Since starting our new adventure in eating whole, organic, local foods, I have learned a lot. One of the thigns I have learned is that what I used to think was "normal" really isn't. Here is what I mean.
Have you ever had an egg from a free-range chicken who has been fed some of the best stuff. The inside of the egg is actually a different color. When I cracked open my first one, I just stared at it. It was orange. I mean bright orange. I actually had to call my mother to make sure it was ok to eat. Can you believe that!!! I was so used to the eggs from the grovery store that when I was faced with one of the healthiest eggs I could possible have I actually doubted if it was ok to eat. Truthfully, the experience kind of shook me up. If this was true with eggs, what else have I been eating that really was an impostor for the real thing. It turns out, a lot of things I have been eating are impostors.
Using the amazing website called
Local Harvest and the advice of a friend, I was able to track down a farm 10 miles from my house that raises grass fed cows and pigs and is organically certified. We currently are receiving, milk, eggs, pork and beef from them. From the moment I first tried any and all of these I knew that there was no turning back. It was all so amazingly good that I can't even imagine buying from the grocery store ever again. And that is purely based upon the taste!
As you can imagine, the cost for such delicious delicacies is much higher than I used to pay. Which means, that from now on, mean is a side dish in our home. In fact two to three meals a week are without meat. In all truth I think this is a good thing. I am sure we will be feeling a lot healthier by eating more veggies and less meat.
The other really fun part is what we have been able to do with the milk. What we receive is raw milk, which means we get the small delight of having the cream on top. This makes fro some delicious baking. We also have made yogurt, kefir, cheese, butter and buttermilk.
The recipes can be found on
this wonderful website. (you should try the ginger-ale, its delicious!)
Here is good instructions on how to make butter.
The yogurt and cheese was delicious. In fact my husband and I did the cheese together and had a great time while making it.
Making butter was fun, but tiring.
I did not like kefir and the buttermilk was easy, but got wasted since I don't use it much.
All in all, I am extremely happy with these changes in our life. the change has been pretty easy, with the hardest part being budgeting, but I'm getting the hang of it.
Still to come, fruit and veggies, grains, and cooking.
We learned about Daniel and lion's den and made this stuffed lion craft. I tried to take a nice picture but the lion was too busy drinking Esther's milk.
For our science time we learned all about out skin, why we sweat, and our fingerprints.
Esther loves the Five Little Snow Man song, to see the original, click here.
She matched the letters in her name using clothespins with snowflake letters on them. The penguin alphabet came from here. (it is labeled as penguin letter sequence)
She also did this measuring activity from Walking By the Way
Esther loves to cut, especially using her Kumon Cutting book
I had picked up a textbook of art this past summer at a library book sale. Every week we pick a picture from it and talk about it. 
For science time, We learned about our lungs. I have been using the Usborne Science activities books and I love them.
We made a lung using a soda bottle, balloon, plastic bag and tape. As you pull the bag (diaphragm) down it inflated the balloon (lung). It's actually quite cool!
We also tested to see our lung capacity, or how much air we have in our lungs. This was a big hit since it meant she could blow bubbles all she wanted in the water.
