Celebrating the Little Things

I'm not gonna lie.  This pregnancy is really taking it out of me.  What I've realized is, every pregnancy really takes it out of me, but normally I push through the nausea and exhaustion.  Which would lead to worse nausea and exhaustion.  Perhaps I'm finally learning my lesson with baby number five.  Still, when there are hillsides to weed, chicken coops to finish, garden beds to prepare, orchards to put in, and a homeschool year rapidly approaching, it's hard to stay still.  I love doing all of the above, which makes it even harder to be so sedentary.  It got to the point to, as I read others' beautiful blogs filled with tales of new bee hives, bumper crop gardens, and livestock additions, I felt sad instead of the usual excited, so-happy-for-them feeling that usually washes over me.  Could I possibly be... feeling sorry for myself?  Oh dear me no.  That must be remedied.

In an effort to put an end to those doldrums, here is me, choosing to celebrate what is happening in our little homestead, inching along a little slower than planned...

After gathering all the supplies for making goat milk soap and cheese, I had to go back on my offer of goat-sitting for my friends for anther month.  My husband's crazy schedule does not make him available if ever I need to skip a milking.  As sad as this made me, it did allow for another friend who is also interested in getting dairy goats to look after them, an opportunity I was so grateful for, and I'm glad she gets to have it now, too.  The cheese and soap ingredients won't go bad, and I'm sure my friends will share some milk when I'm ready for it.

There might not be a pool or pond yet, but I'm taking great delight in watching the kids thrill to the sensation of a good ol' fashioned hose spray (a new daily ritual).

We had several sad, dead oaks on our land, but through my husband's hard work, it has translated into a hefty wood pile, which is a comforting sight when our only source of heat for the not-too-distant colder months is the wood stove. 

There is no vegetable garden this year, and I won't deny that that fact hurts, but I was surprised to count eight herbs growing quite profusely right outside the kitchen.

Our new-to-this-season raspberry canes produced no berries (I'm thinking it has something to do with needing more acid in the soil than I gave them?) and the tiny blueberry bush definitely doesn't produce enough for even one pie, but it does put a twinkle in my kids' eyes when they walk by and pick a handful of juicy morsels as a summertime snack.

There might not be an orchard yet, but our big, bush-of-a pomegranate tree is ornamented with many little, growing fruits!

Remember the grape vines I worried about because I pruned them so late in the season?  Well, they grew.  A lot.  And I never trellised them. *sad face*  But there are many clusters of grapes!  We don't know if they're table or wine yet.  Does anyone know how to tell by looking at this picture of them?  It seems like they need a little more time to ripen on the vine (although there are a few raisins).

Our first pullet started laying!  The one and only white egg layer, the California White, is leading the brood.  Aren't the eggs so cute and tiny when they first start?

Oh.  And not to forget (because I tend to)?  I'm growing a baby.  And I'm pretty happy about that.  The most happy about that.  So I'll rest now.  And be thankful for what I do have.  For what's to come.  A sweet, amazing little life will be here before we know it.  And I look forward to that orchard and those garden beds to be put in place in their own good time, but the time is not right now.  Now?  It's nap time.  And now?  I'm okay with that.