A Little Bit Of Lately

Guess who comes home tonight?  MY BOY!!  Christian has been gone 10 days forever camping with friends and tonight he comes back!  We've been waiting all day, cleaning his room, cooking his favorite dinner, and making welcome home signs.  We've missed him.

Here's some things that have been going on this week...

Look how he sits at the piano!  Hilarious!  3 kids had a piano recital and did a great job.  Afterward, we had friends over for ice cream.

A big homeschool book sale!  Nevermind ZBoy's cheesy pose.  We sold some stuff and bought some stuff and the kids had a great time shopping.  I still came home with WAY more than I hoped.  So now it's all priced and ready for the graduate's garage sale next month.

Army guys, tanks, Christmas blocks, and a reader in the corner.  I love these people!

2 beautiful quarts of HONEY!!  This was left over from last year and needed to be pulled to make room for clean frames.  We already have some new honey that they've made this year so hopefully this summer we will have a great harvest.  Our bee club bought 2 new extractors and one of them gets to be stored at our house!

We have 24 eggs ready to hatch in the incubator.  But here's the thing.  We don't need 24 more chickens!!
My son was a bit ambitious this year and I'm hoping he can sell some of these.  Anybody need a baby chick?  I can hook ya up.

Joey is not good at all.  When we started slowing down on the prednisone, he went right back to horrible.  The vet upped the dose again but he's not bouncing back.  It's been up and down.  And as soon as we get our hopes up, he has a relapse.  I hate to see my sweet boy so sick.   Please keep praying for him.

Spiffy!!  These guys got to participate in a Vietnamese engagement party.  We had such a great time with June's family even though most of the time it was hard to understand each other.  I love how friendship and love can overcome all sorts of barriers!  June's family was very welcoming, hospitable, and so much fun to be with!  In the meantime, Honey and Eldest was shooting a friend's wedding.  Now he is sorting through over 1500 wedding photos!

Joey Update

Well I had hoped to jump right back on the blogging wagon this week but my dog has taken up every bit of emotional energy I've had. I have been so worried about my sweet Joey!

After dropping a load of money at the vet, he only continued to get worse. He was totally paralyzed in his back legs and was too weak to get up anyway. We had to move him to the patio because he could not take care of his doggie business. And then it turned cold!!

The vet prescribed another medicine while we tried to keep him warm by covering him with a sleeping bag. Maybe he wasn't cold anyway...but I was cold for him!

He's drinking!  (We were thrilled with ANY improvement.)

The next day I went out to see that he had moved from the patio to the driveway (about 3 steps) by getting up and dragging his backside. So sad to watch but at least he had a little energy and he was also holding his head up, drinking, and was more interested in food. We used towels to support his weight and worked with him at getting him to stand. No luck. He could put no weight on those legs.

The next day (oh happy day!!) was a great improvement and he stood alone!! I love how Lane is encouraging him in the front while Josh is ready to catch him in the back. Even buzz looks happy for him!

Later in the day he was able to hobble around and even made it to the grass to take care of business. YESSSS!!!

Every day has gotten better. He still walks like a drunk man and trips over his legs but he's up and walking, eating, and taking care of business. Now when we come home from being gone, he even does his classic moan and howl to welcome us back.  He hasn't been happy enough to do that in awhile.  And when we headed off for a walk and bike ride, he got up expecting to come along!  (I knew he'd never make it, so we put him in the house.)

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him and asking about him.  He's definitely on the mend!  So grateful!!

Catching Up

And I'm back.  I had to take a longer than ever blog break to plan, prepare, enjoy, and clean up a lot of exciting life.  And while I can't go back and do it all justice in one blog post, I do want to try to hit the highlights of the fun.  

First of all these awesome friends came all the way from Colorado just to see US!  

We talked, ate, played some games, talked, walked, sang songs, talked, went to church, and talked some more.  Oh I love them!

And they came, along with some of our family, to help us celebrate THIS GUY!! 

Christian graduated high school!  So many long years of work are over and he/we are starting a new chapter in his life.  We are so proud of him.  

These kids are pretty much my favorites. 

~Once we said goodbye to our Colorado friends, we packed up the van and headed to Branson to see MORE Colorado friends that we haven't seen in a long time.  We got to participate in a leadership conference and catch up with our church family that we hadn't seen in years.  And while I have no pictures to prove it, it was wonderful. 

It was a big graduation year for us.  2 weeks later we got to celebrate THESE GUYS! 

Meg graduated (with honors) and her grandmothers came to watch.  Ethan also graduated but chose not to walk.  This turned out to be a gift in itself because they were assigned different times and it was standing room only for 2 looooong hours.  4 years.  DONE!! 

My sweet girl and my sweet moms. 

And just to make it better, my family cooked ALL the food for the party afterwards!  As in I didn't have to do a thing!  AND they cleaned it up.  AND decorated.  AND brought food for my freezer.  

I know! 

We have ventured into a new sport. Jes, Nate, Mally, and ZBoy are playing baseball. Never ever in their lives have they even watched a baseball game let alone play it. Because we aren't really baseball fans.

And now I know why.

We've only played one real game and sat through several practices. And y'all. It takes a SWEET FOREVER to get through! I've been sitting here for an hour and 26 minutes and my boy has touched the ball twice. Oh my goodness already!

Mally made it to one softball practice all pretty-ed up in her sparkly hat. She visited in the dugout the entire time and coaches sized her up right away. After a scary encounter where the ball almost touched her, she decided softball wasn't for her.

The boys, however, are all in.

Interestingly, t-ball has a ton more action. When I take ZBoy to practice I have to actually watch the whole entire time because it's almost always his turn again. And that's more like it.

But after being a soccer/football/TaeKwonDo mom for the past 15 years, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take up a new hobby just to make it through a baseball practice without dying of boredom.

On the up side, it does make for different type of pictures that we didn't have. 

This is my new favorite. 

~And some farm news.... this is what happens when you get a bee sting between the eyes.  You also get a trip to the doctor, a shot in the butt, a steroid pack, and an epi pen of your very own.

His grandpa bought him the greatest bee suit ever so maybe this won't happen again.  Thank you Grandpa!!

Please pray for our sweet dog, Joey.  He's had a reaction to a bad tick bite and isn't recovering very well. 

We keep telling each other that he's getting better....but I don't think so.  The meds aren't kicking in and he's very weak and sick.  

It's been a hard spring on the farm.  We've lost some chickens, have some chickens sick, and another hive of bees have left us.  Really disappointing.  

But I will leave you with a bit of cuteness..... 

Farm News

Did you have a blessed Resurrection Sunday? Well if you are a believer in Jesus Christ then you are automatically blessed by Resurrection Sunday because of well, the awesome RESURRECTION and all! I love it.

This year I wanted to do a special lunch that had a feature presentation.  Most people I know do hams or roasts.  We don't like ham, and b/c of the unfortunate roast incident a decade past that dish will never happen.  What I had in mind was something like brisket.  But brisket is expensive and I never cook it right.  I love the pre-cooked brisket at Sams....but again, money.  So I decided to do creamy chicken and meatloaf.  If we couldn't do brisket, at least people would have choices.  But when it was time to eat I still had brisket in mind and no matter how you slice it, meatloaf and chicken will never be brisket and it's still only meatloaf and chicken.  Next year I hope to plan better.

We had the greatest weekend.  70 degree temps, sunshine, and hard work.  Friday we had 9 dentist appts with NO cavities.  Honey took off 1/2 the day and we went shopping for plants for the front yard.  Then they spent the rest of the afternoon re-landscaping and planting.

Saturday was even better.  We headed to the farmers market and bought some garden plants.  Mr. Hardin was there as well as another friend from bee club who offered to sell me some of the bee equipment I need for cheap.  Yay!!!

From there we headed to the farmers coop to buy the rest of what we needed to plant the garden.  And I promise I saw my Aunt Dot there.  But Honey said it wasn't her.  But I don't think he even knows what she looks like.  Anyway, she slipped away before I could say anything  stare harder and make the whole thing awkward.  But guess what?  Remember all those cucumbers we sold last year?  I kept all that money in an envelope to save it for this year's garden fund.  And except for about $4 it paid for all this year's plants!

The rest of the day was tilling, weeding, planting, watering, bee feeding, cooking, cleaning, sweating, and a big bonfire with hotdogs and s'mores.  It was pretty perfect.

At this point, we are crazy busy getting ready for graduation, company, and vacation so getting all that yard work done is a huge relief.

Did I tell you that Josh hatched 10 baby chicks in the incubator?  CUTE!  But then the 4H lady called and said they had extra chicks and we could pick up 25.  So our chicken population went from 9 to 44 in 2 weeks' time.

While I was picking up chickens I also saw that we MISSED the rain barrel class that included a rain barrel!!  And that is such a disappointment since I've wanted a rain barrel for at least 2 years practically forever.  Though I can't imagine what anybody would actually learn in a class about rain barrel usage.  Anyhow, I'm still rain barrel-less.

The bees.  Well everybody is still home and that is good.  Today my man went shopping at Lowes to grab a few more cinder blocks to make some stands for the new hives.  And tomorrow is the big moving day.  I'll move the nucs into real hives and move those across the yard.  I might also split the big hive.  I have a million things going through my mind about all this.  But today I get new cinder blocks and that makes me happy!!

The Last Spring Birthday

Seven years of ZBOY!!  

And he could not be happier.  He is a joy and his momma's sunshine.  I'm so thankful he's mine. 

We had a great day of playing, having lunch with Daddy, eating yummy foods, and seeing 2 (TWO!) grandmas and Meg.  What more could a 7 year old ask for?  

Happy Birthday Zekey!  WE LOVE YOU!!

When One Turned Into Four - Part 2

The next morning Josh went out to see the swarm that we had left overnight.  And sure enough, there were no bees.  Everyone was right back up in the tree....only higher this time!  This time they were not as spread out and sort of clumped into a triangle shape.

The unfortunate thing about all of this was..

1. Mr. Hardin was selling at the farmer's market

2. My man had to go to work

Mr. H and I both agreed it would probably be best to let this one go.  We still had plenty of bees and the previous catch was complicated.   We had no help and it wasn't worth someone getting hurt.  

BUT Josh would have none of it.  He went out and studied them and decided HE could do it.  

The girls wanted to suit up and help and he already had a plan in his head.  So I told them we would give it a shot only if they would listen to every word I said and nobody would freak out. 

Well the 6ft ladder was not enough and we had to get the extension ladder.  It was high!  And this kid is scared of heights anyway.  His plan was to spray them with water, use the hand broom, and brush them down into a 5 gallon bucket.  

I was skeptical.  The swarm looked too big to brush into that kind of opening but it was the best thing we could come up with.  

So we doubled checked his gear and he headed up the ladder with his sisters holding it, smoker ready, and praying Psalm 91.  

He did not miss a beat!  He brushed them down with some landing in the bucket, some flying, and some falling on his head.  Again they were everywhere!  After about 15 seconds, he started saying over and over, "I'm so scared! I'm so scared!"  And there were bees IN HIS VEIL that were totally freaking him out.  

We coached him down, took the bucket, and started unhooking his veil.   His sisters were saying, "It's ok.  There's only a couple"  But actually there were more like 6.  And as I've thought it over, I can't even imagine that fear of 6 bees trapped around your head.  As secure as his gear was, I still don't know how this happened.  But swarmed bees are docile...they have nothing to defend.  They only wanted out and there were no stings.  

Well we dumped the bees and took a look.  They were going down into the hive nicely.  But Josh took a look at the tree and saw that he only got about 1/2.  But who cares?  If we got the queen, the other bees would follow.  If not, they can go make another hive in the woods.  (I was done.) 

He hated that idea and said if he just went one more time he thinks he could get them all.  Whose crazy kid is this anyway??  His sisters and I were telling him it was probably enough and we should just give it a rest and wait.  But he was already suited up and wanted to finish the job.  

Soooo, back up the tree he went.  As he was brushing, we kept asking ..... Are you ok?  Are there bees in your veil?  Are you scared?  Are you ok?  Talk to us!!!    Finally he answered down, "I'm too scared to talk right now!"  

Oh my goodness.  

He came down and dumped the bees again.  This time he didn't get nearly as many but when we looked up in the tree, there were NO bees!  In about 5 minutes time, they all left and were following the queen down into the hive.  HE DID IT!!!  

Now I have no idea how this will turn out.  And as it looks right now, they have gone back to the original hive.  Either way, they are home.   But I can't even tell you how proud my boy is!  He is so happy with this accomplishment.  He came to me a day later asking about career opportunities in the honey business and asking for his own hive to be responsible for.   He wants to be another Mr. Hardin.

Bee club is still 3 weeks away but the president has said that he will give him mic time to tell his story.  And let me tell you...he LOVES telling this story!!  

When One Turned Into Four

I have a big story.  BIG STORY!!

And it goes like this...

Friday I came home and peeked at the nuc box of bees and gave them some more feed.  Looking nice.  Then I thought I'd walk back and look at the big hive.  There's been a lot of swarm activity this month and I wanted to check them at least a couple of times a day to look for signs of swarm.  Not like I know what that is...but just in case I saw something.

And y'all.  It was the Lord's goodness, it was.  Because well before I got close, I could see bees everywhere.  Like a tornado of bees!  And while our bees have been stirred up before, this was nothing like I had ever seen.  I was super thankful there were no neighbors out to see this.  Meanwhile, the hive looked more peaceful than it had in weeks.  When a swarm occurs, the hive rears up a new queen.  When the queen hatches she takes 1/2 the bees with her to start a new colony.  This means there are still 1/2 the bees left in the hive with the original queen.  If I had not been there at that exact time, I don't think I would've ever known they had swarmed.  The remaining bees were working peacefully as though nothing had happened and it looked business as usual.

I went back into the house to figure out the next step and less than a minute later Jess ran in to tell me they swarmed into a tree on the property behind us.  

Now I've been following some swarm activity lately and asking questions about how to catch them, but I never thought I would need to know this so soon.  So I PANICKED!!  And I called Honey home from work, and told my kids to suit up.

For the life of me I couldn't think out the practical workings of how to do this.  I've installed 2 packages, split a hive, and watched a swarm install.  But this was nothing like any of that.  So I called  Mr. Hardin.  THE Mr. Hardin!  The Honey Man who has been doing this for 40+ years.  And the sweetest thing...he acted like it was his joy to come right over.

He was the picture of calm.  He took one look and started asking for a ladder, saw, loppers, the smoker, and his little buddy.  Little Buddy is his pet name for Josh.  Mr. Hardin didn't seem to want my help near as much as Little Buddy's.  He coached him through cutting the vines and limbs and trees

After a good deal of cutting and calculating, we he shook the whole thing into an empty hive body on the ground and brushed off what he could.   At this point there was no way to know if we got the queen.  Without her, the bees would just fly back into the tree.  So now we wait......

After typing this all out, it sounds like no big deal.  But I assure you it was a very big deal with lots of excitement and hearts pounding in our chests.  Well, except for Mr. H.  It was no big deal to him! 

And this is where I got the "talking to" about not attaching my bottom board.  I had NO idea.  And we contemplated how to move them.  He decided to leave them there for the night.  

That done, he dug into the hive to see what was going on.  And we got us an education!!

See the queen cell where his hive tool is pointing?  It looks like a peanut hanging down.  There are 6 of them on this one frame!  He said he has never seen so many queen cells in one hive and we should be in the queen rearing business!  He went to work cutting them out and saving some good ones to graft into his own splits.  (I wish I could see how he will do it!) 

He declared everything beautiful....over and over again.  A fantastic brood pattern.  Very docile bees. And some of the best he's ever seen.  

However, it's still too big.  And he's afraid they'll swarm again in a couple of days if we didn't do another split. 

This is where we were starting to run into trouble because we were out of equipment.  I had another nuc that my kids were assembling in the house, but we were out of frames.  He worked with what we had and unfortunately we have some empty space in our hives right now.   Even after that split, he thought it could use another one.  So he had an idea to help us both.  On Monday, he'd bring over all the frames we need to complete everything we've started AND he would take a split home for himself.  PERFECT!! 

He checked our older nuc while he was there.  He's a little more concerned about this one because it needs more bees.  But the queen cells are pretty so hopefully she will hatch, mate, and start laying in the next few days.  

So now with our big hive, our swarm catch, our older nuc, and the new split, we are up to four hives if they all do well.  

But WAIT!  The story isn't over and it gets even MORE exciting!  

Stay tuned for part 2.  

Another Happy Birthday

Once upon a time something wasn't right. And I don't know if it was a stomach virus, the flu, or a bad roast from Sams. But let's just say it was a BAD day for Honey and me. And for the toilet.  You might also want to know that we have not eaten another roast since.

It lasted all day. Well into the night. With 6 kids and 2 in diapers. Praise The Lord in heaven for my mother-in-law who came over, ran the house, bought sprite and crackers, and changed a whole bunch of diapers.

And just when we thought the worst was behind us, labor started.
Baby #7 was not only a week overdue, but when he finally did decide to make his appearance the timing couldn't have been worse.

We were exhausted, dehydrated, and just willing to pretend that we could go to sleep and try again tomorrow. But no. Or I should say... NOOOOOO!!!!!!

Jodie came and labored with me because
1. She's awesome
2. We like going to each other's births
3. My man wasn't quite up to the task

I remember the nurses thinking he was a nervous new daddy since he was in the bathroom more than he was out. Hilarious! So let's just say it was a bad day for the hospital bathroom too.

But we made it through and ended up with the sweetest little baby boy that was perfect in every way. Oh how I love this kid of mine!
My "only child" in a family of 8 siblings who is a little more like me than most of them.

I'm so happy to be his momma.
Happy 10th birthday Nate!!! I love you!!

More Than You Probably Ever Cared To Know About Bee Equipment

I have lived my whole life in the middle of town until we moved to what I call "the country" 18 months ago. And by "country" I mean our beautiful spacious 2 1/2 acres in the neighborhood where my rooster bothers the neighbors and we have to use a riding lawn mower. I couldn't love it more.

And part of my country love is our bees.

Today we worked our big hive.  I've found I can do it best with 2 helpers.  The supers are heavy and the propolis makes everything hard and sticky and requires a lot of strength and prying.  Beekeeeping requires a lot of physical labor. 

So here's what happens every time I check our bees.  I look for patterning and spacing and signs of pests.  But I can never make a decision about anything on the spot.  So frustrating!  I put everything back to together, ask my bee people questions, and think about it for 2 days before I decide anything.  

One of the things I'm looking forward to is growing to the point of being able to make a confident decision immediately.  Also of having NO fear.  Generally speaking, I'm not afraid to work the bees.  But if I have a one that gets through my gear, that kinda freaks me out.  I had on 2 pairs of pants and felt one crawling up my leg while we were looking at frames.  And since bees sting when they are in danger, I knew I was in for it.  But once I put the frame down I called a time out and brushed it off.  I didn't look closely but I'm guessing that must've been a drone to not sting.  

I've been getting some questions about how expensive beekeeping is and I thought I'd give you a small run down of what you can see in the picture.  But really, everything about bees is expensive and that's why honey costs so much.  A lot of beekeepers save money by building their own equipment.

~The piece I am holding is called a frame and that is where bees do all their work.  There are 10 of them inside each box.   Notice how the white box is smaller than the yellow one?  It's called a shallow super and the only reason it's smaller is for weight issues and ease of handling.  A full honey super weighs around 100 pounds.  A lot of women and older beekeepers are even moving toward 8 frame equipment instead of 10 to be able to handle them easier.  I'm sure I will do that at some point.

~What you can't see is that we also have a medium box that we moved over to the side.  So this hive is 3 boxes tall.  (medium and shallow full of frames about $50)

~The metal smoker is hanging on the side by a clip.  This is a nice feature because it's makes smoking hands-free.  ($35)

~The thin piece between the boxes is our queen excluder.  It keeps the queen on the bottom so I don't need to guess where she is and there is no brood or eggs in the honey.  ($15)

~The yellow box is called a deep.  It's the biggest they make.  It's the brood chamber where the queen lays all the eggs and the nurse bees care for the brood.  ($100 with lid and bottom board) 

~Underneath is a screened bottom board.  This keeps the hive off the ground which helps with predators and pests.  And the screened part helps with ventilation and mites and hive beetles.  

~On top of everything is a lid.  It's not in the pictures but right now I'm using a feeder lid.  It holds 2 quart sized jars of feed.  It's been on there for 2 weeks and the bees haven't touched it.  But just as I was ready to remove it, they started eating it.  Next time I'll probably remove it since there should be a lot more flowers blooming.  ($20)

~A new hive will also need a entrance reducer. ($10) 

~In the summer you will need to install a vented inner cover. ($20)  

~A package of bees or a split from a beekeeper ($100-150)  

And then there is gear and tools and extracting equipment.  I've been adding to our collection slowly as we certainly don't have it all.  This year I'm hoping to purchase an extractor ($250) so I don't have to borrow one every time.  We'll see.  

Except for the gear, smoker, and hive tool I have bought everything locally from a member of our bee club that has a side business of building bee equipment.  This saves me shipping and his prices are about the same or cheaper than ordering from the bee companies.  

So there ya have it!  And today my bees looked fantastic and happy.  We also looked into the nuc to see how the split is doing and saw some pretty nice looking queen cells.  So hopefully within the next few days we will have a strong queen and be well on our way to establishing a new hive.  

At this point I'm hoping for quite a bit of honey from the big hive.  I will keep it large instead of splitting and will do another split next year.  As for the nuc, I don't expect honey but the goal is to establish numbers and strength.  

Praying for a great honey flow!!  

Oh That Feeling Of Clean!

I started the clothes exchange and it's going very neatly. By that I mean that I haven't made a huge mess from one end of the house to the other. This has never happened in the history of the House Of Taggs. However, it's only the first day so I have plenty of time left to revert to my old ways before it's done.

But part of the reason is that our boys got themselves in a bit of trouble the night before. It started when they were arguing at way-too-early in the morning over whose responsibility it was to clean up their mess. And after my coaching was ignored I decided to help them out by making their room easier to clean. This involved 3 laundry baskets and a few tears. And while they hated seeing Momma load up their toys for who knows how long, the panic didn't hit until Josh noticed his TaeKwonDo black belt was included. Because if a kid shows up to class without his belt, Mr T makes them wear the pink belt of shame. And MY OH MY this was not a good start to the day.

Well. At bedtime their daddy walked by their room. And I hate to say that their day ended about as well as it started. Because even though they were short 3 laundry baskets full of junk, their room was still a disaster. (Really boys?) So their dad gave them 30 minutes to clean it up... and clean it up right... With the promise that he was much better at helping boys clean their rooms than their momma was.

They understood.

And let me tell you the room is SPOTLESS!!
But the best part is that they are so proud of it. In the morning we made a big deal of how nice it was and the girls ooohed and awwed.
And miracle of miracles... It's still that way!! And they are so happy and proud of themselves.

That said, you can imagine their horror to see me in there with totes of clothes, laundry baskets, coat hangers, and 7 piles strategically lined up. So I promised I would clean it all up and they were very cooperative trying on outfits and hauling more from the garage.

"New" clothes + clean room = happy people.

Today

Right Now~ My man left for work and my house is still quiet.  This is mainly due to our new "NO talking before 7:30am" rule.  It's working.  And the house is more peaceful for Bible study, reading, and early school work.

Thinking~ Sometimes it's better not to share your opinion on everything.  Even with people that are close to you.  It's not always the best peace making option.  It could be that they don't care.  And just maybe that opinion is wrong anyway.   I need to be the one that James talks about when he says, "quick to listen and slow to speak".  I talk too much.

~I wish I had a picture or two for this blog post.

Feeling~Quiet and thoughtful.

Reading~ Prayer Coach on my kindle.  A fantastic book.  Also studying Job with my kids.

Excited~ About the new childrens' home coming to Charleston!!  I love this town.

About getting some new bee stuff at the meeting tonight.  I'm getting a new nuc, a frame perch, and a bucket holder!

Wondering~ If my new queen will get mated properly with this weather.  I love these rainy days.  But it's not so good for queen bee rearing.

~What to do with larger toys that my kids have outgrown.  I really don't want to part with the nicer stuff because Meg might want it.  Or maybe I'll have a house full of sweet grand babies someday.  And I'm not usually a saver of junk...but these things are really nice and I'm not ready to let them go.  But where to put them??

~If today is the best day to go to the library this week.

Working~ Cleaning out the house and starting on the spring clothes exchange.  Lane and I cleaned out the game closet and made a LOT more room.  Now I'm working on the boys' room.  It's always hardest and looks the worst.  As they are getting bigger, it's getting harder to fit 3 people (and their stuff) into one room!

~Learning to use my new fine tip sharpies in my sketch book.  Love the bright colors!

Proud~ Of my boys for cleaning their room so nicely last night.  And for remembering the "no talking" rule!

How 'bout YOU??

Moanless Monday

After the crazy busy of last week I am excited to start this new week with the basic normal calm that I'm used to.

Here's some smiles from last week....

Happy birthday to Christian!! Oh how I love this guy. We started the day with cinnamon roll pancakes that were amazing! We met his dad in town for lunch then he and I went shopping. He loves to shop. It was fun to spend time with only him. Meg came for supper and we had a great night of presents and fun.




And LOOK at that state champ ring!!  The perfect ending to the perfect season.

Murder Mystery Dinner!! As a late bday present, Christian and I went to a murder mystery dinner hosted by an area school. We had never done anything like this before and it was a blast! The characters were interactive, the story was interesting, and dinner was good. At the end of the night you had to guess "whodunit". I had no idea so I just copied Christian and I WON!! They drew names of the people who guessed correctly and I won the flower arrangement on the table.

I'll have to post a picture later, but ZBoy lost his 2nd tooth!  Precious smile that his momma loves.


Things I'm looking forward to this week...

- another birthday!
- a first T-ball practice
-Easter shoe shopping with Mally.

We Made This!

I was looking through my bee magazine and found this...

And I immediately KNEW this was me.  I called together my people and made them brainstorm all kinds of business names for our all-natural-beauty-products business.  Because we gotta put that beeswax to good use ya know.

Then a few days later I got a surprise box in the mail and ....

YAY!!  My man is sweet.  

Mally and I got to work measuring and pouring and mixing and stirring.  She's a great helper. 

And LOOK what it turned into!!  The hardest part was letting it sit for 30 minutes.  We sat.  And watched. And waited.  And finally decided we better find something better to do with our lives than watching lip balm harden.  So I made beans.  And she scampered off to play with her brothers....after she set the timer of course.  

I can't say it's the best in the world.  I wouldn't even say it's very good.  And it certainly doesn't hold a candle to my favorite Chicken Poop Chapstick.  So it's time to melt it down and try again.  It's so much fun to make and I'm looking forward to trying out different recipes.

Five Favorites

Some of you might've seen on Facebook the excitement of my week.  The excitement being NOTHING because we didn't have to do anything or go anywhere all week long.  And I couldn't be more thrilled.  There is nothing like looking at your calendar for the week and seeing "no events" over and over again.  It's been bliss y'all.

And if I had thought it through I might've just called a spring break this week and cancelled piano too.  Next year.....

Here are some of my favorite things of late.

1.  Job.  Since Josh is reading his Bible more (thank you Kindle), he had some good questions about Job.  And I realized that I had never done a good study on Job before and neither had my kids.  So we are using this book and going chapter by chapter.

If you've never done a Kay Arthur study, I highly recommend it.  She has a way of teaching you to teach yourself when it comes to Bible study.  Making your own observations and not being dependent on a teacher or a study book.  I would call these books an aide instead of a study b/c she just sort of leads you in the right direction and you're kinda on your own.

2.  Prayer Coach by James L. Nicodem  I'm sorry to say this isn't free on Kindle anymore like it was last week.  But the $8 price tag is worth it.  I have a ridiculous number of books about prayer loaded on my Kindle.  Some by the "big names" and some not.  I have been disappointed every time.  But this one is different.  It's down to earth, understandable, and isn't full of God manipulative tactics.

3.  My little grocery store has a punch card promo going on right now.  Whenever you fill up your card, you scratch off the back and see how much money you won.  So far I've won $7!!

4.  And speaking of my little grocery store, Jonagold apples are $.89/lb!  Jes LOVES apples and eats about 3 a day.  I don't like to be apple-less and last week I think I paid $1.47....no good.  So I bought forty pounds and will probably go back at the end of the week.

5.  My little bee nuc is doing wonderfully.  Bees are in and out everywhere.  This rain is good for the honey flow and they are working like crazy.  Once the sun comes back out, I will probably split again....or at least try to figure out where our queen is in the big hive.  I'm feeding them too but they aren't the least bit interested.  There is so much pollen and nectar to collect they have no use for my sugar syrup.

Josh's Kindle

My sweet son turned 13 last week.  For his birthday, he got a Kindle.

Now apart from Star Wars, Hank The Cow Dog, or something to do with backyard chickens, he's not much of a reader.  So we weren't really sure how much he'd like it.

Were we surprised!

He took to it right off and, with his sister's help, loaded up all kinds of books.

Every night he reads from it to his little brother and y'all, it melts my heart.  I have always read to my kids and when they started getting older, they started reading to each other.  Josh has always been the one to be read to, but now he's taken the role as reader.

But one of his favorite things is having the Bible on it.  He takes it to church and brings it to our morning meetings to follow along.  He rarely brought his "real" Bible to either one.  

Now he doesn't leave home without it.

First Bee Split!

I had been watching the weather and waiting all week.  I finally decided that Friday afternoon would be the big day.  We were going to split our hive!! 

 

I planned to have things ready the day before but that didn't happen.  But thanks to my helpers we were able to do it all in no time. 

 This was the hardest part of the whole thing.  It's best to put a split into a tiny hive that just holds a few frames.  The bees won't have much to defend and they are close together to keep warm.  This tiny hive is called a "nuc".  Short for nucleus. 

 

I bought one called EZ Nuc that came folded flat and you put it together.  No fasteners or anything, just folding.  Well the EZ part was a big lie.  There were no printed instructions and I'd only seen an assembled nuc one time so there was no way I could just wing it from memory.

 

 

You Tube to the rescue!  LB did this mostly by herself with me running the video and pausing, stopping, pausing, stopping, and directing.

 

 

BEAUTIFUL!!

 

3 of my kids were helping me with this.  Problem is that we don't have enough gear for 4 people.  So some of them didn't have everything they needed.  I tried to keep them off the front lines, so to speak, but finally had to excuse one of them because he was too afraid.  Having the right gear makes a world of difference so I'm going to need to get some more so my kids will feel more comfortable around them. 

 

~So here's what we did.....

 

1. Into the nuc went 2 frames of bees with lots of brood and larvae.  I couldn't find any queen cells to add, which was too bad. 

 

2. Then 2 frames of honey so they will not have to go out to forage and can spend more time making a new queen.

 

3. The last frame was empty drawn out comb. 

 

4.  I took 2 more frames of bees and brushed them down into the nuc so the brood would have plenty of nurse bees. 

 

We closed the lid and moved it across the yard. 

 

I may have made a mistake in including 2 frames of honey instead of 1 plus a frame of pollen and nectar.  But it was a lot easier on paper than getting in there and actually doing it.  If I lose this nuc, I'll try again.

 

That done, I had to make some decisions about our strong hive.  Problem was that there were SO many bees that I couldn't see anything very clearly and certainly couldn't find the queen anywhere.  I want her on the bottom but she had been laying in all 3 boxes.  How do I get her back down? 

 

What I finally decided was to run my excluder over the bottom and hope for the best.  But then I slept on it.  And no.  I has to be changed.  Because if she's in the top super there's no way for her to get back down.  So talked with my bee people and decided to do a "walk away split". 

 

I'll take off the top 2 supers and put on a bottom board then add feeder lids to both.  It'll mean running a double brood chamber on one hive.  It also means that if all my splits are successful, I'll have made 3 splits from one hive.  Which at this point seems just fine since it's so early in the year and my hive looks fantastic. 

 

That'll wait until next week because of cooler temps headed our way.  By then, things might look different anyway.

 

One more thing....

 

 This is my external feeder I made to feed my split.  Just a shallow plastic dish with lots of sticks, rocks, and pine cones for the bees to land on so they won't drown.  I'm feeding a 1:1 sugar syrup.  As you can see, they are pretty happy with it!

 

 

 

 

Yogurt Making (The Easier Way)

So my crock pot yogurt was a bust.  But I thought I'd show you this super simple way to make yogurt in case your crock pot yogurt doesn't work either.  This takes a whole 5 minutes.

This yogurt maker is fantastic.  I was surprised to see how expensive it is though.  I've had mine for several years and I think I paid 1/2 of what Amazon is asking.  But even so, I'd buy it again.  It's easy to use, no frills, and very reliable.  Besides if you are buying a lot of greek yogurt you will make it up in the savings at the grocery store in no time.  

So here goes.  

1. Fill up the removable canister with a quart of milk. 

I use whole milk. 

2. Heat it on the stove until it's about 120 degrees.  Give or take.  It doesn't have to be perfect. 

(WHY is my picture turned the wrong way??)

3. In the empty canister pour in 1/4 C. powdered milk and 1/2 C. yogurt.  

Now you can leave out the powdered milk but it makes it thicker.   Using your own homemade yogurt is optimal but you can also use greek or regular.  Just whatever you have....but make sure it's plain. 

4.  Pour the warm milk in the canister and mix it all up.  

5. Put it in the yogurt maker and plug it in.  

You can let it "cook" anywhere from 4-24 hours.  Play around with it and see what you like.  I usually leave mine anywhere from 10-12 hours.  Then pull it out and put it in the fridge until it's cold.  Save out 1/2 C. to use for your next batch and ENJOY!!  

You can also strain it through cheesecloth to make it thicker.  But if you are using whole milk, greek yogurt (or your own homemade) plus the powdered milk, it'll be pretty thick already.  

What Happens When I Don't Sleep

I ended the day at 8:30pm sharp.  And when I say I went to bed, I don't mean I came to bed and read until my real bedtime.  I mean I went to bed...sound asleep.  I fell asleep with a lot of things on my mind, and praying for my extended family.

But then.  I woke up at 10:15.  Like it was just a nap and not really going to bed for the whole night.  But the funny thing is that now I'm WIDE AWAKE with the same things on my mind but thinking a bit clearer.  

So here's the deal.  I'll never get back to sleep until I talk some of it out and my man is asleep and would probably frown on me talking his ear off.  And I'm guessing that once I get started it'll be too long to text my friends that still might be awake.  So forgive my random babbling (as if that's something new) as I try to talk out the circus going on in my head.....

Hard Things I Need To Figure Out...

~Food.  Food is hard.  And here's why.  My family eats a lot of food.  A lot of food costs a lot of money.  We don't have a lot of money for food.  A lot of food takes a lot of time.  Time to organize it. Time to think through it (hello neglected menu planning).  Time to drive to town to buy it.  Time to cook it.  Time to clean it up.  And I'm starting to have a very bad attitude towards the whole thing.   

~School.  I'll just say it...I'm not the homeschooling type.

I'm not the kind of homeschool mom that creates a lap book and glittery craft for everything we study.  I don't require my kids to write a report on everything new they experience.  I don't hit every co-op, field trip, and park day.  I don't buy into most government school conspiracy theories.  I don't go to conferences every year or read Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  And I will never ever get excited over anything history related. I don't feel like I fit in with the typical homeschool crowd.  And while I'm ok with that part of it, I do wish I could share some of their enthusiasm.

However, I do love being with my favorite people all day every day.  I love being the mom at home, reading, cooking, hanging clothes on my clothes line, and everything that Ma Ingalls probably did back in the day.  Except the whole outhouse business.  None of that.  Or wearing dresses.

Don't get me wrong.  I love learning.  I love books.  I love reading and trying new things.  I love it when my kids pour over a new book every day for a month.  And I especially love it when they discover something brand new all by themselves.  It's just that I don't like the part that involves actually doing school.  Like sitting at the table and doing math.  And grading people's writing projects.  But I'm not at all comfy with the unschooling movement so it must be done.  I recognize the importance and it must be done well whether it's my favorite or not.    And yes, I understand the privilege it is.  I know how blessed I am.  I get it.  But can I just be honest and say I don't like the school part of it?

~My schedule.  It's all wrong.  I can't quite put my finger on it....or maybe I can.  I'm doing ok with housework.  Laundry is fairly easy.   I can fake the food thing and do enough to get by.   But something is wrong.  I think I'm wasting too much time on my phone.  In other words...checked out when I should be engaging life.  And part of the reason I check out is because I'm feeling overwhelmed with the hard stuff.  

~Older kids.  Little kids are so easy.  You guys with babies and toddlers....you have NO IDEA how easy you have it (in my opinion).  But once kids get bigger, everything is not so cut and dry.  Because not only do you have your own life issues to deal with, you also have to help them navigate the turbulence.  And I totally suck at it!  I read a story from a mom who told how she had been upset with her 8yo all day, but then took the time to sit down and pull her into her lap and the kid opened up and talked about all kinds of things that were bothering her.  Ya'll...that's not me!  In fact, I feel so sorry for my girls that have to have me for their mom.  Because I'm sure girls need stuff like that and I'm so not touchy, feely, emotional.  I feel more confident with my boys b/c let's face it....boys are what-you-see-is-what-you-get.  And perhaps my girls are a little like that too just because they have no choice.  

~I'm splitting my hive this week.  This is both hard AND the funnest thing I have going on right now. 

I wish more of my family liked them as much as I do.  This is prime swarm season and this upcoming split is on my mind a lot. 

Some Ideas....

~Ma Ingalls said, "What must be done, is best done cheerfully."  

My attitude needs to change.  Sunday my pastor made a passing comment about "choosing your attitude" and I need to choose a more cheerful one.   Because let's face it, when I have a bad attitude I'm only feeling sorry for myself.  And (#1) my children will follow my example, (#2) it is unthankful, and (#3) it is a tool of Satan.  

~Engage life.  Help my kitchen worker in order to re-train some bad habits.  Stop griping about what I don't like and be more involved in changing it.  Have screen free days.  Play more games.  Get rid of the loser games that are crowding the closet.  Go outside.   Be finished with my own chores and Bible study by 7:30.  

~I need to talk less.  Judge less.  And love more.  

Some Observations.....

~ I am shamefully unsympathetic and offend ppl without meaning to.  But I also think we need to be less offended and quit wasting our lives being mad.  Because people are messed up and that's just how it is.  So can I say that it's a good idea to stop worrying about hurt feelings and just love regardless?  As long as we live on this side of the cross people are going to fall apart.  And we need to love them through it and quit worrying about how it affects us.  Love God, love people.  The end.  

~And part of loving people is praying for them.  Even hateful people that are hard to deal with.  Especially those.  It is actually a privilege to have these hard people in your life because God is giving you an opportunity to intercede and also to soften your own heart.  Oswald Chambers says without intercessory prayer that lives would be impoverished.  And God wants us to engage the hard and not judge and turn away from it.  

Time for bed.  Again.

Some Farm News And Other Stuff

Aside from some residual hacking I believe my family is finally well!  And with the weather being nice and birthday extravaganza about to begin, it could not come at a better time.  

Here's some random smiles of last week.....

First some farm news.

~I'm still not exactly sure what happened to my bees.  I took some frames to bee class and everyone pretty much ruled out parasites and disease.  That was a relief.   And because every beekeeper has a different opinion, I got some different answers as to what it could've been.  I think I've decided it was queen failure.  There wasn't much brood, indicating that my queen could've died.  And it being so late in the year they didn't have time to rear a new one.  

That said, I still don't feel entirely comfortable reusing that wax....just in case.  So my plan is to cut it out and save it for the summer when I can melt it in my DIY solar wax melter (I can't wait to try this!!) and to replace the wax.   I've never built my own frames or replaced foundation so this will be a first for me too.  LOVE beekeeping!!! 

OH!  And how could I forget?  I also learned how to split a hive last week.  So next month when it is warmer I'm planning on splitting my strong hive into two hives.  EXCITED!!!

Do you remember this guy?  He's the kitten Lane found that was hit by a car.  She found him on the day we were leaving for the STATE GAME and brought him home and nursed him back to health.  He's made a full recovery and since I couldn't talk anybody into taking him  has made himself quite at home.  He's really the sweetest little thing and I'm loving his cuteness.  

Insert intermission of the farm news to bring you this...speaking of STATE CHAMPS my shirt finally came in!  

(Farm news continues....)

We are still enjoying our pickles from last year.  In all the afternoons of canning I learned...

1. pick when they are small

2. don't use dill or cayenne 

3. half gallon jars are where it's at 

4. my family can finish a 1/2 gallon jar in 10 minutes 

Now we are discussing just what to plant next month and what is worth the space and what isn't.  My neighbor came and tilled up our spot and it looks so brown and fresh and ready.  

~The chickens have continued to lay well through the winter though we still have to buy eggs from the feed store.  I'm hoping to get 25 chicks from 4H next month.  

The end of farm news. 

~Last week I tried making yogurt in the crockpot.  There are lots of recipes floating around and everyone claims it to be so easy.  

Well it's not.  I wasted a whole gallon of milk and the last of my greek yogurt.   GRrrrrrr.....

BUT I did make it in my yogurt maker after that and I forgot how easy and perfect it is.  I'm eating a lot of yogurt these days.  

~I continued with the 4 weeks challenge and got some things cleaned up.  But with birthday fun around the corner, it'll still seem messy until it's over.  Oh so worth it!  

~I'll leave you with our menu for next week.....

Sat - Pizza 

Sun - Burgers and fries, oreo cake (Lane's birthday )

Mon - frozen pizza and strawberry cake (Josh's birthday)

Tues - roasted chicken, broccoli, salad

Wed - Burrito Bowls

Thurs - Baked potato and chicken casserole

Friday - roasted veggie enchiladas

Today I'm having some kiddos do some freezer cooking for me.  

Carrot cake and cocoa muffins.  We will pull these out next week on the days when we don't have time to make snacks.