Category Marital Bliss

Swamped in a Hive

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Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a parent who is inundated with the behaviors and requests of their children? It’s like trying to locate the queen bee in a hive of crazy. Nobody is concerned about or can comprehend what’s being said, focus is going in a million directions, and the constant buzz is enough to drive everyone in and outside of the hive crazy.

This past weekend I witnessed my friend, Jamie, at the heart of her own wild hive. We were hanging out at a friend’s shop, and for some unknown-to-our-children reason trying to have a conversation.

While Jamie balanced her son on one leg, her daughter traipsed passed walking her baby doll by the hair. Without warning, the baby doll leapt onto Jamie’s vacant leg and began marching up her arm and then rested on her head. Shortly there after, Jamie’s husband asked her about something he couldn’t remember, and she replied calmly with whatever he needed to know. Barely skipping a beat, Jamie continued on with our conversation. After finishing her sentence to me, she politely asked her daughter to take the doll to play somewhere else. Her daughter’s response, “But I need you to be my jungle gym.”

Well, there you had it.

Jamie was needed.

She was a comfy place to sit for her son, reference library for her husband, an apparatus for her daughter’s baby doll activities, and a hub of conversation for me.

Continue reading “Swamped in a Hive” →
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Don’t Let Me Run You Over – Tractors, Trust, & Stupid Turkeys

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Any farmer worth their weight in salt keeps quality conditions for their animals in the forefront of their agrarian efforts. There is a lot that goes into protecting and maintaining the range houses for our turkeys. One of the stinkiest tasks is topping-out the buildings. This process entails driving through the building with a tractor and litter machine. The litter machine sifts through the sawdust shavings on the floor and separates out the waste. The waste that is removed from the buildings makes terrific fertilizer, as it is completely natural and environmentally friendly. Once all of the waste is removed, we add fresh sawdust using a spreader bed. This allows the building to stay drier and healthier.

My job in the process of topping-out buildings is to open and close the doors as Hubby drives the tractor in and out of the barn, and to walk in front of the tractor shooing the turkeys out of the way. It may sound easy, but it’s NOT!

On a recent topping-out experience, Hubby yelled at me, “Don’t let me run you over!”

Well, as a I love my husband very much, I was somewhat terrified that he believed I had the power to stop over three tons of tractor and litter machine while he was in the driver’s seat. I guess the fact that he was the driver should have instantly solidified my trust in the process, but I was still leery. To make things worse, turkeys are stupid birds.

Continue reading “Don’t Let Me Run You Over – Tractors, Trust, & Stupid Turkeys” →

Pansies in a Tin Cup: Memory in a Tattoo

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Have you ever noticed someone’s tattoo and thought, “That’s different. I wonder why they got that?”

Interesting enough, it is because of an artist’s willingness to talk to three, crazy ladies sitting at a bar, that I came to see such a tattoo and definitely wanted to know the story behind it.

The artist’s name was Maddy. One of the three crazy ladies at the bar was me.

Maddy’s intriguing tattoo was pansies in a tin cup.

The story behind the tattoo stared when Maddy’s grandparents Kerry and Nancy welcomed the first of their six children into the world. Kerry wanted to surprise his wife with flowers after the birth of their son. He did not have money to purchase long-stem roses or a fancy arrangement from the flower shop, so he gathered a handful of pansies and delivered them to his bride in a tin cup from their pantry. The sentiment was well received and continues to be a story of simplicity and love passed down to their children and grandchildren.

Continue reading “Pansies in a Tin Cup: Memory in a Tattoo” →

The Power of Silence – Wise Words Wednesday

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unresponsive

The Silent Treatment can be one of the most painful treatments known to man or woman. Nothing hurts more than when we do not receive a response after asking a question or requesting an answer.

Recently my son tried to tell me a joke (It was actually like 300 hundred jokes and by joke 301 I was done.) After politely telling him I was tired of “laughing so much” and that I needed some quiet time, the jokes kept coming.

I would also like to interject that they were the jokes of a 5-year-old and revolved mostly around farts, butts, and “dummy heads.” So instead of replying to his 301st joke, I ignored him and focused solely on driving home, while he drove me crazy.

Well, this did not stop his attempts. In fact, it made him shout the desperate and increasingly unfunny jokes. With no response from me, anger took over his humor and he began kicking my seat. There was clearly nothing funny about this show on the road.

We were almost home when the kicking started. As soon as we hit the driveway, I put the car in park. I turned around and asked my now-fuming 5-year-old, “Why are you kicking my seat?”

“You didn’t listen to my jokes,” was his angry answer.

“I listened to your jokes for the last 45 minutes. You didn’t listen to me when I asked for some quiet time. What gives you the right to kick my seat?”

“You didn’t listen to my jokes,” he repeated, losing steam.

“I listened to each and every one of them. You didn’t give me a choice not to. Now I am asking you to make the choice to stop kicking my seat and give the jokes a rest,” I snipped back at him.

“But you didn’t say anything when I told you jokes,” he whined.

“I was giving you the silent treatment so I could have some silence,” I explained.

“You’re mean, Mommy,” was all he said in reply.

Silence followed (for about 1 minute). Continue reading “The Power of Silence – Wise Words Wednesday” →

This Mama’s Heart

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This Mamas Heart

This Mama’s Heart via Daily Prompt: Nervous

When you become a mother you give away your heart.You love stronger and harder than you ever imagined possible. That love grows with your child. The pains that come with it grow too.

This mama’s heart has grown and loved in so many ways since the births of my three kiddos. My heart has calmed and smiled at their peaceful sleep and joyful discoveries. It has hurt and beat to rocky rhythms when they have scared me with their  recklessness and angered me with their antics.

With each doctor visit or ER escapade, my heart has really taken a beating. Sprains, stitches, and broken bones leave their scars. However, the ache isn’t truly felt until after the whole ordeal is over.

In the last two years I have made six trips to the emergency room. Not all of the trips were for my kiddos, but the impacts on my heart were no different whether I was taking in hubby, my own mama, or one of my babies.

This spring my daughter broke her arm. Like all of our other trips to the hospital, I was able to stay calm and put together all of the information and documents needed to ensure beneficial care be provided. Similarly, my heart ached as I watched someone I loved lying in that hospital bed. Later that night I woke suddenly. My heart was racing. I could not catch my breath. I was shaking. Continue reading “This Mama’s Heart” →

Putting Us In Our Place – Wise Words Wednesday

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Putting Us In Our Place – Wise Words Wednesday

In Our Place

Photo credit: Pinterest

I am a horrible human being…

At least some of the time.

We all are.

Our kids, spouses, siblings, in-laws, and many, many others possess resounding powers to bring out the failure in us.

These failures lead us to dark and unhappy places. It is really tough to be put in these places and even tougher to move past them.

Here is the amazing news… we are not meant to stay in one place.

As human beings we are challenged to grow, move, and change all the time.

While I may want to duct tape my child into a grocery cart at times, most of the time I am more eager to entrap my darling with hugs. Continue reading “Putting Us In Our Place – Wise Words Wednesday” →

How can I ask if I didn’t know?

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How can I ask if I didn’t know?

how-can-i-ask

Recently, hubby and I had a heated “discussion” about my belief that I had to physically drive to the bank to pay the truck payment. My belief goes back almost 20 years.

In 1998 my mother co-signed a loan to purchase a new car for me. When we left the bank, the loan agent told me, “Each month just bring in your payment and the loan book. We will tear out a receipt for each payment.” After that I just always took my payment book to the bank.

As our “discussion” wound down, my husband said, “If you don’t know something, just ask.”

How was I supposed to ask, if I didn’t know that I didn’t know it???? Continue reading “How can I ask if I didn’t know?” →

Burning Desire

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Burning Desire

Like all kids, mine love camping and campfires. Any time the weather is nice (especially in mid-February), they beg to have a fire and roast marshmallows.

We almost always say, “No,” however last night was an exception. For whatever reason (probably because hubby and I were just as eager to be outside), we converted the charcoal grill into a fit pit and we had our very own campfire.

This winter has been very dry and warm so the grill was necessary to keep the fire from consuming our lawn, house, and fields.

As I watched my children tend the fire and roast their hotdogs and marshmallows, my heart was warmed. 20170212_180047After eating we sat there in the quite twilight watching the flames dance.

Here came my burning desire…

My family at peace together enjoying one of life’s simple pleasures stoked a burning desire inside me. My burning desire was to hold my babies tight. My burning desire was to always be my husband’s side. It was a burning desire to never forget the sights, smells, sounds, and feelings of that moment. Those moments were burned into my heart and memory because of the simplicity of the evening and love for my family. More than anything my burning desire was for happy moments like this one to never end.

As all desires and fires do, the heat died away and the callings of life cooled our enthusiasm and pulled us back into the reality of daily tasks. The fire pit had to be doused, the trash had to be collected, baths were needed, clothes picked out for tomorrow, and bedtime prayers had to be said.

The passion of this lesson cannot be diminished by time though. The desires created in these moments added to the love I already had for my family. I now have a cherished moment to keep safe in my heart and a spark of love that will continue to be lit when we think of that one Sunday in February when we built a fire.

By: Melanie A. Peters

P.S. Sorry this wasn’t a hot and steamy romance story. It was kind of romantic though.

 

 

My Family’s Addiction to Adhesives

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My Family’s Addiction to Adhesives

via Daily Prompt: Maddening

Adhesive Addiction.jpg

My family has a lot of problems. One of the most maddening problems we have is our addition to adhesives.

We don’t eat or sniff the glue. We just really like to tape, glue, affix, and stick things together.

Just last week my oldest son super glued his fingers together. He knows not to play with super glue but did it anyway. When my husband asked, “Son, why did you glue your fingers together?” His reply was simple, “I just had to see how it feels.” We unstuck his fingers but the glue remained on his skin for few days.

This past May when school let out, my daughter brought home her bag of unused school supplies. In the bag I found a few markers, crayons, folders, paper, notebooks, and about a dozen glue sticks. Eight of the ten glue sticks had the names of other children on them. When I asked her about the glue, she said, “I just couldn’t let them throw good glue away.”

My husband buys duct tape in the economy case and has rolls of the multi-purpose stuff everywhere; in the truck, laundry room, workshop, machine shed, each of the turkey barns, his hunting pack, my car, the tractors, and his fishing boat. We are never at a loss for duct tape. Never.

My youngest son is the WORST. He LOVES transparent tape. He will go through a roll a day, if I would let him. He covers his toy trucks with it and says they are being fixed. Every piece of paper he colors, cuts, or draws on MUST be hung somewhere in the house and he believes each 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper requires 8 inches of tape to hold it in place. Wrapping Christmas or birthday gifts with him is like packaging the royal jewels with tape serving as the first line for the security’s defense. He actually put tape on his Christmas wish list because I told him the only way he could have any more tape this month was if he got it as a gift.

I am as guilty as the rest in that any time I see tape on sale; I buy it. You never can have enough tape. Right? I have two hot glue guns and order my craft adhesive by the 6 pack for making cards and scrapbooking.

We have an adhesive addiction.

I am sure your family has something that you all can’t live without or use in excess. As we begin a new year, consider finding alternatives to your wasteful usage or ways to not use your vice as much.

Whether it’s tape, toilet paper, or leaving on the lights, put your energy into smart and considerate usage of the things you take for granted. Let your family’s idiosyncracies hold you together and allow making change to be the bond that holds you strong as you love one another in 2017.

By: Melanie A. Peters

P.S. Please do not give my 3 year old any more tape. He has had enough.

 

 

 

 

Three Gifts from Santa

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Three Gifts from Santa

three-gifts-from-santa

Every year Santa delivers three gifts for each of us. That is it. Three.

My children receive three things from the jolly old elf and are ecstatic. The gifts are usually three things from my children’s wish lists or fun things they will use.

When people hear that my children only receive three gifts Christmas morning, they are shocked.

Here are Santa’s reasons for the tradition of three gifts on Christmas morning at our home:

5. Santa is magical but he is also practical.

4. Santa wants the family to spend time together. He doesn’t want all of Christmas to be spent in separate parts of the house with our new things. He wants us together.

3. Santa wants our children to know they are loved and the number of gifts under the tree can NEVER amount to the measure of our love.

2. Children receive so much through out the year. He wants those three gifts to be special and memorable.

1. Santa remembers the first Christmas. At that first Christmas, a very special child received three very special gifts. He wants that same special message to be shared with my family.

By: Melanie A. Peters

P.S. Remember the Reason for the Season.