Author: mjbackyardingwithkids

As my oldest and myself get the rest of the things ready for school, I listen to him talk about his orientation. I can’t help but start to think about when he was born. I remember thinking that this day of him starting high school would be years away. Letting my mind wander, I start to remember his first steps, words… ect. I can’t help but feel somewhat sad my baby is growing up. Soon he will be driving, and getting a job! As I watch him put the rest of his books away, I start to smile. He’s coming into his own, and I feel very blessed to have him as my son. I can’t wait to see him do his own thing in his life. Good luck my freshman.

we got our first egg today! We are very excited about this. The look on my daughter’s face was priceless. She jumped up and down, asking to hold it. We have been checking day in and day, I was starting to think we wouldn’t get any eggs until September. The first eggs are normally small so my daughter thought it was so cute that she wanted to go take it to “her kitchen” ( play kitchen in the play room) the white egg is store bought it shows the difference in size and color.

For many of us school starts just around the corner. School shopping for clothes ( uniforms ) and supplies can be stressful. Normally I love shopping for school supplies , I have no idea why…. it’s normally like Christmas for me. This year I’m just not into shopping for the things we need, we do online schooling with our kids and as I write out 12 weeks of spelling words, organize the books, clean the white boards, sharpen the pencils I think about how I really don’t want school to start. Maybe it’s because we are having to start two weeks early, maybe it’s because of the homework ( I know what you are thinking.. you do school at home, yes but the teachers from our online school give out homework) , maybe I don’t want to start because I’ve enjoyed not having to set the alarm and hear it for five days every week, or maybe it’s because I’ve enjoyed being able to get a lot of my house projects done. So if you are normally like me and love the shopping for school supplies, or if it stresses you out beyond belief, I wish you all a wonderful school year!

Some advice if you are new to backyarding, don’t wear flip flops when cleaning out your chicken coop! Every time I go out to clean the coop you would think I would know by now to change my shoes but no… I forget and leave on my flip flops, I do know some people who don’t mind walkimg around barefoot in their coops that’s totally cool for them but if your like me, as much as I love my chickens, I can’t walk around without shoes. So once again, here I am in my flip flops with stuff falling on top of my feet as I scoop it out the coop I yell at myself mentally for doing a city slicker move.

The joy of water balloons! Water balloons are a great way to keep the kids busy and cooled off during the summer, we filled up 200 balloons. I love that new invention of hooking it up to the hose and then shaking them off once they’re full! If we didn’t have that it would of taken a while to get that many done. Seeing the smile on my kids faces as they run over to pick up another balloon and run away before one of their siblings try’s to get them with a water balloon is priceless. I hope that they will ha be water balloon fights with their kids one day… and who knows maybe when they are all older and we do a family reunion a water balloon fight will be on the list on activities.

If you have trouble with flies around your coop, I would recommend getting one of these hanging bags. I had so many flies around my coop. No matter how much I cleaned it out flies would still be everywhere!! There were some big ones too, I think one of them was whispering my name as I swatted it away. Trying different things and nothing really worked, I was at the store and saw one of these bags.. thought why not give it a try. The bag was about five bucks give or take some change. You know what… They work really well for catching the flies! You just follow the directions on the bag, which is just popping open the top and filling it with water to the fill line.. boom done and the bag holds a lot of flies! When you are hanging it up just make sure it’s tie up really good. So even if you don’t have a coop and you just hate flies this is for you also.

This poultry drinker is a good idea for those that don’t have much room in their coops! It hangs, so you don’t have to worry about it getting knocked over or dirt being kicked into it by your chickens. The only thing I would recommend and this goes for any container, make sure the lid is on correctly before you lift it up otherwise you give your feet a bath!

There is a joy in making something old be new again. That’s what I get from painting! I’ve been working on many rooms in my house, right now I’m working on my kids bathroom. I did something I normally don’t do.. I let my 6 year old help me paint! She did great, note to self though.. next time have her do the low part of the wall so I don’t get paint dripping on my hair! ( the middle part of the wall is what she did.. didn’t she do great) 

Who here also loves to have garden statues, or little figures in their garden? I love mine.  It’s like being Snow White, and having all the animals come to you, only they don’t help you cook or clean your house. Major downfall there lol.

Today was a good day.  Didn’t get much done, but oh well.  More of my wisteria bloomed, it smells so nice! I love watching my kids play, and watching their faces light up when they see a flower bloom. The simple days of the excitement of flowers blooming may not last for ever, they will grow and change just like the seasons do, but I will remember it always.