Big Move

Since the last time I posted, life has changed for our family.  We have moved from one beautiful New England state to another.  One of the major goals in this change was for my husband to find a better work/life balance.  Another was for us as a family to slow down and spend more time together.

We are enjoying getting know people in our new small town - we could not be more blessed with wonderful neighbors.  Our new (to us) house has the character and history we have been wanting in an older home as well as the space to spread out.  We should also be able to expand our homesteading efforts beyond what a our previous half acre lot in a large subdivision with zoning restrictions allowed us to.  We are looking forward to doing so.

So far, I am enjoying baking with the apples we are picking from our front yard trees:

Our chickens are contentedly free ranging on our new property:

And our family is having a blast exploring our new surroundings:

Happy Valentine's Day 2014!

 Valentine treat for the kids this morning...

Treat for me: chocolate milk in my coffee :)  

How did it become mid February already!!!?

Our Very Own Eggs

There is nothing like a meal straight from the backyard in January in Maine - warm scrambled eggs...it's what's for breakfast. The kids are feeling the heat coming off the eggs in this picture.

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Martin Luther King Junior Day and Quiche

We feel blessed to live in a college town. Especially one that integrates so beautifully into the community...demonstrated by the annual children's celebration they hold on Martin Luther King Jr. day. This is the second year we have attended and my kids get so much out of it.



Inspired by Mavis Butterfield and her web site One Hundred Dollars A Month, I am taking our food budget to an extreme. Extreme, for us, meaning $100 a week! Well, tonight with no meat in the house, I made a couple of quiches - quick to throw together, smelling scrumptious in the oven, and tasty enough to satisfy all in the family, except my super duper picky son.



A big shout out to our lovely girls who are weathering this cold first winter quite well and continue to produce four to six eggs a day for us... Yes, this picture is an old summer photo! Happened to be the one I found on my iPad at the moment...


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Winter Fun

We are a couple of weeks into 2014 and we have a been having a lot of winter fun and somehow have avoided all the various bugs that seem to be swirling around us...
Getting some good mountain time...




And some fun winter hikes...




And some yummy baking including trying a homemade bagel recipe that my neighbor shared with me... They were a little funny looking but tasted great!!




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Halloween

My sweet little black kitty...



My adorable panda bear...




And the grim reaper? This was the first year my oldest had wanted to be something scary, and...against my better judgement I let him go with it. He is such a GOOD boy, that I thought...if he wants to play bad, let him for a night!




First thing he did when his neighborhood friends left after counting candy in our living room? Practice his piano!


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Fall Weekending

Finishing up proofing Will's writing work for tomorrow. Can't believe I had never read this book! So happy that my son has and is thinking, discussing and writing about it at age 9! It has been amazing to see his writing improve by leaps and bounds in less than two months with higher expectations set.




Fitting homework within another weekend with four, yes four!, soccer games for my boy... This guy was TIRED tonight!!!!




The girls and I had our troop hike on Friday afternoon, then an outdoor skills day with local girl scout troops all day Saturday...












Now poor Molly has a fever, so will low tomorrow.

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