Thoughts on 5 acres

When Michael and I moved we set out to get one acre.  We thought that it would be a dream to have that kind of space.  We never imagined getting five!  It was a blessing and an amazing deal to get this place.  So now that we are 4 years into trying to beautify our little piece of heaven,  here are some thoughts.

I love the fact that we will not run out of "project" space for a very long time.  Being here has allowed us to experiment with horses, goats, bees, chickens, rabbits, pigs, and many stray cats.  Its been fun, but also a lot of work!  (Wow, I did not realize all the would go into keeping up property....and yes, we were warned.)

I have been able to have a HUGE garden, plant lots of trees and put in a good chunk of grass.  I can yell at my kids and not really worry if anyone can hear me.  I can go outside knowing that the neighbors can't pop their heads over at any time and talk when I am working. There are a lot of really amazing blessing that come with having space.  I am thankful for them and I don't think I can ever go back to subdivision living.

However, there is always a flip side to things.  As much as an opportunity this land is, it is also a constant source of overwhelm for me.  If you have a tinge of perfectionism in you, you too may be prone to this.  When the snow melts and you never really did a good fall clean up.....ugg, the worst feeling to see so many things that need to get taken care of!!  Weeds are a constant battle, trees need to get fertilized, along with the berries, fences need to get fixed, sprinklers need to be replaced from damage done, the grass outside of the yard needs to be mowed down, projects that were half way done need to get completed, garbage that gets blown in needs to get picked up....I could really go on and on and on.

I am so thankful that we are not doing pigs for 4-H this year, and that our 17 chickens are down to one (yes, I am sad that our neighbors dog picked them off one by one this winter but glad to have a little breather) but am going to take this year to just focus on clean up, fix up and chilling out.

We don't have any major outside projects this year so I want to clean this place up!  Fix some things we put up quickly just because we were pressured by time,and then come up with a schedule to routinely do things so I don't have freak outs because I let weeding get out of control.

I am not as overwhelmed as I was a month ago because little efforts done consistently have made a big difference around here.  I am in day 4 of painting our fence.....so almost done.  I can't wait to get that finished so I can go onto weeding again.  I want to hurry so I can  get to the fun stuff like planting a garden!

So to sum up this long post.... i love my 5 acres, it overwhelms the heck out of me at times!  But if I can keep reminding myself  that small things done daily will bring about great change....I will be okay.

Another Cub Scout/ AZ. Trip

 Say hello to my little Wolf!

I love the scouting program.  I like that it teaches and reinforces things that I  believe are important for my kids to learn.  He was so excited to get started. 

 There he goes....off to learn and have fun.  

 We went to Arizona for spring break.  Mike's mom has been a widow for over a year now and she has struggled a bit.  She is an amazing woman who has done so much good.  We wanted to get down there and spend some time with her...let her see her grand kids.  It was a fun trip.  We need to do it more often.

Tater fit perfect on this little roll carry on.  

 This little sweetie is such a great person.  I am so glad we got to spend time catching up.  Friends for 14 years now and she is definitely a keeper.  

 Here is Grandma Elaine.  She was so happy to see the kids and her baby boy (Mike).  Love her. 

 The weather was so beautiful there.  Loved getting outside and not being cold!

I LOVE this toddler age.  He was really good to travel with.  As long as he gets his naps...he is good to go. When he doesn't it...it gets tough, but so worth it.  

Random Phone Pictures

 I need to figure out how to take better pictures with my camera!
These two little girls were in heaven at this trampoline warehouse.  Awhile back we had Bella and Maddy come stay with us for a few days.  Its fun to have the cousins come and play.  We love them so much!

 I love that we have camera's on our phones so I am able to get random photos like this when we are just waiting around in the car.

 And this one.  How crazy that all those little kids are mine!

 This is what Cole has been into this year.  He does such a good job with them too. If I was to guess... I would say he easily has made 200 of these things. He was making them and selling them at school...that had to come to an end, it was becoming disruptive.

 For Valentines this year I whisked Mike off on a romantic over nighter.  It was fun...fast, but needed.  We went to Desert Star play house and watched a parody of The Phantom of the opera.  It was pretty funny. Thanks to my beautiful cousin Danielle we were able to stay over night.  LOVE, LOVE that girl!!

 It seems that its like a right of passage for all my kids to get into the powder at least once when they are little.  This time around (4th time) I was able to laugh and see that powder is actually very easy to clean up.  How I wish I could take back my earlier versions of powder messes.  I do think with time, I am very slowly chilling out and getting better at motherhood.  Still, I have much more to overcome and chill out with but I am progressing .....slowly.

 What a cool little pose for my two year old!  Stop growing Tatum...you are so cute and little right now.  See proud dad in the background?

 My little beautiful Morgan is so sweet.  I don't know if you notice her "shoes" she made.  I was very impressed with her creativity with those little things.

 Here is a closer up of her duck tape shoes she made.  How cute is that?!

Here is Carson at school getting awarded with Builder of the Month.  So proud of him. It was so fun to see his reaction to winning.  Here is what his teacher wrote about him on his reward:

"Carson is the perfect example of a builder that befriends others.  Any time Carson sees someone is upset he is the first one to give support. He points out everything positive in a situation.  He is very non judgemental when providing encouragement and has the same attitude toward every person.  For Carson, it doesn't matter if he has known the scholar all year or just met them, he hold out his hand with intefrity and companionship."

Very, very proud of him.  What a great description of what a fine young boy he is.