Our Nature Playscape!

Last month I had all of these great ideas for a backyard nature playscape, except bills got in the way and it had to wait. It was kind of a good thing, though, because the temps shot back up to the upper 90s and it was way too hot to do anything. This week, however, is absolutely beautiful outside, so we started on our nature playscape today.

On the way to take Cole to school, I noticed a ton of freshly cut down trees in this farmer's land and left a note on his door to call me if he wanted to get rid of any of the wood. By 2:00 no one had called, so the kids and I got into the car with a mission to find anything from Home Depot that would work for our nature playscape. Just one block over, before we even left the neighborhood, there was a freshly cut down tree sitting on the curb waiting to go to recycling! Eeeeee! I pulled a U-y, popped the trunk and loaded up everything it would hold. Then after we unloaded it, we went back for a second load.

Here is what our playscape looks like after setting the log perimeter. I even found a Cole-sized stump for him to sit on. Tomorrow we add pea gravel and see how far we get.

showing Dad the work we did today

taking a picture for mom - it was really bright outside, haha

Things to do for the playscape:

• Hit up thrift stores for silverware, dishes, pans, etc for kitchen area
• Find a few sets of wind chimes and other musical instruments for the music tree
•  Find a cabinet/table of some sort to put the old sink in for the kitchen area
• Find an old king-sized sheet for the fabric tent and put it up using white rope and old fence posts to hold down the blanket from getting wind-blown

Here are some of the ideas of what Cole and I like:

a music tree

a kitchen complete with spots for silverware, pans, & dishes

Cole wants a slide, too.

And a tent. A tent is a must.

Bathtime: A Poem

The kids giggle in the bath,

the sounds of running water soothing

today's headache

and I have become my mother,

sitting in the next room

smoking cheap cigarettes

in my few seconds of free time

between taking care of babies

and taking care of business.

I never planned to have kids.

It just happened,

like everything 'just happens,'

and here we are almost four years later

with two pairs of blue eyes staring up at me

to be their guide, their light, their strength,

their mother.

*

For Emma, the best dog ever

I am beyond sad to write this but it was inevitable in its coming. We have to put Emma dog down this weekend. :(

Emma is our Rhodesian Ridgeback/Boxer mix that we have had for about 7 years. She was one of our first pets after Kev and I got married. We were going to have dogs instead of children; instead we ended up with two of both. She has been with our kids since the day they were born and loves all of our friends. She has been the best dog I ever could have had in my life.

Unfortunately, she got sick a few months ago and her weakened immune system caused genetic mange to show up for the first time in her life with us. After two months of intense treatment, she has continued to get worse. The hair is missing from her legs, belly, most of her face, neck, top of her head, and half of her tail. She has welts on her body from the mites that bleed when she scratches at them, which is most of the time. Her feet are covered in blisters, making it painful to walk. She sleeps most of the time and has started to curl up in small places, which is difficult for a 100 lbs of dog to do. She doesn't want to play anymore and isn't her happy self. It's breaking my heart to watch her live like this.

This morning as I patted down her sores, I told Emma how much we loved her and through my tears, I saw her look up at me with gratefulness in her eyes as I explained that we were going to give her peace. She understands. I wish I could.

So here's to Emma, in her better days. We will love you and miss you always.

at the dog park with baby Cole

picking up Cole from daycare

a boy and his dog

our beautiful Emma girl

Emma loves Bunz

playing outside

such a sweetie

We'll miss you Emma. May you find peace, a truck to ride in, and plenty of kids to play with...

Ink on the Brain

Tonight my hubby is getting his pirate ship piece finished by our good friend Derrick. He brought along his girlfriend Whitney, who is the most adorable tatted, pierced hairstylist. We are watching Project Runway while they tattoo in the very freshly, thoroughly sanitized kitchen area.

He is working on this:

This is his second session and i haven't gotten anything. It's hard to keep from getting tattooed when your friend makes house calls!

Anyway, these are the ideas I have for my future ink..

pirate lantern for the back of my left arm to make a 3/4 sleeve starting from my upper shoulder/back. Vintage compass on top of shoulder will have a chain to wrap down around the anchor on my back to tie into my pirate girl piece... add pirate lantern to blend.

i want a shiny little silver pistol and a different style ribbon. right thigh

i'd love a version of this that is smaller... i already have ink on both shoulders and these keys stretch too far up. they're also too big compared to the lock.

love the ribbons and this look for a chest piece. don't like the look of the lock so much or the ends of the keys.

golden edge

golden edge by stacywill featuring leopard print kitten heels

Drastic Hair Change

New hair! Funky, edgy, cool and easy to style any way I want to. It's shorter on one side than the other and the front part is long. The back is cut up high enough so you can see the star on the back of my neck. It matches my funky unique personality and all of my friends are loving it, as am I.

Here is what my hair has looked like in the past, so this is a drastic change for me.

this is my favorite pixie cut

the straight, plain boring hair

trying to spice up the plain, boring growing-out hair

What do you think, my friends?

Therapy.

"Shake It Out"

Regrets collect like old friends
Here to relive your darkest moments
I can see no way, I can see no way
And all of the ghouls come out to play

And every demon wants his pound of flesh
But I like to keep some things to myself
I like to keep my issues drawn
It's always darkest before the dawn

And I've been a fool and I've been blind
I can never leave the past behind
I can see no way, I can see no way
I'm always dragging that horse around

Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound
Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground
So I like to keep my issues drawn
But it's always darkest before the dawn

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh whoa

And I am done with my graceless heart
So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart
'Cause I like to keep my issues drawn
It's always darkest before the dawn

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh whoa

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
And given half the chance would I take any of it back
It's a fine romance but it's left me so undone
It's always darkest before the dawn

Oh whoa, oh whoa...

And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't
So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road
And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope
It's a shot in the dark aimed right at my throat
'Cause looking for heaven, found the devil in me
Looking for heaven, found the devil in me
Well what the hell I'm gonna let it happen to me, yeah

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh whoa

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh whoa

More Than Words

It is a very silent day today... perhaps because the kids are both sick, or that Stella is napping so it's especially quiet.. but overall, I haven't said much. So today's blog will be things that say more than I can with words. I'll let the images speak for themselves.

Guest Blogger: What does it take to be a Tattooed Hippie Pirate Momma?

When I first came across the Tattooed Hippie Pirate Mommas Meetup page, I immediately had to join the group. The name resonated with so much truth and at the same time satire that I was immediately drawn to its originality. The combined words display such richness, such obvious freedom of choice, that it just smacked with joie de vivre, something I am desperate to hang on to as I endure the craziness of kids, but also adults too. So... I immediately told the group’s creator, our Fearless Leader, that she needed to copyright the title right away, or- in true pirate fashion- I would. Fortunately, she listened.

I’m so glad she did, not because I would have ever really stolen the name (borrowed perhaps...) but because it’s original, and I’ve always been drawn to originality and I wasn’t afraid to tell her so the very first time I talked to her. I am proud to be a part of something so unique and new as I am not normally an early adopter. But I’m glad I spoke up at that first meetup because that first conversation lead to another, and then another, and another. Now I consider myself to be a true THPM but one would never know this just by looking at me. You see, at first glance, it doesn’t appear that I have what it takes to be a Tattooed Hippie Pirate Momma.

So why am I not an obvious THPM candidate? Well, not to be puzzlingly pedantic but I think the title says it all... and then again, it doesn’t.

Allow me to explain– like a great recipe whose ingredient list is the key to making something magical, THPM is, to me, greater than the sum of its parts. When considering the bigger picture, the obviousness of each ingredient is somehow lost on me.

So what does it take? Well, let’s start at the top...

Do you have to be Tattooed? Well... not that I’ve done a thorough check... but, no ink isn’t essential. It does help to be decorated and it is definitely a common bond between most of the members, but you don’t have to have any permanent pictures. I don’t have a one. Ink free... and yet I’m a member.

Okay. How about a Hippie? Do you have to have hemp headbands? Hardly. Although I have a healthy bohemian streak hidden away, I’m about as non-beatnik as they come. One look at me says, “Boring business casual,” leading most to believe my corn-fed midwestern look is embedded on my bones. By all appearances, I am as far from a beret-wearing, bongo drum-playing, weird cigarette-smoking, poetry-spouting hipster as you can get.

Perhaps it’s the Pirate part that’s critical? Well to any parent, “pirate” connotes much more than a  high-powered boat off the coast of Africa gunning for an oil rig 50 times its size. To those of us who brave the rough seas of life with car seats in tow, who know Dora’s pirates are pigs and that Patchy hates traffic as much as we do- a pirate is the personification of a non-conformist; a bold and brash personality, someone who takes control of their own destiny. A pirate is a symbol, not really a rogue cutthroat only in it for the money. If that were the case, we’d be the worst pirates in history as there are no treasure chests or buried booty in most of our lives but quite the opposite. We rarely get to sail away anywhere without having to pack
wipes and juice boxes first.

So yeah, the wildest, weirdest word in the group’s title speaks the most truth about our charter. In a way you do have to be a Pirate to join this group, albeit of the silly variety. Someone who distinctively, proudly goes against the grain and even embraces stains (or at least doesn’t sweat them). Deliberate provocateurs willing to stand against the tide of the perfect plastic parents proudly printed in the pulp of published periodicals.

But what about the most obvious word... Momma? This seems a no-brainer as THPM is essentially a playgroup. And again, this is a common bond among most of the members. In actuality, this is the word with which I take the most umbrage as it is furthest from the truth, implying a specificity which the other three words in the title don’t.

So no... you don’t even have to be a Momma to be part of this group. Although I like to joke that I’m “the ugliest mother on the block...”

(wait for it)...

I’m actually a Papa.

I’m a non-conformist in almost every way and proudly always have been. It comes naturally and I’ll bet it’s the same with every non-conformist member of our group. Every Tattooed Hippie Pirate Momma flies the Jolly Roger and knows how to hold a sharp knife between the teeth to boot, all while hoisting the main sail with one hand and cradling a sleeping baby with the other... humming a pirate lullaby... on a rocking ship... with a slick deck... in a storm... dodging cannon fire.

What does it take to be a Tattooed Hippie Pirate Momma? Well, the tattooed hippie pirate part is something with which only non-conformists are born. The Momma part- well, that’s born in you when your children are.

- Bart

Five Things Friday

Five Things Friday: Things That Piss Me Off

1. I hate, hate, hate Idillionaire. I mean, who is this person who quotes everyone else and makes people think they're a fucking genius? Do you know what you find if you Google Idillionaire? A million quotes by other people. "Prolific writer and Internet tycoon," her Twitter account says. Plagiarizing much, Idili? I don't care how much you want to send positivity into other people's lives.. I'm tired of seeing your damn quotes on my friends' Facebook feeds.
2.  What's up with my tattooed friends becoming web cam models? All of a sudden they disappear from everywhere and naked pictures pop up on my husband's favorite armpit-of-the-Internet site? What in the world would make you desperate enough to be a web cam girl as a mother? Don't you think your children will see these pictures later on?
3. Don't ever tell me that you dislike another one of my friends, or that you'd rather not be at a meetup with her or you'd rather lock her in a closet than be around her. That straight up makes you sound like a jealous, catty, immature bitch, and that kind of person is a total turnoff.
4. Religious arguments. You believe what you want to, she'll believe what she wants to, and I'll believe what I want to... but I'm not going to say it out loud or make it a topic of conversation because it starts arguments and comments get thrown around that hurt people's feelings. I firmly believe politics and religion should never be discussed amongst friends.

Okay, I could only think of four things that piss me off this week. At least that I'm passionate about talking about.

..............Tonight I almost blew up my kitchen. I could have killed or seriously injured my children because of a stupid mistake. Since I had a lot of writing to do, I went to the kitchen to turn on the tea pot to make some coffee in the French press. The tea pot is always on the small back burner, but this time it was on the front, and I turned on the wrong burner.
That normally wouldn't be a problem, but tonight there happened to be a glass casserole dish on that back burner, which made the glass dish explode all over the kitchen. I am so thankful my kids weren't playing nearby. I was writing upstairs when Cole came running to tell me something happened in the kitchen, but I didn't understand him until Kevin came in and explained.
Talk about crying like a baby... I cried so much I had to get it under control because Cole gets uncomfortable when I cry. I am thanking my lucky stars tonight.