Training our chickens to "come"

We have sucessfully trained our chickens to "come".  It came in handy when several of the chickens escaped through a hole in the fence into the neighbors yard.  We were able to call them right back through the hole. No chicken rodeo to get them back.

Training chickens is easy. 

When we feed and water them we call out chick, chick, chick while shaking a container of food.  It is like Pavlov' and his dog.  When you call out chick, chick, chick, they come running for food. Now when we call food or not they come running

Gardening made easier this year

my garden boxes

I am not a gardner! I hate to weed the garden. I have young children who tend to destroy the garden while trying to help. There are many reasons I hate to garden, but I want my children to learn about their food. I want to teach them to work. I want to be self sufficient. There are many good reasons to learn to garden. I want these things, but I get so frustrated by children, animals, and weeds that I just want to pull my hair out.

Last year was just a bad year in general for many people in the area.  It was our first garden in our new home. We did not enrich the soil, and the list goes on about why it was bad.  Taking all these things into consideration and making a plan to overcome We will triumph. I am working toward creating a simple garden that works for us. 

Grow boxes seem to be the thing for us this year I was able to create my boxes from scrap wood that my husband picked up for free. (Love freecycle but that is a story for another time).  I took some of the split and broken pieces  and created four garden boxes. We lined them with newspapers and a layer of leaves from the fall cleanup.  A few inches of dirt mixed with a good mulch lined the top and we were ready to go.





my girls were great helpers moving the dirt with the dump trucks




Filling the boxes up

  

My top three reasons for building boxes to grow my garden this year



1. Makes it look like I know what I am doing

2. Less weeds!

3. I can tell where the plants are supposed to be growing


In the past we have had a weed patch with a few garden items growing alongside the weeds. I am always unsure about what is a weed and what is a plant to keep. By the time I figure it out, that weeds are so big and out of control they seem so overwhelming. I let the weeds grow and hope that the vegetables will grow also. Looking back it seems so silly, but at the time it seemed like a good plan.  As a busy overwhelmed mother the things we do make sense at the moment. As I have been able to simplify my life I am finding that I am less overwhelmed. Being less overwhelmed means less crisis living and better decision making skills.  I hope that I will have less crisis in the garden this year by eliminating the big trouble spots.

 Being able to tell where the plants are growing has been a frustration. We have marked the rows, but somehow the plants still get trompled. The dog and kids can't really tell where it is safe to walk (expecially while running).  Building the boxes has saved me that frustration this year.  The kids and I both know that the boxes are where the plants are supposed to be growing.  It is alot easier for the kids to see the boundries. They know that they do not dig or play in the boxes. Now if I can keep the robins and chickens from eating my seeds.

Last year many of the rows of seeds got trampled by the children and dog. Those seeds and plants that were not trampled were eaten up by robins.  I would see robins out there picking up things in the garden, not knowing that it was my seeds.  I went out looking for plants I looked, and looked for the tiny plants. "They should be growing here" I thought to myself. I then noticed that there was a nice neat row of tiny holes right along in the spot that I thought I would see vegetables poking up their heads. The robins had eaten my tiny plants.  I was so frustrated I wanted to give up gardening forever. 

I will keep gardening.  I may not be good at it, but when I have to survive off of what I can grow I will be glad that I learned how to grow something. I would rather have the learning curve happen now when there is an abundance of food rather than when it is critical with no food. So I may not like to garden, but I do it because I love my family and I want them to have the values and skills that come with this process. I think that is part of what I loved about my Grandparents. You can read an earlier post about my Grandma.  She is wonderful.  I am grateful fof her teachings and want to pass that on to my children. I want to leave a good legacy.  I don't want to leave the legacy of a stressed out mom.  So I will continue on with the process and journey called life.

How we made three meals out of a couple of steaks

Being frugal is something that comes a bit natural to me. I love a good bargin expecially when it comes to the grocery store. Recently I bought some good steaks for a fabulous price.  I wanted to make  good use of them. So I was able to create three meals from these steaks.

1. Steak dinner.  We had a really nice steak dinner with some freinds.  I seasoned up the steaks and grilled them outside. I cooked more steak than we really needed. It made it look and feel like we had an abundance of food, and everyone was able to have thier fill. I have an abundance of good things in life, and I want others to feel of that. We were able to sit out back and enjoy the nice weather at the picnic table that my husband built out of scrap wood.  It was enjoyable.



My beef stroganoff as it was being finished

  2.Beef Stroganoff.  From those leftover steaks I was able to create a beef stroganoff dinner. (excuse the bad picture it does not do the food justice)  It was a good way to use up the mushrooms and sour cream in my fridge. My kids and husband ate it up.  We made a big pot so that there was enough leftover for meal #3

3. Beef noodle soup. The leftover stroganoff became the base for a nice lunch of beef noodle soup.  My kids love my soups. Soups are so easy to make with many kinds of leftovers in the fridge. I once worked in a place that any leftovers (and I mean any) went into the soup pot.  To me that is disgusting. I am not that kind of a cook.  I am careful about what leftovers go together.  With time I have become quite good at it. My son who is 6 is learning to cook with me.  He likes to create soups. We talk about what would go good together.  He will ask "should we put this in?" we will look at it, smell it, sometimes taste it; then decide if the item will go in the soup.  It is a fun learning experience with him.

We create soups quite often, my children love them and they are a frugal way to feed a family.  You can take a few items and stretch them to fill hungry tummies. My biggest problem is that when I make soup I serve it hot. The kids hate waiting for soup to cool. We have started putting frozen vegetables in the kids soup to cool it down.They love it!  My kids now think that every bowl of soup should have an extra serving of vegetables added from the freezer.

This is how we do and who we are.  It is something that we have found that works for us.Take from it what you will. Being able to create meals from leftovers is a simple thing for us. What is simple to one person may not be so for another.  To each their own.  For me, Freezer meals do not make sense. It does not work for me and my world. Throwing leftovers into soup makes more sense for us. Find out what works for you;  Find your own path to that place of simple abundance.

PS. For you that are interested in finding out if freezer cooking may be of use to you and your family you can check out money saving mom's freezer cooking 101

Simple things

 There has been so much on my mind lately. Most of it has been about my skills as a parent and Homemaker. Somedays I feel like I am not doing enough, I am not perfect enough. I don't feel that I have the skills within me.  I get tired of the same things over and over again. I have grown weary of being a parent.  As I glanced upon the refrigerator today I saw a pair of magnets that I created over a year ago.  Daily Fundamentals, a reminder that the things we do everyday do make a difference. The choices we make affect not only us, but those around us. THOSE  LITTLE THINGS MEAN ALOT.

This morning we were getting ready for church in a crazy rush (as it always is with three little ones), I made a choice that affected everyones attitude but mostly mine. I had just finished fixing my 4 year old daugher's hair.  She twirled around in her dress and she said to me "Dance with me momma"  My first frazzled instinct was to say "No, I don't have time, we are going to be late for church"  Oh yes, I worry about being late to church and it really frazzles me on a Sunday morning, but I put that aside.  I stopped and picked her up and we danced around the bathroom in a moment of bliss.  Instantly my emotions turned around. I no longer felt hurried and stressed. It was such a simple thing It took like15 seconds of my time to dance with my daughter.  She smiled and went on her way. Then as fast as it had appeared,the magic of the moment was gone.  We were then able to finish getting ready and off to church with alot less stress and fighting etc.  I felt happier, the children felt more at ease and we all went to church in a happier and more responsive mood. It really was like magic.  

I almost missed that moment with my daughter. I am guilty of missing alot of moments, but I am so glad that I am able to plug in with my family and be there with them and make memories like this.  I am getting rid of the clutter in my life and mind. I am clearing out room and making a place for these moments. My life has been a cluttered mess a list of things to be done, with no real reason behind them other than I am mommy this is my job.  I have been going along taking care of the basic needs (feed and clothe my family),  I had been going around in robot mode. "clean the kitchen, feed the kids, feed the dog, make the beds, clean the bathroom, vaccuumn the floors" and the list goes on and on.  I have emerged from survival mode and moved on to a good life. Plugging into my family has been the greatest joy for me in the last few weeks.  It makes it so that I am better able to withstand the little troubles and trials that come my way. 

My challenge for you today: Take a few moments to make a difference!  It can be as simple as a friendly smile. 

Slow down and savor your food and life

My kids favorite buddies "hanging out"
This is what we should all be doing more often "hanging out" together with our family

As I am on a journey of weight loss and good health.  One tip I have learned is to Slow down and enjoy life. We live in such a hurried world, running all about in a microwave "grab and go" society.  My father as a boy scout leader made an interesting observation.  The boys had gone out for a campout.  They had each brought a tin foil dinner to cook in the fire.  My father noticed that some of the boys were very impatient while waiting for the dinners to cook. He related to me that he sensed that these boys were the ones that lived in a home where the microwave was a main source of food.  He said it was about two minutes and they were ready to eat. This was about 10 -12 years ago.  I wonder what he would find nowdays. Do we ourselves exist where the microwave provides a majority of our food at home?  Or is takeout our best freind?  I am slowing down and cooking not only on weekends, but all the time. My body has been happier these last few weeks as I have made a move to pay attention to it. When we slow down our eating the body has time to respond to the food we are putting in. We are healthier today because I chose to slow down and pay attention. I want my family and I to be healthy in body and mind. Family time together at meals is something that I am begining to value. I am creating my world according to those things.

I grew up in a family that was on the go alot, my husband was different.  Both of our families value time together, but how we do that is different. We were always going and doing and on the move.  There were always games to play and places to see. My husbands family spends alot of time just sitting and chatting. It is hard for me because I want to be doing something more activity oriented. My husband values time together just sitting a while and watching the sunset etc. He is content to just sit a while. While I am sitting there I have a whole list of things going on in my brain. I think that as a woman I have to multitask. We get so distracted, Sometimes we forget to stop and take stock of what is really important. My husband is very important and he needs me to slow down and pay attention to him. My Children need me there. I am making them priority in my life. I am showing them by the things that I do. As Dr Phil says "You gotta get plugged into your family" My challenge to you SLOW DOWN, MAKE TIME FOR THE IMPORTANT THINGS