Seven Springs Dream

Pics of my little ones, or not so little ones!

Here is a pic of my oldest who is 13. We were at the fair here and he was inspecting a tank they had on display.

Here are my other two, they are 9 and 8. They were riding the dragon roller coaster during the fair.

I always love to show off pictures of my children.

My dad is finally home!!

I posted last week about my dad having a heart attack, and it has been an up hill battle since then. My dad's doctor told him this was the worse heart attack that he had seen, this was right before he was going home of course! One day he would be looking better then something else would happen. For instance, he was struggling with fluid in his lungs, irregular heart beats, etc. We were told these things are "normal" for the type of attack he had, but now we are just praising God he is home and recovering. Thanks to those who prayed for him.

Have a blessed day!

Please pray!

My dad had a heart attack Thursday night. It was completely unexpected and a shock to my whole family. He is recovering and getting wonderful care, but if you wouldn't mind could you please say a prayer for him today.

Have a blessed day!

Our new "president"

I really must vent! I was watching the news last night and I could not help but see how the media really has affected this election. The media is so democratic; and they do not care to hide it.

It really saddens me to think of all of the little unborn children this will affect in the future. I also can't stand all of the other liberal problems this will cause. We have just elected one of the most liberal presidents in the history of America, and I fear there will be a bad outcome to this. We as christians have always needed to pray for our country, but now we really need to fall before God and pray.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.               2 Chronicles 7:14

From a biblical standpoint, Obama is not the right leader for this country. The Bible speaks against so many things he stands for. As I have said before, please pray!

Today is our anniversary!!!

Today we are celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. We don't really have any special plans; we are wanting to go out for dinner one night this week.

We will have a very busy day today. We will be attending our church service this morning. We will then come home and eat dinner, then head back to church for Christmas play practice. After that will be our night service.

We met at the church yesterday to work on the costumes for the play. Some of the ladies graciously offered to help out with these. I was very thankful because I was not sure I was going to get them finished.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful day in the Lord!

My daily schedule

I have been inspired by Crystal to work on my own homemakers journal. This is my daily schedule; my children each have a seperate schedule. I also have added many other things such as daily cleaning lists, our budget, etc. Please keep in mind we are morning people so we do start our day early, but we also go to bed early. I need my sleep! Well here it is:

4:30 - Wake up and my husband and I work out

6:15 - personal quite time, get dressed, chores   My chores are make bed, empty dishwasher, start laundry, start bread, prepare breakfast.

8:00 - Eat breakfast

8:30 - The children and I have our Bible time

9:00 - School

12:00 - Lunch

12:30 -  Read aloud

1:00 - Go over missed work

1:30 - Fold laundry

2:00 - Clean designated area

This is just our guidline. Sometimes our day runs a little longer but it's not a big deal. I do try to stay on schedule so we can accomplish all we need to everyday. We usually have dinner around 5 or 6; depending on when my husband gets home.

Pics of our new pantry area!

Here are some pics of our new organized pantry. Our pantry is located in our expanded wash room so it is not your typical one. Here is a shot from the front. I was still canning some at this point so you can see the jars at the bottom waiting to be filled. Here is our tomatoes, green beans, corn, pickles, honey, and various jams. We now have apple butter stored there as well.

Here is a shot from the side. This is our spaghetti sauce.

Here is our salsa, apple sauce, apple pie filling, and peaches.

I had hoped to put  these on a while back, but I am still learning how to post pictures. We will see if these actually show up.

Have a great day!

Welcome to my kitchen

I found this at Letters from Home and I thought it looked fun.

1. Do you have magnets on your fridge? Yes

2. Do you have a calendar in your kitchen, if so, what's the theme of it? Yes, it's got pictures of my children

3. What is your favorite kitchen gadget or tool? My bread machine 

4. Are you lucky enough to have a pantry of some kind?  Yes
5.What is your favorite appliance? Stove.

6. Do you have an eat in kitchen (table in it)? Yes

7.Do you have a bread box? Yes

8. Do you have a picture of your kids on the fridge? Yes

9. Do you ever cook breakfast in your PJs? Yes, almost every morning

10. Do you have a favorite cookbook that you use? Yes

11. Are you lucky enough to have recipes that were passed down from your mom or grandma?  No.

12. Whats your favorite food? Pasta

13. Whats your favorite thing to cook?  Italian dishes

14. Is your coffee pot electric or stove top? Electric. 

15. Do you ever make your own bread?  Yes.

16. Name one thing that you have hanging on your wall in your kitchen. Pot holder

17. Is there a clock in your kitchen? No

18. Do you have a bowl of fruit sitting on your table or counter? No

19. What type of canisters do you have? Glass

20. Does your kitchen have a theme? Roosters, thinking my walls will soon be green

21. What's for supper tonight? I am thinking of grilling chicken breasts

22. Do you have enough cabinet space? Yes

23. Does your family use paper plates?   No.

24. Do you have a good set of china picked up? Yes.

25. Do you wear an apron to work in your kitchen? No.

26. Name one thing, if anything, that you would like to change about your kitchen. I am in the process of picking out a new color for my kitchen.

 How about your kitchen?

This -n- That

Life has been at it's usual hectic pace around here.

I am almost finished with our canning for this year. I have a a few apples left that I plan on turning into apple butter.

I am also working on some costumes for our church's Christmas play. I was a little concerned about finding the time to do this, but with 9 weeks left until the play, I figured I would just make a few at a time. I found some cloth at our local Salvation Army really cheap, $1 for 5 yards. This was an exciting find after pricing cloth at Walmart.

Homeschooling has been going nicely. Now that the weather is getting cooler the children do not mind staying inside studying as much. My younger 2 are now taking piano lessons and they seem to be enjoying it. My oldest has been taking lessons for 2 years now. He told me his main goal is to be able to play hymns during church. It was one of those proud mamma moments.

I hope everyone is enjoying these nice cool fall days. We are getting some rain which is a real blessing. It has been so dry lately. Our local rivers are lower than I ever remember.

Well have a blessed day!

Fall cleaning!

We do things a little backwards around here. Instead of spring cleaning we have been fall cleaning. I am a little embarrased to say we have thrown away around 7 bags of trash and gathered around 5 give away bags. We are still in the process of cleaning but I am taking a little break. We are down to the living room which was never that cluttered to begin with, so we are really just deep cleaning it. The rooms that took the longest was our bedrooms. Why is it everything ends up being dumped into these rooms?

One of the accomplishments I am very excited about is our pantry. I will try to post pictures when I can. All of our storage items and can things are now in there. I have always thought shelves of canned items to be so beautiful and now I have this in my home.

I am also going through our pictures. I am getting rid of our photo albums and putting them all into picture boxes organized by years. This will save so much room but will still be accessible for our walks down memory lane. It will also be easier to keep up with as I get pictures developed.

Well I suppose I should get back to work. I hope everyone has a wonderful church service in the morning.

Thought I was finished with canning!

Well I thought canning for this season was finished, but I was very wrong.

A local tomato field opened up and were selling tomatoes for $8 a bushel. I decided to can some more spaghetti sauce, salsa, and just plain tomatoes.

We also found a great deal on some late season apples so of course I picked these up as well. I have been canning apple sauce and plan to put up some apple butter.

I am happy to put up the things God has provided. My husband is working on a better place to store our canned items. Right now I have them stored under everyone's beds, they are just difficult to get out sometimes.

Well I hope everyone has a nice evening.

Reaping the fruits of labor due to the gas shortage!

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted. I have been unusually busy these last couple of weeks, so I apologize. We have been canning and homeschooling, and to add to this I have been directing our local homeschool enrichment classes. These will soon be finished, they only last 5 weeks, and I am ready for a break.

We have been in the middle of this gas shortage, and it has been very interesting. I have watched normally calm, collected people turn into madmen. There has been fights break out, and even weapons pulled. Friends of ours even had their car rammed into while waiting in these 1-2 hour long lines. After even waiting in these lines there is no gaurantee that you will get gas as the gas stations run out so quickly. I never thought this would happen in America, but it is.

How is this affecting out family? Well I must say we are doing much better than others because we believe firmly in being prepared. The children and I have been able to stay home because we have almost everything we need here. My husband has not had to wait in these long lines because of our ability to conserve fuel. Now don't get me wrong, I know the Lord has blessed us tremendously. But we could have chosen to be careless with what He has given us, and not been prepared when we needed to be. Is there things we could have done different, of course! We are still a work in progress, and the Lord is still teaching us thankfully.

Today, instead of searching for fuel, we will be sitting at home relaxing. I will also be putting up some applesauce with the apples the Lord has so wonderfully provided. It is also our baby girl's birthday today, so we will be having her chosen dinner of pizza tonight.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

You should see the hole in our yard!

I have a huge hole in my back yard, the high side equaling around 24 ft tall. You might ask why we have such a hole in our yard. Well, we are building a root cellar.

I have wanted one for some time now, because we don't have a basement, and I would like a place to store certain items. I would like to store our canned goods there as well as our buckets of foods we buy in bulk. Of course it's also a great place to store root crops and ferment pickles and cabbage.

If you have one and could leave a comment on your success with your cellar I would greatly appreciate it.

My husband will start laying the footers as soon as the ground dries some. We already have some of the block and we hope to pick up the rest soon.

Happy Homesteading everyone!

Next year's curriculum planned!!

I have discussed with my husband and planned next years curriculum. I am always glad when this part is over. I always try to evaluate what each child needs work in, and plan around that. So here it is, drum roll please...

I have a 13, 9, and 7 year old.  I try to stick with the same curriculum with each child unless they show some difficulty with it. Of course these are different grade levels.

Bible- Sharpening the Sword (also each child's handwriting assignment will be their Bible verse that is to be memorized each week.)

Math- Saxon

Language- Rod and Staff

History- Mystery of HIstory (each child will have a reading and writing assignment drawn from this study)

Science- Apologia

Well, I hope everyone has a great day.

Results are in: How much does clothes lines save?

I have been doing a little experiment over the last month. I wanted to see if using my clothes line almost entirely would save us a significant amount of money.

My husband likes his clothes softer than line dried clothes. So what I have done is hang them out to dry then I bring them in and put them in the dryer. I wait until I get a dryer full of his things and then I turn it on for 10 minutes. This does make a difference and it is still cutting down on the amount of time the dryer is running. I said this to explain why I have not used  the clothes line entirely.

I took the amount of money we spent on our electric bill last June and compared it to this June's bill. I know this will not give an exact amount, but a close estimate. We have saved around $30 for one month!

Now my mathematical husband brought up the point that it takes me around 15 min. a day extra to hang out the clothes. I am not counting when I bring in the clothes because I fold them straight into the basket, and I would be taking the time to fold them daily anyway. I wash a load of clothes everyday except for Sunday. If I were getting paid by the hour for the month with the savings, it would come down to me making $5.00 an hour.

I have debated on the profit of this. I then think of the other benefits besides the savings. I love the smell of the clothes as I am hanging them on the line. It is also a joy to see the clothes on the line blowing in the breeze. It also shows my children there are other ways to do things without using electricity. One of my sons friends actually made the comment, "I thought the clothes would just get dirty again hanging on the line."  Our clothes also last longer if I do not use the dryer. I could go on but these are some of the main advantages.

Anyway, here are the results. I hope it might benefit someone.

I've been tagged by Kim at Forget-Me-Not Homestead!

Kim at Forget-Me-Not Homestead has tagged me.

At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was 21 and newly married. We were living in a little one bedroom apartment and I felt that I had everything I would ever need. I look back now and I realize that I did.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

           1.  Wash, hang out, bring in and fold laundry.

           2.  Clean trays under rabbit hutches.

           3.  Deep clean kitchen.

           4.  Homeschool the children.

           5.  Meet some ladies at our local Ingles to sell some curriculum.

  3. Snacks I enjoy:

I enjoy anything with chocolate in it, but my favorite snack is Nutty Buddy Ice Cream! Yummy

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

I would buy a beautiful 100 ac. lot and put us a small log cabin right in the middle. I would then buy any necessary items for our many farm animals that we would have. I would then put enough money up for my husband and I to live comftorably. I would of course put some money up for my children's futures.  I would then donate the rest to whatever charity the Lord laid on our hearts. One of these I believe would be Shriner's hospital which has helped my youngest son in so many ways.

5. Places I have lived:

I have always lived in NC. I have of course lived in various areas in this state.

I am tagging:

Ashley at Jonash...Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Andrea at Blessings Hobby Farm

Patricia at Welcome to My Home and Family

Vickie at Little Bitty Homestead

Pat at In His Hands

bflegg at almost heaven

It's been a while!

It's been a while since I have had a chance to blog. We have all been busy doing our spring chores. We have done most of the planting, minus a few things, and we are now maintaining the garden.

Our new chicks are doing great. We should be getting the ones we ordered next month, so I hope these will be ready for our chick lot by then. Our chickens are free range, but we keep the ones that we are going to sell in the lot until they reach pullet size. It protects them from hawks and keeps everything orderly.

We should be getting our redworms in today. I have been researching these for some time, and I am excited about getting them. We are hoping these will give us some good soil for our garden, cut down on our feed bill for our chickens, and help with our increasing amount of rabbit manure. These really are wonderful creatures.

Well I hope eveyone has a great day.

A whole lot of chirping going on!!

Well our eggs in the incubator are starting to hatch. My son and I were working on some math yesterday and we kept hearing some chirping. We at first thought it was the birds outside, but soon realized it was the ones inside. The first one was born at about 2:00 this morning. No I was not up all night, but they are in our bedroom and it was making more noise than I could sleep through. We had another born this morning around 6:30, and yet another is trying to hatch as we speak. I don't care how many chicks are hatched around here, it is always so exciting to watch the miracle of it all.

Well have a blessed day.

Strawberries, apples, and vegetables

My mom called me yesterday morning and said I needed to come to my sisters and pick up some strawberries. She had been given 17 gallons that could no longer be sold. I picked some up and I spent my day making strawberry jam. Because they were over ripe they made a deep red jam, but it is beautiful. I ended up with 10 quarts and 5 pints.

The day before I worked on a little more planting. I planted some sweet potatoes, okra, acorn squash, cantaloup, and a few more cucumbers. I had to do a little more weeding, it seems I can grow some very strong weeds. I also noticed we have some wild blackberries growing along our fence line. We have some tame ones planted but I love to freeze blackberries to make cobbler over the winter, so we all agree the more the merryier when it comes to these berries.  

Our apple trees have little apples all over them this year. I think this is going to be a good year for our trees. I know they were polinated well because our bees were all over them.

Well I hope everyone has a great day.

Todays happenings

It was another busy day today. We got some free mulch yesterday from a job site my brother is at, and we have been spreading it along our front bank. We are planning on putting strawberries on this bank possibly next spring so we want to get the ground prepared now. We are all very tired and just relaxing now. It is great how hard work can calm down 3 active children. I am going out to pick up another load shortly and get some plants for our garden. Spring around here involves so much work, but no other time of the year can we see so much progress. I love seeing our garden growing, our animals raising their young,  and the years projects being completed.

Well I hope everyone is having a great day.