by A Farm Girl | Sep 11, 2018 | Musings
Well, I haven’t been doing so well getting up on time. Everyday, except today, I have spent a little time with God before starting my day. It has been so good to start off in His Word and to cover my day in prayer. Unfortunately, other than that, I have been utterly stinking at kicking my butt into a routine. But, I keep reminding myself, baby steps. At least, I am getting my first priority covered on an almost daily basis. Oh, and now that I think about it, I am actually getting dinner ready before 6 almost every night. Yay! We haven’t been finishing on time mostly because DS and DD have been refusing to pick up their toys before dinner and have only been willing to do it (and very slowly at that) under threat of DH and me eating everything without them. They haven’t been coming down for dinner until almost 7 even though I tell them to start picking up at 5. DH and I get to eat a warm dinner at least.
That’s about it. I’ll keep you posted. Every day is chance to try things a little differently, and He will always be there to help me.
Oh wait! I have also been reading the kids their Bible story every day! I really am doing better than I thought! 🙂
by A Farm Girl | Sep 8, 2018 | Recipes
Like I have said before, I can’t eat onions, in any way, shape, or form. I have had to invent and tweak recipes to work around that.
This is my version of chicken tortilla soup. It makes a LOT of soup, so be sure to have plenty of hungry people to feed or freezer room to save some for later.
Ingredients:
- 1 quart of my home made chicken stock (another onion free necessity)
- The dark meat off of a stock chicken (shredded or cubed) – the white meat never gets as far as soup around here :)*
- 1 28 oz can of Rotel original tomatoes and chilies
- 1 28 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
- 1 10 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
- 2 cans of corn
- 3 cans of black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 2-3 bay leaves (depending on size)
- Cumin
- Garlic powder
- Ortega taco seasoning
- Salt
- Pepper
- Half and Half
Toppings:
- Sour Cream
- Shredded Mexican cheese blend
- Tortilla Chips
*If you don’t have any stock chicken on hand, you can substitute 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs. Just bake those in a covered baking dish with some water to keep them moist.
Directions:
- In a large 5-6 qt crockpot, combine the first 7 ingredients.
- Add a generous helping of both cumin and garlic powder (I rarely measure seasonings).
- Add 1/2 packet or a more than generous helping of the taco seasoning
- Add salt and pepper to taste (I prefer fresh ground on both.)
- Add several splashes of half and half
- Top off the crock pot with water
- Cook on high for 2 hours then reduce the heat to low and cook for another 6 hours
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Once done, top with the cheese and sour cream (if you want to cut the heat down). Crush up the tortilla chips and add to the soup or eat them along with it. Enjoy!
by A Farm Girl | Sep 8, 2018 | Recipes
I can’t eat onions in any way, shape, or form. I get 72 hour migraines if my food gets anywhere near them, and I stop breathing if I actually eat them. I have not been able to find a ready-made chicken stock that is safe, so I started making my own. Happily, this is a super simple recipe. The other great thing is that you can reuse the chicken to make multiple batches of stock. I usually make 1-2 batches with the meat on the chicken then debone it and make another 2-3 batches with just the bones. The only thing is that you have to change out the veggies with each batch. After they have cooked for a couple of hours, they have shared all their goodness with the stock and need to be recycled. I usually pull out the carrots and celery and give them to my chickens and toss the garlic.
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken
- 3 celery stocks, rinsed
- 3 whole carrots, rinsed
- 1-2 whole clove(s) of garlic
Directions:
- Rinse the chicken inside and outside, discard any “extras” that came inside of it.
- Put everything in a large pot. I use a pasta pot – the kind with strainer baskety thing that sits inside of it – because then you just lift all of the solids out and are left with the stock in the bottom pot.
- Fill with water to about 2 inches from the top. If you are using a pasta pot, don’t fill past the top strainer holes or it will boil over and make a huge mess. (Been there. Done that – several times. Finally learned.)
- Cook on medium heat for 2 hours.
- Remove from heat and let cool for about 30 min.
- Remove solids and separate stock into freezable containers. I use the 1 quart containers with the twist on lids.
- Debone the chicken and use the meat however you want. I usually freeze the dark meat for soups, and we use the white meat in meals for the next couple of days.
You may be wondering why I didn’t add any seasonings. I prefer to make my chicken stock completely basic, then season the things I use it in.
by A Farm Girl | Sep 6, 2018 | Musings
You know how when you make plans, the next day everything seems to go crazy. That happened yesterday, which was day 1 of my new attempt at routine.
I managed to get up by 6:00. With an Alexa alarm and a series of alarms every 2 minutes on my phone until I actually got out of bed around 6:08. 🙂 I’m sure DH was thrilled. 😉 I got some coffee, read my Bible for a few minutes, then spent a while praying over my day. The biggest thing that I prayed about was letting God guide my priorities for the day.
I had volunteered to help watch a class full of kiddos for my BSF class’s leader’s training day, which meant being at a church 30 minutes away (in good traffic) by 9. DH was kind enough to say he could wrangle our kids through their normal wake up routine so I could get the morning farm chores done in time to get a shower. Yay!
Forgetting to eat, yet again, I got dressed and headed down to feed all the 4 leggers. I got down to ponyville (which is what we have named the area where the 3 stalls for the 3 small ponies are) and found Pumpkin and Christopher Robin stuck in an area they are NOT supposed to be able to get into at night.
Now, ponies are notorious for getting into trouble, and Daisy in particular likes to be a bit of a Houdini.
Somehow, they had broken both the clip for a gate that acts as a stall door and the hook it clips on and shoved the gate into the barn aisle so far that it got stuck. The gate isn’t even supposed to be able to go that direction! Both the stuck ponies were exhausted. At this point, I am vacillating between panic and laughing.
Well, I got them all sorted out. Everyone was tired but fine.
I did eat something then we headed off to BSF. I had a great morning caring for a class of young preschoolers. I was tired when we headed home. We all ate lunch, and I got the kids settled into their normal afternoon activities. The kids have a couple of hours of quiet time every afternoon when they are restricted to quietly playing in their room. They were in the middle of that, and I went down to do the afternoon farm work. So far, other than the pony antics in the morning, things were going fairly well as far as sticking to my routine.
(Cue the dramatic music please.) Dun. Dun. Dun. (Thanks.)
DH had a REALLY awesome friend come over, and the 2 of them were spending the entire day putting up a wire fence. Did I mention a REALLY awesome friend?!?! I was halfway through feeding when I get a call from the wife of the friend who happens to be friend of mine. Her son is a good friend of DS’s. She wanted to know if her son could come over and play and then go home when his dad was done working on the fence. I said that it was fine once the kids got out of quiet time. (My carefully structured day was starting to unravel, but people are more important than schedules. And God’s invitations into our lives are always worth accepting.)
DS’s friend came over around 5, and I figured that the kids would play for an hour or so while the “boys” finished up on the fence. 6:00 – no sign of fencing stopping for the day. I fed the 3 kids dinner. 7:00 – still no sign. DS’s friend is a little older than DS and is in school. It was a school night. I was getting a little concerned by 7:45. I texted his mom. She was shocked that her boys weren’t home yet and came to get her son. It was about 8:45 before I got my 2 in bed. I had gotten practically nothing done around the house that afternoon, so I was feeling a lot behind in work and schedule. My heart was happy though. I was glad that the kids got some play time and thankful that I had been open to letting God guide my priorities.
DH and friend worked on the fence by truck headlight until after 9. (Have I mentioned REALLY awesome friend?!?!) I caught up on a few things that needed to get done and actually ate some dinner. I didn’t get to bed until almost midnight.
Side note – since I am writing this post at 10:00 at night, today hasn’t gone much better in regards to schedules. Tomorrow is a new day and God’s mercies are new every day! I am going to try again. I’ve got another 115 days to make it work. 🙂
by A Farm Girl | Sep 4, 2018 | Musings
So I have decided to give myself until the end of the year to get into a new routine with family and farm work and housework all on my plate. I have been trying since we moved here in May with little success and I am hoping that having to write about my successes and failures will give me some better accountability. So, anyone out there reading this, I am reporting to you. 🙂
So this is what I am aiming for:
5:30 to 7:00 – Get up and take care of myself. This includes spending time God in prayer and in His Word and actually eating breakfast. 🙂 (I know I am not the only mom out there who gets so busy feeding everyone else that I forget to feed myself.)
I am hoping to maybe get a load of laundry washing in there too.
7:00 to 8:00 – Feed my family and the dog. Read a devotion with the kids. Clean up from breakfast.
8:00 to 12:00 – Morning activities. This includes feeding all the critters, church on Sundays, BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) on Wednesdays, farm work, playing with and loving on the animals, etc.
12:00 to 1:00 – Lunch and read the kids their Bible story
1:00 to 3:00 – Either housework or spending quality time with the kids
3:00 to 3:30 – Rest and eat a snack
3:30 to 5:30 – Fix dinner and do the afternoon farm chores
5:30 to 6:30 – Family dinner
6:30 to 8:00 – Get the kids bathed (if they haven’t had one already after playing in the mud) and put into bed
8:00 to 9:00 – Evening clean up and straightening
9:00 to 10:00 – Get ready for bed, read for a bit, and got to bed.
All of this is general and fluid. I am hoping to use the basic time frames as guidelines to help me. The major goals are 1.) Get up in time to spend time with God; 2.) Get the kids to bed by or before 8; and 3.) Go to bed at a reasonable time.
So here we go. I have 118 days left.
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