Titus 2 Day

I am sad to have no pictures of our day together....

but we just started up our meetings again now that the

holidays are over. We are only going to

meet once a month, that way we can meet just

a little longer and do more.

This month we focused on:

"Peace in Perilous Times"

Everything we did was in an effort to help

bring peace to our own hearts as well as

our families and in our home.

As they arrived I had bread dough ready to go and

each rolled out Cinnamon Bread. The point was, when you

make a batch of bread, once in awhile do a cinnamon one for

a treat, nothing like Cinnamon Toast with a bowl of

hot cereal on a cold winters morning. Sounds

peaceful right?? Making our families happy and

contented brings PEACE.

Then I had our soup done to a point, meat browned, veggies

chopped, and it had to be boiled for just 5 minutes

before you could can it in the pressure canner.

Food ready to go in the pantry keeps us at PEACE.

So, we enjoyed lunch together and then had a short devotional

about peace in our lives. Peace comes when we draw

closer and closer to God. When we are close to

Him, we will be able to trust Him more

and that brings PEACE to our whole household.

Then we did a project that is fun to use with homeschool

curriculum or just for a fun scrapbook project idea. We made

a Lap Booklet with Minit Books inside.

Lap books are a file folder folded to the center so it

opens like shutters and you put different bits of

information or pictures or whatever on the little

booklets that you glue inside. Fun for all

ages. Once the older kids master the little

books, they can help the younger ones.

Busy children on a cold winters day

is very PEACEFUL indeed. :)

Then I showed them how to use a fabric pen

and write a verse on a piece of fabric to

embroider. Scripture on your walls is a

very good thing.....it reminds us of God and

who He is and keeps our minds focused

on Him throughout the day. Which brings

more PEACE to our homes.

The verse I chose is one that has ministered to

me ALOT lately.....

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect PEACE,

whose mind is stayed on thee."

Isaiah 26:3

So, some knew embroidery and some learned that day

as we moved on and learned how to do a granny

square. Some knew crochet and some had to

learn. So, at that point we just spent the next

bit of our time crocheting or embroidering

and encouraging one another. :)

All in all it was a very PEACEFUL day. :D

Next month, we will do two more embroidery stitches

and possibly work on crocheting a bit more. And

some other fun things I have up my sleeve. :) Our

theme next time is PREPAREDNESS.

(But not to an extreme, just some things we

can easily do).....which also brings PEACE!!

If you are ever interested in doing your own Titus 2 group,

Lisa at New Harvest Homestead

on my side bar will send you a free meeting

guide. It has some fun ideas and encouragement

for how to start a group.

Class today...........

The girls in my Home-Making class

finished their pillowcases......aren't

they ADORABLE!!!

Home-Making.......

Today was our Home-Making class. One girl has a wheat/gluten etc, allergy, so we made "Currant Buckwheat Muffins". They are sweetened with just molasses, they were ok, needed more raisans for sweetness, but may have been better with jam or something....... :)

Then we made spaghetti for lunch. Since we were already going to make spaghetti sauce, they made sauce from a whole gallon size can of tomatoe paste! We canned 6 quarts and used the rest for lunch........they each got to take home 8 mini muffins and a quart of sauce!!
It was a beautiful day, so they spent the afternoon
on the porch swing....
After lunch they finished putting their samples in their notebooks.

Then we began a project with the stitches they know so far.
This will become the edging on a pillowcase......

Then we must end the afternoon with tea of course!

Favorite Book.....

This is one of my very, very favorite books that we used during High School. "Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home" by Ann Ward.

It covers 7 years in all!!

You would start it in about Jr. High.

It has page after page of instructions in life skills and also

much Godly wisdom!!

Just look at some of the reading list over the 7 years: Kings Daughter, Dear Princess, Hidden Art, Pursuit of Holiness, The Other Side of the Garden......and the list goes on. Amazing!!
Covers basic cooking, sewing, gardening and many other hand skills. In later years it even gets into child care and more advanced skills.
I loved it!! Check it out sometime! :)

Fun Learning......

On Fridays I have started a little class at my home. The class is Home-Making and I have three girls right now between 10 and 11. Yesterday we spent the morning making Snickerdoodles, each girl made a "log" to take home for the freezer (if it lasts that long). We put the cinnamon in the cookies instead of rolling them in it as I wanted to

show them how to freeze cookie logs. :)

For lunch they made Cheese Sauce and poured it over Noodles. So, they learned how to make stove top macaroni and cheese not from a box!!

In the afternoon we did Embroidery. They began by making samples of just four stitches for their notebooks which we will use next week on a project. They also made the cover page for their notebooks.
They will come every Friday, more fun projects ahead......

School Begins!!

Are you ready for the school year?

Some easy things to make your day go smoother:

Breakfast

Plan some easy but nourishing breakfasts.

Buy bulk grains for yummy hot cereal, make your

own bulk mixes for pancakes, etc.

(more on making bulk mixes later)

Lunch

Warm soup on those cool fall and winter days is the best thing ever!

Prepare Soup ingredients for the freezer.

(I just bought a very big bag of carrots from Costco and sliced some for

soups and grated some for muffins, bread and cake.)

Also, I will get some celery and onions chopped and frozen. That way they are ready to throw into any soup and you can just have soup simmering through the morning and it will be ready by lunch and smell soooo good.

Also buy in bulk beans and grains such as barley and pasta to toss in your soup.

Dinner

On those days where there is time to make dinner it is nice to do that and involve the children.

For those very full school days or the ones where you have been out.....be sure to have some freezer meals done up!!

(More on freezer meals later......)

Knowing what is going on the table before you start the day illiminates alot of stress, disorganized evenings and those nights when you have to eat out and really should not be doing that. Makes your dear sweet husband happier too!

One more tip today: Make huge batches of cookie dough and roll it into logs for the freezer. When needed, take a log out and slice and bake. :D

Hope school is going well for you today. I kind of miss those days........

Prairie Camp in the Front Yard......

Two days, 11 girls, and lot's of FUN!!
They all had a turn at scrubbing the clothes in a washtub with a

washboard and some homemade soap, they loved it!!

All proper prairie girls did a "sampler"! These will go on their aprons for a pocket. They are embroidering the
first letter of their name.



View from our "Dining" area into our "kitchen".......

we set up three fly's for shade and protection from rain, etc......one for the kitchen, one the dining room and one for the parlor.

The kitchen, where we prepared lunch
and made the butter each day.

I do not remember inviting him!!!!

Each day we cooked just one thing on the fire. My dear sweet husband dug the hole in the ground and created a firepit for us. The girls were divided in half and took turns doing, the butter, laundry, lunch and dishes. The first day they made biscuits to cook on the fire in the dutch oven, the second day they chopped veggies and we made stew in the dutch oven on the fire. Each day, after lunch, we filled the tea kettle with water so that later on we had

somewhat warm water for tea. :)
Have you ever seen any one so happy
to wash dishes?!?!?!?

Each day we also had some "read aloud" time, sometimes just to fill gaps while waiting for others to finish a task..........they are reading

"Kirsten, an American Girl".

They also learned the quilting technique for "Grandmother's Flower Garden", we made cornhusk dolls, my husband made each girl a flower press and we pressed some flowers, they made a hoop and my husband made sticks for them all and that is a game called "Graces", they all went home with a basket full of

things they had made.....

And of course at the

end of each day...........

Tea Time!!!

Prairie Camp was so much Fun!! The girls all had fun and so did I!! I think we all cannot wait until next year.