Massive Update

The last couple of weeks have been a blur. I need to make a better effort of updating this blog!

One of the most recent things I've decided to do is to fire my dryer. Now, that doesn't mean I've quit doing laundry. Our house would be overrun by mounds of dirty clothes in a matter of days if I did that! No, what it means is that I'm not using my dryer anymore! I found this great article taking about line drying your clothes. Now, I've wanted to do this for a while, but my husband has been completely against it b/c of pollen issues. My son has asthma, and my husband has a terrible time with pollen season. Peppering our clothes with the wonderful powder would not be good for either of them. So...I've struggled with not being able to line dry our clothes.

Then, I found this great website! that talks about how ANYONE living ANYWHERE can fire their dryer. I never thought of line drying in the house before! So, I'm on day 2 (load 2) of line drying. I'm using our bonus room & I have a ladder set up in the back. I hang most of the clothes on hangers and put them on the ladder. So far, so good. It takes a while...but I can be patient :)

I've also been tinkering with canning food. This is also something that anyone can do! There is a little set up cost. You need to buy a pressure canner (mine was $62) and you need jars, lids, etc. But, the cost is quickly balanced out after a few rounds of canning. So far, I've canned:
- peach preserves
- canned peaches
- sweet pickles
- dill pickles
- vegetable beef soup
- chicken noodle soup
- potato soup

Next up will be pinto beans. I'm trying to eliminate eating store bought soup. It's packed full of sodium and other various preservatives that I'd rather not ingest. ...AND canning is surprisingly a gratifying activity.

Our school year has also kicked off at our house, so we have books and science things everywhere! We'll be doing monthly unit studies on different countries this year -- something I can't wait to do. This will be the first set of unit studies that I have personally put together (instead of finding a pre-made one online). I'm a little nervous, but very excited!!!

I'll update on how the studies go as we start them (September).

Well, that's all I have time for right now. Until next time....