The Start of a Homesteader Mom | ||
 Cleaning HousesSo my fathers cousin cleans houses. I thought - when my son is a little older, I would really like to do that too. Just a little extra $ into the home but nothing that would take away from our homeschooling. It also could not interfere with Tristan's treatments etc,So I told her if she had any extra jobs in the spring - to let me know. Well well... She already had one! So I have a house to clean. BITING NAILS HERE!!! I was not ready for one so soon! But I will be cleaning for 5 hours every other monday at a home. Might not always be five. Might be 3 some weeks. But that is fine. I have never cleaned houses before. Well except my own. I was honest up front with her that she would be my first time. She asked me if I wanted to come over and "see" the house. I said... well honestly - is there a need? What would I be coming over to do? It would be kinda like a wasted trip because having never cleaned before - I am not going to turn it down because I do not have standards of what I will not accept yet! :) And it would be taking time out of both of our days. I know - silly me. But seriously - when I have to line up mom to sit for the kids - I do not need to go to just smile and say hi. She can show me it all the day I start. So does anyone have experience in this department? The kinda cool thing is - she is a stay at home mother who does cyber school with her kids. She has an autistic son so she just needs some extra help because I am sure (first hand homeschooling I know!) she is busy. I told my husband that she was a sahm who homeschools getting a cleaning person! He was not impressed (I was trying to say - see!!! It is HARD work!!!) Feeling a little under appreciated lately. I know working as hard as he is - he also feels that way. Ahhh the trials of life. Getting rid of little fruit flies.
02:03, December 2, 2009
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Every year no fail when the weather is not freezing, I get annoying fruit flies. I get them in my kitchen and I am not sure why but in my bathroom. Strange but ok. So I have had such GREAT success getting the ones I have killed with this home made trap I thought I would share. To make it you take a container and fill it with a little apple cider vinegar and then squirt a little dish liquid into it. Bugs can drink from water and drinks so adding the dish soap breaks the barrier and makes them sink into it and get stuck. Cover it will plastic wrap and then poke a few holes in it. Place it near where your problems are and trap away! Check out how many I got this season on my kitchen counter. 
weight loss update
09:07, November 7, 2009
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well I lost 20 pounds, then decided I was too busy to exercise at night right now. So of course I stalled there. But I did not gain any of it back so that is good. This week I lost another 5 pounds but unfortunately, that was contributed to horrid mastitis! boo boo, I felt like death hit me! Thank God for awesome parents who were around since my husband works long days. I would not have been able to survive without them! My 8th year anniversary is on tuesday. My husband took me out to eat tonight. It was nice to have a night out together. Even if it was only for 1 and a half hours. Weight Loss
09:31, August 3, 2009
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![]("http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/t/wnq7iCP/weight.png") Ok, so I am trying to lose some baby fat. Three pregnancy's worth that I never lost. So I started July 15th. So far I have lost 10 pounds. Chugging along chugging along. Not much homesteading going on with Wyatt. But I promise to be back and get in the grove as he gets older. Just an updateWow homestead blog... It has been a while!Well the truth is... my homesteading has gone on hold. First there was third trimester. Every time I would scrub or clean my floors I would go into braxton hicks. So I bummed out on homesteading. lol Now there is a little baby in our home. And WOW... my home making is even worse! Yikes! I am at the newborn stage where all he wants to do is eat and poop and use me as a pacifier. Please let the slings come in the mail soon! I had a super awesome sling from and online work at home mother. My sister in law borrowed it and it was misplaced. She did buy me another sling to replace it but it is not working. It is a HARD shelled padded sling. Baby slides around in it. It is almost like holding a mini bassinette on your lap. totally NOT practical for doing housework. So I contacted the WAHM who did my sling. She is not making new slings but has 8 left to sew up. so I got TWO! Once her slings are done she is done making them. It is a Wise Women Sling. They are so amazing. I cannot wait to get my replacement ones. Then I might get back to being more productive. Here are a few pics just to update you on the new little man who is at our house! Wyatt Daniel Born 11/20/08 at a whopping 9#4oz. No epidural or pain meds. And PRAISE GOD I did not have to be cut and did not tear. So no stitches. PHEW! First baby Alyssa was only 7#8oz and I did have to be cut for her. The boys I got out free of stitches. I think that is one of the most painful parts of recovering. Taking care of your bottom. so it is really nice to be free of that burden. Ok the pics.  need canning preserving help for apples and pears.ok.... here I am. Dh decided to buy a big brown bag full of apples and one full of pears. What can I do with them???help!!! Please do not ask me what kind they are! lol the apples look like gala but they are not marked. And the pears are just small and tastey. no clue what kind. Praying with Daddy before Bed.My Pastor had a sermon on teaching your kids today. It was really good. But the main part was that you are the greatest teacher and he challenged us. Everything we already know but brought about in a fresh way. My husband must have taken the message to heart. He challenged dads to read the bible to the kids. To pray with them.So we had an awesome day today. Went to Pymatuning. You can look at my blog post about it on my homeschool blog. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/lindai I cannot get the link think to work on this post. Anyways. When I got home I got the kids in a bath and Justin ran out to Walmart for me. I needed mayo and pumpernickle bread for our picnic tomorrow. He called on his cell telling me to "not let the kids go to sleep until he got home tonight." O.K. I wanted to throw them in bed a.s.a.p because I was tired! And enjoy me time at night. But I kept them up until he got back. I thought this is what he had up his sleeve. no I hoped. And I was right. Up the stairs he came with us to pray with the kids before bed. It was really nice. Dh works nights as a truck driver. I do NOT want to nag him. But it would be so awesome if he kept up with that on weekends. It was really nice for daddy to pray with the kids before bed. I really enjoyed it myself. It was very family togetherness. Even as simple as it was. Hey, my kids are young. They do not need more then simple. I have to laugh though. Dh cannot stand how Alyssa names EVERYONE in her prayers. Bless pappy, nana, grandma, grandpa, uncle... yadda yadda yadda. He always tries to get her to say "bless all my family" I will have to give Alyssa a heads up to keep it simpler if daddy is joining us. :) But I just wanted to share. I thought it was really nice and pray it could be a habit for our weekends. Life updates.
08:30, July 25, 2008
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God is Good and Justin got switched to the 5 o'clock start instead of 10:30! It is SUCH a better schedule for our family! While he is home the same amount or less, it is quality time! He is awake during the afternoon when the day is nice. He bought us a 15x4 pool and has been enjoying a few afternoon swims with the kids! It is also nice to get an hour of sleeping with him again. He comes in early in the mornings and we actually get to sleep in the same bed for a little bit! That has not happened since January! It is nice. Now I DO enjoy sleeping on my own. No big heavy arms on my stomach, no loud snoring... Just big ol' preggo me stretching out in bed. It is very nice. BUT... I am already asleep when he comes in now so I do not mind. It is really nice to wake up with him there. Last weekend I declared a no work weekend. So our kitchen project stalled. But it was awesome. We picked berries, we went to the drive in to see two movies and we got our pool. It was such a nice family weekend. Check out my Homeschool Blog for more posts. I post about Tristan's journey and Homeschool over there. So at the moment it is a more active blog. Now come winter cooking and such, this one will be more on my mind. :) 4th weekend projects.lol dh is working hard on our kitchen now. All I did was say something that I thought would look good in the FUTURE! I said we should take our time and do it right instead of just doing what we can now. It is our home and we will appreciate it more if we do it the right way. Oh did I open a can of worms! And easy paint job has turned in to a demolition project! Whoops!But it is JUSTIN who cannot wait. lol So my kitchen ceiling stuff is being rebuilt as I type. Preggo wife is resting! And I got all new lighting in there. A new light fixture and recess lighting. When it is done, it is going to be so nice! But it is going to be a while I think. building, plastering, sanding, painting etc. The electric work is done though. One shattered light fixture later. Our Dining Room updateThis is what Justin and I did this weekend. :)From this  To this  My favorite Invention! Freezer Jam Pectin!I think Freezer Jam is the best thing since sliced bread! Seriously it allows beginners like me to feel like they are "doing" something big and homesteady! And makes me a hero to my kids for making the BEST jam! I made it while the kids were outside playing yesterday. I was on the PORCH! I had my washed strawberries. I cut the greens off of them and then used my handy dandy tupperware chopper to chop up 4 cups of strawberries. Then in a different bowl I mixed 1 1/2 cup sugar with the magic freezer pectin pack and stirred them up. Poured the wonderful mix over my strawberries, stirred for 3 mins and BOOM! It was a miracle! Fill the jars, put them in the freezer and this morning we are enjoying the best breakfast ever! My kids LOVE it! I was extra homemaker yesterday as I had to make potato salad for a birthday party today. I hate making that! lol But I tried to say "I will bring the chips and pop" and got turned down for potato salad! lol UpdatesThings are going great with Tristan. He has hit maintenance today. I blogged about it over at the homeschoolblogger. My blogI am doing good with the pregnancy. I was spotting but my midwife said she could tell it was a sensitive cervix so I am a little more at ease. Next appointment we hear the heartbeat and I cannot wait. I did have an ultrasound where everything looked great. But that was then... I cannot wait for another listen yk? Homeschool has 2 days left for Alyssa's Kindergarten. I am saving them for a rainy day! :) Why waste the beautiful ones when I can just do it later! Anyways. I cannot believe it, 2 years under the belt. On to Grade one! Wow... And this is short but sweet, I am off to bed. Check my homeschool blog out to catch up on me. I promise to update this one more frequently! I am tired though. I was up all hours last night with Tristan coughing and had to get up at 5 for clinic. So I am ready to fall asleep! Later :) Prayer Request for our important news!I have been holding out announcing our news on blog world and to extended family and friends until I got a doctors confirmation. Something about not trusting yourself yk. But then I decided I would rather have the prayers of my friends to back us up. Also... should something happen, I would like friends to support me. But I am trusting in God with our lives in his hand.So without further ado... Our family is growing bigger! And we are THRILLED! I have no clue exact dates when I am due but we figure November this year. Now to elaborate a little. I have a doctors appointment on March 31st. I will do blood work before hand to get it done. Were we trying? YES! For 13 months! Not long compared to many of my dearest friends who have struggled with that. But with each person ttc, it seems like forever to you. I am sure you all know how we felt after we found out Tristan had Leukemia. We were PRAISING GOD that we had not conceived when we thought we wanted it. Because the timing would have been awful. With being in the hospital and his chemo. God truly does know best! Now the second amazing thing in the story is they timing of this pregnancy. Tristan is in intense treatment. You would think that would be when we would not want it but not true! With his intense treatment in clinic means we are NOT administering chemo pills at home. So I have not touched chemo pills since mid February. And I am not going to have to handle them until May. We have to give them to him all at the exact same time each day. Now since the break, is the time I can change the hour I give it to him if I choose. Well now I can make it later so Justin can give them to him! So I might not ever have to touch them again. How good is God? We are thrilled. I have had two times of seeing a tiny bit of blood when I went the bathroom. But VERY small and only once yesterday and once today. If I was not already pregnant I would think implantation. No where NEAR what I bled with Tristan's pregnancy. I was reading online and it looks like 30% of pregnancies experience some spotting in the first few weeks. So we shall see. I am trusting God. But I started thinking about waiting... and thought, you know. I want my friends to pray for this baby. Because I really want this child. I have been praying hard for it and I want all the prayer coverage I can get for a healthy pregnancy. So I am officially announcing our little addition coming this year! And why did I take two tests? I was asked that already.  The answer is because I took the test and it came up RIGHT away. (Never had that happen before! Trust me, I had to hold the test in the light and show mom where the line was for Alyssa's Pregnancy Test! lol) Mom said... try it again in 10 mins. Maybe something it was not right. So I did. Boom. Immediately double lines and dark! I was thrilled!
The most wonderful Pizza Dip recipe!I tried the most wonderful Pizza Dip Recipe from a good friend Jennifer online. Pepperoni Pizza Dip 1) In a small mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, sour cream, oregano, and garlic powder. Spread evenly into a 9- or 10-inch pie plate. 2) Spread pizza sauce over the top. Sprinkle with pepperoni, green onion, and green pepper. 3) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Top with cheese and bake 5 more minutes to melt cheese. Now I varied my a little. I used light sour cream and 1/3 fat cream cheese because it is all I had on hand. I also did not use onions but used onion powder and left off the peppers. It was sooo good my family ate the whole thing in one night and it was just the 4 of us! :eek: I made it my dinner! Bad me I know! I cannot wait to try it with the real stuff, not light. I bet it will be even better. But so you know. It was great that way! So if you want to cut the fat, it was not bad. I feel lonely tonight!My dh, daughter and son are all "camping" in the living room. I feel lonely!!! I keep asking over and over if Tristan wants to come to bed with mommy. I really want to snuggle with him! sniffle sniffle! But he wont! He keeps saying "nope! I want to sleep in my tent!"Tristan giving funny faces to mommy Roasting Marshmallows in the fire place! lol And snug in their tents watching a movie. She was all serious into the movie, not grouchy. So here I am... in my room. I took a nap with Tristan today so I am not tired... but... my little boy is sleeping in the living room! boo hoo! Where did my baby go??? WOW! And Happy Birthday to Tristan.I made blogger of the week! What an honor - can I say, I always hoped to be someday!Seriously - my son takes up a lot of time recently so I often update my Homeschool Blog because it is where I chose to add the "Tristan's Journey" Posts. You know how that goes. The friends and family wait for updates. I like to keep this blog more for homestead and simple life learning experiances. ____________________________________________ Today is my little boys birthday though! Tristan turned 3 today. I cannot believe it. 3 years ago I would have never guessed life would be like it is now. But we are growing! Tristan calls himself "Strong and Mighty" and he is! For a birthday tribute - here is Tristan over the years on his birthday. Birth One Year Old Two Years Old 3 Years Old For anyone who does not know why - Tristan has a mohawk because his hair was thinning and I was not ready to shave it all again yet. Happy Birthday Tristan! You make me PROUD! Updates on things we did in our house.When we got our home, we had an old dresser that came with it, in the bathroom. It was the only place for towels. So after it is breaking apart, we decided to make it a closet. So we took a short cut and got a plastic shelf and built a door around it. The shelf came in boxes that Justin cut for the kids into bus shapes! They had a BLAST with them!Here is the dresser that we stuck in the hall while we were setting up the shelves. I hear Tristan calling "come find me!" and found him here! Of course Alyssa wanted in too! And here is my foyer. We are working on. We are going to do the floors this spring when we can open up the doors again. We have them completely shut off for the winter. We will have to replace the door in front here. The cold cracked it right in the middle! Anyways. Here is a bit of our old furniture set up. And our new chandalier that we got on clearance at Lowes. Justin LOVES it. It is not my style but he liked it a ton so hey, it is his house too. He can have it. Good advice from a magazine or newsletter.I had received a newsletter or something ... maybe a magazine? Where I read something for burnt out homeschool mothers that REALLY has been my conviction recently."Why are you still doing the work you should be training your children to do?" hmmmm very true. It is just sometimes sooo much easier to just do things yourself... but then the little things add up, with your big jobs and you feel burnt out. I thought, yeah that is so true. And this week while I have been doing my daily things I will find myself putting away the dishwasher things and thinking... "why am I still doing the things I should be training my children to do?"  It is really in my head and heart. So this morning I made sure when doing my laundry to pile up the dishcloths, washrags, small towels and kids pants for Alyssa. And I called her in and I folded my pile while she folded hers. It took a little bit of time to pull out hers but I started her again (taught her when she was 3 but it fell aside as a chore of hers) to do her part in the laundry. I have been having thoughts of little jobs the kids can do popping into my head all week long. Like I can have Alyssa make piles of dark and light clothes for me. Teaching her a skill and saving a tiny bit of time for me. It is not all about saving me time but about teaching her the skills. And really when I am unloading a dishwasher and Tristan puts away the silverware. It might only save me a moment but in the long run all those little moments add up. I just thought I would share. It has been on my heart for my own personal conviction this week and I am really thinking God is trying to tell it to me. Because of how often it is on my mind. Delicious Ham and Leftover Ham and Bean Soup RecipeOk, I am using my holiday ham bone today to make bean soup. I figured I would blog my recipe for me, my mom, my sister in law and anyone else who wants it.First to make a super easy ham. Purchase a rather small spiral ham. I say small because my crock pot is not super big. One that will fit in your crock pot. Then toss out that icky glaze package that comes with them. It is NASTY! Place the ham in your crock pot. Take a Cup (more if you want more glaze) of yellow mustard on your ham. Then take about a cup of brown sugar. And pour it on. Then mix it all around. Taste. If it is too mustard-y add more brown sugar. If it is too sugary then add more mustard. You may also add a few squirts of honey if you like. Does not matter if you do or don't. I have made it both ways before. Cook all day on low or a few hours on high. Enjoy! _____________________________________________________________________ Now, Save that ham bone and all the fun stuff still on the bone! Just pop it in a freezer bag! _____________________________________________________________________ When you want to make bean soup, pull out your ham bone from the freezer and thaw in the fridge. Buy a bag of navy beans. Just fill a pot with water and let it sit over night. The next morning put your ham bone in the crock pot. Sort through the beans to make sure there are no stems or odd pieces. They are processed by machine so things slip by sometimes. then pour the beans with some water in the crock pot over the ham bone. Add an onion if you like. I do not like onions and did not have any here anyways. Cook all day! YUM YUM YUM! A little before you want to eat, scoup out the bone, fish out some of the fatty pieces. Then serve! ENJOY! Blowing the Dust off in here...Hey Homestead bloggers! I have not blogged in here in a while. Life of homesteading has taken a different turn for me. With moving to our new home in the city and Tristan's Leukemia journey, topped with a case of winter blues... we have a homesteading slump!Good things going on in my homestead life...I finally did get a new stove! I can cook in the oven without burning. But now I am using electric. The slick new flat tops... I BURN EVERYTHING! aurgh! Someday I am going to laugh at my cooking adventures! I cannot figure out if it is my pans that mom bought me or the electric cooking. I do not seem to burn on my old pans but it could be I am just happening to be there more when I use them. Sometimes I walk away from the stove for a second and BOOM my rice burns. Or my corn beef hash is ALWays STUCK! And that is so fatty to begin with! Who burns that!??! me!   But we have become a little more convience and quick instead of the money saving natural ways. DH has encouraged me by saying that it is only for a SEASON in our lives. So I can deal with it. I am thinking tomorrow I want to bake some bread though to make myself feel better! I have not made bread since Tristan got sick in October! I need to make some strawberry freezer jam too! But I will wait for summer for that. But I am making TONS when I do! It was our favorite!!! On fresh baked bread.... YUM! Our home improvements are going slower than we had hoped. With Justin being on workmans comp he has had to stop anything hard to fixing the house. He does a little rewiring here and there but makes me do all the lifting! I wanted to scream when he decided to put up a chandilier! Here honey, Hold it up for me while I connect the wires!  He is lucky that 9 bulb huge thing did not come crashing down on his head! I about DIED! I am a weakling! That was mans work! No more of that! So now he is stuck only doing the little things. He hurt his back so there is not much he can do for now. But he should be good to go soon. He is getting better by the day with physical therapy. We just want to baby his back so he does not have a life of back problems. Trying until he gets released not to do anything to hurt it more. We are thinking sometime this month he will be good to go. Also with Tristan things have stalled too. But that is ok. Life throws us curves. And I am learning to be more flexible. Tristan is doing well. Chugging along with Treatments. Homeschooling is going well too. I am halfway done with my second year of homeschooling. I am glad I started with Preschool. Sonlight Preschool was only about an hour a day. Kindergarten was a little more complex. I just got my first grade stuff and it looks like it is another big leap for us. A Lot more time consuming. I am very pleased that it has been an ease into learning. Anyways... I am still here! And wanted to come over and clean some cobwebs from my blog! { Last Page } { Page 1 of 7 } { Next Page } |
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