Thankful for Friday!

Wow! Another Friday already? Where did the week go? Ever have one of those weeks that just flew by without you even realizing it was happening? My goodness, this week was non stop and I honestly didn't realize how fast it was going until this AM. :) I didn't even have time this week to wish it was Friday...crazy!

This week has been a tough one for me in many regards though, speedy or not. I do have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings. Sometimes it's hard to see the blessings in the midst of "life" and the trials that come along with it all. This week I had a very emotional reaction to turning 40, something that totally caught me off guard, to be honest! I've never cared about age, never really gave it much thought. Then I found myself staring "40" in the face and not liking it one bit. My wonderful husband let me have my momentary freak out and then told me that I was the same woman, it was just a number. I have wonderful friends that encouraged me and helped me see that I am not totally crazy, but that it is just a number. Now, a couple of days later, I'm OK with it...I say OK, not liking the fact that I am 40 and haven't reached a few goals I had mentally set to reach before I got here. All in all, I am OK with it, I'm not letting the number rule the day or the year. I have SO much to be thankful for, so many blessings that have come my way in my 40 years of life on this earth! Who am I to be upset about a number???

So, here is what I am thankful for this Friday:

* The wonderful man that I married that loves me despite my short comings and crazy moods.
* My kids that want so much to make my birthday special.
* Our little homestead, a life long dream that is just starting to become more of a reality and a dream for all of us, not just this mama.
* Our pantry, that grows almost daily. The Lord is truly providing the produce and the funds to buy them. Earlier this spring I didn't know HOW we would ever have full shelves again unless our garden produced. That didn't happen this year, gardening in our area has been a struggle this season due to weather conditions. Trusting in the Father to provide kept me from letting the garden stress that could have been SO huge something that never really happened. I haven't worried much about the fact that our garden wasn't producing. I KNEW the Lord would provide!
* Amazing friends that remind me of what is important and what truly counts in life. :)
* Mostly, I'm SO thankful for my relationship with the Father, that carries me through the tough days, let's me appreciate the good days and is a constant...yesterday, today and forever...I KNOW I can count on His guidance, love, protection and provision!

It's been an amazing week, let me tell you! I've canned green beans, dill pickles, and apple juice. Adding to our pantry feels amazingly good. We have NO idea what the winter will hold for us, but we'll have food. :)

For my birthday this week, I made a strawberry rhubarb pie (wish I'd taken a picture of it) with the frozen pie filling I did a week ago or so. Let me tell you, it turned out wonderfully! What a wonderful treat that will be when it's cold and snowy outside and we are enjoying a pie that tastes like summer. :) I am thrilled with the result and know that I'll be doing more again next summer! Such a tasty treat and an easy dessert to whip up. We LOVED it! :)

A productive weekend

It's Monday and I am still wishing we had one more day to our weekend. Ever start the week feeling that way? Not usually the best way to start a new week, but sometimes that is just how it goes. Our oldest son came home from his training with the Marines on Friday. It was good to see him, but he was gone in a flash to spend time with his friends and girlfriend. We saw glimpses of him over the weekend, but not much. Kind of a bummer, but we expected it. The rest of the kids and I worked on canning green beans on Friday, ended up with 28 more quarts. YAY! :)

Saturday, my hubby and I headed to town for coffee and a few errands. Our weekend project was to work on expanding the fencing for the goat pasture. Long over due, and a big project that would not be completed in a weekend. It felt good to finally be starting it though. Before we went to pick up fence posts, we stopped by the "Wholesale Sports" for a few things. Wade was going to take the boys out to site in rifles and have some fun on Sunday and needed a few things. Every time we visit this store, I end up drooling over the backyard grills and cast iron in the camping section. :) This time, they were having a sale...a very good one! I've had my eye on a grill there, a huge barrel style grill, for a couple of years now. Well, 30% off was the best deal I'd seen on it and my wonderful hubby decided that we couldn't pass up that deal! I was like a little kid at Christmas, SO excited!! :) We decided to use it for a combined birthday and anniversary gift for ourselves. gotta love that! Both of our birthdays are in August, as is our anniversary. :)

After getting the fence posts, we headed home to get to work. I was little to no help with my back acting up, but it was fun to watch the guys work. :) They got one corner next to the barn set and then one more corner before it was time to start thinking about dinner. We decided to try out our new grill and headed to the store for a special dinner. We spent WAY more than I would have liked, but Wade wanted it to be a fun and delicious dinner and it WAS far less expensive than it would have been if we'd gone out. We ended up with bacon wrapped steaks, bacon wrapped shrimp, grilled corn on the cob and grilled sourdough bread. ALL of it was amazingly good! We all ate WAY too much and had tons of leftovers for the rest of the weekend. The grill worked AMAZINGLY well. Such a great time!

Last night, I cooked a prime rib roast on the grill. Took several hours, but I just kept feeding the fire more wood and it cooked away. I do believe that it was better than the traditional salt coated and roasted in the oven version. Every time we butcher a steer we cut prime rib roasts, they are a favorite here and something that we would NEVER go out and purchase. They've become a tradition for Christmas. :) Quite tasty on the grill, and I can't wait to try it again. So tasty!

This week will be busy, finishing up lesson plans for school that starts in just two weeks, a bit of shopping for the last few books we need, canning green beans and hopefully tomatoes, baking, laundry, cleaning and just living. So thankful for a productive and fun weekend with our kids, wishing for more time with one of them. It was hard to see my hubby head off to work this AM, but I know another weekend will be coming and we'll have more time to get things done around here. :) Never an end, it seems, but that is kind of like life...always a work in progress. :)

Thankful for Friday!

YAY! I am SO glad it's Friday, this has been another busy week here at Tanglewood Hills! This time of year is just plain busy, no getting around it. I cannot tell you how much I am longing for the lazy days of winter when we are snug in our warm home knitting and enjoying just being here. :) Summer and fall bring about SO much activity here, harvesting, canning and processing our bounty (or in the case of this year, the produce market's bounty) and preparing for another winter. Around these parts, we are expecting a harsh winter, both weather wise and work wise. It's all in the Lord's hands, but we are trying to do all we can to prepare for it now.

So, what am I thankful for today? Oh so much!

* Our oldest son is home from the Marines...for how long, we don't know, but for now, he is home with us.
* My husband has still got a job!
* Most of the curriculum that we need for the coming school year is here...I have maybe 3 or 4 small books to order still, but for the most part, it's here. :)
* My food dehydrator is full of apricots, drying away for future trail mix and snacking.
* 33 pints of sweet pickles are ready to find their new home on my pantry shelves.
* This weekend, we will begin expanding our goat pasture...the fencing won't be finished this weekend, but it's a start! One step closer to having our own cow...not sure if it will be a milk cow yet, but we'll at least have a steer for meat! YAY! :)
* I've been able to spend some time focusing on my home and our routines here, trying to find a routine that will work with all that fills our days!
* Our one dairy goat that is in milk is still producing strong, we're getting just under a gallon a day! This is the longest she has stayed in milk yet...such a blessing! :)
* So far, our wheat experiment is working fine. We know what doesn't work and have found our limit. :) I am enjoying baking wheat bread again!
* Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary! I can't believe we've been married so long, I truly don't feel like either one of us is old enough to have been married that many years already. Where has the time gone? I love my husband more today than I ever thought I could. He is truly my very best friend and someone that I know I can always turn to. He's not perfect, neither am I....but we have a great life together! I am so blessed to have him as my husband, best friend and father to my kids. I couldn't ask for more!
* As much as our part of the country was well overdue for a stretch of hot weather, I'm glad for the cooler days the past few days. This AM when I got up, it was 44 degrees...that's a bit cold, but I'm enjoying the cooler days. :)

We are so blessed here. I am SO thankful for all that we have, are able to do and how close our family has become. Things may be hard at times, but we all know in the midst of it all that we are blessed and well cared for!

Busy days

I've been very lax about updating my blog, life has been just too busy to keep up with everything. We are finally out of our little heat wave, we saw our hottest temperatures of the summer this past weekend. As much as my garden needs the heat and sunshine, I am SO glad that we are seeing a cool down.

This time of year means lots of canning and preserving for the coming year. This week I've worked on green beans and apple pie filling. This is the first year I've tried apple pie filling, I'm really excited about it! I've wanted to try and have a few "ready made" items in my pantry for when I just don't have time to make everything from scratch. This way, I get the best of both worlds...made from scratch and a time saver! What could be better? Gotta love it! I also froze 12 pies worth of strawberry rhubarb pie filling. All I have to do is add the tapioca and put it into the pie shell....simple! We can have a slice of summer any time of the year. Yum!

Today, Brandon takes his final drive for driver's ed class. I'm glad it's finally here. He can't get his license until after Thanksgiving, but at least we are going to be done with this phase. :) I've got errands to run in town today too, so it will be a busy day for us. It's never enjoyable for me to be away from home all day, I try to group as many errands into the day I HAVE to be in town as I can so I don't have to do it as often. We'll see if we get it all done today. :) Once we get home, we'll set to work at preparing the boys bedroom for our oldest to be home for a bit from the Marines!! :) So excited!! I have no idea how long he'll be here, but we want him to have a place to feel at home while he is here. It will be so nice to have him home again...we've really missed him!

Planning for the coming school year has also been heavy on my mind. Planning our days during the school year is tough sometimes, this year will be extra busy....but we are excited! :) The mapping out of our days will start later this week. One of my stops today is to look at ready made planners. I've tried printing ones up on line, and I just haven't found what I really want. With all that we have on our plates this year, I need one that "fits" what we are going to be doing.

On the homestead front, we added a new buck to our goat herd. He's a Nigerian Dwarf buck named Honor. He's such a sweetie! We also moved our meat birds out into the tractor yesterday. I'm praying they survived the night...we had a stray cat trying to find his way into the tractor last night. My hubby thinks that it's secure, but I still worry. It would be a HUGE bummer if we lost all 25 of them now! This weekend we'll be working on expanding our pasture, stringing hot wire and getting the power hooked up in the barn for the charger. I am SO excited! One step closer to getting our cow. Yay! :)

Thankful for Friday!

Oh my goodness! Is it really Friday already? I have tried to get on here and publish a post all week, so many fun things I could have and still could share, but time has gotten away from me. Life here at Tanglewood Hills has been extremely busy this week! So much to be thankful for and so much to do. It's part of life though...part of this season.

So, what am I thankful for this week? Oh my...where to start! I have found that focusing on being thankful has really helped me feelings of frustration that seem to come with a busy life and a lack of time. :) So, this week, I am thankful for:

* My family, how hard they all work to "get the job done" on a daily basis.
* Even though my garden has done little to nothing this year due to our crazy cold and wet spring and summer, I am able to buy produce that we need to get us through the year this year.
* My jobs...I know that I am very fortunate to have them. Even though there are days that I wonder HOW I will do it all, I am SO very thankful that I have the ability to work from home and help supplement our income AND be home to teach and care for our kids. :)
* My amazing husband that works so very hard in very uncertain times and almost always has a positive outlook on life. He gives so very much of himself for our family and to meet all of our needs. He's the best friend I've ever had and I'd be truly lost without him. :)
* Time with my kids, we went to the fair last Friday and had a good time together. I so enjoy getting to do fun things with them, and also seeing how grown up they are becoming!
* Our new little Nigerian Dwarf buck, Honor. We picked him up the other day and he is such a sweet heart. I think he's going to be a good addition to our small herd. :)

I could go on...but time is short this AM. I have 30 pounds of green beans to can, a large sack of rhubarb and a flat and a half of strawberries to make into pie filling (to freeze) and a box of apples to make into pie filling to can. :) Never ending! Tomorrow we are headed to a neighboring county fair, our favorite! It should be a fun family day...though rather hot, with temps edging towards 100 degrees! Yikes! :) It's all good though, we'll enjoy our time with friends that are showing their goats there and watch the logging competition there. So much fun! :)

Have an amazing weekend with your families!

Thankful for Friday!

Somehow I totally missed posting my "Thankful for Friday" post last week...but my blog post did have some "thankfulness in it" so I hope that counts. :)

It's been a trying week here at Tanglewood Hills, but you know, God is good and there have also been many blessings! :)

* A new little guy, 3 months old, is the newest little one that I get the pleasure of watching while his mama is at work. I've baby sat for friends and family for years and have loved every little one that has come to my home. It's been an adjustment, but he is such a cutie and we've all fallen in love with our little guy!

* My husband is still working...it's been long days and long commutes, but he IS working...Huge blessing there!

* I got to spend a good part of a day working on a hobby I had set aside during a busy period of life. It felt SO good to spend the day on Monday scrapbooking.

* My kids came home safe and sound from their camping trip with their grandma. They had a good time, despite the cold weather.

* Our baby, Dylan, turned 11 yesterday!! I can't believe that he is already 11 years old. It just doesn't seem possible that my baby is that old, or that 11 years could have possibly gone by so quickly. He is such a blessing to our family, such a loving and caring kid. I can't wait to see the man that he becomes....on second thought, I CAN wait, don't want the next 11 years to go as quickly as the first. :)

* My kids and I get to spend the morning at our County Fair today. It's opening day and we have tickets to get in free. A tradition we've kept for more years than I can count. This year it's just my three younger kids, my niece and me...small group for us, usually we have other friends and family in tow. It will be a fun adventure just the 5 of us, exploring the animal barns and enjoying an ice cream cone. Tradition....just a bit different this year. :)

God is so good to us...I could go on and on with my list of things I'm so thankful for. I have great kids, an amazing husband and a place that provides us with so much. We have our stresses, our stressful days, our trials, but we are truly blessed! I was reminded this AM by a dear friend that God has given me enough of what I need to handle the hard things. I can either choose to worry about what's going on and stress over the bumps in the road or I can do as Cinnamon and her family are doing during a difficult time and:

"Instead we can choose to know that God has made our way perfect, no matter what that way is and all we have to do is trust in Him."

Thanks for the reminder, Cinnamon! This week, I needed that. :) God is good ALL THE TIME! I will CHOOSE to be thankful, I will CHOOSE to trust...I will CHOOSE to NOT go down the "worry road" as my friend has said.

That is another thankful item...good friends that remind me of the Lord's truths. :)

As much as I don't want to know....

This is information that NONE of us really "wants" to know, but anyone that really cares about where we are going SHOULD be aware at the very least about what is being done to our food. Know that there IS a plan, a design, if you will. This is beyond frustrating, beyond scary, and beyond angering! I get so mad when I see stuff like this....but really, that anger is a good thing. It inspires action and drives me to do more for my family. No, we can't possibly do it ALL and avoid all of the GMO and effected products, but we can do something! Every little big helps the health of our families and helps to educate our kids as to what they need to do to keep this from happening further in their generation. Knowledge is power, as they say! :)

Exciting give away on Homestead Revival Blog...

You don't want to miss out on this give away! Did you know that there is a company that has been around since the 1970's that makes REUSABLE CANNING LIDS AND SEALS?? OH my! I had NO idea.

This morning, I was just checking on the blogs that I follow while enjoying my morning coffee. I LOVE Amy's blog, Homestead Revival and look forward to every new blog post she puts out there. If you haven't visited her blog yet, you really should! Pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and sit back and enjoy. :)


(Picture from Tattler and Amy's blog)

The give away that she is hosting is from a company called Tattler, they've been in business since the mid 1970's and their product is a REUSABLE canning lid and seal system. The lids will last forever and the rubber seal rings can last 20 years, according to their site. WOW! How much money do you spend each year on canning lids? I know in my kitchen I go through DOZENS upon DOZENS of them each year!! Even if I could have a few dozen of these lids it would save me a ton over my canning years. I'm all for that, let me tell you! The fact that they don't go into the landfill and will last as long as I'd need them to work is amazing.

So, if I have sparked an interest, head on over to Amy's blog and find out more about this VERY COOL giveaway! You won't be sorry, even if you don't win you will have found another amazing homesteading blog to follow and more great tips and information on this life we all love. :)

A much needed mommy day!

Being a stay at home, working, homeschooling, homesteading mom is a lot of work, you know? It can be SO easy to just focus on the tasks at hand, the endless list of things that need to be done, the laundry that is never completely done (at least for long), the dishes, the lesson plans, the correcting of geometry work, the meals that need preparing and planning, the bread that needs baking...I cold go on and on. When do you take a break and NOT focus on the "To do" list and allow yourself time to relax, refill and refocus? Maybe take a few hours to do something that is totally for yourself? Is that selfish? Does that take away from your "productive time" and your roll as wife and mother? Do you feel guilty doing this?

Let me tell you, I struggle with this all of the time. So much so, that I have not allowed myself very much "me" time in way too long. There is always just so much that needs to be done and if I don't keep working, I'll NEVER get caught up. Is that your thinking too? UGH! WHY do we do this to ourselves? My husband takes every chance he can to enjoy his hobbies, fishing and hunting are very important to him. Very important to keeping him on track and recharging himself. When he isn't able to go for long periods of time he literally gets cranky! :) I used to be jealous of his "time" away, would HATE his week long fishing trips and hunting trips. At the same time that I dreaded it, I KNEW that it was what kept him "recharged" and able to keep going. He needs that time, time to perfect his art, enjoy the outdoors, get away and rest. Do I miss him when he's gone? YES! Do I want him home? YES! Would I ask him to give up this time? NO! So, WHY do I struggle so much with allowing myself that same time? Am I in need of that time any less than he is? NO!

I used to really struggle with this, still do if I'm being completely honest with myself, but I also know that I can only give so much before I need a "mommy day" to recharge. Yesterday I took just that! I have a mountain of laundry, my house is always in need of "something" to be cleaned, there is always baking and work to do, but I needed a day! My kids are off camping with their grandmother, I had no extra littles around to have to chase after, so I took a day. Much to my surprise, my wonderful husband was completely in support of me taking that day. What a man! He knows that I need to allow myself time to work on my hobbies, time to be creative outside of my work in the kitchen and keeping our home. In years past, before we moved onto our homestead, I was an avid scrapbooker. Even sold scrapbooking supplies as a side business and had "crops" at my house once or twice a month for my customers. It was a lot of fun, but when we moved here it all stopped. I was totally OK with it for a while. Just living my dream was enough, but lately I've really been feeling the need to do something that has NOTHING to do with homesteading, homeschooling or homemaking. :) Shocking! I know!

What a fun day I had! A day of being "creative", a day of reliving memories, a day of allowing myself some "me" time....and fighting the "you are being selfish, you should be baking bread or doing laundry" feeling. When Wade came home, the first question he had for me was, "Did you scrapbook today?" Then he asked me, "Did you enjoy it?" His next question was, "Let me see what you did?" He was genuinely excited for me, excited to see what I'd done with my "me time" and was HAPPY I took a day off and just let myself recharge. What a gracious and amazing man I have married! I just love him! :)

It's hard sometimes to take a break, step away, focus on your needs and not on the entire worlds for an afternoon or even an hour. It's hard not to let the "tasks" of keeping a home running, from running right over you and as a result limit your ability to keep doing your job as wife and mother effectively and efficiently. Let's face it, EVERYONE needs a break from time to time....EVEN a mom! Shocking, I know!

Goat herding....sometimes harder than it should be!

Oh my! What a morning I've had. My kids are gone camping with their grandmother and that leaves the chores for me to do on my own. My hard working hubby would help, in fact he did the chicken feeding and watering last night, but he leaves way to early in the morning to help with the goat chores. We have 6 goats right now, hoping to down size a bit this coming fall, but for now we have 6. Four of our goats are full size Nubian's and all have attitude. The other two are Nigerian Dwarf...so sweet and well mannered, MOST of the time. :)

This morning was a challenge...I am not normally the one down there doing all of this on my own. Goats are smart, let me tell you, and they KNOW it's not normally me on my own and they worked it this morning. Milking went fine, that was a breeze. We have a system that the goats stick well to and as long as we follow the same routine, they are fine. Then came feeding time. I gave the girls their hay and water, then refilled their baking soda and minerals. All of this, except for the baking soda and minerals can be done from outside the pen....smart thinking on the part of my wonderful hubby. I am the one that instructed my son where to hang the mineral feeder...not the best location in the stall. I'll admit it. :( No problem filling the feeder with the minerals and soda, it wasn't until I had to exit the stall that things started to go sideways. Our yearling doe was standing in front of the gate, as I got her moved and the gate open that gave Cookie (our Nigerian Dwarf) her way out. I was distracted with Savannah and not paying attention to how far I had opened the gate. Cookie tried to squeeze between my legs, almost knocking me over. Thankfully she didn't get out, but we had a wrestling match...me with my hands full of baking soda and the mineral scoop. Whew...that escape plan was thwarted and I moved on to feeding and watering the boys.

The buck stall is behind the main barn, so I took the hose back there and put it into their watering bucket. Then came back into the barn to grab a few flakes of hay and to turn on the hose. As I was unlatching the boys gate, I was unable to see that Sam, our Nigerian Dwarf wether was situated in a place where he had an easy escape once the gate was open.
The gate flew open...thanks to Sam...and I struggled to get the hay into the feeder, thinking (not really using my brain at this point) that they would follow me to the feeder. In the mean time, Sam was out and Cooper (our Nubian buck) had gotten out of the pen. THAT is when I realized that Cooper no longer had his collar on him. FUN! I get to chase down a 180 pound buck (thankfully not in rut or he would be extremely fragrant) and try to convince him to go willingly back into the pen. Sam was another matter. That short legged little stinker is fast, I can be a fraction of an inch from his collar and he will bolt just out of reach. Thankfully he wasn't as hard to catch as he has been in the past and he was lead to the pen without much trouble. Cooper, that was another story. He was thoroughly enjoying his feast of blackberry leaves and nice tasty grass. Every time I'd get close to him, he'd push himself farther into the thorny brambles and out of my reach. Grr!

So, what did I do? I thought about leaving him out until he had his fill, but I have other things to do...like scrapbook in my quiet house....ALONE! :) I went to the barn, questioning my knot tying skills. You see, my Navy Veteran hubby is the knot tying expert around here and my skills are very much lacking. I managed to tie what I think is a slip knot or at least something that won't strangle my buck and head toward him. Just as he decided to move onto a more tasty looking blackberry vine I slipped it over his head. Yay! I had him. Then he started to drag ME into the blackberry vines to get yet another tasty bite before I had him in the pen. UGH! I have no gloves on, short sleeves and carpi's on....NOT blackberry vine diving attire. I got him pulled away from the vines, all the while wishing my kids had followed through more with teaching Cooper to take a lead. He bolted into his pen, acting like he was SO happy to be home and looked at me like it was my fault he had been gone from his beloved home for so long. Crazy goat! As I left the buck pen, he bawled at me in his high pitched voice....he sounds like a sissy boy, we always tell him that the girls are going to laugh at him. Normally I will go back and talk to him some more, but NOT today! I'd had enough. :)

Thankfully, that chore is done until my wonderful and helpful husband is home tonight. I can now enjoy my morning and afternoon of scrapbooking...in a quiet house...with no one needing a thing from me...just me, my music and my photos. :) I need this break, need this quiet, need this refreshing. My kids all come home, thankfully, tomorrow. I don't think I could handle another day of chores on my own. :) Plus, I just miss my kids. :)