toviaacres

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If there is one thing I love almost as much as my family, it’s my weekends with my soul sister. And lucky for me that weekend has arrived. Tomorrow I fly out to Idaho to do nothing but spoil Karlin with girl time and prep work for the little boy growing in her tummy. But before that can happen I have a to-do list to make sure the boys aren’t left hanging without mom around. Laundry completed, dishes cleaned, house picked up, soccer gear gathered for Logan, diaper bag packed for Rider, groceries stocked for everyone, luggage packed for myself and the biggest task; cleaning and stocking the animals so feedings are quick and easy while I’m away. Want to know exactly what that looks like? Lucky for you, you can! I spared you the cleaning part but here is how my morning was spent feeding, stocking feed containers and ofcourse giving everyone some love on this muddy fall morning.

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What’s my favorite thing at Tovia Acres?

When we drove up the driveway to our home the very first time, I mean the VERY first time, I can vividly remember saying “uh oh, I’m going to love this house”. Normally that’s what you want to think as you drive up to an open house but we specifically told ourselves we were ONLY going to this open house to get an idea of what 5 acres felt like. We had our minds set on wanting 10-20 acres but there just wasn’t a lot of homes for sale at that time with that much land. So I suggested we look at other options and get a feel for 5 acres. So we found an open house and decided to check it out. Truth be told, we almost turned around half way there because it felt like we had been driving forEVER and couldn’t believe we still had 20 minutes left. We had no idea where we were or where the heck we were going but we stuck it out just to be able to feel out the land. Then we hit the driveway.... and again I said “uh oh, I’m going to love this house”. Clearly the rest of the story is history and here we are living in that house with the amazing driveway. So what is it about the driveway? Well it’s a gravel driveway, off of a paved road. The sound of driving onto a gravel road always reminds me of going to visit my grandma in Olympia, WA. When my brother and I were little my mom would drive us up there and we would fall asleep and wouldn’t wake up until the tires hit her gravel road. That’s the sound of grandmas house. We love that place. So the gravel was my first warm fussy thought that entered my mind as we drove up to the house. Next, it was a looooong driveway. About the length of 3 football fields. We drove what felt like minutes instead of seconds on this curvy gravel driveway through tall trees and plush bushes and black berries. Then as it opened up at the top, the most beautiful house emerged from the trees. Yep, we were sold and hadn’t even walked in the door yet.

I sure love that driveway.

Now, with a long gravel driveway comes a heavy duty job. Keeping it in good shape. How do I do that? With this beauty.

My Kubota. My pride and joy out here on the farm. We were blessed with an amazing couple that sold us this house, as they also sold us the tractor along with it. Neither of us knew how to use it but we both knew it would come in handy. So me being the person I am, I didn’t waste anytime before hoping in the driver seat. Now because I had no idea what I was doing I did what any sensible person would do first... watch YouTube videos. You’d be amazed at the things you can learn on YouTube these days and starting a tractor is one of them. So here’s my quick tutorial:

You put your break on the pedal marked #1, then turn the key (#2) but not all the way, just half way. Then you pause while you count to 8 and turn the key the rest of the way. (Something about the gas but I don’t really know what the big friendly burly farmer man said on the YouTube video, I just know it only works if i pause and count to 8). Next you press the pedal marked #3 and press the lever marked #4 before releasing pedal #3. Then adjust your speed using #5. No numbers or arrows for your speed, just a photo of a turtle or a rabbit to determin how fast you want to go. This is a tractor remember, not a Corvette. The you hit the pedal #6 as long as you have raised the bucket off the ground using lever number #7.

And there you have it! Now anyone can drive a tractor. 😜👍🏻

Oh but then there are all of these levers on the side, don’t get me started with those.🤦‍♀️ I tend to only use 1 to move the attachment on the back of the tractor up and down. The others I leave alone until I watch some more YouTube videos

So now back to my project. The driveway. With the daily driving and Mother Nature, the driveway gets beat up quite a bit. The previous owners told us about places they purchased gravel and how they come out to grade it every few years to make it look like new again. Well I went through the process of getting quotes and we are talking thousands of dollars to have that done. So once again after josh took off for work I turned to the good ol YouTube and my friendly burly farmer man and learned how to grade the driveway myself. It took quite some time to get it finished (and lots of patience) but I did it and it looked awesome! So now I do it once a year and we have yet to spend the thousands of dollars on our driveway.

Tonight was my night to do it this year. There’s been enough rain to make the gravel/dirt moist and easy to lift, but it wasn’t raining tonight so it wasn’t muddy, and I didn’t have to mess up my hair and makeup ofcourse. So I just start at the bottom, drag the blade, fill the box and sloooowly drive up the driveway.

Then I do it again, and again and again until all the big piles of gravel that get built up at the bottom, level out the gravel all the way to the top.

Can you tell the difference? I have learned to love and appreciate the look of freshly graded gravel. It is truly an art to be able to grade and level a long driveway. Unfortunately I didn’t get to finish before dark so I did my last few passes with the head lights lighting my way.

Looking forward to seeing my hard work in the morning.

Ahh, life at Tovia Acres. It’s a pretty good one. 😊

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My week in photos

Every week in the life of me is a crazy week. However this week seemed to be overly filled but filled with lots of love and joy. It’s actually how I prefer my weeks to go. When I wake up and realize I have nothing on the calendar, I almost don’t know what to do with myself so usually end up starting a new project.

So what did I do this week? Well let’s see...

Monday:

Monday was spent at Red Berry Barn with my littlest Gross boy. I got to meet up with a dear friend that I don’t get to see very often and we got to chat and catch up while our littles playerd. Rider is 100% all boy and was happiest playing in the sand pit or just digging in the rocks. Dirty might as well be his middle name.

Tuesday:

Logan’s happy place is the soccer field! That kid could run and kick soccer balls all day! Most of my soccer photos are on my big camera so sadly I don’t have any photos yet to share of him but I do have this gem of a photo for you. Jaxon is quite the cheerleader on the sidelines haha doesn’t that look comfortable? 😜

They also started something new on Tuesday’s! Cub scouts! Woo hoo! They were pretty excited at the end of their first Den meeting however it makes for a crazy Tuesday! They get home from the bus just before 4:00. They have enough time to sit down and eat dinner, do homework and grab what we need to get in the car by 5:00 for Logan’s 5:30 soccer practice. Practice ends at 6:30 and cub scouts starts at 6:30. Oops 😬 luckily they are only 7 minutes away from each other so we leave soccer 4 minutes early and arrive at cub scouts 3 minutes late. Then back on the road at 7:30 and in bed a little after 8. Mom waves the white flag and the day is done! If this crazy schedule happened on any other day besides Tuesday we probably would’ve opted out of cub scouts but luckily for us, Wednesday is late start day at school so the boys get an extra hour of sleep after their busy night. Wednesday is also their day to get hot lunch at school so I’m off the hook for lunches! Woo hoo!!

Wednesday:

Wednesday’s I get to use the extra hour before school to actually get MYSELF dressed in clothing other than farm clothes or pajamas. Real clothes. Nice clothes. Pretty girl clothes. After Rider and I drop the boys off at the bus we head to church for bible study. I’ve always wanted to attend this bible study but in the past it just wasn’t possible with preschool drop off and pick up schedules. With Logan AND Jaxon in school full time I can now drop Rider off in the nursery and enjoy a solid 3 hours of ME time. The most important time a mom can get. Last week we got to make a collage. Coffee, girl talk, Jesus and crafts??? Sign me up!! Our collage needed to represent who we are. Here is mine, pretty sure I nailed it ;)

Thursday:

Fun Run!!! This is one of the biggest fundraisers our school does each year and this year was extra special for me because the 3 businesses my family members own were sponsors so were advertised on all the shirts!! My step dads company where josh works, my dad’s company and even my brothers. ❤️ Logan and Jaxon were responsible for making all the phone calls this year to ask for donations and they did a great job. At least after Jaxon changed his wording from “do you want to give me some money” to “ would you like to make a donation” haha They ran their feet’s off and Logan finished with 11 laps and Jaxon finished with 10. Family and friends that donated and reading this now, act surprised when the boys call you this week to tell you how it went. ;) Together the boys raised $571 for their school! Thank you so much to those that donated for making that happen!! Woo hoo!! Rider also enjoy coming to the fun run and cheering the boys on.

Thursday I also got to meet up with some friends for more girl talk and coffee and we happen to pick a place with a splash pad. While I wasnt prepared for this, the weather was beautiful and Rider had a blast playing in the water.

Friday was a bit of a sad day as I went to a candlelight vigil for someone very special to me. He was my most favorite teacher of all time. My high school english teacher, Mr Fleming. I’ll attach a link to his obituary as there are just so many wonder things about him. Such a great man he was.

https://www.rosecityfuneralhome.com/notices/Patrick-Fleming

I returned home from his service just before 10:00pm and as I pulled up in the driveway I remembered I was suppose to finish making a cake for someone’s wedding the next morning! Ugh, here is where my planning sometimes fails. Lots of late night projects. But luckily this was an unconventional wedding that served donuts and just needed one big donut cake for the bride and groom. Turned out just the way they wanted and everyone loved it.

The weekend was filled with family time. Saturday morning soccer games, board games and house projects. Sunday I did my animal chores and cleaned the chicken coop, bunny pen and fixed the pigs water container. Sunday afternoon we went to our class at church and the evening was spent at home cooking dinner, reading books to Rider and wrestle matches with big brothers. Our house never seems to be silent until all heads hit their pillows and really we wouldn’t have it any other way.

And now, it’s Monday again...

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What’s one more thing...

My friends like to joke that clearly my days must consist of 26 hours because they don’t understand how I do all that I do. Mom of 3 boys, care taker to 30 animals, wife of a business man, house cleaner/decorator, PTA co president, runner of all races, master of all things Pinterest and then successfully being able to enjoy a relaxing bath at the end of my day. My life takes a well kept calendar, (which could actually use improvement) a very understanding husband and a brain that refuses to shut off. Since I mostly have a hold of all projects in my life, what’s one more thing added to my plate?

When I got the news that our AWANA club was closing I was devasted. Most days it still doesn’t feel real that it’s gone and I won’t ever walk down those stairs to my club and greet all those sweet little faces. That was my “thing”. My escape. My pride and joy. Teaching kids the gospel while also teaching myself was out of this world spectacular! I poured my heart into my lessons each week and did everything I could to make sure every kid was eager to learn more and excited to return each week. Now a couple years later I still desire to find my “thing” again and I am hopeful that I have. I have decided to partner with and become a community coordinator for “healthy kids running series”. This is an amazing program that was started on the east coast and has slowly trickled it’s way across the country with over 230 locations. Now I get to combine my crazy life of running with my passion for working with kids. I’ll get to give and build a community with an incredibly impactful youth running program in the Beaverton/SW Portland area and I am so excited to dive in a get things going. Stay tuned all you parents for more info this spring about dates and locations.

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Another month older

This sweet boy of mine won’t stop growing. 13 months old and just the happiest boy around.

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Falling into Fall

Fall has to be my favorite time of year.  Until the rain comes and comes and comes.  There is something about the smell of the air on a cool crisp morning, the changing colors of all the leaves and the spirit of the holidays that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Technically it isn’t fall yet but this weather makes me believe otherwise.  So this week I dove right in full force and got into the fall spirit. Monday started it off with a trip to the apple farm with Rider.  He got his first pair of big boy boots that day so what better place to try them out then at the apple farm.  He posed with an apple and enjoyed his first warm apple cider donut.  Note to all the moms out there, opt out of the donuts with cinnamon and sugar on the outside.  It was like getting in the car after a week at the beach.  Little granules of cinnamon and sugar were everywhere! That same day I spruced up the house with just a few fall decorations.  Those reds and browns and oranges sure warm up your living space.  Not to mention the pumpkin spice candles that are now in every room.  YUMM! 

Another fall activity that has begun (for the first time in my life as a parent) SOCCER! Oye! Josh and I were never into soccer so it wasn’t something we desired to sign our boys up for but Logan has LOVED soccer ever since he started playing it at school on recess.  So here I am rocking the soccer mom life.  I can’t really complain because there is nothing better then watching your kids do something they love.  Watching Logan hustle back and forth on the field and seeing him turn and smile at his family on the sidelines after kicking a goal is pretty heart warming.  So our Saturday mornings will now consist of coffee in a tumbler, blankets on our laps and umbrellas over our heads as we shiver and cheer on our oldest.  Jaxon is happy to sit on the sidelines and cheer him on as well as he awaits basketball season to start.  And Rider, well he has no choice but to cheer him on… and run around, fall down, eat crackers, read books, play peek-a-boo barn and basically do everything else other than sit in his stroller and watch the game.  

I hope everyone is enjoying this fall weather as much as I am.  I will surely be posting more and more fun fall adventures for you all to see. For now I’ll leave you with some lovely photos of the boys we took after church this week.

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Welcome to Tovia!

Hi!! Hello! Hey y’all! Welcome, thanks for coming. So here’s what’s happening. 10 years ago on this exact day I signed up for Facebook and while it has been a great place to seek advice, share photos, stay connected with old friends and family, and learn all about raising animals and living the country life it has also become a place of comparison, competition, politics, complaints, spam, sales, solicitation and a bunch of other junk that just isn’t desired. So here I am, changing things up and looking ahead at my next 10 years. Do I want to base my next 10 years off of what I see on Social media or do I just focus on this busy life I already live? Time to focus. Time to live, laugh and love with those closest to me. And for those that enjoy watching our crazy adventures, have no fear!!! I’ll continue to share, update, encourage, inspire and embark on even more life adventures. You’ll just have to follow me here to watch it all unfold. I’m excited to blog again, write about my family, document the life of my growing (way to fast) boys, all the animal adventures I put my darling and understanding husband through and my continued fitness challenges that I set for myself. It is going to be a full, fast and fantastic 10 years!!