Differences

There is something that just jumped out at me as I've been reading blogs over the past week or so. There seem to be huge differences in the blogs of people who support McCain and in those who support Obama. Now this isn't a scientific study but I read a number of blogs that fall into the camp of one or the other based on the banners I see. In fact I think I read more blogs of overt Obama supporters than I do for McCain supporters. The difference is that McCain supporters seem to be more vitriolic in their writing. Political posts seem to be more prevalent and they want to point fingers more. They seem to think that life as we know it is going to cease to exist if Obama gets elected. Obama supports don't seem to see it quite the same way. They may occasionally post a link to an article or make a statement or two, but they post about a multitude of other things. They don't seem to be pointing fingers as much and they certainly don't feel that life is going to change much if McCain gets into office. They just seem less in your face. I find it interesting that the current talk about the economy has less finger pointing for Obama supporters and focuses more on changes that should be made to fix the economy. As anyone who has read my posts here knows I don't support either of these candidates so I'm not leaning toward either camp, I'm more a third party voter. Just something I found interesting...

No good reason

I'm going through one of those spells where I'm unhappy with almost everything for no good reason. Many times I get a pile of fun books with little substance and just immerse myself in those for a few weeks and the feeling passes. Unfortunately I can't seem to find enough books to keep me immersed this time as the interlibrary loans are really slow in being processed, budget cutbacks are the reason.

We finally started school last week and I'm ready to just give it up. It was a long and difficult week which added to my feelings of unhappiness. I just hope this week goes more smoothly.

The one really great thing right now is that our garden is producing lots of tomatoes. Last year the tomato plants died before we got anything off of them. This year we can barely keep up with eating them before they go bad. Since they are ripening at the pace of 1-2 a day there aren't enough read at one time to can them.

Since I don't want this to solely be a whiny post...

I've been reading a number of "green" blogs lately. I really want to do more in our home that is environmentally friendly. We conserve water and electricity, I recycle as much of our garbage as possible even though it's not convenient, and Paul does most of our errands after work to cut back on trips to town. But I'm running into a problem, how can we be more environmentally friendly without going over our food budget? We buy most of our food from Sam's Club but the over packaging is just horrible. Many times the items in a case are individually wrapped. I'd love to buy more of our staples from bulk bins at the store we purchase other things from but it would be much more expensive. We try to buy local produce that is in season but sometimes it's a lot cheaper to buy what's on sale. It's tough to balance my desire to cut our waste and still put good food on the table. As we change more and more of our habits I find that the changes are becoming smaller and more difficult but I never fail to find more things to work on.

September Gymkhana

I hadn't realized how much I missed having gymkhana shows over the summer. It was a good first show of the season. We had almost 40 riders so it was a long day but the weather was nice.

Malachi and Amigo did great, completed every event and even earned a few ribbons.





Lorna and Ginger did well even though they had a few minor stumbles. They improved a number of their times which bumped them up into the next division in most cases.

Planning

I finally got the school planning done, it took 4 days because we had some unexpected stuff come up. I tried to avoid planning much on Fridays so it's still our free day to finish things up and do some fun projects. The planning sheet looks like there are a lot of subjects but when I tallied up the number of hours we will actually be doing school each day, it is still only 2-3 hours. I'm planning on starting school next week which is really late for us, but life just got in the way.

I have good news for those who are missing all the horse photos, there will be more after tomorrow. The first gymkhana of the season is tomorrow. We are all really excited and Malachi is very nervous since it will be his first time riding. Lorna has some times to beat and a title to uphold. She was #10 overall in our club last season, she won High Points Champion in her division, and she won awards for the best times in 7 events in her division. She walked away with a plaque, a new breast collar, and lots of gift certificates. Her goal for this season is to beat her own best times and, of course, her little brother :)

Vacation

Two weeks ago the kids and I left for Washington to visit my mom, stepfather, and grandmother. We had never been up there so even though we had seen pictures we weren't prepared for how beautiful it really was.



I just loved the trees and all the green everywhere. It is such a contrast to our area with it's sand and scrub. We spent a week and, except for missing Paul who had to stay home to work, I didn't want to come home. The weather was spectacular with temps in the 70s and 80s, Paul was stuck with triple digit temps while we were gone.



We took a train trip, visited a wildlife sanctuary, saw a grist mill that is powered by water, and drove up to Johnston Ridge to view Mount St Helens (which was awe inspiring). Of course we also spent lots of time visiting and just enjoying being with family.





When we were at the house visiting Lorna amused herself with painting and Malachi just had to run. He drove the tractor, ran around, welded a bit, and ran some more :)





The week flew by for us but Paul was very happy to have us back. This was the first time in the 14 years we've been married that the kids and I have left without him for more than a night or 2, it was hard and not something we are going to repeat.

Weird Advice

I had an interesting doctor's appointment this morning. I generally stay away from doctors unless I'm really sick but once a year I have to have blood work done in order to get a prescription for the medication I'm taking.

The doctor was a bit sneaky the last time I saw her and did a few extra tests. She was very unhappy with my results, to say the least. Her answer, I need to eat more meat and less rice and pasta. When was the last time you heard of a doctor telling you that you aren't eating enough meat, specifically red meat? To my surprise she also insisted I start eating 3-4 eggs a day.

She said to cut out all cereal, chips, candy, etc. Which is hilarious since I don't eat those things on a regular basis. She didn't expect or really appreciate my honesty that my diet won't be changing.

Over the last few years I have cut almost all processed foods out of our diet with the exception of rice and pasta. I have increased the amount of fruits and veggies that we eat and I have cut my portions in half. At the same time I have decreased the amount of meats we eat to about 2 ounces in the evenings. I don't drink coffee, tea, or alcohol and only have one caffeine-free soda a day. Those are changes that I'm really happy with. Our grocery bills fall within our budget pretty easily these days so I'm not enthusiastic about making changes that will impact that.

So when asked what types of things I should substitute for rice and pasta, the doctor responded with zucchini and cauliflower. That's not exactly realistic in my mind and I told her so. I guess she doesn't get a lot of honest people that walk through her door since she didn't seem to know what to do with me :)

Election

I was tired of hearing about the election last year, so the increase in the frequency of it is being mentioned now is even more frustrating. I'm tired of hearing about the fact that you have to vote for one of the two major candidates or you are wasting your vote; and I'm tired of people who are supporting a candidate not because of their platform but because they dislike the other guy.

I will be voting for a third party candidate. I think the only wasted vote is one that isn't cast. I going to vote for the presidential candidate that has a platform closest to my beliefs on what I'd like to see happen in this country. So I'm going to vote for someone, not based on their likelihood of being elected, but on what they want to accomplish while they are in office. Then I'm going to sit back and relax because ultimately God is in control and will use whoever is in office for His plans. If God can use Pharaoh, He can use anyone.

They arrived

This is what arrived just a few minutes ago.



It always feels a little like Christmas when I unpack the school books. The wonderful smell of new books. The pretty new covers that will look great for about 3 weeks...



I told each of the kids to pick their favorite thing.



Malachi absolutely loves encyclopedia type books. He has looked over our Usborne history and science books so much the covers are falling off! He wanted to show that he was crazy about history. I think the fact that he is crazy may have come across really well.



Lorna loves science kits. This year I splurged on a Chemistry kit that looks like it will be a lot of fun. Can you tell she hates having her picture taken?

I admit just seeing the books makes me a little more happy about starting school, although I did cringe a little when I took the writing book out of the box. I really do think the kids will learn to write just fine by reading lots of good books. But I caved into the pressure of buying something a bit more structured :(

It's funny, this will be our 8th year of homeschooling and each year my orders get smaller and smaller.

I don't want to!

I just don't want to start school. I put off ordering books until last week, they should arrive either today or tomorrow. At least I ordered books this year, last year I never got around to it! I'll have to spend a whole day doing the planning for the year once they arrive. I figure we will have to start the third week of September after we return from visiting my mom in Washington.

This is the first year I'm just not excited about doing school though. As I read various blogs in the morning I have to say I feel so guilty. Everyone seems to have either already started school or they have these really intensive schedules. I've really relaxed the way we do things over the last few years, so it takes 2-3 hours to accomplish everything I plan for a school day.

Here is our short list of subjects per kid:

Malachi

Catechism
Math
Handwriting
Spelling
Grammar
History
Science
Dictation (this is a new addition for him)

Lorna

Catechism
Math
Vocabulary (new this year)
Writing (new this year, although I have doubts that I'll actually follow through)
Grammar
History
Science
Logic (new this year)

I don't count reading or exercise as part of school since I don't generally do anything special. The only structured thing the kids do is ride their horses once a month in gymkhana. They ride at home just about every day so I figure that's enough exercise. We all read constantly, I do add certain books to the kids' piles but that's as structured as we get with that. Lorna would like to start learning more about singing and music so we may work on those things on Fridays (our free day). You'll notice there is no foreign language in those lists. Lorna has done Latin for the last 5 years or so but she just doesn't want to continue and neither do I. Every year I have these hopes of studying famous artists or composers but we never get around to it, I'm not even putting it on the list this year.

Farmer's Market

I've been lamenting the lack of a Farmer's Market in our valley for a couple of years, so when I saw the notice in the paper last week about an informational meeting to get one started I had to attend. I guess I wasn't the only one who wanted one in our valley! There was at least 40 people there and they've decided to start one this weekend. We already had plans to expand our garden for ourselves but this gives up that much more motivation to expand it a bit further next year. Also they are looking for people to sell handmade crafts that are "green" or eco-friendly. I have doubts about whether the items I sell on my store would actually sell but I thought I might give it a try in a few weeks. I'm thinking that reusable cloth grocery bags might be a good thing to add to my line-up.

Pitas

I wanted to share a link to this recipe for pitas.

I tried them a few days ago and they are wonderful! I've made 2 batches and they are almost gone. Malachi and Lorna have used them for pizza crusts and I've filled a number of them with fresh veggies. I love the fact that they are so easy.

What now?

Why does finding a church have to be so difficult?

I think we must be too picky but I don't have any idea how to change that. The church we've been attending for the last few months just isn't working. The past 2 sermons we have heard have contained things that just aren't Biblical. There is always little to no law and lots of fluff. That combined with other less important things is just too much. None of us want to go to church anymore, we all dread what will be said or happen next. We are already driving over an hour and I don't want to even consider going any further. Our best options are 3+ hours away but when church starts at 8 or 9am that option becomes too much for even once a month, and that's not even taking into consideration the cost of fuel. I know I'm whining but I'm just so frustrated!

Caffeine Free!

I've been caffeine free for one whole week. This is a major accomplishment in my life. It took 4 days for the headache to go away but it's finally gone. Yeah for me!

Apathy

The following images my be a bit disturbing, so don't say I didn't warn you...

Have you ever wondered what apathy looks like? Have you ever driven by a house and thought to yourself, "How do they live like that?" If you have, then you may have driven by mine. Here are some pictures so you can get the full effect, I didn't pick up anything so it looks just like it normally does.







Does it look like no one in this house cares? I do but I need help. We don't have a garage which is a big part of my problem, there is nowhere to store those things I would normally put out of sight. Beyond that I just can't seem to keep up with both the inside and outside. The inside of the house is somewhat cluttered but clean. I can see the surface of all workspaces and there are no piles of papers or books. It is all the energy I have to just keep the inside looking that way though.

It never works for me to tell the kids to go outside and pickup trash that has blown on the property. I can give specific instructions to put the stuff in the carport away but it is just thrown somewhere else. The front "porch" is only as clean as it is because I've made a concerted effort to keep it cleared off the last 3 weeks. To be honest I can't even step into the shed you see in one of the pictures because something fell over in there. I've cleaned out that shed at least 4 times this year but it seems that it's impossible to keep it clean.

So I need some constructive thoughts on what I can do to get this place cleaned up. I'm having a difficult time motivating myself and my family. I would love to build another shed or something to contain some of the mess but we just don't have the money right now. We have to get the washer into an enclosure by winter so all of our monetary resources need to go towards that project.

Catching up

Why is it that when you get sick for just a few days it seems to take a week or more to catch up?

Not much is going on around here but sewing, cleaning, sewing, and sewing. You notice I only mentioned cleaning once :) The house wasn't in the best shape before I got sick so I'm only attempting to get it back to that "okay but not great" level. Once things slow down in the sewing department I have some major cleaning and decluttering I want to get around to. It's probably just wishful thinking that I'll ever get this place to be uncluttered since it's so small.

We got our first cucumber out of the garden but the skin was really bitter. I'm not giving up, this is the first time I've ever had a cucumber actually grow in any garden I've planted. There are now lots of little green tomatoes all over the plants which is also really exciting. I know that in town people have already had ripe tomatoes but since we are 1500 feet higher in elevation we are slightly behind them in the ripening process. We still haven't had any green beans and the plants seem to be dying so I think I may have to give up on the idea of ever growing them here :( The squash plants are limping along as well which may actually be a blessing since I have way too many plants. We are getting just enough squash to keep us happy but not so much that I'm stressed by some of it going bad.

I spoke too soon...

We spent the last week without internet. We had our new system up and running for one whole day before it went down. Last Thursday night the modem just suddenly stopped working. We were able to finally get a new modem yesterday only to find out the problem was with the power cord not the modem. The installer was able to get us a new cord today.

I learned some things about HughesNet...

They outsource all their tech support to India. I spent over an hour talking to various people who couldn't help me. It was more than a little frustrating to have to decipher what they were telling me. I spent lots of time asking them to repeat what they had just said since some of the accents were so thick.

The company cannot overnight parts because all their tech support people are not in this country. There is a really long convoluted process that takes place when they need to order spare parts.

They don't really care whether or not their service works. At least they were willing to credit us for the time we were down.

I learned some things about myself...

I spend way too much time on the Internet :)

I can get lots done when I'm not sitting here wasting time, like I am now.

It's really difficult to pay the bills when you don't have access to the internet and you have opted for paperless billing.

Hello HughesNet!

We took the plunge yesterday and had HughesNet install a new dish on our roof. As some of you might remember we already had satellite internet with Wildblue. I'm glad to be rid of their horrible service. The connection they provided was never all that great and the slightest little cloud would knock our connection out. The speeds we received were almost always a small fraction of what they advertise. The final straw was when our TRIA went bad, an ongoing problem for Wildblue customers. With that little piece malfunctioning it was impossible to stay connected for any length of time. They offered to fix it for $120 and a new 12 month contract. Since the last thing I wanted was to be stuck with them for another 12 months I figured it was time to switch!

So far our connection seems incredibly fast. I normally spend 2 hours in the morning reading various blogs, it took me only 45 minutes this morning and I even got to see all the pics and videos I usually have to skip. All satellite internet companies have a max you can download in a given period, one of the great things we found out was that we have unlimited downloads between 12 and 3 am. Since we are "night owls" this works out well :)

Debbie's Giveaway

Debbie over at Debbie's Quilts and More is doing a very generous giveaway. Head on over and check it out. And while you are there look at the stuff she has for sale, you may find that perfect gift for someone!

Jam

Marie's comment on my last post suggested I make jam, it sounded like a good idea so I gave it a try.

I have only canned once before, about 4 years ago. At the time we were living in IN and a neighbor brought over tomatoes and all her stuff and I gave it a try. Everything went well that time. When we were living in the yurt I needed a big pot so I could heat water on the wood stove. I purchased a water bath canner because of it's size but I never canned anything with it. It came in handy yesterday though.



I don't have a pot large enough for the amount of jam I was making so I had to do it in 2 batches. The first batch is darker than the second, I have no idea why, I heated the mixtures to the same temperature and used the same amounts of all the ingredients. The taste seems to be the same so maybe it was just a difference in the color of the fruit. All 5 jars sealed so it looks like we will have enough jam for at least a year :)

Apricots

This is our tree after the birds ate about half of the fruit and I picked and ate a bunch.



It seems I'm the only one who likes apricots in the family but by the time I'm done trying to eat all the fruit before it goes bad I may not like them anymore either!