My life as a help meet &; homeschooling mom of many

Serenity's 4th of July Get up

2016-07-12T08:52:00.000-07:00

We had 2 invites. But with the illness, we were unsure what we were doing.

Seren was ready for anything though!

In the end, both parties were cancelled, we were not feeling well, and Christopher took Bailey-Judah to a parking lot to watch the Grace's fireworks display. Anna stayed home to watch Caleb. Dad and I were already in bed.

I love and am so thankful that my children are truly joyful and excited regardless of what we do! Praise be to God!

Baby Caleb

2016-07-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

We went to finding Dori... let's just say, Caleb was NOT a fan!

He is however a fan of food, and copying everything everyone else is doing. He loves being outside. He enjoys being held. He enjoys making noises, and music.

He is still working on walking.

Including playing tetherball after watching his big siblings play!

He is such a joy!

A video for anyone interested...

2016-07-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

https://youtu.be/6hAd51bcu1A

Back to the bees

2016-07-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

Can you find the queen?

Hive 1 looked great! Lots of eggs, brood, larvae, stores, and 7 frames almost ready to harvest!

Hive 3 looked good! Lots of eggs, larvae, and the beginnings of some nectar and pollen stores (though we are still feeding this split). We were very encouraged to see this hive doing so well.

Hive 2 still has no signs of a queen. It could be weather related, as the virgin queen may not have been able to make her mating flights entirely.

Or maybe she didn't make it back?

We gave this hive a frame of eggs from hive 1 so that if they need to make a new queen, they can!

They do have a little start to stores, which will help them once they have a queen.

Here are some pics of the bees working the clover in the yard.

Last picture at 3

2016-07-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

It is so hard to believe that this little guy will wake up (Thursday) being 4 years old!

Happy birthday eve to Judah!

Spring means chicks!

2016-07-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

We currently have 2 broody mamas with a total of 9 chicks!

And we had the opportunity to help Chris' sister with some eggs they were incubating, but would be on vacation when they hatched. They were so much fun!

Why no updates?

2016-07-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

I would love to say we have just been busy, or that we have been having fun.

This blog has always been the good, the bad and the ugly...and this week definitely qualifies in there somewhere!

We have had stomach flu at our house. This is day 12. Christopher was home from work today. Bailey still doesn't feel well. Judah is not eating and has taken naps 2 days in a row...

Something to Help Us Work Or A New Toy?

2016-07-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

We have done a lot of labor around our homestead. From digging big holes to mixing cement, to setting posts, to carrying fencing rolls to mucking out stalls and coops, to moving bales, and super bales, to tilling large areas to ??? All by hand.

Now we have a work horse of sorts that is up to the tasks we need it to do!

Oh, and everyone thought it was fun, too, lol!

Leave it to Dad to turn something into a toy.

Seren was sick on the couch, and Caleb was sleeping during this time...so n

Midwife Appointment

2016-06-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

We officially have a midwife! We are looking at a home birth, probably mid to late November.

Today was my first midwife appointment. Justice came along.

He had lots of questions...which Roxanne took the time to answer. She asked if he wanted to see the way the baby sits in the womb. (Of course he did!)

She pulled out her visual aids.

Justice said, "Oh, this is the pelvic girdle, or butterfly bone, I see how the baby sits in there. Where would you pee from?"

Roxanne replied, "this is just the boney structures."

"Ok, so the renal system is not there. But where would it be? And is this a boy or a girl pelvic girdle?"

"Well, there are differences between girl and boy pelvic girdles, but this one doesn't show those."

"With a baby this has to be a girl though, because they are the only ones with a womb."

"Here, I is a book that shows some differences. By the way, How old are you?"

"I just turned 7 last week."

The conversation went on... the two of them looked at a book about pregnancy. Justice started turning pages and asking questions.

"What is that?" He asked looking puzzled at a page near the front of the book.

"That is how the baby is made."

"Remember the seed and the egg?" I added.

"Oh. I didn't know they looked like space tadpoles and planets!"

Then it was time to hear the baby. Justice got to listen to his heart with the stethoscope .

"I can only hear 2 chambers of my heart. Why can't I hear all 4?"

"Justice, we will talk more about that this week when we learn about how the heart works." I quickly interjected.

Then it was time for my blood draw.

"Oh, I love blood!" He said.

"What do you like about it?" Roxanne asked.

"Well, I like the white blood cells the best because they are the soldiers and wariors, attacking germs to keep me healthy."

"Yes! Wow, you are exactly right!"

"And without my red blood cells, oxygen couldn't get to my cells, and I couldn't live, so I like those, too. They also make my blood red. And if God didn't make plasma, it couldn't flow through my body. And without the clotting agents, I would bleed to death when I got hurt. Like the time I was cleaning under the couch in the motorhome and it closed on me."

"That sounds painful."

"Yes, it was. How are you going to test mommy's blood?"

"She will have to poke me, and then fill up small tubes," I said, seeing Roxanne wasn't quite sure what to say to this. "The poke hurts a tiny bit, but then I won't really feel it."

He was fascinated and watched the whole thing!

The appointment took almost double the time it should have.

Awesome God!

2016-06-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

What an incredible God I serve!

This is the incredible sight I woke up to on Monday.

What a great way to wake up ready to praise and serve God this day!

Such incredible beauty He creates!

Painting birdhouses

2016-06-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

My children are so incredibly creative!

And the final results!

Each wonderfully different, just like my children!

Notes from the Hives

2016-06-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

Our first hive, is doing great! They raised up a new queen and is laying. They are making honey. Lots of activity coming and going from the hive. They are using boxes 2 and 3 for brood, instead of 1 and 2, so we switched boxes 1 and 2, hoping to encourage them to use that box. There were lots of bees filling in comb and getting it ready, so I am hoping once it is ready that the queen will go to town to fill it up with brood and the field workers will fill in the nectar and pollen!

We found the queen!

Dead brood from hive 3, either chilled or starved...yeah, I am a bad beekeeper. But I am learning!

Hive #2 is the swarm from the first swarm we caught the queen with the swarm, and saw that she was laying. But it was mostly drones and kind of sporadic. The hive decided to raise up a new queen and kill this one. We are still waiting for this queen to begin to lay. We hope she hatched ok, and that she is ready to take her mating flights this week! But the swarm population has gone from 9 frames to 5 frames and their stores of honey and pollen have been severely depleted. We are feeding them sugar water and pollen patty right now. We took off their 2nd brood box as they do not have enough bees to protect that much space.

Hive #3 has a purchased queen. We made a split in case hive #2 doesn't get the queen going. Unfortunately, the hive population has gone from 5 frames to 1 1/2 frames. There were only 2 eggs and almost no brood. The brood looks like it was starved! I wasn't feeding them enough and the stores from the frames I started them with were totally gone! So, we added 2 more frames of bees and larva and eggs from the parent hive, along with a pollen patty and sugar water...hoping this hive looks better, and has lots of eggs when we recheck week. The queen looks good though, so we will give her the benefit of the doubt for now!

June homestead projects

2016-06-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

The "desert"

Children's garden mural

The caterpillar

Bee yard got new landscaping - can't wait to keep the progress of this over the next couple months as the wildflowers grow and bloom!

Grape arbor is really coming along! Look forward to competing this, hopefully next month!

9 chicks have arrived and look good!

Garden progress - everything g is growing very well!

Squash and potato garden.

Chicken flock - or most of them!

Cows are doing well and growing! We may be ready to slaughter at the end of July or August.

Serenity putting her handprints in the last post for the grape arbor for this year. Ultimately, this will be 80' long. This year we will do 32'.

Fruit trees are just loaded this year! We are excited to see the fruit getting bigger!

Asian pears

Bartlett pears

Apples

Front garden

Mama hen with chicks.

This area is between the chicken yard and the garden, we planted it 2 weeks earlier in wildflower seed...it is a low maintenance way to add flowers for the honeybees.

Love the eggs we get!

Berry patch looks good. We will even get some berries this year!

A d that is it. The end of July,w e will check out the progress again!

Milestones

2016-06-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

I love seeing each of my children develop. I love seeing Caleb grow in his knowledge and confidence of walking! Wednesday night, he walked across the living room for the first time. He also started picking himself up in the middle of the room.

It is so precious to watch! I wouldn't trade my job for anything!

Surgery Scheduled

2016-06-24T15:35:00.001-07:00

We heard back from the hospital, more than a week later than expected. We have anxiously been praying about this surgery getting done sooner rather than later.

God is so gracious. We were able to get our first choice of surgery dates, aug. 26th. Don't get me wrong, it is not without its challenges as the twins will be working at the fair, all 12 days starting Aug. 25th.

But it also means that we should have Callie home from her 2-3 weeks of inpatient therapy when I am 36 weeks, rather than her starting that time when I am 36 weeks!

Prayers for wisdom and guidance and peace would be appreciated along with God to guide the hands of the surgeon during the operation and for comfort and healing afterward. We should get her appoints before and after this time scheduled soon.

Praising God for orchestrating this timing!

Other Homestead Projects

2016-06-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Regrading the driveway.

Building the grape arbor. We have planted 6 of our grape vines, with one of 4 cow panels in place to protect them.

We have half of the posts cemented into the ground.

We still have all of the Top structure to go, but at least we can now get the vines in and begin training them.

Have I mentioned how much I appreciate all those who are helping with these major landscaping and building projects?

I am very, very thankful!

(This is Christopher's father's day and birds present this year...though we will only get it started as it will take us years to get all 80 feet constructed. The goal this year is to get 32 feet in length done.

New landscaping for the bee area

2016-06-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

This is an area behind our barn, it is often neglected, then takes a week to clear out because it gets completely overgrown with blackberry bushes and grass, making this 48'x50' area impossible to mow!

The hope is to make it both pretty and very low maintenance!

Before:

Wildflower seeds

Putting in pathways.

Filling in the path next to the barn.

And after!

All the wildflower seeds are planted.

Here's the beehives in place.

The yellow wagon filled with gravel is for the bees to get water. They can land on the rocks and get a drink without drowning. This helps them to keep their hive cool during the summer.

I am so thankful for the time and energy, and financial contributions (in materials) that Chris's parents have done to help with so many projects around the property! It has been a huge blessing!

My artistic children

2016-06-22T20:14:00.002-07:00

This small triangular are is known as the children's garden. We made it more fun by letting Ashley and Anna draw a mural on the wall.

Grandma even helped paint, too!

Didn't they do a great job?

Here are other pics of the children's garden.

My artistic children

2016-06-22T20:14:00.001-07:00

This small triangular are is known as the children's garden. We made it more fun by letting Ashley and Anna draw a mural on the wall.

Grandma even helped paint, too!

Didn't they do a great job?

Here are other pics of the children's garden.

It's spring!

2016-06-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so our hens are on the late end, but we did have 3 little chicks hatch out yesterday. Here is one of them with mama hen.

It is hard to get pics of the chicks because this mama is very attentive!

Desert scape

2016-06-22T16:06:00.001-07:00

Today we put together this small desert scape which was a present from mother in law to father in law for Father's day.

It turned out beautiful!

Seven? Really? Yep!

2016-06-22T09:22:00.002-07:00

Happy birthday to my 7 year old!

He was excited beyond belief all day long!

He chose nachos with bean/beef dip.

He got some water guns, a need gun and the movie zootopia.

He also got a promissory note for a gift that has not yet come - and won't for a few weeks! (Hence why I went out to get zootopia!) Since Justice is a great reader, anyone here who is curious will just have to stay tuned to see what his big gift is!

Happy birthday, Buddy!

You are such an invaluable blessing to our family. You are rough and tumble and talk often about protecting your family. But you are also very compassionate, especially towards Callie, who is your best friend.

You are very black and white in your thinking. You struggle to understand how others can come to a different conclusion than you do. You are absolutely loving getting back to a more hands on together based school! You love exploring outside, gardening, harvesting, and the honey bees!

You love riding your bike, and looking for treasures, especially after a school project to find a hidden tomb while studying ancient Egypt.

You are a wonderful role model for your younger siblings, too!

Justice, I am so proud of you! I look forward to seeing how God uses you in the future.

My Views on Father's Day

2016-06-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

Growing up, Father's Day always involved my grandpa, because my bio dad left my mom and me when I was 6-8 months old. I saw him 3 times in my life after that...at 6, 12 and 24 years old, I figured our next rendezvous would have been when I 48, but since he is deceased, it is unlikely to happen.

He was always a stranger to me. I have never really known him. And yet, he was still apart of me. In all earthly purposes, he did not live up to his responsibility as a father. Yet I still made an effort, as often as I knew where he was (had an address), I sent him father's day cards and Christmas presents.

Why? Because the office of father is worthy of respect. The title given to him because he chose life for me, is worthy of honor. It is not because of what he has done, but because God says it is worthy and important to honor your father and mother - it says nothing of the specific parents being worthy of that respect or honor. And with abortion on demand being so easy in this country, it would have been very easy for for parents to choose. In fact, my older sibling was aborted just a year earlier.

Now as a side note, let me tell you that I wouldn't TRUST my bio dad to be there, to provide anything, to babysit my children, or to do anything else. Trust is an entirely different issue. Drug addicted, alcoholic parents looking out for their own interests instead of the interests of their children, who abandon said children, have no stability and/or are in and out of jail for a variety of infractions, are often not trustworthy. And it would likely be dangerous to trust them!

I did however make the effort to honor him, because that is what God commands.

My grandpa was never very involved in my life. But again, we would honor him on Father's Day because that is what God calls us to do. He did take my sister's nd me in after my mom left us and helped my mom financially for necessities for us. He was a good provider, but when it came time to connect, or teach us anything, the TV was more important. Yet we honor him because God says it is right and good in the sight of God.

No one is perfect. If you wait until someone is deserving of respect or honor, it may never come, and those were not prerequisites for God's command to honor.

Though I am grateful for having men in my life now who are men of integrity, who seek after God, make reading the scriptures and prayer a priority, who strive to be more like Christ and to lead their families, both in my husband and father in law!

My little guy

2016-06-19T22:04:00.001-07:00

Caleb took his first steps on Saturday, June 4th, 2016, 1 week after his birthday.

He learned to crawl at 8 months old, so this fits right in with the about 4 months of crawling that all of my typically developing children have done.

He has such a fun disposition! He loves to make people laugh, or to get a reaction out of them.

He also loves to cuddle.

Lately, he is trying to jump. He has certainly become a bouncing baby boy!

What a blessing this little guy is!

Father's day 2016

2016-06-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

We were honored to have great grandpa Pence over for Father's day today.

4 generations of Pence men.