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I feel you, Alexander.  Last week was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.  Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration…

Still.  Lots of hard things happened all at once.  Isn’t that always the way?  We had more farm catastrophes.  I started a new skincare routine (per my monthly goals) and my skin completely broke out in response.  My husband had a health issue flare up, causing him excruciating pain.  I miscounted my cross-stitch and had to rip out a whole section of stitches.  My clothes dryer started making weird noises.  And on and on and on.  Some weeks are like that, right?

Thankfully, there were still some bright moments sprinkled throughout the days.  Here are a few:

We’ve been watching the progress on this spider web.  Pretty incredible.

What a surprise and honor.  I cried.

My oldest son helped a local farmer with morning chores while he was out of town for Labor Day.  I followed along one morning and loved seeing another system.  Definitely took some notes and pictures!

A line from the Litany of the Holy Ghost that I’ve been pondering: Holy Ghost, inspire in us the practice of good.

First book club meeting of the new year!  I don’t know these women well, but they are all so kind and generous.  Looking forward to reading and learning with them.

We had the most beautiful Mass in the new spot on Sunday.  My heart was filled to bursting.  How quickly I forget how He can turn a little into a lot!  It also seems the Gospel was just the one I needed to hear at the end of this hard week, especially this part: O ye of little faith! Be not solicitous therefore saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? for after all these things do the heathen seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you.  After that pertinent reminder, I’m back on track and ready to face whatever comes.  Deo gratias.

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If you give a mom a crooked rug…
She’ll move all the furniture out to straighten it.  Seeing all of the toys and dust will send her on a cleaning spree.  She’ll tidy and vacuum and mop.  Seeing a virtually empty room will inspire her to move all of the furniture around.  She’ll love the new look and especially love the extra room for seating.  So she’ll start searching for another armchair.  She’ll eventually find one at a reasonable price, but discover at delivery that it is damaged.  She’ll call the store and ask for a replacement.  The fix will be at least 7-10 business days, so while she’s waiting, she’ll start imagining the finished room.  Having two armchairs will have her looking for matching pillows.  She’ll find a beautiful off-white pair on Poshmark.  Seeing the fresh color will make the walls and floorboards look dingy, so she’ll make plans to paint everything.  (Story to be continued….ha!)

Green beans are growing with wild abandon and I’m doing my best to preserve them for later. Mostly flash freezing them at this point, but I’d like to try making some dilly beans.

Other home updates: I have a little nook in the dining room that was a perfect spot for a little piece of artwork.  I browsed etsy and found this beautiful vintage piece called “Flight.”  I love that it has a religious theme, but is also very subtle.  Anyway, I ordered it printed on rolled canvas (so as to look a little more like a “real” painting) and was so pleased with the quality.  The shop is called Heirloom Print Shop and I will definitely be ordering again.

The project that never ends…

I surprised my daughter with this Perler kit and it was a huge hit.  Surprisingly, my boys were just as interested, so I quickly bought a Marvel Avengers kit too.

One afternoon, we were surprised with the most beautiful sun shower!

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Life is finally getting back to normal around here, praise God!  (We’ve had enough excitement for one summer, thank you very much.)  Feeling very grateful for my health and my very boring, very ordinary life.

Grateful for // the tiny bouquets my daughter creates and sprinkles throughout the house.  Planting more flowers is definitely on my to-do list for next spring.

Grateful for // a rainy day that kept me inside.  I got a wild hair and decided on a whim to rearrange the living room furniture!  I love the new setup; it feels bigger and will allow for more seating options.

Grateful for // this exciting morning.  One of my sons went to the garden and picked an onion, some red potatoes, and two jalapenos for his breakfast.  He made a spicy hash with over easy eggs (from our hens) and we were so tickled that he could make an entire meal from the fruits of our labor.

Grateful for // the daily probiotic I’ve been taking to get my gut back in working order after a week of antibiotics.

Grateful for // the bird that made a nest in a cleat in our garage!  We peek in everyday for updates.

Grateful for // the two batches of iced tea we made this week.  One was my go-to peach and for the other, we tried “Wild Berry Zinger.”  So delicious and refreshing.

Grateful for // one project to check off the list!  I sanded and re-stained the coffee table with an oil treatment we already had on hand.  It’s not perfect and not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s better than before, it was free and it’s DONE.  I’ll take it.

Grateful for // a ridiculous new “problem” we have with the hens.  After the big storm, some of our moveable fencing was damaged.  We decided to let all of the ducks and hens free range until we can get a replacement and they are loving the freedom.  Definitely living their best life, but now we have a new problem: not everyone is laying in the nesting boxes!  It was like a daily Easter egg hunt for awhile there, searching for eggs under bushes and tree branches.  Thankfully, most seem to have remembered that it’s much more comfortable to lay in the coop.

The past two weeks have been a bit of a nightmare.  The kids caught this weird low-grade fever/cough situation, which knocked them out, one by one, like dominoes.  Around the same time, one of my sons started exhibiting some troubling skin issues.  We were afraid it was MRSA, but it was finally diagnosed as impetigo.  I was his primary caregiver and within days, I started exhibiting some of the same symptoms inside my ear and on my face.  So scary.  We were both put on antibiotics and my son responded much more quickly than I did.  (I’ll spare the gory details, but let’s just say that I looked way worse before I got better.)  Anyway, we’re on our way to a full recovery, praise God.

And then…this happened:

On a seemingly normal summer afternoon, a severe thunderstorm with 80 MPH winds ran through our county and left a ton of destruction.  We watched in horror as huge trees were uprooted and branches snapped everywhere.  We watched pieces of our infrastructure bend and break.  (The photos above are just a few examples.)  The power pole at the end of our street snapped in half, leaving our area without power.  Thankfully, we are all fine and our animals are all alive.  But the damage is significant for our neighbors and our fellow farmers.  A kick in the teeth in an already difficult financial time.  In your charity, we would appreciate your prayers.  I hope to be back with cheerier news next week. XO

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. – Romans 5:3-5

I’m a worker bee.  Give me a goal and I’m off to the races!  2022 has been no exception; I have been intensely focused on the expansion of our farm.  It’s been hard physically and (arguably) harder mentally – I’ve never been more aware of the things I don’t know and need to learn.  And while I love the challenge of big projects and hard work, I also know I’ve been ignoring the telltale signs of exhaustion and burnout.  (Despite creating even more work for myself, ha!)  Life has a way of knocking you back a few notches and forcing you to slow down and change course for awhile.  A few of my kids got sick.  One son starting exhibiting some troubling health issues.  We received the news that a dear family friend passed away in an accident.

This week jolted me back to my first vocation and my eyes back on my family.  I’m now focused on getting them all healthy and holding them tight.  I’m intentionally planning and creating a few frugal summertime adventures.  Work will always be there, especially on a farm, but these people right in front of me are really the most important.  The food forest can wait.

A few other highlights from the week:

I made a few sourdough loaves.  I definitely need a sharper knife for my crust design, but getting closer on “the perfect” loaf.

Lots of new wildflowers!  They are so unique and beautiful.

Our two lady pigs, Phyllis and Fiona, are three weeks away from their Processing Day.  We have enjoyed them so much and will miss them.  Bittersweet.

More progress on the scrap quilt.  It’s turning out to be a little narrower than twin-sized and I’m more than halfway there.

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I can’t believe we’re at the end of May already.  What a wild ride this year has been so far!  Our intense spring hustle season is thankfully coming to a close and whew…I’m limping to the finish line.  SO ready for a slower pace and the chance to fill up my empty tank with new ideas and restored creativity.

This was our first full week of summer break.  For the first few days, I allow everyone to watch all the TV and have all the computer time. To them, it’s the ultimate “school’s out for summer” treat!  Thankfully, after about three or four days, their brains are officially jello and they naturally rein in screen time back to more normal levels.

I ordered a few school things for next fall and they arrived this week.  Our geography skills need some reinforcement, so I purchased something new for my elementary aged kids.  The curriculum is called Legends & Leagues and it uses a story to introduce the skills.  I purchased the original Legends & Leagues story (along with the workbook) but it’s really so simple that I think we’ll work through it quickly.  Thankfully, I also bought the next in the series – “South” – and we should be able to complete both in one school year.

After a heavy thunderstorm, we had pieces of leaves from our tulip poplar everywhere.  I thought this little piece was interesting.

Summer Project Challenge update: I finished the last cross-stitch pattern and now I’m ready to get these onto pillows.

Our first processing weekend of 2022!  We had lots of prep work in the days prior: digging out all of the supplies from storage, setting up new crates, and getting bags and stickers ready.  We split up the 140ish birds into two days and hired a few friends to help.  Now we take a breather before 150 new chicks arrive on Wednesday and we start all over…

Week One of my frugal summer was really productive.  My lemon balm is growing like crazy and since it’s part of the mint family, it may soon overtake my entire garden!  I cut a large portion and dehydrated the leaves.  I plan to use them for iced tea and lemonade.  Other frugal accomplishments from this week:
+ I made a batch of sourdough waffles for the freezer.
+ I kept the AC off and the windows open.
+ I made banana bread with overripe bananas.
+ I reused old packaging to mail things I sold on ebay and Poshmark.

My book of choice this week has been The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You by Eli Pariser.  Interesting so far.  Here’s one quote: “Personalization is based on a bargain.  In exchange for the service of filtering, you hand large companies an enormous amount of data about your daily life – much of which you might not trust friends with.  These companies are getting better at drawing on this data to make decisions every day.  But the trust we place in them to handle it with care is not always warranted, and when decisions are made on the basis of this data that affect you negatively, they’re usually not revealed.” (p.16)  This was written in 2011, so I can only imagine what the algorithms look like today!

There are projects upon projects in process everywhere at the farmhouse!  This hand-sewn quilt is a true labor of love and I can’t wait to share the story about it someday soon.  Right now, I’m in the process of quilting it by hand, working on it little by little.  I also pulled out a cross-stitch project and have worked on that as well.  Feeling really motivated to finish what I’ve started…this may be a new goal for 2022!

Skim coating in the laundry room has begun!  It’s back breaking work, but working beautifully and I couldn’t be happier.

We’re reading Anne of Green Gables for book club this month – one of my favorites!  There’s something so soothing about L.M. Montgomery’s writing that puts me right to sleep.  I only get through a few chapters before my eyes start drooping at night.

Our first attempt at cast iron deep dish pizza!

Our oven has been on its way out and has been extra wonky this week; sometimes it overcooks and sometimes it barely browns at all!  We knew that with the current supply chain issues, we might have problems buying a replacement…and oh man, were we right.  After calling around, we discovered that there were no ovens available in the size we needed.  None!  I was having a minor panic attack, brainstorming all the alternative ways I could cook meals and bread and all the things, when nothing short of a God moment occurred!  Mark spoke to an appliance associate at Home Depot who casually mentioned that he had this “really old” model that was brand new but way in the back of the warehouse and it wasn’t even in the system and should he check and see if it might work?  Of course we said yes and miracles of all miracles, IT WAS PERFECT.  He gave us $100 off because it was an “older” model and while it still cost a pretty penny, I am so grateful we were able to find one at all in these crazy times.  Now to figure out how to remove and install an oven…

The new school year is still seven weeks away, but I feel like I should probably start checking off a few tasks on the list.  So I mailed the letter of intent and testing to the county.  I finalized a curriculum plan, noting the books I already have and jotting down the ones I still need to buy.  I also had my yearly summer freak out session when I panic that I’ll have to teach a high schooler, a middle schooler, three elementary students and one who will definitely demand to participate, even though he’s four.  Every year, I panic and question whether I can adequately educate all of these kids and yet somehow I do.

Currently on my nightstand (affiliate links ahead): The Devotion to the Sacred Heart and Promise by Minrose Gwin.

It is HOT outside, so we try to get our outdoor chores done first thing in the morning.  Our chickens are growing fast – the broilers are already 5 weeks and the hens are 16 weeks.  Our homestead failure story of the week: on Thursday, we let the ladies free range outside of their fencing and they were so thrilled.  By afternoon, they were super brave and spread out on the property (making me nervous).  By early evening, we had a huge, downpour thunder storm so the boys and I ran out to make sure the ladies were back in their coop….and could only find 15 out of the 16.  We looked until the lightning came, but then had to abandon the search.  Unfortunately, she never showed up, so I’m guessing some wild animal must have gotten her.  (Maybe one of those pesky raccoons?)  We’re so bummed that we lost one of our girls.  Obviously, their free range days are over.  Farming, man…it’s not for the faint of heart.

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen (which is a little ridiculous considering how hot it is outside, but whatcha gonna do?): S made her cookie bars again, I made English muffin bread, an ice cream treat from my vintage cookbook, and even experimented with carrot top pesto!

Some of the tabs I’ve had open on my computer:

• A Guide to Harvesting Potatoes
• Bravewriter literature guides // we’re going back to Bravewriter next year and half the fun is choosing the books!
• this Alpine Wayside Shrine // I recently learned about little shrines in Europe that are sprinkled throughout the wayside.  I think it would be fun to add one somewhere on the property.  Someday…
• Foraging Plantain // we have a ton of these plants in the yard!
• this two-ingredient natural bug bite remedy // seems simple enough
• The Saintmaker Catholic Planner