Filled to the brim with memories :-)

Jul 12, 2025

Above: a quick video of yet another rain storm this week, love hearing that rolling thunder!

Happy Saturday friends!

I’ve moved eight times in my life, nine if you count moving back into this house after the fire. And never in all those times have I set much intention around my stuff.

Unbox, put away, the end.

But this time I went into it feeling different. I wanted to use this house in a better way. I wanted everything to have a spot and if it didn’t, it didn’t get to stay. To touch every single thing you own with this mindset has been interesting. I read this article earlier this week about how this man set up the world’s biggest (at the time) time capsule in 1975 and they just opened it up. And it occurred to me, that’s what my house feels like, a time capsule. Filled to the brim with memories.

I LOVE that.

And this time around I’m paying more attention to some of the memories that I would normally tuck away in a trunk. My Grandma Hall wrote my Grandpa (Mom’s parents) letters while he was in World War II. I’m thinking I will take one and frame it. Her penmanship is beautiful. Somewhere in all the hanging stuff is my Mom’s wedding dress, I’d like to put that in a shadow box. Sounds huge but it was an itty bitty white mini dress. I can’t wait to find it :-) Just bits and pieces of life, tucked away into little vignettes through the house. We’ve lived in North Carolina (this time around) for four years now, and this farm finally feels like home💜

•••

You’ll never guess what happened this week—yep, the brand new smoke alarm went off in my bedroom again! Seriously. 😳

Brad and I were talking about it and he wondered about the fact that this has only happened in ManChild’s room and mine, and both have brand new carpeting…could it be the VOCs are causing the smoke alarm to go off? Off I went to the internet and yes, that is a real thing. Who knew?

THE RANCH:

Look what I saw in our front yard on Friday! Wow! I saw the mom wandering around in the upper pasture grazing, something spooked her and she leapt the four foot fence like it was nothing, and darted into this little area with the pampas grass. (This is where Brad saw a doe sneak off to about a month ago. We figured she had a baby in there.) She then reappeared with these two babies in tow and as I watched, I saw another adult behind them. I figured it was another doe and one of the babies was hers. But no! A buck came out and stood with her! I wondered if it were a boyfriend but that seemed unlikely given the rut (mating season) is in the fall. So, maybe a son from spring of 2024? I know the girls mostly stay together but the boys have to head off into bachelor groups, like wild horses. So, I sent the pic to ChatGPT and asked and it said they likely weren’t a mating pair for the reasons I just stated and that young bucks often stay with their mom through their first winter and are sometimes still loosely associating in spring or early summer, especially if there are no dominant bucks around to drive them off yet. How sweet to see something I never have before:

I know I’ve posted this before but it seemed like a good time for a little reminder. In all the chaos of life, it’s so important to pay attention to the glimmers, they keep the joy and awe and hope alive:

When we moved back into the house 6 weeks ago, I pulled all the plants I had been propagating in water out of their bottles, and planted them in this pot on the front step:

This week I found everything had suddenly grown a bunch with all the rain we’ve been getting. I’ve not had a ton of success with propagating snake plants, the cuttings don’t die but they don’t grow either. Being out in the fresh air and rain, two of my four cuttings in this pot just sprouted new leaves—and big ones too! Now I’m thinking I need to take all my babies outside for the summer and see what they do!

The Polar Bear (still sporting her summer cut) met Lucy and me on a walk one morning after Brad let her out:

Lucy has taken to joining me in my bedroom at night (fluffy new bed is on its way!):

But as soon as I turn off the light, she leaves and goes to sleep on the guest bed in the loft that is closest to the stairs—I think it’s so she can keep an eye on all the things:

This is new behavior for her! She’s changed so much since the fire and becoming an only dog (inside dog that is). She is a part of our lives in a way that she wasn’t able to be before. She’s a lot happier. Last night I cleaned everything off that bed (the guest room isn’t fully put together yet) and put an old sheet on the guest bed so I could keep it clean. I woke up to this:

OMG! Not only did she pull off the protective sheet, she gave me the furry finger and pulled everything back and slept IN the bed 😂 What a monkey!

A few random pics:

Don't you just love pine bark:

And finally, these are the stairs to the loft, look at the top, funny girl:

THINGS TO DO AT THE RANCH THIS SUMMER:

August/September Women's Circle is 6 weeks: Aug 20 and 27, Sept 3, 10, 17, 24. Call, email, or text me if you'd like to join!

This week I booked two more Art Classes! Give me a text/call, I’d love to help you plan something fun!

I'm envisioning this as a fun thing to do with your coffee group, friend/family group, female work friends, book club, bible study, etc. I can take a group of 9 women. Fun and easy watercolor that I walk you through step by step, and we can snuggle the mini ponies, mini donkeys, and goats after, or even take the ponies or donkeys for a walk in the woods if the group is interested :-) Call, email, or text me, and I'll cater it to your group!

Equine Gestalt Coaching Sessions (these are private emotional wellness sessions for YOU not your horse ;-))

NeurOptimal Neurofeedback (keeping your mental and physical self healthy without having to dig deep like in a coaching session—as a matter of fact, you can read, write, or even nap during the session!)

If you'd like to talk about some of these, please email, text, or call me!

THE MEMES:

An entire story in 3 pics: