Updates....Family....Education...and more!!!

 It's been almost a year since my last post. What can I say? Life got in the way. It is once again February and my oldest is about to turn 15. I am so happy to announce that she is acting so much better these days. She is actually doing her work in school and finally not failing any courses. I was gonna let her go live with my mom and do school online because I was seriously frustrated with her. At the last moment before school started I decided to give her another chance. I didn't want her to miss out on her school experience and all the peer relationships she can form. I am so glad she made a complete turn around. I am so proud of her. She even tried out for the talent show this year. She's gonna speed draw. She is definitely a artist. She can draw really well. Shw is also in band this year. She decided to play the trumpet. We bought her a nice black one. I hope she sticks with it when she goes to high school in a could of months. 

In other news....a few months ago in October, my husband and I was finally able to take the kids on a legit family vacation. I have never been on a family vacation in my life. We were so blessed to be able to take our kids. We also brought my mom with us. It was a really nice trip. We rented a town house for the week in Florida. We went to 5 different parks in 5 different days. It was so exhausting but we all had the time of our lives. We went to Disney Magic Kingdom. Disney Animal Kingdom, Disney Hollywood studios, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld. We road so many rides. All 6 of us together. It was so perfect. I love that we was able to take my mom. I had a really great m om growing up and she did what she could for us considering her husband was a selfish piece of shit. My mom was pretty much a married single mom. She was an amazing mom to me. I really missed her and being able to spend an entire week with her was amazing. We only see her every couple of months because she lives almost 3 hours away from us. I love my mom so much. My husband and I decided that we will take her on EVERY family vacation we go on from now on. It's great bonding for us all. About a month later my husband and I took a 7 day cruise for our anniversary. It was on New Years Eve and it was amazing. I really enjoyed it. We had the chance to bring in the new year under the stars on the sea and we was able to video chat the kids during the count down. It was amazing. Our goal is to have 1 big family vacation once a year and 1 vacation just me and my husband. Also, a small mini vacation very year during the kids spring break. Next month during spring break we are gonna take a little weekend trip to Atlanta to go to the Georgia Aquarium. It's supposed to be the largest Aquarium in the US. Also the big family vacation this year is gonna be another Disney Adventure. This time in California. Yup we are going to Disneyland. I already booked a 2 bedroom suite in California and we are gonna spend 4 days at Disney and 1 day at Universal Studios Hollywood there in California. We have to fly there. Them tickets are gonna be a doozy. Like $3700 just for the plane tickets for all of us but it is so worth it. Our couple's trip this year is actually going to be a couple months later than we would like but it's so worth it. We are taking another cruise but to Hawaii. It's a 10 day cruise. It's going to be so amazing. I can't wait. 

In other news...here is a house update.

Wow, over the past few years our home and property has improved. We have an epic raised garden bed that we add on to this year. We added a melon area last year to it. We also added another garden near the chicken coop area where we planted nothing but tomatoes. We did so good last year. We had so many tomatoes. I was canning nonstop. I made homemade spaghetti sauce and salsa. We also made fried green tomatoes. We also planted corn and picked a lot of it. Also in the main garden I was able to successfully train all the cucumbers and squash to a trellis. It was a lot of work but it was worth in and so amazing. I canned so many pickles. In the main garden I also planted kale, cabbage, eggplants, zucchini, Okra, Jalapenos, more tomatoes, garden beans, watermelon, and sweet potatoes. It was so fun. We also raised another batch of pigs. The went to butcher in December. The meat is so good. So much bacon, sausage, chorizo, and pork chops. We was also raising more meat birds and meat turkeys but they ended up getting slaughtered due to a fox. We officially have zero animals outside. Well besides the dogs. Oh..we decided to give our horse to a woman who lost her horse. We felt like she needed training and we didnt have time to do that with all we got going on. We gave her our goat too because they were bonded together.

I can't wait until spring when we buy another batch of pigs. More meat chickens and meat turkeys. Oh and more chickens just for eggs. I never thought egg prices would ever increase but they did. And it had to happen when we had zero chickens. We have had chickens for the last 7 years. It's so weird not having any now. My husband is in the process to moving the coop so we can expand our tomato garden and grow more root veggies. He is making sure that he predator proof the new chicken run. We also have to figure out a housing situation ones the birds are able to leave the brooder. We will figure it out. I can't wait until spring. Its going to be amazing.

Oh...I got sidetracked for a sec. Back to the property updates.

We finally got new vinyl siding on our house. It looks so good. We also was able to get our Livingroom and hallways floors replaced. It went from old carpet to hard floors. We are still doing adjustments inside like putting up crown moulding in the Living room, adding an accent wall to the kitchen and Livingroom. finishing paining and putting back up baseboards. Outside, my husband did some landscaping all around the house. We added a hug wooden jungle gym for the kids outside. It was 3 swings, 2 slides, monkey bars, and a little playhouse at the top. All three of the kids love playing on it. We also added a HUGE greenhouse by the chicken coop. The greenhouse is our dream greenhouse. I love it. It costed a grip too but so worth it. I can't wait to start out seeds out there.

On to the other kids...

The younger kids are doing well. Now they both are in Kindergarten. Not the same class though. They would never learn if they were together. My youngest daughter was supposed to go to first grade this year but we felt like she needed a extra year. She is doing so good. That extra year really paid off. My son is also doing amazing. They are all so smart. I can't to through them a little graduation celebration. I love planning stuff. I love making stuff for their classes too. Last year I did gift bags for valentines day and this year I am doing the same thing. I think I went overboard this time though. LOL...Lets just say...all the kids have drawstring backpacks. It was a lot of work but I love doing it. It's like 4 bags I had to come up with. Oh and I made a gift bag for a couple of the kids teachers as well. Also, I am so excited about tomorrow. The kids school is doing their first ever Family valentines day dance. I bought all 5 of us matching outfits. They don't match like exactly but they have the same color skeem. 

On to my academics...

I started my Master's degree this year. I will be done with it at the end of December. Then idk what's next. My goal is to get a job working from home. Wish me luck. 

Our hopes for this year is to have more family game nights. We try to aim for saturday nights. We usually do like Bingo, a movie, or some other sport. Also, we bought a basketball hoop game that we keep in our Livingroom. It folds up. I love it. It's just like the one you see at a arcade. Another hope for this year is to have a bigger and better garden, purchase our first steer for beef purposes, and buy a dairy cow. I also want to start growing some grapes in our orchard next to our pear trees. Growing grapes is a process that takes years. Better start now. We would also, like to finish our main driveway, painting the 2 back patios, finish the landscaping around the house, create an enclosure around the kids playground (to keep the dogs out), construct our outdoor Livingroom area in our main garden, Finish up our renovations in the hallway bathroom, and kitchen. 

I hope to do more posts but we shall see.