I have a secret to admit... Until this year I had never tested my soil.  I just operated under the notion that as long as I rotated my crops from year to year, I didn't have to bother with testing my soil.  However, it is a necessary step that I think had I bothered to take years ago, I may have saved myself some headaches.  Let me tell you a little bit about the importance of soil testing.

Planting a garden without first testing your soil is like baking a cake without making sure your oven is preheated.  It is a lack of preparation that does, in fact, affect the outcomes.

With as much effort as most of us put into our gardens yearly, we want to make every effort to be sure that all of those hours of tilling, hoeing, and little drops of sweat that go into the yield we hope to get from the soil.

This year was going to be different, I finally decided to take that little extra step to give my garden the best chance possible.  So, I started by ordering a simple soil testing kit from Amazon, this is the exact one I chose... (affiliate link included)

It wasn't as difficult as I imagined and the kit has enough to use it 40 times.  I simply took a few scoops of soil from various locations in my 48 x 25 foot garden plot and followed the directions.  I promise it wasn't as daunting as I had feared for so many years.

So here is what I learned.  My potatoes likely haven't been doing so well the last few years because my soil PH was not ideal for potatoes.  This is a simple fix by adding some limestone to the area I will be planting my beautiful Amethyst potatoes in this year.  I may well have been having problems with my tomatoes and cucumbers as a result of low nitrogen levels which I needed to treat. 

Do you see, there was so much information just waiting to be uncovered and I had been missing it.  No amount of blood sweat and tears was going to make the plants do better without some of the basics being addressed from the beginning.  Okay, so this year we are going to give the plants the best chance at flourishing, something we all want, yes?

Here is the other thing, if you are like me, and you avoid any chemicals on your garden it is imperative to have the healthiest plants possible because unhealthy plants are even more susceptable to diseases and pests that end up being an organic gardener's worst nightmare.

Hopefully, this year armed with the knowledge of the basics, I will be able to maintain the best possible soil for growing a variety of the beautiful plants I hope to see brimming over the borders of the garden this summer. 

It is worth it, if you are going to garden, take the one extra step and learn about the importance of soil testing before planting this year.

Now that is out of the way, we got the cold weather crops started in the garden, and of course I have helpers...

I love being the Incidental Farmgirl, I have been on this adventure blogging about our homestead for the last 3 years.  I have learned a lot, shared for information and for the entertainment of others.  I will continue this journey, but, you may have noticed that the posts have slowed considerably.  

You see, if you read this blog regularly, we had a surprise thrown our way just 3 months ago.  I went into labor expecting our 6th child, a boy, to arrive as another little one to join the family.  My world was rocked when he was born because we had no idea that he was going to have an extra chromosome.  You see, that is what Down Syndrome is, God allowed our newest son, Cedar, to be born with not 46 chromosomes, like the rest of us, but with 47.  That means that he has Down Syndrome.

The diagnosis came as a shock, I wasn't myself for a bit, but then I sat down here to write one morning and a post that nearly went viral came out.  "How does it feel to find out your baby has Down Syndrome."  I didn't even intend on writing yet as Cedar was just 2 weeks old and there were many people we hadn't told yet, but it just poured out of me.  I felt a weight lifted after I wrote that post out, so I began writing more.

I soon realized that I was going to have so very much to say that I better keep going.  I also realized that my readers here, the homesteaders, natural mamas and farm folk weren't the primary audience.

 You see, I had a passion to reach new moms who found themselves exactly where I landed on December 6, 2016.  I wanted them to know they were not alone, I wanted to collect stories to share with them, encouragement from those of us who were a few, or many, steps ahead.  I wanted to give them information that I didn't have. I found my true passion.

Don't get me wrong, I am not going to abandon Incidental Farmgirl, that is a part of me as well. However, launching a new blog has taken a lot of extra time and left no time for early planting or even telling you all about our pig escapade from last summer.  It will come though, I promise.  

For now, I ask for your patience as I launch the new blog, stop by if you will....Cedars Story is... well, go see for yourself.  It should Change your perception of Down Syndrome.

I have been at this homeschooling thing for a few years now.  I have a senior who is dual enrolled in high school and college, a 7th grader, a 5th grader, 2 preschoolers and a new baby. 

To say that we are busy can oft be understated. 

The problem is, in the business of life, I often forget to give myself a bit of grace.

You see, when I began this homeschooling journey I thought I had to replicate school at home.  It was a wise sage of a mom who enlightened me by asking, “Are you homeschooling, or schooling at home.”  That was a strange question to me, but did cause me to start thinking more.  Wasn’t the whole reason that we chose the path of homeschooling because there were significant deficits in the public school system?  If there were things that were not working there, why did I want an exact replication of that system in my home?

It took me awhile but I finally began to find a groove.  It was okay if our days did not exactly mimic the days that I remember from my schooling.  There are days we get more done, days we get done less.  But overall I hadn’t ever worried that my children were falling behind in any specific area. 

That is until this last year.  I had a full on moment (or two) of panic.  You see, we were blessed with a new baby this year, he was born in December and he is quite adored.  However, for all my best laid plans, things have not gone as I saw when I was planning our homeschool year.

I thought I had it all under control, I knew our baby was due mid December and therefore we prepared by doubling up on lessons here and there so that when all was said and done, we would be able to take off the entire month of December without falling behind.  It was meticulous really; I figured that the public school gives 2 weeks off during December leaving 3 weeks for lessons.  Therefore, if we had an extra 3 weeks’ worth of lessons in each subject competed before December; we could actually take the 3 weeks of school off all together.  I am thankful for the head start.

What I hadn’t planned on was the unexpected.

Soon after our son was born we learned that he has Down Syndrome, that set me for a spin for a few weeks…it honestly was kind of a blur. 

Then the holidays came and went and the first of the year began, time to get back to school, back to a routine.

I was all set, we started the school year off with a bang, I was in full swing trying to juggle all the balls that were in the air, but then, as is oft the case, winter brings sickness.  It hit my littlest one hard, so hard in fact that he ended up in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for 8 whole days. 

So much for school.

I had left the house on a Friday morning promising to return after the pediatrician took a quick peek at our son before the weekend, I didn’t return for 8 days.  Straight to the hospital and there I stayed by his bedside.

I chuckle now when I remember some of the nurses mentioning that I was probably scrambling to find people to pick the kids up from school so my husband wasn’t worrying about that too.  Nope, they were all at home, without a teacher and mom was quite preoccupied.

This is where I began stressing.  But then, I realized I had to give myself grace.  (hubby had to help me with this one).

We are homeschoolers, we have freedom.  We can go through the summer with our lessons if necessary, or we can take this detour for what it is, an intensive study.
Science, check.  My children were all asking about their brother and why he had to be on oxygen.  Why he wasn’t given antibiotics (he had viral RSV).  How were the doctors helping him?  How did his Down Syndrome Trisomy 21 diagnosis complicate his respiratory issues?  What about his heart defects?

Health, check.  Our family has become a group of hand washing Nazis, germs, if you have them, stay away.

Home Economics and Child development, check.  The house kind of ran itself, dad was running to and from the hospital, my 16 y/o was making meals and ensuring baths, my 13 y/o was playing preschool teacher to help the little ones who missed mommy, and my 11 year old was learning all about breathing machines and oxygen saturation levels as he asked so many questions.  Laundry was being done by all the kids, housekeeping was, surprisingly, still at the forefront and getting done quite well I’m told.

We made it through the 8 days and when I finally was able to bring our newest babe home again I realized something.  My kids learned a lot during that time.  They were not educationally starved, they just weren’t getting the grade level style of bookwork and lessons that I thought they should be, but they were learning.  Real life, learning.
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Subsequently I have started giving myself more grace when I have to take off a morning to take our little one to the cardiologist or a pediatrician appointment.  God chose this path of homeschooling for our family long before he gave us the gift of our newest babe.  He knew that by homeschooling we could get through this and other trials like it, we had more freedom to do so.
 
So, if God did all that for us, and gives us grace, I should definitely give myself some.

I love tradition, I love to work with my hands, I love the old time ways of doing things so when my children were invited last year to the home of a sweet and generous woman to learn the art of sugar eggs, I was over the moon.  

​Grandma had the connection and the kind woman, Nancy, was willing to show my children how to craft this almost lost art.  I patiently waited for their return to hear all about how to craft this masterpiece, when the girls came home they gushed about the adorable scenes they had created, the fun they had and how they couldn't wait to bring the eggs home to put in our glass cabinet.  

​Whether the parents have learned before birth or at that precious, emotional, and chaotic time just after a baby is born, the diagnosis of Down Syndrome can be paralyzing to a parent.  There are so many emotions that course through the hearts of these parents that often they themselves don’t know which to latch on to.  There are feelings of fear, disbelief, denial, hope, and for some, even rejection.  The parents you once knew as strong and poignant can turn into puddles of salty tears with just one wrongly spoken word, be careful, you can be walking through a minefield.  

I love bread.  I mean I REALLY love bread. 

I probably could look a lot less round if it were not for this love affair I have with the carbohydrate laden deliciousness.  Homemade bread is my special weakness, especially if it is at all sweet.  I have in fact been avoiding making my sinful Cinnabread for sometime (though I think the recipe book whispers my name each time I pass through the kitchen) because I cannot control myself around it, it is sinful. 

There was no escaping it today though, I had some bananas that were in bad shape.  What does that have to do with anything you ask?  Well, around here we try not to let much go to waste and since we currently have no pigs out back (they are now in the freezer) there was nothing left for me to do but to make some delicious quick bread.
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This is where it can get a bit tricky, I have a child who is dairy free due to allergies and our newest little babe who is nursing also shows signs of a dairy sensitivity.  I have to make many of our treats dairy free for my 5 year old so its always a welcome option when I can just avoid dairy and no one knows the difference.  Here is what I have come up with for a delicious, moist and sweet banana bread that is totally dairy free, but trust me, no one will know that there isn’t butter in there.
 

Main Ingredients

1 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup olive oil
1 egg
2 Tbsp water
1 - 1/2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 Large mashed bananas


Preparation

1 Preheat oven 325.
2 Mix oil and sugar, add egg and water and stir.
3 Add next 3 ingredients.
4 Smash the bananas then add to mix and pour into greased pan.
5 Bake for 1 hour- test with toothpick.

Printable recipe click here:  Delicious & Simple Dairy Free Banana Bread

If you like this one, check out these recipes:
​
​Sinful Cinnabread
Best Iced Lemon Bundt Cake
​Depression Era Butterscotch Cookies

Find me on Instagram too as Incidentalfarmgirl

I have been a mom for 17 years now, but more specifically the mom of boys for the last 11 years.  There is an age old debate about which is more challenging to raise, boys, or girls.

 I think boys. 

The reason being I have to spend more on clothes (they ruin them), utter more ridiculous phrases, (untie your sister please!) and spend more money on visits to the emergency room (oh so many stitches) than with girls.  Don’t get me wrong, raising girls is no walk in the park to be for sure, but in my book it’s a little less rough.  I have to say though...

Unless you live under a rock, and this day and age that may not be a bad thing, you have likely heard the term probiotic thrown around.  Often you will hear people say that probiotics are the answer to all of your gut needs, or at the very least, they are good for you to take when you have had to resort to antibiotics.  I am a fan, especially when it comes to boosting the immune system.  Probiotics seem to be the answer to increased immune function as well as healthy digestion, and who doesn’t need that?

I have one kiddo that is dairy free and our newest babe is showing signs of dairy sensitivity with lovely patches of eczema everytime mom indulges in the delicious dairy department.  

What is a girl to do?

Milk is a favorite, and chocolate is a weakness, so I came up with this little treat to indulge my desire but not cause discomfort to our new babe.

​I get it, I do, there are some who will read the title of this post, roll their eyes and say, NO WAY!  Yup, I was there too.  I had zero intention of homeschooling my children, I mean ZERO.  To me, that was for other, more patient people…and besides Homeschoolers were kind of, well you know, weird.

​I am going to go out on a limb and say that after giving birth to 6 children, I can possibly be classified as very experienced in the venue of babies.  The interesting thing is that sometimes you forget between children just how much your new little one teaches you.  As parents we think we are the experts, however, those of us who have been at this awhile will tell you, our babies teach us far more than we realize.

​When I was a new mama I had no idea what I should be looking for in a pediatrician.

I simply looked at degrees, was the staff friendly, and did the office have accommodating hours, etc.  This is the checklist that most every online source will tell you to go through, but they are leaving out the really important things.  I am here to share that after working with a few pediatricians over the years, some good, some not-so-much, I have gleaned some insight that would have been invaluable those first few years when I had no idea what I was doing.
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Here are some secrets you should think about before trying to interview, yes I did say interview, your new care provider. 

If you are like most homeschool moms, you envision a perfect day enjoying your children and their accomplishments.  You might plan  your lessons a week at a time and in your mind you see each of your children dutifully working on the lessons you have for them while you sip your morning coffee and grade completed assignments.  Once completed, the books will be put away, chores will be done and the rest of the day is just waiting to be seized.  Oh, but then reality sets in, and you realize that you may have raised your voice more than you intended, you are a few chapters behind where you want to be, and dinnertime is creeping up and you once again don’t have a plan.  Is this just my day or can you relate?

It's that time when we all take a glance back over our shoulders as we move into the new year. My hope is to encourage, teach, and inspire readers throughout 2017 and beyond but for now, let's see what you all really liked from 2016.  Here are my top 10 Posts by popularity from 2016...

​Here are the posts you all looked at the most:

​It feels like the air just got knocked out of you.

 It feels like the tears won’t ever stop.

Here it is again, a crafty Tuesday edition of handmade Christmas ornaments.  This one turned out really cute and I think would also look great with a monogram letter in the center for a hostess gift!  The total materials for this one set me back 30 cents plus the spray of leftover spraypaint I had in the garage.  Looks pretty classy for 16 cents, no? 

I have been off the blogging bandwagon for a bit now...but I do have a good excuse.  Our newest farmhand was born 2 weeks ago in another amazing homebirth.  We count ourselves blessed beyond measure to be the parents of 6 beautiful children, there will be more pics to come but my regular posts may take awhile to get back into the groove of doing.

Merry Christmas from our little homestead to yours!

Often as we see manger scenes or read of the birth of Christ in Luke chapter 2 we have a tendency to not think beyond the images we see.  We see images and we think yes, we are celebrating the birth of a very special baby, but what do you think it was really like that night he was born?  I often like to put myself in the shoes of another to gain a better understanding of their feelings, emotions, and situations.  I was not there, I do not know but what my Bible states, I know  that Mary was just a person, a young lady, with human feelings, emotions, and sensations. ​

​The Charlie Brown Christmas special has always been one of my favorites.  I even had the vinyl version of the story, complete with turn the page prompts, that I keep tucked away safely to this day among my favorite Christmas memories.

This is one of my favorite posts from the 2015 Christmas season so I have to share it again...I am hoping that though hugely pregnant I can still pull this one off for my kids again this year.  

​2014 was the beginning of this crazy tradition, it stuck like the sugary sweet mortar that binds these beautiful creations.  Here is the first year's post in case you were curious.

We have always made gingerbread houses, but until 2014 they were the store bought kits and since we only bought one, the kids all fought over the architectural nuances and design themes since they all had to share. Enter in some friends who had a fantastic solution.  One had the recipe, the other the famous design tools and the gingerbread making party was born.