MerryHeartCrafts.comMountain Momma… Country Living

I love old books, especially old school books.  I thought I would share a few of them.   I thought I might share how our school days “normally” go.  I usually wake the girls around 7:00 A.M.  They get dressed, make their beds and come downstairs by 7:30.  Sometimes they fix their own breakfast and sometimes I do.  It mostly depends on what they are having and how our time is running.   I begin cleaning up the kitchen and they start piano practice.  They practice 30 min. each.  While one is practicing the other one is helping me and then vice versa.  We shake the rugs and sweep the floors every morning.  We have certain days that we do other things, clean bathroom, dust.  I have a chart made with the days of the week on it and the designated chores for that day.  We try to have all the house chores finished before we start school.  It is so difficult for me to concentrate on school if these things are not already done.  Laundry gets worked in  every day.  We are normally finished with all this around 9:15.  They then get a 15 min. break to do whatever they want.  We try to start school by 9:30.  We say our pledges, pray and then begin.  Bible is always first.  Then they take turns chosing what subject they want to do.  Our subjects are bible, spelling, history, science, math and language.  Most days we are half way through by lunch time.  We break an hour for lunch.  Free time for everyone (except Mom).  We then finish up somewhere between 1:00 and whenever.  Yesterday was a long day for us.  It was about 3:30 when we finished.  Julie’s math was very long.  Today is an easier day.  It is now lunch time and all we lack is math.  I’m glad as we need to work up an 1/2 bushel of apples.  I already have them in the steam juicer and I want to make applesauce from them.  Well, our lunch break is almost over.   I hope I didn’t bore you all too much.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Today we made something new!  I love doing new things.  We made apple cider.  After much research on the internet, we decided that what we were making is correctly called cider.   Cider is homemade apple juice that hasn’t been filtered.  Isn’t it such a pretty color.  We used the steamer/juicer to make it.  We got 3 qts of cider and 2 qts of applesauce from a little under a half bushel of apples.  We plan to do more tomorrow. 

The room is coming along nicely.  Hubby put another coat of mud on today.  It has rained here most of the day.  We really needed rain.  The sun started peeping through the clouds in late afternoon.  Alll in all it has been a nice day.  Temperatures around mid 50′s.  I spent the first part of the day running errands.  Not my favorite chore, but it has to be done. 

Time to cook supper.  Enjoy your evening and God bless.

We were extremely impressed with the food strainer.  It was super fast compared to the old food mill and had very little waste.  We processed a bushel of apples in about 4 1/2 hours.  We used both big canners.  We got 12 qts and 24 pints.  YUM!  I have always used the hot water bath canner to process applesauce.  However, I read in my Mennonite cookbook, they could be processed in the pressure canner.  We tried that yesterday and it went very fast.  15 min. on 5 lb. pressure.  Much faster than using a bath canner.  Vicki and I had a great time and of course the kids had fun.  It is so much more pleasant sharing canning with a friend.  I am so thankful the Lord placed our families together.  Good friends are sometimes hard to find and I consider Vicki one of the best.

  The girls and I are planning a “girl day” out today.  We are going into C-burg to run some errands.  This will include Wal-Mart and Goodwill.  Temperatures have been very warm here in Floyd.  On the farm though, it isn’t near as bad as it is in town.  We are usually a few degrees cooler.  In the summer this is a plus, in the winter not so good.  Thankfully, we have quite a few shade trees in the yard and that really helps. 

Time for us to get ready to leave.  Enjoy your day and God bless.