Seeds! Seeds! Seeds!

Well, it's that exciting time of the year! Time to buy your seeds! Yippee! I love buying seeds, planting seeds and watching everything come up out of the ground (or pots) and grow to producing/flowering! Ahhh! Can't wait! Children love to help plant the seeds and watch the plants come up and pick the produce or flowers, etc. I want to teach my girls how to save seeds from the plants they grow themsleves. So I have been getting open pollinated, seeds and I got one book on seed saving so far. Here is some links to the best seed sellers that sell open pollinated seeds that I have found so far:
http://www.seedsofchange.com/
http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/index.html
http://www.southernexposure.com/index.html
http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com/
http://www.dianeseeds.com/Index.html
http://rareseeds.com/

They (below) have a collection called the "Baby Garden"! It would be sooo fun to grow for young children! It has sbaby carrots, baby beets, cherry tomatoes, baby romaine lettuce, baby cabbage, etc!! Soo cute!:
http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/

Site for Herb seeds ( I have bought a Lot of seeds from them but have them vacuum packed...Need to start some this year though!):
http://www.horizonherbs.com/

They also have a vegetable garden seed pack, too! It is already vacuum packed and will keep a few years. I got one for us this winter already!
http://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=2155

Teach your children something Very worth while! How to grow their own food and save the seeds so they can grow more next year! A wonderful project to work on over the summer and fall!

Here are some sites on saving seeds:
http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html
http://www.virtualseeds.com/seedsaving.html
http://www.seedsofchange.com/digging/saving_seeds.asp

And some highly recommended seed saving books that are for sell everywhere! (Found these at Amazon)

http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232923604&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Seeds-Gardeners-Down-Earth/dp/0882666347/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232923604&sr=1-3

Grant me, O Lord..

"Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know,
to love what I ought to love,
to praise what delights Thee most,
to value what is precious in Thy sight,
to hate what is offensive to Thee.
Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes,
nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men; but to discern with a true judgment between things visible and spiritual,
and above all, always to inquire what is the good pleasure of Thy will."

Thomas A. Kempis

Home Canning

(I wrote this the other day)

This past summer, we did the most canning we have done, so far, together! I helped with a Lot of canning, growing up, and King Ed's Grandma did a Lot of canning, too, of course!
King Ed showed me how to can bacon, which I had not tried before! It turned out great and is so good to have!
Since we did so much canning last year, we have been enjoying more meals from our own canned goods and less trips to the store! The dried beans and rice that we have been buying and vacuum packing have been great, too! I look forward to growing our own garden in the spring and Lord willing, doing even More canning! A lot of what we canned last year was from the abundance of others gardens! God is Good!
For breakfast this morning, we had some home canned sausage with our eggs and some fried corn (from corn we canned!). Tonight we are having soup from our canned green beans, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and ham! Yummy! With some hot water cornbread. I told King Ed a while back while I was cutting up the ham to can, "I am probably the only person canning a ham!" It is soo good though!
I was trying to find someone selling canning jars online, so I could share them with you all. I only found these though and you have to buy like a minimuim order of $500! You are probably better off going to the dollar store, Big Lots or Wal-Mart and buying all they have though, unless you can get others to in together with you on a big order.

http://www.richardsmemphis.com/106smgj.html
http://www.fillmorecontainer.com/Jars/32-oz-Round-Jar-CT.htm

Learning how to can, teaching our daughters (and sons) to can, and canning as much of your own food as you can is so important for our childrens future. Our children need to learn how to perserve their own food. It is soo sad to me (as a young woman) to see so many woman of all ages, unable to even can a jar of greenbeans! What would our great grandmothers have thought! That a woman can go through her whole life, (and be able sleep at night through the winter!) and never can a jar of food (or only can a few jars of jelly a year)!
Even if you do not have a place for a very big garden, to grow enough food to can you can find a lot at farmers markets, local produce stands or some stores carry organic produce, or maybe someone you know has extra produce or would not mind you putting a garden on their extra space of land. When my family lived in TX. we had a organic farmer who had a 2 acre garden! We helped him with the weeding and gardening and got a lot of produce, etc. from him! It was wonderful! We also had 2 organic coops that we got food from. Here is a good site for finding local produce.
http://www.localharvest.org/

I follow the "Ball Blue Book" and what I and King Ed have learned for our canning.
We bought "All American" canners from ebay, But you can find them on many sites online, such as Lehmans, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-of-Preserving/dp/0972753702

I recently bought "Stocking Up" (from amazon also). It covers a lot of ways of perserving foods (canning, drying, freezing, etc.) and covers dairy products, recipes, harvesting and so much more! I look forward to trying a lot of the recipes, etc. out!

Snow day and doughnuts!

Growing up, we had a tradition that when it snowed, we would make doughnuts (or sometimes cinnamon rolls)!! Yeah! Living in the south, it was rare treat!
Yesterday, we got some snow, so Princess S. helped me make some doughnuts! I wanted to do some that would not take to long so I found this recipe (Below) and they are sooo yummy! You can save the batter if you do not want to fry it all, it says, but I went ahead and fried it all. It did around 4 dozen I guess. And they are perfect size for children (like a little bigger than a doughnut hole).
Hope you enjoy!


Popover Donuts

2 eggs, beaten
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. sweet milk (I used powdered milk)
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1tsp. Vanilla
3 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Combine ingredients in order given. Drop batter by teaspoonful (I did tablespoonful) in hot fat. These donuts turn themsleves! When browned, remove from fat and roll in sugar, or place donuts in a plastic bag (or container) and shake. Add powdered sugar to granulated sugar to make them "sugar" better. You can mix the dough andfry part, then fry the rest later and have them fresh. Dropping batter into hot fat eliminates rolling and cutting.

Highly Recommended History books

If you only own three books, besides your Bible, they should be "The Real George Washington", "The Real Thomas Jefferson" and "The Real Benjamin Franklin"! We have been reading "The Real George Washington" as a family, every night. Wow! It is amazing how much we don't know about these men who shaped our country.
Did you know that the "father of our country" never had any children of his own? But he had two step children (Martha's young son and daughter).
Did you know that Washington was fond of dancing? That he had a love for fox hunting and kept a number of dogs and horses?
That Washington lost his father at age 11 and his half brother at age 20? And nearly joined the British army at 15?
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson died on the Fourth of July 1826?
I have so enjoyed reading from them and look forward to reading them every night! I highly recommended them to everyone! We all need to know about our forefathers, their lives, their words, the troubles they faced and wars they fought and how they handled them all. To teach our children history and about their country, we first need to educate oursleves! What better way then these great men's stories? Also there has been a lot of things dear husband and I have noticed that are so similar to what we are facing here today! Educate yourself and enjoy it at the same time! Children will enjoy hearing the stories too!!
You can find these books on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Real-George-Washington-Jay-Parry/dp/0880800143

Amaranth!

We recieved our Amaranth seeds from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, yesterday! Yippee! I can't wait to try some out in the garden this spring! I have attached some links about Amaranth, the first 2 are for buying seeds, the 3rd tells some info on Amaranth and the next has recipes! Also inclueded two recipes I found. Hope ya'll enjoy reading over them! I learned about Amaranth about a year or so ago. It is a very amazing grain! And so pretty, too! I will have to go through my herb folders and find some more things to add on Amaranth as soon as I can go through them!

http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/cgi-bin/catview.cgi?_fn=Item&_seednum=2840&_category=198
http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/browse_category.asp?category_id=10210
http://www.storefood.com/self/amaranth.html
http://www.nuworldamaranth.com/content/resources/recipes.asp

Amaranth Banana Bread
If you love banana bread, then you're going to enjoy this special recipe made with Amaranth.

Ingredients:1/4 cup Nuts

1 3/4 cup Flour, Amaranth; sifted

1/2 cup Arrowroot

2 ts Baking soda

1/2 cup Nuts; chopped

1 1/2 cup Banana; mashed

1/4 cup Oil, vegetable

1/4 cup Honey

2 Eggs

2 tb Lemon juice

1 ts Vanilla 1.

Process the 1/4 c nuts in a blender until finely ground. Mix the nuts with the flour, arrowroot and baking soda in a large bowl.Stir in the chopped nuts.2. In a separate bowl, mix together the bananas, oil, honey, eggs,lemon juice and vanilla. Then pour the liquid mixture into theflour bowl and mix with a few swift strokes. Do not overmix.3. Pour into a greased 9x5" loaf pan or 2 7x3" pans. Bake large loafat 350F for 55 to 60 min, or small loaves for 45 min or until a caketester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let stand in the pan for10 min, then turn the loaf out onto a wire rack to cool.

Anna's Muffins

3/4 cup hot water

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup honey

1 3/4 cups amaranth flour

1/4 cup nuts, finely ground
1/4 cup arrowroot

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vitamin C crystals

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup coarsley chopped nuts OR raisins (or both)

1 teaspoon vanilla
In mixing bowl combine water, oil and honey. Set aside for honey to melt. Sift flour and arrowroot separately before measuring. Combine dry ingredients, including both nuts, and mix well. Add vanilla to liquids. Add dry mixture all at once and stir only until it disappears; do not overbeat. Fill muffin papers (or oiled muffin cups) full. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 22-25 minutes. Center of muffin should feel firm. Makes 9 or 10 muffins, plain, or about 12 of variations that add fruit, such as APPLE-NUT MUFFINS. Optional: One slightly beaten egg may be added to liquids for a little more rise and slightly improved texture. Note: If you choose to use 2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar in place of the Vitamin C Crystals, be sure to reduce the water by that amount.

Magazine for Daughters and young women

I was soo sad to recieve my last issue of Hidden Wisdom, a few months ago. But, I had a feeling it was coming from how Abigail's letters had been sounding. I am glad to see that Sarah Bryant is picking up the Hidden Wisdom Subscribers. I pray that Miss Bryant is able to keep up the good work that Abigail was doing and can reach out to as many people across the country and world! Are young women and men need good, Christain magazines! I was glad Hidden Wisdom had turned into a magazine boys and girls and people of every age could enjoy and write in. Maybe "The King's Blooming Rose" will open up to all or another magazine like it will start up!
I recieved my first issue of "The King's Blooming Rose" today. The lay out and a lot of the content is so similar to Hidden Wisdom's. It looks really good! I will save my issues for our daughters, as I have all my past issues Hidden Wisdom!
I recommended this to young women and daughters. They will find great encouragement reading from other young women who are homeschooled and still at home, or from mothers as good role models on our call as women.

http://www.magazine.kingsbloomingrose.com

John Adams mini series

For Christmas, a friend gave us this dvd series. We watched two of them on Christmas afternoon, while the children played with their new toys! It is such a good series! A lot of famous quotes and people are combined in this stunning HBO series to make for very educational and entertaining evenings. If you are looking for something to watch on these cold winter days, or want to learn about (or refresh) your history this is a great watch. I would also suggest it would be great for date nights!
It is amazing the struggles families went through back at the founding of our country. The sacrifices they made, the risk they took and the blood they shed. Mrs. Adams played a very big role behind the scenes and is a wonderful role model. "Behind every great man there's a great woman."
from Amazon product description
"John Adams chronicles the extraordinary life journey of one of the primary shapers of our independence and government, whose legacy has often been eclipsed by more flamboyant contemporaries like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. Set against the backdrop of a nations stormy birth, this sweeping miniseries is a moving love story, a gripping narrative, and a fascinating study of human nature. Above all, at a time when the nation is increasingly polarized politically, this story celebrates the shared values of liberty and freedom upon which this country was built."

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_d_0_4?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=john+adams&sprefix=john

Ecclesiastes chapter 3

We have been reciting a verse a week of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and wanted to put it on here as my first blog entry! Also Ecclesiastes 3:11 is one of my favorite Bible verses.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 1-8
1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.