And the winner is...

Resident Miss Tardy Pants Reporting late for duty.

With the state of Michigan being shut down for the last four days due to "inclement" weather I've had yet ANOTHER day with the monkeys. Who, at this point, have turned rabid. If I don't get to the store soon I will run out of Windex! Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my girls. In fact, I've even survived whole summers. The breaking point for this extended Christmas break from school is that the temperatures been averaging about -20 to -25 degrees F. Um... I can't send them outside!!!! The dog doesn't even want to go out! In fact, the other night whilst walking back up to the house, when the dog had to poo at 11:30 p.m., the wind started to gust hard enough to almost knock my big ass down and cold enough to freeze my eyeballs. My EYEBALLS!! I could feel the surface of my eyeball freezing and then my eyelashes were freezing together by the time I made it to the door. Needless to say I am ready for the weather to warm up. Not to mention we've had 20-30 inches of snow drop on us in just a few days time. Thank goodness for friends with plow trucks because it was too damn cold to use the snow blower!! On a good note though, my new winter boots, while fashionable, kept my feet nice and toasty!

Okay so enough of my drama and excuses on why I was AWOL yesterday. On to the Haiku!

Everyone had great entries. All of them evoked one emotion or another from me. The dirty mind that I have, a few of them evoked some delicious emotions! Also, what would a Haiku Monday be without a hilariously naughty RafaDe original?  All were wonderful, all were very well written. Having said that, one haiku just wouldn't leave me alone. It kept calling me back time and time again.

I am told to quit

I am told I should face facts

I won't sleep 'til dead

Congratulations Doom!

You are this weeks winner!!

Doom's first one poked and poked at me. It's still poking at me, and I still can't tell you why. The fact that it is still drawing me in is the very reason why I have picked this as the winning haiku. 

Kudos to all who played this week. I really did love them all. Thank you all for coming out to play. As always I promise to try to be more prompt in the future.

Happy Hump Day!!
CoreyJo

Haiku Monday Contest

This last week I won the haiku contest. I can't tell you the last time I wrote a poem, let alone a haiku poem. Thank you Amanda @ Funky Frugal Mommy for boosting a lady's spirit. Anyways, this week it's my turn to host. Sorry about the lateness of the post, but if you know me, Resident Miss Tardy Pants, you aren't surprised.

In honor of the new year I have chosen the theme of Aspiration/Aspire.

Aspiration:
     noun:
       1.  strong desire, longing, or aim; ambition.
       2.  a goal or objective desired

Aspire:
     verb:
       1.  to long, aim, or seek ambitiously; be eagerly desirous,
            especially for something great or of high value.

Many of us tend to make resolutions for the upcoming year. Many of us break those resolutions rather quickly. I myself do not make resolutions because I know I will most likely be the first person to break them. Instead I set goals. Small goals that I know I can achieve. With each goal met I try to make the next goal a little bigger, a little more challenging. The thing about goals is they are leading somewhere. Each goal met is a building block for something bigger. There has to be an ultimate goal you are aspiring to reach otherwise the smaller goals are for naught.

Everyone has aspirations. A little girl aspires to be a princess so she becomes a beauty queen. A young man aspires to be a world renowned architect so he builds things. A woman desires to own her own bakery so she saves money to buy the best mixers and kitchen equipment available. A man aspires to retire early and travel the world so he works odd jobs on his days off from his 9-5 job to earn extra money that he can invest.

Be it the stepping stone goals or the big picture aspirations. Whether it's about a little girl growing up to be a space engineer, a squirrel set on having the biggest nut collection for winter, or if it's your own personal goals/aspirations, put it into the standard 5-7-5 haiku format and leave it in the comments section below. Now I'm by far not an expert on all the rules of haiku, but as long as it has the correct syllable count, and it's posted in the comments by the time I log on Tuesday morning, it qualifies for my judgement.  So let the game begin.

Kisses
CoreyJo

One last hurrah for the year...

As I sat cozied up in my recliner this morning paying the bills online, I looked outside and noticed super tiny snowflakes drifting downward, almost in slow motion. The house was quiet as I was the only one yet awake. I sat and enjoyed the peace knowing that it wouldn't last long. As I watched these slow motion snowflakes and listened to the quiet of the house words started to drift through my mind. The longer I sat there watching nature's beauty the faster the words started to flow. I thought to myself, "Well Hell! I better write this shit down!".

Even though it's been months since I wrote a poem for the Haiku Monday contest, the words came to me in the 5-7-5 format. The next logical step was to hunt down the current host for the contest. Who happens to be Funky Frugal Mommy. As I read the the theme for this week I was surprised to find it Relaxation. How fitting considering that for me the peacefulness of a quiet winter morning/evening/day/night (winter in general ) is more relaxing than a hot bath with candles and wine. Since all the cards seemed to just fall into place this quiet Monday morning I decided to submit my poem.

Winter's miracle.

Delicate masterpieces

Gently cascading......

                              ~coreyjo

Wishing everyone a peaceful and relaxing Monday.

Kisses,

CoreyJo

A very special RafaDe original.

As always my dear friend Rafa managed to take my heart and put it into words. He paired those words with yet another RafaDe original visual in which he combines Maggie & myself. I couldn't not share it with all of you.

Rafa, you have managed to express my heart in words in a way in which I am not capable of doing. The words warm my heart & the photo makes it shine. Every time I look upon this beautiful creation I am brought to tears. Tears of love. Thank you for the beautifulness that is you. I love you.

♥

CoreyJo

Fogtastic

Yet another beautiful morning.

Beautiful morning

Morning dew

It was a cool & dewy morning here today. Take a peek.

I don't know what this is, but it looked really cool! Also the light shining through was pure luck!

A faerie mushroom!

A little bit o' luck creeping up in my flowers.

My favorite photo of the day.

Also some of you have seen Kiera's tomato plant she brought home from school in June. If not, here's the over grown wild thing.

 As you can see by the illustrations, the plant has well outgrown a large tomato rack. What to do? What to do? Thanks to the Sailor all is well now!

As you can see we resorted to attaching fencing to the shed and wrapping the whole plant in order to support the whole thing. The tomatoes are too large to pick through the holes, but no worries it detaches easily for harvesting.

And thanks to my friend Jay in France I am currently caterpillar free!! He provided information on how to prevent tomato worms and other caterpillars & insects from ruining my plants & vegetables. I found this ugly, not to mention HUGE, guy and two more the next day feasting away on my plant!!.

The Sailor disposed of them and I used my new knowledge of organic gardening to keep anymore from showing up and to kill any eggs left behind. FYI search "Neem Oil" to learn about organic pesticides safe for fruits & vegetables.

It was a beautiful morning!

Kisses
CoreyJo


**NOTE: I didn't use any special visual effects on the photos outside of adding a white boarder and my name tag.

Summer Vacation

Vacation may be over for the kids, but it's just starting for all of us moms & dads out there. Especially for the stay at home parents or the ones who work from home. All I can say is.... sigh..... lol!

Don't get me wrong, I love my girls to pieces. Having said that, I can only take so much one on one with them. With Lily on the cusp of puberty at 12 and Kiera at 8 thinking she needs to ask the same question 5 times in a row without even listening to the answer I am about on my last nerve. I will admit that this past summer hasn't been as frustrating as summers past mainly due to the fact that the Sailor now works 7 on 7 off. With him home from work every other week I was able to get that small break here and there that all stay at home parents need in order to maintain their sanity. That is if they have any sanity left!

For the most part I would rank our summer as one of the better summers we've had. Minus a few heartbreaking moments. We were all strong and supportive for each other and made it through the tough times allowing ourselves to enjoy the fun times.

Yesterday was the first day of school for the girls. All went well despite the fact that middle school, due to construction, did not have an open house where Lily would have received her new locker & class schedule before the first day, and Kiera brought home the wrong lunch box. The girls were amazing getting ready for school. I didn't have to yell at them once and there were no 'first day of school last minute crisis's'. Thank God!

Of course I forgot to get pictures of both the girls dressed up all snazzy and sharp for their first day of school. I know, naughty mom! I will tell you that Lily was the picture of a sweet young lady in her blue jean skirt and tailored short sleeved polo (thank you again Toni F. for all your generous clothing donations). I'm telling you she's not a little girl anymore. Kiera was cute as a button in her black w/teal polka dots dress and black tights.

If you'll take note, I haven't called my girls midgets today. For those new here I usually refer to my girls as midgets, the tall midget and the short midget. Well Monday night we measured the girls to see how much they grew since their birthdays in March. Kiera has grown approximately 1 1/2 inches making her now 4 foot 3 3/4 inches tall. That's 51 3/4 inches making her now eligible to ride all the rides at the fair. We haven't told her this yet because we don't want to hear about the fair 20 times a night. She will be so excited!! Lily has grown 2 inches topping her out at an even 5 foot 4 inches tall. Yes people, my twelve year old is now officially taller than her Aunt Valisatie who measures in at just under 5'3". I do believe she will be taller than me (even if I did quit shrinking). So now you see why I haven't referred to the girls as midgets. They will just be plain old Monkeys from now on.

All in all it was a good summer vacation for the girls and I'm wishing nothing but the best of luck for their new school year. :)

Kisses

CoreyJo