Today

It's been raining for a LONG time around here.  The kids are doing great being cooped up, mainly thanks to our covered porch.  They can still get fresh air and jump and holler.  But even that lasts only so long for kids who stare out at their bikes dripping with rain upon rain.  Since starting our urban homestead, I've learned that no matter the weather, there's stuff to do in the yard.  So we've taken advantage of the breaks in the rain and gone out to weed and rip more stuff out of the yard.  Lately, there's been less breaks in the rain and no one wanted to stay inside all day today, ESPECIALLY since Zac was home.  So we just went out in it anyways.  Zac said our neighbors must think we're crazy.  But I think they already do.  :)  It was just a gentle rain, most of the time, and wonderful to garden in.  We found TONS of worms and moved them into a wine half barrel, which will be my first carrot bed.

  We have plans to put in a large carrot bed, since carrots are the main veggies our kids like, but that is yet to be built and I'm itching to get my carrot seeds in.  Zac ripped up more huge stumps and I finally said goodbye to a beautiful climbing rose that was just utilizing too much potential edible plant space.  I felt like a plant murderer. 

We moved aside some great mulch from where our large carrot bed will go.  I took some Iris down to my neighbor who LOVES to leaf blow many yards (not ours) in our cul de sac, and asked him if he'd mind dumping his leaf mulch in our yard instead of green wasting it.  He was very happy to do that and have more room in his green waste.  So I've now acquired us a lifetime supply of mulch!

As we've made piles upon piles of waste pulled from the yard, I couldn't help but think that if we are able to produce THIS MUCH waste in our yard, think of how much edible goodness we potentially have room for.

I wish I'd taken pics of the waste along the way.  This is only what we did today.  Mounds of waste have already been taken away in our green waste bin.

I unearthed our walkway and plan to give it a bit more TLC with decomposed granite in between each step.

Zac is going snowboarding with our brother in law tomorrow so while Kian napped, he and the two big kids headed up to my mom's to grab his snow stuff out of her attic.  I had ample time to work on Logan's i-spy quilt since he was out of the house and I finished the top!  I'm so excited, but a bit nervous about the next step, which is the backing, quilting, binding part.  I usually back my quilts with a blanket in a pillow case type fashion, and then turn and topstitch.  I'd really like to learn the whole quilting process and hope to have time to do that with his i-Spy.  I also raided my scraps and found enough to add two more rows to my nephew's i-Spy quilt to just make it as big and fun as possible.

While still waiting for Zac and the big kids to get home, I enjoyed some one on one time with Kian after he woke up.  While I sewed the last boarders onto Logan's quilt, he played ball with himself.  Sometimes he'd bring me his ball to throw so he could fetch it.  :)  He's done this since he could walk.  Yes, we play fetch with our 1 year old.  :)  He's becoming quite the talker and after I threw the ball, he would exclaim, "I get it!".  At one point I asked him where his Tickity (his lovie) was and he said, "I no know.", his new favorite expression.  So I told him to go find it.  He came back with it and told me "Tickity night night.", which means Tickity was sleeping in his crib.  I LOVE having a little talker in the house.  We missed this stage with Felicity and I had forgotten how much fun it is.

Can't Tickity and I blog with you Mama?

Just as Zac and the big kids arrived home, our load of firewood did too.  We've been expecting it for a few days but the guy didn't want to drop it in the pouring rain.  Zac and the kids all helped bring the wood up onto our front porch, and stacked it nicely.

This boy can turn anything into a guitar.

Kian is very insistent upon helping these days.  If he's crabby, I'll ask for his help with a job and he cheers right up.  He insists on clearing his plate from the table after every meal, like he sees his siblings do.  If I forget to hand him his plate to clear after getting him out of his chair, he will throw a fit! 

He stayed up on the porch with me but his sister and brother brought him pieces to carry from the stairs to the pile, and he was very proud.

Tonight was Earth Hour.  Basically, people across the World go without lights for one hour, starting at 8:30p.m. their time.  Our kids go to bed by 7:30ish and we wanted them to take part in the whole hour, so we did Earth Hour at our house at 6:30p.m.  Due to our busy day, we ate a late dinner.  This allowed us to eat dinner by candle light, followed by getting ready for bed by candle light, and doing our nightly reading by candle light.  I've been reading Little House In The Big Woods to Felicity and Logan every night.  Earth Hour was perfect timing for us because not only did we have good discussions with the kids about energy conservation, we also talked about the reality that this was how Mary, Laura, baby Carrie, Ma, and Pa lived every day!  This hit home to Logan especially who was not a fan of our dark house. 

Did anyone else take part in Earth Hour?

Here's a link to a video about it if you are interested.

It's pretty cool.