Be sure to turn off the music on my sidebar before you watch the videos or you'll hear a confusion of noises. You may have to watch them twice for them to buffer correctly. Posting videos is new territory for me so I may need someone to guide me in fine tuning the process.
Yee Haw! Ride 'em cowgirl. It was probably this poor kids first time riding a sheep and she gets this... (She was perfectly fine when she got up.)
This bull rider was de-ter-mined! Nobody had been able to make a qualifying ride (8 seconds minumum). He was the last rider. I think he would have been pretty stiff after this ride!
You know how kids say the cutest, silliest, funniest and most adorable things. Well Justus is no exception and I just had to record some things he's said.
Like this past week when he asked , "Can we have some Haagen Dogs?" (ice cream, should have been Haagen Dazs)
Driving down the road several months ago, Justus asked me to give him some math questions. "Okay," I said. "You have 1 frog and mommy gives you 1 more. How many do you have?"
"That's puny. I mean questions like 6+6."
That same trip Justus seemed like he was going to vomit. Thinking he was going to and knowing it would be a big mess since he had no bag to throw up in I said, "Lord, have mercy." Later on he asked me, "Can you die from throwing up?"
I said, "No."
"Then why did you say 'Lord have mercy'?
For awhile every time he saw a cemetery he immediately thought a battle must have been fought there. Russell has talked quite a bit about the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and our founding fathers to the children and he's always listening.
On this particular occasion he saw the graves in a town we were travelling through and he said, "Oh, dad. I bet a big battle was fought there."
"Yes, son, a big battle."
"Do you think George Washington was buried there or fought here?"
He hasn't asked about cemetery's and battlefields lately. Maybe he's past that stage now. He's growing so fast. Turning 6, learning to read. We're still his world right now and I find it a precious time.
Cowboy Justus will be celebrating his 6th birthday Saturday with a cowboy party. Stop in on Monday and see how it went. Y'all hear?
This week I finally made bread - 20 loaves. I have been procrastinating this for months. I usually like to make only 10 at a time - any more than that and it seems as if the whole process drags on too long. I decided to make the extra since I was going to give away a few loaves and our family seems to be devouring a lot of bread lately.
Here is the recipe I use. I don't have it perfected - it's a bit crumbly. It's definitely not sandwich bread worthy but it does make a delicious toast.
14 Grain Bread
Use your Bosch mixer if you have one. One batch of this dough yields 5 loaves.
6 cups warm water (approx. 115°F)
¨ø cup canola oil
¨ø cup honey
2 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp dough enhancer
3 cups high gluten bread flour
3 Tbsp instant yeast
6-8 cups fresh ground flour (approx. 10-11 cups of un-ground flour is enough for this recipe)
2 cups nine grain cracked cereal
1 cup sunflower seeds
¨÷ cup millet
¨÷ cup flax seed
¨÷ cup sesame seed
¨÷ cup amaranth OR
1 pkg. 14 grain mix
Use the momentary switch to mix well. Turn the machine to speed 1 and continue to add wheat flour only until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. When you can see the sides pull clean, as well as the dough coming clean from the bottom of the bowl, you know you have enough flour. Be careful not to add too much or it will cause it to be heavy and dry. The dough should be very sticky and does not come together at this point, but the bowl is clean.
Knead on Speed 1 for 8-10 minutes or until the gluten has been developed. If you feel your dough is too dry add a few tablespoons of water to moisten. If dough starts sticking, simply add a little white flour to take up the moisture.
Oil your hands, remove dough from mixer and place onto a slightly oiled counter. Divide your dough with a pastry scraper, if you have one, into 5 loaves (depends on your pan size).
Shape loaves and place in a well greased or sprayed pan. Never use oil. Cover with a dry towel and let rise until dough has doubled or is about 2 inches above the rim of the pan. Depending on the room temperature, this could take 30-60 minutes.
Bake in preheated oven at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until the inside temp. is 200°. An instant read thermometer is very useful in telling whether your bread is done.
Cool on cooking racks before putting into bread bags. The bread can be frozen.
Breakfast: Rice Cereal, Toast, Honeydew - We missed Rice cereal last week so we could have this...
A great breakfast treat on these warm mornings. Make this while fresh fruit is plentiful. Our fruit bowl consisted of apples, strawberries, a few blackberries, frozen blueberries, bananas, and mangoes. Add some real maple syrup and milk and you have a delicious healthy breakfast.
Supper: Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry w/ Rice (from Bon Appetit Tastes of the World), Won-Ton Soup?
Tuesday
Breakfast: Serenity makes breakfast on this day. Last week she made Zephyr Pancakes from The King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion. She did an awesome job.
Supper: Black Beans & Rice w/ Sour Cream & Cilantro
Wednesday
Breakfast: Whole Wheat Waffles
Supper: Elk Enchiladas, Salad (Make extra to give to couple who had a baby recently)
Thursday
Breakfast: Egg Burritos
Supper: Spaghetti, Sourdough bread, Salad
Friday
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Toast, Oranges
Supper: Beef Stew - We missed having it last week. Classic Beef Stew (from Pressure Perfect), Bread, Salad
Saturday
Breakfast: Cold Cereal
Lunch/Supper: Having a birthday party for Justus. Shredded BBQ Beef (elk in this case), coleslaw, potato salad?, baked beans (from a can) veggie tray, watermelon
I would really like to come up with some great entry that would make all who read it think a little deeper but I just don't see it happening. So I apologize if you stop in hoping to hear a little something more then that I baked banana bread this week but trying to keep a house, homeschool and run a small online book business keeps me and my mind maxed out. I'm barely able to have a moment of quiet to even write a post. And if ye be a wonderin', yes, I do make time for devotions. Since there's not too many quiet moments that's why you may see a lot of photo entries. They're easy and don't require too much thought. Besides, I really wanted my blog to be a sort of family memory journal.
I am currently reading the book Freedom from Tyranny of the Urgent. I think I've written on it before but it bears talking about once more. Do we let urgent things keep us occupied and neglect to do the really important things? What does God want us to do this day? We need to find the will of the Father. This is what Charles Hummell talks about in his book and I find it very thought provoking. Jesus only did what the Father showed Him to do. He would leave a town, travelling to the next one, and leave behind scores that were clamoring for Him to heal them. In our earthly thinking we would think that He should have stayed to show his power to the people - but this was not God's will.
We will never have more hours in our day. Once the minutes are gone they can not be retrieved. We must have our priorities in place. I am always needing reminded of this. It can be so easy to say and yet quite difficult to do. We must know God's will for us. That can be somewhat simple for a lady to know. He calls us to love our children, be obedient to our husbands and to be keepers at home; trying to balance the housework and homeschooling can be a challenge alone, but add to it the various other things each of us deal with and keeping our priorities in order can become a real challenge.
What do you do to keep your priorities in order? I know that probably no one has it all together but maybe if each of you share something that works for you it could spark someone else.
This week it was all about taking something old and making it new (in a different fashion).
Take this old kitchen drawer...
It now has a new look. Still a little crowded but better.
This drawer was crying out for some attention too...
Yes, this will do just fine.
I found these inexpensive drawer organizers at Wal-M*rt.
Next up was some old shriveled grapefruits that my father-in-law gave us. A little cut with the knife and some squeezing and we had the most delicious and refreshing grapefruit juice.
How about this? Have you seen these lately in YOUR freezer??
I finally dug mine out and added still more from our fresh fruit basket. (If that's my fresh fruit I'd hate to think what it's like when it's gone bad.) Thankfully, something good came out of these well ripened bananas.
A dozen red roses from my oldest son Seth, and my youngest son Justus started off my Mother's Day weekend. They both thought of buying me flowers separately. I don't feel very deserving of it but I sure do enjoy it just the same. Thank you, my darlings. I love you, too.
Add to that a planned picnic by Russell, along with a quad ride, and Mother's Day couldn't have been any better.
Five people on a quad. No problem. You just have to hang on tight.
We did concede we wouldn't be able to fit all 8 of us on one. So, we took 2 quads. They boys just had to be sure they hung on, too. It was a very steep trail so you wanted as much weight on the front as you could. We drove about 7 miles and made a 1500' climb in elevation to get to the top of the mesa (our destination).
We reached the top and could see all around for miles.
Audrey was so glad to be there that she kissed the tree and gave it a bear hug.
Our picnic lunch consisted of the finest and most timeless of foods. Peanut butter & jelly, chips & fruit. Russell didn't forget about drinks and dessert either. Sparkling apple cider & popsicles packed in ice. The popsicles were soft but not melted and that was after an hour in the ice chest!
The best six reasons why I'm glad to be a mother.
I told Russell that since he took me for a quad ride on Mother's Day, I was going to take him shopping for Father's Day. He's feeling a little worried.
I haven't been planning my meals lately and I find by not doing so it just complicates the whole dinner process. Five o'clock hits and you realize that what you thought you would serve really isn't enough food for 8 people - 3 of them growing boys. So, I'm back to planning. I'm sure my kids will be grateful.
It's not always convenient for me to participate in Menu Plan Monday since I may not have time to write things down on Sunday evening or Monday morning. So on those weeks just have pity on my poor family.
But this week they get to eat.
Monday
Breakfast - Eggs & Toast
Supper - Italian Beef & Vegetable Stir-Fry (from The Carefree Cook)
I am a homeschooling mother of 6, ages 18, 17, 13, 11, 6 and 3. Welcome to my weblog where I write about our homeschool, family and a few other things besides.
