Updating

It is always amazing to me to see how much the outside world changes as the seasons come and go. It seems like just yesterday when I was looking out my window at the first snowfall of the year.

With the changing of the seasons, the different activities that my family participates in change as well. I’m going to post updates below on several of the things we’ve been working on.

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As the warmer weather quickly approaches, we are spending more time out-of-doors while we work in our garden and neaten our yard. I am especially enjoying the beautiful flowers that are poking their heads out of the ground.

I’ve been trying to capture their beauty lately through photographing them:

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I’ve also been trying to stretch my cooking wings lately.

The first thing that I’ve been attempting to perfect is loaf bread. The Vermont Maple Honey Oat Bread recipe out of the King Arthur Flour cookbook has been my absolute favorite homemade loaf bread recipe of all time. It is a delicious bread that is wonderful for sandwiches or is fantastic as an addition to any meal.

Mmmmmm…… =) You can’t beat fresh bread!

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Two weeks ago, I was blessed to be able to get my driver’s license. Those of you who know me know what a big deal that was for me, being the last person on earth who wanted to learn how to drive. I’m happy to report that I am actually beginning to enjoy it, *gasp*! 🙂

Now that we can drive (my brother, Josh, also got his license on Monday), Josh and I went and got a pizza today. We enjoyed doing something different and I can see how being able to drive is going to be a really nice thing.

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I’m pleased to announce that we have 3 new additions to our family.

Meet Gracie:

Zoe:

and last, but certainly not least, Jack, our first dog ever:

Gracie and Zoe are two of the sweetest cats you’ll ever meet. We adopted Gracie from our local animal shelter. She is right over a year old, and is playing the role of a sweet and *very* patient Mama cat to Zoe, a kitten that we were able to get from some people who lived just down the road from our old house. Zoe is full of spunk and energy, but you can tell both cats really enjoy playing together and they seem to get along really well.

Then we have Jack. Jack is a 3-month-old black lab whom we are still having to get adjusted to. Not ever having had a dog before, we weren’t prepared for how full of energy Jack would be. As long as we can train him well now, he will make an excellent guard dog for our chickens, as well as our home. If any of you have tips on training a dog and wouldn’t mind sharing them, we would be much appreciative, as we are pretty much starting from the ground up. 🙂

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I think that pretty much wraps up this post. I hope your day has been wonderful thus far! =)

~*~Courtney~*~