I am such a slacker.

We had a horrible fall/winter, but through that season the Lord chose to bless us in the best way possible. Travis was able to retire early and we brought our kids home to homeschool! They have only been home for a week, but it has been awesome!


Our plan is to year-round homeschool. We will complete the state requirement (church school enrollment, and 160 days of school) with plenty of breaks and vacations sprinkled around where we want them. I feel SO liberated! FREEDOM!



We start our day at 8 am with a walk. At 9 we have breakfast and do morning chores. We begin our formal learning at 10 and finish when we are ready for lunch. If there is anything left that the kids want/need to do...we do that later in the afternoon. Currently our subjects are: Bible, History, Math, Arts and Life Skills. We are doing lots of gardening and chicken coop building, while adjusting to our new schedule and chore assignments. It is my goal to give my children a well rounded education while teaching them responsibility and self-sufficiency. Also, next week Kaylee is beginning violin and Barrett guitar! (HAPPINESS)


I am going to try to be better about posting...but I am making NO promises!

This week and Menu Plan Monday

This has been a really rough week emotionally. Luckily it has stopped raining...I pray everyone perks up.

My meal plan helped alot...so I am doing it again!






Porkchops, brussel sprouts, scalloped potatoes
Tuna Casserole, peas
Chicken Pesto Packets with Penne AGAIN
Chicken and Dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans
Leftover Buffet
Country Fried Venison, mashed potatoes and gravy, Fordhook Limas
(sorry I didn't gather links this week)

Fall is here, but it has not "fallen" yet. I can't wait to get started outside doing the big fall cleanup-pruning trees and roses, blowing leaves, mulching. Getting the goats and pigs ready for winter. Filling my storage building with hay...
The change of season is always exciting for me.

I still have not finished planting my fall garden. It has rained every stupid day for about 2-3 weeks. My square foot garden beds have been too wet and now my brussell sprout plants are dead. I need to go buy more before it is too late. The squash and pumpkins are up and doing well. Something has been munching in my broccoli and cabbage though. Ugh.

In quilting news (oh, I don't think I mentioned that) I have a quilt I have to have quilted by this coming Saturday. It is loaded on my frame, all I have to do is start. I have no idea what I want to do on it...but I want it to be spectacular. It is for a very special little boy's 1st birthday.

It is going to be a great week!

Menu Plan Monday #1

Wow.
I am trying to start blogging again and what better way than to start with Menu Plan Monday...check out over 300 meal plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.







Monday: Spinach and Cheese Tortellini
Tuesday: Pesto Chicken over Penne with Pesto Sauce
Wednesday: Shepard's Pie
Thursday: Subway
Friday: Bubble Pizza
Saturday: Southwest Egg Rolls
Sunday: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Life has gotten in the way lately...I had big hopes when I started this blog. I read many blogs daily and I just didn't feel like I had anything interesting to post about...then I realized that AT THIS POINT I have zero readers...so who cares?

My main purpose anyway is to have something to remember these days by...a journal of sorts...so I am NOT going to stress about it!

A long time ago, just the other day.

I have been back on my genealogy kick again, this time with a subscription to Ancestry.com. The work seems to be a lot easier this go around, since I actually have a decent start and a huge list of surnames to build off of. The great thing about Ancestry.com is that you put in some names, starting with yourself. You add your parents, then your parents parents. When you click the link to view your tree, it will have these little leaves beside some names. Ancestry continuously searches your surnames and then when it finds some matches within its vast database, a leaf will show up in your tree. These leaf hints can be in the form of a census, a military record, or perhaps the tree of another genealogy hobbyist. It really has been a great tool in growing my tree.

I also have been spending some time in the library. Oneonta Public Library has a great section for doing genealogy research. Another fun thing I have been doing is Graveyard Hopping. When I go graveyard hopping, I will load my camera up with fresh batteries and a clean memory card (and one to spare). I go to Cemeteries that I KNOW that I have some ancestors buried in. I take pictures of every headstone, footstone or marker with a surname that I know is in my tree. Even if I have never heard the first name, and even if I don't think they are related. The reason for this is that I can't stand to get home and months later find out that I should have taken a picture of that one doubtful stone.

One line in my family is particularly interesting to me. My maternal grandfather's side. There is a cemetery that bears that families name. There is also another cemetery in the same town that has a marker near the entrance with a family member's name on it. I really enjoy stuff like this, and I love to find when a great uncle served in one of the wars. Fun Stuff Indeed.

Not all of the research is fun, though. Thursday I stopped by the place where my daddy grew up. You see, I don't really have any memory of my dad, he died when I was 4. The property is owned by a very wealthy family in Blount County. Uncle Tom and Aunt Ruby (their aunt who raised my daddy and his brothers after their parents died) worked for this family. Uncle Tom was the single poorest person I have ever known in my entire life. I stopped at the office building (its in a very rural area) which looked similar to a regular house. I asked the lady at the front desk if I could drive down to the old homesite. She said she would have to ask Mr. C. I said ok, just knowing that he would say I couldn't go. Suprisingly, Mr. C came with an armload of books and lead me to his conference room. He introduced himself and asked me what he could show me about my family. I told him about my father, and the people who raised him. He knew Uncle Tom personally. He said that he didn't mind me going back there, but he would rather my kids and husband be with me and said that he would love to take all of us on a tour of the land. I was so happy. He also showed me a bunch of books that contained the payroll records and stuff of that nature.

Uncle Tom's shack was on the right side of the railroad. There were other houses on the left. In that room where I sat with all the books that was a goldmine of info about the man who raised my father was a picture of a locomotive in front of those houses on the left side of the tracks. I am sure my sister knows exactly what I am talking about.

That picture took me back.

I can remember those old houses...I used to play on those railroad tracks.

I 'visited' that outhouse.

I felt how cold I was on one of those winter nights me and my sister, Wendy huddled together under old quilts in the bed that was in the back bedroom of that house, only a thin wall between us and the cold.

I could hear my Momma telling me to always keep my shoes on in the house to keep the coal soot from staining my socks and feet.

I could smell Aunt Ruby and I could see old Uncle Tom shuffling to the well in his ragged overalls.

I could taste the water that he would carry back. I could see the water spill from the ladle in those tin buckets.

The flood of emotions. They were just too much for me.

I thanked Mr. C for his time, and was on my way. It was so nice to finally have somebody know my people and be willing to sit down and tell me about them and show me the things that he showed me. He really knew Uncle Tom. He described him to a T. He said he couldn't remember my daddy, but that he might be able to dig around and find some stuff that would be of interest to me. He also told me I could come back to the office again when I had more time and look at some of the books. I can't wait to hear and see what else he has for me.

My Southern Talk

Well I thought I'd start my first blog with discussing my Southern Talk. My wife, she comments on it often. She's not a Yankee or nothing like that but she did graduate from a high falootin high school. You know, from one of those communities that now has a Interstate off ramp and a Target, so now they're just a little bit better than everyone one else. I guess I'll do this in dictionary form...

a-adverb and some times an adjective (ah) The weather was nice and sunny until it come up a cloud. It then started a raining like cats and dogs.

afeared-verb; (ah feered) afraid: I'm afeared dates to the 1300s was reintroduced to my of haints.
This ancient jewel which vocabulary at a very young age by the movie Sergeant York. I'm afeared its here to stay.

braw or bra- noun; (braw) She don't like it at all when I put her braws in with my britches.

by gods- slang adverb for mad: She was a madder than 300 by gods.

coke- noun; (coke) A coke is any drink that fizzes that's not beer. A cocola is any brown drink that fizzes: I'll have a Pepsi coke.
We don't fool with soda water but if we did... Honey, spray some of that coke water in my whiskey.

dagum- slang for damn:(dagg gumm ): That dagum dog needs to shut ta hell up.

directly- adverb; ( dir ec lee) about too: I'll be there directly.

Fixon or fixing adverb; (FIX ing) about to: I'm a fixing to whoop your ass.

godOmightydamn -my great papaw Trammel's favorite word

Haint- noun; (haynt) a ghost: I seen a haint awatchin us last night behind the house.

hellfire- slang: used in place of you don't say commonly followed by damnation: " They stole my truck!" "Well hellfire." " It had your shotgun in it" "Hellfire and damnation."

Iffin adverb; in place of if: Iffin you're gonna do it you better do it now.

Ink Pen- noun; (EEnk Pin) writing pen which is different than a stick pin: I write sloppy with an ink pen.

liable- adverb; (lie bul) in place of likely: She is liable to dot it at any time.

light bub- a light bulb

nary- adjective; (nare-EE) in place of not Nary a one knew the difference.

nought- adjective or noun; (nawt) in place of not or nothing old English: Jethrow wanted to be a double nought spy but it was for nought.

ought- adverb; (awt) in place of about too or should: She ought to behave.

reckon- verb; (Rek un) I reckon I'll go out side. "The weather man said it's going to rain." " Reckon?'

School - noun; (skoo) My kids go to school.

Show nuff- corruption of sure enough sometimes followed by is. " They say the weather is going to improve." Show nuff?" " It's still real hot out here." " Show nuff is."

Swanee- swear; Well I swanee.

Wasp- noun; (wawsp) a flying and stinging insect: I was stung by a wasp.

Idy- noun; (ID) idea: Where's the cat? I don't have any Idy.

Declair- verb; (dee clair) announce with emotion: Well, I declair!


more will be acomin'...

A real live blog of our very own.

I have been goofing off on myspace for a couple of years now. Blogging regularly sometimes, sometimes not. I have been thinking of starting a family blog for a while now, mainly to encourage my husband to put some of his awesomely funny stories down in type. He can sign in a write what he wants, and I can also. Even the kids can if they want to. There is no theme, our posts will not follow any certain pattern. It will sort of be like a journal, maybe just a record of thoughts and activities. It won't always be exciting now, but months even years down the road it just might be.

I named this blog The Pig House for a reason, but that is another blog another time.