X is a Wonderful Thing!

I was trying to figure out what word started with X that I could write about today. I couldn’t. I have been thinking on it for awhile too. My little list of possibilities has been what has gotten me through the #AtoZChallenge! Well… X had me stumped. Until I noticed a trend on my list. Every time I got a post written up I would cross it off with nothing other than a X. Eureka!

A X is a wonderful thing! I can count how many projects I’ve completed with each X I see throughout the day. X makes me feel a bit more organized and accomplished.

(I wish my list was THIS short everyday! No real list was hurt in the production of this post. I made up pseudo lists especially for today.)

At times I end up making my stress relieving X with whatever I may have on hand. I cannot tell you how many times a crayon has bailed me out.

So enjoy the letter X! Embrace it even! Bring it into your home and change the way you feel everyday. I think I may be getting a little slap-happy with this A to Z Blog Post Challenge.

What would you write about with the letter X as your inspiration?

I think I was more excited about working on the photos for this post than the actual post. It was fun to dust off my camera. Even for something as simple as a list with a X on it.

 
Find all my April Blogging from A to Z Challenge Posts Here 
This is Letter X for my #atozchallenge
If you want to see more of the A to Z Blog Hop Challenge, click here!

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Kentucky Horse Park

FIELD TRIP!

We love field trips! The kids look at it as all fun, I look at it as a way to learn outside the home. If you have anyone in your family that loves horses, this is the park to visit! We were there off season so we missed seeing a lot of the shows and events they have throughout the year, but it was still a blast!

First thing we decided to do was grab the carriage tour. Horses with feet the size of your head pull a wagon around while someone tells you more about the park. Tip: Sit close to the front. There’s no speakers (for good reason… I imagine microphone feedback and horses do not mix well) in the wagon, it was windy when we were at the park and it was close to closing time so I think our guide was tired. It was really cool to get a quick history of the park and what every barn was right away though! Big help in our exploring.

These horses were awesome! We found them in the barn designated for world breed's. Marwari’s are very rare horses. I recommend you do a little research on these guys. They are tuff and TALL! Their ears touch together at the top of their head. This guy was incredibly interested in what was going on outside his stall but did visit with us briefly. All the people working that we came across were super sweet to the animals.

 

 The history lesson began in the museum. Paul Revere, Comanche and horses use in the World Wars were just some of the information we gleaned. It was really neat to see so much information about horses, breeds and how they have interacted with humans throughout the years. 

We loved seeing all the Secretariat memorabilia and the kids loved the Black Stallion section of the museum.

The museum is HUGE though! We did find ourselves not reading everything and hurrying through at the end. It was a lot to take in!

The Arabian area had a neat program to engage the kids though and they could “take a horse” through the displays with them creating a scrapbook page to email to themselves for later. It was the highlight of the museum for one of our kids.

All in all the museum and grounds were beautiful, fun to explore and a perfect place to use up several hours of your afternoon. Definitely check out the children’s barns! We had it all to ourselves and the kids loved just racing around in it and pretending they were horses over the little jumps even. We enjoyed our visit!

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Store Digital Photos

How many pictures do you have on your computer RIGHT NOW? What would happen if your entire computer fried. Like the hard-drive went ka-poof! What would be the first thing you would be upset about?

For me, it’s all the pictures. I am so crazy about my pictures I have them stored almost too many different times to really keep track of them. Here’s where my pictures are:

1. SD card in camera or “retired” (meaning it’s full but still has photos)
2. Computer (even my phone photos are backed up on the computer)
3. External hard drive
4. CD OFF SITE
5. Online storage

As I have learned more I have found that leaving pictures on the SD card isn't the best route. Sooo... I am working on eliminating that. Use up the camera card, move pictures off and format the card to give it a clean start.

Computers are volatile. You never know when they will give out so I like the backup of an external hard drive. They are so inexpensive these days! You can get a whole terabyte for $80 or less sometimes! That's just nuts! But again, they can have corruption errors too. Another step of photo protection is a CD off site. I have a pile of CD's with out images on them all ordered neatly stored at my parents in a closet. I'd even recommend online storage for your photos. A lot of places offer free storage and great printing service too.

Where do you keep all of your images? In one place or more?

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Late Nights

It gets dark just way to early around here now.

And I find myself out in this just way too often. Sigh…. Until summer…

I am linking this Wordless Wednesday post to:
5 Minutes for Mom
Dagmar's Momsense

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Store Graffiti

I vandalized a store last week. I was driven to it in my madness and exhaustion from caring for many sick children. I shouldn’t have done it though because it was my one and only opportunity to get out of the house for a little bit. Granted I was out to only pick up more cold medicine, snacks and kleenex… and that’s when I just went over the edge. I couldn’t stand it! It HAD to be done!


This was put in my InstaGram feed during the crime too. Hehehe…

This no where near Wordless Wednesday is linked up to:

5 Minutes for Mom
Dagmar's Momsense
Tara's View World
Live and Love Outloud

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Struggling Through the Week

With the week that I have had, this will be a challenge for me and a good thing to work on. This week has been exhausting. I have today and tomorrow yet to struggle through but let me see what favorite things I can dig up...

Walking Buddies
Even if she can't walk a straight line. It's nice to have someone to walk along with me.

Creating
I have a new found joy in sewing! I wish I had more time for it, but I love having whatever time I can find to finish a project. I learned a LOT making this apron!

Playing Outside
My kids LOVE to play outside. I am so glad for this.
They are usually in much better moods after having some fun outside.
Pretty Flowers
Yes, these are from our front window box but the kids meant well. I told them I didn't want anymore dandelions. Hehe... Ah well... These are much prettier!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Originally, I did not have the time to make these cookies. Plans change(d).
A LOT.
I am glad that I had the time to make these cookies after all.
Very yummy!!

So there... I do have some favorite things from this week. That's nice! Good way to reflect on the week instead of the stress. Oh and yes, most of these are from my Instagram photos. I didn't record this week any other way. :)

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Garden Harvest and Overgrowth

I am at that point in my garden again. The point where everything has just gone wild. WILD! I can’t even find my veggies in the jungle, the bee’s are checking everything out so much that I am too nervous to even look and I can’t tell if I’m messing with a weed or the actual plant anyway. SIGH!



I am excited to find not one but around *4* watermelon growing in my little watermelon patch.
I also cannot wait for Hubby to dig in the eggplant to pull those gems. There is one that is almost too big to be anything but a great conversation piece! EEP!

My FAVORITE veggies from my harvest the other day is my perfect Cherry Stuffer Peppers. Are they not the cutest things EVER?!

LOVE them! And we did use up and enjoy almost all the other veggies. Intend to use up those cute little cukes today with lunch. Egg salad and seasoned cukes go really good together. YUM!

Have serious tomato issues. Blossom rot and lack of good watering. The new ones developing now are doing much better with the good rain we’ve been getting.

What are you harvesting?

This post is linked up to:
An Oregon Cottage – Tuesday Garden Party

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Praying Mantis Gift

My Hubby knows me well. He ran into a praying mantis at work and packed him up (in his cleaned out dinner container) and brought him home to me. Our garden already has a few praying mantis in it again this year, but I am not sure how many. Any bug that keeps bad bug population down in my garden is a welcome pet/guest.

Thanks Hubby! Awesome gift!
He knows me so well…

Cute little bugger, isn’t it? Eat well me new friend! Hope to see you often in my garden. They really are hard to see in there though. Just blend right in. When they get older they get darker colors and I believe the females turn brown? Not totally sure about that fact.

This post is linked to:
5 Minutes for Mom
Dagmar's Momsense
Tara's View World

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July Garden Harvest!

We are finally getting a somewhat regular harvesting from our garden. With the drought that is happening in our area a lot of our plants are dead or producing blighted veggies. The eggplant is GORGEOUS! Very excited to work with those. Tomatoes (red and orange) and peppers (yellow) are sad looking. Cucumbers are beautiful and I hope they taste as yummy as they look. This is a new variety for me. I want super sweet salad cucumbers! If you have any suggestions on them, let me know. We used the radishes already in a pot roast. (YUM!) And the little pile of green ground cherries are quickly disappearing as little hands grab them for a snack. Ground cherries are super sweet and the kids love them! They are a fun surprise added to salads too. People don’t expect them to be SO sweet.

This post is linked up to:
Tuesday Garden Party @ Oregon Cottage

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Zoo Visits for Spring 2012

Yah… isn’t that weird? I am talking about Spring in July when actually all our weather up until this point has been blasted hot summer weather. We never really had Spring here but we have not missed a moment to get out and enjoy the zoo! We love to feed the giraffe (the baby is growing up faster than my own kids) and just wandering around in the many different "continents”.

Every year there is almost a battle over who will give us the gift of a zoo membership. It’s humorous actually! Our membership renewal is getting earlier each year too. First it started out as a Mother’s Day gift, then moved up to New Years, Christmas, Anniversary and it’s getting close to being early enough to be Father’s Day or Mother’s Day again. Hehe… We always announce when our zoo membership is renewed and the family members who missed it again that year always respond with a, “I missed that again?!”

Ah well.. maybe next year! So thankful for a loving family! Here’s some pictures that we have taken at the zoo over some of our past visits:

Love those prairie dogs being back! They are so funny!!
Excuse some of the over exposed photos…
mid-day cell phone shots aren’t always the best.

What is your favorite zoo to visit?

This post is linked up to Wordless Wednesay, even though it’s not wordless… but I think I have an even amount of photos per words this time? Maybe? Oh go check out some other sites that might follow the rules better. Hehehe…

5 Minutes for Mom
Dagmar's Momsense
Live and Love Outloud

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Garden Art

I like to decorate my garden. Do you like to decorate your garden? Here’s what I have in mine:

There’s a few other pieces that I didn’t get pictures of yet. One is brand new! He’s soooo cute! Okay… let me take a snap shot…


Isn’t he cute? Just got him… he’s enjoying the air conditioning still.

This post is linked to:
Tuesday Garden Party

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Growing Garden!

My garden is growing and producing like mad. I’m worried because some produce already has signs of blight though. I am pulling those as I see them and allowing the others to continue in hopes that this will help/prevent further blight from happening. I am pretty sure it’s mostly because it’s so stinkin’ dry!
I have high hopes for the squash to be okay! So far they seem to be suffering the worst with the drought. Cucumber are just plodding along but I have lost a gourd plant. Even with constant watering!


I am most excited about these little beauties! From the time I took this picture (a few days ago) until now most of my little cherry tomatoes are now turning color! I believe I will have several cherry tomatoes ready for eating way before I ever have had any before. Love that!


And of course some of my flowers are doing okay. Not all of them… but some. I will say that last year my garden was a LOT more lush then this year. Sad… but I will work with it as best I can.



This post is linked up to:
Tuesday Garden Party
5 Minutes for Mom Wordless Wednesday

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