Bullet Post II

I can't believe it's already been 2 months since I've last posted. To briefly cover what's been going on in our lives, here is a bullet post for you.

• I quit my job and my last day of work was March 8th. Nick's dad hasn't moved in yet, but we're expecting he will within a couple weeks.
• I love love LOVE being a stay at home mom & wife. It's truly a dream come true. I love being able to spend so much time with Beebaw. Also, with him not in daycare, he's been SO much healthier. I know getting him exposed to germs now can increase his immune system. However, the poor kid was always sick. Always. Add that constant sickness on top of a minor health issue, and it caused a lot of problems for his little body.
• Still haven't started my garden. Eek! Maybe Beebaw and I will work on that next week.
• We thought we were getting another foster baby a few weeks ago. Things changed and he ended up not being placed with us. This was actually a good thing, as he was able to be placed with other siblings. However, we now have another crib set up and ready, and I got a double jogging stroller. :) We are still looking for another wee one, but are immensely enjoying our time with Beebaw as an only child. 
• On March 4th, we decided to make big changes in our lives. In just over a month, together we have lost a total of 82 pounds and that number rises every day. We both feel great and LOVE the program! Feel free to ask me for more info. I wish we would have known about this sooner. 
• No, we have not adopted Beebaw yet. We are not to that point, but are getting closer. Hopefully we will have news on this sometime this summer. 

Well I think that's it...

Leave me a comment, I love hearing from my 2 readers ;)

A year and many changes

It's been almost a year since I last blogged. First let me get out all my excuses: I stopped due to depression. Then a miracle happened and my "childless-mother-depression" has since been gone. I'll get to that in a minute. And then I haven't blogged due to being plain too busy and tired. There, now that's out of the way.

In my last blog post I posted about getting new spring chicks. I have since gotten rid of all our chickens.  Nick and I have thrown around the idea of getting just two chicks this Spring, but I am not yet 100% convinced, as life as we know it is going to be turned upside down... for myself at least. 

I planted a garden and it was looking beautiful. Then life happened. I killed my garden.

We no longer are attempting any more international adoptions. We are also not playing the infertility game anymore. Those ships have long sailed away. Last January we started the process of getting licensed with our state to be foster parents. We have been licensed since May 31st of last year. 

The most exciting thing that happened to us this past year is that on May 31st, the day all our paperwork was signed off on a government workers desk, we received foster placement of the sweetest, most beautiful 5 month old baby boy. Our lives have been forever changed and we feel so blessed! For privacy purposes, we'll call him Beebaw (he loved to bee-bop to music, and thus his nickname formed). And while he's not ours legally, I will not be posting pictures of his face, which is quite unfortunate. He truly is a handsome little guy!

I have still been working full time, with Beebaw going to daycare. Our plan... no wait! I can't help but laugh at that word: plan. No "plan"of ours has ever gone to plan! What we were HOPING to do is have myself stay home full time if Beebaw were to legally become our son. We were thinking this might happen sometime in the first half of this year. However... "plans" have changed and now the plan is that Nick's dad will be moving in with us so he can have 24 hour care. This plan is slightly up in the air still. We are hoping to have things nailed down this week and then we can proceed with the needed changes.  

This next month, or rather YEAR, should be interesting to say the least!

Stay tuned...

A day off from "work"

Since today is Presidents day and the non-profit agency I work for gives us most federal holidays off, I had the pleasure of having a day off from work. Well... at least a day off from the work I get paid for.

I finally got some much needed cleaning done, did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen and started working on a tardis cake for a neighbor boy's 6th birthday who I hear is an avid Dr. Who fan. I must admit I have never seen the show. Coincidentally, while Nick and I had Netflix pulled up on the XBOX the other day, the Kinect must have heard something in our conversation resembling "Dr. Who" and it suddenly started playing. We looked at each other and started laughing. :)

Another thing I did today was collect chicken eggs.

Because of our cool weather and the bloom on the eggs, they can safely be kept unrefrigerated for weeks, and in fact this is how they are kept in many countries around the world. However I don't do this. I collect them every few days, gently set them in a clean sink, carefully wash each egg, and refrigerate. If there is an abundance, I will steam a layer of eggs in my steaming pot. This is the best way I have found to easily hard "boil" fresh eggs and be able to peel them simply and quickly... the shell just about slides right off.

Now that we are having nicer weather, I am getting anxious to start planting a garden. This year I am planting cold weather crops only. No more attempts at tomatoes, corn, or peppers! Since it's not quite time to plant outside, I have planted some herbs indoors. I had planted 5 different pots with seed, but as our dogs have knocked them out of the window sills, I now have 2 remaining... both chives. They have been moved to my kitchen window and are safe and sound from the beasts. :)

Lastly, I really enjoyed my restful yet productive day at home. It was satisfying to be able to get dinner in the crockpot this morning and have a nice chicken stew ready for dinner when Nick gets home. I didn't follow any recipe, but rather put a chicken (homegrown) I have had in the freezer in the crockpot and added some veggies on hand... parsnip, rutabega, carrot, onion, corn, edamame, asparagus and peas. It smells great!

(mostly) wordless wednesday

grown from seed heirloom belarusian heart tomatoes

a lone heirloom chiogga beet... the others were destroyed by a rogue chicken

heirloom black beauty zucchini

someone wants a tasty garden treat

Bullet Post!

Man oh man it's been some time since I've written on here! Lots has happened these past couple months...

• I just finished up my fourth round of Clomid (an infertility medication) for this year and again it did not work.
• All my hens are laying! It's so nice to get 4-5 eggs each day. Soon I'll be able to start giving them to friends. Yesterday I integrated the 3 baby chickens with the 6 big girls. So far so good. All feathers are still intact. haha
• I made a Star Wars birthday cake this past weekend for my favorite little 5 year old. He went bananas and started hugging and kissing me!
• Spring has FINALLY decided to arrive in western WA. I'm hoping to re-fence off the garden this weekend and plant the 18 tomato plants I've had growing in our living room window. I'm also going to be planting several old heirloom varieties of corn, squash, melon and beans.
• I have made a fantastic new friend, Amber, who lives in Kentucky. We met on a Trying To Conceive (TTC) forum and it feels like we were always meant to be friends... we have a crazy amount of stuff in common.
• We traded in our Volkswagen Jetta and Kia Sorento for a Honda Insight. It's taken some getting used to being a 1-car household, but with the distance we commute (we carpool together), we HAD to get something with good gas mileage. 43-47MPG isn't too shabby. ;)
• I want to throw a tea party!

And I'll end this post with a cute pic of our friend's dog buddy (him and his momma live with us). He says Hi!

oh spring, how I miss thee

My friend Apryl and I are counting down the days 'til Spring. We have tirelessly worked to convert a good portion of our backyard into a garden area. This area is now attached to the chicken run, so while there are no plants growing back there, the chickens are able to run around, scratch and the dirt, and most importantly... fertilize it.

We have just started our indoor seedlings for 2 varieties of tomatoes as well 3 varieties of onion. All of the seeds we have bought for our garden are non-GMO heirloom seeds... some date back to the 1700's! We purchased them from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and I highly recommend them. From the time I ordered them to the when they arrived took a quick 3 days.

In the spirit of myself having Spring fever, I thought I'd share with you 10 reasons why you should join in the ever-increasing backyard revolution and plant a backyard garden.

1. Gardens are inflation and recession proof.

2. Planting your own seed protects you from the risks of GMO foods.

3. Growing a garden is emotionally rewarding and offers independence.

4. Fresh picked vegetables are 50% higher in vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.

5. In an emergency, grocers only have 72 hours worth of food on the shelves.

6. You will make fewer trips to the grocery store.

7. Saving seed from your garden assures nutrition year after year.

8. Gardening keeps us fit; both in mind and body.

9. Planting and sowing is an excellent family activity.

10. You control what goes in to your garden, including pesticides!