If you know me or are friends with me on Facebook, you probably know by now that I am going back to school…. for teaching.

I won’t dive into why today, I really don’t feel like I need to, instead I’m going to talk about the “fun” things that it has entailed thus far. Ooooh, I sound so smart. *Insert face palm here.* Do people even still do that??? Lord I feel old…

Some of you are probably aware that this is not my first time going to college. What you probably aren’t aware of is that the first time I royally screwed up and tanked my GPA. I’m talking abysmal. It’s a 1.26. Shameful. Absolutely humiliating to admit.

Let’s talk about money…

Because of my low GPA, I will be entering school on academic probation AND with no financial aid… Yayyyyyyy… So I am paying out of pocket AND I need to make sure that I keep my grades up.

I officially start school on May 30th, all online classes (which has not been my strongsuit in the past, but I am hoping and praying that this time will be different), and am going to be a full time student (5 classes, although only 13 credit hours, so it should work). I have been working to make sure that I can schedule my time accordingly to put as much time as possible into studying and doing schoolwork.

With no financial aid, I am hoping to pay for my first semester with my tax refund, and get all A’s so that HOPEFULLY I can at least get my Pell grant in the fall. Just in case this doesn’t work though, I am applying for scholarships every single weekend, almost sun up to sundown, praying that someone will take pity on me and help me fund my dream.

Scholarship Essays

Let’s talk about something real here… Scholarship essays always want to know WHY you deserve the money that they are giving away, but if I’m being honest, I don’t.

I squandered away my first few chances going to school, failed out of classes, took out student loans, and just made some overall pretty crappy choices. I can say that being older and more mature, I have no intention of doing that again, but I also know that I have no idea what kind of student I will be. I’m hoping for the best, but who really knows? I have a hard time, and hate the idea of feeling like I’m lying to people, so I have most likely done myself no favors when writing these essays.

Working my tail off

Because I can’t make any guarantees of how this is going to go, I’m making back up plans. The best thing about having the worst anxiety in the world is that you already expect the worst case scenario and you plan for it in every way possible.

I already work full time at my kids school, and I have no intention of leaving (I’m hoping they’ll see fit to hire me as a teacher once I complete my degree), so this covers my health insurance and my cell phone bill. Seriously yall, paraprofessionals don’t make a lot of money and they do a TON of work, so please make sure to thank all the parapros you meet, they’re heroes.

You know I have my business (www.alicias.store) so I am adding new merchandise every chance I get in order to help fund my education, along with signing up for multiple craft shows, in which the bulk of that money will go into a savings account specifically for school. ANDDDDD… I have a booth at The Warehouse in Cuthbert, GA where those funds are also going towards school.

Because my time is already so limited, I will have to limit the amount of custom orders that I do, because they are typically much more time consuming, but I will still be taking on a few custom orders each month, so yall can still contact me about those. 🙂

In addition to all of this, most of you know about my chickens… I will be selling eggs for $5 a dozen to help fund my education, and incubating eggs all summer to sell chicks ($3 each with a minimum sale of 3 chicks) to also help fund school.

Donations???

A very sweet friend suggested that I ask friends, family, and followers to donate. I feel weird doing that, but at the same time, I can’t afford to be too self conscious… If you would like to donate, even a dollar, I have PayPal, Cash app, and Venmo, and it would be so appreciated.

Follow my journey

I’m planning to update you all with my journey each week, so please feel free to follow me here and on any and all social media platforms that I have.

Much love,
Alicia

Have you ever stopped to think of what it would be like to see yourself through someone else’s eyes? I struggle with this on a daily basis… I constantly feel like a hot mess and that the world can see what an absolute disaster I am. This morning, for whatever reason, I started thinking about how my husband probably struggles to explain to people just why he keeps me around…

Through my eyes…

It goes like this… “Alicia, she’s not much of a housekeeper. You see, She might remember to vacuum once a month, when the dog hair is so thick on the floor that you can’t tell what’s actually a dog anymore or the remnants thereof. She can’t cook. She does bake though. Mercy, she has an attitude. She finally got a job… but it barely makes more than the gas money to get her to and from work. She’s gotten chunky over the years, but man, if you had seen her 10-15 years ago…”

I am so happy that he doesn’t see me through my eyes. Most days, I see everything I do that’s wrong. I feel lazy because most nights it’s a struggle to stay awake past 8. But then I wake up at 3 and do the laundry, so at least there’s clean clothes, right? I feel fat… Because since he and I started dating, I have packed on 60 pounds. Yes, I know that happens, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. I spazz out keeping track of where all three kids need to be at all times, and I forget so much because it feels like I’m juggling so many balls. My husband is my constant. He can keep it all straight. Sometimes it feels like he could do it so much better without me here.

Did I mention the attitude? That spazzing out, it generally comes with a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm. I did not get the sweet southern belle disposition that is expected of most good southern ladies. I’m sure that was once somewhat attractive, but over the years, I bet it’s gotten old. Lord help him.

Bless it…

Days like today, I am struggling to see myself through his eyes, because if I keep looking through my own, I may convince him to go ahead and replace me with a newer and much improved version. One that doesn’t bring home random animals. Or fuss about the mess that she has no intention of cleaning. Oh, one that would have a nice home cooked meal waiting for him at home each night. Not something prepared from a box… Although Velveeta has some dang nice meals.

Anywho… That’s what’s on my mind. If anyone still reads this thing, just know, other people look at you with much kinder eyes than we look at ourselves with. At least I hope they do.

Hey yall… It’s me, again. I know, I do this thing where I’m here and gone again, but hopefully now I can get myself back to being a little more consistent.

I recently read The 12 Week Year and it has given me a new-ish outlook on life, my goals, and how to accomplish them. As a result of this, I have made myself some goals to accomplish in the next 12 weeks, and since I cannot find anyone local to have Weekly Accountability Meetings with, I am choosing to use my blog as a way to keep myself accountable.

For my 12 week year, I have 3 goals:

1. Install a fence across my front yard and gates at each driveway
2. Make $10,000
3. Lose 20 pounds

I have broken down each goal with weekly tactics in order to attempt to achieve them, and this is how I intend to make it happen.

Fence-

1. Buy four sections of fence each week
2. Install one section every other day.
3. On off days, take time to clear space for the next section(s)
4. Buy one gate every 3 weeks.

$10,000-

1. Sell 100+ shirts per week.
2. Work on website and advertise daily.
3. Reach out to old customers.
4. Send at least one marketing email per week.

Lose 20 pounds-

1. Walk 4+ miles per day.
2. Get at least 10,000 steps per day.
3. Meal plan for success (breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks!).
4. Drink 1 gallon of water per day.
5. Research and try new workouts.

What I really love about this is that you have to score yourself once a week, and it gives you the opportunity to see just where you may not be following through, or if you might need to change tactics/add new tactics. I’m so excited for these next 12 weeks and I really hope that some of my readers (if any of you are still around) will join me!

Please leave a comment below if you read this post, it will truly make my day!

My family has always been an interesting one. For as long as I can remember, there’s always one person or another not speaking to each other, in both my mom’s and my dad’s families. I really don’t know why it’s this way, nor do I care. What I can tell you however is that because of this I have had what I would call a complicated relationship with my extended families my entire life.

Rest In Peace

My Aunt Sara passed away over the weekend. I woke up Sunday to text after text letting me know. And don’t get me wrong, I am filled with sadness about this. Late Sunday afternoon, I noticed the news had made its way to Facebook. So many people posted old pictures of her and spoke of how much they loved her growing up. That’s when I began to feel robbed.

Childhood Memories

I did spend time with her growing up, don’t get me wrong. But, I was a mama’s baby. My mom would occasionally leave me at my grandma’s house in the afternoons when she was headed to pick my sister up from school. Minutes after she left, I would inevitably end up crying because I wanted my mom. This was long before the days of everyone having cell phones, so my Aunt Sara would get quite frustrated with me and drag me to the middle room of the house and lock me in until time for my mom to come and get me. These are the types of memories that I have of her from my childhood. None of it happy.

Not all bad…

Now, I do not believe that she was entirely a bad person. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know her again as an adult. I moved back home nearly 13 years ago now, and her husband passed away around 10-11 years ago. Out of some form of familial responsibility, I went to her house before the funeral. Her living conditions were less than stellar, and frankly saddening. She lived in a doublewide trailer just up the road from her daughter, but the floors were damaged and the heat was nearly nonexistent. I will never understand how a daughter could allow her parents to live in such conditions.

I began to speak to her on the phone frequently after that, and occasionally I would stop by to visit with her. During these visits, I would often find that there were hardly any groceries in her home. I began grocery shopping and dropping by eggs, grits, cereals, milk, juices, and other things that she may mention that she liked or wished she had.

During all this time, she and I became quite close. I began to look forward to those phone calls and visits.

Some things just aren’t meant to last…

My Aunt Sara had lived a life that was filled with secrets. She had had a child as a teenager and was forced to give him up for adoption. I am forever grateful for AncestryDNA kits. Because of those, my cousin found my mom, his sisters, his brothers, and several cousins. Unfortunately, we were told that my Aunt Sara did not want to meet him. I honestly do not believe that was the case, but ultimately, she never got the opportunity to meet her wonderful first born.

Shortly after he found all of us, my cousins decided that my aunt should move out to Texas to live with her youngest daughter. As happy as I was that she would be living in much better conditions, I was so sad to find out that she would probably never move back, and would definitely never have the opportunity to meet her son.

Saying Goodbye

After she moved out to Texas, I heard from her less and less, and eventually not at all.

I didn’t realize that the last time I spoke with my aunt would be the last time, but I am so grateful that we eventually built a relationship, and that I can positively say that the last conversation I ever had with her was a good one.

Rest in peace, Aunt Sara, I love you.

Since we are finally getting eggs, I feel like it’s a good time to talk to you all about my chickens. If you recall, that was my birthday present this year. My husband promised me that we would build a coop.

I had chickens growing up, and was super excited to start this journey as an adult. I began researching- I read books, I joined Facebook groups, and I read probably a hundred blogs. All because I wanted to be super informed. Because I did all of this, I feel pretty good about sharing my knowledge (and what I’ve learned along the way) with you.

Building the coop

Building a coop doesn’t have to be expensive. It is as expensive as you let it be. The most important thing to think of is how many chickens you think you’ll have (take that number and triple it, because chicken math is real). I wanted 6 to 8 chickens, and I now have 20, with plans to possibly get more in the spring.

We took an existing building with a cute little shed attached to make our coop. I have seen other people use dog runs. You can go with a pre-made coop, but they’re smaller, and I have seen a lot of people unhappy with them in the long run.

To start our coop, we bought two 100′ rolls of chicken wire (we didn’t use all of it), several metal fence posts, and used some leftover lumber from when we added on to the house. We built a fence out from the little shed to give a nice run for the chickens. My hubby is pretty handy and built a door himself, but buying a screen door probably would have been easier.

I took cinder blocks that I had found around our property and placed them around the run. We still didn’t have enough for what I wanted, so I drove to Home Depot and bought more. I then filled those blocks with potting soil and planted marigolds around the run.

After building, I turned into a nervous Nelly and bought poultry netting to go across the top of my run. I will never regret this, it’s inexpensive, and keeps my babies protected.

A Place To Roost

Roosting bars is something that I honestly did not remember from my childhood. Did I mention that I had chickens growing up? I think that was the best part of growing up country- all the different animals that I got to experience!

Anywho… The plan was always to reuse and repurpose whatever we could to keep the costs down, right? I probably drove my husband crazy when I suggested pulling a bedroom set out of storage to put in the coop, but I had a vision.

I set the bed up, frame and all, and started planning how to make a roost for my birds. My first plan was to put 2x4s across from the head to the foot of the bed, but it just wasn’t working out. I ended up placing three pallets inside the bed frame- one at the head, one at the foot, and one in the center. I then found some large branches and some 1x4s to attach to the pallets. Oops! I almost forgot to mention that YES, I screwed EVERYTHING into place. I wanted it to be super sturdy.

This has worked like a dream. The chickens don’t always roost there like I would like, but they love hanging out on it and using it as a jungle gym. What I have found is that they are always going to find the highest point they can and roost there. It is what it is. And it keeps them safe, so why worry.

My Nesting Boxes

Remember I said bedroom suit, right??? After bringing the bed out to make the roost, I dragged the dresser and matching night stands out as well.

At this point, you may be like my husband and think that I have lost my mind. I’m pretty sure I have, so this is a fair assumption.

I took the middle drawers out of the dresser, making space for the chickens to be able to get into the bottom drawers. I took the top drawers out of the night stands and attached them to the top of the night stand, creating two nesting boxes out of each night stand. To keep them easy to clean, I did purchase plastic tubs to sit in the drawers. This was by far one of the best decisions that I made! I also got these awesome nesting pads off Amazon to put in the tubs, and my chickens appear to love them.

At the last minute, I decided to attach the mirror to the dresser, mostly to be cute. Remember when I said they go to the highest point they can to roost? That’s where most of my chickens roost at night.

Time To Eat

I have gone through two feeders and a ton of waterers in search of the “perfect” ones. When I only planned to have 6 chickens, a small 2-3 gallon waterer was fine. When chicken math hit though, I needed something larger.

I found a 5 gallon waterer at Tractor Supply and it was “okay”, but filling it, making sure that the bottom was screwed on correctly, and then flipping it back over was the worst. Eventually I started searching for a top fill waterer, and I am so glad I did!

I found this guy on Amazon and absolutely LOVE it! The only problem that I had in the beginning was the legs popping off, but I finally got them in correctly and have had no issues since. It has a little piece that you move at the bottom to cover the water valve when filling up, and once you’re done, you just securely screw the top back on and uncover the valve. This thing is amazing! We have plans to get the matching feeder soon!

In The End

Is it worth it? Absolutely! But there are some things that I would have done differently.

• I would have done a little more research on making the coop predator proof. Walking out and finding a dead hen is devastating.
• I probably would have poured concrete around the run and coop. This would prevent anything from digging in.
• I would have gone with the largest and best feeders and waterers I could afford in the beginning. The small ones I started out with were a total waste of money.

Until next time,
Alicia