I’m going to be catching up on this soon, my internet died a few days ago, and we’ve all been sick :/ Sick pregnant mom, plus three sick kids is no fun :((( So I should be caught up on housework today or tomorrow then I’ll catch on here lol

We took a break from homeschooling over the summer, to focus on the garden, and some birthdays :) We got back to it this week though! Lucky for us we have a family friend who is staring to homeschool/unschool this year, so we’re doing it together! it’s been fun so far, but hectic! After finding out sme news that we’re expecting agin, now mornings are a battle of feeding the 3 kids, getting them ready for lessons, and morning sickness hahaha

With lessons comes playgroups also, so the girls and I whipped up some yummy cupcakes, and surprise! They actually looked great! We’re getting ready to try cookies this afternoon… O.o wish me luck!

Made some braided bread today… sooooo good!

I’ve noticed some of the best things to have in a yard, are the same things people fight and fight to get rid of. Herbs, salmon berries, dandelions, and my favorite, blackberries!

Our back yard had some coming over the fence when we moved in, it only took a week or so to see it was not something we wanted to get rid of! The first year, we ate blackberries on everything! And ended up with so many we froze a few gallon bags full! Last year I made blackberry jam, and syrup, and we ate more than any human should! This year so far the kids have eaten a ton, and I’ve picked about 3 gallons for juice J I would never give these plants up!

But every time someone comes over they say something like:

You know you can spray those?

I have a guy that does yards… you want his number?

Why don’t you cut those back?

Why don’t you say something to your landlord about those?

I’d worry about letting my kids play near there!

That last one kills me… seriously? What’s going to happen? The kid eats one and stains her shirt? People are crazy.

I always end up telling them the same thing, if I move, and our new house doesn’t have any, I’m planting some :P And you know, I really, really mean it! In fact, hunny and I have talked about digging these up to take with us! lol

Don’t know If I’ve ever seen something more true! :D And we are due for a rainy day soon!!

I’ve had a lot of people love the soft pretzel recipe I have, so I figured I’d share :) It’s easy and delicious!

1 1/2 tsp yeast

3/4 c warm water

dissolve together in a bowl, then add

1 1/2 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp salt

and stir in 1 1/2 c flour

knead about 5 min, the dough will be very sticky! Let rise in a greased bowl about an hour.

Divide into 6-8 chunks, shape into pretzels, brush with butter and bake at 415 for 15-20 min or until golden brown :)

I double this all the time, or add olives, or pine nuts… but my all time FAVORITE is when I eat these with a triple cream cheese… soooo good!

Enjoy!

Found this today when I was hunting slugs! I have no idea how it hid from me for so long!

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We had a chilly day, so I told myself I’d get our extra room (the art room) cleaned out! I’ve planned for this to be the homeschool room since we moved in, but it never stays clean. So we just do our lessons on the couches, floor, or at the table J

But my oldest is coming up on 7, and my middle buddy is almost 3, so they want space, so I got in there and finally did it! And I am PROUD!

You can’t see, but in the bottom corner on the right is my oldest kiddo’s desk. And on the left about halfway up is a kid size Crayola table for my little two to work at!

They LOVE it!

One kiddo that was here for a playdate, asked for a carrot, so I pulled one. He looked in horror and said, “why?! Why does it have DIRT on it??!”

True story.

Have you ever wondered why buying mint at the store is so expensive? I mean really thought about it? It’s basically a weed. You plant it, and it’ll take over anything and everything. Not that I’m complaining, but that is the reason I’ve never wanted to plant it for myself. I suck it up and pay 4$ for 6 wilted and brown twigs in those plastic containers when I need it.

But I got this phone call…

From my Aunt, asking if I’d like whatever she trimmed from her mint bush. So of course I said yes! Then she mentioned it was starting to go to seed… still I went for it.

Ok, I guess her mint took over part of her back yard, because we filled 2 and a half garbage bags FULL of this blooming mint! I had these visions of my daughters and I lined up on the deck, plucking the most beautiful leaves! Making minted pears, mint jelly, mint tea, drying it, whatever else people do with mint….

Then I got it home, and it was dark, so I tossed it out back for the next morning. The next morning… I didn’t get around to it :/ ….so Feeling guilty, I skipped watering my garden so I wouldn’t see it. The NEXT morning… I went and looked at it. I decided it was then or never, so I drug my sister, and my older two girls out with a big green bucket. We sat and groaned, and squealed and huffed… finding earwigs, wormy things, and more spiders than is ok… we hardly filled the bucket before I gave up to pick blackberries.

I did get enough to do a couple batches of mint jelly, and I made a large batch of minted pears… moral of the story? I’ll plant my own mint and pick it when I need it haha. Meanwhile, I still have some bags out there collecting buggies if anyone needs it J

Even though it wasn’t the best summer, I am gettin some squash finally :)

So excited! Over the weekend I got a new OVEN!! For those of you that don’t know, the bottom element in my oven died in April. I had *just* pulled two beautiful, golden, moist, beer brined chickens out of it, for my younger sisters birthday dinner. Thankfully it let me finish those, or the dinner would’ve been a bust! But while my broiler continued working, and my range was fine, I couldn’t actually bake anything!

Now, I’m no real baker, but I DO make bread for my family daily. Not only is it better tasting, but it’s fun and saves us a lot of money in the long run. Imagine buying, buns, rolls, cakes, bread for toast, things like that every week… for a family of 5 it runs up to 30$ a week! Not worth it.

So our landlord came down and put in our new one and it’s older… actually it’s really old… but it’s in GREAT shape! It works wonderfully!

So what do I do? I made a chicken, two batches of soft pretzels, baked zucchini, and twice baked potatoes!

The next day? I made 2 loafs of bread, baked salmon, a peach cobbler, and a crumb cake for my Grandma!

This will probably go on for a while J

A big thank you to my wonderful Aunt! She surprised me with an AMAZING new sewing machine!  And with a little TLC I managed to get my old one to run (slowly) for short periods of time…. Perfect for my oldest daughter to use as her first!

My darling oldest is 6, almost 7, and let me just say, she is quite the little homemaker  J Every morning she makes her dad his coffee, she begged me for weeks to teach her how to scrub the toilet, and she is indispensable around the house! I can’t imagine how things would be without her! The best part is she likes doing all of this as much as I do!

 Since the old machine runs (kind of) I told her she could have it. She is ecstatic! Her eyes lit up, as she gently wiped it down. And now she’s on the floor practicing threading it (it’s unplugged for now) And telling her younger sister (my 2 year old) how it all works! All she’s been talking about is taking her money and going to Joanne Fabrics! She’s telling me all about the first thing she plans on sewing, some training panties for her younger sister, and a pillow for her youngest sister!

This is a happy day for this semi homesteading mama! Right up there with when my older two asked me to make them aprons, so they wouldn’t get their dresses dirty in the garden ^_^

My sewing machine died yesterday.

And while my peach pickles taste delicious, they canned up to a much smaller batch than I expected. 

I know these days happen, but the timing was painful. I had got my sewing machine out to sew up some cloth training panties for my 2 (almost 3) year old. And I wasn’t surprised it was acting up, but when it refused to sew I knew this was the end. I was crushed. I quilt in the fall, always. Every year I try and make one of the kids a new quilt, and I give quilts as Christmas gifts, So this was quite the blow.  I figure though, I can darn socks, embroider, and quilt by hand until I get a new one.

As for the peaches… just a bummer. They taste so very, very good. And I expected 8 pints from the recipe, I *barely* got 4! They’ll be gone by the end of the month! Not the end of the world, since we’ll just get more stuff and get a double batch going this week, but still lol a little discouraging

On a happier note, when I was crying about the loss of my machine, I wandered out to my garden like I usually do and saw my broccoli was ready for its second harvest! I got just shy of a lb. or beautiful broccoli for tonight’s dinner :D