Top Ten: How I Spend My Time

 
Last week, I showed you all where I lived. This week, I want to show you what it is I spend my time doing out here. Some of these may seem like chores, or even an actual job, but I love doing every one of these things.

1. The House. The biggest job I have is taking care of the house. It's the standard job of all housewives. I keep everything clean, including picking up after everyone else, sweeping twice a day, vacuuming out the crumbs that fall into the couch, dusting the spiderwebs that collect in the corners (they come standard issue in a country home), washing the dishes, doing the laundry, and making sure that the house is acceptable for guests, should anyone decide to come over. I would have included making the beds in this list, but my oldest son insists on sleeping with "mommy and daddy", so his own bed is always made; my younger son is only 2 weeks old and sleeps in a bassinet that doesnt have to be made; and I confess I'm just too lazy to make my bed every day!

2. The Boys. The most time consuming job I have is taking care of my two boys. David is 22 months old, and Levi was just born 2 weeks ago. I'm breastfeeding, so I have to take the time every 2 to 4 hours to sit down and feed my newborn, while my older boy runs all over the house and out into the yard leaving behind a trail of toys. Then, as any mommy knows, there are baths that must be taken, meals that must be served, diapers that must be changed, and toys that must be put away. But the details of what it means to be a mommy will have to wait for another day, because it is just WAY too long for this little paragraph.

3. The Hubby. As the AMAZING wife that I am, I take good care of my hubby. I bring him drinks when he is outside working hard, I cook him his meals so when he gets home from work he can sit down and eat, and I wash his work clothes and keep them in their own section of our closet for easy access. I try to do what I can for him (without seeming like a slave, of course!) so that after a hard days work, he can come home and relax. Sometimes, that even means taking his boots off for him, and rubbing aloe vera on his back when he gets a sunburn.

4. Cooking. I love to cook. I love to try new food. But most importantly, I LOVE to bake! I have been known to bake cakes, cupcakes, brownies, muffins, cookies, and pies at random times, just because I wanted to. I am Italian, so I also enjoy trying new Italian recipes. Overall, I think I just love food way too much not to enjoy cooking it and experimenting with new tastes and textures.

5. The Garden. I have a garden behind the house where I grow all sorts of vegetables. It was quite a bit of work getting it started, between the planting and the watering and the weeding... but it is at a comfortable stage right now, where it doesnt need much else from me in order for it to continue growing well and producing veggies. I post an update on the progress of my garden every Saturday right here on my blog!

6. Hatching Eggs. My husband and I have a very large Natureform Incubator, and a Georgia Quail Farm Hatcher. We collect eggs from our birds, and incubate them, then hatch them, and raise and sell the chicks. Some birds, such as Bobwhite Quail and Ringneck Pheasants, we actually just order the eggs online and sell the chicks we hatch. It is my responsibility to label the eggs, arrange them in the incubator, record when they went in, and when they are scheduled to hatch, and move them over to the hatcher three days before that hatch date. I also have to take the chicks that hatch out of the hatcher, and move them to a brooder.

7. The Birds. After we hatch out our chicks, I make sure they are well tended to in their brooders. They have to have heat lamps, feed, and water. And of course, when they get too big, I have to make sure they are moved to a bigger cage. I have to make sure all our other animals have feed and water as well, especially our other birds. If they aren't taken care of, they wont lay eggs, and we wont make any money hatching out babies. I LOVE how cute newly hatched chicks are, especially ducklings. It's amazing watching them grow up and with the assorted chicks, it's exciting to see what breeds they will grow up to be.

8. Craft Projects. I love creating things. Just before high school, I taught myself to crochet, and early last year I taught myself to knit. It blows my mind that I can take a single strand of yarn, and with a little metal stick or two, I can turn that yarn into a blanket, or a stuffed animal, or even a bouquet of flowers. I also love decorating cakes and cupcakes with icing and candies, and making new inventive desserts.

9. Video Games. Okay, so I'm a still a kid at heart. I love video games. As a matter of fact, I actually collect game systems. I have every system that has come out since Atari, with the exception of the original Playstation and the newer Playstation 3. My favorite company is Nintendo, and in my opinion they have all the best games! Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Zelda... classics! I'm in the middle of playing Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass right now. It's on my handheld Nintendo DS system... and a perfect thing to do while breastfeeding or when the boys are napping. I know that video games tend to be looked down upon (since who wants their kids sitting in front of a screen all day?) but for the stay at home mom who wants to work out while having fun with the kids, I totally recommend the Wii, because some of the games really get you to get up and move, and if you want to work out and keep track of your progress, Wii Fit has different workout programs and even tracks your weight!

 

 10. Reading and Writing. I grew up with books. I love the worlds they take you to, and the characters you meet--the pure fantasy you can just fall right into to take a break from reality. I love the excitement when you're waiting for the next book in the series to be released (I'm currently waiting on the FINAL installment of The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan). Reading all those books has inspired me to write. I have recently begun writing a fantasy book myself, although I'm only on the second chapter. Turns out, writing a book is a lot harder than it looks, lol! I also LOVE blogging. My mom has a blog, and one of my best friends has a blog, so I decided to give it a shot myself. As you can see, I fell in love with it, and have even started branching out and linking up to other blogs.

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I do so much more out here that I wasn't able to include in this top ten list. But everything else is more of a side hobby anyways. Such as laying on the roof or out in the pasture and staring at the stars, or fishing down at the lake, or watching my husband take the truck mudding after it rains, or watching my son chase chickens around the yard. But if you ever find yourself reading my blog from time to time, I'm sure you'll hear more about all of that :)