Corn Bread we like to eat

You may have noticed that I like making my own version - whether it be my own chicken, my own vinegar. I like making my own. But we really like Jiffy cornbread and the recipes I've tried are too blahhh (I like it sweet and moist and yellow). So - I googled "cornbread like jiffy's" and then made it my own. Here's how I like it. FYI - I do fresh-grind my own flour - I've also done popcorn and that makes it even better - but usually I buy the cornmeal (b/c it is too loud in the vitamixer and we don't have enough ear-coverage for every kid).

This is a giant recipe - I make it in my big casserole dish (10xsomething)- we devour it at dinner, then have leftover for breakfast.

1 C cornmeal
3 C flour (I use equal parts fresh-ground hard white and soft white wheat berries)
1/3 C sugar (usually brown)
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 C oil
1/3 C butter (can play with this fats ratio - but I like it with at least 1/3 butter)
4 eggs, well-beaten
2 1/4 C milk (I rarely use plain milk. I prefer homemade kefir or buttermilk or clabbered raw milk - today I used mostly clabbered but needed a bit more so added broth!)
(optional - can add 1 C fresh or from-frozen corn for some texture)

Combine all dry ingredients. Pour wet on top, gently stir (it will begin to bubble, so don't over-stir). Pour into oiled casserole dish. Bake 350 for 40-50 minutes - mine is always browned on edges before it is done in the middle - browned is yum.

Season for finishing

This is the season for finishing things.  The trees are finishing their leaves, the garden is finishing its fruit, I am finished cleaning the house (aaah! that was so funny.  I crack myself up.)  Get ready, I should blog more often.  This post is heavy-laden.

Finishing the Apple Cider Vinegar.  I keep blowing through my bottles of Bragg's ACV because I add a tablespoon per gallon of water for the dog, chickens and rabbits.  I think it helps them fend off icky things - who knows.  But I was about to give up on my dosings b/c the good, raw stuff is too expensive. Here's my attempt at making it myself - easy, not hardly stinky.  I'm sold.  I got seconds from the orchard.  They aren't organic (which is bad b/c any pesticides will keep them from making good fermenty vinegar) but since they were the ugly ones, it's likely they got little spray (hence their ugliness).  So we put a half-bushel's worth of cores and peels into that 5-gal bucket, topped it with warm water and banded a thin dishtowel over the top to keep out fruit flies.  It sat in my kitchen for 3 weeks (I am impatient - 6 wks seems ideal), then I strained it out and filled my jars with that appley sour liquid!!  I had to do it, we were out of Bragg's.  But since I think it has more vinegar potential, I saved the mushy scraps, jarred it up with more water and towel-lids, and made a pretty vinegar display next to my mudroom sink.

 Finishing the soup beans.  We didn't weed and we didn't spray and we didn't water.  Hmm, not ideal.  But still we got a load of beans.  We planted 4 kinds:  Black Turtle, Calypso, Jacob's Cattle, and Pinto. We hardly got any of the latter two - maybe because the cows got out one night and munched them?  Don't know.   I do know that this is not cost-effective.  We do this because our daddy thinks it is cool that we can grow soup beans.  We do this to also prove that a lot of great learning/school can occur while one person reads aloud and the rest shell beans.  Also lots of hilarity.  Much more effective than trying to do school while canning tomatoes.

11yr old Peter's hand.

These little hands are cuter, Anna is our best sorter and also our best bean-feeler.

Two cheerful girl shellers.

This is how we dry them on towels on our deck.  Sometimes the shells burst open and the beans fly.

Finishing the hay drama.  We bought a very old, very used set of hay equipment.  I'm still baffled by which is the rake, the crusher-thingy, the cutter-part.  No clue.  I only know I was whispering the h-a-t-e word because my husband was so heart-achy as he and his farm-friends struggled to make the darn equipment work!!  This grass-fed business is hard when it doesn't rain.  So, here is a picture of a beautiful little steer named Tank who is watching his farm-daddies toss 43 beautiful bales of our OWN hay into our barn.

Finishing the chickens.  (warning, don't scroll further if you don't like to eat chicken) We are almost done with our first grandiose chicken raising.  We raised 48 cornish cross and 30 color range meat chickens in pasture-pens.  The spent their first 3 weeks inside (safe and warm), then went out to meet the world of fresh grass and bugs.  Twice every day we (mostly me) hauled jugs of water (ACV included!) up to the pasture, scooted the pens to fresh grass, and refilled their water and feed.  We loved those chickens.  They loved me the most.  We sold all but 5 cornish cross - the color range go in 2 weeks, I'm trying to remember not to sell all of them.  The goal was to pay for our own freezer-filling and make a little money.  I kept forgetting about the freezer-filling when our friends were cheerfully asking if they could buy some.  Next year, we'll just need to do more!!

Ruby is a very skillful chicken-deliverer.  See she's not even worried that the chicken is about to reach up and peck her hand.

I like butchering chickens.  It is simple and satisfying to see your clean bird, ready to eat.  I think it's appropriate that we know what our food ate, where it came from and who made it ready-to-eat.  This is right and good.  Anna and I talked to the Cornish Cross the night before butcher.  We agreed they were probably very excited for their big day - fulfilling the purpose for which they were created.  Anna says she will butcher when she gets bigger.  For now, she swings with her cousins.  We had 7 adults and 15 kids at our house "helping" on butcher-day.  No wonder we think it's fun.

The super-awesome chicken plucker.  See all those feathers?!  This is the men's department - they bleed, dip, pluck and pull. 

This is my table - I like to eviscerate.  It is a personal challenge to get all the inside out  in one piece.  See me concentrating?!  Most of the kids tried this - it's so cool to figure out their organs and see how their system is different from ours.
Chickens are beautifully-made creatures - even these hybrids.

This is my farmer.  He thinks the beard is good camo for bow-season.  We agree to disagree.  I love it when he looks at me like that because it means he thinks my jokes are funny.  This is a serious compliment.

This pen has 7 color range roosters.  These chickens aren't hybrids with giant breasts - they are happy normal birds that don't tip over because of the afore-mentioned giant breast.  They do normal things like crow and scratch for bugs and have beautiful feathers. This one is peaking up at me to say, "water-lady, where did you take my water?"  

Tired and Grumpy

I suppose it is a problem, all these deep breaths and sighings.  Usually a good indicator that I'm being foolish and strong-willed.  My kids are doing that tender, expectant, don't-make-eye-contact dealy where they patiently wait for mama to give it up and ask forgiveness.  Baaah.  I'm so stinkin fallen.  Fallen in a pit of work-till-I-crack.  Fallen in a pit of "does-anybody-see-this-mess?!"  Fallen in a pit of stinking thinking like my kids and husband are supposed to be serving ME dinner and thinking of what MOM wants to do.  Ha, kinda makes me laugh now.  They always so sweetly say "oh yes, I do forgive you, and I love you so much" - just like You, Jesus.  I'm so thankful for that.

Well, the tomatoes are done boiling.  I should go to bed so I can wake up and finish this by starting fresh-better tomorrow.  Jesus, meet me there.  I'll be the bleary-eyed one begging you for a few more minutes before the sweet ones wake up.  I'd like to meet You on the couch for coffee, and then again in the garden, please.  Preferably before it's 90 degrees.

What am I doing?!

Ha, ha.  That's a funny title.  If you shout it with incredulity, that makes it better.  I'm not, for example, sleeping.  That means the "plan" I'm about to record will not be so smoothly administered tomorrow!  What I'll write is how we homeschool now; it's changed a lot.  I think this is the first year that I really get it: it is my responsibility to educate these children, God is watching, period.  I don't much care what the state has to say, God's standard is, uh, a lot higher.

I learned this year that my learners like to have a list.  So they each have a little book with their daily tasks in it - including chores, music and funny things.  It occurred to me just yesterday that I could write funny things there - and sweet things like "Peter, your diligence is blessing our whole family - thank you for noticing what needs to be done and doing it."  He blushed and dutifully checked that off his list!  Oh how I love him.

For the first time, I made a big chart with each big book/subject listed and all the weeks of the year and it shows me if I am sticking to it enough to finish it this year - it gives me big-picture so I know whats at stake if we blow off a day or week and then I can be accountable to the plan I prayed about and ought to implement.

For the first time, I went away by myself and prayed and prayed and prayed and read through my resources and sorted and made a year-plan for our school.  I guess having a 1st, 2nd and 4th (plus a delightful 2yo!) brought me to the precipice.  Winging it got too scary! (I did not, I did not wing it before, that sounds bad.)

So, what do we do.  In Kindergarten, we learn to read and discover Math is awesome.  My kids have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Singapore Math (just started with 1st bc they played math enough to be ready - Ruby did "school" as play and finished some K stuff)  In First Grade - we add History (Truthquest - love, love) and Science (Apologia creation series - all pleasure) and we do those on the couch, all together.  And some other stuff like Latin, piano, violin, map stuff, cursive, copywork, spelling stuff, drawing, singing, guitar.  Not all at once.  Come see me if you want more detail there.  This year we went nuts on Math and they are all 3 doing different (Singapore, Saxon, Life of Fred).  Through the years we've done an assortment of pray/read/memorize attempts - without much consistency.  I seem to have an enemy who is stealing my Bible time - but they all do reading time in their own bibles each day and whenever they want to - that started when we discovered our favorite Bible ever.

A normal day:
6 am I get up to read/pray alone or with prayer partners (our dad leaves before now)
7 am Boys wake to do exercises (per Dad) and shower; girls get jostled awake.
Kids do animal chores while I make breakfast/shower (ha! this is when I'd exercise)
8:30 do Bible study all together (hurray for Bible Bee sword study 2011!)
Kids start on lists and either work independently or with Mom - at the kitchen table or couch or wherever they can focus and not distract each other.
10:30 Dad calls, I remember I should go load wood burner. (or, I have kids going, I get in shower, silly child comes into bathroom asking if I want to talk to him while I shower?!?)
Mom makes bread or preps dinner or does other chores/food (and generally try to distract my learners)
1:00 I notice we haven't eaten lunch and I haven't loaded the wood burner.  Fix that.
Kids get mad and finish whatever they haven't
2:00 Kids are deeply immersed in playing - so much so that I forget to send Anna to bed until I see Kevin drive down the driveway from school (where he is a "real" teacher).  The hours until bedtime are a blur - don't know where they go.  We play and eat and work around the house.  It's good to be together.

I rarely make their lists in advance, but I take big chunks of late-night time to do library book-requesting (for pick up window) and re-routing plans gone wrong.  Everything else we do together, as we get to it.  I also use late-night hours to either re-fuel with blogs and books and to put my Arbonne business into order so that I can grab quick moments to make calls during the day (I shove them into the nooks and crannies and pray they don't derail our focus).

Feel like bragging?

I'm parked on the floor in front of my stupid smoking wood burner.  Why, oh why, can I not keep it burning.  It burns me up when my husband comes home and announces it is out.  Feels like the rest of my day's accomplishments just got canceled.
So, I'm bragging to my blog.  Because the only people who read this anyway are people who understand that I like verbal affirmation and they don't care if I brag because they like me so much that they even like my bragging.  So there.
Today I did a lot of things.  I'm going to make a bulleted list, for my own enjoyment.

• 3 loads of laundry (including the delicates load where I found the suit that I was a little freaking out about having lost - how exactly did I lose a suit? I thought I did.  So glad I have a washable suit.  It is very, very cute on me and also washable - so a huge victory that I found it.)
• Put away 6 piles of clothes in my own bedroom (a pile is defined: "as tall as you can stack without falling over" - so another great victory), including my husbands clothes partly.  That was very nice of me, I even hung up the shirts that he can iron.
• Purged an entire full garbage bag from my closet (I hate putting clothes in garbage bags, but because I do not shop, I have no nice bags to put them in) (including 8 bras? that was amazing.  How-ever do I have so many that do not fit me? Well, I guess it's attributable to pregnancy, nursing and the remarkable weight loss that nursing causes in me.  I kept 3 extra cute ones just in case the "milks" have some miraculous transformation.  Ha - not likely.)

Short break for cursing (in my head since beautiful 10-yr-old sympathetic son is watching me) at the woodburner, poking and prodding the stupid log that was seriously in flames just 3 minutes ago, dusting the stupid woodburner dirt off my knees and back to my stupid perch on the not-even-cozy (but at least I scrubbed floors yesterday for the first time since spring maybe) floor in front of the stupid woodburner.  Sorry about all the stupids.

• Ground the flour and baked an entire decent-looking loaf of bread.  Ground more flour and have rising another loaf's-worth for dinner's pizza crust.  Planned carrots/dip (oh yes, Kefir cheese ranch dip from yesterday's impressive list) and salad and maybe grapes to go with the one measly pizza that we will too-fast devour without some kind of side dish.

Short break to roll the offensive log to the back and stack a little boy-scout tripod of kindling onto the inept glowing coals hiding underneath.  I think I shall use only kindling.  I hate logs.  Forevermore I will just sit in front of this woodburner, load it with tiny sticks of flamable kindling and read blogs about other people's accomplishments and deep thoughts.

• I took a shower - with cute girl almost 2.  I had some clear thoughts in there about my business.  Hopefully I will remember them when I'm done venting here and maybe do them.
• I administrated independent-workers aged 10, 8 and 7 to do the work on their lists and be happy about it.  I fed them breakfast and lunch and read them a beautiful chapter of Pollyanna upon waking.  Got everything done on their school lists except the science notes I did not dictate to them.
• I drank 2 cups of coffee.  I ate a real lunch and an inadequate but wholesome butt-of-bread breakfast.
• I read a chapter in a good book to myself this morning and prayed a little bit during and after and since.
• I turned on an old CD in the kitchen rather than blowing my top in the kitchen.
• I called 4 people on my list and left 4 messages, while folding laundry.
• I remembered that almost-2's need naps.  So what if it was 3:30 and my husband already home, dang it.
• I cleared my calendar to better fit hunter's hunting schedule, got a nice thank-you for that.
• I remembered that I need a sitter 6 nights from now and actually procured one before the night-before - this is a new record in sitter-planning for me.

OK - fire barely burning but I'm feeling a little better.  Thanks. 

How many days to build a habit?

Working on establishing some new norms here before we break for Christmas. Maybe if I "say them out loud" I'll do better at being faithful? Because, you know, the systems rely upon the mama - if I'm not all-in, they crumble.

Mama wakes up at 6:30 (if it's Monday, I pray by phone with Jess!! Very nice way to start the week). Do anything I want to do until 7:30 - drink coffee, read Bible, pray, start laundry, read Holy Experience, fill cups with warm milk and Ovaltine (how did this habit start?!) as the kiddos trickle down. Do NOT check email or go anywhere near the laptop. Texting husband is permitted.

7:30 -wake kids and remind them they have until 8:30 to do Breakfast chores (teeth, clothes on, beds made) and Animal chores (chickens, cat, dog) and be fed. Commence cuddling them (fully knowing this is where we get off schedule entirely). Meanwhile, I wash dishes (um, bc evening routine is missing that key part) and get laundry lass (that's what I should call that hulk of a wonderful machine - hardest working servant I've ever had!) moving and grab a shower maybe. Yeah right, while I cuddle them? Well, sometimes you have to just make hard choices and be thankful you work from home and can look scruffy. Oh, and think about dinner - just think on it. Maybe that will help it become a reality.

8:30 - thank God that they are getting tall and can almost feed themselves. Finish feeding them and convene on the couch for official Cuddle Time: reading out loud (doing some Holling C Holling right now - back to missionary bios from YWAM after Christmas), sing a hymn together, review memory verses. Then get Peter started on his Advent study (so he can have the fresh bread-of-life for us at lunch) and write his list of work for the day (so he can check things off). Keep Ruby at the couch for reading lessons while Isaac starts Math or Explode the Code or cursive at the table. Keep working, being mindful of who needs my focus so they don't get entirely distracted while they wait.

11:30 - say "let's stop for lunch". Now, I still seem to not be actually feeding them until 1:30 (argh, bc daddy returns home hungry at 4), but this is going to get better. We have until 12:30 (in my plan) to Eat, talk about Advent study (we are loving this!!), finish chores and maybe even play. Finish chores: Kitchen, Floors and Bathrooms - 1 area for each big kid. This is brilliant - I haven't decided if they are static and the kids just march off to do - or if I give them daily delights in each area. We'll see. But my kitchen, floors and bathrooms feel happy about this.

Today, we switched areas from last week - so we did a little "mature conversation" practice that went like this (entirely scripted by me):

Isaac: Ruby, do you have any good ideas for me about cleaning the kitchen?

Ruby: Well, one thing I know, you just have to work in life. It's just life. You just have to do it.

Ruby: Peter, do you have any good ideas for me about cleaning the bathrooms?

Pete: Ruby, sometimes we don't want to do chores that are hard. But if we just do them, then they are done and, actually, they hardly take any time.

Yes!!!!!!!

Ok, back to the plan. Finish it all up after lunch, be done by 1:30 or 2. So, in reality, we are still racing to get done by dad's return - but goodness, did you see all that house-help getting done and the glorious responsibility sharing?? I failed to mention that they get a check for each chore done for the day (Breakfast, Animals, Kitchen, Laundry - oh I forgot to describe laundry). Laundry means you delivered to me your dirty and you put away your clean. Look out baby Anna, your day is coming! And each check is 10cents. And no pay if you have a bad attitude.

That's my plan. I have a one-room schoolhouse! With a very entertaining toddler. Better than I ever dreamed (or could have asked or imagined)!

Happy Turkey

See my pretty table? The kids insisted on our napkin holders - 4 tomato ones and 4 pineapple. Perfect. Isn't it amazing how big my new free table gets - what a wonderful gift it is.

I did a happy turkey. Kevin loved it - so did the crowd of my best people who came. I haven't made a feast like this before (well, they brought most of the fare). The cornbread stuffing was deeeelicious (thanks Paula) and the turkey was fun to make - hilarious stuffing it into a big bag to swim in brine for a day before I cooked it. You should ask me for the recipe. Don't I look like a fine hunter's wife - bravely taking that bird apart! Even got to be in pictures on this day - woo-hoo - the mommy really exists!!

Like my Grandma Ruby apron? I love it.

My Ruby helped clean the floor - she hunts for the spots and rubs them out. Such a good helper. Like her bows - she picked that whole get-up out herself.


Ike was a maniac - couldn't keep that boy contained - flipping over the couch and hurtling across the house.

Yes, that is the turkey-baster. I didn't need it, so he decided he needed it.

What a clever boy - he's going to be very useful to the world.

Wish I'd video'd because he did quite a song with that baster.

He finally went up to Mom's to ride his bike -for about 2 measly minutes. Why are you so crazy today, Isaac?

"I'm just so excited about our party. When are they coming?!?!"

We're so blessed - all these Grandmas and Grandpas in our house!!

Yep - so very blessed.

Tom Sawyer's chores

Well, we rolled out the new chores system today. It worked! We banged that easy-button all day long - what a hit! They begged to finish all the clips - had them done before lunch - plus some extra chores. No one said "but that's not my chore" when I asked for toy-pickup or table-clearing. They just did it, and sweetly asked, "can I hit the easy-button?" Yes!!

There were two best parts. Isaac as Tom Sawyer and Pete's shirt drawer.

First, Tom. I came downstairs to check on Ike's progress as "kitchen cabinet wiper" - we'd made his very own spray bottle labeled largely as "Isaac's own Vinegar Wash" and he started with vigorous vim. But this is what I discovered:
Tom Sawyer even got a snack out of the trade, didn't he? Go, Isaac - you are brilliant!! See the distinct "Isaac" on the sprayer label there?!? She's a cheerful worker. At bedtime, Isaac and Ruby explained to Daddy that they'd "traded" jobs "because we love each other".

Yes, I made him finish her job of "mud room shoe sorter"

Need to get a photo of those sorted shoes and of Pete's new shirt drawer - we decided that fewer shirts would help - he jumped on that and now we have 2 piles: short and long (sleeved). Easy.

I say: "Look at all that space, nice!"
He says: "I should put toys in there!" giggle, giggle.

Elisa, remember this sweet baby gift? It has graduated to chore center! Each child has a pocket for finished clips. Regular job clips (we're talking wooden clothespins here) stay in the pocket for Mommy to clip to their ribbon. Rotating jobs are in the top pockets to rotate in (monthly, you know, like clean the bathrooms monthly!) Finish a job, unclip it from your ribbon and drop it in your pocket - then hit that easy-button! And we'll remember to feed that dog!

Child-sized chores

I made a list of all the chores I think my children can do (with minimal mom-training):
Collect Laundry
Deliver laundry
Put away laundry
Collect bath towels
Feed dog
Brush teeth/hair
Make bed
Collect small trash bags and place new bags
Organize shoe closet
Dust steps
Empty dishwasher
Sweep kitchen
Sweep bathroom floor
Wipe bathroom floor
Wipe bathroom counters
Wipe bathroom toilets
Check toilet paper
Collect clutter

Tools: small trash bags, vinegar/cleaning spray, rags/papertowels, cheerful heart

Now to break the news to them. So much order to institute before we start school. Oh my. The science supply list has me immobilized.