• Are YOU, or your kids, bored?

    20130710-085622.jpg

    I saw this on a friends Facebook and love it.
    All my life I’ve wondered how anyone could ever be ‘bored’. Certainly not for lack of opportunity to DO, and LIVE, for that only comes from lack of willingness to think, and look beyond ourselves. We must make ourselves aware of life around us.

    If I were ever bored, I would do some baking and go give it to someone. If I didn’t bake, I’d make a sandwich, or even buy some food, and go give it to someone.

    If I had no ability to bake, or money to buy something to share, I’d go for a walk, with my eyes open to my surroundings and the needs around me. I’d go pick up litter. We’ve actually done this.

    There’s much too much to do in this life to be bored! If you’re bored, find an adventure. If you can’t find one, create one!

    If you still can’t come up with something to do, go ask someone else how you can help them. An elderly neighbour, or a new mom.

    This is just my opinion, but allowing boredom to make a place in ones life is a dangerous open door for something else. Depression.

    I’m not saying if you get bored you are depressed, or if you are depressed you are just bored.

    I’m simply saying, don’t let yourself fall into a trap of feeling ‘bored’. If you force yourself to DO something instead, especially for someone else, only good can come from it.

    If you allow yourself to sit and be bored, it helps no one, most especially not you.

    And please, do NOT allow your kids to be bored, or to say they are bored. If they are, or say they are, take them by the hand and open their eyes to the world around them, including the needs of others.

    If a child is old enough to be bored, they are old enough to help someone.
    It begins with us parents. We can change our children’s expectation to be entertained into an expectation to be a help when there is nothing else to be done!

    I have five children (6 as of July 15th!!). The eldest is 21, youngest are now 13. Boredom has never been a part of our lifestyle. Don’t let it be a part of yours.

    You may say, “But you live in the country, on a homestead…”

    In the past 23 years we have lived in a bachelor suite, a basement ‘apartment’, in a small town, in a large town, on a city lot, on 5 acres, and now on 18 acres.

    We have lived in Ontario, on the west coast of British Columbia, and now in the rural prairies of Saskatchewan.

    We have been financially well off, and we have been flat broke, and everywhere in between!

    We have had a stable lifestyle, and we have had very rocky rough times. Even in our marriage.

    Your place, space, funds available, surroundings, and/or situation in life do not cause boredom.

    Only YOU are capable of ‘causing’ boredom in your life.

  • Our daughters, and talking about periods.

    Someone recently asked what to do about their daughter starting her period, so I thought I’d write a little about that here on the blog.

    I have four girls, ages 13-21. One daughter began shortly after turning 11! So very young! She happens to be our daughter with aspergers too, so that made it even more important to help her understand it was all fine, and normal. Thankfully, she’s a very black & white thinker, so I explained the facts and that was basically that!
    The other three girls began at 12-13 years of age, each child is so unique!

    Because I make cloth pads for a living (www.homesteademporium.com), my girls knew all about periods & pads long before they began their cycles. A couple of them even looked forward to starting because they had helped to make their very own pad ‘stash’! That made it a lot more fun.

    I always suggest to those wanting to have their daughters try cloth, to let them in on the fun, either helping to make the pads with you, or at least picking out the fabrics, colours, ect. if they are being made by someone else such as myself! Teen packages is one of my favourite things to make!

    20130704-091633.jpg
    http://hyenacart.com/HomesteadEmporium/mt/269/58569/Teen-Starter-Package-lonicera

    Begin talking about periods while they are young! Don’t be shy, or scared, and they won’t be either. I honestly feel that talking with our children about the changes in their body is opening the door WIDE open for speaking to them later about all sorts of difficult topics from sex to drugs! It may be difficult at first, but do it! Force yourself to do it if you have to! You want your teens to be able to speak to you later on when tough choices begin! This is your chance to start a solid foundation right now! Grasp that opportunity and don’t let it pass you by!

    If choosing to use disposables, I suggest the same as with cloth. Shop online together in the comfort of your home (we like www.well.ca In Canada, you get free ship, possibly the US too? Use our special coupon code while shopping the first time and you receive 10$ OFF a 40$ order!)

    Let your daughter pick what she’d like to try. Maybe do a little shopping for some new undies too! If you can afford it, shop for a new outfit or some other special ‘grown up’ type of gift to celebrate! Be sure to add some special chocolate, and maybe some healing tea too, to help with any discomfort!

    20130704-092012.jpg
    http://hyenacart.com/HomesteadEmporium/mt/269/34248/Monthly-Tea-donated-by-Delias-Pantry

    Make periods ‘normal’ and even a teeny little bit fun! You may find your own attitude about periods changing in the process too!

  • Sheep shearing on the homestead today.

    When we first brought our sheep home, we knew they would need to be shorn (is that how you say it? or is it sheared?) soon. I wasn’t really sure how, or what, we would do but figured that we’d some how figure it out. We always do!20130630-203727.jpgI couldn’t seem to find anyone local to help out, but that was really ok. We actually quite enjoy learning things and this was simply one more adventure to learn about!

    I set about trying to find some shears, and ended up having to order from the internet, and hoped they’d be good!
    Then I read lots, researched lots, and watched lots of videos of sheep shearing by hand. It’s pretty amazing how quickly some of these guys could do it. But that brought me to something I noticed. Every video I found had guys doing the shearing. I’m sure there must be other women out there shearing their sheep?

    I wasn’t too worried though because I knew I had my ‘crew’ here to help!20130630-203928.jpg

    We decided to start with the least ‘stubborn’ of our three adults. One of our mama sheep, Dolly. We set her on her behind as shown in all the books and videos, and sure enough, she sat fairly still. Not real happily, but fairly content. The girls helped to hold her up while I set to trimming!

    Once we got to a certain point in the shearing process, we’d lay them on their sides. We learned quickly that as long as their hooves were always kept up off the ground, they’d basically just stay and not try to fight us at all. I was surprised by how easy they were to handle.20130630-204144.jpg

    I realized pretty darn quickly that the shears I have are not the greatest, but ok. I also realized pretty quickly that there was no way I was going to be able to shear a sheep in 8 minutes or less, as they did in the videos. Ha!20130630-204235.jpg

    But I did realize that we could do this ourselves, and we’ll continue to do this! I was actually able to shear the entire sheep in one big fleece. I was sure we’d have to stop and start many times, possibly over many days, but after about an hour we had our first sheep done!20130630-204315.jpg

    The first sheep was a little rough going, she ended up with a nick in the skin, and a couple of grazed little spots from my inexperience with the shears. I felt so bad that she had to be my ‘guinea pig’ but she never even flinched through the whole process! What a good girl she was!

    I ended up with a grazed knee and wrist, due to flying hooves a couple of times she thought she could get up. So I guess we’ll call it even.

    The second sheep, our other mama, Molly, got away with just one nick. Hopefully when we tackle Wally tomorrow, the last sheep needing to be trimmed up, I’ll know better what I’m doing and he’ll get away without any nicks what so ever.20130630-204414.jpg

    The next big job to master, cleaning out the fleece from the sheep. We’ve already studied up about it, but now it’s time to actually try it. I had hoped to do it today but by the time we were done the two sheep, my back was telling me it was time to call it quits for the day! The fleece will have to wait!20130630-204454.jpgWhile we were shearing the sheep, hubby made a great dinner of homemade bbq’d burgers and I picked the very first ‘fruits’ of our labour from the garden. Lettuce for the burgers and a salad! I had my salad with fruit added. yum!

    If I get a chance, I’ll share some photos of the fleece washing process as we go! The fleece we have will be used by Shaylah (and anyone else in the family!) for her felted wool creations. One day we may just venture into some fiber dyeing and possible even spinning! I’ve always wanted a spinning wheel and I’m sure at least one of the girls would also love to try their hand at spinning their own wool!

    As I always say…

    Time is my only limit, my creativity is endless.

    There really isn’t enough time in a day to get done everything I’d love to do, and learn about. When I hear people say (or see them type on the net) “I’m bored.” I want to ask how that’s even possible?! There’s just too much to do to be bored in this life that we live!

  • Early garden harvest.

    It may not exactly be the harvest I’m waiting for…

    20130616-145727.jpg

    But one thing I love about homesteading is that nothing goes to waste, not even the weeds I pick from my garden

    20130616-150128.jpg

    The chickens, ducks, and guineas love the bounty of fresh greens and dirt!

    20130616-151553.jpg

    And so do the sheep!

    And all was not lost for us humans today.

    20130616-151637.jpg

    I was able to gather a pretty decent crop of rhubarb for us too!