Trailing the blonde

my favorite season

September 13, 2021September 12, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, kids, mini-farm

Yes, my favorite season in Fall for its beautiful colors and crisp weather.

However, as I now have a baby and and am growing food and raising chickens I find myself looking more and more forward to the end of fall and the beginning of winter.

Don’t get me wrong, I know I am so lucky to be able to grow food and raise chickens and feed my family good, whole food…..but from spring planting through to fall harvesting there aren’t many days where I don’t give up a minimum of 30 minutes to the yard. 30 minutes doesn’t seem like much but when you have a little one 30 minutes out of your day can be a lot.

That 30 minutes doesn’t include the days that I am actually preparing beds, planting, harvesting and preserving; that is just daily maintenance. That takes up a lot more time.

Again, I love pulling out homemade and homegrown food in the middle of winter and early spring when everything in the grocery store is shipped from who knows where and harvested who knows when; so, I am most definitely not complaining, but the slow season of winter is absolutely calling me.

I love watching the rain fall while I drink a cup of coffee before everyone else wakes up. Make it snowfall and I love it even more.

Reality vs. fantasy: Fantasy (or should I say my pre-baby reality) in the slow winter months I read more, slept in more, relaxed more and sort of hibernated. My new reality: I am guessing winter will also have its challenges such as where do I put the baby when it is raining out and I need to change the chickens food and water? What do I do when the baby is grumpy and its raining and this is when we normally go for a walk to settle him down? We live in the Pacific Northwest so rain is a big factor for us in the winter hahahahaha.

We will see how reality and fantasy hammer out this winter.

Our first week homeschooling

September 4, 2021September 3, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

This week we are focusing on the Ocean

Monday

We started off with this documentary while we did his bottle and played a little.

Then we read one BOB book (we have already been doing this for a few weeks) and we read this book about ocean animals

On our walk we (and by we I mean I talked and pointed things out to him hahahah) talked about seeds (each of those brown things are the seed from a tree) and how they grt knocked off the tree and can fly away and make new trees

I also pointed our blackberries and talked about how they also have seeds that help them grow after they drop to the ground.

Lastly, we read a poem from a book called Songs of the seasons which has about 60 poems going through the seasons of the year.

Tuesday

We had the same basic morning. Finished the oceans documentary and read the ocean life book and the next in our BOB book set.

In the afternoon I tried a simple sensory bin with things around the house……he hated it hahahahahahaha. He was angry that I wouldn’t let him eat the beads.

We also looked at this weeks suggested painting from our exploring nature course.

Wednesday

We started drain the seas on national geographic and read the next BOB book. In the afternoon we practiced our ABCs

Thursday

Same morning routine. Then in the afternoon we went to a new park for a playdate.

We were also supposed to read a Magic Treehouse book about Pirates but Amazon had delayed it indefinitely.

Friday

We watched drain the seas and took 2 walks and practiced counting from 1-10.

Our public library was closed for renovations and was supposed to reopen on Tuesday but due to the increase in the delta varient they did not. They just announced that they will be starting curbside pickup again so i am going to try and get that set up for us to do.

Saturday

We are finishing the week by reading the poem from our exploring nature course.

On a side note i started the movie Finding Nemo and turned it off within 15 min. I HATED it. First the mom and all the siblings die then Nemo gets kidnapped!!! Sorry if that was a spoiler. I know I watched this movie years ago but clearly that was before I was a mother.

So that was our very basic first week. We haven’t perfected this by any means. I’ll bring you along for another week next month.

Home school prep

August 29, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, kids, school/studying

Ok first off, yes, my baby is only 8.5 months old. I fully understand I am not REALLY starting homeschooling him. However, I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mom right now so I want to make the most of it. I simply want to make sure that I am giving him opportunities to learn as much as possible. Most of it will all be through play and exploration.

I have done a very rough layout of the next 3 years. Basically I picked a theme each week of the year, with a few no theme more relaxed ‘off weeks’ thrown in. I had a weekly calendar page that i spilt each day into 3 parts. The first section is year 1, its a lot of reading (me to him hahahaha) ABCs, sensory bins, fun on topic movie nights, learning to color things like that. Year 2 builds on that by adding in tracing and more emphasis on counting and matching small adjustments like that. And year 3 we add in more counting/math a few fun basic age appropriate science experiments etc. Here is a basic example

I also purchased ‘Exploring Nature with Children‘ which I am very excited about. Again the first year or two will just be me pointing things out and talking a little more and each year we can build on it. There is also a weekly poem and art piece to look at and study.

I love the BrainQuest workbooks and other items so as he advances we will add some of that in.

I am also looking at The Good and Beautiful curriculum and will slowly order some of that and as he advances ncorporate that. I also want to slowly incorporate lots of farm study material. Those kind of things will be very relevant as he is feeding our chickens and gathering eggs one day. And asking how plants make a lot of the food we eat and things like that.

Tomorrow we start our first week of ‘official’ not official homeschooling hahahah. Our theme is the ocean as well as totally different theme of seeds from the exploring nature curriculum. I am going to document this week and I will update you next weekend with how it went!!

A day in the life on an 8 month old

August 18, 2021August 18, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, kids

My baby boy turned 8 months yesterday!!! So crazy!

This is how are days generally go currently.

Woke up at 6am, diaper change.

Today is…. we do the month, date, year, day of the week, season and weather…I made this so it is not perfect ahahahah but it gets the job done.

Bottle time!!!!

Play time with some reading basics….and coffee for me

Breakfast!!! Or if you are a hobbit, 2nd breakfast……did i get that reference right? Hahaha

Little man hangs out on a blanket while I water the backyard and take care of the chicken coop. During this time he loves watching the dog and the chickens as they waddle all over the yard. It usually takes about 20-25 min to get it all done and he usually lasts that long just watching the dog and chickens but not always.

She is getting more and more used to him

After yard work he runs around in his walker while I try and clean as much as possible. Sometimes he chases the dog, sometimes he chases the robot vacuum hahahahaah how long he lasts varies some days its 15 min and some days its 30+ min.

Once he gets sick of his walker we head into his room to play before his first nap.

Last 30 min before nap is a struggle to keep him happy and entertained hahahah

if he isnt too grumpy we will read a few pages from the chapter book we are reading. currently it is The Hobbit.

I am slowly introducing him to trying to hold writing intraments

Nap time is about 3 hours after he wakes up. We do a diaper change, put him in his sleep sack, drink a bottle and into the crib he goes. Today he was asleep by 8:55ish

During this time I clean or food prep or workout or shower or anything on my list that I need to do that day.

When he wakes up its another diaper change. Activity for a few minutes then lunch.

It was nice and cool out today so we went for a walk

Lunch was chicken nuggets, broccoli, tomato, pesto pasta and some cheese

A little independent play time while I hung some pictures

Then more walker time to tire him out before his nap. this kid just wants to be moving around all the time

Another walk because it was sooo nice out

Then daddy does bedtime. He was asleep by 7pm. I relaxed for about 20 min then I head back outside to check the chickens food and water before bed. Currently i do a little bit of homeschool research at night as well and I prep his bottles for the next day before i head to bed. My goal is to be in bed before 10.

To show you the full 24 hours I woke up today at 610 to him chatting to himself. he was content so i got up, warmed his bottle and started my coffee. he was still content so i sat down to enjoy my coffee for a few minutes and he fell back asleep! i will let him sleep until about 730 if he doesn’t wake up on his own. Any later than that and we would have to move his bedtime later.

August Garden Update

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, food, healthy lifestyle, mini-farm

Chickens eating the last corn that the dog didnt destroy

Cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin and watermelon all torn out by the dog. But volunteer tomatoes are here

2nd carrot planting……and somehow tomatoes

1st carrots and leeks. I am pulling these as we need them. I need to devote a day to Dehyrating and freezing them soon

Some kind of beans, don’t remember what I planted lol

Cabbage and Brussels sprouts totally bug infested so chickens will get them

7.5 month baby update

August 11, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in kids

Cannot believe he is 7.5 months already!!! Time is starting to fly. A little over 4 months to his 1st birthday

We are fully into the baby led weaning world which a little bit of purees mixed in when hes having a hard day. I LOVE watching him eat, it is one of the cutest things ever.

He SOMETIMES holds his own bottle but most of the time he does not.

I love being his mom so much but no lie I do miss being able to have a schedule. We have a basic layout of the day but naps still depend on when he wakes up and how long his first nap is.

We are down to 2 naps a day and bedtime is between 630-730pm depending on the last nap of the day and how our plans have gone that day.

I am starting to look at some very simple homeschool lessons. I am a stay at home mom so obviously we have lost my income from working (not that it was that significant of an income hahaha) but I am trying to look at staying at home as a job and not just a privilege and grest experience. There are days where all I get done is taking care of my son but there are days where everything goes right and we do flashcards and count eggs from the chickens and go for a walk and look at trees and I get to clean. Its all a balance but on the days where I don’t feel like doing anything I think, if this was a job what would you do? And that helps me try and get at least one thing done.

We are smackdab in the middle of his first tooth so this mama is having some long days and nights but I definitely wouldn’t change it for the world.

I miss the freedom of my prebaby life but I couldn’t imagine my life without him. My life is better with my little man in it. If you are in the trenches of baby life it will get better. My post partum anxiety is so much better. I am starting to wean off the medication which is awesome but I am also keeping a close eye on myself in case I need to start them back up.

On that note, my sweet little man just woke up. Talk to you later.

Comment what the best part of being a parent is for you…..and the hardest.

A name for our “farm”

May 22, 2021May 17, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

Hello!

When I first started this blog I asked for help naming it. I believe it was my friend Aimee who came up with Trailing the Blonde. Now I need help coming up with a name for our “farm”. Well I call it a farm, its only a quarter acre right hahahaha but I want the name to be something that represents where we are now but will also be carried with us as we hopefully move to a large plot of land one day.

Comment with your ideas!! And feel free to ask questions about us and our “land” to come up with ideas.

5 month baby update

May 17, 2021May 17, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

I feel like the past 5 months have gone in leaps and jumps. In the beginning when I had such bad post partum depression and anxiety I looked forward to marking each day off the calendar because it meant I had made it and was one step closer to being done breastfeed and him being more independent and now suddenly I look at the calendar and I haven’t marked a day off in 3 days. The saying the days go slow and the years go fast is 100% true……though even some days go fast.

This last month we moved the little guy to his crib in his room. He had definitely outgrown his bassinet and was waking up all turned around in there and even sideways with his head and feet pushing against the mesh. I had been doing at least one of his naps in his crib everyday so the transition was pretty smooth….for him…..for me it was a little rough. I slept in there on an air mattress for 2 days and could have totally stayed longer. It is so bittersweet to hit these milestones.

We have also just switched him from a swaddle to a sleep sack at night. He is close to rolling over so we started leaving one arm out of the swaddle to ease his transition. He also started getting out of the swaddle and waking himself up and half turning over in his sleep getting stuck so it was time. I ordered a Nested Bean sleep sack for him. It has a little pouch over the chest that has about 3-4oz of weight in it, just enough to mimic mamas hand comforting him. So far that has also gone off without a hitch….🤞🤞🤞🤞 during the day we still use the swaddle for now because we are awake and can keep an eye on him via the camera.

This was him still in the swadddle and in the bassinet

The 4-5 month time frame is a weird time. You are starting to to get a loose schedule but are fluctuating between the old time and new time. We are in between 3 and 4 naps. Some days we have 3 great naps and its all smooth sailing some days we have 4 and its a struggle. Some nights we do the dream feed then make it through till morning and some nights we still wake once or twice but we are getting there and most nights I get at least 7 total hours of sleep so its all good. Of course after I wrote this we had a rough night and 2 nights in a row I got less sleep lol.

We started solids!! Well purees. Right now its mostly about getting him used to eating and trying to feed himself but I can already see that his appetite has increased a bit and its so fun seeing him eat new things. As of right I am using store bought baby food because it takes him 2-3 days to get through 1 jar, but as he starts eating more and more I will start making more of his food. We were doing some at lunch and dinner but he was getting constipated so we only do lunch for now as his body gets used to it. We will try increasing again in a few weeks.

He is actually starting to do pretty well getting the spoon to his mouth.

Some friends have offered us their old baby hiking backpack holder thing (that is the official name of it) we need to go pick it up so that we can start doing some hiking with him. I am super excited for that.

We are also in the middle of teething I do believe, so lots of cuddles and crying and waking during the night and extra sleep during the day. Another bittersweet milestone.

May Garden update

May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

The garden is in full swing over here!!! What has been planted is poppin! And more is still to be planted.

Aloe plant. It was pretty brown when I got it but its finally starting to green up and come back to life. I grew up with an aloe plant in our backyard for small injuries and when I had a baby I knew I wanted one. I just have to bring this in during the winter.

Basil is trying to decide if it is just going to survive or if its going to thrive.

Next 3 rows of onions planted a few weeks later. The ones of the left are just starting to pop up through the mulch

Choi, i had no idea that choi was so prolific. The chickens have been happy though, they get like 3 leaves a day

They were not cooperating so all you get is a butt shot

Dill and sugar snap peas. Some of the snap peas didn’t come up which makes sense because my seeds are very old so I agree planted some and if they don’t come up I will buy some starts.

This weekend I will be picking up a few more starts and I’ll show them to you on the next update.

How is it the end of April?!

April 28, 2021April 28, 2021 by Ariana Peters, posted in Uncategorized

Got my hair trimmed and added some red to it.

I seriously cannot believe next week will be May? When did that happen!? But I am also loving the warmer days we are having mixed in with the chilly rainy days.

I have worked the last 2 Saturdays and work this Saturday…..these are the kinds of pictures I get while at work hahahaha

I had some fun at Hobby Lobby this week.

The garden is doing great! I am starting to include ‘what needs to be used out of the garden’ when I do my weekly meal planning

4 sugar snap peas have sprouted. I may need to replant the rest…..my seeds are pretty old lol

4 of my 6 potato plants have popped up so far.

I’ll do a full garden update next week.

The chickens are getting big! And doing great.

Pulled out a beautiful hunk of beef from the freezer to use in meals this week

This is after i have been cutting it up.

I am still keeping pretty much all dairy out of my diet and really limiting gluten and my little guys rash is clearing up pretty well. But I cannot wait to get back to some bread making. I am going to order a 1950s dehydrated sourdough starter off etsy soon that I am already drooling over.

I am working on slowly organizing each room in the house so the baby stuff all has its own space to be tucked away each night so it feels less messy, cluttered and chaotic. I’ll show you as i get it done.

Thats all for now!!

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