First few weeks of May!

Since we only ever have a few months of really nice weather each year, we've decided to focus on fixing up outside stuff for the Spring and Summer, and start back on doing inside house stuff in the Fall and Winter.

The first thing I wanted to do, was to get rid of this flower/rock/tree stump garden that the previous owners had, right at the bottom of the stairs, and start a vegetable garden to the left of it. I know that this is kind of a crappy "before" picture, but it's all I have! I didn't think to take a picture before the kids and I started pulling posts and rocks out! :)

 We got all the posts out, and all the rocks out (except for a couple of really big ones that we couldn't get out, so they will stay there for now!).

 Next we needed to move a bunch of dirt, pull up all of the landscaping cloth that was underneath it, and dig out the rotten tree stumps! It was a lot more work than I had originally thought it would be, but we finally had it ready to put down some grass seed! :)

 This is the spot I staked out for our vegetable garden. It is to the left of where the other garden was. We are going to make it 20 feet by 25 feet this year, but next year we will expand it, or do a second garden!

Gairod rototilled up the grass for me, and it is now ready to plant! :)

 May 21st, was Jade's 10th birthday. I honestly can't believe she is 10 already - How have the past 10 years gone by SO fast?!? I couldn't have asked for a better daughter. She is wise beyond her years, and she is always so helpful and kind. She is a true blessing <3

 Every year it's hard to plan stuff for Jade's birthday, because it always falls on or around the May long weekend. This year it was Monday of the long weekend. The little kids each drew a picture for Jade, which they were thrilled to give to her that morning. Gairod had to work the day shift, and Jade didn't think we were really going to do anything for her birthday. I even had her convinced that I had forgotten to pick up her cake when we were in town the day before! Actually, several days before, I had called all of our parents and siblings, and invited them out for dinner. Jade was definitely surprised when Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles started showing up! :)

Starting another beautiful day! <3

 Living out in the country means living close to wildlife - and we have definitely seen our share! We've watched deer and moose graze in our yard (I'm gonna need to put a high fence around my garden!!), and we've seen elk across the road. A few days ago, we saw an owl sitting on one of our fence posts!

 Next year for homeschooling, I plan on doing a lot more nature/animal studies. We are living in the perfect place to learn about many things first hand - and the kids are certainly interested! This last picture is of them slowly walking closer to the owl, to get a better look! :)

April Recap - Part 2!

In the middle of April, we had a big snow storm, that dumped 8 inches of snow!! Of course, it had to happen when Gairod was working nights, and the kids and I were all alone. The snow was SO thick and heavy, the power kept flickering in and out, and I was paranoid that the weight of the snow was going to pull down a power line, and we would be without power for who knows how long!! Luckily the power stayed on, and the snow all melted within a few days.

I do have to say though, after the bits of snow we have seen this Spring, I am looking forward to next Christmas out here. It looks SO beautiful when the trees are all covered in snow - it honestly looks like a Christmas card!! :)

In the third week of April, we finally started finding some kittens! We got Lucy (girl) on April 18th, and she was 5-6 weeks old. 

We got Charlie (boy) on April 22nd, and he was 8.5 weeks old, born on Feb. 22nd 2012.

We got Eleanor (girl) on April 26th, and she was 6 weeks old, born on March 14th 2012.

So within just over 2 weeks, we got 4 new pets - 1 puppy, and 3 kittens! lol! We kept the kittens inside for a few weeks, then made a home for them outside, on our deck, so that they can grow up to catch mice! :)

April was our first full month on the acreage. I can honestly say that we all settled in right away, and are loving acreage life. We are already looking at getting some chickens, and possibly a calf or two, in the future! :) 

April Recap - Part 1

April started off great!! We had everything moved out to our new house, the renters moved into our old house, and we could start settling in! 

I had originally planned to take the last 2 weeks of March off of homeschooling, so that we could move and get settled. I figured we could start back at it the beginning of April. We ended up taking the first week of April off too. We really needed that extra week off, to continue unpacking, and start getting into a new normal routine.

During that first week of April, we also decided to paint Jade's room! My mom was off work for Easter break, so she came out and helped me. :) I am a big believer in letting kids pick the paint colour for their room. They are only young once, and it's not hurting anything to let them pick cool colours for their room!! So, Jade picked purple and teal! :)

The first "holiday" we celebrated in our new house, was Easter! The Easter Bunny did something new this year, and hid plastic eggs all over the house for the kids to collect! Each kid had a certain colour to find, that way Jade's eggs could be hidden in harder spots, and Sage's in easier spots! The kids had a blast!! :)

 

 Since the beginning of April, I had been searching kijiji (local online classifieds), for some free kittens. We had decided to get a couple of kittens, to be outside cats, to keep the mice population down. I had no idea how hard it would be to find kittens!! As soon as free ones would come up, they were all gone within hours!!

In the second week of April, while looking for kittens one day, for some reason, I decided to start looking at puppies. We have a 6 year old female yellow lab, and have talked about breeding her with a chocolate lab, for a few years. It's just never worked out to get someone elses dog over, when she's been in heat. Suddenly I thought: Why don't we just get our own male chocolate lab, and then they can breed whenever they want to, and we could sell the puppies for a bit of extra cash?! So I found one on kijiji, picked him up that afternoon, and surprised Gairod with him when he came home from work that night!! It was a TOTALLY rash decision on my part, and SO unlike me, but it was all worth it to see the joy on Gairod's face!! He likes dogs much more than I do, and was quite sad when we had to get our male yellow lab (the father of our female) put down in the fall, because he was old and sick. 

So now we have a new little boy, "Hunter"! He was 10 weeks when we got him, and a bit small for his age. But he is growing quickly, and we are hoping he and Koda (our female) might be able to breed when she goes into her next heat in the fall!! :)

   

  

March Recap!

Okay, so just in case you don't remember, we got possession of our new house on Thursday March 15th. We spent the first week taking out a load or two of stuff each day (well, each day that Gairod wasn't working!), and did our big move on Friday March 23rd. It was an exhausting week, but I am so proud of how well the kids did, and I am also proud of how much Gairod and I were able to do on our own! 

We then had another week to clean, do some painting, and fix up a few things at our old house, before the renters moved in. By March 31st, we had everything done and moved out of our old house, and the renters were moved in! I was SO happy to finally have all that stress behind us, and just be able to focus on getting things unpacked and organized at our new house! :)

Front view of our new house :)

 Garage #1

 Garage #2

 "Barn"

 View to the South

 View to the North-East

 View to the West

Back On-line!

Well, after a month and a half of no home Internet, we are finally back online!

I can honestly say that I enjoyed our time with no Internet, and I am already stressing out and worried about slipping back into my old bad habits!

I got SO much more done in the house, and around the yard, without the distraction of the computer! I checked Facebook and email a couple times a day, on my phone, but that was pretty much it. Now I am already tempted with catching up on blogs I used to read, posting on my own blog, and "googling" stuff about homeschooling, gardening, acreage stuff, etc.

I LOVE the new lifestyle we are easing into, and I really want to share it with anyone who still reads this blog (if anyone actually does!). I honestly feel happier right now, than I have in a long time, if ever! I feel like I am finally where I am supposed to be!

So I will continue to blog, but I am really going to cut back on the blogs I read, and focus more on enjoying MY life, instead of constantly comparing myself to other people.

I am happy with the person I am becoming, and I want to continue to grow and change. :)