What's Up?

I'm sorry that I have not been very consistent with posting lately.  I start to get into a rhythm and then lose it again.  Here is what has been going on around here.

My two oldest boys are home from school!  It is nice to have an even fuller, noisier household.  It is neat to see how they have changed over the last few months.  They are more mature, better leaders(especially boy number 2), but still fun to have around.

I finally went back to the doctor to see what I need to do with my toe.  Remember, I broke my pinky toe last July and the bone never mended.  So now I have to have a piece of the broken bone taken out.  My surgery is Friday.  I am dreading it!  I just keep telling myself how nice it will be to walk without my toe swelling up and hurting later and to wear something other than flip-flops or tennis shoes.  I will have to take it easy for two weeks which will be quite annoying .  I'm thinking up projects I can work on while I'm sitting on my duff.  I will work on the quilt I started over 12 years ago, read books, watch movies, and drive everyone crazy complaining about sitting still.

I have been taking pictures in preparation for a few blog posts.  I will give you an update on my garden, the kittens, how and why I quit my low carb diet, and how to make yogurt for lots of people.  I'm out of ideas and feel as though I am just boring my readers(if any are left) to tears.  I would like to have a theme to my blog but I can't decide which way to go.  And then I'm afraid I won't have enough to write about or I'll get tired or writing about the same topic. 

I am enjoying the warmer weather.  New Mexico is hot in the summer but it is also cold in the winter.  I grew up in southern California so snow in the winter was fun at first, but I am over it.  I sometimes long to live in Arizona or Alabama again.  The winters were so much pleasanter.  I would like to be able to garden year round.  I can work outside in the winter here but there is hardly ever anything growing.  I want flowers growing outside every month of the year.  I am already dreading the upcoming fall and winter!  Sad, I know. 


I guess that's all I have to say.  I don't even have a picture to post.  How pathetic I am today! 

I Made It! 2010 Homschool Crew

I was selected to be on the 2010 Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew.  I am very excited to have this opportunity to use and review homeschool materials with my students.  I am on the crew for older children so this should help me do a better job with my 7th grader.  I have been homeschooling the lower grades for so long that I haven't had much motivation to go beyond what I am used to doing.  I look forward to sharing reviews with you throughout the next school year.  My new "job" starts in July. 

I'm a Chicken Mommy

My eggs hatched!  I was turning them one day after lunch when I heard some chirping and realized the chick in the egg was talking to me.  You can see a little chipped spot on the shell where the chick was trying to break out.  The first baby wasn't free from its shell until some time early the next morning.  You don't know how difficult it was to resist breaking the shell and freeing the chick sooner.  But, I resisted.
 

Here is one a few hours after it hatched.  It was still wet.

I had two batches of eggs that hatched about a week apart.  The bigger chicks in this picture are a little over two weeks old and the tiny ones are almost a week.

I love to watch the fluffy little babies.  They are already flapping their wings and scratching at the ground.  I like to raise my chicks on dirt instead of some other type of bedding.  These babies are living outside in a secure area with a doghouse for their coop.  When they are older we will move them in with their parents.

We are going to make a mini coop and yard next to our main chicken area for raising new layers and meat birds.  I hope one of our chickens will go broody.  It would be so neat to see a clutch of chicks raised naturally.

Using Herbs: Fresh Herb Infused Water

We use a reverse osmosis filter to purify water for drinking.  RO units take everything out of the water, the good and the bad.  I like to find ways to add nutrients back into our drinking water.  I have tried clay but the children were not fond of that idea!  I usually make a batch of herb tea and encourage them to drink some each day, but for the lazy summer days I think I will fall back on fresh herb infused water.

It is super easy to make.  Just pick a handful of herbs and drop them into a vessel full of water.  Let them float about for a few hours before sipping the water.  I added lemon balm, parsley, and pansy flowers to this pitcher of water.  When the water is gone, or almost, I just add more.  I use one batch of herbs for the whole day.

The children were intrigued with the floating flowers and were eager to try out my new experiment.  The flavor was very light and subtle. 

Ramblings From a Mind Obsessed With Gardening

I love lilacs.  This is my first plant.  It is a dwarf lilac that I planted last year.  Pretty.  This is only the second time I've had lilacs in my yard.  The first lilacs were in the yard of a house we rented in Ruidoso(southern new mexico, mountains).

This is a delphinium.  It's a perennial.  That means it comes back and flowers each year.  I heart perennials. 

Here are the dianthus I planted last year.  They have added lots of color to this little corner of the backyard.  I think I need to plant them everywhere.  I bought a six pack last spring and here they are again twice the size they started out as and full of color. 

They are also called pinks.  They are part of the carnation family and look like, guess what, mini carnations.  I will be able to divide them up and spread them around the yard this fall. 

After they have slowed down on the flower production you can trim them back and they will flower again.  These flowered for the whole gardening season last year.  They weren't always this full of blossoms but there were always a few on each plant to add some color to the border. 

52 Books Week 31

45.  Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

Sewing: My Last Day of the Challenge

I finished the nightie I started yesterday.  It's a McCall's pattern.  They are my favorite pattern company.  I haven't branched out into anything outside of the usual fabric stores.  For now I like to use a pattern I am familiar with so I can get the project finished sooner.  I don't have a lot of time to sew so I need to make the most of it or I will give up.

I won't post anything else unless it is really cute.  I have a few more boring nighties to do and then I'll start on skirts and dresses.  If those turn out nice I'll show you pics.  I need to use the embroidery function on my machine.  But, that requires loading the program on my computer and finding all of my designs.  I'm not up for that today.  I'm giving the children next week off of school since their big brothers will be home for the summer so I'll have some time next week to sew.

Sewing Challenge and Brain Ramblings

As to the previous post.  I apologize for my misspelling of challenge.  I always spell that word incorrectly.  Why doesn't blogger have spell check on post titles?

Back to the sewing challenge.  I didn't finish anything today.  I started another nightie this morning but my brain was too tired this afternoon to sew.  We have a cold going around and I was feeling it a bit.  I didn't want to end up sewing the sleeves on upside down or something.  That seems impossible, but I probably could manage to do it if I am tired enough!    I might get back to my project after dinner.

While I was too tired to sew I was not too tired to go outside and mow the grass with the pushmower(shouldn't that be one word?  Spell check says no, but I don't care).  That doesn't require much brain energy and I actually find it to be a good time to think.  It is meditative for me.  I mow a few times a week.  The whirring of the blades relaxes me.  I can speak in short sentences.  I don't want to write a compound sentence.  I am goofy.  Goodbye!

Sewing Challange: I Finally Finished Something!

I finished two somethings.  Nighties for my girls.  The baby girl's nightie is actually a slip pattern.  I made the largest size on each pattern because I hate tracing patterns and they can wear them for awhile.  I have one more nightgown cut out and ready to be sewn tomorrow.  I'm going to make my oldest girl a pillowcase dress for her other nightie.  I have a love-hate relationship with sewing.  I really don't like cutting things out but I don't mind sewing them together.  I have to work in small blocks of time or I start getting sloppy and in a hurry to finish.  I get impatient with the process.  Slow and steady is my sewing motto. 

Book Review: Divanomics by Michelle Mckinney Hammond

Divanomics will help you make the best of a bad situation-Debt!  The book is full of tips on using your money wisely interwoven with the author's personal story of wealth to debt.  My favorite realization from this book was, what you spend your money on is what you value the most.

This book is written to the single woman but many of the ideas can apply to married women and families.  She shares many tips throughout the book to help you save on food, housing, clothes, social life, dining, and using what you have instead of spending more mony.  She shared many tips I had not heard before and that would give new life to my frugal lifestyle.

This book would be a nice gift for the young single woman starting out on her own.

I received a free copy of this book from Tyndale publishers to review.  The opinion expressed above is my own.  If you have a blog and would like to review for Tyndale, sign up here.

Here is the first chapter of Divanomics if you would like to see what it is about.


Free First Chapter

Kids Clothes Week Sewing Challenge

I heard about this challenge on Monday evening and decided to join it.  I haven't even made it to the sewing machine yet.  Tomorrow, I hope! 

Monday night I looked through my fabrics and chose some for my projects. 

Tuesday I started to work on making nighties from two of my shirts.  I was going to alter them and add some length so they could be used by my daughters.  I just wasn't happy with how I thought they would look so I gave up. 

Today I cut out three nightgowns. 

Here are the projects I hope to finish in the next two weeks:
4-8 nighties
2 dresses
2 skirts
4 shorts for the girls
4 jammie shorts for the 4 year old boy

After that if I am not completely sick and tired of sewing I want to figure out how to make drapes for the living room sliding doors, paint and recover the dining chairs, and cut out some napkins. 

52 Books Week 30

34. Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon

35. A Light in the Window by Jan Karon

36. All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

37. Poise: How to Attain It by D. Starke

38. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

39. More Hours in My Day by Emilie Barnes

40. What Make Bread Rise? by Doug A. Kaufmann

41. The Schwarzbein Principle The Program by Diana Schwarzbein

42. These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon

43. The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

44. Divanomics by Michelle Mckinney Hammond

If Only

If only they could always act this way. 

If only my children would get along this well all of the time.

My home would be happy and peaceful.  And maybe a little too boring?

If I Could Ask God Anything Awesome Bible Answers For Curious Kids by Kathryn Slattery

This 207 page book is full of answers to the many questions kids have about God and the Bible.  11 chapters contain questions on topics such as God, the Bible, being a Christian, and the church.  The answers are well written with Bible references for further study.

This book is full of info for the parent and child.  Many of the questions my children have asked me about our faith are in this book.  I am reading it aloud to my younger children (4-10) as part of our Bible study in the morning.  Many of the answers prompt further discussion of the topic being answered.  We have all enjoyed this book and I think it will be a fun resource to pull from the bookshelf for many years to come.  I recommend this book for children ages 8-12 to read alone and for parents to read aloud to younger children.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book by Thomas Nelson Publishers to review.  The opinion expressed above is my own.