Finding time for projects

 I have had some people wonder how I find time for the various projects I/we do. I thought I would show you a picture of our living room this morning which is pretty typical.

 Every school morning we start out our day with prayer, Bible reading, Memorization, reading of a fun educational book (currently a neat one of the history of medicine), singing and stretching. While the kids listen to me read and while we quote our Bible chapters together we work with our hands. (I don't do it while I read, I just do it during the quoting.)

   Mara generally does a lot of cross stitching while the rest of us have been busy working on rag rugs lately (though Megan will sometimes draw or do other things as well). Jonathan loves to cut strips and is good at it. The others are still learning but they do pretty good. They are good at connecting the strips together. Today I got Aaron started at weaving a hula hoop rug so he worked on that. Jonathan will also sometimes help me crochet the rugs.

  Our living room often looks pretty messy when we get down but it isn't too hard to put to rights- though with all the fabric threads and scraps we do often have to vacuum too. The mess is worth the progress we make in my opinion however. Besides this morning time I also work on projects while I listen to my younger two kids read aloud to me and sometimes in the morning while I have my quiet time.

How do you find time to work on projects?

I am linking up with Amy from Homestead Revival Jill from The Prairie Homestead and  Kendra from New Life on a Homestead

Reminders in God's word

"Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised.The Lord is high above all nations;His glory is above the heavens."Psalms 113:2-4

I needed this reminder today. I hope it blesses you too!

Sharing some beauty

 I had mentioned that I thought it would be fun to try and share beauty outside our home every day in the month of May. It might just be in our yard or it could be further afield. Here is some of the things we have had fun doing so far in May.

May 1st-

 We made around 50 May baskets ( I have mentioned them before and we did have some people help us) with homemade flowers in them. We also put cookies in the baskets that were going to people that we knew - I wasn't sure that people that we didn't know would want to eat cookies out of a basket just left hanging on their door.

 We delivered one to our good friend Ula (who is 98) who lives in an assisted living apartment. She enjoyed it and then when she found out that we were planning on delivering one to everybody in her apartment complex (there are around 40 apartments) she called her niece Lois over so that she could see all the baskets and recieve hers in person.

After that we did go around and hang one on each door. Mara is not with us because she had to have 4 teeth pulled that morning (preparation for braces) and decided it would work better to go hang out with my her aunt rather than go all over delivering baskets.

 Besides that apartment building we did also take some to some friends that live in an apartment for handicapped and low income people. We also had some extras that we just hung on some of the others doors. We had thought it would be fun to do all the apartments there but ran out of time in getting baskets made. I do think they would appreciate them however so maybe next year!

May 2nd-

 We did a bit of ditch cleaning along our road. It always amazes me how much we find. Another day we will do some more cleaning as it still needs it.

May 3rd-

 We had our homeschool get-together and we made May baskets with treats for all of the families that came. I forgot to take a picture until afterwards so these baskets are the leftovers. Our kids had fun eating the treats in them. :-)

May 4th-

 Okay, so I am not so sure this fits under the category of spreading beauty but it is what we did so I guess I will mention it. I went and helped a friend get ready for her estate auction (Her husband died in March) along with my Mom and another friend from church while the kids helped their Grandpa plant a bunch of onions. I failed to take any pictures that day but took a picture of the Auction today when it was actually being held.

May 5th

 We didn't do a lot today but did spend a little while working on weeding and pruning off old plants in the landscaping at the church building.

Have you been working to spread beauty? I would love to hear what you are doing!

I don't buy.... Shampoo or Conditioner

Something that I used to buy on a regular basis but haven't now for a year or so is shampoo and conditioner. (For me anyway- Ken still uses normal products and the kids have been using things that we had on hand as I work to gradually get them changed over to natural products.)

I have chosen to go with what is called the No 'Poo method. So instead of using shampoo I use a baking soda/ water mix every 3 to 6 days. I do shower and get my hair wet every day but I don't "wash" it every day. I then rinse with diluted apple cider vinegar. I also sometimes add aloe vera gel to my rinse mixture which seems to help to prevent dry scalp (and keep everything healthier). If my hair seems to be getting to dry and frizzy then I will use some coconut oil on it.

 I am not going to say that my hair is the healthiest or loveliest that it has ever been with this method but it seems to be working just as well as normal hair products and I am very happy to avoid the weird things that are in the usual shampoo and conditioner.

I was looking for a recent picture of my hair and had trouble finding a good one. I am usually on the other side of the camera. Here is a funny one that one of my (obviously shorter ) kids took recently that shows my hair a bit anyway.

Here is a post another blogger wrote with more detailed instructions and better photos about going no 'poo. (Make sure you click to her 2nd post about it too that she has linked at the bottom of the post).

Have you ever tried alternative methods to regular shampoo and conditioner? What works for you? If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments and I will try to answer as I have time.

I found it pretty funny that I had this post nearly ready to publish when my younger sister called with questions on this very subject.

I am linking this to Frugal Friday as this is a method that can save you a LOT of money, Especially if you were trying to buy natural hair care products. Baking Soda and Vinegar are quite inexpensive and last a long time!

Prepardness Challenge

 Amy at Homestead Revival has a monthly preparedness challenge to inspire all of us to be prepared for whatever life might throw at us. We don't know what will happen in life and it is good to be prepared- Here are some of the things that I did during the month of April to prepare:

~Food Storage:
This area of preparing isn't all that exciting but some things we stocked up on in the past month were:

• Cheese (some decent sales were found)- I find cheese varieties that freeze well.
• Peanut Butter
• Coconut Oil - I found out that Vita Coast had really good coconut oil at $20.99 for 54 oz. Since I was a first time buyer I was able to get a $10 coupon through a referral link. I bought 2 and was able to get free shipping. If you are interested in doing that deal here is my referral link and you can also get $10 off.
• Oatmeal
• Dry Milk

Some of the emergency (and just handy) supplies that we have in the van.

~Emergency Preparedness:

 One of the big areas I worked on for emergency preparedness was going over what we have in the van and making sure everything was current and then I added a tub of food to keep in there, a blanket and changes of clothes for everybody. In the food tub I have things like: Peanut butter, crackers, tuna, honey (we had it and I figured it would be good for quick energy) and a few other things.

  Having our van well stocked is handy in many circumstances, maybe we forgot to pack something when going camping, or -as just happened the other day- the kids fall in the river while out canoeing and would like to change clothes before going home, or we are out in the state forest picking blueberries and we get stuck and and hungry. And then also should we ever need to evacuate quickly (hard to imagine but possible I am sure) it sure would be nice to have some extra things in the van. I wrote a post about all the things that we in our van which you can check out if you like.

 Another thing that is in a way Emergency Preparedness was Jonathan's purchase of an Air soft gun. He had hoped this would work for hunting small things like chipmunks (which raid our strawberries and he was hoping to butcher and add to stew) but after an unhappy attempt we decided that it wasn't powerful enough. This gun is however a useful tool for him to use in target practicing and such. If he should ever need the skill to hunt to feed us, having a little practice will come in handy. (More about getting the gun here.)

Another recent purchase was a nice stainless steel set of Camping cookware. This enables to better hone our campfire cooking skills. A great thing to know when faced with an emergency.


Sustainable Living~

~I learned how to render tallow.

~ We planted peas, lettuce and radishes. They are coming up and I am excited that we might actually be able to eat something before the date that we usually even plant a garden (June 1st). I also planted a bunch of day lily plants which I got from a friend and I am happy to have them growing here now. They might start showing up in some of our meals this summer.

~We picked up our bees to start our second summer of raising them. I am hoping to educate myself enough so that I can try overwintering them (challenging in our climate!) this year.

One of my parents goats that had quadruplets this year. Pretty cool and unusual!

~ We found a new source for raw cows milk. It is Jersey milk with lots of cream that we have totally been enjoying! My parents are also now getting enough goats milk to share so we are pretty happy with all our good for us milk! I have been researching cheese making more and really want to try my hand and more varieties of cheese this year. I am interested in trying hard cheeses.

~I have been trying my hand at making sourdough bread again. It was years ago when I last tried it and I am having fun. We have had some really yummy successes and one not so great batch. It is always fun to figure out one more thing (yeast in this case) that we can do without.

~ We have been busy making rag rugs. I am finding how fast we can accomplish things when it is "We" not just "Me" working on them. The kids have become pretty good strip cutters and when I am crocheting a rug Jonathan will help with the crocheting now and then too.

~We are shopping and working to make sure we all have bikes that work well.  Mara was the most recent one to get a new bike. She had saved up her own money and bought it. We were hoping to get a really nice one from a small local bike shop but they had gone up quite a bit in cost and so we got one on Target.com that had a lot of good reviews (Devon Forge) both there and other places. We are pretty happy with the bike so far but have only gone on 3 fairly short rides (Total of probably 12- 15 miles). Our next step is to get a better bike for Aaron.

Biking is definitely a part of our living more sustainably. We aren't able to raise our own fuel but we do have physical energy we can use. We have been using bikes to ride to church and go on errands and just for fun. We aren't able to use them for everything but it is fun to use them when we can. Not only does it save on gas but we also get good exercise, I enjoy smelling and seeing (better) the flowers that we go by (The cherry blossoms sure smell good now!) and hearing the frogs croaking and the birds singing. We miss much of that when we drive in a car. It is also a very fun family experience.

~Mental Preparedness

This isn't something that Amy had on her list of things in the challenge but this has been something that I have been thinking about lately.

 We do live in a somewhat unstable time with our country being so deeply in debt and the various things going on in our world. We don't really know what is in our future. We could worry about the unknown or we can choose to trust in God and prepare.

One of the major ways (and I believe more important that the things I listed above) is to prepare by thoroughly immersing ourselves in God's word. This year more than ever before we have chosen to make God's word a priority in our lives. We have been reading it more often and memorizing more. We have been discussing it and seeking to apply it to our lives. A chapter we recently memorized was Hebrews 11-12:3, It is chapter all about people of faith and what they went through and still stood firm because they were looking ahead to their reward (heaven). What a great thing to have in our minds whenever we face trials! We are now working on the book of James and it is just filled with verses that can also encourage and inspire us if/ when we go through hard times. This sort of preparing is useful for any type of situation!

  We are also working to prepare ourselves through reading of other books as well. Reading the life's experiences of others helps so much in knowing how to handle life ourselves. We are blessed to be able to have so many good things to read!

That is some of the things we have been working on around here in order to be more prepared for whatever should happen in life. What is going on in your life? Do you try to be prepared?

The bees are here!!

 Yesterday I went and picked up two 4 frame nucs of Italian honey bees. I was actually feeling a little nervous - would I remember how to do everything. Though the man that mentored me last year is still willing for me to call with questions I know that he is also helping out 16 1st year beekeepers so I think I will try to do the best I can without bothering him much.
  Also I am planning on veering a bit from his style of beekeeping as I would like to be a more natural beekeeper (basically no medication though using some natural methods of keeping pests and diseases away- I am still learning on this!) and I want to try overwintering the bees this year.

After getting the bees I started feeling much more at ease. I do really enjoy watching them and marveling and God's wonderful creation!

  I will study and learn to the best of my ability, pray hard, do my best and then be content with the results.

 This afternoon I checked on them and I did give them some sugar water in the feeder as well as a pollen patty. I am doubtful that they need any feeding at all as we have had an early spring and their is both pollen and nectar available but I am trying to stay on the safe side.

 This year I tried making my own pollen patties. I am curious to see if they like them. I found the recipe here but I made a much smaller batch for my two hives.

There is brood. It will be fun to see how fast these colonies grow!

I am linking up with:

Jill @ The Prairie Homestead

Kendra @ New Life on a Homestead

and Amy @ Homestead Revival