Random Updates

Yikes- there's so much going on I always feel like I"m behind schedule on this blog! In a quick slew of stories, here are the updates on our farm:

1- We have officially decided to home school Sarah again. She is simultaneously ecstatic and relieved, and I am gearing up for the upcoming school year. We've been researching several curriculum options and hammering out a game plan. We've chosen to do an online math course (since that's my weakest subject in teaching home school) and boy am I looking forward to that! Our enrichment classes include: Spanish, Painting with Acrylics, and Guitar. We found some fantastic online guitar lessons (she's already practicing guitar each day for 30 minutes with this course) taught by professional musicians through video instruction. So far it's a winner in my book. It's a big motivator that she wants to be like her favorite music artist, Taylor Swift. We also found several free instructional Spanish programs online, and I'll be teaching the art class. That brings me to #2.

2- I'm teaching two weekly art classes at our local library during the fall semester. We have a large home school community out here and there's been a lot of encouragement from them to teach group painting lessons. So I am. The local library (which is the COOLEST library ever- just in case you wondered. Small-town librarians who know everyone by name are worth their weight in gold.) is hosting each class onsite. It works out perfectly well- the library has story time and craft time the same days I teach art. This allows younger siblings to be entertained while older students attend my class. There is also a playground right next to the library, so there's plenty of space for kids to play. I'm looking forward to this new experience. Sarah will be attending one of the classes for her Art elective each week. During the other class, she will be either entertaining Diego in the library or doing school work at home while he naps.

3- The Fourth of July was a doozy of a work day. It's always the busiest day of the year for me. This year I hired Sarah and Matthew to work the booth with me. Sarah was the line manager, so her job was really important. She would talk to people in line, find out what patterns people wanted,.and group them according to color choice so I could line up several people and paint them all at once. She would also lay out the glitter tattoo supplies with a stencil, glue, brushes, and glitters of the customers choice so everything was within hands-reach when I was ready for them. She was amazing at this job and surprised me several times with her work ethic. She did way better than any teenager I've hired in the past. She was confident and assertive and 'in the groove' for 12 hours in the Texas heat! I was so impressed I gave her a raise on her hourly wages. Twice.

Matthew also did a fantastic job at money-handling for me all day. His love of math was very useful here and he worked very hard. With Sarah and Matt doing the busy-work, I was free to just paint all day long. I'd line up children and paint them all at the same time. At one point we had 12 little girls getting butterfly masks, all lined up in my tent getting painted simultaneously. Parents loved this setup and took many pictures to share online. Score! Several customers were also impressed with our efficient system and tipped the children extra.

It was a very long, grueling day that went from 6am-11pm. But it was so successful. We had several prayers answered that day. For starters, I only had 5 hours of sleep the night before due to a cranky baby. And I had migraine symptoms starting early in the morning. Boy was I worried! I really needed to be on top of my game that day, so I fervently prayed for the Lord's help so I could be healthy and have enough energy. The day was marvelous and proceeded without a glitch. I was busy the entire time (No chance for even a bathroom break all day! Yikes!) and broke my previous festival records. We brought in over $100/hour during the entire festival! Thank goodness! Now we can finance our travel to the Kingsley family reunion next month in Delaware.

Nathan and the younger boys came to the festival to visit us in the afternoon. He came bearing gifts of frozen treats- oh baby was that perfect! He's so thoughtful! They stayed to watch the performances and the fire works show, then Nate made breaking down the booth and cleaning up trivially easy. He also offered to assist a nearby vendor who was working alone. The guy gave Nathan more than a case load of local honey! There's GALLONS of premium honey in there! This was another answer to prayer. I had been asking the Lord to help us find thrifty ways to improve our food storage. This box of honey represents well over $100 of product. We feel extremely blessed to say the least.

After the fireworks show, the kids and I made our annual trek to an IHOP for a midnight meal. We were exhausted (remember, I did a 16-hour work day, STANDING all day in 105 degree weather with only 5 hours of sleep!) but enjoyed this traditional way of ending the Fourth of July. This was the only picture we caught of the entire day:

Don't we look just lovely?!

This number on the updates list has gotten a bit out of control and is very long-winded, so let's move on.

4- In my efforts to move away from big-brand breakfast cereals, I recently started experimenting with granola recipes again. ( This was a bit scary...I've never had granola turn out well in the past.)

But this year it worked! I finally found a recipe I love and can modify however I want for different flavors/textures. I've made six huge batches of granola so far with the following winning combos-
Raisins, coconut, oats, almonds, sunflower seed
Dried blueberries, coconut, oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds
Dried bananas, coconut, oats, almonds, cashews

(Can you tell how much I LOVE coconut?! It's in everything!)

We all really love this granola and eat it for breakfast with milk or sprinkled on granola, or just plain. It's super yummy and really healthy and tastes like a special treat.

Next on my list is:
Dried apples, cinnamon and cloves, oats, almonds, coconut, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds (I can just imagine the nice autumnal flavors!)
Dried bananas, oats, almonds, coconut, dried pineapple, dried mango, sunflower seeds, coconut oil

5- Yeah....and now it's midnight. I'm up entirely too late. The kids and I stayed up to play several card games together, with a giant bowl of popcorn in the middle of the table. After they went to bed an hour ago, I started researching home school textbooks and time ran away with me. We have a busy work day scheduled for tomorrow- with lots of projects around the property to work on (installing water lines to the chicken coop, cleaning up the property outside, repairing water lines to the goat pasture, and doing several miscellaneous repairs around the house....oh, and making bread.)

I hope your weekend is absolutely lovely!