We'uns!

Finally, I have some time to introduce myself! My name is "Netherfieldmom", because we LOVE Pride & Prejudice, actually all things Austen, most things English and historical. We live on a small hobby farm in the Midwest where the scenery is pretty boring and the weather is just ridiculous (although I am trying really hard not to complain, as has been my hobby this year.)

Our house was sold "as is", so we live in remodeling and that creates its own atmosphere of struggle/creativity and adaptability. We have three brainiac beautiful daughters, 14, 9 and 4. And I feel confident that I am one of the very few women in the United States who has a rooster living in her kitchen. Fear not, germ-phobic friends, lots of newspaper, a good sweeper and Yankee Candles keep the Board of Health at bay.


We homeschool, not because we ever intended to, but the Lord had plans for us--big plans. It is a challenge and it stretches me, a lot--hence my blog name. I always feel like I need to grow more and faster. I suppose that's good, actually. It is wonderful to decide my own schedule and not have to dance to anyone else's, but I think it makes me somewhat of a rebel, in a good way. "It's my life and I'll decide how to live it," kind of way.

We garden, we have chickens and horses and corgis (Welsh herding dogs) and cats. Both sets of our parents are living nearby, so we have elder care for his--making us the sandwich generation. We have loving family and friends. I really live a charmed life and I recognize it most of the time.



My husband is in the movie business although most of his time is spent in the much less glamour-filled role of lighting commercials...hospitals, groceries, appliance stores, restaurants, politicians. He is a lighting mercenary, known as a gaffer. He did films before we had children and now relishes staying home with his family more than travelling for months at a time. (Someday, we'll go do Lord of the Rings IV!! :)) We met at an antique auction, where he didn't tell me his name, but due to divine cooperation, I was able to hunt him down like a prize elk and well, the rest is a great story for another day.

I have ridden horses since childhood, competing through college and teaching into adulthood, finally "retiring" when my kids started costing more time than my riding could allow. Now, my husband has re-ensconced my dream, building me a barn, putting in four million fence posts and working himself to a lather to allow me to "have it all".



We raised chickens with some friends a couple of years ago, and still have that flock, including a couple of banties that we raised ourselves (with the help of a willing hen and the US Postal Service). They are dirty, silly, entertaining and friendly, and they make something to show for your work--as opposed to the horses who just make something to make you work (although my tomatoes may provide evidence of something worthwhile coming from horses--we'll see.)

I love to scrapbook, knit, crochet and do anything horse related. I read a lot whenever possible, which is usually in ten-minute bursts in the bathroom. We have books sitting on every horizontal surface of our house and we like to cook together when we're not building something. I used to grind wheat and bake bread, but my horses have eaten up all my time to do relaxing things. Maybe if I could stop standing there talking to them and brushing their tails while they eat.

Hope to meet lots of new readers this week! Gotta go hay!