Recent Happenings...

I haven't been in a recipe kind of mood lately.  I hope ya'll will forgive me?  I will be posting some soon. Along with some Easter ideas.  My cookbook e-book publishing has been brought to a halt due to the fact that it got accidentally deleted from the computer.  It's nowhere to be found.  At. all.  but...I'm over it and working on getting it cranked out...again.

I thought I'd share with ya'll what we've been doing.  Our latest happenings and so on.

One of our goals with our children is to teach them to be as close to self-sufficient as possible.  Hard work never hurt anyone and if we can make our own things then that's money we don't have to pay someone else to do.  We've been planning our garden, and plotting out where our newest chicken coop will go.  Next week hubby has spring break so we'll be working on those projects and building a goat milking room for our Nubian that's due to kid in a few weeks.

We purchased 50 Buff Orpington chicks last week.  A friend is borrowing five of them for a few weeks to enjoy with her homeschooled kiddos.  We had 45, but lost a couple today.  I hope it's all we lose, but we'll see.  We expect a few of them to die since that's just a part of farm/homesteading life.  I hope we keep the rest.  We'll butcher most of them in the fall.  Home grown roasted chicken sounds delicious!  We'll send the best layers (7 or so...I think I have some kiddos who each want to name one) to the laying coop and start all over again next spring.  If you've ever watched Food, Inc. you know why growing our own food is important (or trying to grow our own food *wink*).  

Aren't they the cutest little things?

 They are so cute when they sleep in their little group.  So fluffy!

Photo credit: Noah Hyde

Part of our self-sufficient goals are to have our children know how to do a lot of things with their own hands.  Our girls have been working with a friend who teaches them quilting and sewing.  I can sew, but it's not my favorite thing to do so I am very glad to have a friend who loves sewing that will teach them.  Here's Hannah with her latest creation.  A machine stitched quilted pillow. 

So proud of our girls and the many items they have made!  (Rebekah's almost done with hers.  When she is done I'll share her picture here.)

We've been mulling over 4-H project ideas.  Foods, woodscience, animals, sewing, arts and crafts are some of the categories I think they'll be entering.   I chatted a bit more about 4-H and the many benefits HERE.  If you're in our county, today is the last day to enroll!

Next week will be our spring break so you might see an occasional post of progress pics of our homesteading endeavors or a cute pic of a chick, but you can definitely expect the Queen of the Castle post on Thursday.  Oh, and we're planning on potty training our littlest gal next week so we'll be busy with pink princess panties, princess potty-time and pastel m&m's for rewards.  I'll be back in blogging action the following week.  Hugs to all!