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!

Almost to the finish line

I haven't posted in weeks.  Mother's day weekend was the weekend of terrible things.  We received a call Friday night that Kevin's aunt had passed, Saturday morning I woke up to a wet, soggy bedroom carpet (bathroom shower pipe busted and flooded the bedroom and bathroom), and Sunday night my brakes started grinding in my truck when we went for ice cream.  Needless to say, as nice as Mother's day was, I was happy for that week to be over.

We took off to Iowa for the funeral.  It was very nice.  Aunt Suz was a wonderful lady, full of energy and life.  She was loved by our entire family and will be missed.

Last weekend, we went to Iowa again for Kevin's sister's surprise 50th birthday party.  She was definitely surprised.  It was a wonderful night and lots of fun.  We had a great time.  We got home Sunday night and Kevin spent Memorial Day smashing apart the tiles on the bathroom floor.  Our bath has a step up in the middle of the floor and is covered with 4 inch tiles from the 80s.  The fixtures are all solid gold 80s.  I fully expect Culture Club to break out into song when I go in the bathroom, lol.  We've decided to try to fix as much as we can as possible so that we can redo the entire bathroom and make it more user friendly.  We hope to bring down that step and make the floor one level.  Kevin's father has lost a leg and this will make visits to our house much easier on him.  

I'm still desperately trying to get my garden in.  Hopefully this week.  I got some done but we've had so much rain this month (over 14 inches) that the weeds in the garden beds are over a foot tall.  All the beds I had cleared out already are filled with weeds again.  I hope to have this all done soon!!!  

This week I'll be working in the garden and taking the yucky wallpaper off of the bathroom walls.  I have to clear out the bedroom too in anticipation of getting new carpet.  It was the nicest carpet in the house too......so sad that we had to replace that one.  Oh well.  

We finished up American Heritage Girls last week.  It was nice to have that finished up.  Next year, I'm only doing advancement coordinator.  This will be much easier on me.  We're looking for a new troop coordinator now.  I'm excited because I've been lucky to have wonderful women step forward to lead different levels so that my current leaders can step down from doing two jobs and only do one.  How wonderful is that!!  Yeah!!
 

The littles will be doing spelling, math, and reading four days a week this summer.  The big girls have another two weeks of science left and then I'll have them do reading and math this summer also to catch us up some.  I'm hoping to have that done by the end of June and then start again mid-August.  We'll start full days back to school after Labor Day when my dad leaves.  

Have a wonderful week!!!

The end of the year always seems like a race

This time of year is always busy on our little homestead.  The raised garden beds are overflowing with crab grass and dandelions that need to be cleaned out.  The grass seems to grow about 4 inches a day.....or so it seems.  The barns need to be cleaned out. Its a busy time of year here. 

This year is not different around here, with a few exceptions: horse and goats.  The horse has been a lot of fun for the girls to ride.  Shiloh is a pretty good horse after working with her for a bit, we got her retrained on her lead rope.  (She hadn't been worked with for over a year so she wanted to do her own thing.)  We have a fairly large ditch in the front that is pretty steep and a pain in the rear to mow, so Kevin put up a movable electric fence for her that opens to the pasture so she can go out there and eat to her hearts content.

 Kevin also finished up the goats' pens.  We have several areas on the property that can only be pushed mowed.  They were set up that way, why we'll never know.  They could have easily extended a fence here or there so that it could all have been cut with the rider mower, but oh well.  We have goats, so we're putting them to use.  Above you can see what our fencing looks like around the pastures but the goats could escape through the holes, so last weekend hubby put wire fencing up along the posts to keep the goats in those areas.  Well, he ran out of time during the weekend so he just put up a flimsy fence.   By Thursday, we had to keep them in the barn as they got out of all three areas.  Hopefully, we'll be able to save up the money to buy fencing for two of the pastures, so that they will have a ton of room.

Above, is the littlest at riding lessons.  Their instructor has been placing her on bigger, stronger horses this year (ones with more spunk) so that she is used to riding ones that are similar to ours.  Here she's riding Charlie.
 
I have been missing Japanese food, so I looked on Amazon and was able to purchase some Yakisoba sauce and made homeade yakisoba this week.  It was delicious and we gobbled it down.
 

 Trey had to take and art class this semester at college and he chose ceramics.  I don't think he realized how much work was involved.  Above, is just one of the really neat creations he made.

The year is coming to a close for American Heritage Girls.  I'm the troop coordinator but also serve several other areas as well.  I'm glad that the year is almost over.  Below is Bug-a-bug serving refreshments at a Stars and Stripes ceremony for one of the girls in our troop.  Bug-a-bug had to organize, set up, serve, and clean up as part of her level award.  She did a fantastic job.

Although Princess is no longer a member of AHG, she came to the Stars and Stripes ceremony to celebrate with her friend, Amy.  It was a wonderful event.  We are all super proud of all Amy did.

Part of being a member of AHG, involves service to the community.  Here a few girls from our troop, including two of mine, are helping to clean out the local history center's buildings for the spring and summer.  We were in charge of dusting and sweeping out the medical building.  It was certainly interesting to see the tools of the doctors and dentists.  Interestingly, the undertaker had a corner set up in the back. 

I'm still working online and have started to work two mornings a week at the greenhouse that Princess and Bug-a-Bug are working at.  Its been a lot of fun.....and a lot of work.  I didn't realize how badly I'm out of shape.  Some stiff and sore muscles.....and  most  all of my paycheck will be buying vegetables and flowers.

I'm also getting ready to start school up in June.  I need to get on tomorrow and order my textbooks.  Fun!!

I think I've laid out the plans for next year.  The oldest are going to be doing video classes for history, science, and language arts.  Math will be a dvd also for Math-u-See.  It will free up a lot of time and stress for me.  I'm also looking into a co-op but its almost an hour drive away.  I'm not sure if we will do that or not.

Have a wonderful weeks!

So busy....

I started working again this week doing online scoring for the next few weeks.  Its interesting and fun but the first week is always a struggle; trying to figure out how to squeeze work into my daily routine.

The big girls are working part time at the local greenhouse.  I'm going to help out two mornings a week also.  I can't wait to learn more about some of the plants and spend my paycheck buying plants!!  lol  It was warm here up until this past weekend and then it dropped back into the 40s.  We even had a little snow this week.  I haven't been able to finish weeding out my garden and with all the rain the last few days and with what is expected this next week, I may need to mow it.  I did manage to trim the raspberries up and weed out the strawberries. 

Our year is almost to a close with American Heritage Girls. Tonight we had a celebration to honor our newest Stars and Stripes recipient (which is comparable to an Eagle Scout project).  It was a lovely ceremony.  This week is our last regular meeting for the year and then we will be holding our end of the year awards ceremony in a few weeks.  Bug-a-bug is leveling and moving up to the highest level that AHG has.  I'll be curious to see if she decides to do a Stars and Stripes project after seeing the ceremony tonight.

I've been  working on finding homeschooling material for next year.  I think that we are going to do a few dvd programs for the big girls.  I just can't teach them everything; there just isn't time.  I'd like them to do language arts and science with a dvd instructor.  I've decided to do Homeschool in the Woods for the littles.  We have not been great with history this year so I decided to start with the colonial period and start it next week.

Our easter was very relaxing.  We enjoyed staying at home that day.  I was wiped out from everything going on.  We did manage to color eggs, which was a lot of fun.  I realized that we haven't colored eggs in so long that the littles didn't even know what to do.  Bad momma moment!  I've been too lazy to color them and didn't want to purchase eggs when we have eggs from our chickens.  Our eggs are brown though and not great for laying.

We have two new goats on our little farm.  These girls are 100% boer goats.  The little red one is Little Lady and the black headed one is Moonlight.  They are very sweet indeed.

Have a wonderful week everyone!!
 

Catching up

I didn't post the last two weeks as we went on a quick trip to TN last weekend and I was getting ready and recovering.  In the mid 40's is not the age to drive 12 hours each way in three days, plus do a major event.  Ugh.  I was exhausted for days.  

We took the littles with us and went to TN for one of my husband's friend's retirement from the Navy.  It was a very nice affair and we really enjoyed connecting with everyone we haven't seen in a year.  We went to Steak and Shake and of course, Chick-fil-a.  The girls didn't get too spend too much time in the hotel pool as we were busy most of the time but that is okay.  They played with old friends and met some new ones.  Everyone was astonished at how think and long hubby's beard was.  He's even had it trimmed twice.

Another reason I haven't posted in two weeks is that I've been really busy around here.  I started scoring with Pearson again this weekend and in June, I'll be starting back to school to finish up my master's.  Also, I was contacted by the state regent from DAR (Daughter's of the American Revolution) to help me finish up my application for membership.  I had a few holes that I couldn't find information for and she called and then called  back 36 hours later to tell me that she had the information.  I couldn't believe it.  I hope to have the final information I need by mid-May to file my application.

Tonight, we are heading out to buy two more doelings.  We want to start breeding Boer goats and these will be the first ones that are registered.  The two males we have now are 3/4 boer and 1/4 alpine so they are not what we are looking for, but they will make good pets for the girls.  They love them already.

Have a wonderful week!

Catch up

Good morning everyone!!  

These little animals we have added to the homestead certainly keep us busy.  Princess Buttercup told me two days ago that she loves living on her farm. ahhhh, warmed my heart.

The goats are getting bigger and getting their horns.  They are eating hay and solid food now so we have to get them to drink water so they can be weaned off of the bottle.  

The horse, Shiloh, is doing well.  The girls are anxious to ride but the weather is not cooperating too much.  They did jump on for a little bareback the other day.

Princess Daisy is working hard to earn her cooking badge with American Heritage Girls.  She is super excited to earn badges.  Princess Buttercup is working on a few also.

Bug-a-bug took this photo for her online photography class from Currclick.  I think she did a nice job.  

I haven't taken pictures yet but the girls are all working on presentation boards for a country fair with some other homeschoolers.  Each picked a country and it working hard on their board.  They are due on Wednesday so we will be spending most of out time on Monday working on the boards.

The littles are also busy working on their life size human body.  They are learning about the different body parts and what they do.  We traced their bodies onto paper and are cutting out the organs to put on the body.  Its pretty fun and they really enjoy it.

I'm off for now.  Have a wonderful and blessed week!

 

Crazy busy

Hello everyone!!  I have not posted in quite a while.  Honestly, I'm not sure where the time goes.  We have been very busy on our little homestead.  The cow went into the butcher a few weeks ago and the two pigs went in last week.   Our freezers will be stocked.  Hubby has informed me that he'd like to get a meat grinder and we will attempt to make our own sausage.  Hopefully that will go well!

We also added two baby goats that we're bottle feeding and a new horse.

I'll have to upload the pictures of the horse for you to see.

One the school front, we've been very busy

• Horseback riding lessons started again last week.  The girls have improved a lot from when they started two years ago.  This is helping with our horse also, as she is trained but hasn't been worked with in over a year.
• Gymnastics class with other homeschoolers has been going on since November.  The three youngest participate in the class.  It has been a huge blessing.  There are only about four more weeks left then we will break until the fall.
• We just finished up ice skating.  Twice a month during the winter, the ice rink has open skate on Monday afternoons.  The homeschoolers have taken full advantage of this.  I even skated.  It wasn't pretty as its been years since I skated but I didn't fall.  The girls have never really been on the ice and did great.
• Read alouds:  I continue to read the Betsy books by Carolyn Haywood and The Boxcare Children books to youngest two.  They love the stories.
• Bible:  Our American Heritage Girls troop is memorizing Proverbs 31 and the class at church is teaching the littles the books of the Bible.
• Science:  The littles are studying the human body.  We just started and they are enjoying it so far.
• History:  The littles are studying Native Americans
• Math, Reading, Spelling, and Grammar continue.  Both littles are making huge strides this year but are a little behind so we are working hard to get caught up.
• The two big girls are very independent in their work.  Princess is taking an Interior Design class from Currclick Live and Bug-a-Bug is taking a French class and just finishe da photography class from Currclick Live also.

I think that's it for now.  We've experienced some strange weather this winter.  We've had these really warm days and then it snows again.  We had a tornado touch down last Monday just south of town and then six hours later, it snowed.  We are expecting another storm tomorrow that may bring up to 8 inches of snow.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Blessings,
Michelle

What a wonderful year!

This past year was full of blessings!  TL graduated from homeschool and is attending the local community college.  My stepson was married to a wonderful woman and right before Christmas they announced that they are expecting.  And Hubby finally retired from the Navy and is home with us. 

It has been a busy few months full of readjusting to life with Hubby at home.  Over the winter, he'll be on the road during the week and home on the weekends (he's a trucker).  He really enjoys his new job and is having a great time. 

We had a wonderful Christmas full of fun and games.  We put together three puzzles Christmas week and watched hours of Hallmark movies.  It was a lot of fun.  Very relaxed and easy.  I didn't feel too stressed at all.  I still have two boxes to mail out and a few Christmas cards and I'm not too worried about it.

I've spent the last few days working on homeschooling lessons.  I really let the planning portion of fun things slip away from me.  I'm glad I got it back under control.  I really felt like we were just doing the book basics and not doing anything fun.  So, we're diving into American Indians and the girls will be putting together all sorts of houses and crafts and making some recipes.  And we'll be studying geology in science and spending lots of time looking over rocks.  Later this year, we'll move forward into the colonies for History and study the American Revolution.  In science, we'll be studying weather and the human body.  I have some fun activities saved on Pinterest for those units.

I pray that you all have a wonderful New Year!!  

Blessings, 
Michelle  

Christmas Planner and Christmas projects

This year I put together a Christmas planner.  It has several sections: address book for cards, elf on the shelf ideas, items to make, and my recipes.  The items to make include quilts, table runners, stockings, wallhangings, scarves, and headbands.  Obviously, I will never make everything that is in there, but its nice to have it all in one place without having to search for patterns every single year.

I've also really enjoyed having all the tried and true recipes and new recipes to try, all in one place.  I was able to put together a nice shopping list that I've been working on for several weeks.  I'm happy that I'll have all the items on hand before I start baking.

I toned my card list alot this year.  I'm tired of sending out 80 or more cards and only receiving a few dozen back, so I've cut the list way back to almost half of that.  I feel much better and not so stressed about getting cards out.

I've made several table runners and wallhangings for our house this Christmas.  I'm finishing up a few and then I will put some pictures up.

I've also finished two cowls and am starting the third tonight.  I really enjoy knitting while watching all of the Hallmark Christmas movies.  My teen girls really love all those movies so we watch one almost every night.  My DVR gets filled up with Christmas movies that we will continue to watch throughout January.

I hope everyone is doing well!!  

Michelle

Catching up

I honestly meant to post every single week this year but life has been very busy.  Right now, I'm in full swing to make some Christmas presents to save a little bit of money this year.  

• Riding lessons ended for the year freeing up Monday nights.  Unfortunately, that is payday and the only night I have to grocery shop so I'm usually out and about.
• We have our Christmas party for AHG the first Tuesday in December and then not until January.  I will enjoy the break.
• Wednesdays were very busy with the after school program, play practice, and Life Groups.  Life Groups have ended for this year so I get a little break.  I just have to drop off and pick up kids now.
• Thursdays have started another gymnastics session.  We have three more classes left.  This one is a class instead of a playgroup.  A little more money but well worth it for the little girls to get the instruction they need and desire.  So, I drive up into town in the morning and then evening for banjo lessons for Bug-a-bug.
• Friday nights are still busy with the teens.
• The big girls did a nice unit on elections and learned quite a bit.  They were actually interested on election night and even followed some of the results as they came in.  
• The littles just finished up a big unit on Space and will be working on two short units before Christmas: Mammals and Fish.  It should be interesting and fun; not too involved since we'll be doing a Christmas unit too.  I'll take a few days off after our Thanksgiving unit this week to regroups before starting our Christmas unit.  We will be working on American Indians in history until Christmas break and then dive into the colonies and revolution after the New Year.
• Bug-a-bug doesn't enjoy her science very much as there isn't many experiments for her.  I need to work on that and challenge her some more.  She seems to really enjoy her history this year
• Princess is doing okay in history and science.  She doesn't seem to be bored stiff like in previous years

I've already decided what to do for history and science next year for the big girls.  I will be writing my own curriculum for 1800-1900 world history.  They will be doing a lot of reading and writing on their own.  For science, I've decided that we will take a year and a half to get through biology.  I really want to take my time and make sure that they really understand it all.  I'm hoping that they can take the clep test when they are done and not have to take a college science.  For the second half of the year, I hope to work on an introduction to chemistry.

I pray that you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Michelle

Busy Busy schedule

Until the end of this month, we've been busy running around five days a week.

• Mondays is riding lessons for the youngest three.  This ends next week.  I'm amazed at how well they ride after two years of lessons.   This is an expensive activity but well worth it to see their improvement and confidence rise.  And they all love it!
• Every other Tuesday night is American Heritage Girls.  We also have other activities scheduled such as service days and fun events so sometimes we're headed out on a Friday or Saturday also to an event.
• Wednesday the little girls go to the church after school program.  From now until our Christmas play, the older girls will also be going and helping out with the practice.  I arrive at 5:30 and we eat dinner at church and then do the Wednesday night bible study at 6:30.
• Thursdays are a little crazy right now.  The littles are in a gymnastics class in the am with other homeschoolers.  That ends next week.  It's almost turned into more of a playgroup so it wasn't really what I wanted.  They would love to do lessons though, so its been a good intro for them.  Later on that day, I run Bug-a-bug up to banjo lessons.
• Fridays are for the teens.  Our church runs a teen program open to the community Friday nights from 7-10.  They have a ton of fun.

We've all been getting used to hubby's schedule.  He leaves about 5am and gets home between 6-8pm.  He has an hour drive each way to work, which he does not enjoy.   A trucker is a much more relaxing job than being in the Navy.  He's really enjoying not having that responsibility anymore.  

We've been getting ready here for fall/winter.  I have to go out and finish up the garden tomorrow and rake leaves.  Today I have to make some caramel apple jam and do something with the squash and pie pumpkins.  (this means bake and puree the pumpkin but I'm not sure about the squash yet).  

We only did three days of school this week.  MN takes Thursday and Friday off and we do also.  I usually find that I am finishing up fall or canning projects and use those days wisely.  Plus, our church is doing the fall cleaning so I was there for five hours yesterday.  The big girls are at the MN Youth Conference with our church.  They are having a blast.

Enjoy your weekend!!

I'll be outside cleaning out the chicken coop, getting ready for the arrival of some pigs, and raking!

Week five under our belts

This week was pretty busy with different activities.  Monday and Tuesday were normal school days and Wednesday we went to Oxbow Zoo and Park to see the animals and play.  They don't have many animals there; about twenty different kinds but its fun to view them.  We arrived right at feeding time so it was fun for the kids to see the different kinds of animals and what they eat.  They also have a nice sized buffalo herd and it was fun to see the animals up close.  Last time we were there, they were off in the distance and it was difficult to see them.  I of course, forgot my camera.

Thursday was gymnastics and library for the littles.  The big girls stayed home and did their assignments. Friday we went to the Mankato History Fest.  They have re-enactors from different time periods.  It was a ton of fun.

It is very important for your dragon to also have armor during medieval times. 

This guy was the best.  MN's own Captain Jack Sparrow.  He was absolutely fantastic with the kids and put on a neat show.  He's a historian at heart and gave us a ton of information about pirate history.  Makes me want to run out and get a book on pirate history to read.

Captain Jack and his wife took a picture with the girls

Civil War-they shot off the cannon several times.  Very loud and smelly but neat

Trying on some chain mail

Princess was arrested when trying to enter the saloon.  It took this poor boy quite a while to get those handcuffs on.  They have to be screwed in. 

They hauled her off to jail and I told them to throw all the kids in.

Civil War cannon is very loud!

And we had to get a little face painting in.  We waited for all the school buses to leave and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  It was great.

 It was freezing yesterday when we went but warmed up a little during the day.  It was in the 40s/50s the whole time we were there and the sun was blowing but it wasn't too bad.  There were a few building so we could come in and get warm at the stoves.

The re-enactors spend Wed through Friday night at the campground; camping out in old fashioned tents.  The frontier men were literally laying in the ground with a clothe over top of them held up by a few sticks.  It poured the night before we went, almost an inch of rain, but the frontier men said that they were dry.  Everywhere they were cooking over campfires for their meals also.  Smell of campfire smoke everywhere.  It was great and we will definitely head back there next year.

A very successful first month

2nd grade

This first month back to school has been very busy indeed.   American Heritage Girls has started up, riding lessons continue through October, the littles started a gymnastics class with a co-op, Friday night teen nights started at the church, and soon the Wednesday night programs start.

I've been tweaking some of our lessons this month but for the most part have stuck with my original plans.  It certainly helped having everything ready to go at the beginning of the year.  I feel so much more organized this year!

Here's some photos of my girls this year:

10th Grade

8th Grade

Fourth Grade

 

 

S