Happy No Pants Day!

Yes, today is officially No Pants Day. Who knew? It seems the first Friday in May is traditionally celebrated as No Pants Day.

I think I've lived a sheltered life because this is a new one for me. This holiday seems a bit odd. How does one decide to declare No Pants Day? What's the thought behind (pun intended) the whole thing? Are there any underlying (yep, again, intended) philosophies that I am missing?



No one on the Farm seems to be celebrating No Pants Day except for the smallest Young'un. She would love to celebrate today's holiday every day of the year. We're working on this...

I wasn't planning on running out for anything today, but now that I know about No Pants Day, I might just have to change my mind. Could be interesting to see if anyone is celebrating around town.

Just a short post today...I'm keeping it brief (just had to do it one more time).

Growing Things on the Dryer

In case you are keeping score at home, I thought I should update you on what has gone in the ground here on The Little Farm and what is growing on the dryer in the basement.

Last Saturday, Farmer Ron and his hired hand Zach worked hard and planted swiss chard, 2 types of spinach, 5 different lettuces, a mesclun mix (you should really add this word to your vocabulary - you'll sound like a smart French chef), and Calypso beans. These seeds join the sugar snap peas which were put in a couple of weeks ago and are already 3 inches tall.

The Calypso beans are debuting in their rookie season on the Farm this year. We've never grown this variety, nor have we ever grown a bean that will be dried and stored. Should be interesting. We've been eating more beans around here lately because, well, they are cheap and they fill up the biggest young'un. Also, those black and white beauties looked so good in the seed catalog, I just couldn't pass them up.

Today, Farmer Ron put some hills of blue potatoes in the ground - another rookie veggie on the farm. He also planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans along one wall of our garage in our backyard. I made a flower bed there a few years ago and have some hostas and black-eyed susans growing. However, the wall of the garage is pretty bare. So, instead of planting some morning glories or some other climbing flower to fill the space, we thought we'd put in something that would be green, flowery and produce food! The plan is that the beans will sprout and start climbing before the hostas get too big. Just killing two birds with one stone here - beautifying the backyard a bit and saving some space in the actual garden for something else.

We've also got plants growing on the clothes dryer in the basement. The tomatoes, eggplants and pepper plants that we ordered from Seed Savers, were planted about a month ago. You can see from the photo above not all of the little guys made it. We've only got about 5 peppers and 5 eggplants growing, but the tomatoes are going strong. We've got at least 20 of those plugging away down there.

This is the first year we've attempted to start tomatoes and such inside from seed. We may end up buying a few plants to supplement what we've got growing. I've got a goal to can enough tomatoe-y type products to last the whole year. Also, I stopped by a greenhouse while out running errands tonight and some of those plants just looked so yummy! They have peppers called Pinot Noir sweet peppers. Oh my! How could we not grow one of those?

Here's the recap.

In the ground:
pole beans
sugar snap peas
swiss chard
lettuces - 5 varieties
spinach - 2 varieties
mesclun mix
calypso beans

On the dryer:
eggplant
peppers
tomatoes - 4 varieties

We're only about 2 minutes into the first quarter so stay tuned...

Speaking of Seeds...

I've shared a bit about how memorywork plays into our days here on the Farm. Even before we knew we were going to homeschool, we had Nate memorizing Bible verses. We got him a goldfish when he learned his first 10 verses. First kids get all the perks. All of our other kids, just get a high five or a cookie when they learn a verse, but I digress...

Memorizing anything to music seems to make the task much easier! However, for many years I had a love/hate thing going with the Bible CD's that were made for kids. I knew the had value in terms of content, but they made me crazy. You know the ones I am talking about - one or two adults with syrupy sweet voices, music that sounded pretty much the same in every song, lots of little kids singing in high pitched voices and, although you couldn't see them, you just knew the girls had big hair bows and the boys were wearing sweater vests. Yeah, THOSE CD's drove me nuts. Consequently, (I probably shouldn't admit this lest I lose either my pastor's wife card, my homeschooling mom card or both) we just didn't listen to them.

Enter the Seeds Family Worship CD's! I thought I'd died and gone to a "Kid's Bible Sing Along CD" free heaven. There are 5 CD's in the collection - Seeds Family Worship: Seeds of Faith, Vol. 2,Seeds Family Worship: Seeds of Praise, Vol. 3,
Seeds Family Worship: Seeds of Purpose, Vol. 4, Seeds Family Worship: Power of Encouragement, Vol. 5, Seeds Family Worship: Seeds of Courage
. We love them all.

The Seeds CD's are all 100% scripture. There have been many times when the kids have heard a verse in church or elsewhere and I've seen their eyes perk up. They've recognized it from the music. It is so great to see!

The actual music itself is great - appealing to kids AND their parents, even our older kids like it (although they might not fess up to it). There are adult and child voices, but they are good voices, not ones that make me want to climb the walls. The music is varied moving from rock to blues to slower songs. I listen to these CD's on my own in the kitchen and often find the verses running though my head.

These CD's are modern, but because they are all actual scripture, they don't fall into the traps which seem to catch lots of other modern Christian music. It's pretty hard to mess up a song theologically when it's taken straight from the Bible. Also, these songs don't seem to repeat themselves over and over and over and over like many praise songs around these days.

If you are wanting to add some scripture memory to your home or just some good music, I can't recommend Seeds Family Worship enough. You will love them!

(I apologize for the messy links above. I wanted to be able to send you straight to Amazon so you could listen to the CD's, but my blogging skills are...well, poor...and it has taken me FOREVER to get even on the post, let alone looking nice. Thanks for being gracious!)

Will It Roast? - Broccoli

We're going to have lots of veggies here on the Farm this summer. I can't wait! That's some good eating to look forward to.

I had someone ask me this question the other day, "How do you get your kids to eat all those strange vegetables?" We had been talking about what was for dinner at our homes that night or some other Mom sort of conversation topic.

Here's my answer to her query: I've learned to cook vegetables in ways that make them taste delicious!

If you think about it, what kid (or adult) is going to be excited to sit down to dinner and see a mound of soggy, pale green broccoli on his plate? Broccoli that has been frozen and then boiled is, well, just not the most appetizing form of broccoli known to man. I've made it this way and my kids have eaten some of it...but they weren't happy about it.

And don't get me started on veggies from cans...Although I can set an opened can of green beans on the kitchen counter and two of my kids will eat them like candy. Strange, very strange.

My secret (ha, ha) cooking methods are steaming and roasting. Roasting is, hands down, my favorite because it is so easy and it tastes SO good!

So, in honor of my love of roasting and in anticipation of the bounty of veggies that will be coming through my kitchen this summer, I'm starting a series of posts I've titled,

"Will It Roast?"
(We've already talked about roasting cabbage here, in case you want to catch up.)

Today's veggie is broccoli. I'm going to tell you how to make broccoli so delicious you kids will want more and your husband will gaze at you from across the table with those eyes... you know the ones. The recipe is so short because it is SO easy. Don't blink; you might miss it.

Roast Broccoli

a bunch of broccoli - whatever your family or those you're cooking for will eat
a few cloves of garlic
some olive oil
salt and pepper
a lemon (optional)
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat your oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil (you don't have to do this, but you'll love the broccoli even more if you do, trust me). Wash and cut broccoli into florets. I don't use all of the stems, but I do use some. DRY your broccoli. Yes, this sounds strange but it keeps it from being soggy. You can dry it with a towel, let it sit on the counter, throw it in a salad spinner, whatever works for you. Spread the broccoli out onto your baking sheet. Peel the garlic cloves and slice or chop them. Add them to the broccoli. Drizzle with olive oil - I don't have an exact amount - at least a few tablespoons. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Give it a good stir and stick in the oven. 20-25 minutes later, you'll have yourself a little slice of heaven. You'll know it's done when you see some crunchy browned bits. I usually serve it at this point, however some fresh squeezed lemon juice and/or some Parmesan cheese will really put it over the edge.

Will it Roast at your house? Let me know!

Swagbucks Bonus

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A $5.00 Amazon gift card is only 450 Swagbucks, this would be a great start on getting there!

Use the link here or click on Swagbucks in the sidebar. You'll earn rewards for doing your everyday, regular internet searching. What have you got to lose?

Verse of the Week

This week is the Fifth Sunday in Easter and the lectionary texts remind us that Christ came not just for the Jews, but for all. Thank heavens!

The artwork is a photo of a poster in Bejing, China. The text of the Verse of the Week is written in English and Chinese on the bottom of the poster. I think it's so interesting to see how a graphic artist in China depicts Christ. That artist's Christ has a different look than the drawings of Christ I've seen here in America.

The verses I working on this week are from John 13:34 & 35. They are familiar words and I could tell someone the jist of them, but have never put the to memory. We'll see how it goes.

John 13: 34 & 35

(Jesus is speaking)
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Good, but hard words.

How about you? Are you putting anything to memory this week?

Spring on the Little Farm!

It's here! It's really, truly, actually here! Spring! The grass is so green it makes my eyes hurt; the trees have little leaves fluttering on them; the bleeding hearts (these are flowers) are hanging from their branches. It is good!

I thought you might like to see what things are looking like around The Little Farm these days. You're only going to see the outside of the Farm...inside the farmhouse is, well, a bit messy.

Here's the garden and new chicken spread. In the foreground, is the blooming cherry tree. Next is the garden and the bright green spot beyond that is the chicken tractor.


Another look at the garden. The house is in the back.

We just moved the chicken coop to it's new spot and Farmer Ron made a yard for them out of a roll of chicken wire. We needed to get them out of the garden for a while because we planted seeds (lettuces, spinach, chard and other greens) today and they would tear the ground to pieces.

The gals enjoying their new digs. We are getting 4 eggs a day, for the most part. Today we cracked open our first double yolker.

There are even green things poking up in the garden: rhubarb, raspberry bushes and sugar snap peas!




Isn't it exciting? I know some of you live in places where you've already been eating food from your garden...you'll just have to indulge me and my enthusiasm. I can't wait to eat some greens and peas!

Farmer Ron and Zach, our Little Farmer, spent some time getting a few more plots ready for our tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings. I'll keep you posted!