The Homestead Journal~ Week 64~ Like a Dog Chasing Its Tail

Homestead Happenings
I am unrealistic it seems. I know how my house should run. Everything has a place, but its hard to force others to abide by those guidelines. Bribe, beg or threaten, sometimes I just have to let go and let people be messy. I have been working on getting things back in order, now that my muscle is back home, but mostly I have just been reorganizing the cabinets, closets etc. I had hoped to do it as we unpacked, but I never really got to do it right. I have taken a piece of paper and labeled the inside of each cabinet as to what goes inside. I hope this will help the rest of my family, who lack my obsessive organizing skills. I also picked up some nice little spice jars from Dollar Tree. I love stuff like this from the DT. They also have great plastic baskets that I use for all sorts of organizing. One day I will make a post of the regular items I buy at DT

I take a lot of photos but rarely do you get to see the Mr and Mrs.. So here we are.. 

What We Are Learning
One of the most common questions we get, and almost the hardest to explain, is
"what do you use for curriculum?"
We don't.  
I have tried/planned on posting more about our "unschool" or as I now prefer to call it, "hack school" lessons. The thing is, that can be hard as well. Generally, everything we do is school. but thinking long and hard about the every day things my children do, I will try (again) to post it more.

This past week Jacob (14) worked on for Seminary, he worked a few merit badges for scout school, He also practiced origami and he is focusing on self teaching ASL. 

Isaac is reading up on composting. That is his homestead project. He will be building one over the next week or so. He is also reading about goats. He plans to raise milk and meat goats. We hope to get him his first goat this month.

Quinten is reading about chickens. He wants to raise chickens for eggs and meat. He is repairing the chicken coop this week and hopes to get some hens this next week.  He also wants to open a bakery. He loves to bake and does quite well. He will have breads and such to sell at the farmers market this summer. 

Our Adventures

I worked 3 days this week and appointments are picking up. I post photos of  my week on  my grooming blog here 

Wednesday is Scout night. The scoutmaster was out of town for work, so they had a good game of dodge ball. Isaac worked on geology merit badge and nutrition. He had already done them at home, but due the pack had it scheduled and since he enjoys it,  he was glad to do it again. Abigail had Faith In God an they worked on a project about testimonies. 

Thursday we took a trip into Indiana to check out the local stores there. It is the same distance from work as our regular Walmart and Dollar Tree, but we were not as pleased. However, we did pass a few nice recreational areas, to go back to in warmer weather. 

Friday we stopped by a church members homestead. They have goats, pigs and chickens.. Quinten will be working there to barter some chickens. We are also purchasing three small pigs and possibly a few goats.  

On Our Bookshelf

We borrow a lot of books from the library. The children pick out their own books, and I grab some that I feel they need for school. 

The Little's Books 

Zachary found a Japanese book series called GON. He likes it mostly because you read it back wards. Its all cartoon, no text, and its about a dinosaur.
Olivia has a few Fancy Nancy books 
Urijah has Thomas The Tank Engine and Curious George 

The Older's Books
Isaac and Abigail read a few of the American Chillers Series books. about ogre's and swamp things..
Abigail is also reading some more Little House books
Jacob started reading Walden

The Schooling Books

Living in Ancient Egypt

Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia 

Baking Basics and Beyond 

Almost from Scratch
The Homesteading Handbook

Mom's Books 

 National Geographic guide to medicinal herbs : the world's most effective healing plants 

Liberty Defined

What We Are Watching 
I caught up on some Bones episodes
Family Night was Little House on the Prairie

Abigail and Isaac have been using Book Adventure to quiz on the books they read. Check it out!

On  The Menu
I plan to share more of our menu's here. I will do what I can as time allows. 
We eat oatmeal for breakfast most days. Pancakes, Omelette's we have once a week. 

These are egg noodles. I chopped up fresh garlic and put it in a sauce pan with butter and melted it and mixed with plain noodles. ( I do not use oil when cooking noodles)  Diced fresh tomatoes and and tossed.  3# noodles, 6 roma tomatoes estimated meal price $4

Sloppy Joe Pockets. We used half ground beef and half kidney beans. mixed with 2 cans sloppy Joe sauce. topped with cheese. Quinten made the pockets with a biscuit recipe from his cook book. Estimated meal cost was about $6.

When I meal planned this week, I as craving won-tons. How exciting it was to see the egg roll wrappers (makes 80+ wontons)  marked down and the cream cheese on sale! Win Win. I paid $2.09 for the wrappers, $1 each for 3 packages of cream cheese and $1 for green onions. Head of cabbage and a few cups of rice and diner cost about $8


Additional Photos of Our Week

Urijah made "sprinkle" cookies with Quinten 

Linking up with these Blog Hops 

(I am looking for more blog hops, do you have one to share? )