21 Day No TV Challenge - 6 days in...

Six days ago I randomly ran across an article the someone had written about how her life had changed since giving up TV for thirty days.  I had already been thinking I spend too much time watching TV so I was intrigued.  I decided to give it a shot, but opted for the 21 day challenge because that's how long it takes to break a habit.

I'll admit the first couple of days were easy because I was busy with work, but by four or five days it was starting to get really hard.  Today was the worst!  I was trying to come up with loopholes and ways to get around completing the challenge without considering it failed (bargaining?).  It made me realize I truly was addicted to TV (well binge-watching series on Netflix actually)!!  The reason today was difficult is because it's the first day I haven't been busy since starting the challenge and boredom finally set in.

Something else I realized today was how it always affected my weekends.  Whenever I had to do something on a weekend (even just grocery shopping) I would get angry because it was taking time away from catching up on a series I was watching!  I felt like my weekend was a waste if I didn't finish at least one season of some series!  I'm so embarrassed to even admit that.  It sounds absolutely insane and disgusting!!

So today after almost caving I did some more research on why watching TV is bad for us and I finally made the decision to cancel my NetFlix account (again... at one time I actually rarely watched TV and I want to go back to that).  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  Not only am I saving money, but now I can't watch Netflix without renewing my account.  As of this moment right now I have no intention of restarting my account at the end of 21 days.

Yes I am still bored, but in the last six days I've done a lot of things that I hadn't been doing in the last couple of years.  Art, reading, purging apps off my phone, etc.  I've also been getting my chores done more quickly instead of procrastinating.  I've been going to sleep at more normal times.  I even completed something off my bucket list (more on that soon)!

So I guess my point is, if you've ever considered trying this you should do it!  It's only been six days and I'm already feeling so much better!

The boys' conquests!

Amethyst has the most gorgeous eyes!!!!

Anyway, to the point of this post.  The goats have been paired off for next year's kids.  See below for the latest match ups.

Daniel, our Myotonic buck, wearing his marking harness and ready to get down to business.  He has successfully bred the following does.

 Our Myotonic doe Zephyr.

Our other Myotonic doe Georgia.

 Our Boer doe Tanzanite.

Our Boer doe Andesine.

We have to breed Tanzy and Andesine to Daniel because they are related to all of our Boer bucks.  We will have to get an unrelated Boer buck for next year.

Last, but not least, our 50/50 Boer/Myotonic doe Amethyst. 

Am I biased when I saw she's one of the most gorgeous goats we have??

Next up Jasper is being bred to all of the same does as last year. 

Excuse Jasper's dirty face.  He looks so good!  He's getting bigger.  He was already over two hundred pounds, so I'm curious how big he's gotten now.  Below are his match ups.

 Our Boer/Alpine doe Garnet.

 Our percentage Boer doe LeeAnn.

 Our Boer doe Coral.

Our Boer doe Topaz.  I have to get new pictures of her. 
She is looking so good lately, but was not cooperating for pictures... grr!

Below are more pictures of Jasper just because he was being so photogenic.

 Zoom in and look at his tongue lol!!

 He can reach leaves that are over my head!!  I'm 5'10" tall!

 Hehe.

 He is such a star gazer.   Always looking up for leaves low enough that he can reach them.

He's so handsome!  That's all for now. I'm SO looking forward to seeing next year's kids.  Now comes the hard part......... the waiting!!  Good thing I have my bottle babies to keep me busy and exhausted haha!

P.S.  This is what the does were doing when I was trying to get pictures..... chilling out and chewing cud.  That makes it hard to get pictures.  To their credit, it was hot.

 Now they've made me sleepy hehe.  Later guys!

This post has gone to the cats!

 OrangeJello looks offended, but he's so photogenic!

This is just a random post with picture of my cats!  Enjoy!

Pharaoh is so handsome! 

 His mom Emerald is gorgeous too.

They get along so well.  They play all the time.  It took forever to get a picture of Emi rolling on her back.  I swear she was watching me with the camera and she stopped playing every time I pointed it at her.  At one point she was rolling over with leaves in her paws.  It was so cute!

 Pharaoh's face is so expressive.

Last, but not least, a picture of ShadowCat!

Wordless (well not quite) Wednesday

Amethyst is still such a huge, spoiled baby!  Even though she's a year and a half old, has had her first kids and weighs close to 90 pounds she still loves to sit in our laps and get cuddled!  Yes I'm aware this is a bad habit..... but aren't they cute??

I rode on a train! Bucket list item complete.

I have always loved and been fascinated by trains and I've always wanted to ride on one.  A few years ago I actually got to climb on top of a train (the cargo kind that hauls sand.... jumping between cars is terrifying but exhilarating), but it was stationary lol. I've ridden on the little kiddie ones in theme parks, but they don't really count.  This was a real steam train (modified to use diesel) that was at a theme park, but it was a full size train, not the small kiddie kind.  It had open cars like the scenic trains and there was a funny show (we stopped in the middle of the woods to watch it.. kind of like a play or comedy skit about hillbillies).  The whistle was so LOUD!!!!  We also saw some deer out in the trees by the train tracks.  I was so surprised they weren't terrified of the train, but I guess they get used to it.  I wasn't able to get many pictures, but it was so much fun!

 This was a smaller one on display.

 This was the one we rode.

 I snapped quick pictures when it was taking the next group of people, but they are so blurry!

I'll check hubby's phone and see if he got any better pictures, then I'll update this post.  Speaking of hubby, I caught him off guard and got an adorable picture of him.  :D  It's hard to get pictures of him smiling so I love this one!  This wasn't on the train (it was a trolley).  We went to the theme park as a work function (yes we do fun things occasionally).  It was fun, but such a LONG drive to get there.

Someday I still want to take a day trip or even a multi day, multi state trip on a train, but this was super fun for now.

Finally getting back to drawing...

Construction is almost finished on my new office at work.  In preparation I decided to make some drawings to decorate the new cubicles for me and my coworkers who are moving to the new office.  I have MISSED my artwork so much!  I can't even describe how relaxing it was.  The stress just melts off.

For my office best friend I drew a cartoon zombie (she is the one who got me hooked on the Walking Dead hehe).

I'm not good at taking pictures of drawings... there is another shot of if below in better lighting.

For myself I drew an angry tiger because I was angry about something that happened at work.  It was a great way to let go of the anger and stress.  Now any time I get irritated about something at work I just look over at my angry tiger and I can't help but smile.  :)  I actually remembered to get some in progress shots of this one...

 I was halfway through before I remembered to take pictures.

The finished drawing in one type of lighting.

 Same drawing in different lighting... so crazy the difference.

 Both drawings together.

A shot of it hanging in my cubicle at work (the old one, we haven't moved yet).  My cubicle is covered in photos.  I can't wait to cover it in art too.

Close up of it under fluorescent lighting at work.

Last but not least.... I asked my coworker what she wanted.  I told her animals and objects are the best.  That I'm okay at landscapes and that I'm horrible at drawing humans.  She chose a.... pineapple....  All of these drawings were done freehand with no tracing or anything.  I just had reference pictures.  The pineapple I actually used several photo references.  It was SO difficult!  I had no idea how hard fruit could be to draw... check out the in progress photos below.

 At this point I was stressing out so much and thought it looked awful!!  I was ready to scrap the whole thing.  So I texted a picture of it to my friend (the one who taught me to draw and recently moved away) and she texted back some suggestions.  That's what I needed to get going again.

Below is the final result in two different settings and lighting.

Anyway that's all for now.  Hopefully I'll have time to do some more soon, but with bottle feeding the kids (see previous posts) it might be a little while.