2015 resolutions " Simply simple"

So for this year I choose  a resolutions theme. it is "simple" Life is not complicated why do we make it that way?

A simple life, simple solutions, calm down stress less. = Sounds divine. Right?

I am constantly reminded  of a quote made by Charlotte in the book Charlotte's Web by E.B. White  (That was a family story time read aloud in the summer of 2014) "Slowly, slowly, never hurry,  and never worry" I have heard  that in my head over and over in 2014.

Life is short, I don't want to rush it all away. I want to enjoy ever second of it.

For this year,2015 :

I will yell less

I will slow down and enjoy every second

I will play more with my children when electricity in NOT involved.

I will wear more skirts and dresses

I will exercise and drink more green juice

I will meditate and do more yoga

I will  create more and let my creative energy flow freely.

I will do my weekly project life book and not stress about the perfection of it. Capturing the moments  is what really matters.

I will print this out and put it on my nightstand.  I will read  it every morning as I wake up. giving me a fresh mindset every day

It is all about the right mindset, there are many studies about how if you can think it, and believe it you can make it happen.

Separate from my resolution list I WILL make this come spring:

I love everything about this I think I will do the scrap fabric in pastel rainbow colors (my love of rainbows always shines through!)

I will hang this on my front door, and friends........ If I can figure it out I  may make you one too!

Opposites attract

They say opposites attract, that seems to be true with Papabird and I. It is uncanny the amount of things we are so opposite about.

It is as simple as Black and white, really!My favorite color is White, Papabird's is Black.Seriously! I am not making this stuff up.

I cook a new recipe I  am loving it, I am literally sitting there wolfing it down only to look across the table and see Papabird just pushing it around his plate making it look eaten. Sometimes I get the occasional " Bleh! this is horrible!" Which then infuriates me because now all the little birds will then refuse to eat it!

I like it bright and sunny in the house, he likes all the windows closed making it cave like.

I like arcade type games, he likes fantasy games ( I do like some fantasy, he does like some arcade)

We sometimes laugh about our opposites and we sometimes argue.

Let talk Christmas decorations: I like stuff up just before Thanksgiving and take down the day after Christmas. Papabird likes it up the week before Christmas but up throughout most of January.

I just found a very cute website with natural Christmas decorations  I hope to remember those for next year.

Thankfully we do agree on one very important thing. We want to live off the land and have a farm Lucky for use we just bought one. Now lets talk animals: We both are having a hard time deciding on what animals to start with this spring.

Chickens: yes we do agree on those lots of them over 100., but what bread? Another issue we have not agreed on yet.We have a lot of animals on the table, well soon to be on the table! But we have only agreed on chickens, ducks and, turkey so far.

Happy Holidays!

Gingerbread Baby unit study ~ Jan Brett

Back in the schooling groove ( sort of),  We are using the build your library Christmas study with stories from Jan Brett.

We started this week with the Gingerbread Baby.

We also watched the book on DVD

We made salt dough ornaments.

 I found a roll and color  math work sheet for the little boys.THey loved it! I must get more of them for other units.

They started the week coloring gingerbread house.

 A fill in sheet all the kids did about being a gingerbread person. Here is Robin's work. I also had her write a story about her gingergirl using the new vocabulary from the book we just read. She underlined each vocab word.

Here is a closer snippet  from the story.

I had planned on making gingerbread cookies but I got so busy with Robin's other cooking projects for her Girl Scout cooking badge that I ran out of time.

She made quite a few recipes from this book that were excellent. I am loving cooking in the new house with the kids. I feel like I actually have room to breathe. My old kitchen was the size of a closet NO JOKE!

Robin has also started work on her Government patch.

Falcon has started lesson 1 in mapping the world with art.

Saying Goodbye is never easy

I never wanted a dog,,I am not a dog person but this dog stole my heart.

He was my first dog, he was a pure blood black lab bought for my husband but that stinkin dog chose me as his owner. I even tried to get him to sleep with my 3 yr. son and be his dog but that bull headed dog would cry without me and sleep next to me bed.

 Pretty puppy

 Hide n Seek

Bath time: puppies, bubbles and lots of giggles

 Drinking beer!

For11 years that dog has either slept in my bed with me or right next to my bed.


When I was in labor with all my kids he knew before I did that the babies were coming he would follow me around.

My 3 year old pooped in the back yard like a dog to teach our puppy where to do it.

The kids picked a good spot to bury him, on a hill next to a tree by the pond looking at the house. He was wrapped up in blankets and buried with items the kids wanted to add. His purple leash because he loved walks,some treats because he loved to eat, a football because he loved playing tackle with Falcon, a balloon Duck drew a face on for him. The kids got to pet him and say goodbye and they all helped put dirt over him in his final resting place.

His hips were bad, he was in a lot of pain and his meds were not working. I was not going to watch him struggle and let him be in pain just because I was not ready to let go.

Yes he still wagged his tail, yes he was still happy to see me. Even when I am in pain I still smile and I am still happy to see those I love that is not a true way to see if your dog is in pain. Dogs will not cry. He couldn't get up some days, he walked slow and was restless at night, he was in pain. They can't tell you but they show you.

I was not ready to let go. I had no idea how much I loved this dog I am so incredibly sad right now.

Goodbye puppy you will be forever missed.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Rainbows, I love them and rainbow colored anything.

My favorite color is white

I love Gingerbread people, strangely enough I own very few things with gingerbread people on it or gingerbread people in general I am just too cheap to buy them for myself. Seems like frivolous buy. So I buy things functional instead. I would love one year to own a bunch of Ginger people.

Pumpkin pie. I eat it year round. I LOVE IT!

So you want to know what going on with the house instead of my favorite things......... well you will just have to wait until I can find the cord to upload pictures to my Pc.

As for homeschooling we are back in the swing of things now doing a full load of work and playing catch up on time lost.

All morning I school the kids, then do farm chores then spend the rest of the night trying to un pack things and shuffle stuff around because we are still living in a house under construction.

I am privileged

As I pack up all the  stuff that has accumulated in my house over the last 6 year I  realize I am privileged.

We were supposed to move in 12 weeks ago. We have had many set backs that have made me want to stomp, scream and have a full blown 2 year old tantrum.

A few weeks back a cried I was MAD at the house things were just not going right I wanted to kick it. Instead I used brute force to chisel off the glued on bulletin board in the kitchen......

Ah release of endorphins  from working up a sweat,, that's better!

We were going to have a moving truck yesterday and make the big official move when the well pump went out ( we knew we were on borrowed time from the beginning!)

Now we must halt moving in. Not having  water is not going to work! I was mad, sad and frustrated again.

As I went to reach for something that s boxed away I thought to myself:

I have 2 sets of clothes out ( I could rewash those every other day here if I needed until we move. Some people only have 1 set of clothes and no where to wash them

I have food in the house and 1 pot not packed. I can eat I will not go hungry.

I have shelter and a warm bed.

I have my children's smiles and warm hugs.

I have chicken providing me eggs right now!

I am privileged I have so much more than so many in the world.

We knew buying a farmhouse would be hard work, we knew we would have to get a fixer upper in order to affords a good chunk of land..... I am privileged!



Some house pictures....

 The long hallway of shelves, These fit mason jars perfectly!

Getting cleaner slowly, Falcon digging in Robins Halloween candy.

Sage smudging the new house

November 6, 2014 a cold rainy full hunters moon

Tonight was a full moon so the perfect night to do the native American ritual of sage smudging.

What is sage smudging you may ask?

Mystics say the Native American practice of smudging, or purifying a room with the smoke of sacred herbs, can help clear negative energy from a space. And the apparent benefits are steeped in science—when burned, sage and other herbs release negative ions, which research has linked to a more positive mood.

I have never actually done this before but have always found it interesting. 

Tonight it was just girls in the house: Robin, her friend, Canary and I. I asked her friend if she wanted to take part in this and she was excited to give it a try. I did ask her mom first as well making sure it was okay as this is a spiritual ceremony.

At the entry we said:

"This sage is cleansing out all negative energies and spirits... all negative energies and spirits must leave and do no harm.

We then cleansed each other bathing each other in the smoke.

We had some problems at first getting it to catch fire and really getting it to burn well and create a good smoke.

The girls and I chanted  

  Cleanse this house and make it clear 

  Only good may enter here!

  Blessings grace this cozy place 

  All joy and peace may it embrace

  Infinite Power of the Divine

  Protect and bless this house through time!

Above the girls are in the closet just inside the front door chanting and holding the smudge stick.
While they sang, and spoke this they danced and pretended to be smoke fairies. We made up many of our own rhymes and chants. speaking those out loud as well One I said while they danced was:

May this house be filled with joy

Let love and laughter fill the air.

 Outside after we smudged the whole house,
We were smudging the doorway outside. I love how the smoke billows in this picture.

After we went through the whole house (45 min later) We set the sage stick in a glass light fixture thar was already taken down took down to paint the ceiling. We set the smudge stick in the fixture just outside the front door leaving the door open so the wind could carry in more smoke. I guess it was not heat proof, it cracked and busted. Ah well, we did not like them much anyway!

It was cute listening to the girls laugh and dance and make up stories about being in an enchanted castle. They wanted the lights off to create a mystical mood and loved watching the embers turn firey red as they gently blew on them. I cannot imagine a happier house blessing than the sound of happy giggling girls.

The girls hid 10 pennies throughout  the house so our home will be filled with wealth and prosperity.

We will later bury a loaf of bread out side the back door so we will never grow hungry and our field be plentiful.

Robin's Deity of choice right now is: ARTEMIS a greek god who was the great Olympian goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals and power over the moon.She was also a goddess of childbirth, and the protectress of the girl child up to the age of marriage. So it was really fitting that the house blessing took place during the full hunters moon.

and we danced,  and sang, and giggled in the smoke in the moonlight in our happy, positive, and newly cleansed home........

Girl Scout tent camping

First night in the new house was spent with my oldest son, 2 girls and my girl scout troop.

I promised Robin that I would camp with her this fall, and time got away with me, we bought a new house, Papabird was out of town...... the list goes one.  Fall is here and days are getting shorter sooooooooooo I decided Hey, why not campout on the 15 acres we just bought!

WE are NOT moved in yet  we still have so many things to get ready for but why not? We are actually moving in a few days from now and will work on it as we live there.

The day of the camp out Papabird was just finishing up  the filtration system and the water was turned off as scouts arrived. I was a bit worried we may be peeing in the woods if things didn't go right but just a few hours later Papabird turned it on and we now have super filtered tasty water free of all the junk found in city water. We have a well but our water is really hard.

Tents up,  stuffies inside (Beenie Boos are popular with our girls right now) sleeping bags inside. The spot was  a little ways back in the woods surrounded on all sides with trees and foliage so no house could be seen. The deep leaves made for very soft bedding,

Some more pictures of the woods.

After dinner Falcon taught the girls how to shoot.

Then off to feed the horses some carrots.

Checking out the  edible Chicken mushroom on our land and one  growing farther down the street.

Campfire going,  my co leader got it going with just 1 match, singing songs having fun.

Collecting campfire ashes for the Campfire ash Tradition started by the very first Boyscout.

The Campfire ash jars Robin made.

I was a beautiful day to camp sunny and 65 during the day overnight it was mostly clear ( we could see the stars) and about 43 degrees. All scouts stayed mostly warm in their tents.

I was super sad to sleep in the house on the hard green floor because Canary was being difficult and would have kept the whole camp up until about 1am she cried fussed most of the night. I would have rather slept with all the girls and moms but I did what I had to do for the good of all. Next time Canary will be older and I will get to have more fun and camp with the girls.

Robin did a great job helping make this camping trip a blast by  helping cook, purchase, plan and prepare foods and activities.for the day.

The next day after the girls left Falcon decided to  put his Boyscout skills to use and build a fire for the little ones who missed out on Smores during the campout.

My Co leader  and Falcon's Boyscout leader would have been sad to see us fail at this task even Papa Bird got involved. We had to relight it a few times to get it going and add lots of leaves and books. Yes, I said books we have a huge pile of old books that came with the house and we are using them as fuel for fires. I don't think many people really want a bunch of 1970 romance novels. At least we are using them for a purpose not just throwing it in the trash.

Note to self:
Must work on fire building skills as a family.

Cute little Canary in her super soft, green moss fairy circle ( that's what we were calling it.) Did you notice her socks don't match and they are dirty? We live on a farm, who cares  :)

 We did it! Our first campout in tents as troop. Getting ready to plan our 2 night spring campout.