Its July already?

Hello!!  oh, my goodess, summer sure is super busy here.  I worked most of May at a local greenhouse and farm and then returned to work in late May.  We planted a huge garden this year, adding potatoes and corn, which we've never done before.  Unfortunately our green beans did not come up and our zucchini seems to be rotting on the plant before it grows very big.  We had a ton of rain a few weeks ago and it just didn't recover from that.  The tomato plants are huge though, which is a wonderful blessing.

I've been exploring our yard, pastures, and the field across from us to find medicinal herbs.  We have nettle and red clover all over our pastures.  Elder grows along the fence and in another week or two, I'll be able to pick the berries and dry them.  I'll continue to make elderberry syrup for us throughout the year and the kids have requested that I try elderberry gummies this year.  I was amazed that I found a small patch of yarrow in the middle of the pasture.  I was super excited.  I currently have the dehydrator going with mint, chocolate mint, basil, and oregano.  I hope to get the clover, nettle, and thyme done this weekend also.  

I have calendula solar infusing in oil and am working on the second infusion.  I'm looking into making a plantain oil to make a salve to help with these terrible bug bites.....or I might just keep it an oil and put it into a roller ball.

I made a great cherry jam with the cherries off of our tree.  The pear trees have about a dozen pears on them.  The trees are only a few years old.  Our poor apple trees are empty.  There was a hard freeze four nights in a row in May and the trees never flowered.   

I cannot wait to post how the salves and oils work out.  Soon, I'll be crazy busy canning spaghetti sauce and freezing potatoes.  

I'm still planning curriculum for this next year.  I'm pretty sure I have it all figured out.  I'll post about that next time.  Have a wonderful week!

Wednesday, April 29th, 2020

We are in the midst of the stay at home order here in MN.  We should find out on Thursday, if it will be extended after the May 4th expiration date, or if we will be extended.  Our homeschool co-op board had a big discussion via zoom last night regarding next year.  We ended our year early because we have about 150 kids in our co-op and its too large of a group to meet.  We're not sure at this point what September will look like to see if we can resume or if we will need to make changes.  We have all admitted that our fall will probably look very different, if we are able to have fall co-op at all.

This week, we're winding down our homeschool year.  I have a few things that I want to hit hard before we end the year so I'm going to sit down tonight and tomorrow and hammer out plans for the next 5 weeks.  I did order some curriculum today for next year.  After homeschooling for 16/17 years and working full time the last year in the evenings and weekends, I'm waving the white flag and turning towards some online classes.  The 11th grader will do online government/economics and English.  The 7th grader will do online bible, English, and math.  The 5th grader will do online English, math, bible, and handwriting.  I only have to plan science and history (for the youngest two).  History will be Biblioplan Ancients.  I absolutely love this curriculum.  We are completing modern history this year.  Science is still up in the air.  I've really been looking at Supercharged Science but it is so expensive and quite honestly, I'm dismayed from the number of emails I get from her trying to sell me her curriculum.  Its honestly, like 2 a day and its a large turn off.

On the homestead:

• I started a batch of vanilla today.  I cannot wait to taste the yumminess later this year.  I'll probably start another batch in September.  I do a lot of baking.
• The garden was tilled up.  We still have our raised beds, although they are quite large.  It was my way of defining the area when we moved here as I didn't have any equipment.  We'll keep two of the smaller beds and make the really large one about half the size to do the tomatoes in.  
• The strawberries and raspberries that I ordered should be here this week
• In the next few weeks, I'll be getting the pear tree, 2 plum trees, and 2 peach trees that I ordered.
• Kevin planted the potatoes and sugar snap peas.  Everything else will wait for warmer weather.
• I am planting seeds for my medicinal garden tonight.  I'm very excited about that.  I have 8 different medicinal plants.  Elderberry grows wild here and we have an ample supply of nettle.  
• I'll be cleaning out the flower beds and adding some new ones to make room for my medicinal plants.
• I need to clean out the garage and really old freezer this week.  We are getting a giant chest freezer next week to make room for the two cows we are having butchered in May.  
• I'm continuing with the online ordering for groceries.  I will pick up a large order tomorrow.  I hope that my stocking up this month will help next month alleviate some of the grocery budget.  Two cows being butchered in the same month is quite pricey, but we'll have beef for over a year.
• I made a batch of chicken noodle soup and canned it (minus the noodles) and a batch of strawberry jam.  I plan on a batch of autumn jam and red pepper jelly this week also.  And I'm gearing up for the dandelions to come in. I'll make some salve and delicious dandelion jelly.  It is sooooo good.  It tastes and looks like honey.

Recipes:

I tried the gingerbread cake with caramel sauce in The Prairie Homestead Cookbook.  It was divine.  I absolutely loved it.  I didn't have time to try any other recipes this past week.

I've finally returned

It's been almost two years since I've posted so much has happened and our world is upside down now the covid-19.  We are in our fifth week of quarantine and it certainly has changed and challenged our lives.

Update on the last two years:


Homeschooling:

• I have been working full-time for the last year.  I work retail and mostly evenings which allows me the flexibility of still homeschooling.  
• Hallie graduated last year and Courtnee graduates next year.  Trey graduated from a welding/machine repair program in December and is working full-time
• Kailyn and Tylar are completing 7th and 5th grade this year
• We still participate in a wonderful co-op, that sadly stopped in March because of the virus.

Homestead:

• We added cows and goats to our homestead.  We've had several calves and kids born this last year.  
• This year, we're adding more chicks (egg layers).  The last two years, we raised meat birds but decided not to do that this year.
• We are increasing our garden this year by adding corn and potatoes.  I am excited to add both of these.  We are also adding 70 strawberry plants and 4 raspberry plants.  We added two pear trees last year and we're adding another one this year along with 2 plum trees and two peach trees.  
• I finished an introductory course on herbalism this year.  I am adding 6 different herbs to our gardens; echinachea, st. John's wort, mullein, calendula, chamomile, and yarrow.  I've found a nice mulberry bush on our fence line so I'm excited to pick those this year.  I've also foraged elderberry and nettle on our property.  And I can't wait for the dandelions to come in so I can make some dandelion jelly.  I only made one batch last year and it delicious; tastes like honey.

Quilting projects:
So many projects so little time. I'm working on hand quilting the quilt for Courtnee that I started several years ago.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

February

My goal this year was to get back into blogging more regularly....like once a week.  Here's its been a month.  A short month in the number of days, but very long and busy.  

• I'm still working part time retail.  I'm back up to 2-3 days a week.  I hope to work three shifts a week, which will give me our spending money for the week and pay for banjo lessons and riding lessons, which start up again next week.
• American Heritage Girls is very busy.  We are gearing up and planning our summer activities.  As the troop coordinator, its my job to spearhead everything.  We have some fabulous leaders that really step in to help but we have to remain organized.  
• We had Life Groups at Church every Wednesday this month.  Our last one is next week and then we'll start again in a few weeks.
• Homeschool co-op is fantastic.  We are absolutely loving it.  I am so glad we are in this group.  The 50 minute drive to get there is totally worth it.  I taught 2 classes, both on the Iditarod.  One to the 4th/5th graders and another to the 6-8th graders.  I'm teaching them both again this next session-The Oregon Trail.  It should be a blast.  Next week, we have a field trip to a Maple Syrup farm and then we start the last 6 week session the week after.  
• We have managed to get quite a bit of schoolwork done but I haven't gotten back into the geography plans I had for the littles, which was to study a continent a month.  So far, we've only done Antarctica and Australia.  We are starting South America next week.  I'll have to really plan well and kick it down to 2-3 week studies instead of a month so that we can finish up the continents this year. 
• I'm trying to get some spring cleaning and organizing done.  Really, its purging.  I'm so happy to get rid of some stuff.  We've been here for 5 years which is the longest we've been in one place in a long time so I really need to purge.  We don't have many closets here and can't put any storage in the basement so its a challenge.  Working on it though!!
• Princess went to a dance at the high school with her friend.  The girls had a great time.                
  
  Princess also celebrated her 17th birthday.  I cannot believe that she is that old already! We celebrated at a steakhouse.     
  
•  After the birthday dinner, we went to Cabella's which is right next door.  The littles pretended to be frightened by the animals. 
  
• And here is some of the photos of life on the farm.  We'll be getting chickens again next month (yeah, I really despise the store bought eggs after enjoying the fresh for so many years).  The three "bacon seeds" are getting bigger.  They should be ready to butcher late summer.  And the horses are enjoying the warmer weather.  I didn't have the phone with me to take pictures the other night during chores.  Somehow one of the goats got himself stuck in the arm of one of the plastic yard chairs.  It was hysterical.  I really wish I would have gotten a picture!!
  
  
  
  
   
• And our homeschool co-op, we had a huge Valentine's day party.  It was a blast for the kids!
  

Trying to get caught up

My goal in January was to return to blogging.  I've felt out of sorts with homeschooling and then I realized I've been missing a very important element: blogging about our weeks.  I was going to start in January catching up and getting back to a weekly routine.  Well, life never happens the way we want.

First, we had a broken water line.  Our pump sits in a well house in a hobbit sized hole in the ground that is not only small to get into but small inside.  The sides of the wellhouse were lined with stones when it was put in 80 years ago.  Both the house line and the line to the little barn ran underneath those stones.  Apparently, the stones shifted and either pinched or broke a line....and we never did figure out which one.  There was a small hole in the wall where another line had been put in (the automatic cow waterer) which conveniently did have a shut off valve.  The other two lines did not, so not only could we not figure out which line wasn't working, but we couldn't shut off any line at all, which meant no water anywhere on the property.  Its bad enough not having it in the house, but we have 3 horses, 3 pigs, 4 goats, and a bunch of cows out there. Thankfully we have great neighbors.

After three days without water, it was finally fixed.  We opted to make the hole in the side bigger and put all the lines through there.  Then we moved the pump above ground and now each line has a shut off valve.  Here we are in MN in the middle of winter though so we have to quickly build a casing for the pump and put heaters in there so the line didn't freeze.  Yeah, good times.

The week after this adventure, the colds hit the house.  Kevin, I, and one of the girls are the only ones that didn't get it.  Unfortunately, now Kevin has it.  I'm sleeping on the couch....he can keep that all to himself.  lol

We also had a lovely snowstorm....17 inches of the white stuff.  We were all stuck home one day.  Thankfully, we had some new puzzles to get us through.  I've found 4 pack puzzles (500 pieces each) of Thomas Kinkade's Disney puzzles.  We got the first for Kevin for Christmas (okay the girls were more excited about disney princesses than he was, but they all love puzzles).  I picked up two more boxes at Walmart for 13.97 each.  Score!!  Here's the first four done.

 And here's the snow:

We did manage a field trip to the RAD zoo early in January.  Its close by and we love going there.  The Reptiles and Amphibians are awesome! The girls love the alligators.  We were able to hold an alligator that day.  It was great!

 Have a wonderful weekend!


 

Homeschooling high school

This year I decided to get some video lessons for the girls.  I just can't keep up with teaching every subject on four different levels, and its so important to help the older girls out with some of their subjects.  I reviewed Abeka videos but they seem so outdated, and quite frankly boring.  The teacher presents the material in front of a live class and asks the students to respond to the questions.  Unfortunately, they have to move the mic around so you're sitting there with dead space.  I don't have the patience for that type of teaching and neither do my girls, so we choose Bob Jones video classes.

9th Grade

History-Bob Jones Geography video lessons

Science-Bob Jones Earth Science video lessons(we didn't cover it last year and I thought it would be more fun than physical science)

French-Bob Jones video lessons also Mr. G's French class on Currclick

Math-Math U See Algebra (she has a few lessons of pre-algebra to finish up first)

Language Arts-Abeka grammar, Write Shop for writing, Wordly Wise and different novels to read including:  poetry, Animal Farm, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, the Glass Menagerie, The Hound of Baskervilles, and a video of one of Shakespeare's plays.

Keyboarding

Home Economics

11th Grade

History-Bob Jones American History video lessons

Science-Bob Jones Biology video lessons

Spanish Bob Jones video lessons 

Language Arts-Abeka grammar, Write Shop writing, Worldly wise different novels to read including: Swiss Family Robinson, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, poetry, a story from Poe, Scarlet Letter, the Outsiders, and a video of one of Shakespeare's plays.

Keyboarding

Home Economics 

ACT prep 

I'm excited about this year because I'll be able to focus more on the areas that the girls need help with instead of trying to cover every single subject.

New Year....

I still have pictures to post from our vacation, but that may be a bit before I do that.  

I finished up my papers and classes yesterday.  I have one week off until I start my next two classes.  I'm on the run trying to get cleaning and yard work done.  I also have to start lesson planning.  Canning season is right around the corner and I want the lesson planning done before that starts.

This year, I have a 3rd grader, 5th grader, 9th grader, and 11th grader.  Here is what the two littles will be doing this year:

History-Homeschool in the Woods time traveler series.  We'll be starting with the colonies.  I really enjoyed this program when I did it with the older girls.  So many fun activities to do.

Science-Elemental Science physics.  I cannot wait to start this program.  I've always pushed off physics but thought it would be a great change for us this year.  

Geography-Passport Club with some country and continent studies thrown in there. We did this club years ago with the older kids and it was a lot of fun and they learned a lot.  I'm happy that they have once again started selling to homeschoolers.

Math-Math U See

Reading-All About Reading and Explode the Code workbooks

Spelling and Grammar-All about Spelling and Bob Jones grammar

Writing-different levels of Write Shop.  I've always struggled with teaching writing and I think I may have finally found a program that is fun and engaging.



We will be continuing riding classes through October and then we'll be doing some ice skating sessions.  I'm toying with some winter swimming lessons also.  

This year we are joining a co-op about 45 minutes from home.  I'm hoping, especially for the older two, for the kids to make some more homeschooling friends.  We have lots of young homeschoolers at our church but not many teens.  I also like the idea of the kids having a teacher different than me.

Michelle

Trip to NY

Because of the size of our family and the expense of travel, I haven't been home in ten years.  We've lived overseas twice and on the west coast most of that time.  The last few years, hubby was stationed in another state so our funds were spent getting him home to us to visit.

This year, I decided that I was going home.  Ten years was way too long.  So the girls and I took the two day drive and we went home!!

Here are some pictures from the Buffalo Zoo.  We went today with my mom.

At the dino dig

Enjoying the merry go round

Got some face paint

The girls and my mom

Another fantastic thing is getting to visit some old friends.  One of my best friends, Glen, joined the Navy after high school and just retired from the Navy the year before Kevin did.  He moved back home with his wonderful wife.  His kids and my kids got along famously....navy brats that they are, they were best friends in a few minutes.  Here is my mom, them,and me (in the blue shirt).  We had such a good time.  We spent four hours there and even though we haven't seen each other in ten years, it was like we had just talked yesterday.  Wonderful!
 

The rest of the week will be spent with family and friends.  I cannot wait until I see some of them.  It has been way way too long.  I am also taking the girls to Niagara Falls this weekend.  We can't go to the Canadian side because I didn't get our passports renewed, but we'll have fun going on the US side.  

Have a wonderful Fourth!