Inside My Home: My Master Bedroom and Bathroom, Laundry Room, and Garage

Hey y'all,

Oh my gosh, I actually got the master end of the house clean enough to take pictures!

Without further adieu, let me begin what will be the final "Inside My Home" post for the time being:

Upon walking in the door. The kitchen would be to your right,
the laundry room to your left, and the door to the garage behind you.

That door leads into the master bathroom.
Yes, that is a built-in book shelf. 

Ok, the open door goes to the hall/kitchen/garage/laundry room.
The door with the window and blinds goes to the back porch. (I know. It's nice.)
The third door is my closet. 

Not an ideal set-up, obviously; we're still working out some of the kinks.
Notice the standing fan because, it's the South, ladies and gentlemen. 

That door to the left of the dresser is Jacob's closet. No, he can't
open it all the way. I said kinks, remember?
Also, that bookshelf/cabinet combo was the first bookshelf we ever owned.
*sniff sniff* A gas fireplace will eventually go where it stands in our bedroom now.
We've got the hookups, just no actual fireplace.

You guys like my "bathroom scrubbing" apron? 

Tada!! The reason my room is so clean: I relocated the mess.
Just kidding. This walk-in to the left of the bathroom always looks
like this. It is it's own mess entirely.

There was a door here, separating the toilet and shower room from the sink room; but it made the already crampy bathroom feel even smaller, so Jacob and I took it off. Someday I dream of taking down all the sectioning walls and making it one big space with a separate tub and shower. Ahhhhh.
(There's also a door closing off that walk-in mess, but I'm trying to be real with you guys.)

This is that "hallway" right outside the master bedroom door.
This is the view you would have from the kitchen. There is a
pocket sliding door to section off this hallway and it's rooms
from the kitchen, which is nice.
To the left would be our two-car garage...

....tada! And we'll just breeze through the mess that is our garage because, really, who even has the time for that??

I try to think of it as an organized chaos.
My husband just laughs at me or covers his face with his hands.

This is officially my "tack and feed" area. lol My two saddles are stacked together here (I have one western and one English). Jacob's saddle is on a stand in the horse trailer with all of our brushes and things. 

These are some frames I have hanging in that "master hallway".
I wanted to them to you because they are special to me.
The top is Katie's first ever trip to the beach when we camped with her
in Pensacola when she was roughly 6 months old and I was 3 months
pregnant with Mason.
Back before we didn't have kids and therefore not a real care in the world
(ha ha) we used to just load a duffel bag in the Mustang and drive down to
the coast for a night or a weekend. The bottom frame holds pictures from 2
of those trips (Orange Beach, AL, and Long Beach, MS) and the middle one
is from the West Coast on an island off the coast of Washington.
Fun fact: Jacob and I broke up after that trip to WA three Octobers ago.

So that's my master area/laundry room/garage. Some parts are nice to look at, others not so much (here's looking at you, spare closet). 

I'm glad you "came over" and took the tour so I could have a chance to show off the wonderful home I have been so blessed with. You are always welcome. 

Now enjoy some final pictures of what's been going on at our house this week.

Starting driving lessons early while we were working on vehicle maintenance over the weekend.

She told me we were taking hay to the horses. 

You have such a nice smile, my wonderful girl.

I got to go on a ride with my guy!

He loves riding (and selfies). <3 

And today we learned that trail riding is life to this girl. It was like riding a completely different horse the moment her hooves touched our first real trail ride!

The Last Week Or So (and It's More Pictures Than Post)

Hey y'all,

September 22nd is officially the first day of fall; yet down here in the South, the weather will declare otherwise until as late as November some years.
Oh, we will decorate with all of the pinecones, acorns, and fall leaves; and we will light those orange, red, and russet-colored scented candles as soon as the kids are back in school. Those of us that are more stubborn will even break out the flannels and black leggings complete with suede booties, though we will be drowning in the humidity and dying in the heat.
Southerners await the first real day of autumn like we await Christmas morning. Except there's an added level of mystery because we have no idea when that first crisp fall morning will be.

I am ecstatic to inform you that that first glorious fall morning greeted us here in the South this very morning, Thursday, October 11, 2018. Mid-50's temperatures while sipping my cup of coffee over my book on the back porch this morning, watching the sun rise; and we are peaking in the mid-70's this afternoon. Hallelujah, praise the Lord for the change of the seasons and the relief from an oppressive summer! (Clearly this was written with the best of intentions a couple of days ago. #momlife)

The kids and I took full advantage of such wonderful weather. We ran errands around town and finished the morning outing with a romp at the park down the street.

Another reason I haven't been posting as much: a new computer.
I discovered a brand new HP touch screen laptop complete with Windows 10 in the "electricals cabinet" when I was looking for a cord to a television. I haven't had a newer computer since my college Asus I received upon graduating highschool -- and that didn't last a year due to moving furniture upstairs during my freshman summer.
I went computerless my sophomore year (don't even ask me how I did it) and then I received my grandmother's hand-me-down, then 8 year old HP giant laptop. The disc drive falls out, some of the keys are missing, most of them don't work (I use a bluetooth keyboard my husband bought for other purposes), it takes 3 years to load a web browser, and sometimes it crashes.

So imagine the feeling I had upon finding my father-in-law's unwanted brand new laptop. TOUCH SCREEN, SMALL, NEW, AND WINDOWS 10.

Now imagine how much I'm having to relearn, going from Windows Vista to Windows 10 and you're beginning to realize why I haven't been blogging this week.
Also, I upload a lot of pictures to keep you in the loop, and I'm slowly transferring all of our memories from the Dinosaur to discs -- but the disc drive falls out.... yeahhhhh It's slow going, to say the least.

Also: we went to the zoo! (Pictures to come in another post. sorry.) Our first time to the one in Hattiesburg (my kids' first time to a zoo, period). It's a smaller zoo about an hour's drive from home; but well done and perfect for my kids! They were disappointed at the lack of elephants (as an Auburn fan, we're going to have to talk about the obsession with elephants... this just will not do); but they loved all the different kinds of monkeys and birds that were featured! The sloths were a big hit, as were the zebras we saw while riding the train around the perimeter of the zoo.
We stopped in the gift shop at the end because zoos and aquariums have always been a thing Jacob and I do and we always get a memento. Within 5 seconds, Katie had picked out a fluffy pink flamingo ("Flamingo and John! Sarah and Duck!") and Mason had snagged an elephant while I was looking at yo-yos and refrigerator magnets.
We went with Marmie (my mom) and Aunt Caroline(12) and Uncle Micah(8); we shall soon visit again with Dada -- especially before Katie's next birthday, as she gets in free until she's 2.

Wrap up (so I can go ride horses in this wonderful weather just as soon as I go talk to my almost-2-year-old about the necessity of nap time): I got a new computer, the kids are living the life, we went to the zoo, AND IT'S FINALLY FEELING LIKE FALL IN THE SOUTH. That is all.

My hair is finally long enough for curls!

A Baby Video Montage

Hey y'all,

Before we get to the real reason you clicked on this post (videos of the kids), I want to share with you a little snippet that I found in my journal. 

I wrote this around this time last year -- October 10th, to be exact. The entries for the 3rd and the 4th were about a difficult season Jacob and I were going through financially at the time. There are notes on learning contentment and how to lean on God's promises, side by side with a pregnancy weight update where I weighed only 150 lbs compared to my 165 lbs the year before with Katie; and Mason was a bigger baby. We were definitely in lean times; but the Lord provided then, just as He does now. 

I was pregnant for the second year in a row, and struggling with the conviction of staying home with my kids vs doing what I could to help lessen the stress we were facing financially. My biggest fear was that if I continued working, would I be less of a Mom? I remember feeling so alone and afraid. 

God broke through the dark clouds of depression and fear that threatened to overwhelm me. I was reading through the Gospels at the time and was struck by how much of Jesus' ministry was about tending to our physical woes and worries. I definitely was in a lot of physical pain and stress at 35 weeks pregnant; and, as any mother-to-be, I was worried about the healthiness of my unborn child. 

I was struck by Jesus' compassion on us as physical humans, and I remember finally opening up to Him about my pains and my fears -- and what a relief it was! 

"Also, while I was praying, it dawned on me that God did not set my feet on the path of mommyhood to abandon me with a 'well, good luck -- see you on the other side.' He intends to walk hand-in-hand with me the entire journey -- whatever that journey includes. How encouraging and comforting that is to know." -- even now, a year later.

Working on Responsiveness with Skye

Hey y'all,

Just in case my previous post made my life look too easy, take a look at my morning so far:

Jacob's phone went off and he got called into work at 3am. This was after my usual night of waking up with vivid dreams and whatnot throughout the night already. I'm having a lot of insomnia issues lately for whatever reason.
Come 4:00 I was just beginning to doze off again when Mason started fussing. He's having some sleep issues, too, but they've been mostly over naps during the day. I miraculously got him taken care of and back off to dreamland by 4:30.
My alarm went off at 6 to go out for our usual work with the horses. Since Jacob was gone and my morning was already turning out to be so long, it was super tempting to roll over and give it up for the morning; but after watching Skye on our group ride on Saturday afternoon, I didn't want to go too many days without taking her out for a schooling session. So instead of rolling over, I rolled out of bed and tugged on my jeans and went out into the pre-dawn morning.
Skye and I rode for roughly 30 minutes and after getting everybody in the pasture settled again (the whole thing took roughly an hour), I came in for a shower, some caffeinated tea, and to face the real music of the morning: my kitchen's a complete mess, my laundry would be piled high if it wasn't all over the place, you can't walk through my living room, and I'm constantly shaking cheerios or chunks of mud off my feet from the floor.
Got my work cut out for me today for sure.

In fact, there's Mason crying now, just before 8am.

Monday mornings such as these require a little extra caffeine. 

It's now 10:00. Breakfast has been served and the kitchen cleaned up. The floors have been swept for the most part and the laundry kicked off. The animals have been fed and I've just spent about a half hour reading stories, putting together puzzles, and playing ball and Candy Land. All of that was full of yawns on my part, so I've decided it's time for a caffeine break. I'm glad I made a whole pot of that tea.

Katie is kind of in one of her moods this morning. She's finding every reason to shove her brother or throw a tantrum. Lord, grant me patience.
So let me focus on a positive bit before they decide they're actually not happy entertaining themselves with the piano. Let's take a look at how my first real ride on Skye went.

That's clearly not me. This was taken on Jacob's first ride on her here at Cedar Creek last week.

I don't have any pictures of the actual ride like I would normally for Joey because Skye is young and I don't know her all that well yet, so I tried to stay focused while schooling her this morning.
I say "schooling" because that's really what it was; after having an 8 month long "summer break", this filly is back in learning mode. Skye was basically sacked out well, and then left to pasture for most of this year until we went to take a look at her.

On Friday I put her on the lunge line for probably the first time ever in her life. I had a theory that she had only been worked with on the lefthand side, which is a common problem, but lungeing her solidified my theory. She worked almost like a dream going one way; and then when I asked her to change directions, she had no idea what I was talking about.
Through this first real session with her, I discovered that when it comes to fight or flight, Skye is a fighter. Because she is a young thing and underdeveloped, she did not want to yield her hind end to me and has a little attitude. I found out -- lining up perfectly with another theory I had -- that she will assert herself if you don't. Though she is not necessarily a dangerous bully, it could reach that point very quickly if not dealt with. All of this is not unexpected for her age and level of handling; and I noticed all of these things when we first met her.
Skye is one of those horses who will plod around on a trail with a group all day long. You could put anyone on her and she will not spook or run away for anything. One of her biggest issues is that she won't move her legs faster than a drag for anything -- unless she sees a whip or a stick of some kind.

Now you're getting an idea of where my trouble lies.

All of these points became that much more obvious when Jacob and I took the horses on a short trail ride Saturday afternoon. We rode to a clearing on the property and then took them on their separate circuits from there.
Joey, whom I'd expected to be the worst of the group, rode wonderfully. He must have not enjoyed turning circles the way we had to on our last ride (lol).
But as I watched Jacob and Skye, my heart sank. She was "walking all over him" by not even moving.
I would like to note here that my husband has very little experience working with horses and riding -- almost none. But I was so proud of how he attempted to manage the situation.
That being said, he had hardly any help in the way of aids. Skye would not move unless Joey was moving near her. So Joey and I got some great circle work in working away from the filly, while Jacob got to think about all that stuff like "heels down" and no "piano hands" and "using leg effectively" since the pair hardly moved more than ten steps.

Discussing with my husband afterward, he was frustrated but tried to focus on the good points; like the fact he was able to work on keeping her away from Joey, and continue her backing training -- which is something we've been working on the ground with her this week. It seems Skye was only asked to go forward, never back.
I tentatively offered to ride her if he wanted, just to be able to better diagnose the situation. He said of course; but we never agreed when.

Then he got the work call at 3 this morning and that settled the issue: I would be the one to work Skye this morning; and I knew exactly what we would do.

#nosy

Because she is so little and underdeveloped, I don't want to stress Skye too much physically; so making sure she gets a positive lesson in while not stressing her is a balancing act. She makes it easy, though. This little filly is such an avid learner and willing to comply if I only make it clear to her what I want from her.
We adjusted stirrups because I'm much shorter than my hubby, and we climbed aboard to work on momentum and being responsive to clear aids at 6 this morning.

Here I want to state that I'm a helmet person. I don't always wear one like I should; but I always wear one when I have the slightest misgiving about what kind of ride we might have, and that includes on Joey. I'll be wearing one when I work Skye, and probably on most rides with Joey now that I have him back. I've taken some bad falls off of him in the past and have been glad to have it when I did. Mostly, I'm simply struck by my responsibility to set a good example for my kids. That'll get me every time.

This is post-ride. She always looks more exhausted than she is; she hardly broke a sweat.

I also rode with a crop (a short riding whip) because I already knew she would not listen to any kind of leg aid, even if you kicked the mess out of her. We were going to nip this issue in the bud. My only drawback was going to be if she saw it. If Skye sees the whip, she will move forward just fine. But I want her to be paying attention to my other aids, I don't want to have to carry a crop every time I ride her -- or when somebody else rides her. I also don't need this issue to escalate to where she is moving into a flat-out gallop just because she sees me holding a stick.
Challenge accepted.
Of course, we had already had opportunity working through this problem when she got put on the lunge line. She was very wary of the long lunge whip I was using to encourage forward momentum. I never touched her with it, and I hardly had to flick it; but she was eyeballing it for the first half of our session. That was a good opportunity for her to understand that I was not out to get her with a stick. That I was not going to be malicious toward her. That if she gave to me, I would give to her.

I kept the crop on the downlow while we mounted and then during our ride, keeping it in line with my arm so Skye wouldn't notice it. The first time I asked her to bump up to a trot, I asked her verbally and with some leg. She immediately did not even try to respond, so I surprised her with a good pop.
After that, I maybe had to use the crop twice more? I kept it out of sight and always asked with my voice and my leg before telling her with a tap of the crop.
At the end of 30 minutes, she was responding 100% better to leg and voice cues, the crop was no longer needed, she was backing at the slightest shift of my weight, and she was walking well -- not dragging.
Joey called a few times to inquire where I'd taken her; but unlike Saturday afternoon, she was 100% focused on the job at hand and did not respond to him.

I'm really excited at this filly's potential.

That was a nice break. Now I'm off to serve snacks and change diapers and switch laundry.