The Big White Farmhouse

intentional living, little by little

No.758: The Wednesday Five #33

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Happy Wednesday!

A QUOTE

And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him. Then you will be able to rest in Him – really rest – and start the next day as a new life. – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Melisa shared this beautiful quote with me last week and I quickly jotted it down where I will see it often.

TABS OPEN IN MY BROWSER RIGHT NOW
A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART

The Artist’s Garden at Vetheuil by Claude Monet

AN INSPIRING TALK

A HOMEMAKER CHECK-IN, TWO YEARS LATER

Time for another check-in!  As a review:

  • Back in 2021, gas was $2.95/gallon, a gallon of whole milk was $2.81, a loaf of bread was $2.48, and a dozen eggs were $1.28.
  • In 2022, gas was $4.19/gallon, a gallon of whole milk was $3.74, a loaf of bread was $3.34, and a dozen eggs were $1.88.

Today, our gas is currently around $3.65/gallon.  A few grocery staples: a gallon of whole milk is $2.84, a loaf of bread is $3.27, and a dozen eggs are $1.50.  So we’re looking better than 2022, but prices are still significantly high and we’re feeling the pinch!  What ways are you finding to save money where you live?

No.757: Five Good Things // Vol.17

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1 // PLANNING HELP FOR HOMESCHOOL

This will be my tenth homeschool year (!!) and I finally broke down and bought a planner versus making one myself.  I decided to go with A Simple Plan homeschool planner because it was pretty, was spiral bound, and had everything I needed without a lot of the extras.  (I don’t need a meal planner and chore chart in my homeschool planner, you know?)  According to the reviews, the paper quality has decreased since last year, but I’m a simple gal and still found it to be satisfactory for my needs.  So far, so good!

2 // A GREAT RECIPE TO USE UP THOSE CHERRY TOMATOES

We have been drowning in cherry tomatoes this summer!  I’ve been using this recipe almost weekly to make pizza sauce and it’s been a hit.  I need to learn how to use my pressure canner, so I can save some for this winter.

3 // THIS QUOTE

Start by making your own home a place where happiness and love abound, through your love for each member of your family and for your neighbor. Try to put in the hearts of your children a love for home. Make them long to be with their families. So much sin could be avoided if our people really love their homes. – Mother Teresa

4 // A NEW ALTERNATIVE TO GOODREADS

Have you heard of Storygraph?  It’s a reading tracker website similar to Goodreads, but not owned by Amazon.  If you like Goodreads for the community aspect, this site probably isn’t for you.  However, if you need a place to keep track of what you’re reading, you may love it as much as I do.  This nerd especially loves the statistics and graphs.

5 // OUR GO-TO BUG BITE RELIEF

After Bite has been in regular use around here this summer!  Super easy to apply and it takes most of the sting away immediately.  Just don’t scratch first – it burns!

No.756: Homemaking Notes on a Monday // Vol.45

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The weather outside is //

As I look outside my window // Our busiest season on the farm is over and this lull is very much appreciated!  No rest for the weary, though: I just wrote out a lengthy “winter prep” task list and want to get most of it accomplished before cold weather hits.  Counting down the days until I can hibernate inside for months.

As I look around the house // The kitchen counter is bursting with fresh produce and I need to decide what to do with it all.  Use it for dinner?  Freeze it?  Can it?  Give some of it to pigs and chickens?  A good problem to have!

Prioritizing my health // The humbling part about keeping a blog is knowing that I’ve written a version of this sentence countless times over the years: I’ve fallen off the horse and have to get back up.  Having a new puppy who wakes up obscenely early (and wants everyone in the house to know it) has really taken a toll on me.  Add that to my already full farming schedule – and soon to be school schedule! – and I’ve been burning the candle at both ends.  Early in July, I told my husband that I felt like I was exhibiting signs of depression, but without being depressed: I felt almost numb, going through the motions but feeling little.  That admission scared both of us and I immediately started to make some changes.  Some of my physical symptoms seemed to match thyroid issues, so I had bloodwork done to check.  All came back normal, praise God!  With further research, it appears that poor sleep, high cortisol levels and stress can also mimic thyroid issues.  Well, check check check.  I’ve put myself on a relatively strict diet, am allowing myself naps/going to bed early as needed, and am trying to reduce stress triggers.  I’m starting to feel a little better, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.  One step at a time.

Thinking // about this post from Michelle, especially this part: “When I’m feeling good, I focus on all the good things I’ve done. When I’m feeling down, I focus on everything I’ve done wrong. Social media, of course, only shows what we want it to show. How many times has a friend posted something, and I’ve thought man, that is nowhere near what they were telling me yesterday. How many times have I done that?”

On this week’s to-do list //
– consider jumping into a “low buy August”, like last year
– finalize preparations for Week 1 of school (we start next week!)
– move wood chips to piglets’ permanent paddock
– pick elderberries and freeze
– can pizza sauce
– mop the kitchen floor
– mail a birthday card & a thank you
– list a few things on ebay/Poshmark/Pango

Currently reading // 

On the menu this week //

Monday: chicken with a BLT salad
Tuesday: homemade pizza
Wednesday: sheet pan sausage & veggies over rice
Thursday: loaded nachos
Friday: breakfast for dinner TBD – maybe a frittata?

No.755: July in Review & Goals for August 2023

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FIVE THINGS I LOVED
  1. fireflies at dusk
  2. trips to the used bookstore with the whole family
  3. afternoon sun showers
  4. spending time with my sister-in-law
  5. learning how to milk a cow!
FIVE LESSONS I LEARNED
  1. I finally understand how the Tour de France works. // In a wonderful example of serendipity, I picked up the book, The Black Jersey, at the same time the 2023 Tour de France began!  Inspired by the book, I learned so much about the sport and even picked a favorite racer while following along each day.
  2. There are four countries that start with V. // Can you name them?  They are: Venezuela, Vietnam, Vatican City and Vanuatu.  (I’d never even heard of the fourth one!)  A good piece of trivia to keep in your back pocket.
  3. Don’t waste the abundance. // Praise God, the garden has been really successful so far this year!  The motto I keep repeating to myself is, “Don’t waste the abundance.”  We worked too hard to have food rotting on the vine!  My days are full of deciding dinner based around what is freshly picked, making lots and lots of sauce, dehydrating, freezing, giving extras to the animals, etc etc.  All in an attempt to intentionally use this huge gift we’ve been given.
  4. “In 1986, NFL owners were bootlegging a daunting statistic that they knew but didn’t share: Though the average game lasted more than three hours, the ball was in play for just about eleven minutes.” // “The rest of the time was parceled out to commercial messages during time-outs, to halftime, and largely to the pace of the game itself, in which significant play was maddeningly and microscopically episodic.  Between seconds-long bursts of action, there were endless shots of men tearing themselves off the turf, men standing around, men walking back to the huddle, men in the huddle, and older men pacing sullenly on the sidelines, looking aggrieved.” This quote was from One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America (p.264-265).  Who knew?
  5. Culling animals might be the hardest part of farming so far. // We had to make hard decisions this month.
FIVE “LITTLE PEOPLE” WE SUPPORTED
  1. Farm goods from a farmer friend
  2. A birthday card from EIGHT21 Studio
  3. Books for the kids from a seller on Pango
  4. Books from a local used bookstore
  5. Ice cream from a local ice cream shop
FIVE GOALS FOR JULY REVIEWED
  1. Continue our “tour” of local ice cream shops. // Counting this a kinda/sorta success?  Since we are pretty rural, the local ice cream shops in our county are spaced far apart.  The closest one is only 15 minutes away and everything from the ice cream to the fried food is delicious.  We went multiple times this month!  Hoping to get to a couple of the others before school starts, but they’re a trek.
  2. ✔ Clean and pack away all of the broiler gear after processing. // We are done with chicken season 2023!  So happy to have a full freezer and less chores.
  3. Learn how to can homemade tomato sauce. // I haven’t started canning yet, but I did make batches of marinara and pizza sauce.  Both were delicious.
  4. Get our master bedroom fan replaced. // Nope.  This keeps getting pushed off due to time and money.  We’ve been making do with desktop fans on our nightstands.  Hoping for August or we’ve completely missed the hot weather window at this point.
  5. ✔ Wean the piglets off of Mama and get her out to pasture. // I planned the process out in my head for a week ahead of the big event, trying to predict everything that could go wrong and how to avoid that.  And…we still had a few shenanigans on moving day.  Oh well, it’s done!
FIVE GOALS FOR AUGUST
  1. Get the 2023-2024 school year planned out and books purchased.
  2. Cut and stack firewood.
  3. Start filling the permanent paddock with woodchips.
  4. Drop off donation bags to Goodwill.
  5. Start jotting down my Super Duper Task List for autumn.

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