Word

I've never picked a "word for the year". It seems to be the thing to do these days. So I've thought it over and decided the word for 2018 is JOURNEY.

I know. I'm supposed to choose a word for the upcoming year, and I will get to that.

2018 was a journey. It started out as a normal year (ha! like there is a such a thing). We were preparing for sugaring season. The 4H club was running smoothly under Abby's leadership. Various Smith kids had made plans for moving, marrying, or changing jobs/careers. Sam and I were distracted from our personal issues as we focused on his brother's terminal cancer diagnosis.

And then, BOOM! Stuff started happening.
Sugaring season was a struggle with fewer helpers and a good sap run.
Sam's brother passed away. 
The state came unannounced for a visit.
The decision to sell the house was made, it went on the market and sold faster than anyone ever expected.

Before we knew it, it was the end of August and we had been "homeless" for two months, when we finally moved into our new home and started to settle in to our new "normal".

2018 was a journey because journey by definition is "the instance of traveling from one place to another." Not only did we move from one physical location to another, but mentally and emotionally we have moved. Our identity has changed: we are no longer farmers, yak owners, maple syrup producers, or even child-raisers. We have new identities: empty-nesters, grandparents, and travelers.

Our relationship as husband and wife has been on a journey. Through lots of conversations with each other and others, we have grown as a couple. We have dealt with some very difficult situations with each other and our families, and have become better communicators and fogive-ers because of them.

I chose the word journey because journeys give the idea that there is a plan, a path. While we may not have always seen the path clearly, it was there. Looking back, I can see that God was moving, even way back in 2017, setting things in motion for what was in store for 2018. Things that were seemingly unrelated, were in fact intricately intertwined.

For 2019 I am choosing the word ADVENTURE. By definition adventure is "an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks." It also means "to proceed despite risk." I want 2019 to be the year that we keep going despite the risks that we can see, and the ones that will surprise us. We want to keep building on who we are, growing better, finding our new purpose, developing new skills and talents, and always seeking God's plan. 

Hostas

I am traveling to Massachusetts today to check out some Hostas with my sister-in-law and her mom! I love hostas: Easy to care for, spread quickly and can be easily divided. They take over the garden and I no longer have to weed!

I started a hosta garden on the side of our driveway. I buy varieties based on their names, not what they look like. It's a mish-mash, but it looks awesome!

So far I have
 Pilgrim (in honor of Sam's love for John Wayne)
Spilt Milk (in honor of Abby taking over the farm)
Frances William (in honor of my grandfather whose middle name is Frances)
Amy Elizabeth (in honor of me and my sister Beth)
Vulcan, Captain Kirk, and Enterprise (all in honor of my dad)

Today I am in search of
Andrew (in honor of my brother)
Sparkle (in honor of Hannah)
Cookie Crumbs or Delicious (in honor of Nathalie)
Teatime (in honor of Rachel)
Blue Angel (in honor of my brother Tom)
The Queen (in honor of my grandmother)
Sarah's Sensation (in honor of my sister Sarah)
Rascal or Faith (in honor of Samantha)
Emily Dickinson or Green Eyes (in honor of my sister Emily)
Old Glory or Patriot (in honor of my Father-in-law)

I have been on the search for Johnny Angel in honor of my brother John for a while. It apparently is rare and hard to find.







 
    

Groceries

I was inspired to write this post by a friend who was asking friends what their grocery budget looked like. People are often surprised at how little our large-ish family spends on groceries. So here is how we do it:

Our weekly budget is between $60-100 per week. I only food shop once per week. If we run out of it, then we live without it. We had a rough few weeks after I initiated this rule, but my "list-makers" have gotten better about double checking the list. And I will add that some things, toilet paper and coffee, are exceptions to the rule!! (Can you imagine? I shudder at the thought!)

I mainly shop at Aldi's for our weekly shopping, although as we are slowly switching to more locally grown products, that may change. Aldi's has a couple of benefits, besides their low prices. Yes, with coupons and sales I could probably get better prices at supermarkets, but that is time consuming. And my time is worth a lot! Aldi's prices are always low and I don't have to wait for a sale.

At Aldi's there is one brand; if you want ketchup, there is just one option. This makes it easy if I send in Sam or the older girls to do the shopping. At supermarkets, if I sent in Sam, I would get 2-3 phone calls about which product to chose. Another benefit: both Aldi's near me are also not far from a Tractor Supply. I can get house groceries and barn groceries in one trip!

Nathalie makes our weekly menu plan. The majority of our meals are vegetarian. Not because we are vegetarians, but because we raise our own meat and what is in the freezer has to last a whole year. We average two meals with meat per week. A few months ago she found a new recipe software program and has been trying lots of new recipes. She likes to experiment with new foods and has added one day a week which features a dish made with fish. I don't know what we'll do when she leaves for college in August!

About once per year we shop at the local wholesale club. This is when we stock up on canned goods, paper goods, and staples like flour and sugar. We spend about $500 in this trip. It often doesn't last us a whole year, but it takes the pressure off the weekly shopping budget. It also allows us to take a week or two (or six!) during the year to proclaim "living out of the pantry week". This is a week when, for whatever reason, the budget is REALLY tight. We do not food shop at all (see the disclaimer above regarding coffee and TP!) and only use what we have on hand in the pantry. We get some pretty creative meals that week!

Our livestock feed bill is a little weird to calculate. Abby pays for all the feed (hay, grain, minerals, etc.) for her herd of goats. We pay for Samantha's goats and our own. The milk from the goats goes into the calves, with what little is left over (if any) used by the family. One to one and a half of the calves get put in to our freezer, while the rest get sold to other families. The products from Abby's animals that are used by us are considered to be Abby's room and board, barn rental, pasture rental, etc. The feed bill for the animals not paid for by Abby, is about $30 per week. We usually make a good amount of that back in livestock sales and other farm income (breeding, boarding, fairs...).

Every once in a while we butcher some of our chickens or buy a half a pig from a local producer, to round out our freezer. We are starting a new batch of chickens this year, and if we can keep enough of them alive (it's been a rough few weeks for the chicks), we'll have bantam eggs for our use again.

With summer around the corner, we'll be shopping for produce at the local farmer's markets and getting some from our own garden. While this raises our grocery bill a bit, the benefit of supporting the local small farmer and getting stuff that is fresh, is worth it. Plus, strolling through markets makes for a great date with Sam!

So that's how we do it. I plan on $100 per week for groceries. Some weeks I spend more, some weeks less. I would estimate that with livestock feed included, we are averaging about $135 per week.

Something New

We're trying something new here today. I just read "Large Family Logistics" by Kim Brenneman. This book is huge and is packed with lots of good ideas for keeping things "sane" in the home, whether your family is really large, somewhat large, like ours, or even a small family.

In year's past we had used the MOTH (Managers Of Their Home) method of scheduling our days. While it worked for us in the beginning (fewer animals, fewer kids' activities), I had not used it for the last year or so. MOTH has every minute of every day planned, and I am sure that works for families that don't have farms or husbands whose schedule has no rhyme or reason to it.  We were forever "off schedule," either trying to play catch-up or abandoning the charts all together.

Large Family Logistics takes a different approach as it is written by a mom who lives on a farm. She understands that most days have a plan, but the amount of time it takes to feed the animals can change depending on the season, the weather, or the animals. Her philosophy is "Just do the next thing". If we have a plan, written down for each day of what the next thing is, we are less likely to become distracted, flitting from one half done project to another.

The times for those projects are loosely structured. For us Chore time is always 6AM and 4PM. After the AM chore time is finished we are supposed to have our Family Bible time. In the past if chores went late, we skipped it in order to catch-up on the schedule. Not a great idea! Now it doesn't matter when chores get finished, we start Bible time when chores are completed.

One of the premises of the book is setting habits. We all have habits of how our days progress, it's just that some of those habits aren't good ones. With her system we start replacing those bad habits with good ones: setting a timer for Internet time, making the bed and getting dressed BEFORE getting that cup of coffee, and my favorite: 4 Laundry loads by 4PM.

I had been slowly implementing some of the LFL's ideas that pertained to only me over the last few weeks, as I checked out Kim Brenneman's blogsite, while waiting for the book to arrive in the mail. I was surprised at the results. It really did work. So if I can do it, so can the kids. The only thing I can see being an issue is Sam's schedule. But he's in agreement with the plan as I have it set up right now, we'll just have to wait and see what tweaking we'll have to do to adjust for his rotating schedule.

The "To Do" List

On one of our date nights, while walking the aisles at Lowes, sharing an iced coffee, Sam and realized that we each had our own ideas about what needed to be done around the house and how important each item was. So we decided to make a list with the expected costs and time frames of each project, as well as how important this project was to us.

Driving to church the next morning, out of the blue Sam exclaimed, "Side yard drainage!" and I responded with, "Mulch for gardens!". The children were convinced we had lost our minds, until we explained what we were doing. Then they began to chime in with their own project suggestions. While we won't be constructing a riding ring, a tree fort, might actually happen!

Later that week, we took all of our projects and put them into a spreadsheet form with estimated costs and estimated how much time we think it will take for us to complete the projects. Then we gave each item a level of priority based on need. Lastly, the projects were ranked for order of being done, based on the priority, money required, if Sam was required, and time needed to complete the project. For example, Cleaning the Windows (inside and out) was given a Low priority status, but being as it didn't require Sam to be home and only a few dollars for supplies, it was listed as the first project to be accomplished. Now, Back Pasture Fencing has a High priority rating, requires a couple hundred dollars and Sam to be home, so it was ranked third after Finishing Trim work in Bathroom, which had a Low priority and zero dollars, but required Sam. The patio is dead last on the list, despite the relatively low cost (we already have the patio bricks) and Medium priority rating, but it requires a lot of time and Sam's presence so it will have to wait.

I then got brave and had the program add up the costs and times for us to complete everything: $15,000 and one year. Now that one year would be if we worked on each project one right after the other, every day. So allowing for employment, weather, finances available, etc. we adjusted the time to be about five years.

Sam and I are now on the same page as to what needs to be done. The kids can see what is next on the list and because they were part of the planning, they feel some ownership in getting these projects finished. Because we know what project we are working on and which one will be next, I can be sure that we have all the supplies available for when the weather and Sam's availability align. This way we are not wasting time running around purchasing the items we need when we could be working on the project itself. The savings account now has concrete goals to be working towards, which is helping us to stay on budget. Whenever we want to spend money on something frivolous, we can redirect our spending towards completing the next project on the list.

The good news is we have already completed the first two on the list and started on the back pasture fencing. And who knows maybe, if we can stop adding items to the list, we could finish in less than five years!

Bwahahahahaha!

Then again, maybe not...

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I:
picked up grain
made and canned relish (cucumber and green tomato varieties)
made tomato sauce
did 4 loads of laundry
cut out 3 dresses for Samantha
sewed half of 3 dresses for Samantha
made chocolate chip cookies
put the bee escapes on my hives
dropped the 4 younger girls at church
attended Big E orientation with Abby

Today I plan to:
make and can more relish
come up with something to do with 4 billion cherry tomatos (any suggestions??)
finish pulling all produce from garden as it is going to frost soon
finish sewing 3 dresses for Samantha
do 4 more loads of laundry
take Rachel to her doctor appointment
shop for the 4H hot dog fundraiser for this weekend
get all supplies I need to extract honey this weekend

Oh yeah, and cook meals, clean house, school girls, meet with the vet, organize New London County Goat delegation's Big E trip, send Abby off to her babysitting jobs (yes, plural), Hannah off to volunteer at gymnastics, and Nathalie off to my mom's....

Vacation Week

I love vacation week! I get all my girls together with no frantic searching for lost journals; no trying to remember which kid has gym and therefore needs to find their sneakers. We get our animlas taken care of and spend the days doing fun things!

This week we have some homeschool work planned since both Rachel and Samantha need extra help in reading and math. Today we are going food shopping, to the bank, to the library, and to the hardware store. (We'll calculate price per ounce, miles per gallon, miles per hour, interest rates, library fines, and paint coverage per can) Abby has a girl scout thing this afternoon too. Tomorrow we are going to Mystic Seaport (Everything about that is educational!). Tomorrow night all five girls are going to my parent's house for a sleepover! (They'll cover watercolor art, drawing, pastels, gardening, cooking, and baking) We also have a 4H record keeping workshop tomorrow night. (math, business managment, profits and losses, and economics)

Wednesday and Thursday we have more 4H record book workshops. Wednesday we will do yard work and take the trash to the dump. (Environment, ecology, what happens if you don't do well in school) We'll probably swing by the library also. Thursday, at the moment, is open. We might just start putting stuff aside to donate for the 4H Camp Benefit Auction on April 25th and 26th. (community service, recycling)

On Friday, Sam and I have a date at Lowes planned! We have changed how we will do the storage space in the mudroom since the cabinets are just too much money. We are pricing open shelving units. We will also be looking at fixtures for our lavatory, which is next on the schedule for renovation. Friday night Hannah goes to her girl scout sleepover at Camp Laurel and at some point??? this week Samantha has a girl scout trip to Petco. Saturday is 4H Camp cleanup in Franklin. (Community service, volunteerism, environment)

Also, somewhere in this week a few 4H'ers have goats due to kidd, so I am sure I'll be dealing with those phone calls; especially since at least one is a first timer.

The weather is supposed to be perfect: Sunny and in the 60's! It should be a great week!