Provident Farmhouse

We’ve had a nice Valentine’s Day today.  We all wrote Valentine’s cards to each other about the thing/s we love about each person in our family.  The kids decorated envelopes to hold their Valentines.  It was pretty cute.  We had pizza and cupcakes for dinner.  (Real healthy, I know.)  We even used the china and lit candles.  smile.  After dinner we opened our Valentine’s cards and the kids really seemed to appreciate the love notes they received telling them about why they are loved.  Then, fun day!  We decided to go deliver cupcakes to four families in our area.  We love sharing goodies with people when they don’t expect it! 

We have discovered that it is a bad idea to “doorbell ditch” even if leaving treats around these parts!  It can be dangerous!  Like having a rifle pulled on your children kind of dangerous… yep, we learned that one the hard way.  I told you we have adventures!  As Anne Shirley says, “Having adventures comes natural to some people… You just have a gift for them or you haven’t.”

Oops.  Back to our day…  the kids got through school quickly this morning because we had a snowy hill in the front yard calling their names.  They had a blast sledding and building mini snowmen for about 45 minutes.  They were all getting cold and wet so they came in and we ate lunch.  A bit later we looked outside and the snow had all melted.  Good thing they got their schooling done and made it outside in time to  enjoy the snow!  We sure haven’t had much of the white stuff this year and when we get it, it doesn’t last long.

Speaking of snowing.  It snowed yesterday.  A few inches.  Fun.  Only it reminded me of last year.  Why?  Well, some of you may remember that last year we ran out of propane just as a big snowstorm was going to hit.  We weren’t sure that the propane company would be able to make it to us and without the propane our house had zero heat and was getting mighty cold inside.  Yeah.  That happened to us again this year.  We were out of propane for two days.  Thankfully, this house we’re in now stayed comparatively warm.  In the 60’s but doable.  The crazy thing is that Bill had just checked the meter on the propane tank and we had 30% left a week ago.  Enough to get us through the rest of the winter for sure.  Or so we thought.  When the propane man came he informed Bill that he’s delivered here for years before we moved in and the tank meter sticks at 30% for awhile… and then suddenly, it’s GONE!  with no notice or warning!  Well, now we know and so next year we shouldn’t have a repeat.  We hope.  We are SO grateful the propane man came before the snow got too bad on the roads since the road is a steep hill just off our driveway.  (I watched the snow plow slide backward and into the ditch yesterday.  Yikes.)  Had he come much later, we wouldn’t have been able to get filled and we’d be cold.  We’re also grateful that he clued us in about our meter.  (Can you say “more adventures”?)

And the last cool thing for today… I’ve been taking an herbal class and today I took my final.  I am finished!  And I did a really good job!  Yippee!  I am happy!

Well, I think that about wraps things up.  We are a happy family.  We hope that you are happy too.

The end.  Boom.  Boom.

Did you vote?  I did!  Remember, for United States citizens, it is not only our right to vote but it is also our responsibility.  I hope that you are paying attention to the candidates voting records, whether or not they really do uphold and protect The Constitution of The United States of America or not  and their standards, not just whether they are good looking or can deliver a good speech.  Please take the opportunity to vote!  It is important!  Thank you.  That is all.

Guess what?  We are still having adventures here in MON.  Just today we had the privilege of enjoying a grand adventure!  Aren’t you so jealous????  Yeah, well don’t be.  Today’s adventure was sponsored by the letters M-U-D!  The mud here is incredible.  If it rains much (which it does do from time to time) and you decide to drive down a dirt/gravel road that is not such a well traveled road…well, good luck to ya!  I learned all about this about a year and a half ago.  Today was Bill’s turn to learn. 

Here is Bill loving pulling the winch out from the front of our jeep to hook up to the front of our truck. 

Here is a little pic of Bill’s shoe- AFTER he has kicked off some of the mud.

The mud here likes people. It likes people so much that it tries to capture you and keep you for company. If you are in a car and you find a patch of really lonely mud, that mud just takes the tires of your car, truck, 4×4, what-have-you and schlurps you over, off the road and into the ditch.  Ditches here vary in their width and depth but every road has a ditch.  Ditches are supposedly to help with the run off of rain and melting snow.  Hmmm…. I’m not sure if they help much or not.  Probably they do and so I don’t want to know what life would be like without them.  These ditches are kind of wonderful and kind of evil.  Evil because they conspire with the mud and once the mud has schlurpped you, those ditches hold you, hug you and never let you go.  At least until you bring in your AWESOME, AMAZING, CUTE AS HECK spouse in the AWESOME, AMAZING, CUTE AS HECK Jeep Wrangler. 

Once the spouse and the Jeep arrive, you get to walk back and forth between the two vehicles to get everything set up.  Then with lots of prayers, hard work, and battling that mud that just really wants to keep your car, you finally get free from that mud.  Only you really aren’t free from the mud because that mud, she is on EVERYTHING now.  She even tried to steal my muck boots off my feet when I was trying to get into the truck.  That mud, she doesn’t care who you are or how big your personal space bubble is, she just wants your company and she is all over you trying to get you! 

Anyway, we did get the truck out.  Both cars made it home safely.  Now if it ever stops raining and snowing, we’ll have to get out to clean all the oodles of mud that stowed away home with us- INSIDE the cars!  I think the rain might wash a lot of the mud off the outside of the cars.  Inside the cars is another story.  SO SO SO MUDDY!!! 

I just wish that I could transport my cars to COWWAB right now and freak everyone there out because how dare I have such filthy automobiles!  HA HA  MWAHAHAHA!!!!

Quite a while ago I wrote a post wondering what constitutes a farm.  One of my friends commented on that post that if it smelled like a farm then it was probably a farm.  At that time our yard definitely did not smell like a farm.  In fact, at that time, our yard smelled wonderful!  The yard smelled like fresh grass, sunshine, growing trees and blooming flowers.  I figured then that I must not have a farm…yet.  We had some animals and we were living on a few acres but it still smelled really good so, no farm. 

Things have changed.  I was just outside and noticed that my yard sure doesn’t smell like fresh grass.  I know that this is winter and so I really can’t expect to smell growing, happy, sunshiny things.  I was hoping, however, that being winter and all, it might not smell like much of anything.  You know, freezing tends to keep smells at bay.  Well, we’ve had a VERY mild winter here and so the frozen things are thawing.  Not enough to see little green sprouts of grass surfacing but enough to thaw things.  Thaw things like… um… you know… digested grass, better known as horse poop. 

So I guess the point of all this is that I think I can now claim to have a farm.  I suppose that some acreage, a couple of horses, a few dogs, several cats and even more chickens can in fact constitute a farm.  And yes, tonight it even smells a bit like one.  I’m just grateful I don’t have any cows… yet. 

And do you want to know what?  I LOVE my little farm!  I love it, funky smells and all!  ….Who would have ever thought?!?

I am grateful for the opportunity and freedom to homeschool.  I really am.  For the most part, I enjoy homeschooling.  There is something about it that I don’t like.  That something is LUNCH!  Yes, I like to eat lunch but I do not like coming up with lunch.  I know that everyone has to eat lunch so what does this have to do with homeschool?  I’ll tell you. 

Lunch comes right in the middle of the day, right in the middle of reading a great book or the math chapter that you’re finally getting the hang of.  Or the beautiful artistic masterpiece that you’re creating or the paper you’re writing or…  So, first and foremost, I see lunch as an interruption.  Then, I see lunch as a pain in the butt because I have to figure out something new and exciting for ALL of us to eat.

I can’t get away with a simple salad or sandwich every day (which is what I would do most days if it was just me that I was feeding) because these darling little people (oh wait, they aren’t so little anymore) want variety.  I don’t get it.  This family of mine are mostly okay with eating leftovers.  Heck, most of the time they love leftovers.  But then they don’t like lunch menus to be repeated.  What?  The same lunch item twice in a week?  Forget it! 

I need help.  I need a plethora of quick, easy, exciting lunch ideas, at least a month’s worth would be helpful.  I don’t think that many people read this here blog of mine but anyone that does, will you please share with me a few (or a lot) of the things that you make for lunches?  I could really use it as my lunch creativity has come to a screeching halt!  You will be helping my ability to continue learning and creating as well as helping me feed my family.  Thank you.  The end.

There aren’t many things in life that are better than fresh baked bread.  It is so yummy!

When I started homeschooling my kids I informed them, very adamantly I might add, that though we were going to homeschool we would not become some of those “weird homeschoolers”.  No, we would not become the kind of homeschoolers that watched very few movies and even less TV, grind their wheat and bake their own bread!  Hello!  Those people are WEIRD and we would NOT be doing any of those things!  Weellll…… that was seven years ago and I’ve had to eat my words.  We are weird.  And I embrace my weirdness thank you very much.  Especially when part of my weirdness involves delicious homemade bread! 

In case you feel like becoming a weirdo too, here is my recipe:

5 cups of very warm (not hot) water

1 TBSP salt

1/4 cup oil

3/4 cup honey

2 cups white flour

3 cups fresh wheat flour

Combine the above in your Kitchenaid, Bosch OR by hand in a very large bowl, if you’re ambitious

Now add the following while your mixer is still mixing…

2 TBSP yeast

5 cups more fresh wheat flour

Now you need to be watching the dough while you add the rest.  You are going to add more wheat flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl a little bit.  It will be pretty thick and not real wet.  It will still be a little sticky too.  For me, I almost always add another 1 1/2 cups of flour. 

Now put a towel over the top of your still mixing mixer and let it keep mixing for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, turn off the mixer and cover the bowl completely.  Leave the dough alone and let it rise for about 15 minutes.  You want it to grow to at least double what it was.

After the dough has doubled in size it is time to form loaves.  Oil your bread pans- you need four of them.  Pour some oil on your counter top, oil your hands and then dump the dough out of the bowl onto the oiled counter.  Divide the dough in half and then into fourths.  Without squishing the dough or playing with it a lot, shape it into bread pan length, fat “snakes”.  Place each “snake” into a pan.  Cover all 4 loaves with a towel and leave alone.  You are now going to let the dough rise in the pans for another 30 minutes or more.  Just watch it and when you can see that it has risen up above the tops of your pans under the towels, carefully lift off the dishtowel.  Place the pans into your preheated (350 degrees) oven and bake for 30 minutes. 

Turn the hot loaves of bread onto a cooling rack. 

Some days we can only stand to let them cool for 10 minutes before we have to eat some!  YUM!

The boy’s birthday is today.  Crazy.  He is now fifteen.  I LOVE teenagers! 

He has now been celebrated for three days.  Dee made and took cupcakes to seminary Friday morning.  Yes, he made his own cupcakes and all I had to do was frost them.  I can handle that!  Yesterday, he and a bunch of his friends got together for an airsoft war.  They had a blast running around acres and acres of land with trees and all kinds of good hiding places to snipe from.  After a couple hours of shooting at each other, they ate cupcakes for Dee’s birthday again.  This time I made and frosted the cupcakes for him.    After he came home, Bill and I took him out on his birthday date.  He chose to go out for Chinese food.  Yum.  He put all of his birthday money together (thank you Grandma’s and Grandpa’s) and had Bill order a Kindle Fire for him.  He is super excited to get it on Tuesday!  Today, we fed him some of his favorite foods and enjoyed cake and ice cream. 

Dee is still incredibly creative… I always know where he’s been because he leaves a trail of creativity behind him everywhere he goes.  Bits of duct tape, Para cord, scissors, paper, tape, glue, wire, soldering paraphernalia, etc.  He is very much an outdoorsman.  Running up and down the hills, catching fish, discovering freshwater clams, observing snakes, measuring the ice on our “pond”- anything that gets him outside.  He LOVES the outdoors.  MON is a VERY good place for this guy to live! 

I love that Dee gets up early every morning without complaint to go to early morning seminary.  I love that he feels keenly his responsibility to get to church early to prepare the sacrament before services begin.  I love that he is creative.  I love that he is very much a boy in his hobbies and interests.  I just plain love this kid!  Thanks for being born fifteen years ago, Dee!

The boys in this family, especially Dad and James, have been busy.  They’ve worked hard on getting a car all ready for this year’s Pinewood Derby.  I think it turned out pretty cool looking and it did pretty well in the race, too!  We have a huge group of cub scouts here and they were having all of the boys race against each of the other scouts.  Then the leaders realized that we would all be there until past midnight if they continued with that plan.  They decided they would go until whatever round they were on at 8:15 pm and then call it quits and figure the winner from there.  James’ car raced several times and he only lost twice!  It was awesome!  They made a very speedy, smooth car.

Our family had a good time watching the races and rooting for James to win.  Todd was a little bit bummed because he’ll be a cub scout in a few months and so missed being able to have his own car this year.  Next year Bill will be really busy for a bit when he has to make TWO cars… one for James and one for Todd.  It will be so much fun having two boys to cheer for!

Here are a few pictures of this year’s event.

I love the hands!  Proof positive that he was EXCITED!

Here comes James’ car!  Flying down the track!

Doesn’t our cub master look so happy?  Luckily, all of the boys had a blast even if he didn’t.  Ha!  The green car is James’!

Dee went to the Klondike campout.  Can we say “cold”????  I thought that the Klondike was simply another normal campout.  Not so.  Apparently a Klondike is a campout in the winter with a whole day of outdoor winter sports the next morning.  They built sleds and raced them as one of their many outdoor boy activities.  Dee had great gear so he was warm enough and he had a great time!  Normally, there is snow for doing all of these activities in.  We have had such a weird winter here that there was exactly ZERO SNOW for the Klondike sledding, etc.  I asked him how that worked out for them when it came to all the sledding competitions.  He said that they used metal runners on the sleds and they slid right over all the dead grasses.  Who knew? 

Yep, winter this year has produced very little snow for us this year but it has been COLD.  Dressing warmly was still a necessity even without any snow!  He had a super great time at camp but was glad to come home to our warm house!  He was pretty tired and ready for a shower and bed when he got home… and it shows on his face!

Rae was asked by one of her friends to attend our local high school’s Court warming dance.  He picked her up and they went to his house where he and his grandma had made a delicious dinner.  Rae said that they had decorated the table beautifully and that the food was SO good!  After dinner, they went to the dance.  Rae and N. had a super fun time.  They danced and danced and laughed a lot.  Rae said it was the funnest dance that she’s ever been to.  We were glad that she got to go to the dance and especially that she has such a fun time!  It is fun to have a teenager come home from a date and tell you all about it, especially when they enjoyed the date!