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I have decided that with the cost of food and having 5 children to feed that I would start doing frugal menu planning. So yesterday, I got a pen and paper and started surfing through the frugal/family/menu planning websites. It is amazing that sitting down and planning each and every meal for two weeks can save soooo much money at the store!! I planned each meal and printed out a weekly meal planner schedule. Then I printed out a chart of who cooks supper on which nights. Then I went through my pantry, my fridge, my freezer, and my deep freeze and wrote down EVERYTHING I had. Then I wrote out everything it took to make each meal I had planned. Then I compared what each meal needed to what I already had and came up with a shopping list. It may be hard to believe but I only spent $134.97 for two weeks for 7 ppl. That is only $67.49 a week for all of us. I am in awe of what a little work on my part did for my shopping bill. I wasn't taking money from the bills in order to buy food this time. WOW! Anyway, I thought I'd share that so maybe someone could save some money on groceries too. |
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Alright! I finally figured out our new schedules and charts for the new year!! I have made up a daily schedule that has every hour on it from 6am to 10pm. I have scheduled in chores, eating, cleaning, school, baths, etc... I have a cooking schedule showing who cooks when along with a menu plan and recipes for whoever cooks that night. Hanna and Sam are cooking spaghetti with garlic toast tonight! I have a chore chart that goes by room. Each child is given either a room or laundry for the week and is responsible for keeping it up. They must clean it once a day and then keep it clean the rest of the day. Then I have my schedule. This schedule is for me during the time I have scheduled as free time for the kids. Mon is baking; Tues is sweeping/mopping/vacuuming; Wed is sewing; Thur is dusting/wiping ceilings; Fri is crafts and/or gardening. Any of these things can be bumped (except baking) if I have to go to town. Or I can just send my oldest who now has his driver's license. yippee! Some of these charts are a little vague, but they go with other charts/schedules that detail it. I know it sounds like a lot but it isn't really. I just put on paper what we do all the time anyway just so I can keep it straight. That way I don't get overwhelmed and frustrated anymore. |
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I would like to openly declare some good things about my husband and children that I appreciate and thank God for.
Michael - loves me enough that even though he doesn't like being on a farm wants to stay here an extra year after high school. awww...(I still want him to go and live his own life because I love him, but it is just too easy to hang..kwim?)
Brian - loves to cook for me when I don't have enough time in the day. He gets in the kitchen and just takes over. He plans meals and helps out even when I do the cooking.
Hanna - Helps out in every way a girl should help her mom. Takes it upon herself to have the table cleared, set, and ready for any meal without ever being asked. Will start loads of laundry if she feels there is too much dirty! She is definitely a self starter kinda girl. :)
Wyatt - can make a fantastic pot of coffee. He tries so hard sometimes to pitch in and be a little man. He goes every morning and every night to feed calves at the neighbors house. If it is something he is comfortable with he gives it his all.
Sam - love, love, love. that is the essence of Sam. He wanted Jesus to live in his heart so we prayed. He wants to be baptised just like Jesus. So he will be... When it's warmer because he asked me if he could be baptised in a muddy river too. lol He has a heart for God and it makes me burst with happiness.
Royce - well, he took on a woman with 3 kids (one of them an infant) and never looked back. he has never been without a job or a source of income. He provides the best he can *always*. And he never, ever complains about the way his kids are homeschooled. He just agrees that public school is NOT for his kids and trusts me to teach them in a Godly way.
Okay, that is the way I want to start off my New Year.. I will remember these things and be thankful to God for these things all year. (I'm gonna have to write these down...LOL)
Happy New Year everybody!! |
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Okay, I need input on this. We have a farm so obviously we have daily chores that need to be done. We homeschool, enough said... I can, I bake, I sew, I teach, I cook, etc. I am having trouble coordinating all these things. I don't want the sloppy mess we have now for a schedule. I write it on paper but it never happens the way it is written. Or if it does, something is always left out. So here are my questions to all of you that are as busy as I am. Do you cook and eat breakfast before chores? If so, when do you get up and what time do you get chores done? If not, what time do you usually eat? I have tried both ways, but I am having trouble with everything bumping into each other. Chores, meals, baking, schooling, sewing, etc.... I need order. I don't need some blank printable worksheet with times of the day on it. I do that on Microsoft Excel. I need an example of someone's honest-to-goodness day. Someone that has their act together and has been doing this for a while. I just realized the horses haven't been getting brushed and I'm trying to figure out WHEN that is supposed to get done. UGH....Does anyone else have this problem? I know I am not explaining it fully here. HELP!!! |
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Well, if Saturday wasn't enough, Sunday sure was. We were out doing chores and boy was it cold!! I had to bring in the pig slop bucket to put water in it. My sons were in the house already filling up rabbit waterers. My husband was in the big barn and my daughter was in the rabbit barn/chicken coop building feeding the animals. My dh was getting hay out for the horses. I came out of the house with the slop bucket. I heard screaming coming from the barn. I ran with the slop bucket in my hand all the way to the barn. It was my daughter screaming! She rarely cries when she gets hurt so I knew this was bad. When I got to them the first thing I noticed was that Hanna was crying drops of blood. Freaked me out on the inside!! I threw the slop at dh and took Hanna in my arms. She told me the horse saw her coming with the empty buckets. Ebony knocked her down and stepped on her foot and then her FACE while she was on the ground!! Oh no!! I grabbed her and we headed to the house so I could put some decent pants on (i was wearing jammie bottoms). Dh dropped the slop and went up to start the van. As soon as I had clean pants on we were out the door. I put the flashers on and zoomed (i still remember how to zoom!) The ER is 16 miles from us. It didn't take long to get there. The intake guy heard what was wrong and instantly a nurse was out there taking us to the back. No triage or anything. They got us straight back. As soon as we were back there the nurse went to get Hanna set up for a C/T scan and an xray of her foot. Her face was swollen and her eye was still bleeding. She couldn't talk cause it hurt too much. She was in a lot of pain. The nurse brought her a ice pack and she just layed there with it on her face. I had called a friend on the way to the ER and asked her to pray. She grabbed her husband and they prayed then they started calling ppl to pray. While Hanna was lying there with the ice pack on my friend called me back and told me all the praying going on. Thank God for good friends and prayers. It wasn't but a few minutes later that Hanna started talking. Then a little while later she was sitting up and beating me at cards! Within an hour of that call, Hanna was laughing, talking, and playing cards. (playing very well I might add) Another hour later and the doc popped in to tell us that there was NO problems on the C/T!!! Nothing wrong or out of place. No breaks, no cracks. She would heal completely. She would be able to see out of that eye in a day or two. (her vision was very blurred) Praise God. He healed her. I don't think there is any other way that an 800lb horse can step on a child's face and eye and not break or injure anything. No way. That was God. Now Hanna has a prescription for tylenol 3 with codeine. She hasn't woken up yet. She will be in pain today. She will be swollen today. She will be black and blue and purple. But she will be in one piece with an eye that still works. Praise God. And she can have another dose of pain meds and hang out in her jammies all day. Thank you God for saving my girl. Thank you God for keeping your hand on her. Thank you God!!!! |
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I have a sneaking suspicion that the animals knew the men were gone on Saturday! I got the guys sent off and right away got a phone call from the neighbor. My almost 400 lb pig Rosie was out!! It took me and the neighbor a good hour and a half if not more to get the pig back in and fix the fence where she took it down. While I was doing that, the kids were supposed to be cleaning rabbit cages in preparation for the really cold weather coming that night. They needed to clean out the yucky hay so we could pack in some clean, fresh hay. I thought they were doing it! Come to find out they were playing with the other neighbor's kid and she left the chicken pen door open. (i didn't know yet that the rabbits cages weren't clean) So I made the kids help me round up chickens. It was already starting to get cold. We were out there for a while together then I had to go make lunch. I left the kids out there to run in the chickens. The more they tried to run in the more that got out. We spent the better part of the afternoon doing this. We still didn't get them all in. We go in to warm up and rest. We start a game of aggravation and hear a commotion outside on the highway. My son runs out and right back in. We had a horse out on the highway!!!!!!!!! ugh.... I got the horse and got him to the gate, but the other horse was trying to get out. I was pushing her back, pushing on the gate, and pulling on him. The gate needs a new top hinge and is still on the to-do list. So I had to stop pushing Ebony to lift the gate so it would move. When I did, Ebony tried to get out so I had to let go of Shadow to get Ebony back in and he took off! He headed back to the highway. I ran over and yelled at the neighbor to come help. He came over and we finally got the horse back in and put both of them in the corral until we figured out where they got out. Turns out he got out where there was only one strand of barbed wire around the back of the garden spot. He climbed the landscape timbers over my herb garden and was up and out. He must be part tree monkey. I had told the guys to finish that fence up or the horses would get out and I was told there was no way they could get out there. hmmm...............okay........... By this time it was dark and past chore time so I went to check the rabbits and lo and behold the cages were still dirty!!! So I had to stand out there and clean them in the dark. It was now freezing cold. When I finished with that I grabbed the few remaining stragglers of the chicken flock and threw them in with the others. Then the neighbor helped me (in the complete dark and icy cold) put up a fence that the horse couldn't get through so I could let them out of the corral. ugh..My fingers were stiff and frozen and I was dog tired. We finally finished, but still had sausage to make out of one of the pigs we had butchered. I go in and make supper and here comes the neighbor bringing sample sausage patties and needing help. I told him as soon as I finished the supper dishes I'd be over there helping. Luckily, my children took this opportunity to pay me back a little. They all went over and helped make sausage so I didn't have to. Then once we were all back home and safe and warm all the work done....we hear a commotion outside again. The other neighbor's dog had been in my yard all day because she had gotten out. He was out there trying to get his dog! lol Someone else had to do it! Just when I thought I was done chasing animals for the day.....Our dog got out! Thank God he comes when you call him! He came right in the back door and right back out to the yard. ahh...finally done! Dh got back from taking the boys around 11:00pm. I told him the saga and then hit the sack. I was exhausted!!!!!!!!!! |
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Well, my two oldest boys left Saturday to go to their dad's house in Alabama. We usually meet halfway and swap off the kids. This year just the men went. My husband drove the boys down. Michael got his driver's license last week and Brian got his permit the same day so they will get to drive the whole time they're at their dad's. They will be back in Jan. so we can get back to homeschooling. We are going to try a new schedule. No one is happy with it except me! lol But we will get a lot more work done. Well, no thinking about school now, it's Christmas! I hope the boys have a good time at their Dad's with their Grandma and Grandpa. |
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Well, last thursday before we butchered a pig, we butchered more chickens. My friend and I got together and did this ourselves. My husband killed a few of them for us, but we took turns and killed the rest ourselves. Then we skinned some and plucked some. Now I see the difference in both. I usually just skin. Plucking is not so bad. At least it was easier than I thought it would be. Then we spent the next 6 or 7 hours canning the chicken. I wanted to can some since I still have a freezer full of chicken we butchered last time! That was my first time canning meat. Now I know! It wasn't so bad either. Just took forever......and ever....and ever......My word, I thought it would never end. I was so tired when I finally got to go to bed! But it was so worth it!! |
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This may not seem too exciting to some, but I just got to do my first pig butchering!!! It actually was exciting. Except the killing part. Thankfully the men took care of that! We formed a little group of friends to butcher with. Processing is so expensive anymore that all of us decided to just get together and help each other. We all pitch in equipment and gather at our neighbor's workshop. It is nice and big and WARM thanks to the wood stove. We got together Friday and Saturday. The actual killing took place Friday. Then we skinned, gutted, quartered and froze the meat. On Saturday, we took the partially frozen meat and cut it into actual butcher cuts. We also made sausage and packed the bacon in salt to cure. We will try smoking one of the hams. It was a learning experience to say the least! We are going to do another one this weekend. Fun! I love that we can all get together and do this for each other. Good to have nice folks you can depend on. :) |
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Here's a little something I just tried and it works! Take the leg off of a pair of men's old worn out jeans. Cut it at an angle off the seat. Put a safety pin in the bottom to hold it together. Fill the leg with scraps of material or plastic. I used some denim scraps I was saving for a quilt top. You could use walmart bags too. Or old towels or rags. You get the picture. Close up the top end with two safety pins or using a yarn needle thread some colorful yarn through and tie it off. (that's what I did) Now take the filled leg and put the long part of the angled top against the door. Even it up and then staple it to the door at each end. It should hang over the ends just a touch thanks to the angled part. Now when you go out and close the door, the draft stopper goes with the door! Hope y'all can get some use out of this. If you don't have a jeans leg just use a towel and sew it up. Fill it and staple to the door. Voila! |
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Thought I'd try my hand at putting in pics. Here's some of our new babies. lol This is the kids' horse Ebony. She is such a sweetheart. This is Royce's and my big baby Shadow. If this worked I can upload more photos! YEAH! Ok, I hope this try worked because I am all out of ideas if it didn't!
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Well, I must say that today has been a long day. It started with us jumping out of bed on the run. We put on the coffee, got dressed, got the kids up, grabbed a cup of coffee, and took off. Today is the day we picked up our horses!!!!!! We didn't use our horse trailer because it is a 2 horse and really small. These horses have never been trailered and they needed more space. So we had a friend of my husband's go with us. He pulled his 4 horse trailer for us. The horses were an hour and a half away so we got going as quickly as possible. We got to the stables about 10:30 in the morning. The trailer was backed up to the barn door. The horses had halters and lead ropes. This should have been a no-brainer and we'd be off! HA!!! HA!!! These sweet babies turned into wild mustangs at the drop of a hat. (or should I say the drop of a load ramp!) They fought, kicked, bucked, jumped, snorted, locked their legs, ran off....etc..... The big horse pulled a guy 10 feet before he stopped. There was a lot of chaos going on. Finally they figured we might have more luck loading them from the arena. RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!HA! We get them over to the arena. By this time the little filly has bashed her face on the edge of the trailer several times by jumping right as she gets her head inside. She is bleeding and her face is starting to swell. (and she's the calm one!!) After several more attempts to put her in the trailer (pushing, pulling, cajoling, smacking on the rear, etc..) they decided to just give them both some horsey valium. By this time everyone could have used some, but only the horses were lucky enough to get it. The big horse hadn't been tried again because he is so big everyone just decided to concentrate on the filly. Well, giving him a shot was almost as bad as trying to get him in the trailer! He jumped up and kicked the trainer with his front leg! He was mighty unhappy!! Finally the drug had supposedly taken effect so they decided to force the filly into the trailer. She looks like she went a couple rounds with Muhammed Ali already. They get the lead ropes on the front and one across her rear and there's people pulling on both sides and pushing from the back. This horse is supposed to be doped up but she rears again and bucks and THEN....she falls down! Oh my word it scared the hooey out of me! But as she jumped back up they pulled at the same time and lo and behold she was IN!!!! wooohoooo!! Then she stopped and just looked at me and never gave another minutes trouble! lol The big one was still out though so we tied the filly up in the front of the trailer and they got the same get up going for the big guy. He was supposed to be even harder. Maybe it was the fact that Ebony was already in there or the drugs or both, but it only took two tries and he didn't put up much of a fight. The whole ordeal felt like it took all day but it actually only lasted 2 hours. Once they got in though, they were fine. And once we got home they were fine. I doctored up the filly's face. She has a cut above her eye, a cut on her forehead, a gash right in the middle of her face and a rip on her leg where she fell. Fortunately, the wounds are small and will heal with no scarring. So we get them home and our day isn't over. It probably should have ended there but the pig needed her part of the pasture fenced off before the horses got let out of the corral. So Rosie the pig got her fence put up and now she is a happy camper because she has her own pasture. The ducks and geese were not happy though because that was their sleeping pasture and now they can't get in! lol But now it is night and all the animals are settled in. The goats are bedded down in the barn, the pig is in her "bedroom", the barn roosters are up in the rafters, the ducks and geese have found another bedding spot, the rabbits are snuggled in their hay, the chickens are roosting in the hen house, the dogs are in the dog houses, the cats are under the porch, and those big, beautiful, hung-over horses are in the corral enjoying their new home. Tomorrow, they will be let out into their pasture and they will spend tomorrow night in their own stalls. But for tonight they are settled and happy just like all the other animals on our little farm. Now it is time to go bed down the youngun's that live inside the house! |
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Well, since we have every other kind of animal a farm needs we have decided to get a couple of horses. I have utilized my yahoo groups and the internet to search out suitable candidates. So far we have some nice horses in the running. (no pun intended!) We have one over near Tulsa that we are going to try to go look at Monday. He is a sweet, dead broke gelding quarterhorse. He's 13 yrs and 14.5 hh. Very pretty chestnut coloring. We have a few we are looking at tonight that seem likely. One is a bomb-proof, dead-broke mare that is 21 yrs and 15.3 hh. The others are green-broke and would not be for the kids, but for Royce and I. Funny how the unbroke and green-broke horses are dirt cheap, but the more broke they are the more expensive they are. The other two candidates we have already looked at. One is a 5yr old Paint. She is 14hh and very pregnant. She's due in March. She is broke to ride but isn't outrageously friendly. The other is a 2yr old APHA registered filly. She is going to be bigger than the mare. She is broke to ride bareback, but not saddle. She is very loving. I really like her. She is a piebald. Anyway, I will update when we finally make our decisions. Until then................................ |
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Well, I guess it's about time to update everyone on my ds. I took him to the ER last saturday (a week ago). The first thing they did was put in an IV. They also gave him some anti-nausea meds and some anti-diarrheal. About 3 hours later they decided to admit him to the hospital. He was in Saturday night, Sunday, Monday, and finally released Tuesday night around 8 pm. I got him home Tuesday night and he STILL had diarrhea!!! So I put him on a BRAT diet. (which is what they should have done in the hospital but didn't) The poor child only weighed about 59lbs when he got sick and by the time he got over it he was down to 50lbs. He is so skinny now. But on the BRAT diet he was over the diarrhea by Friday morning! Now he is eating again and keeping it in so he can weight. Thank God for healing him and making him well. So many people prayed for him. And so many people brought food over for the other children that we will never eat it all!!! I am so thankful for those people who checked on my children and husband and took care of them for me. I really appreciate them all. Thank God for them. So now everyone here is well as of today. I am grateful. Now I can clean my house with lysol and pray it doesn't make a return visit!!!! |
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Ok, we can't wait any longer. I have to take my boy to the E.R. He threw up his gatorade. That was my last try. He hasn't held anything down for 3 days. I'll update when I can. Please pray! |
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I woke up today feeling soooo much better. My daughter, my 16 yr old and my 6 yr old are all fine now except for a small cough. BUT...my 9 yr old has diarrhea still and when he stands up he throws up. He may end up in the hospital tonight if he isn't better. It has been 3 days now. I sure hope he gets better.... My oldest did get sick and now he can't even walk. Everytime he gets up he falls down. And he is a big boy so when he falls, he falls down hard. I tried to catch him once when he started swaying but I only caught his ear..LOL I was on the porch and he was coming in and started to fall. I caught his ear and pushed on his head. lol It must have helped cause he didn't fall. Anyone reading this please pray. My 9 yr old is very, very ill. Please pray that he doesn't have to go in the hospital. I know my oldest will get better with rest but add him in there too please. Thank you. :) |
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Well, with all this sickness and yuckiness, one good thing has happened. While we were all down and couldn't really appreciate it my pullets finally started laying!! They are 10 months old. They should have started a long time ago. As a matter of fact all the ones I sold started laying as soon as they left here. I even compared notes with several ppl that bought from me to see if I was doing something wrong but no, I was doing the same thing they were. hmph! Oh well, doesn't matter! They are laying now and I am so happy!! That plus the eggs from the ducks and goose and we are sitting pretty! yeah! |
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Well, I haven't been on lately because we are all sick here. Ok, not all of us are sick. My oldest son and my daughter seem to be superhuman and never get sick. But the rest of us are very human. Among the 4 of us we have managed to share: fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomitting, headaches, and over-all achiness. I feel like I have been dropped off a really high cliff. Oh wait, I forgot hacking up a lung...which is what my youngest is doing right now. Ugh.... I will update when everyone is back to normal. I think I'll go lie down now. I was wrong.......my oldest is not superhuman. He is very sick with a fever and the rest of the junk that goes along with it. He woke up with it. He seems to be feeling a little better now, but still not good. Hmmmm.............Maybe this virus is superhuman? |
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Anybody live in a place where you have monthly community suppers? We lived in a very rural area where everyone gets together once a month at a community center in the absolute middle of nowhere. There isn't a town for at least 13 miles from the center. That town is north. To the south there is nothing. To the west there is nothing. To the east there is the state line. Everywhere you look there are back roads, dirt roads, and mountains. To look you wouldn't think there was anyone for miles and miles. But once a month, we all crawl out of the woodwork to gather together. We used to live out there. We moved closer to town and bought a farm. We still have our land on the mountain. (very off-grid) We still have our friends out there. BUT, we haven't been to a supper for a long time. We finally went to one tonight. Ever felt like the prodigal son? I can't remember the last time I got hugged that much. It was like coming home. I could only stand and look at all those people and try not to cry. The preacher said a few words of thanks and prayed over the meal, but I was thankful for so much more than the food. Those people are like family. We hugged, talked, ate, hugged some more, talked some more, and laughed so much my sides still hurt! The kids got hugged, tickled, teased, and loved on. I am so thankful and so loved I may cry yet. What wonderful people God has brought into our lives. And not just a couple of them either. I mean a whole building full of people that missed us and love us and went out of there way to make sure they got at least one hug from all seven of us! I am so blessed. My cup runneth over............ Next month we are going again. No matter what we have going on. It's going to be a Christmas potluck. This one was a Thanksgiving dinner. I tell you what those precious hillbilly church ladies know how to cook up a Turkey supper. I mean....yummy....I ate too much. I am full of food and love. May you all be as blessed this holiday season. May you all have as much to be thankful for. May your family, your friends, your neighbors be as wonderful. And maybe if you don't have community suppers in your area you can start one. Even if it's just the next door neighbor. Get together once a month and keep up with each other. Don't lose track of people that are precious in your life. Be thankful! :) I am.......... |
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Well, it was all about the teeth today! All weekend one of my sons had a toothache. Turns out he has a big hole in one of his molars. Good news it is a baby tooth. Bad news it is not ready to come out although it is loose. So I called yesterday and made an appointment for first thing this morning at the dentist's. We get up this morning and we are getting ready to go when my youngest son walks in and starts to say something. I squeal realizing he has lost his front tooth! The second one in a week. He now has no front teeth and is cute as can be! Unfortunately he had no idea where he lost it at! So he goes on the hunt for that little tooth. He finally found it and had it me put it up. For some reason he likes collecting his teeth. LOL After the tooth was found and safely put away, I took my other son to the dentist. They packed the tooth for him and said we just have to wait until it is ready to come out. sigh....He is on penicillian for infection and the packing won't stay in. He is still in pain. I wish they had pulled the tooth but they said that if they did, the other teeth would pull together and his adult teeth wouldn't have any room to come in. That isn't much consolation when you're 9 and in pain. Hopefully that tooth will fall out soon and he can be back to normal! Right now he is sleeping like a baby because of the motrin the doc said to give him. As a matter of fact...all the little ones are asleep. No wonder it's quiet in here!! |