mergers, acquisitions & reputations

It might seem odd to you that I'd be posting a picture of my latest acquisition; especially while I'm doing a major purge, but I'm so excited about this I just have to share it! My mother-in-law has a vase like this that she sets on a round mirror and fills with pansies and from the first moment I saw hers I'd wanted one, it's lovely! I'd looked everywhere for one and for years have not been able to find one, well no longer do I have to look, I found one! I'm so excited! Now I cannot wait to go into the garden and pick pansies to place inside it!

On another note, regarding reputation...
Apparently I have a reputation for being a crafty/creative person, it's an accurate reputation and I'm glad to have it. I enjoy crafting, Faith and Andrew enjoy crafting and with no TV we are finding more time to do all sorts of things. I recently told a friend of mine whom I'd not seen for a while that we'd given up TV, with a stunned expression on her face asked if I was happy with this. I smiled and said, "Indeed we are!" This past Thursday I was given two large totes of craft supplies from my sister-in-law who had recently done a major purge at her house, and several shoebox sized totes and a few paper bags of counted cross-stitch supplies from my grandmother who due to issues with her eyes can no longer cross-stitch. I started showing both children how to do it last weekend and Faith has really taken to it. It's her speed and type of thing. Andrew tried it too as there wasn't much else going on, it was wet and raining and it 'looked easy' so about 20 minutes into it he was close to exploding with tension. He did enjoy trying it but he's such a go go go kind of guy, get it done zip zap and move right into the next thing this was not his thing. Faith has steadily plodded along and finished hers and had since started a second project which has Andrew fit to be tied. He will finish his, being as competitive as he is.

I'm thankful that we were given all these supplies and will certainly use them for a variety of things, so at the moment I'm working on sorting them and merging them with the other craft supplies I have.

And a confession, as you may be aware, I'm working on a 40 day 40 bag purge. It's going well, I purged two bags on each of the first two days, didn't actually purge anything for the next two days, but gave some thought as to what I would be purging then today purged 10 bags! So I'm feeling good about it and really like where this is headed. I was really on a roll today and I'm thinking that the dogs were worried they might be next! So I'm at 12 bags in 5 days - how about you?

reputation

*Isn't this picture tranquil?

I read a sign once regarding a good reputation - hard to earn, easy to lose. I don't know who said it, but it stuck with me. It's one of those things you just cannot argue with, like fact. Which leads me to what I'm thankful for tonight, I'm thankful for the reputation I have and by that I mean all of it. The good the bad and the ugly. I've got a reputation for being a straight shooter, not one who dances around and sugar coats things, impulsive, a hard worker, quick tempered, good in crisis situations, not always patient, refined, somebody who flies by the seat of my pants, a lover of animals and orphans, and others I may or may not know about. The reputation I'm talking about tonight is the animal lover part of me. Since September I've been asked to take in 5 alpacas, 1 horse, 3 ducks, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 5 goats and a Beta fish. Some might see this as having a reputation of being a sucker, I look at it as a blessing. (Did you hear that? Ron's head just exploded!) Lots of the animals here at From the Country Farm have come here as rescues of some sort or at one time or another. I consider it a blessing for two reasons; one being that I'm seen as a good steward or caretaker of Creation and two because most of the animals that I've been blessed with have something I can use to help pay to take care of them. (Garlic does not nor do I expect him to pay his own way, it is not possible to put a price on what he gives me.) I love working with textiles and natural fibers and creating things and what have I been blessed with, a milking goat to make soap, cheese, butter, ice cream and milk. Two fiber producing goats to make yarn with, a llama and 5 alpacas that have such wonderful fleece to make into even more yarn which I can sell to help with the cost of their care!

I am thankful for all of it, the reputation I have and the blessings I've received because of it.