It's mid-July already!

 

Tools of today's work! I have been having a blast coming up with spice mixes to offer up at Fleischer Farms' stand the last several weeks and finally remembered to snag a pic today. Slogging away on a website revamp, ordering packaging supplies, designing...it feels like I am slowly coming back to life. That which doesn't kill us, blah, blah, blah. There is a whole lot of truth to it anyway, and I hope the stronger part is true, too. Lots and lots of changes coming up in the next two months, I hope to get back in the habit of gabbing here more often to sort out my own thought processes. Bear with me, or absolutely feel free to scroll by and get just the tidbits you need! I will be sorting out recipes and other informational things into a better searchable format so if you don't need the ramblings of a middle-aged mama, you don't have to wade through them. Blessings! bz

Oh, I only *thought* I had outdone myself.

The last two and half years have been a whole thesaurus worth of words describing challenge. I have, several times, had part of an update typed up and then decided against posting it for a myriad of reasons.

There have been many moments of heartache, anxiety, sorrow, fear and so much loss. Occasionally there have been moments of unexpected comfort and strength in spite of hardship. Even less often there have been chance moments of bittersweet joy.  Truly happy moments have been in super short supply. Suffice to say, it's been rough.  

Rather than dwell on what has been, what it has cost and what we have lost, I think a clean slate start is where my heart points. So, acknowledging that my last post left many things unfinished, and this one is leaving even more unsaid, let's go forward anyway! 

I've outdone myself

I've outdone myself on length of time between posts this time. Nearly four years. Things have changed so much I'm not sure just an update would even do it justice. I suppose I can start, just for ease, with an update on the bullet points from my last (long ago) post.

• Sara will be turning 18 this year. I'm about to have an adult kiddo. It feels a bit surreal.
• Alex is 9 inches taller than me.
• The crazy-never-ending-eleven-year-and-counting-remodeling project that is the Green Grass House in a nutshell still has an end in sight, but STILL isn't where we want it to be.
• We are (sort of) still homeschooling but have scaled back homesteading, too. This statement gives me some pause, and will need some more thinking and fleshing out, in another post.

For the next two bullets we take a serious jog to the side, because so much has changed, just in the last four weeks. 

• The family business, Roberts Sales, HAD grown by leaps and bounds every year for several years running and kept David good and busy, but slowed down the last two years, and, in unrelated news, is currently closed. Yes, closed.
• We currently have no fun things on our slate for this summer. In fact, we have no idea what summer will even look like at this point.

So, let's talk changes!  If I would have had myself together, I might have posted a January update, like so many years in the past, but even if I had, it wouldn't look like life right now. Since March 13, we have been on a stay at home order (school systems), that was greatly increased on March 25 (Denver non-essential businesses)  and again on March 26 (Jefferson County businesses). As of April 3, schools went to remote learning for the rest of the year. After seeing many folks suggest that keeping a journal of this time would be beneficial, or at least interesting historically, I decided to resurrect the ol' blog and chronicle things as they are . I'm going to start with a recap of the last few months on a world wide scale before delving back into what this means to our little homestead. Onward to the next post!

So many updates!

As always, I'm starting off apologizing for the long time between posts. And as always, I will try to be better, really I will :-) The short version of an update:

• I'm the mom of a teen now, Sara turned 13 in November!
• Alex is less than a half inch shorter than me, and will probably pass me this summer (He's 11)
• The crazy-never-ending-eight-years-and-counting-remodeling project that is the Green Grass House in a nutshell has an end in sight. 
• We are still homeschooling and homesteading, but have scaled back the work at home quite a bit to keep up with those other two!
• The family business, Roberts Sales, has grown by leaps and bounds every year for four years running and keeps David good and busy for a good portion of the summer.
• We have many fun things on our slate for this summer, and I hope to keep up here with sharing them with everyone!

New Classroom Pets

Awww, aren't they cute? This sweet little group of fishies was at the Foothills Animal Shelter last night when we went to look at ratties (hopefully another post - they are still on medical hold and Sara is about to explode waiting for the call to let us know if they are to be ours or not.). They were supposed to be feeders for a group of red-eared slider turtles that were brought in - the turtles got adopted out, these guys were left behind. I think they make a nice addition to the room here, and they are mesmerizing to watch (particularly for Alex, while he is supposed to be doing math *sigh*)

 

Check it out!

Never thought I would see this day. Yes, that is both of them, reading, willingly. *happy tears*

Has it really been a year?

Yep. It sure has. So add to the list of resolutions for 2015 - blogging a bit more frequently!