A Typical Day

Recently I have had many people ask me questions about how I get everything done around here, especially since I'm a single mom.  

I decided to break it down for a typical week/work day based on this last school year.

I wake up at 4AM and head to the gym.  Yes, really.  I learned several years ago that I must workout if I want to stay in shape and physically able.  I think it also helps my self esteem.  Unfortunately, my only choice is to go at 4AM because there is just no other time to go.

As soon as I get home I change into my rubber work boots, take the dog out, feed the goats, and open the coop doors.  The youngest chicks get freedom to range all day and the laying-aged birds get freedom into the chicken run.   

The goal is to be in the shower by 5:30, so if I can get inside before 5:20, I will make myself eggs for breakfast.

From 5:30 to 6:30 I take a shower, get dressed, put makeup on and dry my hair, make lunches (since we don't often get it done at night), getting the boys up, nagging them to get ready, packing up my computer nad work bag, and sometimes making them breakfast.  The boys get up at about 6, so if they are dragging their feet then I don't have time to make them breakfast and they get granola bars and bananas or something else I can grab on the way out the door.

I drop the youngest at daycare and then make the hour drive to work.  I get to work around 7:30, and the students show up at 8:45.  I leave work at 4:05, the moment that I'm allowed to leave and I head straight to daycare to pick up the youngest.  

On a good day, I get him at about 4:45 and we are home by 5.  As soon as I get out of the car, I change into my rubber boots and head over to open the coop door that will let the laying hens free range, feed the goats, and let the dog out.

As soon as I'm inside the house I figure out dinner and get to work.  

The youngest goes to bed at 7, so after the animals are taken care of I only have about an hour and a half to make dinner, feed everyone, clean up from dinner, get him to clean himself and hopefully have him make his lunch, and put him to bed.  

Once he's in bed I head outside to count and lock up the birds and let the dog out one last time.  I try to finish the dishes and then I set my gym clothes out (I wear my gym pants to sleep so it's one less thing to do in the morning), check my email one last time, and go to bed.

The goal is to be in bed by 8, although I don't usually get to bed until almost 9, and at times it's later than that.

I am a firm believer that getting 8 hours of sleep is important to maintaining health, so that's what I try to get and I try to get the youngest son into bed so that he gets as close to 11 hours of sleep as possible.

This schedule has worked except during the swimming lesson or cross country season where we will have 2-4 nights of practices so that 90 minutes of time with the youngest son before bedtime also has to include driving to and from a 40-60 minute lesson or practice.  This also doesn't include the times that I need to clean out all of the animal water dishes and refill them or deal with other random issues like refilling feed chicken feed bins, luring goats back into the pen when they've gotten out, taking care of sick animals, etc.

On the weekends I play catch up and clean the water dishes, clean the coops out, pick up the dog messes, and do all of the household chores.

This has been the schedule for two years and since I am switching jobs next fall I am hoping that things will go smoother and I will have more time in the afternoon to get things done.  Hopefully I won't be getting up at 4AM anymore.  

A New Project and a Great Gift

We are hosting exchange students for a couple weeks in July and I needed to get more beds to accommodate everyone.  I bought a used bed online and planned to just use it and then get rid of it, until I realized how cool the bed was.  

It's a bunk bed with a third bed that looks like a drawer under it all.  Each of the two beds on the actual bunk bed have a shelf for books and storage.  In order to make things feel a bit more new I decided to take on the task of sanding it down and refinishing it.  I've never done this before but it didn't sound hard if I had the tools.  

So I bought them.

Any excuse to buy a new power tool makes me happy.

That's my new power sander, it's one of the few power tools I didn't own yet.
And that's one of the headboards "before" I got to work.

The youngest wanted to help.

And I made the oldest help.

It was looking exactly like it did before I started the task.  I'm not sure if that means I did a good job picking out the color of stain to match, or if I didn't do a good job making it look new.  :)

The right has the first coat of stain, the left has only been sanded down.

 It won't be put together until tomorrow and I still want to buy a new mattress for the youngest to have on the bed, but once it is complete I'll take a final picture.

UPDATED:  Here's the finished picture along with nightstand that I bought and finished.  I also got a small dresser that I finished but you can't see it in this picture.

And then I took on building my new grill.  :)  The parents pooled money to get me gift cards to Home Depot (among other places) for an end of the year gift.  I really don't think I will ever experience the kind of gift giving that I did at my old school.  Those parents were amazing, and I felt awkward as I'm not used to that type of stuff and it's unexpected.

Despite my desire to use the gift cards for practical supplies to build shelves for the canning supplies in the basement, I decided to get a real "gift" with them and I replaced our old grill.  This was the biggest grill that Home Depot had in stock.

Can't you just imagine how many steaks I can grill while also cooking corn on the cob, zucchini, and shrimp kabobs?  :)  Tomorrow we will grill our first meal of chicken and corn on the cob, and then I think I have one final package of pollo and carne asada.  :)

Snow Day

It was our first snow day in the house (the new goats were born today but that post trumped this one).

5:30 AM, each goat hiding in their own house

Just a little sledding

A garden will be here very soon

His creation

Clyde was the only one to venture out in the snow - I found his footprints all the way by the house

The long walk home

After living here for a year, we finally got down to the one restaurant in the small town next to us last week.

Chuckwagon Restaurant just sounds country doesn't it?

Johnathon ordered a burger that was larger than mine.  It not only had the typical burger patty, bun, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion, but it also had a sausage patty and a fried egg.

He ate almost the entire burger.

Jeremiah had a kids' burger and green beans.

After dinner the boys decided they wanted to walk home.  In fact they started to run home.

While it was along the main road through the town and there were cars going by, it's still out in the country so it's not too busy.

I drove along with them, pulling to the side of the road in front of them, waiting for them to run past me about a quarter mile, and then driving past them about a half mile and pulling over again.

They made it.

2.6 miles, running almost the entire way.  Laughing and smiling the whole time.

When they got back to the house, I had to drive past our driveway and make a u-turn to come back because of the median in the road.  This is what I saw when I pulled into the driveway:

Who we are

Let me preface this by telling you a little about us...

I am a single mom to two boys and a teacher.  As of today - June 2012 - my boys are 7 and 14 years old.

January 2012

I was born and (mostly) raised in San Diego, CA. We were in the suburbs and I was raised with cats and dogs, nothing more. I did spend 2 of my teenage years on 40 acres about an hour outside of Spokane on a "farm." We had butcher pigs, chickens, dogs, 3 geese, a duck, and my horse. Other than the dogs, the animals weren't pets.  It wasn't a real farm but we had about 20 acres of alfalfa that we cut and bailed and the animals.  We only had the chickens for the eggs, we never ate them.

Besides those two years, I haven't been around farm animals besides petting zoos and county fair type things.  My oldest son and I lived in houses and townhouses San Diego before deciding that we wanted a change and we moved to the N. Virginia area.  My youngest son has only lived in houses and townhouses in the areas near the beltway (near DC.)

I knew that I wanted to own land some day and have chickens (for the eggs) and privacy and peace, but I wasn't sure if I could afford to do that on my single salary. Last summer I was looking to buy a home and was just hoping for a decent size yard.  My agent sent me some listings and I dismissed them as being too far from my work, but one said it had a couple acres.  I quickly did a google map check and realized it was the same distance that I was currently driving and started researching.

I ended up buying the home and we moved out to the semi-country. 

The back of our new house

My original plans were to get another dog (I've had Faith, a purebred pitbull, for 9 years), and some chickens just for the experience for the kids and the free eggs for breakfast.  I also wanted a garden, but otherwise I wasn't planning any "country" things for us.  Although we have a couple acres and we are surrounded by unoccupied acres on three sides of us, we do have a whole housing community across the street and there is a new shopping center a half a mile away from us.  We aren't really that far into the country considering it's a half a mile to the gym, the daycare, and to get milk and butter.

.My plans didn't go as planned... But I'm not complaining :)