I found this plant growing in a flower bed around back of the house and I’m not sure what it is. My guesses are a Chinese lantern plant or some kind of a ground cherry. Can anyone help me to identify it and more importantly, tell me if it’s safe to eat?
I’ve read that if you want a good following on your blog, it’s vital that you stick to one topic and write about it well. Blogs that are a random smattering of ideas and feelings, say the experts, will never keep readers engaged.
What do you think about that?
I tend to see my blog as a journal, and who writes about the same topic every day in their journal? Of course, not every post I write will be edifying to everyone, because very few of you (OK, probably none of you) are 32 years old, have 4 children, live on a farm with goats and chickens, home school, and love healthy cooking, playing piano, taking photographs, dancing around the living room and meandering down dirt roads!
However, some people will (hopefully) get some thing out of some of the posts I write.
On the other hand, I don’t want my words to be like the wind, either. I don’t want to utter speech just to make noise, but I want what comes out of my mouth (or fingers) to edify.
So, what do you think? Is there a subject you’d prefer that I just stick to and other subjects just drop? (For example, “Stop talking about your farm animals! This isn’t Little House on the Prairie – no one cares!” or “Enough with the Scripture references already!”)
Writing a blog is definitely a balance and I’m not sure that I’ve found that balance yet.
Any thoughts?
(Oh yeah, and the experts also say that it’s important to blog consistently, like every day. Oops. I think I’ll have to work on that some more, too.) 
Dan found some large mushrooms growing around our property the other day. He says that he is pretty sure that they are morels. He also says that our neighbor told him that his cousin ate a mushroom that he was pretty sure was a morel and died. Great.
So, can any of you verify for me that this is indeed a morel? I heard somewhere that a true morel is hollow inside, which this one is. I am very interested in learning more about wild mushrooms – which ones are good to eat and not – but I feel a bit uneasy trusting research comprised of scanning Internet mushroom guides. I would rather learn from a real, live person who has eaten the kind of mushroom I’m looking at and is still alive to tell me about it. I love mushrooms, but not so much that I’m willing to risk my life for a yummy one!
[Click on photos to enlarge]
Hollow inside
Thanks for your help!
I’ve had a Facebook account for a few weeks now so that I can stay in touch with my out-of-state brother and sister. It doesn’t have anything cool on it – not even a picture of myself.
To be totally honest, I haven’t added any pictures because I don’t really want anyone to recognize me and add me as a friend…
It’s not that I’m anti-social. A few years ago, I had a MySpace account, with which I was able to catch up with many of my long-lost acquaintances. Unfortunately, I soon grew weary of the limited way of communicating that seems to come with a MySpace account. I also got tired of the horrible advertisements that I had to look at whenever I went to sign in. Several other reasons all added up to my cancelling my account.
When I opened my FB account a few weeks ago, I didn’t go searching for people that I know. I didn’t want to get involved in the whole social networking thing again. I only have about 4 or 5 friends ((waves to them)). However, this past weekend, I somehow or another wound up surfing through my friends’ friends, friends, friends lists – you know how that goes if you have FB – and it seems like EVERYONE THAT I KNOW has a FaceBook account!
I found several people on there that I was never able to find on MySpace that I would love to take a peek at and see how they’re doing.
The “problem” with Facebook is that you have to be listed as a friend of the person to view their profile and pictures. So, I can’t just be nosy and look at pictures of old high school friends, for example. 
So, I’m in a quandry. Do I get all involved in Facebook like I did in MySpace? Is it worth it to spend all sorts of time adding pictures and information to my profile, adding people to my friends list, writing on their wall and exchanging trite little messages back and forth? I regret the amount of time that I spent wasted when I had a MySpace account, even though it was GREAT to catch up with a certain few people.
Or should I just let those people who have slipped through the cracks of time in my life well alone? (i.e., not be so nosy!)
What do you think? Do you have a Facebook account? Do you think it’s worth spending time on? Why or why not?
For the past week or so, we’ve been trying to come up with a name for our farm. It’s not absolutely necessary to have a ‘farm name’, but I just like the idea of having a name for our place. In addition, since we are now members of the American Dairy Goat Association with our 2 registered goats, we’d like to have a name that we can attach to our own registered baby goats when we sell them.
We haven’t come up with anything that both Dan and I like yet. (This is reminiscent of picking out baby names!) So, now it’s time for you to help me out! We were thinking of a name that either describes the locale/geography of the property or our outlook on life.
Some things to consider for geography names are:
So come on, help me out! I promise not to laugh at any names that you send my way unless it’s as bad as this one Dan came up with -
“Annie’s Nannies”
Do I have any readers out there who homeschool? I would love to hear from you about any of the following topics:
So far this year, I have not used any set “curriculum” with Abigail. We’ve just been working on the basics of reading, handwriting and beginning math concepts on our own. But as I look ahead to next year, I’ve been overwhelmed at the many choices available for homeschoolers today. The methods alone are so varied:
…Classical education - the Trivium…Robinson curriculum…A Beka Book ‘Scope and Sequence’…Charlotte Mason method…Sonlight…various homeschool academies…and on and on…
Dan and I have a basic ‘philosophy’ for our children’s education, but when it comes to choosing specific books, I could really use some advice. You can get lost in the sea of different books and materials out there! It seems like it is all a bit complicated to me. How did people successfully teach their children for years and years without all the resources we have today?
I realize that homeschooling moms are very busy and probably don’t have much time for commenting on blogs, but if you have a second, please help me out! If you’ve written about this on your own blog, please leave me a link so I can come and visit!
Thanks in advance!
