Life

Sometimes what we have to do gets in the way of what we want to do, and sometimes that's a good thing.  Sometimes we're waiting for the perfect set of circumstances to start this or do that, when we realize that the circumstances will never be perfect and we need to make the most of the moments we're given.

This is very easy to type, but putting it into practice is challenging for me.  I've long held this notion that if everyone would just stop for a couple of days, I could get my act together and then things would run more smoothly and we'd enjoy life more.  Of course we all know that we can't snap our fingers and cease time while we do this, so what's a wife and mom to do?

I'm still working on it.  I do notice that we go through seasons, not just the 4 on our yearly calendar, but phases in which some activities are easier to accomplish than others.  As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, there is a time for just about everything.  As I seem to get one set of circumstances or a situation under control, a new series appears.

That would explain my long absence from writing here.  Nearly a year and a half!  It would take me that long to write it all out, so I will simply summarize.

1. Finalization of the adoption of our two youngest children.
2. Crazy summers in which we try to continue lessons in our homeschool AND enjoy all the activities offered in our community (summer reading programs with awesome field trips, vacation Bible schools, Jr ranger camp and an assortment of other fun things).
3. A brief period in which I felt we were settling into a new normal.
4. A good upheaval when we welcomed another foster child into our family, and the adjustment period that goes along with that (such as figuring out how 6 people were going to fit into the space that a couple of years ago was seemingly inadequate for just 3 of us).
5. The holiday season-rehearsals for the church Christmas program, preparing for Thanksgiving and Tony's birthday, days away cutting firewood for the winter, furniture rearranging so that a Christmas tree can be put up and decorated, and the celebration of TWO birthdays right after the new year starts.
6. Another new normal that includes 4 children and Tony working out of town (and sometimes even out of state!) for days at a time.
7. A not so good upheaval when said foster child was relocated.
8. Spring on the farm and the anticipation of new baby farm animals!  We missed the births of all of them, lost a couple during labor & delivery, and had to bottle feed one.
9. With spring comes little league baseball, which rolls right into summer vacation and another crazy fun summer similar to number 2.
10. Which brings us to the period we're in now-a new first for all of us-youth football and cheer leading, with practice 3 nights a week and games on Saturdays.

In my attempts to bring order from chaos, I've decided I need several things, and one is a creative outlet, so here I am again.  The ideas swirling in my head may now have a chance at making their way out, and that, I believe, enriches the brain, exercises it, making it stronger for those things that need to be done.  When those things get done, there is more time for intentional, authentic living, and that has been my aim for quite some time.  Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope to 'see' you again.

A Crazy Mixed-Up Day

It started off sanely enough.  No plans outside of the ordinary daily tasks.  Kinda felt a bit of freedom as a result.  Did I say it started off sanely?  Shows how crazy it's been-Tony slept in and I got up to let the chickens out.  I noticed that Sugar was out of the goat pen with Spice.  Spice gets out all the time, but it was odd to see Sugar out too.  Then I saw the rest of the goats were out and the gate was open.  That explains the noises that sounded similar to Goober Gus getting out of bed and stomping around in his room.  The hay bales are outside our bedroom, so we could hear them stealing food.  I grabbed Annie and Molly by the collar and Peaches tagged along and went back voluntarily.  Sugar and Spice did too.  That just left Cream and she eventually jumped in on her own.

Last night was the first time we took all the baby goats out-they're old enough to be weaned now, so they're in their own pen full time.  At milking time I got 158 ounces total from Annie and Molly.  That's a gallon and bit over a pint.  I left 2 quarts out for a new batch of yogurt that I'd decided I'd culture for 4 hours instead of 8 and see how that came out.  Some time during all this I decided I could bake crackers-oh, but we're trying to do all those things with sourdough and it should ferment overnight.  I figured I'd go ahead and start it and bake them after several hours instead of overnight.

Then I remembered that a friend of ours has a neighbor with overloaded peach trees and neither the friend nor the neighbor do any food preserving, so the trees were made available to us for picking.  Goober Gus and I got about 5 pounds the other day and I told the owner we'd be back when more ripened.  All 3 of us went today and returned with roughly 80 pounds, and you can hardly tell we took any!  Both days we picked up the bug eaten ones to bring to the chickens, so they're getting a treat too.  This is one branch and there are several trees, all loaded like this.

Sorry about the sideways shot...
On the way home we stopped at a farm stand to get more cherry tomatoes.  I bought half a pound the other day and GG ate them all before I could tell him to save some for dad.  We also got giant green bell peppers for .75¢ and this farmer doesn't use chemical herbicides or pesticides.  Organic peppers sell for $6 EACH at the grocery store.  These are so flavorful that you can smell them a yard away.  We also bought some very spicy salsa to snack on for lunch.  So spicy that I had to add tomatoes, green chilies and onions to thin it out some.  We made 2 trays of nachos and polished off another bag of our new favorite tortilla chips.

It was during lunch that I decided we could make lasagna for dinner, so I took out a package of ground pork sausage and tomato sauce from the freezer.  We've got 2 gallons of whey to make ricotta, so it was all set.  I also decided I better learn the process of lacto fermentation and be ready to start preserving these peaches.  Tony spent close to an hour placing them in apple boxes that this same friend had brought us when we thought we'd found a place to move to.  The inserts to separate fruit were still there, so they came in very handy.  We have 3 and a half boxes of peaches!

OK, so now I have cracker dough souring, 80+ pounds of peaches picked, plans for a fairly involved dinner and I'm looking thru my GNOWFGLINS courses for the one on lacto-fermented fruit.  Tony needed to go to the shop and work on a couple of cellos.  GG asked if he could go with because his bike tires are both flat and the air compressor is at the shop.  I reminded Tony that today was the last day of a pretty good sale at OfficeMax and asked if it was worth it for me to drive to Cottonwood to take advantage of it.  He suggested I drop them off at the shop, go to Cottonwood and pick them up on the way back.  I hate dislike it when he makes a logical suggestion that doesn't line up with what I was thinking. 

Alright, so instead of working on peaches and spending some time planning out the upcoming week-GG wants to study volcanoes-I drove to Cottonwood.  Did I mention that driving makes me drowsy?  Yeah, so when we got home a nap was definitely needed.  GG watched Prince of Egypt and we dozed.  Until I remembered I wanted to put the yogurt in the fridge at 130 and it was now after 4.  So much for a nap.

I went out to check all the animals and poor patches had his head stuck in the fence.  Reason enough to dehorn any horned animal, IMO.  We tried cauterizing the horn buds when all the babies were a few days old, but the boys' horns grew anyway.  Now they're banded, but haven't fallen off yet.  It was at this point that I remembered that I needed to check the mamas and see if they needed to be milked again.  We (I) normally only milk once a day, but with this being the first day of weaning, I figured they'd need a second go around.  Got all the feed and supplies ready and came out to find that Spice had jumped out and eaten the milking time treats, so had to start a new batch soaking.  "When am I going to be able to start dinner?"  I thought to myself.  GG and Tony were playing "bollyball" (that'd be volleyball for anyone over the age of 10) and it was a nice late afternoon outside.

The girls gave nearly another 3 quarts of milk, though we only got to keep about half that.  Molly promptly stepped into the bucket today and then kicked it about 15 feet behind her.  I retrieved the bucket and milked her anyway, giving it to the chickens, who probably suggested she kick the bucket in the first place.  I'm not sure what the chickens do to repay the goats for this, though.

OK, on to dinner.  Tony started cooking the sausage-I asked why he was slicing it instead of just crumbling it and he said it was venison.  What?  We don't have any venison.  He told me to look at the wrapper in the trash.  Sure enough, the inside packaging says venison.  I looked more closely at the butcher paper on the outside and the word I couldn't make out this morning was now obviously antelope.  I vaguely recall neighbors giving us this when they gave us some pork sausage to try.  OK, so the lasagna is going to be made with cubed antelope sausage.  I also decided to try a recipe I had seen for lasagna "cupcakes".  In the original recipe won-ton wraps are used to line muffin tins and hold all the filling.  I had 6 lasagna noodles left from the last time we made it and didn't want to buy another box, so we tried this method.  Oh, but first I have to tell you about the ricotta.  For something that's supposed to be easy, I've had more failure than success.

The method is simply bringing the whey to roughly 180° and then pouring it through a butter muslin lined colander.  The one success I can recall, I brought the whey to nearly boiling, so that was my aim tonight.  Didn't work.  No ricotta.  Zero, zilch, nada.  {Hmm, that rhymed, maybe I should write children's silly stories?}  OK, I'm not going to the store for ricotta when I've managed to find a suitable alternative for everything else.  We decided to use chevre and just added Italian seasoning, garlic and salt. 

Cutting the partially cooked noodles into the right size circles seemed easy enough until we realized the size that fits the top is too big for the bottom, so Tony used scissors and custom cut them.  I topped with tomato sauce, antelope sausage, chevre, more sauce, another noodle and mozzarella.  Did I mention it's about 7PM already?  Or that the sweet elderly man that brings yard and garden trimmings for the goats and books or toys for Goober Gus stopped by just before we started cutting noodles.  As the oven is warming up and we're about done filling muffin cups with lasagna goodness, I start smelling something close to burning.  We just put a new (freecycle find) oven in yesterday, but it was clean inside.  Oh no!!  I put the cracker dough in there to keep flies off it!  Fortunately it was in a large Pyrex bowl, so no breakage, and I don't think the heat was a problem for the fermenting process, but it actually could be now that I think about it.  So we get these things into the oven finally and I start washing dishes so the kitchen won't be a total disaster tomorrow.  Tony and GG clean off the table and empty the dishwasher-oh wait, they did that while we waited for the whey to boil.  I finish the bulk of the dishes and check the lasagna.  Why aren't they cooked more than that already?  In my rush to stop the burning smell, I turned the oven off.  Goodness!  Will the craziness never end today? 

Here's the steps to filling the tins:

I turned it back on and we waited about 10 minutes.  Tony read a chapter from Charlotte's Web to Gus.  We started it last night and it's our aim to read a few chapters each evening.  Dinner was a hit, despite the many obstacles.  The flavor was outstanding!  Tony ate 6, I had 5 and GG had 4!  I thought he'd be too full to eat because he ate all the partially cooked noodle pieces.  Fooled me!

By now it's nearly 830 and we are at least half an hour behind in our evening routine.  We went out to lock up the chickens and check the goats, then got teeth brushed, read one more book, took fish oil and put him to bed!  That was at 9, it's now 10 and all I've done since then is write this very long description of a crazy weird day!  If you've read this far, pat yourself on the back and grab a gold star, you deserve it!!

Before and After

I read a guest post today from Kitchen Stewardship that reminded me a lot of my own food journey so I thought I'd share my story.

If we look at life about two and a half years ago, meal planning consisted of thinking it'd be good to have fish once a week and trying not to have the same type of meat twice in a row-in other words beef, pork, chicken, lather, rinse, repeat.  We ate out several nights a week, as well as every Sunday after church.  Fast food was a regular part of our diet.  I tried to make sure we got a variety of foods but that was about the extent of making healthy choices.

Had you told me then that just about everything we eat would be made from scratch-by me-I would have laughed literally out loud.  Yeah, I enjoyed cooking and baking, but not to the point of making bread on a regular basis or homemade crackers.  I baked cookies when we were in the mood, not because it was a better choice health wise.  Probably the biggest reason for my disbelief would have been that I just don't have the energy to do all that cooking and baking.

In January of 2009 my chiropractor suggested that I have adrenal fatigue.  I'd never heard of it, but a bit of research lined everything up.  A bit more research and we started applying a few changes:

1. Bought baby chicks so we could have farm fresh eggs (then added two adults because we didn't want to wait!)
2. Discovered how expensive raw milk is and decided to buy a couple of goats to have our own fresh, raw, milk.
3. Learned to make yogurt and chevre with the raw milk.
4. Eliminated HFCS and hydrogenated fats.
5. Added coconut oil.
6. Reduced sugar intake (refined white).
7. Cut back on fast food consumption.
8. Started trying to buy non factory farmed meat.
9. Learned to milk a cow that didn't want to be milked.
10. Began following the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 system for buying produce.
11. Began trying to avoid GMO's.
12. Discovered son was sensitive to food chemicals and started avoiding them.
13. Learned that I'd have to make a lot of things from scratch to keep from eating foods with chemicals.
1. Cookies
2. Ice cream
3. Crackers (wheat thin style)
4. Bread
5. Sour Cream
6. Buttermilk
7. Graham Crackers
8. Granola type bars
9. Marshmallows (who can give up s'mores??)
10. Meatballs
11. Bread crumbs
12. Mayo
13. Ketchup
14. Tomato sauce
15. Granola
16. Toothpaste
17. Mouthwash
18. Laundry soap
19. Deodorant
20. Dishwashing soap
21. Insect repellent
22. Household cleaners
14. Stopped enjoying eating out-the flavor just isn't there when you no longer eat processed foods all the time.
15. Realized that I've come a long way when I cringe at nearly everything available away from home and when others point out how much I do.

No wonder I'm still tired all the time!

HomeSchool

We still don't do a lot of "formal" schooling, but we have started getting intentional about it.  Goober Gus is playing a computer game right now that's supposed to be helping him with early reading skills.  Not so sure about that, but he's enjoying it and at the very least learning to maneuver sites/games better.  He has to follow directions to play properly, that's always a good thing!  I've noticed Tony taking the time to ask more questions of Gus when they're reading a story or doing something-getting Gus to think more.  I like it!

I'm taking time right now to catch up on email subscriptions to a few homeschool blogs I follow.  There are so many creative and talented people out there!  It inspires me to want to do things with him and have things available for him to choose at will.  Now if I just had a place to put it all I would be more inclined to follow through with those intentions!

Today we played with his Peter Pan Preschool Pack (P4?).  We practiced telling time, patterns, graphing, and using symbols to represent an item.  I really feel like we need more of a daily routine to make the most of our time and learning opportunities,  One of the beauties of home education is that we get to teach so much more than academics.  I want him to develop good habits for self care, home care, pet care, etc; as well as good character traits.  I think I'm teaching myself more than him, but I need it too!

This post is part of the Preschool Corner hosted by Homeschool Creations.

Taking Stock

I've been in the kitchen this morning taking inventory of what food I have.  At the same time, I'm eliminating anything with artificial color or preservatives.  We think our son is affected by them, so we're trying a couple of weeks of focused effort on not letting him have any to verify the suspicion.

It's a testament to our almost two year old journey towards real food.  There's not much to toss or give away, and what's there just might be two years old or more.  [sigh]  Some chocolate graham crackers, old cereal bars, rancid macadamia nuts (the travesty!) and an assortment of cookie/cupckake sprinkles. 

Our original goal in this journey was real milk, healthy fats and homegrown eggs.  Then came the removal of all HFCS and any hydrogenated oils.  Seems that taking those out took out a lot of the dyes and chemicals too.  We're also trying to follow EWG's list of the most pesticide laden produce.  Living in a small town whose population doesn't care too much about that (or simply can't afford it) the options are very limited. 

Since the list has 49 items on it, we determined that the top 25 cleanest we would buy conventional and the rest had to be pesticide free.  Potatoes are in the lower 24, so now that the farmers markets are closed, we don't have access to organic potatoes.  I feel very restricted by this one alone, and there are 23 other items on that list!  It makes me question-do we go without fresh produce or do we eat the pesticides?

I'm almost done with the inventory.  I still need to go thru the fridge and freezer (mostly to list what we have for meal planning purposes) and one cabinet in my son's room that holds bulk items.  Then it'll be time to create healthy meals using these items.  Oh, and I want to plan carefully so that Monday's leftovers get used in Wednesday's soup (or whatever, you get the idea).

What's your feeling on chemicals in our food?  Whether they be pesticide residues on produce or added to boxed items-how do you handle it?

Looking for New Property

Be forewarned: I got carried away with details-it's LONG!

We've been looking at property and coming up with ideas since before we were married. We've had some grand ideas that we could never afford, but the process can be fun. We had a strategy for paying for the more realistic ideas, but Plan A got kiboshed before we could ever put it into play. Plan B was a bit more of a challenge and would take time, but we could build in phases with that plan. Well, the economy nose dived and the source of those funds dried up too. In between those phases, we bought what we thought was the perfect parcel. Two acres of irrigated land for the price that many people were asking for one. The bonus was the other 3 couples making up this investment group were all part of the church we go to, and people we'd actually want to be neighbors with. We managed to get the cash for the buy in and then we really started dreaming/planning! We'd been renting since getting married and were eager to set down roots.

(Would it help to know that we got married in 2006?)

 

Thru an odd exchange, we ended up with a home to live in while building that had no mortgage. It was supposed to be temporary-like 6 to 8 months. It's now been two and a half years and we aren't any closer to building than when we moved in! There are several reasons why, but I won't go into all of that in this post. Suffice to say that had I known we'd even be here a year I never would have agreed to the set up. It's just not adequate to call a home. I've tried not to complain too much, as it is paid for but I feel like I'm holding back on things until we have a "real" house. Every few months we look at what's available in our area and quickly realize there's nothing wonderful enough about any of the places to make us want to go into debt. However, I'm getting weary of tripping over every day items because there's nowhere to put them. Oh, and the balloon payment on that marvelous piece of property is due November 1st. Nothing like a large sum of money coming due to change one's perspective.

I think I mentioned last week that we even drove to TN last December to see if we'd want to live there, because it seemed like an ideal place for us and prices are like a 10th of what they are here. We've looked at other parts of AZ, but where we are has water. Water means plants and trees. Plants and trees mean food and shade. Food and shade mean happier family. Need I say more? So I tell you all of this because we found a place that is almost perfect, but the parts that aren't are enough to make us really examine our motives and desires and continue to seek God's guidance. That's where you come in. We've made a list of the pros and cons of each place and I'd like to present it for examination. Maybe you will see something we haven't thought of or have some wisdom and insight we don't.

For the record, we make quarterly payments on that piece of land we bought a few years ago. The cost of this place we're looking at would give us a mortgage of roughly $200/month less than what that quarterly payment works out to be-if they accepted our low ball offer. We're also aware that the mortgage would now be on our primary residence rather than a bare piece of land that we could let go of, if needed. So here's the list:

Current Residence Pros:

1. no mortgage
2. irrigation
3. creek
4. easy drive to town
5. 1 acre
6. central heat & AC
7. wood stove
8. hen house
9. fenced garden

 Current Residence Cons:

1. tight floor plan
2. no storage
3. old bath fixtures
4. highway noise
5. drafty construction
6. cracked window seals
7. can't remodel
8. can't take more foster kids/no siblings for TJ
9. can't have guests
10. no room for crafts
11. bad flooring
12. one bathroom
13. no linen closet
14. funky thermostat
15. I could go on, but I don't want to be reminded!

Proposed Residence Pros:

1. hen house
2. barn with stalls
3. hay loft
4. mechanical room (could be used as milking area)
5. pond
6. pasture
7. fenced
8. cross fenced
9. fenced garden
10. music work shop
11. root cellar
12. cheese aging room
13. evaporative cooling
14. storage
15. workshop
16. wood stove (s)
17. trampoline enclosure
18. swing set up
19. irrigation
20. 2 acres

Proposed Residence Cons:

1. mortgage
2. no AC
3. small master bedroom-not so bad except it's 1 of only 2 bedrooms-foster care makes this a challenge
4. tight floor plan-would be a challenge to remodel to our liking
5. old bath fixtures

 If we simply look at the numbers of pros and cons on each, the decision seems easy, but some of the cons are big at the proposed place. This post is already long, but I'll take a bit more time to say that once TJ's adoption is final, he can't share a room with foster children unless they are the same age group and gender. I think the dividing line for age is 6, so that gives us a year to find a way to have another bedroom for more kids. Once a child is adopted, the rules no longer apply. TJ really wants a brother, and we think it'd be good for him to have one, so that's a big consideration too. Children two and under can share our room, but we're not sure we want any that young. There's a bedroom in the basement, but it can't be used for foster children because there have to be two exits to the outside from any room they sleep in for fire safety. This room has no exits to the outside. The master bedroom being small isn't so much the issue as sharing the upstairs bathroom is. Our thought was to build a master suite on the main level so that both upstairs rooms would be kids rooms. Oh yeah, and when my parents come to visit, they can't go up and down the stairs, so there isn't anywhere for them to stay. Here I go talking myself out of a place that I really want! Well, I really want all the outside amenities and the basement. And the huge workshop for Tony's instrument building-along with another workshop for everything else. Did I mention storage? We'd be able to buy in bulk and save money. And with two acres we'd have enough grazing area for all the animals we have. And that pond-not having to fill buckets for the goats several times a day-how much power does that feature get?? I didn't tell you the barn stalls are configurable-the gates swing either way to make various size stalls. If we had to buy hay-we could buy in bulk and save again!

 

Now do you see why this is such a hard decision?  Maybe floor plans will help:

 
If you've read this far, you're a real trooper and I thank you!

 

Disconnected

I know I rely heavily on my computer and access to the internet for many things, but it's really highlighted when that access is cut off.  I've been away from home since evening time on July 30th.  We left our home to go spend the night at my parents house so we'd be closer to the airport for our Saturday morning departure, plus mom was going with TJ and I.  We got to Idaho mid day and left Sunday for a 4 night camping trip up in the mountains.  Didn't even have cell phone service there!  I thought once we got back to the Boise area I'd be able to spend some time at the local library or McDonald's to use their wi-fi while TJ played.  Friday morning we headed out, ordered food that I didn't really want, TJ started playing, just to find out that their wi fi had issues.  I could connect to any of the 3 networks available, but none of them allowed me to actually use the internet.  Big let down!  So I found a coffee shop and sat in the car (to me, coffee smells like skunk spray, so I wasn't about to sit inside) to upload 2 posts I had written the night before.

My aunt has internet access for her computer, I just can't connect it to mine, and there are things I can't do w/o my laptop, or just simply prefer to do with my own computer, so I've been able to check email, but not really read all the newsletters I get, or connect to my dashboard here, or other forums, because I don't want to take up that much time when we should be visiting.  This morning my mom and I decided to go looking for a place where I could do some of the things I was hoping to do while gone-namely planning.  So I've been sitting on the patio of a coffee house for over an hour and the only real planning I've done is to decide which children's books are going to be the weekly focus for the first 4 weeks of homeschool.  I logged in to my library's web site (something I couldn't do easily on someone else's computer) and placed holds on the books we don't already own, and on accompanying items like books on tape and video.  Since my mom is with me, and she's already drank a cup of espresso and had biscotti and read the local paper, I guess it's time to go.  She's getting bored.  My aunt kept TJ with her, so at least he's not here slowing down progress.

A good portion of the planning I want to do can be done without internet access, but it's so nice to have it just in case!  I could sit here all day (well, not really cuz there's not an outlet and the battery won't last that long) and plan, read blogs, reply to email, watch video's from online classes, and call it a great day!  Maybe when I get home Tony will give me that gift before we get back into the rhythm of life at home.  My goal while gone was to have assessed what's working and what isn't in order to create better harmony at home for all 3 of us.  Maybe I can still do it.

Real Food vs Vacation With Extended Family

Our real food journey began over a year ago as I investigated the cause of my adrenal fatigue. We started with chickens for fresh eggs, added goats for raw milk and started eliminating processed foods. I can’t say that we’ve “arrived” but after a few days of camping with extended family I can say that we’ve ventured far off the beaten path of convenience and food-like stuff. Actually, it was noticeable as soon as we boarded the airplane to fly to Boise. I’d already decided that since we’d be on vacation and I was basically just along for the ride (not involved in the planning and not wanting to be difficult) I’d graciously eat whatever was offered and lovingly prepared.


Less than 24 hours after leaving home we’d broken just about every food rule we’d been following. Including:

High fructose corn syrup*hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils*cottonseed oil*pasteurized milk*artificial colors*processed eggs*white bread*extruded grains*microwave*chemical laden produce

I’ve consumed popular sodas, spreadable margarine, white bread, miracle whip, potato chips, red vines, white bread, fruity flake cereal, Crisco, way too much candy, and probably things I’ve already forgotten! We used paper plates, paper napkins, paper towels, plastic cups, plastic utensils, individual plastic water bottles, and soda cans. I haven’t had any probiotic foods or drinks, coconut oil, fish oil, whole wheat bread, fresh eggs or raw dairy. We won’t be home until the 11th, so it’ll be a few more days before I get any of that at home. I might be able to get some of those things before then, but what I’ve realized is that my journey hasn’t reached the point of being able to travel and keep eating real food. My tinnitus seems a little worse and therefore the accompanying headache is too. I feel fat, out of shape and fatigued. We were camping and I couldn’t really relax. Not sure why-just sitting around not doing anything, so I should have been relaxed.

This blog is part of Fight Back Fridays at The Food Renegade.

This Heat is Killing Me!

Maybe not literally, at least not yet, but I can hardly do anything!  I don't even have the energy to prepare meals, so I'm doubly knocking myself out.  It's a downward spiral, that's for sure!  My head is heavy and groggy, my thoughts are fuzzy, my ears are ringing more than usual.  But I don't sleep well because there was hardly any physical activity during the day, and that adds to the trouble too. 

Fridays are my new "afternoon off" according to Tony.  He said he'll give me time off every Friday from 3-5, and today I'm thinking of taking the laptop to some local place that has free wi-fi, where I will either begin planning a routine to fit in more essentials and fun stuff, or just read blogs and catch up on stuff like that.  So I'm thinking I ought to go force feed myself (did I mention that besides not having the energy to prepare food, the heat also kills my appetite?) so I will have the energy and brain power to enjoy my time off.

There's a heat advisory in effect here today.  Telling people to stay inside with air conditioning and drink plenty of fluids, and check on elderly family and neighbors.  Tony won't care and might still try to take our son out to do something so I can just stay here, but I think it would be better if they had a cooler place to hang out.  I say cooler because we don't use the AC from noon til  because the rate goes up during that time.  However, even my cheapskate-ness has limits and if it gets too hot inside the AC's going on!  It's hard to say what temp that is, as our thermometer is not accurate, nor is the inaccuracy consistent.  We've tested it against a digital thermometer and when it's cool in here-like winter time, the temp can be off by as much as 10 degrees (reads high).  But in the summer it can show 90 and be 86.  So I just don't trust it, and go by feel most of the time.

This sure turned into a long post for someone who hasn't done much this week, therefore doesn't have much exciting to share.  Tomorrow I will go to the farmer's market and trade a pound of cheese for a few pounds of plums, see what other deals are out there, and then go to a used curriculum fair for homeschoolers.  Next week we go to the statewide homeschool conference, with lots of vendors and more workshops than I can fit into the time allotted.  Speaking of that, perhaps I'll pour a cold drink, grab some cheese and finally choose just which workshops I'll go to!  Stay cool, everyone!

Summer

I knew my list wasn't complete nor comprehensive-I forgot the premiere of Toy Story 3!  My son loves the first 2 movies, and we went to see the 3D double feature release of 1 & 2 last fall.  TS3 comes out June 18th and I don't even have it on my calendar!  My mom's birthday is a few days after the release and I think that's how we're celebrating.  She and I chatted this evening and she wants to have him spend a week at her house.  Go Grandma!

Time Conflicts

Do you ever wonder how we'll handle eternity?  Knowing there is no end?  It's a concept I can't wrap my brain around in a world where no one seems to have enough time!  I'm either busy living life, while simultaneously thinking  about how I want to present this experience on my blog, or sitting here reading other blogs and web sites learning to do  things that will take me away from the computer.  There are days I could make 4 or 5 posts, but then I'm not sure if they'd all get read or simply lost in the shuffle, so I wait.  Then a whole week goes by and I haven't blogged!  So just a quick summary of things that have been on my mind:

1. This is our first year planting heirloom seeds (I think I'm using the right terminology-seeds that can be planted and seeds from its fruit can be saved for next year) and the package tells me I can't plant a different variety from the same cultivar with 1/4 to 1/2 mile of each other.  What??  So I can only have one type of melon?  Or beet?  Or cucumber?  Anyone else had any trouble with this?
2. We went to the County Fair the other day and had a great time!  I called it our Official Kick-Off of Summer Fun.  Got some good pictures, then my poor husband sat down with it in his back pocket.  The screen cracked and you can't see anything on it anymore.  It still takes pictures though.  Looking at eBay for another one.
3. I want to have a contest to name the trio of goats that arrived at our home April 15th.  I need good pictures of them first.  The prize will be a homemade bread bag, and I wanted to post pictures of the tea towels I bought to make them with.
4. My husband and I celebrated the 4 year anniversarry of our engagement last night by attending the Celtic Woman concert in Phoenix.  My parents watched our son and we got a hotel room afterwards.  It was a fabulous time and I want to find links to youtube videos of this concert to point out some of the highlights.  In addition to the amazing voices of the singers, the musicians are unbelievable too.  Dual percussionists-quite entertaining to watch.
5. Tonight we got to watch a local performance of The Sound of Music.  It's my favorite movie, my husband enjoys it, and every now and then our 4 year old son asks to watch it.  We took him with us and he did quite well.  He preferred the singing parts and got a little restless during speaking parts, but never so much as to be a nuisance to those nearby.
6. I'm getting 3 quarts of milk a day from our goats.  We aren't keeping up with using it!  I've run out of canning jars to store it in.  And gallon jugs.  We have 2 gallons away this week.  I made 4 quarts of yogurt in the last 10 days.  2 quarts of ice cream.  As soon as I place the order for cheese cultures I can start making cheese!  I thought I might be able to find some in Phoenix, so waited til that trip was over, but never even found a cheesemaking supply store.  Polly-did you say you get yours from the NE Cheesmaking Co?  I checked their site and will probably order their goat cheese starter kit tomorrow.  Hubby said he could make a cheese press for me.

Those are just the ones I can remember.  I probably ought to set a time just for posting, but I'm not good at sticking to a regular schedule.  I'm enjoing reading the blogs I follow, and I'm making some "friends" in the process. More later.  Thanks for stopping by!

One happy boy riding the tractor wagon to the fair entrance last week!

A Fitting End to the Day

I had every intention today of doing a post "picturing" my day.  I took pictures of a few of the events that happened this morning, with plans of continuing that into the afternoon.  My son and I ended up at the creek playing and I didn't have the camera, nor could I leave him at the creek to come get it, so we missed those.  We were going to snuggle with a movie for quiet time, but I noticed at 1:51PM that I had an appointment to donate blood at 2.  So much for resting! 

I arrived at 2:04PM and they were behind.  It would be at least 2:30 before they could get me in.  This is a blood mobile, so there wasn't even a place to sit down.  My husband had forgotten his appointment at 12:45, but came when he heard I was running over for mine.  We stood around talking and I let him go first because he needed to get back to work.  Son and I waited in the car.  At 3:10 they called me for my turn.  Preliminary questions are asked and my finger is poked to check my iron level.  12.4.  It has to be 12.5 to donate.  Try again.  12.2.  OK, so instead of quiet cuddle time with my son, we spend an hour and a half waiting to find out that I can't even donate.  Oh well, at least that helped move the schedule along-the next person didn't have to wait so long.

Internal debate now becomes whether to skip milking the goats and just go rest (hey, my blood iron level is low, I have a good excuse for being tired!) or do I delay the rest I was seeking and do what needs to be done?  Milking won.  We got everything ready and headed over to the pasture.  We had extra ripe bananas to give them for snacks.  They each got 3 or 4 before we even went thru the gate.  Molly was extra stubborn.  Started prancing WAY before usual and still had food.  I wasn't going to let her win this time, but I didn't have any supplies there.  I took the old knife I use to stir up the food and tried hacking through a piece of rope to tie her back legs.  She was on to me.  She got belligerint and so did I.  The whole milk stand ended up on its side.  Took her away and brought Annie in.  SHE started in with me too!  She's usually the mild mannered one that lets me do whatever I need to do.  I got what I could from her and quit before she could step in it and really make me mad.

Oh yeah, one of the reasons that Molly was so agitated was because my son wouldn't quit hollering to me from halfway across the field.  We irrigated yesterday and he was running through it.  That would have been OK, but I didn't want him to get his clothes wet and thus the inside of the car muddy.  He did anyway.  Walking abck to the car (on the opposite end of the pasture) he chose the muddiest path of all.  Yes, he is a boy.  I forget.  I also forget what a tom boy I was.  So I gave up my nap to milk the goats, got about half of what I should, and a muddy child to boot!  And still no camera.

Alright, driving home I chose to change the course of the events and attitudes and took son out to the goat pen here at the house to feed raisins to our new goats.  I forgot to take the camera again.  But that's OK because as I plugged the cable in to upload and prepare this post, it stopped working.  It beeps like it should, but never uploads.  I'll have to try again later.  Isn't that what I should have expected today?

Recap:

1. Cut my thumb while cutting pineapple for breakfast.
2. Tried to mow lawn with riding mower-battery is dead because ds turned the light on and left it.
3. Decided to do as much as I could with the gas push mower-the ignition cable came all the way out.
4. Late for blood donation and then didn't get to donate because of low iron.
5. Fiasco with the goats.
6. Pictures won't upload.

Seeing the good when I can:

1. I got to laugh with my son while playing with the goats.
2. I got to laugh again watching him play in the creek.
3. We got to see Daddy in the middle of the day.
4. We got to see 17 geese and 2 ducks hanging out at the pasture in the irrigation water.
5. We are in pj's at 6PM!
6. We will snuggle and watch movies tonight and maybe even order pizza in-Daddy is working late.  Oh check out why he's working late...

Tony builds carbon fiber cello's for a living.  This is the detail work he's doing on the current one that the customer is paying a premium to have.  Each of those diamonds and squares is hand punched and placed.  Yes, he has talent and patience for tedious work!
As I got up to get my phone and transfer this picture, I saw one of our baby chicks laying in an awkward position.  The kitten had got her with her claw and she didn't survive.  Maybe I should just go to bed now?!

News This Week

• Elsie went to Charm School.  Or is it Finishing School?  Her previous owner offered to take her and see if she can train her to be a good milk cow.  We jumped at the chance! 
• Our son now enjoys playing in the pen with the goats because Elsie isn't there to trample him!
• My weekly plan seems to be working.  I feel a sense of purpose AND freedom.  Nice combination.
• Car trouble abounds.  We returned home from small group last night to discover a nearly flat tire on the minivan.  Tony took it to be repaired today and the guy broke the brake line!  It's just a little shop-I doubt the guy's gonna be able to pay for the repair, but we're gonna ask anyway.  Need a spare for the truck before we head to Flagstaff tomorrow.  Good news is we have an awesome mobile lube guy that comes to our house to change the oil.  How perfect is that?
• Male readers be forewarned-the next statement is totally feminine and might not be suitable for you to read.  I did more research on washable, cloth pads for use during my period.  I think I'm going to order them.

I'm tired today.  Maybe because it was cloudy AND it's paperwork day, so I was focused and intent on my work.  Think I'll go to bed early tonight!

Out of Africa

There's a wildlife park in our town called Out of Africa.  They used to be located outside of Fountain Hills, a suburb (sorta?) of Phoenix and I went a lot the first few years they were open.  I haven't been since they moved here, and probably for 10 years now.  My bil gave us tickets for a Christmas gift a couple of years ago and we just went today!  Our son loved it-he was running ahead, eager to see each new lion or animal.  Towards the end he even made a friend who was visiting with his family from southern Mexico.  He can't whistle, but he can sure immitate the sound and he'd get ahead of us and "whistle" for us to catch up to him.  We got to "feed a tiger" and follow along with the feed truck as they tossed chunks of meat to all the carnivores.  Now we know why hyenas are called laughing hyenas-it was a funny sound!  Not sure why I didn't take a picture, but there was a small leopard/cheetah/some type of cat that was missing its front right leg.  She did alright without it!  Tony got some great shots of the giraffe.  It was a great Sunday outting!  Enjoy the pictures.