Right Brain or Left Brain, Which One Do You Prefer?

I have a mini-obsession with online quizzes, especially if they can tell me something about myself like personality traits and spiritual gifts. So here's another good one, a creativity test that helps you discover if you are more of a right brain or left brain thinker. I figured I was heavy on the left brain side but was pleasantly surprised that I have more right brain characteristics than I realized. It gives me hope that there is some measure of creativity in me after all!

Btw, I found the link to this quiz through my friend Tonni's blog. She has a really funny post on how random and right brained her children are. I could totally relate! My kids, especially Zach, are very creative and very messy!

I couldn't be more excited!

It's silly really, but I cannot wait to see New Moon with my best pal and her mom this Saturday! What a great way to reward myself after a really stressful and busy week at work!

What's even sillier is how many times I have now read the entire Twilight series. I think it's too embarrassing to admit! Then you will all know that I really don't have a life!

So, what are you looking forward to this week?

The Couch

Goodbye lumpy old couch... we've had some good times, but it's time to go.


Hellooooo you comfy little piece of heaven!

We've Been Overrun

I've had it!

Not one more living creature from the great outdoors is allowed in MY house!

I don't care if we live in the country now.

I don't care if our old partially remodeled home has more holes, nooks and crannies than I can find.

This is it.

All of you spiders, flies, moths, mosquitoes, frogs, and mice are put on notice effective immediately.

Stay out or else.

How's that for tough talk?

I've Been Tagged!

Sarah at Strandfam tagged me! Here goes...

1. I have short, stubby thumbs. What does this mean for me? I find it difficult to shuffle cards, play video games and I will never win a thumb war.

2. I cannot whistle. Hard as I try, it is just not going to happen for me. My husband is convinced that I should be able to whistle since I am a speech therapist. Hmmm, does this call my professional competence into question? Good thing I don't need to teach kids how to whistle!

3. I am a mirror talker like Amber. I have practice conversations in the mirror that I never have with anyone in real life because I'm too chicken.

4. I must straighten the covers on my bed before I can get in and go to sleep. They have to be perfectly even. Unless I'm too tired to care and then I don't even bother.

5. I can't count the number of times I have seen The Sound of Music. I love that movie and I can sing a rousing rendition of "My Favorite Things" (very loud and I suspect off-key on the chorus).

**Okay, now I have to come up with two new ones since the last 5 were copied from my last tag post (with a few minor revisions)!

I just realized that the last time I was tagged it was by a Sarah! You crazy girls!

6. I am a food separatist. I have rules. Certain foods cannot touch other foods on my plate but other foods can. Don't ask me to explain it, I just know.

7. I like the smell of books. As a kid I would open my new text books and smell them first. Is that as creepy as the kid in class who eats paste? There was always one of those kids.

So the big question is, am I quirky or just weird? Quirky sounds cuter. Please say quirky.

Here are all the lucky folks that I'm going to tag next...

Jaime

Tonni

Nikki

Suzi

MeDenne

Missy

Kristen

Random Tired Thoughts Borne of Too Little Sleep and Too Much to Do

When I was a little girl I loved unicorns, faeries, and Princess Leia. I loved to draw fluffy cloud creatures, sing at the top of my lungs and hang upside down on the monkey bars.

What happened to me?

I'm now dependable and solid and responsible. At work I'm organized, energetic and busy.

These are not bad things.

I just miss the girl who used to sing along to the Sound of Music Soundtrack "I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly..." or sing Kermit the Frog's "Rainbow Connection".

This is all sounding hopelessly sappy and saccharine but I don't care. It's my blog and I can be a dork if I want to (remember the 60's song, "It's my party and I can cry if I want to"? It's like that).

So my point? Don't really know except that I wish I were more fun, more creative, more everything... I'm in a tired, work induced funk. Gotta go get me some more contentment and joy from Jesus. Acceptance for who I am and what I'm doing.

Jen

Miscellany

I realize there are some loose ends I need to tie up.

Joel is healing well from his jaw surgery. He has been off pain meds for four days, hooray! The hardest part is certainly the lack of communication. Joel is a talker and it is weird for me to be doing most of the talking lately. Our best bet for clear communication is instant messaging eachother on our laptops (at times like these I love technology). Joel's gestures seem to be incomprehensible to me and writing notes is just too slow!

He has an appointment with his doctor today and we are hoping the bands will come off and he will be able to open his mouth, talk and eat something.

We still have no word on N's possible heart surgery. It is obviously not an emergency and I am putting it out of my mind for the time being. I am just getting on with life and as the saying goes, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Lastly, you may remember this post when I shared my hopes for this summer. Just because I'm sure you are dying to know, no, I never made cheese. Maybe I will tackle that project over Christmas break, or maybe next summer, or... sometime in the distant future. I did make some other stuff though, homemade pizza, strawberry shortcake, hummus, and salsa verde. I am reaching dizzying heights of domesticity.

I did not finish my daughter's scrapbook nor did I start my son's. But, this very weekend I finished 6 more pages in N's book. There's nothing like procrastination is there? The weird thing is that I really like scrap booking but I could never seem to make it a priority this summer.

More stuff on the summer list: swimming lessons, yes, check; losing weight, sadly, no; exercising more, sporadically; increased shopping locally and secondhand, yes; rekindling my relationship with Jesus, a work in progress but definitely getting there. I'm so glad he loves me and is waiting for me no matter how far I drift from him.

So that's it, all the random stuff rolling around in my head. I feel better now that it is out.

Jen

Gratuitous Kid Pics

Just because I think my kids are the cutest in the whole world...Did I mention that they are charm school drop outs?

Fashion Forward Farm Kids

All I can say is that we are lucky they have clothes on at all. Au naturale is the costume of choice.

Jen

There Goes the Neighborhood

So we had to move out to the country to witness our first drug bust. Very weird.

One evening a few weeks ago we heard sirens while we were eating dinner and so of course we dropped everything and ran out to the front porch to take a look.

Well, we don't hear sirens every day out here, what would you do?

We saw a pickup stop abruptly in the middle of the road, then the driver took off running behind a single wide mobile home. Seconds later a police car pulled up, then the officer and his K9 companion (I am really not well versed in cop-speak. What do you call them? K9 unit? Plain old dog? I'm floundering here.) went running full-speed ahead after him. It was difficult to see what happened next because it seemed that every police car and fire engine in the county was obscuring our view. The next thing we saw was the paramedics wheeling a gurney toward the back of the house. Dog and man must have met and I'm assuming it wasn't pretty.

I really don't know any details other than the man was busted for drugs and he was renting the trailer from the nice older gentleman living in the brick house next door.

And that's it for the juicy gossip and cheap thrills. We went back inside and finished our dinner. The end.

So now I'm left with this overwhelming urge to get background checks done on all the neighbors. Can such a thing be done and would it be considered bad form, being new to the neighborhood and all? ;0)

Jen

Musings

School's out for the summer!!! I'm excited but also feeling the pressure of the next three months stretching ahead of me and the fear of wasting it. I didn't get off to the greatest start either. I couldn't accomplish anything more yesterday than the basics: laundry, dishes, feed the kids, repeat... It is more difficult than one might think to switch gears from working part time to having unlimited time at home. Not that I'm complaining but maybe I should have worked out a game plan. I was so focused on surviving the move out to the farm that summer snuck up on me. I'm not without ideas however. My mind is awash with ideas but where do I start?
I know for sure that I want to finish my daughter's baby book (she's five years old) and at least start my son's baby book (he's almost three). I need to enroll my kids in swimming lessons; I can't put that off any longer. But there's so much more I want to do. Lose weight. Get in shape. Eat healthier. Plant an herb garden. Make cheese. Yes, I actually said "make cheese". Is that weird? I just read an article in Mother Earth magazine about how easy it really is and I was rather taken with the idea! I have been fascinated lately with learning to live life simply.
This is a recent development to be sure, likely coming from this transition from suburban life to farm life. It also comes from my increasing awareness over the past few years of how my life impacts the environment, from the clothes I wear to the food I buy that has been premade, packaged and shipped hundreds of miles. I'm not saying that I've somehow perfected this area of my life but I am learning and little by little implementing some new ideas. Ideas like buying locally, buying handmade and buying secondhand. Now for my disclaimer, should those of you who know me personally cry "hypocrite"! This is a major work in progess! It all sounds great but I find that it takes a lot more planning and thought than the way I'm accustomed to living. As intimidating as it seems though, I'm taking the plunge into the world of "green" living and not because it has become oh so trendy. I truly believe that God wants us to care for the planet, people and animals He has given us.
I desire to live more consciously in all areas of my life and not just let life run me over. I want to rekindle my relationship with Jesus, be a better wife, mother, friend, sister, daughter and citizen of this planet. I don't expect to ever be perfect, I'm not trying to set myself up for failure here, but at least I'm willing to try. I just know that it's time to do more than live in survival mode like I have been for the past three years. As wonderful as it was to adopt our daughter and give birth to our son these blessed events brought more challenge and stress than I thought possible. We have been through my daughter's heart and eye surgeries and attachment disorder (technically on the mild end of the spectrum but difficult nonetheless), I went back to work and we have moved twice. That's a lot of change and stress for anybody! It's time now for me to lift my head out of the trenches and see some sky, to live a little.
Today I'm going to start with something that was not on the list. Have fun with my kids. We don't have to do or go or be anything today. We have danced to The Wiggles, drawn pictures, and played games. Today, we are just going to "be".

Jen

I Like Psychobabble...

...and I really like to take personality tests. I took this one after I saw it on Daiquiri's blog and I think it's quite accurate:

I'm always game for learning more about why I am the way I am and why I do or do not feel comfortable with other people. If you like this stuff too I highly recommend this book:

I first read The Color Code after borrowing it from a coworker and then I bought it for myself because I liked it so much. The best thing about it was torturing my poor husband by making him take the test too. It not only explains your own personality type but also what types of people get along well together (and those who don't). I was pleased to find out that Joel and I are a perfect match (I kind of had a hunch that we were ;0)). On the off chance that you are curious I'll reveal my color code...drum roll... Blue (introverted, intensely loyal, needs to be needed, reliable) and Joel is Yellow (fun loving, creative, disorganized, social). We are a good match because he needs my stability and I need to be needed; he makes me laugh and I keep his feet on the ground. He pushes me out of my shell, encourages me to be myself and won't let me quit when I really, really want to. I will love him and be loyal to him till my dying day. We're definitely not perfect and sometimes we drive each other CRAZY but I believe very strongly that God knew what he was doing when he led us to each other. We are "old building and loan pals" (think Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life-one of the best movies ever), we're a team.

Leave a comment and tell me about yourself. Pretty please?

We're Baaaack!

Oh Internet, Oh Internet, How dearly do we love thee!
Oh Internet, Oh Internet, we hail thy connectivity.
It's been so long, since we logged on,
Though we were blue, we made it through,
Oh Internet, Oh Internet, How dearly do we love thee!

(To the tune of "O Christmas Tree")

We are back online as of tonight!
I promise new pictures of the chaos, ASAP.

Jen

The Farmer in the Dell

Hee hee hee hoo hoo hoo ha ha ha!!!!

Many thanks to Erin for a good laugh!

My Life is in Overdrive!

I am a bad blogger! Bad, bad, bad!

Okay, I'm alright now that I got that over with.

I am here. I am alive. I have no time to blog! :(
I do, however, have time to watch American Idol (now you know how I prioritize my life). Did the guys do great last night or what? I was thoroughly entertained and was momentarily transported to another world where there is no work, there are no bills to pay, and no renovation projects. Just me and the boys from AI. ;)
Tonight the girls will perform and they'd better kick some serious butt if they want to compete!

I promise to send pictures of the farm house soon. There's a lot of demolition going on out there and my pyromaniac husband is getting his jollies out of burning up nasty old wall paneling. He is not enjoying chipping away at the old floor tiles in the mud room or pressure washing cat refuse out of the basement. The cats were so desperate to find a place to "go" that they even "went" on the wood shelves that lined the basement walls. So Joel tore them down today and will reuse the wood in the hen house for nesting boxes. Talk about recycling! Do you think the cat stink will bother the chickens?

We discovered this weekend that we have inherited two barn cats and three geese. My children were in raptures over the very hungry kitties who led us repeatedly back to the barn to feed them. Apparently the geese have taken residence at our neighbor Earl's place because he feeds them and he has water on his property. So maybe they are his now? I feel like I am being sucked into some kind of alternate reality like the Twilight Zone or the Land of Oz...
barn cats? and geese? and neighbors named "Earl"? Oh my!

Lastly, Noelle had her 5th birthday on Sunday. She can't possibly be five years old. I am not ready yet (sniff, sigh)! It is amazing though how grown up she is acting this week. It's as if there was some magical moment on her birthday in which she was transformed into a "big girl" overnight.

Signing out,
Jen

Tag, I'm It!

I have been tagged by Sarah to share my weirdness with you. So here I am to wave my freak flag a little higher!

1. I have short, stubby thumbs. What does this mean for me? I find it difficult to shuffle cards, play video games and I will never win a thumb war.

2. I cannot whistle. Hard as I try, it is just not going to happen for me.

3. I am a mirror talker like Amber (okay, I got the link thingy to work for Sarah but it's not giving Amber any love http://skywardjourney.wordpress.com/). I have practice conversations in the mirror that I never have with anyone in real life. Weird?

4. I must straighten the covers on my bed before I can get in and go to sleep. They have to be perfectly even. A tad OCD perhaps?

5. I can't count the number of times I have seen The Sound of Music. I love that movie and I can sing a rousing rendition of "My Favorite Things" (very loud and I suspect off-key on the chorus).
There you have it! So, time to play! Tag you're it: Becky, Daiquiri, Nikki (these girls are linked over on my sidebar, I'm tired of fighting with my stupid link button), my husband (he already said no but I think he'll come around), and hmmm, I'm running out of people who actually read my blog for sure.... How about anyone else who wants to participate! Anyone? Anyone?
Feel free to leave a comment (hint, hint)! :0)

Jen