Peeps and Seeds

Spring is progressing here in my little corner of Sellersburg. We have two trays of seedlings and they are starting to sprout. The lettuce, peppers and green beans are already sprouting at a great pace. This means I need to finish my book and Stephen needs to start building boxes with grids so we can start our SFG. 

The plan is to have a total of 26 - 4x4 boxes. Some will be cut in half and put along side the house. We will place a 3' aisle and then another row of boxes. These will wrap around the east side of the house and the back of the deck. Audrey has been assigned to take care of the herbs while Jackson will be taking care of the other plants. Of course, Stephen and I will be overseeing everything, but the kids are excited about this new venture. Just one more thing to add to their home schooling  curriculum.

We have a nice size yard, but definitely NOT big enough for a real garden. Also neither Stephen nor I have time to prepare the soil here for a garden. The soil is full of clay, sand and rocks. There doesn't seem to be ANY topsoil at all. This will allow us to have produce our first year with out all the hassle of dealing with soil and weeds. That's right I said NO weeds.  If you want to know more you can check it out on www.squarefootgardening.com.

Just to add to the insanity, we went to the Tractor Supply store today and purchased SIX pullet chicks.  Stephen and Audrey are using 2 medium sized moving boxes for the first home for the chicks. They are all very cute and playful. Each of the children placed one of the chicks in the new box, which thrilled William and Philip.

So far one of the chicks has flown out of the box 3 times. Audrey was calling him Fluffy, but has now decided to call him Wonder. You see I wanted to name them all Peep, and the kids wanted to give them all each individual names, so they all have the middle name of Peep. SO, the chick that is trying to escape is called Wonder Peep.

Earlier the Peeps were fighting over a piece of paper they had scratched up for the newspaper in the bottom of the box. Since it was rolled up it looked like a worm and they began fighting over it. We all laughed so hard it scared the Peeps, causing the "worm" to be dropped. Wonder Peep immediately claimed it and ran off.

Did I tell you that the Peeps can eat? Well they can. We filled their feeder with food and tonight it is less than half full. Stephen said he has to wonder if the Peeps won't finish eating us out of house and home. I told him that they better not eat much, because the kids and dog don't leave much behind.

Lily is not happy with the added members to our family. She is very upset that we will not share them with her, allowing her to play with the Peeps. She seems to listen to Stephen. The test will be when he isn't here. The Peeps are in the kitchen, where we complete school work and spend almost all of our time. I hope that keeps them safe.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Until next time from my little corner.

A NEW Direction

I woke up at 5am this morning wide awake, and wondering what the day would bring. There are a lot of new things happening and some issues that are coming to light. I spent some time in prayer and asked God to give me some inspiration on how to deal with everything and it was placed upon my heart to use my blog. I know I haven't written anything since January, but that is about to change.

Our family made it through this winter with more than our share of illnesses. It wasn't the kids bringing it home from school because we home school. I'm crazy about hand sanitizer on grocery carts. The only place it could have come from was my poor husband. He would tell us what the bug going around work was and a few days later I would be sick. My immune system could never seem to catch up. After 2 months and 3 bottles of Sambucus, I think I'm finally over everything.

During this time we still commenced with school, but at a slower pace. My oldest at 13 is 2 years ahead of what I was studying at his age in all subjects. He's finally hit a wall where he actually has to work to get good grades. He isn't happy about it, but he needs to learn to work for what he has and that hard work will always get you farther than  brains.

To add to the insanity that is my life we are going to try, square foot gardening. It is a raised bed garden, but taken to another level. Later today we will be starting the last of our seeds to plant in a few weeks once Stephen has everything built. I will be taking pictures and adding them here and on facebook as we progress with this.

Some thing else that has happened is that my favorite menu mailer is no longer free. I was thinking that maybe it is time to start something like that myself. I LOVE to cook and try new recipes. It has become a tradition for me to bring a recipe I have NEVER tried before to a gathering even for a family holiday. Some have gone over better than others, but none of them have even turned out horrible.  I seem to have a knack for finding recipes that my family will like.

I have also in my "spare time" crocheting baby afghans that I hope to be able to sell on Etsy.com. Stephen has been my photographer and has done an amazing job. I'm hoping that my hobby will make me enough of a profit to offset my yarn obsession. My yarn collection is building, but I'm using it almost as fast as I buy it. Also being able to sell what I make will relieve the guilt of the money I spend.

Lastly at night I've been trying to do some reading before I go to sleep. Right now I'm reading Family Driven Faith Doing what it takes to raise sons and daughters who walk with GOD. by: Voddie Baucham Jr. I'm only on chapter 2, but so far I've found the book to be amazing and exactly what I needed.  It has reaffirmed what I already believe about parenting and my place in my children's lives and also given me the courage to continue down this path.

These are just a few of the things I'll be talking about. I know some of you may not like me being so candid, but if I can encourage just one person then I will be happy.

Happy Monday to you all and may the wind of change bring blessings to your life.