After spending most of last week curled up sick, I am enjoying playing house, cooking, and teaching the kids again. Sean was a faithful nursemaid, cook, cleaner, provider, and much, much more last week. I love that man so much....

Every day Andrew sits beside me and we work through a new page in his reader. After two years of serious struggles to read, he is finally getting the hang of things. I am so thankful for good friends who reassured me not to worry, they having had boys who weren't ready to read till age seven or so. He and I take it easy and it is quite enjoyable. He snuggles into my side and follows the words on the page with his finger, rough and stained with dirt from boy adventures and working on boy things. Our little woods behind the house is full of dead-falls and drop traps since we read about those. If he catches his rabbit, I will cook it for him. I've promised.

Annaliese is scurrying through the remainder of her work for this school year. We usually begin in August, so if by May the work is done, then our little country school is let out. Right now we are enjoying co-op classes every Friday with friends and fellow homeschoolers. The kiddos are taking drama, adventure reading for boys, ooey-gooey fun, gym and animal habitats. I'm really enjoying teaching the adventure reading class and a historic sewing class. I'm simply amazed at how well these new sew-ers are handling the project. I gave them the choice of making either a regency gown or 1914 afternoon dress from Jennie Chancey's patterns.

On the home front, more construction is under way. Sean has finished running all the new water lines for the two upstairs bathrooms and the *NEW* downstairs bath. Walls are up and door in place. Oh what I would have given for a downstairs bath while pregnant! Every once in a while I have a whim to move out to our little cabin in the woods and then I remember that the bathroom there is a cold dark hike to the outhouse in the middle of the night... and there are bears....and its cold....and dark.... and reality hits and I'm content to live here with two toilets to scrub.

The house is quiet now. It's late and the littles are tucked into bed. I spent the evening spring cleaning our bedroom and rotating kids clothes, putting away woolens and corduroy dresses and flannel shirts and taking out light pants, twirly dresses and shorts. The shorts will have to stay on the shelves for a while. It flurried here tonight.

Have a beautiful night,
Hannah

Family Closet/Kid Closet

Laundry. I talk about laundry a lot. To friends, to family, on twitter. Laundry is my nemesis and I am always searching for solutions to make my life in this department. I love laundry tips. I have a lot of laundry. So while I dream of a double stackable washer/dryer system this is what I have come up with that is helping to make a dent in my life of laundry - a kid closet.

All the kids clothing in one place, in what used to be our library, the room right next to the laundry closet.
Each child has a separate shelf for pants, shirts and pj's. Undies, socks, tights, and hats are separated into individual labeled bins on the shelves above. These bins were $1 at the Dollar Tree.
Dress clothes and sweaters are hung on colored hangers. One color for each child, and Chase is currently sharing until I pick up a pack of white hangers for him. We have red, pale blue, pale pink and hot pink. I found these at Walmart and Target.

It has been a cheap and satisfying project. We already had a pole to hang the clothing on and the bins cost $13. Our boys folded piles have issues with staying neat (no surprise!) so I am hoping to pick up larger milk crate style bins in the future, one for their pants and one for shirts.
This also doubles at my sewing room/crafting studio and we kept a large wing chair in the room to enjoy the phenomenal views. The kids like to occupy it while I sew and chit-chat away, waiting for scraps of fabric.

Not needing dressers has cleared up oodles of space in the kids room. We moved toys, dress-up clothes and one dresser into the closet in their room. There are no more piles of clothes in their bedroom that somehow "fell" out of their dresser or clothes piled on the closet floor that should of, or were, hung up. Having their closet right by the laundry means I see it all the time and can keep tabs on the neatness and easily see where training is needed.

Here are some links to other family closets:
Lots of Kids
Another Lots of Kids article with photos
Mama Says
The Duggar's

The Duties of Parents

"Fathers and mothers, do not forget that children learn more by the eye than they do by the ear. No school will make such deep marks on character as home. The best of schoolmasters will not imprint on their minds as much as they will pick up at your fireside. Imitation is a far stronger principle with children than memory. What they see has a much stronger effect on their minds than what they are told.

Take care, then, what you do before a child. It is a true proverb, "Who sins before a child, sins double." Strive rather to be a living epistle of Christ, such as your families can read, and that plainly too. Be an example of reverence for the Word of God, reverence in prayer, reverence for means of grace, reverence for the Lord's day. Be an example in words, in temper, in diligence, in temperance, in faith, in charity, in kindness, in humility. Think not your children will practice what they do not see you do. You are their model picture, and they will copy what you are. Your reasoning and your lecturing, your wise commands and your good advice; all this they may not understand, but they can understand your life."

Read more here.

Raw Milk, Fresh Milk

For years we bought our milk at a dairy farm on our way back down from the north country where Sean was building our cabin. The farmer was grumpy, the cows were grumpy and it was overall a grumpy, dirty farm. Aren't all farms dirty? At least the milk was pasteurized, we thought. And fresh from the cow. It tasted delicious.


Moving out of the city two years ago took us even further from the out-of-the-way farm and the hunt for good milk began. It may sound strange but once you have had fresh milk, it is painful to go back to watery, bland store milk. So painful. Like tasting really, really good coffee and having to settle for the Maxwell can for the rest of your days. Or instant tea instead of fresh brewed.


About this time Sean had begun reading about the benefits of raw milk and the not so fun facts about ultra pasteurization. We researched it and we decided that this would be the way we wanted to go with the milk we were feeding our family.


We began asking around without much luck. So and so heard so and so got some here, what about this place, have you checked with another so and so....
We asked at the farm we bought eggs from. Our own chicks had just arrived and were settling into life being befriended by four kids. We got a scribbled phone number, a pick up place and a code word. I kid you not. The $5 a gallon price choked us up a bit. Lots of kids drink lots of milk.

My husband is wonderful and a bzillion times more outgoing than I am, which I love. He picked up a fat yellow phonebook and began calling the farms listed in the area. One benefit to living in New York is the load of dairy farms.

Most farmers via phone gave him the cold shoulder, understandably. Most milk companies will not pick up milk from a farm if they know the farm is also selling it raw.

For a while, we found a farm to buy raw milk from, until they began shipping out their milk again. Once again, the search was on. Sean loaded us up in the van and we went for a drive.

We pulled into many, many farm driveways. At some, Sean stopped to wander into the barns and talk to the farmers, asking about milk. At others, we took one look at the filth and drove away.


What we were blessed to find that night was a farmer with a clean barn, and clean, healthy cows. They are fed well and kept well. If they ever need any antibiotics or medication, the farmer dumps their milk.

Sean has become good friends over the last year with the young farmer. They talk farming and hunting and politics and religion. Meanwhile, he (the farmer) washes each cow before and after hooking it up to the milking machine, using separate towels for each cow, donning new gloves with each milking. (And I thought I had a lot of laundry!)

The floors are swept clean. No piles of manure or unclean bedding. At regular intervals the farmer has his milk tested. It routinely comes back with a lower than average bacteria count. It is sweet and creamy.


We leave a twenty in the office for him every few visits, taking home two plus gallons each time. I'm fairly confident the raw milk controversy is simmering down, so I won't bore you with the facts and health benefits.
I will recommend you order from the library, this book. It is good for loads of nutritional information besides milk info.

Or stop by this website. There is such a simple benefit to becoming mindful of the origins of our food.



The sun is beginning to set as the kids slurp down their mason jar of fresh, raw milk. Going to get milk rates high on their weekly agenda.
The two gallon container of milk will balance between my feet as we drive home.

I write a lot about being cheap, or thrifty in a lot of areas of life. There are ways to be thrifty and serve your family good, even excellent things.

Eating well on a Budget

One creative way our family is making the grocery dollars stretch is by using inexpensive foods in creative and delicious ways. Some of our foods even come to us "nearly" free, like eggs, squash and potatoes. Those basics have been turned into quiches, home fries, gnocchi, meringue cookies, pumpkin bread, and soups among other things.



Another inexpensive meal ingredient is pasta.
Have a kitchen aid or hand roller? Make your own. Usually I buy the whole grain unorganic Barilla pasta in the stores. It costs us about $1.29 a lb. I figured out the homemade pasta, basically made with eggs and flour, costs me under $1.00 a lb and it is organic, an added plus. If using conventinal flour, it would cost just fifty cents or so a pound. Have you tasted homemade pasta? It makes store bought taste like cardboard. We make it as a family and have a lot of fun with it.

Think you can't afford a fancy pasta roller? Most craft/fabric stores sell a roller for the purpose of rolling polymer clay for about $10. This is identical to our pasta roller which, years ago, I spent much more money on. Add a 40% off coupon and you have yourself an inexpensive pasta roller. Although I know back in the day pasta was rolled with a rolling pin, I don't recommend it unless you are desirous of a serious upper arm workout....


Pasta pairs easily with any fresh veggie on sale in your grocery store. Saute your veggie with some salt and garlic, add a little olive oil and good grated cheese and - Yum! Easy, inexpensive dinner served!

Back to the gnocchi.
Gnocchi, a pasta made with potatoes, is priced at our Walmart for over $2 lb. Not about to spend $4 for just pasta for one meal for our family I pulled out a handy, reliable cookbook and found that gnocchi is made with mashed potatoes, a little flour, olive oil and either egg or milk, depending on the particular recipe.

That night the seven of us lined up at the table and rolled and cut and twirled pounds of mashed potatoes into gnocchi, some for dinner, enough to freeze. Not only was the meal basically free (garden potaotes, our eggs) but we had a great time together laughing and creating as a family.



Though it can be served with traditional tomato sauce, we like gnocchi with peas, a little cream for the sauce and lemon zest. I roughly use this recipe. By now you should know I'm frugal and use milk in most recipes calling for cream. More on milk soon in another post...

Thirty Glimpses into our Day

A neighbor's woodpile. I think stacked wood is pretty.
Fresh eggs.

Sean made me a frittata. Sean makes delicious frittatas!


My kids love to go to the natural food store and smell all the soaps to buy for me. This works out wonderfully since I love receiving them.


Annaliese wrapped this package. Isn't it great?

Goats milk soap. Wonderful.
I shall be very sweet and clean.

An angel Andrew Douglas drew for me. And a sword. Because he draws nothing without swords. Swords are vital. It's very apocalyptic don't you think?


Late that night we went for a walk with my Dad and stepmom, my younger sister and her fiance, and kiddos. My Mom held down the fort with Chase.




I want something "big and chocolate" was my request. Sean made me this chocolate tart from Cooks Illustrated.

I think I'll go have another piece right now.


Katie and Josh. Pretty soon to be newlyweds.





Andrew serenaded me first thing in the morning. He is the best serenader I know of.

Ella Catherine greeted me with some of her faces. A little known fact is that Jim Carey has nothing on this kid. She could out-face him any day. And she has no idea who Jim Carey is, which I like.


I tell this kiddo all the time to stop being so cute. He doesn't listen.

Aiden played with my camera. He is a super four year old photographer.

A fiddle.
I really, really have wanted to learn how to play the fiddle. Sean bought me a student one. I love it. I love that you-tube has lessons on fiddle playing. I am sorry for the rest of the ears in the house, but I love my fiddle. I can play "Bile them cabbage down" which beats learning how to play "Mary had a Little Lamb", right?


I am thirty.
I love being thirty. I was a little intimidated by it but I love it, The last decade of my life has been filled with incredible experiences and I know the next will too. Thank you for all the birthday greetings. Sean sat down at the breakfast table and simply said, "I hijacked your blog." He didn't mention all the nice things he said which I now have to live up to.
He's too sweet.