Recap Thanksgiving

It's funny how Thanksgiving was only a week ago but it feels like forever ago. Nonetheless, I'd like to recap on it for memory's sake. It was a simple event in our home. No fancy table cloth, special dishes or candles. Just special people and special food :) 

The whole day was rather quiet. The kids played while I did some cooking before the "party" arrived. We had Jonathan, his mom, his dad and the new intern Timothy over along with Julian who lives in our home. So there were 9 of us total. While we waited for Timothy's broccoli to steam they checked out the Black Friday sales in the newspaper.

Then the food was served. We set it out potluck style so the table wouldn't be so crammed. We ate the traditional "tofurky", candied yams, mashed potatoes with gravy, some steamed broccoli and an apple-cranberry-walnut salad. Sweet potato pie and banana cream pie for dessert.

For those of you who have never had "tofurky" before, this is what it looks like. I put stuffing around it. I'm not a huge fake-meat person but on Thanksgiving it's pretty yummy. 

Jonathan gave the kids a special gift. A wooden train set! They were practically glued to it for the rest of the day...and the next....and the next!

 

 And, last but not least, we finished our thankful tree. All month long we've added leaves of thanksgiving. Instead of using the pecan leaves from our trees outside we decided to make our own. We got Elmers glue, poured a little in a small bowl with some water and then got a paint brush and brushed it over tissue paper on top of construction paper. After it dried I traced leaves and cut them out. The kids loved it.

 Some were just one worded items, and others were more specific.

 You might notice a black dot in all my pictures from now on (if I don't edit them). That's because I dropped my camera and now all the pictures show up with a black dot. :( I guess all things work together for good....a great excuse to get a new camera!

 This was what I was thankful for. I remember last year I only got my hair cut about every 6 months because I felt like I needed someone to watch them while I got my hair cut. Now I can take them with me and they sit and watch the whole time with no problem. The hair stylist even commented at how chill my kids were. I am so proud of them! Getting past the 2's and 3's is such a blessing. Loved them as toddlers but, whew, am I thankful to be past all the wiggly-ness and boundary testing!

"Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalms 106:1

Placed in our hands

I read something in a book called Medical Ministry this morning that made me see something in a new way.   

If men would open their understanding to discern the relation between nature and nature's God, faithful acknowledgments of the Creator's power would be heard. Without the life of God, nature would die. His creative works are dependent on Him. He bestows life-giving properties on all that nature produces. We are to regard the trees laden with fruit as the gift of God, just as much as though He placed the fruit in our hands. (page 8)

Two Sunday's ago David noticed that out of our two pecan trees, one actually bore fruit! We've been here three years and each year he has spent time pruning them and I've invested time watering them. Other than that, we haven't done anything else. We weren't really expecting anything, but were pleasantly surprised when the Lord placed 3 pounds of pecans in our hands. Now all we need is this Texas Nutsheller  ;)

I didn't know it but pecans have two shells. One is a soft shell that comes off easily. That's what we're doing in the picture below.

Getting ready for a new truck

Ever since my kids witnessed Rich and Eileen's car accident they've been chirping and chiming about wanting to get a new truck that is safer. They realized quickly that if we were side impacted like they were they'd be dead pretty quick.  That accident really left an impression upon them. Whenever we drive anywhere they immediately put their seat belt on. Then as we drive they point out every truck they plan on getting when they get big. They've even begun learning the various car and truck brands. They can identify certain vehicles by the little emblems now. It's also not very comfortable for them to sit on the little side seats. So, although this little truck only has 160,000 miles and could keep going for another 10 years, it's time for something a little more family friendly. For my birthday we had a family outing to Tucson to go car shopping. David worked on Sunday instead of Friday so we could be there when the dealerships were open. We even got to stay in a hotel! It was a fun and memorable experience. The kids thoroughly enjoyed swimming at night in the hotel pool and hot tub. I regretted not bringing my camera to take pictures of the kids swimming, so I only have a picture of the aftermath...

 

 First we tried out a Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI. It can get up to 56 miles a gallon! We liked it. I especially loved the seat warmers :)

 But...there's just something about trucks that we liked better. We test drove a Toyota Tacoma and a Nissan Frontier. Both were great but the customer service at Nissan was far superior. We talked to three guys for about an hour about homeschooling, sustainable agriculture, and rainwater harvesting. They were so cool. They even signed up for a farm box!

 This is a convertible that was inside the dealership. The kids had never been in a convertible before.

The kids were so well behaved that the men in the Nissan dealership were amazed. They knew these kids were different. They let their light shine!

This is what we are wanting to get. A crew cab 2012 Nissan Frontier SV.

Now we are in full gear to sell our truck so this Sunday we washed and waxed it together. The kids enjoyed helping. Orion is fully engaged in washing the dirt off the back. Omega is sitting over there ready to be called on as the sprayer.

I'm so glad we always have some project to do on Sunday. The kids get to help and it gives them experience for real life. In fact, here's a funny story. In our "car washing bucket" is soap, a little round sponge, a big soft sponge that your hand goes in and another big type sponge that you have to hold. When I wash the truck by myself and the kids we each get one. Well, this time around David was there. The kids went for "their" sponge and he freaked out (not really, but you know...he corrected them quickly). "No! You can't use that sponge. That's for waxing! And you can't use that sponge. That's for doing the tires! If you use that one then the grime from the tires will get spread all over the truck and scratch it." I felt a little sheepish. I admitted that I let them use them before because I didn't know. No one ever taught me that. My Dad always took his car to the car wash in town. I never once saw him doing it himself. The only time I ever washed a car with another adult to instruct me was...well...maybe a fundraiser event? Not even sure there were adults there then. In fact, I think I wore my bikini top and daisy dukes and stood on the corner with the sign to get people to come.

 After the washing came lunch. Then the waxing. 

David waxed on and I waxed off. While waiting for the wax to dry I washed the windows. He informed me when the wax had dried and I told him, "okay I'll get to it in a second. Let me finish these windows." Then he told me that the longer you leave the wax on, the harder it is to wipe off. Hmmm....another thing I didn't know. He smirked at me when I told him this was the first time I had ever waxed a vehicle.

 And, the final outcome.

 So if you're in Arizona and you're looking for a truck, see our ad on Craig's list!

Food for thought

"Thousands in their own homes are left almost uneducated. "It is so much trouble," says the mother. "I would rather do these things myself; it is such a trouble; you bother me."  Does not mother remember that she herself had to learn in jots and tittles before she could be helpful? It is a wrong to children to refuse to teach them little by little. Keep these children with you. Let them ask questions, and in patience answer them.Give your little children something to do, and let them have the happiness of supposing they help you. There must be no repulsing of your children when trying to do proper things. If they make mistakes, if accidents happen and things break, do not blame them. Their whole future life depends upon the education you give them in their childhood years."

 Child Guidance, 119

Creative munchkins

We ran out of tinfoil so their new favorite toy is the cardboard roll that the tinfoil was rolled on. Tonight we played the "what is it" game. I never realized how many things it could become. We took turns with our imagination coming up with all sorts of ways to use it. It could be...

1. Almost any instrument
1. Flute
2. Trumpet
3. Guitar
4. Violin
5. Drum stick
2. Weapons 
1. Spear
2. Sword
3. Gun
3. Pull up bar
4. Bench press
5. Helicopter propeller
6. A boat oar
7. A walking stick
8. A cane
9. A spanking device
10. A microphone
11. A telescope
12. A tool that helps you roll up blankets
13. A drill
14. A hammer
15. A horsey
16. A tube to put letters in
17. A hearing device
18. An orchestra wand
19. A dirt compacter (rolls over dirt)
20. A splint

We could have kept going but the timer went off.  I just love that kids are so creative. They see the unseen potential in everything. For example, I would have never tied a belt around a truck and pretended I was walking a dog. They were being Kieth and Joan (friends from church) training their dogs (monkey see-monkey do).

 I just think my kids are creative. I know it's a kid thing and not just a "my kid" thing. I'm pretty sure all kids are pretty ingenious. Then they go to school and get crammed in a box until their brain stops thinking on its own and they only do their assignments with the motivation to please the teacher instead of being fueled by curiosity and a passion to obtain the answers to their questions. Their ability to really think becomes dwarfed and instead they learn to be reflectors of other men's thoughts. Ugh. Thank God I'm going to home school. Not that homeschooling magically makes them geniuses. A lot of homeschooling just duplicates traditional methods in a home environment. I really have no idea or plan yet on how my homeschooling will be superior to traditional education but I've got some ideas. Lord knows I have a lot to learn...and unlearn!

Giving Thanks Kick-off

So everyone on face-book has been sharing what they are thankful for every day. I've seen these "thanksgiving tree" ideas on pinterest and decided it was time to get in gear and make November special. Last year at bedtime I asked the kids "What made you happy" (instead of what are you thankful for because that was too abstract) and I scribbled their answers down on a little notepad and put it in their decorative cookie jar on their dresser. Now I wish my handwriting was a little neater but I tried to write them down in the dark with just a little light from the bathroom shining through. On Thanksgiving we read through them. The kids liked that and wanted to keep going so you'll see we made it to Dec 1.

Orion - "drinking out of the agave container" (I let him use it as a water bottle for the day - kids are thankful for the simplest things!) Omega said, "When I got to hold "chicky-chicky" for my little baby" (She used to carry our Bantam chickens around and pretend they were her babies). I wrote that I was thankful for the fun I had taking pictures of them while they played.

 

 So I think I'm ready be be a little more sophisticated in my holiday celebrations :) Here is the tree we put together on Sabbath. The leaves are real leaves from our pecan tree. We wrote on them with permanent marker and stapled them to the branches. Not sure how well it will work since the leaves will begin to dry out. We may switch over to paper leaves.By the end of the month our tree will be full of leaves that represent all the things we are thankful for!

Orion was thankful that they were going to get to climb on the hay stacks in preparation for "Farm Day" (pictures to follow in another blog post)

Omega said she was thankful that Aimee sat next to her during potluck.  Whenever they share what made them happy that day, it reminds me that "The little attentions, the small, simple courtesies, go far to make up the sum of life's happiness, and the neglect of these constitutes no small share of human wretchedness." 

 To enter into the festive mood a little more, we had pumpkin pie sweet potato pie which the kids helped me with. I should have taken a picture once it was finished baking but I forgot. (Just a FYI - baked pumpkin tastes just like butter nut squash. When people think of the flavor of "pumpkin" what they are really tasting is all the seasonings that are usually in pumpkin pie - all spice, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, etc.Therefore any orange colored vegetable in the squash family works well for "pumpkin" pie)

Orion's favorite is always licking the blender/spoon/bowl. Side note - aren't those gorgeous orchid's on the table? Julian gave me them for my birthday! I don't even have to water them for 25 days! I'm wondering why I don't have my entire house decked with orchids! Perfect indoor flower!

Oh nuts!

Did you know:

• Americans eat about 3 pounds of peanut butter per person each year, totaling about 500 million pounds... enough to cover the floor of the Grand Canyon.
• Our family ate about 13 lbs of peanut butter per person last year!

Yep. Last year our family consumed 68 jars of peanut butter (16 ounces per jar). That's $248. An average of around $20 a month on peanut butter. Yes, call me a dork. I keep track of this stuff. But I love statistics and I love considering how we can eat more economically :)

 

Considering our family's love for peanut butter, we decided to try growing our own peanuts. We discovered last year that shelling them is a whole lot of work to do by hand, so this year we are just going to roast them in the shell and eat as we go. 

 

In June, my hard working friend Julie and I, along with the help of the kids, planted peanuts in the summer heat. Peanuts grow well here. They require very little attention and they were the last thing the grasshoppers decided to eat. This year we had five rows that were 50 feet long and guess how many pounds of peanuts we got? A whopping 16 lbs.

 Did you know you can buy raw organic peanuts in the shell for $4.99 per lb (non organic is $1.79). That means we "earned" about $79.84. Now this is really interesting.....1 pound of peanuts in the shell will yield two-thirds of a pound shelled, that means we really harvested 10.5 lbs of actual nut. Most jars are 16 oz (1 lb) so we could potentially make 10 jars of peanut butter. A Santa Cruz Organic jar of peanut butter costs $5.12. So, we could make $51.20 in peanut butter. So basically, if we were to sell our peanuts, we'd make more selling the raw peanut in the shell than if we processed it into peanut butter! That's really interesting.

Now, I guess I should note that if you buy already shelled peanuts and make your own peanut butter it is cheaper than if you bought it at the store. Taking this website's prices, you could buy peanuts at $2.96 per pound. Our average spending on a 16 ounce jar of peanut butter was $3.64 (sometimes there were really good deals as low as 2.48 a jar and sometimes it was $5.49 a jar). That means instead of a 16 ounce jar of peanut butter costing $3.64, you could save $1.16 per jar. Times that by 68 and you've saved $79! Worth it? Umm...maybe.

Her plant does not have any leaves on it because the grasshoppers defoliated it.

Anyway, I paid the kids to help me. I had to come up with a way for Orion to make money because he accidentally broke the rear view mirror in the truck (for the 3rd time). So he needed to earn about $2.00 to buy new glue to glue it back on. I paid them $.10 per plant they dug up with the digging fork or tore the peanuts off. So he only needed to do 20 plants. I think he was a little shy of 20 so they also helped me finish digging up the sweet potatoes and I called it even.

After a couple of plants they wanted to start playing (only in their minds they were "working" - digging with the fork) so I had them do 5 plants, then they could play, and when I said "beep" they would come back and do 5 more plants. They worked much faster with that strategy.

This picture is from this year (Orion is almost 5 and Omega 6 1/2 -- 2012)

This is last year 2011 (Orion is almost 4, Omega is 5 1/2).

 I'm never quite sure if all the work is worth it monetarily, but the lessons to be gained are invaluable. I always like to review with my children the "laws of harvest".

1. You harvest what you sow
2. You harvest more than you sow
3. You harvest in a different season than you sow

 Other lessons we learned...

1. "Wow, so THAT'S how peanuts grow! (Seriously, when you buy peanut butter on a weekly basis, have you ever considered how they grew in order to get into that little jar?)
2. "Wow, I really appreciate the farmers who took the time to make me peanut butter!"
3.  Kids like dirt. And they like work. It builds confidence and common sense in them when they know they are contributing.

This is them "going back to work" (aka. play)

"The very best legacy which parents can leave their children is a knowledge of useful labor and the example of a life characterized by disinterested benevolence."

 {Adventist Home, 390}