In the Kitchen

This week, according to my calendar, is the week we deep clean the kitchen.  Yesterday was Monday, so it was dusting day.

This morning already, I've taken care of the kitchen windows on the inside.  You see, I'm the detail person.  It is my job to take care of each detail in the house.  What about the every day things?  Well, the children have been trained to vacuum, sweep, mop, do the dishes, unload the dishwasher, dry and put away dishes, wipe the counters and table, wash, dry & fold and put away laundry as well as hanging it out on the line.  So if my kids can do all of this, why do I do anything at all?  Well, as it goes with children, they don't see the details most of the time.  This is where I come in.  

The above schedule helps me to remember which room we're in for the week.  Yes, I need reminding.  I write things down so I don't have to remember it.  With all the appointments, classes and responsibilities I need to take care of, the less I need to remember the better!  This reminder is wonderful!  

I take care of myself better when I know things are done and cared for.  While "everything" isn't done at the end of the day, I know that I can see progress.  I've learned that this is better than not seeing progress, or heaven forbid, things get worse.  I don't kick myself in the pants for not doing xyz because I know it is going to be done on the above rotational schedule. So there is no guilt.  

Does my house resemble "tornado" status at times?  Yes!  But, the wonderful thing is that with one hour of steady work from 10 hands, things are much better!  

Throughout the month I take note of areas that need my attention and when that time comes up, I take care of it then.  This goes for the kitchen as well, unless there is a cupboard full of ants going after that ONE drop of honey that may have spilled.  (Ask Me How I Know!!!!)  Yes, there are times when you absolutely have to take care of those details that are right in front of your face.  It is a wonderful reminder for this Momma to remind children  who use the honey to make sure the bottle is wiped well before placing it back on the shelf.  We don't want any more ants!  Whew!  

Now, I'm sure there is another question running through your mind right now, "Why not just clean the whole kitchen instead of small bits and pieces at a time?"  I'm glad you asked!  I have many many hats that I wear throughout the day that need my attention (call my name, demanding at times...) so in order to maintain my own sanity by making sure those attention grabbers are tended to, I try to make sure the 15 minutes it takes me to tend to details in the room of the week after the necessary people needs are cared for.  Yesterday I wiped down walls.  It took me a little longer than 15 minutes, but I was the only person here at home.  After I was done I hung sheets out to dry and rotated the calendar above to the next 5-6 weeks.  Hurrying in the shower, I shuffled off to get the kids from berry picking, bring them home, push the oldest along to the shower to get ready for an appointment almost 2 hours away.  You see, the details were done in the morning.  This morning it was the windows.

Tomorrow the calendar says "declutter."  The refrigerator needs cleaned out and wiped down.  I need to go through my drawers to see if there is anything I can put in the yard sale we're having over the 4th of July.  I also have a junk drawer that needs some attention.

Thursday it says to "detail the floors."  I'll have my daughter sweep the floors really good this afternoon, then I'll scrub everything after taking them to work in the morning.

What about my husband's days off?  I try to spend as much time as I can with him when he's home.  But, when he's in the garage, I try to get my own work done.  Sometimes it happens.  Other times there are other things that pull at me.  The important thing is that I look at the calendar and make plans to do the work the Lord has given me and plan accordingly when I know I'll be busy.  Thursday I plan to do my Friday work in the afternoon so that I don't have to worry about it when I'm spending time with my hubby.  

Will this system work for you?  I don't know.  You can use it, but feel free to tweak it to your own family, home and needs.  Just pray about it and ask God for His direction.  That's what I did!  

Have a Blessed Day! 

Home Making Blessings

I am absolutely enjoying the smell of my house this week.  I have trays and trays of Oregano dehydrating on the hearth in the dehydrator. 

 It smells like an Italian eatery in here.  This is our second batch this week.  We are going to try to dehydrate a couple jars full, if not more.  I missed doing this last year.  We just went out and picked it fresh to use in the kitchen, neglecting the dehydrating.  I had so few trays (the others had broken) it would have taken so very long to get a couple sprigs of it dehydrated that it wasn't worth the time.  At the end of the season I found another dehydrator, so we're dehydrating as we get it coming up.  Next up is Chives! :)

 Loveliness!

Thanking God for His provision, both from the ground and from unexpected sources...

A friend of my husband called and asked if we would like their refrigerator.  We were extremely blessed with this "new to us" one.  It takes up less space, has more shelving and drawers than our old one and it fits perfectly.  God is so good!   This is our 2nd refrigerator.  Our upstairs kitchen refrigerator is much bigger than this one, not the biggest on the market, nor a new one, but it functions just fine for now.  

What a blessing!

In Christ,

In The Garden

This Spring has been warm, then very cold.  Cold enough to frost heavily.  We've waited in years past until Memorial Day weekend to put the garden in, but even then the threat of frost was greater.  As I type this, I'm sitting under a blanket with the temperatures having dropped to the 40's through the night.  Yes, in June!

Today we'll finish getting the garden in and the plants surrounded with newspaper to keep the weeds down and to keep the ground moist.  In a couple weeks we'll get some hay to further mulch the garden to keep the ground from drying out.

Why?

I'm glad you've asked!  Last year our well pump decided to give up the ghost, so we're watering our garden from city water, as needed until we find a viable solution.  I know the solution seems so very simple--just buy a new electric well pump.  It isn't as easy as that.  We're trying to rethink some of the electrical systems here in our house due to the way the original builders wired everything in the 70's when this house was built.  To say it wasn't up to code is an understatement.  So my husband is seeking counsel from others on how to deal with this.  We may put in an old fashioned hand pump on our well to water the garden with.  It would work, but we're researching and making sure that would be the best option at this point.  We're not in a hurry.  Sometimes these things take time.

So, in an effort to save water, we're putting down newspaper and eventually hay to preserve the water we put on the plants or the water God provides from the heavens.

Now, I'm off to get the garden finished.  I'll post pictures later.

From last year...

Until later, 

This Week

This is blurry since my youngest took the picture.  This is my oldest son carrying the Christian flag in the graduation ceremony for our home school group.  He is a Junior this year so part of the responsibilities for the Junior young men is to be the color guard who holds the flag for the graduates to walk through, have their pictures taken and move on for the next one to come along.  We had 5 graduates this year.  Next year we'll have at least 4, perhaps more.

July 1st begins our chore change rotation, so we discussed that this week to make sure everything is covered.  Of course there are more chores than what is seen above, but these are what the children do for the most part.  Once my oldest gets a job and begins college, his chores will naturally decrease.  Yes, we color code everyone, including Momma and Daddy.  We do this on the calendar as well.

This week was beautiful!  We decided to head to Cook's Forest and let the kids ride their bikes around while Mr. G and I meandered around holding hands and talking.  What a lovely time!

She's trying to ride without hands.  The camera caught her in the middle of grabbing hold again.  

Such focused expressions, even at 17!

Water break.

A favorite rock where there is deep water around it on the Clarion River.

For some reason, looking through all of my picture files, I don't have as many pictures as I would like.  Perhaps it's time to remedy that?!  

Until next time,

God Bless!

Summer Plans

One of those things we have not really ever done is taken a vacation during the summer.  We've stayed locally to where ever we've lived and done day trips and outings, but nothing on a grand scale.  We've pretty much kept our vacations and trips away during the late fall, early winter or late spring.

Our summer plans are very simple.  When we return from whatever trips we take in the spring, if any, we get to work like busy little beavers on our yard, garden, flower beds, herb beds, transplanting, pruning, planting and tilling the dirt.  We generally do not put anything in the ground until June 1st.  We know full well that in most cases, June 1st is so very late.  However, we live in an area where we JUST had frost last week!  Yes, FROST!  We just put our plants in the ground on June 1st to make sure the danger of frost is past.  So, with that said, it doesn't make sense to concern ourselves too much with things until then.  Once the weather breaks from the winter weather, but it is still cold, we usually plan to go on vacation.  Why wait when we can go south where it is warm while we wait for the warmth to come to PA?  LOL

I spent quite a bit of time outside planting my flowers, pruning and weeding today as well.  My youngest son came out and just started helping me weed.  What a wonderful time working side by side with him!  We talked about the Rapture, science and when technology makes so many mind boggling advances that it's the sign of the times when Jesus comes again.  We need to be ready in our hearts for His return, but still busy going about our daily tasks and the work He has given us.  What a wonderful time of fellowship!

I plan to do bunches more tomorrow in my herb bed.  I plan to dig up shoots off my thyme, oregano, and chives tomorrow to swap with others who have perennials that I'm looking for.  If anyone wants any other perennials, I'll dig those up as they request because the others are a bit more transplant "shocky" so it makes more sense to get them out of the ground and back in to the ground quickly complete with lots of water for about a week. Black Eyed Susans and Purple Cone Flowers are that way.

At some point, we'll be waiting on the garden to yield it's lovely fruit.  What we plan to do is take the camper to a campground for a couple days, then come home to tend to things, kind of like a "mini-vacation".  Nothing overly spectacular, it's nothing overly expensive, just a couple days at a campground.  It should be a nice time away.

In July we plan to help as a family in our church's VBS.  This is a first for us since my  hubby will be joining us this year.  What a blessing!  He'll be doing the games, I'll be teaching Kindergarten and the kids will each help where they can.

After VBS, I'll begin my lesson plans for teaching Physical Science Lab for 8th graders in preparation for the 2013-2014 school year with our home school group.  I'll be canning in between everything, picking blueberries and freezing them, making all kinds of jams from our own black raspberry bushes, peaches, and whatever else I can get my hands on.  I'm hoping to can 3 batches of salsa this year.  We ran out of salsa in April, so it's time to increase how much I make.

I'd like to go down to Georgia for a few days in August this year, but I don't think that is going to happen, unfortunately.  It's a long story as to why, and it's one that I don't understand well enough to explain--since it is vehicle gear related [and that's all I know]--so suffice it to say that we'll try to get down there soon!

August is also the time of year when we settle in and begin school in earnest.  I count school days from July 1st because we're learning every day, but book work and computerized school work will start in August this year.

Of course, we'll have our Family Birthday Bash in August and have fun with everyone then.

Then, there are the festivals, yard sales and chicken barbecues that we'll attend.

I'll make my sauce again this year, Lord willing.  We've got green beans coming up in the garden that we'll can as well.  I hope to get even more to fill our shelves this year.  Take a look at the side bar and see what's in the plans for this year.  I'll begin dehydrating very soon, if not tomorrow!  :)

Golly!  I guess we're just a little busier than I originally thought.  LOL

What are your summer plans?

Maiden Voyage

This past week my husband took vacation days off work to spend time with us, me and him alone and to go camping.  Our maiden voyage of the USS "G" camper.  

Monday started with excited packing of the camper while Mr. G did  tests on all of the electrical systems, camper brakes and hook ups.  After 45 minutes of working on things, he got it all hooked together, showered and finished gathering the jeans he wanted to take (I didn't know which ones were his preference, so he told me to not worry about it.)  I got the kids, dogs and everything else ready to go and in the vehicle waiting for Mr. G who wanted to clean up before we left.  

We went through Smethport, Port Allegheny, Roulette and Coudersport to our destination. We went up and down some pretty big inclines until we arrived at Potter County Family Campground.  This campground is at the Allegheny Summit at 2,424 ft above sea level.  I know it isn't the Rocky Mountains by any stretch of the imagination, but it is still absolutely beautiful!  

This was our campsite once my beloved parked the camper.  We got everything situated and ready for good times.  We got in to the vehicle to go get something, Mr. G put his foot in the brake and the pedal went all the way to the floor.  We didn't have any brakes!!!!  We got out and looked on the ground in front of the vehicle thinking it was radiator fluid (that it had a hole in it), but it wasn't.  Brake fluid had sprayed everywhere!

Here is Mr. G beginning to take everything apart to look inside where he found a bigger problem than he would have liked, but so very thankful that it decided to not burst until we backed the camper in to the space.  God is so good!  He answered our prayers for safe journeys!

Mr. Frustrated at the moment.  It was definitely NOT in his plan to work on the brakes during his mini vacation!  Whew!  

BUT!!!  

We had friends who lived close by who helped us through all this predicament.  What a blessing Lisa and Dale were to us!  We'd planned to have them over for s'mores and fun that evening, then off to their house for more fun the following day, so we just altered things a little.

The kids and I made hot dogs over the fire.

Beautiful daughter making hot dogs.

Daddy...diligently working on figuring out the problem.

(As it turns out, the brake line that went clear underneath a few things had ruptured.  The next day he ended up replacing it with regular brake hose and it worked well.  God was so gracious to us!  We didn't have cell phone service, it was raining, so Dale come up to get us, then went with Mr. G to get parts for the vehicle, work on the brakes, then came back to their house.  What a wonderful answer to prayer!  I'd prayed for them to be done before 5PM and they pulled in to the driveway around 4:10!!!)

Oldest son, DA doing what he likes to best when camping--roasting hot dogs.  

All but 2 of the kids walking/running/hiking around.

Lisa and the other missing 2 children from the picture above.

He was so excited about getting to go through this tube!  Such cuteness!

Lisa's husband, Dale and their beautiful daughter working on her crossed stitch.

Lisa's 2 oldest boys, then my youngest son JL on the right.

Another of Lisa's beautiful daughters...blurry, but that's ok.  She doesn't like getting her picture taken.

My daughter, HJ, making moose ears behind Dale.  Must be a fun thing to do, huh?!  LOL

More horsing around.  

Watching everyone play computer games while it rained.  I tried snapping this picture just a few seconds before when Lisa's youngest boy was sitting on JL's lap snuggling while they watched, but he hopped down really quick!  

The men got back, Mr. G showered and they both got something to eat.  Mr. G fell asleep in the recliner--something I'm sure he thought he'd NEVER do with 10 children playing around him!  LOL

After he woke we had Lisa's wonderful Split Pea Soup, we brought pasta salad and my daughter made No Bake Coconut Macaroon Bars that fell apart, so we sprinkled it over some ice cream.  Darn!  LOL

We walked around while the kids rode bikes and generally had a blast playing since the rain cleared up.  After returning we visited on the porch a little while until the kids returned from riding so we could go sing.

What a wonderful time we had inside having a wonderful hymn sing, praising God for His goodness toward each one of us.  

After we were done singing, we needed to head out because it was getting late.

This morning, my beloved told me that he was going to take me to a yarn shop in Coudersport.

Just so we could look at all the beautiful yarns and crafty things they had to offer.

We waited until opening time, but no one came to open the door.  *sniff*  *sniff*  I guess we'll have to go back some time?!

Yes, this is what my hair looks like after the heat and humidity rises & camping!  LOL   But, sitting next to my beloved was wonderful nonetheless.

Handsome young man.

One picture and it really shows their personalities!

We love old buildings and architecture.

We love quaint old towns!

So here we are, home at last.   Dinner has been consumed, laundry is going and we're relaxing and beginning to think of our next camping trip.  It was a lovely trip, in spite of the brake issues.  God was gracious and kind walking with us each step of the way.  

We were so blessed! 

Graduation

Although I do not have a graduate this year, I will have one next year.  This year, however, as a "Junior Mom", it is our privilege to serve the graduating seniors and their families for the graduation reception.  This is our first year of ever being a part of or taking part in graduation.  I don't know the schedule of events during the ceremony because I've never been to a graduation.  All that said, I'm greatly relying on a dear lady from our home school group whose son is graduating this year.  She's given me tips, hints and suggestions from her experience last year to help.  What a blessing!

With all of this graduation reception preparation, it is thrusting my mind and thoughts, whether I like it or not--on the inevitability of my oldest son's graduation next year.  I didn't want to think about it just yet, although we've worked toward that goal for years.  Right now I feel as if I'm in the thick of the school days' lessons up to my eyeballs to just keep things moving along.  How can it be that in just one year I will have a graduate myself?

It is a bittersweet realization.  It seems so very close, but yet so very far away still.  But, in the blink of an eye, it will be done.   Then he will be off to college for his first year.  Then it will be my daughter's turn, and my youngest.  I'm thankful for this time with my children.  What a blessing from God!  In the same token, with each step, the bittersweetness fills me.

I remember when...


Now the thoughts, preparations, and plans for the next season of our lives not just begin--but continue with greater clarity of mind, knowing the target for our arrows is for the glory of God.

Disjointed Post with Pictures

Just the beginning of his seasonal trimming.  He's happy to get his hair cut.  LOL

This is my concerned Mom face....referring to the next picture....

He's looking up wild boar hunting for his birthday this year.

Rustie's "flat top"  

HJ decided to french braid my hair this morning, so I asked her to drape it.  She took it a little further with tucking it and adding a flower.  =0)

Happy doggie.  I know he doesn't look like it in these pictures, but without all the hair he's much happier in the summer time.  

He looks like a different dog with just his undercoat showing.  He's half husky, so the color you see during the winter that has grown back is much darker.   He really is happy about his hair trimmings.  Honest!  LOL  This is the face he makes when someone is scratching his back.  LOL  

As of Late...

Proverbs 1:2-9  

"To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight,  (3)  to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;  (4)  to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth--  (5)  Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,  (6)  to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.  (7)  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.  (8)  Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,  (9)  for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck."

I love to learn. My learning since college has taken such unforeseen twists and turns and I've ended up teaching knitting and crocheting to some young ladies the past 2 years.  What a lovely time I've had!  

Job 28:28  

And he said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'"

I've learned so very much in college, but honestly, I've learned more useful true to life skills by studying books, reading articles, and watching videos to learn what I wanted to know.   I enjoyed college, but I truly was "forced" in to taking classes with professors I did not like.  When the only professor available is that "one" professor, and you want to graduate at a certain time, you have to do what you have to do.  I took the class and received a B by just barely getting by, but only because I had to.  No, I did not work to the best of my ability, I shamefully admit.  However, the way around dealing with professors who do not have one's own interest at heart is to attempt something else.

I've found that self directed education is a wonderful tool.  If you've seen the book list along the left side of my blog, you'll see that there is a huge list of books with a variety of topics ranging from gardening to education and marriage to spiritual growth.  On my life's path, these are topics that have come to my attention that I need to study.  It is only with conviction of heart and soul that I currently study the topics along the side.  Once things become needful, it's time to gain knowledge and understanding. 

Proverbs 3:5-6  

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  (6)  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

I've looked in to returning to college to finish my degree.  I've gathered my transcripts, searched out reciprocal teaching laws for the state certifications, searched out costs of colleges in Georgia, Liberty University for online courses as well as a local University.  I've prayed and sought out counsel from my dear husband.  Now I'm letting it be for a while.  If the Lord so desires for me to finish my degree, then He will make it abundantly clear, providing for the way.  If not, then I will take that as a closed door and that the Lord has something else in store for me.  

Plans for my husband's retirement are in full swing and finishing my degree is but a small part, if the Lord so desires.  If it isn't His will, then he will open a door to go a different direction.  It's always His way of doing things, I've found.  His way always turns out to be the best way.  The hardest part is the waiting.

In reading the most recent Above Rubies Magazine, I found an article titled "Success Without College" that looked intriguing.  There is a book recommendation called Chucking College by Melanie Ellison.  I'm getting ready to read the excerpt and discuss it's merits with my hubby.  I haven't read the whole article yet, but I will read it this evening.  If you've read it already, please feel free to post your thoughts in the comments!