Well, now that the holidays have ended and the new year has begun, we're hittin' the books bright and early tomorrow morning!  The kids are just thrilled (hee hee).  I'm really looking forward to getting back to school.  I look forward to the break, but I love the return.  I guess I figure it's a new year and a new attitude and I just get the "gusto" to dive back into it.

We have one Christmas activity left and that is lunch with my mom tomorrow.  We always do something with her around Christmas but never on Christmas.  Anyway, after lunch tomorrow the Christmas season will be behind us for another year (it's kinda sad).

I still feel like I have so much to do.  Aside from school, we try to homestead as much as possible, so between processing the deer that Johnny and James provide for us, I'm constantly looking for ways to feed my family without costing us much $$.  It sounds weird. But, for example, this is pecan season around here.  So, Sunday afternoon, my Dad spent about an hour and a half with us picking pecans.  We now have a 5 gallon bucket of pecans that need to be cracked and shelled and packaged for the freezer.  It's free and we all love pecans.   Or, like this summer (for example), a family down the way from us has a pear tree.  I asked if we could pick some pears from her tree in exchange for some pear jam.  She gave us permission and didn't want any jam or money or anything else.

So, it's things like this that I try to do so that we can reduce our food bill.  This was my first year canning and I really enjoy it.  So, I canned 7 quarts of shredded chicken today (with Johnny and Lauren's help).  And Johnny got another deer tonight so I'll be making more venison stock and shredded rib meat for canning.  Plus, we'll be processing it this week for breakfast sausage.

I love providing for my family and helping to find ways to feed us that are both economical and healthy.  Anyway, along with homeschooling, this is another thing we are working on and it takes a lot of time!!!

Anyway, enough moaning...I've got work to do!

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Posted by lahbluebonnet

I was sick since Christmas and this week will be catch up on the errands. Next week we'll start school.
Blessings,
Laurie

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Posted by barbieheart

Ooh, ooh, ooh--free pecans! I am sooo jealous!
What a blessing! I pray you have a blessed New Year with your family.
--Barbara

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Posted by cyndiegirl72

That is sooo great! We do that also. We have a huge orange tree on our farm and also loads of neighbors that don't pick theirs, so we make orange juice and freeze it. Next year I am going to learn how to make orange marmalade out of the pulp we are throwing away now. I love to try and feed our family from free/ cheap things. We gather mulberries in the spring and also black walnuts in the fall. Good for you and your frugality! Hope you and yours had a blessed Christmas season.

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