Ahghhggrrr

It has been snowing (flurry) since 4 am. Yes 4 am, that is what time my day started. It finally stopped moments ago, it will be really nice to see spring. I can hardly wait.

We got our electricity bill today. We used 1231 kwh last month...that's a lot for us expecially since we haven't been running the electric heater. That avg out to be 1769 watts per hour. OUCH. We will see where we can cut. I know that if we don't have more sunny days the solar panel doesn't do anything for us durning the winter. I think that shutting the water heater off more will certainly help. We are also looking to install motion sensor lights upstairs (that are really awsome) that we will get from the local hardware. They are a bit expensive but as long as they save us some money since the boys are not shutting the lights up.

On a happy note Smiley woke up in the middle of the night to use the potty! YIPEE....this is a great step!

Well I need to put all the clothes away that I folded last night and finish washing the bed sheets!

Toodles!

So far...so good!

Today I was very happy to go into service this morning. I was a good day. When I came home Duck was doing his homework the boys were playing so I started the dishes, started the laundry and then started on the netty pots. I used the yogrut containers from work that they toss and a soldering iron. I hope that this will work, I have a few more pots to do so I can put them in the tote. Tonight I will mix the nutrient solution and let it set overnight.

I transplanted most of the beans and sunflowers into bigger pots. Tonight I will plant some more beans and tomoatoes. I'm thinking about starting them out in bigger pots, I know for certain that next year I will be starting earlier and in bigger pots. I think that I'm going to be behind.

I went ahead and planted a few more tomatoes and broccoli. Tomorrow after work I will create an inventory of what I need and what I have. I will go ahead and plan as if I have the lettuce in the garden, if the hydroponics system is functioning (the one outside) by then, I will replace with tomatoes since it is best to grow cabbage and tomatoes together to cut down on cabbage worm.

I got a LOT of laundry done tonight, I will put it away and head to bed. I have to be up early so I need to hop to!

Night!
Katy

Another Blah Day.....

Nothing really new here. I'm really happy to see some more seedlings from 2.8 growing well under the grow light. I am excited to get the new lights up to introduce more plants. Duck picked up the pea gravel tonight so that is a start on the hydro systems. I am very interested in trying the system out this weekend, I really just needed the motivation to get it done. I also am trying to go out in service in the morning, I wanted to this morning unfortunately I woke up too late to get ready. I think that I'm going to take my shower tonight. The boys have been ruthless today, they have been fighting and screaming. We are working with the baby, he loves to scream all the time...sadly this is one of the signs that Sunshine showed when we first thought about ASD. While I don't think that this is a possibility, we are working hard on getting this behavior changed. Smiley is very affectionate and very strong willed. It is amazing to see the two when they see the sunflowers that they planted growing, like kids in a candy store. Well it's time for bed, I need to get up in the morning and try to get my shower done tonight. Another lazy day, not a lot done, but a dent in the chaos of our lives!

Toddles!
Katy

By the way, the one in the 2 liter is an experiement, I started it out on the 8th as a tomato plant, it has grown really really well!

Here is another pic of the lot of them. I am very excited at the beauty that Jehovah allows us the pleasure of witnessing.

Planting spurt..

The first planting took place on 1/25 or 26th I can't remember but I have it written down on the popsickle sticks that I used to label each plant, the second was on 2/8 and then the third today. I have some pics that I'm downloading right now. I'm trying to get my hyrdo system up, hopefully we will get one up this weekend. I'm lacking the following...netty pots, gravel and fertilizer. Miracle grow is the cloest thing that I can find right now at 20-20-21. I'm going to have to try it atleast. If it doesn't work then I will use that mixture to water the rest of my plants, clean the items and then order some from the internet. I really rather not do that, but I will. I have found a system that I really want to try, it seems the best for my needs for inside the house. So I would like to let everyone know right now and finally, my hydroponics system if for vegatables ONLY nothing illegal which I've been asked if that is what I'm doing. Hello! If I were doing something illegal would I post it? Would I spread info about it? Nothing is further from the possible truth. We are very excited at the possibility that we will be able to eat fresh lettuce year around. Here is one of the systems that I'm going to be trying..I'm really looking forward to seeing the results: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHiKKuAanyE&feature=related

Okay...so I really enjoy planting. I've read that Farmer's Almanac in parts that pertained to our area. I've leared a lot of useful info and we will be getting material for the cold frame which I hope to have pics of this weekend. (my work weekend) if we get them done that is!

Next it is locating a tiller...hopefully my neighbbor comes home soon :) If not we will have to either pay someone to come out and do it or rent one.

On a funny note I hurt myself really bad last night...in my sleep. The funny part is doing something that I hate to do...yoga. I was dreaming that I was doing yoga, which is really odd, then I felt a HUGE sharp pain and quickly woke up in a yoga pose. I pulled the muscle in my sternum and I would like to say, it hurts REALLY BAD.

Okay, I hope that you enjoy the pics, the youtube video and if you get bored...go to youtube and type in hydroponics. On a side note, it would be good to stay away from those referring to marijuana. There is some wonderful info and check out the verticle gardening ones too, they are really cool!

Night, Kate

A bit better today..

I feel a bit better but I still feel this heavy burden on my shoulder..not sure what it is or how to explain it. In the mean time I think that I will do more reading in the society provided material on family and children. I plan on going out into service both days this week as long as it is atleast nice.

On a lighter and much happier note...I would like to propose a question...What does $50.00 get you? Late last night I saw an ad on Hoosiertopics.com for 200+ canning jars..make an offer. I stated all I could give would be $50.00. They even delivered them to us today..now my front porch is covered with canning jar...guess what I'm doing tonight? Yup...cleaning jars. This also means that I will have enough this summer for all my tomatoes, peas, corn and beans. YUMMY, and oh so exciting...

Gotta go..toodles~

Working upstairs today....

We moved all the plants upstairs, I'll try to post some pics if I get them. I'm really rather depressed today at some news I rec'd. I really hate it when people degrade my parenting. Last time I checked they were my kids, since they aren't abused and they aren't bad children. We don't have conventional teaching as most in the day in age. We don't do anything without our children and again we are told that's wrong. (well there is only one thing that we do without our children...but to keep this G rated, it is left up to mommy and daddy time) Why is it wrong? Why would we have children if we didn't want to spend time with them? In 12 yrs Sunshine will be 18 and will be off doing his own thing...infact I probably don't have to wait that long, I'm probably looking at 9 or 10 yrs....why waste a minute with them now?

Okay, today was a bad day. I am still really upset and not sure how to approach it. While I think that I will ride this one out, in the mean time I'm not sure what to do or think. I'm really tired, my eyes are sore and hurt so bad. I am just dumbfounded.

This afternoon we cleaned the spare room and set up the plants inthe window, they perked up today so I'm thinking it will be good lighting for the starts and the hydroponics. Now I just pray the boys leave the plants alone. I will put in a grow light so that I can have the 16 hours that they want. We will go get the tubing for the hydro systems this weekend (mon or tue since I work in retail). I think that I have enough buckets to start and I will order some offline as well since I want to use the right mesh pots. If I can grow all my own lettuce that would be great! That will free up a LOT of room in the garden to plant more tomatoes. We are also going to build a hoop coldframe.

Goals/Plans for this weekend (done by Tue)

Fold and do all laundry tomorrow (fri)
Finish up boys room (Sat)
Laundry Room (Sun)
Kitchen (Mon) Hydro system
Livingroom/Hall (Tue) solar stuff

Okay I need to go, I see a shower and motrin in my very near future...

Me.

ye-ha!

First of all I really want to say that I'm so happy that my adorable kitty came home. I really missed him, he shows me affection when I'm just sitting doing nothing and the boys get a big kick out of feeding him and opening the door for him to come in or go out. He is a wonderful member of our family that will never be able to be replaced!

The Ye-Ha...I bought some coupons off the internet the other day...off ebay. They were for those totino's pizzas. The local little store had a special 5 for $4.00. That means that they were 80 cents each which is a huge savings from even save-a-lot or Walmart at 1.25 each. Then...with my coupon I saved $1.00 for every 3 that I bought, which means that if I bought 15 then I would save $5.00 off the $12.00 bill leaving a difference of $7.00. This would have made each pizza only 47 cents vs the reg price. Over all I'm very pleased with my coupons and savings...

Today was a rough day...I got up at 10 til 3 this morning and started my day. I picked up CB and had her come in a hour early so we could get prep done. It was nice to have it all done in the first thing in the morning. It gave us a good start to the day and got it off on the right foot. I'm irritated at the people who constantly stand around or lean over everything instead of doing their work...if you are bored find something to do. How would they like it if I asked them to work off the clock and not get paid? Why should they get paid for doing nothing? It really is one thing if they are totally done with their work, the store is clean and there is nothing left to do, but I see an excess of laziness. While I admit that I have a few moments where I stand, I'm seeing it a lot in the crew and some of the mgrs. Quit being lazy, find something to clean or sweep...or go home. If your going to be a waste of time and manhours...why even come in? Okay, enough with that...I was happy to leave early and come back, but it made for a really long day. I had to stand during the meeting to stay awake and try to stay out of pain.

I was very happy that my wonderful Duck let me take a nap..the boys were so cute, they came up and woke me up, they were so loving and adorable.

I need to go, I want to get some things done.

Toodles...

Seedlings....

Since we are staging our garden we are happy to report that the first set of seedling have germinated. They were planted on 1/25 and have sprouted really well. I was also shocked at how fast sunflowers grow. Sunshine, after watching Walle had one of his overstimulated excitement skits of how happy he was to see the plant...of course now all our shoes are at risk..he keeps wanting to put the seedlings in a shoe. We will start round two on Monday, I will transplant the seedlings to a green pot and then start over. I want to get more seed trays, they are a bit costly right now, but if they are heavy duty it is something that I will enjoy using years to come. We think that we've found somewhere to get the fertilizer for free...and they will even load it. I will of course give them money, it takes gas to run a tractor and time, that time and cost should be compensated. If they refuse, I will take fresh veggies to them this summer. I am so happy to have found someone..we need approx 5 loads in the trailer and maybe one for the neighbor. We will also be doing a potatoe experiement this summer. While the potatoes worked just fine in the tire idea..it was a pain in the neck to dig them up and there is a lot of chemicals on tires. So I'm going to use old dogfood backs that are turned inside out. Since they have good drainage and they are made of a tarp material they will work well for my sack and I don't even have to spend that much money on them since the dog eats the food and we just throw them away. We are also going to cut his pen in half, since he is the only dog left out there, he doesn't need all that room. We will bury a cattle fence around it so he can roam free. We will also consider the double gate idea as well. I would like to pour a concrete run for him for at least part of it. We will use the other side for corn and beans and loofah. We will be working on the apple trees again this year...but the biggest project thus far will be they hydroponic system for the lettuce and tomatoes.

Well I need to get to work.

A full day at home...

Well Okay, I woke up this morning still feeling weighed down in the chest...and no, it wasn't my boobs. I feel like I've been punched and the perps arm came out the other side. This generally means that I'm getting sick...DARN IT. I don't have time for this. I did however manage to get some stuff done today. I'm happy with what little progress I made in the laundry room, I'm going to try to finish it off before heading upstairs to bring down the dirty laundry baskets and bed sheets. I took a five minute nap today and it really did me wonders...not sure why, but it gave me the boost that I needed.

I am very thrilled to report that we found that the broccoli, cauliflower and bean plants that we planted on the 25th have come up...this is right about on time. Once they are a bit bigger, probably next Monday I will transplant them into the green pots, which are bigger, and start them over again. I will keep each stick with the plant to document which live and which don't. This will give me a much better idea as to how much and when to plant. Since I want to start the tomatoes and some stuff early and do it in bi-weekly phases, it was important to start early. This will give me an early crop and a staggered crop which will prevent waste and allow a run of supply, not just one time frame.

a couple of happy pics...

My fav breastfeeding pic...I was parked in the car one day, Duck took the pic, he was such a happy baby.

This is him now....he's such a big boy...



Sunshine is getting so big to! He is getting so smart day by day. He is teaching his brother so much and has started drawing again...which makes me happy. Now if he'd only let me keep his work.

I'll have to get the new pics off the camera to show you how big he's getting.

Apollo came home finally. I was brought to tears to think of the fact that my cat had more than likely frozen to death in the below freezing temps. He finally came home, best to our thinking he was probably stuck in a garage or shed or something until whomever set him free. He was hungry, very hungry actually and thin. He ate so much and then rested and wanted back out.

Well I need to run, I have to be up really really early.

Me.

hydroponics....

So...looking at this title many will think that my mind is heading down an illegal raod. On the contrare. It is a wonderful idea! Building a garden in water makes sense for those who don't have access to land to build garden in and who want to grow year around but are like me who are stuck in a cold climate state. The ideas are amazing~you can grow things faster and inside year around....oh.and the best part is...it's cheap to do. We have plans for three different types of systems, two that can be put inside and one that is strictly for outside. If we can get it done in time, this will grow all of our lettuce plants. Well we are going to have company tomorrow and I want to get my stuff done today...I'll look up more on hydroponics...here is a youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3zrGRmx80&feature=related

Service and cleaning...

Today we went out into service, we had a great time. I was very very very pleased to have the opportunity to speak with one of the other sisters. I found out that she batch cooks for herself once every 6-9 months and will be doing it again really soon. WOW I really love the idea of batch cooking and I feel that canning soups and such falls under those ideas. I volunteered to help her if she needed any...I can't wait. I will also give some seeds to her from my seed share for her neighbor who gives her veggies regularly. I also heard that another sister would be great to get into contact with about a possible garden for her...I have some seeds set aside for her as well. It is amazing how God really does bless us.

Duck had school today, it seemed to go well. I will help him type up any notes he needs to get done, this way he won't have to spend hours upon hours of typing, he can dictate and I can type. I have several loads of clothes to fold so I really want to get to it before it's too late. I want to get them all put away tomorrow so I can purge what needs to be purged and go on to possibly painting.

Toodles.

I strongly dislike....

bird food. I'm not a bird...I'm a human, there are humans who have made good yummy food for us to eat which I love to consume. Now, this being my first day, I can't have any. Here's what I ate today:

Breakfast: yogrut, fruit and walnut salad

Snack I had 2/3 can of mandrain oranges drined (in light syrup)

Lunch: 1 cup mixed white and brown rice, 1 cup mixed veggies, 1/3 chicken breast baked.

Let's see what dinner holds out.

Dinner: 1 1/2 cup of mix rice with soy and teriaki sauce, 8 oz of nonfat yogurt

I will probably have a snack of either fruit or yogurt, I could eat yogurt for every meal...

Me.

Day two and the funk...

Day two of potty training has been a success. While Smiley is still really upset he can't wear a diaper he is really looking forward to getting cars undies. I tried to clean a bit today and it worked well, I got some done. I know that this house doesn't get dirty or messed up all at once, so I can't get it all clean at once. We are working on a schedule that will be good for all of us.

Today we got our gas bill...ouch! It was over 200 dollars. This isn't going to be a good week at all. We will just have to watch it.

I'm starting my diet in the morning, this will hopefully be the one! I've been in such a funk lately, I have no energy no nothing. I'm feeling rather depressed and just down, I need to get this done, this weight off and get more motivated to get things going. So I will make a rewards list for myself. This way I have something to work for other than loseing the weight. Something small but rewarding all the same. We'll see how it works.

Today was the day...

when I got up this morning I went to my meeting, I came home after talking to S. I decided that today was the day I was going to potty train the baby who is now 3. He has been refusing to take off his diaper, to wear underware. Well I now know he can do it. He has had one accident all day long. That is unbelievalbe. He has gone all day long going to the potty until we left to go to a friends house for dinner. It was a good time, good friends, good meal, good times. Gotta take little big man to the bathroom.

Toodles.

What to compost...

In case any of you were ever wondering.....here is a list that someone put together of things that you can compost. This is estimated to reduce the amount of waste by 1/3.

http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm

Copy that link and put it in the keyword search to see all the different things you can compost. Some of the most interesting that I found was urine, dryer lint and tea bags. I think that we are going to try to do a lot more this summer with compost, we are going to set up a two bin compartment.

Well I need to jump up and get some things done around here, S was nice enough to give me the day off since labor was bad and we got a new manager back.

My heart breaks....

I watched some videos after I posted last. My heart breaks for those in Haiti and all over the world that is struggling. We are worrying about which TV we are going to buy or which dish washer I want and there are people starving in light of a serious quake. I've been told that we've lost at least 16 brothers from the Haiti congregations, relief work has already started for the congregations in that area. They are already rebuilding the halls and finding refugee for the families. There has got to be something that I can do, even if it is small. I heard a story about a mother who's 2 yr old was at daycare, she ran to the daycare to find it crushed, but she could still hear her daughter. She talked to her for days while rescue crews arrived and started to pull away the rubble, she made it out alive and nearly unhurt. The torment that must play on a parent is gut wrenching. To think that the are down there searching for thier families and finding dead bodies or have to listen to them pray to live and in most cases still die from the time it take to reach them is impossible to think of as a parent. For the 2 or 3 minutes that Sunshine was missing that day, I nearly passed out from not being able to breath and scared to my wits end....I couldn't imagine going through this.

Tonight was the first night that we forced our kids to sleep in their own bed. Sunshine told me that he was sad. I laid next to him for a few minutes and told him that he'd be fine that I would be right across the room. He kept waving to me and signing I love you. I'm really proud that he made it to fall asleep, we'll just see if he stays that way.

I should get off of here, I want to be up in 5.5 hours and I have a meeting in the morning.

Tata...
Me.

A great day...

We all went to the meeting today, it was nice. I spent most of it in second school with the speaker down with the boys. Sunshine has a sensitivity to the loudness of the speakers in the auditorium. He did very well in the beginning, it was smiley that was having a problem sitting down and listening. We will work on this, being 3 it is tough to sit and listen for 2 hours. It was a really good talk.

We came home, had lunch and I took a nap while Duck worked on his homework. I'm really happy see him doing it in a timely manner. I really want to get him done with school, he is really smart and really ready to make something of his life.

Sunshine is really starting to talk well, he is also understanding a lot more. I'm really happy with his progress lately, he is shocking us all. The two of them have conversations that are so cute. He said the funniest thing the other day. He was made at his dad and he said, "Dad, short people aren't funny!" It was so funny!!!

I'm really happy with my garden plans, I am so happy and excited. I can't wait to start the seedlings.

Well we are watching a movie and I need to go, I'd like to wash my uniform and fold the clothes before bed.

Night.

I love my husband...

So we were both on the computer for a bit today...I thought I'd send him a private message, just to be silly. We kid with eachother all the time..like we'll say, "how's your girlfriend doing? or Tell you boyfriend to stop parking in my spot!" So today I sent him an IM that said, Hey sexy, wanna father my children? We're married, we can have fun...well then I saw who I sent it to...let's just say that it wasn't my wonderful husband, it was my uncle. Now...before everyone freaks out, NO I don't feel like that at all toward him...he has a wonderful family, they are actually our age and have fun like we do so he is probably going to laugh about it and tell the whole family. All in all, I was embarrassed and can only chalk it up to the wonderful relationship I have with my husband. So what's the first thing my wonderful husband did? Called my dad....that little rat.