What Little Farmhands Do For Fun

It got too quiet for a few minutes today.  Way Too Quiet.  So I went to check on the Little Farmhands and couldn’t find them anywhere.  Walking past the front door I suddenly heard Little Farmboy’s voice.  I looked out, and this is what I saw:

“I’m studying about bees,” he said.

They had pushed the porch furniture forward.  Inside that holly bush were hundreds and Hundreds and HUNDREDS of honeybees!  The Little Farmhands were getting a hands-on lesson on pollination.

They sat there for a good half hour just watching the bees buzzing back and forth.  Eventually though, I did hear little Farmgirl say, “I’m finished studying about bees.  Now lets study about peeling paint.”

Excuse me, I think I need to go prevent some vandalism!

Sonbeams Preschool Curriculum – Review and Sale

Once in a while I meet somebody who obviously knows God.  I mean really, really KNOWS God.  Remember when Moses came back from Mount Sinai after receiving the 10 Commandments from God?  Being that close to God’s glory had caused his face to shine.  The Israelites couldn’t look at him and Moses had to wear a veil until the glow faded.  (You can read all about it in Exodus 34:29-35.) 

Spending time with God changes people.  Everyone around them can tell that they have spent time with God.



Mrs. Candace at Sonbeams.com is like that.  She has such a heart to lead children to Christ!  Her preschool curriculum teaches children their letters, numbers, colors and shapes like any other preschool curriculum would, but she weaves it all together around Biblical Principles.  For example, In week 1, the children learn the letter A.  Their Bible verse is “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  (Romans 3:23).  They learn the number “0” and it is explained to them that Jesus takes our sins away.  Every sin we ask forgiveness for is gone and zero sins are left!  Our sins are forgiven because Jesus’ blood was shed for us, so the color of the week is red… the color of Jesus’ blood.

Now, did you know the whole plan of salvation could be wrapped up in a preschool lesson like that?  I didn’t!

And of course, Sonbeams offers ABC scripture songs on CD or as a downloadable MP3 file to accompany each lesson.

Our family doesn’t do a lot of the crafts in the curriculum guide, but we have been very blessed by the songs and the way the program integrates letters, numbers, colors and Bible Verses together.

Well, this morning I got an email from Mrs. Candace.  She has been thinking about the earthquake in Japan.  So many souls launched into eternity with no warning.  Tomorrow is not promised to any of us, so, for TODAY ONLY, Mrs. Candace is making some of the the Sonbeams products available to everyone on a donation basis…   That’s right… you pick the price!  And if you are struggling and can’t pay anything, then you repay her in prayers!
Her is her email:

Breaking Down the Barriers!

This is a hard time financially for many of us, and things that we would love to share with our children and families often times have to wait due to other things - such as food, power, water, etc...
After seeing the massive amount of damage and lives (souls) lost in Japan this week, my heart was saddened to know that some of these people didn't know Jesus as their Saviour. Some might have never heard of Him at all!
Sharing the Lord with children has been a calling on my heart since childhood, and for those that just might not be in a position to buy resources which teach your child about the Lord, we are offering you a special today!
I don't want for your family to be denied Christian products due to being financially burdened right now, so this week we're shaking up our prices, and certain products are set up where YOU can select the price you pay.
Please do not hesitate to check out if you have $0 - we'd simply like to ask for your prayer support instead.
There's no greater blessing than knowing that seeds are being planted, and we can trust our Master with the harvest!

All of the sonbeams products are wonderful!  The items that are set up for you to set the price are the 4 individual ebooks that make up the Preschool Curriculum (You need to select each individual ebook, not the curriculum as a whole):

Let’s Learn our ABC’s

Let’s Learn our 123’s

Let’s Learn Our Colors and Shapes

Let’s Learn Our Bible

And also the MP3 Download of the Bible Memory Verse Songs:

ABC Bible Memory Verse Songs

(MP3 Download)

This is a wonderful opportunity to get your children started on Scripture Memory, or extend their current program!

(By the way, this is not a paid post.  I am sharing this because our family has been truly blessed by these products!)

The Laundry Quandary Giveaway! (**Giveaway Closed**)

Edit:  This Giveaway is Now Closed.  Thank you to all who participated!  Watch for more giveaways coming soon!

 
Yesterday I posted about my friend’s laundry system that has absolutely revolutionized how I approach the laundry problem at our house!   (Click Here to read that post if you missed it!)

One of my personal favorite laundry products is Nellie’s Natural Dryerballs.  I stumbled across these in a grocery store 6 years ago and have been using the same set ever since.  I love them!  They bounce around the dryer with your clothes.  Here’s what Nellie’s website says:  “The unique design of the Dryerballs lift and separate fabrics while relaxing fibers. The result is less lint and wrinkles, softer clothes, more absorbent towels and a reduced drying time of up to 25% - saving you moolah! Best of all, it's toxic-free, environmentally friendly, and guaranteed to last up to 2 years. That's equivalent to a whole lotta dryer sheets.”

(Only guaranteed 2 years??? Mine have been through an average of 15 loads a week for 6 solid years and they still look and work great!  Trust me, these are not like the cheapie versions you can buy that fall apart!)

How can you get a set of dryerballs? 

Well, you can buy them at www.NelliesAllNatural.com

or

Win them!

Nellie’s All-Natural has offered to give a set of dryerballs to TWO of my blog readers!

To enter, just leave one comment on yesterday’s post saying what you like about Pam’s Laundry System, then come back here and leave a comment saying you did so. 

Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you on each entry!

Extra Entries!

After you have commented on the laundry post, you can get extra entries, by doing any of the following:

-Browse www.NelliesAllNatural.com and then leave a comment here telling me what your favorite product is!
-“Like” Good Old Days Farm on Facebook and leave a comment here telling me you’ve become (or still are) a fan!
-Subscribe to our blog via email and leave a comment here telling me you are subscribed
-Follow us on our blog using Google Friend Connect (link on right sidebar… if you did this in the past, it still counts as long as you leave a comment telling me you are connected!)
-Share about this giveaway on Facebook and leave a comment with the link
-Blog about this giveaway and leave the link in the comments below.  (2 extra entries – leave 2 comments saying you did this)
-Leave a comment on a non-giveaway post (that is relevant to that post) here on the Good Old Days Farm blog.  Then return here and tell me which post you commented on. (Note - Commenting on Pam's Laundry System is your initial entry.  For extra entries, you must comment on a different post!)

Giveaway will end on Thursday, March 24, 2011 at midnight.

A Laundry System that Works!

Laundry overwhelms me.  I love the little farmhands, but they sure go through a lot of clothes!  One time I counted that in only 3 days, Little Messy Farmboy went through 48 different items of clothes (pants, shirts and underwear).  And that’s just one child.  There never seems to be an end to it… No hope in sight…  Poor me… Poor me… All this laundry… This is my life… Poor me…  Ever felt like that?  Then I met my friend Pam.  She has 6 children.  SIX.  Count them:  1 – 2- 3- 4- 5- 6!  The amazing thing is, there is never any dirty laundry at her house.  It turns out, she has a great laundry system that actually works!  She has even learned to enjoy her laundry time!  Someone who enjoys doing laundry for a family of 8?  I’m pretty sure I can learn something from someone like that, so I asked her to share her system.  If you’ve been looking for a way to organize your laundry, this post is for you!  Even if you don’t have 6 children, this post is definitely worth taking the time to read!  Here it is, in her own words:


“The system is pretty simple, but like most things it requires consistency and discipline. I'm a pretty organized and neat person by nature, but I used to have a major laundry problem. Very simply, I hated it!!
My first step was to weed out clothes and really keep only the things we really loved/enjoyed. I was blessed with lots of hand-me-downs, and a great thrift store. I realized that having so many items for each child was allowing me to use them as a crutch. I had a hamper in each closet and they were always full & overflowing and it didn't matter. There were plenty of other clothes! So, I got rid of all the hampers in the house. Now we use the washer as a hamper:

In the evening when everybody changes into pjs we all bring our clothes down and put them in a clean, dry washing machine. First thing in the morning I open my washer and it is full of the previous day’s dirty clothes.

I sort the clothes into basic darks, colors and lights, then and begin the wash. This is a pretty light day, but I usually do 3-4 loads a day. Sometimes not so much.   Then, as soon as the laundry is dry, I fold it right there:

Any ironing gets hung up until Monday.  That’s when I do ironing and sheets and towels.  I do sheets on rotation:  Mine one week, Girls’ the next week and Boys’ the following week.

By the washer & dryer I have a small wicker basket for each child. When the clothes come out of the dryer, they are immediately folded and put into the appropriate basket:

My goal is for all laundry to be done by 4. When I say “done” it must be put away, too. The final step is that all my happy helpers scamper off to put their fresh, clean laundry away.  Now my washer is empty and dry and it’s ready for them to put their dirty clothes in in the evening.

I said the first thing I did was weed out clothes, but actually the first thing that I had to do was change my attitude. I have actually come to love laundry. I'm thankful for my houseful that requires all these duds! I pray over the items as I'm washing/drying/folding. It's actually become a ministry for me. It's the first thing I offer to someone who's going through a rough patch, new baby, etc. If you'd have told me that years ago I would have laughed like a crazy woman! Learn to love it and it changes things. Hope this helps!”




I have implemented Pam’s system in my home and I love it!  The one minor change I have made is instead of using the washing machine as a hamper, we have 2 hampers side-by-side in the bathroom.  One is for colors and one is for whites.  Everyone is trained to put their laundry in the correct hamper, so it is like the laundry automatically sorts itself!  I also have one lingerie bag for each member of the family.  Everyone puts their socks into their own bag and then the entire bag gets thrown into the washing machine.  This makes matching up socks so much easier!

For me, the keys to making this system work have been:  1 – weeding out the clothes so that we have just what fits and what we like, 2 – changing my attitude and praying for the people whose clothes I am folding.  If I have a lot of laundry to put away, I will put a ladies retreat CD on to listen to while I work.  Then, my body is folding laundry but my mind is communing with God!

Are you inspired by Pam’s Laundry system?  Ready to make some changes at your house?  To help you get started, we are hosting a laundry-related giveaway:  Dryerballs!  Click here to be taken to the Dryerball giveaway!

A big thank you to Pam Graham for sharing her laundry system (complete with her photos!) with us!

Onion Grass!

We have wild onions growing in our yard! 

 

It looks like a weed, but it tastes and smells like green onions!  Not one to let free food go to waste, we went outside with scissors yesterday and cut the tops off…

  

We chopped it up:

 

Put it in the dehydrator for a few hours:

And now we have dried onions to use this winter!  They add wonderful flavor to soups and taste delicious sprinkled over baked potatoes!  And in the winter, there’s nothing quite like the smell of opening a jar of “fresh” summertime onion grass!

 

Menu Planning Monday!

Last week, I talked about how I sometimes plan meals around an International theme.  Another fun way that I mix things up a bit is to plan meals around various cookbooks.  In the vegan, gluten free world, I find that a lot of cookbooks have a certain flavor or style… The recipes in one book might use a lot of nutritional yeast, while the recipes in another use a lot of nuts.  By using a different cookbook each night we get a variety!

Here’s the lineup of this week’s cookbooks:

Sunday – Vegan Vittles by Joanne Stepaniak
Monday – Ten Talents by Rosalie Hurd
Tuesday – Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna Sass
Wednesday – The New Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
Thursday – The Ultimate Uncheese cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak
Friday – On Friday night I’ll use my binder that is full of recipes I’ve collected over the years
Saturday – The Garden of Vegan by Tanya Barnard and Sara Kramer

Menu Plan Monday is the brain-child of Laura at "I'm an Organized Junkie."  Each week she posts her own menu plan and LOTS of other bloggers link their weekly menus to hers.  Click here to check it out!  Most of the menus are not vegan or gluten free but some are so there are plenty of ideas for everyone!

Babies!

We had a special treat today.  Our new friend Jill invited us to her farm to visit some new little babies!  Meet Clara!  Her babies were born yesterday afternoon:



In these pictures, they are  only about 26 hours old.  Clara was so trusting and she let us pet them. 

Aren’t they just adorable in their little sweaters?

These are called “Baby Doll" Sheep.  Baby Doll sheep were in danger of going extinct, but they are on the recovering list now.  Still, only about 2,000 babies are born in the United States each year.  Jill is doing her part to protect them.  These two were born yesterday and last week another one of her sheep gave birth!



Today I learned that lambs are born with long tails, but they have to be cut to prevent matting and bugs.  It’s too bad because I think they look so sweet with those long tails!

If you’d like to come visiting with us, please be sure to stop by Jill’s blog "Baby Doll Southdown Sheep" where you can read all about the lambs and even watch a video of the two newest little babies!

Jill is such a neat lady and I really enjoyed my visit!  She also raises the best tiny pigs around!  If you care to visit, be sure to check out her pig blog "Best Tiny Pigs".  Imagine that!  A blog dedicated entirely to pigs!