Homestead Acres


2008-Jul-18
Mint Ice Tea

Posted in In My Kitchen

This is one of my favourite summer time drinks.  It's so easy to make and is very thirst quenching on a hot day.

Mint Ice Tea

6 cups boiling water

4 tea bags

1 cup packed fresh mint

3/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate drink  

Pour boiling water over tea bags.  Cover & steep for 5 minutes.

Remove tea bags Cool for 15 minutes and add mint.  Steep and strain.

Refrigerate until cold.

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2008-Jul-18
How To Never Run Out Of Groceries Again!

Posted in In My Kitchen

I posted this over on my other blog Around The Homestead and thought I'd share it here to. 

How many times does it happen to us, in the middle of making supper we find we are missing an important ingredient.  We rush to the store for just ONE thing and before we know it other “extras” have found there way into our cart.  Soon the one item has cost you 30.00 plus and a lot of wasted time.

So how do we avoid falling into this trap?

1. Make a Menu List

Write down all of your family’s favorite meals, and include the ingredients.

2. Make a Master Shopping List

You can set this up how it best suites your family.  For ours we made a 3 column chart.  One each for freezer, fridge, and pantry.  We then listed each item we used on a regular bases in the proper column.

We decided how many of each item we wanted to keep on hand.  Beside each item put the desired number of check boxes. 

Now this is the important part.  EVERY time you open something that is on your list check it off right a way.  No you might not NEED it this week but now that you’ve opened that jar of mayo you should buy another one to replace it.  Then when you are getting low you don’t need to make a trip out to buy another. 

Preparing our list this way has saved us a lot of money and time.  It’s stopped the quick trip to the corner store for 1 item.  And since our local store has a minimum purchase amount to use debit that 1 item would always cost us 10.00.  Our other alternative was to drive to the next town for one thing and spend the difference in gas and time. 

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2008-Jul-16
Children's Bible Study Links

Posted in The School Room

If your looking for good free Bible studies/activities for children I really like the sites below.  I plan to mix them in with our daily Bible devotions.

Calvary Chapel Children's Ministry Curriculum

The Bible Stories Library

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2008-Jul-16
Composer Study Link

Posted in The School Room

Someone shared this wonderful site with me recently.  We plan to use it with our music studies this year.  You can lesson to music and read bio's of the composers along with photos.

Last.fm

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2008-Jul-15
Free Butterfly Unit Study

Posted in The School Room

This weeks wonderful freebie at CurrClick is a study on butterfly's!!  What child doesn't love them?!  Make sure to stop by and grab your freebie, it's only up for this week.

Click Here

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2008-Jul-9
Let's Get Organized Seminar

Posted in The School Room

Cindy Rushton is kicking of her newest seminar this weekend!  Let's Get Organized For The New School Year!

Are you struggling with planning?  Or maybe record keeping?  Just don't know were to start?

Come and join in for a wonderful weekend of help and inspiration.  You can lesson in live for free or buy a ticket to access the audio downloads latter and all the wonderful free gifts!

Click here for more information!

July 11-12

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2008-Jul-7
Sick

Posted in Just Thoughts

Well the littles are all feeling much better thankfully!  But last night I started getting real sick.  I feel like I was smacked by a truck. LOL  I'm hoping this finishes quickly!!

I had planned to start our schooling back up next week.  The kids (and Momma  ) can't wait to dive into the new books!  But I would like to get somewhat caught up on the house work first.  Also get my lesson plans in order so we aren't just floating along.

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2008-Jul-7
Our weekend/ Homeschool shopping

Posted in The School Room

We made it out to the Learning House homeschool store on Sat.  I've been wanting to visit there for a long time now and since they were having their yearly yard sale it was the perfect time! 

We arrived about mid morning and I found lots of great stuff on the clearance tables.  I had to be strong LOL.  I picked out the Five In A Row Holiday book and a human body activity booklet.  Then went on to get the other things on my list.  They had a nice play area set up for the kids and comfy chairs to.  So dh was happy to sit and play with the kids while I looked around. 

I made one change to my plans this year.  I'm going to use the Exploring Creation with Botany with Botany instead of God's Design.  I have been looking over the samples of them for a while and really liked it when I got to sit and peek through.   I wont need to supplement it at all unless I want to.  With the GD book I would have had to do all the lessons from supplemental books to fit my children's ages.   And I love the project ideas, it fits in well with our notebooking/lapbooking love.

I also picked up the following that were on our list:

  • Christian Liberty Nature Reader 1
  • Bob Books #1
  • Leading Little ones to God
  • FIAR Christian supplement
  • Before FIAR
  • Canada My Country
  • Ecoutez! Parlez!  Book/cd 1

I also picked out some of the story books for B4 FIAR that we needed and dh picked out a really nice story bible for dd6.

After we were finished there we walked down to the big craft show that was going on that weekend.   It was huge!  We had to be really strong there were so many nice things LOL.  We did buy each of the girls a nice kerchief though as they all managed to forget their hats.  We had a nice lunch and lessoned to some of the music playing.

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2008-Jul-7
Garden Sprining Up Nicly

Posted in Down The Garden Path

Well in the few weeks since I posted the last photos of our garden, things have really grown!

Our potatoes are flowering.  I always think they are so pretty!

Our potatoes are almost waist high on dh!

This is an later planting or potatoes from late June on dh right.   To the left is our 2nd planting of beans.

Our little corn patch has also really grown. 

DD's pumpkins are doing well and starting to get flower buds also.

 

 

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2008-Jul-3
Thinking about our School Year

Posted in The School Room

Last week when we went shopping the library was having their annual book sale, it's by donation.  I stopped to look and picked out a nice box of children's books!  Some of them are for the Before Five in A Row and Five In A Row program we use.  I was so excited about that!  I also found some nice history story books.

We happened to be back in town a few days latter and they were still having the sale.  So I just had to peek again.  LOL  I found another book to go with the B4FIAR and some nice children's farming books!  I'm planning to do a farming unit this fall with the kids.  The International Plowing Match will be in our area and we are planning an all day field trip there.  Dh is really looking forward to that to.  I also picked up some wonderful animal videos for the kids and some documentaries for us.  Dh also picked out a encyclopedia set on natural history.

I'm hoping to get to a homeschool book store this weekend.  My shopping list has been gone over and over..I'm still tweaking it.  So far I'm thinking of getting this:

  • Christian Liberty Nature Readers 1 & 2
  • Bob Books #1
  • Leading Little ones to God
  • Canadian Colouring book
  • FIAR Christian supplement
  • Before FIAR
  • Canada My Country
  • Ecoutez! Parlez! (beginner French)

Our plans this year are:

2 year old.

I'm going to use B4FIAR with her at a slow pace.  Should be fun!

4 year old PreK

  • Teach Your Child to Read 100 Easy Lessons
  • Bob Books
  • B4FIAR
  • FIAR
  • Leading Little Ones To God

6 year old, grade 1

  • FIAR
  • Math U See Beta
  • SOTW 1 (we started this last year and put it on hold for a bit)
  • God's Design for Science, The plant kingdom and human body
  • Leading Little Ones To God
  • Canada My Country
  • Nature Study
  • Copy Work
  • CL Nature Readers

DD6 and 4 will also be starting on some hand crafts, keep working on crochet and maybe simple sewing.

 

 

 

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2008-Jul-3
Busy Times & Sick Littles

Posted in Just Thoughts

Well I haven't had much posting time or time for anything that is.    The crazy weather patterns of baking hot then cold and damp have made the kids sick.  Two are ok now, 4 year old is still miserable and baby girl is on the mend.  I've been fighting it also, but it's not easy to do when your up all night with sick littles.  I sure hope they are all feeling much better soon, it's so hard on a mothers heart when her babies are sick!

When things settle down I have a huge list of to do's.  I need to reclaim the house again lol.  I was JUST caught up on most things when we all got sick.  (sigh) Seems to happen every time LOL.  I have a ton of sewing to do.  I need nursable maternity clothes.  This is the longest into a pregnancy I've ever nursed a baby.  So most of my things don't fit.  The girls also need new skirts etc.  And I need to sew pullups and diapers.

I'm working on a major decluttering and planning our new school year also.  I'm thinking of starting that soon to instead of waiting until fall.  We mostly school year round, just taking it a bit lighter in the summer.  When morning sickness hit bad I scaled down to just reading and math.

 

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2008-Jul-2
Canada Day Photos

Posted in Just Thoughts

Yesterday was Canada Day and despite the littles still being some what sick we had a nice day.  Dh had some errands to do but after supper we took the kids for a walk at the park.  They got to see all the animals (birds and deer) and play for a while. 

Then we headed home and dh surprised them with a few fireworks!  They LOVED it we'll have to get some more before summers over.

Little dd2 wasn't to sure about it!

 

 

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2008-Jun-25
Garden Photos

Posted in Down The Garden Path

These are just a few overview shots of our gardens.

This one is the red potato patch.  Planted here are 50 lb of red potatoes and a few pounds of purple ones.

This is our cucumber trellis.  It's our second planting we had so much rain the first one never came up.  To the right are more yellow beans and a few more potatoes.  To the left is another row of tomatoes and the red potatoes.

A close up of the little cucumbers.

Italian Zucchini

Pie Pumpkins

A Brandywine Tomato plant.

This is just a normal zucchini.  Our of 6 hills with 3 plants in each only 2 plants came up.  We had so much rain the others must have rotted.

This is a shot of our main garden.  I can't get a good angle to get it all in.  This one has our white potatoes, some of the tomatoes, carrots and beans in it.

This is one of our field pumpkins.  DD6 planted these are are happy they are doing well!

 

 

 

 

 

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2008-Jun-25
Pond & Butterfly Photos

Posted in Down The Garden Path

I've been crazy busy around here trying to keep up with the gardens an normal work.  I took a break yesterday to get some photos. 

This is the little pond we put in this year.  The plants floating in the pond are water hyacinths.  They were two tiny plants when I put them in a month ago.  It looks like they like that spot as they are growing nicely!  I also have 3 comet gold fish in there.   Don't mind the silly spiting frog on the log.  That's what I used before I got the waterfall set up. 

Having even a small pond in your yard attracts lots of wildlife!  I've seen many more birds, butterflies and dragonflies since we put it in.  They all enjoy bathing and drinking from the waterfall area.  These are some photos of butterflies that had finished drinking.  They landed down on the mulched area to dry their wings.

I believe the first one  is a Painted Lady butterfly.  We raised them last year.   Anyone know what the black and blue one is?

This is a wide photo of my herb/sitting area.  We aren't done landscaping it yet but the pond is in the corner.

 

 

 

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2008-Jun-9
More restaurants limit tomatoes after FDA warning

Posted in Herbs And Health

More restaurants limit tomatoes after FDA warning

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20080609%2fMcDonalds_tomatoes_080609


Tim Hortons and Harvey's have joined restaurants across North America in removing tomatoes from their dishes, on the heels of a food poisoning scare in the United States.

 

 

 

CTV.ca News Staff

This weekend, McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. removed tomatoes from many menu items, and numerous other chains in Canada have now done the same, including:

  • Burger King
  • Kelsey's
  • Swiss Chalet
  • Milestones

Many airlines have also removed tomatoes from their in-flight meals.

McDonald's restaurants in Canada stopped serving sliced tomatoes on the weekend after three varieties -- red plum, red roma and round red tomatoes -- were linked to a salmonella infection discovered in 16 U.S. states.

The restaurant chains say they have removed tomatoes as a precaution only, as no incidents of the outbreak have been found in Canada. However, Tim Hortons cites a supply issue, saying the American Food and Drug Administration's investigation into the outbreak has caused supply issues in the delivery chain.

Danya Proud, spokesperson for McDonald's in the U.S., said Monday that the company will continue putting grape tomatoes in salads since no illnesses have been linked to that variety.

On Saturday, the FDA alerted American consumers and restaurateurs of a nationwide outbreak of an uncommon type of Salmonella -- serotype Saintpaul -- linked to tomatoes, advising that their consumption should be limited.

Cherry tomatoes, tomatoes with the vine still attached and any grown at home are not included in the FDA warning. No Canadian tomatoes have been associated with the outbreak, according to a Canadian Food Inspection Agency's press release.

Since mid-April, there have been 145 reported cases of salmonellosis in the States caused by this particular strain. At least 23 related hospitalizations have been reported but no deaths have been linked to the outbreak.

Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, particularly in young children, elderly people and those who are sick. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

With files from The Canadian Press

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2008-Jun-9
Storms

Posted in Just Thoughts

We had another round of storms last night.  With this heat almost every night we've had them.

It was a very hot day but we decided to go visit our friends hot dog stand in the morning.  We spread a blanket out in the shade and had a nice lunch there.  Then headed to one of our favorite hiking parks for a walk.  Boy was it busy there!  There were two different family gatherings being held there.  Despite the heat we had a very nice walk.  By the time we got home it was starting to get a little cloudy.  I checked the weather sites and saw we were under a thunderstorm watch and just south of us had a tornado warning out.

It didn't take much longer, maybe an hour before the storm started rolling in.  The radar was lit up like a red cherry.  We saw the clouds starting to swirl not far from us and grabbed the kids and headed to the cellar.  It passed quickly and after that was just a lot of rain.  We were lucky the storm broke right over top of us and went around our town.

Here are a few picks from last night.

 

 

 

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2008-Jun-4
CDC: Tomatoes eyed in salmonella cases in 9 states

Posted in Herbs And Health

There is a large out break of salmonella in tomatoes in the USA.  To learn more click here:

CDC: Tomatoes eyed in salmonella cases in 9 states

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2008-Jun-3
Gardens and Heat Wave

Posted in Down The Garden Path

Last week we had a real cold spell and frost.  All of my tomatoes and peppers were well covered but they still got hit hard.  It looked like we lost them all.    Being heirlooms they aren't easy or cheep to replace.  We finally found a greenhouse not to far from here that sold heirloom tomatoes.  The only one they had that was the same as one I was growing was Brandywine.  So I got a few of them, as well as some ox harts, a Green Zebra, and some other white and  orange tomatoes to try. 

I went out last night to start replacing my old plants to find a lot are regrowing leaves!  I was sure they were dead, even the stems didn't look well.  But many have tiny pin head leaves starting to come back. 

So DH has to till up some more room for me anyway we will put the new tomatoes in the other section.

I did get our corn in yesterday and more potatoes planted.  We have about 50 lb of white potatoes left to plant.

When we were at the green house DH found some red seed potatoes.  These aren't just red skinned but red ALL the way through.  We put them in the kids garden.

Today we see our purple potatoes are coming up to!

Starting Thursday we are moving into a heat wave.  Fri is suppose to be 30 C but with a heat index of 38 C, that's 100.4F!!!  Quite a change from last week when it was freezing!

We still need to till up another section of the lawn, we are expanding our main garden plot.  But will do that in the early morning I hope to avoided the heat.  I still have my pumpkins, pie pumpkins, Italian zucchini, buckwheat and a few other goodies to get in.

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2008-May-28
Glenn Beck's Real story - US technically bankrupt

Posted in Just Thoughts

Interesting food for thought...

 

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2008-May-27
Burrr!

Posted in Down The Garden Path

Boy what a difference one day can make.  Yesterday we had a heat index of 29C today it was only up to 8C and we have a frost warning out tonight...it's cold!

So had to dig out lots of feed bags and get my tomatoes covered up.   Looks like tomorrow will be cool to then it will warm up again.  With more RAIN LOL.  I hope we get some  nice warmer weather patterns soon. 

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Hello, I'm Kim. A Christian woman, married to the sweetest man and my best friend and blessed with 4 wonderful kids. Striving to live a simple, quiet life.

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