Walking on the Road Less Traveled - Homeschool Blogger

Apple Season

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:05:00 -0500

Apple season has begun! Ray bought apples from our usual apple orchard owner in the northern part of our state on Monday and came home with 43 bushels in the back of his truck. For us, that means that we are now finished with peaches and can eat all the apples fresh we want. :)

It also means it is time for me to begin using all my old apple recipes: apple cake, apple fritters, apple salad, fried apples, apple muffins.

And it means it is time for me to begin canning apples, making apple cider and apple jelly and even some applesauce.

Of course, I have to leave enough apples for Ray to sell so we can pay our bills, too. Thankfully, though, the season for Ray to sell apples will go thru most of October. Which gives me plenty of time to do all the apple canning/making/baking I want.

By then, we'll be good and tired of apples and ready for early strawberries. :)

Falling Apart

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:33:00 -0500

Well, it seems I am getting old. First I have diabetes. Then I face extreme fatigue all the time. And now? Dizzy spells. Constant, almost, since Saturday.

Sometimes it's a feeling of the room spinning. More commonly, it's a feeling of being off-balance. I fear I am falling and sometimes come very near falling. Other times I actually feel like I *am* falling, though I am not. Mostly it occurs when I move around--standing up to walk, shift positions when sitting, or even roll over in the bed at night.

And even when I am not fighting dizziness, I feel *off* and sort of strange.

*sigh* It's gotten to the point that I must reach out for support from hubby whenever I try to walk. Only problem with that is--he must work for a living and isn't always here when I need to walk. LOL

Maybe, like appliances, my warranty has expired. *giggle*

Hello Stranger

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 21:07:00 -0500

Well it's been quite some time since I've managed to write in this blog...almost 10 months now. In some ways, things are very much the same and in others, well, it's gotten quite different around here. :)

We currently have 3 hogs, 4 piggies, 89 broilers, approximately 36 laying hens, and 18 rabbits, plus Brown Sugar the milk cow, 7 other herd cows and 1 calf born in early Feb.

I am still making butter and cheese from the extra milk Brown Sugar gives us. We are still making our bread from freshly ground wheat, though I have taught my 2 older dc (11, 10) to do this for me daily.

Our garden was a bust this year, but I still managed to put quite a bit of veggies thru my canner. I'm still canning fruit...we've done blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and peaches so far. Next up will be pears and apples and grapes.

We are still homeschooling, though I admit to being ready to take a break from schooling. We took quite a bit of time off last fall, so since Jan we've been going pretty much non-stop in an effort to make up our time. The children are all learning lots and growing like weeds.

This summer, in an effort to beat the higher costs of electricity, we've cut off the back central a/c unit and blocked off the hallway with a blanket, covered the living room windows with blankets to block out the sun, and all 6 of us are sleeping in our living room. So far we've been blessed with lower electric bills, but the big test will be this next bill, due any day now.

I've been struggling for months now with extreme tiredness and fatigue. Pretty much I never want to get out of bed, but of course, I force myself to do just that every morning and I plod along working on the never-ending *To Do* list. But it takes a whole lot more effort and energy than I have and that concerns me.

My wonderful hubby has been even more loving and attentive this past year, though he's never been much of a slouch in that department. I find myself often thinking of how blessed I am in my marriage. In just a few months we'll celebrate our 20th anniversary and I thank the Lord every day for my hubby's love and the effort he puts into making sure I know how much he loves me.

And that pretty much sums up the past 10 months. :) I'll do my best to blog more often though. :)

Cooper

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:45:00 -0500

A week or two after Brown Sugar and the calves were moved home, my fil showed up one morning. And he had a young colt, about 6-8 months old with him. Cooper was his name.

At the time, we only had one pen, so Cooper made himself at home in the pen with Brown Sugar and the calves. Cooper was very malnourished. When our neighbor dropped by to trim Cooper's hooves, he told us it would probably take at least 6 months on a high dollar feed to bring him up to par since he was in such bad shape.

But, no. That's not what happened. lol Cooper had to be put on a diet after only 2 months here with us!

Cooper loves Ray. He follows Ray around everywhere he goes when Ray is in the pen. :)

And Lerah is in little girl heaven. She adores Cooper. She's recently taken on the task of feeding Cooper twice a day when we do animal chores. She loves Cooper even though he's stepped on her toes a few times (that's painful!).

On occasion, one of the boys or Ray will take Cooper on a walk. And Cooper can hear the horses down the road a piece where our neighbor lives. And Cooper does his very best to insist that walks go in that direction. :)

Recently we got more cows (more on that in another post) and they live in the same pen as Cooper, a bigger pen we built next to Brown Sugar's pen. Turns out that having only cows as penmates has led Cooper to think that he's a cow. Cooper has begun laying down with the cows on a regular basis instead of doing like horses do and standing most of the time. *giggle*

My intentions as far as Cooper goes are not altruistic. I figure if I have to invest time and money (in feed) in an animal, they must do something to earn their keep. I'd like to train Cooper to pull a buggy so I can ride him. But more importantly, I want to train Cooper to walk in a horse mill that can power an ole timey washing machine. Then Cooper would be providing our homestead with a valuable service (besides his manure, of course).

Ode to Salt and Pepper

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:03:00 -0500

As I mentioned earlier, we got 2 calves with our dairy cow, Brown Sugar. The Jersey we named Sugar Daddy and the Holstein was given the name of Salt and Pepper, for obvious reasons.

Each morning and evening, after we finished milking, we would turn Sugar Daddy and Salt n Pepper in with Brown Sugar. They would eagerly attack her teats and finish milking her out. This was a great deal of help in preventing Brown Sugar from getting mastitis again. And the calves just *loved* that mama milk. :)

This also enabled us to be able to skip a milking if we needed to be away from home. And that was needed each Sunday evening as our church services are a great distance from our home and the meetings last all day. We would milk Brown Sugar in the mornings, then turn the calves in with her and leave them there all day.

They grew fast having access to fresh mama milk every day. By the time they were 6-7 months old, they had almost weaned themselves. So we eventually separated them from Brown Sugar permanently. And they did well in a pen with our colt.

But Saturday night, Salt and Pepper did not come up when we fed the others. Ray and I went hunting for him. We finally found him hidden underneath a tree. When we tried to get closer, he got up and walked rather slowly around the pen (which is very large and wooded) til he got to the water trough. There he drank some water and we left him alone.

Sunday he still did not come up when Ray fed the others. Again he looked for Salt and Pepper and found him under the same tree. On Monday, he was in obvious distress. Ray spent hours working with him, running a hose down his throat to relieve the pressure of the gas that had built up inside him.

But this morning Salt and Pepper was dead. :(

The children have taken the news well. And I know this is a fact of farm life that we must all adjust to. But it still stinks.

Big Changes

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:28:00 -0500

I haven't written here in quite awhile. There's a reason for that, as you shall soon see. :)

Back in July, our family began a journey that has drastically changed our lives. A journey that has altered our lifestyle, created work and responsibility for ourselves and our children, and caused a tremendous outflow of money from our hands and home into the pockets of others. *giggle*

In July, we took the audacious step of buying a Jersey milk cow. She lived with a friend (who was over an hour away from our home) for almost a month while we built a pen for her.

She's a cutie. I named her Brown Sugar and she's such a gentle cow. Very good with the children, all of whom can milk her, except for my youngest, only because her Daddy hasn't yet deemed her *old enough*.

She came with a Jersey calf and a Holstein calf, neither of whom were her's. Since then we've given her 2 new calves for reasons I'll describe later on. And she took those on easily as well.

Her milk is oh so creamy! We just love to drink her wholesome delicious milk cold from the frig. And it's good for making butter and whipped cream and cheese as well.

When we got her, Brown Sugar had a bad hip. We aren't for sure what happened to her, though my Ray thinks a bull rode her down. And the man who got rid of her, did so because he didn't want to milk her...so she had mastitis. It took us quite a while to get rid of that, and we've struggled with it cropping up since then too. But that's a story for another day. :)

Having a milk cow *requires* early rising. So now my hubby and my boys get up at the crack of dawn to milk Brown Sugar (and do other chores I'll tell you about another time). And that means I have to rise early as well, for menfolk doing hard strenuous farm chores need a big hearty breakfast. :)

Those of you who know me well know I do NOT like early mornings, being a night owl. But Brown Sugar is worth it. :)

Review of "Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World"

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:15:00 -0500

This set of dvds, a recorded seminar by Michael and Susan Bradwick, discusses how to parent children in a Biblical manner as opposed to the world's way.

I've heard several people express concerns about various parts of this seminar in the past, most notably the Bradwick's endorsement of scheduled feedings for newborns and their practise of *swatting* children from the age of 6 months onward.

But my curious nature made me want to view the dvds anyway. And when I discovered a friend had them, I borrowed them to satisfy my curiousity. :)

I've been watching them for several days now and began taking notes on them as well.

It is true the Bradwicks endorse scheduled feedings. Their theory is that God's world is ordered and scheduled feedings help to teach the child early on that life should be ordered. They also believe that this helps prevent drastic disruptions to family life. However, Mrs. Bradwick was very careful to suggest that each family find the schedule that worked for themselves rather than following her schedule and that a mother should learn to distinguish between hungry cries and cries of another nature. She also clearly said that if baby slept through a scheduled feeding, she did not wake the baby but instead fed him when he awoke. Then she arranged to feed him again in 2 hours to get baby back on the schedule.

I did not see a harsh approach to parenting in her comments. She was very careful to talk repeatedly about creating a relationship with her baby, keeping baby near you while you work or play, reading aloud from the beginning to the baby, as well as talking, hugging, and cuddling your baby.

In fairness, I must admit that while I have never been a proponet of strict scheduling, I have with each of my babies seemed to find a *routine* that worked for me at that point in my life and for baby. Most of mine never went 4 hours between feedings, but I could generally time their hungry cycle within 20 minutes or so. All of my children seemed to want to eat somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours apart.

I do feed on demand from the very beginning in order to establish a good supply of milk and I continue to do so for the first several months, particularly as my babies go through growth spurts. But as a general rule, my babies and I find our own routine/schedule.

The other major concern most people have had with the Bradwicks has been their policy of beginning reproof and correction (swats/calm directive words and spankings) during the 6-9 month age. I was sure that I would disagree with the Bradwicks' policy before I viewed the dvds.

First Mrs. Bradwick describes their reasoning. She says that babies begin to manipulate and disobey very early on, even before most people believe them to be capable of such. She talks about watching a baby who is told to lay their head down. The baby knows what he is being asked to do because he or she will look around for you as he begins to disobey and will immediately do as asked if he or she sees you watching.

Mrs Bradwick gives a concrete example of how she would teach, train, reprove, and correct a young baby. This involves going through the normal routine, always telling baby what you expect, using calm quiet voices. Next you allow baby to begin to think of disobeying while you are out of sight, but very close by. At the first sign of the thought of disobedience rising up in baby's mind, you step forward saying "no, no, you can't get up. mama wants you to lay your head down and go to sleep," while patting baby's back soothingly as you normally would. She advises this procedure to continue 4-5 times in order to reassure yourself that baby understands what you want.

Next, you step to the side again where baby can not see you. This time you allow baby to disobey completely. Again, you tell baby "no, no. You must lay down and go to sleep. You must obey mama." At the same time you should pop baby's thigh firmly. This procedure should be enacted at least 4-5 times to reassure yourself that baby understands what is being asked of him.

At this point, when baby disobeys, you pick baby up and lay baby across your lap and take off their diaper and give them a couple of firm little spanks. Then you rediaper baby, hug and love on baby, and again put them down telling them to obey mama, lay their head down and go to sleep.

This should continue until baby obeys. Mrs. Bradwick relates that with most of her children this has had to be done 2-3 times before baby realizes he must obey and does as asked.

I have never worked this whole procedure as suggested by Mrs. Bradwick. But once I heard her description of what she practised with her babies, I realized that I *have* begun training my babies nearer 9 months of age as they begin fighting diaper changes. I use different methods than Mrs. Bradwick does, but I *do* begin training early.

All in all I found this dvd seminar to be quite educational. I found that in general the Bradwicks and I hold quite similar viewpoints on the topic of Biblical parenting. And I learned many new things as I listened to their teachings.

Changes

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:31:00 -0500

Life is full of changes.

We are born as small babies who can not take care of ourselves. We grow and learn to roll over, crawl, feed ourselves, walk, talk, even go potty by ourselves. It's a long slow process, but we change.

We grow a little more and we dress ourselves. We learn to read and we learn to add numbers. Maybe a sibling joins our family.

We grow even more and we learn to drive the family car. We hopefully learn to budget money and to balance a checking account.

We grow a bit more and one day we choose to walk down the aisle of a church and pledge our lives and love to another person. We embark on a totally new and different life--marriage--and our life changes drastically.

And then we become a mother. A tiny little baby joins our family and life once again changes so completely that many of us mark that defining change with initials--BC (before children).

Each of these changes is a natural normal part of life.

Yet, I hate changes. I fight every change that comes my way, kicking and screaming. I want life to stay the same. I like knowing what to expect and when to expect it. I like my nice little cozy spot in the world--it's secure, it's safe, it's what I *know*.

But change keeps coming. Life keeps barrelling on, rushing along with it's natural changes, no matter how hard I fight it. And somehow, I must learn to go with the flow, to lean on the Father, to believe in His love for me and in His promise that *all* things work to the good of those who love Him.

The Lifesong of Your Life

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 07:48:00 -0600

Over Christmas Ray received the new cd, *Lifesong*, by Casting Crowns. The entire cd speaks to me. Almost every song touches my heart, each in a different way.

In particular, the last song, "Let my Lifesong Sing to You," moved me in an unusual way. It was the impetus for a string of thoughts that caused me to look at my life in a new way, with fresh eyes.

I began wondering what the lifesong, the spiritual theme if you will, of my life was. And I looked over my life so far to see if I could discern that theme.

One theme stood out, having reoccurred over and over again in my life.

Loss.

I've walked the long lonely road of grief and loss more times than I want to remember. It's painful. It hurts to the very core of my being.

But obviously it is also the song my life is supposed to sing to Him. And it is the song, the lesson, my life is to teach others looking on, as well.

I've often wondered *why* loss and grief visits my life so frequently. Wondered what I should be learning that I obviously am not learning. Wondered the purpose behind it all.

And in some small way, those questions are answered now.

Each life sings a song to the Father, a lovely song that He gives only to that life.

Each life sings a song of love to the Father for others to see, to learn from, to be encouraged by.

Each individual song should be pointing others *to* the Father.

Little Girl Heaven

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:14:00 -0600

Every year Ray and I allow the children to choose something from Vision Forum's big End of the Year Sale. They pour over the catalog for most of the week, finally choosing one thing each they really want. The children pay for it themselves (within a certain $ limit set by us), so it is very important to them to choose wisely.

This year the girls pooled their money together and bought the beautiful tea set. For years now Lerah (6) and Leah (5) have held pretend tea parties for their dolls using plastic dishes. So they were understandably excited about having a *real* tea set and waited anxiously for it to arrive.

I talked with them about how nice the tea set was, how easily it would break, and how important it was to keep it *only* for real tea parties. They both nodded with a serious look on their faces. I promised them we would soon have a real tea party and use their tea set if they would only be patient.

Two weeks ago the day finally arrived. The girls were beside themselves with excitement. We invited Grandmama and Aunt Cathy to join us. We mixed and baked chocolate chip cookies. We made tea. We made tiny little peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

We spread the table with a lovely pink and blue floral tablecloth. We brought out my special occasion white china platters. We put candles and a coordinating ceramic teapot in the center of the table for decoration. And of course, we set the table with the girls' new teacups, saucers, and teapot.

Finally the preparations were finished...and the guests arrived.

The girls were very gracious hostesses. They helped their guests get seated, filled their teacups, and served the food. They participated in the conversation, using excellent manners.

I was so proud of them.

I enjoyed this special time with Lerah and Leah...and we've agreed to continue having a tea party on a regular basis.