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!!!! :)
