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!!

Roadtrip to West Virginia

We took a quick vacation down to West Virginia. Everything with the house was going slower than planned, and Nana and Papaw's house got like 17 inches of snow, while we got zero up here in Ohio, so we packed up, drove 4 hours, and hung out in almost no internet or cell phone hills for a week. Seriously, we have to climb a mountain or walk over a mile up the road to get a cell phone signal, and just a few years ago, it was a 40 minute drive before our cell phones picked up a tower!

Nana and Papaw's. Apparently my camera decided not to save the whole picture...

The horses up the road. There were never horses when I was little, but the girls love to walk up and feed them carrots.

The sun never really reached the house. It didn't get high enough in the sky to clear the hill until it was setting at the beginning of the road.

Building a fort!

Mr. Snowman

Our dumb dumbs... Apollo and Athena

Sled riding.

The snowpants were just as fast as the sleds

The snow lasted awhile since the sun barely hit this side of the valley.

Sunset

West Virginia Getaway

Last week we made the 4 hour drive down to rural Calhoun County West Virginia to visit my (Holly's) grandparents, better known as Nana and Papaw to the girls. I've been going down there all of my life, and if you are looking for some quiet time and fresh air, this is the place for you! Our cell phones don't even get a roaming signal, and the internet is so slow Facebook doesn't load most of the time. Luke used the time to catch up editing pictures, while I actually sat and read books! The girls had a great time playing with toys, learning chess, sled riding on the hill, and walking up the road to feed the horses. I will say it is a lot more fun in the warmer months, when the trees are full of color, you can play in the creek, and you're not freezing to death.

Here's some of the beautiful winter landscapes on grandma's road.

Since we didn't see them over Christmas, we gave them our gifts we made, including a block puzzle and framed map. The girls love to climb the hill across the road to the cave, and the porch is a common spot for us to hang out with the animals.

Athena and Apollo love coming down to roam the hills. The girls had a blast sledding down in just their snowpants, but we had some sled wipe outs too!

See! Not even a paved road (imagine what the dogs looked like after walking in this mud!) The neighbors up the road have horses, so we took a trek up that way to feed them some carrots.



The girls go down a few times a year, and we are hoping that this year we can make it down more often as well. There is a blog I follow on Facebook, and she is located in the next county over. She offers classes and workshops on different homesteading ideas, and I would love to take a class or two. Although I don't personally know her, her website is full of information on country living. Check her out! Chickens In The Road