View From the Back Forty

It has been a rough week.  We are in the middle of winter here in Nebraska , which means cloudy, cold weather.  We had a case of the stomach flu, I had to explain a couple life experiences to the oldest Brown boy, that no parent should have to explain to their child, and least of all our worries- we had a pie crust catastrophe!  A few of the pumpkins harvested this year! But this is life, things happen to us and we have to make the best of it somehow, I suggest pumpkin pie as one way to do that.  But let’s begin our story at the beginning, this summer we planted exactly one pumpkin plant that produced literally half my garden space worth of pumpkins.  We gave some away, we sold a few for the boys to make money, and I still had roughly 20 left to take care of.  The pumpkins “mocked” me in our basement until New Years weekend, when I finally felt I had the time to take care of them, and that means; can them.  I cut up four pumpkins, and this gave me the amount of pumpkin that I

Merry Hallothanksmas and Happy New Year! It has been busy in the Brown house lately!  I’m sure it has been busy in your house as well.  For us, it feels as though we have been running since Halloween.  At one point I saw a sign that read, “Merry Hallothanksmas!”  I feel this is fitting for the holidays, I don’t really have an answer to this issue, but it feels as though Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas get smooched together in some weird, food eating-celebratory craziness, where I’m just trying to keep my sanity and our family together. The crazy is finally over now, and a new year has begun, along with that comes great possibilities. I personally don’t make actual new years resolutions; I’m not quite that organized-yet.  But I do have a few goals for myself and family.  Goal #1- Purge our house of all unnecessary things! I am done with clutter; my goal is to purge our house in six months of all unneeded things.  So far, I have cleaned one closet and purged ¼ of my c