I think every journal I have ever kept has that sentence at some point. I got started and then froze. I overcomplicated things in my own head. I forgot the most important thing…. NOBODY IS GOING TO READ THIS! At least for now anyway… I might have to start every post with that for the next while just so I remember.
I feel compelled to sum up the last four years. In a single word, SHIFT. Everything has shifted. I am in a very different place now. My responsibilities have changed. My goals have changed. I have let go of a lot of plans that weren’t working out. There are still some that could go that I’m not ready to drop, and time will tell whether they go or not. The boys are finding their way into being functional adults. My bus driving job is starting to do more harm to my body and soul than the salary is worth. I have done a lot of thinking over the last few years and kept writing the same thing over and over again in multiple notebooks: I want to travel. I want to live with the seasons. I want to simplify my life so that I have more control over how I live. I have started to realize that my life is about to be more wide open than it has been since I graduated high school and I have created an escape plan to take advantage of it.
I want to use this blog to share my journey. Yes, I say journey because that is definitely how I see it. The last few years the journey has been in my head. I have been searching out and absorbing input that fuels my inspiration. I have been refining the idea of what I want for my life. I know how much reading about other people’s journeys through life has helped me, so I want to share my own. I have a lot to fight through. Health, finances, distance, and the ever present blackberry war are all on my mind. I plan to discuss them all at some point, and I’m sure more will come up as I go.
Here’s my commitment to myself and anyone who ends up reading this blog: I aim to post 6 days a week. Let me write that with more impact: I WILL POST 6 DAYS A WEEK!!!! Starting today. That means I have to get up when I wake up, not lay in bed and play candy crush. I will treat this like my never-ending NANOWRIMO. That’s how it starts. May I never have to write that opening title again.
I love puns. We used to play with words in the most horrible ways when I was a kid. The worst we came up with was “possumbly.”… One day someone said, “Oh, no there’s a dead possum in the road. Do you think maybe he came from the swamp?” I replied, “Possumbly.” Everyone died laughing. Funny thing, though. Nobody seems to appreciate my puns as much now. We lost something growing up.
Anyway, I married into the name Cao. The proper Spanish pronunciation is “cow” but my kids prefer “K.O.” I can’t imagine why… Now if you have a family named Smith you would refer to them as the Smiths. The English convention is to add an ‘s’ to make it a plural. So with Cao we become the Caos. In Spanish that means exactly what it looks like: chaos. It fits. My husband had ADD in the best of ways and our boys continue the tradition. When they were little I kept threatening to rent them out as demolition experts.
Now it isn’t so bad, but life is chaotic. I try to keep a handle on it but things keep slipping through the cracks. The poultry refuses to be contained, the fridge is a constant terrifying science project, and the blackberry vines laugh at the goats, who can’t get out of their pasture, but escape any other enclosure I try to put them in so that they have a chance at consuming the brambles. Before we moved here I knew that I would call this place Caosville because it fit in every way. And I like it that way.
It has been a busy couple of weeks. Finally it is Sunday, my day to just be at home and not running around like a crazy person. Of course, that means it is also the day I do the most work around here. Usually the hardest part of that is rounding up the teens to do their share.
Last Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny day and much was accomplished. The lawn got mowed, then dragged with a blanket harrow to break up the weeds to make room for the seed I had Little Miss throw on the ground. As a reward for all her help she got to drive the mower a bit and then we finished the day by making a coop for her chicks to move into from the brooder box.
This Sunday is gray and rainy and so far I have done almost nothing. We had a road trip to Bend yesterday and the driving and not enough sleep really caught up with me. So today will be focused on indoor stuff. The house needs a good cleaning and I have four boxes of apples that have a grand destiny ahead of them. Applesauce is coming! How better to spend a gray fall day than with a house filled with the scent of apple and cinnamon and a chicken roasting in the oven. Yeah, it’s that kind of day.
Hello Internet! After ages of telling myself I was going to jump in, here I am. Caosville is a place, a theme and a state of mind. Here we know that whether you are going to make an omlette or hatch a chick that eggshell is going to have to get broken. And that’s okay! My life rarely goes according to plan and I am always having to adjust what I wanted to do to fit what I am able to get done, and that is okay too. It has to be because otherwise, who could stay sane? I could tell you everything there is to know about me and my world in one post, but that would make for a very long and boring read. Instead, why don’t I just introduce things a bit at a time.
Here’s the short version: Bus Driver, Quilter, Mom, Voracious Reader, Farmer, Lover of Delicious Food, some more dedicated than others, and not necessarily in that order. I get stories from every facet of my life and I think it would be fun to share. I hope you enjoy!
