Some snippets

Flannery took this picture hte other day of two eggs.  Both came from our chickens.  The one on the left is a normal sized egg. The one on the right?  What's up with that?  Silly chickens.

Getting that creative feeling again.  I already have two blankets I am working on.  But this little project should be completed quickly and easily.  Sometimes I just need a little something to make that won't take me months to complete.  This is a crochet market (or produce) bag.  We may use it to bring in our BJ's stuff.  Not sure if that will work or not.  BJ's is like a Sam's or Costco, so they don't have bags to put your stuff in.  Not that some of it will fit in bags anyways.  But when we get peanut butter, shampoo or almonds it can get tiring to go back and forth to the van when we come home with a van full of groceries...all without bags.

Jonah during school time today.  Don't let these pictures fool you.  I think taking a video would be much better to convey how a schooling day goes for us.  It's pretty much half mangaged chaos.  Let me assure you if it happens to be the bad half of the managed chaos, it's not a pretty sight.  My children do not sit perfectly still all seated in straight backed  chairs...all attentive.  Ok, wait till I stop laughing.....Ok, now I can continue.  But there are certainly our good days, and when I have those it's a nice break from the regularly scheduled chaos.

This would be the resulting mess of Jonah's "school time".  I don't actually do school with Jonah, he just tags along and plays along with what ever we happen to be working on.

He is trying to learn to count...all on his own free will.  Plus these cubes help with fine motor skills, right?  Good thing he is only 3, and I don't have to worry about schooling him.  I just get to be his mom :-)

Saoirse only needed a couple of these blocks to learn the concept of "even" numbers today.  But like a lot of my children, once they get going it's hard to stop them.  Now if only we could harness that energy towards their chores...hmmmm...

Jeremiah took this picture.  He thought it was a wonderful sight to see all of our "funky" stuff on the counter.  Let's see we have the two ferments I showed you all yesterday, then the two quarts of salsa, two quarts of the pepper/onions, two bowls of squash seeds soaking (only one showing right now), a pot of almonds soaking and a bowl of freshly 'harvested' eggs.  We are really trying to work on getting our chickens to lay more eggs.  We changed their feed and added some oyster shells.  That really started to make a difference.  Until we got a new wave of cold weather.  The breed of chickens we have now don't do well with swinging weather changes.  We heard of a breed that does, and are thinking of getting a few to see if it's true. I'm not sure how to spell the breed's name, but it's something like 'astrolop'. 

Ok, off to finish cleaning my room.  Jeremiah took the kids out to the store.  I took a break to eat some yummy squash.

Loooonnnnngggg day in the kitchen

It's been a long productive day!  And it's not over yet!  I still have three chicken roasters to debone and bag before I head to bed. Currently they are cooling so that I can handle them.  So, while I wait, I thought I would recap our day.  I was able to get everything I could get done, done.  There are a couple of more things on my list that need doing, but I can't do yet as they need defrosting, or some other step to be complete.  Hopefully this means we can start the intro diet tomorrow.  I decided that spending an extra day prepping would be worth waiting an extra day.

All the girls helped out in the kitchen today.  They were VERY helpful.  There would be no way that we would have gotten everything done if they hadn't helped.  Here is Flannery chopping some apples for applesauce.  Applesauce doesn't come until stage four or five.  But Jed may have issues with his blood sugar, like the last time, and I want to have this on hand.  I have a couple of things lined up for him should he need it.  I was trying to make sure it was closer to being gaps legal, and closer to stage 1 to get the most healing in.

She was pretty proud of all her work.  I was too!

Saoirse helped me with the carrots.  I made up a batch of fermented ginger carrots, and we peeled and chopped the rest for the freezer.

She was wanting to cut the carrots, and I let her cut a couple.  I hate this stage where they really, really want to help by cutting, but they are just riding that fine line of ability to do so!

Moira joined in the peeling, chopping fun!

I've said it before, I really love the sunlight streaming into my kitchen.  I tried to capture it, but wasn't exactly successful. This was the closest I could get.

There was some serious multi tasking going on today!!  If not for myself, but with all my 'servents' running at once.  You can see some of the works in progress above.  By tonight I will have cooked 6 roaster chickens, bottle about 4 gallons or more of broth, have yogurt fermenting over night, 2 bags of yellow onions chopped and put in the freezer, 1/2 gallon of fermenting ginger carrots, 8 pounds of carrots peeled, cut and put in the freezer, 10 pounds of apples turned applesauce, 1/2 gallon of fermenting cucumbers, 2 quarts of fermenting salsa, 2 quarts of fermenting green bell peppers with onions, almost 2 quarts of ghee made, a few bunches of bananas put in the freezer, and a 3 pound bag of almonds soaking to be dehydrated tomorrow.  PHEW!!!

Now this is a beautiful site.  I can only hope they taste as good as they look :-)

You can see some of the dill floating in the cucumbers, and the yummy ginger and garlic in the carrots (there is garlic in with the cukes as well).

There you have it, my day in a nutshell.  I am worn out!  The girls are still going strong.  Flannery is currently cooking some banana pancakes.  After I debone the chicken I am contemplating making a hot cocoa as it will be a long time before I can have it again.

Jumping in again

Sometime this weekend we will be jumping back into the GAPS intro diet.  I've felt it necessary to do so since we have all stalled in our improvements.  I can look at everyone and say, "Well this and this are better, but we still have that going on.."  It may just be our bodies way of taking a breather before continuing on in their healing mode.  Not sure.  I do know that we have backslidden. No, we are not eating off of GAPS, but we are not fully eating *all* the really healthy foods we need to.  For example it is suggested that you drink at least one cup of broth each day.  We haven't been doing that.  We only have broth when we have soup, which has only been about 2 meals per week.  You are supposed to be eating a lot of fermented foods.  Again, we are not.  We have been eating yogurt at least 3 to 4 days a week, but that's pretty much it.  I just feel we are not getting enough of the good stuff in that we need.  My goal of re doing intro is to get back in the habit of eating those power houses.  Jed has not gained any more weight in the last two months.  Granted we've seen a LOT of other improvements in the past two months with him, just not in his weight gain.  I know it is important for his brain to heal, and I know that it is, it is just hard to see him at a stand still with his weight. 

So this weekend I have a long, long list of food prep we need to tackle to make things run more smoothly.  Here is what I have so far:

ferment cucumbers (to make into pickles)
make and ferment salsa
make and ferment guacamole
boil up a bunch of chickens, freeze meat
cook a bunch of ground beef, then freeze
make beef stock (roast bones first)
make a batch of yogurt
cut and freeze carrots
peel, cook apples and freeze
make ghee
cut and freeze onions (two bags)
freeze bananas (for Jed if he starts to crash)
keep the broths going, pouring off 1/2 gallon each day and renewing water
order kefir grains and piima culture

Phew!  We've got work to do!  This will be on top of trying to get some other things done around the house, plus some yard work.  We had our shopping day today and it went well.  I only had 1/2 of it to do as Jeremiah did the other half.  I was hoping to get the kids out to the park while we were running around town, but that didn't happen.  I'll have to be mindful to get them out to play this weekend.

Tonight the girls were very excited that Jeremiah brought home some mung beans for them to sprout.  Moira asked if they could get some.  They have been watching the homesteading DVD's we have and decided they wanted to give that a try.  They even video taped themselves preparing for the first step.  I am really over joyed at seeing them work on such a project.  Things really are changing around here, and it is fascinating to see.  Just the other night we were hanging out with some friends.  Isabella and her friend got on the topic of movies and computer time.  Isabella said that she had neither (only the homesteading and gardening videos).  Her friend, who gets little of either of those them self, was aghast...WHAT?  What do you do all day?  Well, I have to say that in the beginning, not a lot, as they wondered around here aimlessly.  They knew not to complain that they were bored :-)  Mommy has plenty of boredom busters!!!  There's vacuuming, dishes, window washing, bathroom cleaning, laundry....the possibilities are endless really :-)  To be honest I was wondering if they would ever find something to do.  But giving them a 'banquet of ideas' to ponder, the time and resources (when we can), mixed with patience has really paid off.  Don't get me wrong, we haven't "arrived", but how wonderful to see progress being made.

Alrighty off to bed with me.  I had to skip out on posting my picture for the day on project365.  Waaayyy too busy today to grab the camera.  I did think of it, just couldn't grab it.  Oh well.  The perfectionist in me is dying slowly but surely.

project365

Yes, I am crazy...why do you ask?  Crazy about what?  Another project.  It is my ultimate goal and focus during my days to care and guide my children.  I've heard many takes on a mom needing her 'own' time, to the opposite, that a mom doesn't, she just needs to wait till God provides her with a breather.  I suppose I can swing both ways!  But I try....note the word try...not to do so.  I do have some interests of my own.  Most of my interests are in the well being of my family...gardening, natural health, home education, sewing, crochet, etc...but a couple of them are more my own.  The study of homeopathy falls into natural health, although I am the only one studying it.  Photography falls in between my own and for my family.  I started up so that we could have nice pictures of our family.  But it is also an outlet for my creativity.  Painting is out of the question as the set up and take down time is too involved.  Not to mention too messy with little hands all around.  Though I may try my hand at some water color pencils.  Not to mention it takes some time to create a painting.  And in my state of being, with little time on my hands I need to see some sort of results in reasonable amount of time or I get discouraged.   Photography fit the bill to create and get results :-) 

I try to get out with my camera to capture our life in the everyday, not waiting for a special occasion or moment.  Now there are those that have an eye for things, and those of us who need some practice.  Project365 is a site to upload one picture that you took that day.  I like it because there isn't a theme, just a place to put your pictures.  I suppose there will definitely be overlap between there and here, but for anyone who wants to really see just the ordinary...you can check my project365 page. 

Just taking a quick break.  I put the baby to nap.  The girls only have dictation left for schooling.  And we have a new kitten.  Yeah, definitely crazy.  Long story.  I have to say it is pretty darn cute :-)

We watched a wonderful movie last night!  I think anyone who has even an inkling that they might want to take up gardening, or for those who already have a garden this is a must see.  Everyone over here is fired up to make up a bunch more garden areas!  Plans, plans, plans.  Seed catalogs, diagrams, talking, thinking.  Isabella signed up to receive some more catalogs.  Because of the lay of our land we will have to get creative as to where these garden spaces will go.  We have to have space for the goats to rotate living areas (still yet to be created), and we have to keep the goats out of the garden areas (read...we need fencing).  Some plans are taking shape that will incorporate what we have available to us and what we can do in the here and now.  Some plans may need to be done in stages as they involve money (like cutting down some of our trees).  I was drooling  eyeing some lovely fruit and nut trees.  I would love to see some apple, cherry, elderberry, pecan, walnut and almond trees in our yard.  Not to mention some blueberry bushes and raspberry canes around.  We even went out today gather some things to start this process.  Along the way we stopped at the park, because little legs needed to run off some energy.  I took some pictures while there.  You'll see our park time below, along with some pictures from here a home over the past few days. Oh, I almost forgot to leave you all with the link to the gardening movie.  The best part is that it is FREE!  You gotta love that :-)
Let me know how you liked it.
Back to Eden

Very rarely do we see Aubrey crawl anymore.  But I got proof that he still does every once in a great while.

This was too precious.  Moira gathered some greens to feed to the goats.  Aubrey was totally entranced watching them eat.

And giddy!

Jed has really 'jumped' into being a dare devil.  I swear he's going to give me a heart attack one of these days.  Yesterday we were walking down the porch steps, and about 4 or 5 steps from the bottom he says, "Mommy, watch this."  And he proceeded to jump to the ground!  Oy.  Here he is jumping off a small hill.  Much safer.

Aubrey is still a bit unsteady on his feet, especially outside where the terrain is uneven. You can see the dirt on his back from when he took a wee tumble.

Tumble or not he just keeps on plodding, he's got 6 siblings to run after!

The girls were playing a tag game at the park today.  I was able to snap a couple of pictures before they would have to run off as they were being pursued by "it".

Aubrey still has the need to taste everything he comes in contact with!

"Did anyone see that?"

Running off to play.

I would still love to get a group shot with all the children, but I felt that today wasn't going to be the day.  So I just called over the girls for an all girl picture. 

Then I called the boys over.  They were all wiggle worms! 

Jonah, who is usually a ham, wasn't in the ham mood, Jed was trying to be silly, and Aubrey wanted to get down and run.

Before we went home we gathered up some supplies for our gardening plans.  I can't wait to share our progress.

Aubrey's first birthday!!!

HAPPY  FIRST  BIRTHDAY  AUBREY

Yesterday was the big ONE!  Our wee babe turned one year old.  Wow!  Seriously the time goes so fast!  Aubrey was up early.  Jonah woke up way too early as well.  So I put Jonah back to bed, and took a little snooze time as well :-)  Aubrey fell back to sleep for a bit as well.  He took an amazing afternoon nap, which let me get a bunch of things done.  Things like make his birthday dinner and cake :-)  Isabella made the cake, and I made the frosting.  The frosting was a new recipe for us.  My first attempt was a failure.  The second attempt came out perfect.  We made a plain vanilla bean cake and I made one batch of vanilla frosting and one batch of chocolate frosting.  You should have seen Aubrey's eyes light up with the first lick of the frosting!  He wanted to dive right in!  We let the cakes chill in the fridge a bit while we went outside to play.  It was growing dark and we didn't have much time before coming in.  I wanted to make sure to eat early so that Aubrey didn't crash before it was time to have cake or open his birthday present.

Everyone loved, LOVED the cake.  And it seems like we hit the jackpot as far as the gift.  Everyone wanted to play with it.  It's only a set of wooden nesting boxes.  It was a fun evening for all.  Here are some pictures of our day and celebration:

Saoirse took this picture.  Aubrey was much too interested in what his brothers were doing than looking at the camera.

Moira has done a lot of work in this front garden area!  You can see there are some tall weeds at the end of this area.  The whole area was covered in those weeds, but she pulled them out.  I started to watch this great video on gardening last night.  I decided to watch the rest with the family.  Because we have done away with movies (all but educational ones) the girls get pretty excited about watching a homesteading movie!  They really want to grow a big garden to store food and to sell some of the extras.  So I think they will really enjoy this film.

Saoirse wanted me to take a bunch of pictures of her :-)  She's our photogenic one.

Hanging with our cat.  We were loving on him.  He was kind enough to bring us a present today, his first.  I was beginning to wonder if he was earning his keep :-)

Aubrey wanted to try on some boots, either that or it was Jeremiah who wanted him to try on some boots.  Ha, ha!  One way or the other it was pretty cute, and short lived.  As soon as he took a step he stepped right out of them!

Jed wanted a picture of his cars.

A boy can't have too many pictures of his cars.

Aubrey was a whirl of activity!  It was hard to get a picture of him that wasn't one big blur.

He's really into climbing now a days.

I'm bummed that I didn't get a clear picture of daddy and his boy.  It was getting dark.

It was time to come in and have some cake!  Oh, wait, first we needed to eat dinner.  Chili was on the menu as that is one of the easier meals for Aubrey to eat.

The girls reminded me that we had to have Aubrey partake in the one year birthday tradition.

Most of our babies picked up two objects at the same time.  Aubrey was very decisive and chose the tomato firm and square.  That means he's supposed to be a farmer when he grows up ;-) 

Finally it was cake time.  Looks to me like Aubrey enjoyed himself.

Making sure to get every last lick!

After a quick bath it was time to open the birthday present, but not before a little dancing.  Aubrey was dancing in a circle and clapping his hands.

Ooh, what's this?

It's mine to play with?  (technically yes, but try telling that to all his siblings :-))

Trying to figure out how these things work.

All this celebrating is hard work...time to take a breather.