Random Ramblings

Brian says I am more of an extrovert than I claim to be, and maybe he is right since today is my first day of being home on spring break with only a 4 year old to talk with, and here I am at McDonalds for free wifi and connection with the outside world.

Last week was Brian and the kids' spring break. While we didn't do anything big, there was plenty of fun to be had including Elijah shooting guns with his dad at a friend's shooting range, days with both sets of grandparents and a trip to Indianapolis. We went to the Children's Museum and out to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Honestly we went to Indy because there was a small concern about baby's heart and I needed to see a cardiologist. We didn't really tell people because we were pretty sure that it wouldn't amount to anything and didn't want to cause unnecessary worry. Thankfully, we were right. Mary was born with a small hole in her heart that wasn't detected until after she was born, and it closed on its own. Everything was fine with this baby too, as we suspected, and we were in and out quickly and had almost the whole day to play in Indy.

So my spring break will be at home this week with Emily, fairly quiet and restful. I have a few outings planned, but otherwise I think I will work at the house. I am anxious to get the garden going and we will need to get some new baby chicks. We've already had our first round this spring, but they are gone already. Such is the circle of life when you live close to the earth. Both girls have held dead chicks in their hands in the last few weeks. We cooked 6 of our original 10 when it got unexpectedly warm and we didn't get home until late. The remaining 4 made it to the coop last week, but the kittens got them. So, Brian's next job is to be working on a chicken fence. Our mature hens are laying every day now and Emily loves collecting eggs. Her favorites are the blue ones. She will report, "Good news! There were ____ blue ones today!" Right now we are getting enough to buy an extra dozen per week from the store, but we'd love to be able to be fully self-sufficient and even sell or give some away each week. It's awfully fun keeping them.

Signs of Spring

We are just LOVING all this warm weather. It has been in the 80's for the last week and our yard has just exploded. Trees are in bloom, flowers are growing, we have been sleeping with the windows open every night.
Brian cut a hole in the side of our garden shed to put in a window. We are hoping to use it more as a potting shed, right now it is a small dumping ground for garden tools, hoses, etc.
Elijah worked on the huge mound of straw. We moved several loads to the garden.

Here I am at 25 weeks!

Adventures at Turkey Run State Park

Mary practices her balance crossing a fallen tree
We ended up on a trail that we didn't intend to be on--there was a running river. But the alternative was hike back where we started from (at least an hour), so we decided to forge ahead. It did end up being the most fun and adventurous part of the trip.


All smiles at the end of the trail!

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.

Merry Christmas to all

I haven't been blogging much lately--you know the old saying, "If you can't say something nice..."
No, its not that bad, it's just that I don't want to sound whiny about our life.

Here are the highlights {insert cute emoticon here}

Emily is throwing up again (yes, again. She stayed home last Monday because she was vomiting so I didn't believe her when we were at the store yesterday when she kept insisting that she was stirsty and was going to strow up.) On the plus side when your child strows up in a store you don't have to clean it up.

We're shopping today, Christmas Eve, because we haven't had time or energy to do it. We move on Monday.

Photo tour of our new home

Front view
Side view
Two of the barns
Dining room
The cool sink in the downstairs half-bath


Well, it's official. We are homeowners. Again. I have been through the gamut of emotions this week, but I'm finally back to excited! After the closing today I felt better than ever that we are making the right choice. 2600 square feet, four bedrooms, a music room, an enclosed front porch, and almost six acres including a small orchard of fruit trees (apple, pear, and persimmon) and a walnut grove.

I wish it were getting easier

One of the great things about the kids' school is the IRP (Independent Research Project) done twice per year. The students spend a lot of time at school and home working on their project and then there is one night when parents walk through view their work and give positive comments. Tonight was the night. Mary interviewed a nurse (her grandma Susan) and Elijah's project was about the Shawnee tribe. He made fry bread to taste and it was a big hit!

It isn't making it any easier to say goodbye. Last week it was their big music and art performance. I really liked it! Their last day at NCS will be Friday. They will start going to the elementary school that is connected to Brian's school after that. We were planning on them finishing the year where they are, but for me the commute plus dropping everyone off was seeming a little long--especially to start in the dead of winter. So, this is it for them. I know it will be fine. It will probably be even better in lots of ways, but change is so hard! There are lots of things that we have really loved about this school.

It's a little hard to prepare for Christmas with so many other BIG things happening this week. Last night we met with the realtor who will sell our Lafayette home. It will go on the market in January. Any of you Lafayette readers who know someone who might love our house--let us know! Tomorrow is our closing day on our new house. We are feeling a bit like each day has some major activity to check off the list. Tomorrow I will have more pictures to share. Some people have seen the interior house photos on Brian's facebook page, but I will get some different shots and post them here.

Well, it isn't done yet

But we're getting there. At least we have water in the sink and the toilet is functional again today.