A Simple Birthday Celebration

I hate to disappoint, but this is not a recipe.  I did not make any of this from scratch.  I cheated.

My eldest son was born on New Years Day 2005.  This has made birthday celebrations a little tricky at times, but has also made me realize that simpler really is better.  The years that I have gone out of my way to make complicated (and expensive) birthday plans, it has only brought undue stress to all of us. 

This year we are keeping it old school.  I MADE him a birthday cake and let him help.  We made chocolate peppermint cookies, too.  (Mostly because grandpa loves chocolate and we didn't want to leave him out.)

I'm not about to get wild and tell you how I made all of this from scratch - because I didn't.  The cake and cookie mixes were on sale for $0.37 each because they were in holiday themed packaging.  (Man, I love bargains.)  Now, granted, the cake does have red and green flecks in the batter, but I asked him and he didn't care.  We decided that it looked like confetti anyway.

We've invited friends and family who were going to be in the area to meet us at a pizza place that has arcade games and go-karts.  They have an all-you-can-eat buffet and plenty of room.  I didn't make a big fuss with themed plates and napkins and cups and hats, because all a seven-year-old boy really wants to do is open presents and play games, anyway.  I have discovered that often, the "big fuss" is more important to the moms than it actually is to the kiddos.

So, next time you're stressing about making sure your child's birthday as special as possible, stop and think about which parts of it they are actually going to remember and just focus on those and let the other details fall to the wayside.  You'll be glad you did.

Christmas On The Farm

When your living is dependent on the cattle market or the weather, it seems that it is often feast or famine.  Being one of six children of a farmer/rancher, I can tell you that results of these less than dependable factors can be glaringly obvious at Christmas time.

My parents, though, were smart and resourceful and always made the most of what we had at the time.  I never really knew which year was feast and was which was famine.  Instead of dragging us along to shop among the throngs of frantic holiday-goers or fretting about excessive decorating, my parents chose to spend more time over more money and gave us holiday memories that still echo in my heart 20+ years later.

Each Christmas, we would load up and make the two hour trip to the Christmas tree farm where we would drink hot chocolate around a large outdoor fire and ride in a horse drawn buggy among the rows of fragrant green trees.  They would let us choose the perfect tree and then we cut it down ourselves and drug it to the cart path where it was picked up and loaded on our car.

Once situated in our living room, the smell of pine permeated the entire house - an amazing scent that meant the Christmas season had begun.  After stringing it with twinkling white lights and covering it with years worth of accumulated ornaments, we would often drink eggnog and watch Christmas movies.

Thinking back, I couldn't tell you what gifts I received or what kind of holiday goodies were baked or even how the house was decorated, but I can vividly remember cutting down our own Christmas tree and the warmth and togetherness that it inspired each year.

Take the opportunity this holiday season to purchase quality memories with your time, just as you purchase quality gifts with your money.  Many years down the road, your family will remember the things you did together, even when the memories of the gifts purchased and money spent have been long faded.

Click For Inspiration

Now, this is obviously not me, but this is how I feel when I know I have a lot to get done!

There are so many things throughout the course of a day that truly need my attention, that I have absolutely NO desire to do.  Being your own boss has lots of perks, but for this country girl, there is one huge drawback - MOTIVATION!  Whether you're a freelance writer like me, a seasoned artist, a craft connoisseur or even a stay at home mom, you probably thrive with the adequate motivation.  So, to help us all, I've put together a list of things that inspire me.  I hope some will inspire you, too!

Disclaimer: If you are one of those energetic do-it-yourselfers who don't need caffeine in the morning and never let the dirty dishes pile up in the sink, this list is probably not for you.

Here's a quarter... call someone who cares...
When I am lacking inspiration and just need to feel a little better about procrastinating, there are two people I call.  They let me bounce my big (and sometimes crazy) ideas around.  They give me feed back.  They tell me that some things just take time.  We may talk for five minutes or we may talk for an hour, but I always hang up feeling a surge of motivation to tackle whatever it is I am dreading.  Thanks, Mom and Tiff... for listening!

Catch a flick...
This may sound really strange, but when I am needing true creative inspiration, I watch movies that I loved from my childhood - and some more recent ones that I like for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Now, granted, this does nothing for me when I need to do the dishes -- except for giving me an extra hour and a half-long time frame in which to NOT do dishes. 
It always lends inspiration when I need to write or put together some create savvy business idea.  This is probably due to the fact that these movies always remind me of the magic of my childhood.  The following short list is a sample of some of the many movies I go to when I need a pick-me-up.  Some are more current than others and some are markedly strange, I'll admit.  I can't guarantee that they will work for you, but if you think back, you probably already have your own list.

• Anne Of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea
• You've Got Mail
• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (the old one from the 70's)
• Hocus Pocus
• Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
• Sleepy Hollow
• Drive Me Crazy
• Twilight (yes... all of them... I know... don't judge)
• Beauty and the Beast
• Tombstone
• 19 Kids and Counting
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
• 200 Cigarettes
• Dirty Dancing
• 16 Candles
• Son In Law
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Persuasion
• Reality Bites
• The Parent Trap (not the new one... the 1960 version)

Get OUT!
Sometimes all I have to do is leave the confines of my home and smell the fresh air to find inspiration.  I'm sure my snooty suburban neighbors find it strange that I sit in a lawn chair in my front yard and work on my laptop or read a magazine.  Take time to enjoy what's around you, like the sunset or the stars or the sounds and smells of the great outdoors. (Side note: If you are my neighbor and you are actually reading this, I'm sorry for calling you snooty.  Seeing that I have only actually had the opportunity to meet a grand total of four families in my neighborhood, I don't think there is much danger there.)

Sunsets at my suburban abode don't even compare to sunsets on the prairie.

Change gears...
I can make myself sit at my computer all day and write.  It makes me cranky and grumpy and has caused me to gain a lovely 10 pounds that I am still trying to work off.  Bleh.  I have discovered that not only is my writing better when I change gears every hour or so, but my rear end fares far better as well.  It's true.
I try to switch between sitting activities and standing ones.  Sometimes I do the dishes (only because I have to, not because I like to), sometimes I work in the yard, sometimes I clean house, sometimes I just go out and play with the kids.  Work, play, work, play... this is supposed to be fun, right?

If you have to have neighbors, you may as well enjoy them, talking to other adults during the day often boosts my creative juices... and breaks the pattern of reading Dr. Seuss books and refereeing kids scuffles.

Take a break...
This is by far my favorite tool for inspiration.  I give myself complete release to do something frivolous.  When you work for yourself, every minute that you are not working, you are not making money.  I used to feel very guilty if I wasn't at my computer, pecking away, writing mundane article after mundane article.  Now, I realize that if I sit down and watch TV for an hour or browse at Hobby Lobby without feeling guilty about it, those mundane articles become a little less mundane and my work pace actually improves.

These solutions may sound simple, but actually doing them when you have an entire to-do list with nothing actually checked off yet, can be a challenge.  Take the challenge and chill out, do things backwards... as my dad always says just before the last steer has been worked, "If you girls would have started with this one, we'd have been done a long time ago."  Thanks, Bob.

"Paints the Perfect Picture of What It's Like Growing Up in the Country"

This is the epitome of growing up in the country. I never quite understood people who could live without stars at night or Oklahoma sunsets. I don't even see the point of living somewhere other than the south when you know you're going to lose the beauty. Amber and I make a lot of jokes about growing up as the "ranch hands" but the truth is we wouldn't be anywhere close to the people we are today if we hadn't grown up in the manner that we did or with the people we did. It took me living in the big city while getting my degree to realize that there really is no place like home when this is your home.

This picture is only a small portion of the family members.
The nieces and nephews we grew up with were more like cousins and the brothers and sisters were like aunts and uncles. We didn't necessarily understand this until we were older, though. Although we are an entirely mixed and complicated family, we are entirely integrated with each other. We enjoy each other, even if outsiders don't enjoy us. I tend to warn people before bringing them into my grandmother's house during a holiday not to be overwhelmed. We are large and loud and completely insistent that outsiders join in on the chaos that is the Phillips family. I also joke that we love picking up stragglers. You can guarantee that there will be at least one or two new people at any given holiday... especially Fourth of July.

R.C. (or Bobby, as I like to call him) is the glue that holds us all together. There have been hard times in our family just like everyone else's. Sometimes all you need is for Dad to tell you that everything will be okay.. "so quit your crying. There are cattle to work and fences to build. I'll wait for you in the truck."
I'm only partly kidding about that. Dad is a tough one but he has made us all survivors. I think he and I clash the most because we have such similar personalities. I helped him on the farm all through my high school years. I quit about a hundred times from the time I was 14 until I was 18. While other girls were working in clothing stores and waiting tables I was chasing a black steer down the highway in cowboy boots and sweatpants, wishing I had remembered to shut the gate!