Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

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It seems that winter is trying to hold on alittle longer.  After having a week or so of warm weather, our temperatures have dropped again.  Cold enough at night to have to take precautions to prevent the water pipes from freezing.  

This week, I finally was able to find homes for more of the puppies.  I am going to keep 3 out of the 10 pups.  The 2 males in the litter and one of the runt females.  There is another female that I am holding onto for a dear friend who is planning to travel here this summer.  At this point, I have only 4 more pups to find homes for.  Today, the ad for the puppies comes out in the local paper one last time.  With all the puppies and 3 adult dogs, I was going through 80 lbs. of dog food each week.  I am so happy to be finding homes for half of the dogs.  I know that once the pups I am keeping are full grown, I will be back to feeding at least the 80 lbs. of dog food a week, but it will still be alot less than if I had kept all of the puppies. 

It has been strange having Joe gone so long.  This will be my 2nd weekend without him coming home.  We were so blessed to have him coming home during the first few days of his orientation to spend the nights at home.  We enjoyed having that extra family time.  He still has another 3 weeks until he will be coming home.  This is the longest he will be away.  The orientation added another week onto his time from home.  During the day, I am okay most of the time.  I am able to stay busy and distracted.  When night comes around though, it hits me just how much I miss him.  I just keep focusing on the big picture though.  The Lord led us to this job for a reason.  Joe has so much faith and is a great example of what a Christian man should be.  Through his job, he will be able to share the Light of Christ with others, not by preaching, but by living the way that the Lord asks us to.  You can share that Light without ever having ot say a word.  Your actions do the talking for you.

Here at home, I am staying pretty busy.  I am working at trying to spring clean the house abit each day.  Abbie keeps me busy also. She is getting more mobile and is very curious about everything.

Today, I was playing a video, Disney's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" I got through netflix.   Abbie was awake when I had the movie playing.  As the irish music played in the movie, she would pat her hand on her knee.  It was so cute!  She also will "bounce" to the music if she happens to be standing.  She gets that from Joe.  He always dances with her, so now she dances to music all the time.

Abbie is also chattering away quite often.  She is such a happy little girl.  I feel very blessed.  She doesn't have alot of new words, but she is making the sounds of new letters.  This past week, she has also gained 2 more teeth.  Like before, she went through the teething without alot of fuss.  This brings the count up to 8 teeth now.  It is hard to believe that Abbie will be a year old in about a week.

I have been getting more sewing done.  My sewing machine isn't working, so I got out the antique one.  This machine is so old it only does a straight stitch - no reverse stitch feature or zigzag.  I am amazed at how much it is limiting my sewing.  At least I can do some things though.  I just have to keep remembering to leave threads long enough that I can tie them off. 

The vegetarian diet is still working well for me.  I am still pain free of the fibromyalgia.  I have been without pain for a little over a month now...the longest  have gone in the past several years.  My arthritis bothers me abit at times, but by comparason it is only a nuisance.  I am so grateful to the Lord for leading me to the diet change.  This has made Joe being gone easier in that I am feeling good and able to take care of things.