Putting in the Garden -The Play Of Childhood Is Work

We are all very excited to actually be working on our little farm again. The past few years there has been so much going on that it has been hit and miss and with me not working secularly now some of the ideas I have always had for our Littlefoot Farm may actually be in grasp. I just hope the energy and the finances will be there to get it all accomplished. I wish I could harness some of my little’s energy and zap it into me somehow. What I would do for some of that! Could you imagine if that was possible? Oh if only.

 The hubby tilled up our first phase summer garden spot Sunday afternoon, which I thought was never going to happen because the tiller was giving trouble, but after about four hours of labor hubby finally got it run. Could you imagine the days before with had motorized equipment. No wonder those generations were so fit looking, they worked their tails off for sure. I just can’t imagine things like cutting a thick tree down with a handsaw or ax and then the task of actually cutting it into logs and then splitting the logs  and having to do it to survive all winter long, keeping the fire going. Makes me remember the time we got iced in at my sister-n-laws. The power went out, but thankfully she had a fireplace. We dragged the mattress into the living room to sleep. My hubby got the fire going and all night long every time he would get almost to sleep his sister would get cold and he was off outside to get wood. He kept that fire going all night and was so exhausted the next day. We still laugh about that night. I don’t know if too many of us could now adapt to the days without electric, running water, motor powered equipment. Which raises the question would we want to? I know I enjoy it when we go camping, but not sure if I would like it permanently or not.

 Monday the little and I spent the morning reading books, doing a few fun “school” activities and doing some house chores as we have a busy week and company visiting our congregation this week. In the afternoon we raked the garden and got out all the grass clumps. We have so missed our vegetable garden and not putting it in the grass came back stronger since it didn’t get dug up last two year. Thankfully we have a tiller. I loved that I am seeing so many earth worms. Our seed collection got moldy so tomorrow I am heading out to collect some new seeds and maybe some plants.  In addition we have our first meeting with our local homeschool collaborative on Tuesday which I am anxiously anticipating. I am hoping it will be a good addition to our school program and that my little likes it. I dread going grocery shopping, but that is a must on the list as well. So busy, busy….

(Left, Bug Hunting with Snoopy)

 

The weather is so beautiful her in the North Georgia foothills right now. You just want to be outdoors all day. I love how beautiful all the dogwoods are and my iris are starting to bloom that my momma gave me. I saw the most beautiful snowball bush I have ever seen yesterday. We enjoyed a salad and some homemade pizza on the deck last night and when it got dark we had a movie night featuring: “Mars Needs Mom”, which is a really cute movie, and ate some chocolate covered strawberries I made. I will tell you, that is my kind of dessert right there!

Our little is so excited about the garden. He seems to not remember our gardens from when he was a baby and toddler. Yesterday he asked “does this mean I am a real farmer now?” I told him yes and he started jumping up and yelling: “YEAH!” He worked all afternoon in the garden yesterday and was back at it again today with me. I love his work ethic. “The play of childhood is work.” –Lacey

 

Greens, Eggs and Ham (minus the Ham)

A while back I shared a recipe for sliced cabbage on my Facebook page so I could try it later. The recipe claimed that even if you didn’t like cabbage you would like cabbage if you tried it cooked this way. I love cabbage, but the hubby, unless it is sauerkraut on a bratwurst or smothered in mayonnaise as a slaw he “ain’t eaten’ it” (there’s you some good ole’ southern boy talk. I married a Georgia boy with a Kentucky family. <3). Well he agreed to try it.

A few months went by and I remembered I wanted to make the Sliced Cabbage Recipe and somehow I lost it and couldn’t find it on my Facebook page, but I had already bought the cabbage.  So I improvised with what I had on hand and our dinner guest that evening, who love cabbage, seemed to like it, but my hubby not so much. It was just okay to me. I found it to be a little on the bland side, like it was missing something.  There was a few slices left over so I put the away in the fridge because I just don’t like to be wasteful (and it gives me something to throw out the next time I clean my fridge out. –Rolling my eyes- You know you do it too!).

The next morning I was scouring the fridge for some fruit to go with my eggs for breakfast and we had completely run out and there sat the cabbage from the night before. Well, I have never had cabbage for breakfast, but I wanted something nutritious for breakfast, so cabbage it is. I warmed it up and cooked me two eggs sunny side up just the way I like them and place them on top of the cabbage slices. Well I cut into those eggs and the yolk ran all over the cabbage and it was the most delicious thing I have put in my mouth for breakfast ever. I was very disappointed when it was gone. It was the best breakfast I think I have ever had, but don’t take my word for it, I may be a cabbage head. :P

I call it Greens, Eggs and Ham (minus the ham, unless you like that sort of thing.). You get the correlation? Green Eggs and Ham….Dr. Seuss….sorry I spend my day with a five year old (really that’s just an excuse, ha!) Give it a try!

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage

Salt

Pepper

Italian seasoning or dill (optional)

Olive or coconut oil (or whatever cooking oil you have)

Eggs

 

Directions:

Cut cabbage into round slices, about ½ inch this or as desired. Leave in the heart. Placing on a greased baking sheet. Drizzle cabbage with oil as desired. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and add other seasoning herbs if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until tender to your liking. Cook eggs over easy or sunny side up, whatever your preference and put over slice of baked cabbage and enjoy!

 

Littlefoot Farm & School... Blog Introduction

Hello and welcome to my new blog page. I am a life learner mom of one. I am a writer and a poet. I am a designer. I am a wife. I am a child of the true God, Jehovah. I am a farmer and gardener. I am an artist. I am human and I make mistakes. I am a friend, a daughter, a niece, a granddaughter and a cousin. Every day we grow and learn on this journey we call life. Feel free to grow and learn with us on this life adventure.

What is a life learner to me? A life learner in my opinion is someone who learns from the people, places and things in their environment. This also includes people, places and things introduced intentionally into ones environment. To me it also means being gentle and kind to all people, including oneself and all living creatures. To me a child is not an inferior person. They deserve consideration and even respect. This does not mean I do not believe in discipline. Discipline is important, but it has its place and it is often overused and abused in the current system of things. I speak to my child as I would any other human being I encounter (perhaps with more love though :-D). What does that mean? Well when we our scheduling our day/week instead of saying: “we are going to do this, this week.” I say: “So what do you want to do this week?” I include him in the decision making process and in return he listens to my ideas and together we come up with a great week of fun and learning. My child is only 5 years old, but I have found since I implemented this style of treating him as a partner in his own life and learning. His ideas are more educational, interesting and fun than anything I could have came up with on my own let alone found in a textbook.

As I stated my little is five. So we really are just beginning and growing. So let me tell you a little bit about how we came to be where we are right now. When I was pregnant my husband said he wanted to homeschool. I loved the idea of it, but didn’t see how it would be possible because we both worked full-time. I breastfed until my little was a year and half and I got infection, right about the time I started a long distance job in which meant leaving the house at 5 am and not getting home until 8 to 9 pm in the evening (sometimes even much later if traffic or weather was really bad). This wore on me greatly and I missed my baby too much. My child was in a daycare during this time and beyond and started out loving it, but soon it got to where he would beg not to go and I got a phone call from a staff member that told me that something was fowl at the daycare and I had a sweet kid, to get him out of there. I didn’t hesitate and never took him back.  My little did ABCmouse.com for pre-k and he loved it. He completed nearly 50% of the Kindergarten portion, but he was desire to do more hands-on activities. So we held off on the online program and I order Volume 1 of Five In A Row. I absolutely loved it and so did he, but in the meantime I had done a lot of research and reading about radical unschooling, unschooling, homeschooling, etc... None of these titles describe what I feel out style is exactly and that is okay because we are all different, right?

So what do we do all day? Everyday varies, but everyday we are learning, but the neat thing is we are not doing it forced or out of obligation or to prepare for a test. It is amazing to be learning about real things, education that will benefit our child for the rest of his life. Because he is partnering us in his educational journey we are taking an adventure of discovery his passions and interest and watching him really connect with the things he is learning. I am so excited to be a part of his amazing journey and in turn discovery a lot about myself and our family. I love the connections I am feeling with them.

In addition we are working on developing our little farm and make our farm provide for us. We hope this blog will include many tips and stories about the various things we are doing and hope to do in the future, including, but not limited to, raising farm animals, making soap, making candles, homemaking, cooking, recipes, fermenting, canning and so on!

Why did I name my blog Littlefoot Farm & School? When my husband and I got married we bought a small patch of land and our first pet was a goat. Yes a goat!!! We named him Littlefoot and eventually we began to call our home Littlefoot Farm and now that we are homeschooling we call it Littlefoot Farm & School. Learn more by following my blog.

My purpose for this blog is to keep a record/diary of our learning experience, share and inspire other families. My intention is to create some blog post about our past journey over the past “school year(s)”.  Then I would like to do a blog post about each day of our life learning if I am able to keep up that is. I also hope to write about the ups, but the downs and challenges too. I will also include things we are doing in our life that may not seem like “homeschool” but as a life learner it all applies: like recipes, family experiences, pets, farming, gardening, homemaking, financial subjects, etc. I like to write book and website reviews too.  If you ever have a question or a topic for me to write on I would love to hear from you.