Mid-School Year Update 2016-2017

Our homeschool has been plugging along since the first week of September 2016, until we were interrupted by weeks of morning sickness where it was a chore to even make it out of bed most days, much less teach anything! 

Then in October, Mason fell and cut his leg open, requiring lots of stitches and staples, which got infected with Staph A. He was hospitalized for a week and on some high grade antibiotics.  Thankfully, our family rallied around us and made sure all our other kids were cared for and loved while Mom and/or Dad were in the hospital with Mase.  Mimi and Poppie even flew all the way from Alabama to help us out!

Poor sick little guy!

We started to play catch up with school in November, but took a week off to visit Grandma and Grandpa for Thanksgiving.  In early December, I came down with the worst sinus infection I have ever had, which was made even worse by the fact that I couldn't take anything to give me much relief because of the pregnancy. 

It was a miserable two weeks and we got zero school done, but honestly, that's life.  And that's one of the wonderful aspects of homeschooling.  We were able to put formal school on the back burner for a little bit and focus on getting our family healthy and working together as a team to ensure that the house still functioned and everyone was fed and bathed and had clean clothes to wear.

Before Christmas, we got back to our normal school schedule and only took the Monday after Christmas and the Monday after New Year's Day off.  We have since been going strong and we've developed a daily routine that seems to be working for us for now!

I get up about an hour before the kids so that I have time to collect my thoughts, read the Bible, and get my to do list made before the chaos begins. In the mornings, the kids get dressed and bring their dirty clothes down to the washer first thing, then we have breakfast together. 

Strawberry oatmeal! Nom nom!

Everyone finishes the rest of their chores (making beds, brushing teeth, etc.) and I get the dishwasher unloaded and the laundry started.  The little kids play in the living room while the big kids and I work on their math and their writing lessons. 

Sometimes the little ones want to do math too!

The washer is usually done at some point during math, so I switch the laundry to the dryer then.  It is really helpful that our laundry room is just off the dining room, so I can hear the washer stop without having to constantly check on it.  Otherwise, I know I would forget about it... :)

We finished our reading curriculum a few weeks ago, and have now moved on to spelling, so we do that after writing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  We do a grammar lesson on Tuesday and Thursday. 

By that point it is usually getting close to lunch time, so I get lunch ready while the kids pick up the toys that are inevitably strewn about the living room.  We eat anywhere between 11:30-12 and then the kids get the clean laundry out of the dryer and start folding while I load the dishwasher and clean up from lunch. 

Everyone then takes their clean, folded clothes upstairs and puts them away.  Mason's usually make it as far as his bed, but we're working on it! Then it is time for Paisley's nap around 1pm.  Once she is in bed, we sit down and read a lesson from our history book and our Bible curriculum.  I usually let the kids color or build with Legos while I'm reading as it seems to help with their focus. 

Our kids and two friends putting the Legos together while Pais sleeps.

Science has gotten the short end of the stick this year as I haven't been able to keep up with doing an experiment every lesson. Sometimes we skip the experiment and just talk about what should have happened and read the lesson.  We also do Latin DVDs a couple of times a week, usually Mondays and Wednesdays, with an informal review on Fridays.

 

Dad doing a science experiment with the kids!

At that point, we are done and the kids can play or read while I get dinner started (or sit down and read!).  Most of our lessons are structured to be done three or four days a week, so we try to take Friday off or use it as a catch up day if we haven't finished any work from the week.  I like being able to get some bigger projects, like decluttering or deep cleaning, done around the house on Fridays.

This routine has been working for us so far and we are already caught up with where I wanted to be by this point in the year.  In fact, this month and March we are working ahead so that we will finish all of their books by the middle of April.  Although I hate to do two lessons a day in some subjects, I know that everything will be thrown into a tailspin once the baby is born, so I would rather get it done now than do sporadic lessons this summer.

They crack each other up sometimes!

So, that's where we are right now! We are in a good place and a good routine and I am definitely praying that we can keep it up as I get further along in this pregnancy and the fatigue begins to set in again!

2017 Goals for our Mini Suburban Homestead!

I am a little late in posting our goals for this year, considering it's already mid-February, but with everything we have going on with the pregnancy and homeschool, I am giving myself grace! Our ultimate goal (5-10 years out) is to buy a house on at least 5 acres and begin raising more animals, have a larger garden, and become more self-sufficient.

But in the meantime, I have decided that I can do most things that true homesteaders do, just on a smaller scale.  Besides having a dairy cow.  I don't think the neighbors would like that very much! I do plan on getting a few more chicks in March so that once our current hens get older, we will not have to start from scratch with new layers.  As many eggs as we had last summer and fall, I may have to start selling the excess once the new chicks start laying!

Homesteading to me is more of a mindset than anything.  It is about knowing where your food came from and having that direct connection to the land.  It is about having less of a reliance on consumer goods and becoming more of a producer.  Let's face it, none of us will ever be fully self-sufficient without living a very meager lifestyle, but all of us can do something to reduce our dependence upon commercial America. 

So with that in mind, I have come up with a list of skills that I would like to master (or at least try!) before the year is out:

• Make vanilla and almond extracts (sooo expensive at the store-and I bake enough to make this one worth a try!).
• Experiment with making different flavors of yogurt. We love the vanilla, but I'm sure the kids would enjoy something different from time to time.
• Make homemade mayonnaise.
• Research ways to preserve fruits at their cheapest price (freezing, dehydrating, and/or canning). We go through a LOT of fruit and it gets expensive in the wintertime! 
• Find a great, non-crumbly sandwich bread recipe.
• Expand my bread making to include brioche, challah, and sourdough varieties.
• Expand my canning repertoire to include:
• Beef broth
• Chicken broth
• Beans (kidney, black, and white)
• Homemade spaghetti/pasta sauce (find recipe!)
• Chicken chunks
• Make soap.
• Make beeswax candles.
• Make homemade pasta.
• Make homemade cheese (start with mozzarella).
• Find great from scratch biscuit recipe and freeze them for quick breakfasts.

I would like to come back and update each of these bullets when I accomplish one of the tasks, just to keep myself on track.  For example, I made challah bread this afternoon for our French toast dinner! It was easier than I thought and the braided loaves look very fancy!

 

 The braided loaves before their last rise.

After baking.

Next time I will let them bake for about 5 minutes less and they should be perfect!

The Plan for Spring

I love this time of year! It is still too cold here in Idaho to accomplish much outside, but inside next to the fireplace, I am in full scale planning mode for our gardens and yard. 

Obviously not to scale!

We have a very small area, so every little bit of space has to be used wisely!  We currently have three raised beds on the north side of the backyard and a row of arbor vitae on the west fence for a little bit of privacy.  The southwest corner is fully occupied by the chicken coop and run.

My goal this year is to get the blueberry and raspberry bushes replanted and to have a productive vegetable harvest.  We didn't get anything last year except for a few carrots because the free ranging chickens and ducks ate EVERYTHING. Literally.  Now that they are confined to their run, I am hoping to have more success!

Marcus wants to grow a giant pumpkin and the kids would like to plant some grape vines, so we will incorporate those into the plan as well.  I also want to plant some potatoes in buckets and maybe a few corn stalks on the fence line.

Some of the best advice for gardeners I have ever read is to only grow what your family will eat.  In the past, I have always overplanted because I thought that every decent "wannabe homesteader" should grow things like peppers, cucumbers, and cabbage.  The problem is that we don't really eat those veggies very often.  So even if we did get a good crop, it went to waste in the fridge. 

Everything I've got on the plan for this year is food that we will eat fresh or I will can for the winter.  I am excited to get started and see how my garden grows!