Right Now

Right now, the garden is producing a TON of food, and as a family, we have been busy preserving the bounty. You'll notice if you click on the label "right now" at the bottom of this post, I have been blogging about our "right now's" for quite some time. I think it's fun to go back and look at these, it brings me back to those moments, almost like a visual journal.

Here are a few photos from the last week or so around our little homestead...

The older two children like to spend time with me out in the garden, as well as the kitchen. They always have.

My youngest however, has declared she will never be a gardener, she doesn't have time for that. She's going to be a rock star. If I want to, I can bring her vegetables after her shows. Really, these were her exact words. She may still come around, but it will have to be on her own terms. I don't force the kids to garden or participate in anything homesteading related they don't willingly want to. That is, aside from age appropriate house chores, for fear they may end up resenting it down the road.

The carrots pictured above were washed, peeled, cut into sticks and put in a large bowl of water in the refrigerator. They stay fresh and crisp for an incredible amount of time this way. This works with chopped lettuce and pretty much any other greens as well. It also makes for quick, easy and healthy snacking for everyone in the house. I'm proud to say not a single carrot went to waste, and that bowl was huge.

There has been a bit of jam making, but not nearly as much as I would like. I'm going to get adventurous and try some unusual combinations this year. I'll be sure to share those when I do.

Here are links to the recipes for the jars you see pictured above...

Veggie Salsa

Yellow Tomato Basil Jam

Italian Plum Star Anise Jam

** The pickle relish was made with a Mrs. Wages spice packet. **

My youngest won't help in the yard, but she's more than happy to help make things pretty label. We buy most of our grains and flours in bulk. My poor neighbor ended up with a 50lb bag of oats on his doorstep the other day and walked it over to us. I'm sure he thought we were crazy when I told him what it was.

Buying organic can get expensive, so to cut costs, we buy bulk when we can. This should last us all year. I store the gallon sized bags in our freezer to help preserve freshness. We do this with whole wheat flour as well.

Why is it so important to buy organic?

Commercial oats and wheat are heavily sprayed with pesticides prior to harvesting. Even though they are hulled and for the flour, milled, a large amount of pesticide residue is left on the grains. It's worth every extra penny to me, to know that when I feed my children (with their tiny bodies that can not handle as much pesticide residue as an adult), they are ingesting wholesome, clean and pesticide free food.

Here is a link to the organic oats we buy.

Here is a link to the organic whole wheat we buy.

Not sure what to do with all those oats?

Click here for my post on 10 ways to use oats.

After we chopped up all the carrots, I gave some tops to the chickens and the rabbit. The only one interested in them was the dog. She scared off the chickens...

Then promptly turned her nose up at the carrots. These were cleaned up and the chickens went back to happily searching for bugs.

Homesteading update

 It has been soooo long since my last update, so please bear with me - this will be a long post and full of photos.

Over the last year, we have been working diligently to get our little homestead up and running. I hesitate to call it a homestead at this point, because we still have a very long way to go until we are self-sufficient. That is however, the ultimate goal, and we have to start somewhere, right?  I feel like we've made large strides over the last year, so here is a very condensed update.

We started near the end of Winter by placing a tarp over the area of the garden we wanted to expand.  We let it sit until all the grass underneath had died off. With the grass dead, we tilled the area and then picked out the rocks. I'm not talking pebbles either - look at my little self-professed "Rock Queen" below...

In the future, we now know we should be tilling and adding the soil amendments in the Fall so it has time to decompose. We learn something new all the time - that's part of what I love about gardening. I couldn't keep a plant alive to save my life three years ago, so this is HUGE for me.

We added organic mulch and peat moss to the soil and then raked it all in, doing our best not to trample the freshly tilled soil.

(I love my helpers so much)

A few days after mixing the soil, I went out and made rows of hills and transplanted all 80 (yes I'm hoping to spend days canning away this summer) of our tomato and bell pepper plants. They were started from seeds we had left over from last year. We put red onions, spinach, carrots, beets, basil, peas and string beans out at this point as well. I started late this year and could have had the cold weather crops out sooner - hopefully I stay on the ball next year. We again moved the tarp to kill off more grass.

 Shortly after this, our less than a year old dryer broke (of course it did) and we had to wait a month and a half for the parts and service. Buuuut, hello silver lining (there's always a bright side), this was the exact encouragement my husband needed to build a clothesline. I had been begging since we moved in - so I'm super excited about this.

The plan is to paint it white so it matches the other things we've built (just a little bit of Type A going on in this house).

 Speaking of other things we've my husband has built, here's my older daughter's rabbit hutch. I love it, and so does her rabbit. The free DIY plan came from Rouge Engineer - you can view the original here.

Caramel the rabbit resting in the shade. Don't worry, she gets out on adventures around our house and has a never ending supply of fresh veggies and hay.

Our ladies a.k.a. the chickens, have been laying consistently for months now and bring in about 8 multi-colored eggs a day. They're the goofiest little things to watch and thankfully, so far, have stayed out of the garden.

 They did like to lay in between the garlic plants over the Winter and Spring, but thankfully all the garlic survived and we had a pretty good harvest.

Fresh garlic tastes amazing and is so incredibly easy to grow. You need to try it, I promise you won't be disappointed. We have the garlic curing on a wire shelf in our house right now.

Last week we expanded on our fruit orchard. There are a total of 20 plants - 10 raspberry (multiple varieties) and 10 blueberry (multiple varieties).  Behind the berry patch are 4 pear trees and 5 apple trees - again, in multiple varieties in an effort to increase fruit yields. We only have one single pear out there though. I know I didn't prune them correctly over the winter, so I have some studying to do.

The kids and I were giddy when we found ripe blueberries already attached to the young bushes.

We also added three plum trees, these are next to peach trees we put in last year.

Back to the ever expanding garden. My favorite place here.

We will definitely be using a different layout next year. We want long straight rows and plan to use irrigation tape to keep the soil evenly watered. Right now it's a bit of a hodge-podge of vegetables.

 

I'm super sad about our strawberry bed. I let it go and it's so crowded out, we only ended up with a small handful of berries. The plan is to drastically thin it out and hope for a better turn out next year.

We will likely add a few more raised beds next year as well.

As far as future projects this year, a chicken tractor is in the works and likely to be finished in a day or so. We plan on raising meat birds this summer. We will hopefully have some sort of hoop house or row covers too.

We have a lot going on, and interesting things to share. I started working out of the house this Winter and haven't had much time to write. I have the summer's off though and plan to update regularly and share recipes and homemade remedies. Please come back and see what our little family has been up to.

One last photo of an amazing sunset.

There is never a shortage of beauty here in the Ozarks, I love it.

We Did It!!

 

We finally did it!

We picked up and moved our family to a new state out in the country.

 

 

I stopped blogging a while back for various reasons.

 

However, we are here now. My kids are older and I think I have a better handle on my time now that I'm older too - stinks how those two things go hand in hand.

 

The calling to write has been with me since childhood - it's about time I started listening.

Hello, hello, hello! If you have been a reader since the beginning, you will know just how amazing and incredible this is for our family. We are here, in the country and ready to live our dreams. I am going to go ahead and skip over the last two years of absence - so much changed, and I can't even begin to try and summarize it for you right now. Maybe another day....

I do think I can manage to catch you up with our current situation...

We moved into our new house the day after Thanksgiving in 2015. We are just now, over two months later, starting to get settled in. We were not exactly the most organized and ended up making multiple trips back and forth across states to get fully moved in. Whoops!

The first picture in this post (see above) is in our back yard. Swoon!! I'm in love with it here. Below are a few more...

 

My oldest daughter has been so captivated by the sunrises and sunsets here. She ran out that morning yelling "Momma! catch me with the sun!" - seriously - heart melting

 

The big family Christmas gift was a trampoline that has been seeing plenty of use. Both the littles and the adults find themselves out there almost daily...

 

Our front porch view...

 

We welcomed a new family member. I would like to introduce you to Spikette, my oldest child's dream since the age of three. She's molting here - it makes my skin crawl - but he loves her and I love him...

 

And me and the Goobs hanging out on the front porch together listening to the birds. It's our routine we share before the rest of the house wakes up. I was super excited we got to bring it outside in January.

 

We have so much planned - it's hard to not try and do it all. I've read so many times though that it's better to focus on two big things each year, and then move on from there. For us, that's a huge garden (we are starting our indoor seeds tomorrow - eeek!) and chickens. I have pages of DIY projects lined up for us in between that I will be sharing. As well as lots of crafts.

 

Talk to me here...

Leave me some comments or send an email - what do you want to see in the blog this year?

I'm super excited to be back!!

 

More posts to come soon!

Take care!!

Commiting to Resolutions

Ok, so this picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, and I swore to myself I would never do this to all of you - but really??? I mean look at that face! Look at all of that spunky attitude jammed into one little expression. Love her. Also love that she likes to play dress up in the out-grown hand knits of the older two...

 

 

I'm probably a little late in the game for sharing my goals this year. I don't like the term "resolutions".  Maybe because over the years I've grown accustomed to the idea that resolutions have a habit of being broken.

 

I have a handful of things I want to work toward this year. Two of them, however, trump the rest and will be getting the most of my attention.

 

 

The first - A year long spending fast. Not sure what that is? That's ok, I didn't either until I came across this website. It has definitely become a favorite site of mine in the last few months. To define it simply - I will not spend money on anything that is not a need.

 

Determining what exactly my needs versus wants really are was a little tricky. I did it though, and even though it has only been two weeks, I'm shocked at how much money is in my account. Honestly, I had no idea how much a few dollars spent here or there - even on sales and at the thrift store - can add up so quickly.

 

A month before I started, I got a little panicky and bought things that I felt I would "need" but didn't quite qualify for my actual needs list. You know, important stuff, like new cloth diapers and needle felting kits (I'm serious). The most ironic purchases I made had to be the handful of kindle books that shared the theme of simplifying. This little episode really drove home how badly I needed to do this.

 

Even if I don't save bundles (I don't make bundles) this will be a great form of self-discipline.

 

Which brings me to my next goal for this year. I will write at least a little bit, every single day. If I could do anything in the world for a living, I would write. In order to do that, I need to write every day, and actually send my work off to publishers.

 

You will probably notice a lot more frugal posts this year. I'm hoping that's a welcomed change. My writing will hopefully improve over the year as well.

 

I'm really excited about the changes and look forward to sharing this upcoming year with all of you.

 

I would love to hear about your goals and resolutions for 2013.

 

Happy Monday!

-Lisa

 

 

Kid's Bathroom Update

 

 

For the last few months I have been on a make-over roll. If I could, I would re-do every room in our house. That's not really in the budget though, so I have been doing my best to tweak things in every room just enough to create a new, fresh look.

 

I showed you the playroom a couple of weeks ago and today I want to share the kids' bathroom.

 

 

I really wish I had one of the awful before pic's for you. I was so motivated to paint one night that I did it all, by myself, after I put the kids to bed. Taking a picture didn't cross my mind until AFTER everything was done. Just imagine an ugly square metal bar where the white cabinet is, and unpainted, blank builder walls. It's a dark room with no natural light, and all the unpainted walls gave off a yellow hue. No matter how clean it was, it just felt dirty to me.

 

 

Gray is pretty popular right now as a wall color, and I must say I absolutely love how it makes white pop. I figured that would be the perfect solution to my dingy wall problem. Lot's of gray and white.

 

 

My first step was removing the old, ugly hardware from the wall, patching any holes and then painting it gray. We use Dutch Boy Refresh. It's a non-VOC, "green-standard" paint base that is both affordable and locally available. It's not 100% VOC free once you add the color, but it's close and practically odor free - we love it.

 

 

 

 

 

After the paint dried, Chris hung the cabinet for me. It's one of those cheap build it yourself cabinets that only set me back about $25. I added the pretty (well I think it's pretty anyway) background to liven it up a bit. I love the storage this added to the room. This bathroom is SMALL, like really, really small, and only had under the sink storage. So this added to the functionality of the room. I need to find a way to sprucen it up a bit with decor pieces.

 

 

 

 

I found this vase at World Market that I had hoped would fit inside the cabinet's bottom shelf, but it was too tall. So I popped it on top. I'm not sure it works, but it does add some more height to the space, which helps.

 

 

 

Oh! And my favorite part of this update, and what inspired the whole thing - these hooks! LOVE them! They are from Anthropology and were definitely a splurge, but they add enough interest to the space to make them worth every penny.

 

The white shower curtain is actually a liner. I plan on using that until I find a white curtain I really like that doesn't cost too much. But for now, I think it works great as is. It might just end up staying, I haven't really decided yet.

 

 

 

Here is the best full bathroom shot I could get. This kind of gives you an idea of how tiny it really is. I did have wooden picture frames hanging on the walls before. I've painted them white, and I just need to make some wall art for them. I'll share those when they are done.

 

Do you have any home updates in the works right now? I would love to hear about them!

 

Take care,

Lisa

The Halloween Fairy and a Great Big Thank You!

 

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween yesterday! It was pretty cold here in Northern Illinois, but we bundled up the kids and they didn't seem to mind. I wanted to share a quick pic of my kiddo's, all ready for action (grandma Gayle is manning the stroller here). I took gobs of pictures, but this is the only one where you can sort of see everyone's face.

 

Before I go any further, I just wanted to say Thank You so, so much for stopping by here and taking the time to read my blog.

 

 

 Yesterday, this little blog of mine reached 20,000 page views!

 

 

 And, not only that, it's climbing quickly! While that may not seem like a lot to more experienced bloggers, it's a Great. Big. Deal. to me - and I thank you for it :) For the entire first year of my blogging experience, I averaged about 25-50 views a week - yup, that's it.

So thank you for reading, and pinning and sharing!

 

 

I value every single reader, and I read every single comment, so please continue to share :)

 

 

We have a Halloween Fairy at our house, do you?

 

 

If you celebrate Halloween, and went out last night, I'm sure you ended up with a piles of candy. It's so much fun to go door to door and dress up, but the just the thought of all that sugar sends chills down mine spine. Lucky for me though, my children are more than happy to offer up their bags (after getting to eat whatever they want Halloween night) in exchange for a suprise from the Halloween Fairy.

 

Wishing you a wonderful day!

-Lisa :)

Playroom Update

 

Our playroom (a.k.a. loft) gets a lot of my attention. My girls are in this area for a good portion of almost every day. My oldest likes to keep all of his things in his room, but he does end up here from time to time. Usually for the computer or a place to read. I am in here daily with the girls and to use the computer. 

 

This room has a lot of activity, which makes it important to keep organized and functional. Because in the blink of an eye, the room can go from looking kind of cute, to a crazy pile of puzzle pieces, play kitchen toys and books.

 

 

 

 

 

I have made a bunch of updates lately, and I wanted to share some of the little projects and organized spots with all of you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, our new computer chair/rocker. I have been eyeing these cradle rocking chairs for almost a year now and wanted one badly. I sold a bunch of old clothes and things we don't need on facebook, so with that money I was able to buy this chair. Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a few months ago, I happened across these ottomans and after finding out they were only $16, I scooped both of them up. They are perfect for grabbing a quick book and really, you can never go wrong with extra seating.

 

 

 

 

For years we have used storage cubbies to help organize and corral our things. Would you believe we had never once purchased one of the little fold out drawers that can go with them? Seriously. I finally went ahead and picked up four of them when they went on sale and oh my gosh! I have been missing out! Case in point. The photo below. I could never store these without the help of the drawer.

 

 

 

 

The drawers also help give the cubbie a cleaner look, which makes me happy.

 

 

 

 

I have a handful of books I like to keep by the computer for quick referencing. It's nice to have them right on hand, but with our goofy corner desk that we're using right now, they don't always look so great. It took me a while to find a solution, but then one day it dawned on me that I could store the books inside magazine files. I found these for a dollar each and it has been working perfectly for over a year now.

 

 

 

 

 

We have a half wall in this room that we have always kept picture frames on. As much as I loved the photos they displayed, I hated the mismatched look of them along the wall. To unify everything, I spray painted all of the frames white. I absolutely love them now! They are all different shapes and styles, but the white pulls everything together. I added a few accent pieces to break up the frames as well.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the frames I had was really small, 3x5 I think, and I couldn't find any pictures that worked with that size. I decided to create my own little framed art. I used my silhouette cameo to make the cut outs and the images I designed on the computer. I need to re-do the Emily Dickinson quote so that you can easily read it, but other than that I am really happy with how it turned out. It's simple, but it adds a much needed pop of color.

 

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween tomorrow! I'll be back on Thursday.

 

For everyone on the East Coast, please stay safe - we're sending our thoughts and prayers your way.