What is keeping me busy

Well I lost my photos for the moment so....Let's talk about what keeps me busy these days and in the past year and why I slack on blogging. 

First life: It's been a busy year of settling the in laws estate, had to sell the house and empty the house and all the meetings and this and this and that. We were lucky as they had everything in order. But things take time. We just closed the estate so it took about a year's time even with all the ducks in a row. We didn't get anything but a car, the car is 17 years old and in good shape. Everything went to be invested in the family's business. That was a surprise we didn't see coming. But it is something we, well I planned on. I wanted to plan our money and set up our lives around not getting anything that way if we got something it would be a bonus. 

So this past fall after tired of having life on hold. Because I can't tell you how many times I've set up stuff and had to cancel and drop life because one in law or the other was in the hospital. We no longer have to drop life. So I got my tush in gear. Got boys signed up for swimming lessons. So they are doing those now. I signed Ethan up for a Lego computer class, he really likes that. That is about to end and I have signed him up for a different computer class. So I now spend a lot of time driving. 

We tried looking for a house last year. that just was a no go. Really nothing out there. So we decided to go onto plan B. took months to find someone to come out here and draw up plans. Got those in hand right after Christmas. We had a builder who we really liked, and had a meeting. And then we hit a wall. Apparently we have to go through a gopher study. WHAT? we don't have gophers? So talked to the builder and made a deal. If the permits take longer then 6 weeks we walk away from each other. but if we get them in less then 6 weeks you do the build. See the builder wants to retire and we were suppose to be his last build. Well we have hit the 6 week mark. We decided not to sit on it and went looking for a new builder. We have one lined up but no meeting yet. So we are waiting for a gopher study. Heck we are still waiting for our first site visit, we were suppose to have weeks ago. We are adding on two rooms. One for Ethan, Tucker will move into Ethan's room and Cole will get his own room In the midst of that I get a craft room. 

We brought in two cats this past fall. One has kidney issues, and needs fluids every three days. After months of fluids and a good diet her numbers are getting better. But the vet and I have decided since she is older, unless or until she goes down hill we won't do any more work on her. She will get her fluids every three days and lots of love and just let her live out her days. The other cat is a healthy 15 pounder. Such a trouble. you often open a cabinet door and find him in their sleeping. How did he get in there? Oh never mind. 

Quilting. I have picked it up again and my brain has ran wild. Pictured are two of my latest quilts. But all my fabric is packed away in the shed. I put a new machine on lawaway. I've had my current machine for 15 years it's time for an upgrade. 

Genealogy. The Dimmick research is massive. And on going and I have plans to put it into three different books down the road. But a curve ball. See my dad doesn't know who his dad is. So we ran a dna test over Christmas and just to the results back. I know who his dad is, I have connected with the family but right now it seems my dad may be the only child of this man, making it more harder to fully connect him. So it's a work in process and will take some time to dive into.  

This past summer we had a fire. We had a massive forest fire. Hubby and I were up north out of town looking for a dishwasher. Get back into town running errands and my phone starts to blow up. Fire, it's a fast moving fire, but at the time it was across the freeway. In the time it took us to get home it had jumped the freeway and everyone was to leave asap. hum it took us a long time to get home, we went one way and they closed the roads so had to spin around and try it again. On the freeway both sides of the free way were just up in flames, all black. So finally get home and get the boys packed up and animals and we leave. Hubby had all the kids and most of the animals and we hid up the road and he stops and yells at me that we forgot the cat. So he went onto my sisters house and I spun around and ran in and got the cat. As I was racing in the police were at our neighbors telling them to leave now, you can see the flames. 

Few hours later we got the ok to come home but you may have to leave again. OMG the mess the black. The firefighters stopped the flames a few inches from our neighbors fence, if that fence would have went our whole block would have been gone. As everyone was on the other side of the fence fighting the fire. In the clean up we found ashes everywhere. How our house didn't go up is beyond me. Spent days without power. And even when we got power on it was limited. Internet was off and on. We are still hooked up to this box, they still need to dig up lines and replace them I think they are still debating if we are getting a new street? A few houses lost. A business. And lots of ground. Could not believe it jumped a six lane highway. 

That took up the end of summer. 

We built three sheds. One for garden stuff, one for storage and one for emergency, which cracks me up because we were working on that during the fire. Now we are in the midst of building a greenhouse. 

I'm sure I"m forgetting a few things? But that is life. 

Updating Garden

Well it's raining season so I have no new photos. I will soon. Lots going on out their. 

So last year I grew nearly nothing. We had wanted to move and I didn't want to leave a massive garden if we were moving. Well then we didn't move. 

I did remove a few small beds and added a few large beds. We took out a peach tree, well it was dead. 

So since we are probably staying here. For life, we are in the midst of putting in a massive green house. All the garlic is planted. Onions have been started. Bringing in racks in a day or two to start the peppers. Tomatoes start March 1st. 

This year it's onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, greens, cucumbers. Don't forget herbs like fennel, basil, lots of basil. 

Their will be lots and lots of canning this year. Exciting. 

First up is reworking the strawberry bed and then filling beds with dirt. It will be a big year so watch for photos later. 

Updating School

Thought I would jump on blogger tonight and see if I can try and update, see if I can't start to post regularly now right? 

So I'm still homeschooling. For the most part it's going pretty well. I am now on my own most of the time as hubby now works days and I'm often done before he gets home. 

Cole is doing AWESOME. he is about to wrap up 7th grade math, Scary. His reading this year has blown me over. We found some mine craft books and BOOM. He can't wait to get through them. For the most part he is doing well. 

Tucker well, hum. Math is going OK, he should be done with the book on time by the end of the year. Reading. hum nope. He reads daily but it just is not getting their. We'll keep going hoping at some point he will just pick it up like Cole has. 

Ethan, well we are knee deep in some ugly algebra. We are getting it, so here it is, I go through the lesson, if I understand well when I understand I then turn around and teach him and once he gets it he then does the lesson. His reading is going OK. It's not great, but he is reading and doing OK, I think with him it will come in time. 

So on English I am just failing. See they have the basics. But to get them to write. Just feels like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall. See I don't see the point of writing, well making up stories and writing and such. Yes I am currently writing a blog I get the irony of this. My fear is I will put Ethan into cc and he will just fail all the English classes because I can't get my act together about this topic. 

Since life has settled down (no it really hasn't) I started swimming lessons. I can not tell how many times I have tried to do swimming and had to cancel because of life. So this time around I have stopped the world and we are doing swimming. Can not believe I have a 14 year old that doesn't swim. Good news is he is picking it up really fast and should not be much longer for him to take off swimming. Tucker and Cole. Well we will keep going. We also do open swim so I can work with them. 

Ethan is doing a Lego-Computer class. It's coding and making Lego's do things. He really likes it. Now he wants me to save for this 500 dollar Lego set. ARGGGG but I saw it coming. Put it on the list. 

So today had a thunk, Ethan asked me to help him do something on the computer, it is way over my head. See he has taken the computer that was donated to us by a great friend and it's just his. Well fine, The stuff he is finding to do on it. But he asked a programming question and I really don't know. I muttered through it and we did it. But their has to be some computer classes he could be taking. After some googling found some through the local parks and rec. Called and signed him up. It's coding and yada, yada, yada. Way over my head stuff. It starts after the Lego classes end. I'm pushing Ethan towards computer classes and such, thinking this may be his alley. 

I want to move him over to cc classes when he turns 16-ish, even it it's just one or two classes to help me out. Like I have two more math books with him and then I am just done with him. If computer is his thing then see what it will take to move him to a computer type college after age 18 because I believe those are two year courses and then he is out in the real world working. But we will head to the local cc this summer and chat and see what sort of path we should think about putting Ethan on. 

Ethan is super excited to try this computer class. I hope he takes to it and asks for more. 

So their you go a quick update on home school life.