We just finished out 6th year homeschooling!  I can’t believe it.  Other than being a wife and mom, I don’t think I’ve done anything that long!!  And guess what?  I still love it!  Each year is new and exciting to me.  I might enjoy it more than my kiddos!

Please know, that in NO way am I bashing public schooling.  I know many amazing teachers (and even family members who teach) and they bless so many children and families.  They ARE changing the world.  And we need them.  It’s just not what God has asked us to do.  Just like He’s asked us to live on a farm.  That’s why living in America is great!  We have choices.

In 2010, God was working on my heart in so many ways.  First, to bring my family to eating healthier. Second, to be open to living on a farm.  And third, to start homeschooling.  All of this was completely foreign to me!!!  I started researching through other blogs, books, and talking to other moms.

My college degree was Food Science and Human Nutrition.  I was trained that science is the best.  God was challenging me that what HE created was best.  Not labs and factories but what is found in nature.  Which led to living on a farm……. AND why not grow it yourself???  I feel I have no marketable skills but I felt I could grow a garden and take care of some animals.  Already, God was preparing my heart to accept our move to Idaho in 2013.  Because before that, absolutely NO WAY!  So now, along with Google, blogs and YouTube, that’s what I do!!  Never say never to God!!

So back to homeschooling, God was showing me that we were so busy that I didn’t have time to teach the kids what I was called to do.  I had been extremely active in Riley’s public school.  I was room mom and even president of the school parent teacher organization.  I saw all the time spent on things that were not so important.   And the way I was to find the time was by homeschooling.  SCARY!!!!

Cue thanks for the invention of Facebook and the pioneers of homeschooling that I knew that had high school graduates and even college graduates who were homeschooled!!!  I asked everyone I knew who homeschooled for theiradvice.

Once the decision had been made to homeschool, the next big decision to make was CURRICULUM!  A wise friend of mine suggested that Sonlight would be a good fit for us since it is full of living books.  Premier educator, Charlotte Mason describes living books as “usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.” They can be contrasted to dry writing, like what is found in most encyclopedias or textbooks, which basically lists informational facts in summary form.”

After looking at their curriculum, I decided to use Sonlight for our first year.  It was a little spendier but I loved how I could incorporate all three children together AND they have amazing teacher guides, which I needed.

After our first year, I thought that I could create our own curriculum.  We tried several things but ended up back with Sonlight.  They just make it too easy.  You have everything when you receive the supplies.  No running to the library or Wal-Mart which is very important for us since we live on a farm!

What I appreciate about homeschooling

• Mom learns just as much as kids, if not more
• Mom has to trust God as God is molding me as much as our kids
• Freedom in our scheduling.  This year we skied in Utah for a long weekend then headed to Texas for 2 weeks during the school year.  We take off when grandparents visit from Texas.
• Siblings HAVE to work it out.
• Schooling can happen anywhere and they love learning.  Granted this is after 6 years of homeschooling.
• We do tons of life skill training.  My 11 and 15 years olds can make at least one complete meal unassisted. And it’s not heating frozen pizza!

I am so thankful we have the freedom for this adventure!

Most people are squeamish about raising their own meat.  I can understand that!  I am an animal lover and hate to see anyone in pain.

But I also care about my family.  I am concerned about how the American food system is taking care of their products.  Hmmm, how is sending chickens to China to be processed a good thing?????  So, I combat this by raising my own animals.  I know what they’re fed, how they’re treated, how happy their life is, how big the shelter is, etc.

My philosophy is make sure all their days are good until their last day.  And that last day is not a happy day for anyone!!!  I miss them when they are gone.  But it makes me appreciate their gift to me more now that I know what happened in order to have it.

Last year, we ventured into the world of pigs/pork.  I LOVED it.  Loved their antics.  My husband and kids are loving their bacon and smoked pork chops.  And say it is the best tasting EVER.  I love being able to provide for my family.  Getting ready to order my next batch for this year.  Halfway through last season, I decided to add more pigs so I could sell those and make costs even for my own meat.  If you taking care of one, why not add a few more!

One thing I noticed was how quickly we clear out a freezer!!  When you load it in the freezer as you come home from the butcher, you think, how can we eat all this!?!?!  But I gave a lot out as Christmas gifts – to someone who gave us their leftover corn, to our neighbors, grandparents, aunt/uncle, etc.  And we might eat at home more than the average person?  I have no clue on that.

I bought 65 butchered chickens last year and we don’t have ANY left!!!  My kiddos are missing chicken meals.

So this year we will be focusing on raising meat birds/broilers/cornish cross.

We have butchered our own roosters and they weren’t my favorite taste so I researched more into it.  First off, the roosters we ate were not the eating type.  Second, I didn’t let them sit (to remove rigor mortis) before cooking.  Third, did not cook them the best way to soften them.

I looked into raising Freedom Rangers.  This is said to be a more natural type that doesn’t gorge themselves to death and are better raised on pasture.  BUT I was concerned as my husband is not keen on the dark meat flavor of regular grocery store chickens so how would he be on these?  So that is why I am raising Cornish Cross this year.

As I posted earlier, we hatched 21 eggs.  Then we purchased 24 more eggs and 24 chicks.  If these all hatch/reach maturity, that would be 69 chickens but that won’t be enough for a year AND provided my butchering helpers with chicken too.   So we’ll do at least 1 more set of eggs and chicks.

For the first 2 weeks, they live in our garage in a horse trough with shavings, a heat lamp and well-covered to keep out our cats.  I am able to check on them regularly and keep them in clean food and water.  Now meat birds are different than layers!  Whoo Whee!!!  Smellier, messier, eat more, swim in their water bottle and uglier.  And since they can gorge themselves to death, after their first week, I take out their food at night.   I buy all of our feed from Scratch and Peck but have it delivered through Azure Standard.  Since we will be eating these birds, I want to make sure everything that they eat is as natural as possible.  For the first 8 weeks, they are to be on Starter feed.  Then they will be moved to Grower feed.  I’ll supplement their feeding with a local farmer’s scratch mix as it will cut feed costs.

Once they reach about 2 weeks old, we move them to the brooder that my husband built in our chicken coop.  I think he did a pretty good job designing it but I may be a little biased.  He is so resourceful!  As our house was being built, every scrap that was thrown out, he took and stored in a building her on the farm.  And he manages a warehouse so every time something comes in on pallets, he brings them home.  Other than buying hinges, he had everything on the farm!

This brooder hopefully will be all they need til butcher time!

We’ll butcher them at around 8 weeks if they are around 6 lbs before butchering.

I have been more introspective at the close of this year then I ever have been!  Maybe because this year I spent more time on training and developing ME?    Maybe that would have been my word/phrase for 2015 – personal development?  I think that the end of 2014 was when I first saw people making words for their year? Maybe??  Or maybe I just paid attention to it?  And I couldn’t think deeply enough to dedicate a word for me to focus on all year long.

Since I spend so much this year on introspection, I can see areas that need change in my life.  I realize I am involved in too many good things.  What’s the saying about doing too many good things that don’t allow for the great things?

I realized when school started this fall we would have to cut things.  Right off the bat, we cut 4H.  It is a very good activity, just too many regular meetings when we are already living 4H out on our farm.  Every day is already educational in farm life!   We cut the girls’ from the local drama group.  Mom was just tired of being the sole taxi driver and there isn’t anyone way out here in the country to carpool with.  We stopped the regular involvement with the American Legion.  We still made 130 Veterans Day cards and helped with the annual Turkey Bingo fundraiser but opted out of the monthly meeting and potluck.  But you know what???  I still feel overwhelmed!

Several years ago, I read a book called “A Woman After God’s Own Heart” by Elizabeth George.    It has been a huge impact on me (in fact it was the one that guided me to homeschool!)  But I remember the author saying something like Mama being the thermostat of the house.  If she is tired and cranky, her kids will show the same symptoms.  In my case, if Mama is stressed, the kids will also be stressed.

As I was searching for a new Bible Study to do in November, I saw one titled Breathe by Priscilla Shirer.  I had to think about it for a few weeks but decided that it was the study I needed to close the year out with.  I have a problem slowing down.  In fact, that’s probably the reason I don’t sit still enough to focus on this blog.

I have learned so much from it.  First off, I don’t feel I have trusted God enough with our finances.  That is something WE are supposed to control, in my faulty opinion.  Secondly, I learned that I am a slave to busy-ness.  I feel my self-worth comes from what I accomplish.  My son said a few weeks ago that we are not honoring the Sabbath as that’s one day we work even harder than others since Daddy is home and we can get projects done.  How convicting is that??  Now, I think he also had ulterior motives since working is not his preference!

Daryl and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this week. We went out to a delicious local sourced restaurant and talked for several hours.  As we always do, we looked back on the years and he commented on our lack of Sabbath rest.  Since D confirmed my thoughts, I knew this was something I need to change/focus on it for this next year.

So what will my word be for 2016??  Peace.

I will seek God in all my decisions – all my essential oil business decisions, all my farming decisions, all my homeschooling decisions.  I am seeking Peace.  If I don’t have God’s peace, I don’t want it!

This 2015 garden season was non-stop until the middle of November.  It did not go as I planned.  Things didn’t grow that I wanted to.  Weeds grew more than I wanted them to. My melons didn’t grow at all.  I had beets and carrots grow but guess what happened??  Mice ate them….under the  ground!!!

Throughout the hot summer months, we were able to go pick strawberries, apricots, peaches and pears from local farmers.  I did get a few apples which were only enough to make one batch of applesauce as we have plenty from last year.  I preserved and dried as much as I could handle.  We planted several fruit trees but it takes several years for them to mature and we even lost three (plum, cherry and peach).  Next year, we will have to plant more.

Here are some of my favorite recipes:

My favorite strawberry jam recipe (Just don’t try it with raw sugar.  Makes it too runny like a syrup!)

We found an abandoned apricot tree and made this Apricot Jam.

I discovered this AMAZING honey spiced peach recipe. I had leftover syrup and canned the syrup too.  SO DELICIOUS!!!!

This peach vanilla jam is TO DIE FOR!!!!!!  And was the easiest thing ever to make.  But our area had a hard freeze in late spring so there weren’t as many peaches to use.

Because I like the peach vanilla jam so much, I made tons of her pear vanilla jam to give out to neighbors and homeschool friends as Christmas presents.  I loved using this recipe because you did not have to peel the pears before making!!  Wahoo!!

If you can’t tell, we aren’t plain canned fruit with sugar syrup people.  I made this recipe for vanilla spiced pears  last year and knew I needed to repeat it this year.  My kids would drink the syrup if I let them!!!

I got so sick of pears before I finished, so I made one last effort to make this pear sauce!

My ideal goal was to have our fruit needs prepared for the year but they way THIS family eats fruit, I am sure I didn’t do that!!

Have you ever heard the thought that you are only as healthy as what you eat?  Ever thought that you are only as healthy what your food eats?

That was MY main thought when we got our pigs.  Why raise pigs to eat that don’t eat heathy themselves?  As you know, I am fairly new to the area so I don’t know the area businesses.  Don’t know where the food comes from.  But I do know a farmer that raises his own pasture raised pork.  What does HE feed his pigs?  I asked him and it’s from another local farmer, who happens to be certified organic!  It’s just a mixture of three grains.  Why I didn’t think about this until I GOT the pigs, I have no idea!

For the first couple of weeks, I fed that mixture.  Farmer John allows his pigs a larger area to pasture.  Mine don’t have that much area and they immediately tore up all the vegetation in there.  So I was concerned that they weren’t getting ENOUGH to eat.  Yes, they got our scraps but was that enough?

Shortly after we got the pigs, we went up to our favorite camp and helped clean out the industrial refrigerator and freezer.  I was so excited to bring home all the expired food to feed the pigs.  One reason I love having pigs is they turn scraps into bacon!

Through K’s 4H classes, I learned that pigs need a certain percentage of protein.  I buy our bulk goods from an awesome coop called Azure Standard and saw they offered alfalfa  pellets and field peas but no pig feed.  I asked Farmer John if those would be good to add and he said yes.  I want these pigs to grow like they should!  No skimping on my bacon!  K IS in 4H but she is a clover bud meaning she can’t sell her pigs in the livestock sale but WE can eat them!

So my pig feed is a mixture of local grains, alfalfa pellets and field peas.  They LOVE it!!!