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Searching for the Old Paths and Keeping Memories Alive

If anyone knows me well, they know that I love to garden, to make food from scratch, to preserve food, and to try to live simply and within my means. This thought really struck me this evening as I was talking to my 16-year-old daughter.

It struck me that most of my great-grandparents, grandparents, and even parents lived on a farm growing up. Some still do in fact. Our goal is to one day  live out in the country on a few acres, raise some chickens, maybe a cow, and have a Hugh Jass garden that grows plenty of food for our family that I can dehydrate, freeze, or can.

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All’s Quiet on the Blogging Front

Hello, dear and faithful readers! Are you still there? Hello? Hello? Yeah…it’s been awhile I guess. Maybe you have wondered what in the world has happened to me these past few weeks. Rest assured, all is well. I have just been a little ho hum lately and put blogging to the side.

But I’m back! 🙂 Let me show some pictures as to what’s been going on around here lately.

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Homemade Orange Julius

Tangerine slices

There are affiliate links in this post. If you purchase through the supplied links, I will receive a small compensation.

When I was young, probably 7 or 8, my Uncle John came to visit in the summertime to help my Dad paint our house. Looking back, it was a huge undertaking for just two people. We didn’t live in a mansion by any stretch, but it was still a good sized, two-story home.

Looking back on that summer, one of the things I remember very well is the Saga of Dad’s Broken Arm. It all started one morning when my sister and I were out playing in some large cardboard boxes on the front porch. We had decorated the boxes to be like time machines and were blasting through the space-time continuum like Thelma and Louise minus the whole driving off a cliff thing. 🙂 Anyway, after we arrived back in the 20th century, I remember my Uncle John telling us that we had to go to the hospital because my Dad fell off a ladder and they thought his arm was broken. In addition to that, he had a small gash on his forehead that was bleeding quite a bit.
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Frugal Homeschooling Options

I have affiliate links in this post. If you purchase through the supplied links, I will receive a small amount. Thanks for supporting my blog!

*UPDATED: I have come across a couple more resources and have added them below.*

We have been homeschooling for 10 years now. It’s pretty amazing when I think about it. That’s a long time! But then I realize I have 14 more years to go before my youngest is done and I start to get a little overwhelmed. The time will go by fast though! Ten years has already flown by.

With more and more families choosing homeschool over public school (for obvious reasons which I won’t get into here), the number of curriculum options has increased as well, and some of them are even free! It really is possible to provide an excellent education for your children with limited financial resources.

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In Which This 37-Year-Old Attempts Running…Again

 

You guys, I’m 37. It seems so weird to me that I am so close to 40. Because of that, I figured it’s way past time for me to take my health more seriously, so I have decided to pick up where I left off years ago and begin running once again!

I have never been a fan of running. As I’ve posted before, running and I have a complicated relationship. And due to some injuries (that took FOREVER to resolve), I haven’t even touched the idea for a long time. But lately, after some inspiration, I’ve kind of gotten a wild hair and decided to put my running shoes back on.

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Garden 2017: Cool-Weather Crops!

Garden selfie! Ha! 😀

Howdy! Have you all been experiencing a monsoon like we have here in Kansas? Good grief, it’s been so, so wet here lately. I’m not sure how much rain we’ve gotten although I think we are all caught up for the year and then some. I haven’t been able to plant all of my cool-weather crops yet but have gotten some in the ground thankfully. For as wet as it’s been, I could turn my little garden plot into a rice paddy. 🙂 Continue reading “Garden 2017: Cool-Weather Crops!”

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Grandma Bev’s Pecan Pie

So… hello there! You might have been wondering what I actually filled my pie crust with the other day (two weeks ago! eek!) after my misadventures in pie crust making. It was pecan pie! My Grandma Bev was known for her pies, especially her pecan pie. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, it would make an appearance at the table. And wow, was it good. So to honor my dear grandma, I thought I would share with you her epic pecan pie recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I have over the years.

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Pie Crust, My Feeble Attempt

Happy Pi Day! Two days late. Oh well. I had good intentions, and since I have never been good at math, it seems fitting that I would celebrate Pi Day a little late. 🙂

Pie crusts can be rather intimidating, you know? Handling the dough too much can make your pie crust tough, something I have a tendency to mess up on. I can never get it right on the first attempt at rolling it out. Then there’s the issue of butter vs. lard vs. oil. I also read you can use coconut oil (so does pie count as a superfood then?). Sometimes it’s just easier to forget the controversy and head to Aldi and pick up a package of pie crusts for $1.49. Continue reading “Pie Crust, My Feeble Attempt”