Harvesting honey :-)

Honey time!

If you are going to harvest honey with your Dad, there are a few things that will be needed. No,I'm not talking about those fancy and expensive bee supplies. First, you will definitely need a little princess that is camera happy, and is all to pleased to take more pictures than imaginable. Now, be warned. This princess will not try to capture your best side/look when taking these photos. :-o I look like I gained 10 pounds in this picture!! Has to be the way she is holding the camera....

Second thing you need, is of course a Christmas apron. A CHRISTMAS APRON?? Sure. Why not. With this day being Easter, it just seemed appropriate to wear an apron celebrating Christmas. In this way you have Jesus' whole life summed up. Came to earth as a baby and eventually died for us so we could be with him forever. And another plus is the fact that if you are behind on laundry, you know that you have at least 8 months till you really need to have this one washed. ;-)

Next you need a good ole fashioned fork, colander with small holes, and large roasting pan. Oh yeah, just simple kitchen supplies. After I uncapped the honey, I scrapped it all into the colander for the honey to separate from the comb.

Now doesn't that look delicious?! It tastes pretty yummy too!

Zombie Fire Ants!!!!!!

Zombie fire ants. What in the world is that?! It sounds like something out of a really corny science fiction movie. But no, they are actually real!! What child wouldn't love to learn about that?! Since we have ants coming in every nook and cranny of our house right now, it just seems fitting to do a unit study on them. :-) I can't get rid of the little critters, might as well learn more about  them! I am thankful that they aren't the fire ants that we learned about in this study from The Old Schoolhouse.

E-Book: The Curiosity Files™- Zombie Fire Ants 

There were many great things about this study, one being the price. It was only $6.95, and you could even get it cheaper if you bought several studies in the series at one time. I loved all of the beautiful, colorful pictures this study has. It really kept my children interested, and wanting to learn more. It is geared for the ages of 8-13, but with a little creativity I used it for my younger two children as well, 6 and 7. It was very biblically based with lots of scripture, which I LOVED!! It offered everything from snack ideas, lab time (with actual activities), time zone learning, math problems, handwriting (manuscript and cursive), measuring, how to make an ant farm and even practice on the days of the week. I have done several unit studies in the past, that I feel are great. But they all needed to be supplemented with our other school work. This is not one of them. It was very well rounded and covered more than enough for a school day. It was also a pretty inclusive study. There wasn't the constant running back and forth to a computer to look up a certain link, (there were some links) which is wonderful. My children are easily distracted (as am I), and if we have to keep leaving the school room our work does not get done. An answer key was also provided, which made my life a whole lot easier. Sure I can figure out the problems....but who has time for that in between laundry, farm chores, and house work??

As with any school material there are always a few downsides, one being those beautiful/colorful pictures I mentioned in the previous paragraph. They are a little pricey to print out, and with this being a fully inclusive study (lots of pages), it went through the printer ink pretty fast. One other thing that kind of threw me for a loop was the fact it didn't have marked out how much material you should cover in a day. Now depending on the way you want to look at that, it can be a good thing, or a bad thing. It ended up being nice when I didn't want the pressure to finish X amount of pages before lunch, but then I fear that I pushed too hard on the other days. Learning to pace oneself is a lesson that should be taught though, and I guess inadvertently this study did just that. :-)

Overall I would give this unit study a thumbs up. :-) It in fact did live up to its name, The curiosity files, and my children wanted to know MORE and MORE about the zombie fire ant. Isn't that what homeschooling should be about? Learning about really cool things that God has created in our world. I think so, and so do my girls! Thanks TOS for letting me review this product. Many fun memories were made through this study!

Happy Easter!

"O LORD, I marvel that you should become incarnate, be crucified, dead, and buried. The grace calls forth my adoring wonder, for it is empty and You are risen: the four fold gospel attests it, the living witnesses prove it, and my heart's experience knows it. Grant me more and more of the resurrection life: may it rule me, may I walk in its power, and be strengthened through its influence." (Vally of Vision)

Happy Easter!

Clipping wings

The chicken yard has been a pretty happening place lately. This past week it got a lot of attention from me and Sweet Man. When I go grocery shopping I like to look for the phrase. "Free Range" when it comes to my meat. That phrase makes me think of rolling green pastures with animals enjoying life they way God intended them to. So naturally when we got our chickens, I wanted to them to be free ranging on our property. Spending their days scouting out bugs in our forests, or enjoying our grassy fields. NOT roosting on my patio furniture, hanging out on my porch fighting the dogs for the dog food. We had turned our old dairy barn and fenced in area to the mac daddy of chicken coops, but they were just not content to stay in the 1/2 acre or so, of alloted ranging space. First thing in the morning you could almost hear one say to the other "Hey look how green that grass is on the other side" and off they would fly, right over the fence. So we watched a little tutorial on YouTube about how to clip a chicken's wings, and got right to work. Clipping ALL 37 of them! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I can now catch a chicken in a mere few seconds.

They didn't seemed phased by this cruel little trick of ours.

 I love them so much more now, 

  that they aren't getting poo all over my porch!

There were a couple of other things that needed to be taken care of in the chicken yard. One being the mucking out of the main coop. Princess #1 wanted to help with this, and to get the eggs.  With the fact that our newest rooster had turned into the Tasmanian devil, it was not a safe place for the girls. He would in fact chase them all the way up to the back door, and wouldn't give up until they were in the house. I tried basically to kill him with my broom, but my soft bristles were no match for him. He just kept coming at me/them/anyone  he felt like. Sweet man ever so kindly "Took care" of him for me. :-) With the fact that he was gone I now had a helper with my chicken chores.

Since it was a chilly night Sweet man loaded our outdoor wood stove. It had the weirdest aroma though....smelled kinda like....chicken. ;-)

Canning for half price!

Everyone knows that growing you own food is not only better for you, but cheaper as well. This time of year I start getting excited for all of the produce that I can preserve, to feed my family through the fall and winter. To make that food cost even less, I am always on the look out for markdowns. Not only can you get great deals at the farmer's market/ grocery store on produce, you can get awesome deals on supplies as well. Canning supplies and spice mixes to be exact. I snagged all these deals the other day, and I am just super excited to get to work! Sure these are last years supplies that they moved out to get ready for the new ones. They are perfectly fine, and half the price.

Looks like we will be eating pickles, salsa, tomato sauce and jams in abundance this winter! :-)

Oh how I love a good deal!

On track with our unit study!

We might actually do it! We are on track to finish our 5 day unit study on Easter, in the alloted  FIVE days!! I have never in my life accomplished a unit study in the time frame they suggest. With this Sunday being Easter, I really wanted to have it completed. It has been a lot of work, but very rewarding. I can tell that God is using my feeble attempt to show these girls how special this day is. It has been awesome! The girls are enjoying all of the activities that go along with the study, and I am enjoying letting my house go to pot, so I can focus more on them. :-)

We learned how great of a servant Jesus was, and we were inspired to do a service as well. Blanket making for children in foster care seemed perfect. I hope those children receiving the blanket don't have allergies to cats. :-o

 We were able to participate in a resurrection egg hunt with our church. This egg hunt was a little bit different, and I loved it. There was an egg with a little piece of linen cloth in it representing the empty tomb. The child who found the special egg was to shout, "He is not here! He is risen, just as He said!" How special is that?!

Decorating some eggs of our own was on the agenda as well.

And with the fact that this unit study has required so much of my time, the girls actually had recess! Laundry still has to be done you know. :-)

 A six dollar yard sale find, yard toy, and some comfy PJ's make for an awesome time!

This unit study has been a blessing to this family. I can tell we have grown closer to God and each other. So thankful for this opportunity I have been given, to teach my children at home!

Wordless Wednesday (almost ;-)

 Princess #2 &3 reading a slightly out of date magazine (1812)

Princess pea party with AHG

FINALLY, porch sittin weather! :-)

One should always groom themselves. 

You never know when someone might pop in for a visit. :-o

When work is done, there is time for reading fun.

I just wouldn't have imagined it would be on top of my car. ;-)