I’ve been having moments lately, moments where I can truly say, “All is Well.” Those are good moments. It’s a good season for us, a season of growth, new relationships and new adventures for our family. That sometimes overly optimistic and hopeful side of me is alive and well. It’s been awhile for a little family update, I haven’t forgotten, just been busy with life. I have been working on other parts of the website in the past weeks. I often have more ideas than time.
Psst.. Have you checked out Joshua’s newest post, “The Power of a Present Father?”
We had a wonderfully peaceful Christmas season and a blessed time together bringing in the new year. I’m filled with thankfulness for God’s goodness towards 
us. As I’m writing this, the room is filled with music. My husband and some of our children are playing their instruments, and our one year old is dancing and twirling all around. What can I say? Life is good. It’s loud sometimes, messy for sure, some may even say a bit chaotic, but it’s good.
We had an unusuallly mild winter for the most part, we even had a spontaneous outdoor photoshoot on Christmas Eve. Joshua and I even broke out the hammock and rested outside. I didn’t miss the snow at all.
Spring Please
Spring is almost here! At the start of writing this, we have decided to take a much needed spring staycation. Life’s demands have had us so busy that we haven’t had much time to prep our little homestead for the new season. This will also give us some much needed family time. We love doing projects with our kiddos, some of them are practically young men now, and are capable of much more than they used to be. Their strength can really come in handy.
I’m inspired and delighted to see everything start to turn green around here again. The glum scenery is slowly fading into beautiful signs of life all around. I often long to be on the sunny coast, but there is something to be appreciated about the drastic change in seasons here. It certainly makes one more thankful for warm sunny days. Don’t get me wrong though, I still prefer the coast most days.
Many are surprised every year to discover that we wait so long to start our seeds, but we enjoy a later growing season here and have learned what works best where we live and with the land we have been blessed to work with. Frequent flooding is a significant obstacle we often face here in the springtime. One way we have combated some of this is by using raised garden beds.
We recently started our indoor planting. We love growing from seed. Just today, one of our younger sons checked on the plants and exclaimed, “I see them!” Little sprouts had indeed starting popping up and he couldn’t be more excited about it. Growing most anything is a great hobby for kids. More posts on gardening and homesteading coming soon.
For tips on growing from seed, click HERE.
Staycation?
At the beginning of this post I menitoned we were having a staycation. Well, we did and now it’s back to more traditional work tomorrow. I don’t know how successful our pursuit to get things done was, but we had a good time together. Honestly, in our season of life, we are almost always doing some level of work that exceeds the average person on a day to day basis. I like to work hard and rest hard, but taking care of a family of ten doesn’t always lend itself to resting.
Sometimes, you just have to leave the house and the work that goes with it and, in our case, go for a hike. This was definitely on my to do list, since the weather was unusually nice this past week.
We began some projects during our staycation, but have yet to finish many. We will be doing a much needed renovation to our chicken coup soon, so we can welcome home some new chicks. New fencing needs built, along with some more garden beds. We were all sad to see some of our old Willow trees die a few years ago and we are looking forward to planting more.
Joshua recently built a new compost bin. More project posts/videos are coming soon. We also have some projects in mind for the children’s play area. I must admit our homestead has seen better days, but it’s ripe for those who love a project or two, or more. That’s me.
Life is busy and full. I really should never complain. Things are good. All is well here and I hope all is well with you.
Til next time……..
