Homesteading Wanna Be

Every night at dinner time, the chickens gather together right outside the sliding glass door and watch us eat our evening meal. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, chickens are weird. Even though it might seem dumb, I'll admit, these silly birds make me happy. It's calming to watch them randomly roaming here and there around the yard while I wash dishes at the kitchen sink. It's entertaining that they come running every time I open the sliding glass door because they think I'm bringing them a treat. And it's satisfying to check their coop every day and find eggs.

We've had some warm days, even though the nights are still a bit cold, and my fruit trees are starting to bud. These signs of spring make me happy and wary all in one. If they bud early, and we get a late freeze, it'll kill off a lot of my peach crop. I'm hoping for apples and cherries this year as well. And my pear tree, the one that's always lagged behind all the other trees, had a growth spurt over the winter, and it might surprise me by producing this year too. We'll just have to see what happens, and what the weather bring us.

Aaron and I are kicking our gardening up a few notches this year! Haha! We purchased a soil test kit and everything. Yep. Turns out, we have soil so alkaline that it's a few points above our scale of measurement. We also have a very high quantity of phosphorus, a depleted supply of nitrogen, and sufficient potash. After a few purchases on Amazon, we were able to add a few ingredients to our soil, that will hopefully balance it out a bit. We'll test again in six months.

Meanwhile, we've been busy. Some of my gardening goals this year are to make an asparagus bed, to experiment with trellises for growing peas, beans, and some squash; to grow enough beats to pickle, and to try out and ever-growing potato box. I also want to plant flowers in the front yard and see if we can't give it some personality and color.

I got online and found a fun site called groworganic.com  and had fun ordering a bunch of vegetable and flower seed packets, as well as 24 asparagus crowns, one blueberry bush, some Dahlia bulbs, and some seed potatoes. When they arrived in the mail, it felt a little bit like Christmas. I'm that nerdy.

We also added soil to our garden bed, built pea and squash trellises, made our asparagus bed, planted the asparagus, built a PVC pipe greenhouse around it, and planted the blueberry bush and put a tarp around it to keep it from freezing.

This coming Saturday is supposed to be nice, so we'll probably plant the spinach, peas, and beats. And maybe the green beans too, if I get the tepees built for them to grow up on. As you can see, our garden is pretty "spring vegetable" heavy this year. I did that on purpose, because come fall with me 9 months pregnant, I highly doubt harvesting veggies is going to be my first priority. We'll see though. I'll still have the tomatoes, squash, and fruit I'll have to deal with.

Pea trellis

Asparagus bed, before the crowns were planted and before the tarp was put on the green house.

"Let's Make a Deal."

On Friday morning, Lincoln came to me and said, "Mom, how about we make a deal? If I read 20 chapter books, you buy me a new book." Of course I took him up on his deal. :) And he spent the morning selecting chapter books that I approved of (I wanted the books to be in his reading level range, and I didn't want the list to be stacked with fantasy), writing down what order he wanted to read them in, and generally planning how he wanted to go about his task. These are the books he came up with:

His plans are making me giggle a little bit, but I love them, and plan on just sitting back and watching this all unfold, with him in control of it. He plans on reading 2 1/2 books per day. Also, since he got 10 Peeps in his Easter basket, he plans on eating one Peep after every two books that he reads as a reward.

Ivan decided he wanted in on this action as well, so he and I picked out 20 books at his reading level. But he's not as intense about it at the moment as Linc. And I'm not pushing. This is their thing, not mine. I'm throwing this under the category of project-based homeschooling (the same as Lincoln's robot project awhile back) where the kids are in charge of the learning and doing, and the parent just facilitates.

We also agreed that they would do an oral book report for every book that they read. My good friend and neighbor has a writing/reading blog, where she shares the things she's writing, and reviews things she's reading. As part of that, she has her kids do book review videos. I LOVE this idea! So, I'm borrowing it from her. I think doing book reports orally will help my kids be able to share all of their ideas and thoughts about the books they are reading without getting bogged down in the writing process. Sometimes (at this age especially) the writing process gets long, and they get frustrated with it, and their book reports end up being, "It was great. I liked it." And they don't explore what they liked about it, or why they would recommend it, or what the funny parts were, or things like that. Right now, I'd like to get them talking and thinking more about the books they are reading. We can work on writing about them later. And since my kids love to watch themselves on camera afterwards, my friend's idea to record the book reviews is genius! I will post both boys' book reviews as I get them. They accumulated quite a few over the weekend.

The Littles by John Lawrence Peterson

Beowolf: Usborne Young Reading series

 How Oliver Olson Changed the World by Claudia Mills

 The Adventures of Sinbad the Sailor: Usborne Young Reading Series

 7x9= Trouble by Claudia Mills

 The Call of the Wild by Jack London (Children's classic edition)

 The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith

 Jason and the Golden Fleece: Usborne Young Reading series

Backtrack: School This Winter

Having some fun with inclined planes.

Obviously, I didn't post in January or February, but things were still happening around here, so I'm slowly trying to go back and document them.

For science we continued to learn about simple machines. Our homeschool group had a Science Fair in January and Aaron helped each of the kids build a simple machine to demonstrate at the fair. I didn't get a picture of Ivan's because Rue and Ollie were causing a distraction, but he did one too.

We read Hatchet as a family read aloud and my boys got really into it. They designed their own bow and arrows our of Knex, and even made a quiver to hold the arrows. There was all sorts of archery going on around our house for a little stretch there. I love it when they get excited about what they read. I love to watch them internalize it, process it, and then act it out in their play. That is that kind of thing that helps me to feel like read aloud is a good time investment, and that it's a worthwhile part of their learning and imagination. 

Hatchet wasn't our only foray into language arts either. We kept up pretty well with our Tuesday Poetry Tea Time (although I admit, it isn't always Tuesday when we do it), the kids love it, and so do I. Often it is the highlight of our week.

Nature Journaling has gotten tricky with the freezing weather. Sometimes we improvise by doing it from the inside of our car. We drive around until we find a pretty spot, and then I park, and the kids draw, and we never have to leave the nice warm van. 

I think we've all felt a little cooped up. We've taken lots of opportunities to borrow Aaron's church key and go have "P.E." at the church gym. We've played basketball, t-ball, frisbee, and run laps around and around. And of course the big boys liked to bring their bows and arrows to see how far they could shoot from off of the stage.

If it's not too horribly cold, then the kids will bundle up and play in the yard. I wish there were more of those days, but mostly this winter was freezing, ice cold. And no one wanted to be out.

Adelia has been on an art craze lately. She has been creating and creating and creating. I love her ideas. I don't so much love the mess she leaves all around, but we're working on that. For awhile she was really into making puppets and putting on puppet shows for us. That was really fun. And another thing she really loves is watercolor painting. The picture below is probably my favorite piece of art she's ever created to date. It just screams Adelia. A happy person with a huge smile, and wide open hugging arms, surrounded by all of her little treasures at her feet. Haha! I love it. All the kids made sunset pyramids too, using our At Home Art Studio program. I thought they turned out nicely.

One thing the kids did in their free time that I thought was great, was to set up their own library. They build shelves out of cardboard boxes, figured out a system for sorting and arranging their books, issued everyone in the family library cards, determined what hours they would be open for operation, and had someone manning the desk at all times while they were open. Very creative. They had a post office and mail delivery system going for a couple of days too. But both the post office and the library shut down because they weren't getting enough business to keep things interesting. :)

Backtrack: Family Pictures

Clear back at the beginning of February I convinced Aaron that we needed to go have our family pictures done. We went to a place in Lehi called Camera Shy, and I am 110% pleased with how they turned out. I told out photographer that I mostly wanted to focus on getting individual shots of each of the kids, and a group picture of all the kids together, and then if there was any time left over we could try for a family shot. So the above is the only family shot we got, but that's ok, because I really like it. Or at least, I really like everyone's expressions in it.

I couldn't believe how well our photo shoot went. Our photographer was awesome. She got everyone to smile. She got everyone to cooperate. Including Ivan, who hates pictures in general, and Ollie who is usually really nervous and reserved around people he doesn't know.

Now if only I could convince Aaron that we need to do this about twice a year...

Happy Easter 2016

Getting a shot of the fam in their Easter clothes is getting to be practically impossible. Cooperation levels are low. And there's always (at least) one kid who thinks funny faces or gestures are better than smiling. Oh well, I guess this is one for Ivan's wedding video. :) Aaron's head was getting cut off anyway.

We had a good Easter. I spent Friday while Aaron was at work, dyeing Ruby's sweater for her Easter dress from white to dark teal. I was in a hurry, and couldn't find my rubber gloves, so now my hands are a nice blueish color. :) Friday night we went to the ward egg hunt and pot luck dinner. I only took one picture, and it was of Ollie because he's the one I followed around. Aaron went with Rue, and the big kids were on their own.

Saturday we ran around the mall like crazy people, trying to find the big boys church pants and church shirts that actually fit, and some ties that were spring-ish. I'm happy with what we came home with. Later in the afternoon, I stopped by my friend Heather's house to learn how to dip chocolate covered strawberries. Then I ran to the grocery store to buy chocolate and strawberries to test our my new skills, and to get the asparagus we were assigned to bring to Easter dinner at Aaron's mom's.

Not a great picture, but see the cute sweater I dyed to go with Rue's dress?

In the evening, I went to the stake center to listen to the women's broadcast. It was wonderful. All of it. But I especially connected with Sister Neill F Marriott's talk. After many of the things she said, I thought, Oh I want to write that down and display it somewhere. And by the time I got to the end of the talk, I pretty much thought that i'd need to just print out the whole thing and tack it up, because it was all that good.  But I especially loved the story she shared about receiving a phone call from a woman who wanted to criticize her for having a large family. Sister Marriott responded to the woman (I'm paraphrasing) that she loved being a mother, and that she would do her best to see that all her children were raised the way God wanted her to raise them. It was pretty powerful. :) I can be a courageous defender of women, motherhood, and families, even when it's scary.

Sunday was a bit of a crazy day. Ollie got up super early. So he got his Easter basket way before everyone else. And the other kids got theirs as they woke up. We didn't do anything fancy for baskets this year. Each kid got a couple pieces of candy, a Book of Mormon Activity book to take to sacrament meeting, and a mini sketch book to take to sacrament meeting. The idea being that we are trying to promote more reverence in Sacrament meeting. The older kids did great in that regard today, but Ollie and Rue missed the memo.

Rue didn't get a nap, and she refused to eat lunch before church. When she started getting cranky, about 5 minutes into Sacrament meeting, I pulled out one of those squeezable apple sauce packets, and attempted to feed her. I kept a hand on it, until it was empty (or so I thought), but instead of letting me take it away from her, she still wanted to suck on the empty packet, so I let go of it, thinking it could entertain her for a minute. Pretty soon though, she started flapping it back and forth really fast. That's when we discovered that it wasn't as empty as we might have thought. Apple sauce went flinging through the air. All over Rue, all over Aaron and I, all over the hymn books, the seat, Ollie, and yes, all over the people sitting behind us. *sigh* Nothing for it but to apologize profusely, and start wiping everything up. Luckily, the people behind us were the parents of my good friend Brenda, and they thought it was funny.

That wasn't the end of it either. That apple sauce didn't help Rue's mood for very long. After taking her out in the hall several times, and then trying to come back in to the meeting only to have her fall apart again, and then having Ollie falling apart right on top of her, that was about enough for me. I wasn't feeling well anyway. So I packed the three of us up and took us home and we all had naps.

I still wasn't feeling well when Aaron got home from doing tithing, so he took all the kids to Easter dinner without me. :( I always have sinus issues when I'm pregnant, and sometimes they escalate to a point where I just have to stay in bed and sleep them off. I hate that it happened today on Easter.

Announcing

Yes it was planned. And yes we are happy about it. 

Sorry, it's just that when I announced our good news to my family the first thing everyone wanted to know was if it was planned. Not if we were excited, not if we thought it was a girl or a boy, not how far along I was, not how I was feeling....but was it planned. 

I've noticed that people start asking that question somewhere right around baby number 4. As if it's unimaginable that someone would actually PLAN to have more than 3 kids. Unimaginable that couples might actually want to have a big family on purpose. Well, we did and we do, so there's that out in the open. And for future reference, when someone announces a new baby on the way, just say congrats and be happy with them, no matter what number of baby it is. 

Stepping off the soap box...

I'm about 13 weeks along. I'm due September 19th. I went to the doc last week and had an ultra sound to determine how far along I was. Things look great. Doc said usually he can give me a 60% guess at the gender, but baby was curled into such a tight ball at the appointment that we didn't even get a glimpse. So we'll find out gender at the end of April. 

That being said, Aaron and I are both leaning towards thinking its a girl. When I was pregnant with Ruby, I knew I would have another baby after her, and since then have always kind of felt like it would be a girl. So we'll see. :)

I've been nauseated and exhausted for most of this pregnancy so far. So that's fun. I'm just starting to get to a point where staring at a computer screen doesn't make me sick. (Hence the zero blog posts for January and February.) I haven't really been craving anything yet, but Ramen Noodles are about the only thing that sounds good when I'm nauseous, so I've been eating lots of those. 

I'm just starting to really show - a lot earlier than I started showing with Rue. :/ But I'm still fitting into regular jeans.  No need to bust out the maternity clothes sooner than necessary. I'm sure I'll get sick of them quickly enough. Haha! 

We've told the kids. They are excited. Adelia keeps praying for a baby sister and that she'll get here soon. She has no concept of how far away September is. 

I have started a long list of baby names I love in my journal. The names are leaning very heavily in the nature name variety this time. I'm also feeling like I'd like to pick a much more unusual name than we've picked in the past. Maybe stay out of the top 1 or 2 hundred most popular names, if I can help it. We'll see. 

Redwoods Trip Day 5: Fern Canyon and Goodbye California

Fern Canyon

One of the things Aaron and I really wanted to see on our trip was Fern Canyon. And we saved it for the last day. Ryan and Melissa, Lisa and Jared and Spencer were the only ones who decided to come with us. And our kids of course, but they didn't really get the option. :)

The canyon was kind of far away, and we took a really pretty scenic route that drove partly through the redwoods and partly along the coast. We stopped along the way to get out and see Big Tree.

Lisa, Ivan, Ollie, Aaron, Adelia, Spencer, Lincoln, Jared, Ryan, and Melissa at Big Tree

Big Tree was a quick stop, and then we were on our way to Fern Canyon. What was the appeal of Fern Canyon you ask? Well, the Redwoods info site describes it this way:

"Imagine walking through a narrow canyon where the walls are completely covered by luxuriant ferns and mosses and are dripping with moisture.

That describes Fern Canyon, an unforgettable natural wonder that Steven Spielberg chose as a location for Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World.

This level trail of about one mile follows Home Creek as it courses through the forest. This modest stream has over the eons carved a deep (50 to 80 feet) canyon through the sedimentary soils. The vertical walls sprout an amazing variety of ferns (five different kinds) and other moisture-loving plants and mosses. Depending on the time of year, there is a constant drip-drip of water trickling down the canyon walls.

During summer months, foot bridges are installed over the creek to make this trail easier (and dryer), but it is generally passable year-round if one is nimble and can tolerate getting damp."

Well, we didn't go in the summer months, and there were no footbridges. And the stream was high due to all the rain. So, we tolerated getting damp. In places we were hiking in a couple feet of water. Since we were hiking, I had opted for my hiking shoes, and not my rain boots. Bad move on my part. Aaron, Ryan, Melissa, and I, and some of the kids rolled up our pants, took off our shoes and socks, and hiked barefoot up the canyon. Jared had his rain boots, so he helped Lisa and the smaller kids cross the deeper parts. It was freezing and the rocks were really sharp, but it was totally worth it. The canyon was really cool to see, and it was just fun just to say that you hiked up a rocky canyon stream barefooted in March. I might be 30, and I might be 13 weeks pregnant, but I'm still freakin' awesome! :)

Did I mention that Fern Canyon is right by the ocean? Like in the tsunami hazard zone and everything. Coming out of fern canyon, at the end of the trail we saw a heard of elk up pretty close, with the ocean right there in the background. It was just like Yellowstone, only plus the ocean. Pretty amazing, this world we live in.

At the parking lot, two girl hitch hikers asked if we wouldn't mind giving them a ride back down to the visitor's center. We squished both of them into the front passenger seat and then I road in the back between Lincoln and Ivan. It could have been awkward silence for 20 minutes, but don't you worry, we had Adelia with us! She talked their ears off, the whole time. It made me laugh.

When we got back into Crescent City, we stopped at the cheese factory to get some cheese curds. Yum. Although, Lincoln and Ivan were not impressed with them. They didn't like the texture.

Then we went back to the cabins. We'd already packed up all our stuff into the van and checked out of our cabin, so we hung out at Sydni's cabin for awhile, while Aaron roasted hot dogs and bratwurst on the grill for our dinner. Then we said our goodbyes, and drove off to spend the night in Klamoth Falls, OR to get a jump-start on tomorrow's drive. Goodbye Redwoods, and goodbye California!