Rare...

This morning was rare for me.  Not the morning itself mind you, because luckily, that comes every day.  What was rare was the chance to just be and do the things I wanted to do because I had time to do them.  I should tell you, I'm a morning person.  Normally, my day begins at about 4:50 when I get up and hop into some sort of clothes and head to the kitchen for a tea and glass of water.  Then I fire up the ol' computer and sit down for what is then the next 5 hours of my work life.  In between there, yes, I do take two breaks to get the kids breakfast and when needed drive them to school.  We are fortunate enough to live very close to the school, so I'm able to do that quite quickly in my 10 minute break in my 5 hour shift.  In the afternoon, I go back to working for a couple of hours after the boys are home from school. 

I will usually grab the kids something quick for breakfast.  Perhaps it's cereal, or a bagel or fried eggs and and english muffin.  Yes, Eggo waffles would be easier, or just nuking some sort of frozen breakfast product or toasting a pop tart (all of which they'd eat, but I can't bring myself to do it!), but of course the slow food is paramount here.   Then, it's back to the computer and my work life.  My mornings are definitely not my own.  I should preface this by saying I am VERY thankful to have a job I can do from home so that I'm able to do this for the boys and be here when they come home from school.  However, for the folks that think that's all sunny and great, I will say there are sacrifices that are made so that I can do that for them.  Any kind of social life is one, another being there's no separation of work life and home life.  It's all taking place in these four walls every day and some days, it's cabin fever city around here.  It's also incredibly hard to work with two very active, loud boys in the house.  Imagine trying to concentrate in a cacophony of noise constantly.  I have taught myself to tune most of it out, but it's a challenge sometimes, really, a very big challenge.

But this morning was different.  As I worked more hours earlier in the week due to an intense workload, I only had 2.5 hours to work today.  I got to sleep until 5:15.  Then I got up, checked my email, surfed a blog or two and then went to the kitchen.  On the counter sits the score from our winter CSA that arrives every Thursday.  In this batch is collard greens (even though I'm originally from the south and that's a key food source there, I never know what to do with these!) and parsnips.  I have a bag in the bottom of the crisper drawer that contains 4 other parsnips.  The last time I made them, no one ate them but me, so I've kept them stored in there from the last three deliveries and planned to look up a recipe for them.  When I found the time.  Which never seems to happen.  But this morning, I had time to check out my favorite recipe site food.com and found a wonderful sounding recipe that I'm going to try that entails maple syrup and balsamic vinegar and slow roasting.  Sounds good, right?  I also had time to give the chicks waterer a good scrubbing, make breakfast for the boys, made their lunches and get the dishes done and the kitchen cleaned up.  And sit down here to write my blog.  I watched the sunrise and really listened to the rooster crowing and enjoyed the quiet of my sleeping household.  Just took some time to do things at my own pace instead of my employer's pace.  It was really a very nice morning to just take the time to do things that I found important to me this morning. A rare occasion, this.

Now, I sit down to begin my work day.  The rest of the day will entail spending some of it outside.  There's much to be done around here with the girls outgrowing their brooder at a very rapid pace and the garden beds to get the sod removed and the soil turned.  Yes, so much to do in not nearly enough hours to do it in.  It's all on the list, right there waiting for me to have the time to give it all the attention it needs. Until then, you'll find me working at my computer, thinking wistfully of things I'd rather be doing.

Wishing you your own rare moment of calm, ~Peacemom

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

We were in the pursuit of a Christmas tree.  Not just any tree, but the perfect one for our little family.  This tree had to be beautiful, this tree had to have personality and this tree needed to be skinny and short.  We have a very small house will little room for a tree, so we needed a pretty specific conifer.

We got the little cherubs all bundled up and set out with cash in pocket to the wonderful place we found our tree last year.  We were all set to traipse around on their wonderful farm and find THE tree.  As we pulled up, there was a sign that stated in very small letters:  "closed for 2010 season".  Oh.  No.  The children were upset, and frankly so was I.  I really wanted a tree from that particular farm as we're moving more and more into the "everything as local as possible" mentality.  For us, that included our tree.   Well, shut.  We turned Rudolph the Red Van around and decided to drive towards a neighboring town that we thought would have a cut your own and be open.  On the way there, we drove by a place we stopped at a couple of years ago.  There, at the end of the driveway, we saw this little sign:

We stopped quickly and pulled up the driveway, so thrilled to have found his little farm open.  The man who runs it was also getting out of the business a couple of years ago and there aren't many trees left on the farm, and they are all small.  Small was perfect for our needs.  So we checked out our options...

Music Man found one he liked, but well, I would have to start calling him Clark Griswold and then my house would smell like fried pussycat and who needs that  (You National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation fans will get that, everyone else will just think I'm gross)?  After MUCH deliberation, we found the one that was to be the Haught Family Christmas Tree...

The boys got in on the act and helped Daddy to chop (or in this case, saw) it down...

Then they carried it to the car and strapped it on. 

As the tree was being bound to the roof, I took a look around at the farm. It's a beautiful little place, with the trees on one section and a couple of large garden beds spread around on others.  There is a lovely little arbor and a couple of small barns as well.  It is all very well maintained and obviously loved. I felt both envy and respect for this little farm and it's older owners.  And blessed to be able to share in it for a moment in time.

A fun time was had by all.  Now, the tree adorns our living room with it's lovely smell and graceful way it holds our ornaments.  Thank you, Little Tree for being an intricate part of our holiday celebration, we appreciate your sacrifice dearly.

Wishing you a bit of Christmas cheer of your own today,  ~Peacemom