Almost a month later and I'm finally starting to feel settled!  Of course I still haven't found the iron or my B vitamins, but all in all the unpacking process has only been slightly more frustrating than the packing process.  : p

The one thing we didn't count on was the extreme disarray in the office/craft room.  See, our other home had a ton of fabulous built-ins and we no longer have those so we're making do with one tiny desk and one file cabinet.  Fortunately yard sale season is almost here (not holding my breath though as it snowed 4 inches here a week ago!) so I can find a cast off dining room table of some sort to use as a two sided desk with some extra workspace.  Oooo, this would make a good before and after post, ya think?  : )

I have to say though, that the blessings of being in our country home FAR outweigh any packing/unpacking blues.  It's been such a joy to see the kids riding their bicycles along our 1/4 mile driveway without having to hover out there because there might be cars or pedestrians, or strange dogs, or what have you.  Not to mention the fact that we can now actually do a unit study on stars and the night sky because we can actually see it!  The quiet is absolutely lovely, as are the birds, coyotes, distant neighbors, etc.  My thanks to a mighty God that provides such wonderful things to enjoy!!

Coming out from behind all the boxes just for a moment to say that my opinion of packing has not changed.  Nope... not one bit.  Don't get me wrong, I am excited beyond belief to be moving into our home in the country finally, I just wish it didn't require packing.  Sigh... the amazing thing is that we've moved twice before and I still haven't managed to pare down much.  I'm constantly getting rid of stuff, but more just seems to seep in under the cracks in the doors.  : )  Of course it's all "useful" stuff designated for homeschool projects, crafting ideas, or some other task.  So my question then is... why am I having to pack it all???  Shouldn't it have all gotten used by now?  I'm beginning to understand the resistance many folks have later in life to leaving the home they've always lived in.  What an ordeal... sheesh!!

All that said... can I just say how thrilled I am at the idea of being out in the country again??  No more nervous monitoring of the kids while they ride bikes in the alley or play in the front yard.  No more shushing them for the neighbor's sake when we're out gardening and they're spraying each other with the  hose and squealing at 7am on a Saturday.  Oooo, and my favorite part at the moment?  We get to have chickens!!!  Has anyone checked the price of eggs lately??  Yikes!  So, bring on your good chickening tips!

Well, back to packing!!

Well, yesterday I made some Strawberry Rolls to take to our monthly mom's get together and my kids were hoping for leftovers, but alas, they got scarfed down lickety split.  So, I assured the kids (Curlylocks especially) that we would make replacement rolls today.  This began this morning with cinnamon roll dough being mixed up.  Somehow it snowballed (breadballed?) into homemade soft pretzles and bagels as well.  I was shocked at just how easy it was to make homemade bagels.  Lots of little steps, but it actually kind of fits nicely with homeschooling life.  Work a little, knead a little, work a little, shape the bagels, work a little, etc.

The recipes for bagels and pretzles I found at www.thefreshloaf.com.  I saw this link on a blog here the other day (I'm so sorry, I don't remember who posted it... it was in a comment), checked it out because I love baking bread, and was thrilled at the tutorials there for things I've always deemed too difficult to try myself (bagels and pretzles being at the top of that list).

I am so excited because I've been trying to make more things from scratch lately that seem to cost a ridiculous amount at the grocery store, especially considering what they're made of.  Some examples... Refried Beans, Salad Dressing, Bread products, and Popcorn.  These things are so easy to make from scratch, yet cost sooooo much at the store.  Well, I'm on to 'em!!  If you too are looking for simple recipes for these types of items, stay tuned... I'll post some of my new tried and true faves soon.

Mmmm... I smell bagels almost done... gotta run!

Oh!!  But did you get a chance to read Kris's post about Invisible Mothers?  You must go now and read it!  It will change your entire mood!!

Skating in under the wire with this one, but at least it's still Monday!  :)  The good news is that you get an immediate review of the first recipe!  Lovely!

Sunday -- Out to lunch and popcorn for dinner

Monday -- Mini Canneloni Bake with dinner rolls (this was good, but I'd amend the recipe to just one box of chopped spinach, 1lb of ground beef, and double the white sauce)

Tuesday -- Nachos (with leftover taco fixin's from last week)

Wednesday -- Fajitas

Thursday -- Potato Soup in the crockpot, some sort of fancy Valentine's dessert... any ideas??

Friday -- Homemade Pizza

Saturday -- Leftovers

Wow!  I can't believe that's it's my birthday already.  The entire youth group sang to me last night and of course lots of church friends made a point of calling me "old lady".  I guess because I'm finally 30 and most of them have known me since I was 19 and getting married.  Most women can't seem to stand big birthdays, but this one feels good to me.  I guess "twenty-something" always sounds so young when you've got three kids and the oldest is 9.

Plus... I think we earn our birthdays.  I can't imagine ever lying about my age.  First of all, you just eventually end up looking like a really OLD 29 (or whatever age you're pretending to be), second, no one ever really believes you, and third, I think lying about your age is like discounting everything that God has done in your life that year.  I am thankful for all the years He has given me and what He has accomplished in me -- why would I want to take that away??

Just some reflective birthday thoughts... :)

Well, here I am late again with my menu plan... but at least I've stuck to it so far!  : )

Sunday -- Roast, Veggies, Salad and Garlic Bread  (this roast was sooooo good!!  I'll be using the rub again for sure!)

Monday -- Fish Sticks, Froz. Veggies, Cornbread Stuffing and Salad

Tuesday -- Swedish Meatballs over Egg Noodles and Salad

Wednesday -- Beef Barley Soup (with leftover roast)

Thursday -- Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with leftover soup

Friday -- Homemade Pizza

Saturday -- Tacos

Yes indeed... it looks like I'll be having grilled cheese sandwiches for my birthday dinner.  ;p  We don't have plans for anything fancy because building a house is *expensive*, plus the best birthday present ever!!  We're hopefully about 4-6 weeks away from being done and then I can really start going crazy with garden planning and chicken coop building!

We figured we might as well come up with something creative to do with all the snow since it won't stop falling.  This is what we came up with...

 Hope you're enjoying the weather wherever you are!  : )

It's been snowing here for days it seems.  In reality, we got 12" in 24 hrs and it's been snowing off and on ever since.  This makes things a little tough out at the homestead site...

We're running out of room to put the snow, especially along the 1/4 mile driveway.  If it doesn't stop soon, we won't be homesteading until summer!  =O

The kids are so excited they can barely contain themselves, though.  All they see is the fabulous sledding hills!

How many of you belong to a hsing outreach program?  We adore ours!  It fits our needs wonderfully and the networking is fantastic.  However, I was presented with something on Thursday that has me struggling.  See, the requirements in our state are that if you are completely hsed, you need to take a standardized test once a year.  As we are enrolled in a outreach program we don't have to do that, but now they require that all students associated with the public school system take a certain test that is being administered statewide from 3rd-10th grades and a passing score is required for receiving a diploma.

So, here's the dilemma... up until now the outreach program has not required the hsed students to take this even though the district must record scores for all students.  The administration has (until now) been willing to just "eat" the zeros that they've been recording for those that opt out.  Now, the state has changed regulations again (surprise, surprise).  Because of our poor scores on paper, the program is entering its first out of five years of probation.  If scores don't improve by the end of that time the program is dead.  It will be shut down by the state.

Now there are a lot of families that object to the test itself because it is a ridiculous test.  This is valid, as there are protests all over the state about the ridiculousness of the test questions, etc.  But, I struggle with the idea that we would allow the decade old program (and the most unique one in our area - families drive up to 1.5hrs one way to participate) to just disappear without a thought.  My inner protester wants to challenge the state that if other types of standardized tests are accepted for full-time hsed students, we should be able to use those for evaluations in place of this other test.  However, this monster test is the baby of the state education people and they won't back down without a huge fight.  Bigger groups than us have been fighting them since the test was implimented and haven't gotten anywhere.

So... dh and I talked about it and decided that if we want to stay in the program we'll be fine with using the test (but not without taking every other opportunity to protest somehow).  After all, we knew that it was technically a requirement when we signed on with the program.  If we want to protest the testing fully we'll just have to pull out of the program all together.  But I have lots of friends who feel that they should be allowed to continue participating in the program but refuse the test.  Isn't this a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face?  They signed the same contract I did, it's just been a courtesy until now that we don't have to take the test.  And get this... the sweet director is still not going to force families to take the test.  She's requesting that we participate to help the program, but will allow folks to continue to decline even if it means the program ends.  Sigh... why does the state put us in this rotten vortex of choices??

What would you do?

The kids are at my mom's for the week and it's awfully quiet around here.  The whole idea is that it will give me to get some serious packing done for our impending move into the new house within the month.  However, I find it awfully hard to concentrate with no kids around.  Anyone know what I mean?

So here are some goals for the week so I can stick to some sort of schedule!

1.  Pack up at least half of kids' toys in their rooms.

2.  Pack all scrapbooking supplies and spare books in family room.

3.  Pack all hsing materials we are not currently using, and I mean using right this minute!!

4.  Take pile of stuff in storage to thrift store (and do NOT go inside).

5.  Bring pantry food upstairs so we can use it up and not move it all.

6.  Make at least 3 trips to storage to drop off packed items.  Thank goodness the storage unit is down the road from the new house so I can go by and check out the progress and keep myself motivated!!

Okay, that ought to keep me busy.  I even checked out some audiobooks from the library today so I'll have something to listen to while I'm sorting/packing/driving.  Maybe I'll even post some before and after pictures of the progress because who doesn't enjoy a good before and after spread??

And don't worry... I won't forget to include a date night with hubby while we're enjoying a kidless week!

Well, this should actually be called Menu Tuesday, since I'm a day behind, but here it is anyway...

Monday -- finally made that Lemon Chicken with homemade Egg Rolls, yum-o!!

Tuesday -- Baked Potato Bar

Wednesday -- Leftovers before church

Thursday -- Date Night with hubby (kids will be at Grammy's for a week)

Friday -- probably Date Night leftovers... who can eat all the food they give you at restaurants these days?

With the bonnet's done, I'm eyeballing some yarn that I picked up the last time my mom was in town.  It's soft, lucious, and warm.  But... what to do with it??  I'm thinking of some sort of shawl, but don't know whether to knit or crochet it, use both yarns at simultaneously, or work some sort of color pattern.

Here are the yarns that I found...

Lest you think that I've found the Fountain of Time (who really cares about the Fountain of Youth?), this is to keep my hands busy while listening to audio Bible and books for my quiet time in the morning.  I hear things much better if my hands are busy, and stumbled across this method of working/listening a while ago.  Very Shaker-like:  Hands to Work, Hearts to God.

Plus there's something special about having things around the house that I've made while listening to Bible teaching, all I have to do is look at a piece and all the memories of what I learned while working on it come flooding back.  I suppose it's kind of like having my kids draw pictures while listening to the books I read aloud for school.  When they tell me about the picture, the story we were reading is all woven in, even if the picture wasn't directly from the story.  The complexity of the mind is truly a mystery!!  Glory to God!

We're in the middle of the Prairie Primer for school this year.  If you've never heard of it, it's a unit study-type curriculum based on all of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Well, my girls have been aching for their own bonnets.  My search for some sort of free pattern online was mostly fruitless, and so I got the crazy idea that if I figured out how to make them on my own I could do a tutorial.  So, you're all my guinea pigs.  Let me know if I missed anything, if anything's unclear, or just what you think...

Step One:

Due to photo limits, I have moved the entire bonnet tutorial to my "other" blog.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

With our move-in date closing in I am confronted with two things.  Packing and garden planning.  Since I can't stand thinking about the former, lets talk about garden planning shall we?  Here is a photo of the most reasonable garden plot near the house.  If you can see that stick in the middle of the photo, that's the back line of our property.  You can't see the house, but it's under construction off to the right side and a little behind me.

So, as you can see, I'm starting from absolute scratch.  Except for the assumption that this was once pasture land back in the 70s, it hasn't been touched since.  It'll obviously need some amending, and raised beds with row covers will probably be the most practical as we get a fair amount of wind through our place.

Garden planning is so much fun, but I am known by my family as one who dreams big and gets overwhelmed, so I'm thinking of sticking to a "tomato sauce" garden my first year.  I figure if I can put up enough tomato sauce to last us the year it'll save us at least $15/month.  So, I'm planning on 20-25 tomato plants, a row of bell peppers, and lots of basil.  Anything else will be extra.  So, who has lots of gardening experience that could offer wisdom on tomatoes and such?  My family always did lots of gardening while I was growing up, but it's been a while since I gardened for anything other than fun.  Who has tried and true tomato varieties?  Favorite tomato sauce canning methods?  Lemme have 'em!!

My menu for the week is still a little up in the air as I've been sick and haven't been shopping for over a week.  But in the interest of purposeful grocery shopping and managed meal planning, here goes...

Monday -- Tacos with all the fixin's

Tuesday -- Chili Dogs

Wednesday -- Nachos with leftover taco stuff

Thursday -- Spaghetti, Salad and Garlic Bread

Friday -- Amy Jo's Lemon Chicken with Rice and Egg Rolls

Mmmm... can't wait to try Amy Jo's Chicken recipe, we are big fans of lemon chicken around here, but I've never tried to make it at home.  I'll let you know how it goes!

While tucking Curlylocks (4yodd) into bed last night we were doing some homestead dreaming.  We're less than 2 months away from finishing our home on 10ac, and we're all getting excited about homestead plans.  So, she told me that she wants lots of chicken.  I told her of course we'll have chickens, and what colors of chickens was she thinking of having?  Her immediate answer was "pink"!  While explaining to her that there aren't really "pink" chickens, but there are some that are sort of light reddish-brown, all I could think of was the dyed chicks that are all the rage in the city at Easter.  Who would think of doing that to a chicken???  Or a rabbit, 'cause I've seen those too!?!

Well, then she began listing off all of the actual colors of chickens she wanted and I learned just how much she pays attention when we're at my folks, or at the feed store, or looking through chicken books.  She had them all.  "All black, whitish yellow, brown-y red, tiny spotted, stripey, and the ones with the puff-balls on their heads."  A pretty complete list if you ask me!

Now the adventure begins to plan for a chicken coop.  Anyone have good pointers on chicken coops, or know of good coop designs?  We can make do for the spring/summer, but come fall, we'll need something substantial for them to live in as we'd like to keep getting eggs as long as possible before winter.  Any tips?

Well, I've been reading lots of posts here lately about sick kids and sick moms and I guess it just finally wore off on me.  I'm home today with ds who wanted to stay home to take care of me (is that just the sweetest thing?) while dad and the girls are at church.  I ache all over and can barely breathe, but other than that, I'm great... ;)