Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from us all!  From our family to yours, we wish you peace, love and prosperity in 2013!

We brought in 2013 with a dinner of surf and turf, mushrooms, couscous and sparkling grape juice.  We said thanks for a healthy and happy 2012 and toasted to a great 2013!  Today is especially meaningful for Farmer J and I, as we met 17 years ago today.  J- you are a gift from heaven above and I thank Him daily for sending you to me!  (We are also so thankful for Mima & Papa watching the kiddos to grant us some 'peace on Earth' on this New Years Eve day!)

2012 brought us many blessings; some of those blessings included finding the farm, moving to the farm and  living here on the farm.  I pray that we will be able to live here for many, many more years!  Moving to a farm has brought us closer to the land, closer to each other, closer to God and closer to living the life we always dreamed of living.

Years ago, we had dreamed of living this life.  We dreamed big and prayed a lot.  I think we are living proof that dreams can come true and prayers are answered...you just have to be patient, open-minded, a little gutsy and a little creative.  And... have amazingly supportive parents, family and friends!

So here is to dreaming big in 2013!  And now, I'm off to bed (we celebrated New Years in Icelandic time). Hey, some of us have to work tomorrow!

Dreaming of spring...

Earlier this week, I ventured through the snow to the road to check out mail.  Our mailbox had around 2-3 inches of snow on top of it and the door was slightly frozen shut.  Winter.  Around the holiday season, I love checking the mail because the post office delivers not just bills and junk mail, but actual cards from family and friends.  On this trip to the mailbox, I was surprised to see what else arrived!  

Not just one, but three garden seed catalogs!  Not yet January and we are receiving physical reminders that spring is just around the corner.  After living with Farmer J for many years, I knew he would be very excited to see the seed catalogs.  I also knew my oldest would be quite happy as well.  Last year, he spent hours going through the catalog and circling what he thought we should grow in our garden.  He tended to circle more fruits than vegetables.  Most kids circle toys in toy catalogs and mine circles fruits and veggies out of a seed catalog.  I think he was meant to be a farm kid!  

I am rather new to the seed catalog.  I figured out what zone we live in, to best determine what we can successfully grow on the farm.  I was surprised to see that we could try to grow not only eating grapes but also kiwi.  Like my son, I tend to gravitate to the fruit over the veggies!  

Here's a reminder of our last garden.  Hopefully, seeing the fresh garden pictures will remind you as well that spring is just around the bend! 

Full moon

Tonight is a full moon.  Here is a picture that J took of a few moons past.  This is a picture of the moon peeking behind the barn.  You really notice a full moon when you live out in the country.  The otherwise dark sky shines with the reflection of the sun.   

On Christmas Eve, for the first time, I helped J put the "chickens to bed." The coop was cold but not freezing. The birds did not seem to mind the recent drop in temperature.  J turned off the light and only the reddish, orange glow from the heater could be seen.  At first, the chickens are clucking and making lots of noise.  Within a few minutes, the clucking had stopped and most of the hens were completely silent.  One hen was snoring.  But it was unlike any human snore I've ever heard.  It sounded the most like the snore of Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street.  

The day after...

Today is the 26th of December.  For some, it's Boxing Day.  For others, it's "Return Items to the Store" day.  But for most of us, it's "Back to Work" day.  I was in the last group.

J stayed home with the children and the piles of presents, half-opened boxes and huge pile of opened boxes/parts to secure toys to boxes/parts of toys we didn't know how to secure to the toy.

While at home, J and the children shoveled our front door walkway, brought more wood into the house, got caught up on "chicken chores", played with all their new toys and did a 'whole lotta nothing.'

Before the big snowstorm, we had a "cord of wood" delivered to our house.  A cord of wood is 4 x 4 x 8 of stacked, dried wood.  Definitely something I did not know before moving to the farm and having a wood-burning stove.

Here are some pictures of the children helping to stack the wood in the barn:

Highlights of our first, "Country Christmas":

-Our crazy looking Christmas tree with white lights, colored lights and bubble lights.

-All of us in the basement opening boxes hoping to find our ornaments! Mama found them!   

-Opening presents in front of a warm fire

-Making a "Winter Wheat Berry" salad for Christmas day

-Time with family and friends

-Listening to the children's sleep sounds while driving home on a dark but clear night

-Singing "Happy Birthday" to baby Jesus

-Listening to each 'cousin' sing their favorite Christmas song

-Finding new Christmas cards in the mailbox- at times, covered in a tiny bit of snow

-Eating Mimi's fudge

-Eating Auntie Jess' variety of desserts while J and I wrapped presents late Christmas Eve

-A "White Christmas" with many hours of playing in the snow

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!  We hope your holiday is full of family, friends and good food.  Safe travels for all that our venturing out today!

Log Cabin Fever

"Log Cabin Fever" Recipe:
(Add together)
- Two parents, two children
-Two snow days in a row
-:The inability to leave the farm for over 24 hrs due to being snowed in without snow blower or plow
-Loads upon loads of wet snow pants, jackets, mittens and hats
-Wet, slushy mud-room floor
-Long, dark nights
-Cloudy, snowy days

Yield: Four on/off crabby human beings

The cure for "Log Cabin Fever"
-Mr. Chuck coming two days in a row to plow us out
-Trips to the gym to work out (once we were free)
-Peaceful hours in the home while the children play outside
-A warm fireplace
-Many bites of fudge (including some fudge that was meant for teacher gifts-- oops)
-The days getting longer (hey, even minutes count with me) as the Winter Solstice has passed
-Sunshine

The blizzard of 2013 has passed and here are some pictures:

Family Snow Day

Farmer J is home getting his final grades posted for his first semester classes.  Despite trying, I couldn't find any extra work for today (today is my day off from my regular job).  Our youngest is always home and our oldest is off for his first ever "snow day."  Family snow day.  

Snow, snow and more snow has hit a large part of the US and especially where we live in the Midwest.  We have an agreement with a local hunter that he can hunt on the land in exchange for plowing us out every time we get more than 3 inches!  As we are projected to get close to a foot of snow, we will (hopefully) see him later today. We are pretty much home bound until it stops snowing and "Mr. Chuck" comes and plows us out.  

I don't have any pictures from today's snowfall but I have some photos from the snowfall we got last week. Within my last blog post, I was hoping for some snow.  A few days later, we got it.  Here are some of my favorite shots that J took!

 J decorated the front of the house with two wreaths with big red bows to match the coop door!  I loved it! He also puts multi-colored lights on one of our smaller trees.

The snow was so heavy and thick on the branches that it was difficult to get out of our driveway without the branches scraping our mini-van.  Luckily, we didn't lose any branches or trees.  

Here's our lilac bush and bird feeder.  I most love the bright, blue sky.  Lately, it has been very cloudy and grey outside.  

Here's "Mima" (J's mom) pulling the sled. J, JJ, Mima and Pickle went for a walk in the woods.  On this same visit, Mima made me a beautiful Christmas decoration (quilted table runner).  Thank you Mima! 

Even Pick-Pick took a turn pulling the sled.

J thinks of everything.  He planned a hot chocolate break for a mid-walk pick me up! God, I love that man!

Better be going.  Our oatmeal is almost done and the little ones are hungry.  I am making them steel cut oatmeal.  I highly recommend you try it: Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oatmeal: The Golden Spurtle.  I follow the directions on the back- cooking for 20 minutes.  

Hope you are getting to stay home on a 'snow day' as well.  Our day will be filled with laundry, cleaning, eating, napping, playing outside and hopefully, getting some presents wrapped and ready for Christmas!

Stay warm!