Rain

We've had a lot of heavy rain and storms lately. Normally that's a Spring thing, but it just happens to coincide with the girls' day camp this year.

So far the girls are loving camp. It's superhero themed, and they've done lots of STEM activities. The older two are doing archery as well.

As for around the homestead,  a good downpour with some hail lets you know the problem areas to work on lol.

The rabbit area still gets a lot of sitting water. Thankfully that's not their permanent home.

The area where I'd like a small pond with a river floods nicely, creating it all on it's own. A bit more digging and contouring will make that a reality.

The shop needs a retaining wall around the man door and some gutters. A nice river flows under the door.

The yard is now full of tiny sticks and debris. The yard will never be clean!

On the bright side, the garden is getting water! I'm a terrible gardener, so every little bit helps.

Random Thoughts

 I told myself to start blogging again, and it seems I have a million different things to write about in my head, but when I sit down...nothing. Not one topic jumps to the front and demands my attention. Instead of walking away, I've decided I'll just do a random stuff post. Maybe a weekly or monthly catch up, things we have going on, things we have done...whatever.

--We went to Space Day at The Wilderness Center today. I posted pictures on the Facebook page. The girls had a blast, especially Lilly, since she wants to be a scientist and astronaut. We identified constellations in the observatory, made rockets, moon-walked, took a tour of our solar system, and made star gazing charts. It really is an awesome place to go. I grew up visiting the place, and it's nice that they offer a wide variety of programs, even homeschool ones!

--Winter stinks! I am over it. This is our first full winter in the house (we officially moved in March 2016). We are on a hill, with lots of farm fields around. It's always windy, the windows leak, we don't have enough seasoned firewood to utilize the fireplace as much as we would like, propane gets expensive, and the mud in my hallway at the backdoor is caked to the floor. I can't wait until it warms up, but the mud in the hallway never goes away...

--Our reading goals. So far we haven't done so well. The older two girls have read some of their books, but we have yet to do family reading. Hoping we can get into the swing of things soon.

--Speaking of books, we are suckers for books. The Wilderness Center had a table of books they were selling for a $1 each. Lots of nature and science stuff, thankfully we only spend $9!

--Lowe's Build & Grow. Something we've gone to for the past several years when they have a kid's clinic. Unfortunately their website says that they have enjoyed providing it over the past 10 years, but they have currently stopped them. Home Depot still has theirs, but we've never attended one there, so it's something I will look into. Unfortunately the only one they list is for next Saturday, which is Muggle's Day for Girl Scouts.

--On the subject of Girl Scouts, we just handed in our initial orders for selling cookies. All 4 girls are in scouts this year, so we had a goal of 200 boxes per girl. Initially we sold just a touch over 300, but I ordered the full amount of our goal and we will sell them at cookie booths. It's tricky this way, because we are financially responsible for those cookies since we ordered them and not the troop. I am hoping we sell them all and sell most of them the first weekend of cookie booths at the end of February. We have 515 boxes of cookies to get rid of. We did close to that last year (we only had 3 girls to hit goals, so we did less booths). Honestly though, I'm sick of cookies already, and we don't even have them in hand. The girls want those prizes though, so we'll be standing out in this Ohio weather selling cookies!

--Now that my entire post sounds like a rant I needed to unload, I leave you with Freya. I think she wants one of my hens!!

Delays, Crafts, and a Boot!

The great news for the week is that the water test came back good! No E. Coli or coliforms. The bad news is that due to the sheer amount of paperwork involved in a USDA rehab loan, our closing has been pushed back, and due to Thanksgiving, our new date is December 4th. Looks like we will be tiny home living for awhile longer.

It's not all terrible though, Luke has some photography stuff to finish up, and our Girl Scout troop is going crazy with Christmas crafts (and I'm the troop craft mom), so we are plenty busy with things, and getting a delay gives us more time to finish up stuff. We will be shoving family into my dad's house for Avery and Henna's birthday party, which is scheduled the day after closing!

Our Girl Scout troop wants to make ornaments and tags to sell as a fundraiser this year. Our meeting spot is a little grocery store that only sells locally grown foods and local artisan crafts, and they will allow us a small table after Thanksgiving, so I've been busy trying out different crafts, seeing what will be easy for us to do. The hardest part will be coming up with prices.

On a last note, we had our check ups at the podiatrist this week. We go every 6 months. All four girls seemed to inherit my flat feet unfortunately. Lexi, Lilly, and Henna seem to have no problems or pain with theirs. Avery has some leg pain, but her left tibia is also twisted slightly, which may be contributing to everything. We saw an orthopedic pediatric surgeon in June that did a full x-ray, and we are playing the waiting game now to go back in a year for a repeat x-ray to see if it is straightening on it's own, or if it's getting worse. As for me, my problems started in 3rd grade after being asked to run a relay race. I've had orthotics, foot surgery in 5th grade, and then slacked off with visits and orthotics in my late teens and early 20's because of insurance and kids. That was the biggest mistake ever. Now I have plantar fasciitis, and it is awful! I've done inflammation medication, cortisone shots, and new orthotics. Now I have basically have a walking removable cast. We are starting with my left foot, and I wear it all the time until the pain is gone, then wear it a week longer. Then I can switch it to the other foot. Needless to say I go back in a month to see how things are. Right now we are trying to avoid surgery, but make it easier for me to keep up with the girls.

Isn't it gorgeous?

Cookies, Clothing, and Celebrating

March is always super busy for us. Alexis was born on the 6th (birthday post will be separate from this post), plus there are many other family birthdays. Usually in Ohio we get our first taste of Spring, cabin fever lifts, the local farm stores get in baby chicks, and the foot of snow outside turns into a slightly grassy mud hole!

We had a lot of Girl Scout events this past week! March 7th was Goodwill Goodturn Day. Each girl donated 3 bags of clothing to get a community service patch! We also started working on another community service project we will finish up in May. We plan to knit hats for preemies, and make tie blankets that we can donate to hospitals.

 It is also cookie booth time! Alexis and Lillian have been in girl scouts 3 years, so they are first year Brownies. Avery just turned 5 so she is a first year Daisy. So for the past 3 years, we ask everyone we know in January to order cookies, we receive them in February, and in March we hit the stores to sell to the masses! We've already had booths the past few weekends, and we still have this next weekend for sure. Super fun times!!

 Today was the 103rd birthday for Girl Scouts. It just happened to be the day we had planned on taking the troop to a salon for a girly day. We turned our outing at Belles & Beaus into a birthday party, with some balloons, cake, and snacks, and the girls got their hair done up with hair chalk and glitter, plus a little makeup, and also had their nails done!

 Next week we will have a small St. Patrick's Day celebration while we start our tray favor crafts that are given to hospital patients on their lunch trays. We do flower shaped tissue paper "stained glass" ornaments that they can hang in windows.