Weekend Fun is Over

Grandpa, my Dad left this morning, bittersweet, seems the trips always feel too short. Yesterday we had fun shooting, even the kids got into it and had a great time...after of course making a tent in the back of my car and setting up a doll tea party!

Grandpa, my Dad is visiting...

Grandpa, my dad, is here visiting our family. He came in Wednesday and is leaving Monday. We've already had some fun days. The kids are enjoying him being here. My daughter got some special one on one time with him and of course I miss my parents greatly since our move.

Both the dogs were all over him when he walked in the door...good thing he loves animals!

The first day we just relaxed, the second day we took him to the lake....

Yesterday we had a picnic at the river, some shaved ice for a treat and movie night.

Vacations always seems so short, we have today and tomorrow and it will be months again before we see family but we are making the most of the time we do have and enjoying every minute of it!

Fall is Coming...

Another gorgeous weekend as we head into cooler weather. I am ready for fall and winter..
Something about it getting cooler makes me want to cook and bake. I love fires, jackets, boots and warm comforting meals. Ahhh....

A few things we did this weekend and the last week...

Evening walk at the river with the family- hubbie and I walked the dogs, the kiddo's scootered.
Water is so extremely calming. As my daughter said to me "I could sit here and just watch it for hours". I completely agree.

On our walk at the river- the kids collected wonderful rocks that they want to paint as well as found a birds nest....

I baked a Lemon coffee cake. I'm a coffee fanatic and without any brown sugar in the house (I wanted the Cinnamon one) I decided on Lemon. The home made frosting was delish! And the cake with a few tweaks will be awesome too...great flavor but a little dry and lacking something..

I also received a recipe from my mother for her holiday chile reano casserole. I haven't eaten it in years and have never made it. It was a bit spicy for the children but hubbie and I ate it and the leftovers for lunch for several days in a row! YUMM.
Two kinds of cheese, whole green chilies, tomatoes, olives, onion and a little egg and milk mixture to top it off...bake it and we made beans and spanish rice to go on the side with warm tortillas!

Missing our chickens dearly as I realize just how many eggs we really use!! Breakfast, lunch, dinner- egg salad sandwiches- positive thoughts about the future that we will have laying hens again!

My daughter took on a sewing project of a doll night gown with matching pillow and blanket. She worked on the pillow yesterday and is planning on the blanket today and I'm going to help with the gown.

I've been making a small list of things I'd like to do:

** Can fruit and make jam             (Waiting for a bulk offering of fruit from our co-op)

** Make home made laundry detergent       (Next time I need it I'm going to make it)

** Do NOT buy any more paper towels/napkins- go cloth!       (CHECK) :)


I also found some great recipes I want to try-

Home made mayo

Breakfast Custard

My mother's birthday is today and my dad is visiting next week. The children and myself are missing them dearly. Holiday's and birthday's are difficult being far away. A phone call isn't the same as a hug and a well wish in person. But it will have to do until our Christmas trip which we are all looking forward to!

Positive, uplifting thoughts today. I am so thankful. God has truly blessed our family. I may want more at times, but I have all I need all the time.

Pop tarts, watermelon, fires and great books

What a wonderful weekend even with some out of the ordinary unexpected events...

The good parts....I am thankful for...

A trip to the Library.

Play day in the warm sunshine at the park hearing my kids laugh and having wonderful conversation with my loving husband.

Kids went to bed early and with no problems, falling fast asleep last night.

Grocery bill that didn't make me faint and we got everything we needed!

Hubbie decided to start a fire in the fireplace last night.  And I had tea while he sipped wine and we both read our books and magazines. Him with Mother Earth News reading a milk and dairy cow article and me with See you in a Hundred Years by Logan Ward. I'm really loving this one. I found the recommendation on a homesteading blog that I came across, read the description and picked up that book along with two others that I have just not been able to put down.

Made home made pop tarts with my son this morning while sipping on my coffee and him telling me star wars stories.

Went to check on my daughters 4-H watermelon plant and found that there are 3 babies growing not just the one I had seen previously!

And now- my daughter is talking cooking to me while she wants to make crossaints herself in kitchen.

Hubbie snores as we all have been up for hours now, but that's alright, its nice for each of us to have our me time.

And on our Walmart trip I saw a pressure canner on sale and nearly bought it but I held back....hubbie said that we'd keep our eyes out and buy one soon :) I have a water bath one but really want the other one too...my next goal...to can.


Its been a great first weekend of October.

One year later...from the Country back to the City..but not for good-

Well, it has been 7 months since the last entry. We've had some great times on our little piece of country but this month we have moved back to the city- temporarily. Due to illness in the family we feel that being in town, closer to family is what is needed of us right now.

For a few months during the Summer it became depressing, knowing that we would put our dream on hold, wondering what we would do next but that is the thing- the dream is only on hold, not gone. We realize now that we can do small things in our city home and prepare and dream of the big things that lay down the road for our family.

In the last months we have....

Got rid of our flock of chickens and coop

Took a Summer trip out of state to see family

Gotten news of hubbie's father's illness

Our daughter won big at the County Fair for 4-H: Grand Champion in Jr. Poultry Showmanship and Grand Champion for Best in Breed for Cavy

Our daughter sold her last chicken she used for show in 4-H to a little boy who is going to keep her as a pet for the rest of her life...

Our Son is 6 now and our Daughter is 11

Homeschooling turned into sending them back to School this school year

I work outside the home nearly full time now

We got a new dog! Greater Swiss Mountain Dog- Sadie

Moved back to the city- temporarily

Hello Sadie (dog), Jet (Standard Rex Rabbit), Trophy (Netherland Dwarf Rabbit) and the champion belt buckle for Poultry and good bye to Fluffy the Silkie that helped our daughter win...

It's enough change to make anyone's head spin a bit...but we are attempting to take it in stride as we get settled into our new city home.  Slowly putting together a list of things we can do and continue here even without those acres of land, beautiful dark starry nights where you feel like you are the only one on earth, peaceful sunrises when you go out to take care of your animals and hear- nothing- instead of cars and traffic....this is not good bye to the country and life we want just see you in a little while.

I thank God every day- we have such a strong family, strong bond that any changes and challenges we can arise through it- together.

Going more rural

Look at me go, 2 posts in one month.

Well, the shed is complete. A one day project, with a little help from my son to drill in the last screws and we are done. And just in time for some wind,rain, and snow up in the mountains.

We took a wonderful drive up about an hour away to a little town and had lunch on the snowy weekend for fun. The more and more we talk about where we are going with our life plan the more rural we want to get. Just for fun we looked up the population of the city we moved from, 55,000 population and then the city in which we live now- 5,000. What a difference…the town we had lunch in? 700 people, a cute town we liked the land in? 200 people. Can’t downsize the population much more than that.

Although we have still not established a concrete plan, we have many great idea’s and know this is the direction we were meant to take with our family. A plot of land, a farm and all of us four together. Life can't get much better than that.

A Monthly Blog?

This is perhaps going to be a monthly entry blog, although originally I had wanted it to be a weekly one.  It seems nothing ever slows down here enough to give me the time barely to write down a few thoughts or upload some pictures.  Although it is nice to look back and reflect on what we’ve done in a months time.

Let’s see what has happened in the last month:

Chicken coop is DONE! A big check off on our list! Thanks to wonderful hubbie, help from the kids and even I assisted. It was a family event. The chickens are so happy. We even bought 5 more chicks to add to our group – no pictures yet but they are Silkies and just the cutest things you’ve ever seen.

The coop in progress and finally done!

We have been exploring and taking on hiking. The kids did well and we look forward to going a few times a month to local places.

My daughter has wanted to raise money for her 4-H, whether that be donating some to her group, or helping to provide supplies/feed for her own animals – she has, with the help of me, mom started a website to sell 4-H related items and guinea pig items as well.  A work in progress but she’s excited.

Upcoming projects:

Shed, Playground

Now instead of Ducks we may be looking at Goats! 

And in the month of March: My son turns 6 already! How fast they grow up!