Chickees

Right now I am so tired but I felt it would be good to write something even if I don't finish.

Let's start with exciting news first.... I'm pregnant!
I'm just over six weeks and will be due in January. I have just been more tired than usual and today was the first time I felt any nausea, but other than that I seem fine. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst (last time wasn't a walk through the park). At least this time I am working from home and don't have to take my toothbrush to work or sleep in my car on breaks and whatnot. Not much to say on the topic at the moment, but interestingly my blood test results came back with the wrong blood type so I have to do it again.

Our family has already grown with 6 new chicks!
I had no desire to put the work into owning chicks, but I felt prompted that we needed to. My reasons are purely for self-sustainability and not because I think it will be cheaper. We got approved for them by our landlord and the next day I picked up 6 chicks from a friend who just had her eggs hatch. It worked out perfectly. Another friend also had just gotten chicks and had more than enough feed so I was able to get some from her.

Mulan

Merida (Ginger)

Aurora

Rapunzel

Tiana

Moana

One (Rapunzel) had a splayed leg so I saw online to tie a rubber band to their legs and that seems to be helping. I'm glad I did that the second day because the other chicks would walk on the leg that stuck out and it likely would have died soon. All seem healthy except for our dark coloured one. That one seems to get poo stuck to his butt often. One night I also saw him sleeping apart from all the others. We also don't know which ones will be roosters and we will have to give any away as we cannot legally have roosters. So far it has been a lot of fun. For mother's day, we built the chicken coop and discovered a piece was missing - good thing they aren't old enough yet to go into it. Matt is also going to build a fence/run so they should have plenty of space that is predator-proof.

Coronavirus life updates
Life has continued to be busy for us. Matt has been overly busy. Things got tricky though because some residents complained that he was working after 5pm. The builder has now advised him he is not allowed to work beyond Monday to Friday 7am-4pm. This has made it harder for him to have the same turnover so we will see how things go.

I have been busy with assignments the last month. It has been quite stressful. In my last assignment, I felt very unclear with the criteria so even after I turned it in I still didn't feel confident I met the requirements. I'm keen to find out the results. I'm super grateful for the amazing people that have helped watch Sakura for me so I could get my assignments done! I've also been so busy with work as I took on bookkeeping for my friend's business. The initial set up is always the worst! It has taught me that I still have loads to learn as this business is so different and there are many little things that I have had to get help to organise.

I have managed to do many online games nights with friends and family at least!

Sakura and I have tried to make the most of it at least.

Short walk by the water

Swimming (once cast was off)

Sidewalk chalk

Bike rides

Yoga

We have been very blessed to overcome the drop we have had in income. Some expenses were deferred, the government provided assistance for childcare, I got help through my uni, we were able to get the stimulus from the US government, and the business was able to qualify for assistance to pay employees so we can now still pay ourselves. We also asked to get our superannuation released and after lots of discussions we decided to use as much as we could to pay off some of my student debt in the U.S. It's funny, but it wasn't until we were discussing this and prayerfully considered the best use of those funds that it finally clicked for me why you pay debts first. I kept thinking to invest would be more beneficial, but when calculating the numbers - paying off debts gives back more in so many ways. I'm so glad I finally get it! It made me regret not putting more of an effort prior to this, but oh well. I don't know what the future holds for us financially, but I actually feel more confident than I did prior to the virus chaos.

Easter!
Easter was great! Aside from watching General Conference, we got to celebrate Easter fun with Sakura. The night before I dyed eggs (we don't have white eggs here so they are more earthy coloured). Sakura woke up to hidden plastic eggs in the house and an Easter basket full of eggs and dairy-free chocolate. We also hid resurrection eggs to teach Sakura about Christ's resurrection. It was fun for her, but since she wasn't walking at the time I didn't enjoy carrying her around to get the eggs. We finished off the day with a roast dinner.

My neighbours banded together and did some landscaping for me! They hacked at all of our bushes in the front of the house and even disposed of all the branches at the tip. I gave them some goodies to say thank you, but considering all the work they did I felt it wasn't very much in comparison. I'm so lucky to have such great neighbours!

Not sure what else to share, but here's some other stuff and photos:

We made Argentine empanadas for Cinco de Mayo with gluten-free puff pastry. I need to find a better masa recipe that is gluten-free so they don't fall apart. Sakura had lots of fun helping.

One night I stayed up late to work on homework and found this on the bedroom door (see below) blocking my path. Harmless, but huge and scary looking I didn't want to risk going in. Because he was in the crevice of the door I couldn't see how to capture him to let him outside. I had to message Matt and wake him up so he could do it. As he opened the door the spider thankfully moved in a position where we could capture him and release him outside. 

This month's sewing projects included a ham and sausage (these are for ironing things on a curve), which I am just waiting to get wood chips to fill them with. And I sewed a shirt for Sakura but it is too small. I used leftover material so I'll just try again with more stretchy material.

Oh and Sakura loves singing. If you haven't noticed yet she also loves wearing particular outfits all the time.

Enjoy!!