The view from my kitchen window...

I love that country song "My Front Porch Looking In"...  It so describes how I feel about my family and life with them.  There's a lot of love, a little crazy, a lot laughter and fun, and a little drama (OK a lot) - and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  Although for me, I change it a little to "From My Kitchen"...because that is really where most of life happens.  I particularly love it when I'm in the kitchen by myself and they are outside doing their own things.  When I'm in the kitchen watching the horses and wildlife out in the field, kids playing on the porch, listening to my daughter chatter at the dogs and cat, watching my hubby play a little game of football or soccer or whatever with the kids, talking out the window to my horse as he nickers back to me to come play, listening to the kids out at the fence plotting and planning with the neighbor boys, hearing the tractors working the fields and all the other calming country sounds...


It's those "real" moments when they think I'm busy with dinner or cleaning when I hear and see the most cherished bits of them.  Like this moment when my husband was tired and hot after a long day at work and I sent him to the porch with a nice cold beverage to sit in the shade and breeze while dinner cooked.  That little munchkin headed out to crawl in his daddy's lap for "Daddy 'nuggle me" time.  And I snuck pictures of them through the open window while they were in deep discussion and I was pretending to bang around the pots and pans...