Fall Party and New Kittens

This past Saturday we hosted a fall party for our connect group from church.  It was a blast, literally!  We began at 4pm with a little skeet shooting...which ended up lasting over 2 hours!!!  Several people had never even shot a gun before!  It was so fun to watch everyone.  Even Wyatt took a turn shooting! After we used up all the ammo, we moved on up the hill for a bonfire, some chili, hotdogs, and s'mores!  We had about 35 people come.

A couple of weeks ago while I was at our local dairy farm getting some milk, I picked up a couple of kittens and brought them home for the kids.  It took the kittens a few days to warm up to everyone.  Anna Lea, I'm sure, enjoys them the most!  She has been trying to think of names for them and finally told me the other day that their names were Flotsam and Jetsam.  If you are wondering where these names came from, let me explain...One of her favorite books right now is The Little Mermaid.  In the book their are two evil eels named Flotsam and Jetsam, so there you have it!  Now that the kittens are used to us, Anna Lea has been toting them around all over the place, one in one arm, one in the other.  I also caught the girls carrying them around in a zipped up gym bag, and told them that probably wasn't a good idea.  Later, after Anna Lea and Layla came inside,  I happened to look out and see the gym bag moving, and rescued poor Flotsam and Jetsam.  One day, Anna Lea ran inside very excited with one of the kittens and said "Moma, listen!"  and squeezed the cat in her arms, giggled and said, "it toots!"  I held back my laughter and told her that probably wasn't a good idea either.  These poor cats don't have a prayer...their names probably should have been Lucky and Chance instead:)

Layla had spirit week at school a couple of weeks ago.  Rob painted her face (of wich she was very proud) for school colors day.  Later that night he repainted it, and painted Anna Lea's and Wyatt's for the first home basketball game.  Layla and Anna Lea were probably most impressed with the cheerleaders (as was Wyatt;)

Summer Ends, Fall Begins!

It has been a while since my last blog, so this one will be kind of a catch up post with lots of pictures. Summer has ended and fall has begun.

People have asked me how it is having one in school all day now, and I would have to say, it is not much different. I still have a two and three year old at home all day that think they are too old to be taking naps now....so, that means not much time during the day to leave them unnattended, or who knows what might happen!

Layla still LOVES school! She is so excited every day to get there and find out what letter she will be learning. She came home a couple of weeks ago and told me that her friend, Emma, "loves Justin Beaver". :)

One thing the the kids enjoyed doing this summer was filling up buckets of water with bubbles and playing in them. This is something that I remember doing with my sister Hannah when we were little. It doesn't take much for kids to have fun!

Anna Lea and Wyatt

(Please excuse the nudity)

Layla and Anna Lea wearing their new hair bows to church

With Layla starting school, and Anna Lea and Wyatt not wanting to take naps until later in the day, bedtime started to get a little stressful. We decided to make a picture chart showing all of their bedtime routines, and really try to start being consistent with an 8pm bedtime.

Here is the chart we made. Usually Wyatt and Anna Lea do not take naps now, and it starts getting pretty rough around 3pm when we go to pick up Layla from school, but it sure is nice to start our bedtime routines chart around 7:30 and have everyone asleep by 8 ish!



We have also had some visitors this summer. Sally, her two girls, Violet and Rose, and Sally's sister, Maggie came to visit for a few days.

Wyatt and Caroline Rose

Wyatt and Violet are only a few months apart in age and really started having a good time when they found one little patch of dirt in the yard. They proceeded to dump in all over themselves and each other thoroughly enjoying themselves!

They were completely covered from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet and all of the cracks in between!




So, I decided to just let them "wash off" outside

They did eventually come clean.

Another favorite summer pasttime...Tea parties on the porch.

Now summer is over, and we have already jumped into fall activities. We took our second family camping trip this past weekend with Andy, Jamie, and Alexandra McCay, and the kids had a blast! I didn't get any pictures this time though:(

Ready for church

Layla's First Day

She picked Chocolate Chip Muffins for her first day of school breakfast

She lost her second tooth last Sunday

There goes the big school girl!

Yes, little Layla had her first day of Kindergarten yesterday. We went last week and saw her classroom, the lunch room, and the library. She was very excited about getting started with school and learning how to read!

She is definitely ready for some more structured activity in her life (as am I:) and I'm sure her brother and sister wouldn't mind getting aggravated a little less often. She did great on her first day of school. I am so proud of her and all the ways she is growing up.

Anna Lea didn't wake up until after Layla had left for school. When she woke up I told her that Layla was already gone to school. Anna Lea said, "Oh, I will miss her."

This morning I was packing Layla and Rob a lunch and Wyatt was up early as usual in the kitchen talking non-stop. He saw me putting chips into their luches and asked if he could have some, I told him not now. Then he looked up at me and asked me if he could have "nuffin". At first I thought he was saying "nothing". Then I realized he was remembering the chocolate chip muffins from yesterday, and was asking me for a "muffin"!

When we were asking Layla how her first day of school went, she told us, "I didn't learn to read today, but maybe tomorrow I will."

My Grandmother's 85th Birthday

My precious grandmother, Wilma McKinney turned 85 on July 8th. The kids and I made the trip to Bowling Green, Ky via Clarksville to attend her party. This is my dad's mom. (Interesting Fact: Her real name on her birth certificate is Willie, not Wilma. She told me that her dad was wanting a boy, and even though she was a girl, still chose to name her Willie. Hope she doesn't mind me sharing that:)

I remember one time when I was about 11 years old, my grandmother stayed the night with us and we slept together in my bed. I started asking her all kinds of questions about what life was like when she was a little girl. She told me all about using lye soap to take baths, how they washed their clothes, and all kinds of other interesting facts. Then I remember her realizing just how much things had actually changed during in her lifetime.

She had 12 children, and I don't know how many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren, but a whole bunch! I don't know if she knows either:)

When I was researching how to make my own butter, I called her to pick her brain. She told me how she used to make her own butter "patties" and imprinted little flowers on the top. She also told me that she would store it in the freezer and people would come from Michigan, Indiana, and the Carolinas to buy her butter. She sold it for a dollar a pattie.

Nobody can cook like grandma! If you ask her for a recipe, be prepared for a dab of this and a pinch of that. I guess real cooks don't use measuring cups. Everything she makes turns out yummy!

Grandma on the right, my Aunt Sherry in the back

Cousin Reagan holding Cousin April's baby Josie

Aunt Claudine, the host of the party!

Anna Lea had a rough day...she ran into the corner of a counter and cut herself right above her eye, then she was stung twice...but she made it! She is a tough cookie!

Layla playing at the party, it was HOT!

All Natural Recipe Experiments Part II: Shampoo and Soap

It's been a while since my homemade deodurant post, but here are a couple of other all-natural products I have made as well. You can find the exact recipes at http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/.

These are all of the ingredients and tools you need to make shampoo. Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap, raw apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, vitamen E oil, and a spray bottle

This is what I use for shampoo and soap in my shower

I used the Dial foaming soap dispenser and put the Dr. Bronner's liquid soap into it so that it would last longer. It suds up great! I also added some Vitamin E oil and Sweet Orange Essential Oil to the soap.

The kids and I have been using them for well over a month now, and they are working great!!

Mini Coop(er)

No, we didn't get a new car. I don't think our family would fit into one of those kind anyway. We did however, build a little chicken coop!

This past weekend Rob and I built a cute, little chicken coop and bought 4 chickens to live in it! (and Yes, I'm allowed to say we because I did use the nail gun a few times:) We didn't really have an exact plan, but went around and found wood that had been lying around and started building. We just kind of made it up as we went and, it turned out pretty good I must say!

This is our second whole, organic food that we have been able to add to our repertoire of healthy food for the family. First, we started with raw milk, now we have our own farm fresh eggs! Yet another way we can be self-sufficient as well!

It is really neat to be able to walk over to the back of the coop and open the little flap and pull out an egg! The kids cannot wait to get up there every day and gather the eggs! So fun!

Phase 1 - the Floor

Wyatt doing some work

This is the finished product (somehow my pics got out of order, oh well)

the "Chics"
Layla has named them: Rose, Ruby, Reba, and Redhead

pretending to be chickens

the back of the coop where we are able to gather the eggs

Phase 3 - getting the inside ready for their nests

We plan on leaving them inside their coop for a couple of weeks until they are very used to it, and then we will be able to let them out to "free range" during the day. In the evening we will lock them inside the coop to keep them safe for the night. As long as they don't end up excreting their wastes on my porch, they should live long, happy lives:)

My Journey Has Begun!

I have always been fascinated with the "good ol' days" and their way of life. It just seems to have been a slower pace than how we live now. I don't know what mental picture pops into your mind when you think about the "good ol' days" but, I think of the Andy Griffith Show. Andy, Aunt Bea, Opie, and Barney sitting on the front porch drinking sweet tea. They didn't seemed to be too stressed out or worried about anything. They worked hard, and enjoyed the simple pleasures of life.

I also have a great desire for my family and myself to eat traditional, whole foods. Once you start researching and figuring out exactly how to go about making this change it can be OVERWHELMING! I have been easily discouraged in the past, and stopped proceeding in making these changes. I have since had my desire renewed and have begun my journey in making the switch to whole foods.

One last area I am making advances in is living a more self-sufficent lifestyle. Notice I did not say totally self-sufficent lifestyle. BIG DIFFERCE! I don't plan on giving up my hair dryer or washing machine any time soon, so don't think I've totally lost my mind and fallen off the deep end! If I can start to take some items off of my master grocery list and learn to make them myself, and not be as dependent on the electric company to provide our heat in the wintertime, I will be excited with my progress in this area.

I have found that these changes are something I am very passionate about, and am loving everything I am learning about them. I am going to start sharing my adventures in these three areas. I'm sure this will be a learning experience for all of us! So stick around and enjoy the fun:)


Raw milk. Our first change in whole foods has been making the switch from pasterized cow's milk, to raw cow's milk. I was very nervous about tasting it for the first time. I had been looking for a local dairy that would sell my family raw milk, and finally found one. The kids and I went to pick up the milk for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and we have already been back a second time for more!! I just knew that it probably wouldn't taste as good as the milk that I was used to drinking from the store, but I was very wrong! It tastes GREAT! The kids love it. They drink it every morning. And let me just tell you all of the things we have made with it so far: butter (wich I will show you below), homemade ice cream, banana shakes, in my coffee, buttermilk, and there are a ton of other things I can't wait to try.

So, in buying raw milk, I have taken several things off of my grocery list that I do not plan on having to purchase ever again! Half and Half, Whipping Cream, Butter, Buttermilk, and Ice Cream are all things I can be self-sufficient in making myself. I know that this probably doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to most people, having to make your own, but I am totally enjoying myself!



Butter

If you have raw milk and a good mixer than you can make your own butter. It was super easy! And tastes great! I am not going to go into every detail here, you can google it yourself if you are interested, but here are the steps pictured below.

Scoop all of the cream off the top of your milk, put it in the mixer, and let it blend for around 15-20 minutes. This is what it will look like after that. Buttermilk separates from the butter.

Pour the buttermilk into a glass jar and keep it to make pancakes and biscuits!

After you rinse the butter a few times with cold water, pat it dry with a towel or paper towels.



Store in the fridge or freezer!

Enjoy it on toast!