EKjourney Backup

Yesterday ended up being a nice, low key day, after my initial disappointment of changing plans right in the middle of a project and losing "my animals". The children and I enjoyed playing and working outside. It was so warm and sunny that we just soaked it up. Everyone got along very well which always makes for such a pleasant atmosphere. We had lunch and dinner on the patio for the second day in a row and after dinner we walked down to the park. It was so relaxing! The weather forecast calls for a 20 degree temperature drop today. I am not sure I am ready to give up those 80 degree days yet! Bring on Summer!!!

One thing that I have wanted to do for a long time is to have a small farm. I want a nice garden, fruit trees, a few animals. I want to live simply and be as self sufficient as possible - growing our own food and buying from local sellers things like produce that I don't have room to grow, fresh raw goat's milk, part of a beef cow, fresh eggs, etc. I want our children to learn responsibility and how to grow a garden and raise animals. I have been intrigued by urban farming and have been planning, researching, and dreaming of turning our own little 1/5 of an acre plot into our "family farm". I have landscaped and gardened a great deal of our space already adding fruit trees and edible things. We have cherry, apple, persimmon, fig, and plumb trees, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, currants, and gooseberries. I have a nice little vegetable garden patch for the basics like tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, etc. It has been a lot of fun watching our "propert...

A dear friend of mine (Hi Michelle) just posted something on her blog about curriculum review. I got on the site of a new curriculum she was using and it got me pondering about how homeschooling is going to work in our family. Since I am a teacher by trade and experience, there are many things that work to my advantage. There is also a way of doing things that I am going to have to unlearn. Technically, Sawyer still has another year before he is eligible for Kindergarden (public school wise) but I decided to get started on schooling to establish patterns and habits and because, well, I wanted to! I wanted to be creative and use my training and I was getting impatient! Here is my current system: I was given a link to a free online curriculum for early learners. I spent a VAST amount of time printing, reformatting , and organizing the 26 week theme based study that covered a letter, a number, a shape or color, and a nursery rhyme a week. I added other online ideas and activiti...

This shows some kitchen prep work. I frequently take a day where I just prepare a bunch of things in advanced. Raw Dressings and Sauces Gallon Baggies with shredded or chopped veggies Raw nuts and seeds, soaked in brine, and then dehydrated My new kitchen wonder. How did I cook without this? Now, you may be wondering why all the veggies and raw sauces and raw nuts and seeds? Well, we do eat pretty healthy here at the Kelly household but I learned of a cleansing and special "diet" to help alleviate the nausea of first trimester and decided to give it a try. That was an annoucement by the way!! The Kelly Family is growing. Baby (Lord willing) is due on December 21st, Evangeline's 2nd birthday!

The Easter Mommy Visited - close your eyes!

A Boy in a Bubble - floor heater vents do have their advantages! What is wrong with these pictures? Sometimes a corner just isn't available.

We all go through times in our life when the Lord uses experiences and situations to do some Spring cleaning. Spring cleaning involves detailed, extensive, time consuming, and at times dirty work but when something has been made clean, it is so refreshing. I encourage you to join me in allowing the Lord to clean up your temple in whatever manner He sees fit. Here is a Spring Cleaning list: The clutter needs to be sorted and thrown away. There is much that is collecting dust and taking up space. There are many things that are being held on to that really ought to be let go of and put in the dumpster. (What are you holding on to that the Lord would like you to let go of?) The walls, floors, and windows can get grimy and filmy. They need scrubbing and I mean elbow grease and cleaner type scrubbing. Sometimes a new coat of paint is need to brighten and freshen up a room. (The high traffic areas of our life are often the ones that get dirty the quickest. Sometimes a surface clean...

My cousin Poppy got married to her high school sweetheart on Saturday, April 4th up in Seattle. It was a beautiful wedding on a beautiful Spring day. Sawyer was the ring bearer and Jubilee and Zellee were the flower girls.

I love how Sawyer and and Eric are looking at each other. Maybe a little shyness? Here is one of Zell's face.

All Sawyer wanted to do was run and play and climb trees. Notice the backgound...Jubilee is in the process of falling, her specialty You can see from Sawyer's expression that this wasn't his idea (ok, it was mine) So sweet!!!!!!!!

At the rehearsal dinner Red Square at the U of W With Gram and Gramps With Grammy and Grampy