Snow

Winter is finally here in Northern Wisconsin.

It came extremely late this year, due to El Nino, which is fine with me. The day time temps have stayed in the 20s and we got our first big snowstorm. My son and husband turned a small hill outside our front door into a sledding hill. They built a cardboard box wall to crash into.

We got to test out our lawn tractor and snow blower attachment. Our property slopes to the south so the extra parking area/turn around spot was not able to get plowed. The tractor got stuck in the heavy wet snow and had to be pulled out with the Jeep.

My son turned 3 and I made him a construction cake. He only wanted the trucks and could careless about the cake. Next year I am just going to make him a donut tower.

We had our first Christmas here too! We roasted a ham and opened gifts.

My son received a toy chainsaw which he is over the moon about. During the heavy snow storm the weight of the snow knocked down a tree onto the sledding hill and he helped my husband buck it.

I received a voucher for rifle training through the Appleseed project. I am very excited to work on my rifle skills. I would love to be able to hunt grouse.

Our tankless water heater arrived!! The home store near us does not carry the wires to install it, so still no plumbed in water. The truck stop I have been taking showers at, their hot water heater broke so I have not been able to shower there. Some friends and (brother on Christmas morning) let me use their shower!

I joined a local moms group that has a meeting and gets together for coffee and moms night out. They also do some volunteer work in the community. Its sort of weird trying to make new friends as an adult, especially if you are a stay at home mom, you really have to get out there and make it happen. I did a painting night and I really enjoyed it. The advertising said "winter landscape on barn wood" I thought it was going to be like a Bob Ross painting event. Instead the instructor wanted us to paint snowmen. I did not want to hang snow men up so I painted a pic of our home in the woods. It was a great time!

Since it's the end of the year I'm reflecting back on 2015. It was in March that my husband applied for the job transfer and got it. Then we sold half of our crap to move into a place in the woods. We totally switched our lives around to live within our means and debt free. We are moving towards more and more personal liberty. My goals for 2016 

- tap maple trees

- start small raised bed gardens 

- remove brush trees and get fruit trees in

- build outdoor pizza oven

- start focusing more on homeschool preschool

- take more personal days for just me

- find a babysitter so I can have some time with my husband