Our Chicken Coop

This is a long overdue post with photos of our FINALLY finished chicken coop.  We got our chicks in February in anticipation of getting our coop done within 4 weeks or so and moving them into it.  However, North Carolina had other plans, and the wild weather just would NOT let up in March.  Add to the wild weather, a husband's rotating schedule, day to day life and two small children and we didn't finish the coop until today.

.... But I guess I should be a little more honest, I wish that I could blame all of the time delay on the weather, but there were also other issues, like we had no idea what we were getting into and we had no idea what we were doing. Haha! But seriously.

Here's the shed that we started with-- rusty, old, and it had broken doors.  Oh, and it was also FULL of junk left from the previous owners, and surrounded on the outsides by junk from the previous owners.

And here's the transformation into chicken coop-- Leeland chose blue as the color.  If it were up to just me, we would have went with a teal or a lavender, but as we were standing there in the paint section looking at the millions of options, there was a little voice being not so quiet, shouting "BLUE! BLUE! BLUE!"

As much as I would love to let the ladies free range all day everyday, I just don't feel like it's safe for them.  Our yard isn't fenced, all of our neighbors have dogs (some who have been known to walk through our yard randomly) and I want to keep my girls safe, so we opted for a large fenced run.  I hope to do some supervised ranging in the yard, but not without me present.

 A premature photo before all of our bedding is down.  Roosting bar on the left and their water and feed in the back.  We also put linoleum down on the floor in hopes of making it an ease to clean.  You can also see that there is a window in the back covered with poultry netting to hopefully offer a little fresh air/breeze from front to back.  Though the shed was already wired with electricity, so theres also the option to add in a fan or a heat lamp if we ever should need it.

The only thing we have left to do is the nesting boxes.  The girls haven't even begun to even think about laying yet, so we still have a little bit of time on that, and I haven't completely decided what kind of nesting boxes I want to put in yet.

 
The girls are still just getting settled in and figuring out where I moved all of their stuff to, but they seem to LOVE their new space!

Soccer Mom

Leeland's very 1st soccer game was today!!  I think it's safe to say that 4 year olds playing soccer is one of the most comical things that I have ever seen.  I knew it would be interesting last week when at practice all of the children were completely distracted by 3 vultures flying overhead.  No I mean, one kid noticed the birds overhead, pointed them out and then every kid stopped what they were doing to turn and stare. Poor coach!  (HAHA!) To add to the lack of concentration, Leeland has the cutest little twinkle toes, where he takes like 5 steps for every 1 kick, and every time he's kicked the ball into the goal, he's followed up with a little victory jig.

It's all really funny, and there's probably only 2 kids on the whole team who have any idea what they are doing (they have older siblings who play), but at the end of the day, Leeland absolutely LOVES playing so far and that's all that matters.  He leaves practices and games with a big grin on his face, feeling so accomplished and proud, and we couldn't be more proud of him!

This is Leeland and his cousin Hopelyn, they're on the same team and she's also 4.  So fun to watch them!

Coach teaching him to throw the ball in.... He threw it in, the opposite direction of their goal. 

Leeland and his cousin playing "Ring Around the Rosie" in the middle of the game!

Go #4, Go!!!

Half Training Week 6

After lots of searching online, I think I'm battling tendinitis.  Not that you should ever rely on the internet for a diagnosis, but that's where symptom searching has led me.  Picked up a foam roller and tennis balls to do some exercises to strengthen and stretch that tendon.  Shooting for doing them twice a day, if not at least once a day, and always after work outs.  I'm a very determined lady..... I WILL conquer my half!!! 

Also, it was recently brought to my attention that I could be over training-- most marathon training schedules are only running 4 days a week, and follow an every other day pattern.  That's more rest than I would like to take, but over training could be a cause of my tendinitis, so I'm going to give this a go so that I can keep pain free until may. 

Monday March 31: rest

Tuesday April 1: ran 4 miles outside

Wednesday April 2: rest

Thursday April 3: ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill, 1.5 on the elliptical 

Friday April 4: rest

Saturday April 5: ran 8.3 miles outside (woo hoo!)

Sunday April 6: intended to do abs, but let's just say I will never go on another long run without sunblock. (Ouch!)

And last but certainly not least..... not sure what sparked it, but I hopped on the scale at the gym this week-- I had been dreading weighing and measurements bc I didn't do so hot over the holidays, and bc of all this rest.... BUT, I'm down another 5 pounds!!!! Also down 1.5 inches in my thigh, down .5 inch in my waist, and down 1 inch in my hips. Yay!!! (((Insert happy dance here)))

Half Training Week 5

I feel like this is "Ferris Beuller's Day Off"..... Week 5?.... Week 5?.... Week 5?

I started week 5 almost a month ago, and sustained what I thought was a serious injury and was forced to take a break.  I was about half way through the week, heading into my long run.  I was supposed to run 7 miles, and when I finished up with mile 5, I suddenly had excruciating pain in my left foot.  There are pains that you can work through.... and there are pains that you can't and this was one that I just had to limp home and stop.  It was incredibly frustrating!  A couple days later, I tried to work out again and it wasn't happening.  Thinking that I was dealing with more plantar fascists, I decided I needed to take a 2 week break to rest it.

After 2 weeks, we had a freak snow/ice storm and were without power for 5 days.  And also displaced from our home during those days.  (((sigh)))  I did manage to do a quick 2 mile run one of those days in my in-laws neighborhood, but there was still some slight pain, and I can't deny that after 2 1/2 weeks off, it was TOUGH!

Then the next week got away from me.  If I'm really honest, when you take a substantial break, it is just SO SO hard to get back at it.  Your routine is off, and you just dread that first day back.  It's a mental thing I know, but it's hard to get back on track.

But here I am!  I'm back in the saddle, and I'm getting closer and closer to that half marathon date and I have got to get my butt in gear!  I did visit a local shoe store this week and have them measure my feet and watch my stride in an effort to find the solution to my foot pain.  You see, I had a bit of an epiphany.  Last Summer when I was doing P90x and also doing quite a bit of running, I didn't have any foot troubles.  It wasn't until this past Fall that issues started to arise-- for the most part I blamed it on over training.  I was running more, and doing some serious plyo type exercises with Turbo Fire. BUT, back to the epiphany, I also bought some new shoes in August.  The shoes I bought were a much cheaper version of Nike's than my previous ones, and they were very different in style.  After visiting the shoe store, I walked away with my mind totally blown!  Not only was I wearing shoes that didn't offer enough support for some over pronation issues that I have, but they were even the wrong size!!!  I had no idea!  So here's the Saucony's I got-- I'm hoping these will mean an end to foot pain.  They're my very first pair of Saucony, but they seem to fit well, and they have the proper support that my foot shape/size and my stride needs.  Can't wait to try them out, break them in, and verify this theory about my foot pain.

So here's the breakdown of this past week (really a little over a week):

Friday March 21:  Turbo Fire, Fire 40 Class and Stretch 10

Saturday March 22:  2 mile run with the boys in the jogger stroller

Sunday March 23: Ran 3.25 miles

Monday March 24: P90x Plyometrics

Tuesday March 25: Rest

Wednesday March 26: Ran 4 3/4 miles, Turbo Fire Abs 10 and Stretch 10

Thursday March 27: Rest.... Mandatory rest.... Looks like my theory about the pain being solely from the shoes, might be a tad off.  I have a few things to try in hopes of coping and healing and I'm gonna see where it takes me.  Very, very discouraging though! 

Friday March 28: more rest....

Saturday March 29: more rest.... 

Sunday March 30: and more rest.... :(

So Long Microwave

So our microwave died last week-- I guess it had been on it's last leg for a while, but we never knew it. Our house is old, so I always assumed our issues with the microwave were more of an electrical problem as opposed to something being wrong with the actual microwave.  Weird things like every time we've ever popped popcorn, it would suddenly black out after and not come back on for a few minutes.  The first time it happened, we thought it was a fuse or something we needed to flip the breaker for, but we quickly learned that it had nothing to do with the breaker and that it just took time.  Usually about 5 minutes or so and it would blink back on, and it only happened when we used the popcorn setting. Anyway, one day last week I was reheating my food for lunch and after 2 minutes of heating it went out…. And didn't come back on.  

The original plan was to simply replace it, but after some searching, I discovered that the over the stove microwaves aren't cheap…. And that got me thinking, is the microwave really even necessary?  

After some thinking, and some conversation with people I know who don't even own microwaves, I knew we could go without, and that we could save some money in the long run.  The only dilemma we found was that once we removed the microwave, we realized that our "back splash" put in by the previous homeowners, didn't go beyond the height of what the microwave was.  Luckily though, thanks to some re-organization I did in the attic after putting away our Christmas decorations in January, I remembered that there was a large piece of countertop in the attic and that we could just remove the old piece and put up a new piece that was a larger size.  It was definitely easier said than done, especially since we don't exactly own the proper tools or supplies to cut countertop, but we got the job done and got the new piece up. 

Once the new piece of backsplash was up, we had to install our new oven hood.  (PS the duck tape was only there while our contact cement dried into place.  It came down once all was dry and sturdy.)  Daniel tried to sell me on the stainless steel model, but for now I think black is the safest option.  For one, the black was cheaper, but also, all of our appliances are black, so though the stainless would match the cooktop of our oven, until other items in the kitchen are stainless, I just felt like it would stick out funny.  

I don't think I realized how HUGE the microwave was until it was removed.  The stove definitely feels  less claustrophobic.  A lot more cooking space!

And then since I know you all are thinking, "what do you do without without a microwave,"  "how do you reheat your food?", or "how do you melt butter or pop popcorn?"…. Well to answer that, we got a toaster oven.  The toaster oven can pretty much do about anything you would use your microwave for. And what it can't do, our stove can do.  We can totally survive without a microwave!

…. And it's a really pretty red toaster oven at that!

I think this is the 1st "real" home improvement project (if you can even call it that) we've done since we bought our house a year and a half ago.  I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing?  I mean, our house was pretty much move in ready.  Would we like to change some paint colors?  Sure!  In a perfect world, would we have some pretty mosaic glass tile as the back splash or all stainless steel appliances and granite countertops?  Absolutely!  But for now, what we've got is working for us, and our focus is more on each other and our kids.  There's always home improvements that can be done, and there will always be little items on our wish list that we'll get to eventually.

And for anyone curious on if we saved money by not replacing the microwave-- absolutely!  The microwave/hood fan combos that I was looking at were in the range of $200-$250.  We bought the hood fan and the toaster oven, along with the supplies necessary to install and fix the backsplash all for $100.  Boom!