And…we're back!

Hello!

It’s good to be back! No, I didn’t leave town, and I hardly left the house except to go to the grocery store and attend a baby shower. When I said we’ve been busy, I mean B-U-S-Y. Here’s some of what I’ve been up to, besides the everyday routine items:

• finishing up some home office paperwork on which I was shamefully behind
• planting garden seeds in pots – tomatoes, collards, herbs
• prepping the garden plot for direct planting – dumping hundreds of gallons of organic material
• making kombucha starter successfully – I’m on my second batch of the tea, which my husband greatly enjoys
• writing in my home organization notebook – starting from scratch and reevaluating EVERYTHING: chores, schedule, menus
• having some “boot camp” time with my younger children
• decluttering – going through bags of clothing people gave us and cleaning out our own dressers

It hasn’t been all work – well, a lot of it has, but I like to take a break from my regular work by doing a different kind of work.  Here’s a few of the fun things that have been going on:

• playing around with a new camera and taking digital videos -  now I need to download everything!
• reading a series of books aloud to my children – took 2 weeks, and a couple of days we read for 3 hours straight.  I say “we” because I’d start yawning, hand the book to the children, and they’d take turns reading chapters while I cuddled up with my nappers.
• making t-shirt rope out of old t-shirts – I’m eyeing everyone’s shirts with new interest now…
• making plarn, or plastic yarn from Walmart bags – yesterday we made a 40-foot piece of plarn from only TWO bags.
• dreaming of what vegetables, fruit trees, flowers to plant around here to really get the edible landscaping theme going.
• designing a solid wood towel holder and recessed toilet roll holder for the boys’ bathroom
• attending a baby shower for a dear friend of mine who is pregnant with her 11th child – the whole time was like a mini-reunion for me and my girls as we saw some friends we only see at baby showers!
• celebrating Deborah’s 12th birthday yesterday – friends made the cake for us and delivered it (what a blessing that was!) and we had a great time.  We ate homemade parmesan chicken nuggets, broccoli, corn chips, and “beveled” eggs along with the cake.

I have plans to begin organizing my blog for better navigation, and to expand the topics.  I’ve been blessed with a few blog awards, and need to get the posts up about those.  Here’s a few of the things I have in mind:

• homeschooling – how we started, and details about what we use/have used and what works for us now
• farming and gardening – in the past we’ve raised our own quail, chickens, ducks, geese, guineas, turkeys, pigs, and goats.  Right now our two French Alpine does are due January 5th, so we’ll be getting back into our milking routines soon!
• large family chores, routines, and scheduling – I’m not that great at this, but I’m learning – perhaps people can learn with me.
• do-it-yourself projects and crazy re-purposing ideas of mine (possibly titled “Never Throw Anything Away If You Can Turn It Into Something Useful”?)
• some of our favorite large family recipes – freshly ground whole wheat bread, pizza “snakes”, granola – you know, GOOD FOOD!
• pregnancy and homebirth – our first 2 children were born in hospitals, the last 7 were born at home with a midwife

I could use YOUR help here – what would YOU like me to write about?

Well – that’s it!  It’s 6am, and my cell phone just beeped at me.  OK, I’ll tell you what it says… “WAKE CHILDREN” i.e. get off the computer and get the day rolling.   Yes, sometimes I need to be reminded to do just that…