The beginning of this month was pretty slow to start.  We began our Weaver again and Satan quickly got involved in our lessons.  I had to pray, pray, pray for him to leave us alone.  Pray is a wonderful, underused tool we have to stay connected with our Lord and Saviour.  I find that starting my day in pray helps and does praying with the boys each morning.  I really believe this is key to a great day.

Our first unit involves learning about the many different early explorers of the western world.  One of the difficulties lay in beginning the supplement for my older son.  I still haven't used it.  What we ended up doing instead of heavy duty research on all these people, is I bought from Little Homeschool in the Woods their New World Explorers CD unit study.  This gave us lots of projects and lapbooking and notebooking things to do to spice this unit up.  I do not hesitate to bring in other curriculum if I feel led to do so to enhance what we are doing in Weaver.  I feel Weaver can get to heavy in writing, when something like this can be way more fun if you get into it more, especially if you have boys.  This is a boy unit, in my opinion, and I felt we needed to DO this unit, not research and write about it.  Learning about why and how and when these guys were out there is very interesting stuff.  But it's also information that is not overly necessary either.   Some of the projects have been making a quadrant, dehydrating meat, creating an Explorers Newspaper, making a captain's log which is to be journaled in and lots more to come.

The Bible to go along with this is Joshua, chapter one.  He is entering into a new land with the tribe of Isreal.  Going in to conquer the land and the people there according to God's will.  So with that we've been discussing the call of God in our lives and that we are to go when called.  Being a child is training for adulthood and the calling of God.  Obeying your parents gives you an advantage of obeying God when you are grown.  Also to supplement this we are using Precept Homeschool curriculum on Joshua.  I'm also training the boys to study the Bible inductively.

Farm News:

Ben bought a tom turkey to go with the hen we hatched out in the spring.  He seems very happy, but I dont' think she's too impressed yet.  He basically saved her life.

We've aquired a new goat named Lita which is short for Rosalita.  She came from the same place as Peaches.  So far she's getting pushed around a lot and I feel I need to keep my eye on her closely to make sure she is getting food to eat in the barn since the other older ones try to keep her away.  She has a wonderful personality and I love her.  Can't wait for breeding season in January.  Peaches is still milking away and we have fresh milk everyday.  What a gift.  On the down side, our chickens are not laying right now.  Not happy about that at all.  We've also bred our Jersery girl adn hopefully our beef cow Stella.  I guess we'll see over the next few months if we were successful or not.  Blossom was A.I'd and Stella was bred the old fashioned way.  We also had to deal with conjunctivitis on her which was a pain.  Trying to stay organic can be difficult when you have sick animals.  We used anitbiotic eye stuff instead of going with an injection.

The garden is mostly done right now.  I just finished digging up carrots and onions and cut off the tops of the sunflowers.  I left the small carrots and onions in the garden to see how they fair over the winter.  It sure is wet around here and I feel they may rot before we get a good frost.  I lost lots of onions due to all the rain we've had and there's more on the way.  I can't even get the garden turned over because it's so wet.  I'll have to look at the mess until spring I'm afraid.  I hope to be able to at least get most of it cleaned up and burned.

Today the boys have been raking our leaves before this next rain moves in.  The goats love the dried leaves in the winter.  We bag them up and store them in the barn.  It gives them variety during the winter with their hay.  I would put them in the garden during the day to help clean up some of the stuff, but it's too muddy for that.

We have a busy November coming up and I'm very excited about it all.  My dear friends from Mississippi are coming for a visit in a couple of weeks and on that Saturday they are here, we're having a party with some friends from our church here at the house.  My daughter will be here today  until Saturday and hopefully again for a longer stay over Thanksgiving.  Our neighbors from our old house will be coming for Thanksgiving also so we'll have a houseful.  I think that's all the company for November.

I'm always a bit sad that summer is over and the garden is being put to rest for the long winter season, but this is actually a good thing for me right now since my hips have not been cooperating with what my ambitions have been and want to be.  I've been down more than up and having to rely on the boys to help with most of the outside work this past summer and fall.  I pray that over the winter I can get a handle on my situation and hopefully start the new season good as new.  Keep me in your prays regarding this.

I can't believe summer is almost over, by the calendar that is.  I know lots of you go by when we start lessons, when September starts or if the weather takes a turn for the cooler.  I like to drag it out as long as possible, so I go by the calendar or how about when we close the pool down for the season, even if we haven't been in it for weeks because the water is too cold!

We did start our lessons today.  So September 1st was the official day of our new year.  To flip over the new lesson planner, to change over my binder to new things, to get out the books I've been waiting to dig into........to let another year slip by and my boys are going to be another year older.  I find it very sad. I've only got a few more years before they are out the door more than I see them come in.  I pray I see them come in lots, maybe even stay awhile and some day, come in trailing lots of grandchildren!  I pray we can raise them in the way THEY should go, not my own ideas. I pray that they have a solid love for the Lord on their terms and not my own.  I pray they grow into men who fear and love the Lord and can lead their own family someday.  I can tell I will be on my knees for a long time, time that will tick away quickly.

I don't know why I'm feeling this way right now.  Maybe it's because I can ask for their assistance and I get the help I need and actually get a good job.  I get help in the garden with the weeding, and picking of produce.  They take care of all the animals, with some gentle reminders of special orders.  Also they are in charge of all the lawncare.  These young men are not too shabby at house keeping either.  The reason all this can happen is because they are growing older and stronger.  Yes, they are becoming young men.  I'm thankful for the times that they still like to snuggle with me or show affection.  I think we have a pretty special relationship together.  Reflecting on this reminds me that my daughter is grown now.  She was in their shoes what seems like yesterday.  She'll be 21 in a couple of weeks.  How I miss her younger days.  My special girl.  Gone in a blink of an eye.  So to all who wonder if these young years will ever pass the answer is YES unfortunately and quickly, too.  Relish every moment, even the bad ones because you will find them funny later.

Ok, I changed a setting on my computer and lost what I was originally writing and I feel like saying Phooey! to it all, but I will press on.

It's amazing how much time I can manage to waste when left to my own devices.  I've had the opportunity to get all sorts of things done over the past few days and I really haven't done any of them except laundry and a bit of canning.  I did get in an incredible nap yesterday until my son's rooster woke me up.  I think I'd like to have him for dinner.    I was wanting to get all this gardeing done but the weather decided to get hot, muggy and windy.  Yesterday it rained, so I've had two indoor days that I was not counting on.  All I can say is that I've had lots of time to talk with the Lord.

Since it is so hot today and again tomorrow, I thought I'd kick on the A/C since it was 85 degrees in the house.  I usually dont' mind the heat in the house, but I knew that this evening it would not be good sleeping in the humidity and such so I turned it on......nothing, nada.  Hmmmm.....check the automatic thermostat to see about any weird programming issues.  Check.  Go to basement to see the circuit breakers are in the correct position.  Check.  Nothing.  Ok, flip the breakers to see if that helps.  Nothing.  Hmmm. now what?  Back up stairs to check thermostat again.  Seems fine.  Back downstairs, look at breakers to see if I missed something.  Check.  Go over to furnance to see if I can fix something (if you hear a gasp, it's my hubby as he reads this!)  I discover a switch in the off position.  Flip switch to on position and WA-LAH!!  The beautiful sounds of the machinery kicking on.  Sorry guys, I know you are camping in this weather, but the house will be cool when you get home. 

I've been collecting our books for lessons for the upcoming year.  We will be starting Weaver Volume 3 with the supplement added alongside.  Aaron will be primarily using it with Ben on occassion.  The supplement is intense, so we'll see how it goes.  I really like what I'm seeing though.  It's very thorough and meaty if you do all the activities.  I don't think even a robot could do all the stuff that is listed.  Wish I had unlimited time to do it all.  It's great! 

To compliment it, Aaron will be starting Apologia General Science.  I found a lapbook/notebook to go along with it.  I downloaded a free sample of the first module and it looks really nice.  I think it may make this a bit more fun for him, but I will have him take a look to see if he wants to use it or not.  I think it would be an excellent addition for him and ease him into using this textbook style of learning.  Ben will be doing the science in the volume.

Both guys will continue on with Math U See Epsilon that they started at the beginning of summer.  They are both doing so well with this program.  Also, I will be testing both guys to see where Ben needs to be in spelling and if Aaron still needs to do it at all.  He was almost finished with the program when we set it down for summer.  I'm hopeful he won't really need to do any of it.

As an addition to our Bible lesson in Weaver, I purchased the Precept homeschool curriculum on Joshua.  I'm eager to teach the guys how to study the Bible inductively and I love the Precept materials.  We will be starting Joshua in Weaver and this will be a great supplement, not that Weaver needs any supplementing.  It's great all by itself.  I just want to teach them the inductive study methods.  This is so important.  Plus, they are going to love Joshua, it's such a guy book.

The garden is plugging away.  I will be taking pictures soon.  The boys have been helping some with the weeding and such.  There's always a lot to do.  Having trouble with squash  type plants this year.  Also, the tomatoes are taking FOREVER!!!!  What is with that?  I've heard the same complaint from everyone else.  So strange. I have 25 tomato plants and have had only two tomatoes so far and you always get a couple of really early ones to tease you, then nothing for weeks on end.  On the upnote, the sweet corn is coming in and it's wonderful.  I think we'll be picking it this week and putting it up.  It also looks like I'm going to have a lot of acorn squash, tons of potatoes, onions, for a little bit longer I'll have zucchini (one of the affected plants) and I'm hoping for lots of pie pumpkins, but I'm thinking I won't get very many (another of the plants affected), I also have Blue Hubbard squash and it can't make up it's mind whether to live or die.  At least I will get one big squash and hopefully another before it makes up it's mind for the latter.  My buttercup squash is doing ok, just not as prolific.  I think that's because I'm trying a bush plant and not vining.  We'll see how it does.  Digging potatoes is a bit of work.  I'm slowing digging my first patch I planted in early spring.  I have two other patches still going.  I planted a 50 sack of seed potatoes for kicks, well we'll see if I kick the bucket digging all those out!!   I'm getting lots of beautiful potatoes though.  Watermelons are coming along nicely.  This happened last year when it took the plants forever to get going and when they did they took off!  WE had lots of watermelons.  I think the same thing is going to happen again.  Only this time I have 3 varieties taking off on me instead of one.  I had a nice crop of kohlrabi.  This stuff is great fried up with potatoes and zucchini with butter and herbs.  YUM.  I also like to eat it just raw.

The goat milking is going great.  I"m getting about a quart or more a day.  I milk only in the morning since I separate the kids from them in the evening so I get the morning milk.  Then they are all together  for the whole day.  We are picking up another doe at the end of the month.  I'm excited about that.  She's a cutie.

A few more weeks until animal swap comes again.  I"m looking forward to getting rid of most of these ducks.  We have too many.  Aaron will be selling off one of his goats too.  Hopefully the momma of the kid he had this spring.  She has horns and a bad disposition.  He's not too eager to sell her, but he can keep the kid which is a doe and dehorned and sweet as can be, breed her and have those kids to sell.

Aaron has been working at a dairy farm for a day about every other week.  He loves it!  Both boys have also done some bean walking in an organic field making $9 an hour.  Pretty good cash for kids.  I think they may walk beans again this week, we'll see.  They've been staying pretty busy with helping in the garden, chores and all the animals to take care of.  Plus we did do lessons over the summer.  We'll be taking a break either starting this week or the next, depends on whether they are working or not.

Life on the farm is not dull.

Blessings,

Ann

I've been terrible about keeping this blog updated.  I guess life gets in the way.  I think of it often and wish I was so clever in having pictures and slide shows and such, but it's so cumbersome getting them on here.  I do wish there was an easier way.  I hear they are changing things up a bit to make it easier, but I don't know if that will affect importing pictures.

My goat and I have been getting along so much better since I made some homemade hobbles.  I just use velcro tape the 2" variety and doubled it up and also some drapery cording and made large loops that encircle the legs of the stantion and then go in between the goat's leg and velcro. Works like a charm.  Now the kid is separated at night only and I milk first thing in the morning and leave a bit for the kid for her breakfast.  I've been getting a quart or more from the morning milk.  This is plenty for us and it is delicious.  I've been making yogurt and ice cream from it.  I will soon be making different cheeses.

            

My garden is looking so gorgeous!  I can't believe how wonderful it is.  I've picked zucchini, kohlrabi, tomatoes, green and yellow beans, potatoes, and onions so far.  Nothing is out of control yet and I'd like it to stay that way.  But, I know that is just a dream and soon I will be canning and freezing like a maniac.  ONe thing is for sure, I'm going to have tons of potatoes!  This afternoon we had fried potatoes with kohlrabi and zucchini mixed in.  Very tasty.  I"m always anxious for the tomatoes and beans to get going.  Also the sweet corn.  Ok, I'm getting hungray again just thinking of it.

We've had lots of visitors lately with lots more to come.  I do love having guests.  I'm so glad to open my home to all who want to visit.  Anytime, anytime.  But bring work gloves!!

Well I think I have our homeschool lessons figured out for the fall.  I"ve been stewing over them all summer.  I've been praying and seeking the Lord's guidance on what and who will be doing what and when.  I won't get specific at this time, but things are a changing a bit.  But then my boys are getting older, too.  Weaver it is all the way, with some other things added in.  The Lord is very clear on using Weaver each year.  I"m so glad because it is a wonderful curriculum and fits our family so well and I love how the Bible is our main text.  Goal number one is to have the boys love and know the Lord with all their hearts, soul and mind.  I want them to have great character and work habits/ethics.  I want them to be able to think and speak well on their own.  I want them to be able to defend their faith. Last of all, I want to train them in the way THEY should go, not the way I want them to go.

This may seem weird, but I feel it's a privilege to watch our children grow up.  I look at my beautiful daughter and can't believe what I see.  Now I'm seeing my older son turning into a young man right before my eyes!  I'm going to miss these children, but I'm starting to get a little excited over the adults they are becoming.  I'm going to enjoy this, too.  Granted I have one son left and try as I might to hold on, it wont' work.  He'll grow up, too.  It's definitately exciting to watch (through the fingers covering your eyes!)

Amanda has one more full year of school left to get her associates as a pastry chef.  She pounded the pavement and laned a job in a bakery decorating cakes.  She is still working IHop on weekends and dating a nice guy for over 2 years.

Aaron is coming into his own.  This summer he has been going to a dairy farm to work the day with a great guy we've come to know.  It's suppose to be an apprentice type thing and not get paid, but he gets slipped a twenty each time with thrills Aaron.  He is really loving it and gets to go for a day about every other week.  The rest of the time he spends doing chores around the farm and taking care of all the animals.  He's a great help to us and a good worker.

Ben is growing, too.  He has expanded his chicken operation to include another breed of chicken for his egg business. He got an incubator for his birthday so he also wants to do some hatching and selling of chicks.  He gets lonely when Aaron goes to work at the dairy farm but we try to have a little fun.  He's been helping in the garden weeding and when Tim was staying with us, helping him with the jobs he had to do.  Ben still loves the computer and will hopefully be our computer fixer /web designer someday.  If you want to know anything about chickens, ask Ben.

Our pool has been getting a good workout this summer.  The weather has been really gorgeous.  In the spring it was really wet and rainy, but now it is very nice.  Great outside working weather.

My hubby is still driving two hours each way to work.  Pray for a different job for him so he is closer to home.  His honey do list is long, but he is patient to get things done.  All in good time.

If anyone would have told me I'd be milking a goat twice a day I would have laughed in their faces and said "No way!"  Not only am I milking twice a day, but I'm enjoying it for the most part.  We are still learning together and she is a bit fiesty but we will come to terms soon (after I rig hobbles, that is)  I'm exhausted after a milking because I hold one of her legs up so she can't kick over the bucket, but is still capable of moving her leg around which I have to hold.  My arm does get weary after one side.  Otherwise, the milking part is pretty easy actually.  I thought my hand would tire, but that's not the case.  Soon I'll be trying to make feta cheese, yogurt and ice cream with the milk among other items.

My garden is doing great although I'm having troubles keeping up with the weeds, er, pasture grass.  I have the boys moving out straw from the hayloft so I can mulch as I clean out areas.  HOpefully I can at least try to keep up.  My flower gardens look like I haven't even done anything to them and I've weeded them out twice already.  I will have mulch coming very soon. It's ordered.  This should help me keep those in good shape longer.  I've also been putting in place barriers from the Japanese beetles.  I have used tulle and made tents over my raspberries and have tied it around my grapes.  I will also put it over my baby fruit trees while they are small enough to do so.   I'm using row covers over my cabbage and cauliflower plants to keep off the cabbage butterflies.  So far so good.

Our very large American ELm tree is dying .  We are saddened by this since it is very beautiful and provides lots of shade.  It probably won't last another month.  So much for the hosta garden I planted under it.   At least I have a place to move them to after all is said and done.

We started on our summer lessons a couple of weeks ago.   The guys seem to be doing fine with it all.  I think the TOPS science projects are fun for them.  Ben's requires more work but it's neat to see what it taking place.  He is doing Corn and Beans.   Aaron is doing great with the electricity unit.  We are continuing with math and using Wordly Wise to work on volcabulary.  Our Trek group is meeting once a week to work on their garden they have planted as a service project.  They also get pool time afterwards.

The boys stay pretty busy with all these animals we now have.  When I think about it, it's overwhelming.  Plus they do all the mowing of the grass and any other jobs I can come up for them to do.  BORED is a dirty word around here.  They will help when the vegetables start coming in.

Tally on animals at the moment:

2 adult goats, 2 baby goats

3 beef cattle 1 dairy yearling

4 cats

2 dogs

9 adult ducks, 4 teenage ducks, 17 baby ducks

1 turkey

17 adult chickens, 26 chicks

Boy, I think that's enough!!

We are on our short break before we begin to work on our summer homeschool projects.  The boys have each selected a TOPS science books to work through this summer.  Aaron will be doing electricity and Ben is going to do Corn and Beans.  These should be fun for them and easy enough for them to do on their own.  We will also continue with math and will be working through volcabulary books Wordly Wise.  I've actually enjoyed our little break and it's nice to have a bit of time off.   

I've been trying hard to get our pool up and running.  Well it's running, but I'm having difficulty with the water balance and having our vacuums work properly.  Very frustrating.  One of these days I 'll get all this down and it won't be such a problem.  Kevin is already fed up but still perseveres in helping me.  The boys have been in it already, clear water or not!

I've also been slowly getting our garden in.  At least it's in earlier than last year.  I've got potatoes doing very nicely and a beautiful lettuce patch.  I'm trying to do companion planting so as to not have so much soil exposed.  This will take time to master and of course the plants have to get larger to shade exposed soil.  This will help with the weeds eventually.  In the meantime, I'm going to lay down wet newspapers and cover with straw as mulch to help with the grass that thinks it needs to still grow.  I will have all sorts of heritage melons, squash, tomatoes, lettuces, carrots and whatever else I can't remember.  My Trek club even planted a section of it for their service project they are working on.  The produce will go to needy families we know or the food bank in the area.  It should be some garden when it kicks in.  They palnted all sorts of things in a small space.  I let them, it will be fun.  At least its one section of the garden I won't have to worry about. 

We are patiently waiting on baby goats.  We were off a week on one of them so she should be due anytime starting tomorrow.  The other one hopefully will be a week behind her.  I'll be milking and will become the official goat lady.  Long story!

Ben has a new batch of chicks for his egg business.  He also got an incubator for his birthday so he can hatch out replacements and sell the chicks.  We were also suppose to get turkeys and they sent us a box full of ducks.  I guess it's a tough job when you cant' tell the difference between the two.  Anyway, Aaron is going to raise those up and sell them at the swap in the fall.  We'll get our turkeys in a couple of weeks.

 

Kevin has been busy rerouting fencing to keep livestock out of my garden yet give them access to more pasture.  It starting to shape up around here.  I've been also working on landscaping and it's slowly coming along.  I"m in no hurry.  Kevin and the boys also built me a goat stantion for milking.  So we are set up and ready to go, just waiting........

 

Is this terribly cute or what?  A miniature daffodil I found on the property.

white bearded iris that looks like an angel

  

Very cool rainbow after a shower

I do this to myself every year.  Wonder if I will ever get the vegetable garden tilled and planted.  I put in some potatoes eons ago and it's been so cold and wet that they haven't sprouted.  I checked them and they seem fine so far, just not wanting to come out.  I'll wait longer next year.  I haven't been able to do any tilling for two weeks due to weather conditions and my tiller did die, but it's fixed now.  I've got lots of baby plants to set out.  I haven't even gotten my onions out there yet.  I hope the starts are still ok and not dried out.  Tomorrow I am planning on weeding around the asparagus and blackberries.  My new raspberries are coming out as are all the new fruit trees I planted.  Maybe in 10 years we'll have quite the orchard

I am bummed about one thing.  I just found out that there won't be a farmer's market where I was planning on going this year.  I can't decide if I want to go else where or just stay home and try selling from there.  Kind of an odd dilemma.  Wondering what the Lord has planned for us with regards to selling the produce.  I make all sorts of plans and he changes it up.  Gee, I wonder who knows what's to come?  I just have to follow His infinite wisdom.

We are nearing the end of our Volume 2 finally.  I am making it end by the end of May.  Over the summer I will have us doing a TOPS electricity science kit, volcabulary, writing, Bible work and maybe finish up Book 1 of our computer course.  I've enjoyed the last chapter of volume 2 but I'm ready for it to be done.  I think spending 6 months on this chapter is long enough.  Below is a comic strip my younger son made on the computer.  Everything you see was made on the computer.  Instead of having them write a boring report, I thought making a book telling the story of the Boston Tea Party would be more fun.  It was suppose to be for a younger child with drawn pictures and such.  Well, this guy still didn't want anything to do with writing even a fun project such as a book, so he asked if he could do it on the computer and this is what he made.  I was pretty impressed by this since he taught himself how to use this particular program.

I love homeschooling.

The Stoll house is busy again.  Spring is in the air, I think.  Our little haven is full of new life with more to come.  Right now we have 24 Cornish X chicks, a new calf was born yesterday, and lots of chicken and turkey eggs to hatch soon and another calf will be born soon. The calves aren't ours, I wish though.  We won't have calves for some time yet.  Hoping to breed our almost yearlings in the fall.  The goats won't be due till the end of May and early June.  Lots of activity on the ranch.  These things keep you hopping.

I finally made some whey and my first soft cheese.  The whey turned out fine, but I'm not sure about the cheese.  It sort of turned out like cottage cheese and I'm not fond of that.  It was suppose to be more like cream cheese.  The dogs will eat it.  The whey is used in making homemade mayo, and using it in baking.  It's another way of getting healthful goodies in your body.  It aids in digestion and since I have issues with all this, I need all the help I can get.  My homemade yogurt is the best.  It's really good with yellow raisins, chopped nuts whether almonds or walnuts, and raw honey.  It is sooo good..  All these things were made with raw milk.  I'm very careful on my tempuratures as to not kill off the enzymes and good bacteria.  The way I make the whey is to use a half gallon canning jar and put in the raw milk.  I put over it a cloth to keep dust and such out and let sit for a few days.  On day three it curdled where the whey splits off from the curdled milk.  I then strain it through a cloth for several hours and do not squish it.  When I though it looked drained well, I then gathered it up and hung it from a cabinet to drain for a few more hours until it quick dripping.  The whey is in the bowl and the cheese is in the cloth.  Pretty simple.  Now the yogurt is easy, too.  I heat the milk no highter than 118 degrees.  As soon as it hits that temperature, I shut off the heat and add my yogurt culture and some unflavored gelatin and mix well.  I pour into canning jars and place in warmed water in my crock pot. I keep a thermometer in there to not let it get over 118 degrees.  The pot stays off most the time.  The yogurt is usually done within 6-8 hours.  For those of you wondering about milk spoiling, well that's only milk that's bought in the store.  Raw milk sours, not spoils.    it ferments and that's a good thing.

In the garden, I managed to plant some potatoes, but that's it.  They will probably spoil since it's been so wet and cold.  I haven't even been able to finish tilling it yet since there were pockets of damp soil.  I think I need patience in this area.  I've got lots of seedlings going.  I have pansies, lavender, tomatoes, peppers, basil, lemon mint and I will be starting my cauliflower and cabbage this week.  I'm running out of room for all these plants.  I will hopefully sell some at farmer's market but that doesnt' start until May.  By then they should be a nice size.  I have been busy relandscaping in front of one of my barns.  I planted some hydrangeas a friend sent me.  I was so happy with those.  I also dug out all the hostas, which I'm also selling off.  That's as far as I've gotten.  I've bought a few bald cypress trees and a redbud for the yard.  There's also lots of fruit trees, raspberry and grapes coming, too.  I want strawberry and blueberry, but that's for next year.  A girl can only do so much a season!

We are slowly getting to the end of Weaver volume 2.  This week they are to pick an Act and write a paper on the one that they were interested in.  This is more of a review exercise since we went over these a couple of weeks ago.  I think next we'll be seeing the Revolutionary War and finally the writing of the Constitution.  The boys are doing a great job with all the required reading I've given them.  All along they have been reading historical fiction books on the different times we went over.  I think that has helped them a lot.  Ben, who is not fond of reading at all, even gets conversations going with me over what he's reading.  This I find very pleasing.  When we are finished with the volume topics, we'll spend some time going over colonial life and doing more handson projects.  I'm hoping we'll be done in June so we can change course for the summer.

For the summer, I want to use an electricity kit I bought last year for them, but we moved and things got a bit hectic,   It's a small motor and I'm not all sure what it's about but should teach them the basics of electricity.  It's definately a guy thing to do.  I also have a Bible lesson from Answers in Genesis I'm hoping to use over summer.  I think we can get it done in time. Of course, we'll continue with math and I think we'll finish our computer course.  I sort of let that drop when we started this American history chapter since it takes us a bit of our day.  So our summer will be fun along with all the gardening and animals.  I'm looking forward to it all.

In case you wonder why I do our studies over the summer, here's why.  If we take any amount of a break longer than a few days, I have boys wandering around not doing much of anything productive.  I only have so many chores to keep them busy.  It also relieves me from doing any sort of review in the fall and we can just keep on going. We take breaks throughout the year when we need them or have something else to do that day.  I just have found that a long break like that is counterproductive to the goals of our homeschool and family life.  I find it keeps us focused and on track.  It also gives them a sense of knowing what to expect most days, at least for a bit.  Our days are shorter and we don't do our lessons every day in the summer, usually 3 or so.  It all takes less than two hours usually.  We like it this way.

The sun is coming up and as usual it's beautiful.  God is good.

Well, after some time learning to get around iTunes, I was able to get some podcasts downloaded.  This has been really fun.  I came across sites with free podcasts from well known preachers and such.  Just what I was looking for.  Now I have Kay Arthur on my iPod and I can have my study with her everyday and not have to deal with the computer buffering.  I have also managed to get the Homeschool Expo on there, but that was a bit of an ordeal.  I don't know what happened, but I thought I couldn't get any but one of the speakers to download.  After a few days I was randomly clicking on my podcasts to get to know how everything works better and I found that all the speakers were indeed there, but I have to download them individually.  My settings were all ok, so I don't know why this has happened.  Just as well, I really don't need all of them anyway.  Now I can be out in the garden and listening to inspiring sermons or homeschool speakers.  Thank you my Hubby, I love the iPod!

The kids and I had a great lesson yesterday regarding the Stamp Act.  I was king and I gave them 20 nickels each to have for the whole day.  The catch was that everytime they used a piece of paper, whether it was a book, music books, notebook paper, even toilet paper, cost them a nickel.  They were so funny in that they did become outraged about the whole thing and thought it wasn't fair I didn't have to pay and my pile of money kept getting bigger.  Hey, I was the king!  I made the rules and got all the money.   I think I made my point.

We also started into the book of Leviticus.  I know, I know, but it's still history and it points to the fact we need a Saviour.  If we are not with Jesus, we are still under the law carrying that heavy burden that we cannot carry alone.  Jesus came and was the perfect sacrifice for are sins.  The Isrealites had to make their own atonement with a burnt offering and because we are sinners, we cannot possibly make enough sacrifices.  Jesus fulfilled all the laws and set us free as long as we profess He is Lord.  What a promise He offers us.  Think of carrying heavy loads uphill on a hot day.  If we just ask, Jesus will take that load for us and quench our thirst with the living water.

The point of Leviticus in our studies goes along with the setting up of a new nation (America  and Isreal) and the laws that were put into place.

I got our new Math U See books yesterday.  We got the new editions and they are really nice.  I think I may miss the comb binding, but we'll see.  I realized something the other day, too.  MUS takes a different approach in teaching math skills.  Each book is geared for certain math functions like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and now we have fractions.  Each books takes you as far as you can go with each function and exhausts it.  Now what I've realized is that I have worried a bit that the boys are not doing what other textbooks are doing, but I feel the Lord telling me to stay put.  Plus the boys are doing well with this curriculum.  I did happen the other day to see some scope and sequences from another curriculum and I see that my guys are just fine.  They in most cases have gone beyond their grade level in that function and they might be only missing a few things but will eventually pick up later.  My mind has been officially been put to ease and we are staying the course.  I'm glad because I really love this math program.  I've learned so much.

My spinach and lettuce is springing up in my cold frame.  I feel like a horse straining at the bit.  I'm so eager to get the veggie garen going this year.  I have big, big plans for it.  There's so much I want to do, but let myself get overwhelmed with doing it.  I need to S..L...O...W...down and enjoy the time.  I've got raspberries, nectarines, apricot, and peach tree, grapevines ordered.  I have seeds sprouting in trays with more to plant.  Do you think 66 tomato plants is too much?  That's of course they all come up. No I'm not planning on trying to grow all these.  I think I'd like to take them to farmer's market and sell the baby plants, just to get aquainted with the whole process.  I'll be growing lots of heirloom vegetables this year.  I want to be able to save seed.  Gotta figure that one out yet, the whole cross pollination thing.  AND I 've got to get my wits about me to do battle with the bugs.  No spraying here, just ways to deal with them.  Row covers come to mind and companion planting.

No, I still haven't done any winter projects!

I can check off another year for myself.  The Lord was good to me this year.  I had a beautiful day and got to spend it working outside.  I was able to stick in spinach and lettuce here and there hoping to get a jump on things before my garden area gets tilled for the year. 

My wonderful hubby got me an iPod nano.  I've been wanting one of these things ever since Cindy Rushton has this homeschool conference online.  You are suppose to be able to download all the speakers onto your iPod.  Well, it's not working for me.  I've followed all the directions and Cindy has been so gracious to me in trying to help me.  I'm so discouraged about it all.  I really have issues with new tech gadgets.   I'm serious about this.  It's almost becoming a hindrance to me sometimes.  I want to stay up on things, but I end up with awful results and lots of frustration later.  And I don't want to bother my hubby on the matter.  I was able to get it set up and synced just fine though.  A little encouragement there.  What I didn't know it was going to do was pull my audiobooks off my computer, which I love, but it copies them by each track, yikes there's alot.  I'm not sure how to go about resolving this and making it more managable.

We are having a huge wind storm today.  It has ripped off one of our barn doors that house our goats.  We were also struck by lightening last night.  Luckily it hit a lightening rod and we did't get really any damage.  It just blew the answering machine plug out of the wall and fried the plug thingy (see, I'm such a techie by saying thingy)  We also had one of our ducks fly right through one of our garage door windows.  Amazingly enough, she wasn't hurt really, but did a bit of damage to my hubby's car.  It got quite a few scratches from all the glass and probably her claws.  I"m sure she landed on his car.  She was stunned to say the least, but was fine a bit after.  Let's just say, it's been an interesting weekend so far.

The kids and I are still getting along in Volume 2 chapter 10.  I think we will be starting module G this week.  We have made a nice salt map of the colonies and we've been marking with flags on toothpicks depicting what type of colony it was and the settelments we've studied so far.  I would love to do religions, but I think that is a bit complicated.  We will be adding what their industries are also.  I will add a picture soon.

Well, I need to help button down the hatches around here.  It's really howling!

I'm ready for winter to be over.  I've got out the seeds, catalogs and even made a grid for my new garden.  I'm also starting to mentally plan what is going where and how to avoid any mistakes I've made in the past with my other garden.  Looking into organic certification, boy I don't know if I'll ever go there.  Boy do they make that difficult.  I guess the paperwork is over 500 pages long.  The biggest part is having a buffer against traditional farmers around me who use LOTS of chemicals.  I need to think about how to make a natural buffer against this and what sort of trees would be best.  So much to think about.  I want to grow organically, I've been doing it for 14 years not using any agency standards.  What a riot on their part.  Quite the money racket.

Tomorrow may be the day to start seeds, at least some of them.  Not all are ready to go.  I'll start with some flowers. Then in a couple of weeks I'll start others such as cabbage, tomatoes, certain herbs, peppers, etc. I keep gazing out the window envisioning my flourishing garden.

The chickens are in full laying production.  We are getting about a dozen a day.  We are getting quite a few duck eggs, too.  We went to an animal auction on Monday. That was fun.  Lots of goats that day.  I tried to bid on one, but the auctioneer I guess didn't see me even though the spotter had me.  At the end he was looking right at me and called off someone else as the winner.  I guess it wasn't meant to be.  We did come home with some hay bales.  The price was quite good.

I've accomplished none of my winter projects so far.

I started a facebook today.  I'm not too sure about all of this.  Like this site, it takes a bit to load up for me, depending on the time of day.  It is kinda neat that you can visit with people and see pictures and such.  The difference is that the news is way shorter and things are more of a blip.  For instance, there was something on several of my friends that were praying for a family I know.  There was no description as to what they are praying about.  I'd like to know, know what I mean?  I'll give it a go for a time and see what transpires.  It is easier to maneuver than this blog is and photos are way easier to deal with.  Sometimes I don't always know what to say here.  I like to keep up with our news and what we are doing in our lessons, but I don't want to bore either.  Hmmmmm.

I started a new thing at the dinner table tonight.  I want to improve our prayers at the table, especially for our children.  I usually take notes during our intercessory prayer time in church so I can pray during the week.  Well I decided to make a table tent like you see in restaurants with all the prayer requests.  This way, we can pick and choose what to pray for and this will help the boys learn to pray for others.  I usually only get to hear, Thanks for our day, Thanks for the warm weather, Thanks for the snow, Thanks for the food, you get the idea.  This is all fine, but they've been saying the same thing for months.  This continues to happen even in our prayer time during the day.  So I hope this helps and that I continue to remember to make a new one each week.

Also a new thing I want to try to do is to go through Isaiah with a commentary.  I've been doing the Precept Isaiah since September by myself and it's going ok, hard to stay motivated being alone.  I ordered a few resources recently to help me with it and I will continue on in my lesson, but I will also start at the beginning with a commentary to glean an understanding I may have missed.  For the past three years I've read through the Bible for my devotion time, so now I want to have a smaller focus and Isaiah it is.  Help me God get through that as I know only you can do.

I really don't like taking breaks from our lessons.  I find I actually get bored! Can you imagine?  I love being with my guys and learning with them.  I gives my day structure and I get things done.  When left with all day to do what I want, I find myself getting little accomplished.  I was relieved to start at our lessons again yesterday.  It was a bit of a shaky start, but we got it going again.  We are finally in module B in chapter 10 of Volume 2.  We'll only be there until tomorrow and then we'll move on again.  I spent way too much time in Module A, but I felt I needed to do some back tracking first.  I've been doing quite a bit of my own side reading on this time period and I'm getting quite the eye opener.  Really, I never learned any of this stuff when I was in school.  No European history at all!  I feel like I'm starving to catch up on all of it.  The school system is doing the students a disservice by not spending more time on this.  It really makes you connect the dots as to why things are they way they are.

I've got all these projects I want to get done over winter before the gardening season kicks in again.  I want to get our basement in some kind of order and neat.  We just sort of threw boxes down there when we moved in.  My hubby has been dragging a bit up to the attic, which I don't think solves anything except it's out of waters way IF our basement should get any water in it.  So the boxes just get moved around and not really dealt with.  I want to get down and dirty and DEAL with it.  I also want to get things hung up on walls and some curtains put up.  Start to make this place look like our home.  I still am using the curtains that were here (not my taste) and the walls are still a bit bare. (hence, where some of the boxes came from). 

I'm already looking at gardening catalogs and dreaming about the upcoming garden I want to plant.  This puppy is going to be big, 100x62 ft.  Oh Yeah!!!   A bit of it will be used for planting fodder for the animals such as turnips and maybe some feed corn and lots of sunflowers.  I figure that will be not quite half of it.  The other half we will grow for ourselves and to sell.  My ds is open for business to sell his eggs.  This is exciting.  We also brought over a "friend" for our goats to breed with.  We are hopeful to have some kids by early June.  This guy is a big one!  If I remember, I'll take a picture to see the comparison.

Speaking of goats, gotta go and check up on them.

It was a wild week from Thursday night into Monday evening.  We managed to catch that ice storm which came through Thursday night into Friday.  I prayed heavily to have us keep power through the night and God answered my prayer, but He does have a sense of humor and our power went out Friday afternoon until Monday evening.  I guess I need to be specific in my prayers!  I took loads of pictures and it's hard to choose which ones to show here.  I must say God's art work was intensely beautiful.  Everything looked like it was made of glass.

We did survive the ice without power, but my wonderful husband had to put gas in our generator every hour and forty five minutes around the clock.  This generator has a small gas tank and we were thankful to have it since temperatures dove into the minuses with screaming winds.  Without it we would've been in deep trouble.  All this did put a damper on my last minute Christmas baking and such since my oven is electric, microwave, dishwasher, well pump, etc.  You get the picture.  We were trying not to tax the generator and just let it work the things that were important such as the furnace, well pump, and a rotation on the freezers and fridges we have.  We used lights at a minimum, so instead we used our oil lamps and candles in the evenings.  So what did we do for fun?  Hmmm, well we read books aloud, I made a hat on my knitting loom thing and made a couple of fleece scarves.  Hubby just managed the generator and oh yeah, fix some burst pipes in one of the barns. Ugh.  One thing after another.  I just tried to keep busy.  I was thankful to God for showing us our weak spots in times like this.  It was an eye opener.  I thought we were pretty well prepared for emergencies, but we saw how we lacked.  So I tried to keep my spirits up by giving thanks to God and my hubby pumped up.  It is a bit daunting to tend that generator when it's -20 degrees outside with 30 mile an hour winds every 2 hours.

It all came to a stop by Monday evening and we had our power restored. Yeah!  The first thing I did was take a shower.  We avoided showers so as not to tax the generator with the well pump.  I did manage to get caught up a bit for Christmas.  I didn't sweat it since I knew we weren' t having any company that I knew of, but I wanted to be ready just in case.  We did end up with a lovely Christmas nonetheless.  On Christmas Eve, we went to church and sang songs and held candles.  Then we asked a lady from church to join us in our eating of Chinese food on Christmas Eve.  Then we went home and opened our presents.  It was really nice.  The next day I made a breakfast cake for us, the boys went into the hayloft to shoot their new BB guns and my dad came for a visit and stayed for dinner.  We had a joyus holiday after all.

I give praise to God for all the blessings he has bestowed on us this year.  It's been quite the adventure and never dull, but we are so thankful for all of it.  God is good and wonderful and a provider of all things we need.  Happy Birthday Jesus.

Well, my kitchen is done for now.  It is so beautiful. Enjoy the pictures below.

       

      

Next year the floor will get redone along with some new windows and I will get to decorate.  I will add some curtains soon though.  It's so nice not to have my kitchen parts all over the house and a complete countertop and tools put away for now.  Whew!

The boys were busy making a gingerbread house.   They like that sort of art class and they pretty much built it all by themselves and ate it by themselves!  I bought one of those kits.  No I'm not that adventuresome yet to actually make one from scratch.  Someday I'd like to try.

We are really getting into our Volume 2 chapter 10 lessons.  We are reading through The World of Columbus and Sons, The Child's Story of America and any other relevent books for this chapter.  We just finished putting together the tabernacle model.  That was fun.  I'm so in awe when I see Christ in the Old Testament and how each item points to Christ and that God has a plan and nothing is overlooked.  It is neat to see how specific God is in His plans and we need to trust His directions.

We have our tree up now, even after it fell over a few times.  I think our tree stand is shot.  I may have to cave in and go artificial next year.  Seems we have allergies to the real trees, everyone but me, of course. Oh well, it's really not that important.  I've found that I dont' know where to place my Christmas decorations.  I seem to be lacking in space for them.  My house does't look that Christmasy this year.  I will be starting on my baking projects and putting together baskets for random gifts.  Yesterday we went to the resale shop to get some baskets and I bought six small baskets for a penny each!  Big spender I guess   I"m going to spray paint them and make them nice for gifts.  I've got nice canned items to put in there and baked goods coming up along with some candied nuts and regular candies I'd like to try.  My teeth hurt just thinking of it all!

Oh! I almost forgot!! We finally got our first eggs this week!!!!  Yeah!!!!  Also, a duck laid eight eggs and we gave those to the neighbor, he likes duck eggs.  So our tally for the week is 6 chicken eggs and eight duck eggs and counting!  Finally it's happening around here.  We were very excited.

      

    First egg on Monday                A bit smaller than what to expect

    

Today, 2 chicken and 1 duck                    3 eggs today

                      egg

Have a Merry Christmas

Ok, I'm nervous.  I shouldn't be though.  I will be starting Trek at our new church hopefully in January.  This is the middle school program of AWANA.  The Lord and I have been going round and round about this and well, HE won.  I'm actually excited about doing this, but then again, I'm sticking myself out there.  I'm going to have to get my organized self out of the box I packed away a few months ago and get busy with this.

Another thing laid on my heart is to begin a Keepers at Home group at my house.  I don't have details yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with it.  I really dont' expect to get that one going for a while yet.  That one will take some organization, too.  I want it to be like a bible study on what the Lord has to say about homekeepers and our role in the family.  I also want there to be an activity to go with it such as bread baking, gardening, soap making, etc.  You know, learn some skills that most of us don't do but would maybe like to know or just to have fun for a day.  I very excited about this one, just needs more polish on it.

ANTHER item simmering on the stove is a homeschool group.  There aren't any here, go figure.  Homeschoolers are crawling all over the place and no group.  Hmmmm.  Our church has a gym and the room so this is also someting I want to start hopefully after the first of the year.  Sometimes we need to get together and lift each other up and give a place for the children to socialize (Ewww I hate that word!) but you catch my drift.  Maybe even have organized gym time.  We'll see on that one.

This week will be a busy one.  We will hopefully continue lessons for Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday we have some friends coming to stay for a couple of nights and the boys are very excited about this.  They will be with us for Thanksgiving.  Then Friday we'll go get our tree, which will be sweet since it's just down the road and any tree for $20 bucks.  For a change we won't have to travel a great distance to obtain the "perfect" tree and pay a mint for it.  Then Saturday our church is having a Thanksgiving dinner for the community.  I'll need tons of prayer on this one.  I'm only helping to prepare food and I'm not going to get in the middle of anything else.  AMEN!  (this event is not very organized and we will have no idea how many people to expect, GASP!)  Sunday, rest.

Farm news:

Hubby and boys have been busy winterizing the animal areas and such.  Making sure waterers stay unfrozen, which is a chore by itself.  We moved the goats in with the calves and now I can see them if they are in the right area.  I love those goats! 

We have a duck in the basement because it was being picked on literally, buy the others so we brought it in to heal and hopefully make an entrance in the near future.  I never thought I'd have farm animals in my house!  We also have a new dog.  He's an Australian shepher and a pretty good dog, except for the occassional chewing.  He's 6 months old and potty trained, just need to work on the chewing part.  IT's not real bad, but not acceptable.

I'm getting anxious for our chickens to start laying.  I'm tired of buying them else where and they aren't laying so great either.  I may have to go back to getting them at the store until ours start to crank them out.

Happy Thanksgiving and hug a turkey!  See my MEEZ in the sidebar!  Too funny.

I love the smells of fall, burning leaves, apple smells in the basement, and squash smells in my storage area.  I love the crispness of the air even though it makes me feel cold.  I love to see my breath float up.  I love a hot tea after being outside for a time and have become chilled.  I love the sound of the leaves as I walk through them or rake them.  Even though I mourn the end of garden season, I'm also glad to put it to bed and give it a rest.  I do love fall.

We're off and running on our volume 2, chapter 10 this week.  So far so good.  I got my shipment from Rainbow Resources (Yeah!) and now we can start to have some fun with the activities.  This chapter is going to take awhile.  I plan on taking our time and digging into the Reformation and Early America settlement and the start of the nation.  Rainbow Resources had lots of old documents that have been printed on parchmentlike paper to look authentic.  I got things like, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, John Smith's map of Virginia (pretty cool), Bill of Rights, Mayflower Compact, etc.  I thought these would be fun to study and read aloud and compare then to now.  Also what we've done for comparision is to compare from Exodus the laws we've read so far to whether or not they could be applicable to the U.S. today.  It is amazing to see how many still do or should.  We also saw how Jesus said the two most important commandments were to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.  The 10 commandaments fall into one of those two categories.  The first four go under the God column and the rest go under loving your neighbor.  Very interesting.

Today the boys carved a potato to simulate what it may have been like to make stamp letters before the Gutenburg press was invented.  They seemed to enjoy this and then we used mustard for ink so we could still throw the potatoes to the chickens.  Other activities planned are to build a paper model of the Mayflower, build a replica of the tabernacle, salt and flour map of the 13 colonies and I don't know what else.  I have so much planned I'm scaring myself.  I just want to make sure they understand what foundation this country was built on and be able to defend it.  It's also fun to see how God sets things up and how man ruins it all.   I'm so excited to finally be doing this chapter.

Our election lapbooks turned out great .  Wew really enjoyed doing this and I felt it was worthwhile to go as deep as I did.  Sometimes I had to bang my head against the wall, like trying to explain the difference between primary adn general elections.  Whew! that was a tough one for them to wrap around.  We also went into the suffrages.  I thought we might get to the branches of government, but we might be able to do this toward the end of the current chapter we're in.

Tomorrow we will be sitting in on another Colonial Williamburg computer field trip.  Tomorrow's theme is Yorktown.  How perfect is that?  God is gracious and good and gives the perfect gifts.  These are really good field trips.  Homeschoolbuyers co-op has this available to purchase at a very good price.  Check it out.

Farm News:

Nothing to report new really.  The animals are growing each day.  It's pretty cold and yucky lately but they don't seem to mind.  Still waiting for the eggs to come!  A friend brought over some venison for us to try so I made venison stew tonight.  It was great.  I've also got some venison stock going on the stove.  I guess you can use this in place of beef stock if you want.  I still have tons of apples to put away and I want to can pumpkin butter and apple pie filling.  I'm already dreaming what to plant next season.  I'm kinda glad to be in the house now.  I plan on organizing things that I've put off from moving (winter inside projects)  I also want to find curtains for my kitchen, which is almost finished with new cabinets and appliances.  I will post pictures when it's done.  The floor and walls won't get done till next year.

I'm so glad to be here.  God has indeed blessed us.

We began our election study last week and it's going pretty well.  I'm learning so much!   I think the boys are, too. I'm finding this election to be a disappointment but nevertheless, we will learn about the process and keep our eyes on the tallies on election night.  I think they are just excited to be able to stay up late!

Our computer course is plugging along although we had a bit of trouble for lesson #6 and getting the turtle to do what we wanted.  It's a  matter of figuring out how to get the turtle where we want it.  We are managing the commands pretty well, but having trouble logically thinking out the instructions to input in the command center.  Ben is marvelous at all this and I feel he will do very well.  Aaron is doing great too, but not as enthusiastic about it.  The advantage of doing them separately is that by the time we get around to Aaron having his lesson, I've figured out the directions better and it moves more smoothly.  I may have to study this lesson a bit more later today.

Writeshop is also moving fine and dandy and Aaron is still not liking it very much.  This week we are going to be writing about circus performers.  We had to do one minute drills on description words on different circus performers.  He had some serious trouble and even for the word circus couldn't write a thing after the minute was up.  He said it would be a bit easier if he had ever been to a circus.  How true.  Maybe it's hard to imagine something if you've never had the experience.  I can conjure up many images, but I've been to a circus once as a kid.  Didn't like it very much, too much going on at one time and couldn't focus on any one thing because so much was going on!  I have never thought to take them to one.   I smell a field trip coming on!

Farm news:

Our calves are here and they are marvelous.  Blossom is such a beauty.  Stella will take some getting use to.  She is not the cleanest calf I've seen.  How is it that Blossom stays clean and pretty and this other one isn't?  Go figure.  Blossom is the Jersey (brown) calf and Stella is the white, well almost white calf.

                                                           

Ben was funny this morning.  "I guess we're going to have eggs soon!"  Me said "Why do you say that?"  "Well the boy duck was sitting on top of the girl duck and had her by the back of the head!"  "Ouch!" me said.  I guess we'll see. 

This is Somersault and Cartwheel.  I have no idea where the boys came up with those names.

I love goats.  No doubt about it.  Peaches is a dreamboat.  What a love she is and she is so happy and lovable.  I've asked hubby if she could move into the house.  Well I bet you can imagine what the answer was.  Oh well.  Flower actually let me pet on her today.  The first time since we sold off Pepper.  She has been a bit miffed at us for that and back to her old untouchable self.  I think I can now officially call myself a goatlady.

Below is a picture of our beautiful daughter holding a day old Pepper.

Well we're finishing chapter 9 tomorrow in volume 2.  I'm very excited about doing chapter 10, but first, we will work on election studies and government until after the election.  I'm looking forward to that, too.  It will involve lapbooks and just a fun way of doing this topic.  I remember being in school as a child and hating every minute of anything to do with government.  It was all bookwork and nothing fun.  Textbooks and worksheets, how dull.  These lapbooks look like fun and I hope the boys will enjoy them.

SWR is going well.  Last weeks spelling tests were'nt that great since we were off for two days.  So we repeated this week and all seems much better.  The interesting thing is that the boys seem to like spelling, especially Aaron.  Last year was such a chore for all involved and this year is so different.  Maybe it's the teacher's attitude towards it, hmmm?

Writeshop is a bit of a sore spot for us.  Aaron doesn't enjoy this very much, but I think it's more that it's a new thing for us.  Once he understands the direction, he can usually pull it off.  I'm taking the slow track through it, so we spend two weeks on each lesson.  The first 3 days of a new lesson are the hardest since there's so much to get done in those days to stay on schedule.  He struggles with the brainstorming activities.  I suppose it will get easier as time goes along.  It's painful for me too, since this is an easy area for me adn I find I get frustrated which I shouldn't do.  So to eliminate frustration, I remove myself from the area while he works, but that's not what I'm suppose to do with this.  I'm suppose to be guiding him along the whole way and not leave him to his own devices.  I need work on this myself.

The computer course is going along fine.  I have found you have to read the directions very carefully and that there are no typos otherwise things won't work.  I do have to think about things a bit to understand adn I think things are implied although I can't put my finger on what that is exactly.  Ben is loving this though and I'm glad.  Aaron does too, but I think he can take it or leave it.  He needs a typing course.  Any suggestions?

Farm News

Our calves came home on Saturday.  Blossom is totally adorable and tame as a dog.  Stella, the beef calf is wild!  But she seems to not mind being lead around a bit on a lead.  The boys are working on halterbreaking both of them for easy handling.

Peaches is wonderful and such a delight.  I'm anxious to breed her, but not until December.  She, too, is tame as can be although she is following Flower around, she's the queen, and tends to bolt if Flower bolts.  But Peaches is a lover and adores being scratched on under the chin and tummy. We sold Pepper on Sunday and I think Flower is a bit miffed at us.  She wont' let us touch her much, not that she ever has.  She was coming around with Pepper in the scene, but now that he's gone, she's gone back to her old ways of being untouchable.  We need to build a stantion so we don't have to manhandle her everytime we need to handle her for something.  I know that sets her back.  If I have some veggies to give them then she may allow me the privelege of touching her a little bit. 

I've kicked the ducklings out of the tank and they are now running around the farm.  Boy do they get stinky in confinement.  Yuck!  Otherwise, I do enjoy the ducks we have.  I love watching them splash in the little tub we have for them.  They can empty it out right quick with all their splashing.

Well it's bedtime for everyone so Good Night!