Why We Love Homeschool Co-op Classes

Because we have cool guys like this that teach us about the Civil War

Thanks Miguel for making history come alive and making our day!!

Being Prepared - Food

I think I will just start by sharing how we are mostly preparing for food self-sufficiency. We think this is not only the best way to start our journey of being prepared as well as stewardship of God's money.

Although I think it's important to be able to sustain your family for a while if there is an emergency, Steve and I have decided that 3 months is all we are going to prepare for. Not only because it's incredibly overwhelming to think about a year of previsions for a family of four 0r the fact that we just don't have that much room in our house for storage, but mostly because we think that planning too far ahead and "hoarding" can be misconstrued as not trusting God. The verse that immediately comes to our minds is:

Matthew 6:25-34
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Our main goal is stewardship and listening to God's voice in our lives, not hoarding and being fearful. We daily have to check our motivation and heart when it comes to "preparing". Whether it be about money, time, food, kids, etc.

So with that sentiment, here is how we plan on using the land that God has richly blessed us with this year. Many of you know that we have already started a small vineyard at the front of our property. We have about 54 vines right now that will all produce this year. Our next vineyard endeavour is to plant 54 more plants in March. Now it takes about 3 years for a vine to produce ripe grapes but when they all start producing, we should have about 6000 lbs of grapes each harvest. So you ask now, what in the world are you going to do with all of those grapes? Well, we intend to eat some, jam some, have others harvest some and then hopefully sale some to a local winery. In all, we hope this to be a money making venture. Thankfully it also is what my hubby and my dad do to relax after work too. So we will call it a business as well as natural therapy for our family :)

Next is our plan to square foot garden. We only had enough time to build 2 yesterday but we plan to have 4 in total: Our plan is to have something like this. I am not planning on having as many of some and more of others. The key to gardening is to only plant what you will eat. Otherwise, what is the point?

Here are some pictures of Steve and Ethan planning and building the raised beds. Thankfully due to the construction of the house, we really don't have any weeds to worry about or we would have laid down weed barrier first.

I started seeds yesterday as well as started the potato barrels. We are planting Roma and grape tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, okra, cucumbers, corn, carrots, onions, strawberries, bush beans, sugar snap peas, garlic, green and red peppers, jalapeno peppers, lettuce and cabbage, broccoli and red and yellow potatoes. All of the veggies will be grown in the garden while the potatoes and bush beans will be grown in barrels. We have never grown potatoes in a barrels before but I hear it is the best and easiest way to do it. I got my info here and we planted the bush beans with the potatoes b/c potatoes naturally ward off Mexican bean beetles while the bush beans naturally ward off the Colorado potato beetle. We will see ;) I have also planted all of my herbs in containers on the back porch. I know this is really hard in the Texas summer to keep watered but since it's so close to the house, I hope to keep on top of it.

Here are some pics of the boys decorating their potato barrels. Of course we couldn't leave them drab and boring.

Here are some pics of our seedlings, herbs and potatoes in the barrels

Next project is raising the greenhouse. BIG project! At Christmas we bought this greenhouse with the 4ft extension. So our greenhouse, when up, will be 6'x12'. Again we plan to propagate plants and veggies to sale along with the grapes.

Lastly, our food journey takes us to chickens. Yes, we will be raising chickens! I must share with you however that chickens really freak me out. It has something to do with their crazy eyes! I never know when they are going run at me , moving their awkward necks and scratching the dirt. Freaky for sure but that is what the boys are for. Chickens will be their responsibility!!

I found this plan online and loved it

It's called a "Green Roof Chicken Coop" and basically the chickens are on the bottom while the roof is an herb garden. It naturally attract bugs that feed the chickens too. Very cool! We aren't going to order this kit b/c we have so many materials left over from the build but we are using the design!

So that's our start. I say all this too with an air of expertise:) HA! I am notorious for killing plants and veggies. I absolutely don't have a green thumb! But knowing this time is about stewardship and preparing, I hope to stay focused and yield a great crop this year. I will update and my progress, good or bad!

Oh btw... I just did a spell check on this post. Apparently I have no business teaching my boys how to spell! I have 22 misspelled words! Most of them vegetables. Sheesh! I just did another and misspelled - misspelled :)

And The Award Goes To....

Me! Really? Thanks so much to my bloggy friend Darcy Lee over at Darcy's Kitchen Capers for bestowing this awesome award to me! Darcy has some great recipes that she shares and I love to cook!

Part of the award is to share 7 things about yourself, so here goes:

1. I am the wife of Steve and have been for almost 17 fun and crazy years!!

2. I am a homeschooling mom to two awesome boys.

3. I love to cook, bake and entertain people at my house.

4. I do not have a green thumb at all but am giving gardening one more chance this year! Maybe this year is the year ?

5. I love anything Sci-fi and hate chick flicks.

6. I just bought a sewing machine and I am going to teach myself to sew!!

7. We have one more adoption class next weekend to finish and we will be ready for our homestudy. We could be the parents to a new child very soon!

So to pass on the honors, I choose these 7 blogs that I read without fail as often as I can:

1. The Simple Wife

2. The Harried Homemaker

3. To Love, Honor and Vacuum

4. Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

5. Mary Ann's House

6. Nan - Mom's the Word

7. See Jaime Blog

A Whole Heap

I have a secret..... well, not so much a secret but definitely something we don't readily talk about in public:) We keep most of the evidence hidden away. Tucked in cabinets and packed under the stairs and spilling out from under the beds:) No, its not clutter or dirt or an overabundance of clothes or toys.

So, to what hidden habit am I referring?

I am afraid I have become a food and survival hoarder. I guess the word hoarder is a little extreme. I have been watching the show "Hoarders; Buried Alive" and I promise its nothing like this:

Not yet anyway ;) So maybe a better word would be preparer? Is that a word?

But seriously, this is something that Steve and I feel is so important right now. Not because we feel like the end of the world is coming or anything. But we all have to admit that things have been getting weird. Inflation is quickly coming. Food, gas, corn, sugar, coffee and wheat are just a few of the everyday items that are going to cost significantly more in the coming months. Think I am an alarmist ? Check out this article. Even if you aren't a Fox News fan, the rising costs of daily necessities can't be denied. Take canned goods for instance. The rising cost of metals including tin and aluminum trickles all the way down to the store shelves in the form of canned food. There is a prediction that later this year, the price of canned goods will increase by 5% and will rival the increase the rising price of oil. Now I know that doesn't sound alarming yet but compound that with the rising costs of other things, it adds up fast. Thank God that Texas has been virtually untouched by major unemployment, foreclosures and rising food and fuel costs. But we won't be immune forever.

Okay, stepping down off of my soapbox now and back to the beginning of our stockpiling journey.

Very much like researching homeschooling curriculum's, investigating how to begin stockpiling food and supplies is OVERWHELMING to say the least. There are so many articles, books,websites that can help. Some are a little extreme and in my opinion crazy but if you search long enough, you will come across some keepers.

I am going to share just a few that helped me get started. Now, I am still learning and in the beginning stages myself. I am nowhere near where we would like to be but our first goal was to get enough surplus that we could survive, food wise, for one week and then gradually move to our first big goal of 3 months. Why 3 months? That is the average length of time that it takes to find a new job if you lose your current one. If Steve were to be unemployed, we would like to have the basic necessities, food, household items and medical supplies, taken care of so that would be one cost that would not have to be factored in.

I started with this resource: Food Storage Binder

These two ladies have put together a simple and clear plan for short term and long term storage. They provide lists and supplies that are essential for survival in a storm, car, power outage and all the way to a major catastrophe; and so much more. They send weekly updates to add to your binder as well as inventory sheets, legal document storage, checklists, worksheets and recipes. It costs about $17 to download but so worth it. This resource really helped me organize my thoughts and goals to efficiently. It's a must!!

Also, check out my sidebar of blogs I read. "The Harried Housemaker" shares her journey from the beginning. She has been doing preparedness for about a year. She has some great ideas, recipes and she also shares her "don't" items from experience. Another blog that is totally fabulous is "Prepared LDS family". She has great recipes as well as storage advice when you have small spaces or no storage space at all. Both of these ladies have been great resources!!

I hope to share my journey here. So far, we have right at a week's worth of storage. So technically, we could survive with no electricity for about 7 days. I am going to compile a list of what we have so far and some of our future plans next time. They include water storage, gardening and outdoor cooking.

So, if after reading this, you don't think I am crazy, I hope I can encourage any of you that are thinking about or have begun this too. Maybe we can work together on becoming more self-sufficient and better stewards.

Happy Hoarding!

For Once, I Don't Want Them to Get Along

This is a new way to get the boys to do unwanted chores for me. When they are getting aggressive with one another, have them beat rugs!

Sometimes I have found myself plotting how to get them to fight so I can get my rugs clean :)

Asian Pear Jam

To see the recipe in it's entirety; click Pick Your Own

Heritage, History and Hullabaloo

A couple of weeks ago, the boys and I took a quick trip to Austin and College Station with my parents. It really was a whirlwind of a trip but we packed a lot in in 2 days.

My blood runs deep in Texas. I am a 7th generation Texans with roots that reach all the way back to the second colony of Stephen F. Austin. Texas is a very special place to me and my family and so we want to instill that Texas pride in our boys. Although Steve isn't from Texas, his heart is and he is just as proud of our heritage as I am. We have had several significant ancestors in Texas History. This trip was focused on visiting one special site. There is a memorial placed near a small creek in North Austin. It is the site of the Wilbarger Massacre of 1833. My great great great grandfather, Thomas Christian, was part of a surveying expedition when Comanche Indians surrounded them and attacked. Thomas Christian and another man died there but Josiah Wilbarger, although scalped and left for dead, survived and managed to live another 11 years. An article about my grandmother and her story is HERE. The boys and I went to the memorial as well as the river embankment where they were attacked.

We also went to visit the capital building and the museum. This was a very fun and educational day for us. We spent hours exploring, reading and learning about government and the amazingly rich and diverse history of Texas.

And of course, on our way home, we had to go through Aggieland!! We have not been back in so long that Ethan and Isaac don't remember. Texas A&M is another family tradition and one we hope to pass on to the boys. I think they got a little Aggie fever when we were there. We drove by mine and Steve's little trailer we lived in while he was in school. Then we took the boys by our first home we owned and Ethan's first house. Next was the most important stop..... Freebirds for lunch of course. Best burritos EVER!!! Last but certainly not least, was a stop on campus to take the boys to the College of Architecture where Steve lived for 5 years of his life. It was completely surreal to see the boys walking the halls that Steve and I did before they were ever even a thought to us. It is so amazing how time flies by like that. It's been 11 years since we lived there. While on campus, we also had to stop by and take a picture of the Visualization Lab in the College of Architecture. This is where only 18 of the best of the best of programmers go to learn to make CGI movies. These kids are drafted even before graduation to Disney, Pixar and/or LucasArts. So you know Ethan's new goal now. Get in that college! He hasn't stopped talking about it or stopped wearing his A&M sweatshirt since. AWWWW... gotta be proud.

Short but sweet update. Life is zooming by at an alarming speed and I am definitely in the slow lane. I also thought I would try my hand at online scrapping. I HATE to scrapbook but with a program like Picnik, it's really fun!

Until next time.......

Homemade Applesauce

I have always wanted to try to make homemade applesauce. We go through so many apples a week that I never have any leftover to try. Isaac loves apples and usually eats at least 2 a day. So this time, I went to the store and intentionally bought about a dozen more than usual with the intention of making applesauce. When Isaac saw all of the apples in the cart, he got so excited. He thought he was going to get to eat those all by himself. When I told him that they were for making applesauce, he said "I guess that's an ok thing to do with them."

This is my new favorite website "Pick Your Own". It has the best recipes for canning, homemade jams and jellies and links to local farmers where you can pick your own veggies and fruits.

This recipe is from Gooseberry Patch "Dinner$ on a Dime" . It is so easy and fast.

Recipe:

* 10-12 apples, cored, peeled and cubed

* 3/4 c. apple juice

* Optional: 1/2 cup of sugar or substitute (I didn't add any extra sugar)

* Optional: 1 t. cinnamon (I didn't add any cinnamon b/c I knew I would be using the applesauce for baking)

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker: toss to mix. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours. serve warm or keep refrigerated in a covered container. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

I canned mine so that I could keep it longer. I added some pictures of the process of making and canning:

I love my peeler, corer and slicer from Pampered Chef

Hardly any work and it only took about 10 minutes to peel, core and slice 12 apples

Once all of the apples are peeled and sliced, all you do is put them in a crock pot, add sugar and/or juice and turn on the crock pot

It takes all day for the apples to soften. The smell in the house is fantastic. Once the apples are soft, I added them to my Foley Food Mill. This was a Christmas gift from my mom and I have used it A LOT.

Once all of the apples are strained through the mill, you have applesauce. It's that easy !!

Then the canning began. You have to make sure your jars are sanitized in the dishwasher and that you are using new lids and rings. New lids and rings are essential when canning because you have to have a good tight seal or the food will spoil. Once a ring has been used, you can not be sure that integrity of the seal is good. I have ordered Tattlers. The are reusable and so it should cut down on the over all cost of lids. They are kinda pricey up front but with our greenhouse going up at the end of the month, I will be doing a lot of canning and so it's worth it to me.

The ball all in one canning kit is also a must. It includes a funnel, lid wand, jar lifter and bubble remover. A pressure cooker or a water canner is also essential.

You can get these kits at Wal-Mart for about $40. If you are going to splurge and get the pressure cooker, it will cost about $65.

Once the jars are filled, you boil them for about 15 minutes. You will know that they are done if you push on the top of the lid and you do not hear a popping sound. If you go to Pick Your Own from the link above, it gives you some great hints to make sure your lids are secure.

While the applesauce was canning, I decided to take the leftover apple peels and make a few apple chips. The peeler doesn't leave large pieces like they would had I peeled them by hand but a few turned out ok.

I mixed together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkled it over the top. I baked them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 300 degrees.

They came out so good and crisp. They were an hit with the boys.

Well, that was my first attempt at the applesauce making business. I know this will be done quite often when apple picking season comes in the fall.

Now I have 6 jars of applesauce to either eat or bake with. I have already made applesauce bread that was successful at my ladies bible study. I will have to share that recipe at a later date.