my golden year

25 has been so good to me.
it happened to be everything i needed
i don't know if everyone can say this, but i think i really came into my own.

my health finally seemed to balance out.

i worked on conquering my fears. i can confidently say i've mastered my fear of snakes. my heart no longer races when i come across them, i don't even run away. the true test of accomplishment was when we went hiking up grove creek and cezar happened to walk right over a very large snake and my foot was next in line.  we both held our ground and even turned around to get a better look at it and make sure it wasn't a rattler. i'm no longer baby stepping it... i'm taking giant strides. {i will say that holding them will never be on the docket... at least i'm no longer living in fear of them}

i never would have thought that my family roots/heritage would surface to the extent of it this past year. my grandpa is a farmer. i grew up around it. we even had chickens in the backyard of our house in springville. a small orchard and large garden. harvest season was spent with my momma in the kitchen canning and putting up goods for the coming months. preserving the wonderful bounty of the season. we would visit the garden center, occasionally join grandpa in the field for melon picking, or early morning raspberry picking with mom hoping to beat the heat. {we never escaped the mosquitoes though}. we played in the fields, climbed mountains of dirt and loved the animals grandpa keeps around for pumpkinland. i have incredible memories of those years.... but boldly declared that would never be anything i'd want to follow footsteps in. oh the endless amount of 'nevers' that i've eaten.... my heart is in the farm, the garden and everything that i enjoyed as a child but never thought would be my love in adulthood. my dream now is to live on the outskirts, have a couple acres of land, chickens, livestock, gardens... my own little homestead.

until then i'm making my little corner lot my little mini homestead. fruit trees, gardens, sustainable landscaping. and i'll spend the summer months bottling up the harvest season.




a few things that remind me that i'm turning into an 'old fart' --
comfort wins over style. our hybrid takes the cake over mitchel's past sports cars.
early bedtimes and waking up early to enjoy some of the day that isn't spent at work.
days off turn into catch up days at home
fire works are fabulous in the right setup otherwise i'm my father's daughter and they make me nervous
i may be the neighbor who also calls the cops on other neighbors for lighting fireworks off in june....
country music wins on the radio. the hip hop, rap, and what ever popular songs are just noise to me.

tomorrow brings another year. another year of discovery, challenges 

and learning a little bit more about myself. i don't find getting older daunting.

"another year older and wiser too.... happy birthday to me." 

out with the old and in with the new

i realized yesterday as i was wiping my iphone clean... i hadn't downloaded pictures from it since last may. it kind of baffled me. looking back, life had treated really well over the past year. apparently we've been living life and enjoying it. i'm glad i got the chance to glance through those pictures from all those months. what a perfect reminder of all the good.

the reason for wiping the iphone clean and turning it back to factory settings.... we made the switch to a new phone provider and picked up new phones while we were at it. we don't want to make much of a political statement about it, but when news broke that the goverment is requiring all verizon's customers phone records... it makes us uncomfortable. not that we have anything to hide. we just value our freedoms and have no desire to have anyone snooping around in our phone records.

who doesn't love a reason to upgrade though? ;) galaxy 4s - yes please. holy smokes it kicks our old phones tushes! goodbye 3g and helloooo 4g! it's amazing how fast technology improves!! and the 13mp camera on the galaxy--- amazing!!!! the above photos are from my new sidekick. i'm kind of in love.

an unwelcome visitor

I went to bed last night hoping I'd be up for yoga. But once morning came around I knew wouldn't be making it. My body was absolutely run down and exhausted. I'm still really sore in my quads from our Subway adventure and have a lingering cold. After a quick trip outside for the boys, I crawled back into bed and fell asleep. Mitch started to stir with the boys around 8:40 and all three of them tried to get me up too. I wasn't having it. Eventually I managed to head downstairs for my morning routine of caffeine and my handful pills. Once the caffeine kicked in, we decided to attempt a little shopping for Abby's wedding on Saturday. We didn't have any luck this go around either. However smoothies for breakfast and a stop for nail polish things seemed to be good.

Back home we curled up for awhile before Mitch headed into work. The morning was overcast but the sun finally decided to come out around noon. I desperately wanted and needed a nap but figured I'd fill a trash bag or two with weeds before the trash got picked up. It was startling how muggy and hot it was outside. I bagged up my withered peas from the heat, weeded out half of the garden and mustered up a little more energy for another bag full of weeds from the front yard. Not even a half hour outside I was dripping like I never have before. My original goal was to avoid the main heat of the day considering it was supposed to be 104. After filling up the rest of the garbage can I called it quits and headed inside for a nap. Laying down with the boys I couldn't quite put my mind to rest.... our overgrown lawn was calling for a mow.

another shot of caffeine and I figured I'd hurry up and check the mowing off my list, shower and make lunch for Mitch by 3:30 and then I'd be able to enjoy a nap. {Mitch has a habit of interrupting my naps if he is working} Putting the mower on the tallest setting I made good progress with our forest.... until I make a second pass next to my perennial bed on the south side of the lawn.... Why in the hell is there a snake in my yard?!! My heart immediately pounds through my chest and I try to keep cool. As I keep eyes on it I weigh out my options. Mitch doesn't come home for another couple hours, I'm not really in the mood to sit here and watch it. I can't leave it and lose sight of it... that would be even worse. Maybe I can leash Jake and he'll get it and mangle it enough I can dispose of it. Perhaps mom is in town and can come to my rescue. Maybe someone in my neighborhood was home and could possibly help.... I would take ANY neighbor at this point.  I mow the rest of the area {like I would vacuum. back and forth} keeping my eyes on this horrible visitor. My first go at it was with Jake. But the little bugger disappeared while I went to leash Jake and bring him out front. Terrified my feet would find it, I kept my distance and called my mom. I asked her if she was in town and she reminded me she was working today. {I already forgot it was Wednesday in my panic} As I'm standing there shaking and trying to maintain some strength, Jake is sniffing the flowers and marking the front yard, Mom says she's the only one at work at the time being. {damn} Gratefully our old Bishop pulled into his driveway at that moment and I quickly called out to him. I asked him if he could come and help me with a snake. I was so grateful at the moment when he walked over. I hung up with mom, reigned Jake in close and explained what happened. He started to look while I took Jake to the back yard and came back with a shovel. Brother Clarine commented that it was going to be a good thing to have. I let him know it was a medium size garden snake but I'm absolutely terrified of them and just needed to have it leave my property. He starts poking around and lifting bricks and nothing.... We chatted up a bit while this was happening. Shovel in hand he even looked through the salvia, lavender and hollyhocks. Unfortunately nothing. He lifted the sprinkler valve box and peaked in.... nothing. he even offered to finish mowing that corner so I wouldn't have to be near it. I thanked him but told him I had managed to do so already. I asked him to double check the valve box. Sure enough the little stinker had curled up in the corner under the valve so he could hardly notice him let along grab him. I ran to the garage to grab my trowel, pruners... anything to help get rid of the thing. After pinning him down and attempting to kill it, he finally managed to catch him and pull him out. I asked him if he'd let me chop his head off in hopes of regaining a peace and courage from it. Brother Clarine was so kind and pinned it down for me and let me do the honors. Afterwards I went to scoop it up with the shovel and take it to the trash {sure glad the garbage truck had yet to come} but he was such a sweetheart and carried it over to his place and dropped it in his trash can. Brother Clarine was my angel today.

Breathing deep and trying to regain myself I called mom to let her know what happened. She was proud of me. I had texted Mitch earlier during it to let him know I found a freaking snake in OUR yard.... It was definitely a big moment for me. I did go back out and finish mowing the front yard, planted my peach tree {almost a month later after bringing it home} and then started on the back yard. As I was thinking about the whole situation I surprisingly got angry. I felt a little bit empowered but I was so pissed that the snake had found its way into my yard and took away the safety and peace of my garden. I don't think I've kissed my fear good bye but I took a GIANT leap in tackling my fear of snakes. Surprisingly enough it happened to be on my own turf. I pray that no more unwelcome visitors slither their way into my yard but I do know that I'll be taking them out with my trusty shovel now. So dear snakes beware!! You are NOT welcome here.

live and let live

it's a hard lesson to learn.
I'm trying more and more to accept everyone and everything for who and what they are.
everyone has their own agency and gets to experience life in their own way.
we all have our own voice of conscience
we don't need everyone playing the roll for us

tonight as I was sitting on my patio enjoying the light breeze and trying to cool down {Jake is a mini furnace}
I watched as the boys were tearing around the back yard burning off the last little bit of energy.
in that moment I was a warm fuzzy happy inside
just an hour earlier I was having a 'holly' moment.
I was exhausted and worn out and ready to crawl into bed and indulge in it....
however since the sun was still out, we hit play and watched another episode of our current show.
as I was basking in my warm fuzzy happy moment
I realized that I experience 80-90% good
and only 10-20% bad
gratefully I've come a long way from were I was last year at this time.

each day brings new light
and each day I take another step
some days are easier than others
some days I make more progress in becoming the woman I am {have the potential to be}

my bad moods don't last as long as they used too
and even though I'm consistently tired
{thank you dear health}
I find that I'm progressively in a better place

I'm only human though...
and heaven only knows how many faults I have
but I see growth inside myself.

you can't judge my choices

without knowing my reasons

-unknown

making everyday decisions

I've been thinking a lot lately about living life to the fullest.


Today I was anticipating my first really big shipment of plants to arrive.
I figured I'd spend most of my day in the greenhouse.
So I left my lappy at home along with all the info I'm putting together for our register books.
FedEx didn't drop any boxes for me today.
I decided to take off around 2:30 and head home to take care of some computer work.

Once home I got a little side tracked with the dishes needed to be loaded and started,
the boys needed to be let out and loved on,
removing my nail polish and trimming my nails,
taking a moment for myself on the internet,
and as I was getting ready to buckle back down for work,
Mitch texted and asked that I start laundry so he'd have some work clothes.
I agreed and sorted the laundry only to realize that all his work clothes were hanging on the closet door waiting to be ironed.
In that moment I thought about getting back to work...
or I could focus on spending time being a wife and ironing the long awaited pile of dress shirts.
I opted for being wife.


Work is important.
I enjoy it most days.
But my life is by far the most important thing of all.
It is so easy to get caught up in the tasks of everyday life and before you know it time has passed you by.
I want to be living life intentionally.

what are you doing to live your life intentionally??

Family History

For as long as I can remember my mom's side of the family has put together a family newsletter. It has been a way to keep everyone up to date on all the families and to keep our family history. My mom and dad have been in charge of it and I recently received an email telling me I was way late and needed to get my news in.

{I found a great quote the other day: I'm taking care of my procrastination issues: just you wait and see!!}

I finally typed up our family news and sent it on its way.

Thought I'd share:



Spring is just around the corner and here in the Dayley household it doesn't seem to be coming fast enough.Things have been going really well for us. Mitch started a new job at an investment firm in January. Wells Fargokept promising promotions and never followed through. We are incredibly blessed that Mitch was hired on at his firm!! He has been studying like mad for his Series 7 license {the equvilant of the bar for investment brokers}.He takes his test on March 31st, so please keep him in your prayers! He is currently working the swing shift - four
10 hours shifts. I'm adjusting to the change, the boys keep me company every night. Jake is my
sleep buddy until Mitch comes home, then Jake climbs into his bed in our room. {Cezar still enjoys the laundry room}

We love our little home! One of our favorite things to do lately is dream of all the DIY projects we could do!! Our current plan is to strip our current cabinents in the kitchen then paint them white and tea stain them. We aren't hugefans of the look of basic wood. Our kitchen has lots of black in it so we thought a stained cream would look perfect with it :)Wish us luck!! On top of home projects We {I} have big plans for our yard!! First we need to fence off the garden area
so we can bring in soil for the garden {Cezar turns out to be a digger & Jake is a produce bandet} and then start planting!Asparagus, Raspberries, Tomatoes, Peppers.... the list goes on!!

At the garden center things are finally looking like Spring. This is by far my most favorite season!! I love getting all the plant plugs, planting them and watching them grow and flower! :) I got my second shipment of container plants in todayand I felt like I was in heaven. Here's to hoping that we have warm and sunny weather this Spring and are able to move lots of plants and vegetables!!

Mitch and I are looking forward to Summer. We have big plans to play and enjoy time together. Lake Powell, camping, hiking with the boys, road trip to California along the coast and working on our house! Here's to a good year!

Also if you care to peek in on 'Our Dayley Happenings' check out our blog: http://www.dannylynn.blogspot.com/