Ann Leach

Planning the Garden The Baker Creek Seed catalog came in the mail!!! And yes, I've been page-turning, dreaming about all the seeds I'd like to order and putting out a garden again. Kenn and I went for a walk and talked about where we'd like to put the garden. We've had it behind the barn, which was good for water access, but not so good for weeding. Out of sight, out of mind and all that. This year, we're going to put it out kind of in the space between the house and the chicken coop. It will require a long hose for watering, but unless we're up to installing a new water line (which we're not), almost anywhere will require a water hose. I'm dreaming of tomatoes, green beans, lettuces, and so many other fresh veggies. Maybe we'll even get out some fruit trees. In a perfect world, we'd get a couple of bee hives and plant a special bee garden. Oh! And a butterfly garden. It's so easy and fun to dream. It's so easy to get in...

Books How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish Illinois, Indiana,  Ohio Month-by-Month Gardening  by Beth Botts Kindle Books While cleaning up my kindle this week, I came across some books I had started, but not finished. So while I didn't read these books in their entirety this week, I did (finally) complete them. Radical Frugality: Living in America on $8,000 a Year  by Nic Adams Objectivism: What Ayn Rand Left Us  by Ashton Cruise How to Write Great Blog Posts that Engage Readers  by Steve Scott Let's Go! Field Trips for Teachers, Homeschoolers and Active Families  b Traci Matt Blogs   The Non-Consumer Advocate  by Katy Wolk-Stanley   down to earth  by Rhonda Hetzel What are you reading this week?  Please share in the comments. Peace -- Ann

Homeschooling -- Still waiting for confirmation from the group admin that my sign-up was processed.  I'll follow up with an email tomorrow. My excitement about homeschooling is staying true. Isabelle and I have moved through the challenging time we've been having for the last year or so, which is to say that I've improved my own techniques and methods for parenting so we're not butting heads so much. We already do some informal school time, but it is rather haphazard, so I'm starting to do some research for setting a couple of goals so we can develop a more effective system. I'm sure most of what we'll be doing for kindergarten is learning by doing than actual book/paper work.  But will be nice for the book/paper work to be headed in a specific direction. Antiquing -- The kitchenaid mixer made a loud growling noise when it ran, so I didn't get it.  And surprisingly, I am a bit disappointed.  I guess by the time I was in the store carrying it up to ...

Homeschooling:  Made contact today with a homeschooling co-op here in Allen County that I didn't even know about.  We're welcome to join, even at this late date in the school year.  There are only 3 more class sessions, but I'm excited to (hopefully) meet some of the other parents and get Isabelle involved in some activities and play groups. Finding this group has re-energized me toward homeschooling this autumn rather than enrolling Isabelle in public schools. Antiquing:  Isabelle and I took a big stroll through the Antique Mall  in Wapak this morning and saw LOTS of goodies, including 1 Kitchenaid and 4 Sunbeam stand mixers; and 2 Corning Ware electric skillets - 1 with the skillet and 1 without. This is a photo of the Kitchenaid mixer. Pinterest:  I do love pinterest as a means of collecting articles that I may want to come back to at some future date.  But it tends to be a really big collection and not a lot of doing.  So I'v...

Part of being a stay at home mom and making sustainable living choices is keeping expenses down, but the other part is to increase the income, too.  And working from home allows me to develop multiple small income avenues rather than just going after the one big avenue of income. With that in mind, I've been brainstorming, trying to come up with a project for the cold winter months.  I've kicked around various crochet ideas, but was truly inspired when I came across the idea of making custom pillowcases. Here are some photos of the one I whipped up this morning specifically so I could take photos to promote this new business venture. Isn't that a lovely pillowcase?  I can't wait to share with you all the pillowcases I have planned! Come spring, I'll add chickens, well eggs, as another avenue.  And of course the garden will go in which will reduce our food spending in a big way. What small avenues of income are you working on? ...

The Sustainable living group is off to a good start with the number attending meetings increasing.  This month we had a lively discussion about household budgeting which is so much bigger than just crunching numbers. People have different goals in budgeting.  Some do it to save money and to stretch their dollars further.  Others are discovering new, better, more economical ways to live. It takes discipline to set goals and stick to the plan to meet those goals.  And getting the whole family on board with a new system can be one of the biggest challenges of all. Some folks have a vision of a budget, but nothing on paper.  Some have no plan, but are in a reactionary mode to the bills as they come in.  And still others are keeping track right down to the penny. Is there a right way and wrong way to budget?  Is one way better than another?  What is a budget?  And why don't they teach us about this in school? There is definitely a righ...

Meal-planning, keeping a pantry, stockpiling, hoarding -- there are so many ways to describe this, but what it comes down to is when you go to cook a meal, do you have what you need?  Me - usually yes, sometimes no.  But that's life. This is, again, one of those things that I never used to think much about.  During my single days, I can still tell you what I'd buy every week -- a couple hamburger helper meals, a tuna helper meal, a bratwurst meal, a mac & cheese and hot dogs meal, a spaghetti meal, and maybe a couple soup meals thrown in every now and then. Then I had children, and then I really started thinking about the food I was eating, and feeding my babies!  I also moved out of town so a garden was a real possibility.  I had some conversations with my grandma about all the canning I remember happening at her house during summers (and all the tomatoes I mashed, corn I shucked and green beans I snapped - but that's a post for another day).  She woul...