Now growing...

Micro greens! These are radish. I need to rearrange my bedroom to get them in a better place but seeing them grow so fast is exciting! Aren't they beautiful!?!

The other day, Thursday, I think, the boys and Uncle Chris hauled a few buckets of Manure up to the small garden. Then Friday the children and I hauled more. And today we carried more. It looked like so much in the buckets. But in a pile in the garden it looked pathetic. It is crazy windy now. So I called it quits. If the wind dies down I plan to get leaves and clean out the goat room (for lots of straw and goat manure) to stir in. Then the plan is to   Cover it in a dark tarp to compost it. It has 4 mths. Hoping it is good by then. If not I'll move it. 

    

Patrick and Wisdom ran to town for the hardware store. Joelle and Rhyyan are walking around in the pasture. They have to carry a BB gun and a big stick. And I make them avoid the fence that goes along their yard. Annoying. But Rhyyan is a good shot. And the dogs tend to leave if you yell at them. 

Lilley is making grilled cheese and tomatoe soup. Home canned by my mother in law. It is so yummy!

   I'm feeding Naomi and planning to knit a while. The house is fairly clean. It is a good day. Main want today is to finish the manure pile. Until then I'll take this warm cozy quiet house. 

Coffee

If you know us you know we find coffee amazing. We found we weren't liking the French press as much as we had. I think we need to get back to roasting our own again. But it causes Patrick to have problems breathing while it is roasting. And I stink at remembering to do it when he is out. 

We went to our annual thanksgiving day meal with friends. Renee made Patrick a coffee the way she always does. But this time we were all in the kitchen. So he saw her method. A Bialetti Moka. Stove top espresso. He was sold. I was sold years ago on it. But they are generally aluminum. Which we highly avoid. But I got online and searched lots. Found several stainless steel ones. I'm thankful for Amazon. 

We also started heating and frothing our cream. Heavenly. 

So fun and a great cup. Only makes a tall cup at a time. So I get lots of cleaning done as I make our coffee. Another plus. We also hand grind the coffee with a burr grinder. So it all helps me wake up. And put a slow purpose to my day. I enjoy the routine. 

Judah, I'd like to interview you. Is that fine? I asked. 

   

Sure what's a interview?

It is where I ask you questions and you tell the what you think. 

 Alright. I will do that. 

What is your name? Judah Lemuel

What are you? Cute 

Anything else? The Lion of Judah. 

How old are you? 4

Favorite color? Blue

Favorite food? Ice cream and cake

What makes you sad? Our puppies are gone. 

What please you? Campfires. I like them at Grammys house. 

How often do you need to eat?everyday. 

I need supper and a leftover. Then I'm not hungry. 

What chores do you do? Sometimes I feed the chickens. Sometimes I wash dishes. 

Are they hard? No

Are they worth it? Yeah

When is your birthday? January October 

Favorite smell?Durian. Wet and dried durian. 

Favorite art? Uhhh mostly coloring. 

We're done. Was it ok? Can I do it again sometime? 

Yeah. But you forgot some questions. 

Oh oops. Which questions?

My favorite friend. 

Who is that?  Grammy. Wy. Tan. Bre. Dinh. Silas. Gid. Cramer kids. The Yoders. Elijah. Hannah. That's all. 

What other questions did I forget to ask?

How many bikes I have and how many broke. 

How many is that? 1 blue one. And 1 broken one. And probably 8 that need fixed. 

   

 Anything else?

Nope. We're done now. 

The end. 

A fuzzy cowl...

 Joelle requested a cowl from this lace weight homespun (not by me) yarn. It is so soft and has short fibers so we think it is Angora rabbit. I wish we knew for sure. It is warm and light. I finished today. She claims it is perfect and just what she hoped it would be. She wasn't thrilled to do the photo. But DIdNT complain in any way. She is a nice lovely girl. I'm glad I'm her momma. 

TGV

I started this Ravelry Pattern, TGV, so long ago that I don't even want to check my Ravelry to know if it sat 1 or 2 years... 

It is sock yarn. My aluminum needles paired with the yarn meant I had to pay attention to keep it on the needles as I knit. It seemed to go no where as I knit. I like faster results than I was getting. I have realized though I knit faster now than I did back then. 

I was nearing done yesterday. Then I could do nothing else til it was done. So I finished it off. I needed to take a potty break so I had Joelle work on casting off. When I got back she refused to give it back. She enjoyed the task and want the success of a finish. After I worked in the ends I thought maybe Joelle would want it. But she wasn't interested. So I just offered it to any child. Lilley was thrilled. She loves shawls. Not much she doesn't love though. I think I need to make something for Rhyyan next. 

I like it off the needles. But I wasn't a an of it on the needles. I'm glad I didn't just frog it like I considered.... 

Laundry.

I finally have a laundry system that I love. Really really. Many people warned me not to get a wringer washer. But I have loved them for a dozen years. I used my first one at a dear friends home. She is a Old River Brethren. Like old order Amish or Mennonite. But had a little electricity. They clean well. Really well. And are faster than new machines. By a lot. 

It is in my opinion just as easy as a regular washer. I have never regretted buying her. I do hope to paint her this spring though. I think she deserves to look like a rainbow. She just makes me happy. 

 I am doing 3 loads today. Generally I do one morning and evening. But I got busy. We had company. But still if I were only doing laundry not blogging too... I would be done with 3 loads. All on the line in a hr. it is quick and marvelous. I wash the load. Then wring into the sink. Then change my water and rinse the wring again. When I have multiple loads I do share water from one load to the next. 

We also do a more simple family closet system. This dresser holds clothes for the 5 oldest children. One drawer each. It is amazing really what the single drawer will hold. The bottom drawers hold the big girl clothes as they have larger pieces and need the room. They each have 5-10 outfits. Which is plenty. The top of the dresser in the old trunk shelf are Naomi's diapers. The hanging rack above I dry her covers on. It is perfect. 

Here in the crates are Wisdom and Naomi's clothes. I also generally change Naomi on the dryer. As it is closest to all supplies I need. At night she ARs a throw away diaper. And the kitchen trash is two steps away. As is the bathtub if we blowout...

Sock needing sorted are beside the dryer. I never fold socks as I fold laundry. But work on them as I wash. I fold everything in this room as nearly everything goes in this room. And the only thing that needs to go to the back of the house is mine and Patricks stuff. 

   This is the best way I have ever found to get my laundry done. It is best for our family. And I haven't been behind on laundry ever since starting this system. Trial and error. 

I miss being here.

I am missing my blog. I also have renewed hope for our little homestead. After our 2014 of crazy stuff. You know huge gardens. Milking. And 900 chickens... We needed the break. We were burnt out. And since we traveled to the east coast this summer my garden dreams were dashed. I couldn't do it with being gone 3 weeks. 

   But since Fawn left to go visit her bullfriend down the road. I feel ready. Ready to take the whole thing on again. A couple mths ago we were done. We were ready to leave this place. We have neighbors that , while they are friendly, at least one family is... They have dogs that run in packs. And keep poor Astrid busy. They have issues. Law and family problems. And it is not fun to live near. Drunks with guns,etc. but I don't know if it is mellowing out or if it is just winter. But I am back to being in love with this place. Despite the pit bull dog packs. I hope I don't regret it. I do think though we need better fencing. A privacy fence would be heavenly. 

   But on to better things... We are setting things up to grow microgreens. I am excited. We adore salad. This is a fast easy way to eat lots. Also I like our set up and hope to start our seeds that way also. But I need to further downside in my bedroom to make room for another shelving unit. I do have a month to wait on that though. 

   I have more to blog. But want to add pictures. So I'll hold off a minute. But know I do hope to blog plenty. Love to you all

Brownies!

Because it is nearly 2 am and I am awake still. Ick. I was wasting time online. I saw a nocturne of two sisters making brownies. Their mom captioned the pic "they are making brownies from the same recipe my sister and I used as children after school" 

    For years I have tried to find my childhood brownie recipe. Which was from Mama Cashs cookbook. I repeatedly failed in my search. But Johnny cash is a big name in this house. And I'm thinking his mama had to be the best at everything. And I know that her brownies delighted me as a child.  

    So I decided again to give it another google search. Annnnd I won!!!!!! 

Someone posted it to a website. http://www.food.com/recipe/mama-cashs-brownies-johnny-cashs-mama-329942

Seriously. I win. I hope I can get enough stuff done tomorrow that I can introduce my children to these.

 But that would also mean grocery shopping. So I kinda doubt it. But soon. And notice I took a screen shot.

 I guess I don't trust the recipe to always be there. But I'm excited. I am pretty certain I have pictures of 

myself making these when I was 11-12. I should dig it out. I'm not sure if it is lack of sleep or the dozen 

Or more years I have searched for this recipe. But I'm excited!!!!

A couple recent foods

This became a couple pans of garlic bread. Yesterday. It was very yummy. We occasionally ate breadsticks as a meal growing up. I loved it and try to do it once in a while too. 

Besides. Making bread is fun. I love baking and canning. But I nearly hate cooking.

Eggs in hell. The sauce I used was a bit acidic. So it wasn't perfect. But still very yum. Wish I had noodles and could do this again in the morning. It is a recipe from our dear friends at garlicpimpernil.blogspot.com Tabitha is a insanely great cook. My children still talk about her food. And we haven't seen them in over 4 years. I try to cook like her. But. I. Fail. 

    At least poached eggs win. Every time. 

Ugly little snapper.

The littles found him. Thankfully they asked if they could catch him. And DIdNT just do it. I then schooled them in snapper abilities. I am hoping we are safe from snapper captures. I think I put enough fear out there. 

    The children have caught so many turtles this year. So we have done many google searches to learn about them. Pretty interesting. They now can all sex a turtle. The youngers I have to go down the checklist so they can answer but they can figure it out quickly on their own.  They can tell the difference between breeds. I have never seen as many turtles as we have this year. But it is helping us with science. So I guess it is a win. As long as we manage to keep all of our body parts. No snapper captures. Period. 

This girl.

Naomi was laughing and talking to her Daddy. I went to take  pictures. She then gave me the stare down until I put away the camera. Daddy joined her. Stinkers. She totally clowned after the camera left. 

Can't deny she is Daddy's girl. 

Tea party food pictures

Joelle and Rhyyan had a birthday tea party yesterday. It was a full house. Or yard rather. But so fun. We spent all day getting food made. This is I think most of the pictures. Minus two cakes, gluten free cupcakes, the punch, and the flowers in the ice cubes. I missed getting a pic of one of the tables. We made a ton of food. But we had over 50 people here. I always worry I won't have enough food. I could have had the party twice...

Mother's Day and outside.

Wisdom is on top of the world. 

My Jerusalem artichokes are over a ft tall. So exciting! 

My bouquet from Rhyyan. It is mostly Indian paintbrush. I love them. She got the on a walk to our beloved community center. It used to be a one room school house that our dear friend Miss Dorothy taught at. We all see it as a special place. Filled with many memories for us all. Some our memories. Others memories from Miss Dorothy. 

Daddy and Joelle went out for Joelle's birthday breakfast Saturday. And she bought me flowers. And a PB cup. But her and I ate them before I thought to get  a pic. 

My fun card from Rhyyan. I loved it. She used rivets that she pressed to make the flowers. 

My gift from Tubby. He was so excited to bring me a gift. He is a loving boy. 

My chubby N. I love her to bits. She is my doll baby. The children still fight over her. I am glad I'm momma. Cause I am a need in her life. They know they have no choice but to share with me haha!!

A handful of pictures

 Joelle was 13 yesterday. 13. Let the flood begin. Seems once it happens for Joelle everyone else follows. At least I still have littles.  

She made her own supper and cake. She had Janet's salad. And a lasagna type dish she found a recipe for. It was a lot like stroganoff. It was yummy. 

She wanted a chocolate mayo cake. But decided next time to get Grammys recipe. This was more brownie like. 

Look at all that fire! Wow! My backwards bunny is all grown up in most everything. I'm grateful  for her. She is masses of help for me. And has changed so much over the winter and now spring. In ability and looks. Sometimes I have to make her repeat something to me cause I was in my own thoughts on how much I almost don't recognize her. Ha! 

N. In her night diaper. Cause it shows off her rolls the best. (We use cloth during the day. But I want to sleep at night. ) 

A Mother's Day picture. I wish I could share it with My Grandmas. Mothers are nice and all. But grandmas win. Always. 

Because he is funny. We were watching 'Will it Blend?' On YouTube. It is entertaining. Or maybe we are easily entertained. You choose. 

Wisdom played in the dirt. Then helped herself to salad and dressing. Requesting that I photographed it. <socialmediafoodieinthemaking>

Our first Mother's Day. Yep she was worth it all. My chunky little pasty girl. She makes me look tan. And that isn't a easy feat. Haha!

Oops

I wasn't paying attention. I didn't realize all these posts I had been making weren't publishing. So you get a big pile today. Oh well. They are here now. And likely very out of order. 

These. Brown. Eyes.

I guessing the dirty face will stick around all summer. :) but that's ok too. It is cute. 

Elijah Truth

Our first born son Elijah Truth is spending his 8th birthday in heaven with Jesus. All his birthdays have been spent there. What a glorious thought. I'm thankful for Gods mercy and Grace. His enduring love and faithfulness. Losing a child is incredibly hard.  Birthing a baby I knew was already in the presence of the Lord was so hard. But He brought us through it. He even did more than help us through. He grew us. In so ma'am you ways. 

    Our Lord is faithful. In all things. Always.