The Bark Mulch Saga Continues...

 It is nights like last night and days like today that make me long for a farmhouse in the country. No neighbors, no drama. Don't get me wrong I love our street. Some of my closest friends here have been made on this street. But things have been a little strange lately, or estranged I should say.

Do you remember my post about our bark pile? If you missed it you can catch up here. This is what the pile looks like as of today. Some is gone but most is still there. This seemingly harmless pile has been causing me a lot of angst. I'm going to spare you a lot of the details but I just wanted to say there are a lot worse things out there I could do than pile this stuff in my driveway back in the alley. I keep trying to reassure myself that I could have a yappy dog or a big dog with a lot of doggy manure. I could not take care of my lawn or be a chain smoker. I could scream and yell at my husband and kids at all hours of the day and night outside for all the neighborhood to hear, or I could play loud music 24/7 with a lot of bass. But I choose to get bark mulch, come on now is that so bad?

Let me just say that I am doing the best I can. We are not rolling in the Benjamins and I am trying to do the things I love (like garden) alongside of raising a family. I get to spend my birthday money on my garden every year or my fun money as I please from the monthly budget but we don't have a lot of extra money to purchase garden and landscaping supplies for our home. When we started this whole home ownership thing this yard was a manicured mess (if that doesn't make sense you can read this). I knew I needed some kind of mulch around my garden to suppress weeds and grass and I debated between bark or gravel. In the end the bark won costing nothing, as I broke even from selling one truck load for basically what I paid to have it all dumped in the alley.

 At the end of the day today I am felling a little terrible as I have been belittled by the way my garden looks. This has really hurt because it came from someone I cared about. I am not sure if my garden actually looks bad or they are just mad at me.

 Does this look terrible because if it does I need to do something else because I don't want my property to be an eyesore. Please comment and honestly let me know if I should figure something else out to use as a mulch in my garden or if you think it works.

The worst part about all of this is that where my garden grows, nothing used to grow. When we moved in this spot under the pine tree was struggling to even grow grass. So I think that anything is an improvement from that.

Immunity Boosting Super Smoothie

 Immunity Boosting Super Smoothie (aka Orange Julius taste alike, as my husband called it).

1 Ripe Banana cut in fourths
2 packets orange emergency
2 teaspoons Primadophilus Children
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pure orange juice
4-7 frozen strawberries (depends on taste and texture you want)
1 handful of spinach
1/2 cup of filtered water (this helps it mix up easier in the blender)

We have all been super sick with a nasty colds around here I was looking for something easy to have for dinner and that would also help us to start to get better. I used the childrens probiotic because that is all that I had in the fridge. I also decided to skip on the yogurt because of our colds but you could put some in if you wanted to drink this smoothie as a preventative to getting sick.

Lets be honest here I am not into food photography or food blogging as of yet... that may come more in the future but I am blogging this because Hubby liked it so much he told me to write it down. When I write a recipes down I tend to loose them so I had the brilliant idea to blog this then pin it on Pinterest in one of my boards and then I would never loose it. Thank you to the cloud.

Plus I had to include a picture of our Beaner for those of you who love us and are interested in my children. I think she is growing, what do you think?

wood chip whoops

 So this is how I loose my baby weight. I order 4 yards of compost and have it dumped in my driveway to spread around my garden. This is one of my favorite spring activities. This is a picture of my giant pile after a couple of days of work (by days I mean nap times). My little kids just love the "mountain" and they get the trucks out, or their climbing shoes and are all over it. I guess I love that part too. Nothing makes me feel like a better mama than when we come inside after a long day of work outside sweaty and covered in dirt. It feels nice to know they played hard and I worked hard.

 Here is my ever expanding garden filled with fresh compost and ready to be planted.
If you look to the left you can see the more brown garden beds that are our newest addition. You can also see our chicken coop... we are skipping the chickens this year because I need some sanity.

I love the way the compost looks so fresh and rich in my flower beds.

So last year I got two yards of compost and this year I got four. While I waited for my delivery date I thought the pile was going to be huge. When it came I was shocked with how small it looked. I have decided I could have used six yards in my yard. That sounds crazy right? Well I also contacted a tree service company and arranged to have a truck full of bark mulch dropped off. They wanted 10 dollars for the whole truck. After my compost I thought it would be a little much but we could use up most of it. Well they brought it and WHOOPS! It is waaayyy toooo much. I'm not sure what I am going to do, except never do that again. They made me take the whole truck.

I guess if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

Anyone need bark mulch?

                P.S. Good news! I also checked my memory card and all of the pictures are still there my camera just doesn't want to show them. I suppose all that nervousness about blogging was for nothing.

A little pause

Well it seems I have been a little absent from my blog lately. So sorry about that. All I can say is that things are CRAZY around here. I spin around in a whirlwind all day long and it feels I don't even get to breathe until I finally sit down after all is done and well at 9 o clock at night. Last time I blogged to show off our new baby bean the camera did something weird  I lost all of the best pictures I took of her first few hours and days of life in the big world. Needless to say since then I have not been looking forward to plugging in my camera to see just how bad the damage is to my memory card and that has made me unmotivated to blog. Nervous much you might ask.

But truth be told I am loving life right now. The weather is just perfect and I have always loved being busy as a bee. I have energy again and the evidence of pregnancy is slowly melting off of my body. I probably will never be like I was before I had 3 kids in 4 years but it sure is nice to move and garden and clean with ease again.

Here are a few of the things that I am up to and loving right now with my life and three very small
kids..

We have started to get a weekly delivery of organic fruits and veggies right to our front door.
My flowers are starting to grow and bloom.
I have the best neighbors in the whole wide world.
I am loving the supremely soft head of my three month old baby girl.
I am trying to encourage imaginative play as much as possible around here.
I love that my oldest two are starting to really love to play outside for long stretches of time.
We are trying to avoid processed sugar at home...that means I have had to change the ways cook a bit.
We are getting our windows and trim painted on our house and let me tell you it looks Aaamazzing!
I have zapped the TV and we are trying to be screen free as much as possible.
I am loving the giggles my oldest two have when they play and are being nice to each other.
My middle child is super silly and sweet all wrapped up into one cuddly bundle of exploration.
I am loving how my middle child gives so many kisses to so many things.
I am loving how my middle child loves her daddy.
My boy is growing so fast and is starting to display quite a knack for memorization.
I am starting to look into schools in our area and how I want my children to be educated.
I am loving our daily walks around a hum drum loop of houses and yards in our neighborhood.
I love how my baby girl is starting to regulate her sleeping. Afternoon naps are the best.
We just got a new vehicle that can accommodate our family way better than our little car.
I just bought 5 cubic yards of compost and hauled it all around my garden and yard and still don't have enough.
I love our little daily routine of walks and then lunch and then singing, story, poem time followed by quite time or nap time depending on the kid.

Hopefully this little post has been my block breaker and I will start to keep up better again. I do have much to share such as before and after pictures of our house and garden as well as some really awesome paint that we have been using around here on our windows and trim. Oh and there are also plenty of pictures of our family that I should show you too.
I could go on but feel that is enough for now. It is nice to be happy and busy.