Prioritizing

I have a friend that is always telling me that I "need deadlines." Anytime she asks me to do something, no matter how small, she gives me a date that I am expected to have this thing done.  I need deadlines because I prioritize and anything that doesn't have a consequence when it isn't done is moved ot the bottom of the list (and almost never gets done). 
Everyday I must:
1. Take care of my children's needs (this is at the top for a reason).
2. Make some progress on my work for my employer
3. Make sure that our plants have enough water and things are harvested as needed.

Beyond the above tasks, I then prioritize the deadlines I have been given.  I have specific deadlines for lots of things:
1.  planting things in the garden.
2.  turning things into my employer
3. scheduling activities for my kids
4. other obligations

One might say that I am in over my head when I have to prioritize to the extent that I am.  At this point, I agree and therefore, over the next several weeks my posts might be a bit more sporatic as I weed a few things out of my priority list. This is a busy time for both the company that I work for and in the garden.  By the beginning of June, I hope to be posting a bit more regularly again.  I will be thinning some things out permanently in the next few weeks to make more time for family, homesteading activities, and blogging. Time management is a very important part of homesteading.

What are your strategies for prioritizing?  When do you realize you have to give up something?

Homeschooling

MrLivingOurWay and I have many different opinions when it comes to education.  We always have.  When we were both working and we had to put our daughter in a new daycare due to a move, we visited a lot of centers.  I fell in love with one that resembled our old center in a lot of ways but also stated that play was mostly what the kids did and that they didn't really push a lot structured learning.  MrLivingOurWay fell in love with a daycare that claimed to have Christian curriculum and promised to make our child a smart Christian.  It didn't take us long to find out that the center felt that by claiming to be Christian, they would get more clients and were not in fact very Christian at all.  We did end up switching to the center I had wanted to send her to after a few months and it was a great fit.

Now that we homeschool our kids, you can imagine that I love to let our children explore areas of their interests (mixed with some gentle pushing towards academics and would use a more eclectic approach if I could). MrLivingOurWay loves textbooks and especially those that come with a teacher edition.  For now, we balance each other out.  We do use a computer based curriculum as the oldest FindingOurWay is very independent and enjoys getting her work done when she is ready rather than waiting for someone to sit down with her.  This is also easier for us since we telecommute. 

I still encourage her to read books that are of interest to her and she tends to soak up knowledge from other experiences too.  She is constantly learning even if she's not learning from a book. I am constantly amazed by the skills that she picks up.  She knows all about our chickens and how to take care of them.  I am amazed at how she "takes care" of her little sister and has picked up some basic cooking skills (with lots of restrictions as you can imagine).  When kids have time to explore their interests, they learn all kinds of facts and skills that wouldn't be possible if someone were to tell them what to learn every minute.

Last summer, we did some book work in Social Studies for the summer.  This summer,  I suspect we'll do the same with a different subject.  We haven't decided on which subject yet, but I'm thinking it will involve some science experiments. 

What is your style of schooling? If you have thought about homeschooling, which style would you use?  What are you plans for this summer?

Chicken Update

Our little chicks are now in their own chicken tractor.  They have much more room in there for now.

Do you remember our hen that was attacked by a possum? She is missing an eye but has recently been reintroduced back into the chicken coop with the rest of the hens.  She spent about a week on our back porch so we could keep an eye on her and then more time in a chicken tractor alone, and then some time the tractor with some "roommates" and finally she and her roommates were placed back with the rest of the flock.

Berry Surprises and Pictures!

Our raspberries gave us quite a surprise this year. They have never bloomed before but we've had some cooler whether this year and they bloomed.  Aren't they beautiful?

Our blackberries are starting to put on fruit.  They certainly aren't as pretty right now as they were a few weeks ago when they had pretty white blooms but the fruit will be nice to have.

Our blueberries are also putting on fruit.  We've put cages around them this year to protect them from the chickens.

We've known for a while that we have wild grapes growing all over the place, but most of the vines have not bloomed in the past. Last year we only got a handful of grapes which is why we planted ones we purchased this year. This is the second year that our trees have been cut and it looks like the grapes have finally gotten enough sun.

The huckleberries are also blooming and putting on fruit but my pictures didn't turn out of those. They are beautiful and have a peach/pink color.

Where do Double Yolked Eggs Come From?

We've been getting really large double yolked eggs lately. In the picture to the left, the top picture is one of the huge double yolked eggs we've been getting.  The one on the bottom is just one of our usual large eggs.  There is a quarter in the picture for size comparison.

Double yolked eggs indicate an abnormality in the hen's reproductive system in which the hen holds back a yolk and when the next yolk comes an egg is produced with two yolks.    This occurs most when a hen first starts  laying or when she is at the end of her reproductive life.  We feel that it is one of our older hens that is laying the double yolked eggs.

When do you get double yolked eggs? Are you finding that it is in the young hens that have just started laying or is it in your older hens who are about to stop laying? Do you find that both lay double yolked eggs?