Another Day Another Lesson

Today for school we tried something a bit different for the little ones sake. She has been feeling really left out when I do school with the other three so today we focused on reading with her. Not that she can read or even knows her letters yet but she loved it. Then each kid took turns picking a book and I have to say Lucas' book of choice was the best. I am assuming it was a book we got from the thrift store but it is perfect for my "Detectives" as they are now calling themselves.

It a book called "Super Sleuth" by Jackie Vivelo it has 12 chapeters all a new mystery to solve. The kids are loving it. They are even understanding how to make thier own chart and mark of suspects based on clues. This book is amazing!!

If you have little "Detectives" budding in your house this is a great book.

Hope everyone else is having a great Monday!!

Whats on your dinner menu??

In the last two weeks I started to really watch/log what I eat, for a few years now I have been trying to loose weight and will loose alot in the summer but gain it and more back every winter. I hate the idea of diets and I will not jump onto random diets as I believe they do more harm then good. As I started my food journal last week I discovered the reason why I am not loosing weight---my body thinks its starving. I eat with my kids and we eat healthy but I am not consuming enough calories for my body to start burning the fat. I did an few differnet online calorie calculators and found an awesome program for my cell and they all tell me in order to loose weight I need to consume 2400 calories in a day. I was only barely hitting 1500 and that wasn't being picky. Summer time brings less meat for us (we grow a ton of fresh veggies) so I am trying to learn how to add more protien to my diet with out meat. Obviously I do beans (going to try black bean burgers soon), but I don't like meat substitutes so this is harder then I thought. I am thinking our fish consumption is going to increase a bit too

Tonight for dinner the kids and I are having hamburgers and baked potatoes (their request) and I will probably steam the rest of my fresh brocoli. Wednesday night is going to be Salmon Patties per my husbands request, however if it rains I may change it to a soup of some sort.

I really need to start gathering more recipies for me to try, with the garden producing soon I want to experiment in the kitchen.

Welcome to Serenity

Here you are going to get random ramblings, rants, and recipies. I am a 30yr old mom of four and I have always love to write. My writings will never make complete sense to you but they do to me. I started this blog last year and kinda failed to keep it updated but I have decided to try again.

A little about me and Serenity~

Serenity is my farm in Northern Arizona. My four kids and I work the farm daily and my dear husband works in Phoenix 3 days a week and is here on the farm for extended weekends. We are hoping one day that the farm will be able to support us so that he doesn't have to drive down to the valley anymore. We have only been here on the farm for 4 years.

We moved here for many different reasons the most important was my children. My husband and I had always wanted to live rural and raise animals and a garden, to learn to can and put away food. To learn live a self sufficient life and I wanted to teach those values to my children. We had been praying and looking for property since we had gotten married in 2001 and realized land prices were rising fast. In 2006 we started going to see different properties, I was pregnant with #3 at the time. In Nov we came and saw this property, it was by no means what I had pictured in my dreams, there was no pine trees or green medows but the veiw I had was amazing. In March of 2007 we sold our house in the valley and started the process of moving to/setting up Serenity.

We live off grid with solar, hoping to add wind one day. We have raised goats since Feb 2008 and we also had laying hens and ducks. Unfortunately for the poultry they are no longer with us, we will be doing the hens again but not just yet. I make my own soap from goats milk and I will never use another bar of store soap if I can help it. We homeschool our children, each one has their own learning style so this is a challenge for me. Our life here is so much more busy then our city life but its also so much more fufilling. We were surprised by baby #4 which came in 2009, she is now 2 and such a farm baby. I miss my city life in some ways, mostly because of the family and friends we left down there but I wouldn't change my life in any way. I hope that my experiments here teach you or help you in your life .

God Bless.

Here is a veiw of my sunset, Gods beauty!!