Projects and Kids

There are two projects going on around here. The first I am so excited about! Rob is fencing my garden. It doesn't look much right now but we will be painting it white and it will surround the whole garden. I am thinking I will put roses in front of the fence street side. On the inside will be blueberry bushes. I can't wait. It should be finished being built by the end of this month!

The second project is going on in the pasture. See those white sprinklers, they are going bye bye. In their place there will be pop ups. We aren't having to replace all the white sprinklers because the pop ups we are buying are larger and can spray almost twice as far. It will be nice to have working sprinklers again and green grass for the goats! Jacob and Jordan are in the pasture digging around the sprinklers for Rob so when the sprinklers come in it will go faster.

Here is another picture of the kids. Dot is standing and the boy is being lazy. They are so cute and we are having so much fun with them. On another note we have sold our 3 wethers and they will be picked up this weekend! Money for hay!! yipee!!

They're here!

Praise surprised me this morning while I was getting the kids ready for soccer Jacob went out to check on her and she had already delivered. I think the boy came first he was pretty weak from being so cold. Thankfully we left the heat lamp on but it was in the 20's last night again. The girl has some spunk! She was up and about right away. We have named her Dot for obvious reasons.

Dot


Jacob and Dot

Dot and The boy


The boy(we don't name our boys)

3 more days

Praise's due date is coming fast! She is due on Tuesday so we are on goat watch. She has freedom during the day but gets locked up at night just in case. I will be staying close to home until she delivers.

She seems smaller this year than last year but I am still hoping for twins. She is, by far my sweetest goat, loves to be loved on. I try and get a picture up close but she is usually right in my face wanting kisses.
When feeding time comes around and I am late on getting out there they come looking for me at my kitchen window, yelling at me to get my rump out there to feed them.

When they see us coming its a full charge! I love their ears when they run makes them look like they are flying.

Chicken news
Right now we have 14 chickens plus three chicks. During the winter we were getting 5-8 eggs a day, now we are getting 0, nada, none. So the chickens have been put in jail until they start laying in the coop. I am not sure if they are hiding them or just taking a break from laying. Nobody is too happy about it, they usually have free range of the yard. My goal is to put the coop in the pasture with the goats, it will be a big job so I am not sure it will happen this year or not.

Birthday Girl!

Happy 10th Birthday Jordan!! We celebrated yesterday since we have AWANA today. She didn't have to do any chores and she got to choose the food for the day( I might have to revamp this because 5 and 7 course meals are being requested☺ Here are her meal that she chose.
B:Eggs, bacon cinnamon rolls
L:Velveeta Mac&cheese, grapefruit, doritos
D:Baby Back Ribs, mashed potatoes, melon, and salad(which I forgot)
Cake was chocolate with vanilla frosting and ice cream.

Bread

Jaelyn

I have been making bread for about a month now and it seems I have finally found a recipe that we all like. It makes 4 loaves. The recipe came out of a book called The Magic of Wheat Cookery. Here is the recipe:

2 Tbl dry yeast
1/2 c warm water
5 c hot tap water
2 Tbl salt
2/3 c oil
2/3 c honey or raw sugar(I use honey)
12 c whole wheat flour(fresh ground)

1)Sprinkle yeast into the 1/2 c warm water. Let stand 10-15 minutes(1 Tbl sugar in yeast will help it work faster.) Grind 9c wheat in mill on fine.

2)combine hot tap water and 7c freshly ground whole wheat flour in mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until blended.

3)Add salt, oil, and honey or raw sugar. Continue to mix until well blended. Add 1c flour to mixture and blend thoroughly.

4)Add 3-4 c more flour to mixture. knead for 10 min on low speed or until the dough begins to clean the side of the bowl and is the consistency of cookie dough.

5)oil hands. Remove dough from mixer 1/4 at a time. Mold into loaves on oiled counter. Place in oiled pans. oil top of loaves if soft crust is desired. Cover loaves with a damp cloth. Let rise 1/3 in bulk for approximately 35 min.

6)Bake at 350 for 40-50 min Remove from pans. put on rack to cool. Brush tops with butter or oil.

**I have also done the double rise: put dough in bowl and cover and rise for 1-1/2 hours then shape into loaves and let rise covered again for 1/2 hour. then bake.

**watch the bread at the end of cooking time...mine always seems to get a little too brown.
ENJOY!!

I won!

I should've posted this the other day when I got the message that I won Tamara's give away. Dave Ramsey is my favorite for learning about financial info. So, I am excited that my kids are going to learn from him also. My hope one day is to be debt free, home included. I would love to pay cash for everything. We have a long way to go but we are on the right track. My husband and I are on the same page for a change. Right now we are not eating out at restaurants, and skipping the coffee shops. I am staying home more to cut down on gas, plus whenever I go out for some reason the money just jumps out of my purse;)
One of the ways I save is by going to the library. I have been taking a trip to the library once a week for so many years it seems like a natural thing to do. While we are there we get our movie night movies, music cd's, magazines, books for the week, books on cd,the kids do puzzles while they are there. At our library in our old town you could check out computer games but not at this one. Most of the time we have put books on hold using their website, so all we have to do is just pick the holds up. I honestly don't know why more people don't use the library. It's a great resource and all free(as long as you return the stuff on time). Our library isn't the best one, but if you need a book that they don't have they can order it through inner-library loan. Going to the library is my kids favorite thing to do during the week.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside My Window...cloudy, foggy, grey...32f

I'm thinking... I need a nap(its 7:20am LOL)

From the learning rooms....school

I am thankful for...blue skies

In the Kitchen...T bone Steaks and Potatoes

I am reading... Thru the Bible
This week: OT: Genesis; Matthew, Psalms, Romans, Joshua, Job, Isiah, KJB
also, Beth Moore~ David 90 Days with a Heart Like His, and plenty of fiction on side table.

I am hoping... that the girls get along better today.

I am creating... a quilt.

I am hearing... the pellet stove running.

Around the house & barn... outside: usual chores inside: the big clean: bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, garbage cans .

One of my favorite things... right now...quilting

I am going... to the bookstore with a friend tonight after dropping Jacob off at CAP.
A few plans for the rest of the week (besides school)...
M-Taking Jacob to CAP
T - watching neighbor boy.
W - AWANA and Bible study
TH - Home school meeting
F - Woman's Ministry Meeting .
S - NOTHING
S - Church & Family Time

A Picture I am sharing with you...
From the early days..

Thank you Peggy for hosting.

Give Away!

Go over to see Tamara, she is having a great giveaway! And what a pretty blog.


Hurry it ends on Jan 12!

Quilt Progress

Rob was out of town for a few days this week/weekend so I spent a lot of time on the quilt. Jordan volunteered her services so I put her to work. I taught her how to press the pieces and cut the strips. She loved the ironing, so she spent most of her time doing that.

I finally got all my pieces cut and laid out on the carpet so I could see what it would look like. I am still not sure if I like this material, but for a first quilt I guess it is ok. Here are all the stacks of pieces ready to be assembled.

Here is the quilt all laid out on our Living Room floor.

The two older girls helped me lay it out on the floor. They seemed to really enjoy it, which was a good thing cause I was going cross eyed after the first 30 min. On my next quilt I will enlist their help even more.

What a wonderful Creator we have!

Go Here
to read a wonderful post about our Creator! Thank you Dalyn!