We did  quite a bit of canning over the weekend.   One thing we’ve been wanting to get to is canning meat in our pressure canner.  

It was not as hard as it sounds.  We did up about 20 lbs of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts.  We did quarts and  followed the directions from here: Food Storage Made Easy

It turned out well-  notice I’m using my tattler lids!  i tried to put my sales link on the side bar and right now that’s not working so if you are interested – go ahead and leave me a message in the comments and I’ll email you.  I won’t post your private info   We love our tattler lids!    I’m planning a future post on this really soon! we wanted to do a whole bunch so we could completely feel confident in our testimony!!

We also did a whole lot more of carrots/potatos mixed. We add these into our stews, or roasts.  They are not mushy at all – and are really yummy.

We reorganized some food and living space – am very happy with how it turned out. We’ve started ordering from Azure Standard and I needed to have a spot to store organizing food.  I really like how Laura from Heavenly Homemakers shares her Azure ordering – I’ve linked her bulk post and I <3 how every month she lists the Azure specials.  I’ll work in May on PICTURES like Laura does!  We ordered wheat berries, honey, potatos,

We also have been very busy at church, the hubby part of the homestead was offered the Associate pastor position at church and is heading back to school!

Sorry I haven’t been posting, maybe with the snow, it will settle down a bit,  baby chick pics coming soon!

I’ve put our family photo out to see on the last post, so let me tell you a little more about our trip.  We drove to Indiana to stay with friends from MOMYS -and this has been so wonderful in the past, that we stayed there an extra day (planned for!)  We would also stay with them on the way home for an overnight as well.  This greatly broke up our time in the car.

The activities included in our Williamsburg package are: a 4 bdrm, 3 bathroom, 2 living room, 2 kitchen resort with a hot tub that seats 6 as our accomodations.

beautiful resort

Activities included in our price for the week were

• a dad’s breakfast (does anyone have pictures of this??)
• a large group gathering the first whole day for family introductions and introductions to the dance
• a mom’s dessert (at the place that copyrighted Death By Chocolate)
• a girl’s tea
  

  @ the girl's tea Williamsburg 2011

• a boy’s craft project – they made leather pouches to hold their “stuff”
  

  Boys Craft Pouch

• a boy’s encampment with training in guns
  

  Training "future men"

• multiple lectures by a heritage speaker with a heart for the children (Jamestown -1 day, Williamsburg on multiple occasions including one night-time tour, Yorktown, different talks than other years and greatly enjoyed by us!)
  

  Discussing the growth of slavery in the colonies

• the King’s ball with provided desserts and beverages – amazing!
  

  As the King's Ball is beginning, waiting dancers and waiting refreshments!

  

  ~many dancers~

Well, there were a few things we paid for on top of that, the parent’s dinner out (a wonderful treat!), the teenager dinner out and the costuming tour at Colonial Williamsburg (hopefully a separate post because it was amazing!)  as well as the much requested visit to Coldstone Creamery.

I have more posts coming on our vacation, it was a wonderful time and very relaxing. We were able to do it on an incredibly tight budget that got tighter as gas went up yet it was so filled with activity that it didn’t matter!

Here are some other bloggers on their Williamsburg adventures:

http://thechurchcook.blogspot.com/2011/03/colonial-williamsburg-part-1-of-3.html

http://sissyprissyandmom.blogspot.com/2011/03/williamsburg-six-years-and-still-going.html

One of my favorite pictures – just for fun!

love this picture!

More to come,

Momma

How do we keep our house clean…well… hmmm.. I’ll be back in just a bit (looking around)

In theory, we keep our house clean by:

1) being responsible for ourselves, picking up after ourselves. If you get something out, put it away.

2) spending a few minutes throughout the day tidying (10 minutes to clean at any point)  – this is especially necessary with 14 children at home, 12 of whom are homeschooled and 2 who are…  messy makers.   Figure 12 students with a minimum of 6 subjects – 72 books plus pens, plus notebooks… especially since we are book lovers, and so some subjects have a lot of books! Everybody helps with this. It is part of living in a family

3) chores – our chore system is a paid system.  It is 3 tiered.  If you are a little – you don’t do a chore.  You also don’t get paid AND you miss out on some things we do for just bigs.  They’ll get it someday – when they are old enough or responsible enough to do a chore.  Even in the chore system, there are 2 more levels, entry and professional.   Entry level gets paid, but doesn’t get benefits. (think hourly employee!)  They make $5.00 every other week and they do a fairly small chore.  Professional levels make perks!  They make significantly more money.  The people who help with dishes at my house make significanly more money than the person who empties the garbage.  The person who is currently on dishes does all the dishes for a family  of 16 every day with no dishwasher!   He makes 25$ every other week.  Other perks we have – late night snack , movies,  etc.

4)  it is my responsibility to ensure cleanliness in my home.  I cannot “expect what I don’t inspect”.  Below is an example of a chore gone BAD!!! ((“THANKFULLY THIS IS NOT THE NORM!!))

Sometimes I am gone, sometimes I am busy or gone, sometimes I am tired. It isn’t an excuse. There are times where our house just doesn’t get clean.  I try but recognize I am human, and that the bodies in my house will still be here tomorrow. I also try and recognize that disorder in the house makes  others cranky (especially daddy who dislikes things under his feet!)  Those are his feet in this picture and this is the only picture with him, his feet and floor).

5) keep my priorities right    be a Mary first off!!! Value family and relationship above all else.  Here is our most recent family picture! (Vacation post forthcoming!!)

Hope to see you more this week, as we recover from vacation, laundry, lack of sleep and photo overload…

Momma

I love my dehydrator, every time I use it, I love it more and more.  I have had  a Nesco one, but for the last few years have had an Excaliber.

We have used it primarily until this year for deer jerky.  As I delve into more food preservation, I have been able to use it for leftovers, cheap buys on marked down produce and garden abundance!

Here is us – making our own fruit mix for vacation!

(we find spraying the banana chips/apple pcs. with straight lemon juice helps keep them from turning brown)

This is banana chips, strawberry pcs., apple chunks (those got a little too brown, but tasted great!) and then I added raisins and dried organic cranberries. 

We had these on our route and they were delicious!

My husband works with the youth at our church and he teaches Sunday School.  His long-term goal is entering the pastorate (separate post there!)   It is imperative that we are on time.   Here’s what we do:

1. Set out our clothes ahead of time. This means ironed, this means shoes ready.  This prevents arguing over clothes on Sunday morning. (Mostly me – saying it isn’t appropriate).

2. Have our Bibles and our hotebooks ready to go.

3. Have our lunch ready to go into the oven.  See this post: on Sunday cooking. Use the roaster where appropriate.

4. Our Sunday breakfasts are very simple, it is cereal, oatmeal packets, etc.  We eat whole meals every other day of the week, but this makes sure that the children are motivated to get to the table and it takes less time to prepare.

5. Set a timer, and keep giving time reminders.

6. When in doubt, dad goes on ahead and mom follows with all stragglers. grrr… Well, it’s an honest blog, we’re not always all on time.

I think the best advice I’d give someone trying to make Sundays less crazy would be to find systems that work for you.  Look for ways to make your morning easier.  Yes, in my world, that includes bribing someone to start the coffee!

God Bless, we’re off on vacation for 11 days in 2 days!  I’ve got posts in the hopper on preparing for spring, dehydrating foods (love this!) and ways to prepare for vacation for a LARGE family.  We’ll see if that gets done as I’m pretty busy making sure everyone has what they need for vacation.

Don’t know how much internet I’ll have along the way, but hope to post soon.

Momma

Check out the other All in a Day Bloggers…

Carrie @ Our Full House

Christi @ Where the Creek Meets the Lake

Elizabeth @ Yes They’re All Ours

Kathy @ Kathy Mom of Many

Kristy @ Homemaker’s Cottage

Lori @ Happy Busy Mama

Monica @ Natural Mama

Renee @ Bakers Dozen

For bread – we use a nutrimill to grind our wheat berries!  I got my nutrimill and my mixer from Paula’s breads.   We love making our own bread!  We are going to start getting our wheat berries from Azure Standard next week.

We have always had a Dimension mixer since we started making our own bread.  It makes 6 loaves per time, much like Bosch. Well, after 8 years and a house fire – we decided to upgrade and just 4 weeks ago received in the mail -  a new Bosch!!!!

and this effort results in this…

yum!

Momma

My first thought on this topic was… well, I’m off the hook, I have nothing to write! There is no typical day at our house!

But then I thought about it. I am just not off the hook that easy.  YES! There is a price to be paid by trying to be open to God’s leading and following Him each and every day, and sometimes that price is “normality”.  BUT – we do have a routine, and even if I, or my husband, or the children have specific needs or are gone, stuff still gets done.  It is because of the stuff getting done part that comes the knowledge that we have that routine.

So, in essence, even though not a single day looks like this… here is a typical day

7:15 am – alarm – ignore ignore ignore… yep i’m a late sleeper!  Brian’s already been up and going for hours! We used to do family time about now but with Brian’s new work schedule,  he’s already working.

8:00 am – coffee in hand, stumble towards computer.  breakfast going (probably by a pre-teen although my 8 year old LOVES to cook breakfast, and serve it to everyone. Personal care – cleaning your room, etc.. Farm Chores!

9:00 am – school starts, I start with youngest and work my way up.  On good days, where we can stay home and DO school, I am loving the Before Five in a Row for the little guys.   This is a must drop if I’m doing running, helping with ministry stuff, etc.

10:00am – work on checking off school, kids keep plugging away.  I plan to share in a future post my ideas for getting through school with lots of kids.

11:30 am – Family Devotional Time – some bigger kids and Dad have theirs done by now, I usually do mine at night, preferably late but I sure do enjoy a cup of coffee and early devos too.  My problem is I like to do it uninterrupted (seriously!)

12:00 – lunch

1:00 – today we were babysitting a grandbaby (actually we have all week) and he needed a nap…  keep going on school,  my children use charts or check lists depending on age to know what they need to accomplish.

This would be the time that I like to work on family subjects of read alouds and history!  This hasn’t worked as well for me this year as it has for the last 4, but we’re plugging through!

3:00 – crazy time starts, snack, sports practices, Dad is off work with his current schedule. the afternoon will include all sorts of things, soon I hope to have in including gardening, On Wednesdays we are consumed with church prep stuff.

We eat supper around 6.  After supper, assigned chores by those who have them!

We start bedtime at 8.

I’m so amazed that as hard as this year has been, as crazy!  Brian working 2 jobs, myself doing an enormous amount of support work, the adult children and their needs, the children at home and theirs, more obvious… we have gotten a lot accomplished.  We do get school done, we are working in ministry and looking at ways to expand that even more.  We do love making meals for others, or helping other families, especially babysitting little lambs.  This routine is why we are able to accomplish so much!  With the huge upcoming change for Brian’s job and our need to cut our expenses, we are developing more and more skills and the need to be able to provide more for less. This all needs to fit into the same 24 hours we get every day!

Enjoy looking at other people’s typical days by checking out the other All in a Day Bloggers…

Carrie @ Our Full House

Christi @ Where the Creek Meets the Lake

Elizabeth @ Yes They’re All Ours

Kathy @ Kathy Mom of Many

Kristy @ Homemaker’s Cottage

Lori @ Happy Busy Mama

Monica @ Natural Mama

Renee @ Bakers Dozen

This is the roller we have,we bought it at  Lehman’s. We do make enough noodles for our family – these are recent photos …

We love home made noodles, we’ve had them this week in homemade Chicken Noodle soup and with Venison tips over noodles!

Our recipe is 6 eggs, 5 cups flour, add a little cold water as needed.  Press through roller, dry a bit, cut, and dry completely!

Momma A