I usually don't post about our business but thought I'd send out a message about our business we have from home. We bought our ink business from another homeschool family back in January and my husband has been doing this full-time since. We're hoping to supplement our ink business income with my dh doing medical transcription from home although he has yet to find a job since completing his training.
Anyways, if you've never tried ink cartridge refilling, it's an AWESOME way to save tons of $ on ink and if you print lots as a homeschool family like we do, that's a huge savings! For example, if you buy our black ink refill kit with ink that is specific for your printer and directions etc, you spend about $25 + shipping. This is enough ink to refill your cartridges 10-20 times depending on which printer model you have. You will need to buy a replacement cartridge sometime in there as the print head wears out eventually but then you can refill that cartridge. This comes to only a couple of dollars to refill your ink instead of paying often $20-30 for a new cartridge. We've been doing this with 2 of our printers since Jan. and it's worked GREAT! We have a 100% satisfaction guarantee and provide technical support if needed so there's no risk involved. Our website answers other FAQ's about ink refilling.
We also sell remanufactured and "generic" cartridges which are also way cheaper than the typical manufacturer's cartridge, and toner supplies for laser printers and copiers.
I encourage you to check us out at www.encoreink.com . I also have a homeschool / family section of our website that I've put a few articles onto. If you're interested in getting your ink even cheaper, consider referring others to us. If you're interested in this we can give you a coupon code that you and others can use for additional savings and we can give you details on how you can earn your ink for even cheaper. We appreciate all the referrals we can get! Please be encouraged to link to this article for us on your site or ask for a referral code!
Everyone needs to buy printer ink eventually - I hope some of you can help support a fellow homeschool family by buying through us and encouraging other homeschoolers to do the same! It's much better than sending your $ to Office Max or wherever else it might go!
Anyways, hope you don't mind the commercial too much. It's just that I never realized how cheap ink really was and how much $ could be saved this way! God bless!
We currently have one cat who we have had for 11 years. Last summer we had another cat as well who died a couple of months after we moved the first time. We thought about getting a dog last summer but the timing didn't seem right and my husband said that maybe after both of the cats were dead we would consider getting one. Now our 2nd cat is on the last days of his life.
It is really hard to see him not eating and getting skinny and knowing he will die soon. My oldest son loves his pets and is great at taking care of them. He is definitely sad and having a hard time with it. I have mixed feelings. It's hard watching him die. It's hard seeing my son deal with it. It's hard thinking back on how much of our married life the cat has been with us and the memories. But then again, it's exciting to think of getting a new pet.
We've been looking at dogs on the internet. I haven't owned a dog in the past so it will be a new experience for us if we get one. We're praying for a good, cheap dog if possible. Do we get an older dog, a young dog, a puppy? So many ideas and thoughts about it. What kind of dog? Where do you keep it? All new things for me to explore. I think I need a trip to the library to check some books out on this to educate myself! I don't know if we'll get one right away or wait awhile. For now we watch our poor cat living his last days with us. It's a reminder of life and death and of living our lives in light of what's important and eternal!
My kids are very excited for the 4th of July tomorrow. We're going into town for a big parade and to see dh's mom and his sister and familly. We're then going to spend the day out that way - we're going to go hunting wild blueberries that are supposed to be ripe now. It's our first time trying that out this way. Then we're going to a park at a small lake where we will do some beach play and some will go fishing. We'll grill at one of these places. Then we'll go to another beach on lake Superior to kill some more time before fireworks. There's supposed to be some sort of "tide pool" where there should be some tadpoles. We're hoping to get some as we've always wanted to raise tadpoles to frogs! Then there are the fireworks over Lake Superior before we head home and crash!
It looks like the weather will be beautifull for us! I was thinking about the parade and thinking about ways to make the candy thing easier. In the past the kids have all had bags to collect the candy that gets thrown out during the parade. This time I think I will have them collect all the candy into one family bucket. That way there won't be fights over who gets the most or anything. Then we can give take turns picking out of the bucket when we go to eat it and it's not so hard to keep track of whose candy bags are whose etc...
Anyways, hope everyone has a great 4th of July and thanks to all for your encouraging comments! I appreciate the support.
We went to a lake just in the national forest area near here! What a beautiful area! I can't wait to spend more time exploring this area. We tried some fishing but unfortunately no bites. The lake level was down several feet so there was a large beach area which used to be underwater. There were lots of rocks, snail shells, clam shells, and other interesting things to find on the beach and throw in the water. We really enjoyed our time there and the weather was absolutely beautiful - cool and comfy! Here's some pics from our day!
Getting set to fish
Where are the fish?
MMMMM!
So nice to live near Grandma again and have her with us on these trips!
This is from the side of our back yard. The area at the bottom of the deck is where the former owners had an above-ground swimming pool. They had lots of sand brought in. We are using the sand in our sand table that we put on our deck and for the kids to dig in down there. We're going to dig out the sand and put it all near the deck and then bring in black dirt/compost and fill it in the back part of that area (which is boarded in) for a garden. There's also another raised bed that is overgrown farther back in the yard that we'll plant! What a blessing to already have garden space started!
I love having our huge deck! It's so great with the kids! This is just the side part of the deck!
Here's more of the deck with our sand table on it
We're really enjoying this new place where we've been planted!
Our move went very well other than losing track of our cat and having to track him down when we were ready to go. This took about 15 min. and I was starting to panic with wondering what we should do - keep looking for ??? amount of time, or leave and not know where he was. Thankfully he turned up. The good thing with losing him as I took one more trip down by the river where we had seen the beaver and had seen a bit of a dam, but had never seen a lodge where the beaver lived. Right where we saw the beaver the one time in the few days since we had been down there last a very distinctive beave lodge had been constructed! I was able to send Cody and Cora down there to see it right before we left. Unfortunately I didn't go down with a camera which I regret. Oh well.
Moving in went smoothly with a few families from our new church helping. We were able to have the kitchen unpacked and the beds up by the evening the first day. Now I feel like I have all the main stuff that we brought into the house unpacked other than some boxes of books in my bedroom. There are still lots of boxes in the garage to go through and bring inside to sort out over time.
We've enjoyed several nice walks here. Sunday it was in the 70's and sunny. Before church the kids and I were ready early and walked down to the river - about 15 min. walk at my 2yo's speed or 5+ min. at adult speed! We've also walked back on the roughed-in road for the development that our house is on (that may never be developed). It goes back to a beautiful wooded area and you can also get to the big river back in there as well. We saw 4 deer while out walking there last night which the kids enjoyed.
I'm really LOVING 1-level living with plenty of space. I love having my kitchen table right by the kitchen. I love having a very big deck. I love having carpeting again after having cheap laminate floors in the living room of our old house. I love having 1 more bedroom than we used to have. I love living in the same town as our pastor and family - friends and fellowship less than a mile away! All in all it's going great and I don't regret this move at all! It's exciting to see how God will lead us with people we meet in living here!
Here we are loading our big truck tonight! We got it about half done and are set with a few helpers for tomorrow. It should go pretty well finishing up here, then we'll be off to the harder work of unloading everything and settling in! All in all things went quite smoothly!
Hard to believe how big she's getting! Here's a pic of her on her birthday with her cake! Her dad does the cake baking and decorating most times. Sometimes I'm inspired and do it as well. We like to do a cake that is related to their interests. This year she got the camping theme! She's always my hardest to say what she's into as she doesn't have much that she's really into herself. Anyways, I'm praying that we have a wonderful year of growth - that she matures in the Lord and in her relationship with others!
Well, thankfully things are going better here. My ds who was sick was better the next day thankfully and no one else got sick. I think it may have been some sort of food poisoning but who knows! We've been able to get quite a bit done the last couple of days so I'm feeling like we're doing ok for our move on Sat. It's coming up so fast. It always seems so strange living those last few days in a house. Of course this is the 3rd time I've done this this year! At least we should be living in our next house a while longer than these last couple of moves, although I don't see that as being our ultimate home long-term either.
I've always wanted to have my homestead with land and chickens and all of that. At least with this home I'm out in the country but I'm living in a place where there's supposed to be a development some day so there are covenants preventing anything but domestic pets. So no chickens (although the empty lot across the road doesn't have those covenants - maybe I could rent it or buy it some day...). Ultimately we see ourselves moving again in a couple of years and the place we're at now is a better alternative to renting again as the place we're moving away from has just been sold.
So, it's kind of hard hearing about people's wonderful homesteads. I do wish I were going to have more than 1/2 an acre of land, but I'm thankful that I have empty land all around me so my view is country. It really is beautiful here and there are many wonderful things to enjoy even if the land isn't all mine. I will be greatful and patient and enjoy having my own home again! I'm just so glad I'll be able to garden again! Since our home is a manufactured home, we could just save enough $ to buy land and put in the well/septic and then have the house moved onto the land and a garage built so hopefully it won't take too long to be on a homestead of our own. Wherever God wants me to be is the best place for me!
So in a couple of days we move in and settle into a new life in a new location with new people around us and a new church. Lots of new stuff again. I am an adventurous sort so all in all, it appeals to me. I pray that I find great new friends and settle into life there well! May God lead us and use us wherever we are!
Boy do I need a good dose of it right now! It's been a little rough today. It's my dd's birthday and parts of the day went well. My dd did enjoy her day so that was good. The worst thing was my 2yo ds getting sick with the stomach flu and throwing up many times throughout the day. Because of this my brother and his family weren't able to come for supper with us. Thankfully my dd took it ok and wasn't too disappointed about it. My ds was definitely very trying during the sickness. Part of the time he was really sick and pathetic, the rest of the time he was very ornery wanting everything to eat/drink that he couldn't have (chocolate cake, ice cream...).
The trying part of all of this is that we're moving on Sat and I have lots of packing to do. If others get sick, it could be very difficult to get packed and moved. Thankfully so far we have no other sickness symptoms from anyone. So right now I'm feeding my baby and then I need to get ready to get to work on some packing whileeverything is quiet! If I'm absent for a few days you'll know why! Of course I always need to sit and feed the baby so I may sneak some blogging in anyways.
The answer is #1! I fell into the river with my baby! Here's the story!
My 8yo ds and I went on one of our many evening nature walks to the river. I almost always bring our 7mo. old baby with in our ergo baby carrier. (see www.ergobabycarrier.com if you haven't heard of this wonderful baby carrier). It was a bit cool -down in the 40's by the time we were going, so I opted for wearing my baby in the carrier and wearing my winter coat over her with her wrapped inside and just her head sticking out. I grabbed my camera in case we would be lucky enough to see the beaver who has been working down in the river.
Unfortunately the walk was one of our more uneventful walks as far as finding interesting nature items. We did stop and examine some trees looking at the types of trunks and branches, and examined little cones and catkins dangling from some of the bushes in the area. I grabbed a few to bring home and examine further at home to see if I could find pollen in the catkins or seeds in the cones. There was a bit of a breeze and my ds said, "I don't know what to do out here, I'm kind of cold", which isn't very normal as we usually take our time on our walks.
We started to head towards home and met our cat who had wandered out to see what we were doing. Unfortunately the cat needs a good cleaning in his behind area and I was trying to see if I could do anything with a stick to clean him a bit. In the process I got a bit of an odor on my hand and decided to rinse it off in the river before heading for home.
I walked over to the river and knelt down by the side and leaned my one hand on the bank to brace myself and dip my other hand in. The place where I put my hand down wasn't solid and my hand slipped into the river and with the weight of the baby in the carrier pulling me forward, I took a dive into the freezing cold river. I couldn't immediately right myself and with a bit of a current rolled to the side and went under a bit more. During this time in my mind I was thinking, "this isn't real, I can't really be in the river!" It was kind of like an out of body experience or something! As I struggled to right myself I heard my son yelling something about my being able to get out. The water was only a couple of feet deep so I soon climbed out of the river dripping wet! We were probably in the water about 5+ seconds.
I had completely submerged on one side of my body so half my head/hair and most of my body were wet, although my coat kept that area of me pretty dry. Of course then there's my little sweet baby who ended up submerging completely since she was down lower on me. I'm very grateful for my very good carrier and my heavy winter coat which held her tight to me. She was wet from her head to just above her waist and the rest of her was dry from being in my winter coat. Amazingly she didn't really cry much. At first there were lots of those gasping cold/wet sounds from her from the shock of what happened. I got her completely enclosed in my coat so it was zipped up over her head and she fussed a little but never let out much of a scream until we were inside getting her undressed and redressed!
After getting out we walked quickly back home with my boots squishing and my clothes dripping the whole way. When we got home I announced that I had fallen into the river and the rest of them kind of looked at me funny but didn't really say too much. At least if they did, I don't remember it very well - I was kind of in a bit of shock! The rest of the night I felt a bit shaky from the experience.
The big lasting negative about it that I was worried about as we walked home was my expensive digital camera which got submerged. We don't have extra spending $ at this time and my husband is sometimes stressed about this so I knew that killing my camera wouldn't go over very well. Initially I didn't mention it after we got home just in case it would dry up and work. I didn't want to needlessly worry my husband if it would end up working in the end. In the morning I tried it and unfortunately it was dead. I got the ok to buy a cheaper camera off eBay for $40-50. I was able to find a $300 camera that was used but in good working condition for $48 with the shipping, so at least I have a replacement on the way, though it won't be as good as the one I had. Unfortunately my almost 6yo dd has her birthday on Mon. and I don't think it will arrive in time so hopefully I can borrow a digital to use to get some birthday pics of her.
In looking back on the experience last night a few different things hit me.
one was gratefulness for Jemma being safely tucked into my coat.
I also had a renewed sense of the importance of watchfulness of my kids around water or in other dangerous situations. I am fairly careful with them around water, but definitely could be more-so, especially since I, as an adult who wasn't doing anything foolish, ended up in the river.
I also had the chance to give up emotionally my ties to the physical things of this life (my good camera) and focus on the eternal things.
I'm grateful for the lessons I've learned through this interesting experience.
I was all set to blog about creative outside activities my kids have been doing when something happened tonight to sidetrack me. I'm feeling like I could have a cold coming on so that combined with my evening event has left me a little tired and ready for bed. So, instead of 2 truths and a lie, I'm going to give you 2 lies and a truth for you to guess what happened tonight. 1. I fell into the river by our house with my baby while out on a nature walk. 2. I got lost in the woods while following what I thought might be bear tracks. 3. We couldn't find one of my kids so ended up searching the woods for him.
Hopefully I'll give you my answer tomorrow if I can stay healthy!
We FINALLY got snow up in Northern WI! I keep reading on different
blogs this winter about all the snow and all winter we've hardly had
any snow up by Lake Superior! A few days ago we got a little less than
a foot of snow, and now since Wed night to now we've gotten probably
around 18" of snow and and we're still supposed to get another 6" or
so. The wind was also blowing and there were blizzard warnings out.
I'll post a few pics from when I went out today!
Tomorrow I'll be posting a mystery picture! Your job is to figure out
what happened in the snow in the picture! I'm not sure completely of
the answer myself. Check back tomorrow to give your answers to this
question!
BTW, still no word on whether our offer was accepted yet - just waiting to hear! Anyways, here's the snow pics from today!
Pic of our little town with the snow flying!
Front Loader Piling Snow By the Tracks By Our House
It came and did a quick clean-up of our driveway! YIPEEEE!
Of course that title assumes that there is a "perfect"
place to live! I think one of my biggest struggles is longing for that
perfect place to live. For me that would consist of:
at least 10 acres - ideally 20 - even better 40 or more!
part
woods, part field, possibly some rolling hills for a walk-out house or
a sledding hill (of course a mound septic system can also become your
sledding hill !
Away from road noise - maybe somewhat isolated, though neighbors can be nice to have too if they're the right ones!
Some kind of water on the property - a spring, a creek, a river, a pond (preferrably more than a puddle!), a lake...
a climbing tree
BUT are we called to try to find our piece of "heaven"
on earth? That's my question I'm wrestling with a bit. God never said
we were supposed to make a "perfect spot" for ourselves here. Last
summer the place we rented was not quite perfect according to those
standards, but it was pretty incredible! We had a lake that we could
canoe and fish on, a beach where we could go swimming and play in the
little bit of sand, some woods (though they weren't very accessible),
lots of beautiful fields, 105 acres!, private drive so others couldn't
see your house! Several times while I was there, I wondered about
living in a "wonderful" place. Was I content there? Was it all I wanted
it to be?
One other reason I loved living there was I met a wonderful Christian
friend down the road who plans to homeschool and is very like-minded!
What a blessing that was! We also had an older couple who watched over
the place who weren't Christians that we tried to minister to and
witness to. We raked leaves for them, brought over homemade applesauce
and enjoyed chats outside with them. Since moving, I may miss the land
there some, but I miss the relationships more!
So now, we're looking to move again soon, as the house we're in will go
back on the market and I really want to live closer to my husband's
mom. Plus we just found a wonderful church there! The pastor and his
wife homeschool and have 2 kids similar ages to my older 2. We had a
WONDERFUL visit with them after church at their church potluck and
really hit it off with them. They live in a small town about 20 min.
from my husband's mom. The town has about 90 people. I was looking at
listings yesterday and saw that there are 2 incredibly cheap houses in
town there. One is on 1/2 acre and the other is on 3/4 acres. We could
buy them with no mortgage and still have plenty of $ in the bank. Both
of them seem large enough for our family. Then we could continue to
look for land and buy if we found the right land at the right price. We
could build as we got $ and then sell our house in town (hopefully).
So, do I put my dreams on hold and look at buying "in town" (if you
call 90 people a town)? It would be nice to have a place of my own and
be able to garden and possibly have chickens (if they allow it). There
are several nice parks I hear in town as well as a river that comes
close to the town where my son could go fishing easily (from what I can
tell on the map). Maybe there is someone living in this town who needs
our witness. Of course it would be really nice to live close to our
pastor and his family - to have a friend down the road!
Hopefully we'll go see these places soon and think and pray about it.
In looking to move to the country, I prayed several times about whether
the Lord wanted us out away from lots of people in the city. I have
always told the Lord that if he wanted me to move to the inner city, I
would. As much as I have my desires for a "perfect" spot, more
importantly I want to be wherever the Lord wants us to be. He has the
best plans for us!
Since we moved up North last fall, we've been attending a church not
too far from where we're living. While we like the church we're at in
some ways, it tends to be a bit legalistic on some issues and we're
also hoping to move closer to my mother-in-law soon (an hour away).
There are several different areas where we could live, so in order to
help us decide where we should look for land or somewhere to live, we
decided to try to find a church we could attend out in that area.
Over the past 2 years, I've gone through a lot of changes in how I
think about different issues. One thing I struggle with is finding a
church that is conservative, yet not legalistic. It's so hard to find
that balance both in my own mind and in churches. It seems that so many
churches that agree with things I've been convicted of, tend to be
legalistic in how the preach or teach others. Though, I've been
convicted of different things, I haven't become convinced that these
things are "doctrine" that I can say absolutely is a truth to defend.
On the other hand, I don't really want to attend a church that does
many things I don't agree with.
Anyways, today I may have found that church with the right balance.
It's a small church, but size isn't important to me. There is good
fellowship there, the Bible is preached in a systematic chapter by
chapter, verse by verse manner, and it is conservative. The pastor
believes it's important to not be legalistic and desires to objectively
search the Bible for all answers to different issues. I'm very excited
to have a place that I believe will become our home church! Now to move
close enough to attend there regularly! The house we're renting will go
back on the market soon so we'll begin casually looking for a place to
rent or to buy. Unless the Lord provides us with the right place for
very cheap, we'll probably be renting again and buy land and build as
we get money. So we'll see where the Lord leads us in the future!
The past 1 1/2 years has been a year of incredible change! We went from living in the suburbs in the Twin Cities, MN with a normal job, to now being in the country in Northern Wisconsin and owning our own business! The path we took to get here has been such a faith walk for us!
It started when we pursued buying Lifetime Books & Gifts from Bob & Tina Farewell. We were one of the final 6 families or so who they were considering selling their business to. We worked a convention in Phoenix with them during the bidding process and decided that their business wasn't the Lord's will, but that he was using this to give us courage to begin a move to the country.
We first needed to sell our home so it was on the market throughout the late summer and fall of 2005. Shortly after we took it off the market for that winter, God brought a buyer to us that heard about the house through a mutual friend. We were able to sell in the spring to a wonderful family that paid the asking price, was easy to work with, and completed the deal without realtor fees.
As we did not plan to move into Wisconsin until my husband found a new career job, we then had no place to live. At a Bible study my husband was attending, a friend heard of our situation and offered us a home to rent (month-to-month, below market rental price). This home was on a plot of land that his construction company owned and was planning to subdivide and build new homes over the next couple years. So God blessed us with a wonderful summer at an old farm-house on 100+ acres along a lake filled with largemouth bass. But still no job in Northern Wisconsin.
My brother also recently had moved Wisconsin and offered my husband the temporary opportunity to come help build his home in the area. We visited the area to look for a home to rent if we made the move and again through one of those fine threads of someone talking to someone talking to someone else (that could only be God's hand working) we were given the opportunity to rent a home large enough for our family on 40 acres of land for $300/month.
When my husband was in his last week of working for my brother on his house, we heard on an e-mail group about a homeschool family's business that they were selling. At one point it had made a full-time salary, but then the husband needed to go back to work to have benefits, so they no longer had time to put into the business. Anyways, many people put in bids on the business, but because of our circumstances over the past year, it was evident to this family that we were the family they felt led by the Lord to sell to!
So we now own our own ink business that can help people save $ on their printer ink and cartridges! More on the business at another time. The website if www.encoreink.com if you must check it out now! We are just getting up and running. The website definitely needs an overhaul. Many things we sell aren't listed so if you don't see your printer or ink, definitely check with us personally!
The wonderful thing about having our own business is that provided things go well with it, like I'm fairly confident it will, we will be able to move to any location up North here without worrying about being near a job. My brother and my mother-in-law live about an hour from each other and now we could live somewhere in-between where there aren't as many job possibilities!
I am just excited and amazed at the Lord's provision. After praying for a job for months, to be given an established business that we can run from home is such an incredible answer to prayer! "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine...To Him be glory"! Ephesians 3:20-21
So soon when we feel comfortable with the business, we can begin looking for our country hide-away to settle down into! Can't wait to glean lots of info from all you people!
Getting set to fish
Where are the fish?
MMMMM!
So nice to live near Grandma again and have her with us on these trips!
Launching Rocks
!
Our Journey Into The Country - A Faith Walk