Time flies...

Recently it has hit me that somehow my daughter has grown up and is no longer the little girl that she once was. How did this happen? Of course I know the biology of it. And I know that eventually she had to grow up. But why do I feel so blindsided by it? It seems like only yesterday that she was the size of Alex. Now she is turning into this beautiful young girl that I am very proud of.

She has always acted a bit older for her age. And she can hold a conversation with educated adults without batting an eyelash. I guess I just expected her to depend on me a little bit longer than she has....It won't be long before I will be dealing with the problems involved with having a teenager. This girl is more stubborn and hardheaded than I was at that age and that scares me a bit. It took me a while to grow into my attitude. She was born with hers. 

Summertime and the living is....

Crazy. Mr Gershwin certainly lived in a completely different time period because there is nothing "easy" about summertime. Granted I don't have to report into the high school in the morning. But I do have to report in for full time mommy duty. Which turns out to be both a blessing and a curse.

Summer is just jam packed with all of the amazing things that we do not have time to do during the rest of the year. There will be cattle shows, and summer camp, swimming lessons, horseback riding lesson....The list is endless. And these are just activities for Aeryn! I don't know what I would do if I had to balance in activities for Alex as well. Not that he will be getting left out. Oh no. There will be plenty of mommy and Alex time this summer as well.

This year is the first year that I will be considering letting my child go off to over night camp by herself. It's a bit scary. In the past ten years there have not been many times when Aeryn and I have been apart. And during the times we have been apart she has been with Evelyn and Paul or with my mother. Sending her off to camp seems like such a HUGE step! But I know she can handle it. Somehow, wonder of wonders, I have raised this bright, funny, bubbly, friendly little girl. She will be able to go out and conquer whatever Summer Camp has to offer.

But will I be able to conquer being without her? It is times like these that make me think that my little girl is a wee bit stronger than her mommy. And it makes me smile.

New Experience...Old Style....(Part 3 of 3)

 We worked until almost dark that first day. The moon was just a sliver in the fading daylight sky. One of the most beautiful sights that I have ever seen was the sunlight fading behind Mt. Ascutney as I sat next to the pool and watched Aeryn frolic in the water. It was the part of the day that she had been most looking forward to. Well that and s'mores cooked at the bon fire that evening. I couldn't help, but laugh at the aquatic antics of my friends as they had a good time at the end of a long day.





Hundreds of years ago people did what we did, on a larger scale out of necessity. There was simply no machinery available to make the barn building process any easier. Farmers needed barns, so the neighbors helped to build then. More farmers needed wood and neighbors would come help out. The word community actually had a meant something to people. These days I kind of wonder. I also wonder about the reasons why our society has gotten to be the way that it is today.

Why are we afraid to help our neighbor? And if we are not afraid, why do we just refuse to do it? Have we lost  touch with that part of humanity?

For the weekend of the barn raising Jay raised an invitation and we answered. Kira came from Colorado to be a participant in this event. The rest of us came from parts of New Hampshire, and Vermont. The weekend of the Wood Bee an invitation was made, and answered. Now I am not sure where every one came from, but I do know that the 4-Hers that I spent the day with all came from a drive that was over an hour away. 

Strangers coming together for a common goal....

New Experiences...Old Style...(Part 2 of 3)

The whole crew sitting in the loft at the end of the first day. I chose to stay on the ground. One of the advantages to being the one holding the camera. 

As I look through the literally hundreds of pictures that I took the first day of the barn raising the thing that jumps out at me the most is the amount of fun that everyone is having. There is no doubt about the amount of work being done and yet the atmosphere is so relaxed an happy that everyone was able to have a good time. 

Aeryn and Mo ended up popping two can's of soda....

 The week before the barn raising had been crazy for me personally. And I know that it was probably the same for a few other people involved as well. The majority of us work in the education field and there are only a couple of more weeks before the school year ends. So basically every one gets to rush around like a chicken with their head cut off. At one point I had mentioned on Facebook that "to relax on the weekend I would be at a  barn raising." A few of my friends scoffed at the idea that a day of hard work would be in any way relaxing. Boy were they wrong.

Kira helped to make one of Aeryn's dreams come true ...

Unfortunately one of the down falls of my job is that I work in an environment where the atmosphere can change from positive to negative pretty quickly. It is more emotionally and mentally exhausting than physically exhausting. Sometimes that can wear on a person more than the physical and it makes things rough at times. I know that after a long day at work going to the gym, or working with the cows, is a great release for me. So it turns out that this was exactly what my children and I needed to just let go and be happy for a weekend.

Lilly is easily one of Aeryn's favorite people!

 There are so many things going on everybody's lives right now. This provided us with a way to just forget everything else that was going on and just enjoy being alive. I met some really cool people. Three of which are amazing women that my daughter can learn many things from. As much as I encourage her to be her own person I want her to also be able to see good examples of strong, independent, women. I don't always feel that I am displaying the best example. So it is nice to have a few others.

 Some how it all leads back to the fact that "...It takes a village..."