New and exciting happenings from the farm

The girls got new Christmas dresses from my grandma this year. They even wore them on the 5 hour drive to Michigan because they didn't want to take them off.


Brian and Emily at Conner Prairie this fall. We got a membership this year and have enjoyed going a couple of times.
Elijah receives the lineman of the year award at the football banquet



Okay, so I really thought that I would be able to keep my blog updated even though we do not have internet at home, but I have grossly underestimated how difficult it would be to have free time with the laptop while I am in town and without child distractions, so... all that said, if any one still checks this blog for updates I am going to give you the last 3 months in a nut shell.

School got off to a great start. The kids are completely acclamaited to their new school and are enjoying going with their dad each day. Elijah played football--as in the real deal tackle football with pads and really thrived. The schedule was pretty intense and by the end of October we were ready for it to be done. Brian coaches jr high football and then Elijah's practice was after that, so three nights a week they didn't get home until 8:30 pm from school. Mary started riding the school bus home and I met her at home as soon as I could get there, usually pulling in right behind the bus.

Emily is still riding in to Lafayette with me every day and goes to the same daycare as before, which she just loves. It's been working well for everyone. So, it must be time to throw something new into the mix, right? Enter our big news...

I AM PREGNANT!! Yes, you read that correctly. Come June we will have the newest Greene Bean. It has been a pretty uneventful pregnancy so far, with the exception of getting the stomach flu the day before Thanksgiving I have been sickness free. I am tired all the time, but other than going to bed when the kids do, I've been doing great. I had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and got to see the baby moving all around so that made it a little more real. If you haven't done the math yet, I am about 15 weeks right now.

We had a great Christmas. It was our first Christmas at our new house. It's been one year now since we moved in. Mary got an American Girl doll, Julie. Brian and I, along with her two aunts, took her to the store in downtown Chicago to pick her out a few weeks before Christmas. It was so much fun and really special for all of us. Elijah is now in the world of video games. When he turned 9 this August we decided he was old enough, so he got some DS games this year and he was pretty happy with that. Emily is 4 now and she will tell you that she is old enough to chew gum. She doesn't swallow it. So, her most exciting gift was a gumball machine. We got to see all of our family from both sides and we still have several days to be at home now, so we are happy campers.

Here's whats up with us

We've been picking lots from our garden--broccoli, peppers, zucchini, green beans
AND...APPLES!! Our apple tree is full of great treasures. We've been juicing to make apple cider and applesauce. Super fun! Delicious and free!
First day of school. Elijah is in third grade and Mary is in first. The year is going great--Elijah's playing tackle football and LOVING it. Mary is doing some new things too-- like riding the bus home.

Greene family updates-summer highlights

Loving that Lake Michigan beach!
Elijah picked up his football pads just before we left for vacation. He's super excited about playing tackle this fall.
Fourth of July
Here we are at the beach-it is hot and sunny and wonderful, just the way Lake Michigan should be.
We went creeking at the big Pine Creek near our house. It was beautiful!

The kids got kittens this summer. The girls are carrying theirs' around in scarves 'baby sling' style.

chicken pictures!

country life

our new garden space is about the size of our whole yard at the other house
Mary decided that over spring break she was going to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels--it took her about 2 minutes to figure it out

tilling the garden space

The big news at our house has been the addition of 19 new chickies. They currently live on our front sun porch under a heat lamp in a box. I have been reading up on such things as when to move them to their outdoor home and how to wring their necks when the time comes (that will be Brian's job). We don't really know how many pullets (girls) and cockerels (boys) we have yet, but the plan is to have as many laying hens as we can and we'll use the males for meat.

We've been enjoying watching the landscape change around us and discovering what things are growing as spring SLOWLY shows its face. I've been digging some of my perennials from the other house (no, it hasn't sold yet) and transplanting them. Many of them were gifts for my 30th birthday and they have special value to me. I did start the garden with about 200 onions, spinach, lettuce and sugar snap peas over my spring break. I also started some blueberry bushes, blackberry plants, and a cherry tree. There is so much I want to get going. I bought a crazy amount of seed packets--leeks, green onions, 4 varieties of lettuce, green beans, strawberries, and asparagus. Those are just the things to direct sow. We'll get our plants from Brian's school, where the horticulture teacher started our things in the greenhouse in February.

Today I ordered our first chicks!!!

Happy Spring Break to me! In some ways having 2 separate spring breaks is a drag; we can't really go any where warm or even go do something as a family. However, this past week the kids and Brian were off school so I didn't have to make any lunches all week, I only had to get myself ready in the morning and drive straight to work. I got to sleep in until 5:45 every day.

Brian surprised me with an iPhone on Wednesday. I took Thursday off and we hung out and shopped at Rural King for 2 hours with the kids and bought a bunch of seeds, plants, and chicken feed. Friday, he was sending me a bunch of cryptic text messages and finally showed up at school around 3:30 and said, "come on we're going to Indy." He had packed our bags and gotten a hotel room downtown. We had all kinds of fun staying out late, sleeping in and doing whatever we wanted.

Next week: my spring break!!

Got an iPhone today!

tv room with gas log--the best seat in the house
front sitting room
The man room
dining room--I love not eating in the kitchen anymore!
one of many delicious pizzas from the throwdown

Sunset in front of our house

Greetings Blog readers! We are borrowing my parents miFi wireless card for the weekend so I am going to catch everyone up on our lives over the past two months. We have tried a couple of options for rural internet and so far everything is pretty expensive or not very fast for the expense so it seems we will continue to be internet-less for a bit longer. I am able to check my email at work if you want to contact me that way.

So, what have we been up to? I'll start most recently and work backwards. My dear friend Melissa and her toddler aged daughter came to stay with us for a few days last weekend and we had such a delightful time. While they were here we ventured out to the town of Rockville for a maple syrup festival. When I was Mary's age my parents made maple syrup, so it was a special visit for me to see it being done again first hand. We also had a pizza throwdown between Brian and Melissa (both claiming the title of best pizza maker). Who won? Well, there weren't ballots or anything but it's clear to me that I was a winner. YUM!!

The weather is starting to warm up here so we've been out walking around our property in the late afternoon sunshine and we are again grateful for such a beautiful space to call our own. I can't wait for everything to start greening up and blooming. I think it will look like a totally different place. We are enjoying all the wildlife that we see on our road or in the yard. We've got lots of deer, skunks, opposums, and possibly a woodchuck? living under the generator shed. We haven't seen him yet, but are suspecting. Brian heard the coyotes howling the other night and it may become a problem once we fill our henhouse. We'll see.

Other than that we are just really loving life. The kids can spread out a bit more here and we're seeing lots of growth in our new space. Brian's been able to really use his gifts in his school community more now that we live closer. He touches the lives of so many student and staff members. I know it is a great use of his abilities. We have taken a step back in time in some ways. We don't have a dishwasher so we spend a lot of time washing and putting away dishes, we don't have internet so we read books and play games. I've started writing hand written letters to people instead of emailing. It probably won't be this way forever, but the pace is just so nice.

HELLO from the land of no internet! I don't even have any pictures to share so I am sorry to all you blog readers {ahem, Laura} who don't read posts without pictures. We hope to be getting an internet connection soon so we should be posting more regularly in the next few weeks. In the meantime we've been getting settled. The kids are enjoying their new school and our house is FABULOUS! We were snowed in for almost a week where we literally couldn't get out of the driveway, and even if we could the road hadn't been plowed anyway. So we just watched movies, played in the snow and drank coffee. We're enjoying a much slower pace of life.