Free Day

I love the freedom that comes with homeschooling. It's one of the many things I love about it. Today we are taking a day off just to relax and enjoy each other. Public school is on Spring Break this week but we aren't, except for today. We take days off here and there so a full week isn't really necessary for us. But it's so nice to get up in the morning without the pressure of having to "do" school. I thank the Lord everyday for these freedoms.

My girls are already in the throes of "pretendland" upstairs in their rooms. I love to sit and listen to the games and stories they create. They're so uninhibited. There's absolutely no bounds to their imaginations and it's so entertaining to listen to.

My mother used to tell me how she loved to do the same thing. She also told me someday, I'd have the chance to listen to my children. :-) I'm so glad she was right.

These early spring mornings on the farm have settled into a nice routine. I'm milking 6 does and feeding 10 kids 3 times a day. They have already been dis-budded and will be tatooed before long. This weekend the 4 bucklings will go to the sale barn to be sold. We need the milk for the 6 girls we are keeping. So, far they are eating around 7 gallons a day. That's on top of the feed and hay they're also eating. It's a fine crop of kids and we are pleased.

It will be cheese-making time soon. I love to make fresh homemade cheese. I'm going to attempt to add a new one to my repitoire, cheese curds. It's a family favorite snack. We'll see how it goes.

Two days ago, Morgan and I found a cache of eggs the hens had been hiding from us. We thought they hadn't started laying again yet but we were wrong. On the porch we have a table that is loaded down with junk we moved out of the goat barn to make room for the kids and milk stands (it's a work in progress ;-)) that has a folded up tent on it. The hens had decided it was a great nest. We found 14 eggs there. We only have 2 hens so they'd been hiding them a week. Morgan gathered them up and we washed and floated them. None had spoiled, yeah! Fresh eggs and milk for breakfast!

It will be Round Up Club time before we know it! The new season begins in April and will span through the summer and early fall. The girls can hardly wait. It's always a blast and we're all looking forward to it. We'll have to start getting the horses in shape for it again after their long winter break. We let the girls practice on Tyler, their gelding last week and they did great.

Later, we'll be heading in to town to visit the bread store. It's bargain day and the girls love to go there.

I think I'm going to take advantage of this quiet morning and have a cup of tea and settle in my favorite chair with a book. At least for a few minutes......