Family update

So I had to do 2 updates. The first was getting really long, and who wants to read a 4 page paper anyway? So, here is what is going on with our family specifically!

Terence is looking forward to being done with the Army in a little over a year and a half. He is still feeling a strong call to ministry, although we're not really sure where God is pointing us. A walk of faith to be sure! He is going to school online with Liberty University for Christian Studies right now, and we're hoping for a nudge in the right direction from the Holy Spirit when it's time to move on with his schooling. He's also been doing some wood working, which he LOVES, along with all the farm work.

The kids are all doing great, and are all FINALLY on summer break! We look forward to this all year! I know a lot of homeschool families school year round, but it's just NOT for us! We need the break, desperately!!! I think I look forward to it more than the kids! I'm kind of dreading getting back to it, next year we will have 7th, 5th, 3rd, and 1st grade! How did THAT happen?!?!?!

Gavin will be in 7th grade this coming year, which kills me. Seriously, don't blink people! He will be going away on a week long camp this summer, which thrills and terrifies me at the same time! HAHA! He'll do great, and I'll miss him like crazy! He is really intersted in anything having to do with science and art.

Elizabeth truly is my little mama. She loves babies and is really good with them. She literally begs me to let her change diapers, or hold MJ. She's also my go-to-gal for keeping the baby safe if I need to run upstairs or outside for something! She loves to sing, dance, and do anything artistic.

Ryan is my super active kid. He loves everything sports related, or anything competetive. He's a pretty happy, sweet boy. He's also WAY more adventurous than some of the other kids. He would do pretty much anything crazy we challenge him to do, which I love to do with my kids. Since some of them are pretty reserved, I tend to say things like, "Climb that and I'll give you $1." He's usually the first one to take me up on it!

Anna is well, Anna! If you know this funny, crazy little girl, you know what I'm talking about! She is her own person, to be sure! As our preschool ministry leader in Alaska said, "She's going to do SOMETHING when she grows up!" Yep, that about sums it up. We never really know WHAT that kid is going to do. She is awesome, and funny, and vibrant, and probably the most ALIVE person I know! God made her just the way He wanted her, now I just have to figure out how to teach her to harness it! :)

Jeffrey is finally starting to talk! He's still behind, but he is working on it! He was a full year behind in his speech a year ago, and unfortunately he hasn't made a full year's progress, which means he's more than a year behind now. He'll be going in soon for another speech evaluation. A recent primary care visit(to get our new referral for speech) also brought to our attention that he is a little behind in his fine motor skills. He'll go back in, in about 3 months to do a follow up on that. He's a fun kid, and is finally wanting to do some things for himself. He says, "I do it," a lot. He also says hilarious things, like when you ask him a question, he will answer you, "Oh, of course!"

MJ is getting big, and getting herself ready to walk, much to my dismay! She is almost 10 months(again, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?!) and is a super happy baby! She sleeps all the way throught the night, which makes me SUPER happy! She is already starting to talk, and says mama, dada(at Daddy!), cat, dog, and bath! I think she might out talk Jeffrey soon! HAHA!

I've been working hard at trying to be a good mom, wife, teacher, house cleaner, etc. while getting this business going. It's no easy feat! I have a booth at the local farmers market here, which goes fairly well. Some weeks are definitely better than others! I also joined the women's softball team at church, which is a blast! I love it! I haven't plaid organized sports in FOREVER, but it is SO MUCH FUN!

I swear one day I'll get better at time management and have more time to write, because I truly do enjoy it. It'll probably be when I'm too old to write anything interesting! Util then, I'll continue updating when I remember! :)

Wanna be farm update

So, you all know I'm terrible at keeping up... I'm suprised anyone even reads this. I love love love to write, and I wish I had more time to do so. It's crazy here though, as always, and it really is hard to balance family, farm, and the business! Some days I feel like the cat in the hat when he has all that junk balanced and he's trying to bounce on a ball at the same time. Yep, that's me. I hope I don't sink the ship in the cake!!!

So here's what's going on here...

We ended up with 15 chickens total. We bought them as a straight run, so there is no way to tell how many male or female we have until they are big enough. At almost 3 months now, they are getting pretty big, and a few are definitely getting bigger, and redder combs than the rest. I'm fairly certain we have at least 2 roosters, and I really am hoping that the rest are hens, but only time will tell! They love to run around the yard, eating bugs and being chickens. The kids love to chase them, well because they are kids. This of course is frowned upon, much to the kids dismay!

The goats are getting big too and acting rather, well, goat-ish. If you've never been around goats, this is what they do: eat, jump, yell, head butt. That's about it, the life of a goat. They are related to deer, and it shows. They prance around and jump a lot like a deer. They are hilarious to watch, and watch them you must, because the neighbor dogs would love to eat them for dinner! We are still working on getting our electric fence up, which Terence is hoping will electrecute at least 1 dog before they learn. He's pretty mad that he has had to rescue the goats a few times, and would like to see a little revenge! HAHA!

Our garden is awful. We seriously under estimated the amount of protection that it would need, and the fire ants are AWFUL here! So, everything has helped itself to our produce, and the fire ants have helped themselves to the nice soft dirt that we tilled up! The new game plan is to do raised beds with a "hoop coop" over it, and then cover it with plastic as soon as it starts to get chilly, to create a greenhouse to grow stuff in the rest of the year. Terence is currently 1/2 way done with this project. Many more updates on that to come I'm sure! The one thing that did make it was our peas! They were delicious! We ate them raw with dinner last night, and you never did see a group of kids eat so many peas!