Big Dreams: Beginning Our Backyard Makeover

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Family Insurance . All opinions are 100% mine.

Last week we started in on our next big dream. Taking our backyard to the next level! Not just any backyard makeover, I’m talking one that will accomplish everything we need it to do.

We’ve always had some things in our backyard, but none of it was really planned. It was mostly just a project here or there. As an example, here’s a random painted bench next to our rhubarb, with raspberry canes in the background and a bunny waiting for her next snack from the garden. As I mentioned. Random. No focus.

We homeschool and our kids love to explore. With a wide open back yard and only a single tree (that’s still extremely young) there isn’t too much for them to discover. We do have some wild life, and we have seen some pretty impressive preditor/prey action (praying mantis vs sphynx moth was fantastic!), but we want them to have more wonder at every turn. Right now they mostly do a lot of hunting in the grass to see what they can find. Earthworms anyone?

We’re looking to create a space that will have different levels, places for the kids to explore, designated spaces for all of our gardening needs, such as herbs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers, as well as a welcoming place for us to just hang out and enjoy our backyard.

The plan is to build two raised garden beds for vegetables, a patio built entirely out of pallets which we can source for free to reduce costs, add in a club house for the kids (a friend has all of the supplies and plans, she’s donating to us), some vertical garden space made out of pallets, a few paths through the yard, and finally herbs and flowers planted in some of the blank spaces. It’s going to be a lot of work, but it’s going to be amazing!

We already have the raised garden beds in the works. The girls painted them, then my husband helped them put them together.

I can’t wait for planting season. The garden beds are just asking to be used.

Next projects on the agenda:

• Club house
• Patio
• Stepping stones/pathways

This project has me excited. I hope I can keep up the motivation and momentum!

DreamKeep Rewards Program

Remember last week when I told you about the American Family Insurance DreamKeep Rewards program? Just by reading a short motivational document about setting goals and sharing my plans for our dream garden, I earned 800 reward points! That’s not too shabby considering I can start redeeming points at 3000!

If creating plans and setting goals isn’t your thing, don’t worry. DreamKeep Rewards has a wide variety of activities for you to select. They’re all pretty quick and easy to accomplish too.

There are five different categories of activities, each with several activities listed under them. Your categories are All About You, Do Good Things, Family Matters Most, On the Road, and Safe at Home.

It was a lot of fun to work through my monthly activities, and I was a bit disappointed when I reached my ten activities per month limit. I’m ready for April to come around so I can do more activities and earn more points.

The best thing about all of these activities is that they are all designed to help me protect the things that are important to me. They are giving me some great reminders about how to take care of myself, my family, and my community in the process. I’m also learning more about ways to keep my vehicles and my house safe and sound.

Here’s a small taste of the activities you’ll find on the American Family Insurance DreamKeep Rewards program. All of these tasks are going to help me protect my dreams, whether it’s making sure my kids are safe, my stress levels are reduced, or deterring crime.

What’s your next big dream? Let Dreamkeep Rewards help you protect those dreams. It’s free to join!