Though he has some strange ideas of living a 'good' life, he's still my baby and I miss his presence at home terribly. Nothing takes that bond of first-born away, you know? I feel so sad for folks who stopped at only one, I just cannot imagine, but a deeper sadness goes toward those who have many and don't feel that strength of bond.
Grains: I've asked around a couple groups of friends who live very plain, several off-grid, as well as some grain sites. The sites that sell, of course, suggest the mylar bags you seal/reseal yourself, as well as oxygen absorbers in proper quantities. I think those are excellent ideas -- however, I'm not buying/stocking grains with the plan of using them at a later date, as in stockpiling. I continually use my grains. There isn't a week that goes by I'm not using them.
Yes, you can reseal the mylar bags with a simple home iron, so you can open when needed, get out what you need, then reseal same as day one. My only problem with that is that eventually, I'll be down to a mylar sandwich bag :o). May be a while, but they will need replacing. That's what I'm looking at by-passing.
In ground I already keep bay and/or mint. I've never given much thought to adding herbs to the grains as berries, though. I suppose it would work similarly, though.
So, I'm stocking wheat. If I've got 500# set aside, I'm probably using the mylar bags, but as I usually buy 200# at a time, in plain 50# bags, I need to determine what to do I guess. It wouldn't be a total loss, buggy grain would become stock feed rather than human feed, but still...I want to to eliminate that possibility as much as I can. I don't know what I'd do off-grid or primitive, without that freezer for at least the first step in storage. Worth trying to do some research and ask around, I guess.
Plain ol' Days: I had a good conversation with a friend this morning. Hadn't talked to her in a while. We looked over school ideas and books, and so forth, among other things.
The day was supposed to be for weekend prep and some sewing (yeah, I know...but we're a large family and I always have sewing waiting in line. It's mostly the boys now) but...as it's now after lunch and I started this around like 9 am...we're just schooling today. A lot of oral narrations and read-alouds.
Nothing really pressing on tap for the weekend. Cutting some denim for the boy's fall/winter pants and jackets, cutting some shirts out, etc. I have another quilt top together waiting for sewing but man, that last one about tried my patience. Not sure I'm ready foir another go :o( I like to *think* I can do just about everything, but, truth be told, I just guess there are things that leave me behind in the dust. I know the idea of true quilting, but I'm not a stickler on details, and well, you sort of need a few details with that. Maybe I'll go at it again. We have the need, so I really need to get a better grip on the methods.
The sewing list so far:
Boy's pants -- 9 pairs total
Boy's shirts -- at least 9
Barn jackets -- 3
Church vests -- 6
Pj pants -- 6 pair
Girl's dresses -- 8 to finish
Aprons -- 10 to finish
Kapps/veils -- 8
Nightgowns -- 4 to finish
Bloomers/slips -- 7
Capes/poncho -- 5
Church dress/apron -- 5
Sounds like a lot, I know, but really, there's 3 boys and 5 girls...plus myself. It's not as many outfits as it seems :o)
Given my time-usage when sewing (getting side-tracked so often!), honestly, I should be making a tentative spring sewing list now :o)
Back to work -- got a gallon of figs to cook down for jam :o)
1 comment:
First I wanted to say Happy Birthday to your son! I know that special bond with your first born and will always cherish it, as well as the relationship with all my children.
Second, I wanted to ask you about your clothing choices. I know that you all dress plain and wear headcoverings, and I was wondering 1)how you all came to that decision? and 2)Was it a automatic switch, or was it gradual? And also, what did your husband think about it, unless it was his decision?
I hope I'm not being too personal, I'm wondering because, although our family does not dress plainly, nor do we wear headcoverings, we do dress modestly, meaning the girls and I wear below the knee dress/skirts or culottes (and no not the ones that look just like long baggy shorts, ones that actually look like a dress when they're on) and the boys wear jeans and usually just plain collared shirts. I've been wanting to simplify our wardrobe and eliminate the need for so many boxes and boxes of clothing and make it less complicated for the kids as well. I was thinking of picking a jumper pattern, or perhaps even a dress for the girls, and just toss the rest of their clothes.
So I guess in addition to wondering about the reason for your choices, I'm also wondering what your clothing list consists of, mostly for your girls, as I'm not having a hard time keeping up with my boys clothing needs, and how much of each clothing item you suggest for each child?
I totally understand if you don't have time to address this,(as if you have nothing else to do, lol) but if you do I would be so grateful...
Talk to you soon...
In His Grace,
sara
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