Save them all

Garden, thinning, hard to do.
Want to save every pet.
Now I want to save every historic home that looks like it is about to fall down.

Show me the money

Recently I have felt like calling the newspaper where I work and having this conversation with them.

SHOW ME THE MONEY! (click on the words to get to the link)

Another famous quote comes to mind in my circumstances - "Do what you love and the money will follow." 

In April I asked the newspaper for which I freelance if they would consider an increase in pay. For two solid years, over 110 realty sections, with little direction and no "vacations" or time away from my work, I have committed my time and resources to provide outstanding materials.

About three weeks ago I was called in for some meetings, new staff had been hired and some changes were being made to the section I edit, write and layout each week. Finally! Working as a team, more direction, more communication, building a better resource for realtors and homebuyers to utilize for their needs (because up until now I didn't think the changes were mine to make).

While the meetings have felt productive, there has been little movement following. Instead I am confused by the talking heads and the sides they are taking. One side wants this, the other wants something different. The something different side has more power but has rescheduled our most recent meeting four different times, leaving me to scramble to find a babysitter and then cancel, three times over.

My time is valuable. My kids, my family, taking care of my home and my sanity is much more important than working this job. This last week I crafted my letter of resignation and have been very close to pressing "send" many times this weekend.

And then I found this.

Isn't she beautiful? Well, I didn't find it, but I did find this story about a home built in the early 1800's. Lived in by three confederate soldiers, purchased by a couple who farmed over 200 acres of the land, bore their children in the home, with a family name integral to the history of Hillsboro, VA. Five generations of this family sat together for dinner at this home for many years.

When one son of the farmer and his wife built this new home just down the road, he asked the masons to look on the old property for stones to use to build this landscape wall. They turned up with this from the old tanning barn...to skin animals for their hides, not the tanning we know today...a cornerstone with the carving of the year the barn was built, 1815.

I love my job. My father's passion for history has enveloped me and I love to write about historical homes in this part of the country. To stumble upon this gem makes me daydream about what life was like for all of the people that passed through the doors of this home.

When the family decided to put a central heating system in the home, the installers found some of the insulation to be grain. A natural spring running down from the local mountain ran right to the house for fresh water, and then not only for this home, but three others and the local school. The wide planked wood floors were hand cut from trees on the property and with a little finishing will be stunning.

So my heart tugs to keep doing what I love, because I really do love this. But the money isn't following. I have been asked for more of my time and handed more responsibility with no sign of an increase in pay. Make no mistake, money is not everything. But I am beginning to feel of little value and that is disheartening.

The Crim Family

Missing Louie

It has been over a month since we had to say goodbye to our beloved lab Lucas. While our hearts do not ache consistently as they did that first week he was gone, we still miss him and think of him often. Over 12 years of memories with that big ball of love, I know we had a great time with him, I hope he felt the same.

I am thankful Stephen agreed to adopt Lucy last fall. While it did take her a few months to settle in, she is doing so well. And she really helped fill the void we felt losing Lucas. She didn't replace him by any means, but I think having her around for all of us to love on really helped. She really is such a great dog and so much fun to have around.

Father's Day

I heard from the one who mattered most yesterday, "I had the BEST Father's Day!" So glad we could make it such a special day for him.

We packed a lunch and enjoyed the day exploring Harper's Ferry National Park. This little gem is about 40 minutes from our home and while Stephen and I enjoyed reading all of the historical background and taking in all of the old buildings, the kids enjoyed swimming in the river.

Telling me of his days gone by tubing with friends on this same river, I could tell he really enjoyed introducing the next generation to this beautiful, peaceful place. 

He may be dying but he hasn't changed his ways.

Our twelve and a half year old black lab has lymphoma. His lymph nodes are swollen and rock hard and the tumors seem to be growing leaps and bounds every day.

We decided to forego any treatment, he is a big, old dog and his time has come. He has led a happy, albeit, gluttonous life and we are sad to watch him go, but happy he has been such a part of our lives for so many years.

He was my first baby. Well, the rottweiler we had to give away was our first, but Lucas is the first baby that we kept. We picked him out of a litter of 9, all black. We drove home with him at eight weeks and raised him day by day.

We moved with him. And moved, and moved and moved (there are still not enough 'moves' in that sentence!). He was my walking buddy, I took him

summer projects

Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Insert blushing face now. 
The last month of school activities were crazy which left me little time to do much else including updating the blog. Which is unfortunate because the kids had some great achievements, funny quotes, fantastic photo opportunities. But I refuse to beat myself up about it. I do enough of that thinking about their baby albums...let me rephrase, their unfinished baby albums for my children who are now 8, 6 and 3.

We had a fantastic spring break. Which lead me to believe summer was going to be a lot of fun. Yet there was still some fear that the fighting, whining and "I'm bored" comments would begin within moments of packing away backpacks for fall retrieval.

Our first week of summer break has been very successful and I attribute its' ease to having a plan. As summer approached I sat down with a friend of mine and we planned our summer. We planned our days, which turned into weeks which made it look like summer would actually fly by faster than we would like.

So far the kids have really liked their scheduled days (Monday through Friday). On that schedule, I have picked a big craft for the kids and I to complete each week. This week included tooth pillows! Each child helped make this adorable soft place to hold their loose teeth (in the tooth's mouth!) in anticipation of the tooth fairy. The idea came from this lovely book I received as a gift for my birthday.

Yes, we have only completed week one. But I am hopeful our plan will be a continued success, especially with fun crafts like this one.