when she arrived there were 4 chicks!  She felt that I also needed a chick to call my own.  So entered "Spicey", a Ameraucana chicken, to bring the total number of chickens to 8.  We were praying that there were no baby Roo's in this batch of 8, as Roosters are forbidden within the city limits.  We got lucky.  

So.... we're new to this game, but have discovered that I and the kids are really enjoying having the chickens.  Olivia and Jolie sometimes complain when its time to clean the coop, but they do a great job and enjoy interacting with the chickens.  Parker and Hunter have the responsibility of making sure "the girls" have food and water and that the coop is closed each evening.  My job is to purchase the feed and other necessary supplies (straw for the nest boxes) and I also pitch in occasionally for cleaning duty.   We all work together when its time to clip flight feathers.  Everyone pitches in to catch a chicken.  This can be a fun and funny adventure.

FYI - Most chickens will start laying eggs around 4 - 5 months of age.  The Ameraucana's, of which we have two (my Spicey girl!) wait until about 7 months of age.  But they lay light blue to Emerald green colored eggs!

Now that our flock is older and producing reliably, my intention is to start selling the extra eggs.  Amazingly I already have a couple of people (one is a local coffee shop) that is interested and waiting to get the word on the production being stable enough to supply two families and the shop in fresh eggs.  I'd love for our girls to pay for themselves.  Frankly as cheap as chicken feed is and bales of straw, it wouldn't take much for that to happen.

We do have an unusual group of chickens, I think.  They love nothing better than being allowed to free range in the yard and make a bee-line for the back door..... racing and flapping their wings all the way..... to see if it is open so they can run in the house and crowd around the food bowls for that favorite of snacks... dog food.

Suzanne






 

I'm back and some things have changed...

Welcome to my "new" blog.  Actually its the same blog with a different attitude.  My intention is to keep you up to date on the "going on's" around here and to introduce you to changes that we're in the process of making in our every day lives.  Hopefully for the better... =)

Check back soon for my first update in over a year.

Suzanne

My Christmas is coming early....

Let me introduce you to Denali D'Artagnan Croslin....

DOB:  9/7/12

Brown Eyes, Black Nose

He is a Cream - Small Standard - Poodle.

We'll be picking him up this Saturday....

Can't wait for some poodle cuddling.......  I need it.

Goodbye Maxie! We Love You...

Maximilian Arthur Croslin  December 15, 1998 - November 3, 2012

Kristina Lettered again and Beginning the move...

Kristina received another letter for her academics last night.  She is doing so good and we're so proud of her.  Afterwards we went with her boyfriends family to Red Robin to celebrate.  Two of my good friends, Yael and Jacque, were able to come cheer Kristina on.

So with the start of David's new job out in sunny southern California, also begins our move across town into our new home.  I'm staying here in Colorado with the kids at least until Kristina graduates and we get her situated in college.

I found a very nice home within walking distance of a Elementary school,  Middle school and then Kristina's High School.  Nice back yard!  Something the kids have never really had and we're ALL excited about.  5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, very small 2 car garage.  The house is split into 3 floors with the master and 2 other bedrooms up and the last 2 in the basement.  Kristina and Olivia were all over those two basement bedrooms.   The boys will still be sharing at least until Kristina goes to college.

So the big push to get us out of this house is the weekend of the 29th.  By Sunday evening I hope to have the majority of our stuff moved.  The piano and pool table will be arriving on the following Monday. 

I hope with the move to be able to devote more time to the blog, but I'll need time to get us somewhat unpacked and situated in our new place.  Until then........ Happy Days!

And life goes on...

So after the fire we moved back into the house with little or no smoke smell that we could detect.  We were so lucky.  Now all these weeks later the aftermath of the fire can still be seen in the leveled homesites.  Basements are holes in the ground where once stood homes.  The odd swingset without a home, chimney without a house around it.  Its all very surreal.  From our back deck we can't see the personal devastation but we can see the natural aftermath by just looking at the foothills.  Believe it or not there are patches of green up there.  How those areas escaped being burned is quite puzzling.  Who can explain that, no one, I think.

Yesterday I walked out of a cafe from meeting a friend for a coffee and was surprised to look up and see smoke everywhere.  Apparently I've been so shut off from the rest of the world that I didn't realize there were other fires raging around us and the smoke from those has arrived in our area.  There is a haze that is hanging over Pike Peak and the surrounding area.  I hope the fires don't last long. 

School started yesterday for some of the kids.  Today, everyone was back in school.  Do I miss the kids?  Yes, but they definitely needed to return to school if for nothing else to see more of their friends and to expand their little minds a bit more than we could do here at  home.

As you can see, I've been knitting feverishly over the last few weeks and have finished many new projects.  Some of these are items that I'll be passing down to my group in the hopes that they will enjoy them in years to come.  So exactly what am I talking about?  Well I'm making shawls for the all the kids.  Yes, even the boys.  I figure they can give them to their wives some day.  I hope that one day the kids will use these shawls to warm themselves and remember that their mom made each one of them a special shawl with the idea of always being able to get a hug from Mom, even when I'm no longer here.  Now if I can just make shawls that they will like.  In the mean time here are the ones I've completed.

Crown Prince Square Shawl

Heliotaxis Pi Shawl

Orenberg Warm Shawl

Hanami Shawl

Lazy Kate Shawl

Lilac Leaf Shawl

2:00 update

Hi Folks!  I've pulled these pictures as far back as I can so that you can see, this half, of the size, of this fire.  This of course doesn't show the true scale in relation to the position of the house.  Unfortunately there is only one ridge between the fire and Colorado Springs.  There is now another fire located west of Elbert, Co. headed south west.  I'll be posting more pictures as the day goes on.  So check back for updates....

UPDATE ...

Please note the location of the mine.  This fire has moved quite a bit north through the night.

Waldo Canyon Fire

I can thank Olivia for these wonderful pictures that she took from the deck of our house, yesterday.  We're packed and ready to role if the need arises.   The fire has grown to cover 2500 acres at this point and is being watched so that it won't jump Hwy. 24 to the west.  The Walgreens down the hill is literally across the street from the mandatory evacuation site.  Our hearts go out to all these families who are having to evacuate in these hot temps (97* and up) and are having to go to shelters.  Hopefully this will be over soon...