how do I take my catle out of normal status to be able to protect it while off line

You can't change the status yourself.

Peace Mode is activated for 30 minutes after you are attacked.
Normal Status starts at level 11.

Any time you are in Normal Mode you can be attacked by players +/- 10 levels of you.

You can always set up defense formation in deployment to defend yourself while offline. But you risk the chance of losing your units if someone much stronger than you attacks you.