Homestead Happenings

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! 

Even our chickens enjoyed their summer treat. These watermelon were gone within 10 minutes. 

Our garden is growing pretty good. I had to replant a few plants in a fertilizer soil instead because our hard rock just wasn't helping them grow. I keep the egg shells after we eat our eggs and put them in the garden. 

The main ingredient in eggshells is calcium carbonate (the same brittle white stuff that chalk, limestone, cave stalactites, sea shells, coral, and pearls are made of). The shell itself is about 95% CaCO3 (which is also the main ingredient in sea shells). The remaining 5% includes calcium phosphate and magnesium carbonate and soluble and insoluble proteins. (source: gardenweb.com)

We have planted four rows of corn, green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, sunflowers, and zinnias in our garden. Below our house we have started a pumpkin patch. I've been wondering if it's a good spot for the pumpkins because I will be relying solely on the rain to grow them. If we have a long drought they could not make it. I will have to see how this year goes with this new spot. Last year I planted the pumpkins in our garden with the vegetables, and they just took over everything. 

This weekend, we just stayed HOME. It's really one of the best places in this entire world. So peaceful, and the boys just play and play outside. Karson asked to use Kevin's hacksaw. I told him he could and I would watch him. He wanted to cut some trees down that were around his little tree stand. I never dreamed that he could actually cut them down. To my surprise, he cut down 4 small trees yesterday! (they were in the way of a soon to be tree house anyway)

He showed and explained to little brother, how this would all work. We found some great grapevine on our property too. I would love to make some crafts with that soon!

We've had some pretty crazy chicken stories to tell over the past 4 weeks. It sure has been a whirlwind of a spring here. We started with 18 baby chicks in March, and are down to 6. Every year, we feel we are ready for the predators to come out of their dormant stage. Once again, they win. It is very discouraging as we put many hours of our time, and money into growing up our farm. I know these things are just part of the nature circle, but they still hurt quite a bit. I have tried nursing a few back to health, with no luck. 

However, we are trying to move forward with what we have left, and stay hopeful we are doing our best. 

Life in the country is never easy, but the rewards are more than you could ever imagine!

Our random days!

Being a stay at home mom of little ones is hard! Any mom who's been there will agree. It's more of a mind game than being physically hard. The main way to help yourself emotionally, is finding balance. Planning my days a little seems to really help me. We certainly don't run around every day. However, its good to get out some too and enjoy your community and the resources it brings. 

One of our favorite trips is to our downtown square. Getting a coffee (and chocolate milk for the boys), playing by the fountain, visiting the book store, and riding the escalator many many times.

We LOVE finding new Lego books. It's like a new treasure to the boys. We read 2 every.single.night before bed.

We also plan our days around church days. I found a quote once that said, "if your too busy for church, then your just too busy." I really love that. 

Last Wednesday after bible study, Kipton asked if we could get ice cream at the ice cream shoppe that was on our way home. I said we had some at home and we could make our own sundaes. They were both in heaven, and we had to go straight to the bath. He is a mess when eating!

This past week, we also tried out a new restaurant in our town. Chipotle. I think it's bigger in larger cites, but it's new to us. Kipton hated it, but Karson and I loved it. It was a great lunch! 

Our baby chicks are growing bigger and bigger. They love being outside, and are eating a ton!

We had some 80 degree weather this past weekend. The boys asked to break out the baby pool. It was a good, hot, day. 

So thankful to be home with these two! There isn't a paper paycheck every week, but there sure is a reward!

Spring Break

Last week Karson was on Spring Break from preschool, which meant we truly had no where to be for an entire week. It was nice! We mostly stayed home and worked around the house. 

Kipton LOVES our two dogs. (Lexi and Bailey) You can see the fluff of white hair on his left and that is Bailey laying on his back so Kipton will pet him. 

We played a lot in the creek. Since this time we have seen 4 water snakes in this creek. So I'm a bit leery now of being down there, but the boys don't care. 

We have spent a lot of time at church. This picture was taken of Kipton at our Easter Communion on a Wednesday night. They love eating at church. Or maybe, they just love eating. 

We played at the park a few times. Kipton rode this pig, and said he would like to have a real pig to ride.

We went to Dane's 7th birthday party. Kevin's parents bought the boys this basketball shooter and they really have a good time. Even the adults play and try to beat each other. It's fun!

We went fishing 3 different times at the lake by our house. Kevin caught the first bass at about 3 1/2 pounds. 

Shortly after his catch, Karson was fishing on his own when he said he was snagged on a log. I reached over to try and help him and saw a huge fish on his line. He reeled this big boy in and I about DIED! I get SOO excited, especially when the boys catch something. 

We have this old fishing boat that Kevin's dad bought for them to fish in when he was 8. He passed it down to Kevin, and it truly is the best little boat. So fun!

I'm so thankful to stay home with the boys. We can all enjoy their school breaks together. 

I never want to forget this moments. They are growing so fast!

A few iPhone pictures!

Just a picture post of some things I don't want to forget. 

We were at a hunting store last week and every time we see a hunting blind, Karson thinks we should stay for hours and let him play in it. LOVES anything to do with hunting.

We have been visiting Nana & Papaw a lot since she had her surgery. They LOVE swimming in their hot tub!

Candy Land winner for the 100th time :)

Baby chick lovin'

Relaxing with my boy!

Relaxin' and playing by the creek.

Helping momma cut strawberrys. 

Love these boys. They make life interesting and fun! This week we are on Spring Break! Yipee!

Dirty Boys

Why are boys so attracted to dirt? Not just dirt, but squishy mud. If my boys see mud, they make a run for it. My dad has been doing some more dozing work for us. He built a new road to where we will build our barn. As soon as the first sight of new dirt was moved, off the boys went to play. 

My boys are big boot wearers. They have worn them all fall and winter, and now they are hinting that they are hot. I must get to Target this week and get some crocs. 

Saturday, we made a morning trip to Lowes and I just HAD to purchase some pansies. So after getting a little work out of my boys, they went straight to the muddy ditch. It was 75 degrees this day, don't worry they were being cared for :)

Just a few mud push ups to get this workout going.

It was almost time for dinner anyway, so off we went to the bath. 

It's true: Boys are humans with dirt. 

Kevin's Aunt (who is sadly loosing her mind) told me that dirt makes boys smart. 

My boys should be rocket scientist then :)

I'm not a natural chef

Ok, cooking is not my thing! I am a cleaner and decorator, but not a cooker. I do it of course to keep my family alive and healthy, but it's not something I enjoy. After much research and thinking, I have put certain foods in the trash as cause of two hyper kids. I have noticed quite a change depending on what they eat. So in an effort to help change thing around here, I am working harder at being a "cook" and a healthy|homemade one at that. 

I really like The Pioneer Woman and happened to catch her Christmas special show this morning. (I didn't even know she had a show) :)

I loved it!! We are both trying to feed boys, big harty husbands, and live in the country. Kevin also recently bought me her Holiday book. I can't wait to start whipping up some recipes from it. 

Since I have one good eater (Karson) and one picky eater (Kipton) I thought about making chicken quesadillas because Kipton loves chicken so much. We have thrown out all processed foods and I'm even trying to eat gluten free as much as possible. 

So I browned my chicken in a skillet and added some fajita seasoning, salt and pepper. 

I also had shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream ready and on hand. 

The boys and I had to make a quick trip to Target today so we picked up a quesadilla maker for only $19.99 so that was super awesome!! 

I took a flour tortilla and layed it in the maker then sprinkled cheese, then added chicken, then another tortilla on top. I smashed the lid down for about 5 minutes in order for all of the shredded cheese to melt. I cut the quesadilla into 4 triangle pieces with a pizza cutter. Just great size for the boys to handle. They loved them. Kipton ate 4!!!!!! Hallelujah!!

In other news, I cut my hair.....myself! I got bored one evening last week after the boys went to bed so I thought I would give myself a trim and well it kept getting shorter. It's really a good thing because I have such thick hair and when it's short I always fix it. 

We also cheered on our Marshall Herd today in the conference USA Championship but unfortunately we lost. We are now headed to the Military Bowl.

Hope your weekend is going great!

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Lots of work, but so worth it!

We had my and Kevin's family at our house. The boys and I began decorating for Christmas three days before after much asking and asking, I caved! We were home anyway, and it was snowing and it just seemed right. I know I said I was waiting, but how can you say no to a 4 and 3 year old when they have that Christmas magic in their eyes. 

Kevin did most of our cooking. He's wonderful like that :)

The night before prepping of the turkey :) Of course he made lots of jokes and was dancing around with it in the kitchen. It's always like that with Kevin. 

The next morning I had 3 of my favorite helpers in the kitchen. 

Karson was very interested in the turkey this year. We had it thawing out in the refrigerator three days prior to Thanksgiving, and everyone that came over he had to open the fridge and show them that we had a turkey in there. He asked me about 100 times who killed it :) I hope one day son, we will be eating the one that you killed. I hope he is always interested in hunting.

.

While the boys cooked, I finished decorating and setting up for family.

We don't have a formal dining room so it somewhat make it's hard to have large family functions at our house, but we made it work. 

So thankful for these three boys. BEYOND thankful.

Hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had our first snow this week. Can't wait to show you some pictures of our country snow.