Today we found our potential home.  It's taken awhile to find it, though not as long as I thought it would.  It's in a nice area, cute little home and has quite the open floor plan.   We decided we couldn't let it go without a fight.

We called our mortgage broker, got all our paperwork ready for our realtor, called our real estate attorney, and upon acceptance, IF our offer is accepted, we will hire our own inspectors.

It wasn't the homestead I'd always dreamed of having where I'd have chickens, goats and lambs. BUT, God has blessed us abundantly and if this is the home, we'll have plenty of space for a HUGE garden.  The city won't allow us to have chickens or other livestock.  It's ok though.  The mere fact that the home would be OURS and that we could grow food next harvest season, well, My cup runneth over!

In the end, there are plenty of rooms in our Fathers house.  My gift doesn't come from material possessions here, but will be alongside Him in His house. 

I shall keep you posted when we find out more.

Rebekah

we have been rationing water again, so I was glad to see this today if you have ever had to ration water, you know it is no fun, we have several springs, actually usually too many, but during a drought it can get bad, the spring that fills the pond/lake stopped, there is still one watering spot in the back pasture, and a very good spring that flows into the creek nd watering hole in the front pasture but the one that serves the house has slowed to a trickle, which means we use iy only for drinking water, all washing and bathing water must be toted from the creek, everybody is getting strong :) but help is on the way!  

...HEAVY RAINFALL IS EXPECTED ACROSS PARTS OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...

ABUNDANT MOISTURE ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL DEPRESSION FAY WILL BRING THE POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY RAINFALL TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...MAINLY TO SOUTH AND EAST PORTIONS OF THE MID STATE. RAINFALL TOTALS IN EXCESS OF 4 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE FOR LOCATIONS SUCH AS CROSSVILLE...MCMINNVILLE AND MANCHESTER.

THE CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION FAY WILL REMAIN OVER SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI THROUGH MOST OF MONDAY...THEN IT WILL ACCELERATE NORTHEASTWARD. THE REMNANTS OF FAY WILL CROSS TENNESSEE...AND MOVE INTO EASTERN KENTUCKY BY WEDNESDAY MORNING. AS FAY CROSSES THE REGION... BANDS OF SHOWERS WILL DEVELOP...WITH HEAVY RAINFALL AT TIMES.

ACROSS THE MID STATE...RAINFALL TOTALS ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM ONE HALF TO 1 INCH IN THE NORTHWEST...TO 4 INCHES OR MORE IN THE SOUTHEAST. THE NASHVILLE AREA IS EXPECTED TO RECEIVE 1 TO 2 INCHES OF RAIN.

THIS RAINFALL WILL PROVIDE SOME WELCOME RELIEF TO DROUGHT CONDITIONS THAT HAVE IMPACTED MUCH OF THE AREA. HOWEVER...HEAVY RAINFALL IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME CAN CAUSE FLOODING... ESPECIALLY IN URBAN AREAS AND ALONG SMALL STREAMS. PLEASE MONITOR UPDATED FORECASTS AND STATEMENTS...WHICH WILL CONTAIN MORE DETAILS ON WHERE AND WHEN THE HEAVIEST RAINFALL WILL OCCUR...AND THE POTENTIAL FOR FLOODING.

This Weeks Assignment: This week, we want to hear about YOU. The author behind the words. The Momma behind all the homeschooling kiddos. Just write up something about you, your family, and your home. How long you’ve been homeschooling and why you decided to homeschool. It doesn’t have to be anything lengthy at all, but we’d love to hear it! You might include a family photo too!

I'm Kim married to my sweet heart for nine years this Saturday!  We have been blessed with 4 sweet girls age 6, 4, 2, 1 and a baby due mid Nov.

My husband and I are both homesteaders at heart.  Although we've lived in a range of places from old homesteads with out hydro and water to apartments.  Currently we live in the house we bought 4 years ago, renovating it to sell one day.  Our house is 158 years old!  Quite old for this area.  We both really like our home here and it would be perfect if it just had more acreage!

Before our first child was born I knew I wanted to homeschool.  Thankfully dh was in full agreement.  We both were raised in the public school system and saw it's many down falls.  While we both love learning the schools we went to did a very good job of trying to squelch that.  Thankfully while growing up I lived nearby a homeschooling family.  When I was in my mid teens I took myself out of the public system and finished my schooling with a combination of correspondence and home (self) schooling.

Our children love learning with history, science and art being their favorite subjects.  Our basic curriculum can be seen here.   While I believe that learning starts at birth, we've been officially homeschooling for 2 years.

Other interests of mine are gardening, canning/cooking, hiking, reading, crochet, different handcrafts and generally anything that falls into a homestead/homemaking category. 

Today's gloomy task was to clear all the dead and dying tomatoes from the polytunnel. Blight has got the lot, we bottled maybe six pints, and had a few salads – but now a mountain of promise lies rotting and brown. I could cry.

You don't have to let it get to you, but you do have to reassess, and when you start reviewing one thing, as you know, it tends to get into reviewing a few.

What I did wrong in the tunnel is plant things way too close together, and get too much in. I had seven or so of each variety of tomato – I would have been better with one or two. The yield would have been as good (well, better than the current zero!) and it would have been easier to keep everything in control, plus of course the plants would have had the requisite air and light. You see as a result of planting too much, I didn't have enough time to tend the plants as required.

I'd tended to rely on two bush varieties, which don't need pinching out and training – but of course in their happy rambling way, they are the perfect host for blight.

The vines I did have were interesting. Unusual. Different colours ... but obviously not very blight resistant!

I'm seeing it as a painful metaphor! I try to get too much into life, as well, try to cram in more things, and then lack the time to tend them and do them properly. All my zones could do with a little more light and air! And more love and attention lavished on their development.

I feel as if I've just focussed on detail, like the pretty tomatoes, and not made sure that each of the areas of my life has air light and water, and preferably is blight resistant! In other words, the valuable things need to be kept going, and done with love, respect, and attention to detail.

This year I haven't given the garden the attention it deserves, and I believe that is because we took a year off from its being an income stream – it was nice, not worrying too much, but it hasn't made for a good garden, and I don't feel as if I've made my contribution – so I would like to get back to proper production next year. Running my own 'micro business' within our family enterprise made me feel stronger, more accountable – it kept lines of communication open between me and God as well as me and the community.

School preparation was muddled and clouded by our great hope of getting the girls into a lovely christian school – but that wasn't in God's plan for this year, and now I do feel I've made a good start on getting ready for another year's homeschooling. I am sad that they can't go to school, but obedient to God's 'no' (or maybe 'not yet'). I also think I've been more realistic about curriculum this year, I have stepped away from CLE and constructed something mostly Ambleside, but with big input from Galore Park – I hope that will leave air and light around our schedule, and protect us from the blight of frustration, when things don't go well, and we are mired down with samey work books.

I've given up being a Brownie Guider, for the time being, as the Brownie team is strong and needs to go ahead and develop the unit anew, so hopefully, that lets some air and light into the Guide Unit I still run.

The major work on the house is being done in the next few weeks (kitchen floor, then kitchen refit) so then I can hopefully schedule one small job at a time when it comes to smartening up the detail.

Church .... well if you don't mind, we won't try to deal with that right now. At the back of the polytunnel, the peppers are still going nicely! I'm sure I've done a few things wrong, and yes, they are a little tightly packed, but for now, they're doing OK. And they bear some fruit.

As for the two bush variety tomatoes – they demonstrate that finding a sparky, different, so much cooler way to do things doesn't always pay off. I am a great one for being too bored to do WeightWatchers or Flylady, convinced I'll have a brighter idea myself. So I sit fatly, in an untidy house, waiting for the fruit of my own brilliance to strike ..... !!!

Despite the sadness of a crop failure, this chance to reassess is a blessing. I know most people make new years resolutions in January – actually, we usually make ours after Easter – but maybe homeschoolers and gardeners should consider an after harvest rethink?!

The polytunnel in June - pleased as punch with all the healthy growth, I failed to spot the warning signs of overcrowded plants in a warm, moist atmosphere. The weather is the chief culprit when blight stirkes, but the gardener is not immune from criticism.

Learn about the Irish Potato Famine - which began with the Blight.

Learn about Potato Blight .

Our beautiful potato crop, before the blight took hold. You can see the flowers on the second earlies.

It all just comes tumbling down sometimes.

I've been reading Shane Claiborne's 'The Irresistable Revolution' and I haven't had time to hit the 'yeh but' phase, so I'm feeling like a complete sham. I love people like Claiborne – right out there, in Calcutta with Mother Theresa, in Iraq as the bombs dropped, the most amazing full on out there advocate for Jesus and His awesome love. Love Love Love. Love in action.

But they make me feel as if I've completely missed the point. And I'm here now, whether I like it or not, with two kids relying on me and a life to lead.

But the point is (yeh but is kicking in) we can't all be that person. Some of us are the ones who read the book, right? He talks about justice for the poor, struggling to get housing for poor families, well a couple of years ago, we were that family in just about liveable housing, so what gain by giving it up?

What I think it means, is, Take It Seriously. There is something you are here to do, so you have to seek it and do it, with all your heart (as unto the Lord) – and in our case, it's to do with food – rearing and growing food with which to bless the people around us, building relationships with them based upon the clean necessities of life – milk and honey (vegetables and eggs, too !) - and I think as a side issue, my kids and I have ended up with the horses. Some days I just wish we hadn't it feels like such a burden of guilt, such a pointless thing to do – but all my life horses have found me, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop now.

I love my horse – and we're having a bit of a moment right now – he's got a foot problem which may or may not be laminitis and I'm praying isn't something worse .... farrier's coming tomorrow, thankfully. I totally love my farrier. He's so cool – nothing's too much trouble, and he trades – we barter lamb for farriery services. His little boy is also the current caretaker of our mini mini pony, the Magster.

But Claiborne does eventually point out that in the early church, there were the wandering evangelists, and the settled support network – I guess the tendency is to read of the life and work of missionaries, radicals, and all those who get right out of their comfort zone for what they believe, and immediately and naturally identify with the central character. But there have to be support acts too, right?

So does it matter so too much what it is you're doing, as long as you're there, with open doors, to encourage the movers and shakers of the faith, welcome the struggling, and facilitate the fellowship?

Trouble is – I'm not so very good at all this open house stuff. I'm good at open garden, if that helps? And for a while, I've had that bustling, bugging, feeling that hospitality is a need - all our stuff, the veg garden, the sheep, the goats, the ponies – they fascinate people and draw them in.

What I think this book, and the surrounding events, have taught me is that I need to be less sniffy, I need to look for Jesus in everyone, and make them a cup of tea. What I hope it isn't about is the occasional guilt and burden I feel for having the horses, encouraging the girls to compete, watching them just get so wrapped up in it all ..... when other kids their age, in other places, cry themselves to sleep for want of food and die for need of clean water.

What I don't want to do is justify my own plenty in the face of my brothers' need.

What do you all think?