I really had hoped to keep up to date with my blog.. Boy did I fail there! So much has happened in such little time. Oh gosh where do I start. Our 'short' stint in the camper trailer turned into 5 and a half months.. I am sorry to say my patience really started wearing thin.. But I know Gods plan was at work in our hearts. He lead us to our beautiful home that is much more than what we need and such a wonderful blessing.  My children are having so much fun running exploring our twelve acres.. Really stretching their creativity.  Life is so different out of the military its been, well, an adventure still. But along those ups and downs there has been so much Joy.  Homeschooling this year has been a so much fun and encouraging. Its absolutely wonderful to know my husband will be home at the end of each day. And the knowledge that I am may be settled here for nearly forever is so unreal. When I walk to the pond or stroll around the property I am just in awe that this is all ours... Its truly amazing.  The joy I get at watching the kids run and feel so comfortable and free...Our new church home adds a different dynamic to our lives. Its like being brought into a new family.  Yes there are the times when they really hurt you and drive you nuts, but when push comes to shove they are there to love and support.. And forgive.  Our lives seem so different. Everything is completly new.  So let me tellyou about our new home.. Mathew tells everyone we are farmers now.. :o) We have 11 chickens right now.. and boy is that a challenge.. Caring for them is not hard its just interesting.. I have never had chickens before.. and I did not realize that think they are pets.. Which is why we still have 11 alive instead of just 9.. I bought two of the Roosters for meat.. But they started following me around and were so neat that I couldn't bring myself to butcher.. ( DONT MAKE FUN OF ME!) The other rooster I kinda took on because he needed a home and my other chickens hate him. They pick on him. But he is not worth eating he is a bantam silkie rooster, not much to him.. and then the other 8 are Rhode island Red Hens for laying eggs and of course they are not doing that! (nobody is serving a purpose on my begining farm).  I keep hearing to wait til spring and they should start laying.. so right now I have a whole bunch of freeloading chickens! But they are entertaining. They follow me all over the yard.. Its funny and when I am in the kitchen they stand at the door pecking at it waiting for food.. We rented out our pasture for grazing so we have 8 spoiled cows that I just started feeding. I love cows they are my favorite animal.. But when you bring feed to the trough and you have 5 full grown heifers, 2 yearling bulls, and a calf  RUNNING at you it makes your heart skip a beat.. Today I decided to move the trough to the fence so I could just through the feed over.. My favorite Cow is named Jersey (can you guess what breed she is) She breaks into the front yard often to eat the grass and hang out with us. She also licks you like a puppy. I hope to have the money to buy her soon and have her as my milk cow. Well there is an intro to our new lives. Hopefully I will keep it updated better now. The kids and I have many little projects completed that I would like to share. Love you all

This morning I stumbled across this well known bible story. The part that caught my attention that I had never noticed before was                                                                                                                                    Exodus 13:17-18  And it came to pass, when Pharoah had let the people go. that God led them them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea: and the children of Isreal went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

God doesn't always work in the way that seems best to us. Instead of guiding the Israelites along the direct route from Egypt to the promised land, he took them by a longer route to avoid fighting with the Phillistines. If God does not lead you along the shortest path or the path of least resistance..don't complain or resist. Follow him willingly and trust him to lead you around unseen obstacles. He CAN see the end of your journey from tne beggining, and he knows the safest route.

This was a good message for me. Especially as we are coming close to a turning point in our lives. We have an idea of what we expect to happen in the coming months.. But we could be wrong...or it may take more time..I just need to know that GOd is controlling my future and that he knows the end result if I just follow him. Some things just seem so simple to me...I am a point A to point B sorta person..But life doesn't always work that way sometimes we need those detours.

Gosh I don't even know where to start exactly. Things have been such a whirlwind since Thanksgiving.. Its all passed so quickly. We are persevering in school and getting things done..Don't ask me specifically what things just now..:-) Buts something is being accomplished..We are getting much better at keeping a schedule which includes school times for everyone including Jess, Everyones chores and responsibilties and MOM even gets free time in there!! How great is that? The kids have been ver helpful and so I am not feeling so overwhelemed anymore..ITs funny how working as a family is a constant on going process..Always improving and learning what works best. I am sure I will one day have it down to an art..Most likely when the last one is graduating..But hopefully I am passing on some good household skills on to the three of them..

We are now officially waiting on the med boards' decision for our future.. Our (not really our but his) Packet was finally  sent to Virginia and now its just a few weeks til we get the official decision. Nik seems pretty confident at us getting out since it was the unanimous recommendation all around here at Bragg. So if he gets the go ahead to get out we should be looking at moving around May.  Next Weekend (Feb 2ND) Texas Instrument is Flying Nik and I out to Dallas so we can check out the area and so he can do a face to face interview. They are paying for tickets, hotel, and rental car! So we kind of get a free weekend get away!! How awesome is that?? The kids will be with Uncle Corey and Aunt Jo..They are so excited..Well Jo and the kids are I think Uncle Corey is a little nervous at having all the kids in his little apt..

http://www.orgsites.com/tx/heartsandhugs/

 My children had the great experience of making and racing a derby car!  The picture of the race track shows all 3 of thier cars (yes they raced against each other in every heat) The little cammo truck is not one of thiers. Starting on the left..Mathew in the orange, Sierra in the blue with polka dots, and Jess I don't really know what color you would call that :-).

To make these cute little trees First Gather some pine cones and paint them green. After the paint dries decorate with what ever you have on hand. Make a base and whola you have adorable Mini tree decorations.  We used pipe cleaners, beads, and crepe paper for our decorations.

One of our assignments a few weeks ago was to make some bible times costumes and compare life between now and then. So they made some quick costumes and then we each made unleavened bread and had bread ,honey and grapes for lunch. (Yes I know Ashlee more cooking and messes)

I just finished watching the entire Star Wars series and just so happend that I got this you tube link from a homeschool group. If you are a big Star Wars fan you will appreciate it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qhpLJtzBHA

This is a pic of my girls on the front page of the Fayetteville Observer.

I am finally posting my Home Made Butter!! I am just Copying this simple recipe from http://www.allotment.org. I let each of the kids make thier own butter. It was really simple and fun. When we made ours I used our handmixer and rinsed our butter with ice cold water. Save your buttermilk to make biscuits or pancakes.

Making Your Own Butter

The 'ingredients' for butter are simply cream and possibly a little salt. I think you can make butter from goat's milk, but it takes a different method so I'm sticking to what I know. Making butter from cow's cream.

You do not need much equipment to make butter at home, a bowl and large jar with a lid being the minimum. If you have a food processor or an electric whisk then the task will be much easier.

Butter Making - Method

Let the cream reach room temperature, around 20 C (68 F) is ideal – this is critical. Don't heat it but leave the pots out of the fridge for a good few hours to warm up. If you have a cold kitchen, put them into the living room to warm up.

Now we are ready to make butter.

With a jar you need to half fill the jar, put the lid on and shake it for anything between half an hour and an hour. This is hard work, especially for any quantity and I've not tried it myself.

With a food processor or an electric whisk, proceed as if you are making whipped cream. In the processor, use the plastic blades if you have them. I'm told the Kenwood 'K' beater is the best tool if you are lucky enough to have one.

It will go through the usual stage of starting to form firm peaks and then it becomes quite stiff. At this point you might like to reduce the speed of your whisk because when it goes it happens very fast.

All of a sudden the cream goes a bit yellow in colour and then little bits of butter appear and a thin liquid, the buttermilk. Just seconds later, the butter seems to clump and is separated from the buttermilk. If your whisk is on high speed you are now redecorating the kitchen, hence my suggesting you reduce speed to a minimum.

Buttermilk

Drain the buttermilk off – you can use this in baking, cooking or make your cat very happy.

Washing the Butter

You need to get all the buttermilk out of the butter or the butter will quickly go rancid. Add clean cold water to the butter in the blender and operate on low speed for a minute. You need the water to be cold or you melt the butter, which will then run off with the water.

Repeat the washing process until the water is really clean, this can be seven or more times but I can't emphasise enough how you do need to make sure the water is clear.

Pressing the butter

You now need to get the water out of the butter. In the old days they had special wooden paddles to press and shape the butter but you can use your hands and the back of a spoon to do this. When you have the water out you are ready for the next stage.

Salting or Flavouring the Butter

Homemade butter can be stored for at least three months in a freezer. I do know that commercial butter stores for much longer but I think they add stabilisers or something to it, which enables longer storage.

If you are going to freeze the butter, don't salt or flavour it. The freezing process enhances the saltiness or flavour and you may well find it tasted fine on the way in but is too salty after freezing.

To salt do not add more than a small half teaspoon for each half pound (250 gr) – half that amount suits me but I don't take a lot of salt.

You can also add crushed garlic or dried herbs to make flavoured butter if you wish at this stage.

Shaping the Butter

If you have salted or flavoured the butter, you will need to mix it thoroughly and then you can shape it. I prefer a roll of butter rather than the traditional box shape. You can then wrap the butter to keep in the fridge or to freeze if you have a lot.

I find cling film ideal, but I've been told you can use greaseproof paper.

Conclusion

For the ordinary person, making butter at home with ordinary kitchen equipment is very easy and a great way to store bargain cream. Like most things made yourself, it tastes wonderful and you control the whole process.

We have been making just about everything from scratch so about once a week we have a canning or  freezing day. These are the pictures from when the kids were making Peach Jam to can.. It turned out soo GOOD!! We have about 20 pounds of Apples and and 20 pounds of sweet potatoes to get done this week. It is so much fun spending time in the kitchen with my kids..I feel like I am teaching them something important. Tomorrow i will put the pictures up of our home made butter and the instructions on how to make it..

Math in our house is actually fun..Anyone who really knows me is probably shocked to hear me say that math is becoming my favorite subject to teach. But we seem to almost always have science and math combined..Sometimes I feel like I am learning right along with them. And its FUN! So anyway on this particular day the kids had to pick recipes that they could mostly read by them selves (Except Jess she always just makes up her own biscuit recipes for snack) and I put a price on each of the ingrediants. They had to buy the ingrediants from me(They each have a jar full of coins that we use for school).  Its so exciting when you realize that you are teaching something that is making sense to them!! My kitchen was TRASHED..But we had so much fun.. Not only did they learn how to recognize, read, and add money but they also learned what happens when you leave out an important ingrediant, that every part of the recipe is important if you want it to turn out right. which could lead right into a bible lesson.  Just as the entire Recipe needs to be followed exactly in order for our treats to be pleasing to our taste buds and tummies. We need to to follow Gods word exactly as he wrote in order to please God.  From cover to cover of the bible is Gods word. No picking and choosing what we want to follow. In order to be pleasing to God we have to follow all of his instructions even if some of it dosn't sound good to us. If God did not intend for us to follow a specific instruction he would not have put it in the bible.     

Hope all of you are well and happy!