Frost Flowers for The Homemaking Party

Welcome to The Homemaking Party! We've been below freezing the last couple days. This morning, Jamie and I took a little walk and I took some photos of frost flowers.

Frost flowers are a cool phenomenon we didn't have in Oregon---probably because the ground froze hard really fast once the cold weather came.

Frost flowers bloom when cracks form in the stem of a plant and its sap seeps out, making pretty frozen ribbons. The ground must not be frozen though, even though the temperature is at freezing. It's actually a pretty cool thing that probably doesn't occur in very many places.

The best way to find frost flowers in the Ozarks is to look for what looks like toilet paper strung around the base of plants. You'll have to get real close before realizing it's actually a beautiful frost flower!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're having a great week!

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A Pumpkin Farm and a Fall Party

Hi Friends! Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party! Just wanted to share some of the fun we've had over the last couple weeks. The 23rd was my birthday and Jamie surprised me by taking the day off and taking us all to a local farm to pick out pumpkins!

While I was there, I grabbed some apples and have been busy making applesauce! I'll have about 40 quarts of applesauce and about 15 quarts of pumpkin puree once I'm through processing all I purchased!

Jamie even got in the canning mood and make some jars of pickled asparagus---his first time canning!

The night of November 1st, we had a Fall party. The kids decorated and carved happy scenes on their pumpkins.

Here's Brenna (our youngest) proudly displaying the owl sister helped her carve. After pumpkin carving time, we had snacks and watched the old movie, The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills.

Oh, I don't want to leave out my homemade cider! This was my first year making it straight from the apples and it was AWESOME!!

Thanks for stopping by---hope you're having a great week!

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Taking It Easy---Guilt Free!

I found my first persimmon on my birthday last week. Cainan cut it open and we found a spoon shape in the pit!

For quite some time, I've been really intentional about trying to be home more and do the things of homemaking. It wasn't so difficult back in the days of having just young kids at home; but now we're at a place where we've got more teens than not and they have all kinds of things they want to be involved in. Whomever worries about "unsocialized" homeschoolers does NOT get it. Ha! They need to be worried more about OVERLY socialized homeschoolers and their poor mothers!

Lately I've been dealing with some health issues that are forcing me to be very choosy with my time. I've only got enough stamina and emotional energy for a few things each day so I've been very intentional about focusing on the things of home. When I must be out for a day, I spend the next day relaxing at home. Saturday night, my husband and I chaperoned 10 teenagers to a dance two hours away and didn't return until 1:00 am. I spent Sunday mainly in my chair with a book, but I did make a very nice beef stew and biscuits lunch with peach cobbler for dessert.

Monday morning we needed to start back to school after a two week break. I spent the morning putting together the kids' assignment sheets, photocopying and printing literally hundreds of pages for some prep work that needed doing, and grading a big stack of math and English assignments. By the lunch hour, I was feeling very weak and tired so I asked my son to make me a hot sandwich and took a break in a comfortable place.

Not too long ago, I would have felt guilty taking so much "time off"---and there's no way I would have actually told you all about it. Ha! But, God is using this season to teach me about the importance of rest. The more I'm at home, the more I want to be home---and this is truly where I'm called to be!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Homemaking Party!

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