I have been seeing this all over the internet, frankly, I wonder why I didn't think up something this good, as the idea is wonderful! 

This is a monthly subscription service for your kids and there are crates for ages 3-16 (Koala crate ages 3-4, kiwi crate ages 4-8, tinkercrate ages 9-14, and Doodle crate for ages 9-16) 

 Every month you are sent a "crate" and the reviews I am reading from trusted bloggers are all really good.  The age group I have chosen focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM skills) I am giving it a go for Christmas as they are offering a special $10 off deal right now.  The subscription usually runs $19.99 a month with free shipping but if you sign up through this link: (just click on any of the pictures below)

You will get $10 off your first month (making it $9.99) and you get free shipping plus... cancel anytime.  

I am thinking that this would be a great Christmas gift to give as well!

Disclaimer, I too have ordered my first month and I will be reviewing this product once we get it.  Also, if you sign up through my link I also get a $10 credit but I am in no way affiliated with their company, it is just a share bonus they offer for telling friends.

Here are some of the other crates for different age groups:


Koala Crate (ages 3-4)

sample crate
motorWire up a real electric motor and watch it spin! Then follow our experiments to explore basic principles of electromagnetism.

Let me know what you think...I love this idea!

Three years ago my son came home from a play date begging me to buy him an "Elf on the Shelf"  I had no idea what that was back then, but I quickly learned.  So the gist of it is that you purchase the book and Elf and the book is a story about this Elf who is essentially a spy for Santa and daily he reports back the goings on at each child's house as to whether they are good or bad.  We don't do Santa around here but the idea still intrigued us so since he wanted one so badly, we conceeded and bought him an Elf for Christmas (early).  

Around our house we have had lots of fun dreaming up ways to pose our Elf.  We play this game more like a "Where's Waldo" where every morning we have to hunt down "Chippy" our elf.  My 14 y/o has taken a large part in the posing of the Elf as sometimes mom forgets to do so...then everyone wakes up disappointed.  It has become a family tradition and a fun game we play at the holidays.  Here are a few of the ideas we have used and then links to a myriad of others...some very outrageous and funny!

If you need an elf, head on over to Amazon.com.  If you have an elf and just need ideas...scroll below!

The following pictures will link you to the blogs where there are even more ideas, just click on the pictures below for a re-direct, and have fun!

Homeschooling is less of a task then it is a way of life.  Every opportunity can be turned into a learning experience.  My children asked, no begged, for both Thanksgiving and Black Friday off of school so I agreed.  Secretly though, I had a plan.  I told them that on Saturday, our makeup Thanksgiving since Dad had to work on the holiday, they were in charge.  The girls were told that they were to figure out the budget, cost per person and menu as well as to cook the entire meal.  They were beyond excited to be able to do this as they thought it was just fun in the kitchen...but being the sneaky mom I thought that this was going to be way better than any home ec class I ever took!  

They took their task seriously and prepared the menu the night before checking to see what ingredients we had and what we still needed to run to the store for.  We estimated the food cost to put on the entire meal for our family of 7 and made it fun.  Here is the menu:

They originally got a bit carried away with what they wanted on the menu, but when we talked about cost and how much we really needed since it was just going to be our family, this is what it was narrowed down to.  They got busy peeling and cutting potatoes the night before so they would have one less thing to do in the morning.

The day of our feast I ran to the store with my 11 y/o and we picked up the things on their list and compared what we thought it would cost to what the actual cost was.  We also discussed why shopping at a local market was much pricier than if we would have headed into a neighboring town to pick up our items (lesson learned for the millionth time on my part!)  The girls then got busy.  I really did take a completely hands off approach.  I popped in and out of the kitchen and sat at the counter a few times to offer suggestions.  I was pretty surprised though at thier skill.  My girls are only 14 and 11, but I guess they have watched me more than I realize as they had a pretty good idea of how to do most of the things on their own with minimal guidance.

This is my 11 y/o making her great grandma's Fool Proof pie crust recipie from scratch.

We ended up with a table full of delicious food all prepared by the girls.  They truly did an A+ job and they definately learned more than I ever did in home economics, I remember learning how to make cinnamon rolls, that was it!

Just in case you were curious to know what else went on at our house this day, we went out on our annual Christmas tree hunt...cutting down the perfect tree.  It just so happens that there is a Christmas tree farm about 1 mile from our farm so we headed out while the turkey was still baking and picked out our tree, when we returned that is when we feasted on what you see above.  Here are a few pics of our adventure finding the "perfect" tree.

I recently saw a thank you card at church that someone had posted to share with the congregation.  In it was written these words that have impacted me greatly...

If you woke up today with only what you thanked God for yesterday...What would you have?


That simple quote has caused me to think differently each night when I pray.  How about you?  What would you have today?

I don't typically like sweet potatoes but this was a dish that an aunt brought to Thanksgiving dinner a number of years ago and it was a hit!  I did not have her exact recipie so I came up with something that is very close.  This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving with a different side of the family but this dish is so much a favorite that I chose it as my go to for the Thanksgiving Celebration.

How to go from this to this  to this (using real sweet potatoes is the ONLY way to go!)

First I baked the 4 sweet potatoes at 375 for about an hour and a half.  I just stabbed them a time or two with a fork and put them on a cookie sheet, that's it!  I baked them until I could squeeze the outside and it was squishy (how do you like that technical term?)

Ingredients:
4-6 baked sweet potatoes
1/2 cup white sugar
2 beaten eggs
4 T softened butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk (can sub cream)
1 tsp vanilla

Topping: 
1 Cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup flour (can skip this for gluten free recipie)
6 T softened buter
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 325.  Scrape the potato out of the skin and put into a mixing bowl.  Add all other ingredients and mix well. (If you want super smooth with zero chunks you may want to puree the sweet potato in a food processor or blender first, I however, was satisfied with just mixing it really well)

Place mixture into a 9 x 13 casserole dish.  In a separate bowl mix ingredients for topping and sprinkle over sweet potato mixture.

Bake 30 minutes...then thank me!

A friend knew I was looking for a train set and she sent this link along...What a great deal! (P.S. dont tell my 3 year old!) lol.  www.raininghotcoupons.com posted this deal and it has been shared on facebook too.  Here is the original affiliate link I found this deal through:

Imaginarium Train Table Set @ Toys R Us

We were all running around getting ready to leave the house for church when I heard the unmistakable sound of choking.  I was only 10 steps away and as soon as I got to my 9 month old I scooped my finger into his mouth but came up empty.  He continued to gag and choke and then broke into a fit of crying (good sign though because if he is screaming, he is breathing!) This alternating choking, gagging and crying lasted an agonizing 10 minutes or so with me doing everything I knew to do physically, and all the while, praying.  My little one finally calmed down but was not acting right at all.  He would gag intermittently but was breathing fine and swallowing.  I still had this feeling of dread and uneasiness so I drove him over to the local children’s urgent care.  He was breathing and had pretty much ceased choking but something was just not right.  While there an x-ray confirmed what had happened.  That was the scariest thing for me, not know what he had choked on!

It was a coin.  Where he got it, I do not know as I really do try to make sure there isn’t anything lying about that he might choke on.  It was there on x-ray and it was not very far down in the esophagus but it had passed the windpipe.  I was so thankful at this point that we knew what it was and that he was in my arms and had not stopped breathing during the choking episode.  It was about this time that hubby arrived, he had been at work and driven to meet me at urgent care. 

The doctor at the urgent care advised that he wanted to send us by ambulance (we had 2 more gagging episodes in front of the doctor at this point) to the main children’s hospital where our son would likely be having endoscopic surgery to remove the coin.  I was thankful  that they just let me hold my little guy during the ambulance ride, he was in my arms the entire time.  Friends stepped in to care for our other children and hubby drove to the hospital.  Once there we were advised that the course of action would include an overnight admission at the hospital and a follow up x-ray in the a.m. to see if the coin had passed or was still lodged.  We were admitted and it was a long worrisome night.  I held my son all night and the nursing staff was amazing.  I was not allowed to nurse my baby though, not sure he would have even been able to, but without a pacifier (he doesn’t take one) it was hard to have ways to comfort him.

In the morning the follow up x-ray showed that the coin had not moved.  It was stuck.  My son’s lethargic behavior had not at all improved either.  This is where I began asking for lots of prayer as the thought of my son being intubated and put under anesthesia worried me terribly.  I could almost tangibly feel the prayers as I got a number of text messages, facebook messages and a few phone calls letting me know that prayers were being said for our little guy.  Our pastor came to the hospital to check on us, my friends offered to help, people everywhere were reaching out.  We met with the surgeon and he advised of what his plans were.  The hardest part was letting my little one be wheeled away and to being able to go with him.  The surgery went fine, the surgeon came in to let us know that the coin was a penny but also that it had flipped to a horizontal position so that it was covering the esophagus like a lid.  We were then given the penny…most expensive baby book memento ever!

I am just so very thankful that we had so many prayers on our side, God was with my little one and he is now home safe and acting like normal.  Amazing the scare that something so small can cause.

I'm going to try to make this a Tuesday installment at least until the week of Christmas.

With the Christmas holiday fast approaching we are doing a lot of crafting and handmade gift preparing over here.  I thought it would be neat to share some of the cute handmade ornaments we are working on with DIY instructions.

This cute little Christmas tree  set me back about 20 cents to make and I think looks just adorable.  I simply bought a few different rolls of ribbon at Walmart, each one that I picked was 50 cents a roll and I used just a fraction of each of the rolls. (that’s where I came up with the 20 cents because I didn’t even use a total of a half of one of the 50 cent rolls).  Oh, and the tree branch was a free gift from the beautiful outdoors.

     Sounds a bit unbelievable right?  I actually think my figure is extremely conservative and that it could be a higher savings…much higher…but, let me explain first.  I have always known that having a garden saves my family money; I mean we head out back for fresh salad, salsa, beans, etc.  I like to avoid pesticides and chemicals so I just don’t use them on my garden and therefore I only employ all organic methods.  But to be truthful it was just a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment before this year.  This year, I decided, I was going to set out to see just what I was saving…and here is the final tally.

  I decided to start my garden from seed inside the house.  I do not have a greenhouse yet…hubby are you reading this??? I also do not have any fancy grow lights or other things, I simply had some plastic containers saved from previous years purchasing plants (in a pinch Styrofoam cups work just fine) and I just used a mix of soil and vermiculite (that white beady stuff that comes in potted plants you buy at a store) and followed the directions to start the seeds which I kept in the laundry room.  (It was warm in there)

   The reason I opted to do my garden this way, rather than just purchasing my plants is that I am a very “back to grass roots” kinda gal.  What I mean is, back in my great grandparents’ day you didn’t just run down the street to the farmers’ market and purchase all your plants.  You grew them.  From seeds you saved the previous year…ah ha!  Another way to save money!  (Did I mention I am frugal?)   So, I knew that if I was really going to continue to see a savings, I would need to be able to propagate my garden year after year without spending so much. The funny thing is that I usually would spend around $100 on plants anyway, but this way I was able to purchase all open pollinated heirloom seeds (the kind that will grow again…i.e. not hybrids) that I will save from the plants to start my garden again next year for….dare I say…free?

  My efforts were not without trial and error.  I killed 20 plus tomato seedlings by accidentally leaving them outside overnight in early May (it dipped to freezing that night…oops!) and, I did have to re-purchase full size plant versions of a few of my failings, but that is all included in my total out of pocket.

   So, once the garden was in…I just waited.  There is effort involved but by employing a method called “Back to Eden Gardening” (Google the free documentary) there were very few weeds to deal with, so it was pretty enjoyable.

   When my first harvests came in early June I began weighing everything.  Every time I harvested anything from the garden, I weighed what I had, logged the type of produce and weight, and kept a tally.  I did this for the whole season from June until the last few stragglers mid October.  I harvested carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, tomatillos, green beans, pinto beans, cabbage, peas, lima beans, potatoes, watermelons, cantaloupe, and about 10 different kinds of peppers.  I canned or froze all of it and have well over 220 quart jars of food put up for our family of 7.

   Now, this is where the savings really came in.  If I were to go to the store and buy either canned or fresh all organic produce…do you have any idea how much I would have to spend to garner over 432 pounds of organic produce?  I estimated extremely conservatively and averaged $2 a pound for organic produce prices but I have never seen where you could buy organic tomatoes for less than about $2.99 a pound, or organic melons, potatoes and my other crops all that cheaply either.

    Before someone might say, “but I don’t have lots of land for a garden,” I would submit that you don’t have to.  I only moved the “country” 18 months ago and my garden is 15 x 40 with some semi truck tires lining the perimeter to act as small raised beds.  I also tucked a few pepper plants in with my flower beds…this is doable even in suburbia.

   So for you numbers nerds (I mean that term endearingly) here is how it went down:

$131.82 was the cost to purchase my supplies and seeds

$20.00 was the cost to replace the plants I killed (there were more than the tomatoes)

Total is $151.82 out of pocket.

I harvested 432.15 pounds of fresh organic produce from the garden.  I sold 2 baskets of mixed fresh produce to test the market for possibly making a bigger garden and making this a business next year.  Basket #1 was 20lbs that I sold for $30 and basket #2 was 10lbs which I sold for $15 therefore re-cooping $45 from my out of pocket cost.  My out of pocket drops to $106.82.  I multiplied my 432 lbs of produce by an average cost of $2 per pound if I purchased all that produce as fresh organic and my total would have been in the market of $864.  Taking that $864 and subtracting my $106.82…I saved at least $757.18!!!

    Side note, I saved seeds from everything which is not nearly as hard as one might think…My garden next year is going in without any out of pocket cost now…  Can’t wait to see totals for 2015!  This is a do-able money saver.

As a homeschool family we read ALOT.  We check out at least 15 picture books a week for my soon to be 3 year old, my 14 year old reads faster than any other kid I know, and my 11 y/o is fast becoming a very avid reader as well (and her 8 year old brother loves for her to read aloud).  I figure we would start a reading list of ones that we are smitten with.  A recomendation list for others if you have not already checked these titles out from your local library...or you can just get your own copy from Amazon. 

PRE-SCHOOL:

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes- James Dean
Potty Train- David Hochman and Ruth Kennison
Black Rabbit-Philippa Leathers

LATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:

The Sign of the Beaver- Elizabeth George Speare

MIDDLE TO HIGHSCHOOL:

Mysterious Benedict Society-Trenton Lee Stewart

The excitement was almost contagious around here with the new fallen 4-5 inches of snow.  Each of the children gasped as they awoke and looked out the window to blankets of powder covering everything in sight.  Funny thing was I did not have to poke and prod for them to get dressed and go outside to do farm chores this morning, they were dying to get outside.  I snapped a couple of pictures from inside as the littlest farmhand is still too young to enjoy all the antics.  But, he sure did think it was interesting!  He was even included in a snowball fight as the older ones threw snowballs at the window for him to see!

I watched from the house to see my almost 3 year old feeding our mare this morning.  He loves to care for the horse.

The girls came to the back door to tell me that snowmen were boring so today they decided to have a snow sculpting contest.  My oldest made a snowshoe hare and my next in line made a kiwi bird.  I was pretty impressed!

I have a confession...I love hot cocoa.  I also love to make hot cocoa for my children.  We all love hot cocoa...and chocolate milk...and chocolate sauce...you get the picture?  This morning as I awoke to about 4 inches of snow I decided this was an appropriate post because, I want cocoa.

When I first had children I used to buy Nestle brand cocoa and make a quick and easy cup, but as I had more children and the price of the Nestle kept climbing I realized that I had to come up with a better alternative for my sweet tooth.  I decided it would be so much more economical to just make my own cocoa.  

It is so very simple that I now wish I could go back and get all that money I spent on Nestle cocoa back...I was quite naive!

All you need is a 2:1 ratio of sugar and cocoa powder.  I usually mix it up by using 1/2 cup cocoa and 1 cup sugar.  Really, it's that simple.  When I make the cocoa I just put a pan on the stove with milk, heat the milk and whisk in several tablespoons of my cocoa mix to taste.  If I really want to make it delectable I add in a tsp or so of vanilla or almond extract after I pull the cocoa off the stove (Peppermint is also another favorite).  I refuse to buy those Swiss Miss packets because for one they are too watery and for two, this is so much better.  If you wanted to make your own "swiss miss" style where you add only water, you just make the mix I mentioned and add powdered milk to it.  Personally, I prefer the real milk though.

If you missed the previous posts, here is Part I, and here is Part II.  Now for the continuation:

So there we were creeping on on the final stretch.  This baby would be born at home, that was our plan.  I followed all of my midwife’s recommendations and really enjoyed the prenatal care she provided, it was more like visiting with a very experienced friend who offered suggestions and advice but who listened intently and seemed as excited about the birth of this baby as I was!  I dutifully ordered all the supplies my midwife recommended, I began an herbal birth tincture that I had taken with the last pregnancy, and I contacted the county to request my “out of institution” birth certificate paperwork.  I had all the bases covered. Well, almost all.  We chose not to tell our families for fear of their reaction to our decision to have a homebirth.  We just figured, we would let them no later, and after all they could just come to our house to meet the new baby!

For those who may not know, a homebirth has to be completely non-medicated.  Midwives are not doctors and do not prescribe medications.  If there appears to be any serious complications it is the job of the midwife to be monitoring to be sure that as signs arise they will be corrected or if not, a transfer to a hospital may be required.  Midwives are trained for many different situations including VBAC, breech presentation, and even a baby’s cord being wrapped around its neck.  The midwife acts as a guardian to ensure that the natural process of birth progresses as it should and they watch for any concerning signs while nature runs its course.

The winter was in full swing and it was bitterly cold.  Every night that I went to bed with the random contractions I was feeling, I became increasingly at peace with the fact that whatever time this baby did decide to come, we wouldn’t have to venture out into the wicked cold.  However, I was becoming anxious, this was a waiting game.  I believed with all my heart that this baby would make an appearance around a week or so before my due date, after all, this was baby #5 and my last birth came at 39 weeks.  So, as one can imagine, when 39 weeks came and went, I was becoming more and more impatient.  My midwife was not at all concerned (very unlike what I was used to with an OB who usually by 38-39 weeks began suggesting an induction).  My midwife just shrugged and said, “He will come when he is good and ready.”  I asked all kinds of questions and did further research and realized that dates are not exact and that the baby would be just fine until even as late as 42 weeks (something today’s doctors would not usually allow).  My midwife just said “Trust the designer, and his design, the baby will be ready and come when the time is right.”

 I lay down to sleep one night; sleep was such a joke by that point as uncomfortably huge as I was.  I woke in the middle of the night (a normal occurrence) but when I got up to make my frequent trip to the bathroom, I kind of wondered if my water had broken (I know by this time I should have no trouble figuring that out but I am here to say, I was unsure) I laid back down and looked out the window.  It was about 7 degrees and the snow was coming down so hard I could no longer see the barn.  There was already 2 feet of snow on the ground and it just kept coming.  I really didn’t want to call my midwife with a false alarm in this kind of weather, and it was 1am.  I tried to go back to sleep.  The contractions I was having at this point were frequent and had been for about 2 weeks at this point, but I could still talk through them, so I knew it was not imminent.  My husband rolled over and I told him what was going on, he said I should probably call the midwife, but again, I didn’t want to inconvenience anyone in what surely was another blizzard outside.  By 2am I had decided that my contractions were definitely picking up.  So, I did decide to call.  I actually had to set the phone down briefly during a contraction while talking with my midwife and she said she would come on over and that if it was a false alarm, no big deal, she would just sleep on the couch until morning.  (That made me feel better).  I also called my friend, the doula. (funny story, her husband had just come in from shoveling out the driveway, he said he just had a feeling that tonight was going to be the night).

It was within about 10 minutes of that phone call to the midwife and the subsequent one to my doula that things started picking up, and fast.  Before anyone could even arrive I was in my “zone”, the “don’t talk to me during a contraction” zone.  The contractions were coming as hard and fast as the snowflakes were outside, but I was in my home, it was warm, and I was not stressed out. 

My husband must have been getting things ready but I think I was oblivious.  We put a very large, kind of noisy, fan in the hallway outside of our bedroom and shut all of the children’s doors.  The children knew what our plans were and they had been told that if they woke in the night and their doors were shut that they should just wait until daddy came to get them so they could meet their new brother.  I remember all of a sudden feeling an intense wave of nausea (I later figured that was my transition phase) and when the midwife arrived I was hanging my head in the toilet (lovely huh?)  But, I do remember that I still had a sense of humor and in the 1-2 minutes between contractions we would laugh about something but then I wanted silence when I was going through the intense contractions.  My doula was there, reassuring me and helping me to focus on breathing (I have a tendency to hold my breath during pain) and my midwife was there talking calmly and in soothing tones as well.

 I remember feeling like I needed to use the restroom one last time, but once I got to the bathroom I became paralyzed with pain.  The contractions were so hard and fast at that point that when my husband and midwife told me to just climb into the tub and let hot water run over me, I couldn’t even lift a leg to get into the tub, I just could not move.  It was then that my husband essentially let me put almost all my weight on him and he did the walking for me to get me back to the bed.  No sooner did I make it that far (it was less than 10 steps) then the baby decided now it was time to come into this world.  I remember not feeling any panic or stress, I just was ready for this part to be over, I believe I may have yelled out at this point , (okay maybe a lot) but it was so fast and then, my newest baby was here.  I FELT AMAZING!  As soon as he was born all of the pain was gone and it was like this intense wave of adrenaline and excitement as well as exhaustion washed over me all at once. I saw him and he was HUGE!  I fully expected the midwife to do everything that the doctors and nurses did, but she just stepped back and let me enjoy this new little person that I was meeting face to face for the first time.  It was almost like time stood still. 

Our baby was not crying and this worried my husband, but our midwife explained that was very common for homebirth babies, there was no stress, no bright lights, no one tearing him away from mama to suction and wipe and all the other stuff.  Our new baby looked at me in kind of a groggy just woken up from a nap kind of way and he blinked.  We decided to allow the baby to have a delayed cord clamp. This basically means that when the umbilical cord stops pulsing blood from the placenta to baby, that is when it is clamped, not immediately on the doctor’s time.  This allows the baby to get all of the oxygen rich blood from mom and allows for a less rushed atmosphere.  My baby nursed and then just looked around at his new world. 

My midwife had things cleaned up in the time it took me to walk to the bathroom.  I wanted a quick shower so my husband held the baby while I took a hot shower, in my own home.  That was priceless.  I wrapped up in my favorite robe and sat down to nurse my newest baby.  He was 9lbs and at least 8 oz. 

It was now about 4 am (remember this all started at 2am so yes, it was FAST) There was a very faint tapping on the bedroom door and when my husband opened it my two daughters were there, so excited to meet their baby brother.  Shortly thereafter my 8 year old son joined us and a bit after that my toddler awoke.  We all were piled in my bed (yes it was all clean and looked just like my room did any other time) and enjoying one and other’s company.  My husband went downstairs to start a hearty farms-style breakfast and my midwife kept vigil while my doula and my kids and I chatted.  It was almost magical because of the peace of it all.  It was still snowing outside and I later learned that the drive was a bit treacherous for both my doula and my midwife.  It was beautiful for me though, I was cozy and warm in my home, with my new baby in my arms.  I felt like if I could do this, I could do anything!  I wish that every mother could know this kind of amazing empowerment that comes from being surrounded by other women who are there to support you, comfort you, and if needed, intervene.  I felt that this was the best birth story I had yet and I felt amazing.

This picture was the one we texted to all of our friends and family, he was 5 hours old here.

It was by far the best birth experience I have ever had.  It was the most peaceful, happiest, least stressful and most amazing thing to come to the realization that our bodies are perfectly capable of doing exactly what God designed them to do, and without medical interventions.
​

9:45- clean up from breakfast (diningroom and kitchen back in order)
10:00- all kids working on subjects and toddler doing a felt board scene...meanwhile baby is getting into EVERYTHING so I take him to another room to avoid distractions.
11:45- My 11 year old finishes all school she can do on her own and offers to do a craft with Toddler (she is awesome at this and a HUGE help)

I often hear, "How do you do it all?"  Here is my confession...I don't.  We have rough homeschool days where mom freaks out because there is an overabundance of laundry and the baby is getting into everything meanwhile the toddler just had his second accident of the day while pouring salt all over the kitchen counter all the while someone needs help with math and someone else is waiting for thier spelling test...yeah, we have days like that.

But, we also have good days.  Here is a peek inside what a homeschool day sometimes looks like for us, a homeschooling family of 7 (5 kiddos, 2 adults) who live on a farm.

5:30am- baby is up to nurse
6am- mom making coffee (nectar of life).  I plan out breakfast and get started (baked oatmeal in the oven by 6:15).
6:20- I sit down to do a brief Bible reading and personal devotion time.  Praying for a good day!
6:35-I have a few minutes to check emails, social media, etc.
7:00- 14 year old gets up and snuggles up on coach to start her school
7:20- 11 year old daughter up.  We do health together while the house is still quiet
7:40- 14 year old and I do history together while all is still quiet.
8:00- Toddler (almost 3 now) is up and game on!
8:10- 8 year old up
8:30- farm chores being done (feed & water horse, rabbits, cats, chickens)
9 am- baby is up and breakfast with a game of scrabble to start the day off on a fun note!

12:30 lunch is inevitable...working on that scrabble game again.
1:15 pm finish lunch and start cleanup crew again
1:30 pumpkin seed snacks started by 11 year old

All others are wrapping up with chores and schoolwork
2pm- baby and toddler heading to naptime, 14 year old agrees to read yet another book to toddler (I think this makes like 7!)
2:30 pm- both littles sleeping so I head down to do Science with my 8 y/o and 11 y/o.  We complete our study of learning about Mercury (We are doing Apologia's Astronomy) and move on to reading a chapter book for their literature class on Thursday (we do a read aloud as they are both reading the same book but have different speeds on thier own so we just do it together)
3:30 pm free time for all the kids, I start dinner...WHEW!

This is just a sampling, and a sampling of a good day at that.  I mean to say that when you homeschool there are both good and bad days and the funny thing is that yesterday, it wasn't such a good day and when a friend stopped by in the morning to pick something up I told her about this post and then added...THIS is NOT a day I will be blogging about!!!

My mother-in-law stopped by last weekend and brought a picture with her of a neighbor's front door that was already decked out for the holidays.  I loved what I saw.  Being a family of horse-lovers I thought the Christmas wreath that was already up (though I am not usually one for jumping over Thanksgiving straight to Christmas) was so unique and amazing!  I just had to try my hand at making one too.  With some trial and error...Here is the origianl photo that was shown to me.  I believe that this wreath is made from artificial greenery but since I have an abundance of evergreen trees on our property, I wanted to try my hand at a fresh wreath.

Here is my fresh greenery rendition of the above wreath.  I used a buckeye to make the eye as I liked that better than a pinecone but overall I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  So, for the first time ever, I have a Christmas wreath up before Thanksgiving has even come and gone.

I love tea, almost as much as a good cup of coffee.  I have a few favorites and I recently ran out of one of my go-to blends from a company called Stash tea.  Being the resourceful gal that I am, I decided to try to make some of my own Lemon Ginger tea.  I was especially interested in this as I have been reading lately about how beneficial fresh ginger is to boosting one's immune system, as well as clearing out chest congestion.  So, I figured I would give it a go.

I just got some fresh ginger from the health food store (though I know Kroger and Walmart carry it too) and a lemon.  Really, that's it!  I use mason jars for so many things so I decided on a quart jar.  I grated the ginger with my cheese grater and I think I ended up with around 2 Tablespoons of ground ginger...this packs quite a kick!  I then squeezed in 1/3 of my lemon.

After adding my two simple ingredients I boiled some water on the stove and filled the mason jar with boiling water.  I let it sit for about an hour and then had to try a taste...WOOOOHOOOO!  I decided that this recipie was a keeper, but, I would call this a concentrate.  I ended up pouring myself half a cup with my lemon ginger mix and adding another half of water as it was just too strong for this farmgirl.  I found that when it was hot with lemon it was fantastic and quieted a tickly cough I have had for almost a month now.  When I put it in the fridge to store it overnight I drank it cold the next day with a little sugar swirled in and it almost tasted like lemonade with a kick.  

This is a new keeper in this household, especially since it is a healthy mix of immunity boosting and vitamin C power!

On the suggestion of a seasoned blogger, I am changing it up a bit around here.  I would like to ask for your comments below on the new look for Incidentalfarmgirl.com.  What do you think?  Easier to read?  Easy to navigate?  Look to the right for category break downs and scroll down below that for month by month (archive) posts from yours truly.  Please leave me your comments and feedback!

It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I remember tasting my first from scratch pumpkin pie.  My neighbor brought us over a pie and it was the best pumpkin pie I had ever eaten.  I quickly asked for the recipie and that's when I learned...it was all about the pumpkin.  

I was initially reluctant to make a pie from the actual pumpkin as I was just sure it was next to impossible...boy was I wrong.  And...it is so worth it!  So last year I began asking my kiddos to please not carve up those pumpkins, painting them would be even better so that I could use them for pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies...you get the idea.  

It seemed like the perfect day to do this as a chill was in the air and I had not yet tasted a fresh pumpkin pie this year.  So, here goes...First I started with a pumpkin like what you see on the left.  I cut it in half and scooped the seeds out.  Then I put it cut side down in a 9 x 13 pan and added about 1/2 water.  I baked the pumpkin at 350 for about an hour.

I knew the pumpkin was done when I can easily slide a fork into the pumpkin like it is butter.  Then my daughter helped me peel off the skin and stem and we put the cooked pumpkin flesh into the blender for a quick whirl.

So thats the hard part that I shyed away from for so long...really?  I love my Betty crocker Cookbook so I use the basic recipies for most standards from there.  I used the pumpkin pie recipe and just put fresh pumpkin in for the canned.  You would not believe the taste difference!!!

Good ol' Betty says to use the following for your pie filling:

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2  3/4 cup pumpkin (this is where you use the real stuff)
2 1/4 cup evaporated milk


Mix all together and pour into a prepared pie shell.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 for an additional 45-50 minutes.


Happy Fall, Ya'll!

I was reading a hobby farm magazine the other day and reading about how to make your orchard and nut trees thrive.   It was enlightening, and then I thought how few people intentionally plant and grow nut trees in the northern states and how this was actually a very viable farm option along with an orchard.  I believe that the reason that more people do not utilize nut trees is because of the intense amount of labor involved in getting the nutmeat out of the shell.  For instance, have you ever gotten to the nutmeat of a walnut?  It is quite a time consuming chore.

 First you have to start with the walnut where it falls from the tree encased in a fleshy green shell.  The shell then has to kind of rot off or be broken off (many old timers would run the green version over with a tractor to break apart the outside casing).  Then you are left with what actually looks like the outside of a walnut, but the chore is not over.  This hard walnut shell has to be cracked open, no easy chore, I mean that very seriously.  At our house we do this with a sledge hammer or a serious vice.  After husking and cracking the walnut open you will usually have brown stain on your hands (I believe this is actually what was used in the old days for furniture stain) You then have the joy of picking those little pieces of nut flesh out of the hard shell.  This takes hours.   My children spent a few hours a week for weeks to procure a quart sized jar full of black walnuts for Christmas gifts last year.  It is definitely a winter indoor chore!

I looked to grandma’s book of memories to see what she had to say, here is an excerpt:

I only remember having a couple of black walnut trees in our woods.  We kept watch because the squirrels would beat us to the walnuts if they were not picked up soon after dropping.  In the fall it was a familiar sight to see the farm boys come to school with dark brown stains on their hands.  It was the boys job to take the green and blackened husks off the fallen walnuts.  This was usually done by using a hammer or wooden mallet.  The outside coating stained whatever it touched.  After the husks were removed the walnuts were laid to try and later stored in a shed to finish.

We had a piece of railroad iron that we laid the walnut on to crack.  My dad would take a dish pan to the wood shed and come back with a pan full of cracked walnuts; it was then our job to pick the nuts out of the shells.  If you cracked it just right you could remove a whole section in just one piece.

I don’t remember ever eating just the nuts; we always saved them to be put in cookies, cake, or my mother’s special fudge. Black walnuts have a much stronger flavor than an English walnut; today they are very expensive to buy.
 
I also remember that when I was in high school the boys would make belts for the girls out of walnuts.  The dried walnuts were sawed into thin slices.  Using leather string the circles were then fastened together forming a belt.


I had no idea you could make a belt out of walnut shells!  I google searched for images and this is what I came up with:

pretty ingenious, huh?  Betcha won't look at a walnut the same way again!

My first post is here...This is the continuation of the story...

We had another baby on the way.  This was baby #5 for our family.  I had just left my full time career as a social worker and we were so excited.  We waited until 12 weeks in to share our happy news and Christmas had just come and gone.  That is when we learned that baby was not meant to meet us this side of heaven.  I share this part of the story for a few reasons, one, I again was bent towards the more natural way of proceeding.  I experienced bleeding on a Sunday morning and was very concerned so I went to the ER.  It was there among cold lights and hard shiny floors that we learned the news, the awful news, our baby was gone and there was no little flickering heart beat on the monitor.  My doctor was out of town and when contacted advised that she wanted me to undergo a D&C.  I did not want any procedure done as I wanted things to proceed naturally (I had been through this kind of loss before).  My doctor reluctantly agreed to allow this, while on the phone with me from vacation several states away. 

We went home then to grieve, and to heal.  A week went by and that’s when my body decided that it was time, I had time to process things a bit better by then and emotionally that made it slightly better.  However, when my body began the process of purging and healing it went a bit too fast and I began to hemorrhage.  My husband is a nurse and was immediately concerned (more than I) so he rushed me to the ER.  I was stabilized, but not without a seed of fear planted so deep in my husband that he wasn’t even sure he wanted any more children.  He was convinced he almost lost me.  I again avoided a D&C but had to be almost obscenely adamant at the hospital because, that was just routine for them.  But, it wasn’t routine for me and I did not want to undergo that procedure.  I was discharged hours later after a period of lengthy observation.  Time to go home, and finish healing.

I was quite unsure if after my body had time to heal, whether God would bless us with another baby or not.  I was so happy to have my 4 healthy children but my heart was grieved still for the loss of our baby.  It was about 3 months later that I became pregnant again.  I was scared that I would also experience another loss but I just prayed. And prayed.  I prayed for a healthy baby, a healthy me, and most of all for God’s peace for whatever was to come.  The pregnancy progressed very normally and after we got to about 18 weeks along I approached the subject of home birthing with my husband.  I had loved the last medication free birth but I wanted to welcome this new one without the nurses, the IV fluids, the bright lights…

The conversation did not go very far as my husband pretty much shut it down immediately.  He was fearful as it had just been about 7 months prior we were in the ER with him being convinced I was not going to make it.  I reminded him that all of our babies were born without any major issues, I had never had any reason for concern and had never had any trouble healing.  I prayed then.  A few days later I mentioned to him that a woman we both knew of (and knew of fondly) was also a homebirth midwife, a fact he did not know.  I would imagine I wore him down because shortly thereafter he agreed that I could just call and talk to the local midwife we knew of.

I called her.  I loved her immediately.  She was down to earth, willing to help, and held many of our values dear.  She did not think my medical history was a concern and felt based on the information I provided to her, that I would likely to great having a baby at home.  She suggested my husband and I watch a documentary called “The Business of Being Born” that was on Netflix.  I told her my husband was a hard sell and she said she was not in the business of persuading husbands but she would agree to come meet us both.  She mentioned that sometimes that sets people more at ease.  I got him to watch the documentary; it was very eye opening for both of us.  I wanted this to be our birth experience.  Our baby was also due in February (key likelihood for very bad weather) and my labors are intensely fast, we both had feared having the baby in the car when I was in labor with baby #4.

 I asked him to allow me to invite the midwife over, just to meet us.  I was still seeing my OB and we were due for our complete fetal scan ultrasound in a few days.  He agreed.  She came.  We talked.  She visited with us for almost 3 hours and when she left, we shut the door.  My husband then turned to me and said “that’s not fair, I really like her.” 

I proceeded to go to my ultrasound appointment with my regular OB so that we could see if our baby looked healthy and if things looked as though they were continuing to progress normally.  The ultrasound showed a perfectly formed, healthy looking baby who appeared right on target.  It was after this appointment that, with my husband’s blessing, I began seeing our midwife.  She came to our home for prenatals and was very involved in a holistic approach to the birth.  She included my children in our appointments by letting them use the Doppler on my belly to hear their new sibling’s heartbeat.  It was amazing and it gave us the opportunity to really get to know one and other.  My OB appointments lasted about 15-20 minutes.  My midwife appointments were more like chatting with an old friend, we would have a cup of tea and our visits could easily surpass an hour and a half because we would get carried away talking.  Go time was not too far ahead…(to be continued)