A little update on our year

Follow my blog with Bloglovin This past year has been a very busy time for my family. So, of course, my blog got left behind. My plan is to start up blogging again, move my blog and rename it.

One of my most exciting moments this year was when my first grand baby was born. He is 7 months old right now and starting to be a handful. I watch him often for my daughter so she can work. I don't ever remember my kids wearing me out like he does. When he takes his naps, I take one with him. He sleeps for 2 hours during one nap and an hour or so during the other two for me. I take advantage of the others to do the dishes or laundry or just picking up.

Jax was 3 1/2 months here

Christmas Eve 2016

He was licking his moms dirty feet LOL

The garden went nuts like usual. I lost most of my strawberry plants over the winter from some rodent enjoying the whole plant for dinner. We grew some beautiful popcorn. I had 18 tomato plants which turned into 22 gallon bags of chopped tomatoes. I am slowly turning them into sauce.

Isn't the popcorn beautiful! It's called Glass Gem.

I've been crocheting up a ton. Working on baby items, stockings for people and fur babies, ornaments, popcorn garland, tree skirt, and blankets. My favorite blanket is my Sophie's Universe. I stopped it in June because the weather got too hot. The blanket it huge and still going to get bigger. It is also very heavy. Perfect blanket for our bed in the winter time.

This was taken on my garden fence after I finished part 9.

I've been working on my Usborne Books & More business a bit more since September of this year. I have been a consultant for 1 1/2 years, but have been focusing on it more recently. You can check out my shop here: Usborne Books & More.

I have just recently became a Thirty One Gifts consultant after my husband said I should become one. I love that it is a faith based company. You can check out my shop here: Thirty-One Gifts.

My health has been pretty good. My RA is under control for the most part. My blood work is great. My fibromyalgia pain on the other hand has been bad. Getting that pain under control is a work in progress. I am on two different medications for pain right now. One of them can still be raised to a higher dose should I need it, which I will probably ask for at my next appointment.

Well, that has been the highlights of my year. I hope next year brings me much more fun as this year has.

It's that time of year again

It's that time of year when I order any seeds and plants I need for the next year. Abby just had to help me while I was going through all the seeds I have.


Like I have the past few years, I will be ordering the Super Sauce Tomato plants from Burpee. I ordered 12 plants last year and am thinking of getting 18 plants this year. I'm going to get my green pepper plants at a local farm this year however.


I believe the only seeds I need this year are herbs. I need more Oregano and Spearmint. For some reason my Spearmint never survives through the winter. That's okay, seeds are cheap.


I already bought some more Butter Bush Squash seeds. Hubby loves butternut squash and this seed makes the perfect sized plant for small spaces. I've had good luck with it the past few years.


I also went through my garden journal binder and printed up some new pages and took out all of last years notes. I still keep the past years notes just in case I need to look up something like the weather patterns or germination and harvest yields.


Now I just need the garden to thaw out and the temperatures go up a little more.

Looking back at 2015

As I was looking back on posts from 2015, it made me remember how much of a crazy trying year we had. Between issues with tons of weeds in the garden, having a hard time homeschooling and trying to keep on top of the harvests and preserving, it is a year we will learn from.


We didn't get to do anything on our homesteading to do list last year, so that list is still on for this year. We need to add a new furnace to the list now though. Ours is not running correctly, even though we had it looked at already. We were told that the furnace will last for a few more years. At this rate, we might as well just buy a new mobile home because it will knock out a few things on our list at once. We would just have to deal with a mortgage then. Something we haven't had in over 6 years. I like not having a mortgage and owning our home out right.


We have been talking about ways to help prevent so many weeds. I want to lay down some plastic mulch, red for the tomatoes and peppers and black for the rest of the garden. This is after we till up the garden in the early spring. I want to make sure all the big bits and as many small bits of the weeds and what not are not left in the garden.


We are now unschooling Matt. So much less pressure to do things he does not like or doesn't really need to do. I just have a requirement of math and reading. He wants to go to our local tech high school for welding and auto mechanics, so he needs to finish algebra and start geometry in order to meet the prerequisites for welding. He spends his days watching videos, reading online and playing this "game" online where he builds a vehicle from scratch. Every little thing going into the vehicle is made. He has learned so much about engine building from this "game". He has still been fixing up lawn mowers and weed whackers to learn more hands on stuff.

We are still part of our homeschool co-op, so we still have to deal with him there. High school age kids do not have a choice of class to pick from like the younger kids do. He has to take English comp and he hates it. He hates to write. Although, he did pick a topic he is passionate about for a thesis paper for the class. It's about how the Toyota Prius is not an eco friendly car, all because of the battery.


Now that the seed catalogs are slowly trickling in, it is time to start to plan this years garden. I love this time of year! Just hate the cold hehe.