Not alone!

Below is a link to a really good article I read about a mom who stays at home, despite being a lower-income  family. I found it encouraging because her tips are very real to what we (mostly) already do. And it was also encouraging to know that our family is not alone and that there are families out there in the same predicament of trying to get by in today's world. And she thanked God that they can with what they have. Awesome. 

http://thehumbledhomemaker.com/2012/10/staying-at-home-with-your-kids-when-you-can-barely-afford-it.html

Welcome!

 Introducing my niece, Harmony Rose Sollars! 

She was born yesterday, October 12th @ 12:28 p.m., weighing 7lbs 4oz. and 19 inches long. 

 She's a beautiful baby with a headful of dark hair.

Mom and baby are doing great! All this joy and stuff. . . 

gets me excited for another special baby who's on his way. . . (not from me, lol!) 

Brace Face!

Dr. Lasley is checkin' out Nina's mouth. . .

 ROFL! I mean, this so funny, is it not???

In this monumental moment, I had to get one more pic in. 

She wouldn't give me a straight face, so what you see is what you get, lol!

What a work out!

 I am sore. My muscles I didn't even know I had are sore. I ache. My eyelids are aching. I officially worked-out today and not in a traditional manner. No, no. . . whereas most people are enjoying a traditional jog ("enjoying" may not necessarily be the word, lol) or jumping on their elliptical, I "enjoyed" digging the world's longest trench with Scotty. We've dug a 115 foot trench to bury our electricity in--for the barn. (Remember, at my house, it's usually all about the goats.) We decided not to dig the traditional two-foot-deep trench and instead we dug deep enough to bury the wire in conduit.  

Scott thought "smarter-and-not-harder" and broke out the rototiller. My gosh, that helped because I had dug about 15-20 feet in the hard dirt and I was pooped. I had to catch my second wind and then I went to town digging while Scott ran the rototiller. (We make a great team, don't we?) The purpose in running electricity to the barn is to have a light (duh) and an outlet to plug in the heater that my babies will need to stay warm this winter. We are running out of time to get this done since Scott leaves on Wednesday for two weeks. Ay yay, the work never ends. . . 

Projecting. . .

 I've been picking up some long-awaited projects. One of them was to hang my Jacob Zook hex signs on the barn. I love the Pennsylvania-Dutch art! Not a difficult project, but one I haven't done because well. . . I forgot where I put the signs! I lost them somewhere in the house and found the accidentally while doing some fall cleaning! I can be such a flake. . . 

Another project, which consisted of five cans of spray paint (you can blame this year's ozone wearing on me,  **sad face**), was an old dresser I picked up off from craigslist for $15. I bought knobs on ebay and wa-la! Scott has a dresser now. Of course, he is displeased with the pinks knobs, lol! I keep telling him they are not all pink, they were named amber pink, lol!

Now I gotta figure out what projects are next. I think I am going to focus on projects for my room, since I am changing it from the black-n-white colors to shabby chic. I gotta turn anything wood into white. Which consists of repainting my bedroom trim. Any volunteers to help? Lol!

My girls!

 My poor, sweet Alice. I don't think she's considered this pregnancy fun! Especially when she has two youngin's like Star and Arabella hanging around, constantly wanting to play.

 Here's Alice from the back end where you can see her tummy-outage more. Just a hair over two weeks to go! I'm so excited and nervous and thrilled and. . .and. . . but Alice? She's like, whatever. 

 Here are my girls thinkin' my camera is edible, so they are hangin' around waiting for me 

to feed it to them, lol!

 Everybody loves Star! She's easy to love because she's gentle, cuddly, and super-sweet.

Arabella, on the other hand, is my stinker, although she does love to be talked to. She loves her face cupped in your hands while you whisper sweet-nothing's to her. When that's not taking place, she's usually trying to prove her point via stubbornness. I've never met a more stubborn creature!