the “unpretty” calendar as launchpad

My joyful daughter enjoying her map search

I have been seeing that educating my daughter at home is a FLUID PROCESS. There are sudden springboards that appear out of nowhere each day–and off we go, LAUNCHED in an unexpected direction.

I want to share a little thing that we are doing each morning after our Bible reading. I have a calendar from The Voice of the Martyrs ministry that gives a daily prayer suggestion for the Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus. (Here, I will ADMIT something. I usually don’t use these calendars. I like ART calendars! Garden calendars! Flower calendars! Pretty things! Shame on me for cringing from the pictures of the “unpretty” reality for untold numbers of my brothers and sisters in Christ.) Being ever-gracious, the good Lord seems to have prompted me with an idea that has helped me to START PRAYING and that has unexpectedly enhanced our learning at home.

My daughter (age 5) has been learing the calendar. She has memorized the months and days. I started this with her this year when she was driving me crazy, in the fall, asking about up-coming holidays and birthdays. I could see she had a need to understand the calendar! So, each day, we take a look at the calendar together. Thus, when 2013 came around and the new VOM calendar arrived in the mail, the idea came to use it–and I mean REALLY use it. We read the prayer suggestion and then pull out the world map (or sometimes the globe). We find the nation that we are to pray for. Suddenly, calendar work has morphed into GEOGRAPHY work which morphs into CHRISTIAN LOVE as we pray for these precious, hurting souls.

Yesterday, we were praying for CHINA. My daughter had earlier thrown her paper airplane onto the top of our biggest bookcase. Standing on a chair to reach the plane, I noticed the dust and decided to do a little cleaning. I had to move the heavy, giant atlas and the American painting book and THE BOOK OF PICTURES OF CHINA that we had bought during our three-year wait while we tried to adopt from China! (Not what God had in mind for us, however. That is another story!) So, then, the calendar time morphed into a walk along the Great Wall, a boat ride down the Yangtze River, a time of rest in a peaceful garden decorated with strange rock formations, and an admiring look at the terra cotta soldiers. We saw mountainsides terraced for farming and talked of the large population of China and how they need all that farming for their food and how so many Chinese had starved to death when there wasn’t enough food grown. We learned that those fierce lion sculptures with the curly manes were symbols of power for the emperors.

This made for a good morning in our home as we snuggled on the couch, oohing and aahing over the book’s glossy, panoramic photos!

Thank you, Lord, for the free VOM calendar and the help it is to us. I pray that you will bless our brothers and sisters around the world who suffer for Your Name’s sake. Meet their needs and fill them with Your presence. Amen.

color me orange

Candied orange peel on the left; orange marmalade, right; and fresh eggs, front and center

Ever wonder when it would be beneficial to have a thick skin? We have had some cold nights and that made me fear for the navel orange crop. Though we only have one navel tree, it produces fine, large oranges. Thankfully, those thick skins protected the fruit enough to see them through the tree-ripening process.

In some historical novel, I read of a treat that the pioneers enjoyed: candied citrus. Wait, turning orange peels into a sweet treat? Well, I just had to give it a try! After all, the compost pile does not seem to benefit quickly from citrus peels. I found the online recipes were pretty much the same so I chose one and proceeded to make the delicacy. The results? Hubby won’t touch the stuff–as I suspected. (He discourages me from using ZEST in anything, too.) I found it to taste like, well, ORANGE PEEL covered in sugar. But, still, ORANGE PEEL. When some other homeschooling moms were over, I offered them a sample. Two of the women actually wanted to eat several pieces. So, I guess it is true that people like different things. Though some recipes showed lovely chocolate-covered candied orange peel, at this point, I could not see wasting good chocolate on it!

I also gave a standard orange marmalade recipe from the canning guide a try. The recipe suggested adding cinnamon bark, if desired, so I tried some variations of this, in addition to the ordinary marmalade. It is true that only my mom and I like orange marmalade–but it is made in small batches. I think that I have eight half-pints–some for me and some for Mom.

One day, I feared just too much for the state of the navels, so I dragged the orchard ladder over to the tree and picked them all! We enjoyed fresh juice almost every day for a couple of weeks. The key, I found, with navel orange juice, is to drink it right when it is juiced and juice only what you are going to drink right then and there.

We have been happy with the hens laying again. So, now my refrigerator will be overrun with eggs if I don’t come up with more ways to use eggs! It’s a happy place to be! I thank the good Lord for His blessings to us, for navel oranges and fresh eggs.

From House to Chicken Coop

The now-demolished house from which we salvaged roofing and siding.

Our new coop taking shape.

I have heard of chicken coops that have been converted into little cottages but, here, we have done the opposite (sort of). It all began when we started with chickens for the first time, which was last spring (2013). As the chicks grew, they demanded better housing. We started them in a large trough, meant to water livestock. Later, we put them in a corral. Soon, Mr. and Mrs. Pepper, black and white Wyandottes, began an evening ritual of flying onto the top of the corral and strolling along the rails. What a pair they were! Alas, wings and courage strengthened and we had to move the chickens into a dog kennel with a cover over it to keep them contained so our neighborhood’s wandering dogs would not kill them.

Meanwhile, back at the farm planning headquarters, my husband began searching for coop plans. He went so far as to purchase a set of plans online, at my suggestion. Then, as we were at Home Depot shopping for the supplies, he began to hem and haw over it all. Next thing I knew, he was scrapping those purchased plans and designing his own.

Across the street, a house was slated for demolition. It was once a charming little two-story cottage, I believe. Roses still clung to it, hoping for better days, again. Vandals had desecrated the insides with disturbing graffiti and the owners were required to remove the house when they made a guest quarters elsewhere on their property, due to county zoning ordinances. My husband had received permission to salvage some aluminum roofing panels and wood siding from the house before tear-down. So, we had these old materials on hand and my husband decided to use them on the new coop.

He built the coop during most weekends over a three month period. We have our nine hens in there now and they have begun to happily lay eggs, again, with the longer daylight hours provided with a timed light. We joke about the cost of each of those eggs as we gather them. I will not state the amount of money this coop ended up costing us to build, even with the salvaged roofing and siding–because it is unreasonable. But we also console ourselves with the knowledge that the new coop will outlast any other outbuilding on our property. Someone down the line may appreciate that it was built well–and they won’t have to worry about the cost!

I absolutely loved the look of the old siding on the coop. However, my husband insisted that we paint it afresh to protect the wood. The finished coop is now barn red with white trim. I will be painting a mural on one end and on the two doors, come spring. Also, it was just too cold to finish painting the trim. I found that paint just does not flow well in cold weather. I look forward to my part in this project!

quotes for winter

“Lethargics are to be laid in the sun,
for the disease is gloom.”
–Aretaeus, a Second Century physician

“Always maintain a kind of summer
even in the middle of winter.”
–Henry David Thoreau

Where does it all come from?

“Back of the loaf is the snowy flour,
And back of the flour the mill,
And back of the mill is the wheat and the shower,
And the sun and the Father’s will.”
–Maltbie D. Babcock

horseradish

I planted one bare-root horseradish this past spring. Fall is ending and I decided to dig it up and give it a try! Here is what the root looked like and what a couple pieces of the root look like after being peeled.

I love that tangy Arby’s Horsey Sauce on the roast beef sandwiches. However, have you ever taken a look at the ingredients? Well, I try to avoid that junk so I am going to try making my own sauce.

Do you have a favorite horseradish sauce recipe? What do you like to use it on? 

old jeans and fabric scraps

Rag quilt made of old jeans and scrap cottons

 

I made a car quilt for my little one and it didn’t cost me a cent! For the material, I cut 6-inch squares out of our old jeans that were too far gone to wear and out of cottons from my fabric stash of leftovers from quilts I had made. There is no batting in this quilt because it is heavy enough due to the denim squares.

To get started, I met with some friends who also wanted to learn to make denim rag quilts. It was a fun time and we each made some progress toward our goal. One friend brought a finished quilt for us to see and we discussed how it was put together.

I decided to make things hard for myself and make mine reversible, with the lighter denim and darker cotton prints on one side; and the darker denim and lighter cotton prints on the other side. Warning: Do not attempt this! It wasn’t really worth the effort, I don’t think. It became very confusing to lay out and to avoid having like fabrics too close together.

Here is a photo of the quilt after the cut edges have begun to fray. I have washed and dried this four times now to achieve this level of ragging. Now the quilt is ready to wrap and put under the tree! My daughter will be warmer in the car and the denim should hold up well to all that climbing in and out (and over) that takes place in the car! And this is one present that didn’t cost me a cent!