A Homestead Workout, and Pantry Challenge 10-12

It's been a busy week here on the farm!!

Wednesday we continued on our CAT5 test and spent the afternoon on a field trip at The Evergreens, a Christmas tree farm owned by my friend and fellow homeschooler Jamie.  We learned about insects and creepy crawlies. (Did you know insects and bugs aren't the same thing??? Actual BUGS have an X on their back, everything else is an insect??)  I really wish I would have gotten some pictures, but we were having too much fun.  (And now I have to make the boys some insect nets to catch their own!) It was very interesting learning about the different ones too, like how to distinguish a female from a male cricket.  Thanks for the fun Jamie!!

Yesterday was a busy day as Thursdays usually are.  I spend the morning baking, then off to market in the afternoon. (It was a REALLY DEAD market day, unfortunately.)  My daughter also sold her car that the insurance company totaled (due to an accident in January... a lady was texting and driving and hit her.  The body repairs were expensive enough they totaled the car.)  Her dad bought it for a daily driver, so he came to get it last night so I had to be home for that since she was working.  (She has been saving up, and after she FINALLY got the insurance check, bought a REALLY NICE car - all by herself!)  Proud Mom moment!!

Fridays I don't work, and didn't have a whole lot planned.  Scrappy has been working on finishing his CAT5.  Monkey and I are working on letters and sounds.  He was really getting in to his favorite ABC YouTube video today!

We did some signing practice with Jack Hartman, which is another of his favorites.

We changed up PE a little today.  Mama needed a workout, so I went to split some wood.

And the boys got to stack it up.  It was pretty warm in the barn today!

It's not all work and no play, though.  We ventured out into field to see if we could find any pumpkins....

And we did!

And now on to the Pantry Challenge for the last couple days!!

Here's what we ended up with on Tuesday night....

I had leftover chicken thighs for later, and Hubs took one of the peppers to work for lunch.  We also had squash for leftovers.

Wednesday for lunch we had leftovers.  Hubs called me before he left work to see if I needed anything from the store when he stopped to get his Coke.  He remembered I was doing a budget/freezer challenge.  I said only if cheese is on sale!

He called me 20 minutes later - cheese WAS on sale... for $1.78/bag.  Around here, that's a GOOD price (he said the tag said "You save $1.61")  Since I had only spent the $2 earlier this week on the squash, I told him to go ahead and get 10 bags divided between colby jack, cheddar jack, and mozzarella.  He didn't tell me right away that he'd bought a loaf of bread.  That set us $2 over this week's budget.  But I guess it's OK since we were able to stock up a little on cheese (my family LOVES cheese!)

Supper was mock lasagna with rustic bread.  I was able to use an entire container of cottage cheese that was in the fridge, and some Italian sausage from my freezer.  My kids are LOVING this bread and eating a loaf a day when it's made!

With everything happening on Thursday we had leftovers for both lunch and supper.  Cleaning the fridge out.

Today Princess was home (staff workshop day at school to get ready for distance learning starting next week) so I cooked lunch.  Her boy was over too.  I had been watching one of my favorite YouTubers Christine at Frugal Fit Mom and was inspired for lunch.  I can't eat much pasta, and spaghetti is really difficult for me.  I had some frozen meatballs still from a spaghetti dinner a friend had sent when Monkey had his surgery. Christine was making teriyaki meatball bowls in the latest video, so I decided that would be fun but substituted the frozen meatballs.  I baked them for half an hour while I was making the sauce and rice.  Scraps really likes teriyaki anyway.  It was actually pretty good!  And I got a bag of meatballs and a bag of green beans used up from my freezer!

We have some leftovers for lunch this weekend too.

Yesterday I asked a friend for suggestions on how to use up a few containers of French Onion dip I got for free.  Other than for chips or on potatoes, we were both lost.  Google to the rescue!!  I looked at several suggested recipes but decided a cheesy hash brown casserole sounded best.  I used this recipe as inspiration, but made a few changes based on what I had on hand.  I didn't have any cream of onion soup, so I made some from scratch using this recipe.  The changes I made were 1) I shredded potatoes because I didn't have frozen hash browns (and I have a TON of potatoes I need to use), 2) I used open cheeses already in the fridge instead of a block of cheddar (chipotle cheese inside the casserole and colby jack on top), and 3) I used the rest of the bag of sausage from the mock lasagna on Wednesday, browned it up, and put it in the hash brown mixture.  

I had to put one of my bags of cheese in a tortilla bag cuz it had a hole in it.

It was a hit with the whole family!!!  But when can you ever go wrong with cheese and potatoes?!?!

Where am I going...

Many days are crazy busy around here, and this week has been no exception.

It is canning season, and school has started.  Between homeschool, preschool, one in high school, outside activities, farmer's market, therapies, and anything else you can think of, almost every day is running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  But I'm managing to make it through.  I had a nice talk with a good friend a couple days ago, and really thought out a few things, so I'm working on sorting a few things out in my personal life.  Removing some toxic situations and damaging relationships, clearing my head, and removing "things" that I just don't need in my life.  I'm doing a little more for me now too.

As my adult life has progressed and I have thought about what I would really like to do with it and what I would like to pursue, the idea of homemaking has become more and more appealing.  I have always wanted to live on a farm, out in the country.  I don't want a giant herd of cattle or acres upon acres of crops.  I want a few acres maybe.  Fruit trees, berry bushes, a large garden - or a few gardens ;) - and a few animals.  Goats, chickens for eggs, a pig and a calf to raise to be butchered later.  I love canning.  I love cooking.  I never knew there was a name for it.  But now I know what it is.

Homesteading.

Many of my goals that I have been working on, and many of the things I love doing fall in line with homesteading.  Besides the cooking and canning,  there's gardening, attempting to be self-sufficient, home remedies, hands-on. I've been attempting to embrace minimalism as I've been purging and downsizing.  I'm not afraid to make things myself.  I already trade and barter at Farmer's Market quite often with the other vendors just because that's how things are done there.  Fortunately between me and my husband, we are able to do most things.

For now I'm going to attempt to expand what I'm already doing to include more and see how much homesteading I can actually do here in town.  I really wish I could have chickens here, but unfortunately that's not a possibility with our location.  We'll just have to see what the future brings.