At Home On Basket Flat

When we moved out here to the country, the first thing my husband wanted to do was to get some cows. The people who lived here before had cows and we couldn't have sheep because we have coyotes and didn't have the kind of protection we'd need for sheep. Well, Jon fell in love with cows. Me, not so much. Well, not at first. The first group of cows (really steers) we had were a mangy looking group a guy sold us who sold hay (we found out later - hay that wasn't the greatest quality) to us here locally.

Nonetheless, I had just read Nourishing Traditions (which I HIGHLY recommend) and I had found out how really red meat wasn't so bad for you as we have been led to believe, it is how red meat is typically fed in this country. So, we decided with that first bunch of cattle (I'm getting my terminology right now) to grass feed them. Well, anyhow, that first batch weren't the most fantastic growers and they CERTAINLY weren't tame, but they made good meat.

Now, I still wasn't so keen on this cow thing. Generally I considered cows ugly and stinky and not very interesting. Plus, my husband was a bit BUSY with those cattle the first year. And I was jealous. Rightfully so. Anyhow, the obsession wore off and my husband, being the faithful husband that he is, wanted to find a way to make me happy with the cows. In comes raising Pinzgauers and having baby calves. This last year was our first year having calves. Unfortuneately, we had some troubles with that. But, we got one adorable Pinzgauer calf out of it and her name is Annabelle.

Pinzgauers are a beautiful breed of cattle. They are known for their beautiful color, resistance to disease, tenderness of meat, low cholesterol of meat, good growth rate, and tameness of breed. Unfortuneately, it turns out the breed has a bit of an Achilles Heal. They are known for problematic births, especially in Heiffers (1st time mommies). So, we lost two of three calves. It was heartbreaking for my husband. We probably would have been able to save at least one of them if we had more experience.

My husband got curious at that point about other breeds. He had previously gotten some Angus steers that were really good growers from a local breeder and liked them. So, he looked into getting some Heiffers (1st time Mommas) with them. Bottom line, this year we have 2 Pinzgauer Cows (2nd time moms), 1 Red Angus Cow, and 2 Black Angus Cows which are suppose to have calves this next spring. We are looking forward to it. In addition to those 5 cows, we have 1 Heiffer (girl) calf, and 14 steers (yes my husband is crazy - this is not his full time job). Oh yeah, we also have a bull on loan which is on our property.

Well, anyhow, here are some pictures. First I show you the calf and her mommy. Annabelle, the calf, is such a sweetheart. She lets me pet her anywhere and especially loves her belly rubbed. She comes over to us and the girls. And she stands still for us. I'm not sure if she is properly halter broke. If anyone could help us with that, that would be great.

This entry is part of Canada Girl's Show and Tell Friday. To see more Show and Tell's visit her blog. 

I love doing art with my kids. I don't know why. I'm totally not an artist myself. But, I just love doing art with kids.

Anyhow...I just found a couple of new websites I am excited about that have to do with kids and art. And, I am NOT easily impressed when it comes to art projects for kids. But, these look like fun projects to do with my girls. The projects don't look cookie cutter either. They will be able to use their own imaginations to come up with their own finished product with these projects. So, here are the sites. I look forward to including some of these projects with you from these sites in the future.

Here is the first link:

 

Here is the second link:

Art Projects For Kids
 

Ok. Does this freak anyone else out?

Ok. This week's topic at Blogger Friend School is wacky homeschooling. I've got to admit, I... don't consider myself too wacky. Yet, my kids are hilarious and we have a lot of fun.

One thing we enjoy a lot of is ART. Free form art. Lots of little supplies in the cupboard and they form the most interesting projects. Here is one my daughter did today. Of course, she wants me to put it on her blog, so I hope I'm not stealing her thunder.

   

Another thing we enjoy is farm life. My girls play the most imaginitive outside play. My Rachel goes outside multiple times a day and sings songs while singing at the top of her lungs. I can't even keep track of the things they play. Horse races are very popular, as are relay races. Setting up store is a common theme.

The chickens are a great source of entertainment. Natalie has names for all of them. Personally, I can't tell them apart. But, she can. The girls follow them, watch them, chase them away from my flowers, pick them up, and collect their eggs. It is great fun.

 

Setting up store is a common theme inside. Natalie especially is always trying to run a store. Her blog is called Natalie Art Store - because she loves to pretend she is running a store. And she sells her art and counts her money. They also pretend to run a restaurant complete with menus and lunch served to Mommy.

Then, I just have that one girl that is as funny as can be. She constantly says things just to be funny or contrary. This is her giving us a little jig. I love Rachel. She makes me laugh.

I am very busy right now. I think I have a tendency to always be too busy. How do I always manage to be so busy? Between doctor's appointments, and putting in time at our business, and getting together with other moms, and Natalie's violin lesson, and the girls dance class, and soccer, and finally trying to steal some time away for myself --- I'm just way too busy!

It's hard to do school. Not because I don't have the hours to do school - but because making dinner and cleaning house and planning for school all pull at me.

Right now there are two or three unique activities that should fade off.

The first is soccer. Soccer is three days a week. It's fun. I think it's relaxing to sit out there and watch my daughter play soccer. Natalie loves soccer and is really gaining self-confidence from it. But, it's a lot. I am torn back and forth over our future commitment to sports. It's so good for the kids, but what's not good for the kids is me being overwhelmed.

Secondly, I wanted to put some time into our business all summer, but babysitting and other scheduling issues didn't cooperate with us. Now, especially with the economy, our business could really use my help. Most things employees or my DH can do - but sometimes my husband just needs me in there for a short period to give my ideas and pour over our business website. I work on SEO (search engine optimization) stuff, give my input about products, and give my input about graphics. I could do more - but I REALLY, REALLY JUST want to be a SAHM. So we limit it. But right now I've been trying to get in there at least one evening a week.

The third is doctor's appointments. I've been putting them off. So now I scheduled a bunch within a two week period.

So, this is the 2nd week of the doctor's appointments. Next week is the last week of soccer. Then, I'm not sure how long I will try and keep putting time in at work, but hopefully I won't need to do that so frequently for too much longer.

But, my question is how do I make sure I don't overload myself when this time is over? Seasons are one thing. Ongoing busy-ness is another.

Getting Out There With God And Nature

We have been blessed with so much natural beauty around us - directly around us where we live - on our property and closeby. Yet, so often I am so busy with schooling and activities - that I don't get myself outside. Not really. You know, where you go outside long enough and with a mellow enough attitude to really get lost in it.

Yesterday, the older girls and I visited a close by waterfall - climbing on the rocks and throwing rocks into the river. Dad was home and the baby was asleep and we stole away for just a little while. It was sublime.

Today, we went down to the far end of property and meandered around the little man made pond. We found a unique wildflower down there in one of the small streams, right in the water. Here it is.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........Twice a day
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

Ok. So for those of you that might check up with me on my blog. You would NOT believe the latest spacey thing I did. I cannot tell you what it is. But, let's just say I will have to spend about 2 1/2 hours driving just to get something that I left somewhere.

My husband is really so understanding with me about all of this kind of thing. Actually, he always has been. When we met once, before we ever really dated - well, let's just say he was more than gracious.

On a brighter note! My kids are so cute. Here is a picture of a cute Rachey - always ready to have her picture taken - but can you tell that she doesn't like the sun in her eyes???

Argghh!

I'm having a hard time not beating myself up over this one. Does anyone else do this? Do those of you that never do this, know that there are people like me that try REALLY hard and still do this?

I missed my daughter's dental hygienist appointment today. Ok, you think...no big deal...everyone forgets things sometimes. No, you see, I forget things all the time. And I go to such lengths to not forget things.

I use Google Calendar now, which I JUST love. Check it out it. It would probably help lots of people with homeschool scheduling because you can easily manage multiple calendars at once. I digress though.

Her appointment was on my calendar though. It was there. I even looked at the calendar which I had printed out and posted on the fridge. On top of that, the dental office even called and left a message two days ago reminding me. But, I didn't remember. When did I remember? In the middle of the night when I was feeding the baby.

And, here are a couple of things about this appointment. This is a hygienest appointment with the local HMO. It takes a good two-three months to get an appointment. I had an appointment in the summer and had to cancel because Natalie had an activity she was doing. And, Natalie has teeth coming in that are blocked by baby teeth of the next set of teeth coming in. They may have wanted to pull a couple of teeth so they didn't come in too crooked. So, I'm not sure what to do. On top of that, Natalie knew she had an appointment coming up. I feel so horrible that she should pay the consequence for my inability to remember things.

So, maybe you are wondering, can't your husband help you to remember to look at your calendar? Well, he tries. And, as I said, I did look at my calendar. I just didn't see it for some reason. He tries my occasionally saying something like, "do you have things coming up on your calendar?" Alas, this often only adds to my confusion - or at least doesn't help me a whole lot because when he asks me that I feel my brain getting discombobulated.

Blogger Friend had a topic a few weeks ago about what your biggest struggle in homeschooling is. I would definitely add this to that struggle - the idea that I have trouble managing our schedule, our appointments. Yet, I know this is lie that the enemy would want me to believe. The truth is that I would struggle with this issue no matter what the schooling arrangement were. I'm still their mom and Mom still ends up being in charge of everyone's schedule.

Blogger Friend Assignment

This weeks blogger friend assignment is an easy one for me because I've already written an article on the subject. I strive everyday to manage my household. Yet, it is so easy to fall behind - both because I have young children that like to get things out and because I have a lot on my plate. Yet, I don't want to give up! I know many of you are familiar with Flylady. She teaches a basic principle that has been a lot of help to me. I no longer receive her e-mails because all of the detail can be overwhelming to me. But the principle that she teaches is to concentrate on one area and clean it fast. Make cleaning a dash. It's a chore, you might as well GET IT DONE. 

Here's an article I wrote about 2 years ago:

Homekeeper Scriptures

Titus 2:4,5 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

2 Corinthians 3:4-6 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 26:36-40 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Luke 10:40-42 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Perfectionism Is Not God's Intention

God has wonderful plans for us as mothers, as wives, and as women of God. Yet, we women hear the calling of God and make it into something that He didn't intend. We require of ourselves a level of perfection that we cannot acquire. This perfection eats at our husbands, at our children, at our health, at our ability to be a good friend, and at our love for the Lord.

I speak from both personal experience and observation. I am such a perfectionist. I want to be the best wife I can be, but I don't want to be stepped on. I want to give my children every advantage, spiritually, academically, physically. I want my home to be as beautiful, as well kept, as well organized as any I've ever seen. I want to be social with believers and non-believers alike, living a perfect life, that I might not be a "stumbling block" to any.

But what I miss is love. What I miss is the love Christ has extended to me - called grace. What I miss is the ability to continually reach back to Him, trusting Christ to work everything out - called faith.

Lovers of our households

Titus tells us we are to be "busy at home". In King James this is translated "keepers of our homes". I desire to be a keeper of my home. But, I want to endeavor first to never forget the beginning of that verse, "love your husbands and children". Or, as Jesus said it, "Love the Lord your God, and Love your neighbor as yourself."

Simple Changes

Rather than endeavoring to have the perfect schedule, do a perfect job with our children, follow Jesus perfectly, let's endeavor to know and love our Lord and show our love to others. Let's not neglect our homes, but let's not make them our highest priority. Rather, let our homes serve us and serve God.

I want to endeavor to make small changes that allow me to feel more on top of my day and actually give me more time with my Lord, my husband, my children, and others. One concept that has worked well for me, is simply the concept of breaking down what you need to do into small chunks. You don't have to do it just like someone else! Find what works for you.

Look at what you want to accomplish and break it down, into manageable tasks that don't seem to huge. Now, you have your list of what you need to do. Instead of concentrating on getting the whole list done, just do one task at a time as quickly as you can.

Congratulate yourself when you cross something off your list. Don't talk yourself down!

The following is an example of a one page sheet I have made for myself listing a breakdown of my regular household duties. I print one off per day and see how much I can get done in the first part of my day. If I do an item more than once in a day, I check it off twice. Don't forget to make a chore chart for your children as they become able and give them a few tasks from your list.
 

Kitchen Unload Dishwasher Load Dishwasher Wash Large Pans Clear Off Kitchen Counters Sweep Kitchen Take Out Recycling Take Out Kitchen Garbage Living Room Pick Up Living Room Floor Straighten Bookshelves Vacuum Living Room   Laundry Put Clothes Away Do A Load Of Laundry Food Prep What's For Dinner by 3:00 p.m. Weekly Mop Kitchen Clean Toilets Clean Counters & Floors In House (Wash Rugs) Straighten Bookshelves Clean Windows Clean Mirrors Take Out All Garbage Empty Out Car

Monthly Dust Eaves In Kitchen Clean Out Window Sills In House Wash Doors Vacuum Under Dressers/Bed Change Furnace Filter Weekly/Bi-Weekly Take Out Garbage Take Out Recycling Homeschooling Read Chapter Book To Girls Have Child/Children Read Math Writing Work Phonics Work Violin Practice Personal Health & Wellbeing A.M. Vitamin Eight Glasses Water    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __  Stretches Workout P.M. Vitamin