FarmLife Tuesday~Snow

January 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

FarmLife during the winter can be a challenge. We heard the forecast, we kept up with our weather apps on the phone. We prepared as much as we could. We then waited, watched, waited and decided it wasn’t going to snow… But, then, nearly 19 hours after it was said to start, it did, and not with a slow few flurries… no, if this would have been rain falling, it would have caused flash flooding…

This picture is just thirty minutes after it started snowing. The flakes were huge and heavy.

Just look at those snowflakes!!

It was a winter wonderland….

But…

We have livestock, there was an Arctic front on our doorstep and our sick baby was getting sicker…

Sicker as in, I had packed a bag for the hospital…

I had been staying up all night with him for several nights.

I was worn out and now was worried that if he REALLY needed to go to the hospital, we wouldn’t be able to get there…

But…

God worked it out…

I spent some time on the phone with an on call nurse explaining our situation.

Hubby brought home a loader that could get us out if needed.

The people who have cattle here broke through the drifts by morning.

Baby did get a bit worse, but we worked through it.

We kept animals watered even in single digit temperatures.

We stayed warm.

We had lots of family time just relaxing…as much as you can with a houseful of sick kiddos.

We survived…

The livestock survived.

All are feeling better.

Winter on the farm is not all fun. However, it is worth it. We get to see God work through issues that no man could take on and come out ahead on. FarmLife is not for everyone. It is hard, it is time consuming and never runs on a plan… As soon as you make a plan, a cow will get out, a horse will get sick, or deer will take out a 1/2 mile of fence. FarmLife… I love it. I live it. I thrive in it!

Filed Under: Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Mothering, Christian Wife, FarmLife, Farmwife, Livestock Tagged With: , ,

A Look into Our FarmLife…

November 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Our lives are centered around our farm.. if for no other reason than farm life pretty much takes a ton of time. Then because it is our income, our bread and butter, the bacon… or in our case beef.

Our entire family is a part of our farm chores, from driving tractors, to working on equipment, to feeding livestock and watering cows. We all get our hands in a little dirt and umm dung.

Each week I hope to bring you a look into our FarmLife…

Rainbow giving promise over an alfalfa field in our backyard.

Rainbow giving promise over an alfalfa field in our backyard.

Husband helping our neighbor/cousin harvest milo. Unloading into the grain cart while the grain cart unloads into the truck. Ready to send off to the elevator.

Husband helping our neighbor/cousin harvest milo. Unloading into the grain cart while the grain cart unloads into the truck. Ready to send off to the elevator.

My little cow watering helper... asleep on the job.

My little cow watering helper… asleep on the job.

Feeding the cows... should I mention that when the bull looked at me and grunted I ran into the electric fence?

Feeding the cows… should I mention that when the bull looked at me and grunted I ran into the electric fence? Oldest is helping cut the wrap off the bale so the cattle don’t get tangled in it or ingest it and die. The bull is the the white guy already chomping on the bale of hay. Those bales each weigh about 1500 LBS.

What would you like to see from our farm life?

Filed Under: Autumn Fun, Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Wife, Farmwife, Livestock

Where I Went, What Happened and a Little Summer Fun

September 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Well, summer was quite the ride around here. Not just all farm happenings either. There were blessings and some big challenges.

God was with us, guiding us and holding our hands all along the way through it all. Seriously, I rarely had time to sit down and blog. I didn’t have time to sit down and eat a lot of the time. I ate in the van, while holding a bottle for a bucket calf, while directing chores, and while holding gates. I sure am glad for protein smoothies!! I learned to make them a fairly well rounded meal. Mainly out of necessity.

Summer Fun

One of my favorite smoothies:

  • 1 scoop Jay Robb Vanilla Protein Powder
  • 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
  • 1/2 cup ice
  • 1.25 cups raw milk or coconut milk~Prefer the raw milk
  • Fresh Cilantro to taste
  • Pure Cacao to taste
  • handful or two of fresh greens—I normally use spinach

Toss in my Ninja single serve cup, blend until smooth and drink it down! It works great for breakfast lunch and dinner. However, I don’t recommend trying to solely survive on it. (BTW, I LOVE this blender, been using it 2-3 times a day for six months and no issues)

I found this smoothie idea from the book Trim Healthy Mama. I don’t use everything from this book, nor do I follow a diet plan from it, but I have taken some recipes, and ideas and am using them. It is definitely worth the read to understand the science behind how our bodies work. This has worked for me to make sure I am not eating junk food when on the run.

Now, why I have I been on the run?

We have had doctor appointments:

  • Our five year old has had strep or another throat infection six times since April 1. Finally in August we were able to be seen by the ENT, and he had his tonsils out on Sept. 6. His recovery has been a challenge and he ended up back in the ER on Sunday with a medication reaction, throat swelling and dehydration.
  • Heidi, our child with the vision challenges, finally qualified for vision therapy. She goes to a town forty five minutes away twice a week for that.
  • Hannah has been getting chiropractic and physical therapy treatments for her tight heel cords and femoral ante torsion (hope I spelled that right). She has graduated out of her night foot brace and is able to just wear toe braces when I can get her to, and continue with the other treatments on a weekly basis nearly two hours from home.
  • So, that adds up to three planned appointments away from home a week, plus several sick visits during all this.
  • For some odd reason my husbands farm equipment has had an unusual amount of break downs over the last month. I have been running for parts an hour away from home on some mornings and then therapy appointments in the afternoons.
  • I try to coincide our grocery runs with our therapy appointments, but that means each trip we add a grocery run to takes an extra hour or two.

So, at least three days away from home, plus Sundays, means when I have been home, I have been quite busy. In August we took over the care of our neighbor’s garden, as they are on a mission trip. So, add canning to my list of things that have kept me busy.

We have tried not to lose family time during all this, so that has added a bit of crazy too.

I also went to North Carolina to visit my grandparents in August for their 87th Surprise Birthday Party. I took Hannah with me. We enjoyed our time there and are hoping to drive out for a long field trip later next spring.

What were some of your summer highlights?

Filed Under: Blessings, Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Wife, Farmwife, Horse, Livestock, summer fun Tagged With:

Spring on the Farm Watched Our Mare Foal

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Friday was quite the exciting day on the farm. I watched our mare foal. She had a little stud colt. His name is Snickers, and he is super cute, a little sweet with some crunchiness around the edges. As in, if you can get your hands on him, he settles right down, but catching him, without Stormy getting quite grouchy is becoming a bit of an issue. lol Food is our friend!!! Hardly ever does anyone actually see a mare foal, but I did just that! I walked outside to check on our mare, and she foaled right in front of me.

Snickers is a very loved little guy. Nearly three years ago, we tried to breed Stormy, but she was hurt very badly, and lost the baby early in the pregnancy.

She is a VERY protective mommy, and with food in front of her, we can handle the baby, without, well, you risk being her food. We will be dealing with that over time. I am super glad that she is such a good mama, and we don’t have to worry about anything getting in that shouldn’t be there. Including turtles, as there is a dead one in there.

I got to watch mare foal to Snickers, and well, that is quite unusual. Normally mares won’t let you watch them. I hid around the corner of our garage, and got this shot:

Stormy having Snickers, front legs are out.

Then she got up turned around twice walked to the left of where she is here and he was born.

Stormy meeting Snickers

I ran in quickly after he was born, when I saw him thrashing around trying to get out of the sack and broke it open around his face. I towel dried his face, head, and neck a bit as there was a cool breeze and I didn’t want him to get chilled. Here she is checking him out for the first time.

Stormy and Snickers bonding

As soon as I could tell she was going to be fine with him, I backed away and kept watching. This is her first baby, and she is obviously in love with him.

Friday evening after Stormy and Snickers had a chance to bond well, we continued imprinting him and introduce our dog to him, so she would accept him as part of her family.

Everyone getting to know each other

We are enjoying getting to know Snickers, and will be sharing more pictures of our adventures in making him a family horse.

Here are some pictures of him on Sunday:

Snickers and Stormy grazing outside their pen.

Snickers and Stormy grazing outside their pen.

Snickers hanging out with mom

Snickers hanging out with mom

 

Snickers Checking out The Hot Guy

Snickers Checking out The Hot Guy

Filed Under: Farmwife, Horse, on the farm Tagged With: , , ,

Farm Life Chronicles on the Prairie~Cows, Babies, Bunnies, and More

May 12, 2013 by 1 Comment

Farm wives don’t quite have the days that other moms do. Farm Life makes things a little more adventuresome. Some times God finds a way to wear you out before your children have even popped out of bed…

Farm Life Chronicles on the Prairie

The last couple of weeks have been a farm life frenzy. Cows, a bull, horses, and chickens, along with our pets and a couple of baby bunnies.

Farm Life About took My Nose Off

Two weeks ago:

It all started when I got up to go check on our pregnant mare Stormy, due to foal any day. I walked out of the house, had just walked around my van when a huge black cow comes flying by. I don’t mean meandering, I mean a dead run, because Aunt Bea (our dog) is right on her tail. Aunt Bea does this when the cows get out, because the yard is her area, not theirs. After I peeled my nose off the cow’s side and gathered my wits enough to look around, I noticed eight cows in the yard. I called my hubby who was still in the house and let him know about the cows. They aren’t our cows, but, we don’t really want them running around the yard, especially where our children play. As we got to checking the situation out a little closer, we quickly realized there were actually around 25 head running amuck. It took about an hour to get them all rounded up and back where they go.

Farm Life found a baby bunny

As we were finishing up and hauling hay to the horses, I looked down and found two baby bunnies (no hair yet), they were alive, but they were not in a nest. I sent them in with one of my girls to get warmed up. Later that day we found two more not far from where I had picked them up already dead. One died that night, and the other lasted four days. I suspect as the cows were running through the yard, they scattered them.

2013-05-02 17.04.38

Horsing Around with Farm Life

Last Sunday, we decided to let our kiddos ride our older horse (not the pregnant one). Well, she decided to prove to us that she isn’t old, umm, I think 24 for a horse is pretty old. lol She tried to take off with our ten year old, so The Hot Guy (aka Brad, my husband) jumped on her, and she tried to buck with him, so I got on and just road her down until she quit trying to buck. I was able to walk the next morning, and it has been nearly two years since I last road, and it has been nearly 20 years since I had to ride the buck out.

2013-05-06 16.21.26

It takes a bit to remember that when you are training, your horsemanship skills fly off the horse with that first buck. Your goal becomes, sticking with the horse, to help the horse know that won’t get them out of their “job”. And so, as much as I hate it, my toes are down here, as I am nudging her back into movement after bucking a whole circle with me. lol

Monday, we had an orthopedist appoint for our thirteen year old, Philip who broke his wrist nearly three weeks ago at a youth group skating party. When we got home, I rode Dee, the old horse again, and had to again ride the buck out. I haven’t ridden since, as I umm, needed to umm, rest up and let my legs stop hurting. lol

2013-05-06 10.25.20

2013-05-06 11.23.30

Bucket Calf

We also, still have a bucket calf we are feeding. This is Rosie and Hannah. Rosie is not as calm as Scooter was, and is quite um, spunky. Scooter was put together with a mama cow who lost her calf and is doing AWESOME!!

2013-04-14 19.22.51

Hannah LOVES to help with Rosie. Winking smile

We had doctor appointments every day this past week. Noah has a sinus infection, Heidi had a second opinion on her vision (which is a whole other post), and then Isaiah got strep, and Hannah had an appointment for her legs.

Friday, before we took off to Hannah’s appointment, we had a special deliver, which I will post about soon… Hint, it has to do with the beginning of this post!

With all these appointments and happenings on the farm, my posting may become a bit sparse, but I plan to be posting some more farm pictures. Winking smile We should have lots of baby pictures coming soon…

Farm life is never boring and constantly changing. Do you live on a farm? How does your farm life compare to ours?

Filed Under: Christian Family, Farmwife, Homesteading, Horse, Livestock Tagged With:

Farm Life Chronicles on the Prairie

March 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It seems my readers enjoy our stories from the farm. So, I would like to try to share a few farm life highlights each week.

Farm Life Chronicles on the Prairie

Spring Forward Slows the Farm

Spring Forward has been a long time great thing for farmers as far as crops and livestock go. However, me, I like that earlier hour of darkness of an evening. Farmers for the most part come home at dark. This seems to make a long day for the mom who is home all day with her dear children and she can quickly start missing that extra hour of adult communication. This week, most days I didn’t see The Hot Guy home to stay until near or after 9 pm. Not horrible, but it does make for a long day when you don’t see or talk to another adult, except for my lovely group of ladies I chat with online each week, in a blogging group. Y’all know who you are, and you don’t know how much of my sanity you save by being the only other adult voice in my home.

I was actually asked this week if I was an introvert…umm, well, we shall just let that one rest. I think y’all know the answer to that.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, we moved one of our horses, for two reasons. One they quit getting along and two…she is expected to foal in about six weeks. Monday when we woke, we noticed she had not drank well, even though we attempted to teach her how to use her automatic waterer. So, every hour to hour and a half, we went out to “hold the ball” down for her to get a drink. Being pregnant, we don’t think this is a good time to test the fact that if she gets thirsty enough she will figure it out. Talk about a fun way to disrupt the day. Whoever was sent out to hold the ball, would get distracted on the way back to the house and end up being out there for at least thirty minutes. Lesson? Farm life is full of unplanned interruptions…go with it!

Automatic Waterers only Work if the Animal Knows How to Use them

Tuesday morning, I woke better, as in not so late. Two of our chickens were out, and the dog was quite upset they were not where they belong. We have lots of coyotes in the pasture behind our house and well, penning them is the only way to keep them alive. Stormy was still not getting this whole automatic waterer thing, but doing a little better. We fed our beef cow herd, and watched a few deer nibble on the alfalfa that is showing signs of spring growth, thanks to the wonderfully blessed snows we received a couple of weeks ago. We managed to get through all our chore and homeschool assignments, and watched some Leave it to Beaver before bed.

Working on her Creating a Masterpiece Colored Pencil Drawing

Working on her Creating a Masterpiece Colored Pencil Drawing

New Toilet Cleaner from Your Kitchen

Wednesday morning was much like earlier in the week, except I woke to a plumbing problem with the one and only toilet in our home for eight people. Yes, ONE toilet for EIGHT people… Uh Oh… And that led to this new discovery of how to clean and break up toilet clogs in one single step. Again, the chickens were out…not sure why they keep getting out, but I guess the old saying “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence” seems to be true for chickens too. We were missing one for about four hours, and finally let the dog back outside to see if she would point us to it…and she did, up in a tree, with a kitten chasing the poor hen higher and higher… We managed to get most of our homeschool done and some of the chores. Something about spring and animals throwing us a few extra miles in our days seems to slow us down on the bookwork part of our homeschool days. Y’all know that climbing trees to rescue chickens is lots more fun and somehow has to be some education in there, than sitting at the dining room table writing about James Garfield for your history.

New Baby on the Farm brings extra Joy to Farm Life

Thursday morning, thankfully the chickens had stayed in, but The Hot Guy received a phone call from the other guy who rents the pasture here and has cattle here. He had a three day old calf, whose momma wasn’t taking care of her. Well, The Hot Guy went out to the pasture and brought her in. She is so tiny…less than 40 lbs, and a normal beef calf is 75-100 lbs. Her first night in the barn was bad, and honestly, I didn’t think she would make it, but…she is still going and getting stronger every day! We have named her Scooter. Book work didn’t happen today, as we figured out how to work four calf feedings into our chores and other parts of the day. Today was also our Fifteenth Anniversary!! Farm Life interrupted our plans for a supper out, but a new baby calf is always fun to have on the farm.

Hannah feeding Schooter the Bucket Calf

Hannah feeding Scooter

Farm Life Date

Friday, The Hot Guy and I took off to a larger town forty-five miles away…we went on a DATE. However, fairly certain a few of you would balk at what we did:

  • First top, a Steel Warehouse—as in iron
  • Next, Tractor Supply Company—Needed some goodies for little Scooter
  • Starbucks-yeah, that was for me.
  • Out to look at some tools at a place where an auction is scheduled for next weekend
  • Lunch—wonderful bar-b-que place
  • Bulk food store
  • Grocery Store

 

Steel Warehouse

Inside the steel warehouse

Ladies, I am telling you, a date is something you do with your husband, without children and whenever, no matter what you are doing, you can just be the two of you together. The whole idea that it has to be romantic is not realistic in my life. Romance here is giving The Hot Guy a hug when he isn’t covered in grease, oil or cow poo…

Saturday, I woke to a sick four year old and walked around on eggshells trying to decide if she would need to go in. With antibiotic drops for her ears, she is better, and now I am sick… Love the things they share. Hence, why what seems to be a review of last week’s Chronicles from the Farm is posting today. Most of my farm life, was spent inside.

Farm life is full of blessings and challenges. God is by our sides every day, keeping us safe, offering us comfort and giving us blessings and humor all around.

Farm Life Funny :

The Hot Guy is sitting down to lunch and keeps asking who smells like calf poo. We are all looking around, checking our shoes, when he wipes his nose and notices the smell is worse…the inside of his shirt sleeve is umm covered in, yeah, you guessed it. So, now the calf is producing laundry with the kids. I sat there trying to remember if he had given me a hug recently… Sometimes, farm life literally stinks.

Filed Under: Blessings, Chores, Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Mothering, Christian Wife, Farmwife, homeschool, Homesteading, Horse, Lifestyle of learning, Livestock, on the farm Tagged With: , , ,

Weekend Fun on the Farm Thanks to Schedule Changes

March 10, 2013 by 1 Comment

Weekends on the farm are never boring. In fact many times we tend to squeeze in more than we could ever accomplish. However, I have spent a little time in prayer about our schedule. We never get five full book work days done in a week. We always seem to need to have a day to make up some work, and get caught up on things around the house for those times when we have to leave for a day to take care of something.

So, last weekend, when I did our lesson plans, I only scheduled four days of book work, and Friday as our make up day for any leftover school and chores. This little schedule change made for a GREAT weekend and plenty of time to get a few extras done.

We ended up going out of town all day Friday, but when we got home, we did what we normally do on Saturday morning, and had Saturday morning to work on some decluttering areas that never seem to get done. WOW, what a difference that made. We are starting the week with laundry caught up, lesson plans and chore lists printed, house mostly cleaned up, no dishes in the sink and all.

So, what did we do Saturday afternoon?

The four oldest went with The Hot Guy (AKA my hubby) to his shop to work and play. The three below, umm….

PLAYED!!!

So, why the laundry hamper outside? Well, they had to strip and go directly to the basement to shower, rather than bring their clothes in.

Other things we did?

I broke up a horse fight and froze my tail end off on Sunday… We moved them around and now all are happy or umm, safe. Not too happy as they are a herd animal and now are separated, but were about to be anyway, as one is due to foal in about 6 weeks.

I also set up this week’s chores and lessons on a new program, that I will be sharing little about tomorrow, with a coupon code.

How was your Weekend? What schedule changes have you implemented to make a smoother running home?

Filed Under: Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Wife, Farmwife, homemaking, homeschool, homeschool organization, homeschool schedules, Horse, household organization, on the farm Tagged With: ,

Homeschool on the Snowy Prairie

February 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Over the last week, we have had snow, as in a lot of snow for our area.  I have heard for our community anywhere from 22-30 inches.

There were two rounds of snow, the first was pretty even and with everyone saying about 16 inches.  However, the second round drifted a lot, and is drifting today too, so not as easily measured.  Whatever amount it is, we love it, and are so very thankful for the blessed moisture on our crops.

We didn’t stop school for the snow though.  We had school around chores and played in the snow for breaks or when mom decided that staying in was not worth it. The animal chores took up quite a bit of time.  Between needing water and extra feed, some of the drifts make it possible for curious babies to go right up and over a fence.  

 

I pulled out an Ice and Snow Study, I found on Currclick, we read about Abraham Lincoln, found out at a funeral that our 7 year old has a distant cousin who looks almost exactly like her, worked on a Black Beauty unit study, did some puzzles, started our Creating a Masterpiece Art Study, Decorated some eye patches, and much more.

The snow storms bring children energy and this mama pain, as in back and neck pain that ends up drifting to my legs, head and right arm.  So, once the wiggles got in the way of the learning, I umm..kicked or let them out the door. 

 

As you can see, they had lots of fun outside.  Snow days in the homeschool, don’t have to mean a missed day of school.  There are many ways to add in some school while outside.  We didn’t do this, this time, as I didn’t stay out much due to the back pain.  However, in the past we have used food coloring mixed with ice cold water in spray bottles to practice spelling words in the snow, used a tape measure to measure the snow balls they made, learned how snow is made before it hits the ground, along with the weather conditions needed, and more.

How much snow did you get?  How do you spend your snow days in your homeschool?

Filed Under: Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Wife, Cows, Farmwife, homeschool, Horse, Lifestyle of learning, Livestock, winter fun Tagged With: , ,

Farm Life Woes. Happy New Year?

December 31, 2012 by 2 Comments

Often when people find out we are a farm family, they immediately tell me how lucky I am…However, Farmlife isn’t always much fun, in fact it is a lot of work, and well, full of heartache too…

If the last three days are any idea of what farm life is going to be like for 2013, let me off this boat farm.

That is how farm life is sometimes. Sometimes the woes all hit at once and well, it seems it is hitting hard now. Even though it seems we are having farmballs (snow balls, but there is a pun you will find later in this post) thrown at us right now, I know God is Good All the Time.

Farm Blessings…

So what is up down on the farm?

First off, it snowed, but just enough to make a mess, not enough to go sledding or to bring much moisture. We are thankful for any we get, but sometimes you just want a good snow, especially when you want to throw snowballs out of frustration. If you are going to be frustrated, might as well have a fun snowball fight while your at it, right?

Second…We banded calves several weeks ago (castrating). Apparently one didn’t quite go right and now we have a mess, as he caught one of his testicles on something and ripped it open. The vet is coming today to take a look and see what options we have. Fairly certain he will get the snip and stitch and be fine.

Earlier this month we took in the neighbor’s dog….well, we have lost at least 4 cats to him. The blessing is, I have found him a good home. He will be an inside dog with two children to play with. The last kitty to die was my Mother’s Day present from my children….her name Teddy Bear, and as far as she is concerned she is a stuffed animal. I grew a bit a lot more attached to her than I normally do with our farm cats. (heart breaking)

We are praying this is just a rough end to 2012, and that 2013 will be full of wonderful blessings.

Farm life can be very challenging, but the blessings outweigh the challenges any day…Remind me of that later, ok? Cause sometimes it is hard to see through the snow farmballs headed your way.

Filed Under: Christian Family, Farmwife, Livestock, on the farm, Real Life Tagged With: , , ,

Look at What’s New on the Farm

December 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Back in September, I got a birthday present, that most wives would probably balk at…

Daisy, our Dairy Cow.  She isn’t the tamest, cuddliest, or even calmest cow.  She will let you scratch her if there is food involved.  This is better than the day we brought her home.  That day, if she saw ya, she was likely to try and take ya…

Well, back when my Hot Guy bought her for  me, yes, I begged for her, we were told she would calve (have the calf) in early November….However….she umm, waited and waited and waited…and had the calf this morning (Dec. 17).  He is ADORABLE!!  I mean, cute…

So, what is his name?  Ebenezer…yeah, that would be the Hot Guy’s name for him…I though Grinch was good, but…I will let The Hot Guy name him this time…next year…well…we will have to see about that. Winking smile

Who will be milking Daisy?  Well, probably The Hot Guy, simply because he is very experienced having grown up on a dairy, and considering she isn’t the tamest cow.  Someday when we have a tamer cow, we hope to all get to help with the milking.

What’s happening on your farm?

Filed Under: Christian Home, Christmas, Cows, Farmwife, Homesteading, Livestock Tagged With: , , ,

Farm Wife Scurry~31 Thursday’s Link Up

May 23, 2012 by 7 Comments

This is the time of year I try to be able to be ready to leave the house in less than 15 minutes with all children in tow.  With harvest and hay and all that takes place on a farm, I am often called out to run for parts, water the cows, run for livestock feed, or many other jobs that my Hot Guy normally tends too, including grocery runs.  Yep, my Hot Guy does the produce and milk grocery runs a lot of the time.

This week has been example of that. 

On Monday, had my priorities not been right, I could have given the Hot Guy many reasons why I didn’t have time to run numerous errands in our community for our family:

  • Working on Workshop PowerPoints for my TPA Convention Workshops.
  • Working on blog post for this blog and A Journey Through Learning
  • Garden needing care
  • House work
  • Packing up what I can for the convention, as next week looks to be quite busy with wheat harvest
  • Taking care of children
  • Feeling like I need a nap

However, I gathered my littles and we took off, I didn’t get everything in MY plan done, but saved my husband nearly 4 hours of driving around so he could get some of his work done.  I ran into road construction that made what is normally a 20 minute drive an hour drive, then to get back to our area, did it again.  We delivered grain to our horse who is at the breeders, and the youngest five played with their friend, while we discussed some options. We ran the rest of our errands, with a van that was coughing and sputtering at times.  My Hot Guy was notified and I ran by the auto repair place, which figured it was a fuel filter or pump issue.  So, we grabbed parts and headed for The Hot Guy’s shop.  Thirty minutes later we were back on the road to check cows. 

Tuesday, I took three of us to the chiropractor, hunted down food grade 5 gallon buckets, and stopped by our favorite local restaurant to have her pick up a few supplies at the restaurant supply store.  We spent most of the rest of the day until 8:15 pm when The Hot Guy called with a mama cat and newborn kitten issue.  As the resident “vet”, we ran to tend to it, and saved all of them. Tangled kitten umbilical cords can cause a lot of problems, especially with a new mama.  We waited around for tow hours to be sure that everything else was good.  Luckily, this is also the time of year, we go to a super simple meal plan.

Being available to help my husband and serve my family with a happy heart would not be so easy if I was so busy and thought my plans were more important.

Allowing God to help plan my days, knowing that I need to have tons of wiggle room each day, helps me to not become that frazzled mom running in circles not knowing what end is up.

My husband is able to trust me to get things done, when he can’t get to them. 

Proverbs 31:10

The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.

This week I have been studying Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 in depth.  As I study these verses, and then have requests or see needs that I need to do for my husband, I am remembering that this is how God wants me to be as a wife. 

As wives, we can get in the habit of thinking that the home is our territory and we can’t be out serving our husband’s away from it, however in this season of the year around here, I can sometimes serve my husband much better by running those time eating errands, allowing him to work on equipment, help another farmer, or get a little down time.

What ways can you help your husband?  Have you asked how you can be his helpmeet away from home?

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Filed Under: 31 Thursdays, Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Mothering, Christian Wife, Farmwife, Livestock, Marriage, on the farm Tagged With: , , ,

Priorities and Blogging

April 11, 2012 by 16 Comments

Over the last six months, I have grown more and more concerned about some things in the homeschool blogging community.  It seems that some bloggers are so bent on getting 5-6 posts up a week that well, other things are suffering…their homes, husbands, family, children, and even worse…their relationship with God.

Some call me unpredictable and sporadic, I have been looked down on in the past when I do skip around and don’t post daily…however, I have to do what I have to do to keep my most important priorities in order…

My priorities are more like this:

  1. God
  2. Husband
  3. Children
  4. Keeping my home up
  5. Homeschool
  6. Help on the farm
  7. A Journey Through Learning Job
  8. Life
  9. Life
  10. Life
  11. Blog…

If I can’t keep up with all the other things, then my blog is going to be the first to go…

And honestly, I make more money blogging with my priorities straight than I do when I push everything aside and try to keep up with the crowd…

What does this say?  God wants me to keep my priorities straight.

So, where have I been? 

  • Well, there has been a lot going on.  I have been writing a couple of articles for other bigger, huge great, awesome blogs.
  • I have been working on my Two Teaching Parent Convention Workshops
  • I have been in the cow pasture—we now have 4 living baby calves.
  • I have been WITH my family, DOing lots of fun things
  • I have been working on some projects around our home
  • I have been working on our garden
  • I have been spending every evening with my husband.
  • I am preparing for another homeschool convention
  • I have been working through a challenging time with one of my children
  • We have been working on some new homeschool things

So, though I blog less, I am getting more done, in better priority…

In all honesty, I don’t think my readers probably have the time to read so many blog posts anyway, so, why should I feel that I should be the one keeping them from their priorities to read my blog EVERY. single. DAY?

So, no, I am not going to stop blogging, but for this season, it will be slower, and that is ok…

Filed Under: Christian Family, Christian Home, Christian Mothering, Christian Wife, encouragement, Farmwife, Housewife, Livestock, Stay at home mom Tagged With:

Jumping Out of the Homeschooling Box

February 26, 2012 by 2 Comments

Why are you homeschooling?

Oh, that is a loaded question, but one of the reasons we chose to homeschool, was we wanted to give our children more than a classroom full of textbooks and workbooks. We want them to learn something with their hands, minds, eyes and ears. We want them to learn to think, to appreciate what they are learning.

So many parents who are “home” schooling, don’t even know that they can jump out of that box that was delivered at their door. Yes, all that wonderful curriculum…

Do you remember what you learned in that history class 25 years ago? What day did what happen and how does that pertain to today? Yeah…umm, those dates are fairly useless without the true lessons behind the historical event.

Teaching a page of math problems and never actually doing any real life math is pretty much useless too. Especially when it comes to algebra. I have a much better understanding of algebra now as a mom, from having to figure out medication dosages.

The same applies to science. Really what do you remember from elementary science classes? Not much? Really?

So, are you seeing something here? Are you thinking that you might have wasted many years in school, filling out workbooks, answering questions to get a grade? Oh and grades…umm are they really worth much? Have you ever noticed that those people you thought were so very smart, really maybe aren’t so smart now that they have to deal with real life?

Oh, back to grades…umm, an A is a letter, I teach for mastery…I also figure out what the child is capable of.

For instance..my special needs child has a “looser” mastery level than my more gifted child.

Special Needs, must get a 80% or more on every math lesson or they do it again…the ENTIRE lesson.

My gifted student must get a 90%. Same deal. We always correct all wrong problems for both older children, for each subject. I am teaching for mastery, not to just brush over a topic and move on.

I also tend to make sure science and some other topics are interest related. This helps keep school from being a drudgery.

As you can see, I tend to jump out of the homeschool box. I want to keep my children interested in learning to help them have a life long love of learning new things.

 

Some of the ways we add some creative and unusual items to our school days are:

  • Lapbooks
  • Unit Studies
  • Going with Dad (replacing floors in a trailer, welding, working on engines, rear ends and more)
  • Sewing
  • Cooking
  • Baking
  • Other crafts
  • Gardening
  • Caring for animals (pets) and Livestock
  • Helping with church activities
  • Playing chess
  • Playing other games
  • field trips
  • and so many more

Educating you children needs to be more than filling in blanks, writing reports and doing a few math problems. We need to begin with their hearts, and move out to the other areas, making sure we use lots of real life experiences. Because the whole idea of educating our children is so they can handle real life, right? I don’t know about you, but what I needed to know in real life to get me through the basics…cooking, shopping, balancing a check book, getting a loan, keeping a good credit score and many others, I didn’t learn inside of a textbook.

We need to be giving our children a head start in the real life, by letting them live it with us, through example.

Filed Under: Christian Family, Christian Home, Farmwife, homeschool, Lapbooking, Lifestyle of learning, Livestock Tagged With: ,

Andi’s Pony Trouble~Circle C Beginnings

May 6, 2011 by 4 Comments

Do you have a horse crazy girl?

How about a girl that is trying to grow up to fast?

Is she full of ideas, that don’t always turn out so well?image

Then Andi’s Pony Trouble by Susan K. Marlow and illustrated by Leslie Gammelgaard, will be a GREAT book for your little girl.  This story grabs the heart of  the horse crazy from the beginning.  Andi thinks she is ready for a big girl horse, not her pokey little pony.  However, Andi’s family and friend quickly show her, she is not as ready as she believed.

Though this book is geared to the ages 6-8 crowd, my oldest 11 enjoyed it too.

 

There are four books in this series each about 80 pages, and $4.99 each:

  • Andi’s Pony Trouble
  • Andi’s Indian Summer
  • Andi’s Scary School Days
  • Andi’s Fair Surprise

There are two more in the works.

  • Andi’s Lonely Little Foal
  • Andi’s Circle C Christmas.

 

These books are available directly from the publisher, or from Amazon.com or Christian book.com.  If you choose to purchase from the author’s website, you can choose to have your copy personalized. What a great and special gift that would be for the special little girl in your life.

Do you like to add a little extra learning and fun to your reading lessons? Then you will be happy to see that these extras are available:

  • downloadable coloring pages (that correspond with the images in the books)
  • activity packs (one for each book, these contain supplemental learning activities to go along with the stories).
  • Online jigsaw puzzles are also provided for extra fun

Kregel Publications, also publishes Circle C Adventure series by Susan Marlow more stories for your older crowd.

I encourage you to read other reviews by the rest of the TOS Crew, as we were given a variety of the books.

I received this book free for my honest review. I will not receive any further compensation.

Filed Under: Building a homeschool library, Christian Family, homeschool, Homeschool curriculum review, Horse, Just for Fun, on the farm, review Tagged With: , , , , ,

Helping your Children Pursue their Career Goals.

February 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

Homeschooling is one excellent way to be able to help your child learn about a career they are interested in.  From a very young age, our oldest has wanted to work at a wildlife refuge or be a missionary in an animal filled area…Think Amazon here. Winking smile

 

Though we are not able to take him to the Amazon, we do try to help him learn lots about his interest in this area.

We attend many outings at the local Wildlife Refuge.  We also do lots of nature study, and he has TONS of books and other resources about animals.  He is the reason I have Nature Study Tuesday on my blog.   We have also allowed him to be active in the acute care of our animals.  From cattle and horses to cats and dogs.  When they need shots, or other medical treatment, he is out there with us.  Just this past Saturday, he was walking our sick horse.  At the time, we feared colic, though we are fairly sure that is not the case now, but he was there helping us out. 

We also allow him to keep and observe different animals for a time.  We have had a baby barn swallow, who our cat caught and we rescued, baby squirrels, who were blown out of a tree, spiders, snakes, lizards, bunnies, frogs, toads, stink bugs, fish, and various other critters. 

His interest has seemed to float around our family and attach it self to each of  us in it’s own way.   We all now agree that opossums are cute.  We have one that will eat out of your hand living in our garage.  We have a spider that has wintered with us named Beauty.  Yeah, I know a bit twisted it is a spider. lol 

Many friends and relatives will call us to come identify different animals.  We have received calls to relocate snakes too. lol  Though, we won’t mess with suspicious snakes, or we don’t mean too lol. 

How have you helped your children pursue their career goals?

Filed Under: Christian Mothering, homeschool, Lifestyle of learning, Livestock, Nature study, Nature Study Tuesday Tagged With: , ,
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