Homemaking on the Homestead

Well Emily was up for 30+ hours and slept for 10 hours and got up this morning and we had coffee. After that she was ready to roll.. gotta love that girl! LOL… So I got a hold of the rest of the sisters and we had a meet up at our favorite Starbucks. It was so much fun! The grand kids were there too.. Lots of good memories made.. My Girls.. Me and my girls (and a couple grandkids! :).. Me and Rylee.. she is almost 5 months old now!! Time flies!

Yesterday I got the shock of my life! I was in the kitchen working on dinner preps when my daughter Leanne pulled up in her car and the next thing I knew she was in the house with a big “SURPRISE MOM” and who did she have with her but my daughter Emily!!! :) Emily was going be home in November but her host family was moving to Bangladesh due to a job transfer and no longer needed an au pair. So Emily decided it was time to come home. She did not tell anyone she was coming home because she wanted to surprise us all!! And boy did she! I was in shock! But oh so happy to have my daughter home!!

More spaghetti sauce was on my to-do list this last week. I had enough tomatoes to make another batch of sauce. My canning shelf is filling up and it is a great feeling. A productive garden is a blessing! I have 22 quarts canned so far and am hoping to have enough tomatoes for one more batch before the season is over… Here is my recipe: Spaghetti Sauce (for canning) 20lbs tomatoes 3 medium onions, chopped 2 green peppers, chopped 2 cups chopped mushrooms 2T minced garlic 6T salt 3T Italian seasonings 1T oregano 1 cup red wine vinegar ½ cup lemon juice ½ cup white sugar ¼ cup brown sugar 3 – 12oz cans tomato paste   Wash & chop tomatoes in a food processor (peeling is optional). Put in large pot (I use a 14qt pot). Add remaining ingredients, except tomato paste. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 to 2 hours. Add tomato paste and mix in well. Bring to a boil, ...

Congratulations to Julie Gonzales!! Thank you to everyone who entered!!    If you’d still like a chance to get some free Basic H2 please check out Cathie’s Blog: http://cathiebryk.blogspot.com/2011/09/giveaway-update.html     She will be giving away 5 samples to the ones who respond first!!   If you are looking for some really great home cleaning products I urge you give Shaklee cleaning products a try.   I have been so pleased with them!!   http://cathiebryk.myshaklee.com/us/en/category.php?main_cat=HomeCare

I have not forgotten about the blog giveaway!   I emailed the winner (twice) and have not heard back yet..     Here is the comment left from the winner: Anonymous said...     Posted on FB, and sent to some friends. A co-worker of mine just had a party with these products. My e-mail is pastorleegonzales@*****.**** If this is you..   please email me ( crystal@thefamilyhomestead.com ) .. asap.. If I don’t hear from this person very soon, I will pick another name out of the hat!   :)

This Blog Giveaway is now officially closed!!  I will announce a winner tomorrow!!  :) It’s time for another blog giveaway!! My friend Cathie ( www.cathiebryk.myshaklee.com )  asked if she could host another giveaway of her awesome Shaklee cleaning supplies! She is giving away another very generous Shaklee Basic H2 Cleaning Kit for your home. I’m really excited for another lucky winner to get to try these cleaners! I can’t tell you how much I love the Shaklee cleaners! I don’t share about or promote things I don’t use or believe in. Last April Cathie gave me a 16oz bottle of Basic H2 super concentrated cleaner to try out. I’ve used it constantly since then. I’ve made countless bottles of the “basic cleaner”, “window cleaner” and “degreaser”. I have also used it for cleaning my floors. And about 5 months later I still have about 2/3rds of my bottle left. Because I have been so pleased with it I have even bought bottles of it for a few family members to try. ...

She seeks wool and flax, and willingly works with her hands. According to the dictionary the work “seek” means: To try to locate or discover; search for. Wool and flax were used for clothing. It had to be spun, weaved into fabric and then sewn into clothing. Talk about a lot of work! So does this verse mean we all need to be sewing clothing for our family to be a Proverbs 31 woman? In my personal opinion, no it does not. Some are incredibly talented in sewing. Some do sew their own clothing. And some seek and find their families clothing at department stores, thrift stores, garage sales, etc. I go back to one main thought for this Bible chapter. Proverbs is a book of wisdom. I really don’t think Proverbs 31 is a checklist of skills to learn. If you’ve never sewn a stitch in your life it does not mean you are not a true Proverbs 31 woman :) . The second half of this verse is where I see the wisdom, “and willingly works with her hands”. Willingly is the ke...

Another pause in blogging.. this time it has been spaghetti sauce and homeschooling. Life just seems busy right now. My tomatoes are coming on in force (not as great as last year, but I’m thankful for what I have gotten). I canned 10 quarts of spaghetti sauce on Saturday and hope to get enough to can up another batch in the next day or two. We finished our first week of homeschooling and it went well. Started week 2 and it is off to a great start. We had a rainy cool weekend. I even started a fire to take the chill off the house. First one in a few months. I thought for sure the summer was over. But today the sun came out again and the forecast is for the high 70’s and low 80’s this week.. Yea! Summer is not over yet. I’m still waiting for my corn to ripen so the more sunny warm days the better. I also harvested my beets this last week. Made 15 pints of pickled beets! My canning shelves are filling up and that is a great feeling. When my kids and I were at the garden p...

My pause in blogging has been due to being very busy in the last few days! My tomatoes are starting to ripen up thanks to a beautiful stretch of hot sunny days. I’ve gotten about 45 to 50 jars of salsa made. I have another big bowl full of tomatoes and am hoping to get some more over the next few days and have enough for spaghetti sauce. I also canned up another batch of zucchini bread and butter pickles. Here is a pic of some of my salsa and the pickles.. You can find my salsa recipe here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/cannedsalsa.htm   On Monday I was trying to decide if we should start the school year or wait another week. So I asked Sierra and Isaac (my only two students this year :) if they wanted another week off or if they wanted to start. To my surprise they were both ready to jump in and start the year. And that is what we did. This year begins my 24th year of homeschooling.. hard to believe it has been that many years.  For Isaac (8th grade) ...

She girds herself with strength, and strengthens her arms.    Homemaking is an interesting thing. Because we, as housewives, are basically our own boss we set the level of household functioning wherever we want it to be. There are all kinds of books written on what personality types we are when it comes to home management. Everything from neat and orderly Martha Stewart types to the messy and totally unorganized. Some of that type of thing is not bad. I guess if I determine what type of housekeeper I am, I know the challenges in front of me better. But I don’t think this should be used as excuse not to always focus on a clean and orderly house. The biggest challenge I have had to fight over the last 27+ years is just plain laziness.   Homemaking requires tenacity. To "gird" is to tighten the belt up on the robe, or better put in today’s terms is to roll up our sleeves and get it done. Homemaking is hard work and our wise example from the Proverbs 31 wo...

  Two birthdays in one weeks time!! My so very sweet daughter in law, Doneza (nickname is Lolot) celebrated her birthday last Tuesday. The family got together at my son’s house to celebrate. It was a lot of fun.. Lolot has made some huge changes in her life. She left family and friends and all that she knew and was familiar with in the Philippines to come to this country and marry my son. She has done a great job adjusting to life here. I know she misses her family but she has blended in with our family so well that I pray this helps some of the homesickness she feels. She and my son, Richard, are planning a trip back to the Philippines soon so they can visit her family. For now, she is working full time and loves her job and the fact that she is helping my son get through his last two years of college. And.. Today is my daughter Leanne’s birthday! Where do all the years go? Leanne is my fifth child (4th daughter) and is turning 20 today. I always l...

This month’s menu may be subject to change as I have some meal ideas floating around in my head, but have not taken the time to put it down on paper.   But for now this is what I have planned.  You can find a menu planning calendar for September here:  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/menuplanningcalendars.htm 1 st – leftovers 2 nd – spaghetti, garlic toast, salad 3 rd – chicken rice stir fry, salad 4 th –   bbq ham & cornbread casserole , dinner rolls, salad 5 th – chili dogs topped w/onions & cheese, watermelon & cantaloupe, salad 6 th – pizza – Leanne’s birthday! 7 th – hamburgers w/ trimmings, watermelon, potato salad 8 th – chicken cacciatore , dinner rolls, salad 9 th – salmon patties , sautéed zucchini, garlic roasted potatoes , salad 10 th – meatloaf , brown rice Florentine , salad 11 th – leftovers 12 th –   delicious Italian casserole , salad 13 th – tacos w/all the trimmings, fresh fruit 1...

May tomatoes may not be doing so great this year but my zucchini and yellow summer squash are forcing me to work hard to keep up with them! LOL!! I had another bowl full of squash staring at me so I took the smaller sized ones and made bread & butter pickles and the larger ones I cut them into chunks and filled 2 more gallon size bags for the freezer (to use in veggie broth). As of now, until I pick more, I am on top of my zucchini game! :) Here is the recipe (oh and there was a few left that did not fill a jar so we all taste tested those.. tastes like regular bread & butter pickles.. ) Bread & Butter Zucchini Pickles 16 cups sliced zucchini (I used both zucchini and yellow squash) 4 cups thinly sliced onions ½ cup non iodized salt (I used sea salt) 6 cups white vinegar 3 cups sugar 6T mustard seed 3T celery seed 3t turmeric Put zucchini and onions and salt in a large pan. Cover with water and let sit for 2 hours. Drain thoroughly and rinse. Combine...

I’m still working to use my zucchini up! One thing I have been doing is cutting the zucchini up in large chunks and putting them in zip lock gallon size bags. I plan to use this for making vegetable stock later in the year. I typically use 3 gallon size bags of frozen veggies when I make stock and I will use one bag of frozen zucchini each time I make it. You can find my recipe for veggie stock here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/ttbveggiebroth.htm   Yesterday I made up and canned zucchini pineapple. I had an abundance of yellow squash so I used that in the recipe. I found similar recipes online and I tweaked this to utilize what I had on hand. Zucchini pineapple can be used in place of crushed pineapple. I also plan to mix it equal parts with bbq sauce to go over meatballs, meatloaf or chicken. It can also be mixed into fruit salads. Lots of possibilities! Zucchini Pineapple 8 quarts grated zucchini 1 #10 can pineapple chunks in juice 6 cups sugar 3 cups...