My never ending TO-DO list

I have so much to do, and of course not enough time to do it in. We have a lot going on here so this list just keeps growing daily. Here are some examples of things that are needing to get checked off soon... With a sick child and a sick husband today, it doesn't like any of this will get done today.

1. BUILD A COOP- this has been on my list for almost 2 months now.
2. clean the children's rooms and declutter as I go.
3. clean master bedroom and declutter as I go.
4. clean kitchen and pantry.
5. clean laundry room and make room for additional food storage. (shelf units)
6. weed the garden and get rid of the nasty squash bugs that are threatening my plants.
7. prepare for the fall garden (we want to expand the growing area)
8. get a pressure canner and canning jars.
9. research buying a cow and chickens for the freezer.
10. prepare for the children's new school year ( clothes, supplies)

This is of course just a partial list. I have so much more that needs to be written down on here, but my mind won't slow down enough for me to get them straight. I hope I am not the only one that this happens to.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great summer so far, and I pray for each of you daily. I pray that God give you peace in the decisions that you are making, and I pray that you are seeking him in making those choices. I pray for your gardens, children, health, finances, animals, and much much more.

Bless ya'll,
Jamie

Things that make me smile....and laugh

So, these days I am under some added stress and really try to find things that make me smile. Here is a short list of some of those things.... hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

thepioneerwoman.com- First of all, she has an awsome web page. Secondly, she has started an online book entitled "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels". If you find that you have about an hour to sit and read, start here first. It will have you laughing and remembering your dating years. And another must on her site is the to read the embarrasing moments section. It nearly brought me to tears.

I love reading about peoples lives, allbeit blogs, facebook pages, or anything else. I find it interesting that we truly do go through the same things as other people, just not nessesarily in the same exact way. If you were to google the phrase "blogs about _____" ( fill in the blanks yourself) you would be amazed at what comes up. Spend the couple of minutes and find some new areas of the web that you may not have seen before. I find more blogs to read and enjoy by seeng all of the blogs that my friends read. Some of the ones that I now follow, this is how I found them.

Of course, I find joy in my children. (MOST DAYS) I find myself at times laughing at the things that they say. For instance, and this will probably come back to haunt me later on in life but here goes.... The other day my husband came home from work smelly and wet with sweat, nothing unusual about that right? Anyway, all of my children run to him with open arms when he comes home, this is an everyday occurance and one that I love to see, but I digress.. my son takes one whiff of my honey and says " Daddy, you smell like tootie" I DIED!! Now if that doesn't make you laugh I don't know what would. (FYI tootie is what we call the va-jay-jay) My husband laughed too, but he still gave me the quizzical look. He took a shower immediatly. Out of the mouth of babes.

We are country, by every stretch of the word, so we find it funny when someone toots (farts as some people call it, my grandmother calls it bunny-ing) So my children, for some unknown reason have the need to announce when they toot and so goes the laughing. Until somone does it in the grocery store like they did the other night and then it's not so funny for me anymore. But, I guess you reap what you sew and this is what my husband has sewn for me.... no, I am not taking any credit for this one.

Another thing that makes me laugh is seeing my girls sing along to the radio. They will jam out to a song when they think no one is looking, but the moment they see that you are watching them, they immediatly stop and run away to hide. The same thing happens when my daughter Hannah sees me watching her dance in the living room.

My son has started break dancing. He's 4 after all, isn't that what 4 year olds are doing nowadays? He feels the need to show everone his new tricks. Even the neighbors. He was accross the street Saturday break dancing in our neighbor's yard before I knew he was even gone... they didn't mind, thankfully.

The chickens are funny to watch as well. You should see 6 chickens fight over a bug. They look like they are playing a game of keepaway. They will chase each other all over the pen until one of them finally eats the thing. They also love to play "Eat the gnat off of the dogs butt when she isn't looking" game too. Poor Marley doesn't understand this game and keeps getting pecked in the behind. I have to admit it's funny.

I also find it funny that no matter how many loads of laundry I can do everyday, there is always more when I turn around. WHAT?? Does it multiply in the basket? The same thing goes for the dishes.

I find that my bills have a sense of humor too. I pay them and they keep coming back every month... They act like a stray dog that is looking for food. I wonder if I stop paying them if they would stop coming... hmm... better not try that one.

I find it amusing that I only have 2 followers on my blog, and I have been writing for over a year now. I know that my life is pretty boring, but so are yours people and I read your blogs.... Now lets see how many followers I end up with after saying that?? 0?

Okay, so now I get to go wash dishes, clothes, children and whatever else I can find to clean up. That shouldn't be hard to spot.

Bless ya'll,
Jamie

I only have a few minutes...

So, as time is getting more and more limited in my life, I only have a few minutes to update my blog. I know that you guys are just bursting with excitement, right? Okay, I'll just pretend you are.

It is getting hotter and hotter in the south and we are feeling it! The kids are getting cabin fever by not being able to spend a lot of time outdoors. We can be outside for only 10 minutes and we are dripping sweat. If you are not from the south (Lisa) then you don't realize that the south has a very humid heat, it takes your breath away. It is very dangerous to work in as well.

My husband is an air conditioning service technician and he is accustomed to working in the heat, but I don't think he was prepared for his day on Friday. He was changing out an old unit for a new one and was having to work in an attic. The temp in the attic was roughly 150 degrees. He got dehydrated and was really starting to get me worried. By the time he got home (at 10 pm) I made him strip his wet clothes (from sweat) and dry off. I pumped him full of fluids and made him go to bed. I hate days like that. I get scared that he could die of heat stroke. Ironically, his safety meeting at work this week was on heat stroke. He is fine, but seeing as how the summer just got started, I have another 3 months of worrying about him working in the heat.

The kids and I pushed the chicken pen back about 4 feet to give the girls some grass to munch on. They acted like they had won the grass lottery. It was so funny to watch them scratch like they had never laid eyes on grass before. We were only out in the yard about 30 minutes and had to come in because we were drenched in sweat. The gnats are getting bad here as well. Another not so favorite thing about Summertime in the south.

The garden is doing good. We have picked 25 cucumbers, 3 very small tomatoes(I don't know why they turned red when they were so small),8 zucchini, 2 bell peppers,2 squash, 2 colanders full of green beans and a couple of hand fulls of sugar snap peas.

I pulled up the sugar snap peas because they just weren't doing good. The Turnips got pulled up as well. They were eaten by bugs very badly and they were horrible looking. So, why waste the space in the garden when I can plant something else. I am trying not to get down about the fact that my squash isn't producing like I want them to. I am trying my hand at being patient for once in my life. We'll see how that goes for me... hehe.

Okay, so as of right now, my life seems pretty boring but trust me I have a lot more going on in my life but choose not to post about it. I just don't want to be the blogging downer. Don't worry, it is fine. I am fine.

A big ole' ANYWAY!!! I am so excited about the new blogs that I have found to read lately. You should really see the list of them, it's getting longer and longer everyday. I love taking a few minutes...alright, hours (when I can) reading all of them. I love the fact that like a book, I can get caught up in the story. And, it's almost like getting letters in the mail everyday from those far away friends.

So, I leave you today because I fed my children popcorn for dinner last night and I don't think I can get away with that 2 nights in a row. So I must go BBQ some pork chops, yummy. Until next time my friends...

Bless ya'll,
Jamie

Can anyone say... GIVEAWAY???

On one of the blogs that I read, Shmoopywood, she is doing a great giveaway. Just thought I would pass along the information to those of you (2) that would be interested in entering, or even reading her blog. She keeps me laughing and has lots of info on her blog too. So, rush on over there and read a while and then enter of course for her home made soaps. Also, check out her ETSY shop.

Bless ya'll,
Jamie


shmoopywood: Shmoopywood Give AWAY!!

Another nest box giveaway....

Just wanted to let you guys know about another nest box giveaway from Life on a southern Farm blog. Check them out... it ends soon, so hurry...

I will be updating my blog soon, we have been so busy with the chickens, garden, birthdays and children so be patient.

Bless ya'll,

Jamie

What to do, What to do...

Summer break is in full swing here. I have to admit, I am always really ready for them to get out of school, but never prepared to have them here all day long. I have this mental list of all of the exciting things that we could do during the summer, but finances always stand in the way. So, this year we are doing the newly popular "Staycation".

We are only about 20 minutes from Statesboro, GA and there is a water park there. We could go for a great day of fun there for only about $40. That is about the same price as a trip to the movies. We are also directly in the middle of Savannah and Augusta. So that opens up new things for us to do. I know that the Science museum in Augusta is fun, we have been there for a birthday party before. There are so many wildlife parks around here too. National parks are another choice. The kids and I really would like to go camping for a while this summer, but with this being the busy season for my husband's job, he won't get to go. ( He's an A/C man.) I really could sit here all day and make a list of things for us to do. When you sit and think about what is around you, it is amazing to see all of the things we tell ourselves that we will get to and never do. This year, I plan on leaving our marks around this area. We need to get out and enjoy the places that make where we live home.

So when someone asks you what you are doing this summer, tell them you are getting outside to see all of the hidden treasures that your neighborhood has to offer.

On a related note, a friend of mine on facebook was talking back during our Spring break that he was GEOCACHING hunting... I didn't know what that was so I googled it. Turns out, that GEOCACHING is an online community that finds hidden treasures around your area, using coordinates, gps and other little things. You should really check it out. I had a hard time learning the lingo, but maybe you could fair better than I did. It is a way for people to get out and see their towns and have fun doing it. I have to say, it was very interesting learning about this. For more information you can go to www.geocaching.com

So, we have lots to do this summer and we can do all of this (HOPEFULLY) without breaking our budget. We'll see how things go. I hope you are enjoying your summer vacations so far... and for the rest of you that haven't started your summer vacations yet, start making your plans now. It will be here before you know it.

Bless ya'll,
Jamie

New and Exciting News!

So, Just as I am getting on the ball with keeping my blog updated, my computer decides to take a vacation. So, thanks to some really great friends, they gifted me a "new" laptop. We are up and running again. Thank God!! He is so good to us.

Alright, where to start? Well, my newly turned 4 year old son decided to teach himself to ride his bike with no training wheels. I was working in the garden and he yelled "Look at me mommy" and there he was riding by me. He is so cute. I could just squeeze him.


We had started taking the chicks outside in the mornings when we get home from taking the girls to school. They love being in the sunshine and scratching around the yard. They never venture outside of the side yard and never got into the garden, so I didn't mind. One morning about 2 weeks ago, my son and I took them outside to play and we came back inside to have our breakfast. We do this every morning and the chicks always stay where they usually play. I went out about an hour later to check on them and there stood a huge, and I mean HUGE rotweiller dog. Let's just say that my heart dropped into my stomach! I shooed the dog away and then went looking for my chicks. They were no where to be found. I stated crying and immediatley called my husband. He said to go get the Cheif of police, their office is just accross the street. So, I loaded up my son and sped to the police office. ( WARNING>>> This story gets very country beyond this point!) I ran into the office and the chief was having his morning coffee with the mail man. The mail man looked at me and said, UH- someone is coming and she ain't happy... I yelled... A big ole rottweiler just ate my chickens!! He said, alright I'm on my way. He followed me back to the house and long story short, he knew who's dog it was and he went and got him. They came back to the house and the man paid me $60, yes $60 for my 3 lost baby chicks. I couldn't believe it. We were heartbroken, but my son and I loaded up again and went to Statesboro to buy new baby chicks before the girls got home from school. We bought 6 new chicks and only spent $13 of the $60. We weren't able to get a new rooster chick, they didn't have any. Instead we ended up getting 6 girls. Then, again... we lost 2 of them. 1 died in the cage, we don't know why, and 1 got loose outside when we were cleaning out the cage the very next day. Oh well, we still have 6 others... Yes, I can add... I was hoping that you would catch that. When my son and I returned home from getting the new chicks, the 2 girl chicks that we had, had come out of hiding. We did lose our rooster chick. He was eaten by the big ole' dog. So, we had 8 girls all together, but now down to 6.

My daughter, Lilly pulled her first tooth the other night. She was determined not to lose it at school. She pulled it herself and was too proud. Earned her $10 for that jewel. I told her that she could start pulling mine for that kind of money.

The garden is looking so good. It is growing up a storm. It is funny the amount of people from town that have come over to look at it. The other night, there were 5 people here looking at it at the same time. Just this morning another of our neighbors stopped and said to let him know when my squash is ready. The pastor from the church across the street came by about a week or so ago and said that I was the talk of the town with my garden. Well, at least they are talking about my garden and not about me as a person right!! I think it's funny the things people get all worked up about these days. I am glad that people are taking notice though. My next door neighbor who has plenty of space for a nice sized garden and says that he just doesn't have time to do it, even planted 4 tomato plants... that's right... I am wearing off on folks around here.... so you might want to look out!

We also have another newbie here on the homestead... Marley. She is a ?Chocolate lab puppy. We don't know how old or if she is a full blooded lab or not, but we love her just the same. She loves the chicks too. She will sit at their pen and bark at them. She only wants to play with them, but they peck her through the fence anyway.

Speaking of the chicks again... my loving husband has a new nick name... The Chicken Whisperer. He can go out and stand next to the bigger chicks pen and they will fly up and roost on his shoulders. He literally has to tuck them in at night. If he is out there and doesn't come to see them, they get out by flight and come to him. It is too funny to watch. I wish I could get a good picture of it.

We only have 1 more week of school and I can't wait!! I am tired and I, I mean WE need a break. I hope we are able to do some fun things this summer.

I am not well versed in how to properly upload pictures so that they will be in the right order. So, these are the pictures... hope you like em'

Bless ya'll,
Jamie