Some quilting....mostly school

March of this past year I started working on my master's full time.  Between homework, homeschooling, and running kids to Boy Scouts, American Heritage Girls, and church activities.....I don't have much time to quilt.  But I did just finally finish a twin size and a wallhanging so I hope to have the binding finished up this week.  I have ten days off of school so I'm trying to clean out the garden, rake, paint, and quilt.  So here's what's been going on:

• TL got his driver's license!!!  Yippee!  Freedom for me!  That gives me two nights a week that I'm not running around anymore.  Well one, until popcorn sales are over for scouts...I'm the treasurer so I need to collect the money.
• My dad and his wife sold everything and bought an RV to travel full time.  He's here right now with a trailer filled with furniture that he has made so I'm trying to reorganize.
• The garden was pretty successful.  Didn't get alot of tomatoes but found out that the dog was going in and eating them so next year we will block them off from him.  The chickens also foraged so we ended up putting a fence up for them.  And we got hit with an early Sept frost that killed the tomatoes.....which was sad because I was just really starting to get some in.
• Canning went well....except for the tomatoes being short (I only got 14 jars of spaghetti sauce and 6 jars of chili), 15 pints of pickled beets, 14 quarts of green beans, 14 quarts of carrots, and 15 jars of apple pie filling....plus 15 quarts of pickles.  I need to up the green beans and carrots so I will be expanding that next year.
• We got a pig and a calf.  The pig will be butchered in December and the calf will be another year at least.  We hope to get two more pigs in the spring and another calf so we always have meat coming in.
• Wood is piled up for the winter.  We've had the heat on for a while already because its been chilly and windy.

Well I think that's it.  I have new pics of the kids (I think the ones on my sidebar are about three years old) and the quilts I've finished to post on here.  Will get that done hopefully by the end of the week.

Michelle

Update on my crazy life

TL and I had to go out and dig a drainage ditch...well, not really a ditch but a path for the melting water.  The ground is still frozen solid.  The snow is piled 6 feet high on both sides of the driveway with no where for the melting snow to go but sitting in a pool in the driveway.  The pasture next to the driveway is thankfully angled down from the driveway so we just had to shovel a path through the snow for it to move.  The problem was that we've had a few days of warmer temps so when we got to the bottom, there was ice about 4 inches deep and 18 inches wide lining the driveway.  TL had to take a hammer and screwdriver and chisel a path.  

I've started back to college.  This is the end of the second week.  I'm working through and seem to be doing okay so far.  Its hard and keeping me very busy but so far I'm really enjoying the classes.

TL had his belt test for Taekwondo and has moved up to his blue belt.

Princess became a teenager and got her braces a few weeks ago.

Her friends came over for the day and we had a Jamberry Nail party.  They spent hours doing each other's nails and had a blast.

I ordered my bifocals.  I pick them up next week.  I'm having a hard time doing my reading for school because I've been wearing my contacts and I can't see to read.  I'll have my glasses back on tomorrow because I'll be doing homework all day and I can take them off to read.  TL is getting new glasses too and hopefully contacts.  I've had to take him in two times to try to get them into his eyes.  Hopefully he will be more successful on Monday when we get our glasses.

Life is busy but good.  I've ordered a half a pig to put into our new freezer and our friend called to tell me that the 1/2 cow should be ready in a few weeks.  We rent our back 8 acres to him each year and in return get a 1/2 cow.  We're still hoping to get a few pigs and cows this year but we will see how it goes.  I'm not sure I can add anything else on my plate right now.  We may just get the pigs this year.

Enjoy your weekend!  We're supposed to get some snow!

Snow!

Although we haven't had a lot of snow this year, we've certainly seen our share of cool temps which means that the snow we've gotten hasn't melted.   The winds have been crazy this year with 25-35 mph being common with up to 50mph wind gusts.  The snow has picked up off the fields and blown into my driveway. 

Seriously, if we get any  more snow, there won't be anywhere to put it.

This is looking off of the deck.  You will notice that pile of snow next to it is higher than the deck.

This is that pile of snow next to the deck.  You can see how high it is next to the garage and playhouse

I literally cannot get to that barn right now.  That's where we store the wood.  My son is standing in front of that tree so you can see how high it is.  Its higher now after the driveway got plowed

The driveway which was clear before the blizzard.  Don't let it fool you, its 3-4 feet deep.

I promise that underneath that pile of snow is the stairs to get up on the deck

I've been busy doing household and homeschooling projects.  Quilting has been on the back burner while I've been getting things done and caught up.  I've also planned out the garden and expanded what we did last year, at least on paper.  There's no gardening in this weather.

I start school on the third.  Going full time to finish my masters in two years.  Its gonna be a struggle but worth it in the end.

Happy quilting everyone!

Update on my crazy busy life

Almost three months and not post?  And I haven't even done pictures today either.  ugh

I finally completed the wallhanging for the living room (one of two that I want to do).  I'm getting a hanger for it and will take pics of it up on the wall later this week.  

I am almost done quilting the littlest ones quilt.  Then its on to her next biggest sister and then the two big girls.  I should just do a quilt machine quilt for the big girls, but I hand pieced their quilts together when we lived in the fifth wheel and don't feel right about machine quilting them.

Reasons that I haven't keep up with much quilting and even less blogging:

• hubby was home for almost three weeks at Christmas time.  He managed to get several of his honey-do list items completed
• still homeschooling
• became an Explorer unit leader with American Heritage Girls
• treasurer for the Boy Scout troop
• volunteering for our after school program at church one day a week
• chauffeuring the teen to taekwondo
• chauffeuring the oldest two to our teen church program Friday nights (did I mention that I will be totally thrilled this summer when he gets his driver's license this summer!!)
• teaching at the homeschool co-op
• taking training sessions with Tapestry of Grace (a homeschool curriculum) for their advisor program
• working on all the paperwork for entrance into a master's program which I hope to start in March (y'know in my spare time, lol)
• laundry......seriously, who bought these kids that many clothes and why do they have to change them every single day?  Can't they wear the same clothes over and over and over again?  lol
• and whatever else I can find the time to do 

So you see, I really am busy although my hubby thinks I sit around and eat bon-bons all day long while watching Soap Operas.  

I'm off to complete some files that need to be updated because in the midst of all of my running this week, my desktop decided to die on  me.  Well, in fairness it was running.........just smelled like it was burning and about to start on fire so I turned it off.  

Have a wonderful and blessed week!