Cleaning up

Well...the storm is over. Tim was able to get most of the yard cleaned before he had to leave for work yesterday. There sure was a lot of snow to push out of the way. Daniel and Leah played outside on the snow piles for hours. While they were out there the sun came out and it felt quite warm. Too bad they had to be so covered as they could have absorbed some Vitamin D from the sunshine.

After reading about the importance of Vitamin D in preventing disease we have been supplementing. Vitamin D comes from sunshine. Fifteen minutes of sun shining on your cheeks and arms around noon is supposed to supply your daily dose. But in northern climates we just don't get it. That's probably one reason we have such a high cancer rate here. I have read that cancer can't grow in a body that has enough Vitamin D.

It was still storming on Sabbath when I took this picture of these birds. I'm glad they were able to get something to eat.




Daniel made a patch for his eye and wanted a picture taken.



Yesterday morning I cleaned the ashes out of the wood stove. After I filled it with wood I thought, "I should take a picture." I'm sure I have mentioned that I just love this stove. One of the advertisements said that you only have to use one match a season. I love that I can let it burn down to where it has just a few coals and never have to build a fire with kindling and newspaper. I just load it and it always starts burning.

These are Whitney and Brandon's parakeets. We can't remember exactly how old they are. But we think we got them one of the first years we lived here. They have to be at least 10 years old and might be 12.

Rex, the bird on the right and the nicer bird, has not been doing very well the last couple weeks. I thought maybe he was dying. He was looking smaller and felt lighter when I held him on my finger. I have been just leaving him alone. The other night I took him out. I noticed he had a hard time staying on my finger. I sat down with him and he jumped onto my shoulder. Then her ran down my body onto my leg. I noticed he was limping. I'm relieved as I think he must have injured his left leg. That is why he hasn't been eating much. As he sits on his perch he is holding up that leg. He seems to have a hard time getting down to the food dishes and back up again. He is recuperating though, I think, and will get better, I hope.

While Tim was cleaning our yard our neighbor, Bruce came by with his tractor and snow blower. He was out cleaning some of the roads. We appreciate our good neighbors that help keep the roads open.

Leah had a hard time getting through the snow but she did make it to the snow pile where Daniel was playing.

Later they were playing in the drifts on the north side of the house. Brandon and Daniel had dug some tunnels there on Sabbath.

It was so nice and warm on the steps. The sun felt so good. I was able to stand out there for a few minutes in my shirtsleeves.

Here's a short video of Tim and old red. Old red is so old it isn't really red anymore. But it still gets the job done.

It's still snowing!

As I sit here writing I can hear the wind blowing. It still looks pretty nasty out there but it isn't snowing as hard as it was. I wonder what the road looks like? I haven't been brave enough to venture out in that wind to check it out. Yesterday I did go out and take some pictures but I was protected from the wind.

Daniel and Leah were outside again this morning. They wanted to go out so they could shovel the snow out of their fort. Daniel said he got stuck in a snowbank by the quonset that was up to his chest. Tim said there was at least 18 -24 inches of snow on one of his trailers that is setting out of the wind. It will be interesting to see if the guys get out of here tomorrow. Tim has to work Sunday afternoon and Brandon will need to get back to Fargo if the interstate is open.

I had fun mixing up dough for spritz cookies yesterday. I used my mother's recipe and looked several times. I thought it strange that there were no eggs in the recipe. When I took the dough out of the Bosch bowl to chill in the fridge I thought it very dry and wondered how it would work. After I put it in the fridge I looked again at the recipe. There I saw 1 egg!!! in the ingredients. As I made a double recipe I should have added 2. I didn't know if it would work to add the eggs after I had added the flour but thought I might as well try it. I sure didn't want to waste all that butter. I put it in my Bosch mixer bowl where the Bosch mixed it up just fine. I'm glad to report that they turned out to be very delicious!

Brandon helped with the cookie press. Tim, Daniel, and Leah frosted and decorated them for me. This morning there is only one cookie left on this plate. But I have more stored in a Tupperware container.




Tim and Daniel are shoveling a path for Sunny to do her business. Sunny is 10 years old and not liking to go out in the snow. She used to play out there for hours. Now she runs out and runs back in as quickly as she can.



Smile for the camera....

I like this one of Daniel.

Brandon worked most of the day on the old snowmobile. He replaced the bar that helps it steer as well as doing other things. It seems every time he rides the thing he needs to work on it. Since he likes fixing things he doesn't seem to get tired of doing it. He did enjoy some time riding it, letting Tim ride it, and pulling Daniel on his toboggan behind it.

I tried to get a good video of him riding and didn't really. But I will include one anyway. I'm off to make some waffles and eggs for brunch. Have a blessed Sabbath and stay warm!

Blizzard

It sure is nice to be inside a nice warm house on a day like this. While we are protected on the north and west sides of our farm I can hear the wind blowing out there. Brandon's car has a good sized drift around it already. The snow is supposed to continue all day with accumulations of 10 inches in our area.



I couldn't much see past the quonsets.

I was thinking, "I am happy I don't have to go out and take care of rabbits, chickens, and a horse this morning!"

Hear that wind? This is the view from my south door. If you look you can see the snow blowing down the road. I wonder what the roads are like? I may go out later to look around. Stay warm!

Snowstorm

Right now we are "enjoying" our first storm of the season. The children have already been out playing in the snow. They made a "fort" by the playhouse and slid down the ditch on their saucer. Tim has tonight off from work. Brandon has a four day weekend and got home last night. All is well and safe in the storm.

I'm going to finish cleaning my house. I have plans, that are not written in stone, to do some baking this afternoon. We are out of bread. I would like to make some cookies and other treats. But I feel like I am coming down with a bug and may not do anything!

I will try to remember to take some snow pictures later.

Stay warm, everyone!

ECC Week 15 and Other Stuff

We have had so much fun in Europe. Daniel and I are both getting pretty good at playing the geography game. I still have trouble with Hungary, Austria, and Serbia. They are all about the same size and in the same area. This week finished our study of France. Today we are going to Germany. I think we will take the train instead of flying.

It was neat that last night on Globe Trekker there was an episode about World War II sites in Europe. I found it very interesting. I think most of it went over Daniel's head but then he is only 8 years old!

This week Daniel made his model of the Eiffel Tower. You might find it interesting to look at some videos on You-Tube of the Eiffel Tower. Did you know they turn the platform into a skating rink in the winter? I wonder how it feels to skate that high in the air?



There were 12 steps to this model. After helping Daniel get started on it he was able to finish the steps himself. And he has been playing with it since then. He's got his little Lego men skating around on it.



Friday morning the children and I made some French food. Daniel mixed up some truffles. Oh my, were they good! Leah helped me make crepes. I ate several for breakfast. The rest we used to make Pastrami and Broccoli Crepes with Mornay Sauce that we had for lunch. For supper we made French Chicken, Potato Cake, Peas, and Chocolate Mouse Pie. We had a candle light supper with Welch's Sparking Grape Juice in our champagne glasses...very nice.

We have been reading a YWAM biography about George Muller. It has been Daniel and my favorite so far. George was such an awful youth! What a turn around he made when he finally gave his life to God. It will be our read-aloud for the next two weeks as we only read one chapter each school day.

I haven't decided how much "Christmas" vacation we will have yet. I'm thinking I would like to finish this week (16) of ECC. It might take us 2 weeks to do it. Tim has Thursday off since the trucks won't go out on the 25th. Then he has New Year's Eve off from work as well as the trucks don't go out on the 1st either. It will be nice for him to have two 3 day weekends off in a row! And nice for us to have him home.

I best get going on our day.

ECC Weeks ?

I realized this morning that I hadn't written for awhile. It seems that sometimes there isn't anything to say. Or there are things I don't or won't say.

It has been cold but it is supposed to be warming the next few days. That will be a nice change especially for those who have to go out and work in this frigid weather!

I won a free session of Body Talk from my friend, Dawn. Sunday night she gave me my first ever session. It lasted for over 2 hours though it didn't seem that long! Some things came up that could only have come from God and Dawn was able to help me through them. Little did we know that through the session God equipped me for what would happen yesterday. I really can't go into details but "Strength" was one of the things that came up in the session. In my mind I had believed I wasn't strong or didn't have strength. The verse, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" was the verse that was given to me. That encouraged me as I was able to be strong in a situation that came up yesterday. I just thought the timing amazing and totally from God! Thank you, Lord!!!!

I don't really know much about Body Talk but you can read about it on my friends blog: http://dawns-hope.blogspot.com/ . She writes about it on her blog and has the website listed on her sidebar. Clara's sessions helped me to understand it a little better. Dawn was very ill and was close to death a few years ago and credits Body Talk to saving her life.

I can hardly believe it is Wednesday already. How can the weeks go by so fast? The children are doing well in school. Daniel is almost finished with 3A in his Singapore Math book. He is getting getting a break from multiplying and dividing this week as he is learning more about adding money. He really like that!! He keeps improving in his spelling and reading abilities which is so uplifting to both him and me. We have been in France the last couple of weeks and have been enjoying all the library books and videos we found. Daniel is getting better at playing the geography game. Next week we will "fly" to Germany.

Yesterday after Daniel finished spelling on the spelling board Leah wanted to spell. Doing two things at once I gave Leah some cvc words to spell with the letter tiles on the board while dictating sentences to Daniel. Daniel got all his words from 6 sentences right!! And Leah was able to sound out and spell: cat, dog, man, men, and several other words that I can't remember right now!!! Was I surprised! I think reading will come very easy for her. I am ready for that!

The last week we were in Norway the children made these for art. We had studied about the "Reindeer People". They live in Lapland in northern Norway and herd reindeer year round. Their traditional clothing is bright blue with red and yellow designs. Leah's is on the left and Daniel's is on the right. I helped Leah with hers but Daniel did his all on his own.




As I said in my other post I made some knipfle for Brandon on Sunday. I just had to include this picture as it turned out so delicious!



Now I need to go make my hungry son some pancakes!

Brandon's Birthday

The day dawned sunny and bright. Tim wasn't feeling well but the children and I were still planning on going to church. Leah was all dressed in her new purple velvet dress. I had spent 20 minutes curling her beautiful long hair. I had the van out and warming when the phone ran. It was my friend. She was at church and informed me they were cancelling it for the day. For some reason the power was off and it was only 40 degrees in the church. I haven't heard what the problem was or if the whole big town of Alfred was without power. But we sure were disappointed! In spite of that we did have a nice Sabbath.

I spent the morning visiting with Brandon as I hadn't seen him for a couple weeks. Whitney and Ryan showed up a little before noon. I had all my food prepared ahead of time and just needed to warm it. I'm happy to say that this meal turned out very well. The homemade Alfredo sauce was delicious! I remarked to Whitney that I should make some homemade pizzas with that sauce. The chicken was really good, too. I had browned the breasts with salt and pepper on both sides. On one side I rubbed fresh minced garlic all over. After they were browned I took them out, cooled them a bit, and then sliced them into strips about 2-3 inches long. Then I cooked them a little longer. They were so nice and tender and the flavor was perfect for fettuccine.

I had made the cookie fruit salad which I hadn't made for years. Daniel especially liked it. I think he had 3 small bowls full. We were all too full to eat the cake after lunch so we saved it for the afternoon. Here we are playing Racko. Whitney and Ryan brought it over. They have been playing it in the evenings as two players can play this game.



Tim wasn't feeling very well so he didn't play with us. We enjoyed some cups of White Chocolate Mocha while we played!




Brandon is opening his card that Tim picked out.

There were a lot of nice words on the card.

Brandon seems happy with his gift! The items Tim wanted to get Brandon we couldn't locate right now. I won't say what they are as we might be able to get them in the future. Tim thought we should just give Brandon cash along with the clothing items I bought as he really needs the money right now.

I sometimes do Brandon's laundry and see what shape his unmentionables are in so I got him stocked up on those. Also, I found Penny's had a good sale on jeans and shirts.

Whitney and Ryan had ordered Brandon some things from a catalog but they didn't arrive in time. But she had made up a box with some fun food items and a movie.

Leah had stuffed her little calendar into Brandon's gift bag. She was so proud of that fact and he was gracious to say that he really needed a calendar. Here he is ready to give her a hug.

Notice Daniel's arms coming from behind.

We still weren't hungry but thought we had better have the cake before Leah took her nap. She is looking pretty tired here.

When I put these pictures on my computer I saw that I had taken some of my failed knipfle! It looked fine before it was cooked.

Here are some of the sheets before I cut them with my pizza cutter.

The onions cooking in the oil and butter....

I am planning on making knipfle again today as Brandon didn't get any last week and today is his birthday. You should see all the food I have made for him to take along for his freezer! If I remember I will take a picture of it. I best get busy.

Another tag

As I said in my previous post I got tagged twice this week. It is fun to read what other people came up with and the tag gives me ideas on something new to post. I thought I would take some time to think about my answers. But life with two small children, homeschooling, taking care of a home and husband, etc...is busy. So my answers won't be very deep. But I hope they will be fun.

Thanks to my young friend, Cora, I was able to copy and paste these directions. I still couldn't get the award to paste. So I will just go with what is here. If I have time I will try to get the award on here later.

Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Copy the Award.
3. Post it in your blog.
4. Tell us 7 things that your readers don't know.
5. Link 7 new bloggers as recipients.
6. Notify winners of award with comment on their blog.
7. Keep being an encouragement!


1. Some of my hair is turning white from the vitiligo I have. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease where you loose the pigment in your skin. It doesn't just happen all at once. It shows up in spots.

2. I don't like to talk on the phone. Mostly I don't like to call people. I'm not really sure why as I do like to talk to people otherwise. That's why I would rather email or message people.

3. I like to go to bed early. Usually I am in bed by 9:00. With the nights coming quicker now I sometimes feel like I could go to sleep at 7:00. My father was one who went to bed early, in the winter at least. He would go to bed at sundown. Then he would be awake by 3:00 in the morning. When we were younger Tim and I and the kids would stay at the farm on weekends. Sometimes I would wake in the night and have to use the bathroom. Dad would try to get me to visit with him at 3:00 in the morning! He had the coffee all ready. But I was too tired to do that. Now I wish I would have!

4. I don't like big crowds of people. It just seems to wear me out to be around so many people and a lot of noise. My father was like too. I think I have many of his personality traits. He was a quiet man. Sometimes I wish I were more like my mother. She was outgoing and definitely not shy. I guess opposites do attract. Tim is outgoing too!

5. I used to love to go rollerskating. I'm thinking of that because today is the monthly homeschool ice skating party in Jamestown. Tim has been taking Daniel and he can skate really well now. Even though I could roller skate I never did well at ice skating. Now I think I wouldn't like to try and fall down. Today Tim is going to take Leah as well.

6. My favorite candy bar is a Reece's. I don't really like to eat peanut butter on bread. But I love the candy bar. When they were younger my older kids used to buy me Reece's for my birthday or Mother's Day. I always enjoyed that immensely.

7. Today I am going to prepare a birthday meal for my middle child. His 20th birthday is on Sunday but we will celebrate on Sabbath. It's kind of odd to think of him as my middle child as for many years he was the baby and Whitney was the middle child. I asked Brandon what he wanted for his meal but he was too nice to say. So I'm planning to make fettuccine alfredo and chicken as I know it is one of his favorites. He did say he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.


I am only linking one person to do this tag as I don't know very many people who blog. I will link my friend, Dawn.
http://dawns-hope.blogspot.com/

This was fun. I will talk to you all again in a couple days. Have a blessed restful Sabbath!

Tagged

While I am not sure exactly what that means I will take the challenge and try to answer the questions from my friend's blog.

Six names I go by:

Honey (only Tim can call me that, oh, and sweet older ladies)
Kimberly
Kim
Kimmie (only my brother calls me that!)
Mom
Mother

Three things I am wearing right now:

Blue jeans
Blue socks
Teal t-shirt

Three things I want very badly right now:

All my children to be saved
To be debt-free
For my feet to be warm!

Three things I did yesterday:

Taught school all day (at least it seemed like it as we didn't get done until 8:00 last night!)
Warmed left-overs for lunch
Played the geography game with Daniel and Leah

Two things I ate today: (It's early so I haven't had much yet.)

banana
venison jerky

Two people I last talked to on the phone:

Jane from the chiropractor's office
Someone calling for Tim

Two things I am going to do today:

Teach school in a minute here
Give Sunny a bath

My three favorite beverages:

Water, my beverage of choice
White chocolate mocha, mmmmmm
Plain coffee

Since I don't know many who blog I won't tag anyone else. I also got tagged by my young friend Cora, Maiden in the House of the Lord. Cora, I'm not sure how to do all that copying and pasting but I will try to answer all the questions later since they require a little more thinking!

Failed Food

Friday I made most of my food for Sabbath. I was hungry for knipfle so that is what I made. I was horribly humbled by it as it didn't turn out. I didn't have time to remake it and hoped that it would be edible. As I lay in bed that night wondering what could have happened to it I remembered that I had bought some bread flour at Sam's awhile back. Then I didn't mark the bucket. I'm pretty sure now that it was the flour as the Finnish Cookie Sticks we made that day didn't "turn out" either.

We finished our study of Norway. So I made some Norwegian Potato Soup for supper on Friday. Daniel, Leah, and I made the Finnish Cookie Sticks. After we made the dough for the cookies we rolled them into long rolls about 1/2 inch diameter. Then we cut them into 2 inch lengths. This we dipped into beaten eggs, then sugar, and finally crushed almonds. They were only supposed to need to back 8 minutes but they took about 20 minutes to get done.

It was the same with my knipfle. I kept boiling it but it wouldn't get done. Finally I drained it. The noodles looked like they had melted and the water I poured off was thick with starch. On Sabbath I reheated them in my big crock pot and they were kind of mushy. But my company ate it and said they liked it.

We did have a great Sabbath of rest and fellowship. The day spent with friends and family was so refreshing. My meal was simple and just needed to be dished up for the table. I think all were filled.

After sundown which comes so quickly now we played games of Uno, Swap, and later Phase Ten. The children played outside sledding down the hill (ditch) for a long time. I loved their rosy cheeks when the finally came inside. They, too, were able to play some of the card games with us. They also enjoyed a video while we played.

Yesterday my girls and I went to a baby shower in Jamestown for a young woman of our church. Leah kept saying we were going to a "shower cap." I don't know what she was thinking we were going to do there. So I explained what a shower was and that we wouldn't get wet. The young new mother got so many gifts as there were so many people there. It was fun to see all the cute little things. And she didn't get double of anything except one cute little ducky sleeper.

Tim had brought Daniel up to town before he had to go to work. Whitney and I both had some shopping to do so we left the shower around 4:00. She had to buy some heat lamp bulbs at TSC. Her chicken coop isn't as warm as our old one here. Hers is bigger for one thing. Although the chickens haven't been troubled by the cold she has had a few eggs freeze already. It most likely will get colder so she wanted to be prepared.

Today we will be back to school. We will be "flying" to France and will spend a couple weeks there. This week for art we are supposed to construct a model of the Eiffel Tower. One of the moms had a post on the forum last week with a link to a website that showed each step for making it out of Lego's. That should be fun to do. I'm ready for an art project that will have minimal work for me!

Snow

We did get a little snow yesterday. As I was driving to town I noticed the sky start to look like snow. When I looked harder I could see little flakes falling. By the time I got out of the dentist office there was enough sleety snow to cover my windshield. The streets were slick but our highway wasn't.

Here's a picture I took this morning looking south. Isn't the dawn pretty?




If you look hard you will see two birds. One is at the feeder and another is on the ground.

I'm happy I will be able to stay home today. I took care of all my errands yesterday so I shouldn't have to go away until Sabbath. I'm looking forward to doing a bit of cooking and baking after school today and again tomorrow.

Blessings!

Sausage

We didn't get snow! I love snow but after last winter I would like to put it off for awhile yet this year. Plus the November weather was so nice. I wouldn't mind seeing that continue. But it is cold this morning.

I have been loading the wood stove once a day, usually at night. I filled it last night but had to burn it a little hotter. This morning it needed to be filled again. Without checking what the temperature is outside I can tell it is colder than it has been by how much wood we need to burn.

Today I have to go to town. I wish I wouldn't but I have two appointments this afternoon. Tim doesn't have to go to work until later so I will be able to leave Daniel and Leah here with him.

Because of my thyroid disease, Hashimoto's Disease, I have receding gums. So one appointment is to see my dentist about covering some exposed roots. Then I have my monthly chiropractic appointment. I have books that are due at the library and a new list of books about France which we will start studying next week that I will need to get. And I have 3 inter library loan books I have to send back to Bismark. Since I did my shopping on Sunday when I was in town I shouldn't have to do any today, I hope!

I regret that we didn't get any pictures or video of our sausage making. We just got so involved in the process. Plus it took two people to do it, one to load the machine with ground meat and one to guide the filling of the casings. Today we will try some of the finished product.

Here are some pictures of Tim grinding the meat. He would alternate the beef and venison so it would sort of get mixed together. Once we figured out how to assemble the blade in the grinding attachment it worked great:)





The sausage stuffer attachment fit into the grinder attachment which is on the machine now. We just took out the spiral, blade, and hole pieces and put the sausage stuffer piece into this attachment. We have 3 different sizes for sausage stuffing. We used the middle size. The smaller size could be used to make wieners, the larger to make summer sausage.

Here's a short video of Tim grinding the meat.

Butchering Day

First let me say that I don't show any actual butchering. The kids and I didn't watch it and I didn't take pictures of it! But here is a picture of Whitney at the H. family farm doing chores with her husband the morning we picked up the calf. She loves the farm life!



Daniel and Leah soon found some kitties to play with as well as Ryan's dog, Tate.



The cats were cute and a lot smaller than our giant, Mario!

Whitney, Ryan, and Tim discussing the best way to do this thing.

The calf we took is on the right scratching herself. She was smaller than the two fall calves in her pen. She should have been as big as the calves in the previous picture. She wasn't much bigger than Sunny, our dog.

The kids and I went for a walk while Tim did the deed.

Leah found some cattails to pick in the slough. We found some dead trees Tim could cut down for firewood, too.

Yesterday we ground all the venison and beef and got about 40 lbs. of meat for sausage. All that is in casings, smoked, and in the freezer. We have some ground meat in the fridge that I mixed up for summer sausage, about 4 lbs. That has to stay in the fridge for 3 days. Then I will bake in a low oven. I hope it will be good. We also have some nice roasts from the beef we want to make into bacon. I need to look for a brine recipe.

Today Tim goes back to work. That is always hard for me. But it will be a short week for him.

It looks like we could get some snow, just in time for my two appointments in town. Oh well, if it gets bad I will just cancel and stay home!