MN themed Homeschool day - and turning a skirt into a vest.

Well this week has come and gone feeling like a bit of a whirlwind and so my normal series of posts that I do on Wednesday and Thursday did not happen. Sorry about that. Lord willing I will be back to normal next week. :-)

  This week had a bit more activity than normal but as of tonight pretty much everything that I needed to do is done.

• Hold a recital for my music students. Check! That was Sunday afternoon.
• Make presents for and enjoy birthdays with my Mom and niece. Check!
• Finish up our yearly achievement tests (required in MN) and mail them. Check!
• Have our most time intensive and exciting homeschool co-op day for the year. Check!
• Arrange and deliver wedding flowers. Check! (The wedding was this evening.)
• Travel to a nearby town and pick up our bees. Check! (Ken and I went and did that after I delivered the flowers and then took the kids to my parents. - We had a fun date night!)
• Put together a floral quote for another bride.

Then of course there was the normal stuff like our normal homeschooling, cleaning, cooking, teaching music lessons and such. It has been a busy week and I have been so thankful for the strength that God has given each step of the way. God is so very good!

  I told you that this month I was going to have a bunch of posts about remaking clothes. I thought it would be fun to tell you today about our fun homeschool day and a costume that I made that involved a clothing remake.

  The theme for our homeschool co-op day this month was Minnesota. Many of the months when we get together the kids are required to prepare something to present but this month the kids for the most part (though many of them did help with preparations to be sure!) had it easy and the parents had to do the work.

  We decided it would be fun to have different stations that the kids could go to that told a different part about Minnesota.

At one station (held in one of our classrooms at the church building) two moms told about all the different state symbols. They had a very nice coloring book of that made up to give to each child and they talked about them, had some activities and fed them blueberry muffins (or state muffin). I didn't get any good pictures of this station.

 At another station two moms had turned one of the classrooms into a pretty neat looking (this picture really doesn't do it justice at all - they went all out to make it cool) general store from the early 1900's. At that station they talked about that time period in MN and how the general store was rather the main place in town.

 At another station one of the moms with the help of her Grandpa told about logging in MN. They had pictures, clothing and equipment to show the kids and originally they had planned to saw some logs with a two person hand saw and other outdoor activities but the day ended up very cold so they didn't do that. The Grandpa had started logging in 1940 so he had plenty to tell. I would have loved to sit in on the presentation but I was busy running my own station most of the time.

 At another station a father and son told about Minnesota's involvement in the civil war. This 12 year old boy is very, very interested in the civil war (and knows facts about it like you wouldn't believe) so he skipped out on going around to the stations with the rest of the kids so that he could help run a station.

At another station two of the moms told and showed things about the voyageurs and fur traders. They were going to have all of their station outside but because of the cold weather they didn't but they did go out for a little bit to sit in a canoe and do some other activities.

 Another station was about the Native Americans that did/do live here. Kate made a tee pee using some tarps I was able to get from my brother that works at a lumber yard along with some poles that they collected. The two moms that ran this fed the kids pemmican and cornbread, had them grind corn using a mortar and pestle (they were going to use bigger rocks outside but stayed in the tee pee because of the cold, told them about signs they would have used to write and taught them a lot of other things too.

 I and two other moms worked together to tell about Scandinavian immigration to MN. A Grandma also came and helped a lot. From left to right our names are: Elsa Petersen (from Sweden), Hilda something-Bakken from Norway and Inga Olsen (pronounced Oooooolson) from Norway - her mom didn't have a pretend name. We tried to get in character as much as we could. Inga definitely could put on the accent the best and we had quite a few laughs over that.

 Our main activity was Lefse making. Lefse in a traditional Scandinavian food it is similar to a tortilla but made with lots of potatoes. It is still made and enjoyed by many people in our area. The Scandinavian influence in Northern MN is strong with lots of people with last names that end in "son", lots of Lutheran churches, Swedish Meatball and Lutefisk suppers and things like that.

 I like to make lefse at home put I just do it with my regular rolling pin, roll it on the counter and cook it on my normal electric skillet - however those that like to do it the traditional way have special cloth covered boards to roll it on, they have rolling pints with grooves on them or wrapped in cloth and they have a special stick to life it and flip it with and they cook them on special round electric skillets.

  We also fed the kids Lutefisk (a fish that is treated with lye an interesting process), a fruit soup and a rice pudding (I don't remember how to spell the Norwegian names for those). Lutefisk is pretty interesting and smelly but most of the kids were willing to try it and one of the older boys had seconds and a little boy ate 3 helpings.

  I took along things that I had tried rosemaling on for decorations and we brought other things of Scandinavian influence along to show off as well. We had a lot of fun in our Scandinavian kitchen!

 Megan or "Linnea" for the day - went dressed up like a Scandinavian too. Here she is having fun playing in a barrel that was brought to be part of the general store.

 I had a wool sweater that had been Ken's Grandmothers that was made in Norway. It was a great addition to my costume but was too warm to wear inside.

 The clothing remake that I did for my costume (I already had the shirt from a time I dressed up for a colonial times class and I had the skirt from some of my regular clothes - I just pin on a strip of red felt) was the wool vest. Most of the traditional Scandinavian costumes that I found when researching where Bunads that had skirts, shirts and vests. Often the vests would have flowers embroidered on them.

 To make the vest I found an old skirt in my stash of wool clothes (that were given to me and I have slowly been using them to make things). The skirt was fairly small and I held it up to me and figured out that really all I needed to do was to cut off the waist, cut sleeve holes, cut it down the back (which became the front) and then cut out a neckline. I left the hem in place to use for the bottom of the vest.

   My next step was to sew up the shoulder seams and then hem around the arm holes as well as each side of the front and around the neckline.

  Next I sewed hook and eyes on to the front (though not all the way up as their vest didn't seem to be fastened the whole way up). The vest was technically done but I did want to have flowers on it as most of theirs did. However I didn't have enough time to embroider it. I decided to cut the pieces out of some felted wool that I had and simply zig-zag around them (applique) to put them on.

 The decorating went fast and definitely made my vest more exciting.

 I doubt this vest will get much wear but thankfully it didn't take long (less than an hour I think) to make and I used stuff I already had on hand.

   I have more clothing re-makes to share with you soon - and most of them are a bit more practical! Stay tuned!

A bag for April (About the simplest bag you can make)

I made a bag to "wrap" the birthday present for my niece yesterday. It is one that will also work nicely for her to use as a book bag or whatever else she likes. This type of bag is extremely simple to make. I will show you a quick pictorial tutorial.

First cut out a rectangle from fabric that is around 2 times as long as it is wide. I had been given a bunch of these that were already cut out and ready to make into bags. The lady they came from had cut the rectangle out of a cotton print and a heavy piece of upholstery fabric and then she had also sewed a little pocket  on it the size to fit a library card. That step of course is not needed. 

 Cut out some ribbon (or make handles out of something else) and sew them on as shown on each end. (Far enough from the end so that you can still hem it.)

 Put the right sides together and sew the side seams.

 Fold down the bottom corner as shown and sew across it and then cut off the corner. This allows you to have a flat bottom on your bag.

 Turn the bag right side out and sew a hem around the top.

That is it - you are now done! Very simply and easy. You can use bags like these for groceries, books, knitting, really whatever you want!

Enjoy!

Happenings around our homestead

 We are really feeling in the homestead mode lately at our house. Here is a few of the reasons that we have been feeling that way:

 Our indoor tomato plants have been going to town with their growing. Ken is wondering if our big window is going to be completely covered soon. It has been quite fun to watch their amazing growth! The biggest one is blooming quite a bit now and we have been attempting to pollinate it but aren't quite sure if we did it right or not. I hope we did!

 I also have a lot of little seedlings up now. As always it is fun to watch them grow and dream about the garden. We still have a month before we can plant them outside but meanwhile they will grow in here.

 Now that much of the snow is gone it is time to start working on the chicken coop and run. The boys are very eager to work on it. They cleared the area we chose and have done some moving of dirt to make things a bit more level. They love that hard physical labor if it means something fun like animals! We aren't planning on getting the chicks until the middle of June but we will be ordering them (from a local place) quite soon. We are planning on getting 15 layers (well a couple of them will be roosters) to raise here and then we are ordering some broilers along with my parents that will be raised at their place. We thought about keeping some here but I wanted to take them to their place for butchering and Dad thought it would make the most sense for him to just raise the broilers.

If you raise chickens I am curious if you have a favorite layer breed? I think I have made my decisions in that regard but I certainly could be swayed. I am planning on getting a few different varieties and they need to do well in a cold climate.

Megan has really been enjoying reading lately. I love it when my kids hit that stage where they read about anything that they can get their hands on. Reading is so often the key to learning. (This one may not be so "Homestead" related but I thought it was a cute picture of a cute- though messy haired- girl and reading has definitely been very useful to us in learning how to be better homesteaders.

Mara did some cleaning up and weeding in our flower bed. She has been keeping her eye out for any wild plants. She has been reading up on wild food plants all winter and plans on collecting a bunch for us to try. I am pretty excited to have her be interested in that.

  I have finally been melting down and cleaning up the wax cappings from when I extracted honey in the fall. I want to make some more lip balm as well as use it for other things. The wax really has a delightful smell when it is heated! Because I had a couple of old frames of wax "explode" on me while they were in the extractor I have all of that wax too. There sure is a lot of impurities in with the wax!

  We have the arrival for our NUCs of Bees scheduled for this Friday. It will be fun to having busy bees around here once again!

  We have a tree/bush pick-up scheduled for the following Friday. This year we ordered a total of 50 trees and bushes from the county. They offer very economical local trees and bushes. I have ordered a lot of crap apples which Dad and I are going to graft good tree scions on and then I also ordered other local berries and some decorative trees and bushes as well.

  I sewed a skirt and a bag and made a flower barrette for my nieces birthday.

  I went out to my parents today to help with the maple syrupping process and then brought home some syrup which I canned this evening. So YUMMY!

Have you been enjoying any homesteading activities lately? I love to hear from you!

 

Striving to be wise

Last week I spoke of my effort to not be so critical of others and I also mentioned that I find it hard to be criticized (though when it is done kindly I don't find it that hard - but I need to be willing to listen to all of it even when I don't care for it). I found it interesting that a day or so later I was reading to the kids from Proverbs and happened to read these verses:

 "He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, reprove a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man and he will increase his learning.
   The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 8:7-10

 My goal is to have wisdom. Part of being a wise person is being willing to listen to reproof and instruction. I hope that I will learn to always do that happily.

 Do you struggle to listen to criticism or reproof?

Wherein I try the art of Rosemaling

Decorated skis

    Next week we are having are last homeschool co-op for the school year (though we will still get together later in May for a potluck and program) and the theme for the month is Minnesota. This has been a very fun theme to develop as there are so many cool and interesting things about our state. We decided that this month the adults/parents would have various stations that the kids would go around and visit. We thought it would be fun to make it as hands on and visual as possible. I think it is going to be so much fun!

  The stations that we ended up deciding to have (and not necessarily because they are the most important aspects of MN but mainly because there were adults that were particularly interested in presenting on those subjects) are: Native Americans in MN, Fur Traders and Voyagers, Immigrants coming to MN (primarily talking about the Scandinavian immigrants as many of them came and influenced Northern MN life) , Logging, A Pioneer General Store, The Civil War's affect on MN and other history and a station where the kids learn about all the symbols (flag, state bird, etc.) of MN.

Some of my first paintings

   I volunteered to do the Scandinavian station even though I don't think I have a drop of Scandinavian blood in me and some other mothers who actually do have history in that area said that they would help. We are planning on having a Scandinavian Kitchen where the kids will get to make Lefse and taste Lutefisk and other fun food items but we also plan to dress in costume, address each other as Lena , etc. (I still haven't figured out my first name for the day) and we wanted to decorate our place a little and show the kids some things that went along with the Scandinavian immigrants.

  Rosemaling is something that is well known in this area and very typical of the Scandinavian immigrants so I figured somebody from our group would probably own something that they could bring for us to show, but nobody did. So I decided I had better try out doing some rosemaling painting myself. I had never done it before but I thought it would be fun to try.

  The rosemaling has indeed been a lot of fun to try. I watched several YouTube videos on the subject (You can see my link to several videos, as well as a bunch of other pretty Scandinavian pictures I found, on my Scandinavian Pinterest board) and I got some books at the library and I have had fun giving it a whirl.

  I still have so much to learn but I did learn several of the proper brush strokes and I have had a lot of fun painting. My things still don't look like much of the traditional work that I have seen but I think they will be okay for some decorations at our homeschool day.

I decided it would be fun to paint some old skis that we had laying around and I think I will prop them up outside the kitchen door. After all the Scandinavians are believed to be the ones to invent skiing so I am guessing they may have brought that sport to MN as well.

 I had fun trying to do rosemaling on some cards.

 I painted a wooden box that wasn't looking to good in it's former condition and so I thought so rosemaling might improve it.

In one book I found the Norwegian saying above right that in English says: "In all your deeds should God's glory the first and the last be." I love that! The other sign says "Welcome" and I plan to put it on our kitchen door for the kids to see.

  When I have pulled out the paints to work on these projects (I just used simple water based paint that we had on hand) the kids enjoy painting as well. They painted pictures, tried rosemaling too and this evening they had fun painting various toy cars and train parts. It is jolly times to take time to be creative together.

   We may need a lot of developing to actually become good at this but we aren't afraid to try or to have fun in the process!

  Are there any of you that are actually good rosemalers out there? I would love to hear painting stories and tips from any of you!

Chore Schedule

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 One of the tools we use for being organized at our house is a chore schedule. The kids each have various chores they need to do each day and as several of them (emptying the dishwasher, sweeping, etc.) are rotated chores it is nice to have a list to reference who does what on each day.

 I also have a  list for me which is especially helpful for getting me in the routine of things that I want to make into a habit. Some things, like making meals, I just know I need to do so they don't end up on my list and the older kids and I don't have making our bed on our lists either as we simply do that automatically but for the younger kids I have it on their list.

   Having a list already made up takes a lot of the need to plan and think out of the day. If a child is wanting to go play I can just make sure that they have done the needed things on their chore list first and then they are free to go.

   I have used chore lists (sometimes more faithfully than others) for years now in fact here is a link to a post where I shared all of our lists in 2007. I still use the same list for my monthly, seasonally and yearly chores but the other lists have been revamped - especially for the kids.

  This week I have been working on revamping it yet again. This past fall we made a lot of revisions and updated it so that the kids were carrying a little heavier work load - after all they were growing up and are capable of much more than they once were and we want them to be prepared for running their own homes someday. But there were a few minor details that needed to be changed and I added a few things.

 Having the updated chore list this year has been such a blessing. The kids have taken over the cooking of some meals (I get part of the weekend off! I love it!) as well as being more involved with laundry and some of the other cleaning. I haven't felt so caught up on things since I did when Mara (my eldest) was a (easy) baby. Realizing that my children are only going to get more accomplished at helping around the house is so amazing and fun to think about! I am so thankful to God for how abundantly he has blessed us!

  The kids don't feel overwhelmed with chores either. We have worked on the charts together and mostly their comments have been things like "I would like to make breakfast one day" or "Lets split up the emptying the dishwasher and the dish drainer" (so one child no longer does both on one day). Now that they are all old enough to read that can check the list for themselves and get their things done and be ready for free time. The boys like to rise early so they will often get things done before breakfast.

Mara and Jonathan's chart

This time I added Musical instrument practice on to the chart as we have struggled to be regular at that (which is so embarrassing for me to say since I teach other people's children). I also put Spanish lessons on the chart because even though we have and love the Rosetta Stone Spanish Program we just haven't gotten into the habit of using it regularly. Hopefully this will help us to become fluent speakers of Spanish soon! :-)

   With these charts we do also totally realize that they are made for ideal days where we are home most of the time. Those don't always happen however, sometimes we go somewhere for much of the day, sometimes we have company, sometimes we get sick. There are some things on the lists that need to be done every day pretty much no matter what but there are others (like washing the hallway wall, cleaning the fridge or dusting) that simply can be skipped - things might get a little gross but we can live with that.

   We have found chore charts to be very helpful in living a more organized life. Do you use chore charts? I would love to hear your methods for staying organized!