Compliments of the Man

Last night, my hubs tells me in his sweetest, most sincere voice that I have “nice broad shoulders” and then with the speed and agility of man about to be shot, says “but, not in a Olga East German Swimmer kind of way.”  This was soon followed by snickers, giggles, and then all out rolling laughter.

I think he meant that I had strong, shapely shoulders, but, failed miserably in the delivery of said meaning.

It still makes me giggle as I type this. Manly doesn’t pass out compliments all too often, so the fact that he was trying to tell me that he thought I was beautiful meant more than anything he was trying to say. As I fell asleep last night, I couldn’t help but be grateful for marrying a man with a fantastic sense of humor. He makes life fun and for that I am truly grateful.

I’m a lucky girl…Olga shoulders and all.

Holding Tomorrow Tightly in my Arms

Things have gotten a little wild again. I may or may not have gotten the urge to make-over my desk. I'd show you, but 2 weeks later and it's still not done. Um...oopsies? I finally got the computer hooked back up today, which means my 7 year old has this afternoon and evening to catch up on 10 days of homework. {Sorry Mrs. L! It really wasn't her fault THIS time!} I have been hanging magnet boards, building a kids station, spray painting this, that, and the other, and I still need to sew curtains and pillows, have some vinyl cut for the top of my desk, and make a cushion for my new window bench, not to mention organize and put away my hoard craft supplies and tools. Add that to bringing meals to hurt people in my neighborhood, helping with a humanitarian project, taking care of munchkins, 40 May birthdays {seriously, people, can you not find anything else to do in September than that? Take a walk in the leaves, garden, bottle something, shop for school supplies, do anything else that doesn't add more b-days to the month of May...my wallet begs of you!}, end of school business, Mother's Day activities, etc. etc. etc. there just aren't enough hours in the day.

I'm going fishing with my son and his Cub Scout troop tonight. I've got to admit, taking a bunch of 8 year old boys fishing sounds about as fun as stepping on a rusty tetanus covered nail, but, I'm excited to spend a some time with my little man. We probably don't get enough one on one time doing things he loves. So, I'm going to set my gorgeous curtain fabric, and my unbelievably strong desire to get them hung, aside for the evening and take my boy out to the lake.

As I prepare to go, this quote keeps wafting through my head.

Check out www.spirituallythinking.blogspot.com, I love her stuff.

It will be nice to have a beautiful, inspiring, comfortable place to create in. But, what really matters is my family. They are the greatest gift I have been given here on earth. So, sometimes it's OK if a project takes me three months instead of a couple days. It's alright if the neighbor knocks at the door at 10am and finds me and my girls still in our jammies. And, it doesn't matter that I'm not running a marathon like her, going to Hawaii like them, or have hundreds of readers on my sidebar. All that matters is that I "hold tomorrow tightly" as I can and help them grow and be strong. The world can pass me by all it wants because I have the best of it right here in my arms.

Happy fishing y'all.

Command Max Paint Sprayer Tutorial

I recently got a Command Max HVLP Paint Sprayer from the fabulous people at HomeRight. I am so excited to use this on a “Repenting Bench” project that I am working on. I wanted to make sure that I used it correctly, so I started asking around blogland for advice.

The fabulous Gail from My Re-purposed Life sent me a link to a video tutorial she had made. If you don’t follow her on Facebook you are seriously missing out! She has awesome ideas, loves to share, answers questions, and treats you like a friend even though she’s never met you. Some bloggers seem a bit put out when you ask questions, but not this lady! She wants you to succeed, which is one of the reasons I enjoy reading her blog!

If you’ve been prepping to try a hobby sprayer, you’ve got to check out her video! I feel so much more prepared!

My Re-purposed Life's AWESOME Tutorial

Go check her out, and while you are there, tell her what a rad job she is doing in the blogging world!

And, stay tuned for my bench! {Which by the way, I learned how to build from Gail's blog!}

I think I just got bought off…

The past 6 months I have been terribly just a little baby hungry. Maybe it’s the fact that Baby Girl is about to potty train, talks up a storm, and wants to move to a big girl bed. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m only 31 25 and still feel young enough to be mothering babies. Maybe it’s that my brothers and sisters are FINALLY having kids and I want my kids to have best friend-cousins like I had growing up. Maybe my brother’s are right and I am addicted to the sweet smell of newborns. Maybe it has to do with the fact that in less than 4 years I have to have my ovaries out and will lose my hormones, creative powers, and womanhood…who knows. Whatever it is, Manly isn’t having it, at all. None. He is done. Jerk.

I won’t lie, I think this is one of the strangest, most heartbreaking decisions that has ever been placed before me. How the heck do I say goodbye to something that I feel I was put on this earth to do, and am good at? How do you say it’s over when it’s the only thing you wanted to do all your life? How in the world do you give away all those precious tiny {ok, my kids were never “tiny” per se, but tiny compared to the size they are now!} baby clothes and close that chapter in your life? Wow. What an internal war that I was completely and utterly unprepared for.

I’ve mentioned this before, but growing up, I always dreamed I’d be a rancher’s wife. I always saw myself on a farm somewhere surrounded by babies {5. I always knew I’d have five, with one set of twins, a boy and girl. Yep, I’m one of those.} and horses {Paints, lots of gorgeous brown and white Paints}. That was my goal. Man, how quickly priorities change when a tall, dark haired, incredibly good looking man sweeps you off your feet! I wouldn’t change my life, it’s a wonderful one, but sometimes the dream still lingers…

Where could I possibly be going with this? Hang on, I’m getting there.

Two weeks ago, a darling friend of mine sent me a message that her parents were selling their chicken coop, feed, and heritage chickens. I mentioned it to Manly and a couple days later, something amazing happened!

  
He bought them for me.

I have babies!!! {Well, teenagers, technically…}

Don’t worry neighbors, NO rooster. I enjoy sleep.



Their little hen house is even the same color as ours, so it must be fate. My kids are slowly gathering rocks to line the outside of their run for extra protection. It’s not that pretty now, but just wait.



Meet my little ladies:

Combustion…

Yes, she is my science loving son’s chicken. How could you tell?

Mabel

{I’m not allowed to have favorites, but if I did, it’d be her. Sweetheart.}

Fredricka

She belongs to Miss June, who calls her Fred for short. {Hopefully my Great Grandma looks down from Heaven and laughs instead of being offended.} She picked her because she is red, and she misses her Uncle “Red” who is away serving a mission for our church. She is the prettiest of the ladies. {PRETTIEST, Grandma!}

Agnes…aka…Aggie

She’s our trendy mama! Look at that cheetah print coat!

Stella

{our son named her Stealth because she is sneaky and can escape capture. Manly changed her name to Stella so she could have some female dignity…poor Combustion.}

and last but not least, Lou-Lou’s Leghorn,

Camilla

She has a slight obsession with The Muppets, if the name didn’t give it away for ya!

So, that’s where I have been the last little bit. Building a run {we live out in the mountains where cougars, badgers, coons, skunks, and coyotes are regular visitors…not to mention all the dogs!}teaching 4 munchkins how to NOT kill a chicken with kindness, and getting adjusted to life with 6 babies. I’ll be back to regular blogging in a few days. Bear with me.

…and I realize as I write this, that I’ve been bought off. Do you find it somewhat fishy that I have desperately wanted a baby and my husband, out of the goodness of his giant sized heart, got me chickens?

Hmmmm…

Sorry, Babe. It doesn’t make the feeling go away, but it sure helps. Thank you.

Originality…does it even exist anymore?

Have you ever had an idea that you thought was completely original, creative, and you? I thought so incredibly hard about the name for this blog when I first started this little random journal. I didn’t know what I was doing last April. I just wanted some place that was mine. Somewhere I could express my thoughts, my feelings, and share my passions, my mistakes, and my successes. I screwed up with www.mountainmagpie.blogspot.com, did you know that is the real name of the bird that think she owns my backyard and steals my dog’s food? It is. Huh. And, it bugs some very avid bird watchers to look up Mountain Magpie’s and find some eccentric mama in Utah talking about everything from children, DIY projects, to being a truckers wife and a basket case. So, I went back to the drawing board and changed the name because I didn’t know how to change the domain. {yes, I struggle.}

Gypsy Magpie…it fit. My flighty spirit and my overactive mouth…who else would think of that? Well, apparently at least 2 other people!

Um, oopsies?

Guess I’m not as creative as I thought! Which, kind of stings, in a really odd, unexplainable way. But, it got me thinking…in a world overflowing with bloggers, Pinterest, magazines, stores, and design shows…is there really anything that IS new these days, or is it all just reproductions and alterations of someone else’s idea?

Does originality even exist anymore?

So, what is a girl to do? Do I stick with the same name even though it could be confusing because I love it, and it fits? Do I change it? If so, what do I call myself? And, why the heck does it bother me?

Thoughts?

Please share. I’d love to hear your opinion.

*And, yeah, so I’m not stalling or anything…Project Order just kinda sorta got put on hold while I complete Project Chicken…{tee hee!!} Sometime things fall in your lap and you have to learn to roll with the punches. My life is a disaster at the moment, but I’m rolling, and that’s what counts, right? Baby steps.