The Fruit of Her Hands...

4H Horse Show...July 25, 2009

2009-07-26T21:16:00.016-04:00

Junior Reserve Champion

Very busy summer...

2009-07-20T07:08:00.002-04:00

It seems as though every summer is busy. The time just flies by. Every weekend we have at least two hockey games. Jonathan and Brianna are playing in an off season league. Both teams are doing remarkably well. Jonathan's team is first in his division and Brianna's team is second in her division. They are both having a very fun time.

Natalie is riding four days out of seven at the barn. We have had three horse shows so far with at least one more before the county fair. The next show is this Saturday. Carolyn did have the sewing class. She is just along for the ride until the fair. Add all this to children spending time with friends and it adds up to a lot of time on the run.

In seven days we will all be working and attending the VBS program at our church. Needless to say, my garden is not getting the attention that it needs from me. Apparently the deer are giving it good attention. I am starting to rethink the whole idea of gardening with the persistent deer problem that we have here.

This week will be full of VBS preparation, visiting with friends, preparing for the next horse show, and all the daily activities like laundry, grocery shopping and preparing meals.

As things settle down more toward the fall, I hope to blog more consistently.

Garden grows...

2009-07-05T19:58:00.007-04:00

Celery and basil

Celery

Peppers, chives, sage and thyme...plus a few assorted tomato plants

Little, itty, bitty pepper plant

Pictures from the last 4H Horse Show...

2009-07-04T06:44:00.013-04:00

Junior English Fitting and Showing

Junior English Fitting and Showing 2nd Place

Junior English Pleasure

Junior English Pleasure 3rd Place

Junior English Equitation

Junior English Equitation 3rd Place

Junior English Command 1st Place

Serene is ready to go home.

Sewing Class Project: Mr. Frog

2009-07-03T21:24:00.005-04:00

On Tuesday, Carolyn took her first sewing class at a local sewing center, Aurora Sewing Center. She made Mr. Frog. He is so darn cute. She named hers Skipper. He will be part of her county fair entries.

Yummy Saturday night supper...

2009-06-01T07:19:00.006-04:00

Brrr, it is chilly here this morning. The temperatures dipped into the mid 40's last night. Fortunately for us, we didn't have any frost, but I believe some folks south of us did. Since it is Monday, laundry is the chore of the day. I will be back in the garden as well. My tomato bed is almost ready for planting, and my plants are more than ready to go into the soil. I have managed to make chore assignments for everyone. It has been a work in progress over the past week. I will post them another day.

I have to tell you about a wonderful dish I made for Saturday night's dinner. I was a little pressed for time, and I had not taken the steak out of the freezer far enough in advance. It was still hard as a rock. So, I was flipping through my Amish cookbooks and in Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams I found a recipe called German Apple Pancakes. I looked at the ingredients and to my delight I had them all. It is sometimes called a puff pancake. To the best of my knowledge the book is out of print, so I have included a copy of the recipe here. Just click on it to make a bigger picture.

This is a pitcure before it was served. It looks great.

Needless to say, this was a big hit. My son wasn't even here for dinner. I would have to double the recipe and use my bigger pan if I made it for all of us.

Some garden work...

2009-05-28T18:41:00.008-04:00

Finally we have started on the beds. I assigned each child a bed to work for the summer. Right now we are just turning over the soil. My tomatoes and peppers are already to go in the ground. I did not get a deer fence this year, so I have decided to fence each bed individually. That should work for now.

Hardening off the seedlings...

2009-05-25T07:23:00.007-04:00

Last Friday, I began the process of hardening off the tomato, pepper, and celery seedlings. This year I have had the best looking seedlings out of the last three years, but they still don't quite look like the ones from the nursery. I am hoping to get them in the ground by midweek.

Celery...

Tomatoes...

Peppers...

The peppers outside...

Tomatoes outside...

Coming soon...daily house cleaning schedule...

2009-05-21T21:41:00.001-04:00

We are finished with our school year. I have been working on getting my plants ready for the garden. The children have been very busy with their various activities. The one thing I have been working on is developing a daily cleaning schedule that will work for us this summer. We already have daily cleaning routines, but with more time on our hands I want to expand this more. So, check back. I should have something soon.

The horse show...

2009-05-10T07:07:00.007-04:00

Natalie and her dear friend, Sara, were up bright and early yesterday morning. They had a light breakfast. Mom had coffee. I did Natalie's hair in a bun for the first time. I think I learned some things. The biggest was that I had to make it lower next time. After packing up the car, we headed to the barn where we met another friend and her mom. The two riders got their horses ready, cleaned their stalls, and packed their hay bags. Soon, our horse trainer extraordinaire arrived to help the girls load their horses, and then we were off.

In this picture the girls have Serene tied to the trailer and are attempting to figure out the new bridle.

Taking pictures in the indoor arena was a pain in the neck. When I used my flash the pictures were too dark. When I didn't use my flash the pictures turned out blurry. In the morning the riders had one hour clinics in the classes that they would be entering. Natalie had a clinic in equitation and pleasure which was really just like a lesson. Next Natalie went to the outdoor ring and had a clinic in fitting and showing. She had never done it before. In this next picture, Natalie and her friend, Catherine, are in the equitation/pleasure clinic.

After some down time and a little lunch the girls got ready for their classes. This is a picture of Natalie ready to enter the show ring for the fitting and showing class. This was just before the weather turned for the worse.

While she was in the class a nasty, nasty storm blew up. The wind was blowing the rain straight sideways. The rain was coming down in torrents. There were even a few claps of thunder. When her class was over I lead her to the quietest part of the barn where we could wait out the storm. We met some very nice people who allowed us to stand by them and their horse until Natalie's friend, Sara, could eventually make a run for her saddle. The storm did pass. The sun came out and a horrible wind kicked up. Thankfully though it didn't rain any more. She was able to get through all the other classes. I didn't get any picture of the pleasure and equitation classes because of my technical difficulty with my camera. I think I will be able to get better pictures at the next show in June.

For her first show she came home with a 3rd place ribbon in fitting and showing, a 2nd place ribbon in equitation, and a 2nd place ribbon in pleasure. She competed in the junior division which was the perfect division for her. I think novice would have been too easy for her. We learned a lot, and it was fun.

Getting ready for Saturday...

2009-05-06T07:31:00.006-04:00

On Saturday, Natalie will participate in her first horse show. This is a training show. In the morning she will have clinics in fitting and showmanship as well as equitation and pleasure. Since I am still learning, I have very little idea what all this terminology means, but I expect to find out this weekend. In the afternoon they will actually have a show. I still have to find out if they will earn points from this show or not.

In order to finish our preparations for the show, we drove down to Stagecoach West on Sunday afternoon. It was a very pleasant drive. We picked up several items that we still need. She is working coordinating her horse, so there is a definite orange theme there. Today she has her lesson. We decided that she would ride in her show clothes in order to get a feel for what it is like to ride in everything.

Here is a look at our latest purchases.

She got a saddle pad, water bucket, bucket strap, polo wraps, lead line, hoof polish, saddle soap, fly spray, curry comb, braid bands for the mane, and stirrup pads which she desperately needed. We purchased the halter a few weeks ago from a different store. She has been saving it just for shows because it would be caked with dirt and mud if Serene wore it in the pasture.

Last Saturday...

2009-05-02T09:36:00.006-04:00

Carolyn had her textile review for 4-H.

The sewing advisors examined all of her sewing projects. In this picture they are looking at her apron.

Now they are looking at her little bag that we whipped up the night before at our 4-H meeting. Waiting to the last minute is pretty typical for me, but I really do prefer to avoid it. I am getting better at it as I get older.

Finally she is ready for the fashion show.

Wordless Wednesday (almost)...Growing Seedlings

2009-04-29T11:55:00.007-04:00

Celery seedlings planted March 6th

Celery seedling close up.

Tomato seedlings under grow lights

Buying meat...

2009-04-29T07:35:00.002-04:00

Well, my pork from the local farmer has just about run out. I think I have one ham and a couple of bacon packs left. I called to place a new order, but they won't have any until later in May. So, I placed my name on the list.

I ran out of grass-fed ground beef from our last quarter of a cow long ago. I have been buying the best meat in the grocery store that I could afford. My biggest concern with meat is that animal tissue holds on to the most pesticides. It is far worse than fruits or vegetables. So, I want to get the best that I can.

The last two weeks I have purchased ground beef, but I have also been able to buy some "Buy today and save" meats that need to be frozen or used with in a day or two. I have saved quite a bit of money doing this. So, I have made it my new adventure to search for the clearance meats when I shop.

Our busy day at home...yesterday...

2009-04-17T08:10:00.010-04:00

Finally, we had a day at home. Natalie agreed to take a day off from the barn. She did watch some instructional horse training videos. Figures, right? Teasingly, I told her it was her classroom day. LOL!

I made crockpot sloppy Joe's for dinner, and then I put together the bread dough. Here is the finished bread.

Brianna always wants to make cookies, so she whipped these up using a cake mix. They are very good by the way.

While we were baking, I set to work planting tomato seeds. I have 20 peat pellets of sauce tomatoes, and 17 peat pellets of my very favorite slicing tomato, Trophy. A friend of mine had asked me to grow some seedlings for her. I am certainly not planting 37 tomato plants. Although I have done close to that before.

I thought you might like to look at the grow light set up I have in my basement. The lights are courtesy of my friend, Amy. She no longer needed them. I am thrilled to have them.

These are the celery seeds that I planted over a month ago.

And, these are the pepper plants that I planted last week from seeds I saved from last year. I realized one thing about saving seeds. I should also save the seed packets so I remember the planting instructions. I was thrilled to have them germinate.

It was a busy day, but we accomplished a lot.

At the barn...

2009-04-16T07:03:00.009-04:00

Yesterday was Natalie's riding lesson. They are thrilled to be riding outside. It is so much better than the dusty arena. We are thankful for the arena in the winter, but riding outside is so much better. I was playing with the sports setting on my camera. In some of these pictures Natalie is actually cantering her horse, Serene. The shots came off very, very well. I am also including some updated pictures of the little filly, Autumn, who was born almost a month ago. She is not ours but belongs to another family who board their horses at the barn. She is in the round pen with her mom, Summer.

Carolyn's 4-H Projects...some, but not all...

2009-04-15T08:21:00.008-04:00

Curriculum Planning for 2009-2010 is nearly complete...

2009-04-15T07:44:00.003-04:00

I confess that by nature I am a planner. I like to know what I am doing in advance. I start planning my next school year in January of my current year. I look at curriculum. I read reviews. Then I walk away from it for a while. In a week or two, I come back, pick it up again, and plan some more. I do this until about March. By then I am ready to order, and the tax return has been deposited. So, what I am going to share with you now is the culmination of about 2-3 months of work.

Jonathan - 10th grade

History: History Odyssey Level 2 Middle Ages
Science: Biology class taught by a high school science teacher...taken outside of our home
Math: Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2
English: CLE English 1 and Writer's Jungle plus other books that I will give him through the year
Health: Total Health (He is required to have a half a credit of health)
Foreign Language: Tell Me More French

Natalie - 8th grade

History: History Odyssey Level 2 Middle Ages
Science: This is still up in the air. She could take the same bio class as Jonathan or do Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry
Math: CLE 600 and 700
English: CLE Language Arts 800 and Writer's Jungle
Reading: CLE Reading 800
Foreign Language: Tell Me More French

Carolyn - 5th grade

History: History Odyssey Level 2 Middle Ages
Science: Real Science 4 Kids: Level 1 Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Math: CLE 400 and 500
English: CLE 400 and Writer's Jungle
Reading: CLE 500 plus full length books
Spelling: All About Spelling Level 2 and 3

Brianna - 5th grade

History: History Odyssey Level 2 Middle Ages
Science: Real Science 4 Kids: Level 1 Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Math: CLE 300 and 400
English: CLE 300 and Writer's Jungle
Reading: CLE 400 and 500
Spelling All About Spelling Level 2 and 3

If you are interested in looking at any of these programs, I will include links to their websites.

CLE is Christian Light Education.
All About Spelling
Real Science 4 Kids
Writer's Jungle (Bravewriter)
History Odyssey

Also, as a disclaimer, I just wanted to mention that I did not actually buy Real Science 4 Kids from the publisher. It is crazy expensive. I found Amazon had the best price plus I found some items used.

Menu Planning...

2009-04-03T14:00:00.003-04:00

I have been using a monthly menu planner since December of 2005. I file them in my notebook when the month is finished. At first it was very hard to get going on a monthly plan, but now that I have old plans to refer back to it is easier.

To get going with a blank meal planner, I put in our "standard" meals. We have homemade pizza every Friday. So, I write that right on the meal planner. We also have tacos every other Tuesday. That goes right now the planner. Now it doesn't look so blank. The family seems to like having these meals that they can depend on each week. I like it, too. From there I just fill in using foods that I have already prepared, meats that I have already purchased, and so on.

I print my meal calendars from Crystal Miller's Family Homestead. She uses the cutest graphics.

Happy planning...

Grocery shopping revisited...

2009-04-02T19:29:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about my grocery budget, and how I was planning to use $20 of my $125 per week to stock up on food and supplies for my pantry. A dear friend of mine asked me a few good questions about how I approach shopping, menu planning, etc. I thought that perhaps I should share a bit of how I have approached grocery shopping in the past and how I do it now.

I am sure I have a larger budget than some and a smaller budget than others. Ultimately, we should all work within our means and be good stewards of what we have been given and the income that comes into our homes. We live on one income. My husband earns that money that comes into our home, and I manage our home and teach our children. That's how we have chosen to live our lives.

Now, back to groceries... I have tried many, many different strategies for grocery shopping. I have shopped every other week. I have shopped once a month. I have shopped weekly. I have shopped with a debit card. I have shopped with cash. Once upon a time, I even used a credit card. I have used coupons. I have skipped using coupons. I have shopped at one store, and I have shopped at several stores. When I had younger children and fewer children my budget was less. I confess that I have really struggled with staying within a budget. I have found a few things that help me stay on budget.

I think the most important shopping strategy that keeps me on budget is spending cash. Cash is scary. Cash means that I have to pay attention to everything I put in my cart even before I enter the store. I have to go in with a plan. I need meal plans and a grocery list and a calculator. I stop at the bank before I go to the store. I take the cash I need. Within one strip I can hit three stores. I don't always need to go to all three. Last week I did. Sometimes I go to Sam's Club, and I need to go a different direction. I do shop weekly now.

I guess that brings me to another point. I do shop at more than one store. I actually shop at about 5 different stores but not all in one week. I do look at the loss leaders in the weekly ads that come in the Sunday paper. If you don't get the paper, you can most likely look on-line and find your store's weekly ad. I also look at MyGroceryDeals.com This helps me look at three of my stores at one time.

I include everything except pet food in my grocery budget. I buy paper towels, napkins, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent and the like plus food items with my grocery budget. I do buy some organic items. One item that is on my list every week is Stonyfield yogurt. It is a must for our family. In the winter I buy most of my produce at the grocery store, but in the spring, summer and fall I buy from the local farmer's market. I use my grocery money to shop at the farmer's market. I will tell you that I do not buy much meat at the store. We buy our beef and pork from a local farmer. So, meat is generally not part of my budget. I do buy chicken at the store because it is hard for me to get local chicken on a regular basis. This local meat is organic and grass-fed. I also buy spices, flour, oats, corn meal, cocoa powder, etc. from a local Mennonite-run bulk food store. I buy my flour, oats, wheat berries, etc. in 50# bags. The cost for these items does not come from my monthly budget. It comes from money we set aside from our tax return and gifts.

For the most part I do not use coupons. However, we just started getting the Sunday paper again, so I have started using some coupons. Of course, I do try to pair them with sale items. I also try to stay flexible on brands, so that I can make use of coupons. I only use coupons on items I buy regularly.

I do make my own bread on a fairly regular basis. I make tortillas at home. Bread items are one of the easiest items to make myself. I don't get totally hung up on this if I am having a crazy week. I will buy the best store bread that I can. I make my own granola most of the time. I really try not to spend a lot on boxed, cold cereals, but we do eat some of them each month. If a box is more than $2.00 I won't buy it. A dollar fifty would be even better. I think making these items from scratch does help the grocery budget. I try not to be a perfectionist about it, and this is sometimes hard for me. I do try to avoid buying a lot of pre-made, boxed or frozen type foods. There are many recipes around the Internet for homemade side dishes and such. The Hillbilly Housewife has a lot of great recipes.

When my children were babies we used cloth diapers and wipes. The only baby I used all disposables with was Natalie. Jonathan was only cloth diapered for about three months, but the twins wore cloth from the age of sixth months until they were potty trained. This really saved my grocery budget especially with twins. I almost always had two in diapers for several years. I think we saw a great savings from using cloth. Of course, I did have some moments in time when I used disposables on the girls. Sometimes life just got crazy. For the most part though they were cloth diapered. On a very personal note, we also make use of cloth personal pads. I am sure I have seen a great savings with this.

I hope this gives you a little glimpse into my grocery shopping strategies. Please ask questions if you have them. May you be blessed...

New to us show clothes...

2009-04-01T09:04:00.004-04:00

Natalie got these field boots and jacket at a local tack sale. She bought them with her own money. We are almost ready for her first show season.

Happy 15th Birthday, Jonathan

2009-03-25T07:48:00.013-04:00

1999

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2009

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls for Breakfast...

2009-03-24T07:26:00.010-04:00

I have made these cinnamon rolls twice now, and I think they are my favorite. The recipe comes courtesy of Alton Brown of Food Network fame. I use his recipe as written with no alterations. This is what the dough looks like after being mixed. I know the recipe calls for 4 egg yolks. I happened to be making my son a white birthday cake that needed egg whites, and I had 3 yolks leftover which worked out very well.

It really does take about 2.5 to 3 hours for the dough to rise to double. For a long time it really doesn't look like it is doing anything.

Here are the little rolls already to pop into the refrigerator for the overnight rest. I confess that I did this a little differently this time. I started the dough too late on Friday night. So, it was nearly midnight by the time the dough had doubled. So, I tossed the lump of dough in the refrigerator. In the morning I pulled it out first thing and let it come up to room temperature. It was still a little cold when I worked with it. I would not recommend doing it this way, but it did work. Oh, and a little hint about getting the sugar/cinnamon mixture to stick in the dough. After you sprinkle it all over the flat dough before you roll up the dough, press the sugar mixture into the dough a little with a rolling pin. I forgot to do that this time and wondered why my sugar mixture was falling out all over the place when I went to cut the rolls. Anyway, the rolls will look just like this when you take them out of the refrigerator in the morning.

This is what they look like after they have risen in the steamy oven for 30 minutes.

Here they are all baked and ready to frost.

Oh, lookin' good. It's almost time to call the children.

Here is the roll Brianna selected. These do reheat nicely if you happen to have leftovers.

Enjoy....

Regaining strength...

2009-03-23T14:20:00.002-04:00

I started with a cold on Sunday, March 15th. As the week progressed I never felt horrible, yet I have not had a day when I could say I was starting to feel better. I have been doing my "cold regiment", but I think I just need to ride this one out. Needless to say, I have been using my blogging time to rest. I hope to be back tomorrow to tell you about some yummy cinnamon rolls that we made on Saturday.

Going to rest now...

A new foal...

2009-03-18T15:32:00.004-04:00

I just had to post these today. Summer, a mare at the barn where Natalie rides, had her foal today. It is a little filly (girl), and her name is Autumn. She came into the the world at about 8:30 AM. The pictures are a little blurry. It is hard to get creatures to stand still and my camera to work right. Enjoy.

Wordless Wednesday...Bible Study Feline Style

2009-03-18T07:11:00.002-04:00

Grocery Day...

2009-03-17T07:46:00.005-04:00

Tuesday is my grocery and errand day. It never was in the past. Actually, I went through a period of time when I didn't have a grocery/errand day. Years ago, when all my kids were under 6, I would go grocery shopping under the cover of darkness after we ate dinner and my husband was home. It was a joy to be alone for a while. Even now I rarely shop with my children.

I have my list partially complete. I generally keep a magnetic pad on the refrigerator, and add to it items we run out of during the week. I do shop weekly. I have tried shopping twice a month, once a month, and in some stores even every three months, and honestly, I did not see any remarkable difference shopping less often. So, now I shop every week. I still shop at more than one store. I am thrilled that they just opened an Aldi store on the opposite corner from the Wegmans that I shop at. This is incredibly convenient. I also shop at Sam's Club about once a month and at a little market in my town. I visit several "merchant ships" as is spoken of in Proverbs 31. I take the list from the refrigerator, and transfer it into a computer program that I found several years ago for free. I don't even know if it exists anymore. This list has prices already entered ( I entered them.) and calculates my total for me as I enter each item to the list. Theoretically, when I leave me house I should know how much my final bill will be.

I have also clipped my coupons. I know some people are very big into couponing (is that a word???). I am not. I do have a few name brand items that I do buy. We just started receiving the Sunday paper again after being a non subscriber for many years. So, I clipped and organized those coupons.

I also am trying to go back to using cash. I am convinced that this is truly the only way I can stay on budget. In order to do this I must take my calculator with me. So, I went over the weekend and took out the money needed for groceries. I am hoping i come home with some leftover because I started this in the middle of the month, and needless to say, I am dangerously close to going over budget. There are still two more shopping days left in the month. Well, one is on the 31st, so I suppose I could count that as April since we will be eating the food and using the products in April. I already spent about $20 of my weekly grocery money on Saturday at the farmer's market. I needed honey, and I also picked up some local apples and brown eggs.

Now all I need are my reusable shopping bags, and I am all set. I guess I will have to go round those up.

Have a blessed day...

A quick Saturday update...

2009-03-14T21:55:00.002-04:00

Today we actually slept in a little. There was no early morning hockey game. Brianna, my sweetie, was up at the same time that I was. She was very anxious to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. I implored her to please wait until mama had her coffee. She obliged me one cup of coffee with cream and sugar. After a quick shower, we had a lovely breakfast of blueberry pancakes. Brianna did all the measuring and mixing. She even flipped them off the gridle. She tried to spoon the batter on the gridle, but after about two she pleaded for a little help. I must say that these pancakes were delicious.

After completing morning chores, Natalie, Carolyn and I headed out for the farmer's market. I needed some honey desperately. I also picked up a peck of Empire apples and a dozen brown eggs. From there we headed to the library. Natalie has been reading the Redwall Series, and I had to request two more books for her. They had come in, and we went to get them. I picked up some cash at the bank, and we headed to the thrift stores. At the third store we hit the jackpot, I got a pair of jeans for Brianna for $1.29 and jeans and denim capris for Natalie for $8.78. Natalie tried on several pairs of jeans and was quite exhausted by noon, so we headed home. I am making a commitment to spend cash on all local purchases. I was happy to get three pairs of pants for $10. It certainly is more work to thrift shop, but it is very rewarding as well.

Blessings...

Preparing for Lean Times: A Lesson From Joseph

2009-03-13T06:58:00.005-04:00

This week the Lord opened my eyes afresh to the lessons that can be learned from Joseph as I read Genesis 41 again. This is the account of Pharaoh's dream, Joseph's interpretation, and the plan for Egypt. After interpreting the dream, Joseph tells Pharaoh that there will be 7 years or plenty and 7 years of a very severe famine in the land of Egypt. Joseph tells Pharaoh that he needs to appoint a man who is discerning and wise to to oversee the land of Egypt. He tells Pharaoh to collect 1/5 or 20% of the produce of the land during the plentiful years. (Genesis 41:34) Pharaoh recognized that there is no one who is as discerning or as wise as Joseph is, so he makes Joseph overseer of the land of Egypt.

I sat and thought about how this applies to my life and the lives of all people. First, I think that this portion of Scripture shows that there will be times of plenty and times of leanness or famine. It also showed me that it is good and right to prepare for lean times while times are plentiful. These Egyptians were asked to sacrifice 20% of what the land produced so that it could be stored in preparation of the famine to come. In our own lives we face famine times. Perhaps there is a job loss or a death that greatly reduces our ability to bring in money to buy our basic needs. Or perhaps there are general down turns in the overall economy such as we are facing now.

My monthly grocery budget is $560. Divided out over a 4.5 week month that means that I have about $125 per week for food. If I took 20% of that amount which is $25. I could be using $25 dollars per week to stock up on food and other grocery items. This takes a bit of planning, wisdom and discernment. Sometimes I don't know what I should spend money on, but the Lord does. It is His money, and if I pray as I shop I can find deals on food and other non-food items.

It is good and right to ask the Lord to show us how to prepare for what may come. Only He knows your future. He desires to prosper us for His own purposes. Proverbs 6:6-11 tells us to look at the ant. She has no overseer, yet she provides food in the summer and gathers in food in the harvest.

I pray the Lord would bless you as you seek Him in your planning and preparing. Ask Him how he would have your family prepare.

May you be blessed...

More bread...

2009-03-12T18:25:00.004-04:00

I thought of all of you while I was shaping my bread dough this morning. I have gone through fits and spurts of making my own and then buying from the store. My preference would be to always have homemade bread. Sometimes my schedule gets so busy, and I can't. The recipe I used today is also from the More With Less Cookbook that I mentioned earlier in the week. This is the basic white bread recipe, but I do throw in whole wheat flour. I used to be more of a purist, but I was having trouble getting a good rise out of my whole wheat bread. So, I am experimenting. The last time I made this recipe I got very good sandwich bread. It was soft but not mushy, and it did not get hard over time in the pantry. It looks delicious. I will freeze three of the loaves and leave one out for tomorrow's lunch.

The rest of my day was spent at gym and swim with the children. We have been part of this program for about five years now. The children have a 45 minute gym class and a half hour swim class. My son is taking the life guarding class.

Supper is finished, and the kitchen clean up thank to the hard work of the children and I. Actually, it wasn't that hard. We had pasta bake, French bread and a salad. They were all very simple to make. We had some of that French bread that I made on Monday. It was very tasty. Tomorrow I think we will be baking peanut butter cookies. Brianna has had a passion for baking recently, so she mixed up the dough yesterday. The cookies will be baked after school tomorrow.

More cast iron friends...

2009-03-11T14:16:00.007-04:00

I mentioned a few days ago about the cast iron Dutch oven that my parents found in their basement. I also have another great cast iron find to share with you. My 88 year old neighbor, Roger, is an Eagle Scout. Years before when he could he would camp out, and he had a camp Dutch oven. Two years ago when we had our community garage sale, he mentioned it to me. I told him I would take it. He wanted to give it to me, but I paid him $5 dollars for it. He wouldn't take a penny more. I did buy the gloves and the lifter new. Now all I need is a chimney to light my charcoal and I'll be set. I have yet to use this one.

These are the skillets that I cook in all the time. I also have a 12 inch that is not in the picture.

I have completely rid myself of all other types of fry pans. Everyone has learned to cook in these, but I am the only one who seems to know how to clean them.

Planting Celery Seeds...

2009-03-10T12:22:00.010-04:00

Friday afternoon I got down to the business of planting celery seeds. I have never grown celery before, but I do use a lot of it. I am planning to plant the celery in my kitchen garden which is right outside my back door. For the third year in a row I am starting my own seeds. I will also be starting pepper seeds, tomato seeds, cabbage seeds, broccoli seeds and probably watermelon seeds. When I started gardening I bought plants from the nursery. I even bought plants from Wal-Mart. I would encourage anyone who is beginning to garden to buy seedlings from a store. I have also purchased seedlings from Seed Savers Exchange, but this is quite spendy. Here is a look at how I like to start seeds.

I assembled all of my supplies: peat pellets, heat mat, tray with dome lid, warm water, seeds and a toothpick. I purchased these peat pellets at Lowe's last year. I am sure all the home and garden stores are now stocking their seed starting paraphernalia.

This heat mat was purchased from Harris Seeds. It really helps raise the temperature which is often needed for germination. My mat does not have a regulator. I just plug it in to turn it on and unplug it to turn it off.

These trays were purchased from Johnny's Select Seeds several years ago. I reuse them every year. They do need to be washed with a 10% bleach solution before they are reused just to be sure that they are not harboring any diseases.

Carolyn lined up 15 peat pellets in the tray. She loves to help me with my projects.

Then we poured a couple cups of warm tap water on them and waited for the pellets to absorb the water.

After all the water is absorbed and each pellet looks saturated, I fluff up the peat soil with a toothpick. Then we planted 3 seeds per pellet. Usually I put in 2 seeds, but I just wanted to be sure. So, we put in 3.

I covered the seeds lightly with soil, plugged in my heat mat, and now they are working on germinating. It can take celery seeds up to 3 weeks to germinate. Tomato and peppers seeds are much quicker.

French Bread...

2009-03-09T13:52:00.007-04:00

This morning I wanted to try making some French bread. I have done this before using different recipes with mixed results. These loaves were made using the Easy French Bread recipe in the More With Less Cookbook. This dough was very soft and light. I did use 2 cups of whole wheat flour along with the 4.5 cups of white flour. I rose the dough once in a bowl for about 1 hour. Punched it down and let it rest another 15 minutes before shaping it into these loaves. Instead of greasing my cookie sheets I used parchment paper. It makes clean up so much easier, and I can reuse the sheets of paper.

This was the bread after it was shaped and risen the second time.

I slit the tops and brushed an egg wash on the top. My egg wash was 1 egg and 2 Tbsp. of water. At this point I could have added poppy or seseame seeds, but I generally don't add seeds to my breads. Some of the kids have braces, and my husband can take a lot of seeds with his partial. So, I stay away from added seeds.

I baked these at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. They look great.

We had one of the loaves for lunch along with a leftover pasta bake.

By the way, I did get those celery seeds planted that I mentioned last week. I will get the pictures up tomorrow.

Blessings...

Baked Brown Rice

2009-03-06T11:50:00.006-05:00

I bake my brown rice in the oven. I used to cook it on the stovetop, but I had mixed results. By baking it in the oven I have fluffy, tender brown rice each and every time. Obviously, brown rice has a different texture than white rice, so it does take a little getting used to. It should not be hard to chew or crunchy. Some of my children actually prefer it to white rice now that they have been eating it for a while. At first, it was not very popular.

Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees. Give yourself about 1 hour and 10 minutes for prep time plus cooking time. I measure out one cup of brown rice.

Pour the rice into a greased casserole dish.

In a pot on the stovetop, bring to a boil: 2 1/2 cups of water, 1 tsp. of salt, and 1 tbsp of butter or oil.

Here is where the batteries on my camera died and we did not have anymore, so you will have to use your imagination for the rest.

Pour the boiling water over the rice. Cover tightly with one sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil or two sheets of regular aluminum foil. Carefully move the dish into the oven. You can see I use a jelly roll pan under my casserole dish to make it easier to move and in case the water boils out which can happen from time to time.

Bake this for one hour. When you remove it from the oven, fluff it with a fork. Most of the liquid should be absorbed.

Enjoy.

Please take care of me...

2009-03-06T07:51:00.005-05:00

Friends,

I just had to share with you the sweetness of my daughter, Brianna. Brianna is suffering with a pretty nasty head cold right now. It started off as a sore, scratchy throat earlier in the week, and finally, last night it progressed to a nasty runny nose. As I came into my bedroom at 11:30 PM, I noticed something on my bed. When I turned on the light, I saw "Hippie" sitting there with a note attached to him. The note read: "Please take care of Hippie for me while I am sick. From, Brianna. To Mom and Dad."

I was overwhelmed with her sweetness and concern for her little hippo that she felt she should give him to us for the duration of her illness. I am letting her sleep in a little this morning, and Hippie has been petted and fed.

Blessings...

Reading and getting inspired...

2009-03-04T14:16:00.004-05:00

I have been rereading some of Laine's Letters today. I am especially inspired by the ones focusing on finances. I really need a lift in this area. I hope you enjoy reading, too.

Blessings...

Cast Iron Kitchen

2009-03-02T14:39:00.010-05:00

Can you believe that this lovely cast iron Dutch oven was lurking in my parents basement completely unbeknownst to me? A year or so ago, my parents were cleaning out their basement and had the notion to call me, to ask if I wanted a few cast iron pieces that they found. I jumped at the chance. My dad showed up at my house with this beauty and two other fry pans. I was amazed that I had not known about their existance in the dark recesses of my parent's basement. I don't ever remember my mom cooking with cast iron. My maternal grandmother did. She made me the most delicious scrambled eggs in her cast iron fry pans. My grandmother passed away when I was 11 years old, and after that it was nearly 15 years before I ate scrambled eggs. I did try them here or there, but none could match the flavor and texture of those fantastic eggs made with loving hands by my dear grandma.

I don't know if this Dutch oven was hers or not, I will have to ask my mom. I can tell you that I use this pot all the time in the winter. It cooks just as well as my crockpot in a fraction of the time. So, if I forget to plan ahead, I can have a crockpot recipe cooked for dinner. I did this on Saturday night. I decided to make Spicy Beef and Beans which is a recipe from my dear friend Crystal Miller. I started with my ingredients.

It was easy to quickly brown up the beef in the Dutch oven.

All the ingredients go into the pot all at once and then I simmered it for about an hour while I baked my brown rice in the oven. I served it with a salad and fruit.

Plans for the week...

2009-03-01T15:31:00.008-05:00

My seed order came in a week or so ago. I purchased from both Johnny's and Seed Savers. I have had good success with the seeds from both places.

In my pile of seeds are:

Trophy Tomato
October Bean
Charlevoix Dark Beans
Butternut Squash
Detroit Dark Red Beets
Premium Late Flat Cabbage
Snow Fancy's Pickling Cucumbers
Negovia Carrots
Butterhead Lettuce
Yellow Onions
San Marzano Tomato
Provider Bush Beans
Jade Bush Beans
and...

Conquistador Celery. I have never planted celery before, but I sure do use a lot of it. These seeds must be started this week in order to be ready to plant outside at the end of May. This is the earliest I have planted seeds indoors.

In light of our discussion on the economy and surviving a depression, I don't think we can ignore the importance of growing some of your own food. I have been gardening on one level or another for about 15 years. This will be my third year for starting my own seeds. I learn a little bit more about it each year that I do it.

If you have never planted any vegetables before, I always recommend starting with crops that are easy to grow and that you like to eat. I discovered that there is no point in growing zucchini if I am the only one who will eat it no matter how prolific it is. Also, if you are planning on planting peppers or tomatoes, find a local nursery or garden center that has what you want and buy your transplants from them. Your first year is probably not the year to try growing your own transplants. I was not planning to take the time today to get into a lengthy discussion about gardening, but I will be writing about my progress as the season progresses. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about the topic. I am not an expert, but I will try to answer your question to the best of my ability.

We are winding up the hockey seasons. Next week are the championship games. Then I can start sleeping in a little longer on Saturday morning. The 4-H season is just coming into full swing however. Carolyn had a great public presentation yesterday. In two weeks, Natalie has her horse bowl regional competition. We will have a couple more practices between now and then. I will try to remember to take my camera with me to these events. I forgot it yesterday.

Lastly, I am knee deep in planning next year's curriculum. My planning process begins in January and is usually completed by the end of March before the catalog prices increase.

I will keep you posted on how my seed starting activities progress this week. Also look for more discussions on preparedness.

Buy socks...

2009-02-27T10:46:00.005-05:00

Thank you to all who decided to take the quiz yesterday and shared their results. Many found the results to be fairly accurate. If you haven't taken the quiz yet, please do so, and share your results.

The economic news today is not shocking, but it has the DOW taking a tumble at the moment. The GDP numbers are in for the 4th quarter of 2008, and they are showing a contraction larger than the economist had figured. It looks like the government may be owning up to 36% of Citibank as well.

I mentioned a few days ago that I would be delving into practical suggestions for dealing with a recession or even a depression. If you read any article on the Internet on this topic, you can boil down your recession/depression proofing preparations into three areas: pay off debt, save what you can and stock-up on what you will need. Furthermore, stockpiling or having a reserve of goods and raw materials can be broken down into these categories: food, personal hygiene and clothing. Yes, some of you might have other categories, but these are mine.

Clothing is the area that I would like to focus on today. I had not thought about stockpiling clothing, but as I read more and more articles from survivors of the Great Depression, I discovered a couple of things. Shoes and socks or stockings were a very needed and often expensive item during the Depression era. I read many stories of people using cardboard inside their shoes to extend their wearability. Socks are another item that wear out quickly. I don't know about you, but I do not know how to darn a sock. I don't even have a darning needle. So, I am planning to pick up some extra bags of socks and underwear for the members of my family. I think this is just smart.

Sewing skills would be beneficial in leaner times. It seems that women and men who could sew did all right with their clothing needs. I have a lot of fabric that I intended to used for different clothing items. I never got those garments made, but I still have the cloth to use for whatever I might need. Learn how to sew a pair of pajama pants. Teach your children these skills as well so that they can help. Right now, clothing is very inexpensive, but this might not always be the case. A devalued dollar will make even a six pack of socks unattainable for many.

Every family must make their own decisions on how to wisely spend the resources that they are given. I hope that this gives you some food for thought today.

What kind of survivor are you?

2009-02-26T06:47:00.004-05:00

After watching the Glenn Beck show on Friday night, I followed the link on his website to take The Survivor's Club quiz. Ben Sherwood, author of The Survivors Club: Secret and Science That Could Save Your Life, took a couple of years interviewing people and researching this book. He concluded that there are five survior types: fighter, believer, thinker, realist and connector.

Take the quiz and see what type of survivor you might be.

The Survivors Club Quiz

Examining the past...

2009-02-25T11:56:00.009-05:00

All around us these days people are talking about the economy. Some are worried and seem paralyzed by this fear. Others are concerned yet are taking proactive steps to plan for the security of themselves and their families. The final group of people are those who go about as though all was sunshine and lollipops. They don't believe anything serious will happen, and find those of use who do to be depressing and gloomy. I am in the group of concerned people who have chosen to take some active steps to plan for the worst, but I hope for the best.

I have been studying the "Great" Depression for some time now. The stories of the people who lived through it intrigue me. At the peak of the Depression, my grandmother was fifteen years old. I am sure she had some great stories to tell. Unfortunately, grandma passed away over five years ago. Everyday we are losing the people who can give us insight into this time in history. Soon we won't have their wisdom and insight.

As I read through interviews and articles written by and about those who lived through the 1930's in America, I am struck by two things. First I see a value system and an attitude in these people that seems to be lost to Americans today. Secondly, these people can teach us many practical lessons as we try to navigate through these uncertain financial times.

I would like to devote some time on my blog to pursuing the values, attitudes and practical lessons that our grandparents, great-grandparents and their peers can teach us. I hope you will join me.

Busy Days...

2009-02-21T21:08:00.004-05:00

I hate to have these big gaps of time between blog posts. I have had so much running through my mind lately, but nothing was forming together into anything that I could actually write down. I wake up, make Dave's lunch, hop on the computer, read my Bible, get ready for the day, and teach the children. Then I drive kids to hockey practice, friends' houses, the barn, 4-H, youth group and church. When I am home and have free time, I have been planning my curriculum purchases for next year. I am trying to find a good writing program for my struggling 9th grade writer. Thankfully, I think I may have found something. I have been studying some about the Depression of the 1930's. Finally, I placed my seed order for this year's garden.

So, I have been doing a lot of little things here and there, but nothing much to write home about.

I do appreciate all of you who stop by to see what is going on here. Please keep coming back. I have some articles in the works.

DISCIPLINED Eating

2009-02-12T19:54:00.007-05:00

In my head for the past two weeks has been my desire to share with my followers and friends all the things I am learning about eating and especially disciplined eating.

Let me give you a little back story. Right after Christmas I was making a purchase from Christian Book Distributors, and I was about $2.00 short to receive free shipping on my order. I started looking around the $5 and under pages and came across the book, Love to Eat, Hate to Eat: Overcoming the Bondage of Destructive Eating Habits. It was inexpensive, sort of applied to me, so I bought it.

Now lets go even further back in time. In July 2004, I started an on-line bible study geared to set people free from all sorts of sinful behaviors including sinful eating. I went through the course, became a mentor, and lost nearly 65 pounds in the process. After about a year, I left the ministry. Slowly, very slowly, the weight came back on. I sit here today with all of that weight back on me. How did this happen? I have been asking myself this for nearly 5 years.

I think the biggest thing for me was that I never truly saw my eating habits as sinful. I wanted to and even prayed to, but I just never had the heart wrenching conviction that what I was doing was sinful. See, I could justify it all. Everyone in America eats like I do. It tastes good. I'll take care of that "after the holidays, weekend, party, etc." I was deceived and blind to what I was doing.

I know this is getting rather personal, so I hope you will bear with me. Finally I have started to see how my choices are self-indulgent, lacking self control, and most importantly disregard God's sovereignty in my life. I can only attribute my recently renewed vision to the the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. You see, the first time I lost weight it was all my doing. I took all the credit. God's Spirit was not working in my life to help me. I was following rules and being obedient to man's rules for my eating and exercise. I truly believe this is why I have gained back this weight.

The book I have been reading has really opened my eyes and allowed me to deal with some of the hang ups I have had about what is really sinful in certain eating habits. I love how Ms. Fitzpatrick addresses the idea of disciplined eating. She has made it an acronym.

D=Doubt
I=Idolatry
S=Stumble
C=Covet
I=Inroads
P=Praise
L=Life
I=Illustrate
N=No
E=Emotions
D=Distract

E=Enslave
ating

This an acronym is actually in the middle portion of the book, and there was a lot of reading and thinking that had to go on before I got there. I know that this is going to be a journey, but I know that it is one that I and the Holy Spirit are on together. I also know that with the help of God's Spirit that I will never have to go back into those destructive ways of eating.

So, this is where I am at with my eating. I am thinking through this an acronym each day. Well, at least the parts I have memorized. I am going slow so that it really sinks into my heart. I can tell you that in the past two weeks many changes have occurred, and they did not feel burdensome. His yoke really is easy, and his burden really is light.

Be blessed

Our week...

2009-01-30T16:10:00.002-05:00

I was really feeling a nagging desire to blog today. I admittedly have not been on the computer as much this week. Mondays are always very busy for me. I hit the ground running with laundry. I wash all of our clothes on Monday. Well, I wash clothes for myself, Dave, Carolyn and Brianna. Jonathan and Natalie have their own wash days. Next have to make sure my school planning is finished and in order because the older two will be wanting their assignment sheets. These are actually extremely handy for me and them. If my memory serves me correctly, school took forever on Monday. Some days are like that. Natalie went to the barn to work. I came home and did a couple of things. Then I went back up to get her. After a supper of chicken corn chowder, I took Jonathan to youth group. A ladies bible study has just started at church. So, I attended that.

Tuesday was fine until mid morning when some intestinal distress hit and made the rest of my day awful. I did manage to get through grocery shopping in the afternoon, but Dave picked Natalie up from work. Then Natalie, Dave and Carolyn made pancakes for dinner. I slept.

On Wednesday we got about 9 inches of new snow. It was not too bad until the wind started blowing in the late afternoon. Then we started getting drifts, and it was kinds of nasty. I drove in it twice because my diehard horse girl had lessons. Carolyn has taken a break from lessons until the weather breaks. She is such a little thing, and she gets so cold even with warm clothes on. So, we will wait until April or so. I am sure she will let me know when she would like to go back.

Thursday was our gym and swim day, and now we are back at Friday again. I do not have a dinner plan as I am out of mozzarella cheese. I tried to get a big bag at Wegmans on Tuesday, but they were out of the big bags. I won't pay for the little bags, so we have no cheese for pizza. I am going to dig through my refigerator and make whatever is in there. Better to eat it than to waste it.

I hope to be back with some more winter pictures. We have had snow on the ground for over a month now. We did not get a January thaw. Well, it did get up to 40 last Friday, but that only melted a little.

Our new eating plan...

2009-01-23T08:38:00.004-05:00

Here is a sampling of dinner menus from our new eating plan.

Beef barley soup (homemade)
Bread (homemade)
cheese
oranges

Hamburger Pinwheels
Brown rice
green beans
applesauce
pickles

Chicken tenders
Buttered noodles
Peaches (canned)
Romaine and spinach salad

Macaroni and cheese w/ meat (I confess that my kids like hot dogs in theirs, but ham would be better if you are going for whole foods)
Pennsylvania Red Cabbage
Salad (romaine)
Pickles

Meatball subs
Green beans
Pears
Noodles

Cube steak
Mashed potatoes
broccoli
applesauce

Pizza (We eat this every Friday. I make my own, but now I am rounding out the meal more by adding...
carrots or salad
strawberries or other fruit

I hope this blesses some of you as you strive to eat healthier with more whole foods.

Update to the couch cushions question...

2009-01-14T20:51:00.011-05:00

Way back at the beginning of December I asked what I should do about my couch cushions. Some of my Family Homestead friends gave me their ideas. Well, after Christmas I found slip covers at Bed Bath and Beyond. Add that to the lovely cabinet that my husband gave me for Christmas, and I feel like I have a whole new living room.

Note the lovely cabinet with the basket of pinecones on it. Lurking underneath are all my homeschool books. I love it.

And one picture of the dining room

The Eating Plan...

2009-01-03T21:20:00.003-05:00

I have learned over time and by experiment that making too many changes at one time leads to disaster. I have decided through much reflection that during the month of January the only changes I am making to my eating and meal preparation will be to follow the meal plan laid out in Feeding the Whole Family: Recipes for Babies, Young Children and Their Parents.

Since we are not vegetarians, I will follow the meal plan with animal protein. This is how the plan breaks down:

Fish, eggs, chicken, pork or beef
Starchy vegetable or whole grain
Green vegetable
Another vegetable or fruit
Something fermented, pickled or raw

I tried this with tonight's dinner. For dinner we had hamberger pinwheels which does include both meat (beef) and whole grain (the dough). I did add in brown rice as another whole grain to add some depth to the meal. We also had green beens that were sauted and quartered strawberries. I forgot to include the pickles, but we did have them at lunch.

Typically I plan my meals for a month. I am not in the habit of giving much thought to the vegetable or fruit that we are having with the meal. Sadly, it is often an after thought. This will take all of my thought and effort this month, so I am waiting until I get this down before I add in other things. The only other focus area will be water consumption. This is not that difficult for me, so I am not counting that as a "new" focus area for me.

Now I am off to get the rest of the plan down. I especially need to know what I am making tomorrow.

Eating Healthy in 2009.

2008-12-31T11:42:00.005-05:00

I know this is a common New Year's resolution. I don't make resolutions typically, but I have been quite burdened about my family's eating habits lately. We began our journey into healthy eating about six or seven years ago. We changed to whole grains. I started baking our bread. However, from time to time healthy eating can slip, and sometimes it can plummet to great depths. I am feeling as though we are in a HUGE plummet. As I am typing my daughter is begging for M&M's. Does this say anything about what I am dealing with here?

I began my research online by posing the question, "How to feed my family more vegetable?" This seems to be our biggest downfall. I like vegetables, and sometimes I think I am the only one. While browsing around on Almost Vegetarian, I came across the book, What to Eat: An Aisle by Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Eating by Marion Nestle. I decided that this was a must read for me. Thankfully, my library system had a copy of it. I was able to pick it up yesterday.

Anyone who shops for food, and that would be most of us, should take a look at this book. Many of us are probably familiar with the idea of "food miles", but do you know what COOl or VCOOL are? Do you know how a grocery store defines "fresh"? I am learning all this and more.

As I read through this book, I hope to share my thoughts and discoveries with my blog friends and readers.

Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T18:19:00.008-05:00

Twas the night before Christmas...

The stocking were laid on the trunk with great care...

Brianna building Lego.

Carolyn opening her Breyer horse set.

Natalie displaying the Horspital set.

Jonathan digging into his Xbox 360.

Wordless Wednesday (almost)...Christmas Treasures

2008-12-24T07:24:00.007-05:00

My dear husband gave me this ornament 19 years ago when we were dating. It was my very first Christmas present from him.

Snowy days...or is that daze?

2008-12-22T14:04:00.008-05:00

We have had about 2 feet of snow in the past 3 days. It was trecherous driving yesterday as we made our way to church, to my parent's house, and then home. We drove home in near blizzard conditions last night. I was amazed how bad it was after we got home. David spent the morning blowing out the driveway.

The driveway is all plowed.

The trees, pool and backyard all covered in snow.

This wood pile and our little bushes (plus the side of our neighbor's garage).

Wordless Wednesday...He's Got Game

2008-12-17T07:05:00.005-05:00

BTW, he is #9 with the white helmet and blue pants.

Gamma Seal Lids...

2008-12-14T22:01:00.006-05:00

After my first post about stocking the pantry, a dear visitor whose blog is Gullett Circus, stopped by and asked a question about gamma seal lids. She asked if I recommend this kind of lid. I must say that I wholeheartedly do recommend them. After years of struggling to remove the lids from my containers to refill sugar canisters or to access wheat berries, I found these lids. They are airtight yet easy for me to remove. I can even have my 12 year old daughter refill canisters.

The lids come in two pieces as shown below. The ring fits semi-permanently on the bucket, and the lid screws onto the ring. They are so easy to get on and off yet they keep food very well. I find them to be an investment that was well worth the money.

There are many online retailers that sell the gamma seal lids. I purchased mine from Bread Becker's.

Back in the Pantry

2008-12-11T22:13:00.006-05:00

I have spent the better part of the last day, when not preparing Christmas gifts, reading up on a man named Gerald Celente. Gerald Celente is the CEO of trends research Institute, and he apparently has an amazingly accurate record on predicting economic events. Yesterday, this article came to my attention, Revolution, food roits, in America by 2012. It sounded a bit sensationalist. After reading the article I felt that it was the most doom and gloomy article I have read. However, I think he could be right.

That brings us back to the pantry. A friend sent me a link a few weeks back to a list of 100 Things That Will Disappear. I am not exactly sure where they will disappear from as many of these items would not be purchased at a Wal-Mart Superstore. Interspersed in the article are many suggestions for pantry items. Here is a summary list:

Honey/syrups/sugars
Beans/rice/wheat

Vegetable oil

Vitamins

Milk-powdered and condensed

Tuna fish

Garlic, spices, vinegar, and baking supplies

Flours/yeast/salt

Canned fruits, vegetables, soups and stews

Soysauce/gravies/boullion

Graham crackers/saltines/ pretzels/popcorn

Peanut butter/nuts

Chocolate/cocoa

Tea/coffee

Gum/candy

Where should someone start with a list like this. I started about 5 years ago with one 5 gallon bucket in a double wide mobile home with no basement, no attic, and no garage. I saved food where ever I could. Thankfully my kitchen was good size with ample cupboards which made up in some small part for what it lacked.

We have moved since then and my "pantry" has grown to a good part of my basement. I took some more recent pictures of my stock.

It is important to plan part of your grocery shopping budget for stocking up on something. I bought those cans of tomoto puree over a six week period earlier this fall. I think I bought 4 cans at a time. Now I have about 20 tomato puree and about 10 cans of crushed tomatoes. I also plan to buy one bulk item of plastic forks, knifes, spoons, styrofoam plates, bowls, plastic cups per month. I buy these at Sam's Club. So, I want to encourage you to start small, but plan to buy something extra this week at the grocery store.

Wordless Wednesday...A Taste of Christmas at My House

2008-12-10T12:03:00.005-05:00

Stocking the pantry...

2008-12-06T19:14:00.006-05:00

Yesterday the headline of Yahoo finance said, "Half-million jobs vanish as economy deteriorates."

The article went on to say, "A record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage was either at least a month behind on payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported."

This caused my dear friend, Ranae and I to continue our on-going discussion about the economy and being prepared by stocking up on pantry and personal hygiene items. One point that came up in our discussion was where to start if you haven't prepared in either of these areas. Should you begin pantry storage or linen closet storage. My thought is that even though cleanliness is next to godliness food is my priorety. For several years now, I have been storing white flour, rolled oats, quick oats, Prairie Gold wheat berries, evaporated cane juice crystals and Sucanat. I store them in 5-6 gallon buckets in my basement. Each bucket has a gamma seal lid except for the Sucanat. The Sucanat is stored in an airtight pet food container that was never used for pet food. I buy 50-100# of each of these items at a time. Typically I can buy 100# of wheat berries and flour but only 50# of oats and sugars. When my supply gets low, I buy more. Typically, I do not have to replace them all at once. This helps the pocket book.

Here is a look at the buckets.

I also have two chrome storage shelves in the basement for canned goods, condiments, and other food stuffs.

Last year I canned a lot more than I did this year. This year we had too much water, and my garden was flooded twice during the season. I did not can tomatoes, but for about 6 weeks this fall I bought 4-6 cans of crushed tomatoes and tomato puree when the local grocery store had them on sale for $0.69 per 28 ounce can. I worked my way up to about 30 cans. I do this for many things that the store puts on sale.

I don't think stocking up means you have to blow your grocery budget. For me I just have to pay attention and match my need to the sales.

I am not very well stocked up in my linen closet. That is going to be the next area I tackle. Also, I would really like a 4-6 month supply of cat food, but I haven't gotten that far.

On a final note, I also refilled prescriptions today even though I do not need a refill right now. I want to have prescriptions on hand in the event that my husband would lose his job, and we didn't have insurance. It would help for a while.

Couch cushions...need help...

2008-12-02T18:46:00.004-05:00

I am trying to fingure out what to do with my couch. This couch used to be my parents. It sat in their livingroom and only got used when they had company. Four or five years ago they gave it to us when they invested in new furniture. The bones of the couch are in great shape. The cushions and the arms of the couch are just not doing well. Every time a child's knee hits the couch first instead of their rear end, the fabric comes apart. I am thinking slip covers are the way to go here, but I have never used them, so I am not sure. In addition, the white does not work with our newly painted wall.

Here is a close up look at the middle cushion.

This is the left side cushion. You can also see the pillows I made over the summer.

I posted this to give you a sense of how the living room is decorated. In this picture the paint is showing up a tad dark. It is really a mustard yellow. Not French's mustard, it is darker. You can barely make out the actual color in the first picture.

So, I am open to suggestions on how to handle this situation. Thanks so much.

Sharing our turkey...

2008-11-28T16:30:00.006-05:00

It has become a tradition in our house to buy our turkey from a local market. It is fresh, and I pick it up on Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. Typically, I order a 20-22 pound bird and in the past we have gotten one that is close to 20 pounds. This dear bird tipped the scales at a whopping 22.56 pounds. "Tucker" as we affectionately called him is awaiting cleaning.

Here he is all cleaned. I do not stuff my bird with a bread stuffing. Instead I use organges, fresh cut herbs and aromatics such as celery, onions and carrots. This year I didn't put in the carrots. Under the breast skin I put in a paste made from fresh sage, thyme, rosemary, garlic, dry mustard, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. I borrowed it from Ina Garten. I sprinkled olive oil over "Tucker's" back and gave him a good shake of salt and a good grind of pepper. Now he is ready for the oven.

I usually cook my turkey at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes before turning down the heat to 350 degrees for the remainder of the cooking time. Tucker is looking good just out of the oven. His total cook time was 4 hours and 35 minutes. Not to shabby for a big boy. Yes, we always use a meat thermometer to test for doneness.

I was so busy I forgot to take a picture of the turkey once it was carved and plated. Trust me, he was a good one. I hope all those of you who read my blog were able to share a blessed Thanksgiving with your friends and family.

Tomorrow is the big day...

2008-11-26T22:14:00.006-05:00

I am ready. I made up my whole wheat rolls on Monday. Here is a nice "oven" shot. They are on the rise. I go so wrapped up in baking that this is the only picture I took of the food I prepared.

Yesterday I got cranberry orange bread and two apple pies. Today was the big push. I got both pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, cranberry sauce and my make ahead mashed potatoes finished. The turkey was picked up. I am going to remember to take more pictures tomorrow.

Happy baking and cooking.

Thanksgiving Preparations: Shopping

2008-11-22T21:40:00.004-05:00

I had high hopes for baking and cleaning today, but they were not to be. I did shop, and then I realized that this was a very important part of preparing for Thanksgiving day.

I had already planned the menu last week, and while I was planning the menu I made a shopping list. Yesterday I went to a local market that had good prices on produce and a few other items. So, I picked upthese items to be used for Thanksgiving:

onions
carrots
celery
lemons
cream cheese

Today I went to Aldi and Wegmans. I think I have everything I need. Here are my holiday items from those two stores.

pumpkin
green olives
mint patties for after dinner
black olives
sour cream
soda pop
apple cider vinegar
Izze (My kids love these, and they only have them on Thanksgiving.)
chicken broth
kalamata olives
Thanksgiving paper napkins
navel oranges

I think that sums up the purchases. All I have to pay for now is the turkey which I will pick up on Wednesday afternoon.

Hi Friends...

2008-11-21T22:59:00.002-05:00

Finally I am settling into the school year. Who knew it would take me four months to get comfortable with all the activities and school work. We are looking forward to a week off from school next week. I like to focus on preparing for Thanksgiving. So, we will be reading, and Jonathan will be working through some math. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we will enjoy the break. I hope to post on the preparation for Thanksgiving.

I can give you a little tip on the first thing I do to prepare. I declutter my kitchen. I can work so much better when I can see my counters, find my spices and grab the proper cooking utensil. We started by working on the spice rack a couple of days ago. I will do more tomorrow. I am also going to make and freeze my rolls and cranberry bread.

Time to think...

2008-10-29T22:17:00.005-04:00

I was reminiscing about those early day of home schooling. In hindsight they seemed much easier. I had fewer children in school, and the school requirements were so much more relaxed. This picture is my son, Jonathan's visual of Paddle to the Sea's journey. He built this all on his own in 2003 at age 9. That was when he thought it was a true story.

Here is another picture of our "study" of medieval life. I simply got books from the library and my children took it from there. One little one is still in her jammies.

Ahh, if high school could be this relaxing.

Little Bella is ill...

2008-10-28T21:34:00.002-04:00

My little friend, Bella, had to take an unexpected trip to the vet yesterday. I suspected that the poor thing had a UTI. Well, I was right. The vet told me that it is a bit unusual for a gal her age (1.5 years) to get UTI's. She is on antibiotics twice a day for 14 days. Then we go back for a check. My veterinarian did tell me that if she gets more infections that she could possibly have Feline Lower Urinary Track Disease. I hope that this is merely an isolated incident, and that my girl is better soon.

True Woman '08 Conference

2008-10-14T07:29:00.003-04:00

I am excited to be a part of all that God is doing in the lives of women who know and follow Jesus Christ. In searching around this morning I found this trailer video for the conference. Even though the conference is past. The video is a great encapsulation of the purpose and intent of the conference.

True Woman '08 Conference Trailer

Awesome weekend in Chicago!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-10-12T22:08:00.006-04:00

I just got back from the most amazing time in Chicago at the

True Woman '08 Conference.

I was so blessed by the worship led by Keith and Kristyn Getty.

I will be blogging more about this over the next few weeks.

Please take time to check out the link.

Jennie

Knox Farm Fiber Festival

2008-09-27T18:17:00.015-04:00

Located southeast of my little town is the village of East Aurora. It is a quaint town in western New York. At the outskirts of the village lies Knox Farm State Park. This was formerly the Knox Estate until it was purchased by New York state in 2000. I grew up a few miles from the park and regularly drove by the beautiful stone walls as a young girl. Today, Natalie, Carolyn and I headed out to be part of the 2008 Fiber Festival. I had just learned about it last night at Carolyn's 4-H meeting.

Here is our afternoon in pictures.

You are now entering the Knox Farm State Park.

The sheep rest peacefully in the shade of a tree. They are lurking just behind the stone wall.

Many of the fiber vendors brought their animals with them.

Are you lookin' at ME?

What a cute face!

Quaint buildings surround the entrance area of the park. This is where the vendors displayed their goods.

The highlight of Natalie's afternoon was the border collie herding demonstration.

This is Dennis, border collie herder in training.

Dennis' herd and trainer...

Natalie making friends with Dennis after his demonstration.

Going home...

This is a gorgeous view of the Holland hills across the pastures at the park. If you look closely you might see the goat in the middle.

Homemade Tortilla Shells

2008-09-18T12:53:00.018-04:00

I have been making my own homemade tortilla shells for well over a year now. We prefer them hands down to any store bought shell out there. They are soft and flexible. The flavor is delicious, and best of all these don't upset my stomach as some of the commercial shells have been know to do.

I started with the recipe from Hillbilly Housewife and then modified it somewhat.

My recipes is this:

4 cups flour-usually it is 3 cups AP flour and one cup of wheat (hard or soft is fine in this recipe)

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/4 cups water (usually cold or cool)

Assemble your ingredients.

Add flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl.

Whisk that up.

Add 1/2 cup shortening.

I mix it in with my fingers until I have little pea sized balls of shortening.

Add water and mix until a dough ball forms. Lay that out on a floured surface. Knead a few times and let rest 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 12 pieces.

Roll pieces into balls.

Lightly flour your work surface. I use a wood board. Flatten your ball into a disk. Flip the disk over, so that both sides are floured.

I use a tapered rolling pin with the sloped ends and no handles. It is easier for me to work the dough with one of these. I roll and turn the disk. If it sticks to the rolling pin I flip it to the other side.

Finally, into the ungreased 10 inch cast iron skillet the shell goes. I cook it on one side until it bubbles up some and is slightly browned.

Then I flip it to the other side. You can see the brown spots on this shell. This is what I strive for. If I don't focus, they get a little more done than I may like.

As each one finishes, I put them on a plate that is covered with a kitchen towel. This keeps them plenty warm.

Enjoy your shells with your favorite taco fixings. We like meat, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, black olives, sour cream, taco sauce (or salsa) and onions. Well, I like the onions.

Blessings,

Jennie

Up to our elbows in school.

2008-09-05T15:26:00.006-04:00

This is why I have not blogged in two weeks. We are now back in school full swing. It is taking all my focus to keep all the plates spinning right now. So, I thought I would share with you a little photo essay of our day yesterday.

Natalie and Carolyn choosing the proper color for map coloring.

Brianna colored Antarctica orange.

Jonathan, the high school freshman, does his school work in his room.

Carolyn must have found the right color.

Natalie is finishing up English.

Have a great weekend!

Jennie

Riding horses

2008-08-21T07:47:00.011-04:00

For years my oldest daughter, Natalie, has wanted to ride horses, but the timing or the money never seemed to work out. Well, last fall, at age 11 she finally got her wish. Good friends of our had a daughter riding at a stable about 7 minutes up the street from us. I got the instructor's phone number from my friend and put in a call. A couple day later we stopped by the stable for a visit. The instructor's mom owns the property, and she took us on a little tour. So, we agreed to start riding the week after Thanksgiving. I know, who starts riding lessons at the start of winter. I don't know, but we did. Natalie and Carolyn both ride. It is now nine months later, and I have finally taken some decent pictures of them riding.

First, they had to learn to tack up. The first step in tacking up is grooming your horse. If you are lucky you can rope your twin sister into helping you. Note Brianna behind Carolyn. Carolyn is riding Sugar

Natalie is all tacked up and ready to ride Laura.

In the summer, the girls ride in the round pen. There is a ton of mud in the round pen due to all the rain we have had, so for the past two weeks they have been riding in the training area outside the round pen. The lady in the sunglasses is their instructor, Maureen.

Natalie on Laura, and Carolyn on Sugar

Natalie on Laura.

The lesson is ended, and it is time to dismount. In the background you can see Maureen working on some bit training with another horse.

Laura is done working and ready to go back to her stall.

Natalie and Carolyn can both walk, trot and canter, but it is hard to get that with a still camera. I did take a video last week. If I can figure out how to put it on You Tube I will have it on here soon.

Have a great day...
Jennie

Making bagels...

2008-08-18T19:13:00.010-04:00

In my attempt to keep grocery expenses down this month, I am making my own bagels each week. I was a little leery of doing this because my first attempt at homemade bagels a few years back was less than satisfactory. The first week I made plain bagels and last week I made cinnamon raisin. We have decided that we prefer the cinnamon raisin bagels the best. I will show you how I did it and then give the recipe.

After the dough sat in a bowl and doubled in size for about an hour. I divided the dough into 8 balls of dough. Then I rested the balls of dough for about 5 minutes. After resting for 5 minutes, I stuck my thumb in the middle of the dough ball, and then I spun the dough around my thumb to make the hole. The hole really does need to be about 2 inches across otherwise you will have bagels with no middle hole. This happened to me the first week that I made bagels.

Once the bagels all have their center holes they need to rest 10 minutes. Before I started making holes in the middle of the dough balls, I set a pot of water to boil on the stove. I do add some honey to the water. After the water is boiling, I start dropping bagels into the water 2 at a time and poach them for 1 minute turning over once or twice during the poaching.

After poaching the bagels, I drain them on a rack set over a jelly roll pan.

Then I move the poached bagels to a cookie sheet with parchment paper. I would have liked to put an egg white wash on my bagels, but I was tight on eggs and didn't want to give up one to the bagels. I think they would look better with the egg white wash.

Here are the baked bagels.

Some are nearly perfect looking.

Others...not so much.

Here is the recipe I used.

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsp. dry yeast
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp salt (yes, you really need this much)
2 cups unbleached white flour
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
8 cups of water for boiling
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp water

Add ins...1+ Tbsp cinnamon and 1/2 + cup raisins or whatever you think you might want.

1. In stand mixer, mix water, honey and yeast. Let stand 3 minutes.

2. Add half of the flour to the yeast mixture and combine. Add salt and then remaining flour. Add the remaining flour a little at a time until the dough pulls away cleanly from the sides of the mixer.

3. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes in a Bosch mixer, you may need a little more time to make a smooth, firm dough ball. I added the cinnamon and raisins toward the end of the kneading time. Place dough in bowl, cover and let rise to double.

4. Punch down dough. Divide and shape in 8-12 balls. We make 8 because we like larger bagels. Allow to rest 5 minutes.

5. Bring water to boil. Make a hole in each ball of dough and pull open about 2 inches, amking a bagel shape. Placethe shape dough on a cookie sheet (I use a greased flexible cutting board) for 10 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Drop 2-3 bagels at a time into boiling water for about 45 second to 1 minute.

7. Drain poached bagels on a wire rack. Mix egg white and water; brush tops with egg white mixture and top with optional toppings, if using (seseame seeds, poppy seeds, etc.). Place bagels on greased (or parchment papered) baking sheet.

8. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. You can flip them over once if you are not putting additional topping on them or you can turn them on the sheet if you are using topping. I, however, did neither of these. The original recipe said to bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Tips: Making the dough balls as round as possible seems to help shape the bagels. Keeping the bagels round also keeps the water from sitting in nooks and crannies on the bagels.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jennie

The Kitchen Garden

2008-08-13T20:38:00.010-04:00

Last year I was inspired to create a kitchen garden out the back door of my house. It seems that these might be the plants that do the best this year. The house is higher on the property than the large garden. These plants are getting good moisture but are not standing in water like those poor plants down on the south side of the property.

I planted cabbage for the first time this year. I did get some holes from the cabbage white butterflies larvae, but they have disappeared.

I also plant my herbs up here. The previous owners of the house had some perennials around the house, but there were no basic herbs. Now I have dill, chives, curly leaf parsley, flat-leaf parsley, sage, thyme, spearmint, peppermint, catnip, rosemary, and oregano. This picture is only one half of my flat-leaf parley.

I have about 10 sweet pepper plants planted near the house. These are the biggest pepper plants I have ever grown. They were so sad looking when I put them out in May, but they are just flourishing now. I have never had good success with growing large peppers. I hope that I get some larger sized peppers this year.

Finally, we have my most delightful surprise. I have butternut squash growing. They are the best looking squash that I did not plant. I have never had great luck with vine type plants, but I have the potential for at least 2 good looking butternut squash. When I saw these guys volunteering this past spring I asked David to leave them alone. I am so glad we did.

Hopefully the deer will leave them alone. They are nestled in among the flat-leaf parsley and behind the pepper plants.

County Fair

2008-08-12T18:25:00.003-04:00

Just those words...County Fair bring to mind Almanzo Wilder's milk pumpkin from one of my favorite books, Farmer Boy. The children and I headed out this morning under beautiful sunny skies to get in during the early admission time. The street traffic and people traffic was heavier than I anticipated, and we cut it right down to the wire. In the process of getting in and getting the tickets two of the children went missing. Never in my life has this happened before. All is well that ends well, and I don't desire to rehash the whole thing. So, suffice it to say that after a 20 minute panic attack we were all together and off to enjoy the fair.

Natalie and Carolyn were very excited to see the hunter/jumper competitions. We walked through the horse barns and saw some very impressive draft mules and Percheron. I wouldn't want one of those Percheron to step on my foot. They have some mighty hooves.

We took a walk through the grange building, the historical building and the 4-H building. I picked up some information about getting the girls involved in 4-H. I was not in it as a child, but all the things that they do (sewing, canning, cooking, etc.) is right up my alley. I am going to call tomorrow about clubs in my area.

We also went through the livestock buildings. The children and I toured the Moo-terity ward and saw the little calves with their moms and the piglets nursing on their mommas. It was so sweet. I enjoyed the rabbits. Some of those rabbits were bigger than my cat.

The last event we attended was the pig races. It is a cute little 15 minute show consisting of 3 races. The last race, if you want to call it that, was the pot bellied pig race. These guys were funny. We ended the day by sharing two pieces of fried dough. They cost $5.00 a piece. I couldn't believe how expensive the food was. I know fair food is always expensive, but this seemed quite a bit. In all I spent $35 for our day at the fair. We stuck to traditional county fair activities.

Wouldn't you know that I forgot to bring my camera. I love a blog post with pictures. I wish I could give them to you, but alas, I can't. You will just have to imagine with your mind's eye all the fun things we did and saw.

The Rain!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-11T18:28:00.012-04:00

Here are the rain gauge totals. It might be a little hard to see, but that is 2.5 inches in 24 hours.

Here is what it did to my garden.

The peppers and corn are under water.

Hopefully we won't have anymore rain for a long time and this will dry up very soon. We had flooding in the garden about 6 weeks ago, but this is worse. My corn and peppers had their growth stunted back in June. I don't know what we will harvest from the garden. Next year we will be able to build up the beds more, and they won't be as susptible to this. At least when it is too dry, I can irrigate. I can't do anything about this.

Busy Monday

2008-08-11T17:55:00.004-04:00

I woke up early this morning with the intent of getting done will all my work by 10:30 AM, so I could take the children to the county fair. It was raining. I don't think it had stopped raining since yesterday. Hard rain poured down on us yesterday from around 9 AM until well after dark. I don't know how much rain we received, but I am about to go check the rain gauge. I'll report back later. By 10:30 AM it was still in the mid 50's and raining, so we decided to postpone our outing until tomorrow. Wouldn't you know that by 11 AM it was sunny, and it has stayed that way ever since? I needed to get to the fairgrounds before 11 AM to get the discount on our admission tickets. County fairs aren't cheap anymore.

Monday is laundry day. It has been that way for almost 2 years now, since I developed my weekly routines. I wash all the family clothing except for my oldest two children who wash their own on their assigned day. Typically I do 3-5 loads depending on what is dirty. I gave myself a little head start last night by throwing in two loads of towels. I have a river (well, small stream) running through my basement near my drier because of all this rain. There was a basket of towels that had gotten wet because some of them were hanging over the edge.

Since we weren't going to the fair, I decided to can more pickles. I did dill pickles today. I got 7 quarts canned, but I am a little disappointed that one of the jars didn't seal. I have never not had a pickle jar seal in 3 years of making pickles. Anyway, I guess I will have to put this one in the fridge and wait for it to pickle. I am not sure as this has not happened before. If anyone has any advice on this, please feel free to let me know.

I also boiled up eggs for egg salad for tomorrow. I even got it mixed up. I make a fluff salad to go with dinner. I love having this menu. There is some strange sense of freedom in being well planned. I think it is freedom from stress. I got all my meat and one frozen dinner out of the freezer for this week's dinners. Without a weekly meal plan I could not do this. Then I would be stuck 60 minutes until dinner with no idea what we are eating and all the meat is frozen. Not anymore.

Well, I am off to check that rain gauge. I will report my findings when I return.

Jennie

Pickle Day

2008-08-09T21:43:00.004-04:00

Saturday morning is farmer's market day for me. There is a great city market about 10 minutes from my house. The prices are great. I have been shopping there for so many years that I have made friendly acquaintances with a few of the farmers.

I thought I was getting an early start by leaving my house at 9 AM, but alas I should have remembered that in August everyone remembers that there is a farmer's market. It was very crowded, but not as crowded as it will be in a month. I need to start going before breakfast to beat the crowds and to get the produce I want. This morning I was looking for pickling cucumbers. I was finding them to be hard picking. Many farmers had the really small 2 inch cucumbers, but I wanted bigger pickles. I went to my favorite farmer, Becken Farms, from Sanborn, NY. I was disappointed to find that they had already sold out of all they had. I little further searching yielded me two pecks of pickles. Isn't that a nursery rhyme? I digress. I think I bought the last two this fine lady had because after I walked away I didn't see her replace what I bought. In addition I bought sweet corn, 2 quarts of peaches, a quart of green beans and a quart of red potatoes.

I love making pickles. They are easy. There is not much prep work. No blanching or peeling. Just remove those blossom and stem ends and slice. Sometimes you have to soak them in a solution or hot water for a while. I gathered all of my canning supplies after I returned from the market. I also had to make a macaroni salad for dinner. After lunch I began in earnest. It took me all of four hours, but I canned 14 jars of pickles. I have 7 quarts of sweet pickle spears and 7 pints of hamburger dills. I still have pickling cucumbers left. I took a poll, and my family wants me to make more dill spears with them. So, the cucumbers are relaxing in the basement. I will make dill pickles on Tuesday. That will give me 21 jars of pickles plus the ones I have left over from last year. Oh, I also make watermelon pickles, but that will happen next month after the watermelon are ripe.

Blessings,
Jennie

TIGHT AUGUST BUDGET

2008-08-08T13:13:00.002-04:00

The month of August has put us in a tight place money wise. We have annual bills due this month, and I need to save us every possible penny.

I have planned out each meal for the month. Yes, that is for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have also decided for ease of planning to make one breakfast and lunch plan and rotate it each week of the month. This has made things much easier for me who tends to over think everything.

Part of this plan includes me making English muffins and bagels each week. Buying them is out of the question. That would add $10 to my bill, and I already own all the staples necessary to make these items. I have a tried and true English muffin recipe thanks to Alton Brown of Good Eats fame. I was a little leery of making bagels. I did attempt making bagels once. It was several years ago, and my results were less than spectacular. Well, after searching and searching I was able to come up with a usable recipe. I actually combined a few recipes that I found on line and one that a friend sent me. I made a couple of errors, but they turned out great. One of my errors was not making the whole big enough, so I ended up with holeless bagels. It was a little strange, but it did not affect the taste. I also thought they could have been a little sweeter. So, I will adjust that next time. I told the children that next week I would try making them cinnamon raisin bagels.

Since this is only the end of week 1, my motivation is strong. I hope this continues to be the case. Only time will tell.

Blessings,
Jennie

Friday's Fruit from My Hands...

2008-05-09T22:59:00.006-04:00

Finally I was able to work on replanting my tomato plants into their larger pots. I had waited longer than I did last year and they had gotten quiet leggy. I repotted 30 tomato seedlings, 6 basil seedlings, 4 cabbage seedlings, and 8 lettuce seedlings. I did not take a picture of today's work, but I do have a few pictures of my light set up in my basement. I am very thankful to my friend, Amy, who no longer wanted the lighting system. She gave it to me. The smaller light in the background was purchased by me last season.

Tomorrow we will be picking up our free raspberry plants. I don't know a whole lot about growing brambles or any other fruit for that matter. I will put up some pictures of our raspberries after we get them in the ground.

Today's Fruit...

2008-05-02T21:29:00.004-04:00

My hands have been fairly busy today. Since I made a full week meal plan, I had to honor what the menu said and make muffins for the children for breakfast. Once we had cleaned up, it was time for school. It is our habit to read from a chapter book on Fridays. We have been working our way through Farmer Boy for several weeks now. Carolyn took her placement test for our year-end standardized testing. We still have to complete one more section.

I was able to dig a little in the garden. I am working on creating the most productive garden. This will be the third year for our garden. I have a huge herd of white tail deer that I compete with for produce. Last year, my husband put up a seven foot fence. Since it was a lightweight mesh, it didn't last the season. I would prefer not to put up a fence, but I am not sure if I can get away with that. I had read that deer are deterred by horse manure. Since I have access to as much free aged manure as I can haul home, I am going to try. Hopefully there is some merit to it.

I topped the day off with a trip to Home Depot. We finally picked wall colors from the dining room and living room. My husband has them all beautifully primered. I am secretly hoping that he will at least paint the accent wall tomorrow before we are running from hockey rink to hockey rink.