And Back Again for Valentines Day

Picture and Makeup by my 16yo

Here’s the link to her deviantart page

Things have changed greatly in my life since I started this blog.

I no longer live in the house I own, I’m renting it out and living in a completely different state now. Because of where we live. I no longer have chickens. I may or may not be able to have a garden. Composting would just be silly – there are so many feral pets around here it’d be a study in frustration to try. I can’t burn my burnables due to HOA restrictions in our area, and put the ash on my garden like I would normally. So between the burnables and compostables, my garbage output has doubled. Which makes me feel sad and guilty. Which I of course dislike intensely. I also left EVERY SINGLE PLANT I owned behind. I want to weep when I think about it. I’m fully planning on going back and getting them. But meanwhile I have one plant my darling husband bought me, knowing how sad I was, and 2 Boston Ferns I found growing under our house of all things! If you know me, you’ll know that the lack of plants, planning a garden, and simply having a garden and the joyous monotony of watering plants everyday is like having a garden shaped hole in my heart. It hurts and I truly feel the lack.

In the Good News. The house we are living in has four awesomely huge bedrooms, a giant open floor plan for the living room/dining room. I’ve got a lovely space to craft, with enough room for hubby and his craft stuff too! Our bathroom has a giant tub that the whole family has enjoyed taking a bath in at one time or another. We’ve got 2 very nice families that live nearby that we enjoy hanging out with. Our backyard is fenced in, so our Big Dog can’t escape to wander the neighborhood as is her wont. The school district that the kids are in (I’m no longer homeschooling the middle child) is a 9 on the Great Schools scale – pretty freaking fabulous. My youngest’s class size is 18. My oldest has some classes in which there are only 9 people and can take such electives as forensic anthropology with actual dissection going on in class! Also fashion, in which she is learning how to sew – thank goodness! – but doesn’t have to learn from me! (and I don’t have to teach her, another study in frustration) She’s very very excited to be able to start sewing all the designs she’s got in her head – especially all the cosplay she wants! The kids really really enjoy school – which is a huge relief from our old house where the middle cried and hated school with a burning loathing passion and I hated subjecting him to those feelings, so homeschooled him. We’ve also got riding lessons, 2 skating rinks, 2 bowling rinks, lots of shopping, a hobby lobby 5 minutes away, ceramics, musics and art lessons. All within 20 minutes. But all the joy of rural living! So I’m really enjoying the area. Just not the actual property my now-house is situated on.

Today we are creating Valentines for my 5th and 3rd graders class. And Valentines for my 3yo and 16yo’s friends. We are also going to be making gluten free marshmallow rice treats with cocoa crispies and drizzled with white chocolate after being cut into a heart shape we may also insert them into lollipop sticks. Depends on how monstrously hungry for treats we are feeling LOL. (check out HERE for a link to a recipe and great pictures on preparing the snack)

Now for pictures of the cutey Valentines! ~ Warning ~ These are NOT ours. These are photos from Google with the keywords ‘handmade Valentine’ I’ll post pictures of ones actually made by Kids later today…