Preserving the Harvest

Or should I say preserving what you have or buy! I have canned the last few years. First it started with jams, then applesauce, pickles, pickled asparagus, then a friend introduced me to pressure canning. I had always wanted to try it but was scared:) she showed me how to can carrots. Since then I have canned my own carrots, green beans, chicken and beef stock. Next I want to try my hand at meats. But I'm not quite there yet:))
Lately I've really gotten into dehydrating.. In the past I've only done fruit, but in the last few months I've tried veggies too. I really like the convenience of being able to just throw a handful of this and a handful of that into a pot with my canned stock and some meat and be done. No chopping, dicing, peeling. Dehydrating frozen veggies is he easiest. After you get home from the store you open the bag and dump them on your dehydrator, set it at 125-135 until they are crisp. There isn't any blanching involved when using already frozen veggies from the store.

Gingerbread neighborhood

Each year the kids build a gingerbread house. For the past years I've bought those ready to make houses. Not his year, thanks to Pinterest! We decided to go with the Graham Cracker house. A much easier, more creative, and much CHEAPER way of building. They had so much fun. We didn't have much Halloween candy left over so I decided to color some of the icing. It was a huge hit!!

Praying...

My heart is breaking for those affected by the tragedy at the Connecticut Elementary school, I can't even imagine...
Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. (Psalm 61:1-4 NIV)

Our First REAL snow of the season

It's been snowing here

The kids have been busy cutting snowflakes out of dollar store coffee filters. Too bad it's the only snow we've seen so far this year.

Night Time Sledding, Redneck style

First you have to wait for the tractor or try and catch it...

Then if you were lucky enough to catch it, and stay on, you got a fun ride around the goat pasture...





But if you weren't, you might end up like this...

Or this...

When you are done chasing the tube, you could hang out here...

And get to visit with one of these...

Terri's Birthday Giveaway...

Head on over to Terrri's blog and wish her a happy birthday! While you are there enter her giveaway...she is giving away her hubby's cheese that he makes!

Science

For the past few years we have been using Jeannie Fulbrights Apologia Science and we all love it! Right now we are using the Human Anatomy and Physiology elementary science book. We just finished working on cell structure so the kids made their cells out of jello and candy...what kid wouldn't like this book?? Here are some pictures of them making the cells and then eating them. Fun Stuff!!! Sorry about the yellow pictures, I took them with my cell phone and it wasn't the best light.

Fall

I love fall! It is my favorite time of year. Usually I can't wait for it to get here, but this year our summer showed up late and it was a mild one, I don't think it even got to the triple digits. So I wasn't quite ready for the cooler weather. BUT now that it is here I LOVE it!!
Our schedule has been very busy with Jacob in football several nights a week and CAP, Jocelyn is now in Basketball (and loving it)We also have AWANA for the younger girls. I watch a neighbor preschooler 3 days a week, Jordan has piano and both of the older girls have Bible study every other week... I'm tired just writing it all down. Thankfully football ends after next week. Rob has been helping coach his team so that has been keeping Rob very busy outside of work.
Needless to say we haven't gotten too much done outside. The garden still needs to be rototilled before the freeze hits which will be in the next few weeks. We've trimmed half of the goats hooves and they have all been wormed for the fall. Our irrigation gets turned off tomorrow so soon we will have to start haying the goats...I guess we need to find hay:)We still need to fence in the chicken pen so we can get some eggs. The puppy is growing fast, and boy is she smart.
School is going great, I'm loving it more than any other year. I am not sure why but everything clicked this year. I still have some things to add and they will get added as we go on.