Homesteading in Your Neighborhood

 Come on a tour of our home to see how we homestead in the city. Then check out my article on Molly Green about creative ways that you can be a homesteader even if you live in an urban area. 

We have a small area in our yard that is suitable for a garden. We make the most of what we have with a raised garden. 

This is my line I use to hang some laundry. I also have a free standing  drying rack.

This is our shed. 

The climbing tree. 

This is the fun area where the kids like to play. 

The "river"

The "river"

I enjoy setting outside, drinking coffee and watching birds or a storm roll in. 

I love this sunny room. We use it for our pantry and various Farmhouse Decor. 

I make my own laundry detergent and dryer balls.

I enjoy making bread as well.

Various projects I am working on. 

The boys playing piano. 

Reading in our book nook. I am thankful that they enjoy activities other than computer games and TV. 

I love this picture of our home in the snow with the boys out playing. 

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoyed my article for Molly Green.

Learn With Play - A New Book to Encourage Family Memories

Learn With Play: 150 Activities for Year-Round Fun & Learning

I continue to be amazed at all the wonderful memories we can make with our children through play.

*This post contains affiliate links.

This great new book provides hours of ideas to use so you can play and make wonderful memories with your child.

Take a peek inside the book.

I am so excited to be able to bring you this book filled with over 100 fun, hands on activities for kids from birth to kindergarten. It has been tested by kids so you can be assured these activities are fun and they work. 

The book is divided into various categories:

General Play/ Arts & Crafts Activities

 Early Childhood Education

 Life Skills

Organization

Seasonal/Holidays.

It has been written by over 90 of the greatest bloggers from The Kid Blogger Network and I am honored to be one of the authors!

You can buy the eBook which is available for a special launch discounted price of  $9.95 for July 7-14 only!

The printed book is available on Amazon for $29.95.

The Kindle edition is available on Amazon for US$14.95.

It would make a great gift for baby showers, birthdays, preschool teachers, and moms. 

Magic Springs and a Magical Birthday!

*FTC- My family enjoyed the day at Magic Springs and I was financially compensated for this post. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience. 

Magic Springs and a Magical Birthday!

As part of our normal family traditions the birthday boy gets to pick a place he would like to go for his birthday. Remembering his 6^th birthday when we went to Magic Springs , our soon to be 12 year old decided he wanted to go back for his 12th birthday!

When we arrived at Magic Springs we got the ultimate in VIP experience, a cabana!!! Our cabana had a table and chairs inside and a table, chairs, and umbrella outside overlooking the wave pool. The cabana included a safe and a cooler. We also had a ceiling fan to keep us cool. But the part I could not believe…. A TV with Dish Network! We stayed at the cabana for a little while before embarking on the park because it was such a neat experience. J

  

We left the comfort of our amazing cabana to check out all the cool rides. It was at this point I found out my younger son was a daredevil! The lady at Diamond Mine Coaster, said that he was tall enough to ride on his own and he suddenly did not want us near him. So I let him ride by himself.  Every ride he exclaimed “was the best ride ever!!” and “I don’t want to get off.” I kept having to calm him down to tell him that he should try other rides so he could compare them all. 

The boys had a blast on the first round of rides. We also checked out some of the fun games they had in the park. The cool thing about the games we played is that you always win at least a small prize.

Next it was time for lunch, so we headed back to our cabana. We were greeted with someone ready to take our lunch order. Since it was a birthday lunch, we let the birthday boy choose the food. He chose food from the pizza place, Pizza DiLago. The food was delivered to us while we lounged in our nice cool cabana and watched TV.

I don’t know what my husband was thinking when he ordered the 29 inch pizza! It was bigger than the table! But it sure did taste good. They told us that it was handmade with fresh ingredients. It would rival any pizza place outside the park.

Since this was a birthday trip, I brought along candles for the birthday boy’s bread sticks. I did not light them because I am sure that would have been frowned upon.

This was about the time my younger son asked, “Can we live here?”

After lunch we ran into some friends. That turned out to be one of the highlights of the day. We had fun visiting with them. We also figured out a great partnership idea. Since they like to ride the “scary” rides and my husband and I do not, we watched their children and they rode with ours. It was perfect, since their children were too small for the big rides, and we were just plain chicken.

I am thankful for friends who will ride upside down roller coasters. This was the cherry on top for the birthday boy. He had never ridden anything like this before and The Gauntlet  was the main thing he talked about on the way home.

I am so glad that we got to spend a great 12^th birthday with my son making family memories. According to him, “This was the best birthday ever!”

Thoughts while at Magic Springs

1.     If you enjoy riding rides without going to the water park you will still have enough to keep you busy all day. Most of the people stay at the water park. A great benefit was we had virtually no wait for any of the “non- water park rides.”

2.     If you do enjoy the water park and you live anywhere near Hot Springs, then it might be worth it to get a season pass.  There are three separate water parks located inside Magic Springs. There is no way you could do it all in one day.

3.     The cabanas are great! I was thinking how wonderful it would have been to have one the first time we brought the boys to Magic Springs. At that time my younger son was two and he still needed naps. I could have taken him back to the cabana to drift off to sleep under the cool ceiling fan and watching Dora the Explorer. My older son and husband could have continued their adventure without interruption.

4.     Also the cabanas would be great for a nursing moms. It would give you a nice place to relax and a quiet place where the baby would not be distracted. A bonus is they bring you complimentary bottles of water to drink.

5.     To avoid crowds, go at the beginning of the week and at the beginning of the summer. I spoke with Aaron, who is the marketing assistant. He said it gets really crowded beginning in the middle of July and going into August before school starts back. 

How long has it been since you visited Magic Springs? 
What is your favorite memory? 

Almost Wordless Wednesday "Yes! We Want to Build A Snowman!"

 

" Yes! We Want to Build A Snowman!" 

Last night  around 11:00 we had a surprise 5 minute blizzard!  I woke the boys up so they would not miss it!

This morning when they got up they asked to go play in the snow. We delayed our normal morning routine to have fun in the snow before it melted away.

They measured the snow! One of the boys said, "It's not even an inch!"

And yes, they even built a snowman!

I love surprise memory making times like these!!!!

A Family Valentine's Day

I am over at MollyGreen.com talking about ways that we spend Valentine's Day together as a family.  Come over and check it out! Six Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day : A Family Valentine's Day

A Day At Moss Mountain Farm

I was very excited to be invited to Moss Mountain to hear about the AR529 Plan, of which I will be sharing what I learned soon. (It is a very cool plan so stay tuned!) But today I want to share the beauty of Moss Mountain and the fun I had on my trip there.

I got to travel with two other Arkansas Women Bloggers:  Jessica and Alicia. (Check out their blogs: Life With the Bauer Bunch and Simple Words by A). 

We were a tiny bit excited and overwhelmed by the beauty we saw when we got there. Of course the texting, Facebooking, and Instagraming soon ensued. We wanted to share our whole day with all of  our social media friends!

One of the best parts of the day was meeting the fellow Arkansas Women Bloggers that I had never met before. They are a great group of ladies.

After shaking P. Allen's hand and shamelessly asking for a picture with him, we were able to tour his house. He is very personable. I felt that I could be myself and not worry about being "asked to leave" when he found out that my garden died before it even got started this year. 

 
One of our first stops was the sleeping porch. It is awesome! I think I could spend the entire Fall and Spring seasons on that porch. The view of the Arkansas River is very inspiring!


 

One of the fun things about the sleeping porch is that it includes a bathtub. This bathtub seems pretty popular with the blogger crowd, so of course I had to get a picture with me in it.
  

The film crew followed us around for most of the day. I think they thought we were funny. There is no telling where the footage of the Southwest Arkansas Women Bloggers will end up. Sorry Stephanie! :)

Oh and the cool thing about this cameraman--he went to Henderson State University!!  It's always cool to see a fellow Reddie!!!

 
One of my favorite places on the farm was the kitchen. I loved the simple, quietness of it. This is the view from the sink. I think I could just stand and wash dishes all day long! It is beautiful.

This is a pond with its majestic swans. Taking a walk or going for a run would not be such a chore if I lived here. I just don't think there is any way I would every get tired of the beauty that surrounds this farm. 

This is the Chicken Palace. Even the chickens are spoiled. I could live here even if I had to live with the chickens. 

  
After touring the home and the grounds, we were treated to a wonderful lunch that I still daydream about. The grilled chicken was so tender and juicy, and it was laid upon perfect sweet potatoes. But the best part was the Butter Milk Pecan Pie!!
Someone is going to have to make this for Thanksgiving!
 

After lunch we learned more about the AR529 Plan, which was the whole reason we were invited. One way that we learned about the plan was by playing Family Feud, hosted by P. Allen Smith himself!

It was a great day and I cannot wait to go back.