New Addition - Breaking Ground

Yesterday was a big day around here! Thanks to Dave Ramsey's zero-balance budget plan and a healthy tax return, we were able to break ground on our new addition. We are enclosing our porch, which will add 75 sq ft of living space to our dining room and living room. We will have a much smaller porch area that will be enclosed. Excited to not have to worry about slippery steps in the winter time. This will enable me to have a larger office/homeschooling area. It will make our living space much more open, which I'm extremely excited about! We are also planning on getting rid of our ugly carpet and putting in hardwood floors. We've hired a contractor to do the foundation/framing work, and we'll do the rest. Here is a before picture of our porch. Michael and Josiah pulled the siding off.We hired a backhoe to break up the concrete and dig the foundation. While he was there, we had him level out the driveway as much as he could. You can see our refrigerator for milk next to the side of the house. Eventually, we'd like to build a little shelter for this that would look nice. The tree you see on the left, we want to take out to make our driveway bigger.Hailey was helping with the foundation work. We hired a contractor who loves kids and lets them hang out with him and ask questions. He's a great guy! He did our the big addition to the back of our house that we added 6 years ago, just before Josiah was born.Josiah and Hailey played in this dirt pile for a really long time. Have I mentioned that a pile of freshly dug soil is a homeschooling family's dream? They were digging out tree roots and earthworms (they loved dissecting these), insects, rocks "gold" and were pretending they were dogs and burying their "bones". We talked about different soil textures and organic matter. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of other school work done. It is hard to say "do your math" with an excavator working in your front yard :) They were so dirty that when bath time came, the water was a beautiful shade of brown.

Last night, we managed to get our seeds planted in our indoor Jiffy planter. Hoping to break ground for our new organic, heirloom garden this weekend.

If you are looking for a wonderful Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe, click here. You'll love it! Although, when we get our 1/4 of a beef this year, I'm going to try marinating our own. I'll be posting soon about the delicious avacado pancakes we made for St. Patrick's Day. I'm hoping to have time to make some naturally fermented sauerkraut today, not very Irish, but hey, I'm using green cabbage, does that count?

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Everyone!

Love and Blessings,

Jackie