Hobbies - Part II

Gosh, almost exactly two years to the date later, I FINALLY have some hobbies! Hip-hip-hooray! And seriously, it did take this long to figure something out.

So first off, we are raising chickens now. Yep, we have jumped on the urban farming bandwagon. Right now, we have four baby chickens living in a kiddie pool in our living room! They are kind of in their ugly phase right now, where their cute, soft fuzz is giving way to feathers. Their tushy feathers are growing in now as well. I suppose this would be the equivalent to the awkward puberty, hair-growing-in-strange-places (but, you know...feathers), acne-riddled junior high phase we all so fondly remember. But maybe without all the angst. Anyway, we are raising the chickens for the eggs, not so much for the meat. Roman (that's the baby I had since the last time I posted on here. He is now almost a year and a half) is pretty interested in the chicks. I think it'll be a fun chore for him when he is a little bit older - gathering up the eggs every day. I think he'll learn a lot from it.

The second task I have taken upon myself is to make some of my own household products, like cleaning supplies and soap. I wanted to make our household more self-sufficient and less of the problem. I am trying to get rid of some of the toxins we use regularly in our house to "clean" it. It is amazing what you can do with natural, non-poisonous stuff (not that you should eat or drink any of what I am making). Lemon juice! Vinegar! Baking soda! Along these same lines, we'll be planting our garden very soon and I am looking forward to it! We didn't do it last year and I missed the fresh and free produce. I am excited to tend to it and put a lot of time and care into it.

The other thing I have been doing is making my own cards (greeting, not playing). I did this once before, actually. When I graduated from college, I made all of my own announcements/grad party invites by cutting things I liked out of magazines and newspapers (pictures, one-liners, fun facts, etc) and mod-podging them onto card stock. Everyone got a different card and it was really fun! The last few months, it has practically been an obsession for me, cutting things out of papers and magazines for future use. I love it. And then I slap them on to cardstock and away they go! During the season of Lent this year, I gave up Facebook again and instead wrote people actual letters, using the cards I made. It was fun to pick out which card from my stockpile I thought the recipient would most appreciate. Making these cards has been a really FUN hobby for me. And some of the pictures that I found that I REALLY liked and wanted to keep for myself I just taped into a journal :) You know...like Pinterest, but REAL.

Anyway, I am really glad to have found some real, actual hobbies! It feels really good and accomplishing to have these. And I think that they are all worthwhile and beneficial. Hooray for hobbies!