Family Farm Fun

Life with a piggy is not everything I imagined it would be, so far, it has been even better. I didn't go into too much detail on this in previous blogs, but the girls started asking for a pet pig in June of 2016. After Boots gave us the "okay," I started following a few nearby breeders on Facebook and saw the cutest picture of a little piglet for sale. It had us hooked. I looked around a little more and reading reviews. The reviews for the original breeder were mixed between positive and negative which made me nervous. After more research, I found our current breeder. She had wonderful reviews, her adult pigs looked well-taken care of, and she had pictures of her young daughter playing with the pigs. At the time, she had one piglet available with more upcoming litters. I messaged her, but someone already had a hold on the posted piglet and was confirming that evening if it was for sure. If not, we were second in line. Looking back on it now, I am so thankful that we were

Happy unexpected snow day to me! Kids in the Holyoke school district already had today off, but it was scheduled as a teacher in-service day. Last night around 6 pm, though, they called for a snow day. We had a wonderful, wet snow perfect for making a snowman and having snowball fights. The kids' Olaf snowman After so much fun outside, it was time to come in and warm up. As I have mentioned multiple times, my girls are crafters. They love anything to do with crafting. Since we had the whole afternoon to ourselves, I decided to plan a craft. I always like to try to sneak a little education in there too, so I coordinated a storytime and craft. The book we are reading is The Mitten by Jan Brett. This is one of my kids' favorites and is a great way to incorporate many multi-level crafts. In fact, when I started gathering the book and supplies, Boo told me about a fun activity they did in preschool after reading the story: they pretended to be the animals fitting inside

How many of you out there experience the post-holiday slump? I always feel like the first few weeks of January are depressing. The glow and excitement of the holidays are over. The weather is usually cold and gloomy. My house is in shambles from all-over toys, and I am crabby from trying to cut back on sweets. This year, though, I am working on continuing the joyful spirit and not allowing myself to get down in the dumps. I have found some techniques to help keep me on track that I am excited to share. 1. Make a routine and stick to it. This can be applied in almost every area of life but is especially useful in balancing work and home life. For some people, this may sound like torture, but my type A personality thrives on a schedule and organization. My routine revolves around efficiency. When I wake up, I shower and get the kids' breakfast ready. Then I wake them up so they can get dressed while I do my hair. When they are dressed, I do their hair while they brush their t