{our citrus harvest}

Last week a friend surprised me at church with some citrus - from our trees.  She's been caring for our "orchard" since we moved and the oranges and lemons were ready to pick.  We got 8 Satsuma organges and 5 Meyer Lemons.  Not bad for our first year.

There's some citrus trees growing near our church office and each year they citrus go to waste because no one picks them.  The businesses landscaped with them but they are in an odd part behind some buildings and on the side of a parking lot.  It was supposed to freeze here on Sunday so Carl and and the kids went ahead a picked some of the fruit. 

Another friend gave us some oranges she recieved from her foster care group and yet another friend gave us some tangerines that her dad grows.  So now we have oranges, kumquats, tangerines and grapefruit.  I'm so thankful for a second refriderator in the garage. 

Any ideas on what to do with the kumquats?

Happy Thanksgiving

photo credit

..."Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen."   Revelations 7:12

Happy Thanksgiving from the Schneider Family.  We hope you have a blessed day!

weekending... and a soup recipe

Our weekend officially started with homemade pizza night.  Gabriel has been concerned all week that we unpack all the necessary items we need for pizza night. I assured him over and over that we have it all.  At about 5pm on Friday I realized (actually Gabriel realized) that my kitchen aid mixer was still in our friend's garage.  Fortunately, they live pretty close and they were home, so Christian and Phoebe went to get it.  Disaster adverted!

The hen house is almost completed - it just needs a roof (it has a tarp right now).  So we went and wrestled 31 hens and 1 rooster, boxed them up and brought them to their new home.  It was quite the experience. 

The frame is up...

First night in the new house...

I'm not sure why these girls prefer to sleep under the nesting boxes...maybe
we need to lower them?

Finishing up the step which is also a shoe scrapper...

Our weekend was also filled with unpacking boxes, picking up $1400 worth of Boy Scout popcorn that the boys need to deliver this week, unpacking boxes, hanging pictures, a Sadie Hawkins dance, a sleepover - at our house, a friend installing some electrical and phone outlets for us, unpacking boxes, picking up a new to us table that I'm bartering for, butchering a couple of wild hogs and unpacking boxes. Can I just say that it is so nice to have teenage boys who will diligently work even when they would rather be doing something else?

Our weekend ended with sausage, potato and kale soup (inspired by Heather at Beauty that Moves) and a game of Farkle.  A good weekend indeed.   

Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup Recipe
I'd been planning on making Heather's soup all week.  Sunday afternoon when I finally looked at the recipe I realized that has beans, not potatoes, in it.  I didn't have any beans and so used potatoes anyway and it worked out fine.  I also didn't have any bay leaves, next time I want to try it with bay leaves.

1 pound pan sausage - I used venison, you can use whatever kind you like - you could even use link sausage.
5 potatoes - sliced
1 onion
1 head of garlic
1 bunch of kale
salt and pepper

Slice and boil the potatoes.  I overcooked mine just a little and they were kind of falling apart, but my family didn't care.  While the potatoes are boiling brown the sausage with some onion and garlic in a large pot.  When the sausage is done add some chicken or vegetable broth and the potatoes.    You can drain the fat off the sausage if you want. Since I used venison there wasn't any to drain.  You can add salt and pepper to taste.  Chop the kale and add it to the soup.  Let it simmer until the kale is wilted.

Serve with quick, no fail biscuits.  Enjoy!

our home

Last Friday we moved out of the campers and stayed our first night in the house.  We also got our dog, Rascal.  Some very sweet friends have been watching him for the last six weeks.  When I was driving to their house to pick him up, I almost started crying.  Now, if you know me in real life, you know that Rascal is part of our family... he's our pet.  He's not another child (we have plenty of children).  He lives outside and gets in trouble when he tries to sneak in.  He's a good dog and we've missed him.  I think the almost tears were not necessarily about Rascal but about finally feeling like our life is getting back to normal.

Next, we need to get the chickens.  But first we need to build a hen house and yard for them.  So Sunday we went to the hardware store and got a great deal on some culled wood they had.  After a crazy adventure that involved the older boys loosing a tire on the trailer and Carl having to leave the rest of us at the store to go help them.  We ran into some friends at the store and they graciously hung out in the parking lot with us and our wood for almost an hour.  And then we were "rescued" by a another friend's son who came and got us and our wood and took us home.  When we finally got home and Carl, Phoebe and Benjamin started their hen house.

The infamous trailer with the scrap lumber from the old house.  Most of this
will be used for the hen house and garden shed. 

The house was built in 1963 and the trees are very large, like 40 ft. tall.  We have four pine trees, two pecan trees, a small citrus tree and several oak trees.  There's an area in the back that doesn't have any trees so our garden will go there along with a garden shed.  We'll put the blueberry pots near one of the pine trees since blueberries like the acid in the pine needles.

Carl has plans for a smoke house and the kids have plans to build the best ever tree house in one of the back trees.

learning to slow down

After a three and a half month long adventure, we are finally in our new house.  We have learned so many things and met some really neat people that we would not have met had we not lived in the campers.

Phoebe and Benjamin schooling in the camper.

Esther loved the toothpicks that were on the table when we were in the campers.

One of the coolest things that I learned during this past six weeks is that I really don't have to be in such a hurry all the time.  We spent a lot of time with many "retired" people at the RV park.  We spent time playing cards, talking and watching them do their work.  The lady who owns the park is a fairly recent widow.  It was really neat to see the people who come to the park year after year help her do some of the things that I'm sure her husband used to take care of.  And yet there was a peacefulness to all the work.

For instance, the picnic tables are all being redone.  The frame is metal and the seats and table are wood.  New wood is cut and screwed onto the frame.  The wood is painted and some even have fun garden designs painted on them.  The man who is doing this project is doing them one at a time from start to finish.  Now if I were in charge of this project, I would be cutting all the wood first, then lining up the tables and put them together and paint them assembly line style.  Of course, I'd enlist a few friends to help me. We'd have those tables completed in no time.  ... and we'd all be stressed out...

The man who is helping to fix the pond in front of the club house doesn't seem to be in a hurry either.  He works for a while and then spends time with his wife and other friends.  He just picks up where he left off the next day.  When I asked him how long he thought it would take, he said "However long it takes."  There was no stress in his voice... even when I accidently knocked a few of the large rocks off the pile.

There is this attitude of whatever I don't finish today can just be done tomorrow.  Where as I usually feel like tomorrow is so full, I need to do everything I can today.  I seem to set up arbitrary goals and deadlines for  our family so that we can get on to the next goal or deadline.  I didn't realize how stressful all that is.

We've spent the last 6 weeks having a reduced school load and of course a really reduced homemaking load and I've really enjoyed the slow, social aspect of RV park living.  I know our school load and homemaking load will increase, and yet I hope to keep the peaceful attitude that I observed in these older people.  I'm going to try.... wish me well.

Full disclosure:  As I am finishing this post I have four children clamoring for my attention.  One needs help spelling words for some of his co-op homework due Thursday.  One would really like to get out of her booster chair, but I want her to finish her breakfast.  One is sitting beside me on the couch wanting to chit chat.  And one is frantically trying to find and scan mine and Carl's high school senior pictures for the Senior Mystery Page in the yearbook which is really not due until the 18th, but the editor lives 30 minutes away and we will see her today.  It's a good opportunity to practice peaceful living!

Texas Renaissance Festival 2011

Last week we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival.  This is our third year to go to their school days.  School days are great because there is no alcohol served and the ladies wear more modest clothing.  I'm not sure why our culture thinks of the renaissance time period as a lewd time period but that is how it is often portrayed at these kind of festivals.  But on school days it is really toned down.  They also have one act plays, essay and costume contests.  Last year Phoebe placed 3rd in the elementary division for the costume she made she was also pictured on this years brochure.

There is really too much to see in one day, this year we focused on the demonstrations.

This is the glass blowing demo.  She started with a golf ball size piece of
glass and ended up with this vase.  Very, very cool. 

This a foot operated lathe.  He was so very sweet to answer all the
kids questions while making a Christmas tree ornament.

We saw the weaver's loom.

This is similar to carding cotton.  Someone turns the handle and then they
put wool onto the poky circle and it cleans the wool.

We saw the spinning wheel in action

and the spindle. 

Benjamin taking a break from being a knight.

We made Esther a peasant's costume out of leftovers from Phoebe's.  

All in all, we had a great time.  We met some friends that had moved away last summer and got to spend the day with them.

So, if you live in Texas, I would encourage you to go to the school days at least once.  They even offer scholarships for classrooms.  Our homeschool co-op received a scholarship of 30 tickets.  We are so thankful for them without them we would not have been able to go this year.