Dixie Lining Farmhouse

Farm Life, Gardening, DIY Projects, Natural Living, Homemade Recipes

mom blogger

Augsburg Fall Festival

by 2 Comments

Oakley was born on August 27,2018, which means I was pregnant all Summer.  All I heard was, “yikes you’re going to be 9 months pregnant during Summer in Arkansas.”  It wasn’t until the Peach Festival rolled around that it got really hot and super humid.  It never fails, the Peach Festival always falls on the hottest weekend of the Summer.  That weekend, I went to the Peach Festival and my ankles looked like tree stumps. I have never been that swollen in my life. After that, I really didn’t go outside that much until Oakley was born.  I walked in the mornings with my friend before it got hot but I decided that it was the perfect time to get into a Netflix series.  For whatever reason, I chose Gilmore Girls and I loved it!  I loved the storyline, the town, the characters, I loved the entire series.  I loved their quaint, little town Stars Hollow during Fall and Winter. Every year, they had the Fall Festival and I thought it was adorable.  Arkansas actually gets four seasons unlike Southern California, where Andrew and I were raised.  I’ll always be a Summer girl but I do love to experience the change of seasons.

Our close friends out here invited us to the Augsburg Fall Festival, a festival they’ve been going to for years.  Every year, the Augsburg Fall Festival raises thousands of dollars for charities and people in need.  When we pulled up to the festival at this beautiful church nestled on a perfectly manicured lawn, I immediately felt like I was at the Stars Hollow Fall Festival!  Gilmore Girls is way more Fall feeling to me than Pumpkin Spice Lattes but I’m really not a pumpkin fan. The other day, I was talking to my cousin and I asked her what she was doing.  She said she was watching Gilmore Girls while drinking her coffee in bed to help Nashville feel like Fall.  If you aren’t feeling like it’s Fall, you clearly need to watch Gilmore Girls haha.

Okay, back to the Augsburg Fall Festival.  There was a silent auction, a raffle, handmade crafts for sale, pony rides, and live music.  They served brats, pork loin, and an array of desserts.  They had a firetruck for the kids to look at and a line of old tractors.  If you know me at all, I was sold at the pony rides.  A pony ride always brings the biggest smile to Oakley’s face.  Oakley loved the pony rides and dancing to the live music. She also dipped her fingers in the icing on a slice of cake that a lady we call Grandma Ann gave her.  She loved spending time with our friends that have become like family at the Fall Festival and passed out on the way home from all of the excitement.  We had a great time and I know this was the start of a tradition for our little family.  I’m sure Oakley will look forward to the Augsburg Fall Festival for years to come!

“Chores” for a One Year Old

by 2 Comments

When it comes to parenting, there is something I learned very early on after Oakley was born.  There is no right or wrong and there is no handbook or manual.  You have to do what is right for your family and your children.  In my blog posts, I share things that I am proud of and mistakes I’ve made because I’m not perfect and I don’t think this would be enjoyable to read if I only shared the things I do well.  I like to share what I’m passionate about and thoughts that are currently on my mind.  Lately, it seems like Oakley has grown up right before my eyes. She learns something new every day and becomes more and more independent.  It is amazing what they can do and what they understand at one year old. I’m constantly surprised by the things she does and I want to share what has been on my mind lately as we enter her toddler years.  I think that what I want to share today is especially important if you live on a farm.  As our farm grows and Oakley grows, there will become more and more tasks to complete and animals to take care of.

Oakley trying to open the dryer from the wrong side haha

I never really had set chores growing up.  My mom just gave me different tasks to complete throughout the day.  With that being said, I’m really not that big on the word “chores.”  I think responsibilities is a better term.  Chores sound like something you’re forced to do whereas responsibilities are things you understand you need to take care of for a good reason.  There are some areas in my life that I like routine, but in most aspects of my life, I enjoy change.  That’s why I think it’s good to switch things up.  I’ve seen multiple cleaning charts where Monday is for dusting, Tuesday is for the bathrooms, Wednesday is for vacuuming, and so on.  That type of schedule will not work with my personality type.  In fact, I’m not even sure I would be able to stick to a schedule like that longer than a week. I think it would become monotonous to me, but if that works for you, all the power to you! This is why I don’t think I will expect Oakley to do the dishes every Monday or dust her room every Saturday morning.  Although I do like to wash our sheets on Sundays.  I hope that Oakley will wash her clothes, clean her room, do the dishes, etc when she sees that it needs to be done.

 

As Oakley gets older, I don’t think she will have set “chores,” but I do want to raise her to be responsible. I know that more often times than not I will most likely have to ask her to do something as she will probably be busy playing or making plans with her friends, but I want to raise her to have a strong work ethic.  I think that begins now.  One may sound young but her mind is a sponge.  She wants to help me with everything I do and I love it.  Sure, it may take me longer to cook dinner, do the dishes, or vacuum, but I like to think that I am teaching her to be responsible, so it won’t be like pulling teeth when I expect her to pull her weight around the house or take ownership of her belongings as she gets older.

Right now, she loves to help me do the laundry.  When I ask her if she wants to help switch the laundry, she marches into the laundry room and leads the way.  She has learned how to take the lint screen out and she loves to look inside the dryer and take the clothes out.  While I am folding the clothes, she tries to take all of the clothes out of the laundry basket or throw the folded clothes on the ground.  More often times than not, I end up folding the laundry twice but she thinks she’s helping so I’m okay with that.  She also likes to help put her clothes away.  If I tell her we need to feed the dogs, she walks over to the dog food container and watches me scoop their food.  IIn fact, if she hears the dogs barking, she will walk over to their food container and call me to come feed them. Most of the time, I feel like she is supervising me lol.  She likes to push around the vacuum and hold the dust pan.  She may not fully understand the concept of not walking through my pile after I sweep or not unfolding already folded clothes, but she is learning and participating and I understand that this is the age responsibility begins to develop.  Most of the time when we pick up her toys, she wants to dump them right back out again because she thinks it’s a game.  My house might not be the cleanest it’s ever been, in fact, it’s far from that. It takes me a lot longer to get those things done with a toddler but Oakley doesn’t care to sit in front of a tv and I enjoy her company, even if it is counterproductive sometimes lol.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some nights where I stay up and clean after she goes to bed or I clean during her naptime, but I include her in these “chores” while she’s awake to teach her to be responsible.  If I only cleaned while she was asleep or acted like she was always in my way, I think that would teach her to despise doing simple tasks that need to get done.  I think she wouldn’t want to learn how to clean or do yard work.  Right now, these things are fun to her and I can tell she is proud of herself when she helps me. I usually tell her, “Thank you for helping!” and she smiles at me or claps. I love that Oakley is independent, willing, and determined.  She wants to be in on the action, and I can’t wait to see how these qualities will play out later on in her life.

Garden Update and the Lesson I Learned

by 2 Comments

Well, I am so excited to be able to say that our first garden was very successful!  I am sad to say that it is coming to an end and I already miss those Summer mornings.  Oakley and I would wake up and I would push her out to the garden in her stroller, usually still in her pj’s.  She would watch me, get so excited if Maggie was at the fence, or watch the dogs run and play around the yard.  I will forever remember our first summer together and a lot of my fondest memories are of us in our garden.

Okay, back to our garden update.  All that was left was the carrots and kales.  Our carrots stayed pretty small and I think that’s because I didn’t do what the package of seeds said.  The package said to pull some after they sprouted, but I just couldn’t do it.  I thought to myself, “Why pull them if they’re all growing?”  Well, now I know.  If there are too many in one place, they won’t grow as well due to overcrowding because they’re all having to share the nutrients, sun, etc.  Lesson learned, do what the seed packet says lol.  We tried some of the carrots but they had a funky taste to them, so I decided to decorate with them instead!  It didn’t take long and they began to wilt so they became chicken food.

Our kale isn’t doing so well. Some of the plants look okay, the other plants look like they’ve been eaten by insects.  To my surprise, our lettuce has grown!  I was shocked!  We planted everything back on Mother’s Day, so I was shocked to see the lettuce because it hadn’t sprouted until now.  Even though we pulled up the sweet potato and watermelon plants, they grew back!

We wanted to plant a Fall/ Winter garden but we didn’t get around to it.  We’ll just continue to enjoy the remnants of our Summer garden and dream about next year’s garden(s).  I have so many ideas in mind, I can hardly wait! I’m sure I’ll share more when its freezing cold this winter and I’m ready for Spring so I can plant my garden.

Garden Update

by Leave a Comment

Well, I just tried to make bread in the oven and I wish I could say its delicious but that’s not quite the case.  It’s hard and cracked on the outside, but completely doughy on the inside.  I guess that’s what I get for being lazy and not wanting to get out my bread machine lol.  For some reason, whenever I double a recipe it turns out fine, but if I try to cut a recipe in half, it never turns out right and I know I’m doing my math correctly.  When will I learn to just make the recipe as it was intended?  Maybe never!  Anyway, the whole point of me writing this post was to give you a garden update, not talk about my failed bread making attempt. On a side note, if I only share my successes than what would be the point of this blog?  To just share my highlight reel?  I know that’s usually what it seems like but I really do want to share my successes and my not so successful times.  Sooo, where were we?  We planted our very first garden on Mother’s Day and I thought it was about time to give you an update.

My failed bread attempt

When we planted our garden, Andrew and I said as long as we get to eat at least one thing we’ll consider it a success.  Thankfully, we got to eat quite a few of the vegetables we planted.  Our tomatoes didn’t make it. I think we planted them too late in the season maybe?  We have gotten plenty of zucchini, cucumbers (even though I always let them get too big before I pick them), jalapenos, and bell peppers!  We have at least one watermelon that should be ready to pick any day now, our carrots are still growing, and our sweet potatoes are still a little small.  My kale was doing well for a while but then we went to a sprinkler waterer instead of watering by hand and that didn’t seem to help the kale at all.  It hasn’t died but looks a little yellow, so I’m hoping I can bring those back to looking healthy!  One night, we left the water on ALL night.  That didn’t help our vegetables or our electric bill.  Overall, I would say our garden has been a success and we’ve really been enjoying it!  I bought some pumpkin seeds a while back and I was hoping to get those in the ground, but those might have to wait until next year now.

Watermelon

Our poor tomatoes

a little watermelon

Oakley and our watermelon that’s about ready to be picked

Jalapenos

More watermelons

Jalapenos

Bell Peppers

When we first planted our garden, I thought one of my favorite parts would be working in it but I have really enjoyed cooking with all of our vegetables.  I’m not the best cook as you could probably tell from my bread story but I’ve been trying and having so much fun!  I’ve made zucchini muffins, stuffed peppers, sweet potato fries, and zucchini noodles. I’ve used them other ways too just I can’t remember it all right now.  I’ll keep sharing about how we use all of our vegetables.  I’ve also given plenty away to friends and family!  Anything that we don’t use or didn’t use quick enough goes to the chickens and they love that!

Sweet Potato Fries

Kitty Paws is never far when we go out to check the garden!

The chickens eating some cucumbers!

What does Maggie May have to do with Oakley’s sleep training?

by 2 Comments

Well, today marks a week since I started sleep training Oakley. I decided to sleep train her to help prepare her for the babysitters once school starts in a couple of weeks.  She’s actually doing pretty well, but if there’s one thing I’m doing differently than what every book, Google article, or friend that is a sleep training expert says is following my mom intuition. The best parenting advice I’ve ever gotten is, “There’s no right or wrong.  There’s no handbook, it’s whatever works best for you and your family.”  So guess what I did? I broke all of the sleep training rules and I picked Oakley up out of her crib and I rocked her to sleep! And you know what? I don’t regret one second!  I went in there, kneeled next to her crib, hugged her for a while and I just felt the urge to pick her up and rock her. She laid her head down on my shoulder and fell right asleep, but instead of laying her down right away, I rocked and rocked her.  I stared at her precious lips, her perfect nose, and her little eyelashes because I never want to forget this time in my life.  The past year has gone by so fast and sometimes I feel like I don’t remember everything from the first couple of months of her life, which I know is normal.  They’re only little once and I’m going to soak up every moment with her.  Although I did end up laying her down after a while because I had to pee lol. Anyway, my dishes and laundry were still waiting for me and I didn’t care one bit that I didn’t get some housework done while she napped.  If you follow the books or articles to a T, I’m sure your child will get sleep trained a lot quicker than mine, but I prefer to follow my motherly instincts and do what feels right to me.  I forgot to mention, she went down for her second nap perfectly fine even though I took her out of her crib.

Okay okay, so what does Maggie have to do with Oakley’s sleep training?  Yesterday, I was laying Oakley down for her nap and Maggie was laying under a tree outside of her window.  Oakley looooves to see Maggie out the window!  She gets so excited and points at her.  I know one of the number one tips for sleep training is to make sure you have blackout curtains or that the room is pretty dark, but I couldn’t close the window shade on Maggie.  I left the blinds up and Oakley fell asleep within a couple of minutes.  When she woke up, guess who was still right outside her window?  Maggie!  These two have the sweetest bond!  We spend a lot of our time outside following Maggie around the farm.

p.s.- Did you notice Oakley’s cute little shoes in these pictures?

Red, Witt and Blue!

by Leave a Comment

Fourth of July has always been special to us.  Every year we did something fun like go to an Angel game, take a boat ride around Balboa, and eat breakfast with Andrew’s dad side of the family at a little restaurant in Balboa, a tradition they’ve had for over 30 years.  We always looked forward to the Fourth of July, time with family, fireworks, and red white and blue everything so it only made sense to get married on our second favorite holiday.  We just couldn’t get married on Christmas.  So, three years ago we said I do in our friend’s backyard and started this crazy life of ours!  There were fireworks, a fly-over, and we got married on our country’s birthday.  I mean why wouldn’t you get married on the 4th of July? I’m convinced it’s the best day for a wedding!

Not even a month after we got married, we packed up everything we owned, got our two dogs at the time, and moved to Arkansas.  We didn’t know anyone and didn’t have any family there.  At our wedding, Andrew’s Aunt and Uncle told us that moving away from everyone we know would be the best thing we could do for our marriage because we would only have each other to rely on.  They were so right! Even though we miss our family, our friendship, relationship, and marriage got a lot stronger because we only had each other.  Luckily, our family and friends are only a facetime or phone call away.  It won’t be long and some of our family members will be living out here now!  It’s funny how things work out, isn’t it?  We are so looking forward to Oakley having some grandparents out here!

Okay back to our anniversary!  Our first anniversary we celebrated with just the two of us.  Our second anniversary, we celebrated in our new house on our little farm a month away from meeting Oakley.  Our third anniversary, we celebrated with Oakley and family in San Diego.  We spent a majority of the day at the beach with family! I loved the entire day but my favorite part might have been walking along the bay, just the three of us and stopping to pet every dog and talk to anyone that wanted to say more than “Hi” or “Happy 4th.”  We talked and it seemed like the first time in a while that just the three of us got to enjoy some time together.  After, we watched the fireworks out of one of the bedroom windows with Oakley’s Memaw and aunts and uncles.  Every time she saw a firework, her eyes lit up and she turned around to make sure we saw it too!  It was the perfect ending to the most perfect day.

It’s so crazy to think about what our fourth anniversary will hold.  A lot can change in a year but I’m so excited to go through our third year of marriage together and with Oakley!

A Summer Day on the Farm

by Leave a Comment

Ever since I was a little girl, Summer has always been my favorite time of the year. I love when it gets darker later, spending my days in water whether that’s a pool, lake, or ocean, and the sun!  I was super excited to have the summer off with Oakley and just do a bunch of fun things together during her first summer.  We’ve gone to storytime at the library, spent time with friends, walked around the farm to see the animals, worked in the garden, swung on the porch swing, and hung out in Oakley’s little pool.  The one thing that I am really loving about Summer on the farm is just being around all of the animals and the joy that brings to Oakley.  She loves all of her animals and gets a kick out of being around them. Did I mention Andrew has Fridays off?  Even more reason to love Summer, we get three days together instead of two! We’re really enjoying our summer together, so I thought I would share some of what we’ve been up to!

Lazy day on the farm for the kitties

Maggie May playing peek a boo

Oakley and Abigail’s love affair

A little summer snooze

Puppy kisses

Won’t be long and those little feet will have muck boots on them too

It’s normal to have chickens come up to your swimming pool if you live on a farm

Eating a popsicle

 

 

 

The Best $1450 I’ve Ever Spent

by Leave a Comment

I got my license at 16 years old and my dad let me drive his extra truck we used to tow the toy hauler.  It was a 1997 extended cab, long bed F-150.  You can imagine the looks I got when I stepped out of this huge truck and I stood at a whopping 5 feet 2 1/2 inches (to be exact).  Even though it was huge and all of my babysitting money went into the gas tank, I always felt safe driving in Southern California traffic in that beast.  It was also pretty fast, probably faster than I needed but I enjoyed it.  I made a lot of memories driving that truck and really grew to like it.  The morning of the SAT, I backed into a yellow pole in my high school’s parking lot.  I called my dad crying and he said, “Court, it’s okay.  That’s why this is your first car. You don’t think I’ve ever done something stupid like that?”  I appreciated that truck even more after that little accident and I remember I ended up scoring okay on the ACT as well. I hope I remember this situation when Oakley starts driving so I can handle it with the same attitude my dad did.

During my senior year of high school, my parents bought me a silver Mazda 3.  I was in love!  I thought it was the perfect car.  I drove that car for about 6 years until one day I got stranded at work because it wouldn’t start.  Andrew came and met me as we waited for Triple A.  When we finally had it towed, we had two different mechanics tell us that the engine blew up.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was worth it to have the engine rebuilt so I sold it as is, drove the white truck for a summer, and saved up my money for the first car that I would buy. T

I wasn’t sure what car I wanted but I knew that I wanted a small SUV. Not quite as big as the white truck, but not as small as my Mazda 3.  Andrew showed me the Jeep Patriots and I thought they were exactly what I was looking for.  They got decent gas mileage (for a small SUV), they weren’t too big, and they were in the price range I wanted.  It took me a couple of months to find the perfect one in my price range, but I was glad I waited because I was just able to save more.  Andrew, his dad, and I went down to Huntington Beach and test drove the car. I knew it was the car for me.  Andrew’s dad worked out a deal since he used to be in the car business and that was it. It was going to be mine, but then they asked me if I wanted to buy the extended warranty.  Usually, I’m quick to say no to all of the extras but this time I asked them how much it would cost.  They said it would be $1450 and went over what would be covered should anything happen. They said my Jeep would be covered for 5 years or 100,000 miles.  For whatever reason, I agreed and paid the warranty out of my pocket.   Actually, I know the reason.  God made it clear I should buy the extended warranty.

Fast forward a few years later, my Jeep had been to San Diego, Big Bear, and back and forth to Arkansas a couple of times, which means we put quite a few miles on it.  A year or two ago, my Jeep started acting funny, so we brought it in and they said I needed a new transmission. I hadn’t dealt with this before, but I knew that it wasn’t good and that transmissions were expensive.  Andrew reminded me that I bought a warranty and come to find out, it was covered! I just had to pay $100 deductible and for the transmission fluid.. Super weird but I wasn’t going to complain that I had to pay for the fluid.

Fast forward a year or two later, my check engine light came on the week we were leaving to go home to California.  The kicker is that my car had 99,954 miles on it at this point.  We were driving down the road, Andrew lost power, and my check engine light dinged.  With only 46 miles to spare, we pulled over, turned it off, turned it back on, and luckily it started.  We were able to drive it to the dealership and get picked up by a friend.   A couple of days later, the dealership called and said you need a new computer module and your crank shaft is bad.  Having no idea what either of these were, I asked them if they were big problems. He chuckled a little and said, well your crank shaft isn’t but your computer module sure is.  Can you guess what happened? My warranty covered all of it! I just had to pay the $100 deductible and for a tune up because they said they needed that too.

I figure I can either look at this with the glass half empty and think what did I buy? This car needed a new transmission at 70,000 miles and a new computer module at 100,000 miles or I can look at the glass half full and think, I’m so thankful I bought that extended warranty because a new transmission and a computer module would have cost me well over $1450 AND I paid my car off this month!  I’m not trying to convince anyone to buy an extended warranty or say that I will always buy one, I’m just pretty sure God had all of this worked out 4 years ago when I bought my car and I’m so thankful.

A Day at the Lake

by Leave a Comment

Sometimes you just need to get out and do something fun yet relaxing.  If I felt like that in California, I would head to the beach but Arkansas doesn’t have any beaches.  So, we headed to the lake and had the best day!  When we got there, only one other mom and her two girls were there.  It felt like we had the entire lake to ourselves.  The lake is beautiful and surrounded by the Ozark National Forest.  There’s a little beach area with sand and a buoyed off area for swimming.  To top it all off, the water was warm but not too warm.  It was just right!  Oakley loved to play in the sand and swim in the water. I held her out with my hands under her arms and she kicked her feet like crazy. She was happy as could be!  By the end of the day, she got brave enough to try to eat the sand.  I figured that was our queue to leave lol.  She’s my little water baby and I think we will have plenty more lake days in our future!

We came home and I kept telling Andrew all about the lake.   He got us some floaties at the store and is excited to go on a Friday that he has off!  Stay tuned!

Andrew’s First Father’s Day

by 1 Comment

This post is really late but I couldn’t let Father’s Day go unnoticed.  Andrew was pretty excited for his first Father’s Day, but then he got told that he was going to have to work that Sunday (which is super rare).  He was super bummed at first but then realized that meant he was going to have a four day weekend before we went home to California.  He was excited to have all of that time to get stuff done around the farm before we left for a week.  My aunt was in town the week before Father’s Day, so that afternoon my aunt, Oakley, and I met Andrew for lunch at a local barbeque restaurant.  It was nice that we at least got to have lunch together and celebrate Andrew!  Oakley made him a card and traced her hand on the back of it 😉

Even though Andrew’s first Father’s Day wasn’t that extravagant or anything special, he really deserves a lot more.  He loves fiercely and unconditionally, with his whole heart.  Every day she turns more and more into a Daddy’s girl and I can’t say that I blame her.  She’s lucky to have Andrew for her dad, he has so much love to give and he’s always a good time.  Andrew loves to act goofy and it keeps a permanent smile on Oakley’s face.  Watching the two of them together makes me wonder if there’s such thing as dad intuition, just like mom intuition.  There have been a couple of times where Andrew knew exactly what she wanted and I thought, why didn’t I think of that?  He doesn’t give himself enough credit, but our little Oakley Lane sure is blessed to have a daddy like hers.  I couldn’t ask for a better person to raise a confident, tough, sweet, and genuine little girl.  You’ve stolen our hearts and we don’t want them back.  We love you Andrew!