What You Missed in May

In order to get caught up on blogging, I'm going to post several days' worth of pictures at once. Here are things that happened at the end of May. The crabapple tree on the edge of our front lawn bloomed like crazy -- it was very pretty.

When I went out to pick the first rhubarb

of the season, I found a hen's nest full of eggs.

Bryan volunteered to return cans that Carter's class collected to raise money for their trip to Park Safari. It's a good thing we have a big van -- it was packed full!

I continued on my mission to go green. We have not used paper towels, paper napkins, or paper plates all summer. Combined with my homemade laundry soap, fabric softener, stain remover, household cleaners, dishwasher soap, and toothpaste, we have saved a ton of money and a ton of waste.

Another thing that we've saved money on is feminine hygiene supplies. This may be TMI for some of you, but to me it's a logical decision. You can check out http://www.gladrags.com/ if you want more information on how you can save money and make a huge decrease in your contribution to landfills.

Onto a more fun subject: boys and mud!The end of May brought warm weather and rain, which provided Carter and Myles with the perfect opportunity to get dirty and have fun.

I made a pretty cool discovery while brushhogging the field near our outdoor furnace. I got glose enough to the base of that huge old split tree to see that the bottom has been eroded by the water. Every spring the stream floods and looks more like a pond than a swampy stream. The years of flooding have taken their toll on the tree -- it's amazing that it's still standing.

I could actually see stains showing where the water had risen to -- almost four feet up the tree. The pictures don't show it too well, but it was pretty impressive.

That catches you up from May 22nd-31st. Coming soon: pictures from June...

Our New Porches

Here's a tour of our brand new wraparound porch:

First you walk up the stairs along the side of the driveway, going towards the road. It was my dad's idea to put the stairs at the end of the porch instead of sticking out towards the driveway, and they really look good there. The picture on the right is the same section of porch, but from the other end looking toward the playyard and barn.

Then you turn the corner onto the front of the house. The porch here is 88 feet long!

This picture is from the other end, looking back toward the driveway. You can see where the porch goes from six feet wide to twelve feet wide at the corner of the house. It makes for a great place to grill, eat, and of course relax.

If you're looking at the house from the front, it looks like the porch wraps around the house on the left side, too. Actually the floor ends four feet along the side, and there's a railing and stairs (with a handy matching gate) down into a carport. Right now it's more like a workshop for Bryan, who is putting the finishing touches on the stairs and railings, and making me another gate for the front porch stairs. He did leave me room for my lawn mower in the carport, but I still need to fit my brushhog and the 4wheeler in there!

Then and Now

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I've posted! The summer has flown by, and we've been very busy working on the house. I also finally got licensed as a Group Family Daycare, so I've been working on parent handbooks, contracts, policies, releases, etc. when I do get a chance to get on the computer. I apologize for the long interval since my last post. Here's what our house looked like then:

Here's what our house looks like now:

New wraparound porch, new carport, new enclosed back porch, and new beautiful green shingled roof. More details to follow...