Horse Manure Park

...of year again - Farm Fest festivities start a week from today. I'm getting pretty excited now. This marks our ninth "official" get together out at the old family farm, although the original gathering was over the Fourth of July holiday in 2002. We started calling it Farm Fest the following year and the year after that, some seven summers ago, we added live music to the mix with our little family band and started selling t-shirts as a souvenir of the weekend. I really like this year's t-shirt design, although my original plan for this year's shirt was going to look like this: Yep, good ol' Alan-A-Dale from the original animated Robin Hood.  We came up with the rooster as the Farm Fest mascot years ago and Alan-A-Dale seemed a good fit for this year's shirt until I found stumbled upon the rooster "continent" pattern which is what the final design ended up to be.  Come up with a cool motto, add my own little graphics to it, and voila ! 

I've taken quite a hiatus from blogging.  But I was thinking this morning (as the kids screamed around the house while Max and Ruby warbled in the background) what a shame it is that I've kept this blog for five years and I've kind of just let it go. I guess we all need a break now and then - and I've had that break.  Time to get back to it. Besides, this summer has brought about huge changes in my life.  Some of them have been personal, some have been professional.  I guess you could say this truly has been the summer of change for me and my family. Before anyone starts wondering what terrible thing has happened, let me assure you, it's all good.  And there are times when change can be very good. I'm not sure where to even start - I suppose April is a good place. I went to the doctor in April.  I was feeling run down.  Tired all the time.  No energy.  I just didn't feel good.  A thought lingered in the back of my mind: I was afraid I was developi