Exciting Things Are Coming..........

I cannot believe it is the last day of April! Seriously, how did this happen???  I find myself really noticing time marching swiftly now......I'm trying to embrace more time with my babies because they really aren't babies anymore.  I find myself more emotional & really trying to focus on the truly important things. 

 It doesn't help that my 40th birthday is coming up next month.  WHAT???  I really do not feel like I've been here that long.  I find myself really taking stock of my life.  While doing that, I've come to a huge realization (well, honestly I've known this for a long time, but didn't want to admit it).  My health is far from desirable. So, then I had to decide what I'm going to do about that. I've decided to have a month long celebration so we can all learn how to "Spring Into Wellness."  I'm planning to share daily posts & tips & hopefully help myself & others through this process.  Some posts will be here on the blog & others will be on Facebook.  I am going to have a different health focus each week.  Now, everyone KNOWS how much I love my Young Living Essential Oils.  But that is not all I'll be sharing.  We've been focusing for a couple of years on cleaning up our diet & growing our own food.  So, I will also be sharing tips I've learned from our homesteading lifestyle.  I'm so excited about this online event!!!  I hope you will check in to see what is going on.  There will also be giveaways (I have a few partners who have offered prizes to share) &  prizes.  And it will also be loads of FUN!!!!  Stay tuned for more information!!!

Learning FUN

Children are sponges.........we've all heard this.  And it is so true.  Children soak up everything!! This school year, for me, has been out learning how my girls learn.  I want to make sure that I'm exposing them to all they need to succeed.  What I've learned is that they LEARN & THRIVE & GROW in everything they do.  From the time they wake up until the time they go back to sleep at night their brains are actively soaking in new information.  I would like to share with you just a few of the "funner" ways that we learn.

Both of my girls seem to love all things creative. I'm so happy to have found an art studio offering classes for them.  Right now they are in class together.  The class is call My Art.  Each week they learn something different & use a variety of mediums & methods.  This is a picture their teacher took of the class last week.  I absolutely LOVE seeing their creations & each week!!!

 We also enjoy "field trips."  Two places that we visit frequently are the library & the vet clinic.  My girls love these places.

Since we've been studying plants & gardening the last couple of weeks, I got the girls a root viewer kit.  We had to moisten the peat moss & we'll be planting a carrot see, radish see, & onion seed.  They are so excited about this!!

I have figured out that very few people enjoy practicing math facts.  I have had to get many different ways to get through math with Ava.  We have days when she tells me "I wish school & math didn't even exist."  Some days we have to find a different way to get our practice in.  Sunny days are a great time to get outside & let the fresh air clear you mind.  We recently started using our sidewalk chalk.  She has started getting all her problems correct!!! This is a big WIN!!!!

Aubrey also enjoys having her lessons outside.  She's working on addition & sight words.  I love to see my girls learning & proud of their work!!

Who knew learning could be this fun??

The Family That Plays Together

I love it when we can go have fun as a family. Life is so busy & time is really flying by. I want to enjoy all the little moments I can with my girls. Thankfully we had a weekend like that just recently.  So, we started out enjoying a day at Chuck E. Cheese.  These girls had a blast.

 The next day we headed to the zoo.  We typically go to the Nashville Zoo.....in fact, we have a membership there.  While we still LOVE that zoo, we decided that this trip we needed a change.  So we headed to the Birmingham Zoo.  It was great as well.   Such a fun day learning & exploring with my family!!  They got to dig for fossils & ride a camel.  What a cool day!!! 

We also got to see 2 really cool birds.  They had a golden eagle couple.  And the display was done in a way that we were able to look down & watch the eagle building its nest.  It was just fascinating watching this huge graceful bird moving these sticks around to make a home.  Then there was a beautiful peacock wandering around.  Now we've seen peacocks walking around before but I have never seen one fan its tail out!!  This bird was really putting on a show for us.  It fanned its tail & was bouncing around in a really gorgeous display!!!

Thankful for time like this with my family!!  I'm striving to find the joy in everyday life!!!  I hope you are too!!  Until next time......

Time to Bloom

When you live on a farm, there is ALWAYS something new & exciting going on.  Each day has its own challenges & victories & lessons.  It is a continual process.  So much to learn.  I learn something new daily, so I KNOW this is a good life for my girls.  

One of my girls' chores is to collect the eggs from our laying hens.  We've had laying hens for about 5 years now.  There is nothing in the world like a farm fresh egg from a pasture raised hen..........YUM!!!  In these 5 years, we've tried several ways of keeping our hens & collecting eggs.  Like I said, it is a continual process.  We had to figure out how to make the girls comfortable going & collecting the eggs.  We wanted them to enjoy having a "job" & being part of the workings of the farm. Now we are up to about 30 layers.  We have learned that roosters are going to work for us on our farm.......for several reasons.  One of those reasons being that the girls & I tend to be scared of the roosters.  After a few attempts at owning roosters, we are now a rooster-free farm.  My girls are much more eager to go get the eggs now.  

Since we have 30 laying hens, we get a lot of eggs........about 2 dozen a day.  So, we have a few people who get eggs from us.  We have taken to weighing our eggs to make sure these families are getting good sized eggs. Last week we had our biggest egg yet.  The girls came in & could not believe that the egg was as big as the palm of their hand!!!  We quickly weighed it..........3.1 oz!!  WOW!!!  It was a JUMBO beauty.  The poor hen..........OUCH!!!!  :)

My sweet Ava........she's growing up entirely too fast.  It is bittersweet.  I mean, I feel like I JUST had her last week.  How is it that she is about to be 9??? I am so captivated watching her grow & mature.  She is in a stage right now of wanting to help me with anything & everything around the house.  She wants to clean & cook.......doesn't matter, as long as she's getting to help.  She was so proud of herself earlier this month.  She found a recipe & prepared dessert for us all by herself.  We had gotten a coloring book from a local beekeeper & it has a few recipes in it.  She made these Honey Crispies.  We did substitute oats because we didn't have crisp rice cereal.   It was super yummy!!!  This is going to be NICE!!! 

And it gets even better..........she also cleaned up her mess without being asked to!!! Yes ma'am...she's going to be a tremendous help too!!

And of course Aubrey can't be left out..........whatever big sister can do, little sister can do too.  She had to help me dust mop.  And everyone dustmops in their Sophia princess dress & Tiana heels, right??  And my Aubrey has a big heart just like her sister too.  One of her favorite things to do is to pick me the most beautiful bouquets!!  My heart is full with these two!!! 

The picture below is a perfect depiction of our life........my girls (in their nightgowns) in the pasture with all the goats & my sweet hubby watching all the "kids."  This is certainly a blessed life!

 

And here is my favorite part of spring...........watching all the flowers make their appearance.  These just started opening up this week!!! 

Thanks for stopping in & checking out our life.  I hope you read something that makes you smile & helps you in some way.  Now, what are you waiting for??  Go out & BLOOM!!!

March........Welcoming Spring Time

Ahhh, spring time!!  Spring is such an exciting time of renewal......all kinds of new baby animals, new grass and flowers and plants, watching for new growth of garden seeds planted, etc...  The days start getting longer & brighter.  Everything is  alive and excited!! My family will tell you that I'm not as much of an outdoor person as they all are.  I don't like fighting the bugs and getting sweaty.  But the older I get the more I am enjoying it.  There is something so peaceful about walking outside and hearing all the bird calls and the frogs singing and even all the bugs buzzing (as long as they stay away from me, we'll all be fine).  So, bring all spring............all the walks outside, the evenings spent in the backyard until dark-thirty, campfires, and just enjoying my life and my family.

Here is a peek at just a few things we had going on during the month of March.  My girls are both starting to be very eager to help me around the house.  So, one evening I decided to let them handle dessert for us.  Now, it was a VERY easy dessert mind you.  But they were super proud just the same.  They made us some very yummy chocolate covered strawberries!!  Now we all can't wait for our own strawberries to come in!!! 

Probably my most favorite thing about our farm is having the goats.  They are fun to watch and play with.  And they are just super sweet and friendly.  But the best part is that our momma goat, Jojo gives us some really good milk!!  It is a sad day when we've dried Jojo up for a few months and then we're without her milk.  My favorite thing to do with her milk is to make my caramel sauce..........it is delicious and has so many uses.  This caramel sauce has turned me into a coffee snob.  You see, this is what I use in my coffee..........YUM!!  I'm happy to report that Miss Jojo is keeping us in good milk right now so I'm getting to make caramel sauce a couple of times a week. 

We have been taking our schooling and our lunchtime outside since the weather has been warmer.  Fresh air and vitamin D are so wonderful for our bodies.

I thought this picture was too cute not to share.  Schooling is such a big part of our day and our life.  It seems the girls are mimicking that with their princess dolls. I came into the living room to find this princess school going on!!

The end of March was very wet.  The girls got to truly enjoy being little country girls.  After an especially heavy rain, they enjoyed a day full of playing  in the mud and puddles.  I had just as much fun watching them as they were having playing.  I'm so thankful to be able to enjoy stuff like this with them.

They kept saying "This is so much fun!!!" 

Here's to a bunch more spring days to enjoy with my family!! 

Essential Oils Roller Bar

I LOVE to do Make & Take classes for my local Young Living team members.  They are always a lot of fun & everyone is able to ask questions & share what is working for them.  Recently, I decided to do a different spin on the Make & Take class.  One of my favorite ways to use essential oils is mixing up "recipes" for various issues & putting them in a roller bottle.  These roller bottles are so convenient & easy too use.  Because of the recipe already being mixed, they are also prediluted.  It just doesn't get any easier than using a roller bottle.  I figured if I like using these, then others probably do too!  

So, I decided to do a Saturday come & go brunch with an essential oil roller bar.  It was a huge success..........everyone was really excited about learning these various recipes.

When I do oil classes, I try to serve "oily" food.  This just shows people the flexibility of YLEOs.  For the roller bar class I had roasted garlic hummus with Lime oil to serve with veggies & crackers, cream cheese fruit dip with Citrus Fresh oil to serve with fruit, banana nut bread with Cinnamon Bark & Nutmeg oils, muffins with Orange oil (pictured below), & a super delicious Ningxia Red punch!!  Everyone is always so excited about trying foods/drinks with essential oils. 

I invited my team to come to this roller bar & I supplied all the materials & essential oils needed to make the roller bars.  They could pay a fee ($20) & were able to leave with 3 roller bottles ready to use.  I had the 8 recipes below that they could choose from. 

My daughters LOVE these essential oils & felt they just had to participate in the roller bar class.  So, I let them each choose 2 recipes to make.  They chose the happy blend, focus blend, anxiety blend, & booboo blend.  I think these were really good choices that fit our needs very well!! 

 

This class was such a success..........we can't wait to have another roller bar class!!  I'd love to hear what your favorite roller bottle recipes are!!