Day in Our LIfe

Our days start early. Earp wakes around 6am. If I am lucky I can snuggle him in my bed and he will let me doze for another hour. Then he wants his sisters. The bond they have is fierce. By fierce I mean that they could hug each other as easily as hit one another. It’s a crazy emotional love hate relationship. As soon as he goes to wake his sisters I head to the French press. Need super strong black coffee asap. Then I usually start us all on our chores. Beds get made, dishes washed and put away, and breakfast started. Honestly, I am not big on cooking. Until my Husband came along I could burn boiled water and some days that is still the case. I have learned a few simple meals over the years I will proudly admit to anyone that will listen. So breakfast is usually omlettes (hello we have chickens), pancakes, or bagels. Then we start school. Its around 10am at this point. Usually takes us around 3 hours to cover the basics. Language arts, math, social studies, science, pe, and electives( ukulele, American Sign Language, Ballet, and Arts and Crafts). Somewhere in there we have lunch. And snacks. And more snacks. I cannot believe how much these three small children eat!! My Husband comes in from whatever tasks he has been completing outside and makes the family dinner. We have all agreed that Mom gets way to frustrated and emotional when no one eats the meals that she cooks so yes Dad cooks dinner. Some things we just have to change in order to make ourselves happy. We let the kids watch a little tv while we shower and relax. Sometimes we play games or wrestle or finish craft projects or school work that didn’t get done. By 8pm we put all the kids to sleep so that I get to spend a little time alone with my self and a little time with my Love. Then it is off to bed around 10 to start the whole thing over again. It’s the stuff that we tend to learn in our free time we like the best though. This year we had our first litter of piglets born on the homestead. We lost some. But most of them thrived. We learned how to castrate the males, and why you should castrate them at all. We then learned and perfected our slaughtering and butchering of the same pigs. We learned how to properly smoke and cure our own hams and bacon and how to make sausage. Not just any sausage but the best tasting sausage we have ever had. That we could say with 100% certainty had no hormones or antibiotics. Was free range and gmo free. Food I could feed my family with no guilt only pride. That we as a family could provide this food for ourselves. Together. It makes me so proud. All three children helped raise feed and butcher these animals. And all three loved the meat we were provided as well. Respecting it because they knew it. Where it came from and the work it took to bring it from piglet to pork roast. This life is not easy. There are obstacles and set backs and doubts at every turn. Every decision is questioned. But it has been worth it.