This week in a nutshell! #NewShawl #MommaDucks #YOLO

 

I have had a lot on my mind this week and haven't been able to motivate myself to blog, but I have been working hard to fill an order for a shawl and I am excited to show it off!

The natural light on the porch does a much better job of capturing the colors than the flash inside!  I love this color of yarn so much!  I can't wait to get this to Mom tomorrow so she can get started on the ruffle and then deliver this beautiful piece to the customer to enjoy as Fall quickly approaches!

 

This week I have been helping Mom fix the cracks on top of her chimney, weed the orchard, scrub wallpaper glue off walls and prep for painting.  When I went to Mom's yesterday  I took a break to I snap some pictures of the Momma Ducks sittin' their nests.  Pretty Girl, on the left, has 10 eggs now and Sweetie, on the right, has 11.  From those numbers they should be done adding eggs to the nest and now they just have to sit and wait.  Though we do try to protection them from predators, Pretty Girl has made it almost impossible with her nest placement.  Sweetie is a little more secure, though when we moved her to get rid of the mouse nest under her duck nest we discovered a black snake instead.  I hated to kill the snake I had to protect my birds and their nests and it got part way under the chicken coop before I could grab it and I couldn't pull it back through the chicken wire.  The ducks fought over the tail for a little bit before I took it away, but I was afraid they would choke on it if they tried to eat it so I threw it out into the hay field.

I leave you with this thought.  Sometimes the choices we have to make are hard.  The smart choice is not always the easy choice.... Courage is the key in these decisions.  Please pray for us as we look at all of our options and for our courage to make this next step.

New Shawls, Cub Scout Fun and Nesting Ducks... oh my!

As promised I have some pretty pictures today!

  

I do wish the colors in my pictures were consistent, but none-the-less I love the colors in this new shawl.  I got three skeins of this yarn so that the edging can be done in a pretty crocheted ruffle.  This is going to be beautiful when we are done with it!

 

Next is one of my favorite colors, Petunia stripes!  This will be the third shawl I have made out of this color and it has been a hit each time it has been shown at market!  This one has already been reserved by someone, plus I have some new Hokie yarn in a wool blend and some wool from Ireland in the plans... Stay tuned for updates on these projects and more in the coming weeks!

I am proud to say that my Blueberry Lavender Jam set nicely last night and I have 3 new batches of low sugar spreads ready to label for market this week!  My Blueberry Lavender Jam has been a big hit and I am interested to see how our customers like my Low Sugar Apple Rhubarb Jam and Low Sugar Marigold Jelly next week!
 
 After a long day of making goods for market it was great to relax with the kids for a couple of hours at a pool party hosted by Pack 348 in Riner.  Aiden surprised me when he insisted that he couldn't swim without his snorkel that got left at home, but he commandeered some pool noodles that had been deserted and still had some fun.  It was interesting to me that the other kids were more than ready to help Aiden back to the shallow end, but they did not seem to want to play with him.  Eventually he worked his way into a water gun battle and things seemed to work out a little bit...I hope the other boys are as accepting of him and patient with him as his teacher has been.  We do still have a few more weeks until den meetings start.  Aiden is super excited to get back into a regular schedule with that.   Plus he mentioned playing basketball the other day and he is hopeful that we can add that in too! aaannnnd of course the girls want to be girl scouts.... This school year is going to be an adventure for sure! ...here and on the Homestead...

This is "Sweetie" and she is set to be the next "Momma Duck" at the Something Special Homestead.  I'm not sure exactly what day she started her nest but on Wednesday, last week, she had 5 or 6 eggs that I was able to count so she may still be collecting at this point.  Sweetie is one of Lucky's ducklings that hatched at the Homestead last Fall.  She will eat out of my hand and let me pet her without even nipping at me.  This is my baby and I can't wait to see what her ducklings look like in about 6-7 weeks.  One of my other favorite ducks "Pretty Girl" has also started a new nest as well so we should have a new selection of ducklings ready for sale in Mid-October!

Long Day = Tired Me!

I didn't get around to uploading my pretty pictures today, but hopefully I can find the time tomorrow.  Our day started at 7:30 am getting the kids ready for school.  Then I got a batch of my Low Sugar Blueberry Lavender Jam made and ready for market, finished my teal shawl and took the kids to a Cub Scout Pool party!  I finally got them all in bed and on their way to dreamland.  Now I am tired and ready to hit the hay!  

I hope everyone had a great day! Night All!

Getting back into the swing of things... #NewJamsAndJellies #CirriculumNightAES

Our school day starts later here than I am used to, but I think I am finally getting back into the swing of things...

 

Mom and I have had a lot of requests for low sugar jellies and jams, so I went recipe hunting on Pinterest and found some that looked neat... I managed to get two batches done today and I have fruit ready for a third batch tomorrow.  

 

On the left is a Low Sugar Marigold Jelly that has beautifully sweet floral flavor and on the right is a Low Sugar Apple Rhubarb Jam that is the perfect balance of sweet and tangy!

After I got my jelly and jam done I made a trip to downtown Christiansburg to check out their Farmer's Market.  It is a fairly small market, with only about 10 vendors, but I think there is a lot of potential for us to do well there.  Hopefully Mom and I can do a trial run in two weeks and see if we want to switch Thursday markets or even pick up a second one.  

When I got home I had just enough time to get the kids off the bus and started on their homework before heading back out for curriculum night at AES. I was running a little late,  but luckily I was the only one there for the first session in our 3rd grade class and it allowed me some one-on-one time with the teacher.  

I had enough time to talk to Ms. Sowers and find out about the behavior chart for this year, the academic plan, and to learn a little more about what they are doing in class.  Poor Aiden is having a little bit of a hard time with the concept of no warnings, but so far he has not dropped below yellow for behavior so I am hopeful that this new system will work well for him.  Though he did get yellow today and it upset him so bad he was off the charts.  Now that I understand things a little better I can reassure him that yellow isn't that bad, but I still don't want to see it every day.   His teacher said he is very intelligent and she is very good at handling some of his "quirks".  It was nice to be able to talk to her about some of his frustrations, some of my concerns and to get to see examples of the assignments and tests.  She also has a very calm nature, but is very firm about the classroom rules and I think he respects her ability to stay calm and collected.  

I went to Kindergarten second.  It was a group setting with all of the Teachers working together to give the presentation so it wasn't as personalized, but I still found out about the plan for the year, their goals, and state mandated tests. The girls also have a great teacher that is already getting to know their academic strengths.  She is very impressed with what they already know and is excited to see how much she can build on that foundation. Though the methods of Head Start always bothered me because they couldn't direct the learning, between the Head Start teachers and watching their big brother, the girls are almost ready to graduate Kindergarten academically.  Kindergarten is going to bother me if I start to feel like we are stalled out academically with the girls, but then again they will be learning about social situations they aren't exposed to at home and growing socially.... soooo....IDK... I guess I just don't want them getting too comfortable with easy work for the first couple of years of school and then getting irritated when things start getting more difficult in 2nd grade or so.  From talking to Mrs. Facemire, I think their she is going to be good at encouraging them to use their extra resources to keep challenging themselves.  AES really feels like the school we have been looking for and I am looking forward to the year ahead!

What an adventure! #1400MilesInAWeekend

When my Grandma passed away last January, my Mom was left some personal possessions. She put them in storage in May until she could retrieve them from Michigan, where my Grandma lived.  Unfortunately, plans had fallen through time and again for her things to be brought home.  So on Friday Josh and I left for an adventure...

We dropped the kids off with Mom at 6 pm Friday and traded vehicles for the trip.  Then we set off for my cousin Kimmie's house!  My husband started the journey behind the wheel and drove until about 1:30 AM on Saturday before we pulled over at a rest stop to grab about 4 hours of sleep in the back of the truck.  **Note to self- do NOT do this without an air mattress again...lol

 

At around 6 am on Saturday we woke up, climbed out of the back of the truck and took off again.  We had made it a little North of Columbus Ohio and still had quite a drive ahead.  

 

I drove for awhile in the morning and missed the chance to take pictures, but we saw some neat things on our trip.  On Friday night, we saw a 3 alarm fire at a food warehouse in Columbus.  (From a good distance thankfully) Then Saturday morning, we saw a red tailed hawk land in the median and the wind farms in Western Ohio before getting to Michigan.

Though I have made that trip many times in my life, I haven't gotten to make it with my husband until this year.  Now we have made the trip twice, once by plane and once by car.  I still can't decide which is worse, but neither is easy.  Since we managed to get to Michigan a couple of hours before we needed to be at Kimmie's we headed a little farther North to Jackson MI and visited a few other cousins.  It was nice to see a little more of the family while we were in town even though our visit was very short.  We got to see my cousin Ray, his girlfriend, two of his kids and even a grandbaby!  Ky is adorable and usually all smiles for pictures... but I don't think she wanted to leave.

 

Once we picked up the trailer we would be towing home and got everything loaded we had a little time to relax and get another good meal before hitting the hay...

 

Being at Kimmie's house was just like being at home and all the animals made it easy to unwind... She has some adorable goats, chickens, call ducks, muscovy ducks and some wild rabbits that have made her yard their home!

I really enjoyed the goats the most of all the animals!  They were so interactive and just too darn cute!  I could have stayed for days, but we had to get back to the kids and our responsibilities back at home.  So we got a little sleep and took off a little after 3 am Sunday to come back home!

It has taken a few days to bounce back from such and arduous trip, but I am finally getting back in the swing of things and getting the house put back together too.  I am so thankful that my husband was able to drive most of the trip.  Just being in the car was uncomfortable, but when I was towing the trailer and it got squirrelly I got stressed too.  Josh was more than willing to take the wheel again and then it started raining... if it weren't for him I may still be making my way home!  ((Thank you so much for you help Honey))

I have been working on a new teal shawl that I hope to be able to show off tomorrow, some baking to do and some cute pictures the girls teacher sent to show off... For now I need to get my schedule down for tomorrow and get some sleep so I can have a good productive day again!  

A roller coaster of a day... #TimeForBed

My day has been an emotional roller coaster that started with me being enraged by a "Spoof" piece I didn't realize was a farce at first.  Next I had a phone call that ended in great disappointment, the Marketplace has asked for a little more information about the insurance available through my husband's employer but things aren't sounding promising at all. I have been dealing with this for over 9 months and the prospect that things wouldn't turn out how I hoped was so devastating to me and a final straw that will be ending my chances of being able to make things work out working a simple part-time job.  

I had to face a lot of fears today that I haven't had to worry about for awhile.  Mainly how can I work and still be there for my family like I want to be.  I love doing Cub Scouts with Aiden.  The girls want to be Daisy Scouts and I want to be able to do that with them.  Aiden expressed an interest in sports for the first time ever. I love making things to send to market.  I don't want to miss these things when I go back to work, but I know I am so afraid that I am going to have to make sacrifices somewhere in there when I go back to working a full-time job away from home.  Buuuut.... The time has come for me to go back to a full-timer somewhere.

 

With that being said I did a lot of thinking today.  I did a lot of talking it out with my BFF Christy.  I decided I am going to continue to weave as much as I can and make as many jellies and jams as I can while I start searching for the start to my next career (I even have an order for my breads next week!)... but that search is getting started sooner rather than later now.  All of my kids are in school now and it has been the plan for awhile that I would go back to working what people keep calling a "real" job.

I am afraid it will be hard to find a job that doesn't disrupt our current schedule too much, but I got my resume updated today and started my research.  There are a lot of options of there and I have a variety of experience to work with.  I started my search with what I know best... "Customer Service".  So far I have found two jobs that look interesting and at least one of them pays good... hopefully this task will be less daunting than it seems right now.  :0)  

A little GT is good for the soul! #ILoveMyMom

Mom had asked me last month what I wanted for my birthday  and I choose a girls day!  We went out for a little shopping and we picked up some hair dye, discount flip flops and a few other little things. Then we went out for lunch, she took me to get a hair cut and we came back to my apartment to dye her hair before she headed back to the Homestead to make her latest batch of Coffee Jelly.  

We had lunch at Nagoya Sushi on Main St in Radford, VA.  I had the Godzilla Roll.  It's a deep fried sushi roll that has cream cheese, spicy tuna, and avocado in it and I really enjoyed it.  (About 5 years ago my friend Jennifer shared some deep fried sushi with me from this restaurant and I have wanted more ever since...I just haven't made it there until now) Mom had the Cashew Shrimp combo and it was more than delicious!  It came with the entree, miso soup, fried rice and a California Roll cut into 8 slices.  Our eyes were bigger than our bellies and we both had leftovers, though we were able to eat most of our meals.

 

Before                and                 After
We headed to the hair salon next.  Both us us needed a haircut, but Mom already has an appointment for tomorrow so we found a Salon in Radford and she treated me today.  I am usually dissatisfied with the cuts I receive at discount salons and sticker shocked at the ones with great reviews...but today I can say that I was pleasantly surprised with the haircut I received and the price today!  I will try to update this tomorrow with the stylists card...She was personable, happy and great at her job!  I would recommend her for everyone in the area.  You can visit her at "The Cut" between Walmart and Lowe's in Fairlawn, VA.


Life got in the way for a little while and it took some planning to work today into the schedule, but I'm glad I finally got to spend a girls day out with Mom again!  Thank you for taking some time to come hang out with me in my neck of the woods and treating me to a few treats and a little pampering! I love you!

Weaving up a storm! #Triloom

Now that I have some jams and jellies in stock I changed focus and started weaving again!  I have made the woven part of a shawl in just a couple of days and some have sat on the loom for months as life got in the way... This week I am on a roll and I have finished one shawl and I have another one well on its way too!

I started this shawl on Friday, put a pin in it over the weekend and finished it up today!  It is truly amazing how much faster I can weave without kids bombing me with questions and requests while I am trying to work...lol... This shawl is done in VT Hokies colors...Orange and Maroon! 

I did a ton of math until I came up with just the right pattern and then I got to work.  Since this type of loom weaves from the outside to the middle it has to be done just right or the last section won't match the rest of the pattern.

  

I am excited that I got this finished in time for the beginning of college football season and though I am a Hokie fan I will be getting more yarn and trying to get some done for other teams as well!  This is a great shawl for keeping warm at the game, at work and at home.  If anyone has a special request just let me know...I would be happy to get yours on the schedule! 

Since I have a good stock of yarn right now, I was able to get started on another shawl as soon as the last one came off the loom!  This one is a beautiful teal color that I would love to see finished with a crocheted ruffle across the bottom and a simple border across the top!

Aiden's Almost FREE backpack!!! #LLBean #Swagbucks

Have you ever heard of Swagbucks?  If you search the web it is an awesome reward program that works without having to actually spend money, though shopping online can earn you even more Swagbucks. I have been using this search engine on my home PC for 5 years now and I have turned my Swagbucks in for over $50 in Amazon gift cards, $50 in Restaurant.com gift cards, $25 in L.L. Bean gift cards and more!  I get most of my SB from searching for things online, but you can also get rebates on purchases, participate in surveys, watch videos, etc. Then once you have enough SB you can turn them in for some great prizes including gift cards and other swag.

I had been saving up my Swagbucks for awhile for the next time they would come in handy... I like to use them to go shopping online best!  My balance had gotten up to almost 3000 points... when I noticed that Aiden's book bag isn't going to last another year after all! :( One side of his zipper isn't working right anymore and now I all I can hope for is it lasting until the replacement gets here!

I shared before school that we had ordered the girls book bags from L.L. Bean.   They arrived 3 days after I ordered them and they look like they are very well made!  So far I am impressed and ready to buy a third for Aiden.  So I went to see if there was a L.L. Bean gift card reward through Swagbucks... and I was in luck!  It was actually perfect timing with a 20% discount waiting for me when I went to pick out my gift card!!! Now I still have about 750 points to build on again!

 

When we were looking at backpacks for the girls Aiden saw this color pattern he thought "Minecraft Camo" immediately...two of his favorite things wrapped into one awesome pattern! I am still afraid he will grow out of the color pattern before he grows out of the backpack, but hey when you are getting as good of a deal as we are...you get the kid what he wants! hehehe  With my $25 gift card I was able to get Aiden a new backpack with a lifetime guarantee for just $3.39! Plus...L.L. Bean throws in Free Shipping...double score!  I got my order placed today and we should have his new backpack by the end of the week!

Movie night fun! #SuicideSquad #TheLittlePrince

Movie night is a great way to spend quality time with the kids and it doesn't have to break the bank, but it can if you're not careful.  To have a good night without spending too much the girls and I choose a movie off Netflix and Josh took Aiden to the Radford Theatre.  

After a lot of thinking and debating we finally decided that our little boy is never going to grow up if we don't expose him to more movies and shows that aren't made for kids.  So far he has loved the Spiderman and Iron Man movies and he was equally impressed with "Suicide Squad".  My husband said the movie was pretty good, but didn't have as good of a story line as the Marvel movies he likes so much.  He also said that there was a little more bad language than he expected, overall it was good!

I had been seeing this trailer for awhile and thought it looked good.  Then Aiden watched it and loved it so much that we decided to give it a try too.  "The Little Prince" was a great movie about not forgetting to be a child.  I think this is a great movie for kids and adults...it helped remind me that I have to let my kids be kids sometimes... and that every activity we do doesn't have to be "essential" to their growth.  Sometimes it's important to look at the world through "Kid Glasses" and just have fun!

From Wild Carrots to Carrot Cake! #Weaving #SweetMemories

Our mornings are still a little rocky, but the kids have successfully gotten on and off the bus for the first week of school without forgetting anything.  They enjoy passing time at the bus stop taking pictures and saying good morning to the neighbors.  Their bus driver is a jolly man that seems to keep the kids in order pretty good.  He enjoys hugs from Isabella in the afternoon and wears a huge smile on his face!  I hope they get used riding the bus soon and stop trying to convince me to drive them to school... especially Aiden... he really knows how to break my heart :0) I didn't mind a morning drive last year, but this year it's a lot farther to school so I being firm and taking advantage of one of the two buses that pass my house twice a day :0) Once I got them on the bus I got to work in the kitchen again and got a lot done!

Yesterday I was working with the flowers from wild carrots and today I was working with regular carrots!  Today I made two batches of Low Sugar Carrot Cake Jam.  This jam reminds me of Fall with a wonderful blend of pineapple, carrots, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove flavors and is great served on crackers with cream cheese!  If you love carrot cake, you should definitely give this jam a try!

Something Special will have this labeled and ready for market next week along with the Queens Anne's Lace Jelly I made yesterday. I can't wait to see what our customers think of these new flavors and one or two more we have in the works!  We have been getting requests for low and no-sugar recipes so we are trying a few new recipes to compliment some of our tried and true favorite recipes!

After I got my jam done for the day I got to do some math and create a new pattern to put on the loom!  My awesome cousin, Kimmie, got me this tangerine wool blend yarn that is perfect for making a shawl for the Ultimate Hokie Fan or Alumni.  My first shawl done in similar colors sold quickly with one of Mom's shawl pins for $100 and I am hopeful this one will too!  So far it is coming along nicely and I may even be able to complete it next week... stay tuned for updates!

I got some nice treasures from Aiden's first week of 3rd grade and it looks like he is doing pretty good.  He is making friends and getting comfortable, but that is also bringing out some of his less than desirable traits.  I am hopeful that this year's teacher has the patience to work with Aiden and really see if she can help him work through some of his behavior issues.  She has worked with children in the autism spectrum and ADHD/ADD from what I have heard... I am praying that she knows some effective techniques and will share them with me too! :0)