Lessons in Nature

I love my community of friends.  I love their willingness to share the knowledge that has been imparted on them.  I love those I know in real life as well as those I've only blessed with via social media.  All are important to me.  Despite my resistance to technology and the challenge I face daily of creating balance with it in our lives on a daily basis, there are many blessings poured into our lives through its presence.

Technology has so much to offer the homeschooling family; free e-books, free printables, free curriculum, free advice and guidance, access to information instantly without leaving home and too much research, and on and on the list could go.  As a product reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse I am growing more and more appreciative of my blogging friends.  Some I only know virtually, and others I am blessed to know personally.

A recent post from a good friend of mine got me thinking about all that winter has to offer educationally as well as spiritually.  You can read her original post here.  Inspired by reading this, I decided to take a peek at what the bible had to say on snow.  Did you know that there are over two dozen verses in the bible that directly reference snow?  There is a lot to learn on this subject.  With a quick overview, I picked a verse that spoke to me today and will be meditating on it throughout this week.  Here is is coupled with a picture I took this morning after the snowstorm at our home:

After searching snow in the bible, I decided to look up what is said about birds.  I have been enjoying watching all the varieties happily visiting our feeders today.  There is a seemingly endless amount of references made to birds in the bible.  Oh the amount we could learn on numerous subjects just by studying the bible's reference to birds.  Here is the verse I picked to focus on after my search on birds:

Today's visitors!

All around us nature is waiting to teach us and guide us to our creator.  If we only pay attention, there is a lifetime of curriculum right at our fingertips.  The possible references and lessons are endless.  Are you paying attention to what's around you?  How do you incorporate the lessons presented by nature into your homeschool?  I'd love to hear all about it!

5 on the Fifth - Favorite Blog Posts for December

I've decided that I'm going to stretch myself a bit this year with my blogging; more commitments, new activities, and getting to know more blogs personally.  This is the first step.  I just discovered this link-up, another new to me term, late last night when sleep was eluding me.  That being said, I've obviously not spent the previous month keeping my eye out for blogs to share with you here.  So, what I did was just take a moment and think about blogs I like; some from good friends.  I figured is as good a place to start as any.

Mothering Monday:  Help!  I'm so overwhelmed!

(Home Management Part 2)

The first blog post I'd like to share with you is from my good friend Anna at Where My Treasure Is.  I love her blog and the way she shares her wisdom.  No matter what I read there I leave with a good feeling, and it may even challenge me in a kind and gentle way.  Recently I read her post on home management, and let me tell you how timely it was for me.  I felt encouraged after reading this post, and I hope you do as well.

Make Your Own Calendula Salve

(a quick and easy gift idea!)

As some of you know, I have been on a trying journey to rediscover health and understand more clearly the food that I feed to my family.  This past year has been a year of tremendous increase in knowledge in this area.  One of my favorite discoveries was GNOFGLINS (God's Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season).  I love when the posts come through my news feed on Facebook, and I even get information from them in my email inbox.  Mind you, I've gotten pretty selective about what comes through that medium.  Am I the only one that can find myself drowning in emails?  Here is a recent post with a helpful, homemade gift idea.  Maybe you'll find yourself inspired.

Living on What We Have:  
A Month of No Groceries

This next post is an idea that I've pondered more than a time or two, especially since we've made our big move to the country.  I grew up poor, and I do know how to live with very little.  I am forever thankful for having a mother that taught me how to keep my house stocked with food and essentials like toilet paper, laundry soap, and medicines.  She managed to keep a hefty larder despite a VERY minimal income.  She was, and still very much is, very thrifty.  I suppose being raised on a farm by parents that survived the Great Depression had a little something to do with that.  Now that my hubby and I find ourselves raising yet another generation of children we tend to look at a lot of things differently than we did when we were younger. this is definitely not one of those areas.  My natural instinct is to have a good stock of food, among other things, at all times.  I shop for deals and do my best.  Often, though, I do find myself wondering just how long my stock will last and how much food do I need to put up to meet the needs of my family comfortably.  Leona at My Healthy Green Family took this challenge seriously and put in the very real effort to find out just what she was capable of pulling off, and I thoroughly appreciate the fact that she took the extra step in sharing her experience with the rest of us.  Check out her journey!

Dear Fellow Shopper...

I've had the honor of reconnecting via Facebook with one of my favorite gal pals from grade school, and I am certainly the better for it.  She's a bubbly person that grew up in the Midwest and sports a Southern accent.   (I've not had the privileged or confusion of actually hearing her talk since this transformation.)  One thing I have gotten acquainted with however is her personal blog.  Her writing style is amazing as ever; enhanced a little by age, faith, and hard earned wisdom.  She shares poignantly her exploits and the subsequent growing pains.  She's off the cuff and no holds barred.  She's not afraid to let you see her rough edges.  It's what I love about her.  One day maybe I'll be lucky enough to share a jar of pickles with her face to face again, but this time I think they should be deep fried!

What in the World is Tallow?

Here's another lady I know that loves to share her knowledge with those who are interested in learning and growing.  In the three short years that I've been privileged to know and cultivate a friendship with her, my knowledge has grown greatly.  Honestly, I owe a lot of that to her.  It's empowering when you are fortunate enough to rub shoulders with confident people, especially women when you are one yourself, that are more than comfortable being the person God created them to be.  When we want to grow it's a good idea to put ourselves in the company of those respect and those that challenge us to become better versions of ourselves.  This post has nothing specifically to do with that very topic, but using beef tallow for good things was a bit new to me.  I found the process interesting, and I love the biblical connections she always seems to share.  Those of us that know her personally are glad she's finally taken up blogging.  I think you will as well.

You can visit the rest of the posts here.

Fuzzy Water

Our family has been learning a lot of new things about living a more natural lifestyle.  We desire to be a little closer to our roots and create a more simple existence.  With that desire has come a lot of information.  It's like a tidal wave at times.  The most recent "new to us" discovery is water kefir.

I have the most amazing friends that are so willing to share their "different than mine" knowledge.  It is such a blessing to be surrounded with such passionate and caring people.  Recently, our family was struck by a stomach bug.  My poor, little guy got it the worst.  I actually stayed up the entire night with him as he vomited his way through to morning.  It was horrible.  What helped him in his recovery process?  Water kefir, and a good friend willing to share her supply.  (Hop on over to her blog, Think on These Things, to learn more about how she makes water kefir.)

What is water kefir?  Water kefir is a fermented, probiotic beverage made from kefir grains or a powdered culture.  The grains consist of bacteria and yeast existing in a symbiotic relationship.  It is packed with vitamins and is an excellent immune booster.

As my little guy went throughout the night ridding his body of fluid I had him slowly start sipping the water kefir.  At first he couldn't even keep down a sip, but within an hour  he started keeping it down for a while and was slowly able to drink more and more.  By morning the vomiting had ended, and he spent the day sipping his "fuzzy water" as he likes to call it.  It made him feel better, and it was all he needed to help him down the road to recovery.

Since then, my other two came down with the same bug, and we kicked it out using "fuzzy water".  Having the water kefir has been a tremendous blessing.  Today, we began the process of making our own.  Soon, it will be a staple in our home.  We are joining in the centuries old tradition of fermenting water and juice with kefir grains and sugar.

Another of my wonderful friends wrote a very thorough and informative series on making the best choices we can for our families in regard to food.  This is a timely topic and really provides some thought provoking as well as helpful information to help us make informed choices when we feed our families.  It gets harder and harder to feel good about the food we purchase and consume.  I am certain you will enjoy reading her series, The Switch at her blog, Where My Treasure Is.