Spring Chicks

After our fun introduction to chickens last spring, our home felt a little empty this year without chicks. So...we went down to IFA and picked up a couple. This time we have 2 Red Stars we have named Ruby and Sapphire. And we're hoping to get a California White sometime this week. This video was taken the day I brought them home. It was pretty spontaneous, and the children were all suprised when we came in with a box of loud peepers. Brynlee was so cute with them. She was laughing and just dying to hold one.

We've had so much fun with them. Rick built a better lid for the brooder and with Jaeda a year older, it's been a lot more of a carefree experience.

When the weather warmed up a bit, we went outside and found baby spiders and had fun watching the chicks chase after each other to fight over the spiders. Here is a video of them fighting over a worm we brought in for them.

My Quilt Block

Quilting is part of my Orton family heritage. A large part, although I didn't realize it until just the last few years. My mother has always bee passionate about sewing, but it's always been for clothing. Never quilting. My Aunt is an avid quilter, and my grandmother was as well. My great aunts quilt, as did my great- grandmother.

A couple of years ago, my Aunt tried to harness our sewing talents at a family reunion by organizing a humanitarian quilt drive. Everyone that wanted to was to make and bring as many baby quilts as they could to the family reunion where we would tie them as a reunion activity. My mother and sisters and I jumped in head first into this project and had such a great time. My mother even had some old quilt squares of my Grandmother's that we got out and tried to use. Mattie Rae even got her own sewing machine and made some beautiful quilts of her own!

The Orton women are my most favorite people in the world. They are wise, inspiring and uplifting to be around. We get together once or twice a year just to enjoy each other. Last fall at our Orton girl cousin get-together, my cousin, Daunell, brought up the idea of doing an Orton Heritage Quilt to help with the winter doldrums. She suggested a quilt block exchange and at the next cousin get together we'd swap blocks and each have an identically unique quilt once we put it together. She assigned a color scheme, size, and number of blocks and left it up to us to find a pattern that would represent us.

I chose a simple pattern because I don't have a lot of quilting experience, and with Braxton's wedding put it off and put it off. The wedding is now over and it's time to focus on the quilt blocks. I've been uneasy about the pattern I chose because it doesn't necessarily represent me, nor is it unique. After some brainstorming, sketching, cutting, and sewing, I came up with this as my sample block.

I have since washed it an ironed it and the edges of the flowers lifted and frayed, just as I hoped they would. I chose to depict flowers to represent that I studied Floral Design in college. I love it and am much happier about this representing me than the plain old generic block that I originally chose. To some it may look simple, but I'm pretty proud of it. The colors we were supposed to use were dark blue, dark red, and soft white. Hopefully the green won't be too distracting. I've got to make 24 more. I've got a lot of circle cutting ahead of me!

Homeschooling 2008

I have been having a great time during our first 2 weeks of homeschooling. Ian's opinion of it changes depending on the subject we are currently working on. He loves our science, music, art, and spelling. Here are some pictures and samples of his work from this week.

Science

Before: One science assignment the whole first term. Although he did the assignment, he lost it and thus got a big goose egg on his report card for Science. Ian said that when they would run out of time, Science would get "bumped". Ian was wishing for more science experiments and experiences. He didn't enjoy just talking about science all the time.

Now: Ian gets to do a science experiment every day. He loves it and almost always comes up with more questions or other experiments we could do. "I wonder what would happen if we..." is a common phrase I'm noticing at the end of our science experiments. I love to see him excited about learning and discovering! In these pictures he is doing an experiment that illustrates solvents and solutes (Dissolving). He had 4 different solvents and tried 3 different solutes in each one to see what dissolved and what didn't.

Art

Before: Art scheduled once a week. Ian said that they would color pages or make really cool things that would find their way in his desk and then disappear. I never saw any of his artwork. :(

Now: Ian is learning Art concepts, being exposed to famous art pieces and artists, and creating on his own pieces of art. This picture was his first assignment - a self portrait. He has also drawn a "still life" and today he made an abstract drawing of a landscape. He has learned about the types of art: painting, sculpture, and architecture, and is learning now about how to identify representational, abstract and nonrepresentational artwork.

Jaeda loves to participate with Ian, of course. I try to include her as much as I can. She also drew a self-portrait as well. I know you can't see too well, but she gave herself white hair, which is very appropriate, and even included her "naked parts" in purple. I guess I should have explained to her that this wasn't a figure drawing class.

Composition

Before: Rick and I have been disappointed in Ian's journal entries at school for the last few years. He just doesn't seem to take any writing assignment very seriously. Most of his journal included one or two silly nonsense sentences each day. Many days the same silly sentences. "My cheeseball is named Bob". Now imagine this scrawled across a notebook page and a helter-skelter angle in bigger than kindergarten handwriting that is barely legible. For a kid that has so many words running through his brain at any given waking moment, we just felt this was laziness.

Now: Writing still has been like pulling teeth until today. We had a breakthrough with is Composition lesson on Prewriting: Using your Senses. He was to go outside and write his observations using all of his senses. This is what he came inside with. I about cried.

My sister, Jaeda sits by my side. It is starting to drizzle rain and it is

chilly outside. I smell the air. I smell roses - roses? In the fall? Wait, rose and pumpkin. Not just rose. It is getting colder and colder by the second, cold enough to snow. Jaeda keeps saying, "Big B little b, Buh, buh, buh." I love the outdoors.

The next part was to make observations using only one sense:

I see the mountains, I see the clouds. I see this book. I crawl off

the back steps and onto the cement. I turn around. I see Jaeda my

sister. The bright sun shines in my eyes through the thick clouds.

looking like they're going to snow any minute. Jaeda sits by me on the

cement singing.

Next he was to choose one object and write his observations about that.

I see a tree, a leafless tree indeed. I walk over, close to the small willow and stop. A cold air speeds by. It moves the leafless red and brown branches. I shiver and walk on. I slip off the weed and step in the mud. I grab a branch, hoping to feel the texture, but I slip again and brake the branch. A strong, cold wind whips by, making me shiver. I start to walk away, but first stop to look at the majestic willow. I move on.

He was so energized by this activity that he is now planning on writing a book. He took this pre-writing about the tree and expanded on it already. It's the perfect beginning for a book. I am so proud of him. I love to see him gain confidence, to learn life lessons from the fables we are reading, to see him succeed and be a part of those "a-ha!" moments

Education - A Child's Perspective

I asked my kids some questions yesterday to get a feel for their perspective on their academic education.

Me: Do you feel like you are learning anything new or interesting in school? If so, then what?

Rayna: Not very much

Ian: No much. Just art is OK.

Me: What would you like to learn about?

Rayna: How to make butter

Ian: How atoms form

Me: Name 3 things you'd like to be when you grow up and tell me why you think each job is cool.

Ian: An inventor. You get to make stuff. A lego designer. You get to create new lego sets. An obedient man so I don't get kicked out of my job.

Rayna: An artist because you get to paint. A dancer because you get to dance. A mother because you get to have babies.

This little survey sparked some really good conversation and I learned a lot from my kids. Ian sure had a lot to say about how he wished his education could be. So much that I didn't have time to get the same depth from Rayna. I'll have to ask her some more questions when she gets home from school today.

CLAU

My sister in law, Nikki, told me about the Children's Literature Association of Utah. They are and association that awards the Beehive Award each year for Children's books. Each year there are several good books nominated in several categories. There is a voting process, and one book in each category wins the coveted Beehive award.

We have been on the road a lot this month, and so I wanted to bring a bunch of books that my kids might enjoy that were outside of the normal series and genera that they might normally choose. I took a look at the website and was able to see lists of past years' nominations and winners. I figure this would be a pretty good resource to get some reading recommendations for me and my kids. I have read several books from that list that I was impressed with:

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver.

This is the first in a series called "Chronicles of Darkness." We actually listened to this one in the car on our trip to St. George. The reading was done by Ian McKellen (Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies). It was amazing. Ian McKellen did such an incredible job reading this story. Several times I wondered if I would enjoy it as much if I just read it myself. We loved this one so much we are listening to the next one in the series called "Spirit Walker."

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

I read the whole Shadow Children series written by this same author and loved those. She has such a great writing style that makes you want to keep turning the pages. I love how she comes up with a plot that I've never thought of before and so it's really hard to predict what might happen in a situation like that. The end takes a twist that I would have never guessed.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is another one of those books that has a plot that is so creative. Essentially, there is a meteor that hits the moon and bumps it out of it's orbit closer to the earth. The book is written as diary entries from a 15 year old girl as she documents the events that take place in the world and to hear family after this global crisis. This one was in the Young Adult section and has a bit of language in it, so I would only recommend it for older children or adults. I'm thinking this one would be good for my book club that's been taking a break for way too long (This is a heads-up, girls!)

The Liberation of Gabriel King by K.L. Going

This one is set in the South in the early 70's (I think)

when there is still some racism. It's a story of a white boy in 5th grade whose best friend is a black girl. Gabriel is a scaredy cat and his courageous and determined friend tries to help him overcome his fears and in the process we find out about her fears as well. This is a very easy read that I found very entertaining.

I'm not done with my stack of books to read, but these are the ones I loved so far. My goal is to read all the 2009 nominations for Children's Fiction and Young Adult Fiction and VOTE! If you live in Utah, you can vote at your library and voting will probably start in January.

Ring Sling

While I was taking it easy during the last trimester of my pregnancy, I came across this thing called a "Ring Sling". I had never seen anything like it before, but I liked the idea of having my baby close to me but still able to have my 2 hands free to help my other 3 kids.  I found a few websites where they gave dimensions of their slings and some basic instructions on how to make one. It didn't look too hard or like it would be too expensive, so I decided I would make one for me.

It was very simple to make and I finished the whole thing in less than an hour. To test the strength of the fabric and seams, I immediately recruited Jaeda to be my model. So, being 8 months pregnant, I hoisted her into the sling in a hip-carry. I cinched up the fabric tight and wa-lah! I was carrying her with no hands. Jaeda loved it. She laid her head down on my chest and I don't know if I've ever seen her be so still before. I think that it's calming to babies to be snuggled so close. But my poor back couldn't handle that for long, so I had to put her down. For the next couple of days she carried around a long scrap of fabric wrapped around her and carried her baby dolls in her own sling.

The next time my sister, Mattie Rae, came over, I showed her my new sling. She wanted to hold Jaeda in it.Jaeda did the same thing. She just laid her head down and held oh, so still. Mattie Rae said it felt like you were getting a big long hug. I need to make one for her with cross bones, pirates, or motorcycles.

Brynlee likes it just as well. I find that if she is fussy, it is easier to carry her in my sling and still get things done, then just to hold her and stress out about all the things I can't do that need to get done. Especially having her be so young, she still needs her head supported, so holding her takes both hands. In the sling I can position her so her head is supported and I have both hands free!

The tail of the sling has a batik fabric that I've made some large pockets with. I can use these as I'd use a diaper bag. The pockets are big enough for diapers and wipes, pacifiers, PBJ sandwiches... But if I'm not using the pockets, I don't love having the tail hang down, so I just wrap it under Brynlee's bum and tuck it in behind me.

Not-So-Self Sufficient Mama

So, this is my latest fashion accessory.  The podiatrist said he found a fracture in the MRI 6 weeks after I injured it playing volleyball.  So whether I like it or not, I have to slow my pace down a bit.  Not really convenient (is it ever?), as spring is just around the corner.  There are gardens to prepare, bees to inspect, chickens that keep escaping our new chicken run that need to be apprehended, and 4 children (and a husband) that need Mama's care.  I think this cast just may cramp my style (although I do fancy the color).

Basic Cheese

One of those things I've always wanted to try is to make home-made cheese. We found a Bare-Bones Recipe of the most basic of all cheese-making, and decided to try it on our Memorial Day Holiday last year. We made 1/4 of what the recipe called for because we just wanted to try it out.

First, we took one quart of 2% milk and warmed it to 190 degrees F.

Remove from heat and add 2 Tablespoons of Vinegar. This will make the milk curdle until you have curds and whey (like Little Miss Muffet food!). Let stand until cooled.

When cooled, pour through strainer to separate the curds from the whey. Gently stir the curds to release all the whey.

Then add 1/4 teaspoon of salt. This makes a ricotta-type cheese that you can use like you would use ricotta like in lasagna or salads. Did you ever know that making cheese was so EASY?

So my mom dished up everyone a bite-size taste. My mom was the bravest soul that tasted it first. My sisters were next to try it. They said it reminded them of yogurt. My dad said it needed more salt, so mom put more salt in it. THEN it was my turn.

TOO MUCH SALT! I don't recommend putting too much salt in your cheese. It wasn't good like that. I think next time I'll try it before anyone adjusts the recipe.   So, unfortunately, I can't give you an accurate account of how it is supposed to taste. 

All the kids wanted to try it. Some really loved it. Some wanted seconds, and one child had probably 10 bites of it...till there was no more. Others were good sports and had polite reactions to the too-salty cheese.

This cheese was so simple and easy to make. Now that we have the basics of cheese-making down, I'm going to try a more advanced type of cheese in the future.

Emotions and Geranium Essential Oil

My husband and I took a very rare weekend away from our children and left them with their grandparents for one night.  We had a wonderful and relaxing time away.

When we came back, our children were all happy to see us, but our 2 (almost 3)-year old had fallen asleep.  When my husband went down to get her she woke up MAD.  She cried and cried.  I took her from him hoping the mother's touch would be the magic touch.  Not this time.  She yelled at me "Mom, I wanted you! You left me!"  She wasn't calming down, so we put her and the rest of the kids in the car to head for home.  She cried the entire way home.  I brought her in the house to hold her on the couch and nothing seemed to make a difference to her.  This is very out of character for my sweet, cheerful, loving little girl.  I wondered if she was feeling abandoned when we left her for the night.  After almost an hour of angry screaming, I decided to try distraction.

She was complaining of a tummy ache, so I took her into my bathroom to find some essential oils for her tummy.  Every suggestion seemed to add fuel to the fire.  On our way out of town, I had picked up a few new oils and asked her if she wanted to smell the new oils.  "No Oils!" she screamed.  I opened them anyway, one by one, smelled them, and then offered to let her smell them.  Each time she would turn her head away and say "no oils!"  Then I opened the Geranium.  I smelled it, and offered it to her.  She smelled it, then took a deep second whiff.  She said with a smile "Mom, this is mine oil.  I need this oil."  Entertained by that, I put the lid back on and kept trying tummy trouble oils, in which she rejected each one and began to get all worked up again saying she needed the "pink oil".

I looked up Geranium oil to see if it could help her tummy.  It said it helps with Emotional Balance, Skin and Hair, and can be applied Neat (or without dillution) even to children.  I figured it couldn't hurt, so I laid her on my bed, she lifted her shirt to bear her tummy.  I applied one drop to her tummy, along with one drop of a massage oil.  I rubbed it all over her abdomen slowly in a clockwise motion for about 30 seconds.  She held very still.  When I finished I asked her "how does that feel?"  She took a deep breath, let it out, smiled and said "all better".

I couldn't believe the immediate shift in her mood!  After that she allowed me to read her a story and put her to bed with no further complaints.  I have heard that essential oils can bring emotional healing, but I have only used them for physical ailments like cold sores, tummy-aches, insomnia, and their immune boosting ability.

Thank you, Geranium oil, for giving me the ability to calm and comfort my baby in a time of great distress for the both of us.

Framing the Basement

Merry Christmas!  This is how we celebrated our Christmas Eve.  We are beginning to feel a bit cramped in our home, and feel like it is time to invest in finishing our basement.  My husband doesn't have any construction experience, but I feel it would be a wonderful opportunity to get some.  My hope is that we can do as much of the basement ourselves, even if it means my husband being the "helper" of a real worker, so that he can see how it is done, get some experience and confidence.  This way, if anything needs to be repaired, he will be capable, or if we ever need to do any constructing in the future, he'll have some experience.

My Brother-in-Law used to own his own framing company.  He volunteered to help us frame on Christmas Eve, so we took him up on it.  I was amazed at how quickly it went together.  We even had a few neighbors stop by and offer to help.

We started before the sun even came up.  Rayna was so excited and was such a good helper

 Our curious chickens kept an eye on things as well.

Ian finally rolled out of bed to help

Rick thinks this picture pretty much sums up the day.  Dan working, with Rick looking like he's helping.

This was the most exciting part for me - watching them tear down a portion of the bearing wall to open up the room.

Installing the new weight-bearing beam. 

February update:  We have the framing done, the heating and air ducts installed, and a plumber scheduled to come out on the 18th.  

March update:  The plumber came and did the rough in and also installed a water softener (which we are loving after 7 years without one).  We have started the electrical work.  My goal is to be completely finished and livable by the end of April, although, I'm having some doubts that we'll make it.

Water for Haiti

With the recent devastation in Japan, it has reminded me of the earthquake that hit Haiti just over a year ago.  I often wonder if these tragic events serve to remind us to get our own houses in order.  If we are prepared, we are then available to help those in need.

I wanted to share what our family did for Haiti and hopefully it will inspire someone to see what just an ordinary family was able to accomplish.  Who knows what kind of difference you might be able to make to the suffering people of Japan...

With the earthquake in Haiti brought heartache to our hearts every time we watched the news or heard updates. I watched with soberness a fund raiser on TV that shared personal stories of those who were experiencing the awful after effects of the large earthquake in the already poverty-stricken island. My sweet, tender hearted Rayna sat by my side and cried along with me at the stories of the innocent children who were suffering the loss of family members and their homes. Rayna said “I wish I could do something to help them.” This reflected my exact feelings. I had already donated what money we could , but didn't feel like it satisfied my longing to DO something.

This year our family is trying to focus on service, taking President Monson's General Conference talk “What Have I Done for Someone Today” as our guide. I thought what a better time and opportunity to teach my children the value of service? They were already longing to help. After a bit of research on the internet, I found a charity in Salt Lake that was collecting bottles of water to send to Haiti. I signed up to help and we pledged to donate 650 bottles of water. We didn't know how we'd do it, but we brainstormed at dinner that night. Rayna made up a flier, we prayed for help to reach our goal, and for Family Home Evening for the next 2 weeks we went door to door in our neighborhood taking fliers to each home and having Ian or Rayna explain our water drive and how they could donate. We came home and made a bar graph taped up in our living room to chart our progress towards our goal.

Rick and I were amazed at the dedication and ability of our young children and their efforts to help others half a world away. We were also amazed at the overwhelming response we had from our neighbors, family, and friends. Each time the door bell would ring, my children would run to the door and jump up and down with excitement while gushing their gratitude for the donation. We would faithfully count each bottle and fill in our graph. As the deadline approached I was moved to tears several times as I saw children in our ward spend their own allowance on a case of water for Haiti, as I had to make a new column for our graph because we received WAY more than expected, or listening to our children pray for Haiti and success with our water drive.

In the end, we collected 1,901 bottles of water to donate to Haiti – almost 3 times our goal. Our children learned that the Lord can help us with things that seem impossible. They also learned that they can make a difference in the world, even without a lot of money or a lot of experience. I'm sure our little project was only a little drop in the bucket compared to the needs in Haiti, but we know that through our efforts we were able to make a difference to 1,901 people.

Apple Pie Oatmeal

Enrichment last night was on Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness. This is a subject I am naturally interested in, and attended hoping to get some new ideas. I am always looking for new ways to use the food storage I have, and the lady that taught the class gave me a lot of good ideas. One of the things she mentioned is the different ways she flavors her cooked oatmeal for breakfast.

Honey Nut - add honey and almonds

French Toast- add cinnamon and vanilla

Choco - add chocolate chips

Very Berry - add frozen berries

Creme Brule - add a layer of vanilla pudding, then a layer of sugar, and broil or torch it

Apple Pie - add dehydrated apples and cinnamon

My kids love instant "creme" varieties of oatmeal, so I thought I'd try a few of these. This morning I tried the Apple Pie version. I am not a huge oatmeal fan, so I had to add some brown sugar to help it taste more apple pie-ish, but it was good! Rayna liked it and said she'd eat it again.

I like that oatmeal is inexpensive, it's healthy, and it helps my kids stay fuller longer than if they eat cold cereal. It was quick, only taking about 5 minutes to cook. I'm not a breakfast cooker, but Brynlee woke me up at 6:30 this morning and I couldn't go back to bed, so I took the opportunity to use my kids as guinea pigs. BUT, they know how to boil water in the microwave, so I could make up some "instant oatmeal" packets using my new flavors and they could make it themselves next time I'm refusing to get out of bed.

I am no gourmet cook, and I don't even claim to enjoy cooking. But I am one that gets excited about saving 70% on my grocery shopping trip. Don't look here for recipes to dazzle your guests with, but I may occasionally share a recipe of some new way I found to use my food storage or a yummy frugal meal.

Welcome to the Self Sufficient Mama!

I intend for this to be a place to share my efforts to become self sufficient through urban homesteading, beekeeping, gardening, backyard chickens, home cooking and food preservation.  I also enjoy taking control of my family's healthcare with Essential Oils and taking an active part in my children's education.  Let's share ideas, tools, and successes to EMPOWER more mothers to care and nurture their families at their full potential.