Making the most of a Small Backyard - Vol. 1

Living inside the city limits of my small town has it's perks. I am less than a mile from retail and grocery stores, I have quick access to school and jobs which saves us lots of money on gas and wear and tear on the car. A few things that are not so great are the close proximity to my neighbors and the fairly small yard we have. My front yard is nearly unusable with a very steep slope across it's entirety that goes straight down to the road. My back yard is really the only space we can use outside our home, and a good portion of it has been taken over by the detached garage/shop that is large enough to house two full sized vehicles. So I am determined to make the most of the small space we have left, and make our backyard a fun, usable, and relaxing place.

First, I want to decide what I love about my backyard.

• The patio
• Though small and uncovered, I love having a patio for the grill, the kids to draw with side walk chalk and ride bikes, and a nice place to sit potted plants.
• The Swing set
• It's definitely not the prettiest thing in my backyard, but the kids get so much enjoyment from it.
• The privacy fence
• This is a must have in our neighborhood with neighbors within 30 feet of each side of our house, and a public alley in the back. It's not in the best shape, but I'm sure we can fix that.
• Grass
• I don't want to sacrifice much of the grassy area in our yard because it's just so pretty and soft, plus it keeps dust that might get into my house during long Oklahoma summers to a minimum.

Now to figure out what I want to get out of my backyard.

• A place for the kids to play
• This means the swing set needs to stay in a level place with plenty of room and soft grass, and there must be enough open space to run, play ball, blow bubbles, and chase butterflies :)
• A garden
• I love to grow my own vegetables and NEED a good sized garden to make it worth my time and money.
• Comfortable seating for adults.
• If the kids are going to be outside, I have to have a place to sit where I won't be in the way, in the blaring sun, or uncomfortable.
• kid-friendly ornamental plants
• My great grandmother's rose bush is a beautiful heirloom, but it's thorny branches are not practical for a backyard where kids will be playing. So I need plants that will beautify our space without posing a hazard.
• Attracting some friendly wildlife.
• I'm not looking to create a den for raccoons or a snake pit, but having a few of the squirrels and birds from the field across the alley stop by for a visit would be a fun treat for the kids. 

I've bnen gathering ideas and inspiration from lots of places, and so far I've got a few projects planned. 

First I'll be creating a raised garden bed from donated cinder blocks. I was given about 35 cinder blocks about 2 years ago, and they've been collecting spiders and performing various jobs around the yard since that time. I've mapped it out and can create a garden bed that will house about 8-10 plants while taking up minimal space in the yard. I will be installing it near the back corner of the yard to keep it out of the kids' main playing space. Alongside the bed I have 3 large plastic planters that will hold my tomato plants. As an big bonus, two of my husband's coworkers have offered to give us some free fill-dirt, and compost! That means my garden will be almost completely free!

Next I plan to plant some sunflowers along the back panels of the privacy fence in an effort to attract butterflies, bees, and other pollinating insects. They will also provide an little extra coverage from the alley behind us since they will grow taller than the fence panels. Once they have wilted in the fall I can dry the flowers and save the seeds for bird feed for the winter!

As soon as things get good and warm I'll be raiding my grandmother's garden for some clippings and sprouts to start my ornamental plants. I'm also keeping my eye out for plants on the clearance rack at the local stores to add to my yard. 

Follow me on pinterest to keep up with new ideas and inspiraton until my next post! 

Are you planning any outdoor projects for the spring? Email me with your plans and pictures, and I may feature your project on my blog! 

mommamadehome@gmail.com

Happy homemaking! 

~Stefanie

More on Spring Cleaning and Renovation

As usual, life has thrown us for a loop. In my last post about spring cleaning I shared that we were planning on selling our home and renovating an older, larger home, but plans have changed. I won't bore you with the details of how this all happened, but we've decided that the right thing for our family and finances is to stay where we are and make the best of the space we have.

In an effort to get that process started we spent much of spring break (last week) painting the interior of our house. I'm totally in LOVE with the color of the main part of our house. It's called "Creamy Pebble" by Better Homes and Gardens. It falls in the popular family of "greige" colors, and is a beautiful modern, neutral for almost any space. I chose this color for my living room, entry, hall, and dining room (only because my dining room shares a wall with my living room, and making it all the same color made my life easier).

Pardon my little one playing with her new basket full of toys :)

I also added some new blinds to my living and dining areas. This update came out of necessity since my lovely children had successfully destroyed 3 sets of vinyl blinds. We opted for a slightly more expensive, energy efficient, and kid-friendly window treatment. If you haven't looked into cellular shades, you need to. They are durable, easy to clean, and hide all the strings and gears from tiny hands. The ones we chose also have a thermal lining on the interior to help keep heat and cold out of the house, while also providing room darkening (the best I've ever seen!). Though they appear to be paper thin, they are very durable. We spent a few minutes in the home improvement store hitting, scratching, and pulling on the display pieces to assure we were making a good choice :)

Stock photo from Lowes.com

We tackled a few smaller projects as well including installing a new digital thermostat, adding some decorative baskets for storage, rearranging the living room furniture, and spray painting the doorbell chime cover a nice glossy white.

 

We have a lot more projects planned for the next few weeks, including new laminate wood floors!! I'm really excited about those! The backyard will be getting a few raised beds and I hope I can get some outdoor furniture on the patio pretty soon.

Spring Cleaning: Organizing and Storing Digital Photos

     A few times every year I try to go through closets and cabinets in an effort to clear clutter and keep my home "somewhat" organized. This spring is a little different. We are planning to sell our current home, which means I'm doing a complete clutter overhaul!
     We are lucky to have a free place to store items I'm not quite ready to part with. These mostly include clothes and toys that will be handed down to my youngest daughter from her older sisters, keepsake items like photos and baby books, and holiday decor. I'll talk more about these projects in later posts.
     My main project this week has been organizing my digital photos and videos, backing them up, and storing them on an external hard drive as well as discs. I am giving my old gigantic desktop dinosaur of a computer to my dad, and I don't want to bog down my laptop with all that data. Losing these precious memories is a huge fear of mine, and yet I have neglected to keep them safe, secure, and organized. It is a time consuming process, but I can multitask by doing laundry or crocheting on a current order while files are transferring, so it's worth the time spent to have the assurance that I won't lose a single photographic moment of my daughters' childhoods.
There are some great suggestions to accomplish this task with as little headache as possible here.
     In the midst of this project I decided it was time to backup the extensive music collection my husband and I have acquired throughout the years. Many of our albums were in iTunes despite the fact that we've been Android users for over three years. I'm currently NOT tackling those selections, but I am going disc by disc (yes, I'm so old I have a collection of CDs!) to upload the remainder of our music to the external hard drive. I plan to do a little more research on the best way to rip the music from iTunes, since I'll need it in a more usable format. If any of you out there have useful suggestions please share!

Now I'll return to my daunting job. Wish me luck! :)

My Breastfeeding Journey

I am a huge breastfeeding advocate, and have spent over 30 months of my life (so far) nursing my babies. My oldest daughter had (a diagnosis of) colic, and after 6 months, her pediatrician convinced me to stop breastfeeding and give her formula. We tried every brand in an effort to relieve her tummy troubles, and finally settled on THE most expensive brand. We were lucky enough to have the Choctaw WIC program offer us help buying her formula, when the state program refused to help since it wasn't an approved brand (because, you know, sponsorship trumps healthy babies???).
I now know that with a little support from an educated health professional I could have adjusted my diet, and continued to give my daughter the best nutrition for her growing body. She is now an incredibly smart, beautiful, and healthy 7 year old girl, so I realize that she is not suffering because she was fed formula as an infant. She did suffer. My poor little girl became so constipated she had to use laxatives until age 3. Without them she would go days without a bowel movement, and have tears from passing stools so large and compact that they clogged the toilet. She cried and trembled with sweat pouring from her face trying to use the bathroom. Potty training was affected, and took months longer to achieve because of the fear and discomfort. Finally, after being on a daily dose of Mirilax for 2 months, the constipation ended, but she couldn't control her bowels at all. That lasted another month, and caused a painful rash from constant irritation and cleaning.
She cannot remember these events, but undoubtedly has a lasting mental block , as she cannot use the bathroom at school or in public.

After such a traumatic experience I became even more determined to avoid formula feeding with my second daughter. She was a breeze! I nursed her successfully for 14 months, when she weaned quite easily. She has never had any kind of issues, is healthy, happy, and well adjusted. Her appetite is great, and she is so much more willing than my oldest to try new foods and eat a variety of healthy foods. This could be a personality trait or due to her exposure to a variety of foods through my breast milk.

Now with my youngest daughter I plan to continue breastfeeding until she weans herself or is over 2 years old. She has successfully overcome a severe milk allergy that we discovered just before she was 2 months old without compromising her nutrition thanks to my breast milk. She was passing blood in her stool , and through my own research I learned this was a symptom of milk allergy. I discussed this with her doctor and was told she may need to be on soy formula. Instead, I decided to eliminate dairy from my diet , and within just a few days her symptoms had disappeared. I told the doctor what I have discovered and she still did not give my daughter a diagnosis of milk allergy because she had not performed a painful and unnecessary allergy test. Now that she is 9 months old I have begun to reintroduce dairy slowly back into my diet. She is tolerating the additions well and growing  at a healthy rate.

I believe breast milk can be a very important source of nutrition for many infants who have digestive difficulties. Formula is a blessing to those babies who medically need it, but breast milk can be just as medically important to an infant's overall health. All babies should be given the opportunity to eat the food that was designed by nature to nourish their fragile bodies. Even if a mother is not able to breastfeed, a healthy lactating donor should always be the second option over formula. This is the recommendation of the World Health Organization, and should be adopted by medical professionals throughout the US to ensure the health of future generations.