That time of year

The time of year when I get a little sad and take to writing in my "me-blog." Now THAT is sad. ;-)
Nicholas would be three this December. I cannot imagine having a three-year-old along with Nathan. I think the holidays make it even worse because I feel like my kids are alone, especially Nathan. He gets so rambunctious with so many people around and no other kids, so this week we sent him in the backyard to play and run off some of his energy. I looked outside, and he just looked so lonely (probably more my perspective than his), and I couldn't help wondering what could have been. I probably wouldn't really think about it had I not been expecting him to have a little brother to run around and play with.
Well, that's about all. :-)

Quickly...

Just thought I'd pop my head (figuratively, of course) into the blog and say hi. :-) I'm still my same ol' weird self. Still drinking raw milk, still nursing my child (who is over a year), still cloth diapering (though not at night b/c we're having rash issues), and still homeschooling...somewhat. See? Still weird. Still here. ;-)
My new "thing" lately has been sourdough. I am having so much fun with it! I signed up for an e-course about sourdough (gnowfglins.com), and I have really enjoyed it. I've made all sorts of things, but my favorites so far are the crackers, pancakes, and English muffins!
I think my next thing may be trying to make my own elderberry syrup for the winter. :-}
Well, I said quickly, and I meant quickly!! ha ha
Ta ta!!

One day at a time

That is going to be my motto for the next few months. :-)
I have had such a hard time lately keeping up with everything. It seems that the bathrooms always need to be cleaned, the floors always need to be mopped, and there are still several million things that I feel I should be doing.
Yesterday I did a bunch of cooking/baking so I can feel like I'm starting out Evan's semester with some back ups in the freezer. :-) I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, peach jam, chicken broth (by the way, don't put too much warm broth in the freezer at one time...), stuffed manicotti shells, and cooked pork (for fried rice). I still have to make a big batch of chili. I blend it and use it for chili-cheese toast, frito pie, and hot dogs. It's very nice to have in the freezer for quick meals. I really need to go through my freezers because I just don't have much space. I have lots of deer meat still, so that takes a lot space. I haven't figured out if it's okay to thaw, cook, and re-freeze meat. I should look it up.
I'm still working with Nathan on his vowels, but our school time is anything but school-ish. We've been known to do everything but the reading while I'm doing dishes. I just started putting the vowel magnets on the fridge, and we review them while I'm working in the kitchen.
One last thing, we joined a farm! ha We bought a membership (you can work it off, but I'm not even going to try that this year), and then we pick our own produce and buy it for very low prices. The farm has hoop houses, so we'll have something to pick almost year round. And it's all natural; no pesticides or chemical things are put on the crops. I've gone a couple of times, and I think I'm really going to like it. We get grocery shopping and nature time done at the same time! :-) And Nathan loves to help me pick. We also can get our eggs right down the road, and our farm also sells raw milk!! I was very blessed to find this place.

Butter and other things

I made butter today! I pretty much just followed these directions (except I used my food processor), and I have butter! AND it was made from raw cream from the dairy. Very neat. I think Evan was upset that I didn't have anything for supper that would call for butter. ha He really wanted to try it out! So tomorrow I've got to start my bread. I'm completely out, anyway.
I've been trying my hand at sourdough bread lately, but I haven't gotten used to it yet. The last loaf was pretty dense, and we left not too long after I made it, so it got very dry. I stuck it in the fridge to keep it from molding, and today I cut it into cubes and made croutons out of it. They smelled so good baking in the oven! At least I didn't feel like I was wasting! My sourdough pancakes and sourdough pizza crust turned out great, so I'm happy with that.
We are still trying to keep our 15 minutes of "school time" as part of our daily routine, and I think it's going well. I've had to make several changes (banging, stomping, etc. while counting; standing at the refrigerator to go over letters), but he's learning his memory verses and getting very excited about that! :-) I've been looking at some book lists online and checking out books from those lists; the only problem is that they are long books. My vocal chords are going to be calloused by the time he gets old enough to read on his comprehension level! I still haven't found the limit to his attention span when I'm reading to him. My throat starts hurting before he gets tired of being read to. I shouldn't complain, though, because it is honestly a wonderful problem to have. I'm just having to learn to lay down things that aren't so important and make time to read to him.

School?

So, I have begun. I got The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and started going through that with Nathan. The first lessons are just teaching the sounds of the alphabet, so I'm going to go through those and see how I like them. Also, at the end I can decide if we should go on, take a break, or go back through the letters. Or we could scrap the book altogether and decide to try something else. :-) The lessons are very plain, but I think I like that. So far, our "school" consists of prayer for the lesson, memory verse, counting to 30, and the lesson. All of this is usually done in about 10 minutes, which is just about all Nathan can handle. :-) It's funny how he can sit an hour or so at a time to hear a good book, but getting him to ten minutes of school requires at least one "we're almost done, and we're going to finish." I go back and forth on what I think, but for now I think it's good to train him to do something a bit uncomfortable as long as it's short.
I've been battling a sore throat this whole week, and last night my ear started aching. Ugh. So I've been trying to deal with that without going to the doctor. However, if it's still hurting tomorrow I'm going to go in just to make sure I know what it is. I just want a nice weekend! I started taking olive leaf extract today per my MIL's instructions, and I also started putting ear drops in my ears. The ear drops seemed to help quite a bit today. It's amazing how a dull aching pain can really throw one's day off. Anyway.
I'm desperately trying to go through my freezers and make a master list of the things I have in them. I am very thankful for my chest freezer in my laundry room; but if I were to give my opinion to anyone, chest freezers are very hard to dig through, especially when one is short.
Noelle has been drinking about 4 ounces of goat milk a day for the last few days. After being exhausted then getting sick, I think my milk supply was really off in the evenings, which was causing Noelle to wake up more at night. I started giving her some milk in a sippy cup at supper (nursing her again before bed), and she's been sleeping at night! Yay! Sleep for her means sleep for me, which means more milk, too! ha I'm very happy that she's been taking the milk, though, because when I first bought the milk she didn't seem interested at all.
One more random fact for the night: Noelle got three mosquito bites on her back yesterday in the 20 or so minutes we were outside. I found them as I was bringing her inside, and I immediately went to the internet to see what natural remedies there were. I opted to cut a garlic clove in half and rub it on the bites. An hour or so later, all that was left was little pinprick marks! I was impressed, so I thought I would pass on the info. ;-)

Whoa...

So, my oldest child is now four. FOUR. That means I have to really start thinking about the reality of teaching my child to read. I actually look forward to homeschooling my children and am not daunted by huge book lists or the magnitude of material that needs to be learned. I am slightly daunted by teaching my child to read. The main reason for my anxiety is my current indecision on which method to follow in teaching him. I have read Charlotte Mason's method, and I know that method would not fly in our house, if for no other reason than Evan's strong belief in phonics. :-) I am now reading The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise and wondering how their method would work in our house. Of course, I can never just leave the decision at face value; I must try to find a reason why one of them should work and the other not work (although I know that both have worked with children). I have reduced the decision down to this question: Should one teach children phonics rules from the beginning or just teach children words and let them make their own generalizations about phonics rules? If I spoke German, I would have no difficulty making this decision; but I do not. ha
So this is where the rubber meets the road. Can someone come and clean my house while I'm trying to make these decisions and implement my plan of action??

Today

I spent $22 at garage sales today. This is what it got me:
-coat for Nathan
-2 pairs of pajamas for Nathan
-6 or so girl dresses
-one set of illustrated animal encyclopedias (18 books)
-a 2-foot stack of quilt squares
-five random books
-"When We Were Young" by A. A. Milne and an organic gardening book
-two nature videos
-one pillowcase (hmmmm, I really want to try a pillowcase dress like this)
-one Robin Hood hat.
I think that's all. :-) The quilt squares are in really great colors and prints, so I'm looking forward to playing around with those. Hannah and I are going to make quilt-type wall hangings, but we may have to add in some of these new colors that we found.
In reading news, I am currently reading Charlotte Mason's Formation of Character, and I really enjoy the problem/solution setup. It's amazing how I read a book about character and find myself thinking of myself and my own character flaws more than about my kiddos. I am also reading Don Quixote, but I don't think I'm going to have time to finish it before I have to turn it back in to the library. :-) It's much lighter reading than what I have been reading (Wild Swans and There's No Me Without You).

Vacation

Okay, so I'd really rather a vacation include my husband, BUT that does not always happen. I'm at my parents' house with my kiddos and cousin, and it's rather amazing how much sleep I'm getting. I think being away from my house where I am constantly seeing things that need to be done is especially helpful. This is the first time that I've actually been away from home and gotten more sleep instead of less. Noelle is actually sleeping here (a first), so that is very helpful. :-)
The Charlotte Mason seminar was interesting. I think my biggest interest is how a Charlotte Mason education looks in the first few years. I want to know how other moms do things, especially moms with younger children. Two things I want to implement as soon as possible are habit training and Scripture memorization. Susan Shafer has a very interesting method of memorizing and keeping the Scriptures fresh in your memory. The habit training idea was not new, but it gave me the extra push to get started. I just have to pick one and begin.
I need to go now. Someone needs to be put in bed!

Life

Today, as I was pulling away from a local farm, I stopped and said to Hannah, "Did I really just buy goat milk?" Yes, I did. Would you like to know why? Sure you would. If not, go read someone else's blog. ;-)
My daughter had her 9-month appointment last Friday. It seems that we are starting a trend of my children falling off growth charts after they start crawling. Of course, Noelle started out more toward the bottom of the growth chart than did Nathan, so she fell off quicker. ha She's in the third percentile. Not technically off I suppose. But close. My doctor was not pushy, but he wants to see her gain weight. Do I know how much milk she is getting?? No, God must not have been thinking when he created female bodies. They don't have milkometers on them. For shame. What about pumping? Yeah, when am I supposed to get some time to hide in a room away from my almost four year old to pump? So he suggested adding a formula feed in to her diet or trying to get something extra in her. I'm going with the something. I've been letting her go at her own pace with veggies and stuff; you know, letting her enjoy her food. But no more! Purees rule the roost from now on! Beef with liver! Peas! Beans! An egg yolk a day! And to top it all off, I'm going to try to add in a goat milk feed a day. I'm not sure how that will go, but I'll at least try. The problem at the moment is that, if I am nearby, she doesn't want the stupid goat milk. I mean, she'd much rather have me. (Sounds like a starving baby, huh?) Anyway. There's the rant. I would bemoan the fact that I have skinny children, but we're skinny people! What do they expect?!
I think the fact that I spent most of the post talking about my problem and not the goat milk shows how "normal" my weirdness has become. So I'll answer your questions.
Why goat milk? It's much closer to human milk than is cow milk.
Why not formula? Evan read on one of the cans' list of ingredients "corn syrup solids." Nope, not going there. Or, not until I try everything else! (I'm really going to try not to go on a rant about formula, really, because I could go on and on for days.)
What am I thinking? Well, at the moment, I'm thinking babies who are breastfed past six months should have their own chart made with statistics only from breatsfed babies. ;-)

Okay, on to a new topic.

We went to a farm this morning and picked blueberries with a couple of families from the Charlotte Mason group. The trip was almost called of on account of rain and several families didn't go because of the mud, but we went! And it was wonderful! It sprinkled on us a bit, but it was cloudy, cool (for this area), and great! Then, to top it all off, I got my four pounds of berries for free! Yay! (Plus, one of the ladies said that her baby had been in the negative on the growth chart, and he was just fine. That made me feel a little better.)
I'm also going to a Charlotte Mason seminar this weekend (Friday night and Saturday morning), and I'm getting so excited! Yay! Yay! Yay! ha ha

Interesting

So I found Honey for a Woman's Heart, requested it from my library, and picked it up on Thursday. I absolutely love our library system. I get online, request a book, pick the library where I want it to go for pick-up, and then pick it up at my weekly library run with Nathan! It's wonderful. Truly. I even do it with his books so I feel like I'm actually getting some books that I really want him to read rather than whatever (almost literally) falls off the shelf while I'm in the library with him and Noelle.
Back to what I was saying. Honey for a Woman's Heart just makes me want to read! ha I got Evan to take me to the downtown library that night to pick up several books that I wanted to read. One of the ones I picked was Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang. It's a biography by a woman about herself, her mother, and her grandmother. I am about half-way through it, and I am learning quite a bit about recent Chinese history through the eyes and experiences of someone who lived it. Very, very engaging.
So, now I'm loving the Charlotte Mason method of education even more. :-) I can see how much more one can learn by reading a biography than by reading a textbook full of the facts. Chang's story definitely draws you in and helps you understand a litte more why some of the events in Chinese history happened. I am actually about to let myself read for 10 minutes before the kiddos wake up. I'm hoping to finish by Thursday. :-)
On other fronts, I'm just chugging along. I am thankful that God's mercies are new every morning, especially in the child-rearing area. I am constantly brought to my knees by the whole experience, but I suppose I shouldn't complain about that. Maybe I should just learn to never get off my knees. :-) I am learning to let go of (or lay down) things that are not as important and focus on them, especially Nathan. I love having a clean house, complete menu plans, sewing projects, and so on. However, this is a time of intense growth for him, and I feel that I have to slow down and be there. Completely. Training, loving, talking, laughing, telling stories, reading books, looking at whatever in the world he thinks is important to look at, and just being with him. I feel like there are so many character traits that could go good or bad during this time, but I have to be watching and vigilent because the easiest path is not the best. And it's so hard. Because I like to do other things. Like write incomplete sentences. But I have to remember what is important and that raising a child is wonderful but a sacrifice.
How's that for a random post?

Raw Milk

So, we went to the Woolly Weekend and got our raw milk last Friday. I drank a big glass of milk Friday afternoon then got sick as a dog (??) Friday night. ha Fortunately (for my raw-milk drinking, not for our friends), our friends had had the same nasty stomach bug earlier in the week, so I knew that it wasn't the milk. It has taken me until today to try more, though. ha Nathan has been drinking it all week, although he doesn't like to see the cream floating on top if the milk is left in his cup too long.
The milk is really good! Evan had been scaring me by saying that it tasted "wild" and all other sorts of things (they used to drink raw milk a long time ago), but he was WRONG. ;-) It's great to see the layer of cream sitting on top of the milk when I open the door of my fridge and know that it's fresh!
Oh, and the egg-weirdness?? Gone. I can eat eggs again! I have no earthly idea what was going on, although I'm positive that it was eggs; but I'm happy it's gone!
Well, that's about all that is interesting in my life right now.

His Response

This has been a rough week. Last Tuesday our friends' little girl Jordyn started acting strangely and stopped breathing. After being rushed to the hospital, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor (she had one two years ago that was removed and had been doing great since). The doctors said they didn't expect her to make it through the first night. The week was very up-and-down with good and bad reports. On Sunday morning, she left this life behind.
I knew I had to tell Nathan but was a bit unsure how to go about it. I called a friend who has two boys, one of whom is Nathan's age, and asked how she broke the news. She said that her boys didn't really ask questions but seemed to take it okay. So I told Nathan.
The minute I said,"Jordyn went to heaven" his eyes lit up and he started bouncing on the recliner.
"Jordyn is already in heaven?!?! If I went to the hospital she wouldn't be there anymore?? Oh my! She already went to heaven?"
He was so excited. He jumped down, fixed something that was wrong with his train, and bounced back into the recliner.
"Jordyn already went to heaven! God touched her body! The tumor is getting better!"
(Yes, I tried to be discreet in talking around him, but I couldn't shut myself in a closet every time I got a call.)
I thought then said, "That's right. Jordyn doesn't have a tumor anymore."
"Are J&J (her parents) in heaven?"
"No. They're still here."
"Will Jordyn stay in heaven?"
"Yes, Jordyn will stay in heaven."
"Is her sister still here?"
"Yes, her sister is still here."
At this point he made a very crazy remark about maybe one day her sister getting a tumor. I was quick to shut down that thought and had to remind him that tumors are not good. I suppose he saw the tumor as a ticket to heaven and couldn't see what was so bad about it. After that he went on his way, and I haven't heard about it since.
I think my biggest shock was seeing the light in his eyes and the pure excitement in his face when I said that Jordyn had gone to heaven. I'm sure Jordyn has something of (or much more than) that look on her face now, too.
I suppose it was a little reminder about "becoming as a little child."

Praying

I'm praying for our friends and their little girl today. The girl, Jordyn, had a brain tumor which was removed two years ago. She's been doing great since then. Yesterday morning she stopped breathing and was rushed to the hospital. The brain tumor was back, bigger and more critically located than before. The doctors told them last night that they didn't expect her to make it through the night. Today the doctors are saying that she is brain dead. I have no idea what all is going on right now, but I am praying. Please keep them in your prayers.

Not what I should be doing...

...but I am going to do it anyway! :-)
I love springtime, but I wish I had planned for my garden a little better! I put out my tomato plants, and they are looking very, um, droopy and yellow. And I think Monty stuck his paw through the fence and ate one of them. Too bad tomato plants aren't poisonous to dogs. :-}
I also mostly weeded our small backyard area and planted some nasturtiums and beans by the house. I have no clue how those will do, but I'm going to put them out even if I don't have time to research every detail of growing them! I will plant some more beans in my garden, but I'm a little worried that the dogs (well, Monty, really) will get into them. On days like today I wonder if having dogs is worth the hassle. Honestly, if we only had Gimli I think life would be much easier. Oh well.
Guess what? I think I am going to try raw milk this week! We have a dairy about 30 minutes from here that sells raw milk, and a friend and I are going to try it. As a bonus, another place in that same town is having a "Woolly Weekend" where they shear sheep and spin wool. We'll see if the weather works out for all of those plans!
Gotta run!

This 'n That

I actually had to Google what spinach sprouts were supposed to look like today. And, YAY, that is what is growing in my garden!! ha I'm hoping my seedlings (indoors and outdoors) can survive my upcoming absence. I think I'll wait until I get back to plant my tomato plants outside since I won't be here to protect them in the event of a frost. I'm very happy about my garden, and I'm hoping it all goes well!! I would love to eat spinach from my very own garden! :-)

The shoes were a project from a week or two ago. I am going to try to make some more and maybe even find an old leather purse or bag to use for the bottom of the shoe for when Noelle actually starts walking.

The jar is full of fermenting cabbage. It is now officially sauerkraut, although I haven't tasted it yet. I got some hot dogs for 25 cents at Homeland yesterday, and I made some hot dog chili this morning, so I'm gearing up for a hot dog day! ha ha ha OH, I used my handy-dandy immersion blender to turn the regular chili into hot dog chili. :-)

I had a list this morning of things to do today, but I got a little off-track. I found a really good deal on meat last week, and I wanted to make some meals out of it before freezing it. I made two batches of Cheeseburger Meatloaf, one batch of hot dog chili (it actually made two different meal servings of 2 1/2 cups each), and the last pound is in the refrigerator waiting for Wednesday. :-) I still have chicken that needs to be prepared and frozen, but (as you can see) I'm busy. I also ground my wheat and mixed my bread dough this morning so I can make bread tomorrow, and I started my black beans in the crockpot for tonight's supper. AND I washed all the dishes. Can you tell Noelle took a really long nap this morning?? I am hoping she gets back on her normal schedule; I really, really miss my sleep.

Sunshine

We have been outside today. A LOT. :-) It's amazing how content Nathan is when I'm doing simple things like pulling weeds. This morning did not start off well; then we went outside at lunchtime. And stayed there. For two hours. We ate lunch outside, pulled weeds, and Nathan drowned the seeds in my garden. So it was nearly ideal.
I've been on a sewing craze the last couple of weeks. I have a new-found love of sewing. It makes me feel good. When I finish something, I actually have something to show for what I've been doing during the day. However, I am having to "check-up." I have to remember that sitting outside with Nathan while he plays is more important that finishing a project. I have to remember that reading to him, playing with him, holding Noelle, and just spending time with them is my calling right now. :-) I know that. I just have to remember sometimes.

Books I am reading

A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
---So far I'm really enjoying this book. I'm skipping around to different chapters, reading little pieces here and there. The author gives some insight into how Charlotte Mason's methods look in a modern-day home, as opposed to a home that had a butler, cook, gardener, and nurse (okay, well, this home has all those things, too...just wrapped in a smaller package. - ha)

Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt
---I am just now starting to read this book, although I checked it out at the library last week. So many books, so little time. The problem with this book, and several of the others on my list, is that it makes me want to read even more books. :-) Anyway, right now I'm just reading about "why" to read to your kiddos. I'm kind-of skimming since I'm just a wee bit sold on that already.

Home Education by Charlotte Mason
---I'm supposed to be reading sections of this book for a discussion blog, but the owner of the blog has been too busy to post lately. ;-) This book challenges me and reminds me of my goals.

Baby-led Weaning by ??? (I'm too lazy to go look.)
---A friend let me borrow this book, and it's rather interesting. Supposedly you can just let your baby eat whatever food you are eating. ??? I completely understand the concept of babies having a gag reflex so far forward in their mouths that it is almost impossible for them to choke (sitting up and with proper food items), but I can't bring myself to let Noelle "go" with certain foods. I did let her have a go at broccoli, but when Evan saw her chewing on the broccoli top, stem in hand, he couldn't bear it. ha Oh well, that is where the Munchkin feeder comes in handy. The main thing I've taken away from the book is to chill about feeding your baby. Give options, let them play and explore, and eating the food will come as the baby is ready and actually needs the food.

The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie O'Martian
---I think I have never read the book before just because everyone else was reading it. I'm like that sometimes. However, I really like this book. I like having a bit of direction in ways to pray for my husband because sometimes I feel like I'm falling in a rut with my prayers for him. Also, having this book sitting with my Bible reminds me to really pray for him. :-)

A Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
---I'm reading this book aloud to Nathan. We both are enjoying the book. School children are trying to get storks to come to their town and set out to find a wheel to put on their school for the storks to nest in. As they search for a wheel, they learn quite a bit about the people and places around them.

Multiple gardening books
---Ugh. I just need one that tells me what to do, day by day. ha

Bible
---This is a great book. Haven't read it? Try it sometime. :-)

Whew!

Isn't it positively disgusting?!










The finished product.










My refried beans made with lard.











My crockpot with chicken bones/skin and veggie scraps ready to go.







From a 2-lb bag of pinto beans I got seven 2-cup bags of refried beans, plus a little extra which I put in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch. Nathan also ate two small bowlfuls.



I am TIRED! I think the hand-crank meat grinder got to me. ha :-) I put the deboned chicken in the fridge for tonight; I'll chop it up and put it in freezer bags tomorrow. Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with what I got done. I also got the GAZILLION dishes done from this day of too many dishes, so I really feel good.
With the lard, next time I will not put more than 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the pan with all the fat. It took forever to cook today. I think it turned out fine, but the cracklings weren't as "crackly" as I expected them to be. Maybe that had something to do with the extra water. I don't know.
Anyway, it's off to bed with me; the three loads of clean laundry in my living room will have to wait for tomorrow! :-)
Goodnight!

Still going...

Soooo, I think I put a bit too much water in. Maybe? It seems to be working fine now, but I think that the water just made the process take a LOT longer. I'm waiting on the "cracklings" to float to the top and look a little brown; hopefully that will happen soon. I am also making refried beans today, so I would like to have the lard for those. It's times like these when I wish I had someone who knew what they were doing to help me out! :-)

Rendering Lard

I'm making my own lard today. Seriously.
Hopefully I'll have some pictures or at least a story to tell in a while. Right now I'm taking a break because I just ground (in our manual meat-grinder) a little over eight pounds of pork fat. Between that and kneading my own bread, my arms should be like Popeye's soon. HA!! :-)

Missing him

Tonight I am missing him. Random, I know. I love my little Noella-bella. I think I am enjoying her even more than I did Nathan at this age. I am so thankful for her and her little sweet self. Yet I miss the one who I never got to meet.
Grief is so random. Random, random, random. :-)
I am sitting here in this quiet house, as my Noelle sleeps and the others have gone to get us a movie to enjoy on this spring break week, and I stumbled upon a blog and remembered that sadness. I quickly got up from the computer and went to sweep my kitchen because I had a knot in my throat the size of a baseball and I did not want to cry (still don't). Is crying because something triggered a memory not real grief? Is it allowing emotion to overcome you? I don't know. Random.
They are home... ;-)

Garden

I'm getting excited about the upcoming garden season! Yesterday I finished putting the bricks around my garden bed, and now I just need to fill it up with soil. I usually buy plants, but this year I got a great deal on organic seeds, so I'm going to try starting from seeds! ha Here are the types of seeds I ordered: cucumber, heirloom Brandywine tomatoes, bunch onions, crookneck squash, bell pepper, beans, and spinach.
Now I've just got to make sure Monty stays out of the garden. He can stick his skinny paws almost a foot into the kennel (my garden is in the kennel - ha). I will stake him out all summer if I have to. :-)
Well, that's all the updating I can do for now!

Want to see what I got for $5???

Yes, I'm here!

Since I've gone a while without blogging, I'll just make a list of what is going on.

I absolutely love my grain mill!
Cloth diapering is going well, and I was able to get the rest of my diapers after Christmas (I had only gotten 8 to "try" before I spent all that money).
I think I may have some sensitivity to eggs. COMPLETELY out of the blue. And I love eggs. ???? All I know is that if I eat eggs or anything with eggs (although the symptoms are less) I get stomach cramps and nausea.
I've started doing ten-minute lessons with Nathan in the morning, although they are more like games right now. He loves the time, and I'm happy that we have some scheduled mommy/son time. After the lesson we usually spend 10-15 minutes coloring.
All of my knitting has come to a stand-still. I am working on cloth napkins (I found linen on sale), but they are harder than I thought! I just keep telling myself that they are only napkins; it doesn't really matter that the corners aren't mitered. ha ha
My house is in desparate need of reorganization. And I sit here on the computer, blogging.

Ouch

This post is a very good reminder to me.

Experimenting

So, my pizza dough turned out GREAT! It was wonderful. I was so happy. :-) I milled more wheat berries today and now have the flour soaking for waffles and muffins tomorrow. I'm very excited to see how they turn out after my success with the bread and pizza. Evan said that he was very happy I got a grain mill. Impressive, right?? ha
I bought a chicken yesterday at the grocery store, roasted it last night, and made chicken broth overnight with the chicken bones/skin and whatever veggie leftovers were in my freezer bag. I keep a freezer bag in my (can you guess?) freezer in which I put any carrot tops/ends, onion tops/skins, celery ends/leaves, tomato tops, and any other veggie scraps that I think would be okay in my broth (bean tips from fresh green beans are great!). When I am ready to make broth, I just dump whatever is in the bag into the crockpot with the bones, add a little vinegar and salt, and turn the crockpot on low. I usually let it cook for 24 hours then strain everything out of the broth. I usually make chicken noodle soup or Roman egg soup with some of the broth and freeze the rest.
I'm finding that buying organic has made me much more frugal, especially when it comes to meat. I have been able to keep our grocery budget much the same as before I started buying so much organic by cutting back on our meat consumption. And, you know, I haven't even had a single complaint! I think one of the main tricks is adding in other things such as soups, salads, and more veggies to the meal. Of course, that means more planning; but I'm working on it!
Oh, I made homemade vanilla pudding last night using this recipe. Well, I used the basic recipe. I used arrowroot flour instead of cornstarch and pure cane sugar in place of white sugar. It turned out really well and received two thumbs-up from both my guys. I made it into banana pudding the first night, and we had it plain today. Anyway, it's a good recipe!
Well, I should go. :-)

Effort

The beginning of a new year is always a time in which I think about what I need to be doing differently or what I need to refocus on. My main thought this year is Nathan's education. Last year was about getting Noelle here. :-) This year I am trying to refocus on my goals for Nathan.
So, I am rereading Charlotte Mason's Home Education which motivates me greatly and helps me remember those things I consider to be important. I have not done very well creating a schedule for Nathan, and I think we would both do well in a loose schedule (it must be loose, right?). I read to him daily, and we discuss all manner of things throughout the day, but I feel like a schedule would do us good. Especially now that the daddy is consumed (now with practicing for his brother's wedding, after with school), our evenings tend to be times of boredom (for Nathan) and hair-pulling (for me). I am hoping that a schedule will give a little more direction in those times when we are not at our best and there is no "outside" to run to. :-)
Here are my ideas: chores, music time, reading time, counting/math time (he has a game that is perfect for this), quiet time, play time (throughout the day), Bible time.
I don't think I would even put all these in one day, but I really need to put some effort into this. Hmmmm...
In other news, I pulled out my grain mill again today and milled 10 cups of wheat berries. I will make bread and pizza tomorrow (the flour for both is soaking now). I am very excited about making the pizza dough again because I had given up on it earlier this year. It was just too hard to roll out, but I'm pretty sure the problem was that the woman whose recipe I was using was using freshly milled flour, and I was not. (Whoa, bad sentence.) I can already tell the difference in the soaking step. The proof will be tomorrow after I make pizza!