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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Tuna For Lunch

Mama's Kiddo Approved Tuna Fish 

2 cans tuna fish (enough tuna for Mama AND leftovers is a bonus!)
Mayo
Mustard
Onion
2-3 tiny dill pickles
Cheddar cheese (extra sharp in the Hauck home)
Pepper
Mixed-up salt
Garlic powder

Mix your tuna, mayo and mustard all together. There are no exact measurements. Add more mayo if you like it wetter, less if you like it drier. I like mine with mustard, some people don't. Cut up your tiny dills and onion (you only need a small amount) into small pieces and toss those in. I hate pickles, but the cut up tiny dills are delicious in the tuna and I find taste great! Sometimes I cut up grapes into small pieces and put that in the tuna as well. It's tasty! I like to grate cheddar cheese right into the tuna mixture. It puts that extra delicious somethin' somethin'. Dash on some pepper, mixed-up salt, and garlic powder and mix it all up.


Anthony and Molly love this tuna fish and I usually add a side or two of fruit to go along with it. Lunch success! See? :)


With love,
Mama Hauck


Monday, August 29, 2011

Hard Working Haucks

 
We went to the fair.
YAY!


We had a good time.
WOO!!


And then we slaved away.
Womp womp womp.

We surprised the kids with a trip to the town fair. It was so incredibly hot out, so we weren't there for an excessive amount of time. Just long enough to catch a little magic show, eat some fair food, and see all the animals. I really wish I would have brought my camera with me. It's so fun watching Anthony and Molly look at the animals. Molly had a freaken ball and loved the goats and chickens. She kept running from one animal to the next exclaiming, "Wow! Look!" all excitedly. It's nice that a few of the 4-H kids are sweet and let us pet their animals. :)

We spent the remainder of the day loading and unloading hay. We're fortunate that our neighbor down the way does hay and that's where we buy it from so we don't have to drive far at all. We also buy our farm fresh eggs from them as well as whatever is in season in their large garden. We've gotten squash, zucchini, lettuce, and most recently onions and corn. Corn on the cob and chicken for dinner tonight! Doing that hay was exhausting work. It was about 95* out too. I've never sweat so much in my life! Ugh. We got two truck loads, but will wind up getting another one here soon. It's awesome that we have lots of room for hay storage in the tack room.

Speaking of tack room, the structure is complete except for two boards missing on the side (which you can see in the photos). Hopefully we will be getting the remaining wood sometime this week so we can finish up! I should be getting my tack hooks in this week as well so I can hang up my tack....that's the fun part! :) Once that is done, it's all the "finishing touches" like a shelf for a radio, shelves for fencing tool storage, eventually power (come fall/winter time), etc. 

Sunday was another loooooong day of work. We did a general clean up of the area....like trash, tools, and tons of scrap wood. Spent hours combing what will be the arena for rocks and getting out as many of them as we could. We brought sand in to put on the stall floor. Put up a gate. Our trusty neighbor Leonard came over with his tractor and did some dirt moving and ground leveling for us in and around the barn. And to cap off the work day, Sammy and I took down fencing, moved it, and then put it back up. Phew!! Just a few more things and Nik will be in that barn. Hopefully within 2 weeks or so!

Just relaxing with the kiddos today after that busy weekend.

With love,
Mama Hauck

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Porch Dweller

Check out this BIG fella......


He lives up on the ceiling of my front porch. As long as he stays there and doesn't venture inside, I'm fine. We had one living on our porch last August too. The kids like looking at him, it's like National Geographic all up on the Hauck Homestead. :)

With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Return Of A Mad Woman

I'm torn between screaming at the top of my lungs and bawling my eyes out. 

I
HATE
MICE

A lot. I whole heartily loathe them. The only other thing I hate more than mice are fleas.

You may or may not recall my battle with mice in my home last summer/fall time. Snap traps and sticky traps smeared with peanut butter.....evil chuckles in the middle of the night when I heard a trap go off or the "flap flap flap" of a mouse trying to get off the sticky trap.....torn to shreds dishcloths.....the repetitive cloroxing of my counter tops and cleaning of drawers.....getting two kitties to be "mousers"..... 

Remember this face from last year? 


He's dead.

I became suspicious this time 'round when I saw a few nibbles taken out of one of the apricots on the kitchen counter. I threw it away, refusing to think the unthinkable. The next morning the remaining apricot had nibbles taken out of it. I threw it away, tears welling. I walked back towards the kitchen sink to wash my hands when I heard it. The noise. The unmistakable noise. A mouse chewing. Chewing, chewing, chewing. I frantically tore open the drawer where we use to keep the towels (but now keep the spices) knowing that I would find mouse poop. 

*#@&*%*!(#$@

Please, I beg you, STAY OUT OF MY LIFE! You bring me much stress and it will not end well for you.

*Expanding spray foam has been broken out to seal off even the tiniest of holes I can find....anywhere.
*Mouse traps have been slathered with peanut butter and strategically placed.
*Cats have received a pep talk and threat of life if they do not perform their duties.
*Under the house has been inspected (ugh, NOT fun) by Sam and measures taken to rid mice and other vermin. 
*An exterminator type person will be called out before winter to take a gander and give suggestions.

I made my first kill this morning. AND I AM NOT SORRY AT ALL. There will be more kills made until I rid my house of them once again.


With love (but not to mice),
Mama Hauck

Monday, August 22, 2011

Pre What?

Sending Anthony off to preschool will probably make me cry (I'm a big baby like that, shut up!). It's probably going to make Anthony cry too. That's why this topic has been difficult for he (and I) to deal with. Is it really time to send him off to preschool? Really? REALLY??

I feel ill equipped to deal with this preschool business. 

Pregnancy, labor, and birth? Been there, done that. Twice. Mastered. 
New born, baby, and toddler stages? Self proclaimed professional. 
Preschool? *Crickets chirping*

First it was the denial that it was indeed time to start looking into preschool. Preschool? What's that? Is that the place you send your angelic child off to and they return home to you with a head cold, chickenpox, paint and glue on their brand new shirt, and the bad attitude and boogers they picked up from their naughty classmates? No thank you. I didn't go to preschool and look at me! I'm smart and pretty dang ok. Awesome if you ask me. 

*sigh*

Once I got over my negative preschool attitude the search began. Then the rejection from the first place. Many curse words followed. Then MONTHS of phone tag with the teacher from the second place (see, preschool IS dumb!). Finally paper work, deposit.....we were accepted. Then it was what days? What times? How many of my arms and legs do I owe you!? When's open house? When does he start? When does school end? Ok, now that we got all that figured out, I change my mind. Switch to a different class. This means different days, same time, less money. 

Finalized. Signed in blood. Not really. 

Anthony will be starting preschool at Learning Ladder Preschool at the Methodist church in town. He'll go Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:30am. YAY!

GREAT!......Except this will be harder than I thought. Anthony IS NOT excited about this AT ALL. The mere thought of him going to school and leaving me has him in tears. My children are shy and sensitive. We live out in the boonies and they are around me 24/7 with very few playmates. I can't expect them to be as chill and outgoing as other kids who have had more interaction by living in town 2 feet from 100 other neighbor kids. I've got a lot of sweet talking ahead of me. I've pointed out the school and playground and talked about how much fun he'll have with other kids and snack time and craft time and blablabla. I know the first day or so will be hard on him, but I'm certain he'll love it and have a grand time....eventually. He needs it. But because I know he's unhappy about the whole thing and will cry when I take him, I've got to suck up my own tears and be strong for him so he doesn't see me getting all upset and think he REALLY does have a reason to be upset.

LOL

Ugh. 9 in the morning. I have two children to feed breakfast and get ready in a timely manner (that is NOT easy). A horse to trek out to to feed. From start to finish I take an hour to get ready (not bad, ehh?). We'll have to leave by 8:35. What time does this circus have to start in the morning just so I can get Anthony there on time? Better be up with Sam in the morning on preschool days. Ugh.

Then there's the drive. 20-25 minutes there, 20-25 minutes back. 2x a week. It's only 9-11:30. Do I drive him there, drive home for an hour and a half, then drive back? That's a lot of gas and a lot of money. Or do I stick around in town and find something to do? Have you seen my town? What would Mols and I do? The park? Ok, good idea....until winter. I might have to crash a few friends' homes to kill time. They might get annoyed with me.

Who thought preschool would be a life altering event.....for Anthony and me. :)

Open house, September 7th! First day of class, September 13th! 

With love,
Mama Hauck


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Dear Friend,


When all the world casts a shadow over you
Call on me
Together we will shake off the dark

Love,
Me 

Friday, August 19, 2011

Outside Projects/Barn update


Sammy and I created a rock border between the grass and gravel of our driveway. For my birthday I had gotten plants for in front of the house. They don't look like much now, I know, but they will eventually be big and beautiful with time.....if I can keep the damn pesky deer away from them! Sam found two big 'ol wagon wheels on the side of the road and we placed them next to our two large wooden planters. We didn't have the money to get plants for the planters, so we just filled them up with dirt and I put my pretty driftwood and rocks from the coast in them.


Now for the lean-to turned barn! We originally planned for it to be a simple 3 sided lean-to (with the front being open) with an overhang off the side for hay storage. But with more thinking and planning and budgeting, our lean-to has turned into a barn, complete with closed off tack room. YAY! There is still a lot to do, but we have gotten SO MUCH done. Thank goodness for my neighbor Leonard. If not for him helping Sam, we'd still have nothing but a shack frame. It's so much work to do on your own, especially after working a full day at work, and I can only help Sam so much. So we are thankful we have someone like Leonard willing to help out! As you can see the left side is the tack room/hay storage.  We just have to finish the left side wall and door of the tack room. The actual stall is on the right. There will be a door in the back we still have to put in and half the front of the stall will have a wall as well. Slowly but surely we are making progress!


And just for funsies, here's a photo of the porcupine quills I pulled out of Nik's lip last week. Not very big, but still a PAIN to get out. 


With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

All My Best Thoughts and Writings.....

come to me as I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep. It never fails. 10:00 bed time, all the house is snoozing away.....ll:30-12:00 and I'm still awake trying to quiet my mind. I have to grab my phone and write it all down to ensure come morning time I still remember all the thoughts and words that were floating around in my head the night before.  Anyway, this is one of them.

I've come to find that pessimism paints your world in shades of gray. 
Optimism paints it in every color imaginable. 
I refuse to give my life's paint brush to a storm cloud.

With love,
Mama Hauck

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Crack Whore

Last night we were sitting around watching a movie, snacking on crackers when Anthony goes:

"Papa, can I have a crack whore?"

"You mean cracker?"

"Yeah."

Hahaha haha!!!

And just because I can't help myself....here is a photos of Mols all dirty after helping with the barn, getting ready to play in the sprinkler this past Sunday.

With love,
Mama Hauck

Monday, August 15, 2011

Beachy Projects/Decorating

I told you while at the coast we collected a slew of shells, sea glass, and driftwood with a whole bunch of beachy projects in mind. I've always loved decorating with driftwood and collecting seaglass when we lived on Whidbey Island and I really wanted to make a shell mobile for Molly, so our trip to the coast was the perfect opportunity to gather our materials! 

First we did the driftwood projects. A small one for the bathroom with a shell attached to the bottom and a much larger one for the living room, hanging from a piece of rusted metal I found on the beach. I love how they turned out! Super simple too. Driftwood, twine, drill.


We then did the shell projects. We had to order special diamond cut drill bits to delicately drill holes in the shells; this was done in water. We placed the shell on a block of wood and placed all that in a shallow cake pan filled with water and then drilled the hole. I let Sammy do this, though I'm sure I could have handled the task. :) I had the task of stringing the shells on the fishing line. This was painstaking work and took forever! 


I wanted to show you my other beachy goods! Here are the two blue mason jars and big brown jug I got at an antique store while at the coast. I placed them at the foot of one of my plants and dressed up the plant with some driftwood and shells.


On one of my couch end tables I place my mason jar with sea glass, a large pearly shell, and some shells in my small plant to dress that up like my large one. I hope to fill my mason jar up to the brim with sea glass. :) You like my new tree decoration? I got that at a local store in my town called Amiee's Attic.


My mom made this bowl for me for my birthday! I love it! I placed it on my coffee table and filled it up with all the shells I had left over from my projects.


Molly's room got the shell mobile her Papa and I lovingly made for her, some shells on her shelves, and a pretty cork bottle I had planned on throwing in the ocean with a message on it (but ran out of time!). Maybe one day I will. I also placed a piece of driftwood on her dresser along with a glass tray full of pretty rocks I picked up from the beach, some of them with those white crustations on them. I really LOVE Molly's room! I love how it's a combination of forest, with the tree on her wall and her owl/bird bedding and sea, with all the shells, rocks, and driftwood. It feels really whimsical to me.


The bathroom got some beach goodies too! The driftwood project we made hung above the hand towel rack, some sand dollars placed under the mirror, a pretty shell on the sink, and two mason jars filled with sand and shells from the Tillamook Beach (where I took all those pretty photos) placed on either end of the counter. We hung that one piece of driftwood with the star fish and shell above the large towel rack. My favorite beach inspired decoration is my new collage of beach photos that take up a large portion of wall. It means the most to me.



I also took a photo of my new mother of pearl and sterling silver charm so I could show yalls too. :)


Our home now has a relaxed beachy theme that goes along great with our existing country woods feel. I LOVE IT! :)

Busy week for me. Lots of random phone calls....one being to try to get a hold of Anthony's soon to be preschool teacher. Dermatology appointment today an hour and a half away (ugh).....also dropping off Anthony's shot record so it can be updated in preparation for him going to preschool.  Hopefully work on my etsy.com site during the week. Hopefully blog post on the barn and other outside projects. And maybe take the kids to see their friends in town since they've been gone for so long and haven't gotten in any hang out time!? We'll see if this Mama can get everything done I'd like to!

With love,
Mama Hauck