Hot Mess Monday

The living room is always a hot mess during daycare days!!

Hot messes... we all have them right? Today I decided I was going to tackle a couple hot messes that I had been neglecting. First up was the dreaded laundry. I have no problems keeping the clothes clean. It's the folding that I neglect. I had this great idea a while back to buy a few extra laundry baskets. My thought was that I would have one that we would use as a hamper...only able to hold what I can wash in a day. I would have five baskets left: one per person. I planned to do a load a day and then as the clothes came out of the dryer I would sort them into their person's basket. It worked for a while but then I got behind. Eventually, the baskets just gave me more places to hold clothes that were waiting to be folded. Today I brought all 6 baskets of hot mess out to the kitchen, cranked up the music and got folding. I'm caught up for now. I wonder how long it will last... If you stay caught up on laundry how do you do it!? It seems I need some tips!

The other hot mess I tackled today was the Passion Flower Vine that took over my butterfly garden last year. I cut it way back and as soon as I figure out where I want it to be this year I will move it. My poor butterfly garden looks so sad in its offseason. It was so beautiful last summer! 

Lastly, I'll leave you with this little hot mess. I wanted to practice my headstands the other day. The lesson I learned that day was to make sure the dogs are gated out of the room next time I want to practice.

Please comment below! I'd love to hear from you! 

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Suburban Homesteading: May 2013

This update's chicken photo bomb is Amelia. But we'll come back to the chickens in a little bit. Let's start with the garden. It's growing very well!! A raised garden was definitely the way to go because there haven't been too many weeds. All the plants are getting big. Most don't have fruit/veggies on them yet. There are a couple of green tomatoes. But the strawberries... They've taken off!

Next on the homestead tour is the chickens. The big girls are doing great. They are now 5 months old. Henrietta started laying a month ago. Betsy and Amelia just started laying. I actually witnessed Betsy's first or second egg. She was pacing the front of the run when she let out a cackle and a tiny shell-less egg fell from her. Poor thing probably had no idea what was happening!!

The babies are now 6 weeks old. We added a newbie, a Columbian Wyandotte, from a local farm. She is 5 weeks old. A couple weeks ago we moved the babies out into a nursery run. They love the outdoors and I love how they aren't making a mess of my house.

We'll have more babies soon! This week I am expecting a shipment of white and red bantam Silkie eggs and a friend has been collecting bantam Frizzle eggs for me. Time to break out the incubator again!!

In case you missed the posts on incubating/hatching eggs: Part 1/ Part 2

Speaking of eggs, here's a look at some of the eggs the girls have left for us lately:

Last but certainly not least is the rabbits. As I mentioned in a past post, Cottontail turned out to be a he, not a she and he got his sister pregnant. Mopsy had 9 kits but unfortunately, none made it. I believe it was just a case of first time rabbit mommy not knowing what to do. We wanted to have 2 does so I started searching and found a beautiful Californian doe that is right about the same age as the rest of rabbits. We named her Flopsy and she's doing wonderful. Once she was settled in we bred the rabbits; Mopsy with Peter, Flopsy with Cottontail. They are due tomorrow! I'm quite excited! We did everything right this time so I'm hoping for a good outcome. If Flopsy proves to also be a bad first time mom, we'll try to foster her kits over to Mopsy. I gave the girls their nest boxes on Saturday. Flopsy did a little rearranging and that was about it. Mopsy did major rearranging including removing a lot of the bedding. She keeps hopping in it and messing with it all. Yesterday she did a lot of panting. She did that right before she gave birth last time so I'm on baby watch now!

Here are the pretty mamas!

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Emily's 17 month Update

Little Emily is no longer a baby. She's a walking, talking, climbing, on-the-go toddler. She will be 17 months on Weds. At her last check up she weighed in at 19lbs 3oz (16th percentile) and 31in (36th percentile). Her check up went well but since I mentioned that I still notice her eyes looking crossed (more her left eye turning in), the doctor sent Em to an eye doctor. Poor thing got her eyes dilated for that one. Though it really didn't phase her.. Good news is everything checked out fine. She does not have strabismus (eye misalignment). She has pseudostrabismus (false appearance of strabismus) b/c the folds of skin in the corners of the eyes makes it look like her left eye turns in at times. That peace of mind is priceless.

Em's a little peanut like her brother but that doesn't stop her. She has really started sticking up for herself but on the flip side that means she has developed a bit of a temper. Her vocabulary has taken off lately. She's up to at least 25 words. Her current favorites are "shoes", "chicken", "guys!" (usually yelled at her siblings), "see dat?", and of course "nana" (her word for nursing). Sean and Maddy find it funny when Emily calls things the wrong name..like our rabbits are kitty cats and many things are called chickens, especially small dogs and babies (??). She can say baby except it comes out as "daydies" because she replaces "b"s with "d"s. I'm not quite sure why she calls babies chickens except for the fact that we laugh when she does it. She knows what chickens are. She loves our chickens. The first time we let the hens free range a little Emily got mad and tried to chase them back in the run while yelling "chicken, chicken" at them. Her latest accomplishment is she has started the potty training process. It started with her bringing diapers to us when she was wet and then turned into her grunting and pointing down the hall and then walking to the bathroom and pointing at the potty. We've decided to run with it and she's now peeing in the potty more than in her diapers. She hasn't figured out pooping in the potty yet but she demands to be changed as soon as she does it in her diaper. I've ordered her trainers. I can't wait to get them; they will make this much easier.

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Suburban Homesteading - March 2013

Spring is here and our new little suburban homestead is coming together nicely. Recently I was reading a local urban homesteader's blog and was inspired. Lanette at Homesteading on the Home Front has a series called A Walk Around the Homestead. That was where the idea for this post came from.

Betsy says "Whatcha waiting for!? Let's go!" 

The girls: Cottontail and Mopsy

The rabbits have done some growing!! Hubby needs to get working on adding the extra cages to the hutch. The girls are close to old enough for breeding so they will need to be separated. We'll have baby bunnies before we know it. I'm beginning to think we may end up having someone else process them once they are old enough. I have no problem with them going from our backyard to our freezer, I just don't know if I'll be able to do it myself. But we have quite awhile before we need to worry about that. The rabbits have another job and that is to help fill the compost bin under their cages. It is coming along very nicely. It's almost deep enough to add the worms. I'm looking forward to some amazing compost for next year's garden!

Speaking of gardens; we've rethought the garden for this year. This year we're giving square foot gardening a try.The bed is all ready and the strawberries are planted. We have more strawberry plants than we originally planned. The 6 plants we bought last year turned into 82 plants this year. We've given a lot away and still have 8 squares of strawberry plants! The rest of the garden will be planted soon. There will be tomatoes, peas, carrots, spaghetti squash and cucumbers.


Last, but not least, the chickens! The chicken coop and run was finished a couple weeks ago and the girls are loving it! We had a very windy storm their first week out and it all stood up well to the test. The girls haven't needed any help in learning to go into the coop at night but still haven't been roosting. I think it's the round roost that's the problem so we'll have to change that out. Their personalities are really coming out now. Betsy, our Buff Orpington, is our tame one that likes to be held and petted. She's the first out of the coop in the morning and the first to greet me when I bring their daily treats. Amelia, our Black Australorp, is the next tamest. She likes to be petted but not really held. The other night when I peaked into the coop (through the nest box) before closing it up for the night, she jumped into the nest box to be petted. Henrietta, our Easter Egger, tolerates being petted but doesn't love it and doesn't like to be picked up. She, however, is the one that will chase a dog and jump for treats. It's so much fun to watch her. Our flock is not complete yet. The city allows us to have 6. We have the room for 6. So we'll have 6. We're not ordering chicks this time though. We're hatching eggs! Soon we will be getting a dozen eggs from a friend and setting them into a borrowed incubator. The kids and I are so excited!

I plan to do more of these post throughout the year so be on the lookout. Until then, here's a few more pictures:

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