This Thing We Call Life

Summer Is...(4th)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:59:00 +0000

Sorry to have missed a few days of blogging that I promised to you all. The last few days have proved to be a little busier and exhausting than usual. I will try to stay back to continue sharing photo's of our summer fun!

So, on with...Summer Is...

The perfect time for a baptism! Especially when the baptism happens in the local pond.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Romans 6:4)

Probably about a year ago now Erik and I started to frequent the Baptist church right in our home town. We had been searching for a church (using the excuse that our children needed some sort of religious education and the community would be nice where we plan to homeschool). Little did I know the change this church would have on our lives!

Erik and I both became involved in the church. Both attending Men's and Ladies bible studies (Erik much more dedicated than I...but I always seem to forget...sorry Brenda...). Erik helping with the building project and I started working on the Crisis Pregnancy Ministry that was just starting in the church. We became great friends with many of the members. Many of the families homeschool & have little ones the same age as ours.

Both Erik and I had been saved. Erik much quicker than I to come to the realization.

And we decided about a month ago that we would like to be baptized.

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.” (Psalm 18:16)

What a perfect day we had. Beautiful weather, an amazing service given by a friend of the church from Africa (who became Aiden's playmate at the picnic after), many friends and family joined us at the pond for the baptism and a fabulous picnic after the baptism at Bob and Debbie's home. (oh...and Everyone seems to have pictures of me getting dunked but not Erik!)

Bennett wanted to follow Pastor Bob out into the water but decided to wait for us...then cried when Bob picked him up after and he realized he was all wet...wasn't to thrilled with Mama being wet either.

We are very blessed to have found this church family. What a joy it has been getting to know these wonderfully amazing people and have them touch our lives in so many meaningful ways.

And what a joy it is to see our children loving them as much as we do. And to see that love returned!

What an amazing day!

God bless!!

The Second American Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:57:00 +0000

Summer Is...(3rd)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Spending the day at the beach.

We went to Portland to meet my parents for the day about a week ago. These are a few pictures from our trip there. This was after Bennett fell on his stomach in the water.

The four of us!

The four of us in Bar Harbour. We went out to Bar Harbour while my sister was up visiting for a week in July. What a lovely day! Even though it was a little foggy and our breaks almost set on fire coming down Cadillac mountain! LOL.

Bennett checking out the boats.

Aiden just loves the water. This is Licolnville beach. We stopped about 2 months ago during a day trip down Rt. 1.

Bennett...always so contemplative.

Playing on the rocks with the boys.

Summer Is...(2nd)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Summer is...GARDENING!!

We decided this year we were going to put in permanent raised beds. Below is how our garden has come along since the beginning of this season.

We started with logs we cut out of our 10 acres of wood lot.

Added some composted manure.

A few teepees for the beans & peas.

And then added the vegi's. Let's see...this year we grew Spinach, Lettuce, Bush Beans, Pole Beans, Dry Beans, Tomatoes, Brocolli, Brussel Sprouts (accident...), Kale, Zucchini, Snow Peas, Yellow Summer Squash, Peppers, Cucumbers, Swish Chard, Basil & parsley.

Everything is growing really well. We didn't get much spinach before it bolted but we did have tons of lettuce. And the basil...it grew like crazy. Lot's of pesto making going on!

Picking beans with Gram. I've put up at least 20 pints of bush beans in the freezer (and given away a bunch more. I finally pulled the bush beans the other day as they had really dropped in production and put in some carrots.

Check out the pole beans behind us. That was less than a month ago.

And now look at them. Grew up the poles and are headed back down again. They are going to go to seed soon because there are a ton up top that I cannot even reach. Next year we will not do the poles so high!

And I threw some radom sunflowers into the garden also. We plan to dry them all and use the to supplement feed to our chickens through the winter.

And we are already planning for next year. We need to add beds for Corn, Potatoes, Garlic & many more tomatoes. We also might try some things like eggplant and turnips and rutabega's. We will see how ambisous we are this fall.

We've also been talking about building a hoop house to overwinter our chickens in going forward. Give them a lot more floor space and it will be warmer for them. Plus they can scratch up the ground and get it ready for spring. As soon as they go out on grass in the spring we can start things like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants in the hoophouse. We will see if that gets done also. So much to do, so little time!

How's your garden been growing this summer?

Summer Is... (1st)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Having lunch out in their "clubhouse."
They just LOVE playing in their "clubhouse!" We used some old logs to make them a table and Erik cut chairs out of logs also. We also cut some logs real thin into plates. Once Erik gets a vice he plans to also make some cups and bowls.

Sunflower Houses!!

Our friend, Mary Ann, gave the boys two of the Sharon Lovejoy books. Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots and Sunflower Houses. After reading them through we decided to make a sunflower house. We never did get the morning glories in either but it is really starting to look lovely! And the boys are loving it!

Friends came to visit and got to play in a slightly larger sunflower house.

Now it is much much taller than all of us. I will make sure to post photo's once the sunflowers bloom. That will be a sight!

Aiden enjoying his sunflower house.

Stop in tomorrow for lot's of gardening photo's!

Hugs!

I know...Where have I been!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:41:00 +0000

Lately, everyone is wondering where have I been. I didn't plan to take a blogging break...but it kind of happened that way. One thing led to another and now...I am feeling stressed and behind. My mom is up this week so it is helping me to catch up on a lot that needs to be done.

I have so much to share as there has been TONS of goings on this summer but it would take me ages. I've been inspired by a few other blogs that have done photo posts about what summer is. I think I am going to do that here for the next few days to catch up and then I will post every few days to keep sharing the goings on as our summer winds down and we get into the busy fall season and prepare for winter. UGH!! Can't believe we are thinking about winter already. The summer went by way to fast.

I hope your summer has been going well!

My 100th Post...sort of

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:15:00 +0000

I know...I've been MIA for a few weeks now. Spring is a crazy time for us here on our small farm. I decided to take a blogging break to focus on getting the garden in and some of the other outdoor things that need to be done. With it being light so late we could work outside late into the day and I wasn't much up to blogging after a long day working hard in the sun. I will still be posting sporadically on here as there is much to do still. Plus Erik is on vacation from July 14th until August! We wont be doing much traveling but hope to do a day trip or two to the beach and have tons to get accomplished around the house!

On to my 100th post...why sort of...because I realized just now that my last post was technically my 100th post!! I knew it was coming up but hadn't been paying to much attention. Without further ado here are 100 things about me!

I am a wife to Erik
my best friend
we dated in highschool
and had a not so nice break up
then got back together during college
the rest is history...as they say
and a mom to 2 boys
Aiden
& Bennett
I LOVE boys
but we would love to have a little girl
we plan to have at least one more child
and maybe even 2
or MORE (teehee)
I am a homemaker
I LOVE being at home
I'm not a nature homemaker
but am learning slowly but surely
I'm a pretty decent cook
and baker
but no so good in the cleaning
and organizing departments
Trying harder here
We live on a small farm
in a small town in central Maine
We currently have 40+ chickens
about 25 of those will be for eating
in about a week
we have 11 turkeys
(also for eating in about 2 months)
2 horses
(not for eating...LOL)
1 dog
& 3 cats
My favorite past times are horseback riding
and reading books
those of course come after spending time with my family
that's why lately I don't seem to do much of either of those
My horses are both Mustangs
Wild caught in Neveda when young
I didn't adopt them though
I bought them from someone who did
And I love them dearly!
As do my 2 boys
I would love to do more farming
We have 15 acres
(and are trying to buy about 10 more)
I'd like to have a Dairy cow
Raise sheep
and goats
along with the chickens
I want to be a grass farmer!
We have a good size garden
I am new to gardening
But actually seem to look like I know what I am doing finally!
Our garden is doing well this year
I love to hang laundry on the line
It is a very relaxing activity
I have been a waitress
a tutor
a cashier
a pizza maker
an operations supervisor
and a call center rep
in past employment lives
I hope to NEVER have to work again
I was very ambitous in my previous employment
but I was happy to leave
And now just want to be a homemaker
helper to my husband
and mother to my children
I plan to homeschool my children
I love the ideas behind the unschooling lifestyle
And plan to unschool my kids
am still working on becoming a more peaceful parent though
we don't spank
but am not as "peaceful" in my parenting style as I would like to be
Like everything else a work in progress
I thoroughly believe in attachment parenting!
We coslept
breast fed beyond a year
allowed both boys to self wean
(a little earlier than I would have liked them to!)
baby wear
Both boys were born naturally
and Bennett was born at home
I am hopeful that I will never have to birth in a hospital again!
I used to be a musician
(OK...it was highschool!)
I played the flute
and percusian instruments
I am hoping to learn to play piano
(I sort of know how but want to be able to play with both hands and work the feet pedals)
I LOVE music
And hope my children will enjoy playing instruments also
I am trying to be more frugal
I am blessed with some of the most amazing friends
That are helping me in my walk as a new Christian
I am thankful for my many blessings every day.
GOD IS SO GOOD!

This is so cool!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:34:00 +0000

For those of you who don't know I am a horsewoman. I have two horses of my own, both Mustangs and I can't imagine life without horses in it.

This video just blew me away. I like to think I have a pretty good relationship with my horses but nothing like this.

Lorenzo : the Flying French Man...
Uploaded by alatebo

And check out this one also.

http://wms17.streamhoster.com/westfall/128do.wmv

Pretty cool!

Please let me know what you think!

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:00:00 +0000

My friend's 5 yr old daughter holding a dragonfly!

For more wordless Wednesday posts check out 5minutesformom.com.

Tackle It Tuesday - Using up all the turkey!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:00:00 +0000

It's been a VERY busy week here. I've got a few other things to share but we will save those for other posts. This week my major tackle was the 26 lb turkey. I mentioned in my Menu Planning Monday post that we cooked one of the last few turkeys that we raised from last year. 26 lbs is a little much for one meal for my little family so I needed to do something with it all. And I also needed to make some stock from the bones. I used the recipe from Nourishing Traditions

Here are the bones and vegi's in the crockpot. I let this cook for about 12 hrs.

And got this!

I then took out the bones and put the vegi's and meat back in and simmered it on the stove for another few hrs to reduce it.

Right now it is sitting the the fridge so that I can pull the fat off the top and then can it.

On top of that I had about 20 lbs of leftover meat. I cubed it all and put it all in quart size canning jars. I now have 8 quarts of turkey meat in the freezer and we've already used it for about 3-4 meals.

I will be glad once the broth is canned & in the freezer and I can put this tackle behind me! And only one more turkey left in the freezer.

Share your tackles 5 Minutes for Mom.

Menu Planning Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:58:00 +0000

Last week I promised to take more pictures of what we are eating and guess what...I forgot again. We did make the whole Turkey. It came out beautiful! And I forgot to take a picture of it. Ugh! I will keep trying to remember that. We have TONS of leftovers though. I forgot how big those last two birds were. The one we ended up cooking was 26 lbs!!! Turkey will definitely be on the menu in the coming week.

I did remember to take pictures of a few things for you but I plan to share those in other posts this week so check back in later.

This is a pretty low key week for us but Erik is working nights all week so I am thinking about getting my kids an early snack and trying to have our main meal at around 2-3pm after Erik gets up for the night. We will see.

We are also planning to try this donut recipe (but I think I might try to bake them instead of frying them) and this cookie recipe (I will use all whole grain flour...maybe spelt instead of the white flour). I've been promising to bake cookies with the boys for a while now and it hasn't happened.

On to the menu.

Monday - Fried Rice (with Turkey and vegi's). I love the recipe from Passionate Homemaker.

Tuesday - Asparagus Quiche. I love the crust recipe from Nourishing Traditions so will probably do that again. Lots of vegi's, lots of cheese and maybe some breakfast sausage instead of bacon this time. YUM!

Wednesday - Sloppy Joe's (I will probably double...maybe even triple this batch so I can put some in the freezer). We have homemade buns to eat them on and will have some sort of vegi on the side with it.

Thursday - Breakfast for Dinner

Friday - Pizza on the Grill

Saturday - Rice jumble (promise to take a picture this time!)

Sunday - Goat Roast (trying yet again...I forgot to take it out to defrost yesterday so didn't get to have it today!)

What's on your menu this week? Share with us over at OrgJunkie.com!

A Nature Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:08:00 +0000

We went out for a nature hike the other day, the boys and I. It was so much fun. We didn't go far. Just down around the summer grazing field for the horses. Since the horses haven't been out in it yet Aiden was having fun hiding in the grass.

And Bennett thought it was fun to find him and bang him on the head.

We stopped and said hello to Babe & Reno. They look so nice & shiny!

Aiden asked to take some pictures. I didn't see these till I pulled everything onto my laptop but they came out quite good! He loves to take pictures. I really need to get him & Bennett their very own digital cameras.

Isn't this one neat. Not sure how he did it but it was just too cool to not share.

And a few of the flowers we saw while on our hike.

Any idea what these might be? I thought they might be a low bush blueberry. This is very close up but the leaves were similar to those of blueberries. We will see I guess.

Aiden helping his "Baby Broder" as he likes to say. Bennett went chasing after him to hold his hand and then Aiden helped him up the small incline from the yard back onto our driveway.

And then they held hands all the way back down to the house. It was just too cute!

What an enjoyable time we had! Hanging out and playing down in the field. Didn't see any wildlife other than tons of Dragonflies! We do love the dragonflies though.

Blessings!

Sunday Garden Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 04:09:00 +0000

This is my first time doing the Sunday garden tour. I thought I would start you all off with lots of pictures of what I have going on around our property. Just to give you a brief history we live on about 15 acres in rural Maine and are slowly moving our way into homesteading. Trying to live as sustainably as we can.
This is my oldest...Aiden. Isn't he just the cutest. This is one of the random gardens we have hanging around our property. The people who were here before us planted TONS of perennials so that has helped our gardens. We've put some things in but most if from them.

To start off I need help. Any idea what this is? I have it all over one of my small garden beds and I have no idea what it is.

Or this for that matter. I LOVE the color of it though. It is just so pretty but I would love to plant more.

To start you off here is one of my favorites! The bearded Iris'. I LOVE them. Especially the color of them. I am hoping to get more. I have a few people we will be getting cuttings from this year of a number of perennials and hope to get more iris'.

Next is my lilac bush. I really LOVE lilacs and wish I had more bushes. I see so many lovely lilac bushes and we have this one little one.

Oh and I finally have some lupine's coming back consistently! Erik mowed down some of them a few years ago and I've been trying to reestablish them since. These are all purple, and I just bought some seeds for red lupines. I really hope I can get those going!

This is the small garden next to our garage. There are hosta's, peonies & day lilies.

Some seedlings coming up in my new kitchen herb garden.

This is a rose bush that I planted in my kitchen herb garden. I had thought it was dead. After I planted it, the leaves all turned brown. And just yesterday I noticed the green leaves popping out under the dead leaves. I'm so excited now.

And our lovely rhubarb!

And a one of our peonies. My other favorite flower!

Some sedum.

And lastly...our bee balm.

Stop by A Wrung Sponge for more Garden Tours! And stop back in next Sunday to see what's popping up in my garden!

Blessing!

Frugal Friday - Erik's New Motorcycle

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 May 2008 10:00:00 +0000

With the price of gas going up and up we have been trying to think of ways to help us save on gas. About 2 months ago Erik had the opportunity to buy a used motorcycle from a friend of his that was upgrading. He has always wanted a motorcycle. His friend wanted very little money for the bike and it was in great running condition.

With the much better MPG on the motorcycle it will save us quite a bit on gas with him traveling about 50-60 miles round trip to work every day. It also means that I will be able to use his car for around town use (i.e. grocery store, library, etc.) instead of my van (MPG in the van is about 20 vrs 30+ in Erik's Escort). We can still use the van for trips that we take Abbey with us (hard to squeeze 4 people and a 50 lb lab in an Escort).

And best of all Erik gets to enjoy owning his first motorcycle! I can't wait for him to take me for a ride.

For more Frugal Friday tips check out Biblical Womanhood.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Bennett & Aiden at our first outing to the ice cream stand. Summer is coming!!

More Wordless Wednesday Posts.

Blessings!

Works for Me Wednesday - How to get books free & cheap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Last week I talked about how my family uses the library pretty regularly to satisfy our book addiction. There are MANY times that I will take a book out of the library though and will just LOVE it so much that I need to own a copy of it. A perfect example of a book that I just had to own was Nourishing Traditions. This amazing book has so much information I renewed it the maximum number of times and had still not been able to read through the whole thing (it is a cook book but in the margins of the book she includes TONS of great information about nutrition).

Like I mentioned before I have a very limited income to spend on books. My first step when I find a book that I want to own is to check out . I have received and mailed out over 100 books during the last year or so that I have been part of paperback swap. I've been able to get lovely titles that make great gifts for just the cost of shipping for the books I've sent our. I have literally saved HUNDREDS of dollars.

If I look on and I don't find the title I am looking for my next stop is Half.com. If I need to pay for a book this is the first place I always check. I've been able to get brand new books for as little as $.75 plus shipping (about $3). As an example the paper back version of Nourishing Traditions was about $25 to buy brand new. I was able to purchase it for about $15 from Half.com.

I also love Amazon.com for their used books. If I can't find something at Half.com my next step it to check at Amazon.com. If I cannot find a book used then I think really hard on whether I really want to have it in my library or not.

Some other tips. Carry around a wish list of books & subjects so that when you stop in at Thrift stores or yard sales you know what you are looking for. I am currently looking for more bible stories to have on hand to read to my kids and I was able to buy two beautiful pop up hard cover bible story books for $.10 each at a yard sale this weekend! Keep in mind if it is not a title you would need to refer to daily wait to see if you can find it elsewhere first.

It's also getting to be the season for book sales at libraries. This is a GREAT way to get titles you are looking for very inexpensively.

, Amazon.com and Half.com all work for me!! Take a look at Rocks in My Dryer for more Works for me Wednesday tips!

Blessings!

T-Ball

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:05:00 +0000

Aiden started T-ball on Friday up at the village ball field. He isn't going to be 4 yrs old until July but we figured we would give it a try anyway.

Aiden had a blast! But we think we will hold off until next year to try to go again.

He really just wanted to be wandering around doing his own thing. When they wanted him to go catch he wanted to bat. When they wanted him to throw he wanted to bat! He kept saying he needed to do "his biggest hit EVER!"

Erik spent most of the time chasing him around trying to redirect him back to paying attention to the coaches and waiting for his turn.

Bennett was happy to play with the helmet! Silly boy!

I think he is still a little too young to be able to really pay attention and play with the other kids. I'm certainly not going to be able to chase Aiden & Bennett on the days Erik is working. We might try again this week and see how it goes. But they were both too cute!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday - Using Cast Iron & Stainless

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:00:00 +0000

I think most everyone has heard about the dangers of nonstick coatings on pans. I had a beautiful set of nonstick pans that I bought shortly after we were married. After hearing and reading about the dangers I slowly started to replace my pots & pans with cast iron and stainless steel. It takes some getting used to but I wouldn't trade them for nonstick anyday...even if they came up with a safe way to make them.

I wanted to share a few photo's of the pans that I use the most now. This first one is my absolute favorite. It NEVER leaves the stove except for a quick scrub if it gets really dirty. We use this for eggs, french toast, pancakes, cooking meat, etc. It was the first cast iron pan I bought and I only paid a little more than $10 for it. It's from Walmart. Check it out here. The great thing about Lodge pans is that they are preseasoned, which makes them much easier to ise. You can read more about seasoning cast iron here.

This is the other cast iron pan I use extensively. This is an oldie but goodie. It was given to me by a friend of the family and it had been with her family for some time. Not sure quite how old it is but it still works great. That's the thing about cast iron...it can survive for generations! Great to pass on to family, not only your actual pans but how to cook with them and your favorite recipes using them.

One of the great features of cast iron is that they don't take a lot to clean. I do not use soap on my cast iron pans because that can take off the seasoning (which is what gives you the nonstick surface for cooking things like eggs). I take a scrapper and scrap off anything stuck onto the pan under hot water. I also LOVE these stainless steel scrubbies. They also work very well with my stainless steel pots and pans.

This is a few of the pans from my stainless steel set, which was actually given to me by my mom. They are not anything overly fancy but they work fabulously! The set also came with a stainless teakettle and some stainless utensils. I do have a few deep cast iron pots and a cast iron dutch oven but they are SO heavy that I only use them if needed.

And this last one is probably my favorite from all of my stainless. It is about the size of a wok and is excellent for cooking one dish meals. I just LOVE it...not quite as much as my cast iron but it is definitely a close second. I just need to find a lid for it now and it would be so much more versitile and would probably creep past my cast iron frying pan.

I wanted to link to some information about why using pots and pans with a nonstick coating is not the best idea. Below are links to a few articles I have found. Mainly when you heat nonstick pans over a certain temperature they start to off gas toxic fumes. You can easily reach these temperatures just from preheating your pan. If you do use nonstick pans please make sure to use them over ONLY low to low/medium heat. Anything higher can release those gases into the air you breath.

Environmental Working Groups page about Teflon, PFOA & Scotchguard.

WiseGeek Article about the risks of using Teflon.

There is a lot more info out there about the dangers. Check it out for yourself! And please check out TammysRecipes.com for more Kitchen Tips!

Blessings!

Tackle It Tuesday - The Garden!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:00:00 +0000

The office and the clothes are coming. I got more things organized and into the closet in the office and all of Bennett's clothes sorted and put into his bureau.

Our major tackle this past week though was our garden. We were finally able to borrow a tiller and get things tilled up. Erik finished cutting trees to edge our raised beds and we moved a bunch of horse manure from our barn to the beds and dug it into the top soil. It now looks like this!

I said to Erik, "Wow...it actually looks like we know what we are doing!" LOL. We are getting there. Seeds are all in and I will pick up my seedlings from one of the local farms down the road in a few weeks. I do still need to pick up seeds for carrots and peas (not sure how I forgot those) but everything else is in.

Our next tackle...wood for fireplace this winter, compost bins, painting the house, replacing windows, reside back and side of the house, finish work in basement, refence pasture...it just never ends!! We will work on something from the above list (along with the continued work on the office and the clothes).

To check out other tackles take a look at 5minutesformom.com.

Blessings!

Menu Planning Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Another week of menu plans and yet again I really didn't stick with my plan from last week! I've got to get better about this. I did have an excuse. The whole Turkey we were planning for about 1/2 of the weeks meals ended up taking a VERY long time to defrost (still going actually..I'm going to brine it tomorrow night and hope that thaws it out the rest of the way). We have 2 25+ lb turkeys left from our turkeys last year that we are trying to use up so that our freezers are empty when this years birds go to slaughter. That is now planned for Tuesdays dinner and we will be doing leftovers for the week most likely.

And we have a new recipe we are trying out tomorrow! They are called Blender Pancakes and I first heard about the recipe at Passionate Homemaking but also signed up for Sue Greggs newsletter and recieved it in her newsletter as well. Here is a shot of the rice and kefir in the blender. It is sitting on my stove waiting to be finished off and cooked tomorrow! Can't wait to try them!
I am continuing to soak my grains and add more whole grains into our diet. We've been using a lot of rice...a excellent and very frugal filler for meals.

And I promise to try to take more pictures of things. I made my rice gumble as I like to call it tonight and it looked so lovely in the pan but I forgot to take a picture to share!

On to the menu!

Monday - we are having friends over for a little cookout so on the menu is burgers (a mix of ground beef & goat) and probably some zucchini on the grill. I have a lovely watermelon for desert and they are planning to bring a salad (either green or potato). I purchased some buns but started soaking some flour tonight to make a loaf of bread and also to make some buns also. We will see how that goes! Here is a shot of the flour soaking on the stove.

Tuesday - Roast Turkey. I made a ton of applesauce this last week and put to much water in with one batch so I strained a little off and am thinking I will use that apple water to brine my turkey! Not sure how that will work but why not...right. LOL...I will keep you posted on how that turns out. I am planning on doing some potatoes and maybe some squash or brocolli (trying to use up some vegi's still in the freezer from last year also).

Wednesday - I have a meeting tonight at church and will need to leave as soon as Erik walks in the door so I will probably do something easy like pasta. Will definitely use some of the leftover turkey whatever I do.

Thursday - Turkey & Rice. I will be using a recipe that came from Laura at Heavenly Homemakers ebook, What to do With the Chicken in Your Kitchen.

Friday - Spending the day in Belfast, ME. They have an excellent farmers market. We will see what I get there for produce! The market has been open for a few weeks but this will be the first time I have been able to head down for it! Dinner will probably be Pizza on the Grill. It is supposed to be a lovely day so I definitely want to grill.

Saturday - We will be having dinner at a friends so no need to prepare anything. We haven't agreed upon what I am bringing to contribute yet.

Sunday - Goat Roast. I am finally going to committ to using one of the goat roasts that we have in our freezer! I've found a few recipes that I will look over to try (depending on what I have in the pantry to use). This is a great one for Southwest Leg of Goat. Great Goats also has a few great recipes. And here at meat goats they have a great downloadable cookbook with recipes for Goat.

Like I mentioned I will try to take more pictures of our meals as I prepare them and will keep you posted on how things turn out. Have a great week!

Frugal Fridays - Cutting Hair

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:44:00 +0000

I think I have already mentioned that things are going to get a little more tight in our budget starting in September so we've been looking at ways that we can cut things out of our budget. One of the smaller things in our budget that really adds up over the year is getting hair cuts. Because Erik is in the military he needs to have his hair cut pretty regularly (usually every 4 weeks). And then the boys are usually every 6-8 weeks. At a cost of $10 each per cut even if we estimate on the low end that is around $240 a year and could be as much as $300-$360!

So, I purchased this Wahl Clipper set:

But I didn't pay for it with cash. I am a member of MyPoints and I used my points to purchase an Amazon gift card that covered the cost of this. So...I got the clippers for free and I will probably save at least $200-300 per year.

I clipped the boys hair yesterday. Here are a few before and after photo's:

First Bennett before...
And after! His was a little easier than Aiden. Bennett has very fine hair that all grows straight. Aiden however has thicker hair with all kinds of cowlicks!

Not too bad for my first try!

And they are shirtless because the wouldn't keep on the bib to keep the hair off and both were so itchy!

And here's Aiden before...

And after!

I am pretty proud of my hair cutting skills! As tough as Aiden's was...it came out pretty good!

My frugal friday tip for you...first join mypoints to earn lots of free points! And then go and get yourself a set of clippers (especially if you have boys) and cut their hair yourself!

Check out more frugal friday tips over at BiblicalWomanhood.com!

Works for Me Wednesday - Going to the Library

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:50:00 +0000

Going to the library regularly is truly something that works for me. Reading all of these amazing blogs I have discovered a huge amount of recommended titles. I LOVE books. Did I say Love...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. My husband calls me a book addicted. And I love to read them even more than I love having them. However, we are on a limited income so I cannot just go out and buy every book I want to read. This is where the library comes in!

We usually go to the library once a week or every other week. Not only do I LOVE to go but so do my boys. They also love books. Love to flip through them and love to have them read to them. They really enjoy going to the library with me to pick out a few books just for them to take out.

When someone recommends a title that I think I will enjoy I check to see if any of the local libraries might have it. I really like the whole read before you buy idea. That way I get an idea if I will REALLY like it or not. If the local libraries don't have it I check with other libraries to see if I can get it through interlibrary loan. This is usually the case.

Most of the time if I really enjoy a book I can just occassionally take it out here & there or jot ideas down from the book. Other times though...I absolutely must have a copy to refer to as often as I might need to (i.e. Nourishing Traditions). There are a number of different ways that I get my books as cheaply (of free) as I possibly can. Check back with me for next weeks Works for Me Wednesday to find out how!

And for other ideas of what is working for others make sure to stop by Rocks in My Dryer and maybe even share an idea or two of your own!

Tackle it Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Last week didn't go quite as planned for my tackle. The weather was so beautiful all week we just wanted to play outside ALL the time. I did get a few things done outside that needed doing though.

The garden is almost in. Erik borrowed our neighbors tiller and we got the garden tilled. We laid out almost all the logs for the borders for our raised beds. We will finish this up on Erik's days off this coming weekend.

For this week I am going to keep working on the clothing situation as we are supposed to be getting rain in the afternoons this week.

And here are the other two tackles I need to work on.

First...

I need to do something with all these apples!

I made my first purchase (thanks to our friends from church) from Crown O' Maine. They are a cooperative that provides all Maine grown items (mostly organic) to their members. This is the last batch of apples until the fall. We recently ran out of applesauce so I plan to make more and am not sure what else just yet.

And then...there is my office. This is no excuse because it was bad before this but I had two events this past weekend totalling about 17-18 hrs on my feet. I was a little tired so when I got home I pretty much dumped eveything on the floor in my office. I don't have anything scheduled for a while so I need to get things staightened up.
And Erik put these lovely shelves in the clothest so that I have more room to store things. I also now have a second file cabinet. Not to mention my new laser all in one machine that I haven't even taken the time to hook up yet.

And the floor...that's all of my filing right there...needs to move to the filing cabinet.

And all the books need to move back onto the book case.

Lot's of tackles this week (probably wont all get finished but I will keep plugging away at it!

Stop in next week to find out what I've finished and what else I need to tackle.

Blessings!

Tiny Talk Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:49:00 +0000

I have two really cute things that Aiden said this last week!

First...I was not witness to this one. My parents were up and were sitting outside with Erik and the boys. Aiden came over and told them he was going to tell them a story about a boy named Bennett who didn't listen. He preceded to go on about how Bennett didn't listen to Mommy & Daddy and he ran out into the road and was squished as flat as a pancake. I'm not sure where he has heard this before because I don't believe we have ever told him a car could squish him as flat as a pancake but who knows! The really funny part though was after he told the story Aiden says, "I don't like kid pancakes!" LOL!! And what does my father say, "They are crunchy." I'm am going second hand on this because I was not there so I might be off by a bit. Too funny.

Yesterday Erik and I had to go to the local hospital to get some blood work done that we've been putting off (just general health, cholestoral, CBC, etc.). They were still doing my paperwork when they called Erik in for his blood draw so he took Aiden in with him. He thought the whole thing was pretty interesting. Aiden is going to need to go for blood work later this week so I mentioned this too him when he came out and asked if he would like to go in an watch while they took my blood. He was all excited to go. While we were in the lab I was talking with him about giving blood and again talked about him giving some blood later this week. He looks up at me and says, "But Momma, I don't want anyone stealing ANY of my blood."

Bennett continues on his talking spree. He NEVER stops talking. We can understand probably half now. He hasn't said anything really funny this week though.

Stop back next week to see what other funny things my kids are saying!

And don't forget to stop by Not Before 7 to share about your kids or to read some other funny things.

Menu Planning Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:46:00 +0000

I apologize! I completely forgot to post this yesterday! Please forgive me!

I wanted to start off this week with a few links. Unfortunately, I did not make a note of the blog I found them on so if you have these up please share with us in the comments!

The 10 Best Foods Your Not Eating

8 Foods You Should Eat Every Day

These are both short slide shows about different foods that are excellent for your health. I've been focusing a lot on more healthful eating. We've started soaking our grains. I am cooking a lot more from scratch. We've started to purchase raw milk. There are a ton of EXCELLENT blogs out there to help you get started with more healthy menus and cooking. Here are a few of my favorites:

Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home

Laura at Heavenly Homemakers

Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet

Lindsay at Passionate Homemaker

These are my hands down favorite blogs in general and for cooking. They run great informative series and are just an inspiration for a young family like ours and to a mom that is somewhat new to homemaking. Definitely check them out!

For new recipes last week we tried out the Cheesy Beef & Rice recipe from Heavenly Homemakers & it was a huge hit with everyone but my 4 yr old. Right now he is not eating much of anything so that is not a surprise. He wont even eat Pizza anymore, which he used to LOVE. Hubby has asked me to make it again and often!

I didn't remember to get the turkey out of the freezer so we didn't have the Roast Turkey as planned. Let me run and do that now so that we can have it sometime this week.

We also never got to the Spud Special Soup from Keeper of the Home. We might try to do that again sometime this week as a lunch meal maybe. We did do the Arroz con Pollo while my parents were up visiting. I tried to use my big cast iron dutch oven on the stove top to cook it but that didn't work so well. The rice in the middle cooked really fast and the rice on the outside didn't cook at all. I am thinking I will use precooked rice in this from now on so that I only have to wait for the chicken to finish cooking. And I finally made the Asparagus Quiche for breakfast Sunday morning. It was absolutely delicious!!

This is going to be a pretty basic week and I'd like to cook from my pantry. Erik is going to be taking a pretty significant pay cut come September so we really need to cut back on our grocery spending budget. This is going to be VERY hard because this is the time of year I love to go to the farmers market and buy all kinds of lovely produce! We are planning to get our garden in this weekend so we will hopefully have a few things growing soon. We are starting from scratch this year because we had planned to move last year so didn't do a garden. And we let the whole thing grow over

Monday - Was pizza on the grill

Tuesday - I have a meeting & Erik is working so I will have Emma (our baby sitter) heat up leftover pizza or make grilled cheese for the boys.

Wednesday - Breakfast for Dinner (Omelets)

Thursday - Rice jumble (Rice, ground beef or goat, onions, peppers, garlic, tomato sauce and maybe a little cheese)

Friday - Roast Turkey and I think I will make these Spinach Mashed Potatoes with it.

Saturday - Turkey quesadillas

Sunday - Turkey Soup

Monday - Cookout

Make sure you head over to Orgjunkie.com for more menu ideas or to share your ideas.

Blessings!