A Simple Country Mouse

There's this old hymn about how the world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing. Wouldn't that be nice. For the world to be still for just a moment? Our lives are so chaotic, and things can be so crazy that we forget what the meaning of stillness is. And this Christmas has been anything but quiet and still. While craziness around the holidays are usual, this year has taken the cake and not in a good way. And while there were some really good memories made, this has got to be one of the hardest Christmases I've ever had. From drama, to short sales, to getting packages stolen, it's been a rough Christmas indeed. I know there are so many people out there that have it so much worse and so much harder, but mine has been more emotional than anything else. If there is one thing I can't stand more than just about anything else is non-family members creating so much drama for my family that it ruins most of Christmas. Family is one thing. As the old saying goes ...

It's here, it's finally here, it's really here!!! CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!! I'm so excited!! Can you tell? (insert jolly Santa chuckle here) Fall is my favorite of the four seasons, but Christmas is my favorite time of year. A cliche as this will sound, there's something about the lights, the trees, the music filling the air, and oh the foooooood. So, so, so much good food. But above all that is the sound of children's laughter, and families catching up on all the latest that they've missed throughout the year is the best. I love to see everyone laughing and having a grand ol' time. It brings to mind the days of my younger years. Other than the Grinches out there, let's be honest and say that Christmas time brings out the little kid in all of us. As you know I'm hosting my family this year for a Christmas themed get together that's not actually Christmas if you catch my drift. I'm so looking forward to everyone being here. And I can't wait...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with family at my in-laws house yesterday. It was so nice to get together, eat good food, chat with loved ones, watch Sam run and play, and see the family cuddling little Clay. You know, we don't often think about how amazing life is and what there is to be grateful for until such times as Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's something we should do everyday but often get to caught up in life to really sit and think about what we have to be grateful for in each day we live. For example, my mother in-law was telling me about a gal she knows on twitter who is living in a war zone and can't get even the simple thing of a Christmas card in the mail because of it. And yet she is so sweet and wishing every one of the people on her account a happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas. How amazing is that? Another gal that mom knows is in a different hemisphere and sent out Christmas cards to the people on her twitter. I got to see the card she sent and it...

Man has it been an interesting week. Sunday was lovely. We went to church for the first time in a while and got to meet up with my husband's aunt and uncle there. Afterwards we went to lunch as a family with us, his parents, and his aunt and uncle. They were thrilled to meet little Clay, and play with Sam. It was a really good brunch and conversations. We had a great time. Monday rolled in with a long list of errands to be done. Which was totally fine, but it meant a lot of running around. We got all the super important things done but halfway through the list my body decided to take a dive. I forgot that I'd only been out of the hospital for less than two weeks. Yeah, probably not my smartest move but at least I was able to be home in 45 minutes, and in bed 5 minutes after that. Josh made dinner, and we had a calmer evening after a day of chaos. Tuesday was surprisingly calm. Just the normal hick-ups of kids. Which I suppose is not always calm, but we survived the day. Thoug...

You know there are actually days where I feel the need to post and yet I can't seem to think of what to write until I sit down and let things just flow. Today is one of those days, so forgive me if I ramble a bit. There might be some errors in here as well. Something I studiously avoid doing if possible. However I seem to have a case of stupid fingers. Don't worry. It usually doesn't last to long, and for the most part is simply because I'm trying to type to fast to get my thoughts down before I lose them. A common thing for me. Especially since I tend to get dragged away from blogging for long periods of time and I have to go back to it. I wind up re-reading the same post so many times before I actually post it. For example, just trying to type out this first paragraph I've been interrupted about 3 times to tell Sam to go to bed, pick up Clayton to change his diaper, attempt to eat myself, and then pick up Clayton again to let him play in his play pen with his wubb...

"When life throws you lemons, make lemonade!" I have no idea where I first heard that old saying, but it's one that really rings true in our lives. For those of you who don't have kids, having a newborn can be terrifying at times. Like when they start throwing up everything they eat. It's about as much fun as salt on an open wound then drowned in lime juice. As someone who's accidentally done that, let me tell you it freaking hurts! Let me back up and explain. Everything was right as rain for the first few days when we brought our little boy home, and things were going surprisingly well all things considered. Sam was adjusting well, Clay was eating and sleeping well, and Josh (formerly known as Gamer) and I were actually getting a little sleep. It was lovely. Until it wasn't. Day five rolled around and things seemed normal (well as normal as can be with a newborn and a toddler) until Clay decided to violently throw up everything he'd eaten. And not ju...

Yes, it's raining like crazy here at Hidden Forest, but I'm happy to say that I've still got sunshine in my soul. I'm also happy to announce that our little Clay has finally arrived! Gamer and I are so excited to have him here with us. Labor and delivery went very well, and his big sissy is already in love with him. We came home a few days ago and have been adjusting to life with 4 of us instead of just three. He's doing wonderfully and Sam is so excited to "help" with him as much as she can. She is growing up so fast. While I'm sure we are going to have some bumpy roads ahead, I know that we will tackle them together as a family. Right now we managed to get Sam down for her nap, and Clay tucked into his little bed next to me. I even managed to get laundry done, bills checked, invitations sent out, and various other paperwork done today. I'm rather excited. It's exhausting to be sure but we will get there I know. Even as I sit here and blog I ...

We are doing exactly that...hanging in there. While there is a good chance that our little Clay could be born before we make it to the inducing date, we are doing our best to keep him cooking for just a few more days. But if he decides to make an early appearance, well, so be it. For now, I'm just keeping my feet up, drinking lots, and of course, trying to not do much of anything. I have to say, it makes me jittery. Poor Gamer has ordered me to rest, but is trying so hard to give me things to do that don't require me to be up and around just so I don't go completely crazy. He knows I don't do well just chilling on bed rest. So, he brought me laundry to fold, books to read, had me nap since I was getting tired (lack of sleep for the past months, though I managed to get 9 straight hours of sleep last night!), and is setting up movies for me to watch. He's such a sweetie. He even ran to the little store right down the street to get me mayo for a sandwich I'd been c...

Why this title to the post you ask? Well as I started to fire up my blog so as to post, I glanced over and saw my daughter struggling to pull something on her feet. I couldn't quite make it out until she lifted her feet up. I discovered she had somehow found a pair of my socks and put them on. Then she started to run around the house with them on until one proceeded to fall off. Now she is sitting contentedly on the floor playing with only heavens knows what miscellaneous bits of paper that she discovered in a bag I was getting ready to throw out from clearing off our sideboard table. Yes, I'm old fashioned and have a sideboard. Sam running in my big socks made me think of how often we try to be "big kids" and grow up to fast. Then we wind up failing, and yet we set our kids up for the same line of life. Now I'm not saying we should hold our kids back from trying to grow up. Not in the least. But I'm saying we should let them grow up and their pace, let them b...

Well bloggers the rainy season has officially set in. And boy is it setting in in style. With several inches of rain in a single day, and tornadoes hitting the coast lines, and of course the ever present thunder and lightening it's been quite the start to the rain. I"m sitting here at home knowing that I have to go to the store, but half dreading braving the storms. There's something kind of peaceful about the storms though too. Something soothing. It may sound totally crazy but, if you're from the Pacific Northwest storms like this are fairly common. Most people don't mind them to much, and many of us actually enjoy them. While it may be dark and dreary, it's a good time to get those inside projects done, and stay warm with hot soup and coffee. While I wanted to make soup for dinner, I got over ruled and we are having a new dish called chicken milano. Should be an interesting night of cooking. I'm also going to try making cream puffs. Something I haven...

You know from my last post that my life recently hasn't exactly been totally the easy road. You also know that I needed some time to get to a point of being ok. For the first time in my life I actually allowed myself to not be ok for a few days and to learn how to deal with those emotions, and how to take it easy on myself for not measuring up. Well I can honestly say that while getting to the point of being ok is still a work in progress, I can also say that I'm making leaps and bounds. So far what I've learned in this little bit is that if I actually stop and let myself deal with the emotions as they happen, I heal and process much faster than if I simply bottle them up and pretend I'm fine. Now will I be able to do that all the time? Oh heck no. I'm kind of stubborn and stuck in my ways. This is going to be one of those annoying lessons I have to learn a few time to truly get it. But hey, I'm making progress. In the last few days, I've also learned that ...

Do you ever feel like you're drowning? Like life is to much to handle? Do you feel like there is far to much going on and you can't hold the load anymore? That you aren't strong enough to carry the weight of everything on your shoulders? That you can no longer stand up and you've been brought to your knees under everything? Yeah, that's me right now. Time for a little light into my life. All my life I've always been the strong one. The one that can survive and thrive no matter how hard life has hit me. No matter the pain, or crushing weight I'm under I've always been the one who can carry the load. Except I didn't just carry it. I carried it and laughed in the face of everything that could try to bring me low. I never cried. I didn't appear to feel pain, and I never let it bring me down. I fought it. And by heaven, I won every time. I've always been strong. I've always been the one to thrive under pressure and excel. I've always been...

Well it's certainly been an interesting week here at Hidden Forest Cabin. Monday started fine enough. I had done a few little projects, nothing that I thought would really do much, but when Tuesday rolled in the contractions started. As I still had nearly a full week before I was technically allowed to go into labor with little Clay, I figured I should probably call the doc and let them know. They weren't overly painful or very consistent, so I knew I wasn't in labor by any means just making sure that other than putting my booty down, my feet up, and drinking lots I didn't need to be doing anything else. The nurse I spoke to told me I needed to come all the way in to the hospital to get checked out. As it's a 45 minute drive in and I still hadn't even packed for the hospital yet, thinking I had at least another week, I was not thrilled with the idea. But I packed up Sam, and called my mother in law, Author, My mother, and of course Gamer. Author started laughing...

You know its fall and I love fall. But you probably know how much I also love, love, love Christmas. Gamer and I managed to get all our Christmas shopping done for everyone except each other last week. And I even managed to get most of it wrapped already! We decided to do all of our shopping for Clay's shower, Sam's birthday, and Christmas all in one swing. I'm so excited it's done early. One big project that I won't have to try to tackle just after the baby is born. I just have to get stocking stuffers, and presents for Gamer. Sam and I are going to tackle Christmas shopping for Gamer this evening while he is having dinner with a friend. I'm actually really excited. Sam and I are going to have a mommy/daughter date! IHOP for dinner, and shopping at the mall. While I'm not a huge shopper, I do love Christmas shopping. There's something fun about getting gifts for people that you know they are going to love. While I can't divulge what I got as that w...

In today's post we shall be discussing how to fix a grouchy mommy. I shall lay out things in everything in several steps. 1. Make coffee, or hot apple cider complete with mandarin oranges, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a big warm mug. 2. Make a nice meal. A favorite of hers is always a win. If you don't have the ingredients for the favorite, make the second favorite. 3. Bring chocolate. Always bring chocolate. If you want to survive mommy being grouchy you will always bring chocolate. I cannot say this enough. In just about every form chocolate will solve nearly every problem for moms. Well, right after coffee. 4. If you have done coffee, food, and chocolate, then a good movie with cuddling is a good option. Chick flicks, rom-coms, or a good action flick should do the trick. If mommy is more of a reader, get her favorite book, or just a good book in general. Romance is often preferred when reading. 5. Draw a hot bath. This would be a good time to light some nice smelling...

If you've been reading this blog for the last few years you'll know that in my book there is no season quite like fall. And I'll continue saying that every year. I love fall. The colors changing, the weather cooling, the hot soups boiling, the apple cider, and of course the pumpkin spice lattes. It also means all my cozy sweaters come out, and I begin to decorate for all the warm colors of fall. The reds, and yellows, and oranges. And of course you can't forget all the little critters scurrying around doing their best to gather the last bit of food for winter before hibernating or migrating. Right now outside my window a flock of robins are playing and eating getting ready for their journey south. The colors of the trees are beginning their change, and the grasses are turning brown. The days are getting shorter, and of course the rains are setting in. Here at Hidden Forest the fall setting in means we have to start setting up for winter and even more so, setting up the...

Well, I survived yesterday, and am much less scattered today. A solid night's sleep helped for sure. Now it's onto my giant to do list for the week. While I have some of it done already, I've a long way to go before it's completed on Friday. And I seem to be continually adding to it. Do you ever feel like your to do list is a mile long, and just as you get around the first bend you realize it's now two miles long? Yeah, those are my kind of to do lists. There's always something more to be done. Though often it seems like there's not enough time to get it all done in one swing. I've learned to write out a to do list for the whole week rather than try to tackle everything in one day like I once did. It makes the load a little lighter and allows me to really focus on getting things done the way I actually want them done. It's better than rushing through, and feeling like I didn't get it done right. For example, there was once a day and age where I ...

You ever get hit with news that shocks you? It can be good, bad, or indifferent. It always takes a moment or two to really process it in your head. Sometimes it takes more than just a moment. You wind up in shock wandering around confused for a while. That's where I am today. Late last night I found out through my husband that a family friend and pillar of the community had suddenly passed away due to leukemia. I had no idea she was even sick, and suddenly a woman who has just always been there in the small town where I'm from is just...gone. My brain hasn't been able to even begin to process that. Please allow me to explain a little about her.  Forgive my somewhat scattered thoughts. Dorcus was a woman in one of the small churches I grew up in. She was always kind, and had a smile for the little girl who was a bit of a hellion. She loved kids. All kids. She started a little shop in town that I remember being there forever before it burned down on Christmas eve one year. ...

Well, this has most certainly been a very interesting week. What started as a should be normal week with a few exciting highlights turned into a week of none stop crazy. Sunday, for all intents and purposes, was fairly calm and relaxed minus the cake incident. Monday was much the same. Until Monday evening...when the week took a turn for the interesting. I knew that I had an early appointment with the doc on Tuesday morning and wouldn't you know it, we discovered that the car's tabs were very much expired. Like June expired. Oops. Thankfully we hadn't been pulled over for it, but still, it's not something I like. So of course I go to bed having completed some of the to do list for the week, but now knowing I was going to be adding to it. Waking up every two hours almost on the dot to go pee was exhausting. Occasionally my phone won't ring on time for it's alarm. And by that I mean, it doesn't go off at all. Thus making me paranoid that I was going to over s...

Do you ever look at hollywood or even as close to home as just your facebook account and find all these moms who totally seem like they have it together. You know the perfect soccer moms with amazing kids, perfect hair, rocking little bodies who find the best deals, cook the best meals, bake like there's no tomorrow, craft/home school or whatever they call it, and, of course, always have a mostly, if not perfectly, clean house all while making a mini van look sexy in pictures on facebook? They hike, bike, take pictures on the beach or in the mountains, and don't forget somehow manage to never break a sweat and look model perfect while doing it. We tend to call these women "super moms." Yeah, we all know someone who could fit that category. I am soooo not one of these moms. I'm the mom with a disaster of a house (no matter how hard I try to keep it clean), crazy little daughter that's fearless enough to punch out a boy twice her size if he makes her mad, a husb...

Today has been a rather trying day to be sure. One where it takes everything I have just to survive the day. Not live, just survive. So you can imagine that by the time my sweet hubby shows up, I'm pretty well down the drain in the energy department. So when I asked him what he wanted for dinner, I could have given him the world for his answer. "Let's get Domino's." Please understand we try not to eat out much, and even when we do go out, we try to eat pretty healthy. For example, I like to get salads or steak and Gamer likes chicken, or burgers while Sam loves mac and cheese or any kind of fruit. If we are going to do pizza, we tend to stick to things like Papa Murphy's which is take and bake and far less greasy than most fast food pizza. But occasionally nothing beats Domino's. Especially when locked in a bad mood. At Sound Castle we'd all pitch in to get what we each wanted and then have it delivered right to our door. Something none of us ever had...

As you all well know I hate getting up early. The other day was one of those days where I had to be up early to make it to a doctor's appointment for little Clay. Just routine, but still it meant getting up much earlier than I had hoped to. I decided that after said appointment, as I didn't have time before, I'd go get coffee for me, and a cookie for Sam who had been an angel during the whole thing. Once out and as we waited in the drive thru line for coffee, I thought "what the heck, let's hit the farmer's market." We headed to downtown and as we struggled our way through traffic I thought about what we might enjoy while we wandered. Things like berries, lunch and little treats. What I didn't realize is there was something else I was going to be getting as well. Something simple that would change my whole day. When we finally arrived at the market, I put Sam in the stroller and we headed off to discover what was there for the day. The scents of curry...

Adulting. It can be so complicated, and yet mostly so easy too. Complicated because parenting, working, paying bills, getting groceries, cooking, and cleaning house. Generally all things adult or your adults do. But it can be as simple as letting the people in your life know what's going on so they can help plan things like say dinner, or when to put the baby to bed so they can see said person before they get tucked in. You know, the basics. You'd think that would be simple...yeah, or not. I've been waiting most of the day for the simple text of "I'll be home around..." Yet here it is nearly 5:00pm and he's been gone since 6:00am and still no word. I know darn good and well it's not his boss this time. It's him not wanting to deal with what he thinks of as conflict. My one and only massive pet peeve with his entire family and raising. They refuse to deal with any and all conflict, instead blaming everything else rather than just deal with the issue...