Category: http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post

Abundance, Gratitude, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, List

My Abundance and Gratitude List

Olof
Good morning dear readers. I woke up this morning after a rough night with a teething child and my home looks like a tornado went through it. Odinn caught a stomach bug and got sick all over our couch which is covered in fabric and since he got it all over himself and his baby brother the priority at the time was to clean up the kids and then get back to the couch. This gave the mess time to sink in. Yes Eeeeeeewwww. This was just the beginning and Alex joined him in his returning ventures. Now my kitchen, which is my laundry room too, smells like baby chicks, dirty dishes and sick. Yeah. I’m functioning on less than 4 hours of sleep a night for over a week because Alex is teething and woke up to a pity party for myself since my house looks like a war zone. Once I sat down and had my coffee I started thinking and remembered the Newsletter Laura sent me from The Nurished Home about having an Abundance and Gratitude List visible in your home at all times. This lists all the things we have and love and are grateful for having. A great tool for when we are having rough days. To read over and be reminded by the good things so the right now hard things may seem less hard. So I sat down and wrote my list and here it is.
 
My Abundance and Gratitude List

My Husband– My Children– My Family– My Home- My health– Healthy Husband– Love– Healthy Children– Parents that are such a help– In-laws that love my children– siblings that are there no matter what–My education– My blog– My Readers–Ability to inform myself– A husband that is so supportive of my whims– My able body– the YMCA– Yoga– Money cushion in case of emergency– books– Entertaining chickens– Coffee!– clean drinking water– Electricity– Internet– Educational cartoons– Simplicity Parenting– Nature– Farmers Market– Friends that take me out of my comfort zone– Modern medicine– Living in a peaceful place– Being a mother– Helpful Appliances– Public School– Amazon Prime– Organic products– My fenced in backyard– My Veggie garden– Nap time

You may remember that I took Laura’s Hectic to Harmonious Home Cleans that got me kick started to living a more congruent life to my personal values and then I started my journey into Simplicity Parenting. Hope those of you that are having a hard morning with me can use this tool to bring some inner peace and then be able to choose to look at life in a more joyful manner.

 What is your list?

Interested in living a happier life through gratitude? Check out this book
chores, colors, fun, getting things done, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, List, markers, pens, to-do

To Do Lists

Olof
OK if you are anything like me then even your to do list can seem super daunting. You write it out with the best intentions of finishing it and then you stare at it for the rest of the day thinking that you don’t even know where to start after the list is written.

Here is what I do to keep me to doing. I start with a piece of paper and three colors of either markers or pens that I find pretty and/or fun. I pick my main color that I write the list out in. Then I write the day and to do at the top. Then I make boxes in front of each to do item to be checked off later. It is very important that even if you have already made your bed that day to include it because you should never underestimate how gratifying it is to check that off your list of to dos as DONE. Also if you do something that is not on the list like you notice that the front porch needs to be swept and you do it. Add it to the list and then check it off. Then I pick the second color to make the list more appealing by outlining the check boxes and underlining the date to do header and then I have a whole other color to check off my done to dos.

DO NOT FORGET TO PUT FUN STUFF ON YOUR TO DO LIST!!!!

Enjoy reading? Put 10 min or more of reading on your to do list.
Enjoy knitting? Put 15 min or more of knitting on your list.

The adding to the list of things already done, things that you enjoy and things you think of through the day is important because it makes the list more doable and less of a chore. And like I stated above NEVER underestimate the psychological feel good of checking things off a list as DONE!

I try to write mine in order but with kids and all I get distracted and things end up all over the place.

Also if I have something that I need to do multiple times through the day like 3 loads of laundry I put one check box at the front and then three behind it so that each time a load goes in the wash I check it off and then when the three loads are done I can check off the box in front of the item. I also put dry, fold and put away in their own separate check offs each with 3 boxes behind them so I can check off at each step.

Why all the colors?  Because this is something you are going to look at often through the day so you want it to be appealing!

At the end of the day I might not have finished ALL of my To Dos but seeing how many checks I managed is very rewarding non the same.

How do you do your To Dos?

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, laundry, Mindfulness, Parenting

This moment

Olof
Trying to be present in the moment today. Join me on your blog and link to them in the comment section if you wish.

Right now I am….

:: looking around my home and hoping that I will have the energy to finish cleaning up.

:: hoping that Alex takes a proper nap so that I can get to all the things on my to do list today.

:: listening to my big boys play with their trains nicely upstairs.

:: looking forward to finishing the design that I have been working on for a month now.

:: hoping that it isn’t too late for that design this season.

:: feeling my shoulders that are tense and needing of some yoga.

:: thankful for the body that has given me 3 healthy sons and trying to be kind to it so that it can finish healing from a long hard pregnancy.

:: anxious about the Color Run next weekend and hoping I will make it.

:: enjoying all the new growth around me and trying to grow mentally with it.

:: stairing at a basket full of cloth diapers that need to be stuffed and put away.

:: realizing that I don’t hear the washer or dryer anymore so it is time to rotate and put more dirty clothes in the washing machine.

:: about to go out with the kids and let them play on the deck with the new carpet which has made such a great new play area.

If you are new to Mindfulness techniques then check out this book

 
Australorp, birthdays, Buff Orpington, chickens, Cream Legbar, Easter Egger, family, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Keeping Chickens

The Past Week

Olof
These AppleCheeks arrived in the mail and are new sponsors of my blog!

My big boy turned 5 last week!

Odinn decorating his cake.

Alex getting some tickles and wearing some of the AppleCheeks we already owned!

The new chicken coop almost finished but usable. Just need to cover the front of the coop so that rain doesn’t get in the feed.

Buff free ranging.

Got some plants in the garden

Mathilda.

He added an extra candle. LOL

Owl!

Guess you just started joining us at the dinner table?

The best play yard ever!

People ask me how I am keeping chickens and gardening. The trampoline is where Alex is happy and outside and playing so I get some free time to get stuff done. My husband also is a great help. He built the coop. I just painted it and told him what I wanted.

And last but not least….

Say hello to Chipmunk and Sassy! Chipmunk is a Cream Legbar and Sassy is a Black Copper Maran. They hatched on Sunday! I’m so stinken excited bout them. They are the newest additions to my flock and the first real baby chicks that I have had and OMG they are so fluffy and cute! I just want to hold and watch them all day long! Sorry the photo is not the best but they are just getting use to their brooder box in the kitchen.
Want to start your own backyard flock?
Check out:

about me, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, knitting

100 Things About Me

Olof

I saw this on Lorna’s Laces and thought I would do mine.

1) I am 5’10”.  

2) I have one brother and 4 sisters. They are all much older than I. 

3) I have 3 male children.

4) My last child was born 11lbs 14oz. 

5) I’m a part time vegetarian, only eating animals that  were treated humanely.

6) I’ve been married since 2003. 

7) I was born a blond, but have been a redhead and brunet  and even all 3 at once. But right now I am naturally a brunet but get highlights every once in a while.

8) I used to be an apple picker in France.

9) I tended bar when I was in college.

10) I was fired once from being an apple picker in France when I was 17 because I was the only female and was distracting the other workers, slowing down production.

11) I learned to knit when I was 6.

12) I’ve lived in 3 different countries. Iceland, USA and France.

13) I use to hold grudges but have learned to let go.

14) When my ADHD is at it’s worst I stop being able to keep up with housework.

15) I wear a size 11 shoe . It use to be a size 10 but pregnancy really did a number on them.

16) My favorite color of yarn is grey.

17) I make a mean leg of lamb.

18) I’m planing on running my first 5k in 17 years on the 20th of April. God help me.

19) I wear glasses all the time since I am blind with out them.

20) I keep chickens. 

21) I prefer baths to showers.

22) I’m reading through the 1001 books to read before you die list and I’m taking forever.

23) I wish I could fly first class all the time but I have only been bumped up a few times. 

24) I don’t like carnival rides that make you feel like you are dropping.

25) I love wine.

26) Left to my own devices, I’d eat chocolate for all meals.

27) I sleep with 2 pillows.

28) If I find a piece of clothing I like and fits well, I’ll buy more than one in different colors.

29) I perpetually wish I was 25 pounds lighter. 

30) I spend waaaay too much time on the computer

31) The homepage on my computer is Google.

32) I own stock in Google.

33) I need a vacation. 

34) I have a red couch.

35) I like pedicures.

36) I don’t like Tulsa summers.

37) I am learning not to be so mean to myself.

38) I can’t keep almond butter in the house.

39) I drive a Mazda 5.

40) I belong to 2 book clubs.

41) My mom is amazing and lives in Iceland.

42) I am afraid I will get cancer since it runs in the family.

43) I am even more afraid of dieing with out warning and not being able to tell my children one more time that I love them. 

44) I love to go to Paris.

45) I hope I never want to have plastic surgery.

46) Too many of my clothes are from the Gap. 

47) I listen to audio books, not music, on my iPad.

48) I wish I gave myself more time to draw.

49) I have 15 nieces and nephews. The oldest is 29, the youngest is 5 years.

50) I almost always have chocolate in the house.

51) I wore retro suites in high school. 

55) I once forgot that I was in London airport and not still in France and asked where the restroom was in French.

56) I prefer the Chocolate dessert.

57) I am afraid of failing. 

58) I’m done having babies. 

60) My spelling skills have gotten better because of spell check. 

61) I have a bachelor’s degree in Mental Health Psychology with a minor in Business.

62) I love interviewing people. 

63) I started smoking cigarettes in high school. Quit over 6 years ago.

64) I love making good food.

65) I’d like to go to Italy and soooo many other countries. 

66) I have too  any allergies. 

67) I’d rather have jewelry then another kitchen product for my birthday.

68) My favorite flower is a calalily .

69) My husband is a genius.

70) I like to knit simple things.

71) I never wore braces.

72) I use to host New Years Eve dinner parties before kids.

73) I over think things.

74) I’d like to live in Europe again.

75) I’m not a big fan of perfume. 

76) My husband’s blue eyes and height were what attracted me to him at first.

77) My dad is a retired airplane mechanic. 

78) I wish I had more time.

79) I try not to have regrets.

80) My dream house is an old restored homestead in the south of France.

81) I love fountain pens.

82) I am impatient.

83) I get stressed when I am away from my baby when they are still breastfeeding.

84) You couldn’t pay me enough to be single again.

85) My handwriting is awful.

86) I grew up in Iceland and the USA

87) I listen to NPR more than any other radio station.

88) I love to wear a skirt or pin stripe pants when I get dressed up.

89) I wish I’d rather read than watch TV but I watch way too much TV.

90) I met my husband at a coffee shop.

91) I’m a dreamer.

92) I require Coffee.

93) My favorite color is grey.

94) I am planing on keeping bees for the first time this summer.

95) My right foot is bigger than my left foot.

96) I drink home brew Starbucks coffee.

97) I like cardigans better than pullovers.

98) I passionate about simplicity Parenting

99) I have been knitting more small projects lately.

100) I love designing knitwear and seeing that people value it enough that they purchase my pattern. 

Now your turn! 

Australorp, Backyard, boots, Buff Orpington, carrots, chicken, eggs, fava, garden, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, planting, sustainability

Mini Farm Coming Along

Olof
OK, so I was going to take a before pic but honestly I was too ashamed at the state of my garden and horrified that my neighbors back door opened up to it and has had to look at it. It’s the only place where we do not have privacy fencing since there was already a fence there. But so far, I cleaned out the beds, used my Garden Weasel to turn the soil, added 6 cubic feet of peat moss and some organic fertilizer then turned the soil some more to mix it all up and then watered thoroughly.

I know it’s a mess! Wish me luck!

 I planted some Fava Windsor Broad Beans a couple of weeks ago and waiting for them to pop up and this weekend I´m planting some Organic Carrot Seeds Carnival Blend, some beets, some peas, lettuce and other cold hardy plants.

A couple of years ago I put down some weed cloth and put mulch over it. This looked great and was an awesome idea until my cats and the neighborhood cats thought that this would be the ideal place to poop. Yeah, eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww. I kept stepping in it. I got to the point where I didn’t want to go into my garden area. That, plus the heat and the bugs just caused me to quit all together. My garden became a mess and my harvest was lost since I wasn’t keeping up with it. Now I have vines and weeds growing through the cloth. What do farmers do then (this is an Icelandic saying when there is a problem)? I´m going to clean out as much as I can put down even more mulch and then put down pavers for stepping on. This means that I need to go to my city’s free mulch site and pick up LOTS of mulch.

Mathilda the s/he bird
Owl, Buff and Mathilda getting lost in the weeds.

OK so the chickens are growing FAST! I know one of my Easter Eggers is a rooster so his name is Dinner. I live in the city so keeping a rooster is not being very neighborly. I’m still waiting to see if Mathilda is really a girl. I go back and fourth on if she is a he or a she so right now she is a s/he. LOL. I have just started letting them free range in the backyard. They are funny to watch and much easier to keep then I thought. Don’t know why I didn’t do this a LONG time ago. If you are on the fence on this one just jump in! If this is not the hobby for you then you can sell them and people will for sure buy laying hens and your coop.
Just make sure to read books on keeping chickens so you know the basics and have a library to reference to if you start having any problems and check with your local ordinands to see if you can legally keep chickens in your city. The entertainment value alone is worth keeping these birds. I could sit around and watch them all day. In June they should start laying if what I am reading about them starting around 18-22 weeks of age. I can’t wait! I’m still waiting on my Icelandics (lay white to pink eggs) and on a Maran (lays chocolate brown eggs) and Cream Legbar (lays blue eggs). It will be so much fun keeping these fun colors in my frig and giving them to the neighbors and friends.
Waiting for my boots to arrive from Amazon. Have to have proper attire for taking care of my mini farm.

What are you doing this spring? Trying anything new? New plants, animals, hobbies?

bed, cosleeper, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, rug, Sam's, toddler bed, wagon, YMCA

Our Growing Family

Olof

Material I got to make new sheets for Odinn´s bed
Odinn on his new mattress

As I am in the midst of wanting less in my home I still have to purchase things for my growing children. Yesterday we had to go buy my oldest a new mattress since his bed was getting too short for him and Alex’s cosleeper was getting too short for him. So we had to juggle beds. Odinn got his new mattress on the floor until we find the perfect bed frame for him, Magni got Odinn’s toddler bed and the crib that we had transformed into a toddler bed for Magni was transformed back to a crib for Alex. Alex was so long that he was starting to either touch the top with his head or the bottom with his feet to the cosleeper and it was waking him up on a regular basis (every hour and a half) and this mamma was getting NO sleep. So what happened after the big swap? My husband and I were sure that we would get a toddler and a baby in our bed last night but the big boys slept in til 7:30 this morning and Alex only woke up once at 3:30am to nurse and then slept til 7am and woke up to nurse again and then slept till 9:30am when it was time for a dry diaper and some play.

Alex in the crib that use to be Magni’s toddler bed

Magni in the toddler bed that Odinn was using


Yesterday while at Sam’s buying the oldest a mattress we also bought a folding wagon and some lawn chairs for the upcoming soccer practices and games that are starting on Thursday at the YMCA and a outdoor’s rug to cover our aging deck so that I can let Alex play out there with out getting splinters and filth all over him.

As I purchase things now I think about how much they will be used. The wagon will be used quite a bit for years to pull along things for games, camping trips, and gardening when I need to get mulch and things from one place to another. Folding chairs can be used for all the 4th of July’s, games, camping, parties and the list goes on. The rug will make a space that is unlivable at the moment livable for me and my children adding living space to be outdoors for snacks,  play and relaxation.

I’ve been reading a lot about organizing and minimizing and one question I found in MINIMALIST PARENTING: Enjoy Modern Family Life More by Doing Less was “If your house burnt down and you had to start over would you buy it again?” if so keep it. If not then get rid of it.  When I thought about this it shed a whole new light on all of my STUFF and I am now more willing to just get rid of it. I had a yard sale two weekends ago and I made over 250 dollars. I plan on having another yard sale in 2 weeks and getting rid of even more. There are so many things that I would not buy again so why am I holding on to them? The great thing is the money I made from the yard sale paid for all of the things be bought at Sam’s yesterday! Love the power of less that the Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids book helped me cultivate in my life.

box, chicken tractor, cleaning, DIY, family, fence panel, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, playyard, temporary

Thursday Update

Olof
He scratches himself when itching his nose
Silly big boy

I have to say sorry for how I’ve been absent this week. I have 2 other blog posts that I started but never finished. Our family hasn’t been feeling its best and Alex had croup this weekend. Still snotty and so are my other two big boys. This leads to a very tired mamma that doesn’t get to finish a though because of noses/bums that need to be wiped or someone is thirsty or hungry or sleepy or …………….it goes on. I love my boys but at this point mamma needs a break while there is no break in sight.

I had a yard sale on Sunday afternoon, selling all the left over cloth diaper product that I had since I closed my online store and other baby items that Giant Alex has grown out of in his almost six short months outside my womb. Made some money but have lots of product left and people asking to come see it almost every day, selling a little here and there leaving bins of cloth diapers in my living room and boxes of baby clothes.

Also since I had a yard sale on Sunday I didn’t do any cleaning and now I’m overwhelmed to say the least making it so that it is just getting worse. I have a pile of clean laundry beside me and there are more loads that need to be washed in the kitchen.

What have I decided to do about this problem, which I alone can fix? Take my boys to KrispyKreme of course! That will fix the problem right? My house will be amazingly clean and organized by the time I come back by the amazing cleaning fairy? OK maybe not but I will get a mental break from this craziness.

Here are some of the photos from my week.

Hubby has finished now by adding those top boards and putting wheals on the back.
Just needs paint
Alex enjoying the sun

The peeps outside in the temp tractor.

Playyard+box full of shavings+fencing panel= temp tractor

All I want to be doing these days.

Backyard Farming, chickens, chicks, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Strawberries, veggie

Chicks got Names and Garden Update

Olof
The chicks have gotten names. Meet the girls Buff, Owl and Mathilda. Starting to think Dinner is a boy so that is why his name is dinner for now.

And here is my honest try to start the season off right

I just planted the strawberry containers. Ordered from Amazon 25 Evie Everbearing Strawberry Plants and got WAY more from the seller than 25. Planted 18 plants in those 2 red planters and another 4 in another and there is at least that many more still left to plant. They are also all live and sprouting, unlike so many packages I have gotten from my local hardware store.

Also got Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) in the mail today to review. Can’t wait to dig into it and tell you what I think. Hope I learn something new. From what I’ve seen by looking through it quickly it is pack full of useful, specific information on plants and breeds of birds. Tell you more about it soon.