Is Homesteading For You?

Before you pack up your boxes and head out to the range, I thought you might like to know some of the differences that I have observed....you know, a little help in making the decision to go from a city slicker to a country bumpkin!!  :)

1.  In the city dirt generally knows its place...outside!  On the homestead it thinks it is part of the family and is welcome in the house at all times.

2.  In the city an alarm clock woke me up each morning.  On the homestead a rooster has taken over that job!

3.  In the city we would go to the theater for entertainment.  On the homestead we watch the chickens or the goats run around and play.

4.  In the city when I talked about my kids everyone knew I was taking about my children.  On the homestead if I talk about a kid, everyone assumes I raise goats!  :)

5.  In the city my children would play in the backyard on our swing set.  On the homestead they play outside on the zip lines.

6.  In the city when we had a deep freeze we would bundle up and stay in the house and watch movies.  On the homestead we bundle up and head outside every couple of hours to unfreeze all of the animal water!

7.  In the city I would get annoyed when neighbors let their pets poop on my yard.  On the homestead I get super excited when my neighbor brings me bags of her pets' (cows and buffalo) poop! ( you don't want to see a picture of this one!!)

8.  In the city I styled my hair every day and put makeup on.  On the homestead I realized the other day that I had not had a haircut in over a year!!  Ponytails become the style to beat and makeup is obsolete!!  :)

9.  In the city I watched babies being born on Baby Story on the tv.  On the homestead I am expected to be the lead doctor in my own Baby Story when our goat gives birth next month.

10.  In the city I would not even recognize many of my neighbors if I passed them on the street.  On the homestead it is expected that not only will you know them, you will become a part of their lives.  (I must admit that this is one of my favorite differences as I have some awesome neighbors and new friends!!)  You find that you really NEED your neighbors as you begin to realize that we all depend on one another.

11. In the city we traveled to a lot of new places.  On the homestead we can't do that very much because we have to take care of the animals....I miss traveling.  On the flip side though, a lot of what we liked to do when we traveled we are able to do here.

So what is your final verdict?  Is homesteading for you?

If you would like to read what is going on at other's homesteads, take a look here at the
Homestead Barn Hop!

Ol' MacKristi Had a Farm........

Sooooo....its been a while hasn't it??!!

I'm still here, alive and kicken'!!  Probably a little more kicken' than I should have been doing though :)

Farmer Willie and I were just talking about the fact that in November, it will have been one year since we first laid eyes on our farm.  December will be a year since the move.

It has been a crazy year!

You would think that with moving to our dream home/land/farm it would have been a happy year...right??  Well, it has had its ups and downs.

Moving out here has taken more adjusting than I had anticipated.  Most of the girls transitioned well, but my sweet Tori struggled.  This was not her cup of tea!!

It has also been a struggle for me, and that shocked me!

Two things I have struggled with have been being tied down by the animals and the overwhelming cost that it takes to keep things going.

You see, we are a family that loves to travel.  We have always given up some of the things that many families count as necessity in order to free up money for travel.  We don't have cable, we don't do smart phones, we don't eat out much, etc.  This was all with the express intent to travel more.

Well....apparently goats and chickens and bees and cats have this crazy thought process....they expect us to feed, water and milk them everyday!!!  I know, soooo selfish on their part!!!  Right??!!

(Isn't she just the cutest thing??!!)

Anyway, that has been really difficult to adjust to.  And frankly, with the cost of the farm and supplies, we don't have much money to travel with!!

My life before moving here was really just getting from one trip to another.  I kid you not!!  We traveled ALL OF THE TIME!!  Some were big trips and many were small.  We loved them all!!   William and I think it is a super important thing to do for our children.

So...not as much traveling and not as much money, plus a lot more work to be done sometimes makes for a grumpy Kristi!!  :)  (I know, you are totally shocked!)

Then we have travel time.  When we moved we realized that we would be an hour away from my family as opposed to minutes away, but at the time an hour drive did not really seem like that far!  Umm....it is!!

We tried to make the drive several times a week at first, but now realize that we can only do it once a week on most weeks.

We have also had change in our family due to our oldest daughter going off to college.  We miss her.  A lot.

Now that you are all depressed and think I am too, let me tell you the good stuff!

The Lord has shown me that we have much to be thankful for!

It began by spending at least an hour sitting on the porch in the morning.  My 16 year old, Tori, and I will sit out there and sip coffee as the sun comes up.

Eventually Emi and Kalli join us after they have finished their farm chores.  We watch the chickens come out of their coop, the grasshoppers wake up and get hopping, the cat play with his tail and the goats play in the cooler morning air.

It is one of my favorite times of the day and a time that in the past, I would have just hurried by.

My girls are learning the value of hard work.  And they have taken that lesson and run with it!

We have been blessed with outstanding neighbors!  It is a little different here how the neighbor thing works.  You really must get to know the people you live near because in one way or another, you will need each other.

When we lived in town we could get away with self survival because everything was close and at our disposal.  Out here...not so much!

But our neighbors are more than just helpful, they have become our friends!  Some of the ladies that live on our street get together every couple of weeks to share breakfast together.  It is just one of my favorite times!!

Seeing our family in town has gotten better too.  Even though we only drive in once a week, we are more intentional about our visit.  Instead of someone coming over and me doing laundry and dishes while they are there, I am able to just concentrate on spending time with them.

And when family comes out here, they tend to stay longer because of the drive!!

So we are learning.  It is definitely still a work in progress.

But we have slowed down.

And I am learning that the lesson of slowing down is one that is worth mastering.

Moving Blues

Bet you thought I fell off of the face of the earth!!!  Sorry I kinda ditched all of my blogging responsibilities the last month.  I have been struggling with the moving blues.

Now, you might wonder why in the world I would have the moving blues and honestly....I can't tell you!!  Our move, new house, new property and new neighbors all testify that the hand of God has been on this all of the way!  In fact, I feel a little guilty for feeling down and especially about writing about it.  Buy Farmer Willie and my daughters think this might help, so I am willing to give it a go!!

I have struggled since moving.  Almost every day!  I am not really sure why or what is wrong, I just know that it is a struggle to get through the day and get the things done that I know need to be done.

I am doing everything I know to do...praying, getting lots of sunshine, talking about it with Farmer Willie.  It will seem to get better for a day or two, but comes back with a vengeance.

So, I am going to write about it.  I am going to share it with all of you for three reasons....

1.  In hopes that it will help me feel better
2.  In hopes that it might help someone else know that they are not alone
3.  To show the glory of God's hand when I feel better!!!

Each day I try to remind myself that our family is going through some really hefty life changes right now.  Not only have we just moved for the first time in 13 years, but we made a drastic move and lifestyle change.  The other thing is that we are getting ready to send our oldest daughter off to college in a few months.  Lots of changes for us all!!

I know that God is in control of it all and I rest in the fact that no matter how I might feel, He is there.  I am just ready to "feel" better...ya know??!!

There has been a lot going on around here lately and I will share more tomorrow!!

My prayer is that you each have a wonderfully blessed day today!!

More About The Move

Ahh.....I finally figured out that my problem with pictures has to do with my browser, so I was able to add a picture to yesterdays post and some for today!  Hooray!!

Our move ended up being a bit on the crazy side.  One issue came up after another and they kept moving our closing date further back.  We were about to hit a certain date where we would have to pay additional money to keep our interest rate lock and we had decided that we were not going to do that.  Mostly because the mortgage company we worked with was not so great and Farmer Willie said there was no way he would give them any more money!

We knew that the Lord wanted us to move into this house, so we had to just keep praying that He would work it out. Then, on the day before we would lose the lock, they called and said to come in and close!  Good thing we had been packing all along!!

So we finally closed and that afternoon moved everything to the new house.  DD#2, #3 and I arrived before everyone else and boy am I glad we did!  The house was a mess! There was trash and stuff everywhere!!  It has taken us all of two weeks, but I think we finally have cleared out most of their stuff and are beginning to work on ours.

Final packing push!!

Sorting through the things that were left at the new house along with drying out brown material for the compost pile!

I told you yesterday about all of the animals that have decided this must be their home, now let me tell you about the people!

First day we were here, even before our stuff arrived, some of the neighbors stopped by to meet us and bring us a yummy snack!  Next day more neighbors!  I have been shocked at the number of people that have come by, especially since we don't live close to that many people.  They have all been very friendly and readily willing to help!

So let me share with you some of my observations thus far....

1. I depend on Internet wayyyyy more than I thought!  I was lost for two weeks without my recipes and being able to check the weather and news online!!
2. It is more fun to exercise/walk when you can hike through the woods!
3. Most of us go through at least two outfits a day out here.  With all of the work we are doing outside, we are a dirty, dirty bunch!!    
4. Everyone LOVES the little Baptist church down the street!  Even people that don't go there talk about what a great church it is.  I think we will try it out on Sunday to see what the buzz is about!  The older girls are going to visit their youth group tomorrow :)
5. I never knew I could work soooo hard!!  But boy howdy am I sore!
6. It is difficult to get a compost pile working when it is so cold outside!
7. You CAN chainsaw a huge hot tub and fit it into two loads in the minivan!!  Who knew??!!
8. Well water is yummy!
9. It is nice to wake up early each day because you are so excited about the day.
10. It is fun to go on walks around our property and find new things that you did not know were there!!

Thing that I have enjoyed the most is the slower pace and shift of focus.  It is crazy to say we have a slower pace being that we are working like crazy, but we are able to focus on one task and follow it through and there is a lot of satisfaction in that!!

Today we finish up the hen house!!  Can't wait to show you that tomorrow!!!

One of THOSE Days!!

Ever have one of THOSE days??  Yes?  Me too!  In fact, I had one on Tuesday :)

You know how the day went........

I woke up already feeling a bit off kilter.  Less than two hours into the day we had spent $200 to have a garage door fixed that we did not even know would need fixed. 

It seemed to get better, but then halfway through the day Farmer Willie calls to inform me that as he was eating lunch, a sandwich no less, a crown on a tooth cracked in half!  So he was heading to the dentist that afternoon.

Dentist says we need to fork over $300 to get it fixed!

Then realtor calls, while hubby is in the dental chair, and says the mortgage company forgot to order the appraisal!  Now, they had told our agent on Tuesday of last week that it was all taken care of and they told us the same thing last Wednesday!  FRUSTRATING!!

Then the mortgage company sends us an email saying that they can't get our VA certificate of eligibility and we need to call the VA.  Of course we got the email at 5pm, when they closed!!

At this point I was done and ready to just crawl into my bed and try to pretend the day was a dream! 

But then I thought, if I let my bad day end this way, where is His glory?  How am I showing faith and obedience by crawling into bed and pretending that the day did not happen?

So....I tried to focus on the blessings that became more apparent because of the trials! 

Here is how I saw God during that yucky day!!

• We had the money to get the garage door fixed.  We might have had to give up a couple of fun things we had planned, but thank the Lord we were ABLE to have it fixed.
• We found a nice and fair priced man to fix it for us and he was able to fix it early in the day.
• AcCOWntant actually has a job to go to and eat his lunch at, even if that lunch broke his crown.
• AcCOWntant had food to eat for lunch.
• We have good dental insurance, so instead of paying $1000, we only had to pay $300. 
• Again, we had the money to pay for the dental work.  May have had to give up a couple more fun things we had planned, but my hubby has his tooth fixed and is not in any pain.
• Though they told us that the appraisal could take up to two weeks after it was ordered, our appraisal officer called later that evening and did the appraisal yesterday.
• We are still working on helping the mortgage company get the certificate.  We can't get it ourselves because the VA requires the lender to do it, but we are staying in touch with them to make sure it gets done.  But we are THANKFUL for the VA loan program that gives veterans help in purchasing homes.

So in the end, many of the issues were solved before I even went to bed that night!  The ones that were not....well, I will remember that even though I don't really have a lot of faith in our lender at this moment, I do have faith in the Lord and He is the one I look to!!

Menu Monday!!

***Farm Hunting Update - This weekend was a weekend of destruction!!  Remember the wall that started like this?

 

Then when we knew it had to come down, it became this...

Our great graffiti wall!!

Well, this weekend it all ended!!  We put our goggles on, grabbed our hammers and went to town!!

Some enjoyed this more than others....

But in the end, we found the garage door!!!  (though we did not find the ceiling rails or track :()

So to summarize our update.....1 Wall + 4 Girls with goggles and hammers = FUN day!!!***

Menu Monday

Monday Breakfast - Whole Wheat Banana Muffins/Eggs/Melons
Monday Lunch - We usually meet my mom for lunch on this day!
Monday Dinner - Sandwiches/Fruit (We have deep cleaning as a family after dinner on Mondays. We have found that if we all work together, we can get it done in about 1 1/2 hours and then we have a special "clean house" dessert!!)
Monday Snack - Mix of nuts, seeds and chocolate chips

Tuesday Breakfast - Eggs/Whole Wheat Biscuits/Hash Browns with Peppers/Citrus Fruit
Tuesday Lunch - Tomato Soup/Grilled Cheese
Tuesday Dinner - Chicken Enchiladas/Brown Rice/Black Beans/Avocado Slices
Tuesday Snack - Sonic Happy Hour Run for Slushies

Wednesday Breakfast - Whole Wheat Waffles/Peanut Butter/Strawberries
Wednesday Lunch - Cheese Quesadillas/Salsa/Tortilla Chips
Wednesday Dinner - Fettuccine Alfredo/Green Beans/Salad
Wednesday Snack - Peanut Butter Balls

Thursday Breakfast - Cinnamon Bread/Cream Cheese/Strawberries
Thursday Lunch - Sandwiches/Fruit
Thursday Dinner - Egg and Turkey Sausage Burritos/Fruit
Thursday Snack - Peanut Butter Balls

Friday Breakfast - Yogurt/Granola/Fruit/Nuts
Friday Lunch -Turkey and Cheese Wraps/Carrot Sticks/Grapes/Organic Chocolate Bar
Friday Dinner - Baked Chicken/Steamed Broccoli/Mashed Potatoes
Friday Snack- Popcorn with Fresh Mozzarella

One Month - Roll With It!!

Mornin'!!!!

I can't believe that it has been one month since I started this blog!!  And I can't believe that in that month we went from deciding to start looking at property to buy to packing up to move in less than two weeks!!  It has been a crazy whirlwind!

We are still waiting for the VA to come and decide to do the appraisal, but as soon as that is done, we are closing and wrapping it up!

In the meantime we are packing.  Ummmmm, not so fun!!

For the first couple of days, we were smitten with packing.  The big boxes all around, the noise of ripping the packing tape off of the roll.  Yes, we were on a moving high.  Now....not so much!!

Remember how awesomely organized I had our back room?  It was full of beautifully labeled boxes.  There were some Christmas boxes pushed to the side, but all in all it looked like we were packing pros!!

Now it looks like this...

I kid you not, about half of the boxes have now been UNPACKED!!!!  We will remember something that we need and oops!  I already packed it!  Then we go dig through the boxes :)

The nice stack of empty boxes waiting to be used has now become the things that forts are made of!!

Yes, packing is fun for a day or two, but then life resumes and it becomes a bit of a pain!!

We have had a nice month though and I have already learned some lessons!

1. Be careful that you don't pack things you need :)  Whatever made me think I could get through our last two weeks of school without our schoolbooks??!!
2. When you are moving, you must be okay with a messy house!!  The first week I tried to keep everything neat, but it eventually started to drive me CRAZY!!  So...now if you come over, you might find a box set aside in the bathroom that is only half packed because life interrupted me!
3. Casual entertaining!!!  This is a biggie!  We love to have people over and did not want to give that up just because we are moving.  So, we had a caroling party last night.  It was very informal, but soooo fun!!  My house was a mess and I asked everyone to bring their own words to the carols and a snack to share.  It was a great time of fellowship and no one went away mad because my house was not up to par!!

     4.  Did I mention don't pack things you need??  :)
     5.  Patience!!  NOTHING seems to happen on schedule when buying a house.  Or should I
          say NOTHING seems to happen on my schedule when buying a house, but I rest in the fact
          that it does happen on God's schedule and His is perfect!!
     6.  Learn to live life around the uncertainties and incompletes.  I usually don't function well when
          dealing with uncertainties, but I had to learn! Otherwise I would have a month of uselessness!!
     7.  DON"T PACK THINGS YOU NEED!!!  Oops, did I mention that already??!!

Along with these lessons have been some sweet moments...

• DD #3 has been trying to wake up before me (which is pretty hard because I tend to get up early!) and pack boxes.  At first this was frustrating because she was not doing it "my way."  But I had to stop and look at the blessing that she was bestowing upon me.  And I can figure out what is in the boxes when I unpack them at the new house (or possibly here if I keep packing things I need!).
• We are converting our garage room back to a garage so we are knocking down a temporary wall that we put up.  This has allowed us to engage in the art of graffiti!!  Sooo fun!!

• The town we are moving to has a legend of an alien ship crashing nearby.  To commemorate or move, my hubby bought us this ornament

These are just a few of the sweet moments that have occurred in the chaos that we are now calling life!!

So, my overall lesson for the month is to roll with it!!!  When you know God is in control, the best thing to do is to just hand Him the wheel and sit back to visit with him!!

Where Oh Where Can The Septic Tank Be?

 

Is anyone else still totally stuffed from yesterday??!!  Boy howdy I am!  I am not sure if I will ever eat again! (Well, I am pretty sure I will but let's keep that last sentence in for dramatic purposes!!)

The girls and I spent all day on Wednesday cooking and baking.  We made homemade mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole, apple pie, 2 pumpkin pies, 2 chocolate pies and a yummy Snickers dip recipe I found on Pinterest!!  Then we prepped the glazed carrots for cooking in the crock pot on Thursday and got the rolls ready to start rising.



Crumbling the biscuits for the stuffing!

Now crumbling the cornbread for the stuffing!
 



Thursday, getting everything out and bringing it to room temperature!  Luckily my brother lives next door, so I had his oven going too!



Getting the dessert table ready!









Now getting the food table ready!

  

Journey was not a lot of help, until it came time to clean/eat the crumbs up off of the floor!

It was a fun day, but boy did our feet hurt at the end of it!  Doing so much prep work the day before Thanksgiving really allowed us to relax and enjoy yesterday though.

So, we had 22 people come over.  My uncle brought a yummy turkey and my cousin brought a pecan pie.  My dad and step-mom brought 2 delish pecan pies, deviled eggs to die for and a ham !  Mom and step-dad came with Mom's famous corn casserole, jello salad, green bean casserole, gravy and the best banana pudding this side of the Mississippi Line!!  :)

Best part of the whole day???  My step-brother and his sweet wife brought their new 1-week old daughter!!  Yes!!  I got to hold a beautiful baby yesterday!!  (I might have totally creeped out my sister-in-law though by asking to watch her change the baby's diaper!  I just love seeing their little legs and feet though and when they are all wrapped up in their blanket and snug clothes you can't see their little cute feet and legs!!!)

Needless to say, we had wayyy more food than we could ever eat and wayyy too much fun.  What a blessing it was to spend the day visiting with family.

Oh man, I bet you are wondering why I have a title about the septic tank yet all I am doing is talking about Thanksgiving and food!!  Well, let me dive into my septic tank drama!  (Oh gross!!  Not literally of course!)

Last Friday we had all of our different inspectors come to the new house, the regular home inspector, the termite inspector and the septic tank inspector.  Mr. Septic Inspector showed up a couple of hours late, so that was not off to a good start.

After poking and digging around in the yard for an hour, he announced that he could not find the system and would have to check with the county for the plans on where it is at.  Okay, a little bump and delay, but no biggie.  We asked the couple we are buying the home from if they would give us a few more days on the contract clause that allows an out if something fails inspection and they said of course!!  They gave us until Wednesday :)

Monday comes around and he calls the county.  Well, the property system was not registered with the county because it was there before that was required, so...no plans.  Okay, another little bump, but again, no biggie!

Tuesday arrives and finds our septic inspector carefully digging  up the yard following the septic lines to find the tank and....he finds it!!!  But there is a little problem.  The lid has been cemented on and he can't get it off.  Mr. Septic Inspector calls us and tell us that the -lenk/leach/whatever it is called- field looks good and the lines look old, but good as well.  The little problem is that he can't get the lid off to inspect the tank and he did not bring the equipment that will allow him to do so. 

Oh, one other little thing, he is going to need to charge us another $75 on top of the $150 we are already paying because this has been more work than he thought.

Okay, so we agree to pay the money and to give him until Wednesday.  We remind him that we must have a report by Wednesday because, otherwise, we are locked into our contract.  No problem!!

Wednesday comes and we call several times and try to speak with him and...no answer!  We leave several messages and...no return call!

Yup, you guessed it, we still have no idea the condition of the actual tank!  We do know that it has not been pumped in about 50 years though!!!  Trust me, with my family of six moving in, we will definitely need to do some pumping!! 

Good news is that at least we know where it is now.  Bad news, there could be a giant hole in the bottom of it and it is all going into an underground cave!

Moral of this blog story.....If you ever come to visit us, don't dig too deep or go spelunking!  You don't know what you might find!!

Menu Monday - Happy Thanksgiving

***Farm Hunting Update - Not much has changed since yesterday :) 





 

 

    Lots of phone calls to make today to get questions answered. We have a lot to wrap up before the Thanksgiving holiday. But.....we searched around and found that boxes are cheaper at Home Depot!!  The packing has begun!!***

              

Menu Monday - Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week!  I am always overwhelmed with the amount of blessings that we have to be thankful for.  We have a home, food, transportation, William has a job, we live in a country and state that allows us to homeschool, we are all healthy, we have family around us, great friends, awesome church, and an abundance of love. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving week this week!! 

Here is our menu:

Monday Breakfast - Whole Wheat Banana Muffins/Eggs/Melons
Monday Lunch - We usually meet my mom for lunch on this day!
Monday Dinner - Sandwiches/Fruit (We have deep cleaning as a family after dinner on Mondays. We have found that if we all work together, we can get it done in about 1 1/2 hours and then we have a special "clean house" dessert!!)
Monday Snack - Mix of nuts, seeds and chocolate chips

Tuesday Breakfast - Eggs/Whole Wheat Biscuits/Hash Browns with Peppers/Citrus Fruit
Tuesday Lunch - Spinach and Feta Quesadillas/Apple Slices
Tuesday Dinner - Homemade Chicken Nuggets/Mashed Potatoes/Gravy/Green Peas
Tuesday Snack - Sonic Happy Hour Run for Slushies

Wednesday Breakfast - Whole Wheat Waffles/Peanut Butter/Strawberries
Wednesday Lunch - French Bread/ Peanut Butter/Honey/Raw Veggies/Fruit/Yogurt
Wednesday Dinner - Black Bean Nachos/Homemade Salsa (see below)/Tortilla Chips
Wednesday Snack - Peanut Butter Balls

Thursday Breakfast - Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
Thursday Lunch - Thanksgiving Lunch!!
Thursday Dinner - Leftovers!!
Thursday Snack - Lots of Yummy Thanksgiving Desserts!!

Friday Breakfast - Yogurt/Granola/Fruit/Nuts
Friday Lunch -Turkey Sandwiches (made with leftover turkey)/Zucchini Bites/Chocolate Milk
Friday Dinner - Potato and Cheese Soup (see below)/Homemade Bread
Friday Snack - Popcorn with Fresh Mozzarella

Today I have two EASY recipes for you that are soooo yummy!!!

The first is salsa.  Homemade salsa is very easy and economical to make. Here is how we make it:

Salsa

1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Tomato
1 Bunch of Cilantro
1 Large Onion
2 TBS Minced Garlic (or more if you like a strong garlic flavor)
1 30 oz Can of Crushed Tomatoes
1 - 3 Jalapenos
Juice from Jarred Jalapenos (if you have it and want spicy!)

Chop your peppers, onion and tomato down in order to make it easier for your food processor.  Place the peppers, tomato, cilantro, onion and garlic in food processor and chop on high.  Once that is chopped well, add as much of the crushed tomatoes as you need to in order to bring about desired taste.  We don't like a strong tomato taste, so we usually add about 3/4 of the can. 

Then add however many Jalapenos you like and the jalapeno juice to taste, chop it all again, and you are good to go!  I add no sugar or salt as I usually use the yellow, sweet onions and I think it sweetens it enough and personally I would rather not add the sugar.

Try new things with the recipe!  Add peaches or chipotle sauce one time and see what you think!!


The second recipe is Potato and Cheese Soup.  Now, I must forewarn you that this soup recipe is VERY easy and VERY yummy, but not healthy in any way, shape or form!!  We don't eat it often, but when we do it is a special treat and we all devour it!!

Potato and Cheese Soup

4 Cans of Cream of Potato Soup
2 lbs Velveeta - Chopped into cubes
Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Potatoes
Milk

Boil and cook several potatoes down until they are soft.  The number of potatoes you add is really just a personal choice.  If you like your soup more on the chunky side, add more potatoes.  We like chunky!!  Let them cool and then chop them into cubes.

Pour your cans of soup into a large pot along with the Velveeta and chopped potatoes.  Fill each empty soup can with milk and add to the pot.  Cook on the stove until the Velveeta is melted and add more milk if you like a thinner soup.  Then add sharp cheddar cheese to taste and you are done!!

I usually serve the soup with fresh bacon pieces, sour cream, extra cheese and chives for people to add.

I hope you enjoy the recipes and I pray you have a blessed week this week!!!

Beginning to Let Go

***Farm Hunting Update:  We had the home inspection on Friday and that went really well.  As Dreamer (DD #1) says, it is a real quality house.  The inspector told us that we would be hard pressed to find a better maintained 50 year old home.  The only issue that came up was with the a/c unit in the newer part of the house, but we are asking the present owners to fix the problem. 

 

We are still waiting on the septic inspection. ***

Beginning to Let Go

 

Having lived in our current home for over 13 years, we have a lot of memories here.  Two of my sweet girls were born while we lived in this house and each of the four girls have experienced most, if not all, of their childhood here. 

AcCOWntant Willie and I have spent a majority of our 19 year marriage together here.  We have great friends that live 2 doors down and my brother lives next door (see picture below).  We have had a good life in this home.



Happy birthday welcome in front of my neighbor (Bro!) house

 

When we bought this house we had looked at many, MANY homes.  AcCOWntant walked in the door here and said "this is it!"  I was not thrilled as it was smaller than most of the other ones we had looked at and there was no "Wow" factor here.  But he was certain that this was it, and poof, we were moving in!  In fact, we bought it without even having it inspected!!!

 This has been a great home for us.  In 13 years we have had no major issues with the house.  The a/c has, at times, acted up, but that is it.  And space wise, it has provided for all of our needs.  We love our home.

This past week we went through the storage shed, attic, closets and rooms to try and weed out anything that we do not need to bring with us.  I am pretty good about not hanging on to things we don't need or use, so this was probably a bit easier for us than most, but it was still difficult.



Why does organizing always look so messy??!!

 

What was difficult was not the sorting, organizing, etc.  It was the letting go.  We let go of so much stuff this week through garage sale, donation, trash.  We gave away the first couch that William and I bought (trust me, it was time!!).  We sold part of the first bedroom set we bought together.  I had to say goodbye to baby clothes, baby toys, and Barney movies.  Yes, it was hard, but we knew that it needed to be done.



Moving Sale!



Now we begin the process of letting go of our home.  No, we are not selling it, so we will maintain some part of it, but we won't be living here.  We won't wake up each morning to look out the back window and see the place where many Jedi battles were fought and fairy lands visited.

Baby (DD #4) the Jedi Princess

Bubble (DD #3) the Jedi!

 














We won't see the crack in the wall that has been there since the day we bought the house.  We won't see the playhouse that has been such an integral part of our children's lives. 



Many years ago, some of the girls and our neighbors painting the playhouse!

The spots where we have buried our pets will just become another part of the yard.  Our grapevines will become someone else's harvest.  Our neighbors will become someone else's neighbors.  And our home will become someone else's home. 

As we went through the inspection report on Friday, one of the current owners asked if she could stay and hear the report.  Of course we said that was fine, but the inspector warned her that it could be hard for her to hear someone point out everything that was wrong with the house.  She thought she would be okay with it, so she stayed. 

Each time he pointed out a flaw, she had a story for it!  She shared so much about the home we hope to move into!  Many stories and memories to go along with a broken piece of tile, a stain on the hard-wood floor, even a missing pipe on the hot water heater!!  I realized that they were beginning to let go too and for them, it must be an even harder process since they know that he has a terminal illness and this has been their family home for over 30 years. 

Letting go of things is hard.  But it is necessary.  Letting go of people is harder.  But sometimes we have no choice.  Letting go of life is hardest.  But something we must all face at one time or another. 

But don't fret, because there is an upside! 

Though we let go of some of the things, most of us are blessed to have what we need.  Though we have to let go of people, we don't have to let go of the memories.  And though we must all, at one point or another, let go of this life, we are given the choice of eternal life with God.

Sometimes we have to let go of what we have now, to free our hands up to accept what we have coming.



 

Getting ready to head out.....


 

....on a new....







LIFE ADVENTURE!!!!!