This post is long overdue and I sure have missed getting on here and filling you all in. I was talking with my Great Aunt today and mentioned to her that I have been wanting to post and have been working on this very post for over three weeks but we have an extra toddler right now and who knew that one extra toddler would be approximately 1 billion times harder than having my others. It's not the toddler that is more difficult, it is simply adding the extra one that makes getting things done impossible.
Anyway, we are fully immersed in the spring weather and loving the warmth. We feel like we had a little bit of a hard winter (sorry to those who actually did have a hard winter) because we are from CA and we are used to a winter that lasts for about two weeks. We all kind of got the winter blues a little too. But we are feeling great now that we have had some GORGEOUS days and are able to be outside a ton!
As my friend Mary once said (of her family), "we are solar powered". That statement resonated with me in a big way so the past several weeks have been incredible for us! We too are "solar powered". We need the sun AND the warmth. Oh, and, it is starting to really green-up around here. It's incredible how fast it happens once spring hits.
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| The plastic seats cracked and the kids couldn't play on this teeter-totter any more so Eric used some extra pressure-treated lumber he had and made new seats! The twins were so happy to have it back and now we don't have to worry about them rotting anytime soon... |
Projects- Eric has been working on a lot of different projects and in a previous post I had shown some photos of the horse's name plates he made for them. Well, as they were totally low priority, they were only completed a few weeks ago and hung in the barn. They look awesome. I have been doing a tiny bit of crafting during Ivy's nap time. I made the kids all their own pencil bag that has now turned into a snack bag for quick trips out (my kids are addicted to snacks, it's ridiculous).
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| This is for Jess for their home in Colorado... |
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| This is for Andrea for their home here in Tennessee... |
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| Eric built this adorable table for the kids for the playroom for snacking, coloring and doing pre-school. He did such a great job. The kids all love it. It's mainly for the toddlers but so far, each kid loves to play with their toys on it. It's actually big enough for 6 kids to sit around if they're not teenagers... |
School & the Classroom- We continue to count our blessings with regard to our schooling. From our little classroom to our curriculum to our flexibility, we couldn't be more thrilled we made this decision. Our classroom was beginning to become a little too cluttered and messy for my taste and as you all are aware, I love to be organized. So, I ordered MANY of these larger three-drawer bins for pick-up from Wal-Mart and Eric grabbed them while he was in town. I immediately got to work organizing and purging. We have so much school stuff and I am a little bit of a hoarder so it was past time to part with things. Anyway, after I cleaned the classroom and got things organized, I was feeling much more calm and content in the classroom. We added a typing course for the kids to start this week. We found Nico his own Chromebook for less than $60 online for the typing course and we bought the kids nature notebooks to add to the week for some outside learning. Overall, I am loving it all and still really love doing homeschool. Both Tristan and Lily are due for state testing and are supposed to go join their grades for one week at the school they would attend if they were enrolled in public school. I am pretty sure we may be opting out of the testing but part of me is curious how they'd do...
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| Each of the kids has their own little laptop to do their typing assignments from these little books... |
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| There were a couple of mornings that Eric was gone and I had all of the kids so we did school in the kitchen where I was able to keep an eye on everyone. |
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| Emery was home on spring break and joined us a little bit while doing some of her assignments... |
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| This kind of shows how messy things were getting. I do not function well in chaos... |
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| New handwriting books... They get excited over the smallest thing... Lol. |
Tristan's Birthday Party- We finally had Tristan's 13th birthday party. It was a lot of fun and he was super surprised and had forgotten about it. We were sick for so long that it just kind of was pushed aside but I like to give the kids their little party. So, we had a great time and the weather was just about perfect. Ivann and Andrea came over and Scott, Sierra and the girls were here. Eric managed to make amazing corn-hole boards in one week in preparation for the party. He did such a great job. I ordered the bags instead of making them because of time constraints. I'm pretty sure it's Tristans new favorite game.
Spring Cleaning- I have been a cleaning and organizing fool over the past two weeks. Eric and I both pulled everything out of the garage and cleaned it out, got rid of stuff, organized and set up an area for the cats so they don't eat inside anymore.
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| Nico "accidentally" broke this new deck box so I brought it in the garage and put all of our spa and pool chemicals in it. Above is some gardening stuff for my flower beds near the house. |
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| We replaced our old cat tree that the cats have LOVED with what was supposed to be the same one but is smaller all around (except the height). The old one went to the garage so they still have it. |
Nolan's Glasses- Nolan has worn his glasses 100% of the time since leaving the doctor in January. We ordered him two new pair that he picked out and he loves them. He puts them on each morning and likes them to be clean and is so good with them.
Ranching- We have been super busy on the farm and decided to process five mean roosters that we had hatched ourselves about eight months ago. It was a good day. Ivann stopped by and we ended up liking the process and we now have five small chickens in the deep freezer. Gramps found alfalfa seed here for much less than he was going to pay in Idaho so he bought as many bags as he could get his hands on. We also have several bags of pasture grass seed and we are going to seed around the barn and some undesirable areas on the property that need help. We will also seed each pasture again. We plan to bale our hay and get serious about picking the bales up and drying them properly as we spent a small fortune on hay this last winter. Also, the calves are adorable.
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| This creek appears every winter around mid-January. Ferdinand loves it and we used to love tromping around in it until we put a bull in that pasture... |
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| Ferdinand is getting HUGE. He's actually very docile but I don't trust him enough to go into the pen with him... |
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| There is a cat perched atop this hitching post... |
Super Bowl- I guess it has been a long time if I haven't posted since before the super bowl. We don't watch football but we sure do like to have a reason to put out good food and snack. Eric smoked almost all of our snacks on his smoker and they were sooooo good.
Dinner Menus- It's been lovely having Sierra cook once per week and Gramps helps a lot with dinner contributions as well. We try to keep the weeknights simple but lets be honest, I do not love cooking so simple is my go-to.
Valentine's Day- We had a lot of fun on Valentine's Day. The kids each got a little treat basket with a few sweet treats and some fun little trinkets.
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| This is a very special Valentine from Ivann and Andrea... |
Baking- I've been trying to do a bunch of food prep and have baked several batches of mini-muffins, coffee muffins, hard-boiled eggs, extra casseroles AND I have been harvesting seeds from every single veggie and fruit that I can.
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| Mini Muffins with spice cake and cinnamon chips... |
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| Cinnamon Chip Coffee Muffins... |
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| Banana Bread... |
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| Chocolate Chip Coffee Muffins... |
Home Improvement- Eric and I finally added a storm door to our front door. I love it so much. It has a screen built in and I can see through the whole thing. When the weather is nice I have it open and let the fresh breeze flow through. I have wanted it since buying our home and I am so happy to have it. I also changed my living room curtains and am putting the old ones in the dining room and breakfast nook. I have splashes of yellow all over the living room so when I saw these, I really wanted them.
New Gadgets- Eric and I bought a small thermal laminator for the classroom and for some little projects we have. I also made Emery a little emergency card that has our phone numbers, gate code, etc on it.
Cut Flower Garden & Orchard- My cut flowers are beginning to come in and I am loving seeing them all over around the garden. I picked a bunch of daffodils and have more still to pick. Our orchard trees are budding and are very healthy after our winter. They all survived (thank God).
Snow- About two weeks ago, we got about eight inches of snow. I was less than pleased. I am so over winter. But it was gorgeous and the kids loved playing in it.
Spring Break- We have not had a spring break in our homeschool but Emery just had hers. Sierra had one of the days off and took the girls to Zoo Knoxville for the day. I took them all to the park one day then another day we went to The Little Ponderosa Zoo and Rescue and then to another park. We let the kids play and we went for a long trek around that area of the Clinch River. It was a great day. Actually, it was a great week. We wanted Emery to have a good time and since both of her parents had to work, we thought we'd try to make it happen. Plus, the weather was fantastic most of the time.
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| Nolan took a digger early on during our trek so Eric hiked with him on his shoulders most of the time. His little knee was so scraped up and bloody. Poor guy... |
St. Patrick's Day- We have one picture of St Patrick's Day. We ended up having a lot of fun and enjoying our day so much. When we got home from the Zoo and park, we played outside, ate dinner and enjoyed the warm wether.
Easter Prep- We decorated for Easter. The kids' favorite holiday is Easter so we get really into it. I've started buying some little things for their baskets and we are looking forward to celebrating. Nico wants to celebrate his birthday the same day so we agreed since his birthday is just two days later.
Random- Several weeks ago, I pierced Ivy's ears. She handled it like a champ and hasn't messed with them at all since having them done. She was a trooper.
I made the twins each a sensory bin with aquarium rocks, pom-poms, tongs, cups, Dinos, some tools and some other little things. It was so inexpensive and is such a hit.
Ivy adores Nico and he is really good with her.
Animals- All of the animals are about the same. Everyone is still figuring out their place and getting along pretty well. Stitch has decided that I am his person and it's awesome. Missy is handling it well but I'll admit that I kind of miss her at times.
The toddlers are enjoying having their muffin-tin snacks during pre-school. It's been fun and they sometimes will eat things they normally wouldn't because it is presented that way.
Lily and Emery put fake nails on and wore them for several days. I hated them (the shape) but also realize it's such a normal pre-teen thing to do.
Tristan and Eric took a hunters safety course. We are required to purchase a fishing license for Tristan now that he is 13 years old. Eric went with him for moral support and they both passed the final exam with no issues. They also had to shoot three rounds with a shot-gun.
On our first warm day of the season, the kids insisted on jumping into the pool. The cover had just blown off in a big windstorm so it kind of worked out. It was so dang cold but three of the kids jumped in.
Plans- Eric and I have decided to build a huge greenhouse and grow fruits and veggies year-round. We will add our citrus trees (which I will post about soon) and some semi-dwarf avocado trees. We can't wait to start construction. There is a place here called the re-store and we will see if we can find windows. We also plan to do storm doors at both ends.
I have been buying more bulbs each time I go out and have a couple of hundred more to plant. I am so excited to try new beds for the bulbs.
We also decided to add height to our garden beds. We will add an additional 12 inches to the height of each bed and add more beds. We already have volunteer pumpkins coming up from the ones that rotted/were eaten in one day last season.
Eric and I are pulling our bikes out of the shed and cleaning them up and doing a tune up on each one so we can take the kids for bike rides around the river.
Birthday Wishes- We want to wish the kids' Uncle Mike in Idaho a very happy birthday! We hope to all get to see you this year! All of our love your way!
We also want to wish my cousin Amber a very happy birthday! We hope your day was spectacular. We love and miss you!
Last but not least, happiest of birthdays to our friend Celece! We hope you were spoiled and had an amazing day. We all love and miss you!
So many of you checked in on us in the time between posts and we appreciate you all so much! I hope to get back to posting a little more often as I really enjoy it but I don't know when our schedule will ease up yet.
We will be open for visitors in the near future (and want you all to come visit) as the Casner family is actively searching for homes and will be making a decision soon on their plans. The economy has really messed up their home-buying experience but they're still plugging along. We can still have visitors and have room but the sleeping arrangements would be less accommodating than we are used to providing.
Thanks for sticking with us!
Take care!