The Beginning or The End

Is this the Beginning, or the end, or did it ever stop?

This is how I am feeling as we "start" our new school year. We have not officially started but some learning is always taking place. As I lesson plan on the side. You know in all that spare time I have. I am currently facilitating the girls with Islamic Studies, Math, and Sewing. Nasir is focusing on Islamic Studies, Lang Arts (not too much writing if you exclude trying to master the friendly letter), Math, and Geography.

Something is telling me to write about lesson planning. 8th grade, 6th grade, and 3rd grade. A few things that come to my mind is that "after difficulty comes ease," and boy do I miss those easy elementary years. God willing this academic year will be fantabulous. Lesson Planning is not really challenging when I stop to think on it. It is more finding the time to do it right now, a few additional things going on that compete for my time. One of the books the girls will be reading is Angela Davis and it has been traveling with me for a while now but I am still in the same spot. I aim to finish it by this time next week.

What else? Life is Grand!

Oh the Garden. It is still feeding us despite neglect. Praise God! I tend to it but not nearly as much as I probably should. Actually, I know not as much as I should as some of my lettuce wilted from lack of water. It has an organic look right now. Wild. untamed. Yet Productive. I am trying to decide if I am going to do a winter garden. I will probably get more into it again once I get a few other things out of the way, especially Lesson Planning.  At least that is what I am hoping.

And I haven't been in a picture taking mood so excuse the lack of images. I looked at the lawn chair full of 39lbs of zucchini from the last harvest and asked myself...How many pictures of zucchini do you really need? 

Calling on God

Today after about the 5th time he said, "Mom! oh never mind I figured it out." It reminded me of how mothers are like God to their children. Then it made me realize that I need to get him better acquainted with God. For as he called on me and figured it out himself is the same way I call on God when I think I am stuck. So flattered but must do better job of connecting him with THE Source.

A Recent Picture of Us

Food Totals

As I sit here with a full belly I am once again counting my blessings. I, like us all, have so many that I cannot count.
~Now I have lost my train of thought as my daughter comes in to show me something and explain to me that "these people have too much time on their hands."~

She is definitely a blessing I can count. Today she finished her first pair of pants. She did a great job and I do think she enjoyed the process, except having to get acquainted with the seam ripper.

The Boy was distracted at dinner with some huge tomatoes he picked.

As I was happily preparing dinner for myself I felt a lot of emotions but one that was overwhelming was when I cut up a tomato I tasted it and thought no, I think this other variety will give me more of the taste I am desiring. We have about 7 varieties growing in our yard.

Another night, we had just gotten in from a family trip and I didn't buy any onions and needed for the dish I was to prepare. I did not feel like going back to the store or ask my husband then it hit me. DUH you have onions in the backyard. PBTA! Problem solved. Blessing Counted.

Here are some estimates from our yard this season:

Tomatoes: 24.5lbs
Zucchini:  126lbs

green onions: a lot
corn: 6 ears  This has been our second attempt at growing corn but first successful.
yellow onions: 3
Lettuce: For a few months we did not have to purchase from the store. We easily use about 4 heads a week. Since June 18 we have purchased maybe 4-5 heads. And the last ones we purchased I should have harvested from the yard. I need to sow some seeds again.
Potatoes: 1 lb
Bell Peppers: 2 This is about our third year trying but first year successful.
 Peppers: 2
Green beans: 9 lbs  Not feeling this variety but wanted to use these seeds.
Basil: haven't had to purchase any but not  a huge harvest. Enough to meet our needs. Aminah wants me to plant more.
Artichokes: 6

Oh Eggs! A lot. we have def failed at tallying these totals. Initially there was no system. Then we came up with chalk board method but I need to buy a bunch of chalk as the stick we had came up missing. I have a rough estimate but we will just say we get a good amount each day.

We are blessed to share a lot and it is a great feeling to know that your family has healthy food to eat.

Facebook...I Quit You

Yesterday I got a note on my fb page that on Aug 13 I would have to switch to the timeline format. In and of itself that is nothing major, BUT for me it was the deciding factor. When timeline first became an option a good friend of mine switched and I hated it. However, it is her page so if she likes that option go for it.
Wait. FB is a company like any other so if they want to change their format they have the right, but I also have right not to subscribe and I don't really need a good reason to. People seem to like change these days as every month when I log on to Constant Contacts to create a newsletter they are asking me to watch a video about all the new changes. It drives me nuts, would be worse, but at least I can still go in and do what I need to do without watching a new video every month. However, it is still annoying. Anyway, I stick with their company because the choice is not mine. And I guess I could complain but I don't. Just like I guess I could join many others and complain to Facebook, but i am not. Maybe when I have more time on my hands or care that much. For now I will vote by opting out.

On a real note. Quitting FB is going to be a challenge. I would be telling other than the truth to say I am not going to miss it. There are so many great things about it. But hey, I plan to see how things go for at least the next 3 months. I have a lot of projects to complete within that time frame and hopefully the time that I spend on fb can be geared towards those goals.
One thing I am concerned about is the news. Many of my fb friends post really great articles so I will have to be more diligent about keeping up to date with current events, which leads me to a favor.

If you come across an article or picture or something that is a must read or you think that would interest me. If not too much trouble please send it to me. That goes for updates on your life and or children as well. It seems kinda selfish to ask. When I was debating with myself about whether I should quit fb I kept telling myself that it is selfish to ask others to go out of their way to include me when I can just suck it up and stay on fb. Obviously quitting fb won. And if I am out of the loop when we finally meet up again it will give us something to talk about.

When I thought of this post earlier it seemed a lot more crisp in my head: columns with pros and cons. bullets and such. However, as I really just desire to be sleep and am on autopilot I am happy to just be rambling on and getting this done since I have already been asked a few times. You may be thinking well take your backside to sleep. Trust me, Tonight it is not that simple.
With that, God bless and goodnight.

Slaughter a chicken by heart ...

At dinner the other day I got the bright idea to ask my children if they could set one goal for me what would it be:

The Boy: To be able to slaughter a chicken by heart. And he is sticking to the by heart. I did tell him that I prefer the word harvest.
Peace: To be in bed by midnight. Well it is 2am as I type so this obviously will be a difficult task.
Faith: To become fluent in Spanish.

I like all of their goals for me, glad I asked and I have work to do.

Oh, any of my friends that know how to harvest chickens, invite me over to tag along.

Free Chairs

A friend of mine knew I was in need of chairs. In her travels she came across some free chairs on the side of the road and had enough confidence in my homemaking skills to pick them up for me; AND hold on to them until I came around to actual try to do something with them. I did not see them but from what she had described it was not a project I wanted to tackle. Fast Forward a few months and different outlook on a few things I just happened to to let her know I was STILL in need of chairs. She said GREAT and went and got these chairs. Though I was grateful I was skeptical but hey (huge sigh)...

 So this is how it went.
Step 1: Pick up chairs and try to have a vision. See Beyond what they currently look and smell like.
Step 2: Put chairs in backyard because they cannot come in my house. In fact, husband can't see these because he will know for sure that I have lost my mind.
Step 3: RESEARCH (thank God for the internet)
Step 4: Really look at the chairs and assess what needs to be done.

Step 5: Take the seat off because they were filthy and particle board looked weak anyway.
Step 6: Hose down and Scrub remaining portion of the chairs.
Step 7: Let dry and make a template of the existing seat.
Step 8: Go to Urban Ore to purchase plywood to recreate the seat portion.

Step 9: Fabric Depot to purchase all other supplies. I purchased the seat foam there but fabric was more than I was willing to pay and they were out of spray adhesive.
Step 10: Went to Beverly's because I really like their clearance selection.
Step 11: Walk across St to hardware store to purchase spray adhesive and staples for staple gun.
Step 12: Home to clean off plywood and let dry while I marinate on what to do next.
Oh forgot to mention that while all this was going on I was looking for clamps to borrow so that I hold down the wood while I cut. Could not get a hold of any clamps so...

human clamp to the rescue

 --company here so going to wrap this up--
Step 13: Wood dry so cut new seats and foam
Step 14: adhere foam to seat
Step 15:  cut fabric and put it on new seats
Step 16: screw seats back to chairs

 
Total cost: $38
foam $22
adhesive spray $11.
fabric $4
plywood $1
chairs $0
Screws $0 (already had on had)