I am back online! :) It is so nice to have our computer connected to the internet again! We have been back and forth in the trailer this past year making it difficult to be consistent online due to not having internet in the trailer. After our 3 months in PA (Dec-Feb), we came back to NY and stayed in a 2 bedroom cottage while we hunted for a house to rent. God kept us on our toes! Every place we went to see was very wrong for us. Then after 2-3 months of staying in the cottage a good friend of ours told us she had a house she rented to someone else for many years but they left last year and left the house a bit of a mess. She said in exchange for cleaning it we could stay there. Well we parked our trailer on the property (2 acres) and started cleaning. It took about 6 months and hiring help to get it livable. We moved in a few weeks ago and still have work to finish! But it is nice to have room to move around! :)
We are on our mission to get to Kentucky soon. We will be going out there in March to speak with companies that sell manufactured homes. In the meantime we are saving for the down payment! It looks like we could be there sometime this summer or possibly fall depending on the progress of getting a house on the property. We had a small garden here in NY this past summer and got only a little fruit out of it. But what I lacked in produce, I more than made up in knowledge through mistakes made! All I know is whoever rents this house from our friend next will have some pretty awesome strawberry plants for the years to come!
The kids are growing and maturing! I cannot believe just how much they have grown this past year! And I am not just talking height here! They are beginning to talk more and more of what they want to do when they get older....of course it is all subject to change and I am sure it will change many times, but it is amazing to listen to them talk about things such as having children of their own, working in the real world, and so on. They have been doing an online school program called Time 4 Learning. I have had no time at all to do full time school with them with remodeling the house and working. The online program gives them the nuts and bolts of an education and now that we are done remodeling, I can go back to the Charlotte Mason method and giving them a higher quality education. The good thing is they all enjoy reading and read all the time. It will just be a bit of an effort to get them to do some writing and thinking on their own.
E had a few piano lessons this year. She just didn't like practicing - she decided she was not as interested in it as she once thought so we ended the lessons but kept the keyboard. She loves playing with it and once in awhile she will play a song she had practiced. I think maybe someday she will go back to it - but it's ok if she doesn't. Now her and G are interested in taking gymnastics classes. They have their first one this evening. R is going to try it too just to see if he will like it. He is more interested in karate but I have yet to find a place I feel comfortable taking him.
Well that is all for now! Until next time!
Happy Birthday E!!! Plus getting back on track and going back to the trailer...
E is the big 9!!!! Wow - how time flies!! :) No plans for the day - we will be celebrating on Wednesday when we are all home!!
WHAT???????!!!!!!!!!!!! Living in the travel trailer again? Ummm, yeah....but it will only be for a few weeks. For those who do not know - we lived in a 28 foot travel trailer for 2 years while we traveled for our jobs to save money. We left the trailer 4 months ago when we went to PA and took a 3 bdrm townhouse provided by our company. We couldn't find a year open RV park that allowed kids during the school year - it was weird. But those 2 years saved us a TON of money and we realized it when we went to PA. We came back to Albany 4 weeks ago and are staying in a 2 bedroom cottage until we find a place we want to stay as we plan to stay here as long as we can up to 2 years. After looking at over 10 houses in person and hundreds online, all I can say is I can't wait to go to KY and have our own house!!! :) We found one house we LOVED and was near perfect for us, but the couple decided not to rent at all. So we kept praying and praying. Well, God is definitely good!! We talked to a friend at work and she said she had an empty house - she rented it for many years to one family, but they left and took everything with them including the light fixtures! So she said if we replaced the carpets, painted, put in appliances, and fixed it up, we could stay there as long as we needed to. Well...hubby is Mr. Handyman, so we are going to stay there - but while we fix it up, we will stay in the travel trailer on the property (2 acres!!). We can have a garden and we plan to talk to our friend about having chickens. It is near other very good friends of ours, is in the west side of Albany which makes trips to see family quicker, and it is only 45 minutes from our favorite farm! There is a basement and garage so I plan to get a few chest freezers. I talked to our farmer and he plans to butcher some cows this month - we can get 1/2 a grass fed cow for less than $3 per pound. That is a whole years worth of beef for 1/2 the money! So excited!!!
Anyway, things have been stressful because of being in limbo for the past month. Our eating habits are horrific and we are all suffering greatly! My skin is horrible and all the kids have exacerbations of previous problems, like bedwetting and OCD. So hubby and I had a huge talk the other day - it comes down to the fact that we both have to try harder to stick to the all natural diet. Would love to do GAPS or the Maker's Diet, but that is so not practical right now. But the bagels and cereal and all other processed foods need to go NOW! UGH! So I started on a better foot the past few days and realized we are not utilizing all that we have because most of our stuff is in storage, but I still have a few good things to make life easier....
WHAT???????!!!!!!!!!!!! Living in the travel trailer again? Ummm, yeah....but it will only be for a few weeks. For those who do not know - we lived in a 28 foot travel trailer for 2 years while we traveled for our jobs to save money. We left the trailer 4 months ago when we went to PA and took a 3 bdrm townhouse provided by our company. We couldn't find a year open RV park that allowed kids during the school year - it was weird. But those 2 years saved us a TON of money and we realized it when we went to PA. We came back to Albany 4 weeks ago and are staying in a 2 bedroom cottage until we find a place we want to stay as we plan to stay here as long as we can up to 2 years. After looking at over 10 houses in person and hundreds online, all I can say is I can't wait to go to KY and have our own house!!! :) We found one house we LOVED and was near perfect for us, but the couple decided not to rent at all. So we kept praying and praying. Well, God is definitely good!! We talked to a friend at work and she said she had an empty house - she rented it for many years to one family, but they left and took everything with them including the light fixtures! So she said if we replaced the carpets, painted, put in appliances, and fixed it up, we could stay there as long as we needed to. Well...hubby is Mr. Handyman, so we are going to stay there - but while we fix it up, we will stay in the travel trailer on the property (2 acres!!). We can have a garden and we plan to talk to our friend about having chickens. It is near other very good friends of ours, is in the west side of Albany which makes trips to see family quicker, and it is only 45 minutes from our favorite farm! There is a basement and garage so I plan to get a few chest freezers. I talked to our farmer and he plans to butcher some cows this month - we can get 1/2 a grass fed cow for less than $3 per pound. That is a whole years worth of beef for 1/2 the money! So excited!!!
Anyway, things have been stressful because of being in limbo for the past month. Our eating habits are horrific and we are all suffering greatly! My skin is horrible and all the kids have exacerbations of previous problems, like bedwetting and OCD. So hubby and I had a huge talk the other day - it comes down to the fact that we both have to try harder to stick to the all natural diet. Would love to do GAPS or the Maker's Diet, but that is so not practical right now. But the bagels and cereal and all other processed foods need to go NOW! UGH! So I started on a better foot the past few days and realized we are not utilizing all that we have because most of our stuff is in storage, but I still have a few good things to make life easier....
Here is my NuWave oven - LOVE it!!! It is most helpful when I forget to defrost meat for dinner - which hubby and I do very often. You can put in frozen meat and have it come out evenly cooked! Last night I made salmon - I was very tired after working my 3 days and not sleeping well. Hubby had taken out the salmon for me but it was still mostly frozen by 5 pm. But half our later, this is what I had:
A most delicious dinner!!!! Salmon and steamed green beans! The kids absolutely LOVE salmon - this came out flaky and moist. I was pretty impressed. Something like a frozen chicken takes a few hours, but can be done!!! I will be making turkey tonight from a compeltely frozen state! It will take 2 hours, but I don't have to wait 3-4 days for it to defrost!
Seeing as I only have 3-4 pots/pans total, I had to use a big pot for my pancake mix. E wanted pancakes for her birthday breakfast. The best type are the soaked in buttermilk type! Soaking the wheat over night in buttermilk breaks down the gluten - making near gluten-free wheat pancakes! They are the bomb! We stay full on these 1/2 the day! It is not a lot of work at all...just takes a bit of planning.
Here is the pancake mix sitting over night in the oven with the light on - provides just enough warmth for the good bacteria in the buttermilk to do their job!
And this here is the 2 bedroom cottage we are staying in - we had just come in from outside - the kids were chasing the dog for over an hour - they were all exhausted! The doors ahead is one big bedroom - all the kids stay in there. To the right is the stove and the door to the bathroom. To my left is a small bedroom for hubby and I and behind me is the door to the outside. Not huge, but it does the job for now and is so much bigger than our trailer!!!! :)
Blogger Wannabee
I miss my days of frequent blogging! I just do not always have the time with working and trying to keep things sane at home. But I wanted to pop in and give a thumbs up to something new I have tried......Acupuncture. I believe in energy healing - there are so many different modalities - acupuncture is just one of them - but with a longer history than most. For whatever reason I never got around to trying it even though I always wanted to. Well I started going last week and after 3 visits I can feel a difference. He is working on my overall health - but I can see a huge difference in my skin and lately my energy levels. I no longer feel exhausted all the time. These next 4-5 days coming up will be more telling. I actually was able to wake up at 8 am for a 9 am appt this morning after getting home at 4 am from work. Hubby was awesome and let me go back to sleep for a few hours before he headed to work. I should be exhausted right now but I actually feel like digging in to some work here at home. Weird! But obviously good!
Things at home are going well. I have not had time for much schooling lately - but we do some copywork and reading 4-5 times a week. The kids are getting better at narrating (telling me about what they have read). When we first started their narration was 1-2 sentences. But now I am getting sooooo much more! I am impressed with the older 2. The youngest is still having a hard time telling me about the stories we read, BUT she is reading all on her own now - only asking about a few big words from time to time.
As for our next step - we are headed back to Albany in 2 weeks. We sooooo much want to go to KY, but we investigated the job situation there and it would come down to me having to work full time for years. Of course I have nothing against working - I just want to work in other ways - like schooling the kids and homesteading and having my own business helping people get healthy in a natural way. But that will not pay the bills. Now I could do that but hubby would have to work 72 hours a week at a job he really dislikes. Not conducive to a healthy happy home. Our goal is to get out of the modern medical world work force completely. Hubby just wants to farm. So we prayed and talked it through some more. And it cxomes down to the basic premise that we should owe no one and if we work for the next 2 years we will have everything paid off. All we would have to pay for is energy costs and food. Considering we will grow our own food, hubby may only have to work for a few years once in KY and it would be only part time at that.
OK, enough rambling. Time to get back to work!!! I wish I had some pictures to share....just have not had time to take many. I do however have a recent picture of our "puppy". He is just over a year now and still a bit of a freak....but getting better with training and age.
Things at home are going well. I have not had time for much schooling lately - but we do some copywork and reading 4-5 times a week. The kids are getting better at narrating (telling me about what they have read). When we first started their narration was 1-2 sentences. But now I am getting sooooo much more! I am impressed with the older 2. The youngest is still having a hard time telling me about the stories we read, BUT she is reading all on her own now - only asking about a few big words from time to time.
As for our next step - we are headed back to Albany in 2 weeks. We sooooo much want to go to KY, but we investigated the job situation there and it would come down to me having to work full time for years. Of course I have nothing against working - I just want to work in other ways - like schooling the kids and homesteading and having my own business helping people get healthy in a natural way. But that will not pay the bills. Now I could do that but hubby would have to work 72 hours a week at a job he really dislikes. Not conducive to a healthy happy home. Our goal is to get out of the modern medical world work force completely. Hubby just wants to farm. So we prayed and talked it through some more. And it cxomes down to the basic premise that we should owe no one and if we work for the next 2 years we will have everything paid off. All we would have to pay for is energy costs and food. Considering we will grow our own food, hubby may only have to work for a few years once in KY and it would be only part time at that.
OK, enough rambling. Time to get back to work!!! I wish I had some pictures to share....just have not had time to take many. I do however have a recent picture of our "puppy". He is just over a year now and still a bit of a freak....but getting better with training and age.
I have new things growing in my kitchen!!
And no it is NOT mold! :) All I can say is I am very excited about all the new things I have been learning! And growing!! While working nights, there are a few opportunities when things slow down that I can read my GAPS book or google stuff about the diet. I am finding some good recipes and ideas. I wanted to be ready to start yesterday but my biokult probiotics have not even shipped yet! :( Plus I have so much more to prepare! Tomorrow is a big shopping day! I have a ton more things to purchase, cut up, ferment, simmer, and freeze! I plan to be super prepared! From what I am reading about the first few weeks of intro, I am learning that you cannot possibly over prepare for this diet! With working full time I cannot imagine dealing with brain fog and fatigue AND try to cook and prepare foods! Of course I will as I go along, but for those bad days, I plan to have something I can pull right from the freezer and heat up! Today I did just that! I have the beginnings of a cold coming on. I went and defrosted and warmed up some of my chicken vegetable soup. After drinking a pint, I actually feel much better - I now have broth defrosting in the fridge for tomorrow so I can hopefully get this to pass soon!
So here is what I have brewing:
So here is what I have brewing:
Here is my yogurt prep - LOVE my new thermos!
And here is my yogurt dripping - will use the whey for my fermented veggies
Speaking of which - here they are! Cabbage, carrots, garlic, beets (hence all the pink and red), and cauliflower! The kids were not too happy to know this is on the menu in a few weeks!
Forever making stock!
Here is the saurkraut fermenting!
This is the above bowl under the "covers"...read that the saurkraut needed to be kept in the dark!
And here is the finished saurkraut! It has carrots in it and some green cabbage.
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