Pocket Reflections

Cleaning around the house

Adding things to my pockets as I find them in the floor

Today, once again, I realized it won't always be so

In just five minutes my pockets were full

Colorful magnets I use with Caedmon, 3,  for his "schoolwork"

A green army man

Two glass marbles

Empty nebulizer medicine tubes

An inhaler

A quarter

A colored pencil

Bobbie pins

All reflections of our days

Days that I am fully aware are constantly bringing change

Yes, there are still little boys here and will be for a few more years, but I can easily see those two little boys....just by glancing over at their older brothers....same age difference just a dozen years older

Asthma meds have been a huge part of our daily lives since....well, since I was a kid....but for my kids?  The past 24 years or so.  Thankful I am that there are empty nebulizer medicine tubes that I must pick up from the floor.

Jackson, 7 year old man child, has discovered money to be very interesting....counting, sorting, just looking at it

A colored pencil that could have been used by a number of the children...older and younger loves to draw, paint, create....

Bobby pins....a reminder that there are still a couple of young ladies living here...in the midst of all this manliness

It's easier to see the changes, I think, as my children are so spread out in ages.  This year the children will be 28 (how can that be!!), 24, 20, 16, 13, 8 and 4....and we now have grandchildren!

Life is full of changes, seasons, scrapbook pages turning before our very eyes.....

Slow down and see the changes...

It Takes a Family to Build a Homestead

We are trying to take our homesteading efforts to the next level and incorporate farm animals.  We've had some animals before...a couple of horses, some sheep and a handful of chickens, but now we are trying to get serious about it.  Amy @homesteadrevival.blogspot.com recently wrote about gardening as if her life depended upon it and that really struck a chord with me!  There is no way we could live off of our garden at this point, but we are making plans for enlarging it with 2-3 times as many beds this winter and building a greenhouse for some year-round fresh vegetables.  

And, as we are not vegetarians, we also need to get meat animals.  We are planning on adding in a dairy cow, a couple of beef cows, a pig or two and meat and laying chickens.  In preparation for adding in our meat chickens we decided to build a chicken tractor.  I had hoped to convert a trampoline into a chicken tractor/run, but after finding a free one this week and having Jeff and the boys bring it home I quickly realized that my trampoline/chicken tractor transformation was just a dream.  The trampoline will remain a trampoline!

Jeff works with several homeschooling/homesteading dads and one of them had recently built a chicken tractor and shared the plans with him.  So, on Saturday morning Jeff and I had a little one-on-one time at Lowe's for all the materials and then a quick Sam's run.   Lowe's and Sam's are our favorite date spots lately!!  After we arrived back home, Jeff and the children quickly got to work on building our first chicken tractor.  It is not completed yet, but here are some pictures of the work in progress.  I will post a link in the next day or so as I cannot find it on the instructions.

Jordan is drilling holes into the metal pipes after cutting them to the right length.

Instructions, galvanized hardware screen, drill bits and screws used to build the chicken tractor.

Drilling the holes was a little tricky.

My porch rooster is checking out the future home of his more animated friends.

Devin even helps out to hold the pipes as Jordan drills the holes.

Kaelan watches for now.

Jeff, formulating the next step.  I often find him in this pose!!  He thinks a lot!

Now Kaelan gets to hold pipes  as it starts taking shape.

Tying the pipes together with a heavy wire

It took several helpers to get the job done!

Three pipes held together with wire

corner pieces

Chicken wire is on half of the top.  The job will be finished up this week.  I'll share later!

Aaron was mowing and weedeating during the time the Jeff and the others were building.  The little guys were on the trampoline.  ; (  Jackson did wake up complaining of his neck hurting the next morning.  Sigh!!

I've shared before about buying our clothes on the clearance racks.  This outfit for Caedmon was only $7 for all three pieces.  He will probably be able to wear it next year as well.

Jackson started asking for shirts and ties last year and I have found a couple for him.  This shirt and tie combo made by Izod was less than $3!  I found polo-style shirts for the big boys at less than $3 as well.  They weren't too interested in posing before church yesterday, though!!   Love, love, love great clearance rack finds.  Saving money on clothes and necessary items is one of my contributions to the homestead.

 Every day we are picking a handful of strawberries and a pint or two of blueberries.  These ever-bearing strawberry plants were clearance rack buys as well.  I got 12 plants for $1.25 each last year.  They made lots of baby plants and we divided them into about 80 plants this year.  I gave most of them away.  Next year we will add more strawberry beds and use a different kind of strawberry that can be harvested in just a couple of weeks.

I think we will wind up with about three gallons from two bushes.  A first for us!!

Another first...hard squashes growing on a trellis!

Cucumbers are a first as well!

I can't wait for these and their little friends to ripen!!

Our basil is doing great!  We are making pesto each week and freezing it for use this winter!

We've started harvesting and drying sage to use in cooking and for medicinal use.  I post more about it later!

Cucumbers are waiting to be turned into pickles today!


Time for me to get up and get some more work done.  As you can see, we've got lots to do around our little homestead!

http://healthyhomesteading.com/2011/08/raising-homesteaders-blog-hop-2-kids-cats-and-gardens/

Life Learning

So much of our education comes from just living the life that God has given us.   Twenty-three years ago when we first started on our homeschooling journey I don't believe that Jeff and I had any ideas of where this walk would lead us.  Visions of two little girls learning to read, write and study God's Word and His creation floated in my mind's eye, but never would I have dreamed that we would still be on this journey 23 years later and still have at least 16 years to go as our family grew to include seven children and now, three grandchildren as well.

Our current life lessons seem to be focused on homesteading activities and I am really enjoying these lessons.  This week we have been canning applesauce and today we'll tackle beef and turkey broths, tomatoes, pickles and more applesauce.  We have potatoes to dehydrate and onions to freeze.  Kaelan made a big batch of dough yesterday for cinnamon rolls and I rolled them out for breakfast this morning.  I spread my own homemade butter over the dough, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and then rolled them up, sliced and baked.  Topped with icing made with more homemade butter, they were simply delicious.

Jeff commented after finishing his second cinnamon roll that our daughters sure could cook!!  Well, I reminded him that Kaelan made the dough, but I finished them up this morning!  There were/are extremely tasty and he also commented about the fresh taste of the butter.....and that we will soon be getting our own cow!  We have so enjoyed getting fresh milk for the last several months and I admit, have become a little snobbish now about our homemade milk products.  Oh, and we sit around drooling over cheese and soap making products from the Hoegger's Catalog and other products from Lehman's!!

This weekend we'll be busy building our first chicken tractor in preparation for ordering about 50 meat birds.  We're using a trampoline which was given to us just this week!  I'm sure I'll be posting pictures about that adventure soon.

Learning is more than just reading and writing.  Learning from real life is so much fun!  We are so very grateful that God as opened our eyes to learning in new ways with our children.  Yes, WITH!!  Our excitement for life learning is contagious and our children are catching the vision of becoming self-sufficient as much as possible and learning to live a more meaningful life that is not tied to the latest new-fangled toys, gadgets and clothing trends.   And in all this learning it seems that there is a much deeper awareness of the beauty and bounty that God as provided for us and a desire to use our resources for His glory.

So, what is God teaching you as you walk through life with your family?  Has your walk taken directions you would never have expected?  Please share!

http://thelegacyofhome.blogspot.com/

Beautiful Bountiful Blueberries

This morning we are off on our annual blueberry picking adventure.  We've been gathering with friends at a local blueberry farm for the past few years.    We have to go early before it gets too hot.  It's been in the upper 90s here for the last couple of weeks, so when I say hot, I mean HOT and humid as well.

I try to get the children to gather about 5 gallons of blueberries and we typically freeze them for year 'round use.  Muffins, cobblers, jams and blueberry biscuits are some favorite berry delights here.  This year I am also going to dehydrate some blueberries.  I find them delicious in my homemade granola!  I also want to can some blueberry pie filling to make one of my favorite pies as well.

I expect to get about 2 gallons from our bushes here at home, so we should be pretty well stocked with what we gather today.  I thought I would share a quick and easy recipe for cobbler that can be made with any fruit, but is especially good with blueberries.

Fruit Cobbler

Place two cups of fresh or frozen fruit into a pot.  Cover partially with water and add 1/2 cup of sugar.  Place on stovetop and cook on medium heat until sugar is melted and fruit is softened.

Melt one stick or 8 oz. of butter in a 9 x 13 casserole dish.  Set the dish aside.  In a mixing bowl, combine 1 1/2  cups flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups of milk.  Mix thoroughly and pour into casserole dish.  Spoon fruit and syrup over the batter in the casserole dish distributing as evenly as possible.  Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.  Cool slightly and serve plain or with vanilla ice cream.  

This is so very yummy and so easy.  We usually make at least one cobbler every other week or so around here!  Let me know if you try this recipe.  You can be sure I'll be making one tonight!!

grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com

Quit Spending Even More!

Yesterday after I pushed the Publish Post button for THIS post, I had other ideas swarming in my head of things that my family does to save money.  My blogging time was up for the day, so I decided to do a second post today.  I really would love to hear some of your ideas as well, so please....leave me some comment love!!

Do it yourself!


Haircuts- For many, many years I have cut everyone's hair in my family.  When my older girls started making money babysitting they used some of their money for professional hair cuts.  There was also a time when life was completely overwhelming me (having a baby at 44 just might do that to you....or maybe not!) and I took the boys in for hair cuts as well.  Jeff generally goes to a barber now who has a ministry of fostering children, so Jeff feels like he is contributing to that ministry.  Devin pretty much does all four boys hair now and does Kaelan's as well.  You should spend a few bucks to invest in quality hair cutting scissors and trimmer.   Devin and I both get our hair professionally done.  Devin pays for her own and goes every other month or so, while I go 2-3 times a year.

Remodeling-  Jeff has totally gutted and remodeled two of our bathrooms through the years.  For our latest remodel, he did hire plumbers to  put in a new spot for the toilet and custom build and tile the shower.  The cost though, even with that work hired out was only around $3000.

Reduce paper use!


I quit using paper napkins years ago and replaced them with inexpensive cloth napkins and even cute bandanas purchased on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  We generally tie them on the back of the chair to use for the next meal and I toss them into the wash each day.  They are very light and don't take up much space in the wash.

I have also quit using paper towels.  I have found lots of dish towels and clothes on clearance and stock up when I find great prices.  I keep worn-out bath towels to clean up messy spills.

At times I have used cloth diapers for my babies.  I really wanted to go all cloth for Caedmon, but Jeff didn't want to invest that much money into diapers that would most likely only be used for one child.  Caedmon is still in diapers, but is working on potty training and is wearing training pants a good bit of the day.

Bulk cooking!


It is very rare that we prepare food for only one meal at a time.  Last week we grilled steaks (a gift from my mom) for an evening meal.  Monday night I sliced the leftover steaks and we ate them on top of or as a side to our salads from the garden.  We cooked way too much food for our gathering Saturday night, so we were able to take a good bit of it with us as our contribution to a meal with friends on Sunday night and shared some as well with a single young man.  There was still enough for another meal of the grilled chicken, but we were a little tired of it so, into the freezer it went for a meal next week.

Last night we had a meal of beef enchiladas that I simply pulled from the freezer.  In early May we prepared several pans of enchiladas at one time.  I just line up the casserole dishes and assemble.  I only had to use one pan to cook up the meat mixture and one bowl to grate up the cheese for four meals.

Right now I have Jordan grilling out about 30 hamburgers.  Yes, it is still morning, but it will be in the upper nineties when dinner time rolls around.  It is much cooler now to grill and we will have plenty of burgers for tonight's dinner with one or two more hamburger dinners for the freezer.

Devin made a large batch of blueberry biscuits for breakfast this morning.  We ate half and I will freeze the rest for next week.  She regularly mixes up large batches of our favorite chocolate chip cookie dough.  She uses a cookie dough scoop to make small scoops, places them on a cookie sheet, flash freezes them and then bags them up for later use.  Cooking in bulk is a time and money saver!

Cut the cable or satellite on your TV!


We haven't had either for many, many years.   I won't get into the trash, etc that comes in to our homes via TV.

Switch phone plans!


We don't have caller ID and all the other extras on our home phone.  We have even considered dropping the home phone line, but sometimes cell phone coverage out here can be a problem.

I don't have a cell phone for myself.  When I am away from home I borrow either Jordan's or Devin's phone or, if Jeff is home I will take his.  Devin and Jordan each purchased their own phones and pay their portion of the cell phone bill.   Jeff and Devin are both self-employed and their phones and usage are tax deductible.

Re-purpose and re-use!


Re-decorating my home usually means moving one item into another spot or rearranging the furniture.  I generally try to use what I have instead of having to buy something new that will quickly lose its luster in my big, busy household.

Reuse gift bags and tissue paper for Christmas, birthday and baby shower gifts.  My children know to look in the storage cabinet in my bedroom for an assortment of gift bags.  It's fun to see the same bags reappear year after year!

I know I will think of several more ideas as I go through the day, but maybe these tips will inspire you to save some money for your family as well.  Remember our goal is always to be good stewards of the blessings that God has given to us whether it be material blessings, talents and gifts or simply our time!  Please share YOUR favorite ideas for being good stewards of what God has given you.

The Family Who Works Together

We still have lots of projects going on around here.  I thought I would  post a few pictures of the actual work being done.  Devin is finishing up a couple of rogue shutters this morning and is sanding and painting the swing.

Yesterday, however, we left our home projects and went down to Lauren's and helped her move in to a FEMA trailer. You can read about the tornado that hit her house here.   I wish I had taken the camera with us so you could see what is left of the house.  Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised with the size of this trailer.  It has three small bedrooms provided with full sized beds and metal floor-to-ceiling closets.  It also has a large bathroom that is handicap accessible which means there is no tub only a huge shower.  The hallways are very wide, so she may be able to have bookcases along one of the hallways (if she thinks she can keep some monkeys from climbing on them!)  The living area consists of the dining room, living room and kitchen.  It is small and comes furnished with metal table, chairs and end tables, a hide-a-bed sofa and club chair.  The kitchen has metal cabinets but also has a full sized fridge, stove and microwave.  It is fresh and clean, so that is a great blessing!  It will be a change from their large home, but they needed to down size anyway!  Please continue to remember them in prayer.  There is still a HUGE amount of clean  up to be done and some big decisions to be made regarding her health issues and deciding where to go from here as far as buying/building a new  home.  They are both extremely thankful and grateful for the Lord's mercies and for many who have offered physical and monetary help.  It would be so very easy to sink into despair when you see the difficulties that must be overcome, but positive attitudes prevail!

Kaelan is priming the porch railing.

Jackson worked hard on the primer as well!

The next day the real painting began.  Kaelan is smiling here, but she still has paint all over her arms, legs and feet!

Jeff took over for Jackson.

Aaron was a hard worker.

The three beds in the middle to upper part of this photo have lots of compost in them are are doing really well.  Now we have cucumbers blooming in the first bed here along with onions.  Above is our lettuce bed that has been wonderful and beyond that are garden peas that we will be harvesting in the next week or so.  Just waiting for the pods to plump up some more.

While the others were painting, Jordan was adding more compost to some of the beds.  This morning when I checked a few of these tomato plants had tomatoes on them!

Blossoms from the garden pea bed.

Squash blossoms!  We have about 6 kinds of squash in the garden this year.  I hope we have a great crop!

Our two mature blueberry plants are so heavy with berries that Jeff had to stake and tie them up!  

We have a huge bed with mint.  I love mint tea!!  

On the deck we have lots of herbs and some more tomato starts.   Here we have two pots with lettuce, a can with 3-4 heirloom tomato plants and a pot with chocolate mint.  We have many more cans and pots with a huge variety of herbs that we hope will do well and can be moved to permanent beds later.

Jeff and I spent a few moments dreaming together about what we would like to do on our little homestead in the future.  So many plans that will require sacrifice and hard work.  We realize how beneficial this is to our own character and to the character of our children.  Putting up fences, cutting down trees, clearing land to garden, planting, weeding, hoeing, mowing, painting, canning, and just the day-to-day work required in living the "simple" life builds confidence, patience, diligence, obedience, orderliness, attentiveness and so very much more.  We are so grateful for the training ground that the Lord has blessed us with and for all these precious children he has given us to learn and work with.  We are all learning and working together!

  

Check out other gardens at Smockity Frocks.

It's Another Work Day

It's another work day around here today.  I've got butter to finish making and need to do some baking and cheese making as well.  A little laundry, lots of dusting, mopping and scrubbing, tossing away and straightening up needs to be done as well.  I used the leaf blower to clean out the beds in front of the house earlier.  I think the boys need to do that once a month!!  What a job that was!  We have so many trees around here that there was a thick layer of leaves under all the shrubs.  Now they can get the weeds pulled.

Jordan is transplanting wild muscadines from the woods into our garden area.  We would love to have muscadine jelly in the pantry!  He also has more basil to set out and then he will help Kaelan and Aaron put the final coat of paint on the trim and railing of the porch.  Pressure washing didn't get done yesterday, so someone will  have to get that done, sticks and trash need to be gathered and burned, our huge yard needs to be mowed and Jeff has a couple of dead trees that he wants down today.  I'll be shorthanded here in the house and all the big kids will be outside working and Devin is teaching all day today.  I  hope to post pictures of all our projects today or tomorrow.  It's been great having everyone concentrating on cleaning up the exterior of the house and a few interior projects are being completed with more planned as well.  We are always learning...whether it be with our books or with our hands!

Family Work Day: Outdoor Version

Saturday the entire family worked outside.  There was much to do!  I decided that I could no longer abide the hunter green doors, trim work and shutters.  I now have red doors and slate gray shutters!

Devin had made this painting for the front door several weeks ago.  It was the inspiration for my color choices.  The walls look so bright after being bleached and pressure washed!

Freshly painted shutters

Even the antique outdoor furniture got a face lift!   Turquoise glider and chair for the front porch.

An orange coffee table and glider for the back deck!

The blooms from the sage planted in the front yard.

The sage is doing wonderfully!

 We also were able to bleach and pressure wash the front of the house.  The sides, back and garage will happen later this week.  We still have to paint all of the hunter green wood work around the porch.  It will be white and it will take a while!  There's a lot of it!

The azaleas were beautiful a few weeks ago!

This storm door will be replaced and that white door also painted red.  And yes, that's me working the pressure washer!  By the end of the day may arms and face were quite red!

Caedmon enjoyed being outside all day and playing in the puddles created by the pressure washer.

We also set out a few more perennials and some herbs and hung some baskets of flowers on the porch.  I need to find a good price on outdoor ceiling fans as the ones on the porch quiet working and look horrible.  It is really nice to sit out on the porch with the fans going in the summer.  It's a great place to make ice cream, shell peas or shuck corn, or just to read a book!  Having it all cleaned up and freshly painted will make it even more enjoyable for our family and creates a welcoming environment for visitors.