Quick Cabinet Re-do

When we bought this house two years ago, the kitchen was painted in white and a light turquoise color.  Don't get me wrong, I like turquoise, but it didn't do much for my country kitchen.  It was painted as an accent color inside the one large cupboard which is above the island/bar (which I would love to get rid of someday, but it is staying for now).  The cupboard has glass doors, so you can see inside while the doors are closed.  So, to give a tiny face-lift to the kitchen and cupboard, I decided to just find a pattern I had in mind in Contact paper and put it up over the turquoise paint.  I looked several places for a product like this and was having a hard time either finding what I wanted, or finding an affordable product that covers a lot of square footage.  So, I did what I should have done in the first place and shopped on Amazon.  I found a 2-roll pack of Laura Ashley contact paper that is nice and sticky on the back, comes with lines printed on the back for cutting, covers up to 30 square feet, and was $11.00 and change.  Here is my new look achieved on a budget. 

Before

 

After



 

 



This is also a good way to line the back of a bookshelf, line a shelf itself, or as a drawer liner (as it was intended). 

Bye, Bye Chickies

I always have thought that if something happened to my hens, roosters, or chicks that it wouldn't feel like any big tragedy, but when this theory was tested, it seems I'm a bit more attached to my farm animals than I think.  Earlier this year, in last summer, I had a broody hen that sat a pile of eggs and from 7 eggs, 4 hatched.  One of the chicks dies right away because I didn't take it out of the coop soon enough, but 3 others survived and grew to be big, beautiful, juvenile chicks.  We had them in a small enclosure by our driveway, just outside our fenced yard and the top of the enclosure was covered with bird netting.  We realized that this was not very secure, but for all this time, no animals ever tried to breech it.  Even while we were gone for several days over Thanksgiving break, the chicks were fine.  And then, this morning when I went out to the van for something early in the morning, all that I found was a place where the bird netting had been torn away, piles of feathers, and paw prints in the dirt.  Upon closer inspection, I found more feathers and blood on our fence going to the neighbor's property.  This was enough to send me into tears over the little chicks I had raised from day one under a heat lamp in a box in the garage until they were 2 month old chicks that actually looked liked miniature hens.  I, of course, value human life above all, but I was surprised at how strongly I felt about the life being stolen from my little birds in such a sneaky and unexpected way.  Even the Bible says that God watches over the sparrows so if all of God's creatures are important to Him, then I shouldn't feel badly about my natural reaction to the giving and taking of life, even that of a little bird. 

So, in this most recent episode of Woman vs. Nature, nature has definitely won.  I have to admit that it is a little discouraging battling the wildlife in each and every little endeavor on our property, but I'm thankful that I don't live in a time or place where my actual life depends on it. 

Wordless Wednesday 11-7-12

Around My Yard

A couple of weeks ago, as I drove across the bridge over our creek, I noticed something surprisingly beautiful that I wasn't expecting.  It was a feathery-like extension growing out of a grass that had been transplanted twice on our property.  The grass originally came from my parents' old condo and my dad put in in a pot and brought it out to me and planted it first behind our house.  Then, we decided it needed to be moved, so my dad was nice enough to plant it down by the creek (he planted 2 of these grasses, but only 1 survived).  To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of this plant because the grass is sort of like a razor grass that can give you a cut as bad or worse than a paper cut, but now that I see it in its full glory, I've decided it is definitely a keeper.  This time of year in inland southern California is rather dry and naturally brown (unless you irrigate which is costly), so this was a welcome sight when I came upon it.

Chicken Adventures Abound

Above is our Rhode Island Red rooster.  He began cock-a-doodle-dooing last week.

The chicken adventures in our house continue.  The chicks are now 11 weeks old.  Some weeks ago, it became apparent that we had a rooster on our hands.  We watched his crown and waddle grow at a much speedier rate than the rest of the other chicks and we started to suspect that the blue paint spot on his head at purchase may have been there for a reason.  Livia had unwittingly picked out a rooster that was actually requested by another customer.  His name originally was Mama Odie, so he is now officially Papa Odie.  As it turns out, though, the man who wanted the rooster never came back for him and we didn't want to relinquish him at this point.  I had been thinking about breeding some of the hens eventually anyway, so now I get my chance.  I will keep him in a separate area from the hens until such time as I want to have fertilized eggs and then will let him join the hens temporarily. 

Next, we realized that although we had been told we had Black Australorp chicks, we it seems that we actually have 2 Barred Rock chicks.  One of these black and white chicks, Belle, is quite a bit larger than the other one, Dixie Chick.  You can see Belle below.  We've been wondering for at least a month whether or not she is a rooster, as well, and thought that if she was, her name would change to Gaston.  After watching her carefully, though, I think we just have a large hen on our hands which I would much prefer over having 2 roosters. 

Belle, our bigger Barred Rock hen.

Lastly, I was having a dreadful problem with my other hens, my five Columbian Wyandottes.  For some reason or another, several of them had started to eat their own eggs.  This is pretty disastrous considering I mainly have hens for their egg production.  I, of course, immediately Google the problem and read about several possible ways to avert complete disaster.  One was to put golf balls in their laying area and they would supposedly grow tired of pecking really hard "eggs" that hurt their beaks and be dissuaded from pecking their eggs open.  I drove to the local golf course with the girls, begged about 15 bad golf balls off of them, and promptly tried this trick out.  It seemed to be working a bit, but of course I was also checking the coop every couple of hours for eggs to try and get them first.  Then, I found out they were eating eggs still, so I had to isolate a few on a rotating basis in a large box in the garage and watch them carefully to get their eggs before they ate them.  I finally have all 5 back together and for the last couple of days, I have been getting all of the eggs from the hens.  Now, I'm hoping that they'll forget how good their eggs taste and just leave them for me.  

At least I can trust that the hens and chicks will keep things exciting around here, along with 5 girls, a dog, new fruit trees and grape vines to care for, and all the other little daily items that pop up on a regular basis. 

We're back, and better than before!

Well, our internet guys came back and after much wrangling and testing were able to find a different place for our wireless antenna that gets great reception and lets us get back to our usual internet usage.  Given, it doesn't look terrible attractive; the antenna is mounted on a long pole that extends up from our front deck on one side, but in this case, I am much more concerned with function over form and aesthetics.  It was nice having a local company that is close by and was willing to come out repeatedly to really see the problem through.  Needless to say, we are happy have the internet back with such a happy solution to the matter.  Three cheers to be back to blogging!

Internet Troubles

I've been absent for my blog for a while now because our internet connection has been rather sporadic.  We have wireless internet with a local company because we live a bit out of range for the usual cable high-speed internet and that has been serving us fairly well for a little over a year.  Unfortunately, our live oak trees, of which we have many, are growing too high and blocking our reception from the internet tower closest to us.  Trimming the trees isn't a very feasible option as they are quite high and very numerous.  Satellite internet is another option we could consider, but the downloading limits are very restrictive; watching TV shows or movies with our Amazon Prime account would all but be a thing of the past.  I had thought recently that AT&T had extended their lines out further and were on my street, but it turns out that they haven't come quite far enough - boo!  So, until we find a better solution, I will do my best to keep up with blogging as I am able and "save" my posts often so as not to lose all my typing and pictures.  Living out away from it all is definitely worth it, but also has its challenges.  Hope you all have a very blessed day!

Room Make Over: A Fashion Fairytale

When we moved to this house a little over a year ago, we had to decide where the girls' room/s would be.  This house is a little bigger square-footage-wise than our last place, but instead of 4 bedrooms, we now have 3.  One of the 3 is downstairs and with younger children, inevitably they wake up in the middle of the night, need help, sleepwalk, get sick at night, etc.; so we didn't want to put any of them downstairs for now.  Upstairs has 2 bedrooms and 1 of the bathrooms and one of the bedrooms is double the size of the other.  We decided to make the larger room the girls' dorm and put them all in it and give ourselves the smaller room.  This has worked out really well and the girls enjoy having each other around and hanging out together.  This did give me a challenge when decorating, though.  I didn't want it to be decorated as a nursery (eventhough our youngest just turned 2) because the older girls have already outgrown the "babyish" themes, as they would say.  I also wanted whatever we chose to appeal to the younger girls (5, 3, 2 years old) as well as the older girls (7 and 8).  Then, I got an idea.

On Dakota's birthday, I gave her a Barbie movie because she likes all of her sisters' Barbie movies so much.  The movie she received is called, "Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale", and in it Barbie goes to Paris to visit her aunt whose fashion house is beginning to fail and the story is about the restoration of her business.  Then, I was on Amazon looking for vinyl decals for the girls' walls and found several that either had to do with Paris and/or fashion from different merchants.  So, I ordered them and got to work putting them up.  This is an easy way to decorate that isn't very expensive, looks nice, and can be removed and changed later on.  Here are our results; see what you think!

A Color Infusion

While my hubby was away last week on a missions trip to Thailand with a group from his school, the girls and I tackled their bedroom (all 5 of them are in the same room).  We pulled out furniture, swept up piles of dust, through away garbage and random items, reorganized drawers, and washed the walls with warm, soapy water (the fun part of the cleaning :-).  With only a day and a half left until Papi (their Daddy) got home, we gave their room a mini color infusion by painting a bright pink on 2 sections of wall - enough to not make the whole room dark, but a nice change nonetheless.  Here is the finished paint job.  Stay tuned for the rest of the room make-over. 

I was pretty pleased with the results considering the fact that I couldn't find the painting tape and did the trim work with a brush, sponge brush, and a wet rag for clean-up.  I really liked the Glidden 2-in-1 paint that has the primer right in it; it sure made it a quicker paint job.

Christmas Cookies

Every year, the girls and I make Christmas cookies - some years more than others.  I try to make a wide variety to give away, but no matter what, we always make decorated sugar cookies with royal icing.  This Christmas, this was the only variety we got around to making.  They are our family favorite, not only because they taste great, but also because they are so fun to decorate and are pretty to look at on a plate.  I always think that painting would be great fun and since I'm no painter, this is a great way to "paint" an edible treat.  I love this Christmas tradition of ours and hope it will keep going for years to come . . . maybe even with my grandchildren one day, God willing.  :-)

A Garcia Girl Saturday Morning

This was one of the mornings when I was very thankful that we don't have cable TV and that our antenna doesn't work anymore either, so Saturday morning cartoons are pretty much out (not that they don't watch videos, though :).  What I do love to see the girls doing is engaging in creative and imaginative play and this Saturday morning was a joy to behold.  The girls asked me to make them tea and #3 requested that we use her tea set that she received for Christmas, so I got it down and made them a pot of tea (which turned into 3 by the end).  They dashed upstairs and dressed in "tea party" outfits and out the front door they went with the picnic blanket in tow.  And what fun they had with just a few snacks, tea, and some sugar cubes.  Lilah, who always thinks she is just one of the girls, did her best to join in, too. 

#1, #3, and Lilah with their tea party.

The rest of the sister join in and Peluche, my parents' dog is keeping watch.

30 day photo challenge: days 21, 22, & 23

Well, I'm sort of keeping up with this challenge still, just more in chunks than day by day.  So, here are 3 more days  worth of photos.

day 21  -  pretty pattern

I like the recent fad from the last couple of years of incorporating browns in with other lighter colors.  This is the changing pad from my old diaper bag and I've always like the pattern.

day 22  -  trees

We live on the street called Calle de Encinas.  Encinas is the Spanish name for evergreen oaks, or as they are called in southern California, live oaks.  We have many of these live oaks all over our property, but the biggest and oldest ones are right up by the house and provide wonderful shade and are beautiful to look at as well.

 I've cheated and put in pictures I took last winter, when the grass is green.  Grass is just starting to poke back up through the dirt this week again.  

day 23  -  sunset

Now I'm cheating even more.  I'm sure I won't get to where I can see a sunset tonight  and I saw that my hubby has sunset pics from this month, so here they are.

   

30 day photo challenge: days 17, 18, & 19

Here I am, playing catch-up once again.  I think catch-up is the story of my life at the moment and probably will be until I'm out of this stage of mommyhood.  The popular catch phrase, "It is, what it is" is certainly applicable. 

day 17  -  on the shelf

This is the open shelf above my fridge and we keep #3's porcelain teaset up there.  We bought it for her last Christmas when she was 4 1/2 because she loves tea parties so much.  The set doesn't get as much use during busy school weeks, but it gets plenty of use on the holidays.  I love the nice sized cups in this set because they are big enough to actually hold a decent amount of tea so that the girls don't have to refill after just a couple of sips.

day 18  -  in my bag
Not surprising, my bag is full of a wide variety of items from diapers, diaper rash cream, bibs, clothes, and socks to sewing repair kits, pepper spray, a return item for WalMart, many receipts, and much, much, more.  My back is so scary to look at, in fact, that my hubby does not like to go into the abyss to search for anything.  It's definitely a Mommy's bag!

 
day 19  -  where i slept

Here's munchkin #4 in my bed this afternoon.  Her older sister came home from school sick and I didn't want them chatting during naptime in the same room, so here is my little sweetie pie getting ready for her nap in my bed. 

Wordless Wednesday 6-8-11

Wandering Around My Yard

Here are some of the pretty sights, as of late, that I see as I wander around our property. 

Busy Bees

Well, it seems I've been slacking off a little on the blogging.  I need to get in gear and post a little more often.  We've been staying busy here at the Garcia homestead.  Here are a few of our goings-ons recently.

-the hubby getting a colony of bees and starting the hobby of beekeeping (which he is loving!).  Surprisingly, we haven't seen any increase in the # of bees near the house or in the yard.

-Putting in new kitchen cabinets from IKEA, little by little.  This is a project that is very much in progress at the moment, but it has to get worse to get better.

-Putting up an above ground pool where the previous owners already had one.  It will feel really great on the 100 + degree days throughout the summer.

-Tending to the vegetable gardens which was very fun at first, but has recently become frustrating as we realize we have pocket gophers in several parts of the yard near our garden plots and roses.  They are vegetarians, so all plants and roots are very attractive to them.  So, hopefully we'll find a solution to the problem that doesn't cost too much $$$ and still have some plants left in the end.  We haven't had much time this spring to be very prepared in our gardening so it is more of an experiment the first time around, but I definitely want to put in raised beds next year and chicken wire under all new beds and plants to start combating our underground pests. 

-We were treated by friends (and babysitting grandparents) to a night away at a local resort and given tickets to see the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) the next day.  Gotta love a mini-vacation!  It was the first night away from #5 who is now 13 months, and she did marvelously!

Off to check on my tomato plants now and do some watering.  I sure hope they are still there . . . and alive!  :-)

Life in the Country

Our barn-shaped house with an already fenced-in yard for the dog.

Well, a new phase has begun in the life of our family.  We have made the move out to the country - a new house, a new school for the kids, a new and longer commute for the hubby, and all the new differences from living in the middle of a city to living further out in an unincorporarted part of the county.  And, as you can see, I am finally reconnected to the internet - albeit via wireless internet because that is the only type of service available to us in our location (who would have thought?).  


I've missed blogging for the past couple of weeks, but to be honest, daily life just took over anyway and I'm sure I wouldn't have had time to blog even if I had wanted to.  The first couple of days of the move were very stressful for me.  I do pretty well managing day-to-day stress with 5 kids and staying calm through most situations, but when it comes to big transitions and major upheaval, I am quite the opposite.  I feel very tense, stressed out, and almost immobilized for a day or two wondering where I should begin to tackle the monumental new task.  For me, this was compounded by my stove not having arrived (and it still hasn't) and having to rely on 1 electric burner, a toaster, and foods I can keep in the fridge that don't need to be cooked.  Thankfully, I have my parents close by and they are very involved in our family's life; they sensed that I needed not just the physical help to get my house to look more like a home, but also the emotional help that this would bring.  So, God bless them, they came over two days in a row and helped whip all my major rooms into shape by cleaning, helping me re-arrange furniture, unpack boxes, and generally make it more livable while I continue to unpack.  Then, the day after, they came back with me to the old house to clean that out some more as it needs to get ready to be rented.  So, this week I have come full circle from wondering, "What in the world did we move for?", to "I'm so glad we made this move; this is such a blessing!".  Now as before, home is where a new page of our story will begin to be written.   

View from my kitchen window.

View from the front of the house.

Dog playing behind the house.

Looking down the driveway to the bridge and creek.

View from the bridge up to the road.

Packing and Moving

We are in the process of packing up our current household and moving everything to our new house.  In the meantime, my hubby is also remodeling part of my new kitchen and doing repairs on our current place as it will become a rental.  So, if my appearance on my blog seems rather sporadic in the coming weeks, please forgive me.  My brain is most likely in 10 different places at once and I will be in the midst of upheaval and re-adjustment.  But, I will be back and at it, as usual, as soon as possible.

An end . . . and a beginning

Isabella's first day of 2nd grade, this fall.

Transitions in life can be so bittersweet.  Sadness and sentimentality about leaving the familiar and comfortable; excitement and anticipation for the new, and the exciting possibilities of the unknown.  Today was one of those days for me where emotions ran high and I felt the exhaustion from "feeling" so much.  It was the last day of school for my oldest two at their current elementary school which we have come to love and appreciate over the past 2 1/2 years.  The teachers, of course, have made the school what it is: an exciting and fun learning environment for the kids.  The girls have had excellent teachers and have thrived under their tutelage; the girls have made plenty of school friends that they will miss, as well.  This is the part that is hard to leave.
**Up to this point in the post, I have been typing with one hand while breast-feeding the baby, as I so often do.** :-) 

Selah's first day of kindergarten, this fall.

And then, there is the excitement of moving into a new house with a spacious piece of property where the kids can get out more in the fresh air, play outdoors as much as they want, and grow up in the country.  The new school where the girls will attend is also an award-winning and excellent school in a school district that is know for being "good".  I'm sure the girls will do well once they settle in and make friends.  I realize that I'm taking this harder than they are because as an adult, I realize that this transition will probably take longer than either of them realize.  They will have the initial discomfort of being the new kid in class and showing up in the middle of the school year.  They will have to learn routines and rules that are already habitual to the other students.  They will have to try and break into already established groups of friends and forge friendships of their own.  I'm a little nervous for them, but also know that both of my girls are friendly, smart, and kind and will find their way.  I have to remember that even though they are kids, they understand situations in a more complex way than I may give them credit for.  Children are resilient and bounce back.  Thankfully, this is a positive move for our family and a blessing in every way; the "pain" of our transition will be relatively painless in the long run.  I'm so thankful for where we are at and are going.  But, I also know that it is okay for my mommy's heart to shed a few tears in the process. 

Lilah turns 1

It's hard to believe that our puppy is already 1.  Right before Christmas last year, my hubby started looking at ads for puppies, even though we really had no serious intentions of purchasing our standard poodle just yet (we were planning on doing this a couple of years down the road).  On December 26, we made an appointment to go see a litter of puppies.  We knew we wanted an apricot standard and almost from the moment we set eyes on her, we fell in love.  Needless to say, she came home with us, that same day to be exact.

Lilah napping in my arms on the car ride home.

Lilah is a great family dog, but she is also a definite Daddy's girl - no surprise to us as we have 5 daughters that also adore their father.

Almost every way in which we determined not to spoil her, we have, which is part of the reason I think that we enjoy her so much.  She gives her love freely every day and we not only receive that, but find an outlet for pouring out love and affection unabashedly (this should be a lesson to us of receiving and responding to God's love).  Lilah is treated like the 6th little princess in the house, but in her defense I would give her great credit for being extremely tolerant with our children (ages 7 & under).  She puts up with a lot and good-naturedly, to boot, as evidenced in the pictures below.

Dressed in a crinoline and cape by Arianna.

One of the girls is perpetually putting a crown on her.

Now we can't imagine the family without Lilah.  Happy Birthday, Delilah Amelie!