New Beginnings!

Its been a bit over a year since my last post.  I can't believe all the changes that have occurred.  Most for the better.

All my precious chickens are in other homes now.  (Had to place them in order to get the rental home ready for viewing, or so I thought.  At any rate... I no longer have "my girls" and I do miss them terribly.)  















I started packing up the house 6 months in advance of our projected move. (I succeeded in getting everything packed.... just not everything made it with us.  Our move consisted of 2 - 26 foot trucks with daughter #4 driving my Excursion and leaving her own car in Colorado, to be picked up later.  After the movers loaded everything they could into the two trucks we were scrambling to store the remainder somewhere!, anywhere!, we could.  So on June 13th, 2015 we drove out of  Colorado in 3 trucks with 8 people (as we brought our beloved Sydni with us.  We weren't ready to leave her just yet!), 4 dogs and one very cranky Lovebird.)

We found a new home for our brood that, I think, fits us nicely, in a little town, outside of the Dallas area.  I love that I drive through the "country" to get home from shopping in nearby larger towns.  We're enjoying dreaming of all the decorating (and making this home ours) we'd like to do in the house and will be starting some very shortly.  But I'm learning that a little decorating at a time, will make the fun last just that much longer.  So I've pulled back on all the projects and have decided to paint Olivia (orange, yellow and hot pink walls) and Jolie's rooms as the first projects.  I cancelled all the other paint and will try to do just one project
every month or two.  The next project will be getting the exterior of the house painted and ready for the winter.  Definitely don't want leaks at that time of year.  Amazingly, for a house this size, there is little to no storage space in the powder baths or "game room" area.  So we need to construct shelving.  We'll be starting in the main level powder bath.  I really want to do the floating shelves in there and keep with the open appearance of that room.   I think I'll stop here for the ideas.  Those projects will make good reading material down the road and probably show just how rusty we are with DIY's.

David is still commuting for his job.  Just now its between California and Texas.  The drive to the airport is shorter for us now, just not as pretty, and a whole lot more crowded! :)  I used to enjoy the drive to DIA on Hwy. 83 from Colorado Springs. 

So for now we're still adjusting to being Texans, again for some of us, and for the rest of us..... well we're lovin' the air-conditioners!

Dreaming...

  So with the move next year I decided to quiz all the kids on just what was important to them in a new home.  Besides the obligatory swimming pool because we all know that Texas in general is bloody hot 9 months of the year, we got all sorts of interesting desires.  One was a Jack and Jill bath, Olivia almost foams at the mouth in anticipation of this commodity.  Another was a "reading window", more commonly known as a "Bay Window".  I guess I probably don't need to say who actually said that, but I'll tell you anyway..... Jolie.  The boys came up with all sorts of interesting things.  Basketball courts, game room, theater, and their own Jack and Jill bath, the list was endless.


 I, of course, want room to expand our interests.  I envision some property where we can once again have chickens and possibly ducks, turkeys (Thanksgiving and Christmas is what we'd call them and Yes, we'd be eating them.) and maybe Button Quail.  Then there is the fainting goats that David and I would love to have.  I'm even thinking of my own Alpaca.  Just imagine being able to spin from my own animal...  Well...like I said this is just wishing.
A borrowed pic. from Covington, Ok. on Backyard Chickens.

I think we'd all enjoy a garden as well.  We, as a family, have always enjoyed working with the container garden.  The kids love snacking off of the cherry tomato plants.  So I can definitely see us with a garden large enough to feed us and allow for canning.  That would be nice.
 
The pic is from "The Modern Gardener".







So obviously in order to do what we're all dreaming of we need land.  So our hope is to find some acreage, nothing big, just a small plot where we can all have our dreams fulfilled and maybe some "out in the country" fun.
   
 

Ever Changing...

Chickens are gone.  Living in their new homes now.  I did split the flock to maintain the laws legal chicken limits for one of the takers.    Two of the girls, Goldie and Spice, went to Jacque.  The remaining 6 went to Kaitlyn's friend, Josh. Everyone seems to be happy, but me.  I'm missing my girls terribly.  The yard seems SO empty, but this was a necessary step in getting the yard back into shape prior to our move next year.  See the space between the trampoline and the shed?  That's where my girls run was....  Sunday was a Not Happy day for me.





Move?!  Yep, move.  We're moving back to Texas in the summer of 2015.  The time has come to make a step in being more available and supportive of our families.  Plus it offers us a fresh start.  We've been in Colorado since Oct. of '93.   So we'll be starting to look for a new house next year.




Knitting is still going on, as is the spinning.  (Like that will ever stop!)  Working on shawls, scarves, socks, kitchen towels, etc.  The list is never ending and I love it.  :)  This is a scarf that I've just started as a no brainer knit.  So simple and just plain lovely.  So I'm excited to be able to wear it this fall and winter.  "Vulcan" is the color!  As for my spinning I did complete the roving that Cisco and Denali played with in the yard a couple of years ago and am waiting to ply it.  I think Navajo plying will be just great for it.  Anxious to see what I end up with in the way of yardage.

I'll be spending the day in the kitchen today trying a new rice recipe.  Its called, "Tunisian Spinach Rice" and just looks and sounds fabulous.  The recipe and picture are found on Kitchenvignettes.blogspot.com.  I think I'll do a sausage link on the grill as a side to this dish.  Its supposed to be, I would think a main course, but with my group there better be a meat visible to have the meal count.   My intention is to have this for dinner tonight and today I'll be catching up on my biscuit making.  I'm terribly excited about this new recipe and have high hopes for a successful addition to our meal repertoire. 

Also on the list of to-do's is to clean the carpet in the family room, AGAIN!  The carpet was cleaned, or so I thought a few weeks ago.  We rented a commercial carpet steam cleaner at the local grocery store only to discover that it really doesn't clean.  What a waste of money and time.  Now we have a huge stain in the family room carpet that appears to be soapy residue.  The carpet is actually sticky.  So day before yesterday David and I took ourselves up to Wally World and bought ourselves a new "Hoover Carpet Cleaner".  My old one broke shortly after the move a couple of years ago.  My old one always did a great job, so I expect this one to do just as well.