Blessings From Home

Tuesday at Home and Cutting Expenses

A favorite picture of my then 3year old, now 7 year old daughter, Madelynn

     What a lovely day the Lord has given us! This is my most favorite time of year. The time of year you can wake up to the sounds of nature blowing in through your open windows instead of the sound of air conditioners or heaters. Not that I am not appreciative of both luxuries, but to be able to wake up to birds singing their morning song and to feel the coolness of the morning is such a blessing to me. 

     We had a wonderful evening last night. With my dear husband gone in the evenings we get very lonely at dinner time, so last night I made a big pan of chicken fajitas from some chicken breasts I had stocked up on several months ago when they were on sale. We had some homemade spanish rice, spinach salad, guacamole and chips, and even some custard for dessert. We invited my parents over and had such a wonderful time eating, chatting, going through family photos, and just enjoying each others company. In a time where I am really needing to stretch my food, I suppose I should have not invited 4 extra hungry mouths over for dinner, but my family cooks dinner for us quite a lot, and I know that if there is a need for food here before I am able to go to the store they will gladly fill it.

     As is usual, there is lots to do today. Schooling, cleaning, playing, loving. I am on day 4 of not going to the grocery store. As I said before, I will go later this week for milk, but should not incur any expense as we are blessed to have WIC. I feel no need to explain or apologize for using this kind of government assistance as at this time in our lives there is a need and we are only using what is needed.

We have cut  back on all other expenses, including cable, a big step for my dear husband. I have been wanting to get rid of cable for a long time, but could not persuade my husband of such a need until recently. Since doing so, such a peace has come over our home. I no longer have to worry about what filth my children may see even in passing to a proper channel. The commercials themselves have become so unbelievably improper and immoral, much less the shows that are on.

We have decided to cancel our landline after this week. We're waiting on some calls to come in before we do this. We each have a cell phone so we won't be lacking in communication capabilities. We will continue to hang on to our internet, we use it regularly for communicating to long distance relatives and for schoolwork, as well as many other uses, recipes, dear friends, etc, although we are looking for a cheaper plan.

We are drying our laundry outside, weather permitting, turning down our water heater, using our grey water to water the garden, have yet to turn on our air conditioners, turning off lights and opening window blinds, doing any baking or heavy cooking during the cooler temps of the morning or later evening, wearing some clothes more than once before washing them, composting, walking to the library, which is about 6 blocks away, walking to church, which is about a mile away, and so many more things that I'm sure I've forgotten. We currently have my husband's old chevy truck for sale sitting out front. We're hoping to get at least $500 from it. It runs, just not well.

I continue to constantly look for more ways to save, save, save. I also have been making birthday gifts for all the recent birthdays. Here's a picture of my little brothers birthday gift. I have a love for making dolls and teddy bears, and I had such a wonderful time giving this little guy a personality.

Well, my time is spent. I have much to do. For today's menu, we are having oatmeal for breakfast, corn dogs for lunch, and potato soup for dinner, all with sides of fruit, salad, and fresh bread. It's not exactly soup season, but I have some vegetables that are going out that need to be used and potato soup was just the ticket. I pray all of your days are blessed one!

Love in Christ,

Sara 

My Square Foot Garden and Clothesline

Here's a picture of my beloved square foot garden, my had I known gardening could be so much fun and so easy, I would have done it years ago. We spent the majority of yesterday after church working out in the yard, catching up after the abundant rain that we have been receiving over the last few weeks. Work, oh, yes, there's plenty of work to do, even in a square foot garden, like placing your SFG in a place you thought would get plenty of sun, but then realized once the trees got their leaves all grown in there was no sun to be found.

Then unloading, moving, and reloading your SFG with your dirt mixture, oh yes, plenty of work. I had to have hauled over 300 pounds of dirt yesterday. Then we transplanted our tomato starters and my strawberry plant that has been on it's death bed for the last year or so. And started the rest of our seeds, (a little late, but now maybe they won't dround.) I also bought a lavender plant to put in one of the squares in a few moments. The rest have got cucumbers, peas, green beans, marigolds, more tomatoes, and okra.

I've declared that this will be my garden learning year. I've gotten a garden notebook to record successes and failures for future reference. I pray that next year, I will come back bigger and better with lots more wisdom.

So while I'm at it, here is a couple pictures from around my yard.

My beautiful Rose bush. I've got two of them, one with petite pink roses and the other with beautiful yellow roses, both about ready to show their beautiful colors. I've counted over 35 blooms on each rose bush. What a blessing it will be to see that beauty in my own backyard.

The birdhouse. It's in need of some repair, but it is currently home to many of our birdy friends, so I will wait to repair it until they are vacationing in warmer climates for the winter.

My dear Chloe, the newest member of our family. A 5 month old rescue puppy that we adopted about a month ago. Her family had recently lost their home and two of their children to a house fire. So sad. But she is a sweet little girl who keeps my children thoroughly entertained with her playful antics. We believe she is a boston terrier mix.

And lastly my clothesline. My dear husband and I built this about a month ago from landscaping timbers. I still need to add the supports, but as you can see it's doing a marvelous job drying diapers and will soon be holding my sheets as soon as I get them out of the wash. Oooh, fresh sheets straight off the line, what a blessing that will be tonight when I finally am able to slip into bed.

I hope to make it back later and share more on my grocery challenge. I am doing well with it, but haven't had much time to share. My children are outside calling for me to come play for a bit. I pray your day is a blessed one! 

A bit of what's going on

I know my blog posts have been a bit hodge podge and irregular. I abandoned my pantry challenge after just a couple of days, but in my defense our lives have been more than busy over the last few months.

My husband's parents were visiting from overseas for about 3 weeks, and we spend quite a lot of our time with them when they are here because we only get to see them once or twice a year. So a lot of our time was spent going out to there house that they own here. (They're from America, they just work overseas.) They were nice enough to take us out to eat a lot or cook for us. We all went to the zoo one day. Lots going on. We loved having them here, but quite honestly it's so much calmer now that they've gone back home.

My husband finished up his last 2 weeks at his old job and is starting a new job in the morning working for a walmart distribution center. I really don't love walmart, and prefer to not shop there for many reasons, but quite honestly this is the only job in our area that pays a decent wage and has fairly good benefits. So I guess you could say I'm caving in to the walmart drama, mostly out of necessity due to the need to save money but also because I want to support what my husband does.

We had a 2 day yard sale this past weekend and I was thrilled at how much stuff we got rid off. So thrilled in fact that I'm going to continue to bag up things a little at a time, only instead of having a yard sale, I'm going to haul our junk out to goodwill every week or two. I think getting rid of things a little at a time will be easier for the kids than getting it all out at once would be. They were quite willing to give up many of their toys for the yard sale, so hopefully this attitude will continue as they are able to see how much nicer it is to be able to find their toys. I also need to get rid of a lot of clothes still.

Something recently I have taken up is CVS shopping. I have seen all these wonderful thrifty moms sharing about their amazing deals at CVS and I've wanted to learn how they do it, but never took the time until recently, and I have to tell you, I am amazed at how fun it is. It's like a game. Working sales and coupons around until you find the best deal. It's such a blessing to be able to be a good steward of the money my husband works so hard to earn and we're able to buy "luxury" things for sometimes nothing that we normally wouldn't even think about buying. Things like shaving cream. I love the stuff but don't see it as a necessity, and therefore would never buy it when I could use a perfectly good bar of soap. But I was able to get it for something like 2.50 last week and got back around 3 dollars to spend on something else. For more info on learning how to shop deals at CVS please check out Money Saving Mom. She has got so much wonderful information.

Other things going on with us, Rus(that's my husband if you didn't know) and I heard an ad for a new schooling option they're offering in our state. It's an online virtual academy(public school). It's offered through K12. It's a free program that is provided through state funding. You're required to log in so many hours, take state mandated tests, and work with a teacher. Also there is no religous basis for the material, and I haven't heard yet, but they may try to teach science through evolution instead of God made. To be quite honest with you, I'm not too happy about this, but my husband is thrilled with the fact that it's totally free, and all the material( books, equipment, etc) is provided to your family at no cost. I prayed about this for a few weeks and we discussed it at length and my Rus decided that we should give it a try and the kids seem to be kind of excited about the idea even though it means more hours of work in the day for them than they usually have. We will start it in the fall and I promised my husband that I would try it out for at least 1 semester before I made any final judgements, if then, I still am not comfortable with the program we can go back to what we were doing. Until then we'll continue on using our mixed curriculum from rod and staff and keepers of the faith, which the kids seem to be really enjoying.

Our garden is started and we will be putting in a lot of our plants over the next couple of weekends. We're doing a Square Foot Garden. We tried our hand at starting seeds, and honestly the only thing that is looking hardy enough to transplant is a couple of my tomato plants. So we've decided to buy the rest of our transplants at a local nursery. I'm going to be building a cage to protect my plants from the local cats who think the world is their litter box, and also a frame for a green house to set over it when the weather is too chilly.

A few other things going on recently...

~My wonderful husband helped me build a 6 line clothesline, and I have absolutely loved using it!

~He also helped me build my square foot garden box.

~My honey also put up a nice metal storage shed in the backyard. (Man, he's been working hard.lol)

~My honey turned 30 last month. But to me he still looks like the 17 year old I fell in love with nearly 13 years ago.

~We also celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. (It's only been 10 years?)

~We're preparing for the girl's birthdays coming up this weekend and in another 4 weeks for my oldest daughter. They will be 4 and 7. Where does the time go?

~I've decided to finally become a member of the church I've been attending for the last year and a half. I had been waiting and waiting praying that my husband would choose to join with the children and I, but at this point he has not, and I have been feeling the Lord leading me to be more active in the church with the youth and/or outreach ministries, and I can't do that unless I'm a member there, so next Sunday, I will officially become a member there. Praise the Lord!

There of course has been lots of other things, smaller, less significant things, but this is the meat of what's been happening in our lives.

One important note, I'm so thankful to say that I'm finally beginning to have that relationship with the Lord that I've always wanted to have. That deep involvement that just draws you to Him everytime you get a chance. I find myself spending more and more time delving into His Word, and learning so much more. And what's better is that I'm seeing the effect it's having on my children.

As is usual for me, I am also working on getting my home more organized, getting things decluttered, and getting a home routine working in our lives. I have recently finished reading Managers of their homes (MOTH) and am about to finish Managers of their Chores, both which can be found here. They are having quite an impact on how I'm beginning to handle our daily lives and how I delegate chores to my children. I think this will be an answer to a prayer once we can put both of these learning/homemaking tools into place.

I'm hoping to be around a bit more as we settle into a bit more normal pace for us. We will be working on getting used to Rus's new work schedule and working on implementing a new MOTH schedule for the children and I at home. I also have lots of pictures I'd like to share of the kids and things we've done around the house. I don't know if I'll resume my pantry challenge, although I have a lot of groceries that I need to use up. My main goal of the next couple of weeks is to not eat out at all. It became such a habit to just get something quick to eat for lunch or dinner, while we were visiting with the "in-loves", and preparing for this yard sale last week, but it's a habit we must break. I will try to share my menu tomorrow and stay accountable to it for the week.

Our plans for tomorrow involve much catching up. We have some schoolwork to catch up on, laundry, billpaying, and general clean up from our busy Easter weekend! I must remember to schedule my Jacob for his 4 month check up. Man does the time fly! The only direct plans I know of for the rest of the week is our Ladies group meeting Tuesday night, which I am thoroughly looking forward to.

I think I've babbled on enough, I hope to post again soon and more often and also to share lots more pictures with everyone. I may also be doing some updates to my blog as I have time to learn and work on it.

Praying your Easter weekend was blessed,

Love,

sara

Pictures and Busy Days

I've been wanting to share more pictures here, not for everyone else really but for myself. It's been so neat looking back on past blog pages to see what's been going on in our lives. So much has changed since I started this blog back in 2007. So here are a few recent pictures and details about what's been going on in our lives lately....

My handsome fella. Gotta love that look. My precious boy is on the verge of 3 months. So hard to believe. We've had such a rough start with him. His first few weeks seemed to be nothing but tears and  no sleep, but things seem to getting a bit easier and we've even managed a few full night's sleep. Praise the Lord! I've been watching my diet since I am breastfeeding and I think that has been helping his disposition, as well as working on his severe eczema. It's a daily battle with that, but it seems to be slowly getting better. Here's another precious photo of my little man...

He's such a smiley baby! And such a blessing to his family!

Here's my other latest distraction, making diapers for this boy. I had a realization about why those Gerber prefolds can't hold more than a tablespoon of wetness, and ventured out to make my own. I'm working on making all his diapers from what I have on hand...including my husbands old tshirts, some of my dad's polo shirts, a bit of PUL, and a few goodwill sweaters. I am thrilled to say that the homemade prefolds and sweater covers are working beautifully. I've been taking lots of pictures and hope to have a blog post devoted to this subject including what patterns I used, how much it cost me, and the ups and downs of it all.

And here's my baby girl, Miss Emily and her goofy grin. I have found the wonderfullness that is T-shirt dresses. I LOVE them!!! I wanted so much to make the switch to dresses only for my girls and I had no idea how I was going to take all of these perfectly good yet immodest clothing and turn them into practical, feminine, modest dresses. This dress Emily is wearing literally took me about 20 minutes! I've also been taking their jeans and making denim skirts and adding fabric to them to make cute little tiered skirts. So as you can see, lots of sewing going on!

Other things going on around here lately....Hubby's job has taken him down to 32 hours, so money is getting tighter and tighter. He has an interview with a big company next week, as well as a couple applications in at various places. We just keep praying for the Lord's will here.

The older kids and I have started in with our new curriculum and I have to say I am really loving it. It's so much more laid back for us.  I liked what we were doing, but it was just boring us out of our minds some days. Now we're doing a lot more reading, hands on things, and just some good ole real-life learning. It's wonderful! We're doing more classical learning using books from Pathway, rod and staff, and keepers of the faith.

As usual we are working diligently on getting our home organized. I'm so upset at the fact that I worked so hard before Jacob arrived to have a spotless house, and now it's a wreck, I'd say worse than before. I'm considering doing the room a day thing again and getting it back in shape, although with a little one, I may have to do a room in 2 days instead. I've found a chore system that is working really well for my kids using 3x5 cards and a card file. The kids are doing so much more to help me, and I'm not having to remind them constantly. It's such a blessing!

We've gotten a good basic weekly plan that is working well for us and we're disiplining ourselves to stay home more. We had gotten to where we were going out nearly everyday. Now we are only getting out on Thursdays and Sundays. It's helping us stay on budget a lot more, because we're not out and about spending money on things we don't need. Well, I'm off to bed for now. I will hopefully have more to share as the days go by.

Many blessings,

sara

Goings on...

It seems ever since little Jacob came into our lives, I have been going non stop. So many things are going on in our lives right now that blogging and computer time has taken a back seat for now.

A few random things going on right now are...

~We are dealing with issues with my younger sister, and she may be coming to stay with us so that I can homeschool her. Right now we're still praying about that.

~I just ordered a new curriculum for the kids. Something cheaper and easier. I'll post more on that later.

~My husbands place of employment has been laying off and as of now my husband still has a job, but they are cutting his hours back to 32 hours  a week.

~The kids and I are starting our own keepers of the faith club. That's another post.

~The sock I started and shared with you all a few weeks ago is finished and it's the most special sock in the world, because it's the only one of it's kind. lol. I'll never get the other one finished. At least I know I can do it.

~We got our income tax money a couple of weeks ago, and we've done some stocking up on groceries and paid off our van loan!!!Yay! We also paid extra on our mortgage and student loans.

~I've been working diligently on making Jacob more cloth diapers. I'm working on using what we have, which at this time is some PUL, a couple wool sweaters, and way too many cotton t-shirts. I'm hoping to be total cloth by the end of this week.

~I've been doing some freezer cooking. I tried to do a once a month cooking day, but was overwhelmed, so it's working out better for me to just take a couple meals a week and double or triple them. This is saving us so much money, because I'm not tempted to say, I don't know what to cook, let's eat out!

~In addition to sewing diapers, I've been working on Christmas and other gifts to give this year, as well as making dresses for my girls and I so that we can make the total switch to dresses only. I found the wonderfullness that is t-shirt dresses. Don't know why I never thought of it before, but they are so easy to make and so inexpensive.

~Hubby and I are coming up on our 10th wedding anniversary on the 14th of next month, and hubby will be turning the big 3-0. His parents will be flying in for a few weeks to celebrate and spend time with us.

~I've finally found a chore system for me and the kids that is actually working for us. Praise the Lord!

~We're working on doing some major decluttering and simplifying and planning a yard sale as soon as we can.

There's much more that's been going on, but that will have to wait for another day. Have a blessed day!

Monday at Home

Good Day to all!

We have had a very uneventful weekend and the rest of our week looks to be much of the same. In fact, our daily lives as of late has been very quiet. I've been working on keeping things as simple as I can. We get out only twice a week, once for groceries and errands, and once for church. This last week we had 2 doctors appointments to go to. One was Jacob's 2 month check up at which he was declared happy and healthy with the exception of some eczema issues, and he weighed in at 13 lbs 6 oz.

The other appointment was for my final check up after having Jacob at which I was declared healthy as well. While I was up in the big city for my appointment I did a bit of shopping and bought some fabric for a new nightgown and some patterns for 99 cents at Hancocks. I wondered in to a sewing machine supply store while I was out and found a wonderful deal on a used serger. I had already talked to my hubby about getting one, and was so glad I found one for much cheaper than I anticipated paying.

This week I am working on getting into a regular routine with my kids. I'm trying to "babystep" as flylady calls it. I'm starting out with some basics, getting up, getting dressed, straighten my room, start some laundry, unload the dishwasher(did I mention I finally got a dishwasher?), and then get breakfast fixed and school started no later than 9am.

I'm also working on getting my kids more involved in housework, which is proving to be easier than I thought it would be. I'm ashamed to say that after all my work before baby was born has been totally undone. But we're working on getting it back.

We'll be getting our income tax money in this week or next and we've already got it spent, our plans are to 1)pay off the van loan, 2)pay off one of the student loans, 3)buy a storage shed, 4)have an attic door put in, 5) get started on once a month shopping.

Well, it's time for me to get the kids up! Have a blessed day!

sara

Wednesday babbling and goings on

Brrr, it's cold! We are experiencing our first snow/ice of the season with temperatures at or below zero in the night and nowhere above freezing during the day. Along with the cold weather, came sickness. I'm afraid I started it all, and it's still filtering it's way through the family. I think it's just a cold, but it's causing some major sinus problems.

I had several appointments this week and all of them have had to be cancelled until next week. The only one of us getting out every day is my dear hubby who has to go to work.

Jacob is getting so big. I decided to weigh him on my home scales the other day and he is roughly 14 lbs, almost double his weight. My little chunky monkey. Here's a picture we caught of him smiling the other day.

Little Cutie!

And here's a picture of my Emily wearing a hat I just crocheted.

It's a pattern from lionbrand yarn for a cape and cloche. I've got the cloche finished and am about halfway done with the cape. Here's what the finished product should look like. I'm hoping to finish it this week, but think I will need another skein of yarn, and won't be able to get out to get it until later this week or next week.

This is a beautiful cloak for the first chill of fall! The matching hat includes a fun decorative flower.

As far as that sock I was knitting, I'm still working on it. I'm at a point where I'm not sure if I will finish it. Yes, I may actually unravel the whole thing. It's not that it's not turning out okay, I just don't think I will ever finish a second sock to make a pair, so what's the point of having one. I just do not enjoy knitting like I do crochet. Oklamouse shared a website that showed how to make very nice crocheted socks, so I will try that out and see if they turn out like I wanted.

We're still working on getting things organized around here, mostly school, but also everything else. I feel a great need to simplify all areas of our life as well as save as much money as we can and stock up on needed supplies.

We are living in such uncertain times right now, and as it stands, I am totally unprepared for it. My husband may be losing his job at any time, the economy, in my opinion is steadily slipping into another great depression, and it's effecting everyone, not just the lower/middle class, but everyone.

Some of the goals that I'd really like to work towards or am currently working on are...

~Simplify our wardrobes, there's only 7 days in a week, and with the exception of the baby, we can only wear one outfit a day.

~Get rid of toys. My kids have way too many toys. How many dolls can one girl play with. We've been reading Little house books, and my kids actually think it's neat that they only had maybe one or two toys.

~Simplify meals. I enjoy cooking from scratch, but need to find shortcuts to make meal preperations easier.

~Get rid of junk. The less junk we have, the less I have to clean. Nuff said.

~We're planning a monstrous yard sale as soon as the weather is warm enough.

~With our income tax return, we will be paying off of our van, which will leave us with only a student loan and a mortgage to work on paying down.

~I'm going to start shopping at least every 2 weeks, and working my way up to a month. Buying more in bulk.

~Get down to the bare essentials on all bills, including cable, utilities, phone, etc.

There's a lot more I could add to this, but right now this is a start. And I have to get started or we'll never be prepared.

okay, enough rambling on from me!

Have a blessed day!

Friday at Home

Well, today seems to be a better day. Thank you for all your sweet comments and prayers, they were heard. It's so hard when you have your mind set to think that everything "has" to go one certain way. And how hard you fall when it doesn't.

I'm allowing myself to have goals, but letting it go if those goals aren't attained. I'm a flybaby at heart, and one of her biggest sayings is...babysteps. That's what I'm working on.

So far today, I'm up early, I'm dressed, no shoes yet, but I'm dressed, my face is washed, and I'm going to have to go back and finish my hair. After my shower last night, I rolled my hair up in rag rollers and slept in them and as thick as my hair is, it's still a bit damp. I needed to do something different with it, or else I was going to cut it all off. And I don't have time to curl it with a curling iron every day plus I love the look that rag rollers give. It only takes me 30 minutes to roll all my hair up, and I only have to wash my hair once a week, yes once a week, and the curls last all week.

I'm about to get the kids up and start school with them. Other than that I'd like to...

~Keep up with daily routines

~Clean out purse/diaper bag

~Clean out van

~Pet care-wash cat bowls, clean out hamster cage

~Straighten desks and homeschool area

~Straighten laundry room and put all clothes away for the week

~File papers for the week

~zone work-master bedroom

~laundry-whites and diapers

~Project-I'm working on making some feminine pads for myself and I'd like to get a couple more done today and I'm working on knitting my first pair of socks and I'd like to finish the first one.

For dinner we're having homemade broccolli soup and sandwiches. We have family coming in tomorrow, so we'll be busy through most of the weekend, I pray your day is blessed!

sara

Meltdown

Well, today I had myself a bit of a meltdown. I don't know exactly how to go about explaining this, but over the last year with pregnancy, going from homeschooling one child to two(actually 3, Emily wants to be right up there learning just like brother and sister), moving to a new house, and then new baby who wants to do nothing but nurse 24/7, I have slowly let things go. Things like routine, rules, housekeeping, discipline, homeschooling  etc. And I'm not talking about letting up a little on these things, I'm talking a downward spiral. And everything seemed to come to a head this evening.

With baby crying, (which he still does a lot), laundry piling high, and kids running amuck through a disasterous house, dinner not even started and it's nearing 8pm, and my husband, who doesn't even know where or how to help, (and I know he shouldn't have to), I blew up. I'm so ashamed. I lost my temper in a way that I haven't since before I had children. There was no hitting or anything like that, but I yelled, screamed, and yes, even stomped my feet.

It was at that point that I realized it was time for me to regain control. I can't continue on in the manner that we've been doing. There seems to be a trickle down effect that all starts with me not following any sort of daily routine. I'm not a schedule person, but even the simplest routines, it seems, my whole being fights against it. Little things like doing school at about the same time each day is something I just can't seem to do. Giving baths and putting the kids to bed at a regular time each day is beyond me.

Then what ends up happening is the children are running wild with no structure nor consequence, because I'm still trying to catch up. They've realized that I'm an easy target and run me down whenever they see the chance. For instance...I'm trying to console a screaming baby, and Madelynn asks me for the fifth time, can I play on the playstation/computer/etc? And after 4 times of saying no, because she's already been on there for more time than she should've been, I give up, and give in. I shouldn't, I know, but it's like I have no willpower left, and they know it.

I don't want perfection, in the least, and I realize that we are still in the adjusting period of having a new baby, but I just long to be able to give my children and myself some kind of structure and regularity to our day, and to be able to administer the proper discipline when needed, and to maybe have dinner on the table at a reasonable time, and my kids in bed at a decent hour, and maybe clean clothes, is that too much to ask?!

I'm facing the dilema of not knowing where to begin. I know the obvious answer would be start working on sticking to a routine, but I don't know if I can gather the willpower to do that. I'm so weak, mentally and physically.

As I sit here and type this, I know the place to begin at is by praying and asking for help, but I've done that, not in the way I should maybe, my thoughts are so scattered that I barely get a 'Lord, please help me' before I'm already asleep. Time for the Lord in my life has somehow escaped me, and I hate it. I just need help. 

Thanks for letting me get my frustration out.....

Thursday at Home

It is a bitter cold day, the coldest we've had this winter, I believe. We haven't cleared 30* yet today, which is mighty cold for Oklahoma.

We are still recovering from the holidays. We've got our decorations packed away already, but we still haven't gotten back to any kind of real routine on a daily basis. I'm having trouble getting school done daily with the kids, as well as trying to keep the house somewhat clean, and still nursing a 6 week old infant every 2-3 hours.

Today so far I've managed 3 full loads of laundry, and done a bit of straightening throughout the house, but that's about all. We haven't even started school and now my husband will soon be home, so we will likely make up today on Saturday.

I've got so many things on my to do list that I'm really not sure where to start. I guess I'll get the basics done, and then move on towards doing some of the more involved tasks.

For today, or at least the rest of the day, I'd like to...

~Finish up at least 2 more loads of laundry and put them away.

~Wash up the rest of the dishes

~Do a quick pick up in the family room

~Mop the kitchen floor

~My handiwork project for this week is some housesocks I'm knitting for my daughter. I'd like to finish one sock this week. I'm about halfway done. This is actually a learning project that I'm doing. Learning to knit socks.

Here's a picture of my progress so far, I'm working on the heel right now.

~And my sewing project for this week is some cloth feminine pads for myself. I'd like to make at least 5 or 6.

That's about all for me today.

Have a blessed week!

Blogger's Block

I am having trouble with having anything to say. I come on here to write something, anything, but nothing comes to mind. I have a case of blogger's block, I guess.

I could write about my children, how they're driving me near to insanity, or how I feel like I'm losing control in my own home.

I could write about how my husband is undoing any money I've saved by wasting it on things that are not healthy for him or for his family.

I could write about how my husband is trying to find another job before his current job lays off again or shuts down, and all the ones he can find are too far away, which either means a long drive for him, or moving for all of us.

I could also write about my wreck of a house which has no hope of being clean any time soon.

 or 

I could write about how big my children are getting, and how I love watching them play and learn every day. And how muchI look forward to those special morning hugs.

I could write about the fact that we have finally paid our van down enough to be able to use part of our income tax return to pay it off this year.

I could write about what a hardworking husband I have, and how he would do anything to allow me to stay at home and homeschool our children.

I could write about the fact that I've managed to get 3 loads of laundry done today and I can finally see the floor of my bedroom.

It's hard for me to write when I don't think what I have to say is positive. But sometimes it's nice to get those feelings out there, and then realize there really is something to be positive about. I'm learning daily to be thankful for the little things in my life, even when things are looking down, and I don't think I have anything to be thankful for. If you only look at the news stories that plague the t.v. and internet, you know that there is always plenty to thank the Lord for.

Blessings, sara 

Deer in the headlights and other rambling

My husband caught this picture of Jacob last night, I call it his deer in the headlights look. lol. And ya gotta love his little curly top. He's the first of my children to have curly hair, at least for now. Baby's hair often changes. Mine as a baby went from black at birth to white blonde by 1 year old.

It's hard to believe Jacob is already 4 1/2 weeks old. How time flys! He's still a fussy baby and wants to be held when he's awake, but that is not very often as he sleeps so much. I've got a front pack carrier, and a sling to carry him around in when I have to get things done. As much as I don't want to have to carry him around very much, I know this time is fleeting, and I realize I really don't mind.

We're settling back into routine here, starting back on schoolwork with the kids. I'm working on my home management binder this week trying to tweak it to make it fit us a bit better. I would also like to add a few sections to it for different things such as a garden section, animals section, and a goals section.

I've been in a bit of panic mode this week because of the new law going into effect on February 10. I buy 95% of my children's clothes at thrift stores. And there's certainly no room in my budget to buy new clothes, even when on sale. I'm praying heavily that there is some change to the law, but that may not happen. So I'm working on what we'll do when this happens. A few things that I've realized is that we, especially my children have entirely too many clothes as it is. Thinking back to books, such as little house on the prairie, children generally had maybe 3-4 outfits altogether. Three to wear during the week, and one for their "Sunday go to meeting" outfit.

I think it would be a good idea to have some kind of program like freecycle only a clothing exchange for children's clothing where you can post if you have say, boys clothes, size 4 that you want to get rid of, and you're in need of boy's , size 5. Hopefully we will be able to do something to that effect.

Otherwise, I will likely be switching to making most of my children's clothes, and paring down the number of outfits they each have. I'm so thankful I have at least a general knowledge of sewing. The clothes I see in stores, even if I had the money to buy new, are so immodest and distasteful, I wouldn't want to anyways.

Today I will be doing school with the kids, working on my HMB, and doing some general cleaning and laundry. For dinner we're having a pot roast with some carrots and potatos, and some drop biscuits.

I pray your day is blessed!

sara

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a happy and blessed new year for 2009!

We all stayed up late ringing in the new year and were all fast asleep by around 15 after. Some party people we are. I intended to start my new year on the right foot by waking before everyone else and getting my day started off right, in God's word, but alas it didn't happen. I still woke up early but not before my oldest daughter. So I put my Bible reading off until later on in the evening, and started breakfast. We had banana muffins with peanut butter and milk. yum!

Today should be a quiet day at home. I've got some black eyed peas cooking in the crockpot, and we'll have some macaroni and cheese, spinach greens, and some cornbread with that.

I spent most of my evening last night pondering the coming year. I have so many hopes and prayers for 2009. More than I ever did before. We accomplished so much in 2008 that I know we can do so much more this year.

A few of my hopes and prayers are...

~Grow more spiritually. I've been half hearted at best in my spiritual life, and shamefully say that it's the first thing to be put on the back burner, as is evidenced in even this mornings events. I would like to be more involved in church. We attend, but not as often as we should. I let my husband's lack of involvement here become too much of an excuse, as in I just don't think I can get all 4 of my young children out the door all by myself. That must stop. I know that if I am persistant in not only going regularly but praying for a change in heart on my husband's behalf, that God will make a way.

~Of course there is always trying to be healthier. I don't ever plan to diet, I just try to make better choices in what I eat and drink, and how I cook. The main thing I need to get back to here is cooking from scratch and eating less junk.

~Financially, we are okay. We stay on top of our bills, but we have no savings. This year with our income tax, we're paying off our van, which will leave us with only a student loan and our mortgage. I would like to use the money from that to not only put away into savings but also to stock up on food and supplies. I'm working on a menu book for our family that will list our basic breakfast and lunches and all of the ingredients for those, and a rotating dinner menu. That way I can stock up on what we eat regularly, as well as spend less time shopping, and in turn spend less money. We'll also be doing other things to help us cut back on spending. I already make my own cleaners and laundry soap, but would like to take the next step and begin making our own soap, and bath and medicinal needs. My husband is also helping me put up a clothesline. We'll also be cutting back on all of our utilities and hopefully getting rid of cable with husband's blessing finally.

~We've pretty much already made the transition to using cloth in just about all areas..baby, personal needs, and napkins, but I give in easily to temptation of disposable being easier when I'm too tired to mess with cloth.

~We are finally starting a garden this year. I have decided to do a square foot garden and start only with a 4x4 foot bed. Which will give me 16 square feet to plant in. A nice start I think. I will also do a container garden of strawberries, and a few containers for herbs. I plan on spending as much time as I can learning more about gardening this year.

~One thing I have been striving for, but have come short is making the full transition to wearing dresses only for my girls and I. I have realized that I will have to make most of our clothes, because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any dresses that are modest enough even in secondhand shops, much less department stores. I would like to put together a pattern book of basic patterns that we can use. I would like to find one or two styles for each of us that I can make instead of changing the pattern each time.

~I will make all of our gifts this year. I started doing that for Christmas this year, but I let hurt feelings get in my way, and put them aside and spent entirely too much money on gift people probably didn't need.

~When I can't make things I will strive to only buy secondhand.  

~My homekeeping skills can definately use some work. I can honestly say I have gotten so much better about keeping house over the past year, but there's always room for improvement. I am going to be putting together my home management binder again to make it work a bit better for me since we've had so many changes in the last year. I will be putting a HMB also for my older children since their responsibilities have grown so much.

~I am going to be making the switch to more of a Charlotte Mason style of learning with my children. And would like to do more hands on learning with them. I'm doing this for a couple of reasons, one, I think it will be better for all of us, and two, it's another way we can save money.

There's so much more that I could list, but these are the main points I have in mind. Just like about everyone here, I just want a simpler life. I don't ever intend to go off grid, at least not any time soon. I probably won't get to live in a house in the country any time soon either, but while I'm here, I can make the best of what I've got, and simplify our lives as much as I can. Things like making things from scratch, sewing things for my family, growing our own food, spending less, and just plain old doing things for ourselves is my way of homesteading and living simpler. I pray that everyone here has a blessed new year and that you too strive to achieve your goals of living simpler!

Blessings, sara

Wanted...more time

I just have not had any time to get online and post about anything. I'm afraid my little baby boy is a lot more needy than I am used to. I miss getting on here and sharing my daily life with everyone, or even just for the sake of getting it down so that I can remember the days as they pass so swiftly by. But I am thoroughly enjoying the days filled with diaper changes, nursing my sweet boy, and playing with my children.

Our Christmas was wonderful, and the best part of it was that we didn't have to leave our home. We told everyone this year that they are welcome to come by any time, but with a newborn, we do not want to get out and travel anywhere.

It's so hard to believe that Jacob will be 4 weeks old in just 4 days. I am always amazed at how the time flies past us. He's already outgrowing all his newborn clothes, and getting those precious chubby cheeks that most breastfed babies have. I would love to share a recent picture, but my camera is acting up. Just know that he is precious.

This week I'm working on clearing out the Christmas decorations and getting ready to start back to school with the children next Monday. I'm also working on my New Year's Resolutions. I know so many don't like resolutions but they really help me to stay on track, and I actually achieved most of my goals for this last year.

My family and I were blessed in so many ways this year that I can't express our happiness.

~Our biggest blessing is our new little one ofcourse.

~We were finally able to buy a home after renting for nearly 3 years. It's not in the country as we had hoped but it's enough property to have a large garden and lots of other things, not to mention the home is just perfect for us.

~My husband was not one of the many that were layed off this last year.

~I was able to bring all of my children back home with me where they belonged, and are loving schooling at home.

~Although I was pregnant for the most part of this year, I still managed to lose more than 40lbs!

~My husband and I's marriage has grown stronger than ever.

And there is so much more that I could list, but my time has run out.

So if I don't make it back here for a while, you know where I'm at. And I'm wishing you all the happiest new year for 2009!

A Quick Update

I haven't had much time online as of late for obvious reasons. Baby Jacob takes up every spare moment I have most of the time, and I'm loving every minute of it. He is such a blessing! The other children just dote over him constantly. I can't believe he's a week old today!

This week has been slow going. I had some awful pain in my back for the first few days followed by the lovely pain in my stomach for the last few days, but it seems I am on the mend. Praise the Lord!

We had our first outing yesterday. A trip to the pediatrician, where I was told that he's perfect. I knew that already ofcourse. He's already back up to his birthweight. He's doing very good nursing, and is already on a good schedule, sleeping 2 four hour stretches at night.

Hubby and I are planning on a short shopping trip on Saturday. I've got my list in hand and am ready to get in and get out. I really want to get my Christmas shopping finished. I'm glad I got the most of it done before baby arrived.

Well, that's about all I have time to update for now. I'm hoping to get to get on here later to post Jacob's birthstory for my own benefit. For now here's a parting shot of my FOUR wonderful children!

Monday at Home

Wow, December is already blowing in...literally here in Oklahoma. The wind is really howling today and the bitter windchills are keeping us all snuggled up in our warm sweaters and jackets.

We no longer have to wonder wether this baby will be a November or December baby....He better be a December baby! LoL. My due date is less than a week away, and amazingly, I feel no closer to going into labor than I did a week ago...in fact, I think I feel farther away because last week I was having a lot more contractions than I've been having the last several days. I just keep reminding myself that this baby will be here in God's time, and not Sara time.

This morning I've already taken the van to the car repair place. So for the next several days or weeks, we are without a vehicle. As I've said before, I'm thankful my parents live only a couple of blocks away, and are available whenever we may need them. I went on Saturday and stocked up on groceries for the week, and shouldn't need to go again until at least Thursday, which is my usual shopping day. I'll have to go to the midwife this week, and my mom will be taking me to that. And my dad will be taking my husband to work every morning and my mom will be picking him up in the afternoon. So with the exception of going to the store once this week, and the midwife once, we'll be home all week, which I am very thankful for. I so enjoy time at home, especially when the weather is cold out.

Other plans, here at home this week are to work on Christmas presents for everyone, do some holiday baking, do some fun crafts with the kids, and finish up the rest of schoolwork needing done before we take off the rest of the year, and also to reclaim my once cleaned home to what it was before the holiday. Not that it is anywhere near as bad as it was, but when hubby is home, everything gets much more relaxed around here, plus we spent the weekend putting up Christmas decorations, and I need to finish that up and pack the boxes away. I ofcourse have laundry to do, towels today, and sheets, and whatever else I can get do to keep us busy. I'm off for now, as I speak my kids are off playing *gasp* together. And it seems they are actually getting along for the moment. I may have to take a picture! Have a blessed day!

sara

No baby yet....

I say that with a bit of bitterness...and yet at the same time, I'm okay with him not being here yet. My ticker still reads 9 days to go, but for the past week, I have been having awful contractions keeping me up all hours of the night. And when morning comes, it's as if nothing happened. My body aches all over, and yet I want to relish so much in this joyous time that only lasts but a short while. I know he will be here soon, before Christmas even, but my impatience overtakes me some days, and then on other days, I am happy, and enjoying the moment that I am in.

I haven't updated my last nesting mission yet, but you'll be happy to know that I did get the girl's room done. That's where my discouragement over the dreaded playroom got to me, and as I was just about to finish full circle cleaning through my house, I quit. I'm still working daily on maintaining the rooms that I worked so hard to clean, and I'm thankful that my house with the exception of one closed door that's contents remain uncleaned for now. I'm sure I will get to it...eventually, but for now, I just do what I have to and will worry about it more later.

Our Thanksgiving was a blessed one, and for the first time in many years, I had to do absolutely nothing, except for stuff my face. I'm usually the main meal preparer for holidays, but everyone agreed that this year I would get a break, for which I am most thankful. I was so babied yestereday, even being made to lay down when my feet began to look too swollen. We're heading back over to my folk's house in a bit for lunchtime leftovers. YUM!

Black Friday...I don't know if I even want to get started on this ridiculous tradition, but my husband chose to partake of the shopping events this morning. I told him he was nuts. At 4 am, he went to walmart, and wrestled 30 people for a trampoline, a big gift we decided to get for our children. It was a good deal, really, but I just can't imagine it being worth that kind of anxiety. He nearly gave himself a hernia lifting the nearly 200lb box into his shopping cart. He is now on the couch recovering from his exciting morning.

Today we are going to be putting up our Christmas decorations, and relaxing. I intend to spend the next week, or until the baby decides to make his arrival working on some Christmas gifts, maintaining my clean home, and just spending some time with my 3 precious children before they number 4.

I'm not sure how much time right now, I'll have to post, but I will work on giving an update on the baby as I have time. I pray your Thanksgiving was a blessed one, and that your weekend promises to be filled with joy.

Blessings, sara 

Watch out for that deer...

My husband was in a car wreck with a deer this weekend. Luckily no one was hurt except for the deer. He was traveling down a dark highway headed home, when a deer ran out from nowhere. He slammed on his breaks, but not in time. He hit the rear end of the deer going at least 65 miles per hour. It took out our grill plate, our right head light, and caused a leak in our radiator. So now our only "real" mode of transportation is sitting in the driveway, undriveable. We have an old truck that has a transmission fluid leak, and is "driveable", but not dependable.

The insurance is supposed to contact us on Monday and tell us what we need to do, but all bets are off that we're going to have a dependable vehicle before Thanksgiving. The bad news here is that my due date is only 2 weeks away, and we probably won't have a car within that time. The good news is that my parents live 2 blocks down the road and are available to drive me to the hospital if the time arrives.

I'm a little down  because I was intent on doing the bulk of my Christmas shopping either yesterday or on Monday, before baby's arrival, but that is not to happen I guess. I'll just continue on working on my homemade gifts for now and will have to do the rest of my shopping over the next several weeks.

I'm praising the Lord, however for my husband's safety. If he would have hit it any sooner, or any faster, it would have come up on the windshield, and if he would've swerved, which would've been my reaction, he would have hit oncoming traffic, and he and someone else could've been severely hurt.

Blessings, sara 

25 days and counting and other rambling on

The last few days I have not been my usual peppy self, ofcourse I don't know if I can ever say I have been peppy. The baby I am carrying makes my daily work doubly hard. My visit to the midwife bear no news of anything except that he could come at any time or wait on until his due date. Not very helpful, but true.

I've been spending the last several days getting things done, always praying that I'll be able to accomplish more the next day as my list is ever growing. We have only 8 days of school left until we begin our break from regular schooling, and admittedly I will likely jump for joy that day (possibly starting my impending labor, lol). Not that teaching the children hasn't been a joy, but it will be nice to have a bit more time for other preperations and some much needed rest.

Even though the next couple of months will be filled with a new baby and holidays, my mind can't help but wonder ahead to what the new year holds. So many things in our lives that need to change and do better at, some things not needing to wait until then, like some much needed discipline with my children. In my mind I know what needs doing, it's a matter of putting my thoughts into action. Things like following our daily routines, keeping the kids busy with things besides television and computer. Making sure that they have enough responsibility, but most importantly not letting that guilt seep in to my thoughts, when I hear from others how hard I am on my children, when I just began thinking I wasn't hard enough. Ofcourse these are the same people who's children are running a muck through the grocery stores and who's kids have cell phones at the tender age of 8 or 9, or even younger. Insanity....

In other areas, we are trying our best to prepare ourselves for my husband to possibly lose his job. Rumors are flying around that the doors will shut down after the first of the year. And although I know rumors do not always hold true, I'd like the chance to be prepared all the same, besides, most generally the rumors had to have gotten their start from somewhere.

Some of the things we're doing right now is making all of our Christmas gifts, cutting back on grocery expenses, keeping our thermostat turned down, and preparing our backyard for a garden, along with many other smaller things. I'm working on a list of seeds that I would like to begin in next year's garden, and will soon start stocking up on the needed seeds. I'm back and forth on how I would like my garden to be layed out. It seems that a raised square foot garden would be ideal, but at the same time more expensive than I want to spend on lumber and the building of boxes. All the same I am working on building up my compost and learning as much as I can about gardening in this hard, red Oklahoma dirt.

Well, I've rambled on enough. Lots to do today, and not enough time to do it all in. I pray you all are blessed in whatever you do today!

Blessings,

sara

30 Days and Counting

Well, as you can see from my little ticker on the sidebar, I have only 30 days left until my due date, although I feel like I won't make it that far, but my luck, I'll go a week late. lol. Either way, the time draws near, and we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest little blessing.

At this point of the pregnancy, I suppose I'm feeling what most women do. Heavy, clumsy, and tired of going to the bathroom. I'm seeing the midwife once a week now, and so far as she can see, all is well. She thinks I will likely have it around the last week of November, around Thanksgiving. Our last visit we talked about, if the moon really causes women to go into labor sometimes, and she said, well, if the moon can control the tides, it can certainly control the small amount of liquid that is in the amniotic sac. There's just so happens to be a new moon on Thanksgiving day, only a week before my actual due date. The next full moon is due on the 12th, so I guess we'll see what happens.

I haven't been posting much as of late because I have been going back and forth between feeling like mud and having bursts of energy and working myself into the ground. Usually one day follows the next, meaning, I work too hard one day, and the next I can't do anything.

Even on the bad days I manage to post myself in my favorite chair with some sort of handwork to work on. I've been completing projects left and right, but still see that I have so much that I'd really like to get done for baby and for holidays.

On the good days I find something that really needs doing and I work on it, sometimes it's whole rooms, sometimes it's just laundry, and sometimes it's just doing the regular every day stuff. But every day holds something for me to do as always.

Today seems to be a good day and I'm hoping to get caught up on some every day stuff and maybe do a couple of extra things, like get our family pictures hung up in the hallway and some of the stuff we're sticking back for a yard sale a little more organized.

Have a blessed day!

sara