superfluous

Perhaps the gazillion photos you just scrolled down through explains the title of this blog post? No?

I'm finding that the best way for me to blog right now is every couple of weeks. Oh, I could sit here and ramble on every day about my very ordinary life, but I fear that I would bore you with the redundancy. Gardening, animals, laundry, dishes, cooking, baking, preserving, knitting, repeat. And, golly, carrying a big ole' camera around while I work and live life gets a bit cumbersome. That's one thing I miss about the simplicity of my little point and shoot camera. I seemed to document more life in the stillness of photos because that little silver camera slipped right into my purse or pocket.

In between all of the ordinary moments, we've been trying to tuck in some extra special ones as well. First of all, Brad and I went on a kayaking date last week. I wanted to take my camera but, again, was afraid to lug it around in the kayak. I resorted to taking my little ipod that takes pretty inferior photos, but I was able to capture a few of those moments. We put in on a nearby lake and just enjoyed each other's company. It was won-der-ful! I see many more such dates in our future this summer and fall.

We have also enjoyed a couple of visits to another local lake that has a little beach on it. We're not taking a beach vacation this year, so the kids have enjoyed those little trips to enjoy the water and sand. And I felt like a complete freak, sitting in the sweltering heat in my bathing suit knitting a wool hat. I know people were staring at me, but I suppose that you get to a certain point in your knitting journey when you don't really care that people find you strange for knitting hot wool hats on a day so hot that the sweat just pours off of you.

And speaking of knitting, I'm been enjoying finding moments here and there (hence the beach knitting) when I can work on making items for my shop. I think I'll be approaching my business a bit different this year. Anyone that sells on Etsy will understand the time-zapper it is to list items on there. It takes a lot of time and it also takes money to promote your business so that people will even see it. Unless I want my hat to be on page 678 of knitted hats, I have to dish out money to advertise. And I'm not complaining about that, I'm just focusing a bit differently this year. My first priority in life is to be a wife, mom, and homeschooler. Spending hours listing items on Etsy on top of all of my other responsibilities means that I'm borrowing time from elsewhere. So this year, I'm looking to focus more on local sales (our fall festival, my open house in December, and Facebook) to sell my products rather than trying to reach a large audience online. I think that there will be a season in my life that I will have more time to commit to my business (which I do really love), but I just have this unshakeable feeling that now is not it.

We are buried under a huge lot of chickies, people! I think I've mentioned before that I do have a bit of a soft spot for animals, and I went a bit crazy with the chicken purchasing/hatching this spring. I've already agreed with Brad that we are done getting more animals, but in the meantime we needed more space for our hens. We tossed around the idea of giving some of the one-year-old hens away but couldn't find any takers (honestly, though, I didn't try very hard because I am highly attached to my chickens.) So the only other option was to expand the coop. I felt really bad that it was one more thing Brad had to add to his schedule, but he was a real trooper and turned it into a father-son project. Brad and Ian worked on it from early morning to evening this past Saturday. I rather like how it turned out, and I LOVE how big it is now. I think it will be so much easier to clean out because I'll actually be able to move around in it! The chickens are still adapting. They were so confused that first evening. I had to laugh. Chickens like routine. Chickens like familiar. Kind of like me.

Oh, and I'm so excited, and I'm sharing this here because then hopefully I will stay committed to it. I'm knitting my first sweater! Well, I haven't started yet, but I did get the yarn (that pretty purplish-yarn up there.) I'm intimidated, but I know that, like everything else in my life, the best thing to do is just jump in and start. I'm sure I'll learn many new knitting skills as I work on this sweater. I'd like to have it done to wear it this winter, but I'm not making any promises on that one!

I mentioned that we're not vacationing at the beach this year. Brad and I knew that once our kids got older, we were going to start changing our vacays up and trying new things. Beach vacations really are easy when the kiddos are young because you mostly just go to the beach, the kids build stuff in the sand, and play in the water. But now that our kids are older, we're excited to take more active vacations and explore this grand country of ours! We just recently booked a cottage in Bar Harbor, Maine for this fall. Have any of you ever been there? We have heard so many great things about it! I love New England! My favorite vacation EVER was during my senior year. My uncle and aunt were living in Boston at that time, and they took us on a week-long tour through all of the different New England states. Oh, did I fall in love with that part of the country. I could so see myself living there if it weren't for their horribly horrid winters.

Friends, thank you for using a few of your very precious moments to stop by here. I have been so encouraged by your comments and emails. They mean so much to me!

Amber