Farm~School~Life

One of the things you are always taught in any social media training is connect with your audience and connect regularly. Well here I am with my regular connection....about once every year or two! Yes I realize that is probably not what they intended.

This blog is an outpouring of my thoughts, a journal of changes, and a log of the trials and tribulations we have experienced over the years. This past year has been one for sure.

Our on-farm creamery has grown exponentially since we began almost 4 years ago. Last summer we spent maxed out on what we could do. We were fortunate to be awaiting larger processing equipment, but as we waited, we ran batch after batch in our small 30-gallon pasteurizer. We spent more time in those 4 white walls than we did in our house. I wiped more milk jugs than tears. It was a hard season for us. It was a blessing from God for sure that we had outgrown our initial goals long before we projected. Those blessings also brought hardships...growing a business is hard...not only financially but it's also hard on your family and your faith. It stretches you far beyond where you are comfortable. Growing means even longer days and shorter nights. It means less time for things that we enjoy off farm. It means bare bones when it comes to traditional schoolwork. It means short tempers and sharp tongues, for which we must beg for forgiveness often.

2024 brought new equipment mostly installed and operating. It has lessened the time we spend in the creamery and allowed us more time to eat meals with our children and sleep. We haven't found the perfect balance yet...and let's be honest we probably never will. But we are farmers...and we will keep chugging along because that is what we do...we face challenges, we pray, we figure things out and make do with what we have.

Mentioning school...yes we still homeschool...somehow...somedays...we get by. That is how I feel our home education has gone the past 2 years. We made it through, but it wasn't pretty. It wasn't what I planned or dreamed it would be. Our oldest finished his first 2 years of high school. His desire for knowledge isn't on topics found in textbooks and lesson plans. He dreads the idea of traditional book work and well honestly any mention of school in general. Our younger 3 still find joy in learning all the things. Their spark of interest and self education still remains. I pray that this year we will be able to rekindle that spark in our oldest as well.

This year I am praying we accomplish 2 things on the homeschool front...

1. More consistent family discipleship and improve family relations; which will lead our children to the foot of the cross...whether they decide to accept Jesus is between them and the Saviour, but we have to lead them to him.

2. Develop a desire for knowledge and self education...by tossing some traditional textbooks out the window and using more real books and digging deeper into their interest I am hoping to increase their desire for knowledge in all areas, expand their sphere of interest and help them be motivated to self-educate on some topics and areas of study.

That might be asking too much but those are the goals I have for the upcoming school year.

We have goals for the farm and creamery as well. We are still putting those thoughts together as we navigate growing our business and our babies.

Homeschool Overwhelm

Home educating our children has been one of my greatest blessing and challenges. I struggle with selecting the “perfect” curriculum for our kids. I compound that struggle by picking apart every little thing I like and dislike about each one I pick, and I have picked plenty!

Let’s just say right this very moment in my house we have not 1, not 2 but 9 learning to read options! We have 6 math options, 7 history/social science options, 5 science options, at least 5 language arts options, 4 preschool options plus 2 foreign languages.

You think I’m indecisive don’t you…you might be right…you might not be. You see I am educated in the ways of modern education. I went through public school, 4 years of college, taught in public school… shoot I even went back to school to get my M.Ed in CURRICULUM, Instruction and Assessment. You would think all that dang education (and debt) makes me well equipped to pick curriculum for my students. It doesn’t mean a hill of beans! You see my kids (or yours) don’t fit a box or a standard. God designed each of them uniquely. Their talents, their learning styles, their strengths, and their weaknesses are all designed by God. I will never pick the “perfect” curriculum because it doesn’t exist.

“We do the best with the options we have, and God will do the rest.” Oh, how easy that statement is to say and how difficult it is to live. I still am swimming in a sea of curriculum options. I must change my mindset…my husband on the other hand lives this mindset daily. Needless to say, he doesn’t understand my conundrum.

Our school year starts in less than 2 weeks, YIKES! Have I finalized my choices? NO!!! A sweet friend asked me last week at dinner what I had decided…because said friend already had nailed hers down…I just stared blankly at her for a moment. My deer-in-headlight answer…something we already own. My husband rolled his eyes…more books arrived this week.

Another dear friend and I were discussing options and she mentioned she hadn’t even started looking for next year…my anxiety began to twitch…she rattles off a few things she is interested in looking at more closely…I offer her my copies to explore, because yes, I owned them all.

We live in a unique time to home educate our children. We probably live in the most accommodating time of the last 100 years to chose home education. We have a plethora of options, support, and community to rely on. We aren’t bound to just a few publishers who tweak classroom packages for the homeschool. We have whole million-dollar companies dedicated to us!! And there is the problem…they are all vying for our attention, our money, and our loyalty.

So how do you decide? Pray! Once you have finished praying…you might have to do it again and again especially if you are like me pouring out your heart in prayer but not yielding to listen. Once I slowed down and yielded to what HE was trying to guide me to…I realized a few things…

1. It is more important that my home be Christ-centered, than a school centered.

2. Children for centuries have learned in multi-age groups. Mommas you know that your tag-a-along picks up on things long before your bigs because they have heard the lessons…sometimes repeatedly.

3. Learning isn’t always neat and tidy, nor does it always look like textbooks and worksheets

4. Our children must be able to communicate well in written and oral language. They need to be well read and able to express themselves, defend their faith and move people with their passion.

5. We have to prioritize relationships over test scores.

Does this mean we are not going to have structured learning? NO!!! I am NOT an unschooler by any means. It means that I have a few days before I have to nail things down. I am going to sit back and enjoy some time exploring and perusing rabbit trails. I am going to pray. I am going to discuss it further with my husband and together we will decide on a plan to fit our family, our life and most of all focus on our faith in Christ Jesus.

Until we meet again may God bless you real good,

Caci

Frustration is at the core of most disagreements, arguments, and attitudes. One party or the other…heck maybe both is experience frustration. When the level of frustration rises it causes pressure to build and otherwise calm, relatively quiet, easy-going people “lose it.”

While I would never describe myself as calm, definitely not quiet and honestly, I’m not easy going either…I am usually pretty much the same temperament…I am a distracted, devoted, louder than most, full speed ahead then crash, high strung individual.

My teenage son is the exact opposite in some ways…he’s laid back, moves at his own pace, highly talkative, friendly, water off a duck’s back kinda guy. We clash…regularly.

That slower than molasses pace causes me frustration, that “whatever” attitude when consequences are doled out causes me frustration. The lack of foresight into how his action affect others causes me frustration.

Heck…I make his sound like a bad kid if you only know him through this post…he’s not a bad kid…he’s actually pretty awesome. He works step for step with his daddy and I daily (maybe not at the speed or the quality I expect but he’s there). He loves his younger siblings and enjoys spending time with them. He is passionate about the outdoors, farming, and welding…but he still causes me frustration.

Any relationship is going to experience these ebbs and flows…somedays though it’s more than a momma’s heart and mind can handle. I wish I could tell you in those minutes I laid it all at the foot of the Cross…but I don’t. I explode! I yell, I fuss…sometimes I cuss. I do exactly what God has called me not to do. I provoke my son, I don’t show him grace, I don’t speak to him kindly…and then I feel…devastated…I am devastated that I didn’t in my time of frustration point him to Jesus but instead I pushed him away. I unleashed a tongue lashing instead of correcting him through godly love and discipline.

You see as much as he is a sinner in need of Jesus Christ, his Savior…I am too. I am a sinner, who constantly needs her Savior. I am a human that falls short of HIS glory daily. I can’t be the only momma who experiences this, can I?

Mommas what are we to do? How are we to react? How are we to discipline and disciple our children when we, too, are sinners?

1. We pray for wisdom, guidance, forgiveness, and better ways to respond when frustration takes over

2. We ask for forgiveness from God AND those we have hurt on earth.

3. We read God’s word and seek wisdom from the source. We don’t rely ourselves but on God.

My desire for my children isn’t to get into Harvard or any other Ivy League school, my desire is for my children to get into Heaven. I can’t get them there, heck I can’t even get myself there, but I can show them the ONE who can. I can do my best to lead them on the path set out for them until it’s their turn to lead. I can point them in the direction of the Cross…and most importantly as their momma I can pray. Pray for their salvation, their safety, and pray for me. Pray that I guide them with the grace, kindness, and love that only the Holy Spirit can give me. Pray that I have impressed upon them their NEED for Jesus and a thankfulness that HE paid the ultimate price for them. Pray that they know that no matter what Jesus & momma love them. Pray that they have learned that correction is part of that love.

I don’t expect to see results today, tomorrow…honestly, I may never see them…but I do pray that each passing day I am growing in my relationship with Jesus and guiding each of them to grow in theirs.

Frustration is a human emotion; the Bible even tells us in Deuteronomy 28:20 that God sends frustration. Thankfully, the Bible also tells us in Proverbs 3:6 ESV “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” So when frustration sets in I urge to call out to God and remember His word… “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;” James 1:19.

Until we meet again may God bless you real good!

Caci

Some of you that read my blog may already know that last year at the beginning of the pandemic, The Farmer & I decided to bite the bullet on something we had been discussing, planning, and subsequently laying to the side for years. Last year, we opened an on farm creamery. We began in the spring and after working with delays due to Covid-19 finally got up and running in November of 2020.

After 10 months of operating we have a little bit better idea of how to balance all the things that need to get done. The creamery only processes a small percentage of the milk we produce on farm. The remaining milk is sold through our milk cooperative. That means it ends up on grocery store shelves like always.

So if we are still shipping milk and you can still our milk at the grocery store, why would anyone purchase milk from our local retailers? Well the milk we bottle on farm is different! Plus, we partner with small mom and pop restaurants, farmers markets and businesses.

But really how is our milk different?

It's pasteurized (because pasteurization saves lives) but it is not homogenized. What the heck does that mean? Well when milk is homogenized it's basically shaken until all the fat particles in the milk are separated and dispersed to the point those particles can't reform the bonds they once had. Non-homogenized milk allows the cream (or fat) to rise to the top. It can be scooped off for coffee creamer, ice cream, making your own butter or whipped cream, etc. Don't want to scoop to scoop it off...no big deal...just give the milk a good shake or 2 and the cream will disperse back into the milk.

Ok so I don't want the cream to rise...then why on earth would I buy this instead of 'regular' milk?

Our process allows us to heat the milk to low temperature for a longer amount of time, which kills any bad bacteria which maybe in the milk but keeps the good bacteria (the kind that aid in digestion).

When you purchase whole milk at the grocery store it contains 97% fluid milk and 3% fat. Yes, you have been buying milk flavored water if you have been buying skim all these years. Since our milk isn't skimmed that means that you get the full flavor and all the nutrients that come with that flavor. There is nothing like a ice cold glass of milk on a hot day (or after a workout) to help quench your thirst and replenish your body with the needed nutrients.

So now that you know a little more about the milk we bottle on farm, you might be wondering if whole milk is all we do.... That answer is NO! We also do chocolate milk (which is kind of addicting) and buttermilk. We hope to add more dairy products over the course of the next year, but we will have to see what is next.