Archive for the ‘Family Holidays’ Category

and their dogs

Monday, January 24th, 2011

I was originally going to title this “Mountainous areas attract earth loving liberals and their dogs.”

But I realize how controversial that statement is, and I happen to love a few earth loving liberals…and their dogs… so we’ll just keep it with “and their dogs.”

In typical Burgess fashion, we took a 6 and a half hour drive and turned it into a 48 hour adventure. And that was just one way.

My Mamaw turns 90 today and that is something worth celebrating, ya’ll! She is probably the original source of my sassiness.

See what I mean?

That’s Mamaw. Fanning herself with some cold hard cash.

First we stopped off in Georgia so that Brent could attend some business-ish meetings and then chugged off toward Bristol, VA by way of Asheville, NC.

We partied with my dad’s side of the family. I enjoyed the view, watching my children play with my cousin’s children and meeting second cousins for the first time.

Babies were passed around…

…and we ate way too many mayonnaise-based hor d’oeuvres followed by birthday cake dyed bright pink (with red dye #40, which is totally acceptable on one’s 90th birthday. If you’ve lived that long, you are probably going to survive a good dose of #40. Just sayin’…)

We even let Evie have some. (I KNOW!)

The soon-to-be-newest member of the family got introduced to Mamaw:

Looks like Uncle Opie has Mamaws blessing. ;)

I have no fancy words to introduce the following photos to you except this one, ENJOY.

At this point it would also be appropriate to note that none of my mountain dwelling relatives are liberals. And none have unnatural affections for furry things.

Anyway. We reversed course on our way home to explore Asheville. And we came across a great many people…and their dogs. Face clearly communicated that they were not sure what to think about our brood descending on their eco friendly haven of dog loving people… and their dogs.

Now. I like me some old dogs. I love old family dogs that don’t have teeth. I love little puppies that belong to other people. I love that people rescue abused dogs and find nice homes for them. But those dogs that get treated like children? THAT, I do not understand. Of course, it isn’t the dog’s fault.

And just like I don’t get that they worship the ground their dogs walk on, they don’t get why I find value in my little humans. Only, they’re HUMANS. So I also don’t get why they don’t get it.

So our first stop was the Whole Foods Market in town, which really has been an independent grocer that just got bought out by Whole Foods. So, I’m going to assume that the friendly helpfulness characteristic of Whole Foods Market hasn’t set in yet. I did eventually find one really friendly cashier that shared about how her sister had four kids all at one time…because she was on fertility meds. And then she went on to have two more. Oh the insanity of it all.

And as we bounded back and forth between the potties and the small booth we were crammed into while shouting about the large dogs people were walking out in the parking lot as we quietly sat and ate our breakfast, I could feel stares. And I don’t imagine this sort of thing, people. I usually operate in a mode that assumes that everyone around me realizes how awesome my children are. So, you can see how it is a little shocking to me when their expression communicates, “Wow. There are a whole da*n lot of them.” I think we further confused them by the way that our children stayed put where we put them and walked like socialized peoples through the store, without ravaging every display or throwing their food at each other. Their feelings were evident in the way that they, perturbed, shoved past us, or  when they stealthily tried to cut me in line. For coffee. Yes. This woman rammed our cart, which had our precious little Evie sitting in it, to cut me in line. FOR COFFEE. Guess again, lady. I’ve got four kids and my ability to keep up with all of them is very much sustained by coffee. So, I spoke up and you better believe I got my coffee. First. So there.

And I see their “Dog is Love” bumper stickers and think, “Seriously? They LICK THEIR BUTTS.”

So, you can see how we didn’t really fit in that well. I’m sure there are some really great family friendly spots in beautiful Asheville. We just never stumbled across any. Except the hotel room.

I quickly realized that it was very acceptable to have only one child and wear them in a baby carrier everywhere you go.

And I secretly wished I had worn a shirt that said, “I birthed all these babies unmedicated in my living room. “ Then it would have been more acceptable that we pushed our little cart right past the sign that said, “Please no carts in the café area”.  I’ve got a whole lot of food for my buncha kids, people, and I can’t carry it all. K?

So they stared. Some people offered gracious smiles and “I can’t believe how well behaved they are.” And I refrained from any sarcastic remarks about how we only let them out of their boxes on Sundays for church. Other cashiers barely spoke to us and people bustled around because we moved just a little too slowly.

And I could feel their stares as we polluted their air with the big ol Suburban we had borrowed for the trip. But hey, that Suburban is filled with precious people. As Anna Duggar said,

“I may be driving a Hummer, but my baby is cloth diapered. You may drive a smaller car, but you are using disposables.”

And that is about as ugly as it gets from a Duggar.

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Posted in Family Holidays, Field Trips, Furry things, Quiverfull/Birth Control, Uncategorized |

Mucho Feliz-ness

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

I know I’ve been quiet, and usually that means that things are not so bueno. But, ya’ll. Ya’ll. Christmas was w.o.n.d.e.r.f.u.l.

We don’t indulge often. Our kids do not have tons of toys and they don’t get sugar. We work hard and we don’t take a lot of breaks.

We make up for it at Christmas time. Cheeky Maiden shut down on December 21 and we have not so much as nodded in her direction (except for a hasty drop off of some belly butter to a mamma pregnant with twins that wouldn’t stop pestering me, and a desperate customer …errrr three…that swung by the house because they knew where to find me. It’s okay. I still love you all.)

As usual we did Christmas with the kids early before leaving town for the Promised Land.

And as you might expect, Christmas around our house is a lil’ homemade. Not so much from me, but from the kids.

There’s the obvious: The toddler has just snatched a bow off of a gift and is running for it. Then there is the subtle: my children are obviously happy playing with empty boxes, so why more toys?

Bed heads up bright and early on our Christmas morning.

And we just partied right on at my parent’s house and later at Brent’s parent’s house. (Regrettably, I am missing photos from our second destination. It snowed and my poor Southern camera literally froze up.)

Grammy (my mamma) was bestowed the Bow Of Honor. She is Merry and Bright and wonderful all year long, but especially at Christmas time.

This is Mimi, my grandmother. Please note how excited she is over her coffee and chocolate. Now you know where I get it from.

I promise my next post will have lots of words and zero pictures.

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Posted in Family Holidays |

And now I will make everyone feel very good about their housekeeping skillz

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

It all happens in the home. In our 1200 sq foot home. School. Work. Birth. And everything else.

If you have never been in the middle of eating breakfast with your kids and suddenly jumped up at the realization that a customer was due any minute and you are still in your pjs with mascara under your eyes and the pony tail that you slept in, you have no idea what I’m talking about.

If you have never raised both a business and a gaggle of small children under the same roof, you have no idea what I am talking about.

It’s not even just that we have a home business. We have a home business that involves manufacturing, marketing, and selling product. Everything isn’t nice and tidy in computer files or even file cabinets. Cheeky Maiden spills out of the soap room. My little artist l o v e s to sneak out there and snatch wraphia and tape. Which is why I had to ask her for some of her own personal stash of scotch tape to adhere a shipping label to a box this morning.

It’s chaos and insanity. THAT is what I’m talking about. The likes of which would make Martha Stewart tremble.

I’m not complaining, but this part of lives is so incremental to who we are, to who our children are being shaped to be, that is must be documented.

Large whole sale orders are being placed as our retail folks strain to meet the demands of holiday shoppers, local people stop by almost every day to pick up their orders, and of course the internet customers are going to wait until the very.last.minute and have me chugging around here on Dec 20th packing their orders to get them delivered by Christmas time.

It’s November 30th and I’m realizing that I have done zero preparation for our advent lessons this month.

I have a dresser and an electric sander sitting on my front porch, covered by a holiday vinyl table cloth because I was in the middle of refinishing it when tornado weather blew in. I figured if it was going to sit out here I might as well try to make it blend in with the Christmas decor. ;) There is a broken discarded dresser sitting in the middle of my living room and the kids are having a fabulous time climbing all over it until I figure out what in the heck to do with it. You know, in my spare time.

Not to mention the gift buying and making that has to be done for our own loved ones.

It’s challenging and C R A Z Y.

So, how do we make it all work? (Sometimes it doesn’t.)

We involve the kids as much as possible. This is why sometimes the soap labels are crooked or upside down or cut lopsided. This is why sometimes the bows are not tied perfectly. This is why it might take me 2 hours to do something that should have taken 30 minutes. But oh my word, the heart strings are being tied and the family bonds are being strengthened, and they are learning about economics and entrepreneurial…stuff.

See?

How to Get Your Kids Involved with Your Business from Cheeky Maiden Soap Co. on Vimeo.

(If you don’t see the video above, click the link. Thanks)

We have boundaries. We know when to stop working and just accept that something isn’t going to get done. If the kids are needing some Mommy time, there is no hesitation. The door to the soap room is closed and out of site/out of mind. This is why there is a shortage of all of our holiday soap this year. I just didn’t have the time to make it and I really hope that I have enough to last until our last event.

I have to let go of some of my standards. The dishes are going to get piled up this time of year. School is on hiatus until January. We are going to use disposable diapers. A lot. At the same time- soap ideas I have don’t get to happen. I can’t tie a ribbon around every bar of soap that goes out the door anymore. So, we make priorities and we do those first.

And this is why I sat down to have coffee and look at a magazine surrounded by this mess:

Now, who wants to come over for dinner? =D

Good news: Mamma’s Helper is coming today. We also have a (very) part time worker for Cheeky Maiden now, I think starting tomorrow. Stuff will get done.

And lest you think that I was indulgent for ignoring my work to blog about it, please know this. It took me approx 3 hours to get this all typed out because I stopped to meet a soap customer at the door, to deal with tornado warnings going on around me, to move and recover the dresser on the porch, to change diapers, to peel clementines, to break up fights, to answer emails, and to feed the baby. Amongst other things.

So, look around what is probably a much cleaner house than mine today, and feel really proud of yourself. ;)

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Posted in Family Holidays, The Maiden who is Cheeky |

Traditions

Saturday, November 27th, 2010

We give thanks, over fruit salad and eggnog lattes.

We cuddle.

We gawk at ginormous balloons.

We bake.

And bake.

And cook. (But only a little.)

We give thanks again.

We have enlightening conversations that go a little something like this: “Thursday is a great day for eating Turkey and putting up your Christmas tree.”

Although we were eating ham.

We give thumbs up.

We get a little crafty.

We decorate.

And I give thanks again.

For this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

For crowded hanging stockings.

And a little Christmas tree wedged in with lots of people.

For more kids than bedrooms, more food than pantry, more books than shelves. For more love and contentment than my heart could possibly hold.

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Posted in Family Holidays |

I told you I was OCD.

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

In my defense, this was all Brent’s idea. I really do know when to stop. Perhaps he was feeling a bit competitive.

The man came home this weekend with three large pumpkins. Not faux citrouille. These were real.

First, we made stencils. You can go to bhg.com and create a custom designed stencil, or google around for some already made ones. There are tons, and each kid picked their own. I had the pleasure of using the exact-o knife to cut them out.

Photo0302.jpeg

Happy Fall, Ya’ll!


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Posted in Family Holidays |

Confessions of an Obsessive Compulsive

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

I get it from my mamma. The tendency to do things big. Bigger than necessary.

So, maybe because we worked our tushes off all summer, I was really super excited to see Fall come around. I wanted to celebrate big, but we were currently in the middle of a streak of sleepless nights with Evie.

The theme was PUMPKINS. And we actually did it all on the first day of Fall. I know, so Martha of me.

We started the morning decorating pumpkins. You can really go all out with the faux citrouille (that’s French for “fake pumpkin”) at Michael’s. Grab some stencils, some ribbon, some stamps, some glitter…. and you’ve got a big mess. But maybe some cute pumpkins. Anyway, my tired brain could only handle polka dots and turkeys.

That’s right. I already got my Thanksgiving craft out of the way, ya’ll! The deal is to display the polka dotted side for October and then turn the turkeys out for November. (Polka dots were done with a little round brush stampy thing, and turkeys were done using their hand prints. We’re original like that.)




Then, I made a candle mold out of a smaller punkin’ and poured some local beeswax in it for our Fall time candlelit dinners.

Voila!




Shameless plug: You can get one with your next Cheeky Maiden order. They burn perfectly down the center, with no messy wax dripping everywhere. And beeswax gives such a great warm light, without all that black smoke synthetic waxes put out. We’ll even put a festive bow on it. Promise.

And we finished it all up with Pumpkin Soup for dinner!!




Pumpkin Soup Recipe:

  • 2 cans Pumpkin
  • 2 cans black beans, drained
  • 4 cups of water
  • 2 vegetable bouillon cubes
  • chopped onion
  • chopped red bell pepper and stuff (optional)
  • cumin (to taste)
  • cinnamon (to taste, I use a lot)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • garnish with cilantro and fresh mozzarella chunks
  • Serve with tortilla chips or even wild rice

My kids love it, my husband is impressed with it, and my hips love it because it is super high in fiber.

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Posted in Family Holidays, Home Making, Recipes |

BHG, Move over!

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

I love getting my latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Each issue is a bitter reminder of how lack-lustre my own flower beds are, how unorganized my closets have become, and how small my home is…

I jest. Really, I love the creative ideas it offers and usually get very inspired. However, one can’t help but notice how unrealistically large the homes are, how fantastically perfect the flowers are, how thoughtfully placed the intricately wadded up pieces of paper are in the trash cans in the photos. Every single detail is just.not.real.

I came across this funny little site the other day. Much like the People of Walmart site, each posting bares a photo with a funny caption. Only this site lends a look into the lives of the people that live in your catalogs. For instance…

Last year at the 4th of July party, Karen shattered Gary’s ship-in-a-bottle. This year Gary felt it appropriate to remind her.

And, we’ve been having a few of our own little catalog moments this weekend. Life felt magical, like something too good to be true!

We had a July 4th Meet the Neighbors party down in the “neighborhood park”, sponsored by the good folks trying to sell the rest of the houses in our neighborhood. Underneath a huge carnival-like tent were tables set up with sparklers and balloons, and one long set of tables just covered in Jim-n-Nick’s BBQ. A sporty game of horse shoes was being played while little starry-eyed children ran around playing ball. The sunlight even filtered into the tent perfectly. See?

They had a door prize and GUESS WHO THE LUCKY WINNERS WERE!


TADA! We won a brand spankin’ new gas grill!! We just got rid of our old one, too!

A local church sponsored an evening in the park with a ginormous screen showing of Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs, followed by country singing crooning and fireworks. We got there early so as to take advantage of all the free Jumpy Things (What are those called? You know, the giant inflatable things with slides and bouncy stuff…) Anyway, we got through all of them just before the lines reached lengths of Six Flags proportions. We figured it was a good time to pick up some grub from the local food vendors and claim our spot on the grass for the movie.

Throngs of people were behind us as we got in a short line. The food vendors could feel the pressure of feeding the 5,000. They nervously served everyone food as fast as they could. One guy with shaky hands spilled ranch dressing on Arwen’s head. (Gross!) While Brent waited in line for food, I moved our spot on the grass not once, but two times. (Ssshh! Don’t tell Brent. He hates when I do that sort of thing. I just like making sure my kids have the best seats, that’s all!) By the end of it, we were right at the front and had a perfect view.

Now for blurry pictures of my kids watching a movie in the dark.

Know what my sweet precious little Evie did during the movie? We laid on the blanket and nursed and cuddled until she drifted off into a deep deep sleep. And she stayed that way.

And she slept right through this:

…and a whole lot more. It was some kind of firework production. Pyrotechnics at its finest.

You know the bad side of being the first to arrive, getting to ride all the stuff and get your food without waiting in a long line and getting a good up front seat to the move?

You’re the very freaking last to leave.

The good folks made you park in order of arrival, so all of us over achievers that got there first were totally trapped. All the losers that got there late zipped right out of the parking lot, once all the throngs of people clogging up the street that were soooo late they couldn’t even fit into the parking lot got out of the way.

For an hour we inched and crept. And it was totally worth it, the movie under the stars, seeing the kid’s faces during the fireworks show! Charis exclaiming how it was “just like Christmas”, Ezra getting so excited that he just jumped up and down and clapped his hands, Arwen giggling happily with the light of the show on her face, and blessed Evie sleeping away.

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Posted in Family Holidays, Field Trips |

Happy Noniversary!

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I reminded Brent that our anniversary was this month, but admitted that I wasn’t totally sure what day. We have spent many an anniversary sitting in the pews/standing in the aisle witnessing others covenant with one another too. All the dates have sort of blurred in my mind. And, you know, I’ve got other stuff to think about. {cringe}

I thought it was the 28th while Brent adamantly stated that it was the 23rd. He had that day off anyway. And we’ve already established that I’m dense. So I went with it.

Last night before bed we did the usual conversation of “7 years ago right now, what were you thinking/expecting/dreaming of?” Then Evie slept all night. The sun came up and we exchanged sleepy “Happy Anniversaries” over Evie’s wriggly little self wedged in bed between us. It was magical.

We spent the day in the usual chaos of finding a balance between living like civilized folk and also having little people melt downs, pee on the floor, etc. We were also trying to clean up a little for the babysitter.

After the three littles went to bed for a mid day nap, we left them in the capable hands of not one, not two, but three girls (2 of them were little sister helpers to the babysitter) and chugged off down the road. Cackling loudly. Okay, I was the only one cackling. Brent missed the kids.

I wore non-nursing friendly clothing and mascara. And deodorant. We shopped, we filled our bellies with $80 worth of food. (Don’t judge me, we literally go on one date per year- on our anniversary.) Then we got stuck in traffic on the way home and made it back horribly later than we thought.

Just as we got home a soap customer showed up and we fumbled around with paying babysitter and doling out soap order while cleaning up poop from pants, etc.

Calmness returned and I had a comment on facebook from my mother-in-law that she thought our anniversary was actually on the 28th, five days from today.

“Humn“, we thought. I looked in our wedding scrapbook. No date was recorded. (Doh!)

I looked on our wedding video. Again, no date. (Doh!)

I looked in another wedding album and turned over a picture expecting to see the date stamped. No date. (Doh!) (While we’re at it, let me tell you about one of the best wedding gifts we got. While we were partying at the reception, a thoughtful woman had taken pictures of the entire wedding with her personal camera, gone to the hour photo lab, had them developed, stuck in an album and handed us the gift bag as we loaded ourselves into our getaway car. We were on the plane to NYC when I thought to open the gift. There we were on our way to our honeymoon with pictures of our wedding in our lap. It was awesome. This was, of course, before camera phones and all the fancy photo sharing stuff we have now. It was a big deal.)

I dug through my keepsake box and found our souvenir wedding certificate. At the top of the document it said “On This Day”. My heart began to beat as I screamed in my mind “What day?? What day????”

It was blank.  (Doh!)

I kept digging and hoped that I had at least saved an invitation from my wedding. Instead I came across an invitation to the rehearsal dinner, June 27th. (DOH! DOH ! DOH!)

I showed it to Brent and we had ourselves a good laugh. All he had to say about it was, “Huh. June 28th. I’ll have to remember that next year.”

Yeah. You do that.

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Posted in Brent, Family Holidays |

Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Ya’ll.

Ya’ll.

YA’LL.

He got me a lap top. And not just any laptop. A MacBook Pro. Be prepared to hear from me quite a bit more, folks. I can blog on location, anywhere and everywhere!

So, here I sit in Atlanta, GA at my mamma’s house. And already, you can feast your eyes on our delightful Christmas extravaganza.

First was our own Christmas with the kids, where I armed my two year old boy with a Curious George bat. Clearly, these sleepless nights are starting to affect my reasoning skills.

Next up was Pappa and Nana’s house for Christmas Eve festivities.

After that we grabbed up some loot at Uncle Roger’s house and showed off our new bebe.

Last stop was Grammy and Grandpa’s house, where we currently reside until they kick us out!

Enjoy the slide show!

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Posted in Family Holidays |