21 March 2021

 The kids started spring break on Monday and we are excited that following spring break Arlo will be back in school in person five days a week and the girls will be in school in person four days a week.  I sure hope things are more normal in the fall, this school year feels like such a waste.

 We noticed turkey eggs in our coop this week and are hoping that we'll have some turkey chicks in a few short weeks.  I am hoping to sell some of the chicks and raise the rest to sell at Thanksgiving.  I'm working toward making the ranch completely self-sufficient, that is to say I earn enough money to pay for the animals' feed and upkeep.  

 So I made a rather unforeseen decision this week.  I had been expecting that my last day of work was back in December, but the more Phil and I talked about it the more I started leaning toward going back for another few months.  I spent the last year using my paycheck to pay off debts and pay down our house, but we have our upcoming vacation that we need to finish paying for and several big projects around the house that we could do much more quickly if I was working too.  On Wednesday, my maternity leave was up and I returned to work full time.  I have a new title and role at work, I'm the learning coordinator for my directorate.  It'll be a break from technical work, but it will allow me to continue to work 100% from home.  I decided that as long as I could work from home while the baby is still small that I would be able to do it for a little while longer.  Work went well, I had a lot of emails and training to catch up on.  Wish me luck, while my plan is to work through the summer I may decide at the end of the week that I don't want to juggle work after all!

 On Thursday, Phil's sister Alyssa and her family came over to the house for lunch to visit while they were in town.  His mom came as well and we enjoyed having them over to meet baby Jude.  I didn't take a single picture.  

 

So I've been passively looking for a male puppy to add to the ranch.  Our dog Maggie is such a great ranch dog, we wanted to add one more for her train and to keep her company.  We want either a Blue Heeler or Australian Shepherd (Maggie is a Blue Heeler/Ausie mix).  I've periodically looked on Craigslist and on Saturday found Blue Heeler puppies for sale.  Phil messaged the guy in the morning and came to an agreement on a price and made arrangements to look at the puppies in the late afternoon.  We asked for more pictures and decided on one in particular that we wanted.  We first went down to Benson to clean up the area where Phil had been keeping his horses; there was a fair mix of horse stuff we will reuse and just garbage.  We filled the trailer, dropped it off at home, and then headed to the Buckeye area to look at the Heeler puppies.  After a little more than two hours in the car we arrived at the guy's house and quickly noticed things were not quite right.  There were lots of dogs in the yard, some nursing mothers, dogs and puppies under the house and none of them were Blue Heelers.  Then the kids there handed us a puppy and it clearly wasn't a Heeler and wasn't the dog from the pictures.  When we asked about the dog that we'd been sent pictures of, the adult in the house came out and told us they didn't have that puppy anymore, but the one we were handed was a good dog.  Wait!  They sent us that picture in the morning and they knew we were driving from south of Tucson to see the puppies.  Come to find out, they didn't even know which mom and dad belonged to which puppy, they were all mixes, and then they tried to pressure us into buying the mutt puppy for $300.  I was so mad.  Come to find out, these people had one picture of a Heeler puppy (that wasn't even there), and were using that as advertising to get people to come out to their house and then were trying to sell them boarder collie mixes (but they couldn't even say what they were mixed with).  We politely said no thank you and left.  I was so irritated, it was such a waste of time!  If I had wanted a mutt, I would have gone to the pound and got a near free one.  We have to be careful about what type of dogs we have at the ranch.  They need to be working animals and good with our livestock, not just any ole' dog will fit the bill.  The silver lining was we were able to stop at Phil's sister's house and visit with them for a little bit before heading back home.  I hate Craigslist, seriously, has it ever worked for anyone?  I have had people tell me they were coming to get something and never show up, people mislead us about what they are selling, folks don't return emails...its frustrating!

 We had church from home on Sunday and Arlo even got to attend Primary virtually.  I think he enjoyed it.  We are grateful for the down time we had during spring break and are looking forward to finishing out the rest of this awful school year as we head into summer.

 

14 March 2021

 Jude had his two month check up on Monday.  He's growing well and I talked with the pediatrician about his collic.  She gave me some suggestions on changing my diet, giving him smaller, more frequent feedings, and she gave us a prescription for an antacid and a probiotic.  I'm hoping some combination of the advice helps!  After Jude's appointment we met Phil for lunch since he was teaching at Pima.  We enjoyed some salads at Chipotle before he had to head back to class.  

 I needed an extra pair of hands on Tuesday evening and so I asked Arlo to read to Jude.  The baby loves it and Arlo needs the extra practice...and they're really cute together.

 We've been going back and forth with several large equipment companies on pricing for tractors.  We decided on a general size and the implements we wanted and took a lot of options into account.  We came to the decision to purchase an LS tractor from the dealer in Benson and so we went down there to purchase our brand new tractor.  It took a couple of hours between paperwork and them going over the operation and maintenance of the tractor and its implements.  We of course had to take it for a trial run as soon as we got home.  Phil and I took turns digging up all the desert broom on the property.  It's a nuisance bush and because it has a tap root they're a HUGE pain to dig up, the tractor made it a breeze and within a couple of hours we had them all gone. 

 Phil taught at Pima on Wednesday and I went out and about to find some replacement trees.  Our year last year was so hot and so dry, we didn't get a monsoon the whole season, that's never happened in my lifetime.  We ended up losing several trees, including one of my mature apple trees.  I went a little crazy though, I got a new orange, lime, tangerine, two new apples, a fig, a plumb, and a couple of combination trees with peaches, nectarines, and apricots.  Digging holes for the trees was a breeze with the back hoe.  It took me awhile to get the hang of using it, and I'm still no expert, but I got the holes dug and the trees planted.  Now I just have to come up with a better watering solution.

 Phil was back on duty at the fire station on Friday and Helen and Arlo went to spend the weekend with their dad.  Felicity and I enjoyed our evening together.  We did some crafting and watched movies.  I also had an anniversary gift for Phil that I painted and added vinyl to.  It's a charging station for our rechargeable tools, it'll go in our shop, if it ever gets built!

Saturday was Phil and I's first wedding anniversary.  What a year it was!  We never did get to celebrate our wedding with family and friends...and at this point probably won't.  We sold a house, bought a truck, had a baby, and a whole lot of other stuff in between.  I love him.  Every day I feel utter gratitude and amazement at how different my life is with him in it.  He's a wonderful father (to all of the kids), a good provider, and an excellent example of Christ-like service.  He thinks he is funny and because he thinks he's funny, he usually ends up being funny.  He is considerate, loving, and understanding.  I'm so blessed.  He was so worth the wait.  I truly understand what it means to be grateful for unanswered prayers.  I didn't know what the Lord had in store for me when things didn't go the way I wanted them to, but now I understand.  

 It was an amazing year and I look forward to an eternity more to come.  We were out and about on Saturday with Felicity and so we decided to take her with us out to dinner.  We enjoyed some Red Lobster together and celebrated.  Phil got me an air fryer and I think he liked his charging station. 

 

07 March 2021

 Welcome March, we are loving your weather.  Phil is working pretty regularly at Pima teaching and we're doing the weekly school routine with piano and church.  Jude has worked into the routine fairly well.  He's becoming more interactive and he's doing a good job of sleeping at night.  He goes to sleep at about 10:30 PM, gets up once between one and two and then goes back to sleep until around 5AM.

 Phil went back to work at the fire station for the first time since the beginning of the year on Wednesday and got an apartment fire call in the afternoon.  Those of us at home managed pretty well.  Phil taught on Thursday, so I didn't see him again until Thursday evening.  

 Jude crossed the two month mark on Saturday.  He's starting to smile when we smile at him and giggle when we interact with him.  He weighs 11 pounds 4 ounces and is 22.3 inches long.  

 We do a marble system at the house to regulate screen time.  The kids don't get screen time during the week, but on the weekend they can watch TV, play video games, or play on a tablet.  Unfortunately I found that's all they wanted to do on the weekends, so we implemented the marble system.  Basically they can earn marbles throughout the week for doing their chores, practicing instruments, brushing their teeth, doing homework, reading, etc.; each marble is worth ten minutes of screen time and they turn them in to watch/play.  I love it.  The exception is playing Just Dance for exercise, I let them do that when they want to.  The three of them are pretty competitive with each other with it and work up  a good sweat.  The bonus is the baby loves to watch them play. 

Helen got to go on a hike with her young women's class on Saturday.  I dropped her off at the trailhead early in the morning.  She had a good time and when it was time to pick her up I brought her and a couple of her friends home.  We all went to the movies in the afternoon to see "Raya and the Last Dragon".  We really enjoyed the movie and being out together.

 Phil was back at work on Sunday so I took the kids to church by myself.  It went well.  Our Sunday was quiet and it was altogether a pretty good week even though we saw a lot less of Dad.

28 February 2021

 We are really enjoying the semi-spring weather and making plans for the ranch in the coming months.  On Monday evening we were all home and had a really nice Family Home Evening, we had a lesson from Come, Follow Me, and played Clue as our activity.  

 Phil taught paramedic class on Tuesday and we had our usual church youth activities and piano lessons in the evening through the week.  We also had Rodeo break this week so the kids were off on Thursday and Friday.  I love this picture of Phil, Jude, and Charlie.  Charlie is so jealous of the baby.  He's constantly trying to get in the crib, lay on the baby's play mat, sleep in the bouncer, and climb into the swing.  I think he thinks we got all this stuff for him and now the baby is using his stuff, Phil's lap included.

 

As we have been planning all of the things we want to do at the ranch, we have become more and more convinced that we want to invest in a tractor.  Over the past few weeks we have weighed the pros and cons and gone back and forth between buying a new one vs buying a used one.  On Thursday Phil and Jude and I set out to do some tractor shopping.  We looked at a couple of local dealers and then went down to Benson to look at Trails West Tractor.  We got cards, brochures, and some quotes at our various stops.  We spent the next several days comparing the tractors.  Once we decided what size, horsepower, and attachments, etc. that we wanted we called back around to the various dealers in the state to get quotes.  There's been a fair amount of back and forth with folks, so I don't think we'll come to a decision for a couple of weeks, but I'm excited for all of the projects we'll get to tackle.

 While we were in Benson, we stopped by and visited Phil's uncle Jack and aunt Diana.  Phil was proud to show the baby off and it was nice to visit.  When we were done, we stopped by his uncle Fred and aunt Barbara's house too.  I had never met them in person, so that was nice.  The baby was pretty good and tolerated being in the car seat for a few hours.  Phil taught Fire Academy on Saturday, so it was quiet around the house.  It's been so nice having him home the past several weeks, I'm not looking forward to him going back to work full time next month.   

 We're still struggling with a collic-y baby.  The wrap helps most days, so we're grateful for that.  When he's happy though, Jude is a sweetheart.  Can you believe that red hair?  He looks the most like Felicity did as a baby and she had strawberry blonde hair as an infant too, but when it fell out and came back in blonde.  I don't know if Jude's will come back in a different color (like the dark brown I was expecting), but I think it might not seeing as his eyebrows and eye lashes are practically white.