MIA

I've been MIA lately.  Lots going on and lots of posts I want to do but my laptop is dead, again.  Second time in a month.  Sigh...  Its in the shop so hopefully soon it will be back.  So for the time being I am using the old dinosaur the kids use.  Can't do any photos so won't be posting much.

Anyone know how to get rid of the white borders around my photos.  Its a blogger template so am thinking this is just something I can't change.  It puts a white border around my signature which is driving me NUTS!  Its set to transparent and shows that way other places which is why I think its a blogger template issue.  If anyone knows please email me or comment here.

Hope everyone is having an awesome summer and your gardens are doing well!

Busy week and Summer Camps!

Its been a busy week and my poor blog is once again neglected!  I really wanted to keep up with the Kindergardens series but seems I am all ready behind.  I am going to be playing around with my blog design so if things look funky here please be patient with me.  I am really not liking the feel of it lately.  Have a lot of gardening posts to do and am super excited about how my garden is doing.  Its spring so all I think about is gardening!

I have also been busy helping our 4-H group with their website.  Please go check it out at Camas Camp-n-Ranch.  It is an excellent farm, my family loves it out there.  If you are local make sure you check out their facebook page and their summer camps.  Please pass the information on to anyone else locally you know!  They have 3 different themes as well as horse camp in July.   

Busy, busy.

We have been busy around here.  Joe is working hard at his business and we are venturing into a new one as well.  The kids spent some time at Grandmas while Joe and I celebrated our anniversary.  We celebrate 9 years tomorrow but who can say no to the offer of free babysitting for an entire weekend!  I have one garden bed filled and ready for planting and I cannot wait to get in there and plant something!  Today we are celebrating Michael's 8th birthday.  In a few weeks we will celebrate Marah's 5th and then a week after that my 30th!  Its a crazy month of birthdays for my family.  I feel more garden posts coming up as we get seeds started and some of the cooler weather crops planted.  I love spring!

Naomi Turns Three

Happy Birthday Naomi Jade!

 

Surprise!!

 

 

Hoping for Spring

Still no photos.  We are mid decision on getting me a laptop or buying a new monitor for the big desktop.  We are not going to do any work on getting the photo software up and going until we decide this.

Woke up to about 2 inches of snow this morning.  I was so hoping for spring time being just around the corner.  So much that I set up my greenhouse two days ago.  lol  After the rain and snow I discovered that there is one part of the roof that collects water so I need to figure out something to prevent this.  We get a lot of rain so I want to take care of it as soon as possible.  Was really surprised to find it about 80 degrees in there even though it was about 30 something outside.  Maddy is really excited to start a pumpkin to grow for fair this year.  I am going to fix the roof problem before we do any planting in there.  I am so excited to have a green house!  It was just a cheap one but it will serve its purpose until we buy a house and can have a more permanent one.

We have added several new chickens to our little urban homestead.  4 for a new laying flock and 3 new bantams for Maddy's 4H.  The bantams are super cute, I just love bantams.  As we are in the city now we are going to stay at 4 chickens in our laying flock.  I think legally we are only supposed to have three, shhh don't tell.  :)  We now have a Australorp, Buff Orpington, Wyandotte, and a sexlink.  The person we bought from said they were Golden Sexlink but we have had those before and she doesn't look anything like them.  She looks more like a red Sexlink but we are not sure.  Maddy is going to do some research and figure it out for us.

Well I am off to chores for the afternoon.  The sun is peeking through the clouds and the kids are hoping for more snow.  Hope you are having a good week.

Nothing says Happy Valentine's like puke

We had a wonderful morning. After morning chores we planned our own little Valentine's Day Party. The kids made mint chocolate brownies, which we baked in heart decorated cupcake liners. We all made cards for each other and little pockets to hold the cards. Maddy made us a centerpiece of candles, and heart jewels. She also decorated red hearts all over the kitchen. We were very festive.

After so much junk that my stomach hurt and I could actually feel the sugar moving through my veins we had a lazy day of movies and book reading. The wind was blowing so hard and rain was just pelting on the windows, it was a nice relaxing day for sitting by the fire with a book. We still have lots of unpacking to do but we just ignored it all and enjoyed each other. :) Joe is at school this evening and I hope he had a good day. He was excited for the coffee and cookies. lol Great day over all, minus the stomach bug that the girls have and the puking the boy started this evening. Cause nothing says Valentine's Day like "Mom I puked!"

Today was one of those days you truly learn to enjoy living in the rainy PNW. The sun peeked out on and off most of the morning and I watched with anticipation hoping it would fully come out. It did! By afternoon the kids were outside trying out Madeline's new sidewalk paint set. I sat there watching them and just soaking in the sunshine. It was warm enough for no coats and the view was beautiful. I can see all the way across the river to OR from the front of the house. Its blocked a bit by trees and a few house roofs but still it was pretty. We had huge clouds all around, some white as can be and some that looked like they might dump on us at any moment. I love these days when I can turn off the heaters and air out the house.

The living room is coming along nicely, I hung my butterflies on the wall. Years and years ago a friend of mine worked in a shop that sold butterflies that are raised specifically for framing. They live only about 10 or so days and die. Locals to where they are grown raise them and frame them for sale. I have quite a few of them and they are some of my favorite decoration like items in my house.

After 8 years I finally poured the sand from the beach my husband and I went to on our honeymoon into a jar. It has sat in a bag since then waiting for me to do something crafty with. I poured it into a simple glass vase and put some of the driftwood and shells in there on top. It looks really nice and I have been looking at it fondly all day, remembering our honeymoon.

Still no photos as Joe needs to load the camera software, if its unpacked that is! Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

I'm Back!!

Its been such a sporadic year of posting and I have missed blogging and reading others blogs so much. I am very happy to say that we have moved! We are back in town and that means no more dial up internet!!! I am so excited. The move to the "country" was fun but we realized that our lives are just to busy right now. We have a dream of living out there and LOVE it (except for the overly large country spiders) we just have way too much going on at this point in our lives. Since Joe and I share a car there were days that Joe was driving up and down the river road 3-4 times, going to work, coming home, going back to town, etc. We loved and learned a lot living out there. I will miss the quiet, that I did enjoy.

In addition to moving Joe started Seminary school in January. It is something he has talked about for a long time, since I have know him actually, so 12 years. I am so excited for this next step for him.

Our new house is not quite cookie cutter but not really unique. Its on a hill behind the high school of our small town and we can see the river and to the east Mt Hood. Space is an issue so I would love anyone's input or links to organizing. Right now everything is in boxes in the garage and I kind of want to just give it all to Goodwill. lol The two older kids are sharing rooms as are the two younger girls. I am trying to figure out storage space for all the craft and home school supplies. Which I will admit is an amazingly large amount of stuff. We love our crafts! I also need to pare down my kitchen as the storage in there is much less. So send me your links and ideas. I probably won't be posting regularly this week or two as I unpack and get the kids and I settled into a new house but once we are expect a years worth of pictures and lots of posts.

Just had to share a link to this blog, its a mama friend and I love what she creates! We made these at Christmas with red, green, and white squares glued onto baby food jars. I think we will take some time out of the unpacking to make some valentines jars. Homemade Serenity: Valentines Votives

Happy day to everyone and hope you are getting beautiful weather!

Tunnel Vision

One of my favorite times of day is cuddling Naomi to sleep. When she climbs into bed and says "lets tuddle" my heart just melts. I love snuggling up to her as she wiggles around trying to find the spot. Which is usually head on my shoulder with one leg draped over my body. lol I love smelling her sweaty head, hearing her soft breath, and feeling her warmth snuggled next to me. Two year old head is a whole different smell from that newborn scent we women like to inhale with long deep breaths. It is a wonderful smell none the less. She smells of play. Of grass, sweat, and dirt. She smells of something only children can accomplish.

Some days bedtime takes only about 15 minutes or so and I cherish every moment of it. It won't be long before she won't want to cuddle with me. She all ready doesn't cuddle much during the day. She is going, going, going all day long. Then there are some days, and thankfully these are few and far between, when bedtime takes about 45 minutes or longer because her mind is going 1,000 miles per hour and she is just trying to process it all. She wiggles and wiggles and can't seem to find the one spot that is comfortable enough to bring sleep. She picks at my freckles and decides every 10 seconds that she wants the blanket and then she doesn't want the blanket. Every sound brings questions and I can literally see her brain working behind her eyes. She whispers to me as I lay there pretending to be asleep. "Mama wats dat?" "Mama dat da titty?" "Yes sweetie thats the kitty, now cuddle, lets sleep." I say as we settle down for another round of where's the sleep spot.

Sometimes I give up and just get out of bed with her but usually I just try and wait it out. I know she is tired and just needs a quiet space to bring some peace to her mind before sleep takes over. These times are quite often not my favorite. In fact they can be downright frustrating. Some days I have had one to many boogers wiped on me and feel incredibly touched out and have Joe put Nomy to bed and some days I just take a deep breath and make a choice. I choose to cuddle my daughter to sleep at night. When I am frustrated that she won't go to sleep when I want her to I tell myself I have a choice. I could choose many other methods for getting her to sleep but I don't.

This post really isn't about the different methods of sleep training or getting children to bed. Its about the sweet smell of my last baby girl. Its about the way her nose wrinkles when she finally drifts off to sleep and I sit and stare at her almost afraid to move because our bed creaks when I get up. Its about the tunnel vision I get staring at her sleeping face. Watching every breath her body takes in and me completely forgetting any frustration the evenings bedtime routine caused. Its like that moment after birth when all we see is our baby and all we feel is love just pouring out of us like its going to spill over and fill the world. We completely forget the moaning, the rocking, the swaying, the in and out of the birth tub. We forget the pain and have tunnel vision that lets us see only one thing for a brief moment.

What a wondrous thing motherhood is.

What did I forget?

Right around dusk I need to go close up the chicken coop. I usually have Maddy keep an eye on Naomi and run down to the coop on my own. Its getting dark and easier to do it without the help of a 23 month old. For weeks Joe has been telling me that I am going to regret doing something and well it finally happened. Its rather comical actually but needless to say I will be changing what I do. Here is what usually happens:
I head to the coop, open the gate and shut the chicken door before they realize I am out there and all run out, I then open the roof check and check for eggs. The roof is heavy and a two handed lift, so at this point I slip the egg or two that we are getting into my pocket. Then I lock up the rest of the coop, grab the chicken feeder, and head back to the house. On the odd occasion that we have three eggs I put them on top of the chicken food in the feeder as three won't fit into my pocket. Once back at the house I hang the feeder up, take off my boots and go inside. Hang my coat in the closet and then its on to start dinner. Do you see what I missed? I didn't either. Until I went to put my coat on the next morning and wondered what was oozing out of my pocket. Yup, eggs. lol I think I will start bringing the egg basket even if it is only one egg. :)

We are here

We moved in on the 10th and are still unpacking. No photos yet but soon I promise!! The kids are really enjoying all the areas to explore in the yard and I am completely enjoying the peace and beauty that is out here. Madeline told me the other day that the air smells good out here. :) I am starting to plan our garden and am really enjoying unpacking and setting up house again. lol Hope you are all well just wanted a quick update on here as its been a while. See you soon with pictures...

Changes are coming

We are in the new house! It has been a fun and eventful last few days. We had so many helpers Saturday morning that the move was unevenful and went fairly smooth. Thank you everyone who helped out!! Next came the unpacking and unfortunately water problems. Right when Joe and I were ready for a shower Saturday night we realized that the hot water heater wasn't on. lol So we turn it on and do some other things for a bit then headed to a shower. On Monday Joe left for work and took my phone with him so I was here at the house with no car, no phone (the cell doesn't work anyway and the home phone was in an unmarked box, lol) and to top it all no clock!! All of the clocks were wrong so I didn't know what time it was all day. The kids and I ate when hungry and slept when tired and I kind of guessed when it was dark enough to start dinner. lol It was hard to do and as I write it now I am reminded of Rhonda's post over at the Down to Earth blog about this. I loved reading how free she is with her time. (I'd link it but that would require opening a new window which just might freeze my dial up internet up, lol) Also about halfway through the day our water turned brown, really brown! It was awful, we had no water and I had to send Joe to the store as soon as he got home. Luckily there is a tiny little Mercantile about 1/2 mile away. Needless to say we have water in the pantry should it happen again, which actually we probably should have even more water in there anyway in case of disaster or something. Okay I am rambling. back to the house. I LOVE IT!! It is so big and the outside is wonderful. The kids run and roam and the the chickens really like their little section as well. Though they have taken to laying in the bushes in the soft grass right behind the blackberry bushes. :) I need to find a good plant identification guide as there are sooooo many plants here. I would love a recomendation if anyone has one! Feel free to leave it here in the comments. The owner loved gardening and there are many raised beds, lots of flower gardens, bushes, and trees. So far I think I identified found blueberry bushes, raspberry bushes, lots of strawberries, several Rhododendrons, an apple tree, and lots of rose bushes. I cannot wait for spring and see what blooms. We were told that there will be things blooming from spring to fall and I cannot wait. I feel like a kid in a candy store, the anticipation is killing me. :)

And now on to the changes. I love posting pictures but I fear that will happen less often. I am going to try and get some pictures of the outside next rain break and give it a go. I will post inside pictures when its unpacked and pretty. Right now it looks like a junkyard. :) I am also going to be removing some of the sidebar things on the blog that make the loading slow. It only took 3 minutes or so to load today so its really not as bad as I imagined it would be. :) Most likely the Hyena Cart link will be gone or changed to a still image or text only and possibly the widget of where everyone comes from will dissapear as it took a while to load just that item. I do love that the internet is not a big pull for me right now. I used to check my blogs and email several times through out the day and now I pop on real quick as most things will not load very well so I don't even bother trying. :) So hopefully I will see you on here in the next few days or so with some photos!!

Today's the day

We pick up the keys today!! Tomorrow Joe will go pick up the uhaul and a wonderful group of friends will show up around 9 to start helping us load. I am so grateful for the people who are coming to help us move! So many great friends, thank you all!! We will be without internet for a while so have a great week! Before I go I will leave you with a few pictures of our new additions:

Madeline has been asking to get a cat. The new house allows pets so we told her if she saved enough money she could. This is Clover. She is 6 weeks old and is very friendly and playful. She is also very pink, which Madeline just loves. Her paws, ears, and nose are a very bright pink color. Hope she stays that way as she grows.

Clover on the left and Luigi on the right. I bought Luigi for the rest of the family. He is 4 months old and all ready a lap cat. He loves to jump up on who ever is sitting down to take a nap. He is also very playful and its really cute to watch the two play together.

Clover

He has such a unique face.

In the zone...

I am in major moving zone over here. The count is 10 days till we pick up the key and 11 till we are moved in completely. I am so incredibly excited!! The house is about 70% packed up. I still have the kitchen and clothes and random bits here and there. All the current utilities are set to shut off and new utility companies have been called. Our internet will shut off on the 8th so I will most likely be without for several days and then its on to dial up. lol I will try to continue my blogging but it may be very picture unfriendly with only a few here and there. :) I have lists galore; things to buy and things to fix and things to do. I can honestly say that this so far has been our most organized and easy move. My goal is to have all boxes out of the house on moving day so that the loaders can easily go from garage to truck and only have to get the furniture out of the house. Bad news is I hurt my back so this last week has been slow going.

I will try for a few more posts between now and the move but cannot guarantee anything. :) I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!!

We are moving!!

We had talked of moving in the spring or summer. We needed to re plant the garden with grass and wanted to get the garage in order prior to moving. There are still a few boxes from the last move out there! I want to toss them but Joe says "What if there is something important in them?" lol so we will go through them. After some issues over Thanksgiving (overflowing shower and a house full of guests!) and the way our landlords handled it we decided to start looking now. We thought it would take months to find a place as I am not going to settle. Luckily we had that option I know some don't.

What we wanted:
a little more space inside
garage is nice but not required
at least 3 bedrooms
washer and dryer (as we don't own any)
landlords that will allow us to keep our chickens and possibly add more
either a garden all ready set up or landlords that will let us dig up our own
must be in our set budget
a fenced area so I can let the kids out to play without worrying the little ones will escape
A larger lot than we have now

I am please to say that we found one with everything on our list! It has one fully fenced acre, the house has a small area I can use for a sewing room and give Madeline the third bedroom back. She has decided she does not like sharing her room ever since she asked to be moved back with the other kids. lol There are black berry bushes galore in a field next to the property which is an added bonus for me! The rooms are much bigger than they are now so there will be more space for kids sharing rooms and such. Its also in much better condition than the current house we are in which will be nice. Nothing like feeling air blowing in your electrical outlets when its cold outside. We never noticed this before so it may be just because we are having such a cold snap (teens!) but its been rather hard to heat the house lately. It is a little farther out than we are used to. A good 25 minutes east of where we are now. The school Joe sees most of his clients in is between our current home and the new home so that's a plus. He's closer unless he has to go in to the office or to juvenile hall. It will give us a taste of how far out we really want to be. We have grand plans of living in the country, we both grew up in small towns and rural areas, but its been a long time for us. Perfect to rent and find out if we really will like it rather than buy and find out we don't! The other news is no cell phone service and no internet except satellite or dial up! Not sure how that will work with blogging and my online shop but we shall see. Monthly runs into town with the laptop maybe in order for me when I stock my shop.

Here's a satelitte map of the area. Won't tell you exactly where but its by a river and off the main road on another smaller road. :)

What's in the Backyard: Fall 2009

Rain clouds, lots of rain clouds

Johnny jump-ups hanging on for dear life

Changing leaves on the blueberry bushes

Cat followers. Poor kitty one of the chickens has taken

it upon himself to show the cat who is boss.

Looks like a backyard clean up is needed

With 5 of the chickens and the run sold we are

left with just the coop, 4 chickens, and a large hole.

Hopefully the grass grows back in soon. :)

Judgement

Today I clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I was up most of the night with Naomi, who woke every so often and had to have someone (me) touching her at all times. Then add the three year old who could not get comfy and was sleeping sideways on our bed, in the middle. In the middle of the night I finally just took her back to her bed and told her I need you to sleep in here. Luckily she was fine with that and went right to sleep. Back to bed I went and dealt with the touch needing child. So I slept awful. When I got up this morning I was crabby and as the morning progresses it just got worse. I sat at the computer with my morning cocoa and was reading various internet like things and felt the pit in my stomach get bigger and bigger. Judgement was building and I did not like it.

Of all the feelings we have judgement is probably one of the worst for me. I do not like feeling judged and I do not like feeling judgemental. Who am I to judge anyone? I'm not God, what I think does not matter. Everyone can make their own choices and live with them. I am not perfect and know I judge others sometimes and things others do, but why??? Why do we all judge each other so much?

I think judgement is rampant in the "Mommy World." Especially online, there are forums for all types of parenting, all types of schooling styles, all types of living styles, you name it I bet there is a forum out there for it. But really does it matter? Why does it matter whether a mom chooses to work or stay at home? Does one make her a better mother? Maybe, but that's for that mom to decide which one makes her a better mother! Am I better than you because I cloth diaper? Nope. Are you better than me because you send your kids to school? Nope. Is a home birth better than a hospital birth? Nope. These are silly, simple things that make up what we do, not who we are! We are all mothers. That is our tying bond. Motherhood. If our kids are loved why does it matter the method chosen to get there? We are all living our lives as we see fit and who is anyone else to tell us what we can, should, shouldn't, wouldn't, can't, or won't do. A friend on one of the forums I belong to had this in her signature line for the longest time: End the Mommy Wars! I think she about summed it up there.

Cooler days

We have no air conditioning so the baking that I do all summer is very minimal. This year it was so warm in the house that I even stopped baking our own bread. I dream of an outdoor kitchen or a summer kitchen but that is a whole different post. Now that fall is here the rains have come and with it the cooler weather. The kids and I have been baking up a storm lately. My waistline is going to pay for this, I just know it.

Apple pie

Micheal made his first loaf of bread with almost no help from me. He even kneaded the entire time.

Whole wheat bread

Blueberry muffin cake

The kids had a large say in what we baked this day. lol

Chocolate cupcakes, blueberry muffin cake, texas sheet cake, and buttercream frosting.

And because I think its just so funny. I leave you with:

Naked chicken feeding

September Update

I love that this is considered fun for the kids. Michael found his Miquon math workbook the other day and asked what it was. I told him and he asked if we could do it. Sure! So Maddy got hers out to and they spent the next hour and a half or so doing math. At one point Michael was struggling with something and Madeline asked him if he wanted to copy her work. He said "No thanks, all the answers I need are in my brain." I love this, just love it. :)


Even snack can turn into a fighter jet. Didn't you know? In case you wonder its cracker with peanut butter, an apple slice, and banana slices.


Look it really flies and even has missiles.

We sold the chicken run and 5 of the chickens. I was really sad to see them go but its for the best right now. We still have the coop and 4 of the chickens. Maddy is hoping to take them to another 4-H chicken show in the next few months.

We have been canning. If you want to know what it all is head on over to Lally. I just did a canning post.

Kids being silly.

Our church, Living Hope Church, had a family fun night/come and meet the Kids World teachers. Marah's teacher asked if people could bring snacks. Cupcakes, yum! Marah got to choose the frosting color since they were for her classroom. Which she actually goes to now and no she no longer hits other children over the head with chairs. Amazing really how much she has grown in the last year or so. lol So soon when Naomi will let us take her to childcare we may actually get to leave the parents room.

Head on over to the Sewing Alley blog for previews of some items that will be stocking on October 6th over at Hidden Element.

Rainbows

I had to get up really early a few days ago and when I went outside this is what greeted me from the backyard. It was a double rainbow and sadly the camera would not pick the other one up. The clouds were the prettiest pink in real life. I may just get up early more often if this is what I get to see.