Around Here

Around here ~

there is always much to do


the bounty of garden goodness is coming to an end, our spinach and swiss chard was often made into green smoothies ~ YUM   (don't hate me because of our blue counter tops - I know, they are awesome)







our 4 little kittens are 6 weeks old today and Opal left to go to a good home just 10 minutes ago









we are loving how we home educate and after 9 years are seeing the fruit of our labor



we are busy with farmers markets and loving it

the huge combines are harvesting the fields as I type and the ground is shaking ~ 3 of our children got to ride along tonight in the combine



we are gearing up for a long, cold, winter





our 5 year old twins wear Little House on the Prairie gowns and night caps that Grandma D made whenever they are not in the wash

we have a pattern in our family ~ girl, girl, boy, boy, girl, girl, boy, boy and the twins are praying that we have a baby girl next ~ so sweet







our oldest, Hannah, is planning a themed dinner party all about Titanic to take place in October







my husband is blessed to be a part of an amazing men's study with 3 other men at our church and they are going through the book ~ The Exemplary Husband


our 2 oldest sons, Sam and Joe, live, breathe, and sleep fishing and we love having fresh fried fish

baby Henry is carried around most of the time ~
 it's amazing that he ever learned to walk






we were blessed to enjoy fresh cut flowers from our garden in our home thanks to Hannah and Emma

Gus LOVES everything Hannah bakes ~ especially cake pops

Henry can often be found in our hammock sleeping

flat apple pie drizzled with warm caramel sauce is a new family favorite



homemade baked mac and cheese is a lunch special


but most of all around here we love the Lord Jesus Christ with our whole hearts, minds, and souls ~ without the saving grace that comes with knowing Christ everything else is done in vain.

Farmers Market Fun

Sam and Emma at our stand

We have been enjoying being vendors at an area farmers market.  I think this might be a bit of an addiction!!  We love taking our garden goodness, farm fresh eggs, and fresh organic baked goods!  Our 2 oldest daughters have also been selling their handmade jewelery.  We have met great people and made a really good side income doing this as a family.  We are looking forward to expanding our stand next season.  The children are learning so much from this opportunity!  Sam likes to go buy produce from other vendors with his own money to help provide for our family (his words)!  So sweet, he is! 

We sold out of Hannah's Zucchinni Bread fast!

Education vs. Schooling



Teaching Textbooks for math is our family favorite!

We have been educating our children their whole lives.  We brought our oldest daughter out of private school after kindergarten and 1st grade.  Officially, we have been educating our brood at home the last 9 years.  We believe that we are commanded by God to teach our own children.  When we began our journey of home education it was about sitting down in desks and doing school at home.  We had all the pretty curriculum and checked off all of the boxes as we completed our daily work.   We were even involved in a Christian Home School Co-op.  After 2 years of this we decided that it was not beneficial to our vision.  This is a wonderful recipe for Mama and children burnout!  After doing this the first couple of years I was stressed and I didn't know how I would have time to grow our garden, keep up managing our home, preparing nutritious meals, nurturing the newest baby and do all of the school work too!  We have been blessed with 5 more babies since we started educating at home.  After talking with my husband and observing some very successful home educated families we decided that our garden would be our main focus of education for that entire spring, summer and fall.  Freedom and liberation!!  It was wonderful.  We watched our children learn more than ever before and they were enjoying it so much.  This kind of learning and living covered so many subjects.  They were learning math, reading, graphing, horticulture, health, cooking, canning, spelling, God's creation, journaling, and art just to name a few!!   For us this means that they are taught hands on every day skills that they will use their entire lives.  We do use some curriculum but we realize that there is no one size fits all.  We want to instill in them a love for learning and reading.  I know from my own experience of being "schooled" rather than educated it was a chore and not at all something to enjoy.  I had to ask myself ~Why as home educators do we think we have to emulate the school system when educating our children at home??  There is a better way!!  I learned to relax and enjoy learning with our children and not worry about grade levels and what school should look like.  Technically we have children in 10th, 7th, 4th, 2nd, 2 in 1st grade, a pre-schooler, and a baby.  We explain this to them so that when people ask them what grade they are in they don't feel awkward.  We do not start and stop "school".  Everything we do is part of their education.  We want to teach them different than the government school teaches.  This past year our 15 year old daughter did a family tree project using Ancestry.com.  She went back generations and we all learned a lot about our own family history.  She also had an interest in Egypt.  She did a 23 page report and a poster board on mummies!  All the younger ones wanted to do reports on various things too!  



We have loved Pathway Readers for years!

We want our children to be strong in the basics ~ reading, writing, and arithmetic.  But above all we want to walk beside them in everything to teach, train, and discuss God's Holy Word.  We have decided to stay away from extra curricular activities as this can cause much division in the family.  Running around taking our children to this event or this lesson or this sport is not what we see as growing their hearts toward our family.  We do music lessons that enable our children to serve our church, nursing homes, etc.  For the most part we focus our education around our home and farm.  We have watched our children thrive.  If you have ever considered bringing your children home to teach them please watch  the documentary, Indoctrination - Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America.  It is eye opening.  We love the blessing of teaching and training our children in the protection of our home.