I think back to my highschool days and I remember enjoying “Home Ec”.  I recall exactly what I learned…how to make cinnamon rolls using Bisquick (not terribly difficult), how to sew a shirt I found fashionably misguided (it was a pretty ugly pattern), and basic care and development of young children.

I was recently reviewing my state’s guidelines for graduation requirements as I have a child who will be graduating highschool /homeschool in just 2 short years.  It states: Electives units must include one or any combination of foreign language, fine arts, business, career-technical education, family and consumer sciences, technology, agricultural education or English language arts, mathematics, science or social studies courses not otherwise required. As I am one to try to stay a step ahead I began thinking on the elective units that we have met…hmmm…We have done a year of Spanish, several fine arts field trips (opera, museums, etc) what about everyday living?

I believe that my daughters can be anything that they are willing to work to be, but I also want them to learn how to cook a magnificent meal that will be a blessing to either their spouse, children or others.  So we began last year working on kitchen skills with my two girls. Their first assignment after years of helping me prepare large meals?  Make Thanksgiving Dinner solo…yes, you read that right.  I was available to offer assistance/guidance, but I would not touch the food prep, it was totally up to them.  They were very excited by the prospect of putting a whole meal on and claiming it as their own.  I have to say, they did pretty good.  I also figure we get double credit for the agricultural education/family sciences because the turkey they cooked was one we raised from a poult and then butchered on our farm (biology lesson anyone?)  The menu included Turkey, mashed potatoes with from scratch gravy, rolls, pumpkin pie, corn and green beans.  They did pretty good.

Recently I blogged about the day I had a car accident and when I say that I want my children to learn to make a meal that will be a “blessing to others” this was just such an occasion.  After a horribly long day dealing with all the things that come from an accident (phone calls, insurance adjusters, claims, police reports, etc) I smelled a heavenly smell only to discover that my oldest had spent some time in the kitchen and whipped up a meal for our family…all to be a blessing because she knew I was falling behind in this area with all the other things I was dealing with that day.

She decided to make homemade yeast burger buns (recipe here), hamburgers, oven fries and green beans…it was delicious and the rest of the family even said her rolls turned out better than mine (not fair!)  I think that gives her an “A” in home economics in my book!  I have to say it took much more effort to do that then the simplistic bisquick cinnamon rolls I learned how to make!

I love herbal teas, but I don't always love the pricetag attached to getting tea leaves that are certified to be free from pesticides and chemicals.  Which got me thinking...I wondered if any of the medicinal plants on my little farm were able to be made into teas.  I did LOTS of research...I surely did not want to poison myself!  I found that some of my favorite teas made from Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) And Wild Blackberry (Rubus laciniatus) were teas that I could make from the plants growing around my property...totally free!!!


I continued to research just to be sure that there was nothing about the Raspberry plant or the Blackberry plant themselves that was at all poisonious and I discovered that I was sitting on plenty of free tea leaves for the taking!  So began my latest journey in homesteading!

I started by harvesting the leaves of the canes in a sort of random fashion.  I have everbearing raspberries, meaning that I get more than one round of berries from them a season so I did not want to kill off any of the canes by harvesting too many leaves from a single one.

Did you know that raspberries and blackberries operate on a 3 year cycle?  The first year a cane (stem) shoots up, the second year it flowers and produces and the third year it dries out and dies?  This all happens randomly in a patch so you will see canes with no flowers, canes with flowers and then berries and then other canes that are old and dried out prickers.

Next, I brought the leaves inside where you can wash and pat them dry.

Though I did put the leaves to dry in my food dehydrator I opted not to turn it on as I did not want to heat the leaves at all while drying (I learned from doing this with my peppermint leaves last year that it does alter the taste of the tea).  It took a few days to get the leaves to the point where they were "crunchy" and able to be crushed into my tea ball.

I have to admit that I am pretty excited by this as I can now dry and store my own tea!!! This will be pretty fantastic come winter time when a hot cup of tea is just perfect by the fire!

We love pickles around here...but not the sweet ones, just garlic, dill, hot, etc.  I used to go to all the trouble of canning my cukes to make pickles but there were two problems with that method. #1 My pickles were always soggy no matter what technique I tried...we don't like soggy dills.  #2 My family would eat a whole jar in one sitting so it seemed like such a waste to go to all the work of hot water bathing the jars only to have them gone before they were even ready to be preserved!  

So, here is how we have been doing them lately.

There you have it, Easy Peasy Refrigerator Pickles!!!

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1.       You love to be barefoot…yes even when it is cold you will run outside to fetch the paper barefoot.

2.       You know the value in recycling almost anything (old t-shirts into tomato ties, broken fencing into garden stakes, old signs into stall patches).

3.       You know at least 3 ways to “stretch” a meal.

4.       You know why bats are valuable to your evening porch time.

5.       You make “sun” tea.

6.       You get up before the sun, more often than not.

7.       You are familiar with the titles “Urban Farms,” “Grit,” “Mother Earth News,” and you are not surprised that there are entire periodicals devoted to poultry.

8.       You have seen a soft shelled egg before…in person.

9.       You know that “campfire coffee” beats the pants off of a traditional cup brewed in the kitchen.

10.   Lemonade is made from real lemons, or in a pinch, lemon juice, sugar and water.

11.   You know what the term “tack” refers to.

12.   You can identify at least 3 edible “weeds” that grow wild.

13.   You have had the scars of wild berry picking and been proud of them.

14.   Your children get their sex education at a very early age simply by observing animals.

15.   Your children have ever been told “its too nice to be inside”

16.   You have ever baled hay, stacked hay, or had the tell tale “hay speckles” on your arms.

17.   Seeing baby birds in a nest is relatively common place…especially in your hanging flower baskets.

18.   You know what a “cistern” is and you could participate in a conversation about well water.

19.   You know what summer smells like.

20.   You have ever picked fresh produce (berries, tomatoes, lettuce) straight out of the ground/off the bush and eaten it without concern.

21.   You know how to make your own meat stock.

22.   You or your children have ever made a firefly lantern.

23.   You know you are a farmgirl at heart if you desire to do any of these things and your hearts desire is to live closer to the land.

I use my own kitchen compost on my garden and this often leads to some interesting finds.  What I mean is that when you compost you sometimes end up with some interesting things that begin growing in your garden from seeds that were composted out of your kitchen.  I had just such an experience this year.

I planted some very neat and tidy rows of peas followed by some rows of carrots and then cabbage.  However, there were some interesting plants that popped up in between the rows.  My choice was either to pull them up, because they were not part of the neat tidy rows, or replant them and let them flourish somewhere in the garden.  I have a really hard time intentionally killing food bearing plants, I don't know why but I do...it just seems like such a waste.

I opted to move the plants and then make them work in the garden.  However, I was unsure what they were to be.  You see, cucumber, squash, zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon and cantalope all pretty much look the same when they start so I had no idea what I was growing.

I had 4 volunteers like this and what I ended up with was 1 cantalope and 2 pumpkins as well as 1 that may end up being a new weird hybrid as I think there was some cross pollination that occurred.

See what I would have missed out on if I would have pulled these volunteers up?

We are calling them our Pumpkin trees!

We are anxiously awaiting the bumper crop of blackberries that are starting to ripen around here so we are checking on them daily and taking a snack or two while we wait.  The ones randomly ripening are being eaten faster then they can make it into the house.  On this particular evening I had my two youngest with me as we went out to check on the berries.

as we drove by several random patches of berries and plucked a few here and there as we went I found myself laughing that this is my kind of "drive by fast food!"  My little one likes to help me drive as we go berry hunting.

I am definately partial but I think I have some of the best looking berry pickers around.  We came back with stained faces and fingers and we are anxious for that bumper crop as we dream of blackberry pie and jam!

Sometimes when we wake in the morning and start our day...we are never aware of just how it will turn out or what events will shape the rest of our day, week and sometimes our lives.  

It was like any other busy day, we bustled around and ran some errands.  We went to the orthodontist and had some amazingly delicious fresh baked cookies on the way out the door.  (can you believe that the orthodontist offers fresh baked cookies to their patients?)  But, it was shortly thereafter that things went differently then I expected the day to go.

We were driving home, in fact, less then 6 miles from home...we had a car accident.  The first real accident since I was 16 and began driving.  It all happened so very fast and the main thing I remember once we came to a stop is just yelling "ARE YOU OKAY?" to all my children.  I had all but my oldest with me that morning.

Everyone looked stunned but looked good, except I did notice that my oldest son had redness on his cheekbone and the beginnings of a bloody nose.  He was in the back of our van wearing the lap belt and on impact he hit his face on the captain's chair directly in front of him.  But, we were all okay...minus the jackrabbit heart racing that comes in a situation like this.

The other gentleman was okay too.  No major injuries to any of us...Thank you God for your hand of protection!  We did all the necessary exchanges of information, insurances and filling out a police crash report.  All in all, if it had to happen, it was the best of scenarios.  Everyone was respectful to one and other, the police officer was kind and efficient and no one was seriously injured.

After we got home I have to admit that the day wore on and I wasn't in the best of moods.  My insurance company responded very quickly, the adjuster came out the same day and I was given a rental car that I forgot was even part of my insurance coverage.  However, the adjuster told me that my car was a total loss and I would get a claim settlement, though not nearly enough to replace what I had.  Afterall, I knew this van, my husband and I had purchased it "almost new" some years ago and had paid it off.  We knew it was mechanically sound, we had traveled countless miles in it and it was a very dependable vehicle.  I was quite disheartened.

I will have to say though, to my husband's credit, he never said a negative word about the whole situation.

My children could tell I was unhappy, and a bit grouchy as I had already begun looking at what was to be in our price range from the insurance settlement...it was not looking good.  Somewhere between phone calls from insurance agents, adjusters, rental car companies, and various other things I recall my 11 y/o daughter bringing me a flower she picked outside.  I was on the phone at the time and mouthed a quick "thank you."  But, to be perfectly transparent...I did not really pause in what I was doing.

It wasn't until later that night when the children were in bed and I was cleaning up the kitchen that I saw that flower again for what it was.  A reminder.  A reminder that things could have gone much worse.  A reminder that I needed to be thankful, not irritated.  I needed to be thankful that 11 y/o was still here, in one piece, to pick me that flower.  I wasn't visiting a hospital or receiving devastating news.  I didn't have the guilt of having a seriously injured loved one, or even a stranger to worry about.  I was safe in my home, my children were all safe.  I had a home, food to eat, a husband who has a job.  Life is very good and I am very blessed.

The garden has not faired well this summer with all the rain.  In fact, when I look back at last year's produce records I was hauling 20+ pounds of produce out of my garden by this point, not this year...  My sweet peas did really well but they never make it into the house in abundance for shelling because my children use the rows of peas as their go-to snack when they are out doors.  Between the peas and the random raspberries they always have a healthy snack on hands and even visiting children get curious about the pods that my children readily break open and pop little globes of goodness from, so much so that the visitors will often sit down right along side my kiddos and happily munch away.

Sadly though the time of the peas is done so we headed out to pull up the withered plants, harvest the "too big" pods where the pea "seeds" for our next planting were, and make room for bush beans as I planted those right away in the same spot that we just pulled the peas from.

we even had help from our resident farm cat, Odie.

My littlest one even came to "help" though he was more interested in still trying to eat the peas then pick them to save for planting.

Finally the pea-row demolition was completed and we took the pods in to dry for a few more days (did I mention the rain???)  After drying the pods on a cooling rack that I sent on a cookie sheet (don't make the mistake of putting damp pods directly on a cookie sheet like I did with my first round...they will rot when you do that!)

We then shelled out the peas and let those air dry a few more days and viola!  I have my next planting!  I am going to try for one more round of planting this year in hopes that we can get some peas to save this fall, peas like cooler temps so I will likely try to plant these in September and see what transpires.

I realized that for those of you who have followed my blog from the begining and were around for last year's post on the festivities of a 4th of July party we like to attend (you can read that here) jmay have been curious about this year's party.

So as not to be outdone, the family that hosts the party we have attended for the last 4 years strives to every year take the festivities up a notch...they do not disappoint!  Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with the plans this year and it poured rain most of the day...did that stop the fun?  Nope.

This year the tarped waterslide was even higher and complete with a slide, there was a twister game spraypainted on the lawn, adults joined in the egg toss and sack races (though muddy they were fun!) Relay races and the marshmallow game were fun for all...And for the record...my team won the 3 legged race! (this was a hotly debated topic but was proven for the masses by a digital photograph).

  I have been married for over 17 years now.  I married a man who is my best friend and who sees me at my worst and at my best.  He has seen me sick as a dog with my hair a mess and smudges of makeup from the night before.  He has seen me puffy-eyed and snotty after a good cry.  He has smelled my morning breath when he has rolled over for a kiss, he has seen me as large as a beached whale before giving birth.  He knows every stretch mark and scar I own.  He also sees me in my “mom attire” and loves me anyway.

Yesterday this best friend of mine suggested we go out for a bite to eat after putting our littles to bed (it is so nice to have a teenager who is capable of babysitting for occasions just such as this).  It was kind of a passing suggestion, we were busy mowing, gardening, cleaning house and basically just “doing life.”  I kind of brushed it off as I was busy tending to so many things and thought we will figure out the details later.

Later did come and hubby brought it up again, we decided on a plan and then aimed to have our littles settled and dinner for the kids finished as well as the house cleaned back up before heading out for a brief reprieve.  The problem then?  I looked at the clock…we were supposed to be leaving in 35 minutes.  Let me tell you this farm girl takes awhile to pretty up, especially after a hard day’s work.  I had been so busy with “doing life” that I hadn’t taken into account that I needed a shower, hair blow-dried, makeup re-done and clothes picked out.  I mean, when did I really have time for all that?

I stopped for a moment to take quick account in the mirror.  He has seen me look worse after all, I could just throw my hair up in a ponytail, do a super quick rinse off and tidy up what was left of my makeup…I could make it happen.  But, was that my best?  Was that what I would have done when he and I were still dating?  Would I have only put in partial effort back when I got butterflies every time he showed up at the door?  Did he deserve less because he had seen me in every state over the last 17 years?  I thought about it for one more minute and then decided I would make “beautiful” happen for him, even if in only 35 minutes.

I completely showered, shaved, did the fastest blow dry and makeup, had to skip doing the nails to save time but even turned in my “mom attire” for a pretty skirt and wedges.  Did I feel like doing this…honestly no, I felt like just heading out “as is.” I decided though, that he was worth the effort.  He even said something I pondered on for the rest of the night…we were heading out the door and my teenager commented “wow mom, you look really nice!”  My husband’s comment to her was…”see, this is how you go out with your husband even after 17 years, remember that one day when you are married.” 

I imagine someone may find that statement sexist in our current day and age, but I found that it was packed full of truth because the way I present myself to my husband can really show him how much I value him.  God made men to be pleased by sight, and they like to look at nice looking things.  I know that my husband would have gone out with me had I just made a half effort, and we would have had fun, but…he knows I still value him enough to put in the effort of trying to do what I would have done back when we were “dating”.  I think on the whole when we are in the throws of “doing life” and raising littles, we moms often forget this very important fact.

So, a challenge to you mamas, even if a date night is not in your immediate future.  Put in the effort, even if that means changing out of a spit-up laden shirt and yoga pants just 5 minutes before he comes in the door.  It does matter, this is advice from a seasoned mama of 5 who looks her worst far more often then she does her best… 

Go the extra step, put on the mascara....and if you really feel spicy…the wedges buried in the back of the closet too!

 I admit being a bit intimidated by this recipe when I found it,  but once I did it and saw just how quick and easy it was...game on! For the life of me I cannot recall where I found this recipe but I do know that it has only been around our home since last growing season when I had an abundance of basil and I was looking for some super recipes to use it up. 

Ingredients:
2-4 chicken breasts (depending on thickness)
sea salt and black pepper
3 T olive oil
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (I really like using romas but you can use any)
2 tsp minced fresh garlic
4 T cold butter
1/ cup fresh basil chopped into ribbons
fettucini or angel hair pasta
fresh parmesan cheese for garnish

Season the chicken breasts with the salt and pepper and heat the oil in your skillet.  This may seem like a lot of a oil but it is the base for your sauce.  While waiting for the oil to heat get your pasta water ready for the pasta.  When the oil is searing HOT, add the chicken breasts cooking for 6-8 minutes per side until the juices run clean when pierced with a knife.

After the second side has been cooking for 4-5 minutes add in your tomaotes, basil, garlic and cold butter as well as a few more dashes of salt and pepper and stir this all around to marinate the flavors.

When the chicken is done turn your mix down to low to simmer until pasta is done.  Drain pasta and ladel on the sauce and tomato basil mixture...you will not be disappointed!

My husband has some great friends that are generous with with God has blessed them with.  On a recent beautiful sunny day one of hubby's buddies let us bring the kids over for some catch and release fishing...however when the catching was so much fun, and the fish were oh so big he was also kind enough to allow us to keep the ginormous catfish we caught.  

The kids had an absolute ball, we fished, laughed and had such and amazing day.  

The kids were all brave enough to hold up their own catfish for pictures, though they make me a bit squimish.

After our fishing and cleaning the fish it was time to let the dogs have a swim before heading home for our impromptu fish fry.  Let me just say there is nothing like fresh catfish!

I started this blog just over a year ago now.  Honestly I started it with the intention of sharing some knowledge I had that might be useful to others by creating a place for people to learn new things and comment on areas that were a help to them, I thought it a way to also tap back into my creative side (I love to write), and I thought at some point maybe I could make a little money on the side.

 Well the creative piece has been very fun.  As moms it is sometimes difficult to ensure that we stay in touch with that woman we were before becoming a wife or mother (I assure you if you look hard enough you can find her) what I mean is that your desires and passions are still there, sometimes they just get buried.  Mine is, and always has been, writing.  This has allowed me a creative outlet.

The part about making a bit of money, not so much. Lol.  I decided I did not want to litter up my blog with other people’s advertisements for haircare, cereals, skin lines and the like.  I have mentioned from time to time the essential oils that I LOVE so much that I became an educator for.  That area has been an income producing option for me and is going very well, but that is still not the reason to write a blog.

Now the sharing part.  Here is the downside…I LOVE to share, but it is also a lonely place while blogging.  What I mean by this is that sure I can look at the “stats” and see that there are people out there reading, but I have no idea who, or what they enjoy.   It is kind of nebulous because I don’t even know if they stumbled across a page on accident and clicked away without reading or if they are truly engaged in reading.  It is a rare day when someone comments on one of my posts (and every blogger LOVES comments!!!)  I think that is why I have been rather lax in writing consistently like I did in the beginning.  It is lonely because there is no interaction.

I decided that I would like some interaction so with social media I created a page called “Becoming Crunchy.”  If you aren’t familiar with the term “crunchy” other than as it applies to corn flakes, let me explain.  It is a play of sorts on the idea that granola is crunchy and those who make their own products, granola and the like are kind of “crunchy” these days as it is not so common place anymore (but there is a resurgence of people wanting to learn how to do things more naturally and more for themselves) this I love.  I have found that there is interaction there as I make posts and people comment with their ideas and suggestions too.  I love it!  I read somewhere that there is a misnomer thinking that hippies were “crunchy” but that really the original “crunchy” would have to be more like Amish…I like that.  I would rather be aligned closer to Amish then hippies as I have no interest in the free love and drugs of the hippie movement.

I am going to try to post more frequently again here, but if you are out there and enjoy this blog, let me know, it encourages me to keep it up.  In the mean time, if you are on social media, look up my group “Becoming Crunchy” on facebook and join in the discussion!