Slaters' Funny Farm

 Holiday time is right upon us and it is not any different here on the farm. Animals have changed and we no longer have any horses or large animals, except for the Great Dane that my husband loves so much. We still have ducks, rabbits, chickens, cats and dogs, which still takes some time to take care of, but life is much simpler these days. With the holidays around the corner, I am quite busy with many plans with friends and family as well as with gifts, decorating, and all the hustle and bustle that comes with the holidays. With that craziness, I have also found out that I am looking at another foot surgery in January that will once again take me off my feet for several weeks and recovery will be close to 6 months or more again. UGH! Because the doctor wants it to be early January (the 12th to be exact), I am not doing much decorating this year and it makes the holiday not seem as bright and shiny.  Matter of fact, I am emotionally really struggling in many aspects of my life and I am

                                                     Copyright ; 2012   Publisher: Zondervan A Season of Love by Amy Clipston is the fifth and final book in the Kauffman Amish Bakery Series. This book finalizes the story with three young women beginning a new season of their lives. At 285 pages, it is a fairly easy read and I enjoyed the fact that the book had discussion questions at the end of it so that it could easily be used for a book club. A glossary of Pennsylvania Dutch words at the beginning of the book is a tremendous help as well when reading the book.  Amy has done an amazing job of bringing characters together in each of these books and this one centers around Katie Kauffman and her desire to be with a young man that is not of the Amish faith. Knowing that she can't be with him and yet, a love that will not leave her mind. After being caught in seemingly compromising situations with him, her father has decided that she needs to leave the home and go live with family sh

If you have ever been to South Haven, Michigan you will know that it is absolutely one of the prettiest places on Earth. A recent girl's trip took my friend and I there and I am anxious to return and see some of these same sights again. The views of Lake Michigan, the shops, the food, and fun made it a wonderful weekend!   They were actually preparing for a wedding on the beach and it was such a pretty sight! On the other side of the beach, we actually seen another bride and groom that had just exchanged wedding vows. What memories!! How much fun it would be to live in this house? Look at the rounded part of the home and just the sheer beauty you would be surrounded by each day! We discussed that we would have a sun room or breakfast nook overlooking the water and how we would like to spend our days there. We really enjoyed South Beach. We went to a few others along the water, but I felt that this was our favorite! We actually went on a nice day in September so we were able to take

 What are your plans for this Saturday morning? Life had to start early for me today as I am going to a holiday craft show to sell Pink Zebra products today. Anyone that enjoys home fragrance, needs to give Pink Zebra a try. We have wonderful home decor as well and we have added game changing hand sanitizers and soaps to our product line.  Hand sanitizers that are Ph balanced are much nicer for your hands and I have found that when I use others I can truly feel the difference in ours. My hands are much softer and do not dry out as bad. They also smell wonderful and do not live your hands sticky as so many others do. For those that use it daily, it is a hand saver. Other than the show today, I plan to rest a bit. I need to have surgery on my other foot and it is really causing some pain. I had to see the doctor yesterday and she basically told me that the foot deformity should have been fixed months ago. Many of you know that I am just now fully recovering from the surgery that I had l

 October is in full force here, but the weather sure is odd this year. We are usually at peak color around this time and we have just barely started to see color on our trees. As I look out the window, I see a little orange and yellow, but not much. Our county is known for it's leaves, which drives all the locals crazy as many tourists flock here to see leaves. The same leaves that are in their own yards and change the same as ours do, but they just feel they see them better here. The photo below is a Google Image, but it looks like our road when color is at its' prime.  Red, yellow, and orange can usually be seen in abundance here, but I must say that I don't usually notice until it looks like this on my drive out. My friends love to visit in the fall because of the colors.  This photo is a Google Image too, but I love it. Each morning, I find chickens on our porch banister and I have thought many times that if I placed pumpkins in my window sill, they would attempt to pec

Image Provided by Google                    Hello! It's a rainy Sunday here on the farm and I must say that I am not feeling the best either. I have a migraine and I truly struggle with them these days. I feel that I can't get my Excedrin to help with them anymore either. Do any of you struggle with migraines and what seems to help? I have used peppermint oil to help as well, but it doesn't seem to be doing much good these days either.  Life has been crazy these days. I have made several short trips with my daughter and grands. We went to Michigan and enjoyed a few days there. We have gone to the Creation Museum and the Newport Aquarium for fall break and enjoyed the time there as well. It was a celebration of the granddoll enjoying school and doing very well there and then a birthday celebration for the little one. Hard to believe she is a year old and many of you know that I have struggled with her and feelings that I have. I am still struggling and she is a very differen

 It seems as though everyone I know is sick and most are Co-Vid related. I myself have not been feeling well and I am waiting on a call from the doctor's office to see if I need to be tested myself. I woke up yesterday feeling nauseous and had a horrible headache. Today, I still have a headache but I am not nauseous and feel a bit better.   I don't have a cough and I don't have a fever, so I really do not think it is this horrible virus, but I want to make sure. I lost a cousin last week to Co-Vid 19 and he was very healthy and younger than myself. I can't imagine the pain his family is feeling as I know it has really had me in a horrible funk and mad at the world.  I just want to be sure that I am doing all that I can to help my family stay well. I will not allow the virus to take another family member.  I have several people near me that are sick with it right now. A good friend has both parents home sick and now her dad's oxygen is dropping. I also have family me

 I had a fabulous trip to Branson and enjoyed our Pink Zebra reunion so much. Thanks to Tom, Kelly, the customer service team, the product development team, and John as well as the many others it takes to make the reunion fabulous each year. I will see you all in Reno.  I made a few new friends at this reunion as I am comfortable enough with myself to speak to someone I don't know. This company has given me confidence that I never had before. This company has given me a passion for home fragrances that I never expected to have. If I walk in my home and there is not something nice scenting it, I begin to question everyone why the warmers are not filled and on. If you have never tried Pink Zebra, please let me share the best home fragrance with you. With 70 scents that are blendable, the possibilities are endless. The products are non toxic and if you use hand sanitizer daily, you need to try ours. It is ph balanced , so it does not dry your hands like so many others do. Here is my 

Greetings from a hot and humid area of the country! Farm life is a little more difficult when the temperatures are in the 90's and heat indexes are even higher. If you live in an area that does not have a lot of humidity, you sure are lucky. I figured I better get on here today and write a bit as I will be leaving to go to my daughter's this week and then we are headed to Branson, Missouri for our annual Pink Zebra reunion. Last year, we were supposed to be in Branson, but due to Co-Vid, we were only able to be virtual. This year, the show is back on and we are super excited to be heading that way on Thursday! It is not my first trip to the area, but I am excited to go back and I love getting to meet Zebras from all over the country and will meet two of our team mates for the first time in person! Super exciting!!!! * All photos will be courtesy of Google Images on this post* We will arrive on Thursday and Friday evening we will be taking a cruise on the Branson Belle with many

  This image is from Google Images, but I thought that it was too cute to not share. I use Google Images often with my Pink Zebra business and so I thought that I would use one here today as well. I have not taken many photos recently as I have been busy with my Pink Zebra business.  I want to thank each of my readers for the many years that you all have supported me and my family in the blog world. I have never made money from my blog, but I would like too. I just am not sure that I want to open it to the crazy money world. I like that it is still personal and a family blog, so I will just keep things the way that they are now.  Life seems to get in the way of writing so many times these days, but I don't want to give up as I love my blogger friends, so although I may not be here often, I have decided that I am going to keep this up for now and I am going to do my best to continue to keep you all in the know with what is going on. I may move away from the farm stuff and write more

Farm days in the summer can be quite long, hot ,and exhausting. I am thankful that we don't live on a large farm and that we don't have a huge garden, but the animals are enough work. This year seems to already be off to a hot start and I am sure that it will only get hotter and more humid as we roll into July and August.  Here's the newest farm project. 10 baby chicks. A variety of kinds, but they were on sale at Rural King so hubby decided that we certainly needed them. For now, they are separated from the other older chickens and I am sure they will be for a month or so. The camera was a scary sight for them.   Our garden plot! Very small but several rows of planted seeds. We shall see what they do.  After a day of working in the garden, taking care of animals, helping the grandkids and hubby with whatever the days agenda is. it's nice to be able to relax and enjoy a nice cold glass of blueberry water outside on the porch.  My favorite way to fuse water is to add blu

 Life on the farm has been more about being off the farm lately. It seems that the month of May has literally been a blur! I have found that life has been in the fast lane lately and I am ready for a few slower days in my life.  I have started working on my health a bit more and I am being more cautious about my food choices and my snack choices. I like to snack and I will admit it! I love cookies, a good cake, ice cream, etc. I also love my lattes! I need to make better choices in what I eat. I have been trying as well as attempting to exercise a bit more now that my foot is a bit better. Starting out easy because I don't like to work out so to speak. I like to walk, so I am attempting to do a bit more of that.  My daughter and I took the grand kids to a couple of new parks the other day and enjoyed the sunshine and warmer temps. I walked over 6 miles that day and although, I know it was good for me, I was certainly sore the next day. I did enjoy a few trails that day and I will b

 Each year my friends and I take a vacation. Last year the virus made our trip to Michigan not happen, but it will next year, I am sure. This year, we decided on a trip to Asheville, NC and to the Great Smokey Mountains and Gatlinburg area. We have been there multiple times, but we don't mind going back. This trip was to be fun and relaxation before the craziness of two kids getting married within two weeks of each other was to take place. Before I go into all the details, I will say that it was far from uneventful and not so relaxing. We left early on a Sunday morning and before we got to our cabin in Gatlinburg, I received a call that my mother had been in a rather bad wreck and was headed to the hospital to be checked out. She had been t-boned by a motorcyclist and was suffering from cuts on her face and I was worried about a concussion. ( Mind you, my mom is 85 years old this year and in fairly good health despite her life hanging in the balance from a ruptured esophagus).  Des