Garden of your heart

Late start on schooling lessons...

  We got off to a late start in our schooling lessons today.  We still have math to do, but we are taking a break.  The reason for this late start is Will came home in a talkative mood and Anna was up early with baby William.  No morning time to myself this morning, but it was okay.  The conversations were quite pleasant. 

  I was planning on taking Seth somewhere--anywhere--today, just to get out of the house, but it is raining cats and dogs beyond my windows!  Maybe this is just a fast moving storm that will run its course and leave.  I will have to see.

  Seth is feeling better this morning.  He caught Anna and William's cold.  No fever, just sinus stuffines and all that goes with that.  Even with his cold he is doing fairly well in his lessons.  Yipee!!

  I need to get out in my garden and get the last of my broccoli.  I plan on making broccoli and cheese soup sometime this week.  Will and I are the only ones who like it, so I need to not make a huge amount.  I might blanch off some of the broccoli and freeze it for a later made casserole.  I also have some collards left and a cabbage or two.  I am beginning to think about my early spring garden.  I have the seeds all I need is the season.

  I am going to do some ironing today.  I usually do that in front of a good movie, but I have seen all our movies, so I am going to have to pick one I haven't seen in a very long time.  Watching movies seem to make the ironing just go faster.  I found Donnie's winter shirts; they are now washed and need a little touch up ironing and matched up with some pants.  Donnie does not like to put his outfits together.  He would rather me do it.  He says he can't put them together like I do, and he doesn't want to have to make decisions at 5 am every morning.  I really don't mind doing this for him.  So, that along with vacuuming the Beale Bungalow--these are the my work plans for today.

  I finished reading the Chronicles of the Kings series, by Lynn Austin, this morning.  The last book was the best, in my humble opinion.  The way this author worked in Scriptural truth was so refreshing to me.  I devoured these books.  I believe there were five in all.  Anna is now reading them.  I actually cried three or four times while reading the fifth book.  Sheesh...I am such a wimp.

  I have several other books I wish to read throughout the winter, but I will wait a few days before I start another book.  I need to digest what I have already read.  Donnie and Anna say I cannot read a book for pure enjoyment.  I am always trying to glean truths from them.  Oh well--that is how I am wired.

  I have not had any anxiety this morning.  This is nice.  I still have waves of these rotten emotions from time to time.  I must say that I cannot wait until Jesus physically casts the fear demon that is assigned to me into the lake of fire!!!  No wonder there will be tears to be wiped away and dancing and rejoicing in heaven!!  I, for one, am looking forward to it!!

  Well, break is way over.  I haven't decided what I am going to have for supper tonight.  I will be glad to get on my menu making schedule again.  One thing at a time, though.

  Have a great day, and God Bless!! 

Links about the new law going into effect-2-10-09

I forgot to add links about the new law that I mentioned in my last post. I'm amazed at how many people who have not heard about this. It passed, I believe sometime in August of '08,  but most everybody is just now really hearing about it, including me. It's like they kept it hush-hush until they had to tell everyone.

I'm sharing various links from information to different peoples perspective on the subject.

www.thesmartmama.com/bg/

weblog.xanga.com/gloryquilts

www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/cpsia-updates-and-calls-to-action-3157/

www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/01/03/hand-me-down-clothes-in-the-post-hand-me-down-era-consumer-protectionism-gone-too-far/

heartyworks.blogspot.com/2009/01/no-more-thrift-store-items-for-12-years.html

www.homesteadblogger.com/ThunderwolfRanch/123267

Please read up and contact your congressman! MJ at Thunderwolf ranch shared a link to a form letter to fill out that will go to your local members of congress here.

blessings, sara

Deer in the headlights and other rambling

My husband caught this picture of Jacob last night, I call it his deer in the headlights look. lol. And ya gotta love his little curly top. He's the first of my children to have curly hair, at least for now. Baby's hair often changes. Mine as a baby went from black at birth to white blonde by 1 year old.

It's hard to believe Jacob is already 4 1/2 weeks old. How time flys! He's still a fussy baby and wants to be held when he's awake, but that is not very often as he sleeps so much. I've got a front pack carrier, and a sling to carry him around in when I have to get things done. As much as I don't want to have to carry him around very much, I know this time is fleeting, and I realize I really don't mind.

We're settling back into routine here, starting back on schoolwork with the kids. I'm working on my home management binder this week trying to tweak it to make it fit us a bit better. I would also like to add a few sections to it for different things such as a garden section, animals section, and a goals section.

I've been in a bit of panic mode this week because of the new law going into effect on February 10. I buy 95% of my children's clothes at thrift stores. And there's certainly no room in my budget to buy new clothes, even when on sale. I'm praying heavily that there is some change to the law, but that may not happen. So I'm working on what we'll do when this happens. A few things that I've realized is that we, especially my children have entirely too many clothes as it is. Thinking back to books, such as little house on the prairie, children generally had maybe 3-4 outfits altogether. Three to wear during the week, and one for their "Sunday go to meeting" outfit.

I think it would be a good idea to have some kind of program like freecycle only a clothing exchange for children's clothing where you can post if you have say, boys clothes, size 4 that you want to get rid of, and you're in need of boy's , size 5. Hopefully we will be able to do something to that effect.

Otherwise, I will likely be switching to making most of my children's clothes, and paring down the number of outfits they each have. I'm so thankful I have at least a general knowledge of sewing. The clothes I see in stores, even if I had the money to buy new, are so immodest and distasteful, I wouldn't want to anyways.

Today I will be doing school with the kids, working on my HMB, and doing some general cleaning and laundry. For dinner we're having a pot roast with some carrots and potatos, and some drop biscuits.

I pray your day is blessed!

sara

Today's thoughts

Thank you to everyone who visited and left such nice comments concerning our fire.  I appreciate your prayers!  Each day is getting a little better and I know that will continue.  Hard to believe it has been a week already tomorrow.  The insurance adjuster is coming in the morning, so then we can begin the clean up process, that will be fun........

With the beginning of the new year, I would like to try to make some changes in our schedule around here.  But with all of the other things going on, I feel like I just need to take a little time and chill out this week.  I hope to get to bed at a decent time, (I have been doing much better at that already) get up at a regular time, eat breakfast at a decent time, get out to do chores..........we seem to get started doing something and then it is late for breakfast.  Then it is should we eat breakfast or an early lunch? I also need to get a menu plan of some sort, I know that would be much easier than "what shall we eat?"  We have plenty of food in the freezer, but it seems like it is hard to think of what to fix or what sounds good.  When I have something in mind to fix I do not mind cooking at all, but it seems like we are in a rut as far as ideas.  And hubby being soooo picky doesn't make it any easier! 

Today we did roast one of our chickens and it was tasty.  So tomorrow will be chicken and noodles, one of our favorites.

There is a farm show in Topeka this week.  We usually go, don't ever buy anything and honestly there is very little of real interest to us as we are not official farmers, but it is kind of fun and we usually see some people we know.  I don't know if we will try to go or not yet.  We were waiting to see when the insurance adjuster would be coming.  We have not left here together yet since the fire except for about an hour last Friday.  One of the first things we said was now we will not be able to leave at the same time for a while.  I am not sure why we feel this way, as we were both home when it happened, so that didn't stop anything.  But, the fact that we were here to call for help was so important.  Anyway, the first  time we leave will be a little hard I believe, but it will have to be done sooner or later.

I baked a batch of cinnamon rolls today, I may have to make pies tomorrow, haven't heard yet.  I do have 1 pie to make for another lady on Friday.  I would really like to have some sort of schedule for baking, but right now it is just whenever?  I don't get a lot of other things done when I spend most of 2-3 days a week in the kitchen.

Today the weatherman said that we were exactly normal 37 for a high and 17 was the low.  Each day is supposed to be a little warmer, with Friday in the 50's.  Every day we have above freezing is a plus in my book.  I do not like to deal with frozen water tubs! Right now I only have a heater in one pen, but have figured out a way to easily fix one for another goat pen if it turns cold and stays that way for a while.

Time for bed.............

Country Blessings,

Marilyn~at Heritage Hill Homestead

2009 Goals

Some goals that need to be worked on this year:

1. Family goals: scriptures, praying together, family dinners, family meetings, worship, church functions, etc.

2. Personal goals: the list is too long.

3. Couple goals: conversation, spending, anticipating NEW babies, etc.  

Rain and reading...

  Today has been a great reading day. It has been a grey rainy day and with all the majority of my chores done yesterday, I had plenty of time to read the last book of my Lynn Austin series.  I will be done with it tomorrow.  Sad sigh...  But not to worry--I have several more books on my shelves to dive into this winter.  Happy sigh...

   Seth did very well in his lessons today.  I was pretty proud of him.  I thought getting back into the schooling routine would be a tough one, but it has not been.  I think he rather enjoys being back into a routine.

   He has caught the cold that seems to be circulating around my house.  I think he is fairing better than the others though.  Maybe because he can't tell me "no" about what I am doing for him.  He just obeys and then moves on to the next thing. 

   I have been pondering about the word 'devotion'.  Seth and I have even incorporated this into our Bible time.  What are we really devoted to?  Anyway, I might be talking about this more at a later date.  Devoted....Devotion....those are words that, believe it or not, carry a great deal of weight in our walks upon this earth.  Hm...

   Little William is getting better each day.  He still has a very wet cough, but at least he doesn't strangle with it now.  His color is much better and he is smiling more and more.  His little voice is a bit hoarse and it sounds somewhat pitiful at times, but then he smiles up at you with that great big toothless grin and all it well.  He is such a cutie.

   Well, that is it from the Beale Bungalow for this Two Hour Tuesday.

                        God Bless!!

I just saw a commercial on Plan B ?

What do you guys think about that?

It stops pregnancy if you forgotten to take your pills and had unprotected sex. 

[one night stand?]

No such thing as abstinance right?  Waiting for your husband? 

Maybe that's just me......

I did IT

What I did may be no big deal to you but for me and hubby, it is great.  What is it??  My marketing cost.  I usually  spend about $1000 to $1500 a month of food for our family.

What I did is make a list of dinner from meat we have on hand. So them I made a list of what I need to complete each meal.  Guess what I spent a $118.00 to make 25 dinners!!   I am so happy!

The dinners are:

1. Corn beef cabbage  Tonight's dinner.

2. Taco's

3. Baked chicken , green beans, rice rolls.

4. Steak sauce over rice, corn , rolls.  Made

5. Beef stew, salad , corn bread.

6. Egg plant pasta, salad, rolls.

7. Steaks , bake potatoes, salad , veg.

8. Breakfast.

9. Mexican dish, rice , beans.

10. Meatballs, mashed potatoes, rolls.

11. Chicken bake dinner, salad, rolls.

12. Pork steaks , mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls.

13. Green bean casserole, salad, rolls.

14. Hamburger helper , mac~n~cheese

15. Pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls.  Made

16. A BBQ baked chicken, baked fires, beans.

17. Leek soup, corn bread.

18. homemade pizza's.

19. Chicken pot pies, salad, rolls.

20. Veggies beef soup, corn bread.

21. Beef pot pie, corn bread.

22. Chicken ~N~ dumplings, salad

23. Pasta dish,  salad ,  Garlic bread.

24.  Beef roast, salad, rolls.

25. A Mexican dish from left over roast, rice, beans.

This is the list of dinners I made.  What I do is ask hubby what he wants for dinner the night before.  Then we defrost it in the morning unless it is a roast then we start it the night before.

Please check out my other blog there is some info on how we are not going to be able to buy used clothes anymore, it is a new law.

God Bless, mj

Ordering Cap & Gown Already ~ Class of 09

We got the order form today for the cap and gown.  When I was in high school, we just got a cap and gown that needed to be returned for the next year's graduates.  It didn't cost us anything.  So the cheapest order is for the cap and gown it'self. Which is $20.00.  $15 for a personalized tassel that only says '09.  I can get that from Party City.....

So they have all these enhansements and they start at $175.00 and go upt to $350.  YIKES!!!  I can see this at college graduation, but high school?  It reminds me of MTV's sweet 16 show.  I don't even want to go there with that show.  (my daughter showed it to me)

The count dwon is on and as soon as we get back from our cruise we'll be planning this graduation party!!  I'm really proud of her too!  Not just for the grades, but for staying pure.  I know it's a struggle in this day and age, but it can be done. 

To God Be The Glory

Raina

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