Couldn't resist!!

This is my baby with my baby lol...Logan and Spec...this dog has the best personalty and it SHOWS!!

Teaching Gwenny to milk Wilma

I have been teaching Gwenny to milk the goats. We are hoping to have 4 in milk by spring next year and it will be helpful to have another one of us who is comfortable, and proficient at milking. She is loving the time we get to spend; just her and I. Wilma is a great goat, she never needs to be tethered and as long as she has grains in her bucket, she is happy to be milked!

Learning from my child...

We are so very proud of our boy...he has done something that I am sad to say neither my husband nor myself has been able to do so far. Last January he announced that he was going to commit to reading the entire Bible in a year. He started reading 3 pages everyday. Now, I must also point out that this is not a child who likes to read...it has always been a struggle trying to get him to read. On the other hand both Glenn and I are avid readers! So you see how AMAZING this accomplishment truly is, but it gets better....Some days he would start reading his 3-pages and keep going...4....5....Today he finished the Bible; in-its-entirety!!! Just 10-months after he started!!

That was then, this is now

Same girl, same outfit, five years later!

A Beautiful View....

This is the bush outside our kitchen window. Isn't it beautiful? It blooms twice a year, spring and fall. The flowers are huge, about 6-8", and the bush is about 10' tall. The blooms are white in the morning and as the day goes on they slowly change to pink, only lasting one day. Does anyone know what type of bush this is?

My interview with Anna Deskins

Recently I was contacted to do an interview with Anna Deskins regarding our blog. It was pretty cool! She interviewed several Mommy bloggers and its fun to read the differing responses to her questions! Anna has recently published a children's book called The Adventures Of Smitty, you can preview it here.

Prairie Life Update from the Country Kitchen: Updated Photos

End of Summer fun!!Homeschool co-op. We are studying Biology for Gwenny and Mikala, and Anatomy and Physiology for Logan class. This is our first time doing a co-op class and they have integrated 4H into it! The kids are really enjoying the classes.

Gwenny is taking a cake decorating class. She has learned how to put together a pastry bag with different tips and how to create flowers from a chocolate paste frosting!

Logan is taking Intermediate Hebrew and working for his black belt in karate this year.
It has been a busy time trying to juggle all the new things we are doing this year, but I can really see that the kids are enjoying everything.

Prairie Life Update from the Country Kitchen: Blessings!!

Its been a looong time since I have posted, and I am feeling a bit like a bear who is waking after a long sleep!

So, how are we doing? Good. We are doing pretty darn good! 

August was a hard month. We lost two of our dogs, Sammy and Copper...within weeks of each other and no clue as to why. It sent me into a bit of a tailspin for a while. I kind of held my breath wondering if anything else was going to happen, it was tough. Then life had a way of taking over again. We had a little "home" vacation time, we had school to get started, co-op was beginning and Gwenny joined a cake decorating class. 

The grocery bill is up from $250 to $300 a month for our family...a sign of the increasing costs. Try as I might, I cannot seem to get it back down to $250/mo and so I have resigned to 300 being our new number.

Last month we had the pleasure of receiving the gift of bread for the animals...lots and lots (and lots) of bread! We are still laughing over this because instead of bringing the VAN to pick up the bread we brought the car! We thought it was to be 3 pallets of bread...it was 3 STACKS! Do you know that our goats and chickens were in heaven?! They LOVE bread. Funny thing is that the pigs were not as thrilled!! What a blessing though indeed, we were able to use the bread to feed the animals for over two weeks, saving us approx $30 in feed costs! Thank you to the Joyner family for thinking of us!!

Happy recipients!