Wanted: Lawnmower

No, not somebody to mow the lawn!

Our grass is coming up! We're so excited. Another month and the kids will be able to play in the front yard again.

Reality Check

Last night I attended our Stake Women's Conference. It was such a wonderful night! Not only did I get away for a couple of hours with Sarah, but I learned so much! The program consisted of spiritual musical numbers, preformed by some very talented singers in our stake, along with some wonderful words of inspiration. Pondering the words of the music I realized a few things that I already knew but hadn't thought about enough until last night.

Things I learned:

1. I really do LOVE the sisters in our ward! They are some of the sweetest people around and I am blessed to have them in my life! It feels like my children have 10 sweet grandmas that they get to see every week at church.

2. I also realized that I need to focus more on my children than on what my house looks like and the things that I want. I feel that I have been a little bit selfish with my time lately, trying to lose weight and keeping the house clean and laundry done just in case someone wants to walk through our house (on the market, for those who don't know). My children are very important to me and I want them to know I love them not just by the things I do FOR them, but by the things that I do WITH them.

3. I realized that Clear lake isn't such a bad place to live and I need to enjoy the time I have here and not dwell on the fact that I want to live closer to my own family. We are like family to some of the members here.

4. We are very blessed! Jason is finding work and the bills are getting paid somehow!

All in all I realized that I need to be happy with my life the way things are right now and just keep dreaming. So in my quest to become a better mother, wife and daughter of God I have added these goals to my list for this year:

1. Read the whole book of Mormon again.
2. Better support Jason in his responsibilities as YM President.
3. Write in my journal and blog more often.
4. PLAY with the kids more!
5. Take good care of myself.
6. Get Jason to take me rafting this summer!
(That's a fun one I just thought I'd throw in there!)

I hope I can be a better person and be a good example for the lovely children Heavenly Father has blessed our lives with!

Goofy kids! Aren't they great!?
Someday I'll get a good one of them all together! Ooh, there's another goal!

Playing in the dirt.

It's spring at our house! Lots of stuff to do. We started preparing our front yard for grass two years ago. When we moved here the lawn was pretty weak with lots of weeds and not a lot of grass. Most of the open space was landscaped in white gravel. Much of the gravel has been relocated, the yard tilled by hand, topsoil added, seed spread and more topsoil placed to hide the seed from the birds. We've actually included part of the right-of-way in our lawn. So the city could decide to take that part back at some point. In the meantime, I will soon need to acquire a lawnmower.

It's so exciting watching sprouts and seedlings appear after planting and waiting through the winter! I have a love-hate relationship with spring this year. I love the blossoms and new growth. I don't like the continuous work we are having to do and knowing we have to wait for weeks or months to see the fruition of our labors.

This year's new plants include two peach seedlings, a white onion, and a chestnut oak, not including the veggie garden. Last year's silver maple and cherry tree are in full leaf and very healthy looking. Our grape vine is also promising a great harvest. The new growth on it has many clusters of baby grapes, some branches have five little clusters! Were looking forward to the juice this fall.

Click here to go to a slideshow of some of our work.

Catching up

First of all, I want to apologize to all my avid readers (if there are any of you out there!) for not posting for a while. :) I've actually written about ten blogs over the past few weeks but they get away from me every time I step out of the shower.
Excuses are as follows:
1. Wife and motherly duties. Man, it's hard to keep up with five kids and a husband at home all the time! We started Aaron on solids about a month ago and he's finally got it down! That takes a lot of time too! His face doesn't look very dirty in this picture (click on the image) but Jason IS feeding him and he's loving it! I'm actually afraid that he might stop nursing just to eat more solid food!

2. Working hard with the help of the Lord as Primary President in our small Ward to keep everything working well and organized.

3. Getting small projects around the house done. Taking advantage of Jason being home, due to lack of work. Also because I can't go anywhere or spend any money.
A little over a year ago our neighbors down the street moved leaving a bunch of stuff on the side of the road for trash. Driving by the pile of "junk" I noticed a Queen-size head board and foot board, something I have wanted since we got married almost nine years ago! It wasn't in the best shape and I thought for sure we could fix it up and make rails for it to fit our bed! We brought the boards home and they sat in Christopher's room until about two months ago. I put Jason to work at our house if he wasn't going to work anywhere else! He sanded the headboard and footboard a bit and bought wood and hardware for the rails. We painted them and he fastened it all together! So we finally have our bed done! check! Now if only we could get the lawn in and the fence up!


4. Last but definitely not the best reason for me not to blog, I have found a new way to waste time on the internet. Becky sent me and the girls a Webkinz pet (about a week ago?) and I have been playing games and trying to earn Kinz cash to furnish the room of our Love Frog named Lovely Sally. For all of you who don't have a clue about anything I just wrote, I'll tell you. Webkinz are cute little stuffed animals that come with a code that lets you log onto a make-believe world on the internet where you can play games with other Webkinz and earn Kinz cash to buy things and food for your pet and their room. It fun to see the girls get excited to help out around the house so they can earn time playing with their virtual pet! Thanks a bunch Becky!!!
Here are the girls with Lovely Sally.

Turkey Hunting

This one is not a joke.

Turkey season opened Saturday, March 29. I looked and looked for public land, checked out satellite images, and found a likely spot. The Cedar Roughs area at the north end of Lake Berryessa is BLM land. Lake Berryessa is to the south of Clearlake about 50 minutes. The most northwest corner of it has a good sized creek through the middle with lots of oaks and some brush.
So Saturday I got up early and drove to this place, parked on the roadside where there was already another vehicle, and started my hunt. I got there a little after sunrise (6:59 am), so I was later than I had planned. I immediately had to cross a creek, thankfully not to deep. Thanks, Dad for the waterproof boots.
I heard a gobble right away but nothing for the next hour. Walked up and down some small slopes, saw one beardless hen, and got to the end of the area. Lots of No Trespassing signs so I knew it was time to turn around. Then I heard a "cluck-cluck-cluck". So I sat and waited for a few minutes and watched as ... a hunter walked out off the private property, stepped over the fence, and proceeded hunting back to the road, turkey-calling loudly every few minutes after that. His calling technique needed some improvement and was probably chasing the toms out of the area.
At that point I headed back to my car. After the hunt I removed three ticks from my skin and clothing. After I got home Ruth found one in the house where I had set down my fanny pack.
So I'm thinking that turkey hunting in the spring, isn't really worth it. You can only shoot one a day, three per season, and you can't shoot anything else but rabbits and squirrels. At least in the fall you could shoot doves (could have shot two +), duck (again, at least two), or quail, which I could hear calling. All that, the long drive, and the ticks just don't add up to a positive experience. Maybe if I'd had a deer tag at the same time and was just hunting deer...