Nov 29 - Last Day Together - Thankful

Today is the last day my family will all be together for a very long time. My daughter deploys next week and we won't see her again until sometime late next year.  This will be the first Christmas that she won't be here. It will be one long hard year without her.  I know we will all make it but she will have limited communication capability and there will be months where we don't hear from her at all. We have been working hard to not think about her departure and so today, we will do all her favorite things.  We will have all her favorite foods.  We will spend time together laughing and enjoying each other's company.  We will be thankful that we got to spend this last holiday together and we will look forward to the next time we are all together again.

Where we love is home, 

Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nov 28- Day After Thankfulness

With only 2 days left of Thankfulness month, I want to be sure to express the one thing I am most thankful for in life.....Unconditional Love. I am blessed to be surrounded by unconditional love every single day. Mr. Yesteryear Acres showers me with unconditional love.  There is nothing that I could do or say that would lessen his love for me and there is nothing he could do or say that would lessen my love for him.  We truly deeply and unconditionally love each other.  We appreciate each other which I think is one of the biggest reasons that after 27 years of marriage, we are even more in love with each other than we were the day we married.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres works so hard each and every day and there is never a day that I forget to thank him for all his hard work.  I work equally as hard and there is never a day that he doesn't say how much he appreciates all I do.  Even when we have disagreements, we never forget how grateful we are to have each other.  I am so lucky to be loved by him.  I am also so lucky that my children love me unconditionally. I feel their love for me each and every day and in return, they know without a shadow of a doubt, my love for them is endless. When I was little, all I ever wanted to be when I grew up was to have love and be loved and spend my days raising a family and loving life.  I have all that and so much more.  I get to spend each day immersed in thankfulness and appreciation and love.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres, my children, my family, my doodle doggies, my doodle puppies - it is my fairytale come true.  And I am thankful.

Nov 27 - Family Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!  I hope your Thanksgiving Holiday brought joy, happiness, laughter, delicious food and lots of love. Ours sure did! We had a house full of family and dinner lasted for hours as we shared stories, gave thanks and enjoyed our delicious bountiful feast.  It was a perfect night.  As we went around the table and shared what we were most thankful for, it was clear that we are all very grateful for the love we have for our family.  We love being together.  We love laughing together.  We love that we give thanks and appreciate all our many blessings. Happy Thanksgiving from Yesteryear Acres.  May your blessings be many and your hearts filled with love.

Thank you for a house full of people that I love ~ Amen 

Nov 26- Thanksgiving Eve Thankfulness

Today has been a whirlwind of non-stop activity here at Yesteryear Acres.  We have puppies getting ready to go home this weekend and puppy care packages were lovingly assembled today.  We have a mommy dog in the early stages of labor so we are on puppy watch.  We have a house full of family arriving tomorrow so we have been cleaning and organizing and setting up tables.  We have a feast to prepare so we have been baking and cleaning.  The adage, "Many Hands Make Light Work" is the motto of the day.  I am so thankful for all the extra help today.  This morning the "To-Do List" seemed almost impossible.  I went to bed last night right before 2:00am and woke up early this morning and started working at 6:00am. I was so afraid I would never get everything done.  Thankfully everyone pitched in and one by one we have been crossing things off the list. We will be working late tonight but I think we are in excellent shape for our beautiful holiday tomorrow.  I am so thankful.  Happy Night Before Thanksgiving! "All that we behold is full of blessings" ~ William Wordsworth

Nov 25 - Refrigeration Thankfulness

With Thanksgiving happening the day after tomorrow, my kitchen is bursting at the seams with the many ingredients necessary for the big feast.  I finished the last of my shopping today and tomorrow starts the non-stop cooking marathon.  I will start making heavenly delicious goodness as soon as I wake up tomorrow morning.  Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite meal of the entire year and I can't wait.  Our house will be full of family and love and yummy food and we will gather round the table to share our thanks.  I am sooooo excited!  Today's Thankfulness is for my second refrigerator! With all the food we eat around here, I would be lost without it. Right now it is full of eggs and butter and milk and cream and a big fat huge turkey. I am so thankful that I have room to store everything I need to make the big feast.  Thank you extra refrigerator. Your contents will soon bring smiles to all those gathered for our Holiday of Thanks.

Nov 25 - Thankful for Monday Puppy Hugs

Our Double Doodle Puppies and our Goldendoodle Puppies are getting so big! They are the sweetest bunch of puppies and just love to snuggle in our laps. This Sunday our Double Doodle Puppies start going to their new homes and then the following weekend the Goldendoodle puppies will be ready for their new homes. We still have available puppies too!

One of Sweet Pea's Goldendoodle Girls

Group Hug!

They have the sweetest little faces

Smile for the camera!

Cheese!

This week our Goldendoodle Puppies start housebreaking training

They are glad all the snow melted!

Marmalade's Double Doodle Puppies have the silkiest softest coats

They are big marshmallows of love

and have super gentle easy going temperaments

Puppy Group Hug!

So snuggly sweet!

A big hug of thanks!

Happy Monday!

Nov 23 - Game Night Thankfulness

Last night after dinner was game night.  Game night at Yesteryear Acres is never a quiet affair.  With each subsequent round in the game, the noise level increases. We have points to make, drawings to guess, cards to win.  The escalation might be considered deafening to those not familiar with Yesteryear Acres competitiveness.  We all want to win.  Along with vocal cord popping enthusiasm goes non-stop laughter.  We laugh so hard and so long.  This often leads to us stopping the timer so we can continue to roll on the floor laughing.  As soon as we dry our eyes and collect ourselves long enough to resume the game, the laughter begins once again and in the end, we actually really don't care who wins or loses.  We have so much fun playing that we all look forward to the next time we have game night.  Today while we were busy working, we relived the highlights of last night's antics and that kept us smiling and laughing all day.  Game night at Yesteryear Acres - thankful and then some!

Nov 22 - ASM Thankfulness

My son got AWESOME news today!  He was accepted into The Ohio State University - Agricultural Systems Management program.  The Agricultural Department at OSU is incredible.  We had a personal tour of the entire Agricultural Department in September and my son was in love with everything.  I am pretty sure the moment that won my son's heart was when he was able to tour the "garage" full of combines, sprayers and other huge tractors. There is no doubt that my son's passions lie with farming and the Agricultural Systems Management program is a perfect fit.

My son, the future farmer

Even Olive was excited and of course had to give her congratulations too!

We are all so thankful!

Happy Day!

Nov 21 - Thankful for Nothingness

There are so many moments here at Yesteryear Acres where nothing out of the ordinary is going on.  Nothing earth shattering. Nothing newsworthy.  Nothing of particular merit or excitement .....just the normal ebb and flow and rhythm of life.  All of these seemingly ordinary moments are really what life is all about.  It isn't the big huge occasions or special celebrations. It is the day-to-day moments that fill our lives.  I am thankful for the "nothingness" because in my nothingness - I find the greatest happinesses.  When my son comes home from school and sits down to talk to me about his day - I am thankful.  When Mr. Yesteryear Acres walks in the door whistling a happy tune - I am thankful.  When my daughter texts me with a heart emoticon - I am thankful.  When my son's girlfriend calls me to tell me she got an A on her lab report, I am thankful. When my Doodle Doggies follow me around the house with their tails wagging, I am thankful.  I am thankful for long talks around our dinner table. I am thankful for cooking big dinners and having my family love what I have prepared. I am thankful for relaxing by a fire and watching the flames dance. I am thankful for all moments big and small. If someone were to ask me what happened at Yesteryear Acres today, I would probably say, "Oh nothing much".  Isn't that wonderful?

Nov 20 - Thankful for Gratitude

My son told me about an article he read for school that said gratitude was the number one predictor of future success and happiness. Those people who appreciate their many blessings are much more satisfied with life and find more successes than those who neglect to appreciate what they already have. We both agreed with the article.  Expressing gratitude is something Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I have made a priority in our lives. When our children were very little, we started a dinner time tradition of sharing what our favorite thing of the day was.  Even in the worst of days, there is always something to be grateful for. Sometimes it might be something as seemingly trivial as the food served at dinner but focusing on how lucky we are to have dinner together brings the crazy hectic world into focus.  We are grateful for our dinners we share together. We are grateful for the food on the table.  We are grateful for the roof over our heads and the comfy beds to lay our heads on each night.  We never forget to give thanks and in giving our thanks, we lead lives full of appreciation.  Nothing is taken for granted and we feel beyond blessed as we are surrounded by love each and every day. I am thankful for the feelings of gratitude that fill me with happiness.  I am thankful for my life and all my blessings.  I am thankful to have so much to be thankful for and I am forever grateful for my family, my Doodle Doggies and my life at Yesteryear Acres.

Nov 19 - Thank you mittens

Winter has hit Yesteryear Acres with a sharp cold HELLO!  I don't think anyone here was quite ready for 8* weather in November.  It is so cold! I have always had trouble staying warm in cold weather.  I wear layers upon layers and am never far from my electric blanket.  In fact, even as I write today's blog, I have my electric blanket turned on high and am buried under the warm layers.  I hate to be cold. I love love love love winter, but hate to be cold. I am usually the first one back in the house when we go outside to play in the snow because I get cold so fast that I just can't enjoy myself while my teeth are chattering.  I also live with a bunch of Polar Bears who NEVER get cold.  My son wears a t-shirt through most of winter.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres rarely wears a coat!  They are NEVER cold.  Whenever I say that I am cold I get, "Well I'm not cold!"  Gee thanks! Well this winter, things are going to be different! My mom got me the most epic pair of mittens ever.  They are expedition weight mittens used for climbing the Himalayas or Mount Everest or some other Arctic adventure.  Today when I was outside playing in the snow, my hands were as warm as if I had a mug of hot chocolate inside my mittens.  Warm hands!  It was so nice to have warm hands!  I also have my son's snowsuit. It is made for dog sledding and he NEVER wears it so I took it.  And it is perfect.  I am so warm and toasty inside my suit!  Even though I look like I am ready for trekking across Antarctica and even though my son cracks up when he looks at my outfit and even though Mr. Yesteryear Acres chuckles at my Nanuk of the North attire - I am warm.  Finally.  Thank you snow suit! Thank you mittens! Toasty warm!

Nov 18 - Snow Day Thankful

Yesterday morning at exactly 5:33am our phone started ringing. Normally this event would not bring me happiness but this call was to let us know......SNOW DAY!  No School! I immediately looked out the window and exhaled a grateful "ohhhhhhhh" as everything was blanketed in white. It was beyond beautiful.  Our first real snowfall of the season. I love snow. I love the beauty of a snow-filled landscape. Thank you Mother Nature!

This was the view from our back door yesterday morning

A winter wonderland!

My son and I quickly got ready to go on a snow hike

Everyone loves a snow day!

Even the horses!  

Our back field

We decided we needed to go back to get Mr. Yesteryear Acres

Olive said, "I will fetch him!"

Mr. Yesteryear Acres loved walking in our snow-globe

It was so peaceful and so beautiful

We love living here 

My son has perfected taking our pictures....his camera is mounted on a rod

I think we took over 300 pictures

It was snow-globe perfection

Olive and Blossom agreed!

Let's check out the pond!

Just starting to freeze

Swinging in the snow

I am pretty sure this says it all

 

Horses through the snow heart

And "Olive"

Snow Day Thankfulness!

Nov 17 - Monday Thankfulness

Every Monday is Puppy Picture Monday which means brand new puppy pictures on our website and brand new puppy pictures for the blog.  I am thankful that every single Monday I am able to share a little puppy happiness.

Last time to enjoy the green grass

Mr. Yesteryear Acres says the snow is coming!

I smell the snowflakes in the air

Come on Mr. Yesteryear Acres! Let's Play!

Follow the Leader!

I got the first hug!

I want one too!

Puppy Kisses are the best

Let's play tag!

Did somebody say Freeze Tag?

Potty Break!

Hide and Seek Time

Do you think Mr. Yesteryear Acres will find us? 

Here he comes!

Mr. Yesteryear Acres - you are the best finder ever!

Sweet Pea's Goldendoodle Puppies are getting bigger

Puppy Hugs!

Snow days are good for cuddling in blankets

Happy Monday!

Have a Thankful Snowy day!