April is one of my favorite months. The days are warm, everything is blooming and getting green and we just want to be outside.
We leveled some dirt with the plans of turning this area into a little family garden with raised beds, a fire pit, benches and our picnic table. The kiddos are picking up the excess rocks.
I shared this picture on my personal Instagram with the caption “So thankful this is what 3:30 on a Thursday looks like. Hummus and pickle snacks while watching the boys baseball game. Staying home with these 4 is such a gift. Worth every bit of living the budget life, driving 15+ year old vehicles and buying nearly everything secondhand!”
I really am so thankful that I am able to stay home with these precious children and that we are able to live surrounded by plants and animals with a little bit of room for them to explore and play.
Laura adores her daddy and especially adores tractor rides with him.
The kids have their own space for gardening this year. Weston found several volunteer plants (we’re not sure just yet whether they’re watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin or squash!) He made a nice little rock bed around them.
Moving wood and enjoying a lovely spring day.
Our seed starting spot this year was upstairs. It worked pretty well and kept everything out of Laura’s reach.
Weston found his very first four leaf clover. Just a few minutes after he found this one and excitedly showed it to me, he found another one!
Our family enjoyed a picnic lunch and playing at a local park. They have these fun swings where the baby swing is connected to a regular swing so parent and baby can swing together. It was fun. Laura loves swinging!
Two of Weston’s new egg laying chicks.
A few of our egg laying chicks in our brooder pen.
One of our Salmon Favorelles. These are very docile birds with feathers on their feet – so adorable!
Our upper garden as it looked on April 13. All of the beds here had either been planted or were ready for planting.
Laura loves helping – here she is weeding.
Paxton turned 9 on the 16th! He’s such a fun kid and such a gift to our family.
He used leftover Harry Potter decorations from his aunts baby shower to decorate the house with for his Harry Potter party. We’ve been reading the Harry Potter books for the past few months and we’re all enjoying them.
We keep birthday’s pretty simple with family parties. We had grandparents, aunt and uncle over for dinner and cake. Paxton chose sandwiches and chips for his birthday dinner.
Paxton’s cake. He and his Mimi made the cake and she supplied the frosting and Paxton decorated it with his Harry Potter minifigures.
Laura. Her papaw snapped this picture and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite picture of her ever!
We went to the local FFA Chapter’s plant sale and bought tomatoes, peppers and a few herbs. We bought all of these plants for $25!
We celebrated Easter with church, lunch with family and then a little Easter egg hunt.
Laura loves to help ‘stir it’. Here she is helping me pound sauerkraut.
We planted our tomatoes and peppers on April 22. Planting is such an exciting time full of so much hope and anticipation of the gardening season ahead.
I made a batch of activated charcoal soap. I can’t wait for this one to cure and try it out.
Steel.
We put the meat birds out on pasture on the 26th. They are doing great and seem to enjoy all the green grass.
Love him.
John David and his dad picked up a couple of loads of wood for firewood. Now that we’re finished burning wood for the winter, it’s time to start stocking up on wood!
The lower garden on April 26th. There are tomatoes, peppers, green beans and cucumbers planted here. Looking forward to watching this space over the summer.
We’ve been using the sheep to help keep the kudzu at bay that is trying to take over on the edge of our property against the road. It’s been fun to watch them work.
Life on a homestead can be quite messy. Dirt, mud and even manure. Projects going on here and there. Plus boots that belong to 6 people that tend to get scattered everywhere. Our screened in porch was quite disheveled. It took me about 30 minutes to return things to where they needed to be, pick up trash, sweep and tidy up the space.
After. So clean and perfect for using this space to do schoolwork on these beautiful spring days when we just want to be outside!
—Rachel
