April 2017 Update

This month started with the homeschool conference. I’ve been considering a new approach to homeschool for 5th grade (more on this soon) so I wondered if I even needed to attend this year. I went anyway and I’m so glad that I did. As always, it was just the encouragement that I needed. I walked away feeling super confident in my decision, refreshed, and renewed. Plus, I found some pretty neat goodies.

Skylar ended up going back to Alabama for another week this month (have I mentioned how much I love the flexibility of homeschooling?) Once again, she had a blast! Between crafting, quilting, playing, cooking, and eating up all of Uncle Bennie’s desserts, she didn’t really want to come home. This girl gets spoiled rotten while she is there! She loves my Bama friends & family and they adore her too. We are planning for her to stay almost 2 weeks this summer and it’s hard to say who’s more excited, her or them.

We hosted our first family gathering at the BFF for Easter and it was so much fun! This house and land really are perfect! The open floor plan and room to roam just make it super easy to entertain. We popped up tables and ate buffet style. Then the adults hid eggs for all the kiddos. They spread them out so well that I think we actually lost a few. I’m sure they will turn up at some point. Then we had our annual hard-boiled egg baseball in the front yard. We even dyed eggs from our very own chickens this year. So fun! It felt so good to have everyone at our home together and I was so sad when they had to leave. My heart was so full and content this Easter!

Mike has been working an insane amount of hours and overnights this month so I’ve just been doing my best to hold down the fort. We are slowly but surely getting more small projects checked off the list. The problem is that it is an ever-growing and seemingly never ending list. Oh the joys of a 60+ year old farm. As busy as the month has been we did manage to sneak out on the lake one afternoon. It’s nice being so close. We even found a new marina that has better food than all the others. I think I’m going to like it on this side of the lake. 🙂

At this point we’ve met most of our immediate neighbors but the ones next door are our favorites. Skylar has really buddied up with them and they have embraced us too. I’m thankful for them. Having good neighbors really can make all the difference in the world.

On the animal front, our chickens are doing well and laying a decent amount of eggs every day. We’ve got a good little free-ranging routine and have been selling our extra eggs for $4 a dozen. It at least helps me pay for chicken feed. Last week Grandma and D-Dad’s dog came to hang with us at the BFF while they were away on vacation. We also saw several turkeys, including a Tom, strutting around the yard. Our neighbor also told us he spotted a small bobcat. Yikes! This week, we found an abandoned baby bird who we are trying to nurse back to health. There’s just never a dull moment around here!

Softball practice has started and games begin in a few weeks. I played ball all the way from Sweetie League through High School and swore that I would never again spend my Saturdays at the ballpark. Heaven help me. Mamas, never say never. Murphy thought he would make it even more fun because we also are scheduled for our regular weekly practice on Saturdays too. Oh the things I do for this kid. She seems to be enjoying it so far but she’s always enjoyed the team aspect of any sport. We’ll see what she says when it’s hotter than blazes and we are playing a double header. Sigh.

On Friday we had our Co-Op Field Day. I was thankful I was assigned to Skylar’s age group so I could see her participate in all of the different activities. She had a great day and came home with 11 ribbons. She always loved Field Day when we were at Stanford so I’m thankful we found a group can still do that with.