Where Did Summer Go?

Can you believe that summer is over? I'm having a hard time getting back into routine! I can only imagine it's hard for my girls too! 

We had a great summer! We visited Rolling Hills Zoo & Museum  & played at the NEW park in town! We celebrated D-Bugs birthday in June & K-Dogs birthday in August!

We watched as our chicks that hatched this spring grew & are now running around terrorizing the bugs in the yard! We became "goat herders", as we purchased 4 dairy goats! 

Bandit, our buck (top) & Bandit, our weather

Liberty & Ariel, the ladies 

We should have babies come the new year! I will start milking a couple weeks after the babies are born! My plan, as of now, is to milk in the morning, allowing the babies to nurse all day. I know I won't get as much milk as I would if I would bottle feed the babies, but for this year, this is the plan. :)

We co-held a garage sale & sold MOST of the baby items we had stored in the basement! YAY!!! Only a few more items to go & the basement will be cleared of baby stuff! We are so looking forward to moving the playroom downstairs & the girls having their own rooms again! K-Dog & D-Bug are ready to have their own space, although they say they don't, all I hear is "mom she's in my bubble"! Oh the drama of being a little girl! 

With summer coming to a close, we started our new school year last week! New curriculum & new grades! We are using A Beka Academy this year & with one week down & only a couple more days to go in this week, we are LOVING it!!! 

K-Dog loves that she gets to watch the tv for her lessons (as the tv is rarely on unless the computer is hooked up to it) instead of listening to "boring ol mom". Of course there is lots of "one on one" learning with just me & her, which she is doing so much better with this year than last. I think that has a lot to do with not having to listen to me all day long, she's very stubborn strong willed & I love her anyways!

D-Bug is having a blast learning to write in cursive! So far just i's & u's, but she loves it & she is so excited when she gets a sticker for making a great letter! I hear her singing the songs she's learned & counting & saying the sounds of letters, so I know she's enjoying herself too!

Me, well, I love that it's super easy for the girls to follow & SO EASY for me to understand! They have lesson plans written out for every day, no me trying to figure out what we're gonna do that day, it's all there in black & white!!! AMAZING!!!

So far we have only had one day that lasted until 5pm, other wise we are done with schooling by 2/3pm most days! This gives us lots of time to have fun & get things done around the house! 

The girls have even learned to do their own laundry!!! At ages 5 & 7yrs, this is wonderful!!! I help them take their baskets down the stairs & I put in the detergent, but the girls put all the clothes in & push the buttons & when ready switch them over to the dryer, then take them out & hang & put them away! So nice not having to do their laundry on top of mine & DH's.

Well off to finish up supper before DH gets home & we head to church tonight!

Hope there are many New Beginnings in your life this year,
In Christ Love,
MommaSie

Sweet Potato Project

K-dog started a science project growing a sweet potato vine from a whole sweet potato. We thought it would be fun to allow y'all to join in on the project! The following is what she has discovered during the project.

On February 16th, 2013 she placed the sweet potato in a mason jar full of water. She then had me place it in a south facing window so it would receive sunlight throughout the day!

On March 12 the first root was seen!

On March 26th the first vine bud formed
(Vine bud can be seen just to the left of the toothpick & above the lip of the jar)

On April 9th we can see the vine buds have grown & the roots have continued to grow.

Please check back for more reports on the sweet potato project.

Thank you,
K-Dog & Momma Sie

~*~ Chicks in the Bator ~*~

It's SPRING!!!! Oh how I LOVE spring!!! Pretty flowers & TONS of babies!!!

We are well on our way to experiencing all the "newness" spring brings!!! We had 1 of our 6 momma cats go into early labor, after she was roughly played with by our 2 youngest dogs (bad dogs dumb cat)  she had 3 kittens but was unable to care for them (neither was I) so they're stay here was short. Sad yes, but it happens so we move on.
We still have 5 prego momma cats that should be having babies in the next few weeks!!!
In January 1 of my hens decided it was hatching time...well I kept collecting eggs & about the beginning of March she "gave up". Now that it's spring time I have NO BROODY HENS!!!! Silly Chickens!!! So as I knew I wanted to hatch chicks I got out the incubator & put in 19 chicken eggs! Yes I know odd number *shrug* I also had a wonderful friend donate 6 duck eggs to hatch out. Last Tuesday I set up the incubator, collected eggs to be put in it & got busy. I was taking the box of duck eggs down the stairs (I put the incubator in the basement so it wouldn't get "bumped") as I was going down the stairs - you guessed it - I fell!!! the box fell out of my hands & bounced down the stairs, 1 of the 6 eggs bounced out of the box while the others went crashing together leaving a trail of egg goo down my stairs....that ONE egg survived with NO cracks!!!  I put it in the incubator after having a really good cry! I candled the eggs on Sunday afternoon & as far as I could tell I only had 1 chicken egg that was bad (showed a blood ring signifying death) 

My duck egg shows a beautiful LUCKY duckling growing inside!!! (along with 18 chicks in their eggs) 

I'm so excited that Lucky may actually hatch!!!!  I'm not going to "count my chicks before they hatch" but I will be candling them again next Tuesday!!!

The chicks should hatch around April 22nd & Lucky Duck should hatch around April 29th!!!

Please stay tuned for weekly updates & pictures of Lucky Duck!

~Momma Sie