{"id":704,"date":"2010-03-20T06:40:10","date_gmt":"2010-03-20T13:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=704"},"modified":"2010-10-20T03:56:44","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T10:56:44","slug":"we-didnt-farm-yesterday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=704","title":{"rendered":"We Didn’t Farm Yesterday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Not a bit.\u00a0 Even though my mom gave me a bag of shredded papers for the brooder room that is still sitting on the deck.\u00a0 And there is a gap in the chicken wire on the duckling pasture.\u00a0 And hay needs to be moved from the kidding barn to the goat barn.\u00a0 And someone needs to make a trip to the feed mill because the chickens are out of layer pellets.<\/p>\n

Instead we went to the beach.<\/p>\n

Because the kids started Spring Break.<\/p>\n

Because they brought home incredible report cards and deserved a reward.<\/p>\n

Because it was sunny and 74 degrees.<\/p>\n

Because the ocean was only 52 degrees, which meant it was too cold for the kids to venture past their knees and I didn’t have to keep my 2 eyeballs on 4 kids for every single second to prevent them from being swept out to sea.<\/p>\n

Because most people have to work on a weekday so the beach was empty and I didn’t have to keep my 2 eyeballs on 4 kids to prevent them from wandering into the parking lot, eating snacks off another family’s blanket, or using the construction crew’s Port-A-Potty, which they inexplicable find more appealing then the pier’s public bathrooms.<\/p>\n

Because soft serve ice cream at Johnnie Mercer’s pier tastes better then ice cream anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But, mainly, because it was my birthday.\u00a0 And on my birthday I like to stand in front of the ocean and realize that being one year older doesn’t make a darn bit of difference.\u00a0 Not one.\u00a0 The earth keeps spinning, the sun keeps rising, and the ocean keeps waving against the shore.\u00a0 “Happy Birthday,” calls the ocean.\u00a0 “Get anything big done this year?”\u00a0 And when I just shrug, the ocean laughs.\u00a0 “Oh well, I’ve got all the important stuff under control.\u00a0 Better luck next year.\u00a0 Shouldn’t you lay down on a beach towel and relax or something?”\u00a0 I love the ocean.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Also, because it was my birthday, I spared myself the 12 hour preparation and packing ordeal that usually precedes a beach day.\u00a0 I didn’t do a single thing the night before the trip.\u00a0 Did you hear that?\u00a0 I didn’t fill up the gas tank while picking up Little from preschool.\u00a0 I didn’t make sandwiches or freeze water bottles.\u00a0 I just went to bed without laying out swimsuits or towels or coolers.\u00a0 I know, right?\u00a0 O.\u00a0 M.\u00a0 G.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Instead, when the kids woke up, we went straight to the villainous big box store and planned our trip while walking the aisles and eating doughnut holes.\u00a0 Straight out of the bag.\u00a0 Which we opened before purchasing it.\u00a0 Powdered doughnuts that left white stuff all over our hands and faces while out in public.\u00a0 But it gets crazier.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I bought Lunchables (horror of nitrates and sodium horrors) and precut and packaged fruit (oh, the inexcusable luxury).\u00a0 We loaded up on brand name Chex Mix and the individually packaged, orange and white, swirled “cheese” sticks that we all know cannot possibly be made out of real cheese.\u00a0 I won’t even mention the Diet Coke for me and Gatorade for the kiddos.\u00a0 Holy cow, I told you about the Diet Coke and the Gatorade!!\u00a0 To top it off I hummed “Happy Birthday to Me” while choosing new flip flops even though my current ones still had some flip and flop left in them.\u00a0 Then I bought each child their own Hidden Picture workbook.\u00a0 Their very own book<\/span>, not one book to be shared and squabbled over until all the pages are torn out.\u00a0 That counts as another birthday present for me.\u00a0 I call it the “Gift of Silence During The 2.5 Hour Drive To The Beach.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Since I was already out of control I saved myself another stop before hitting the interstate and took cash out of the in-store ATM.\u00a0 (The ice cream at Johnnie Mercer’s pier is so incredible that they only accept cash for it.\u00a0 Otherwise, there might be a run on soft serve and people maxing out their credit cards.)\u00a0 The ATM was not<\/span> affiliated with my bank.\u00a0 I said OK when the machine told me it was charging $1.75 for the transaction.\u00a0 I still said OK when the machine told me that my own bank would probably charge an additional fee.\u00a0 And I really was OK with it.\u00a0 That’s how unhinged I get on my birthday.\u00a0 It’s shocking, I know.\u00a0 The store could probably sell the video tape of me loading up the cart with processed foods, high fructose corn syrup, and enough plastic packaging to clog the Gulf Stream on the Farmers Gone Wild website.\u00a0 If there is a Farmers Gone Wild website (and if you find one will you please let me know?).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It was a beautiful day at the beach.\u00a0 Especially since I was not exhausted from the endless prep work that I didn’t have to do this time.\u00a0 Turns out I am excellent at choosing my own birthday presents.\u00a0 I didn’t even have to give myself a hint or settle for a gift card.\u00a0 I gave myself the sun and sand, the laughter of my kids competing with the calls of the seagulls, the wind and the waves rushing onto the shore, some light reading and a nap in my beach chair, licking soft serve while watching the surfers and fishermen, and a Starbucks Macchiato and overload of talk radio while the kids slept on the way home.\u00a0 Happy Birthday to me.\u00a0 I’d show you my pictures but I know looking at someone else’s vacation pictures is pure tedious torture.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 Someone inserted the pictures in the post so you’d have to see them while you were reading?!\u00a0 Inexcusable!\u00a0 I will be sure to take that up with my site manager. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Stevie Taylor 2010. All Rights Reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not a bit.\u00a0 Even though my mom gave me a bag of shredded papers for the brooder room that is still sitting on the deck.\u00a0 And there is a gap in the chicken wire on the duckling pasture.\u00a0 And hay needs to be moved from the kidding barn to the goat barn.\u00a0 And someone needs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1552,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/1552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}