New Year, catching up, and then some...

Well... It has been along time. Deanna has moved to Nashville and left me to take care of this stuff without her. I have to learn how to post photos and update this thing all on my own. To be honest I have been intimidated by the whole thing so I have not even looked at it until now. So to those of you that still diligently check this thing hoping to one day find something new, I am sorry, I hope to do better soon. Don't give up on me and if you have any suggestions, feel free to help me, I'll take all the help I can get.

Deanna set me up a Face book account last week, so I am learning that too, and I still manage her bookings and business things. I try to limit my computer time to 1/2 hour in the AM & 1/2 hour in the PM including e-mail, otherwise I feel like I am neglecting the precious gifts God has blessed me with. So that does not seem to be a lot of time to learn so many new applications.

With the new year we started a new home school schedule which is always fresh and exciting for all of three or four weeks, yes then we struggle to maintain and look forward to another fresh start. That is the way I work always looking for new adventures and fresh ideas. We are doing better in that area now that Deanna is more settled and I do not need to spend so much energy on her. She is very busy and very happy.

Lydia & I had 10 days recently in Nashville with Deanna, it was a wonderful girl time. Dean had off work and spent that time with the boys.

We enjoy having a dozen laying hens - James (age 4, almost 5)checks the eggs every day and Paul (age 9) feeds, waters and cares for the chickens. We sell some of the eggs, sometimes we have more customers than we have eggs. One of the most exciting things in our home this week is the ordering of 50 Cornish cross (meat) chickens and 50 Rhode Island Reds (egg layers in about 6 months) to arrive March 2. These will be day old baby chicks, we will all enjoy that part. With this, as with most things there will be alot of work to do to prepare, Dean & Paul will need to build 4 more chicken tractors. AND we will be butchering 100 chickens(the hatchery gives you 25 fryers as a bonus when you order 50 chickens so we'll butcher 50 fryers & 50 roasters) between June & September! I'm not excited about that part but I will be so happy to have homegrown chicken in the freezer. So we are all happy about our order.

Another thing we have been enjoying this week is looking through gardening catalogs planning our vegetable & flower gardens for the spring. I was planning to have a Pampered Chef Party this evening in an effort to earn some nice gifts for Deanna's new home. BUT... The high today has been 13, too cold for most people to go out, so I canceled the party and will reschedule for one day next week(after I check the forecast to see how cold it will be).

Tonight Dean was going to take the children out to Tractor Supply Co. to get chicken feed and take them out to dinner (probably at McDonalds, which Craig calls 'Old McDonalds') so we will probably still do that together as a family, maybe I can convince them to go to Cracker Barrell :-) (I'm not so crazy about Old McDonald's, like Craig is).

We still have Star our horse and we still have Dolly our German Shepherd. She is a wonderful loyal friend and guard for the chickens and the children as well as a great walking partner. I've been walking each day usually 3 miles or so with a neighbor, Dolly is always eager to go. Last Christmas we got a calf (Charlotte) and two barn kittens (Tiger & Sandy)we still have them. We also got a mik cow (Molly) at that time to feed the calf, we sold her to a friend after Charlotte was weaned. Our friends used her milk to make cheese, butter & yogurt.

I'll try do a better job of keeping things updated. Hope you are all well.
Love & Blessings,
Cara for the Tomlinsons's