Thursday, August 9, 2012

Stop fighting!

So I think I'm ready for this summer to come to an end. Or, just ready for school to start. Maybe because we've been home a lot, but the boys are at each others throats. For a couple weeks there it was so bad. They were constantly yelling at each other. I mean, I'm sure its nothing abnormal, but I definately needed to do something. So I invented the amazingly creatively named, "The stop fighting jar"!  Its pretty simple, if the boys want to fight, they can work. There are several slips of paper in the jar with various chores written on each slip. So, the boys get one warning, and if they keep fighting after that, they get to each pick a chore out of the jar. Simple....And Effective! And now that I think about it, they haven't had to pick out of the jar in a few days so I'm pretty sure something got through to them!




Raw local honey

I have fallen in love with raw local honey. This year it is Alfalfa honey from Coachella. A lady from school gets it per gallon from a guy. Last year I gave all my beautiful honey away in decorated jelly jars for Christmas favors. So this time, I got two gallons just to be safe! I love local honey. It is great for allergies and it is healing during the sicko months of winter colds... And I appreciate bees so much after I have learned how efficient and hard working they are... Save the bees!



Homesteader

Well I had no idea how homemakey I had become until I caught myslef literally in the middle of this in planned picture moment.
I was making almond milk while my homemade bread cooled on the counter while drinking a fresh veggie juice... All while wearing my lime green overalls, barefoot in the kitchen of my double wide! Hahaha.


Family campout

So we went on a little very last minute family campout this summer. We hiked our gear in about a mile, set our tent up in the middle of a huge open field. Then we went exploring, ate dinner over our little gas stove. Hank got to come with us! And we were the only ones camping there so it was cool being all out in the open totally alone. The boys did so good carrying all their stuff to and from the campsite...
And, Nathan just tops everything off with pure fun and enjoyment. He makes things easy, chill, and happy. Thank you Daddy!








The beach

So when Chad and Allyson were here, they took a couple days to stay at Carlsbad beach. Chad asked me if I was always at the beach since I only live about an hour away. I said, in total shock, "No. I'm not at the beach all summer." So I've made a point to take the kids to the beach a lot this summer. It's actually been cool because I've had the luxury and confidence to take the kids by myself instead of feeling like I have to go with Nathan. The boys are older too, it makes it easier...







Chad and Allyson

This summer, my brother and his wife came to visit. They ha e two boys, each a little older than my boys. We all had a great time. Their oldest, Walker, is very artistic. He was actually more into his own things, while my boys played with Noah. This was definately a case of city meets country. Thanks for making us a part of your summer, Chad and Allyson!
Take note that Noah and Charley look like twins! Also, Charley LOVES Chad. It was soo cute, Charley would always cuddle up to him.








Anza Baseball

So out here, baseball is a big deal. They have all different leagues and teams. They have an opening snf closing ceremonies. Coaches, team managers, uniforms, concession stands, trophies, nice fields...the works. And it is really like that because its the only sport out here. So, Colt has been in tball, then this past year he was actually on the baseball team. They did pitching machines, a huge difference from the last year of tball. So here are some pics. I'm so Proud of Colt, he is doing so good, and he's exactly where he needs to be!
P.s. the pic with the kids at the horse is literally right there next to the baseball fields... Horses watching the game! And all the little kids go feed the horses their snacks during practice.







Random pictures

I am just going to post pics on here in no particular order. This Blogger app is literally so basic. I can only type something, then add pics at the end of that.






Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Our new diggs

Yeay. We are moving to such a cute nicer home. Well, we've been in Anza for a couple of years now and we like it. We have been living in a double wide on ten acres of weeds, basically. No garage, no porch, no nothing to make it cute or homey. And we've been fine with that. We have a great ability to just adapt to things and we have been more interested in the experience here than what things look like. It's been in the last few months that we've maybe wanted something more. So we found a super cute home on 5 acres, which for what we want, is plenty of space. It's a bigger house, ON A FOUNDATION (that means no creaky floors :-)) with a two car garage and a barn. It also has a beautiful back porch with a nice overhang that overlooks the valley. AND there is irrigation around the property where they actually have flowers and trees and grapes! It also has an awesome 3 stall barn, and an arena for riding Diamond.
So here's the deal in Anza, everybody comes here for different reasons (we won't get into the druggie reasons). Some families love the open space for quad and motorcycle racing. Some families are horse lovers, and some of the horse lovers run horse rescues. Some people don't have animals or quads, for example, our neighbor with the big beautiful brick house. He grows acres of grapes and makes his own wine. The process is amazing. So, we came here and just dug in. Within the first year of being here, we accumulated more than 30 chickens, including incubating eggs and raising baby chicks. We brought home what would be the biggest pains in our butts, two goats, on our laps in the car. We raised cattle and butchered them for beef. One of which was butchered by an Iranian right on our property who was praying to Allah with every cut. He hauled away his four quarters of young beef in a mini van. We raised a hog for meat...colt and charley loved watching the butcher come out for that one. The boys understand that God put animals on this earth for our own health. But we need to be respectful with how we raise and butcher them too. We helped our mama pig farrow a litter of piglets on the coldest night of the year in the middle of a blizzard. Note to self: Do NOT have piglets in the winter again. We also cultivated the land for a very successful 20x25 ft garden. Where I learned to pickle, can, Blanche, freeze and properly store and EAT the fruits of our labors. We tilled and planted 2 acres of hay.  And for all of our animals, we built their fencing and shelters. Most of which was done in the blistering cold with storms approaching. Heaven forbid we actually take a nice day to do our outdoor chores.
So here's out conclusion: We love having land and animals, but we want to have a fresh start and do it the right way. We have this amazing ability to let things just roll off our back, and not be bothered by things. We are for sure not materialistic, we would rather have the experience of something than have nice stuff. So anyway, here, with just digging right into everything, we've realized that we do things in a jankey way. Our motto for this place really should have been, " That'll do" or "That's good for now".  We also started to realize how poorly and how not right things were done around here.
So anyway, we found a new place which has given us a total morale boost. We want to do things in a better, right way. And we are looking at this next move as a fresh new start. So here's to being just a little better in everything we do...