Once upon a time there was a girl who LOVED Yankee Candles.  The smell, the ambiance, the warmth, all of it!  This was a splurge that this girl indulged in every so often and those candles were coveted pleasures. 
     Fast forward to a child with severe allergies (cannot burn scents in the house, or wear purfume, or scented hand sanitizer...you get the picture)  Another child who, as toddlers go, is a little too adventurous, and REALLY likes to blow out any candles he sees (always while singing Happy Birthday, so it is kinda cute).  This fast forward version of a gal is also a bit less indulgent in the expendable income department so in comes the creativity.  You know the old saying, necessity is the mother of invention.  I mean, it is out of necessity that I have a warm smelling coveted pleasure to replace my endeared Yankee candles right?  What I mean is  that girl needs a replacement, right?
    So, here it is.  I love the smells of fall, but I cannot shell out the $20-$30 for a candle these days, and even if I could, my son's allergies would probably act up negating the awesome candle burning anyway.  I devised an awesome replacement.  It smells my entire home, check.  It is warm and inviting, check.  It is safe for a house full of toddlers and crawlers, check.  Win!  So, what is it????
    I took a few cinnamon sticks (you could also just use cinnamon powder), a few cloves (or ground clove powder), cut up a very overripe apple and added water.  I have now been simmering this concoction for 4 days and it smells just as strong as on day one!  I just add additional water everyday.  This does not seem to bother my son's allergies at all (maybe because there are only all natural ingredients?) and it is safe because I do not worry about my children upsetting candles!  WIN!

Hey, this isn't just for farmgirls either, mint grows great in urban flowerbeds too!  You city girls can do this as well.

Everyone I know who lives in the country has mint growing somewhere on their property...usually they consider it a bit pesky because it gets WAY out of control and takes over wherever you put it.  However, we bought the only property I know of in the country without mint, so off I went to buy some, yes for you country folk I actually PURCHASED some mint...I know, unheard of.  I bought a small container, like the size of a tea cup for $2.99.  What you see above is the growth that has occurred from May until yesterday...pretty impressive huh?  

Well, I certainly couldn't let this mint go to waste, especially since I actually bought it!  I decided to go ahead and make some tea, I love peppermint tea, and it should taste really good this winter when all the fresh leaves are dead.   Mint tea is excellent for a pick me up and aids in digestion and upset stomach.

However, I am kind of an impatient person so instead of hanging my mint upside down to dry I decided to do a quick oven dry...works great but does produce a bit more earthy tasting mint tea due to the fast drying.

I just went outside and clipped a bunch of mint and brought it into the house to wash.  

After a good rinsing I patted the springs with papertowels to dry them best I could.  If I were hanging the mint to dry I would ensure they were completely dry by leaving them in a single layer for a few hours, maybe even outside in the sun. But, since I am oven drying I just patted them as best I could and then put a cookie drying rack on top of my pan and laid the sprigs on that.  (side note: I did not go through the painstaking process of removing the leaves as it is much easier to do that once the plant is dried)

I put the pan in my oven at about 180 degrees for around 6 hours with the door to the oven cracked slightly so as not to create a humid environment in the oven.  What you see below is how it looked when I pulled the pan back out.  This is when I go ahead and hold each sprig and just kind of slide my fingers down the stem releasing the leaves as they just kind of crumble off at this point.  I discard the stems to my compost pile and the crush the leaves with my fingers so that they are more like crunchy dust.  

This will keep as loose leaf tea as long as it is completely dry so as not to encourage mold growth and is kept in an airtight container (mason jars work great!)

So the finished product and my first cup of homegrown organic (I do not use any pesticides whatsoever) peppermint tea!

This is our second year going into winter on the farm and we learned ALOT last year.  Some preparations we will repeat...others, not so much.  It is so hard to think of winter as this fall time is my favorite time of year and I am still relishing in the smell of apples, the bright colors of leaves and the warm days and cool nights.

But, the winter will be on us before we know it and I often think of a book that was from one of my favorite series as a child, the book is Little Mouse on the Prairie  by Stephen Cosgrove. 

The book is about a mouse who, while all other friends are out playing, she is preparing for winter and storing away food.  Its a cute little book but has very real lessons.  I am trying to teach my children that it is important to be ready for whatever life throws at you.  Whether that be having yourself prepared for winter, have savings set aside for a day when you have an unexpected expense (or expenses!) or just being prepared for the unexpected.

So with that thought we are going to have to thin our chicken flock and prepare their coop for winter which includes putting up plastic sheeting to help stop the cold wind from blowing straight into the coop.  Right now we have 20 hens and are only getting 4-6 eggs a day.  Many of our hens are molting right now and have stopped laying so it is about time to start making chicken stock to can for winter when we thin the flock.

The garden needs attention as I still have to finish pulling out the dead plants, collecting the last straggling peppers and tomatoes as well as harvesting any other seeds that are still going to be able to be dried for viability next spring.  This is also only our second year doing the lasagna style or "Back to Eden" style of gardening so I am still trying to figure the best way to "put the garden to bed" for the winter.

As for our family I have our canned goods from the garden put up and ready to be eaten through the winter.  I take great satisfaction in knowing that when the inevitable snow storms hit (or the forecasts thereof) I will not be running to the grocery store to snatch up food and supplies, I will be cozy and drinking a cup of cocoa hopefully by the fire.

But then that reminds me of another thing, we still need to buy a cord of wood for the fireplace...hmmm better get on with some of these winter preparations before I end up like the mouse's friends.  Read the story sometime,  you'll see!

This could almost be a post about how grandma used to... As many generations ago you did not run to the store and pick up a tube of Crest or Colgate.  I am frugal by nature so I have not opted to buy some of the more expensive all natural toothpastes and frankly, I hadn't given natural toothpaste much thought...I mean its just toothpaste right?  

Well, after spending some time with a gracious friend of mine who makes her whole family's toothpaste I went home and read the ingredients on my standard tube.  Well, lets just say that in the "inactive ingredients"  I really had no idea what any of those things were.  I was however familiar with each of the ingredients my friend uses in her toothpaste so I thought I would give it a go...maybe it would even be cheap!

My three ingredients are coconut oil, therapuetic grade peppermint essential oil and baking soda.  I think back in grandma's day they mainly used baking soda which does make for super sparkly chompers, but is a little hard to take without the lovely minty tingle that the essential oil offers.  The small amount of coconut oil is really just a binder but as I was making this concoction I finally understand why they called it "toothpaste" I mean it really isn't a paste that comes out of the tube you buy at the store right?  More of a cream or gel but this my friends...this is a paste!

I began with 2T of baking soda, 1t of coconut oil and 2 drops of peppermint.  This is a mixture best kept in glass so I used an old spice jar I had and since I will be putting my toothbrush either into the mixture or using a wooden popscicle stick to get it out I didn't fill to the top.  I just put the coconut oil in a small dish and stirred, the stirring action and very low melting point caused it to soften immediately and blend into the baking soda nicely, then I added the drops of oil which could be adjusted to personal preference (ie more or less depending on how minty you like to feel).

So how did it turn out?  I am pretty pleased.  It is a gritty texture which may take a bit to get used to (like I said it is a paste of sorts) but I have never felt such slick teeth!  I'm telling you its like you just finished a cleaning at the dentist...super slick!  The salty-ness of the baking soda is pretty much overpowered by the peppermint oil and you don't taste the small amount of coconut oil that more of a binder.

As for frugality...I give this a 5 out of 6 stars as the total cost ended up being about 50 cents.  I know, with coupons you can get a tube of Crest or Colgate at that price but like I said, I have never looked at the inactive ingredients in my classic tube before, but now....not even sure what that stuff is (and why is there silica in there?  Isn't that a plastic???)  So, I will be making some more of this stuff...at least I know what it is!

I showed you the GIGANTIC bag of apples I picked up on our recent trip to Michigan and after canning 20 Quart Jars of applesauce I decided to mix things up a bit and make some dried apples.  I filled my food dehydrator and then decided I wanted to compare what would happen if I also put some on a cookie sheet in the oven on 200 overnight.  We decided that they were both very tasty but I think I liked the cookie sheet ones for thier apple chip crunch. 

 How did I do it?  Very simple.

I have an apple peeler, corer, slicer that I bought years ago at a pampered chef party and I love this little piece of kitchen equipment.  I don't usually peel my apples but since I don't think these were pesticide free apples I just opted to get rid of the peel to help offset anything we would be ingesting that I wasn't aware of.  So first I peeled, cored and sliced the apples into rings (a process that takes about 30 seconds with this lovely little gadget.

after peeling, coring and slicing the apples I soaked them in 1 part lemon juice and 2 parts water to keep them from browning too much.

I put half of the apple rings into my food dehydrator and the other half I used a cookie drying rack on top of my cookie pan so that the apples were not laying flat on the pan and had air circulating under them to dry them out quicker.  I left these in the oven overnight at 200 degrees and they were ready in the morning.

Like I mentioned, I liked the oven apple rings the best because they were crunchy, the ones I put in the food dehydrator were leathery.  Both were delicious and a great snack, I just like the crunch the best.  But, alas, for all the work it was to make these, they literally lasted 1 day at our house.  As I write this these are all that is left out of about 10 apples worth...my kids sure did snack well today!

We love to explore.  We love our 4-Wheeler and the two go hand in hand.  I enjoy the fact that my children love the great outdoors and they love to search out critters and treasures.  On our recent trip we found a huddle of salamanders and the children were so impressed that they were an easy catch.  We had an impromtu science lesson about the weather and the cold affecting the salamanders and their ability to move quickly...the children were in awe and played with the new found creatures for well over an hour.  Some of them were reddish and a few had polka dots.  We all took turns on the 4-wheeler and had a ball. (no worries we wore helmets before actually riding, the snapshot was just taken before putting the helmets on, I promise!)

I continue to be amazed at how beautiful it is in Michigan, our friends own land there and even on this foggy and cold day that we were out, the colors were beautiful.

But like I said, the salamanders were by far the best part of the day for the kids...well...salamanders vs. 4 wheelers....hmmm.  It was a great day even if we can't decide!

If you look closely at my son you will notice his army/medic gear...that was the other fun, the children played army and medic in the outdoors, that beats any video game I know of.

As I sit down to write this my house smells lovely.  Cooking apples, dehydrating apples, fresh apples, you get the picture.  It smells like fall here and I love it.  I was so excited when we made  a recent trip to Michigan to find that there are roadside vendors everywhere selling  the same produce I buy at home for a fraction of the cost. 

 I usually buy my apples as "seconds" which if you are not familiar with the term,  basically it means that they aren't perfect.  The "firsts" are what you see neatly displayed at your local orchard, they are big, lucious and beautiful...but they come with a hefty price tag as well.  So the seconds are usually smaller, sometimes misshapen, sometimes imperfect and they sell for about half the price.  If you get really lucky you can get ahold of "thirds" which make fantastic fruit leather and applesauce, as long as you don't mind that sometimes you have to throw an apple or two away and sometimes you cut out a bad spot.

When I stopped by a roadside vendor I was amazed at what I found, 30# of carrots for $5.00!  And then 40# bags of apples (that is a whole bushel) for $8.00!!!  I was so excited my husband was almost embarrased!  We also tried sugar beets (just tasted them) and were amazed at how good those were too, however, I did not buy any of those.  When I buy the 40# bushel of apples at home, as seconds I pay $30.00 so $8.00 was obviously a huge thrill!!!  These are not for the most part fresh eating apples as they are mostly mealy textured, however, I am making dried fruit, applesauce and tomorrow I think I will try my hand at fruit leather too.  This is one happy farmgirl!

When you have a large one income family you get creative around the holidays, wait...did I just say that??? It's only October,  right? Seriously though there are several stores already getting in the holiday mood so I begin to start thinking about Christmas.

Last year was one of the most frugal Christmases we have ever had but it was also one of the best which proves what I have always known to be true...it's not about the stuff.

So how does a mom with a tight budget and a large family plan for Christmas gift giving? Let me tell you....I start early.  As a matter of fact I found almost all of my stocking stuffers today in the clearance aisle at Joann Fabrics. I start early and I stay on the lookout year round. For example we give each of our children a new pair of pajamas to open up on Christmas Eve and that way they have them Christmas morning.  You know what? Those super cute flannel pajamas all get clearanced out the week after Christmas so that's when I can pick them up for next to nothing for the following year.

The same tactic works for other things as well. I can buy a special Christmas ornament for each of the children for a fraction of the cost when I peruse the after Christmas sales...same goes for all things winter (slippers,  gloves, hats...etc) So I have the stocking stuffed, time to go find some of those goodies I packed  away after the sales last year!

My grandmother played a very large part in my young life and she always had soo much patience, more than I ever have had.  When I was young she always made it a point to be sure that I was included in kitchen time, if she was baking, I was baking with her, if she was making breakfast I was right beside.  I remember her often letting me make my own "pies" out of crust scraps which we sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on.  In addition my grandmother ran a pre-school and every fall she baked mini pumpkin pies with each and every child who was in her pre-school, if I remember correctly that was like 100 mini pies...can you imagine?  I remember attending preschool whenever I would visit grandma.  I was probably the only child who was able to attend preschool for 3 or 4 years straight!  I got to go into the preschool in the summer time and play with all of the toys (like a kids playground!)  There was a special rocking boat, trays of puzzles, a cabinet where the "choo-choo" train was kept and a cabinet in the back room where the snacks were.  There was a play kitchen area and an upstairs "library" room.  The play kitchen area was by far my favorite.  When the time came that grandma closed the doors to the preschool she kept many of the items from the preschool and shared them with her daughters.  I was the first grandchild to have children of my own so I have been able to let my children play with the same play kitchen that I had as a child.  

This set bring so many memories back and today my 2 year old decided he was going to make an apple pie.  First he took my saucepot and put 3 whole apples in it to cook on top of his "stove."  After a little while he decided to put a pie pan in the oven (with the whole apples in it) to bake a pie.  The funny thing is that at this exact time I was in the kitchen baking a real apple pie for dinner.  I love that he is learning like this.  It may not be pumpkin pie but it sure does bring back good memories!

I am a fan of the crockpot.  There I said it.  There are just some days that a girl needs a little extra help in the kitchen and I have a bit of a love affair going with my crockpot.  Several years ago my grandmother told me that I could just put my frozen meat in the crockpot and cook whatever I was making without even thawing the meat first...Score!!!  So, here is what's on the menu.  Crockpot Beef and homemade noodles.  This is super nutritious and homemade and pretty easy, what's not to love?

Ingredients:

any kind of beef roast (mine was frozen)
water
salt & pepper
garlic powder
if desired, a healthy dash of Worcestershire sauce

Homemade noodles recipe click here

All I do is drop in the frozen roast, add about 2 cups of water, sprinkle the roast with salt, pepper, garlic powder and maybe 1-2 T of Wocestershire sauce if I have some and then turn on the crock pot and let her do her magic for about 8-10 hours.  I do this so that the meat becomes very tender then when it is easily shredable with a fork I shred the meat, add some more water or beef broth if needed and then add the cooked noodles.  Voila!  I usually serve this over mashed potatoes or with a side of green beans and some sort of bread.

This was my first year ever growing lima beans, they are not my favorite vegetable so I had just never thought that I wanted a crop of them.  However, my children and hubby like them so I decided this year to try an heirloom variety called "King of the Garden" Limas.  I was amazed when I opened the seed packet last spring to see thes GINORMOUS seed beans that were almost as large as a nickel each.  I dutifully plopped them in the ground along side a row of pinto beans and thought...here goes nothing.  

We had our garden out before the end of May this year so there were two occasions when I had to cover my crops due to frost, on one such occasion the frost hit the newly sprouted Limas and the few that had started to sprout pretty much shriveled up.  During the height of the growing season I had about 2 plants worth of Lima beans that were climbing up a pole and reaching upwards of 7 feet high, but still just vines, no beans.  It wasn't until late September that I started seeing the bean pods (again these were planted in early May!) and just a few days ago I harvested our first crop of these beans.  I have to say that I am still not a fan of the lima bean (it is a texture thing for me).  My 11 y/o picked a bunch of beans for us to have with our Sunday dinner and after we shelled the beans (no easy task) I sauteed them in butter with a dash of salt and pepper.  

My assessment...way too much work for what we got.  I now know why they are called "King of the Garden" though...Everything else out there is pretty much dead and they have taken over any empty space that was and they are thriving!

Winter will be here before we know it so around the farm there is lots to do to prepare for the dormant and cold season.  We spent the day yesterday working out in the garden and digging up the remainder of the potatoes I had planted this season.  This was my first year growing organic potatoes and if you want a good laugh, read about one of my adventures here.  It was a pretty successful go though as I did not spend anything for my seed potatoes (no potatoes are not grown from seeds, just parts of potato cut up where they have started to sprout or form an "eye")

I ended up with about 30 lbs of potatoes, we have Aidirondack Blue (purple potatoes), Red Potatoes, and Yellow Potatoes.  They are delicious and will keep well into winter when stored correctly.  This is actually why I had not dug them up before now though they have long since quit growing and the above ground plants have all died.  The potatoes will stay good underground for a very long time with the only enemy being when the ground becomes too frozen to dig them up.   I am hoping to save some good potatoes to go to seed to start this in the garden again next spring and still be self sufficient by not needing to shell out money for new seed potatoes.

 I'm also pretty excited to have one of my favorite recipes again...roasted red and purple potatoes, recepie here.

While we were working in the garden there was lots of action going on around us with the kittens who are now 9 weeks old running and playing among the leaves and in the trees.

If you will remember from earlier posts we started with 6 kittens, we found homes for 2 of them but still have 4 more that we are trying to find homes for...in the mean time they are very cute and fun to watch.

What to do on a cold day when you are running out of lunch ideas and no time to make soup?  How about a quick alfredo sauce and some farm fresh sundried tomatoes?  What...you wouldn't think of that as a go-to quick lunch?  I assure you it is simpler than you might think.

This happens to be one of my children's favorite lunches, and for my little one with the milk allergy we just use red pasta sauce on his noodles.

I really don't even measure my ingredients anymore and in fact I forgot to add garlic in this picture of the ingredients, but it is such an easy sauce that I really don't have to be exact in measurements.

My Alfredo Recipe:
1/4 cup real butter
1/4 package cream cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan or Parmesan and Romano Blend
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk (depending on desired consistancy)
2-3 cloves fresh pressed garlic (you can sub garlic powder)

I start off by melting the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat, then I add the milk and cream cheese and begin to whisk until the cream cheese starts to melt.  I add in the Parmesan and garlic at this point and pretty much whisk constantly until the chunks of cream cheese are smooth. You can add in salt and more garlic powder to taste as you go and if it gets too thick, I just add more milk.

It was about this point that I rememberd the sun dried tomatoes I had in the freezer from the garden, I tell how I did that in this post here.  Also, don't forget to boil noodles for your sauce!  We love angel hair pasta for this dish.

You can see they are still frosty from being pulled right out of the freezer but they warmed to room temperature quickly and I tossed them on top of my alfredo sauce and pasta for a super yummy mommy lunch.

I don't have a super fancy camera, and I took this on my smart phone this morning, but you can kinda see the lunar eclipse that was visible from my back porch...pretty cool, huh?  I was sitting in the house doing my Bible study when hubby called me while on his way to work, he said to hurry up and wake up the kids so we could go see, and it was very cool.  

The only thing more interesting is that I remember seeing a total solar eclipse my senior year in highschool (yes, I am that old) it was during lunch time and the sun was totally blocked out for just a bit, very twilighty colored...pretty amazing stuff.  The verse that comes to mind when I see such amazing things in our universe is Genesis 1:16..."And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."  

I have always found it interesting that there is a colon and then, as though an afterthought in the creation of our universe...oh and by the way...he made the stars also.  You know those lights in the sky at night that we love to gaze at?  The ones that form such pretty constellations and shoot across the sky that we wish on? Yeah those, he made those also...WOW!

I have been a little off with my blog here for the last few days between a sick baby, hubby and then a sick me. (They were so kind to share their gunkys with me!)  I have been intentionally trying to write a few articles here but when I sit down to write...nothing comes out.  I think I just have sick cloudy brain.  So, I will just share with you my natural mama remedies for a yucky fall cold.  I have to be careful what I take because I am still nursing my 8 month old so what I take, he also gets a dose of.  Here are my new best friends:

I love my Ricola, especially this exact flavor.

My go to tea for sore throat, I always add a healthy spoonful of honey to it.

FInally, a hot steamy shower with several drops of eucalyptus oil added to the floor of the shower for a steamy stuffy nose remedy.  I also use the Eucalyptus under my nose and on my throat (works just like Vicks but does not contain turpentine like Vicks does)...betcha didn't know that was an ingredient in Vicks did you?

I will be back to normal soon and I have several posts that I have started that I will get to as soon as my cloudy snuffle head subsides...

The weather was cold and dreary most of the day today, it kinda matched my mood since I posted earlier about not feeling very well.  However, around 4:30pm today I was driving home from picking up one of my children and we saw this amazing rainbow.  I don't know that I have ever seen a rainbow when I was able to clearly see both ends of the bow but we were able to see where it started on the left and ended on the right and the colors were just so clear and amazing.  If you don't already know the significance of the rainbow, go to Genesis 9:12-17.

It was beautiful!

I am a master of telling my husband it is his fault.   I guess I should have been an attorney.  

Just the other day we were joking around and I told him that the girl's bathroom sink was clogged up.  I was unable to loosen the drain so I asked him to help.  When he discovered that the culprit was a wad of hair, and he showed me, I told him that it was because he liked us all to have long hair that caused that. (smile) When he said, how is this my fault?  I answered with, well technically the male chromosome determines the sex of the children born to a union...so, since you blessed me with girls, you have gunky drains (told you I was good!)

I put this little exchange up as kind of a joke, but, it is all too easy for us to respond to one and other in a negative fashion rather than a positive one.  A few years ago I was reading through the book "Love Dare" after watching the movie "Fireproof" and I was admonished completely by just how often, if we truly are honest with ourselves, we are negative towards our spouses.  I don't mean outrightly mean per se, but just negative.  There is a part in the book the Love Dare that suggests going an entire day without saying one negative or complaining thing to your spouse...sounds easy enough right?  Ummmm....maybe its just me but that would include simple things like "you don't ever leave me enough coffee"...(negative-complaint).  "Why can't you just put the toilet seat down?" again...complaint.  I mean to tell you that it is not an easy endeavor to go a whole day that way...I found that I wound up being a bit more quiet that day...hmmm....Never realized before that I could be so negative or complaining.

The world we live in will chew you up and spit you out as well as point out all of your shortcomings and flaws along the way.  Our home is supposed to be our refuge and I for one want my hubby to want to come home to his refuge.  I am speaking to myself here as well because it is very easy to be negative and much more difficult to be positive in all things, especially if you have been kept up all night by a fussy baby, you aren't feeling your best, or things just are not going well.  It actually takes a concentrated effort.  The amazing thing though is that during that day, the one where I was kinda quiet (lol) except for the positive things I had to say, hubby noticed.  I did not tell him that I had read that in a book or even what I was trying out, but he noticed.  That says to me that I need to be diligent in this area and when I feel the need to say something negative I either need to wrap it in love, or not say it.

We ladies all know we are good at arguing...some of us more than others.  But, how much further do we get when we speak in love rather than in hasty anger?  It is hard to not snap back at a hurtful comment made by our spouse but we also can oftentimes control a fight that is brewing.  I can respond sharply to something that is said to me, I can begin to push buttons and start an argument that can quickly become a battle of the wills...or...I can speak in love, or not at all.  No, I do not mean the silent treatment...that doesn't help either.  But, I have the power to decide if I want to argue or not.  It is very difficult to argue with someone who does not go tit-for-tat back and forth with you.  Or, when hubby says something that irritates me, I can apologize for whatever it is rather than shoot back with a smart comment.  My choice.  Amazing the power we sometimes do not realize that we hold.

So, I dare you today...try it out...See if you can go the rest of the day without one negative or complaining thing.  Speak in love, be the home refuge your spouse wants to come home to.  You might just be surprised at the response you get...especially if you are usually the one to be the short fuse that instigates an argument.

   At the suggestion of a friend, I started reading a book yesterday entitled, Radical Homemakers.  So far I can already tell that there are stark differences between the author's outlook and my own as I hold my worldview from a Christian standpoint and the author appears to be coming from a very worldy one.  However, the author has already made some very good points that I do agree with.  The author, Shannon Hayes, makes the statement that the majority of American households are consumers rather than producers.  The majority of households give nothing back and produce little to nothing for themselves but instead "consume" or purchase and devour goods, services, items, foods, etc.  There are very few households that produce enough of any one item to sustain themselves and/or others in the community.  This was not the case just 50 years ago.  People were in touch with the land they lived on as well as the products they used.  They had a fostered sense of community through bartering systems (I'll trade you some fresh eggs for homemade bread) and they held dear those fostered relationships.

     Pretty profound if you think about it.  Especially in light of the posts I frequently write on how things were done in my grandmothers/great grandmother's day.  A quote from the book that pretty much sums it all up is this, "Mainstream Americans have lost the simple domestic skills that would enable them to live an ecologically sensible life with a modest or low income."  In other words, the skills that would allow for a family to survive and dare I say thrive, on one income in our materialistic driven society.

      I believe we women made a mistake.  We gave up some dearly held treasures in search of what I call "Bigger, Better, Faster."  Women for years fought for more rights to be ascribed to ourselves and we won many of them.  When the feminist movement began women wanted out of the home and into the world.  Women, and girls now do firmly believe that you can be anything and anyone you want to be, and you can.  But no one ever mentions the price at which that comes.  I am not suggesting that there are not some positives that have come out of the feminist movements of the past.  Women should not be second class citizens and be treated as such.  But, we unwittingly bought into a lie with a consequence that we are constantly trying to rationalize.  The lie?  That we can be all things to all people, we can have a budding and successful career, live the American dream and it will not have any negative  effects on the economy, our family, and our way of living.  There are effects that are far reaching.  We don't have the time to teach our children domestic skills, they have mostly been lost.  Few people know how to can from thier gardens, make multiple meals from a roasted chicken, sew clothing or even how to just do without what you cannot afford.

   We rationalize our need to work to "make ends meet" we have to have newer vehicles to get to work, we must go on vacations, we have to have cable television, smart phones, fashionable clothing.  I can make all of these statements clearly because for the first 15 years of my marriage, I too bought that lie.  To remain a middle class family we needed a dual income, or so I thought.  Back then we had one, then two, then three children, two car payments, credit card bills to help buy the stuff we didn't have time to make/do for ourselves.  On the outside it looked like we had it made, but we were struggling.  I was struggling.  I had a very successful career as a social worker and I had branched off into teaching after being certified by my state to provide ongoing education to social workers for their licensures.  I was working full time, had a budding second career going, managed to make dinner for my family and work an opposite shift to avoid daycare for my children.  What more could a mama want?  To breathe...and have peace...and not be pulled in so many directions that one cannot give 100% to any one thing, but rather only provide degrees of ability in any one area.  To not be so short fused that you feel ready to yell at the world at any given time.

    The mistake we made when we women bought into the the feminist movement is that we gave up being the center of our family's world.  Being the pin that holds it all together and keeps the calm, and enjoys the role.  We gave up learning how to and teaching our daughters how to have domestic skills.  We gave up knowing how to do without and how to make what we had work. I have to admit that had I been a stay at home mama from the beginning, I do not think I would have clearly understood this as I do now.  But, I understand this to be fact after playing the role that society gives us.  You know what?  That role wasn't very much fun.  Because, as most women will attest, just because you make a good living and have a successful career, you still have the other responsibilities of mothering, being a wife, maintaining a home and figuring out the grocery list.  Oftentimes it also creates conflict in a marriage because as a woman working full time the argument then becomes, "I work just as hard as you do...you need to divide the household and childcare equally with me."  Most men do not share this mindset which can often lead to arguments and burnout on the part of mom.  So then we fall into the trap of "me" time...because when in the rush to have a successful career and mother and hold together a family to we actually have time to find ourselves?  We don't.  

   Our family decided to put the brakes on and make a dramatic shift from chasing "Bigger, Better, Faster" to a simpler life.  I would not go back for anything.  When I look back at our incomes, we did very well for ourselves during those years that we were a dual income family, but there was so much we gave up that it just was not worth it.  We are now doing life on one income, no cable, driving used cars with no payments, have added 2 more children (that's 5 if you are counting) and have moved out to a small farm that allows us to do more for ourselves.  
    
    By not being pulled into the mentality of feminism any longer, I find that I really enjoy the role of mother.  It is not an oppressive role, not a downgraded one.  We gave up the sense of family that comes with having a pin that holds it all together...but I have found that we can reclaim that role if we desire.  It is not out of reach.  I am learning as I go, I make mistakes, but I now have the ability to not give up my role as homemaker, mother and designer of the role that homemaker is in my generation.
   
   I have not gotten past the second chapter yet, but I am anxious to keep reading, the author has nailed it on a couple of really good points.  We gave up a lot, but we can take it back if we are willing to go against the grain.

One of the very best things about homeschooling is the ability to take an impromptu field trip on a beautiful fall day.

The field trip actually did have a purpose, my oldest is studying Biology and had to do an experiment in which she grows cultures of microrganisms from a standing body of water.  Here she is collecting her samples to later view under a microscope.  Who says homeschoolers don't work hard?

 It was a wonderful excuse to get out for the day, we needed a break and the hiking was fun for all!

With the cooler weather approaching I have begun getting into the mood with some fall cooking.  We also had some sickies around here last week so I thought a good dose of some homemade chicken noodle soup made with bone broth was in order.

My grandma taught me this recipe for egg noodles and it is sooo easy.  After my grandfather passed and my grandmother remarried, this was a recipie that was in her new husband's family.  When made with bone broth it makes for the most delicious chicken noodle soup ever, my kiddos just gobble it up!  And remember, you don't have to raise your own chickens to make a delicious bone broth, just eat a roasted chicken and then save the chicken carcass and scraps to start a pot of your own bone broth...You can see how here...

Recipe is as follows:
2 eggs
2T cold water
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups flour

Beat the 2 eggs until fluffy (I use my whisk for this then switch to a dough paddle on my Kitchen Aid mixer) Add the cold water to the fluffy eggs and then the flour and salt.  Stir until you cannot stir anymore and then work the rest of the flour in with your hands.  You do not want sticky dough.

I usually just round the small amount of dough into a flattened ball and then I flour my surface so it will not stick.  You need to let the dough "rest" for about 10 minutes after you have mixed it all up.

I then divide my dough into two rounds so as to have less to work with.  Then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough just as thin as you can, think paper thin.

You can do this on brown paper bags rather than the counter if you want to avoid some of the mess.  When you have your dough rolled super thin you then cut your noodles however you want.  Just remember they fluff up during cooking so even the thinnest noodles appear thicker and keep this in mind when you cut the width too.

Once you have cut your noodles you can either boil them in your broth or soup immediately or you can dry them for storage in your freezer.  If you dry them they will need to lay out for hours, I usually leave them overnight if doing this and they will break like a spaghetti noodle when dry.  You can then bag these up and store in the freezer for later...our noodles never make it that far as I usually cook them right away before drying them out.  

Here is the finished product which is just homemade bone broth with some scraps of chicken and the egg noodles thrown in.  There were no leftovers for dad as the kids at it all!