Cabin In The Woods

Accomplished Projects Around the Homestead

2012-01-24T07:11:00.001-08:00

In the mail yesterday I received my Bioset from Johnny's Seeds. Currently I have started mung bean and alfalfa sprouts. Curious to see how well this works. Yummy salads and sandwiches here we come.

An ongoing problem around here has been rain. Yes, rain is great for our soil and for filling up our well. Over the past two months it has rained alot. More rain than actual sunny days. Which means my poor chickens have been walking around in alot of muck, except in their coops of course. Scott hung a tarp high over part of the Buff's run to help reduce some of the muddy muck. Today we finally have sun after 5 days of dreariness and rain. Thank you God for this beautiful day. We needed it so bad.

Food Storage

2012-01-22T07:02:00.001-08:00

We live in a small cabin. Storage is at a premium. So we have to make use of every little nook and crany for food storage, or make it up as we go along. In the past six months stocking food has been a priority for us. Of course only when the funds are available. I have only purchased items that I know we will eat.

Yesterday was a big shopping day. $289.00 was spent. I informed the hubby that this needs to last us for at least two weeks. No shopping except for bananas, bread, and milk. $40.00 of the $289.00 was two pair of work jeans for Scott and a tarp to go over part of the chicken run. Last night I did cook the first of our dried potatoes from this past summer. Actually I have cooked some in a soup that Scott ate but this was the first real dish. I re hydrated the scalloped potatoes in water for 3-4 hours and then made a cheesy scalloped potatoes side dish for dinner. The consistency turned out just right. So this summer I see alot more drying of potatoes.

Aloe Vera Juice

2012-01-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

Aloe Vera Juice has been a recent find for me. I use it for my acid reflux. My reflux has gotten so bad that I had to see a gastro specialist in December. Currently I take a prescription acid reducer in the morning and the gastro doctor added an over the counter one at night to try for three months. I have what is actually consider secondary symptoms. Irritated tongue and roof of mouth as well as sore throat especially when swallowing food instead of the routine burning in the throat or stomach. A couple of months ago I started drinking the aloe vera juice morning and night. At first it was hard to tell if it was helping because of all the other medication I am on. But recently I ran out of it and was off the juice for 5-7 days. My sore throat came back. I picked juice up yesterday and upped my dose to 1 1/2 oz. twice yesterday and could already see a difference today. My gastro doctor has no confidence in the aloe vera juice helping. I don't understand why so many doctors have a problem with endorsing alternative methods for healing. There are about 250 types of aloe vera plants so don't try to make it on your own. A specific type is needed so please get the one from a health food store, etc.

Indoor Gardening

2012-01-22T06:46:00.001-08:00

Our indoor gardening experiment officially started last night. I planted spinach, oak leaf, and a mixed salad blend. If I haven't mentioned before I love my greens. I eat salads probably 4-5 times a week. If this works I will be a very happy woman. The possibility of fresh greens all year just makes me giddy. Plus I ordered my bioset to grow sprouts for the chickens and my salads. It should be here next week.

Each plastic container has the possibility of 6 seedlings to grow. Scott placed a small window screen material on the bottom elevated by about 1 1/2 inches to allow for drainage. I will keep you posted on the progress.

Eating Whole Foods

2012-01-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

A journey I have chosen for this year is trying to eat more whole foods. I am the first to admit that I am the worst vegetable eater around. Grace eats a fair variety of fruits and vegetables but my oldest eats very little. Since he was little his menu consisted of about 10 different items and at 21 it is still close to the same. This year I am focused to try a new vegetable, fruit, grain, etc. each week, especially when the produce starts rolling in for our garden. Don't get me wrong, I do eat alot of greens, shredded carrots, apples, bananas, and nuts. Citrus fruits are out of the picture for me because of my severe acid reflux. In the past couple of months I have changed to snacking on nuts, fruit, and yogurt covered raisins in place of bakery items, chips and crackers. All sweets are usually made by me at home. But I really want to push things farther. I want to do 2-3 meatless meals a week. The other 4 days a week we can have meat but would like to purchase humanely raised and organic meats. As I said in the beginning this is a journey and I am sure I won't be perfect about it all the time. But some is better than none.

Typical Thursday

2012-01-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

Each day of the week has a certain flow to it for us. Today being Thursday we have a couple of classes outside the home to work in to our schedule. Thursdays are more of a Fine Arts kind of day with a little bit of book work mixed in. Grace's favorite day because I don't schedule any math. Typically we do a bit of book work before lunch:

Science - Correct missed questioned from yesterday. Read a certain amount of pages and answer more questions. Currently finishing up the last lessons in Exploring Anatomy from Jeannie Fulbright.
Nature Study - Read a lesson from Mary's Meadow which is a Discovering Nature Series from Queen Homeschool. Today's lesson is about bulbs. Grace will find four different types of flowers that grow from bulbs, draw a picture of each, and write down their latin names.
Art - Finish art homework from Monday's drawing class. Working on hands in different poses.
Vocabulary - An activity from Wordly Wise grade 7.
Independent Reading - 30 minutes from The Hunger Games or Naruto.

After lunch we head off to her mixed media art class for an hour. Once we get home from art class if there is any book work left to be finished this would be the time to take care of it. Later this afternoon we have a two hour practice with ministry drama team. Preparing for another performance on Febuary 1st. In between all of this I am sure she will be working on the computer any time she can fit in. Grace spends hours using her bamboo pad to draw on the computer and well as other graphic arts software.

Celebrating a Birthday

2012-01-17T13:45:00.001-08:00

Today is my mom's 70th birthday. Grace and myself took the day off from school to spend with her. The plan was to do a little shopping then go out to lunch. Mom really wanted to visit Belk's to see what they had on the clearance racks and stopped at the Clinque counter instead. She mentioned that she wanted some really good makeup. The Clinque employee could not have been any nicer. Mom got a make over then made her purchases. I had been contemplating taking Grace to the dermatologist for acne but decided to ask for advice here while waiting on mom. After mom finished Grace sat in the chair and had her face cleansed, moisturized and a light touch of foundation and lip gloss applied. I decided it was worth the money to help Grace and the acne situation. We all remember what growing up was like. Anywho, the pic above is of both the girls after their makeovers. They loved it. We all had a great time being together.

What Puppy Lives For

2012-01-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

Puppy (whose real name is Angel but only gets called puppy) lives to chase sticks in the back yard. It has gotten to the point that she refuses to go down the deck stairs to use the restroom unless I throw a stick for her. Scott collected a bucket of sticks and sat it right outside the door. Now we are in business. She really is the funniest thing. She will be inside but the minute she hears any of the outside equipment start running, she knows that Scott is out there and will throw her sticks. This was a daily occurrence as long as it wasn't raining, but now that Scott is not here during the week days she seems a little lost. I find her hanging out at the door looking for him. Today was beautiful so many a stick was thrown and chased down.

Seed Lists Finished

2012-01-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

So far I have received 8 seed catalogs so far in this new year. It is always fun pouring over the catalogs and deciding what we want to grown in the garden for the upcoming year. I settled on three different companies to order from, with the exception of the mushroom plugs that we haven't decided on yet. First lists is for Johnny's Selected Seeds.
Radicchio
Ridgeline Romaine
Crispino Iceburg
Bioset Kitchen Salad Garden (for growing sprouts)
Red Gold Early Potatoes
Alfalfa Seeds for Sprouting
Mung Bean Seeds for Sprouting
Buckwheat Seeds for Sprouting

Next is my largest list from Seed Savers.
Endive
Climbing French Bean
Lazy Housewife Bean
Bronze Arrowhead Lettuce
Forellenschluss Lettuce
Australian Brown Onion
American Spinach
Crystal Apple Cucumbers
Basil
Lemon Balm
Chives
Oregano
Peppers in Transplant Form (Jimmy Nardello's and Orange Bell)
Tomatoes in Tramsplant Form (Amish Paste)
Desiree Red Potatoes

Last but not least will be coming from R.H. Shumway's.
Cantaloupe
Chicken Lettuce Mix
Old Timey Heritage Blend Greens
Bonvivant Meschlin Blend
Corn Salad
Sprout Mix
Stevia
Herb Mill
Yarrow
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Silver Queen Corn
Goliath Field Corn for the chickens
Danvers Halflong Cucumbers

I will be ordering this every 2-4 weeks when we get paid.

To My Blogging Friends

2012-01-14T08:03:00.001-08:00

Please don't think that I am not responding to your comments but I am having alot of trouble the past couple of days commenting on your blogs. Hope to get it corrected soon.

So Much Running Through My Head These Days

2012-01-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

So many projects we want to accomplish. So many future dreams we want to achieve. The past two weeks have been a real adjustment for our family. Hubby is now back to working five days a week. The previous year was a great break on working three days a week with the same pay and benefits. We were able to accomplish so much with all the extra time we had, now not so much. Me and Grace miss having him around the house, miss his extra help, miss going out to lunch, etc. All this upheaval has brought to light alot of discussions and plan making. A two year goal has been established. Why two years? Well, most of our consumer debt should be gone 24 months. All car and motorcycle notes will be paid in full. Car insurance will be readjusted to liability only. Our one credit card will be paid off. More savings (hopefully) will be stashed in the bank. One loan will be paid in full. This will leave us with just house note, electricity, netflix, phone, car insurance, gas for transportation, tithe to church, food, and health insurance. We are hoping to bring hubby closer to home with a different job. The drive five days a week is killing him. Two and a half hours each day. Not to mention transportation costs. We want to enlarge the garden and egg production to do some farmers markets. Also considering growing mushrooms on our very shaded, woody lot for extra income. Time to really tighten the belt. This next week we will be eating out of the pantry. Other than milk and bread and maybe some cheese, no other purchases from the grocery store until Friday. Only one day a week for eating out, probably after church on Sundays. No clothing purchases (we really have all we need). This will be tough because we already are very much cut back in expenses. As far as I am concerned two years can't come fast enough.

First Project Complete for the New Year

2012-01-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

My new indoor garden. This is actually the first step toward an indoor garden. We had to enclose the grow lights and growing area in a cabinet to keep the three pesky indoor cats from eating all the fruits of our labor. One cabinet has been built to test the theory of growing greens and herbs with the grown lights inside during the winter months and to start off seedlings.

A better picture of the inside. Sometime this week I will buy something cheap to use as pots and probably start planting spinach and some other choice greens to see what happens. I love salad and eat it probably 3-4 times a week. It is the one produce item that would really set me back if I started eating seasonally. Also since we have no sun in our yard (due to wooded lot) we need to be a little more creative with some of our growing techniques. I will keep you posted on any progress. Keeping our fingers crossed.

New Creations by Grace

2012-01-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas Pic I Forgot to Share

2012-01-06T12:23:00.001-08:00

I didn't take many pictures this Christmas. It seems as each year goes by I take less and less, especially now that the kids are getting older. My dad commissioned Scott to paint the above painting for my mom for Christmas. Mom loves folk art and dad wanted something to represent the family. So Scott painted our own version of the family tree with each family member represented by a different breed of chicken. Needless to say it is hanging in my mom's kitchen and she loves it.

Travis and my niece Danielle. They were born three months apart and both turned 21 this year. So proud of both of them.

Grace and Travis. These days it is hard to get a picture with both of them in it.

Opening presents at mom and dad's house.

What I am Up To

2012-01-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

What I am reading: Lots of gardening books and catalogs. Picked up a couple of YA Fiction books to read and will share once I finish.

What we are reading: Over the holidays we finished the fourth book of Peter and the Starcatchers series. Hope to purchase the new fifth book in a couple of weeks. In the meantime we have started reading aloud The Son of Neptune.

What I am watching: Okay here comes some of my very guilty pleasures. Started watching "24" with Netflix and have become addicted. Currently on season 7, I hear there will be a "24" movie out at the theater summer of 2012. Another show I am addicted to is "Justified". I was trying to wait on Netflix to release season two but just decided to purchase from Amazon instant video so I could be caught up when the new season starts in a couple of weeks.

Upcoming events: Grace starts back with her art lessons, and drama ministry practices this week. We have a big performance this Sunday. Also another party with the drama ministry team and some friends spending the weekend with us.

Projects: Scott has started hanging shelves for food storage and hopefully this week will start building our indoor greenhouse for greens and sprouts.

Prepping for the New Year

2012-01-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

We were blessed to receive some money for Christmas. A list of prepping items was already floating around the house as a wish list. Here is a list of upcoming projects that the money will fund:

Pond to raise catfish - the pond is already built and catching rain water to fill it up. A large quantity of activated charcoal was purchased to filter the water. Hoping to have the pond full of water in the next month. So the next step will be building the filter and purchasing the catfish.

Upgrades on chicken coops - this was mentioned in the previous post and just about finished.

Food Storage - Extra food was purchased this month to expand our food storage. But we still have a long way to go.

Indoor garden - grow lights have been purchased to create an indoor growing opportunity for greens and herbs.

Garden supplies - The garden will be bigger this year. Seed orders will start going out the end of January. I hope to grow a couple of extra rows this year for our church's food pantry and to use to barter with a friend that has raw milk and butter.

Growing the flock - We will either let the game fowl sit on eggs and give us some more chicks or buy 6 more from the local feed store in the spring. Love raising baby chicks and building a larger flock.

Buying a truck - we are looking in to buying a used truck sometime this year to help haul wood, etc. We do have a friend that has two trucks that we might actually just be able to barter the use of it and give them eggs and veggies from the garden.

Weekend Projects

2012-01-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

Now that hubby has started back to a 5 day a week schedule, projects around the homestead have been pushed to the weekends. Luckily this weekend is a three day holiday weekend. This next week will be the first really cold week of the winter with lows in 20's. So that means winterizing the coops with home made heat lamps and plastic around the sides. Also the Buffs run is too small so we bought chicken wire to enlarge it. Tomorrow will be loading up on wood for the upcoming cold week to burn in the two wood stoves. We also bought supplies to make to start growing greens and herbs inside the house with grow lights. (As I mentioned before we live in a very wooded area and don't get sunlight in the yard enough to grow a garden). Happy New Year!

Absent

2011-12-28T05:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry I have been MIA. Just taking a blog break over the holiday season. Will resume at the first of the year. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Busy Weekend

2011-12-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

Very busy weekend for our household. Two of Grace's friends stayed the weekend with us, hosted a Christmas party for our drama ministry team, participated in a church musical and had lunch with friends after church. All fun but tiring. Grace had a great time with two friends staying all weekend.

At the Christmas party we play Chinese gift exchange with just dollar store gifts.

Also an epic game of Apples to Apples. Eleven teens playing one game. Any chance to play and they take it.

Grace and her two friends before church this morning. Grace performed today in her first adult Christmas musical at church. Only her and one other teen joined the rest of the adult choir to sing. The program went off without a hitch. We also had another family from our drama ministry team come and watch the performance then we all went out to eat Mexican afterwards.

Tone Chimes Performance

2011-12-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

Today was our tone chimes performance at the assisted living center. The group played two Christmas songs on the tone chimes, two songs on the piano, two songs on the violin and a group song. The women in the audience were very nice and so happy to meet the kids. I think we will try to keep the tone chimes group going through the year and play some hymns. Two of the girls from this group have come home with us to spend the weekend with Grace. She is so excited to have them here.

More Christmas Fun

2011-12-15T18:41:00.001-08:00

Today was filled with fun. Not only did we go to see the Nutcracker in the morning but this afternoon and evening we spent time with friends. Started with a short tone chimes practice for a performance tomorrow at a nursing home. Followed by pizza and cookie decorating.

Lots of talking, laughing, wii, and having fun. This is a group of Grace's friends that she hangs out with alot (mostly drama kids).

Nutcracker - New Christmas Tradition

2011-12-15T12:35:00.001-08:00

Today we traveled to down town Atlanta to see the Nutcracker Ballet at the Fox Theatre. The Fox Theatre is an Atlanta icon. Many Broadway musicals and play visit the Fox each year. Today's performance was a condensed version of the Nutcracker for children. Many schools brought in buses with lots of children. We were there with our home school group.

I think my favorite part was the costumes and music. Very enjoyable.

Scott's favorite part was the set and props. He is our chief set builder when we put on our own dramatic productions. He was fascinated with how fast the props were moved on and off stage and the backdrops. Gave him many ideas for upcoming performances on our end.

My mom went with us. Sorry for the dark picture but forgot my camera at home and had to take with phone camera without a flash. Had to sneak the picture also, no photo taking allowed in the theatre.

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2011-12-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Yes Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. But for us gardners out there, the next best time is when seed catalogs start rolling in. Yesterday we recieved three seed catalogs in the mail and should be getting more through the next couple of weeks. After dinner me and hubby sat down to peruse and start selecting what we might want for the garden next year. So many to choose from, it will be very hard to make the final selections. Last night though we used greens and red potatoes from our fall garden and dried potatoes, carrots, green peppers, and tomatoes to make a soup from the leftover roast. But looking so forward to another gardening season.

Christmas Giving

2011-12-11T16:48:00.001-08:00

Once a month our small church holds a food pantry/clothes closet day. We serve 60 - 110 families each month. In December we tried to do a little something extra. This will be our third year of collecting toys to hand out as well. Each family gets to come in an pick 1-2 items per child for Christmas. I was blown away this year with how much was donated. This is a church that averages about 130 each Sunday.Grace and myself had the privilege to go help today setting everything up. On food pantry day we usually have refreshments for the family when they come in to get food/clothes, etc. On Monday and Tuesday I hope to bake some goodies to take for the pantry day.

Where Does It All Go

2011-12-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

Money that is. I think it doesn't matter how much you make it still goes fast. We have been living fairly frugal for the better part of two years, but still can't seem to make progress. I think the money sucker in our family is transportation. One car will be paid off in 5 months, motorcycle still has two years, and the newer car still has two years. Motorcycle was purchased because of gas prices and hubby has to drive one hour and 15 minutes to work three days a week. In one sense it did save on gas but for those of you out there with motorcycles the money you spend on maintenance almost makes it not worth it. On a side note hubby's business took a big hit yesterday and lost 25% of their business. Some truck drivers and warehouse employees will be laid off. This will affect us in a shift change back to four ten hour days a week which increases gas prices and wear and tear on the car. But we feel blessed to still have a job. After paying bills today what is left for the next two weeks will have to cover gas and groceries as well as one doctor appt. Hubby did call today from work to let me know his company gave him a $50.00 gift card to Kroger. He had mentioned giving it to me to make goodies for Christmas presents for neighbors, etc., but I mentioned with our low funds over the next two weeks I would rather use it for some meat to stock the freezer. I don't mind staying at home and not spending money. Although this time of the year it is kind of difficult because of the holidays. As I mentioned before Christmas will be on a much smaller scale than previous years. Sorry for all the rambling, I know that many of you out there are going through all the same thoughts and problems. The only thing I wish to encourage you to do is stock up. Times are only going to get worse.

First Drama Ministry Team Performance

2011-12-04T11:20:00.001-08:00

It is great when everything comes together. This group has been practicing since September. On Thursday our practice was pretty bad. The old saying is that if the practice before a performance is bad....then the performance will be good. Today went off pretty much without a hitch. The kids had a great time and the audience laughed and enjoyed themselves. This is a great group of kids and I really enjoy working with them. Next performance will be at my home church in January.

Advent Tree

2011-12-02T13:30:00.001-08:00

Eight years ago my sister bought this for me for Christmas from QVC. Now it is a treasured Christmas tradition. The cabinet contains 24 small compartparts that hold 24 little ornaments. Each day starting on December 1st Grace opens a door and pulls out an ornament to hang on the tiny tree. On the 24th, Christmas Eve, there is a glass star to put on the top.

Random Updates

2011-12-01T06:46:00.000-08:00

Christmas - We have all the indoor decorations in place. Nothing fancy this year. Just the tree and our advent tree. Still need to do the outdoor lights. We don't do outdoor lights every year, but this year I will be having a Christmas party for the teens on our Drama Ministry Team and I want the house to look nice. Shopping is happening slowly. As I mentioned before, there is not alot of money to go around this year for presents. This is the first year in 24 years of marriage that we have had to really scale down. Of course I will say that the last couple of years we have been scaling back just didn't realize it as much. I am having to space out shopping to a few presents each payday which will make me shopping for the last gifts just two days prior to Christmas. I have never been that late. But it is all good. The kids know they are getting three presents each and alot of money was not spent on any of them. They are good with this too.

Chickens - Betty our Americana (sp?) is still laying every other day and the Buffs are all laying 5 out of 7 days a week. So we are still knee deep in eggs. Scott is researching dehydrating eggs. In the early Spring when everyone else starts laying we will be thigh deep in eggs. We are also considering buying a few more chicks in the Spring or letting some of our hens sit. I really don't want anymore game fowl chicks so we will probably purchase.

Garden - The only thing we have left growing in the garden is greens for us and the chickens. Spinach, Romaine, Iceberg and Mixed Greens. My red cabbage never really did much. I requested a bunch of seed catalogs this week so hope to be receiving them soon to start planning for next year's garden.

Homeschool - After taking a week off for Thanksgiving it was slow go getting back to it this week. Now that Robin Hood is over we can focus on some other things. As mentioned before Grace and I joined Jazzercise and this we the first week we were able to go to three classes. We use this as P.E. so it is counted as one hour of school on the days we go. Today will prove to be busy with Art Class, Tone Chimes practice, and Drama Ministry Team practice. Only a little book work scheduled for this morning. Tomorrow will be Jazzercise and Tone Chimes practice again. The Tone Chimes class is preparing for a performance at a nursing home in a couple of weeks and the Drama Ministry Team will have their first performance this Sunday at a local church.

Score!!!

2011-11-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

Our library has a cart near the front door with free magazines. I picked up all these small holiday baking guides. You know the ones... at the checkout isle that sell for 4-5 dollars a piece. I have already picked out five different recipes to make for gifts for neighbors and such. I also got a flower/plant book off of the discard cart.

Change in Mindset

2011-11-26T13:49:00.000-08:00

Each Christmas my parents give each family some money as well as gifts. In years past as a family we divided the money up and went shopping. Bought items that we would never have a chance to buy otherwise. Sometimes a new wardrobe, electronics, etc. This year if we receive money I am thinking from a more frugal and preparedness mindset. My list so far includes:
Grain mill
Grow lights
Canning supplies/equipment
Oxygen absorbers
Gardening tools
Preparedness books
Wire to enlarge one of the chicken coops
Seeds and more baby chicks in the Spring

I Was One of the Crazies!

2011-11-26T13:24:00.001-08:00

This was my third year going out on Black Friday. I know, I know....what was I thinking. A close friend that went with me and my mom last year called me up a couple of weeks ago to go this year. In years past we have gotten up at 3:30 to be shopping by 5:00. This year I really wanted to stay up and go during the night instead of getting up out of a restful sleep. So off we went Thursday night to Walmart at 9:30 because sales were starting at 10:00. For all the Walmart haters out there I have to give some history here. My mom retire from Walmart and Wally World has been a part of our lives for a long time. Of course my mom worked there when Sam Walton was still alive and Walmart was a great company to it's employees - times have changed. I am sure that Mr. Walton is rolling over in his grave to see how things have turned out. But I digress.... my point is I still love Walmart for certain items. In my small town we have two choices to shop for groceries Ingles and Walmart, that is it. No small mom and pop operations, no good farmer's markets, no Whole Foods, no nothing. Again I digress... let's just get on with the story. When we reached Walmart the parking lot was full, Taco Bell and Captain Ds was full, cars were hugging the curbs, and all the grass areas were full. Me and my friend said I don't think so and left for another larger town 30 minutes from us. Kohls was opening at 12:00. We arrived at 10:50 because we never stopped at Walmart. I thought we could visit and talk in the car then a few minutes before midnight we would get in line. Once we arrived we realized we were mistaken in that plan because the line was already long. Off we went to get in line and stood there for 1 hour and 10 minutes in 43 degree weather. Allstate had a booth with free cider, coffee and treats. At midnight everything happened in an orderly fashion, we purchased a couple of items each and stood in another line for 40 minutes to check out. While standing in line my stomach started a rumbling, I had not eaten anything since our large Thanksgiving feast at lunch time. McDonalds conveniently located across the parking lot from Kohls was open and we headed there for some much needed energy. We were thoroughly full and ready for our next stop, Belks. Belks opened at 3:00a.m. and was offering gift cards ranging from $5.00 - 1000.00 to the first 250 customers in the door. Belks is in our small home town and we figured no problem. We were wrong yet again. Arrived at 2:30 and already a line of about 200-250 people waiting to get in. Now the temp was down to 32. Figured there was no way we would get a gift card but low and behold I was the 250th customer and received the last card. I told my friend whatever I won we would split it. Scratched the card .....$5.00. A whopping $2.50 each. Purchases where made and home was next stop. I arrived home at 4:30 and slept until 10:00 in the morning. Would I do it again? Probably. The company was nice and it was fun people watching. Did I spend alot of money? No, just a couple of presents for each of my kids. Do you guys have any funny Black Friday stories? Please share.

New Thanksgiving Day Tradition

2011-11-24T13:51:00.000-08:00

My parents were gracious enough to buy our entire immediate family tickets to have Thanksgiving dinner at the Amicalola Falls Lodge. A huge buffet of turkey, fish, pork, dressing, potatoes, greens, squash, and green beans. Out in the hallway was a small salad bar, fruit, pasta salads, bread, and boiled shrimp. On the dessert table was pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, cheesecake, apple cake, and brownies. All of us were very full after this meal. It was great, no planning, cleaning or cooking involved. Just go in and eat then leave to have some fun.

While waiting to be seated we visited the veranda to look at the scenic views.

This is my dad and niece. Danielle actually works at the lodge while going to college and had to work today. Luckily she worked as a hostess and we were able to visit with her some.

My mom, Grace and nephew.

Hubby and Travis.

Papa bought Grace a very cute stuffed bear from the gift shop. Grace loves any little time she gets to spend with her brother.

It is hard to see but this is the lodge on the top of the mountain where we ate.

After our delicious lunch we decided to walk around the park to get rid of some of the calories and to take in some more beautiful sites. This is a very famous waterfall in the state of Georgia, Amicalola Falls. The temps were great, mid 60s.

This is at the bottom of the trail. The reflection pond and the falls at the top of the picture.

And for a little nature, a snake seen on the trail.

Robin Hood - Final Performance

2011-11-23T05:48:00.001-08:00

Another semester of drama is over. Always mixed feelings when a play or musical is finished. Thrilled to have some time off and relax but also sad to perform the last performance. This cast consisted of kids all homeschooled ranging in grade from 3rd - 11th.

We are looking at performing the musical of The Jungle Book or Aladdin next semester. We wouldn't start practices till February. So a couple months to recover from all the craziness of putting a play together.

Health Update

2011-11-22T12:35:00.000-08:00

I just thought about the fact that I never came back and let any of you know how it was going with the insomnia. Once starting the new medication almost 4 weeks ago I started sleeping much better. I still wake up in the middle of the night a couple of times but falling off to sleep is very easy now. Of course if it is not one thing it is another. I have suffered with acid reflux for 5-6 years. Been on multiple medications. As soon as the sleeping got under control then the reflux started back. Called the doctor yesterday and they are referring me to a gastro specialist for scoping. So not looking forward to this. I started taking over the counter Zantac today to add to my daily dose of dexilant. Hoping and praying for some relief over the next few days. Consult appt is set for December 14th.

Christmas Preparation

2011-11-22T12:29:00.001-08:00

This year has been busy and my mind has been on other things. Personal health issues, insomnia and lack of money have put me in no mood for the Christmas season. Doesn't that sound awful? Right now I am looking at Christmas as just another day on the calendar were I need to spend money I don't have on gifts for the family. Wow, I really do sound like Scrooge at the moment. I hope come next week my feelings will start to change a little especially with all the holiday decorations going up around town. Me and a friend will be going out at midnight Thanksgiving night to shop some of the Black Friday Sales, I know call us crazy. I went last year with this same friend and it really wasn't that bad and I didn't over spend. Friday we get paid and I am hoping to have a little left over to start purchasing a couple of presents for my kids. I have stressed to the kids that money is tight and presents will be limited to three per kid. Luckily my kids are older and completely understand. I would love to hear your thoughts about plans for Christmas spending and such.

Robin Hood - First Night Performance

2011-11-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the blurry pics from my blackberry. Forgot to put camera in purse for tonight. Above is Grace with my mom. Grace's character is Salome the Sheriff's daughter. A very silly and comedic character. The play went really well tonight. We had neighbors, family and church members attend.

Okay, Life Just Got Crazier

2011-11-18T13:35:00.001-08:00

Let's start from the beginning. As many of you know, Grace likes to perform. Sing or drama it doesn't matter. If she could read music and play an instrument life would be even crazier. We have been preparing for Robin Hood since late August and will be performing this coming Monday and Tuesday. She is also part of a drama ministry team that practices once a week and we start performing at various churches once a month starting in December. Our church is small so we didn't have many volunteers to sing in the adult Christmas musical this year. Grace and another teen offered to step in and help, we perform this musical on the morning of December 18th. Grace's drama teacher knew how much she enjoyed playing the tone chimes and asked her to join a small group to perform at a nursing home toward the end of the December which will require Thursday and Friday afternoon practices for a couple of weeks in December. Well, today the choir director from our church (who is also directing the children's Christmas musical) asked if Grace could come in and do a narrator part because they just didn't have enough kids to fill all the spots. This will be performed on the evening of December 18th with practices on Sunday evenings and some Saturdays. I think we are tapped out. So glad she is young and can memorize all these lines, songs, and music.

Typical Wednesday

2011-11-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would share what we accomplished today:

Math - Lesson 56 of Teaching Textbooks
English - One lesson from Easy Grammar and one lesson from copywork spelling
History - Exodus 2:1-10 ( I read an introduction to the book of Exodus also)
Science - Read "A New Way of Looking" from Galileo, Describe and draw in journal the difference between convex and concave lens.
Literature - Finish Chapter 2 of Gladys Alyward and give oral narration
Read Aloud Story - I read several chapters from Peter and the Sword of Mercy while she was drawing.

We also finished her costume for dress rehearsal tomorrow.

Living Books for Science

2011-11-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, Grace is not that fond of Science. In the past we have studied alot of nature and animals because that is what she enjoys and understands best. In looking for Science curriculum for this 7th grade year it was tough. I knew I didn't want to go the Apologia route with General Science. I have heard one to many times how boring it seems to be. So to make a long story short I went back to my tried and true mentor, Simply Charlotte Mason, and learned that the curriculum guide now has recommendations for using living science books as opposed to textbooks. I knew that this would be the best path for us now but could change in the future. I would really like to continue using living books for Science all the way through high school. I have her journal or narrate twice a week from the chapters that she reads. If I do not assign a written narration I do have her give me an oral one. So far we have finished "Galen and the Gateway to Medicine" within the last month. Grace learned that he was the first real "doctor", worked for many Roman leaders, treated gladiators, and wrote many books about anatomy and medicine. His books were actually used for 1500 years after his death. She is now several chapters into "Along Came Galileo" and will finish it by Christmas. In January we will start a biography about Blaise Pascal. This just seems like a much more relaxed and interesting way to study Science than through textbooks. Would love to hear your thoughts and comments about what you use for Science.

Time To Get Serious

2011-11-14T08:04:00.000-08:00

About exercise that is. I have jumped started an exercise program for me and Grace several time over the past two years and nothing seems to stick. The funniest time I ever seemed to have with exercise was going to Jazzercise, but for the two of us to join was just to expensive. Well this weekend I got a one time deal for this week to join for the year for $199, normally it is $470. Luckily I know the owner very well from church and she let me add on Grace for just $99 for the entire year. So much to Grace's dismay (she really doesn't want to do it) we will embark on this exercise journey together starting at the end of the week. Grace is not athletic and has never participated in any sports so I feel it is important to instill in her the need to stay healthy and starting an exercise routine early on in life so that it becomes a habit. Of course this is not going to be easy for me either. I have gained 20 pounds in the last 1 1/2 years and my health has not been the greatest. Stamina way down. I am sure it will be a slow process to bring me back to speed.

Drama Ministry Team Retreat

2011-11-13T10:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend was our first and hoping to be annual Drama Ministry Team Retreat. Our time together was constructed for team building, fellowship, worship and fun. I think we accomplished them all. Friday night started with dinner, practicing skits for our upcoming performance and drama games.

We were located at a wonderful horse farm and stable that is run by one of the student's families. Saturday morning started us right off with more practicing, games and worship time. The entire weekend the stable was also conducting their own business of horseback riding and zipline tours. With it being the weekend they were crazy busy. It was alot of fun watching the general public do the zipline. The next couple of pictures are the students actually practicing skits.

One area we were practicing had a small field area full of donkeys/burros.

Saturday afternoon the kids played some team building games. We also started a campfire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner.

Saturday evenings consisted of drama training, games and worship time. It was so cold outside that we did most of this in the girls bunkhouse. Twice the kids went out to play "barn tag" because at night they let the 40 plus horses out in the fields so the barn and stalls were empty.

In all we had 10 kids most of the weekend, one student had a cross country tournament out of state and couldn't attend. I really love all of these kids. I have worked with most of them for the past three years in other musicals and performances. It was great to be able to keep most of them together to form this ministry team.

If you didn't notice already this particular bunk was the place to be most of Saturday night. More kids just kept adding to the bunch.This morning(Sunday) we brought someone in to do more training and then a local pastor came to give a short sermon to the kids and any parents that wanted to attend. Some of the kids in our group also play guitar and will be leading worship at the different church performances just like they did today. All in all we accomplished everything we set out to do and grew to know each other even better. Everyone had a great time but we are very tired.

This is What Happens When Paint Meets Cat

2011-11-10T08:05:00.001-08:00

It all started with creating a closet in Grace's room. Grace's bedroom is actually a loft area that did not come with a closet, so technically it is not considered a bedroom. When we moved in we built a floor to ceiling wall of shelves to accommodate toys, clothing, etc. Well now that she is older and her clothing is bigger it just doesn't fit well on the shelves. I asked hubby to remove one shelf and create a rod to hang all of her shirts and sweaters up. In the process of removing the shelf a little touch up painting was required. The floor of this area is where Grace keeps all of her shoes and it was kind of dirty after 8 years so hubby painted that part too. After 30 minutes or so hubby went upstairs to check on things and below is what we found.

Little green cat foot prints throughout Grace's room. Of course we immediately knew who the culprit was, Silver the new cat. I have never had a more curious, affectionate, or energetic cat as Silver.

Silver is now in kitty jail until the paint drys. I might also add that when Scott removed the shelf she stole one of the screws and brought it downstairs.

Survival Training

2011-11-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

Scott and Grace have been watching alot of survival type shows on Netflix. I know there is alot of blogs around that are teaching preparedness and such. We do alot of these things at our home. Storing food, raising chickens, soon to be raising catfish, gardening, etc. Well Scott wanted to start a series of lessons with Grace along those lines. Today was the first lesson - how to build a fire. First he taught her what type of materials to collect.

How to use a knife and continue to build the nest of materials.

What a flint was and what type of knife to use that would make a spark.

After three tries she made fire. She was very excited.

Random Updates

2011-11-09T12:40:00.001-08:00

Still working on the catfish pond, it is deeper than it looks in this picture. Other projects have gotten in the way of finishing the pond.

Chickens are still giving up 4-6 eggs a day. Mostly from the buff orpingtons. I actually have three dozen eggs in the fridge at the moment. All the older chickens are finished with their molt and some added some colors that were not there before.

This chicken was completely black and I noticed today that she now has grey and some white on the tips of her feathers.

Toccoa Falls

2011-11-07T17:01:00.000-08:00

Today while I was attending a board meeting for our home school support group, Scott and Grace went on a little field trip. This is Toccoa Falls one of the local attractions in our area. Very beautiful place that we have visited often over the years.

Hard Week on Our Cars

2011-11-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

This week our cars have been run through the ringer. Truly by today I just had to stop and chuckle. I don't remember if I had mentioned before that Travis has two cars. One truck that is his daily drive and one old BMW that he has rebuilt for road racing. Well four nights ago while test driving the BMW Travis ran into a deer. Travis was very upset due to the fact he had just finished putting a new coat of paint on it and now the car will need a new hood and front bumper. Now cut to yesterday morning. I got a text message that Travis had flipped his truck. He was fine but he thinks the truck is totalled. No other cars involved, he drifted off the shoulder of the road then over corrected. Beyond the should was down hill, the tires slid on wet grass then slowly rolled over. Travis drove home the BMW last night to have a car to drive back and forth to work. It was a treacherous ride because it was raining and the BMW has no heat, defrost, and only one windshield wiper. I told him last night that he didn't need to be driving that car on the road so he took Scott's car to work and Scott took my car to his work. Well Scott called me a little while ago to say that he had hit a rock with my front bumper and it was going to need some work. Can you believe this!!!! We are blessed that no one is hurt and that is what I am trying to focus on.

Fall Break

2011-11-01T10:53:00.001-07:00

Considering we started school back in July and have already racked up 71 school days, we decided it was time to take a couple of days off. All the public schools in our area have had their Fall Breaks we figured it was now time for ours. Yesterday Scott and Grace went on a hike and Grace got some beautiful pictures of all the colors of Fall around us here in the North Georga Mountains.

Halloween Party ...... Drama Style

2011-11-01T08:11:00.001-07:00

Most of this drama group has been together for three years. The kids in our drama groups love spending time together so any chance we get we do it. Halloween is the perfect setting for a drama group. What do actors love better than dressing up and being other people. We put a twist on our party - they had to choose a character from a book, movie, musical, cartoon, show, etc. Upon arrival we all set in a circle and played a 20 question type game to guess the character. Everyone thought that Grace was Cleopatra but she was actually Queen Tiy from the book The Golden Goblet. Many interesting characters showed up: Geronimo, Princess from Prince of Persia, Lady Swan, Ella Enchanted, Jimmie Hendrix, Mr. Hyde, David from the Bible, Queen Elizabeth, John Wayne, Juliet, Gale from The Hunger Games, and Sneezy the Dwarf.

These kids love to play games. So other than eating a little we played group type games that kept us all laughing through the night.

Church Fall Festival

2011-10-30T17:09:00.001-07:00

Today was our church's annual Fall Festival. The past two years it has been held on a church member's property. They have 80 beautiful acres. One of their hobbies is collecting old log cabins and turning them into wonderful, useful structures. This structure has been turned into a raised barn for parties.

We had lots of fun. A bluegrass band played for about an hour while some of us sat around the campfire. Hayrides, roosting marshmallows, enjoying one anothers company and handing out candy to the kids. I am so blessed to be part of a church family where everyone loves each other. We are a small in numbers but strong in heart.

Home School Materials For Sale

2011-10-29T11:09:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the awfully long post of photos of items for sale. I really need to clear some space on my shelves. If you are interested in any items please contact me by email knechtslodge@yahoo.com . Depending on how many books you may like to purchase will determine the cost of shipping. Media mail between 3.95 and 5.95. I can only ship inside of the US. Thames and Kosmos Solar Power Building Kit 10.00.

Rachel Yoder books set 1 -6. 6.00 (Sold)

American Girl Pack including 4 books. 8.00

The Action Bible - Graphic Novel Format. 8.00

Pagoo with study guide from Queen Homeschool. 4.00 (Study Guide Sold)

Simply Charlotte Mason's Picture Study Portfolios - Rembrandt. 6.00 (Sold)

Drawing Books ( Animation Book 1, Animals, Cartooning Book 1). 2.00 each.

David Macaulay's Pyramid. 3.00 (Sold)

Pearables Home Ec for Homeschoolers. Level 1. 4.00

World Atlas. 3.00

Discoverology - Human Body Book with popups. 5.00

The Usborne Introduction to Art. 5.00 (sold)

The World of Animals. 3.00

Illustrated Classics Moby Dick. 2.00

Story of the World Volume 2 Middle Ages. 3.00

Book 1 of A Series of Unfortunate Events. 1.00

The Joy of Drawing - old. .50

The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. 1.00 (sold)

The Golden Goblet. 1.00 (sold)

Adam and His Kin. 2.00 (sold)

The Wright Brothers and their Sister. 2.00 (sold)

E. Nesbitt's Book of Dragons. Short stories about dragons. 2.00

Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book 1. .50

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 1.00 (sold)

Izzy's Popstar Plan - Devotional. 2.00

Wildlife Whimsy. Short Stories about local wild life. 3.o0

(sold)

Off To the Animal Hospital

2011-10-29T11:00:00.001-07:00

This is our 7 month old cat Silver. As many of my readers know we found her in a Mexican restaurant parking lot about 4 months ago. She has had one medical issue after another since bringing her home. We love her, she is one of the sweets cats I have ever come across. Anyway the past two days we have seen some vomiting and diarrhea, subdued behavior, etc. Also I wanted her heart murmur to be checked which was graded a 2 out of 6 about six weeks ago when she was spayed. Well we couldn't find a whole lot wrong with her so the doctor gave her an injection to settle her stomach. The heart murmur though is a different story. It has progressed to a grade 3 out of 6. The next step is to do a echo but that costs 300.00. Not in the budget at the moment. The doctor suspects she has myocardial hypertrophy which will continue to progress until she needs to be put on daily meds. From my understanding myocardial hypertrophy thickens the heart wall and blood cannot be dispersed properly. As long as she continues with no symptoms (fainting, coughing, heavy breathing, sudden death and blood clots in the rear legs) we can hold off on further diagnostic tests and medications. But it is also possible to live a long life on medication. So we will hope for the best and try to start saving money for the echo.

Lack of Posts

2011-10-29T03:07:00.001-07:00

I would like to apologize for the lack of posts. I mentioned a while back that I was having trouble with insomnia. Going on two months now. Some nights are better than others. Tried one medication that is considered a light sleeping aid/anxiety for short term usages. It seemed to help a little in the beginning but then tapered off. I have been off of it for about five days. Last night has been the worst. It is now 6 in the morning and I have actually been up all night. Very surreal being up when everyone else in the house is asleep. A couple of months ago I was also given a prescription to help with anxious feelings which in turn will cause the insomnia, once I read the side effects it scared me off of trying it. But now two months later I think I am just going to have to take the plunge. Not sleeping is just awful. Every night I dread going up to bed because I know what awaits me, which in turn causes the anxious feelings that do not allow me to fall off to sleep. A vicious cycle. So tonight I will take my first anxiety pill and hope for the best. Your prayers would be very welcomed right now as I work my way through this troubling time.

Ancient History

2011-10-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

One of the great advantages to home schooling your child is relearning or learning for the first time many great stories from history. As I have mentioned before we are studying Ancient Egyptian History this year as well as the beginning of time through the Bible. Today we read some very interesting things about Ancient Egypt that I did not know. There is a Cleopatra's Needle which is an obelisk covered in hieroglyphs in London, Paris, and New York. Cleopatra's name is attached to it for no other reason other than a nickname. The obelisk was created centuries before Cleopatra was even born. Another interesting fact is that a time capsule was buried in the pedestal of the obelisk in London. Another thing... I obviously know what the Sphinx is but did not know it was the burial site for Cheops' son Chephren. I guess the old saying is true, you learn something new every day. So far I am finding all of this fascinating.

Liebster Blog Award

2011-10-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

I was recently award the Liebster Blog Award from Once Upon a Family @ www.minabema.blogspot.com. What a surprise. From what I have learned the Liebster Blog Award started in Germany to encourage traffic to blogs with under 300 followers. If you receive a Liebster Blog Award you are asked to choose 3-5 other bloggers and link back to the blogger that gave you the award.

It is really hard to choose but here are my choices:

Bonnie of Clyde at www.fran-bonnieofclyde.blogspot.com - Fran and myself have recently become cyber friends. What drew me in to her blog was the fact that she lives on a boat full time and lives in the UK. I have a weakness for blogs found outside of the US.

The Education of G and F @ www.grannyteacher.blogspot.com - I love reading about this young grandmother homeschooling her two grandchildren.

Joyful Mother of Six Children @ www.joyfulmotherofsixchildren.blogspot.com - I have followed this blog for a good while. She has alot on her plate but handles it with grace. Love reading about the co-op and FIAR classes.

Life at Cobble Hill Farm @ www.lifeatcobblehillfarm.blogspot.com - We have in common our love of all things chicken and homesteading.

Little Men in My Library @ www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlemen/ - I have followed this blog almost from the very beginning. Again my fascination with blogs in other countries and this one lives in Australia.

Thanks again to Once Upon a Family for the award. I enjoy blogging and meeting new people. Please take a minute to visit the above blogs.

The Older Kid

2011-10-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

I know I spend very little time talking about our oldest child Travis that is 21. Mostly because he is kind of leading his own adult life now and isn't around much. He is home for dinner maybe 4 out of 7 nights, works full time and like any boy his age spends alot of time with friends away from the home. As I mentioned in yesterdays post I didn't get up and go to church. In one sense it was a blessing. Travis was home and didn't go to church either because he had planned on being gone all weekend volunteering at the race track but plans fell through. Being a boy of 21 he decided to take advantage of the extra time and sleep in. Now getting to the point of the blog, the blessing was getting to spend most of the day just me and Travis. This rarely if ever happens. We sat down and watched an episode of a tv program together, ate lunch together and just talked without any interruptions. He is still my baby and I relish getting to spend one on one time with him.

A Quiet Weekend (For me anyway)

2011-10-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

No one home. That really should have been the title to this post. Yesterday I spent the better part of my day and night alone at home. As many know Scott worked three 12 hour shifts Friday - Sunday. Home Monday - Thursday. So he wasn't home. Grace went to spend the weekend with a friend. So she wasn't home. Travis had plans to volunteer at a race track all weekend out of state. So he wasn't home. I don't think I have had that much time to myself for a long time. What did I do with it? First I cleaned the house. It is hard to clean house day in and day out and it immediately get cluttered again because people are living in the house. I called my mom and we went out to lunch. She took me shopping for a couple of hours and bought me and Grace some new clothes for the Fall and Winter. Yea mom! Once settling in back at home I watched two discs that came in the mail from Netflix then read for a while. Grace won't be back until later this afternoon and Travis is still asleep in his room, so I again am alone. I had plans to attend church alone this morning but sleeping in kind of took over. Missing having Grace home. Looking forward to picking her up this afternoon and then we will head off to choir practice. Hope you all are having a nice relaxing weekend.

Traditions

2011-10-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of every October we hear the same question over and over again from Grace, "When can we get a pumpkin to carve?" It is real torture for her to wait until the final couple of weeks of October when we actually purchase one. Tonight she got two treats in one, spending time with her older brother and getting the pumpkin carved. I'll bet some of you didn't know I actually have another child. Meet Travis age 21. The second question that is asked, "What design should we carve?" Scott and Grace's favorite movie is Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas. So Grace went online and found a pattern to carve our pumpkin as Jack Skeleton from the movie. I believe it came out quite well. After the carving popcorn was cooked for all. All in all great family evening.

The other treat is pumpkin seeds which will be dried in our dehydrator over night.

Busy Day

2011-10-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

Today should prove to be very busy. It did not start out that way but you know how things go. So this is how the day looks:

History and Science here at home 10:00 - 12:00
Lunch 12:00 - 1:00
Middle School chemistry class 1:30 - 3:30
Beading Class at the library 4:00 - 6:00
Dinner out 6:00 - 6:45
Youth Group for Grace 7:00 - 8:30
Bible Study Group for me and Scott 7:00 - 8:00

When I say that it didn't start out this way, normally I would never schedule this much in one day. But here is what transpired to change the plan. Grace's Chemistry class is normally on Monday but the teacher asked to switch it to Wednesday due to a doctor's appt. The beading class is a one time thing and we love the lady who will be teaching it. She retired last year from the library and we don't get to see her much. So we really don't want to miss it.

Read Alouds

2011-10-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

From the time Grace was small I have read to her. In the beginning because she couldn't read herself, then when we have challenging books for our school curriculum, but mostly to share fun books. I love to read. I will read anything: magazines, blogs, Internet articles, catalogs, non fiction, fiction and of course the Bible. With as much reading as I have done independently and with Grace you would think that Grace would have also caught the reading bug. But it is not so. Occasionally she will find a series of books that she wants to pick up and read for pleasure. For example I started us on the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan and she finished all of them on her own as well as his new series, The Lost Hero's. Now that she is older I require more reading from her during the day for her school work which in turn makes her really not want to pick up any other books during the day for pleasure reading. Here is what she reads independently each day for herself:

History - The Golden Goblet (Ancient Egyptian History), Bible, Oxford's First Ancient History, and Pharaoh's of Ancient Egypt (Of course not all on the same day)

Literature - Right now she is finishing up The Hobbit

Science - Galen and the Gateway to Medicine

Even though she is reading quite a bit each day I still want us to enjoy some fun books together. About three days a week I read several chapters from a pleasure book for us. Since the beginning of the summer we have been working our way through Peter and the Starcatchers series. Today we finished the third book Peter and the Secret of Rundoon. This series takes you through all the back history of Peter Pan. The authors take alot of liberties with explaining where all the characters came from and what their back stories all. It is all great fun. Great series! Can't recommend it enough. Grace loves read aloud time. She says the reason she enjoys me reading the story is because I read each character with inflection and she can really visualize the story. She normally does her drawing art challenge for the day while I am reading. We have two more books in the series to finish before jumping to something else. I am looking at a series that starts with Theodosia and Th Serpents of Chaos. This series is about a young girl whose parents are archaeologists that specialize with ancient Egyptian artifacts. This would actually go great with our year long study in History of the beginning of history through Ancient Egypt. The other books in the series include: Theodosia and The Staff of Osiris, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus, and Theodosia and the Last Pharaoh. So I guess the meaning behind this post is to remind everyone that it doesn't matter how old your children are, reading aloud to them is a special time that you both can still enjoy. I plan on doing read alouds with Grace until she graduates.

Scenes from the Homestead

2011-10-15T13:20:00.001-07:00

I thought I would show you a little scenery from our home. The first two photos are of views from our front deck. It is hard to tell in the pictures, but Fall has finally arrived with great weather and leaves changing colors.

Here we have our strawberry patch that we transferred from the big garden down the rode. If they all survive the Winter Scott feels like we will have around 90 plants. A month or so ago he cut all the runners into separate plants. We had a good bit of rain this past week which has helped. When the weather turns colder we will put a hoop house on the patch.

It is hard to tell but this will be our fish pond (aqua farming). Our version anyway. Scott started digging this week and hopes to go as far down as possible, at least 4-5 feet. Our problem is our property is plagued with rocks. Some quite big. Once the pond is dug we hope to put in fingerling catfish. From what we understand after a season they will be ready to eat. I know for some this may sound crazy, but we do feel at some point an economic and possibly social meltdown will occur. No clue when or how long it will last. But with the chickens, garden and fish we have a head start of being able to feed ourselves. Matter of fact, yesterday I stocked up some to fill the pantry and hope to continue doing this every week when I visit the grocery store. That way it is not costing alot of money at one time and it will make me feel less anxiety knowing that if the price of food continues to sky rocket I will have food to feed my family. Most of the items I purchased were ingredients to make meals from scratch: flour, sugar, pasta, yeast, brown sugar, etc. I know that God is always in control and will ultimately take care of us. I am curious with my readers in other parts of the world if you are feeling the same type of anxieties. Would love to hear your thoughts and maybe the preparations that you are making, if any.

The last two photos are two views from our back door. The big shed in the back is actually my husband's art studio. We have three chicken coops with attached runs. Right now it looks pretty messy because of all the leaves falling. I have to sweep everything because the blower sends them into a terrible fright.

Blogger Issues

2011-10-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

Certain blogs will still not let me leave a comment. For those out there who would still like to communicate please send me your email address and I can comment to you that way. You can reach me at knechtslodge@yahoo.com.
Blessings
Diane

A Fun Afternoon

2011-10-12T18:42:00.001-07:00

Today we toured the place where our drama ministry team will be on a retreat in November. We are blessed that one of the families involved with the ministry team owns a horse stable/camp and has offered it to us to use for free. Toward the back of the property they have chickens, quail, turkeys and peacocks. I learned that in captivity peacocks will not sit on their own eggs which is why they keep the turkeys. In one of the turkey pens I saw three juvenile peacocks. Also something very funny...while we were walking around looking at the birds I heard voices like coming from a television. I asked one of the boys if it was a tv and he said yes. I said oh so does that mean your house is nearby, he said no. The tv was for the Llama. The llama likes to watch television. The owners run a tv off and on through the day for the llama. The kids are going to have a great time at this retreat.

New Creations By Grace

2011-10-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Each day I am trying to challenge Grace with something different to draw other than anime. Sometimes it is a drawing from a book or magazine and sometimes something still life.

Of course anime still wins out alot.

Last night she was just doodling before bed and created this. I have always thought she was really good at drawing eyes.

Chicken Update

2011-10-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

This summer we let one of our broody hens sit on two eggs. They both hatched and we believe them both to be hens. Yeah, no more roosters. In the picture on the left is the run and coop of the adult game fowls. In the picture on the right is the nursery where the two baby chicks grew up in to 20 wk old teens after spending the first 5 weeks of their life in a brooder in our kitchen. There is fencing behind that big tree that connected both coops so the adult chickens and baby chicks have spent the last two months seeing each other every day but not able to touch one another. Today was the momentous occasion of integrating everyone. Scott cut a door between the two coops and let nature take its course. The only real worry we have is that the rooster (because he is not the nicest) might try to hurt them. But so far everyone is getting along great.

Here is mother and daughter getting to know each other again. Another update is egg production. We are getting 5-7 eggs a day. Just to give you an idea of what this many eggs looks like - I gave a dozen eggs to a neighbor 4 days ago, cooked 10 eggs for egg salad for a church dinner yesterday, 4 eggs for two separate desserts and 2 for breakfast yesterday. Guess how many I still have in the fridge? 17.

How I Bake Blondies

2011-10-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Fran requested the recipe I use for blondies:
2 1/4 cups flour
2 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 - 2 cups of choc. chips

Soften butter. Mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla, and eggs throughly. Then add salt, baking soda and flour. Lastly add choc. chips or something else of your choosing. Bake in the oven at 375 for 25 minutes in a 9 x 13 glass dish. Some ovens make only need 20 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick. Remove from oven and let set for 30 minutes before cutting. Remember that the blondies will continue to harden some once the pan is removed from the oven. Enjoy.

To Answer a Question

2011-10-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

Fran asked what a blondie is? I am answering through a post because currently blogger is not letting me comment on certain blogs. Something about cookie being null for form restoration. I have no idea what that means. But to get back to the question. A blondie is a choc. chip cookie in pan form like a brownie. Only this time I added choc. cover peanut candies instead of the choc. chips. Not sure when blogger is going to let me comment again. So please don't think that I am ignoring anyone.

Lots of Chores to Accomplish Today

2011-10-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Some items on my list have to be done today and some are suggestions. But I hope to get my entire list accomplished today.

Go through science units that I downloaded for free

Clean bathrooms (my most hated chore)

Watch the new Fringe episodes on Fox

Clean chicken coops and fresh water

Help Grace learn her lines for Robin Hood

Walk 30 minutes

Have Grace try on new pants and costume for play

Work on cross stitch Christmas ornaments

Make egg salad for church fellowship dinner tomorrow

Make cookies for here at the house

Make blondies for church fellowship dinner tomorrow

Declutter at least two rooms

Wash linens

As I type this I have already finished four items on the list. Right now sitting down to catch a breather before plunging ahead with more chores.

Favorite Field Trip

2011-10-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hands down our favorite field trip every year is to go see a Wonderquest performance. This year is our fifth year of attending. Over the five years we have seen The Emperor's New Clothes, Robin Hood, Briar Rabbit, The Fire Dragon, and this year's James and the Giant Peach. Grace wants to perform in this performance hall so bad. Another option she is looking at for her future is attending this college as a theatre major. She just loves performing. Below is a photo with grasshopper and James. The character in the above photo is the earthworm. This guy did an incredible job of making you believe he was actually an earthworm. Below is the centipede. The same actor played Briar Gator in last year's performance.

This actress played the spider. Her costume was awesome.

The last photo is the ladybug. She asked Grace if she was a homeschooler and when we said yes, she told us she was home schooled also. We told her that Grace was very much into drama and performing and she said Grace really needed to come and audition. A few children are selected each year to play extra characters. We so wish that Wonderquest had more than one performance a year. My photo wouldn't load of the set but it was also amazing.

Escape to the Park

2011-10-05T12:16:00.001-07:00

Our small town has a terrific little park. Midday we decided to take a break from school to get lunch and do our 30 minute walk at the nearby park before returning home for the remainder of our school work. At the park we discovered a swarm of little red and black beetles in one section. We also saw a ground hog just sitting by the walking path. Once we returned home I went to the Internet and found out the beetles are box elder bugs.

Days Passing By Quickly

2011-10-05T07:45:00.001-07:00

It seems that each day passes so quickly which in turn makes the weeks and months fly by. I knew that this semester would be a heavily scheduled one with many outside of the home activities. But it was kind of planned that way on purpose. Grace was craving time with kids her own age. Over the summer she was really bored and lonely for companionship. So far my plan is working famously. For the past 6 months to a year Grace has said numerous times that she really wanted a close friend to hang out with and talk to. She has started spending time with a girl her age that has all the same likes (drama, performing, singing, drawing). This is just what she needed. So most weeks are comprised of two different drama practice groups, chemistry class, youth group at church, art class, and now visits between the two friends. Before we know it Thanksgiving and Christmas will arrive. I don't even want to think about Christmas. Normally I am a create a gift kind of person, but no plans or time this go around. I would much prefer not to give presents for the adults just something for the kids. Many years have come and gone when me and Scott do not exchange gifts. The older I get the less all that stuff means to me. I am also thinking that this year I would like to purchase gifts from smaller in town businesses to show our support instead of large chain businesses like Wal-mart. I know it is getting harder and harder for the local small business to stay open. I think I will take this moment to pledge to try and purchase most of the Christmas gifts from local small businesses in my area. Boy this post sure did start out as one thought and finish as another.

Annual Geography Festival

2011-10-04T07:55:00.001-07:00

Each year our home school group hosts a Geography Festival. Four out of the last five years I have been in charge including this year. Originally we had 13 families participating, but at the last minute a few families dropped out. Each child/family picks a country and creates a display about what they learned as well as cook a dish from that country. This year Grace picked Japan because she is still crazy about manga and anime. Grace decided to focus on the Arts of Japan: origami, kabuki theater, bonsai trees, manga, tea ceremony and calligraphy. The Geography Festival is probably Grace's favorite activity to participate with each year.

Great Find at the Book Store

2011-10-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

I had read about these books a while back on another blog. These are quick reads to introduce kids to each category of Science. I picked up Rocks and Minerals and Chemistry (especially since she is taking an introductory chemistry class at the moment). Also available: Astronomy, Biology, Periodic Table, Physics and Planet Earth. Really excited about using them. I also have a Curiosity Files download about the blue diamond that will go really well with the Rocks and Minerals book.

Egg Production is Up

2011-09-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Buff girls are doing most of the work. In the bottom photo you can see the two green eggs. Betty started laying again during the end of her molt. She was laying 5-6 eggs a week and is now down to about 3 a week. The Buffs are cranking it out with 5-6 eggs just from them each day. So we are overloaded with eggs right now. Some days we are getting a total of 6-7 eggs a day. What you see below is what is leftover from using 5 eggs in a pound cake a couple of days ago and 9 eggs for dinner one night this week. Tomorrow I hope to make egg salad for sandwiches and I also need to make a couple of desserts for the week to snack on.

Glenn Beck TV

2011-09-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

I know alot of people will instantly bypass this post as soon as they see it is about Glenn Beck. There are alot of people in the United States that really don't like him and his views. But if you lean conservatively, I really think you should take a peek at what he is doing. Yes, he is still telling you like it is, the truth that the mainstream media just doesn't tell us. But I predict great things for his new online television channel. On Monday they are debuting a new show for kids, "Liberty Tree house" at 4:00. Two payment options are available, $4.95 and $9.95 a month. Go check out www.gbtv.com.

Incredible Movie

2011-09-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

Everyone should take the time to view Ray Comfort's new video 180. It blew my socks off last night when I watched before bed. So many young people in our country really need to take the time to view this 33 minutes video. Going into it I was unsure what the message was until about halfway through the video. Please take the time to go to www.180movie.com and view this short video. It will make such a difference in your life and hopefully many, many more.

Something New To Us

2011-09-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

In all the years I have owned cats and dogs (including 17 years of working for an animal hospital) I have never had a cat or dog go in to a heat cycle before being spayed. Remember the kitten we found in the parking lot of the local Mexican restaurant? Well we couldn't find a home for her and we also fell in love with her sweet little self, so decided to keep her. The first visit to the vet gave her an age of 9 weeks. But when we returned in three weeks for her next visit she had gained enought weight to actually age her older than we thought. Kittens gain about one pound a month until six months of age. I had a discussion with the Vet about when to spay her and how much time she thought we might be able to wait. I just didn't have the funds yet to do the surgery (the going rate for feline spays in this area is 181.00). She assured me that waiting till mid October would be fine. Four days ago Silver started meowing alot especially at night. Low and behold she is already in her first heat cycle. For two night no one got any sleep because she was loudly meowing all night long. Last night we knew desperate measure were needed. We set up the small dog crate with all the necessities and had her spend the night out in the backyard shed. Wonderful, blissful sleep for all. Hopefully she will be finished with this heat cycle by mid October so I can think have her spayed.

A Different Route Than College

2011-09-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

We have always known that the traditional college route was not what Grace wanted. She has mentioned more than once that she might want to go into the mission field. Our church has recently started supporting two children and two missionaries through Gospel for Asia. On the way home from church yesterday Grace said she would love to go to India someday and help the children. After lunch I started doing some research about Gospel for Asia and found out that they have a one year school at their headquarters in discipleship training. While getting intensive training she would also be working at Gospel for Asia at their headquarters and would go on a two week mission trip to India. This morning when I told her all this, she was beyond excited. I know she is only in the 7th grade and could change her mind many times, but you just never know where life will take you. This week we are going to sit down and pick a child to sponsor and maybe decide about an extra gift each month for supplies. To find out more information about Gospel for Asia visit at www.gfa.org .

A More Relaxed Homeschooling Experience

2011-09-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

We pulled Grace out of public school in the beginning of 2nd grade and now we have started 7th grade. So if my calculations are correct we have started our sixth year of home schooling. When I look back over the past six years and can see lots of changes in the way we actually school. In the beginning the only thing I knew was school at home. I bought a boxed curriculum and went to work. After boring days and crying on both of our parts, we knew there had to be a better way. After that first year we slowly found our way to Charlotte Mason's teachings. It was a bright ray of sunshine brought in to my life. At that point the decision was between using Ambleside or Simply Charlotte Mason's curriculum guides. I researched Ambleside alot and felt with Grace's personality it just wasn't a good fit. As she grew older I am so glad I made that decision early on. Grace is not a motivated student. She has definitely gotten better over the years but Ambleside would have crushed her with their heavy load of reading. The choice then fell to Simply Charlotte Mason and I just love Sonya Schaffer. I have attended three of her workshops/seminars. After two years of using the SCM curriculum guide I started second guessing our choice just because again Grace is not a motivated student and we just weren't making any progress. Next we tried Unit Studies and just studying what we wanted or what looking interesting. After much thought we returned to SCM. That was the best decision we ever made. I am very committed to sticking with SCM and learning through living books through graduation. I follow the SCM guide pretty thoroughly but take it slower that some. This year we have more out of the home activities that I feel are very important for Grace. She is at that age where she really needs interaction with kids her own age. Now we get to the title of this post. The past few weeks I really haven't felt myself and we have had to step back and take things more slowly. I am finding that I kind of like it this way. We may not get through every subject that was assigned for that day - but you know what, it is okay. She is learning. She is making progress. Schooling into some of the summer is not a bad thing if we need to finish up some of our history or science. So we are taking it one day at a time and in a very relaxed manner at this point. It has taken us 6 years to reach this conclusion. I sometimes wonder about all those new home schoolers and thinking they need to sit at a desk for 4 1/2 hours every day doing book work to meet their state mandated hours. I don't think I could go back to that. We use exercise, drama, reading, classes outside of the home, etc. to meet those hours as well as sit down at the table work. Relaxed home schooling is a good fit for us at this time in our lives.

Thursday and Friday = Busy

2011-09-23T16:06:00.001-07:00

Thursday and Friday of this week proved to be very busy and time consuming. Not in a bad way, just time consuming. As I wrote before sleeping has not come easy to me in the last 6 nights so I tend to sleep later in the morning to make up the difference. Grace is taking advantage of this. She is a night owl anyway and now tends to stay up as long as I am up. So she sleeps late too. That means school work doesn't get started until 10:30 or 11:00 on those mornings. She can't roll out of bed and start right away with breakfast and work. Thursday I specifically scheduled school work lightly because of this and the fact that she had an art class and drama ministry team practice on the same day. Today I also scheduled lightly. This morning we worked on a math lesson, her Japan project for the upcoming Geography Festival, literature reading and some homework from her chemistry class. After lunch we headed out for our group's first Rec day which consisted of organized games and fellowship. Once Rec Day was finished we meet Grace's friend from drama for dinner and brought her home with us to spend the night. They plan on running lines and practicing Robin Hood plus drama ministry skits most of the night. Looking forward to some quiet time tomorrow to catch up on a few things.

Mor Spider Study

2011-09-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share a couple of the daily assignments Grace has been working on for our spider study. I would also like to mention that she is really enjoying her middle school chemistry class on Mondays. Yesterday they built an atom and made some atomic cookies as well as went over more information about elements, compounds, etc. Her homework this week is to take the 11 elements she made cards for last week and write on the back of the card an interesting fact about that element. Anyway, back to the spider study. The top picture is what we did today. Grace created a chart of three different types of arthropods. Insects, crustaceans, and spiders. She was to write a few characteristics of each and then select an example of each.

A few days ago Grace was to select a spider and do a little investigating. Scott brought a black widow back from the garden the other day for her to see so she really wanted to do her assignment on the black widow. You can't see it in the picture but each leg of the spider has a fact written in pencil about the black widow.

The Sound of Silence

2011-09-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. As I have mentioned in some previous posts I am dealing with some health issues. All my tests so far have come back good with the exception of low vitamin d and slightly anemic. But I still don't feel normal. Joint and muscle pain ebbs and flows, no stamina or energy, hard to get through 30 minutes of a walk without feeling like I have run a marathon. This just isn't normal for me. Well I decided to go to the local health store and talk with the owner about something to help me. He was very informative and seemed to know his stuff. I left the store with New Chapter's zyflamend softgels and One "n" only Superior Tonic Multiple Vitamin. The zyflamend is a bunch of high potent herbs that create a good inflammation response in your body and helps with joint, muscle, tend, or nerve inflammation problems. The vitamin is super potent and has alot of B vitamins as well as some herbs to help with energy. The first day I took the zyflamend I woke up in the middle of the night with a full blown panic attack and couldn't go back to sleep. In the past I did suffer from anxiety and was on medication for about 3-4 years right after I had Grace. I know what an attack feels like and thought maybe after three months of not feeling right it was starting to get to me. So the next day at lunch I took both pills and again had trouble sleeping and was up much the not with anxious feelings. I read further about this herbal supplement and discovered the anxious feelings were probably coming from it. I took it one more night which was last night and sleep more than the first two nights but did wake up twice with feelings of anxiety (like I was scared to fall back asleep). Hubby also took one of the pills last night to see if he had some of the same feelings. He did feel quite a bit of energy and didn't need to go to sleep at his normal time. So for know I have decided to stop taking it even with it being very expensive. I just can not go around feeling tired as well as amped up on drugs all the time. My nerves would suffer to much. I am going to try to continue you the vitamin supplement and hope it will help with my problems of lack of energy. So sorry for no posts, I could hardly form some coherent sentences over the past few days. Prayer would be greatly appreciated for calm and healing.

Kind Of A Wonky Week

2011-09-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Let me explain. This week was the first with all of Grace's outside of the home activities starting. Monday is Chemistry for two hours, Tuesday is Drama for one and a half hours, Thursday is Art class for one hour and Drama Ministry Team for another hour and a half. So to make a long story short we are finding it a little daunting to fit all the at home academic work in. Now to top things off I was sick on Wednesday and Grace didn't feel well on Thursday. Friday we needed groceries shopped for as well as a birthday present then a recheck appt. at the vet for the newish kitten. Put all that together and I feel like we didn't get much accomplished. But I should say that Grace was much more motivated this week with finishing her work and really liked her Chemistry class, even finished the homework without me really having to tell her to do it. Luckily the Chemistry class is only for 8 weeks then Monday will be back to normal. One of our main problems is math taking so much time. Today it took 2 hours and she wasn't even dawdling. Sometimes the lecture takes 20 minutes then 25-30 problems. She is still doing her best and scores in the 80s and 90s on each lesson. I am proud of her that she is sticking it out and not throwing any tantrums, which two months ago would have been exactly what she would be doing in the same situation.

2011 Fair

2011-09-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

This week our annual county fair has been going on. It is a small fair in comparison to others I have seen on blogs, etc. The main reason we attended (because normally we feel it is a waste of month and Grace never wants to ride anything) was to see if Grace's drawing won a ribbon in the art contest. We were very excited to see that Grace won 2nd place in her age division.

Probably my favorite part of the fair is the Birds of Prey show. I love owls and they had 6 or 7 different kinds. They flew for us and we learned some interesting tidbits along the way.

Next favorite is always the petting zoo and you get to feed them too. Exotic animals up close.

I took lots of pictures but decided not to overflow this post with them. We also made a break through with Grace, she rode the scrambler and loved it. Matter of fact hubby and Grace went back tonight to ride all the could because it is family night and the tickets are reduced quite a bit. Unfortunately I do not like rides anymore, they give me a queasy stomach and I haven't felt well today on top of it.

Great Food Documentary

2011-09-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched a very eye opening documentary on Netflix. Forks Over Knives is about the whole foods/plants based diet and how it can resolve major illnesses and diseases. The whole foods diet advocates not eating meats and diary products. I think I could try the no meats but I would be a very unhappy camper without my daily glass of milk and cheese. But the evidence they produced was pretty convincing. Over many years during the 80s and 90s two doctors did separate studies about the effects of meat and diary and how they correlate with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, and hypertension. The scientific data they showed is astounding. After watching this documentary I am even more assured they getting rid of processed foods is the right answer. The problem is just doing it.

A New Week of School

2011-09-12T13:26:00.001-07:00

This week has many plans in the home and outside of the home to live, learn and laugh. Today was Grace's first middle school chemistry class. I was very apprehensive about her taking this 6 week class because she has not had alot of higher science experience. This is a very hands on class with experiments and building atoms, etc. with a little written work thrown in for good measure. She came home with a small amount of home work (making cards to go on a metal ring of 11 elements from the periodic table). We are also diving head first in to our Spectacular Spiders unit. Most of the spider books from the library are elementary age level but have good information. Early Fall is the best time to find spiders, especially at night. We have three of the spider that make a web then come out at night to sit on it. Hoping to get some good pictures.

Also this week we have started a study of a new artist. We are again using a Picture Study Portfolio from Simply Charlotte Mason. The next 6-8 weeks we will be studying paintings by Giotto who lived 1266-1337 during the tail end of the Medieval period. It is a nice change of pace after all the dark paintings of Rembrandt.

Tuesday will consist of drama practice for Robin Hood. We will have somewhat of a free day on Wednesday and Thursday will be art class and practice with the ministry drama team. Friday will be back to the vet with a recheck on our kitten and Saturday a birthday party for a friend.

Egg Production

2011-09-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

Over the past month egg production has been way down due to one set of birds molting and the other set being right on the cusp of age ready to start laying. As my previous post mentioned we received our first egg from the Buff two days ago. Well today we got another one. But here is the funny thing. I haven't been checking the nesting boxes for the game hens because they are still looking ratty and continuing their first molt. Today I thought I saw something in the third nesting box. I opened the hatch door and their wasn't anything in the third box but beside in the fourth nesting box Betty had been very busy. I found a clutch of five eggs that she had not been sitting on yet. This is the same bird that was broody off and on all Spring and Summer and would sit on absolutely nothing in the box. Now that she has a whole clutch she didn't want to sit. I feel so dumb for not checking the boxes and wasting five perfectly beautiful eggs. I will definitely be checking day from now on. It would be great to get back up to 3-5 eggs a day.

Look What We Found

2011-09-07T12:54:00.001-07:00

Very momentous occasion today. Our Buff laid their first egg. Hopefully this is the first of many before the time changes. So exciting to raise babies from 3 days old to laying eggs. We saw her go in the nesting box this afternoon and waited every so NOT patiently for her to come out so we could check. Chickens are so much fun!

Talented Young Artist

2011-09-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Please check out www.heartsaburstin.blogspot.com to find a young talented artist that lives in my area. Soon she will have a website to purchase her art on line. The art she creates with pressed flowers and natural elements is just amazing. Please make sure you scroll all the way down to entries from June and July to see some amazing work.

Drama Season Has Returned

2011-09-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

Last week we began the new drama season for 2011-2012. It will probably be a shorter season than in years past because of our group splitting and us now being on our own. Logistics, finances, participation, location availablity, etc. all play a part in having the program run for one semester or two. This semester all the participants are home schoolers and we have a well rounded group of a couple of 3rd graders all the way up to high schoolers. We ran in to trouble ordering from our regular musical theatre organization so we will not be doing a musical first semester. Robin Hood was chosen as our play for the first semester and we are happy with it as well as the kids participating. After having the lead in Alice Grace decided she wanted a bit of a smaller role this go around. She auditioned for and got the part of Salome the daughter of the Sheriff of Nottingham. With 45 lines to remember it is really what would be considered a medium part, but the most appealing to Grace was that this character is very comedic and silly. Much out of her comfort zone. She wanted to stretch herself a bit with something different. Another endeavor we are starting this week will be the Drama Ministry Team with 11 talented teen home schoolers. We will practice once a week in September and October then twice a week for November and December to prepare for performances at very churches in the area next semester. We hope to take the teens on a weekend/workshop retreat in October for some intensive training and bonding. This first semester should be very productive and rewarding.

Finally

2011-09-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

Rain and lower temperatures. In our area we haven't recieved a drop of rain in 4 weeks and the temperatures have been in the mid to high 90s for over two months. This week we are finally getting some relief. Expecting 3-6 inches of rain today and tomorrow. The temperatures will be between 71 and 79 all week. What a relief! Not running the AC all week would be just grand. Also other than the rain I know my chickens will really appreciate the cooler temps and my newly planted seed will apreciate the cooler temps and rain. Looking forward to Fall so much.

Shining Dawn Books

2011-09-04T11:49:00.001-07:00

Grace will be starting a Chemistry class for middle schoolers in another week. This week we will finish up our review unit on the human body. The Chemistry class will only be two hours on Monday for 8 weeks. Lots of experiments and hands on activities done in class with some studying at home for quizes. I didn't want to start something in Science at home that would be heavy duty until the Chemistry class was finished. For at least a year I have toyed around with the idea of ordering a nature study series from Shining Dawn Books. Well, today I took the plunge. I asked Grace to pick which she was most interested in doing and Spectacular Spiders won. What I like most about ordering is that the download is ready as soon as you pay. No wait. I was pleasantly surprised at all the suggestions that are available through this unit even to help stretch for students about 5th grade. So this week I will be gathering some items for hands on activities and field guides from the library. Now if we can just get over our fear of spiders to actually collect one to observe. I urge you all to check out the website http://www.shiningdawnbooks.com/ and choose something for your nature study. After this unit I may go back and purchase again either the unit on Rain or Clouds.

What I am Reading and What We Found

2011-09-02T09:34:00.001-07:00

The Locavore Way, Discover and Enjoy the Pleasure of Locally Grown Food.

A message came through our home school group's email loop about a new creamery that had just opened. Up till now there was no one that I knew of that you could buy local milk and diary products from. I was so excited today to go to Mountain Fresh Creamery and check out what they had available. The milk comes from their dairy farm 5 miles down the road. This is just one county over from us. Of course we live in the country so that averages out to about a 30 minute drive. Today I purchased a gallon each of chocolate and regular milk, vanilla ice cream, and three pounds of local, grass fed beef. This is also the first establishment I have found to purchase the local, grass fed beef without having to purchase a whole or half cow. The color of the beef was deep red and beautiful. Can't wait to cook with it. I think I might start this as a twice a month endeavor to get milk and beef. The only disappointment was they weren't making butter yet. I really want the local butter too because I bake alot.

A Welcome Surprise

2011-09-01T16:36:00.001-07:00

Today was our every 2 month trip to the big library. Because of gas it has gotten to the point that we can only about every two months due to the new library being 50 minutes away from us. But their selection of books, magazines, dvds, etc. just can't be beat. We actually had a special reason for going; Grace is getting ready to do a project on Japan for our group's Geography Festival and needed lots of materials about Japan. Ok, now we can get to the surprise. Every Thursday in the parking lot of the library is a farmer's market. Small (maybe 15 vendors) booths filled with fresh veggies, home made desserts and breads, and crafts. We didn't have alot of cash on me with tomorrow being pay day. We were able to put together enough cash between the three of us to get a multi-grain loaf of bread, choc. chip cookies, and farm fresh eggs. It was alot of fun looking at what everyone had and how much they were charging for future reference.

Last of the Summer Garden

2011-08-31T07:02:00.001-07:00

Scott went and worked in the garden just about all day yesterday. There were many weed that needed to be torn down and everything straightened up for the Fall garden. We had two batches of tomatoes to harvest and two batches of bell peppers. Also a huge harvest of banana peppers that were all dried in the dehydrator through the night. I hope to make some more pasta sauce with the tomatoes tonight or tomorrow.

The Fall garden will be much smaller. We will replant our greens, adding purple cabbage. Also Scott replanted some potatoes with hopes of a Fall potato harvest. We have many ideas for next year's garden but are unsure about where the garden may be. As I mentioned before the space we are using now will be sprayed with a an herbicide in the Spring. With 5 other groups of families gardening on this patch and us not having in rights to the land we really can't say anything. We want to grow organically, which is what we did this year. No sprays at all for bugs or weeds. We are looking at a community garden in a small town 10 minutes down the road from us. Of course it won't be as convenient as what we have now but if the community garden won't be spraying that may be our only choice.

Pizza Bake

2011-08-30T18:38:00.001-07:00

My family loves pizza and spaghetti, so tonight I tried a casserole with a little of both. You can tell from the picture that half was made without Italian sausage because one kid in the family doesn't like it. Here is the recipe if anyone is interested:
2 boxes of whole wheat penne pasta
2 jars of Ragu homestyle pizza sauce
generous amount of mozzarella cheese
pepperoni and Italian sausage
dash of Italian seasoning

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Then add all the other ingredients and mix. Maybe add some extra mozzarella on top. Very easy.

Buying Local

2011-08-29T13:11:00.001-07:00

Went to the local produce store to see if the local apples were out yet. Found boxes of local apples, yeah! Buying from Tiger, GA is alot closer than Washington State where most of the apples in the grocery store come from. I bought a variety to see what we liked best. Mutsu being the only variety I had never heard of before. Right now the local apples are .89 a pound but last year toward the end of the season was marked down to .49 a pound. Another choice would be to buy a box for 26.00 which is 40 pounds of apples. In the grocery store apples are running 1.78 - 1.98 a pound and in our local produce store .99 - 1.39 a pound. Everyone in the house eats apples and they go pretty quick. We also hope to score a deal soon and dry a bunch.

Books On My Bedside Table

2011-08-28T17:52:00.001-07:00

This is probably my favorite home schooling/Charlotte Mason book. The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola has everything you need to start putting in to practice Charlotte Mason's methods. I picked this one up at a used sale a couple of years ago. I think this is my 3rd or 4th reading.

What He Must Be....if he wants to marry my daughter by Voddie Bauchman Jr. This man is amazing and I love to hear him speak. We purchased this book at the state home school convention and had him sign it. Hubby has already read this book and I have just started.

A Practical Guide to Living On An Acre The Self-Reliant Life. So far this one is pretty ho-hum. About half way through it and not learning anything new. May not even finish it.

I am always looking for great books, fiction or non-fiction. If you guys have any suggestions, please send them my way.

Preparing for Fall

2011-08-26T12:01:00.001-07:00

Starting to build a cold frame to house our strawberry plants up here at our house as opposed to the neighbors field where we did our garden this summer. We started with 8 plants that did not produce alot and have ended up with probably 30 plants. We still have more down at the garden to transplant. The plants we have brought up are already producing runners trying to get into the ground. That is a good sign. Hoping next week to build another cold frame beside it to plant greens.

Corn from the neighbor that we are drying to crack for the chickens. Just learned from the neighbor that lets us garden on his property that he will be spraying the acreage for weeds next spring before everyone plants. We are very disappointed because none of the other families that garden down there tend to be growing organically like we are. Not sure what we will do at this point.

Getting Back To Normal

2011-08-25T10:44:00.001-07:00

Life has been a whirlwind of drs appts in the past three weeks. My acid reflux is not wanting to behave, the new medication that I am on for the reflux may be causing side effects with my joints and muscles, and had the outpatient surgery yesterday. At this point I am awaiting test results for the joint and muscle pain which started a couple of months ago. They are testing me for auto immune disorders like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis before deciding that the reflux medication is causing. Our church family has been very good to us bringing meals yesterday and today. I should be good as new by Monday. I haven't been sedated since I had my wisdom teeth removed twenty years ago. It is a very surreal experience. To be in the operating room and looking at the clock then waking up in a different room with no memories of anything that happened in between. Looking forward to no future hospital visits.

Sorry About the Lapse in Posting

2011-08-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dealing with some medical issues and had a minor surgery today. Hope to get back to posting in the next couple of days.