Preparing for Lean Times

There's no denying it, times are strange and uncertain. Life may or may not ever return to the way it once was. It could be understandably easy to sink into a hole of despair. Or you can do like our family is doing and prepare. Who knows what the future holds. I would like to think one day we will wake up and this insanity called COVID-19 will be a faint memory. But, in all likelihood, there's a good chance, this global shutdown is going to last a while longer and have dire consequences for years to come.

Our family has decided to be proactive and focused on creating solutions to our current concerns than wallowing in self-pity. I'm not going to lie, it's hard for me to keep on keepin' on. Some nights I lie awake sick, thinking about how horrible this world has become, and that I have ten children who have to figure out how to survive in it. But, I know that God is going to use all of this for the good of His people. I also know it would be a major disservice to the Lord, my family, and myself if I remained in a depressed state of mind. Instead, I'm hoping to be an example to my children on how to adjust, pivot, and roll with the punches. We don't have to succumb to this craziness, we can rise above it, and become better people as a whole.

Our family is making some consorted efforts to create practical solutions to help us thrive during this time. We want our children to feel safe and know they do not have to worry how their needs will be met. We want to shelter them from the raging storm whirling around outside our four walls. They deserve it, and my husband and I will do whatever it takes to make sure our children are well protected. The following is a more detailed synopsis of exactly what we are implementing within our family dynamics to help us survive the dire circumstances we currently find ourselves in. 

Preparing For Lean Times

1. Reevaluating Needs vs. Wants:
• Now is not the time for frivolously spending. We are praying through each and every purchase whether food, clothing, or any other item to determine if it is a necessity. 
• We are making purchases which help to reduce our over all spending, such as our new clothe line. 
• We are limiting our shopping in person as well as online, making sure every purchase is an essential item that our family truly needs.
2. Intentional Sustainability:
• We have increased the size of our garden with plants and fruit bearing trees/bushes. We are also pursuing meat chickens and other sources for food supply; such as inquiring of neighbors and friends if they know of outlets where we can find fruit trees to pick from. So far we have found a new free source for crab apples and someone who is getting rid of their canning jars.
• As cliche as it may sound, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is at the core of our daily life. We are reusing everything that we possible can ~ just the other day I salvaged a set of stand alone stairs to use as a planter station for my herbs. ALL leftovers are being eaten. Of course cloth for as many things as possible including diapers and napkins. We are trying to become a no waste family. 
• After a month of searching we were able to place our yearly co-op order. While this does not sustain us indefinitely it will meet our dry goods needs for the next year, reducing our need to purchase these items from stores or online. We've also managed to place our yearly order for maple syrup which we cook with and we're working on our yearly order for honey. All of these bulk purchases safe us money in the long run.
3. Immune Health:
• We are focusing on eating clean. Whole foods to promote a healthy immune system which can ward of disease and infection as well as give us the energy to pursue our many avenues of self-sufficiency.
• We are removing as many toxic substances as possible from our home from cleaning products to beauty products. There was a time we had minimal of these items, but I guess you could say I became negligent. I feel now is just as good as any time to get back on that band-wagon, it's really not that hard and it's certainly more affordable.
• We are making sure we have a decent stock of herbs, essential oils and vitamins to help combat ailments. We have always done this, but I guess you could say we are upping our game. We haven't been to the doctor for sickness in so many years I couldn't even tell you exactly the last time. But, the key on this one is to be proactive with necessary supplies so that when there's a need to treat a health situation, you are prepared.

Ultimately, God is in control. But, we can be used by God to fulfill His will. Having a plan and being intentional to work towards those goals is a much more positive way to use our time these days; rather than just hiding inside worrying. It is my deepest desire that throughout these crazy times our family would uphold God's word, look for the Lord's wisdom and knowledge, and not be wasteful with our time here on Earth. We are alive for a reason. None of *this* has caught God off guard. He is still in the business of providing for His people and He will continue to do so until the end of time.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Freedom Rally

Our family had the privilege of visiting our state capitol where we participated in a Freedom Rally this past Saturday. We met up with some dear friends to caravan the two hours it took to get down to the capitol. Thankfully, it was an absolutely gorgeous spring day in the South!

Anytime we venture out of the house, especially when the trip is going to be longer than just a jaunt around town, it is an event!  A day trip of necessities for us is like what most people would take on a week long vacation, lol. We have two diaper bags, a change of clothes for my five year who almost always gets carsick, and of course food. It takes a lot of planning and preparation for us to go on a day trip. But this adventure was one for the books and one I will always remember. 

We brainstormed as a family to come up with the best rally signs. Since the only stores open to buy craft supplies was Walmart and Dollar Tree, we were unable to find large markers so we had to paint the signs, which took about four hours to make four signs. Sheesh, talk about a lot of work, but we were all pleased with how well they turned out and we even received complements on them. The camaraderie was amazing at the rally and we were able to share our signs with others to use once our younger crew got tired of holding them.

It took a little while for us to actually find where the rally was located, but we managed to get there on time even if we did have to walk a fairly long way from where we parked. As we were walking up to the gathering, one of the other protestors had a nasty fall. An elderly lady missed the curb and fell and smacked her head on the sidewalk. She had a horrible gash on her head as well as terrible swelling to her face. The paramedics came to patch her up, be she opted to stay for the rally. Talk about an encouragement in patriotism! One of her family members was treating her wounds with essential oils which let me know she was in good hands. (Love it when I see folks who know how to use natural medicine.)

There was a decent amount of people at the rally. People from all walks of life passionate about preserving the Constitution of the United States, pleading for the reopening of Alabama. People who want to work and to choose how they protect themselves and their family from illness. Several news outlets were there taking pictures and videos. There were even people protesting the protest. There was a strong police presence. They seemed nice and did not interfere, they even stopped traffic when the rally finished with a march up and down the sidewalks on the road where the rally was located. 

We had plenty of opportunities to explain to our children a myriad of different subjects. From what people meant by their signs, to why people were protesting the protest. It was a perfect homeschool field trip. We engaged in conversation with several different families. We shared our stories and why we were there, and what we hoped to achieve by attending the rally. It was amazing to see so many young folks there as well as family's with children. We all have a stake in this country and desire to see it moving again.

Brent Sheridan was sharp on the megaphone at the rally. He definitely managed to capture the heart of the message we all desired to make clear. Our country is not facing a health crisis but a Constitutional Crisis. We value our freedoms and hope to preserve them at all costs.

The rally lasted an hour. We had planned for a picnic lunch which we had packed the night before, unfortunately we forgot it in the chaos of getting out the door. {{Goran}} There was a fun little family owned cafe on the road where the rally was held. They let us use their bathroom a couple of times during the rally for our little kiddos who just couldn't 'hold it'. My husband promised we would come back and purchase lunch from them. 

Apparently the cafe owners didn't believe him, because when we returned to buy our lunch, they said they were shocked to see us back. My husband responded with he was a man of his word. Sadly we live in a day and age where people don't mean what they say. It is one of our deepest desires to teach our children to keep their word. Their character means something, and when you say you're going to do something, you do it. Children learn best by watching what we do.

The Alabama Capitol is absolutely beautiful. We arrived early enough that we had time to walk around and explore. The government buildings were gorgeous with emmaculant grounds. We've never been to the capitol before, but our brief experience this go-around is enough to encourage me to plan a trip down there just to explore the buildings. 

It's an unusual time for our country. Unprecedented measures have been taken to revoke Constitutional rights from the American people. While we understand there are people sick and dying, there is never an excuse to void the Constitution. Removing the ability for Americans to work and provide for their family's is unacceptable. It's time we all worked together as a united front to reach a solution that values all humanity as essential and not just a few. 

It was truly an honor to be able to express our Constitutional right to assemble and protest the current state of affairs. Lord willing it will not be too much longer before the masses realize we don't have to sacrifice anyone to effective disengage this 'silent enemy'.

With Love and Hope,

Jennifer

2020 Spring Planting Season

This year's spring planting season has been an eventful one to say the least. For as long as I can remember we have planted the second week of April. This year we went along with those same plans, only this year we've experienced some unusual weather. 

First we had nonstop rain, so much so that we could not plant any of our late winter plants or seeds.  Even though we didn't get the potatoes or onions planted in late winter like they were supposed to be, we decided to go ahead and get them in the ground (late) and pray for the best. 

Then we've had some unusually cold temperatures which have killed many of our plants. We've had to replant quite a bit of our tomatoes and peppers. We thought we'd lost our entire patch of sweet potatoes, but a fellow gardener informed us that they are growing just fine. Apparently the cold kills the leaves above ground, but the vines below are still growing. Lord willing that is the case, because sweet potatoes are one of my most favorite foods to grow.

We start the majority of our plants from seed either in recycled food containers or directly into the soil. We do buy some plants from the store such as tomatoes (not all of them, some tomatoes we start from seed), eggplants, peppers, and sweet potatoes. 

We've found that a lot of seeds that we'd normally plant directly into the soil do better if we plant them into small pots first and then once they get a good start, we transplant them into the soil. Those seeds include: yellow squash, zucchini, pumpkin, butternut squash, cucumber, some watermelon, and cantaloup.

Thankfully, even though we got our red and white potatoes into the ground late, they seem to be growing great. We planted four nice long rows, Lord willing we will have a nice harvest. We also have four great looking rows of green beans coming up. It's been a few years since we've had a decent harvest of green beans, but we're determined and we aren't giving up. We've yet to run out of them throughout the year, but we do have to ration them. It would be so wonderful to get a bumper crop of green beans this year.

We planted about a dozen rows of sweet corn. Our first planting had some skips in the rows so we've already gone back and replanted where some of it did not come up. We're hoping to put up ears of corn in the freezer as well as can corn. It's been a few years since we have had to can corn, but our supply is running low and it's time to restock. It's fairly labor intensive canning corn, but it's worth it once the job is done and we've got it to use whenever we want. 

We try to be as resourceful as possible with what we use in our gardens, with the intentions to keep the cost at a minimum. We stake our tomatoes and bell peppers using cages made with rhubarb fencing, a pole (sometimes we use a good thick stick), and zip strips. It may not be the most esthetically pleasing contraption, but it gets the job done. Our focus is to grow as much food as possible with the least amount of financial impact. 

We still have a good bit of planting left to do. It's still too cold for the plants that prefer hotter temperatures. In a couple of weeks we will be planting the watermelon, cantaloup, and okra. We will also plant another six or so rows of corn, to help stagger the harvest. From now until the end of August we're going to be full on, full-time gardening, picking, and preserving. Busy yet fulfilling days ahead to say the least.

To recap what we currently have planted:

Corn

Field Peas

Tomatoes

Bell Pepper

Hot Pepper

Red/White Potato

Sweet Potato

Pumpkin

Butternut Squash

Eggplant

Zucchini

Yellow Squash

Green Beans

Onions

Cucumbers

I try not to think about everything we have planned ahead of us in regards to the garden, because I would probably panic and have a melt down. In the long run it is a lot of work, but if we just remain focused on one harvest at a time, it doesn't seem like nearly as much work. Plus, when the main gardening season comes to a close and we have freezers and jars full of food to eat, it makes all the long days of hard work worth it.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Easter 2020

Easter 2020 was certainly a blessed day for our family. Even though we could not attend church we still kept Jesus the center of our celebration, for without His sacrifice we would not have a holiday to celebrate. To be honest our Easter plans really didn't change much other than the fact that the church doors were closed and we had to have church at home.

Life is different these days for our family in a myriad of different ways, but especially in the sense that we have a little one experiencing all her 'firsts' and then we are missing our oldest who no longer lives with us. It's a really unusual season of life that's for sure. All the emotions are present; so much joy and excitement to share with Abby Lou's firsts and yet a touch of sadness that our oldest isn't around much. Even though our oldest wasn't there for all our traditional Easter activities, he was able to attend Easter dinner. 

Over the years we have collected quite a few plastic Easter eggs. They even have their own tote, lol. There was a time it was only me filling eggs and putting them together, now I have helpers who love to help out in that department. We don't fill all the eggs with candy. I buy one bag of candy to divide amongst the eggs and then the rest are left empty.

Thankfully, I plan throughout the year for holidays or we might have been in a pinch for Easter this year with all the stores being closed or with limited stock. To make each holiday extra special, I'm in a continuous state of shopping the clearance racks ~ this helps to keep our holiday expenses well under budget.

 Easter morning we had all the children eat breakfast, tidy the house, and get dressed in their Sunday best before opening their Easter baskets. I didn't spend a whole lot of money on any of the children's baskets. To keep things simple the younger crew all got the same items while the older children received the same. We didn't do much candy, mostly just little trinkets such as coloring books, bubbles, and a deck of cards. I made my husband a basket of his favorite snacks and he surprised me with a basket of my favorite healthy snack items too. 

After days of beautiful warm weather, Easter ended up being rainy and cool so pictures had to be taken on the porch ~ which wasn't as easy as it may look. {{sigh}}

Six of our seven handsome sons.

Our three beautiful daughters.

My husband was joking around, because let's face it taking family pictures with 11 people is eventful to say the least, and of course when the camera snapped he wasn't smiling. I promise he wasn't mad, but can we just say there is never a dull moment in our crazy life, especially when taking pictures!

Easter dinner wasn't anything fancy just a few of our favorite dishes. The children did call it a mini Thanksgiving, which I thought was sweet. Everything was homemade and a family effort to make. Our two oldest sons even contributed to the dessert menu, which was so very thoughtful. 

Easter Menu

Ham

Hawaiian Rolls 

Deviled Eggs

 Potato Salad

Dressing

Macaroni and Cheese

Potato Casserole

Punch

Easter Trifle 

2 Ice Cream Cakes

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Crackers

We did manage to get one group photo of all our children even it it was after everyone had changed out of their good clothes ~ this mama will take whatever she can get.

Due to the dreary day on Easter Sunday we opted to hunt eggs a couple days later. We usually attend a couple local church sponsored Easter egg hunts, but this year those were not happening; so I wanted to make sure our annual family Easter egg hunt was extra special. I was especially thankful that I had collected all those plastic eggs, because with our crew we need them. Even with as many eggs as we have, it didn't take long for my little egg hunters to find all of them. 

Once all the eggs were found my husband hid one egg that held a five dollar bill for the older children to find. The first time around no one could find it, so he hid it again. After some serious hunting our oldest daughter found it ~ only because she stumbled over it and the egg fell out of it's hiding place nestled inside one of our potted plants. Fun times and wonderful memories for sure.

Easter is such a special holiday to celebrate because without the death and resurrection of Jesus we would not have the hope of heaven. I'm so thankful our family was able to enjoy the day with each other and our treasured traditions. We enjoyed sweet tokens of love, good food, and delightful fellowship. Our family has been showered with blessings from above and for that I give all the glory to God.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Easter Trifle

Okay y'all, I know I'm all about posting on Easter this week, which has already come and gone, but this recipe is an amazing sweet treat that can be made any time of the year ~ I just happen to make it for our Easter feast. Honestly, I have been making it for YEARS and trying to prefect the it for years. Finally, this year I have narrowed down the recipe to be exactly what I had in mind on taste, texture, and ingredients.

As y'all well know recipes are a dime a dozen and there's probably 100's of recipes for any given dish you desire to create. But, everyone has their own taste preferences and that is where recipes differ. For me, it's first and foremost about ease of making, next comes affordability, and then of course how it tastes. Well, this little trifle meets all those standards and then some.

I like to schedule a set menu for each holiday. Why? Mostly because it just makes life easier. It's super easy to plan in advance, I don't have to stress about what I'm going to make each holiday, and everyone in the family knows what to expect. Which in my experience minimizes meltdowns. And Lordy be who doesn't want to minimize meltdowns. When life works in order it just makes life more enjoyable for everyone.

Back to this amazing Easter Trifle recipe. I saw an Easter Trifle many moons ago, and I just knew it would be the perfect dessert recipe for our Easter menu. Hence my desire to fine tune the recipe into what would best fit our family's dessert preferences.

Easter Trifle

Ingredients

One chocolate cake cooked according to directions and cut into 1 inch cubes
Two 3.4oz boxes of vanilla pudding
1 package of Oreo cookies crushed
one 8 oz tub of cool whip
2 cups of milk
pink and green food coloring, opt.
Large Robin Egg candies
Peep chick candies
Easter sprinkles

Directions

Layer half of the cubed cake pieces into bottom of trifle bowl. In a small mixing bowl pour in both pudding mixes add milk and mix for two minutes with a hand held mixer (can use stand mixer). Fold cool whip into pudding mixture. Divide pudding into two parts if coloring. Color half the pudding pink and the other half green. Pour one of the pudding mixture over the first layer of cake in the trifle bowl. Sprinkle with half of the crushed cookies. Now repeat layers. On top layer place egg candies and peep candies as well as the sprinkles. Chill in fridge.

I love this Easter trifle recipe for many reasons. One: it's easy to make, two: it tastes great, three: it's budget friendly, and four: it can feed an army. When one dessert that is quick and easy to make can feed a whole bunch of people I am one happy woman. I'm a firm believer in making life as easy as possible. It is very feasible to create affordable, easy to make, special holiday meals, it just takes a little time and effort to plan them out. By planning simple menus in advance for holidays, it allows me to be more focused on celebrating and enjoying time with my family than hiding in the kitchen, and that my friends is a win in my book.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Easter Funschooling

 This year's Easter funschooling week was full of blessed family time making treasured memories. As I mentioned in my Easter Totschool post, my husband was off from work, so he was able to join in on our special Easter activities. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and we were able to do all kinds of fun projects inside as well as several outdoor family projects. Easter in the South is typically a wonderful time as Spring is in full force which makes the celebrating all the more enjoyable.

This year we made a cross silhouette project. The children painted a sunset scene with paint onto white construction paper. Then we cut out of black construction paper a mound with three crosses and glued it on top of the dried painted sunsets. I think this is one of my favorite Easter projects we do.

Y'all know I love our directed drawing projects. Well here was a cute bunny that we drew for our Easter funschooling week.

Everyone really gets into the directed drawing projects around here. Seeing everyone's creative personalities come out into their drawings is so special to watch and experience. There's something so amazing about watching a child grow and evolve in their creative abilities. While we don't do regular art lessons, I do try to give the children opportunity to be creative with making sure we have necessary supplies and the encouragement to explore their creative nature.

Of course no holiday is complete without making cut-out sugar cookies.

And yes we start them young in this house. It was really sweet too, because as is usual I was multitasking when we were making cookies this year, but everyone was made sure Abby Lou got a turn to make her cookies (and no, she is not eating them yet, lol).

While it is a lot of work and mess making cut-out sugar cookies, I wouldn't trade it for anything. All the special memories we have created over the years making cookies at each holiday are priceless.

There was a time my OCD, perfection side would want to 'fix' all these cookies and make them esthetically appealing, but I've come a long way, and all I see is love, joy, and happy times with my family. It's more important for my children to have the opportunity to participate, make messes, and explore life than it is for their creations to meet the 'world's standards'.

My older children made these editable bird nests. Well, Lydia helped too by putting the eggs on, but mostly they were made by a collaboration of my big kiddos. These candy/cookies were a big hit with everyone. They were a combination of no-bake oatmeal cookies and Rice Krispie treats. Obviously a perfect combination. 

Our family dyes eggs every year. Only two dozen since we have hundreds of plastic eggs. Even though we own a ton of plastic eggs for hiding, it's just way too much fun to let go of the tradition of dying eggs. Being present and doing things with my family really is my happy place. It's not work or a burden to do these things; it's a privilege. 

Abby Lou had her first experience in dying eggs. She acted as if she knew what she was doing ~ go figure. These babies just keep getting smarter and smarter.

Finally we played a minute-to-win-it game where everyone had to stack and unstack plastic egg halves. This wasn't what I had planned for our Easter minute-to-win-it game, but it's what ended up happening when I realized the game I had planned, the younger children would not be able to play. For me it's all about including as many family members as possible in our activities. 

Life is strange and different now, I don't know if life will ever resume to what it was two months ago, but I do know that I can make an effort to keep my family's life as normal as possible. I'm thankful that this Easter we were able to pretty much keep life the same as it has always been. Did we go to church? No. but we did have church; it just happened to be at home. I refuse to stop living life amongst these uncertain times. I am 'keeping on keeping on' for the sake of my sanity and for the protection of my children. They deserve my best, and that is what they shall have. When I look back on all the pictures and videos of our Easter funschooling week, I'm so very grateful that I can create AND make these special memories with my family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Easter Totschool

Our Easter week this year wasn't really much different than other years except for two things. The first being my husband wasn't working due to being furloughed, and the second being we could not attend physical church. Thankfully, we are not newbies to homechurching and have done it many times throughout the years. While we did miss celebrating the resurrection of our Savior with like-minded believers, there definitely was no shortage of our family acknowledging the significance of the Easter holiday.

As y'all know we love to celebrate the holidays. When planning for this year's Easter totschool week, I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to do some spring crafts along with our Easter projects. The children and I were super thrilled to have daddy home for our Easter fun week, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances. 

Our Easter week sensory box included felt bunnies, plastic grass (Easter basket filler), rubber bunnies, cloth carrots, small plastic carrots, and a wooden scooper.

Y'all know my kiddos love making the marbled pictures so for one of our Easter crafts we made marbled eggs. I cut out egg shapes from white construction paper, placed the paper in a shallow cake pan with paint squirted on the egg. We put three marbles in the pan and the children moved the pan to make the marbles roll through the paint.

I didn't realize the paint colors I had chosen resembled Mardi Gras colors until after the fact, but they turned out cute and the children had fun making them.

Next the children took plastic eggs and painted with them. 

To make sure the 'stamps' resembled eggs it took a minute to dig through all my plastic eggs and find ones that were cut long ways and not across the middle. To be honest I had never really paid attention to how plastic eggs were cut until we did this project. But, if you were curious, not all plastic eggs are cut the same way. Daddy was super sweet to get involved with several of our Easter projects this year, which made our children super happy.

I found this awesome Easter Story snack mix on Pinterest and had the children make it. As the children added each ingredient we talked about the symbolism of how it related to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

I love making snacktivities with my children. It's so much fun learning through different avenues. Not all learning must be done with a text book, even if they are valuable resources. 

Making the Easter Story snack mix was a big hit with my people and I think it will be added to our Easter traditions for the foreseeable future.

Last we made these cute handprint chicks. I must admit this was not the easiest project for my age group of children. I prefer to do projects that the children can do mostly on their own. This one required a good bit of big kid/adult help.

We did quite a few Easter projects as an entire family. I will share about those projects in my next post which will elaborate more on our Easter Funschooling week. Today's post, is focused on our Easter projects that were done mostly by our youngest children. 

I know I say it pretty much every time I post about a totschool fun week, but I will say it again; I really love that I planned for these fun schooling weeks. It's allowing us to break away from our normal schedule and do some focused unschooling activities. While I will always consider us purposeful unschoolers, our normal academic routine does include a little bit more structure than our funschooling weeks. I do not consider our funschooling weeks, non-learning weeks, they're just learning weeks with a different approach.  I'm so thankfull God has given us the ability to learn through a myriad of different venues and outlets, but mostly I'm thankfully I GET to be present for all of my children's learning experiences. Homeschooling truly is the BEST.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Spring Projects

We've had so many projects happening these days. I love being busy and getting things done. Even though life is being restricted due to the insanity of Covid-19, we are trying to go about our life as normal as possible. The good thing about having a large family is we can still celebrate big no matter what circumstances we're facing. Every year I try to make my daughter's and me matching dresses for Easter ~ I decided to continue with that tradition even if the churches remained closed this year.

I decided to make this year's Easter outfits with stretch knit. This was not my first time sewing with stretch fabric, but it was my first time sewing stretch knit with my serger. I watched a ton of YouTube videos before actually sewing them, and I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to sew stretch knit fabric with a serger. 

I purchased our fabric from KnitFabric.com. This particular fabric was double brushed knit and it is so silky and soft ~ amazingly comfortable and flattering to wear.

While I purchased new patterns for my dress and the two little girls from Peek-a-boo Pattern Shop, I decided to create my own pattern fro my oldest daughter's maxi skirt. Maxi skirts are super easy to make with just a few measurements and straight line cuts you can whip up a super cute skirt.

I really wanted to find a pattern for high waisted bloomers to make for my little girlies. I am SO glad I persevered, because I found a pattern on Etsy and they turned out unbelievably cute! I'm hoping to find some more stretch fabric soon so I can make more of these precious bloomers. I found a couple different hair bow patterns on Pinterest, but I had to alter them quite a bit to get the look that I wanted. 

We also made two batches of soap. I typically make cold process soap, but I decided to try a hot processed soap recipe for one of our batches. I was not a fan. Not that the soap did not turn out, but it was just really time consuming and didn't make nearly as much as my tried and true recipe. 

I have been making homemade soap for quite a while with never a problem, but I started having issues with my soap turning orange last year. I have been trouble-shooting all the causes it could be and I think I have finally figured it out! It was our water. We have a Berkey filtration system that we drink from, but I had just been using tap water for soap making. Like I said I have never had a problem until about a year ago ( I usually make soap twice a year so it wasn't that many times that I had actually experienced the problem). So this time I switched to using the Berkey water and my soap turned out just fine. Who knows what 'they' are adding to the water now to make it effect my soap, but they've added something, {{sigh}}. 

Most years we enjoy visiting a couple local churches for their Easter festivals. I like making my younger crew matching vinyl Easter shirts for these special family events. Obviously, the festivals did not happen this year, but I still wanted to make the shirts, even if they were only for our family's annual Easter egg hunt.

I must admit it was a pain trying to find vinyl this year. I much prefer to purchase my vinyl from local small businesses, but they are currently closed. I ended up buying some from JoAnn's but the vinyl was terrible to work with and wouldn't even stay on the shirts despite using my heat press. I'm definitely going to have to be more diligent to order my vinyl online for future projects. Which also mean planning a literal further in advance, lol. 

I had made these super cute family van decals last year when we bought our new (used) van but I needed to add another figure for Abby Lou ~ better late than never! The lassoes crack me up every time I see them. There's no truer picture representing the story of my life.

We haven't quite finished this project yet, but we're getting there. Since we make a lot of crafts I wanted to make an official place to display the children's artwork. We are in the process of making an art gallery wall and this little sign will be at the top of the display. 

We've also made three new flowerbeds around the property. I must admit I've never been a fan of flowers, but as I'm getting older, they really bring a smile to my face and joy to my spirit. I can't wait to watch the flowers grow and bloom.

We've still got a few more projects we'd like to get done before the main harvest and preserving season is upon us, but one day at a time. I'm in a continued effort to learn balance between work and rest. It's a privilege to be able to set goals and achieve them, but there's also productivity in rest. There's no denying it, we are currently living in strange and uncertain times, but that doesn't mean we have to stop living. There are plenty of things and activities we can do at home. This doesn't have to be a season of misery. Perspective is key. I'm a firm believer that we are the owners of our sanity ~ we can either wallow in self-pity or get busy and do something about it. For me I'm staying active, setting goals, and getting things done.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer .