Homestead Dreamer

after a long absense, I'm back..

After a long time away. I am back to my blogging. The busyness of raising kids, running a business, and dealing with some health issues has kept me at bay. But I'm ready to blog again!

Contanier Gardens..

We have done it. I have several container gardens going this year. I'm very excited about it.

I did one with herbs. Italian parsley, basil, mint, and rosemary. I did some others with all different kinds of tomatoes, and eggplant. I'm going to try and container a green squash, don't know if it will work, but we're trying anyway!! Anyone know of anything else I could container?? My blueberry plant came back this year, now if I could just keep the birds away from it!!!! and My lilac is almost in full bloom. Oh..how I love that smell...brings back sweet memories of my grandparents..

Blessings

End of year wrap up..

Hi All,

It's been awhile since my last post. We are rounding out the year here with our homeschool support group. Each year we hold a huge Stepping Up Ceremony. It's a catered event, the kids get to show case their talents and get recognized for completing another year of school. We will be schooling through the summer. We always do, I like to keep things fresh in the mind. Anywho, all the preps have kept me quite busy!! We will be having around 170 people this year!!! I think we have 13 eighth grade graduates and 1 senior grad.  It's seems to me alot of people stop homeschooling during the high school years, so we're very proud to have a high school graduate. It's sad to me that parents will spend all this time, training thier children and then send them to the wolves. We plan to homeschool all the way through. Only by the grace of God tho! ..Cause the thought of me doing it alone makes me... lol..

Blessings

Spring is where??

Hi All,

Waiting impatiently for spring to sprung, ;) if you will around here. We've had the most mild winter and now when spring is officially here, it's freezing out!! We've had our home recently appraised, just wanted to see where we stand in the neighborhood. We love our home. There is a few things we would change, like I wish we had a bigger lot.  We are currently working on planning out my new kitchen! I can't wait to get started on it!! There is soooo much to look forward too! Like picking out my new cabinets, and deceiding on a new oven and such! I can't wait till we're full swing. We've just deceided to finish up some the little projects around here. Then get going on the kitchen!

Anyone want to share some kitchen remodeling tips and ideas??

Excitement..

The Simple Life..

Gotta love the simple life right?? I've been trying very hard lately to get back to basics, got real caught up in the go,go,go things of life. I know that happens but I always dread it!! We had a great week of homeschooling, we are doing workshops for the next 6 weeks with our homeschool group. So we are limiting our other outside activities. Our first workshop Friday went fantastic! I'm so glad the kiddos had fun! They are each growing so fast for me. As I see their bodies growing thier hearts and minds are growing to. As is their love for Jesus. I love watching the simplicity of watching them grow. It really so amazing. It seems so simple but the complexity of growth is something totally different. Wheather in the physical sense, or in our growth with Jesus. At times it seems so simple to love the Lord, yet the complexity of the world is always beconning us to join them. So it's not really so simple. Right?

Went off an a tangent there, sorry about that. Anywho, as I pray for a more simple life, I pray really for a sofenting of the heart against the world and a more passionate heart for Christ. Each day new mercies are given, Thank You Jesus for that!!  He knows we homeschoolin', farmin', dh lovin', momma's need them!! God Bless!

Still No Word..

Hi All,

Still no word from the job dh applied for in VT. They had emailed him and asked him if he would be willing to travel to Ohio for another interview. Dh declined tho, if they were paying for it he would have said yes, but for us to put our own $$ out it was just too much.

Anywho, that's ok, we're willing to accept whatever the Lord has in store for us. We know we need to be more proficent here at home also.

Homestead Dreams on hold..

Well, we're still waiting to hear from the job offer in Vermont. This could not pan out for us. We are trying to accept God's will in all of this. If we don't get our dream homestead, we will try harder to get our current house up and running as efficiantly as we can.

which will mean alot of container gardening. but we will persue!! with a happy heart

So much going on here.

I know it's been awhile since I've posted here. Please forgive me.

It seems our dreams of a homestead could become a reality very soon.

You see Dh has a job offer in Vermont. He went up there last week for an interview and spent some time with his brother. The interview went very well. Dh also looked into a house for us, should this job pan out. It is beautiful. We are totally leaning on God. We are trying not to get to excited about the prospect. But just trying to wait on God for his direction and that we follow his will. The thought of our dreams becoming reality is so sureal yet scary all at once. It would be a big move on our part. We are awaiting the information for dh to have a 2nd interview. They said they would be calling him about it soon. They requested a salary history, which we provided and it seems that they will be in our range of what we need. We could easily sell our house here in NJ and pay CASH for a house in VT. This is such an exciting prospect!! To be mortgage free!! WOW!!!  The house in VT, is on 15 acres!!! 4 bedrooms, full basement, guest house, 2 car garage, pool, hot tub, artisan well on the property and mountain view. It's lovely!!!! I can see us there. But I'm so scared..Anyone out there make a "blind" move like this?? We would be leaving our home state. Most likly would not be able to return here. It's just way to expensive! That's scary to me..I know I need to trust in the Lord. so..

Trusting...Waiting on God's timing!!!

Valentine's Day Celebration!!-belated

Valentine's Day is also very special to us, because we celebrated Emma-Leigh Rose very first birthday!!!

She was born on Valentine's Day, what a great gift that was, considering she was 11 days late!! :) Emma had a  great first birthday, we took her for a swim, then went and bought her balloons for her to play with. Then we had chocolate heart shaped cake with her! She totally enjoyed it. I'll post pictures in my picture section soon.  We also did a neat out reach. We took a box of candy and a tract, that someone had given us and asked us to distribute to a muslim gas station, so after dinner that night we went and deliverd it to a sweet gentleman, he was so grateful. He kept saying "a gift for me" "oh, God a gift for me" I think we made his night! I told my dh the gift was waiting for him, if he read the tract!! We all prayed for him on the way home. It was really sweet!   It was a great day!

Valentine's Day--Belated post..--Menu

I know this is a little late in coming..But we LOVE Valentine's Day..

We stick with a heart themed decor, Lots of chocolate suprises and Lots of RED. I know we're saps!!

So our Valentine's Menu constisted of:

Pasta w/homemade gravy

Red Jello Jigglers

Red Drinks

Heart Shaped Cakes-chocolate

Candles, Candles and more Candles..

We are knee deep in candles around here. Yes, our home-based business is selling All Natural 100% Soy Candles.  We are Scent from Heaven Candle Co. We are so excited about starting this business venture. My dd 11 has started making blankets to sell on our website also. Our site will be coming shortly. I love the way my home smells when I'm making candles. Sometimes my neighbors can smell it outside. I love when they come knock on the door and say..what scent are you making today? LOL..The children love to help with the business, their jobs vary according to thier ability. I'm so thankful to be in a business with my family. My dh looks forward to someday making this a full time thing, where he will be able to stay home full time. That is our prayer. God is Good and God is so soverigne. Just wanted to share some of what is happening here.

Our Extras..

I thought I'd post our activity schdule, maybe you all can share yours or share your thoughts on ours.

2x's a month swim and gym

Once a month bowling-usually use book it coupons on this day-lunch is out

Once a month Nursing home ministry-haven't been doing this too often as it usually falls on a swim and gym day, then we're out all day if we choose to do both. So this depends on how school is going.

Once a week-playdate/park days

Every week-one child has choir practice, about an hour from our home.

Baseball is out this year -they raised the price so we can do it. Looking for an activity for ds. considering karate, that would be 2 x's week.

Insert some field trips every now and then. probably once every two months we either do a field trips or a theater show.

Once a month-MOPS ministry-oldest dd does this, and this is always on bowling day.

Of course Church each Sunday, but we have no youth group, or any other ministry going on through church.

Once a month-meeting for our homeschool support group

Once a month-leadership meeting for homeschool support group

Once a month-book club moms only

That's it I think..doesn't include birthday parties and all that kind of stuff.

Looking forward to your responses.. :)

Finding the time..

I know this might sound funny to all you expierenced homesteaders out there. But I'm going to ask anyway..How do you find the time??? Ok, ok dumb question. My dilema is that I'm struggling with time constraints.  For instance I bought the wheat grinder. Ground the first batch of wheat, to season the grinder. That's it! I can't see to find the time to do it again and start making bread. I personally seem to be in a constant struggle with keeping the house orgainized and clean. I wonder if I'm expecting to much, or if I don't give out enough responsibility to the children. For instance, I can't sit and do school if the house is out of order. So each morning I clean first, this could be a short time like 30 mins or a longer time 2 hours, depending if the children we're up before me. Sometimes my middle guys are up before mommy. Not too much before, because the arguing will usually wake me! ;)  (working on that with the children also).   Anyway it seems as though I barely have time between chores, school, and candlemaking for our business. To get on track with making the bread. Am I wierd or what? :) It seems so simple yet so hard at the same time. We don't have to much extra activity going on. At least I don't think so, but we also live in NJ, everything is pretty fast paced. I have no farm to care for as of yet, and I'm thinking how will I do it then??  Just a struggle I'm working through right now. Interested if anyone else had this kind of trouble, when switching lifestyles?

All is well..

If you prayed for my healing, I want to thank you!! My ankle is almost completly healed. I walked on it a little too much today and had some swelling, but I only had to stay off it for about two days. Now I'm back to making my candles, have food shopped, house is clean again, and we're all happy here.

Tomorrow is my dh's birthday! We are also have ds party tomorrow. So it will be a very busy day, with church, party and choir practice. but none the less, it will be a beautiful day.

We spent the day at a craft show, then out to lunch, then to look at a couple of properties, that are much bigger then what we have now. We are in big time prayer about what to do with our lives and are awaiting some clear direction from God. We are trying to figure out if we should move out of state or buy a bigger house/more land here in NJ.

Neither of us, have ever left NJ. It's a scary prospect. But we know we want more land, so we can be more self suffient. Just praying for God's timing. Always the hardest thing to abide by. No by my will but by thy will. ***blessings***

Happy Birthday Matthew James...

Tomorrow is my ds 8th birthday!!! and his mommy has a severely sprained ankle. Yes, you heard me right!

This is so silly but my leg fell asleep while reading to the children I got up and fell. My ankle popped, I moved it a little and it popped again. But I soon as I took my shoes off, it swelled HUGE and I couldn't walk on it at all. Anywho, for Matty's birthday he would like pancakes served in bed..LOL and Ham for dinner, and homemade Ice cream cake. Hopefully ankle will feel a little better tomorrow so I can get this all done.

If you think of me please pray for a quick healing!

Unexpected Blessings...

Although I should be in bed right now, I can't sleep due to dh being gone. He's in Rochester NY for business, hopefully he'll be home tomorrow. And yes, I have bible study tomorrow morning here at my home which Yea! is clean. I had to come on and tell you all some great news. I had posted in my homeschool support group about buying a mill, (it came yesterday!!) A friend called me and gave me 9-45lb buckets of hard red, and soft white wheatberries!! I'm so excited! I called a friend, gave her two buckets and tomorrow I will grind and let my flour soak before making the bread on Thursday. It's raining here really hard and it's super windy. Most of the children are in bed with me, only one went to his own bed! Ok off to sleep, I hope!

Baked Macaroni

Medium onion-chop and sautee

1 1/2 lbs Elbow Macaroni-

3 C cheddar cheese

1 can Tomato juice or V8

Cook macaroni, drain then mix in cheddar cheese, tomato juice and onion. Then bake at 375* for 30-35 minutes, covered.

Finally a Winter Day!

Well after a week of totally out of season weather, we finally had a blustery winter day here! And we loved it! Woke up to some snow on the ground and lots of ice everywhere! Kids went outside to play for a while, I baked a ham today, we ate nice and early. The smell of the ham filled the house, it was wonderful. I also made baked macaroni, and a mixed veggie, with biscuts. We invited our neighbor over to eat with us. It was a very nice dinner, after dinner my neighbor showed my daughter how to knit. It was a lot of fun! I'm including the baked macaroni dinner receipe.

BLessings

Carrie

Being a Christian and Eating Organicly

With all the research I've been doing about eating organicly I've noticed that there are "types" of organic eaters.  Being that I am a Christian, I'm noticing that some people are eating organicly because they are using the gifts that God gave us by using their knowledge or by learning from our forefathers how to live off the land. But always keeping in mind that Christ has provided us with the bounty of the harvest.  And other people are landlovers. Be kind to mother earth, and HER bounty, but aren't giving God the credit. Almost as if they are worshipping mother earth. Which in my practice of religion is a sin.(thou shall not worship other Gods before me.) Yes, we're working in unison for the greater good of our bodies, but as a Christian I'm asking you..How do you keep it Christ centered? And not get caught up the in world when choosing a healthy lifestyle.

Psalm 67:6-Then the land will yeild it's harvest, and GOD our GOD will bless us.

Psalm 85:12-The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield it's harvest.

GOD blesses us with the harvest of eating healthy! He wants us to be good stewards of our harvest. Not worship, mother nature!

God uses the harvest to both bless those who have done the work, feed the poor who didn't have the land to harvest, as rebukement in times of sin and then one final time when he comes to harvest the earth for the last time.

So, yes, eat healthy! Enjoy the fruits or veggies of your harvest. Either by growing them or self or taking the time to handpick each green bean from the grocery store your family will eat that night for dinner. I often recite Proverbs 31:13-She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.

When I'm handpicking something from the market. I want to make sure my family is getting the BEST I can possible provide for them. This means taking the time to pick it! :)

Went off on a little tangent there, sorry. In the mean time I look forward to hearing your thoughts. And keep this in mind also. Jeremiah 5:24-They do not say to themselves "let us fear the LORD our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who ASSURES us the regular weeks of harvest. (emphisis mine)