Happy March!

It's March already...really? Wow...what little winter we have had is just flying by.  It's already planting season here and I have done nothing to prepare. It crept up on me. I guess I know what I will be doing in the next 2 weeks.

Anyway...our lives have been pretty uneventful in the last few weeks. Nothing notable to really even blog about.  We are working hard on the house and I'm to the point now where I need to get the house decluttered, boxed up, thinned out, etc so that I can paint inside, then we install new carpet! YAY  My mom and dad are coming down next week to help out..I'm so excited. We'll be able to get a ton done with them here.

Here are some pictures to wrap up the last few weeks.

Raelee and I got invited to the Nike (kids) Mardi Gras ball. We had a lot of fun. We had even more fun getting dressed up and our hair and nails fixed.  I love this picture of us so I had to throw it in here.

At Valentine's Day, I took the opportunity to do a quick science experiment with Raelee. You can see what we did here. Raelee asked me how long it would take to see results in this. I told her at least a day. Boy was I wrong. It started happening immediately. It was crazy.  Funny how much you learn WITH your kids.

Here she is observing the change. The one on the far left is daisy's that were previously dyed. They were already colored.

This was the next day.  It is neat how the celery was pretty much divided down the middle.

The hawks have stopped chasing our birds. I'm glad that only lasted a few weeks.  Lately, you can find them outside just lounging around. They love to lay right in front of the open back door and watch what we are doing inside. Every now and then one ventures inside.

Raelee spent WEEKS preparing for her bug club meeting. I was so proud of her for  having a 'plan'. I was also glad when that meeting didn't go as planned because man, it is hard see her sad when they didn't work out, and not to mention...club meetings are a lot of work for mommy!  She quickly learned that combining that many kids in one area is not easy..they don't want to all sit and do a craft or learn about bugs. She didn't get too discouraged though. She mentioned that bug club with that many people is just not a good idea and maybe very small groups is better (what I had already tried to tell her).

She has been all about doing laundry and hanging it on her very own clothes line. She had a line strung up in the laundry room but it fell so when Daddy got home, he set her up her very own.  

Daddy had to stop working in the chicken coop to give her some instruction.

The chickens have been working hard at turning over my beds for me. They spend hours every day doing this. They take their job seriously too....fertilize, eat bad (and good) bugs, turn over the dirt and do it again. This is heaven for them.

They love dusting in the freshly turned dirt. It's funny watching this. It looks like they are having a seizure or something.   

Once I started feeding the wild birds, the chickens quickly learned the best place to be is  under the feeder..lol

My purple martins came back in one fell swoop early this year. My backyard sounds like a little piece of paradise in the mornings and evenings now. I do so love these birds!

When the chickens have been out for a few hours, they start lounging around. If you'll look at the red that is in the back of the picture, her legs are all stretched out as is her wings. She's just sunning herself. I thought they were dead when they first started laying like that.

On another note, I started making my own laundry detergent. I'm not even sure why to tell you the truth. I'm not necessarily doing it to go 'all natural' in our home...certainly not...because as I made it, my daughter ate pizza pockets and french fries. I'm not doing it to save money...because I'm not even sure I'm doing that. I probably am..but I haven't run the numbers. I double what the recipe tells me to use per load because I found 1 tablespoon left my clothes still smelling dingy. Now, they smell perfectly yummy when they come out of the dryer.   I loosely followed directions similar to this, only I used the whole box of each thing...3 bars of soap, and added oxy clean. Why? I don't know, maybe I read it somewhere? Who knows..lol  http://www.4us2be.com/uncategorized/homemade-laundry-detergent-recipe/  Regardless, it works.  For fabric softener, I fill the softener compartment with vinegar and add a few drops of lavender oil. No, your clothes don't smell like vinegar. Give it a try..you might surprise yourself!

I get to use my jars...which I have many of..and the pretty spoon that came from some place in Asia from my Parents. I wasn't sure what to do with this spoon..now I get to smile every time I do laundry because it's pretty and the jars are fun. Isn't this more fun than a great big tide and downy bottle?

Not to mention, my daughter (8) is doing a lot of the laundry lately (her choice) and this is what my laundry room looks like.  I have laundry soap and fabric softener on the shelves, on the washer, and on the wall.  Being that we are getting ready to sell a house, I figure this won't be acceptable. I do wash it down on a weekly basis, but this stuff is like cement and hard to get up if you don't find it right away...and I don't usually. I think going with the powdered homemade version is better for the cabinets, paint, and walls...and probably for my mother in law when she visits (it's a battle she fights too I noticed..I was too sick to deal with it when she visited so it was all quite the mess in there...sorry about that!)

My poor wall.

Being that it has been spring like weather lately, Raelee's favorite stuffed animals got bath and picture day.  It's so cute when she does this.

Our worm farm is going just great. I couldn't be more happy with how it is working. We have eggs in there now and lots of babies. I have my first harvesting of castings that are getting turned into worm casting tea for the garden.  We have all enjoyed watching it.  See the worm on the left? If you look close, you'll see a teenager worm next to it on the right. The babies are so tiny there is no way I could get a picture of them. Fun project for sure!

'Our' owls have come back. It's fun listening to them at night outside of our house. They are not going after the chickens b/c they come out long after the chickens are in bed for the night.  It's fun going owl spotting when we hear them hoot.

So there you have it...the most boring post ever..lol I hope you at least enjoyed the pictures!