Little Okie Homestead

Normally we hit the pumpkin patch a little later in October but this year it worked out perfectly that the cousins were off from school and so was Aunt M! I'm not a big fan of weekend trips to places like this because they are always so busy! So last Thursday we packed up and headed out to Chester's Party Barn! It was an hour long trip in the car but it was much more fun than anything closer to home.  The boys got to ride on ponies! Goose was really excited but I couldn't step away from him too long.  They have an amazing petting zoo! They were able to feed goats, sheep and chickens. They were able to pet ponies, ducks and rabbits.  We took a hay ride out to the maze.  It was first a corn maze and then to a wood maze.  At the end of the maze there was a big slide that the boys had a blast playing on!  Goose was a little nervous about the slide but with big brother by his side he was ready to give it a try.  Poor baby didn't qu

I still consider myself a new believer even though it's been...ack...12 years! I knew of God all my life but never knew what it meant to have a relationship with him until the fall after I graduated high school (cue another ack!) I've done all sorts of Bible studies during this time. I've done the traditional study of actually reading and discussing books in the Bible. I've done book studies that you can buy at every Christian bookstore around. But the one thing I haven't done is read through the entire Bible. Actually when I started thinking about it I realized just how few books of the Bible I have read in the last 12 years. It is quite sad and I'm sure my relationship with God is lacking because of it. So why now? Well one of my closest friends back in Colorado mentioned to me that she was reading through the WHOLE Bible in fast track style. Basically as many chapters as she could get through each week. I expressed how awesome I thought that would be to

So I'm sitting here swishing my coconut oil, on guard mixture for my morning oil pulling and it's only 5:30 in the morning. I've been awake since about 4:45 but got out of bed are 5:00 and I'm WIDE awake! Like more wide awake than I normally am at any point during the day! So sitting here in the quiet morning got me thinking. Partly because there is no one to talk to but even if there was I couldn't talk because I'm swishing oil around my mouth. So I was thinking that if every morning could be like this it would be PERFECT! I can get up before the hubby and have to coffee made. I could be up before the kids are up and have my oil swishing finished so I can actually wish them a good morning when they come out of their room with their sleepy eyes! I can get some small quiet jobs done before the day even  starts for my family. Most importantly I can sit quietly on the couch with some quiet music playing and read my BIBLE! What a treasure! (And of course maybe get

I had a recent trip to the dentist...YIKES! It's been about 6 years since I've seen one! I know bad girl but when finiances are tight it's one of the things that can be skipped. These are not my pretty teeth :) Photo Credit to BestCosmeticDentistsFlorida.com Well now we are going to be paying for! I have about $5000 worth of work that needs to be done in the very near future! I'm hoping to make it a year but I don't think that is the timeline the dentist would approve of. With Christmas around the corner and having to add travel expenses into the cost of the holiday season since we moved it makes saving anything extra more difficult. Not to mention that the slow season is coming for my hubby's job so we need to stock pile anything extra to just get through until the busy season picks up early spring. So with having to wait so long I don't want to just sit and hope for God to send me a miracle. I'm not saying that he wouldn't do it. It mi

We are finally getting into a little bit of a routine. Our house is mostly organized. I still have some things I have to find places for before winter starts so we can use the heater. But for now things are getting better. I have a kitchen to cook in every night! It's tiny but it works and being so small makes me clean it every night before bed. We have a nice kitchen table that works great as extra counter space on bread baking days which is now almost twice a week. I really need to find a recipe, or tweak mine so I can make more than two loafs at a time. We have a comfortable living room area that I just added more seating to. The boys have a cute little room that they are able to share easily. It gets messy really fast because it's a little small but it just means that they have to clean up throughout the day which means a smaller mess at the end of the night to deal with. Of course our bedroom still has boxes in almost every open space that I need to go through but its a

This is house house before it was a house. It use to be a daycare. It had one bedroom with no closet (boys room), two bathrooms one with the laundry area in it (what we are converting into our master closet), then the main living space, living room, dining room, and kitchen. So we have completed nearly all the construction. We've built walls, textured walls, painted walls and baseboards. We've built custom closets, a custom laundry room, and water heater cubby hole. We've built a hall closet to store board games, outside toys and miscellaneous bathroom supplies. We still need to install our master bedroom door, put up all the baseboard and trim, move out A/C into a permanent hole in the wall, put in a backdoor since we removed the old one so the boys could have a closet. We still have to paint the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and some of the kitchen walls. We still need to finish unpacking our office supplies and homeschooling materials and build a pantry and patio.

Today's confession: I love that when my boys are having a complete meltdown from over simulation, over exhaustion, or any other reason that I get to be the one who: comforts them to help them calm down teach them how to redirect that energy to something more productive sit with them or lay with them until they calm down Of course it's not always as easy as I make it sound with saying that I love it. I sure have my share of meltdowns along with my boys but I wouldn't have it any other way! I want to be the one that is always there for them when they need me, even if they don't know they need me! What's your confession?

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We've made it to Oklahoma and have been here 3 weeks. We've remodeled our house from a one bedroom, two bathroom daycare to a two bedroom, one bathroom house. It's tiny but it's working. We have all the main construction done, new walls, custom closets, and paint all completed by my wonderful hubby and myself with a little help from family here. We have about 80% of our stuff unpacked. I still have a few kitchen things to figure out a place for and LOTS of homeschooling and office stuff to figure out. I'm actually surprised at how well everything is fitting. I will post some pictures in the near future. We just got the computer set up and I have many more things to accomplish today before I can work on getting pictures. Everything has been good so far and we are loving the country life! The boys have a fenced in yard that's close to an acre to explore. They have a trampoline that belongs to their cousins that they share and we just put together the swing set

It's getting to that time where potty training needs to start in this household! Goose is going to be 2 years old in just a few more days! I just want to wait until after our big move coming up but once were settled it will be time! Source: Early-Childhood-Education-Degrees.com

Back in April I decided to try the No Poo Method of washing my hair. I had heard wonderful things about it and did just a little blog reading before I started. I was out of shampoo and didn't want to go spend money on more if I didn't have to. After about a month of the transitional period it finally started to show some promise. My hair looked great and it was so easy to style. I was loving it! I was saving money and time! Then summer officially hit and it was time to start going to Water World where I planned to spend the majority of our time. We were going 3 to 4 times a week for the morning to keep the boys entertained and to wear them out so it would be do bad being home all afternoon and evening packing. And this is where I started to have problems. I'd come home from Water World and shower and I noticed my hair start to get more and more greasy again. I was so frustrated! I didn't want to go and spend money on junk shampoo from the store because I was re

Over at  Free Homeschool Deals  they have their post that includes 17 Free Kindle Books!  Hurry and check it out before they are no longer free!

The month is almost over so hurry and order your TerraShield Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade ( CPTG ) essential oil from doTerra today to receive your 10% off! Just add a few drops to some water in a spray bottle and spray yourself, your spouse, your kids and even your furry family members. Or just keep the bottle handy and dab some of your shoulders and ankles to keep the bugs away!  It's really that simple! Contact me today for find out more or just visit doTerra to order on your own! Make sure to visit the links I've attached throughout the post to help you learn more about TerraShield and doTerra!

So we have been living in limbo for the past couple months. We weren't sure where the hubby was going to be working or what state we were going to be living in and I was hating the feeling of uncertainty. Finally I had enough and we made the tough decision that we have been putting off for close to 5 years now. We will be moving...out of Colorado...probably forever :( It's a sad feeling mixed with some excitement. We've put this move off for years because I didn't want to move our boys away from my parents. I loved having a very close relationship with my grandparents and I want the same for my boys however God just seems to have other plans for us. So it's time to move from the city to the country! I think the most exciting aspect of this move is that our boys will go from living in an apartment in the city to having 2 acres to play on! What boy wouldn't love that? Not to mention that these 2 acres will be shared with their cousins who also happen to be bo

I've been experimenting with some yummy recipes and incorporating my love for doTerra Essential Oils . Here is my latest favorite recipe! 1 can (28-ounce) whole tomatoes 2 cans (10-ounce) diced tomatoes with  chilies  (I use mild) 1/8 of an onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced ¼ t sugar ¼ t salt ¼ t cumin ½ bunch of fresh cilantro (I LOVE cilantro, so I load it up – but you can use less) 2 drops lime and/or lemon doTerra Essential Oils Instructions Dump  everything  into your blender and pulse until you get the consistency you want.  Refrigerate for at least an hour, then serve and ENJOY. Kept refrigerated, the salsa should last for about a week (though you’ll eat it before then – trust me!). There are some great benefits to using essential oils in your food. You can read all about Lemon and Lime on the links provided! I love using lemon with  vinegar  in a spray bottle to clean with. I love using lime in my water as a easy and natural way to help detox m

Its official! We have a new 'he' in our house and his name is Binky. Goose is attached to Binky and no matter what I do we haven't been able to break him of it. I have decided that I will give him until his 2nd birthday in July until I hit the habit breaking hard. Until then I will continue my consistent reminders of putting Binky away in his bed. Any tips on how to break him of Binky? He just doesn't want to leave Goose's mouth. He just sticks around and the only thing that comforts Goose when he's sad. I've never had this problem before so please help!

I have been suffering with seasonal threats lately with spring here and the warmer weather and I have been miserable. I'm not sleeping because I'm so stuffed up and blowing my nose all night. Then during the day I'm sneezing like crazy and I have a hard time getting through the day doing anything productive. Yesterday during Easter I finally had enough! I don't take medication for these spring times because I try to use only natural remedies so I was just suffering through it. I decided I had enough so I thought it was time to figure out a natural way to help. So this is what I found that works the best and the an added benefit is that you can buy the  Introductory Kit with CD   or  Beginner's Trio from   doTerra with these three oils. (You have to scroll down the page to find them on the kit page). Here's how I use it. I put one drop lemon, one drop lavender, and one drop peppermint on the palm of my hand. Then I rub my hands together and cup it over

We've gone through different times where Monkey helps me more around the house than other times. It normally depends on the season of life we are in. Being pregnant and exhausted all the time with Goose made my rely on Monkey to do more himself even though he was young. Well now he's 5 years old and I think it's time that he has his everyday responsibilities to help out around the house. We had a good system a few months back with a morning, lunch and evening routine but it fizzled out because our routine changed and I never got the booklets updated. I headed over to pinterest to look up some ideas and as always there were plenty to chose from. Of course some won't work because of age and reading level. Others won't work because I'm not going to put that much effort into making something for chores, at least not until I know it works for our family. First some of the contenders if I ever feel like I want to be an overachiever. I love this char

Have you heard of No Poo? Well if you have been searching for more natural, less chemical ways of life then you probably have. I heard about it probably close to 2 months ago but I have been working on emptying all the bottles of shampoo and conditioner that I had around the house before I switched. I just couldn't see wasting the money and throwing what I already had away. So now all my hair cleaning products have been emptied and it's time to make the switch. I have already made my own toothpaste and deodorant and I'm loving them and my hubby is actually on board too, surprisingly! (I will share with you my recipes when I have ones that I love, still experimenting) I learned about the No Poo method from  Ashley's Green Life . She explains the "transition period" with some science information behind it. I will share my personal experience with this time after I'm through it. I'm excited to try more styles up with my hair from  The Small Things Blo

It's Monday and I don't know about other mom's but these are my cleaning days! Over the weekend we enjoy every moment we can with Daddy since he's home which normally means that the cleaning gets put off. By Monday morning my kitchen looks like this! Awful! Now imagine the rest of the house! Yep Monday's are a big day of cleaning for the kids and I. Of course a full day of cleaning sounds like no fun to myself or to the kids so I have been battling with them to get the house cleaned and it normally is an all day battle. So here is my new strategy getting help with all the work without the constant arguing. Setting a time with a 10 minute power clean and then a 20 minute play break . During our power clean we all have to have a happy heart about cleaning and clean with a purpose. For myself that means not getting angry with the boys as they play as they clean. I need to set an example and remain calm and enjoy cleaning. It also means that I clean for t

Francine Rivers has done it again! I picked up " The Atonement Child " from the library to have a fun book to read. Of course her books are the lighthearted variety but they are page turners for sure! I started reading the book when my hubby was working nights. I knew that I wouldn't be sleeping well so reading would be better than staying up all night watching TV. Well that was not the best choice. The book starts out with the main character being attacked at night and raped. Not a good thing to read when your home alone all night but I had to keep reading to know what happened to this lovely Christian girl. Her life gets turned upside down after the rape happens. She gets pregnant, her finance can't handle the fact that she is not "unclean" and the Christian school asks her to leave due to being pregnant. What is she to do? Everyone tells her if anyone has the right to an abortion it would be her, however, she is unsure. She doesn't feel it'

TV is a huge part of our culture in today's culture and I get sucked into it just the rest of us. I can't wait to see the next episode of whatever series I'm currently into. I love watching romantic shows and family friendly sitcoms. Neither one are easy to find for new and current series but older series sure seem to fit the bill. But there are downsides to watching past series. You never have to wait to watch the next episode, it's just there. So what happens...it just keeps playing and playing without a need to wait until next week and I get sucked in at every cliff hanger they have. So how am I going to break this nasty habit? Well I'm going to finish the last few episodes of the current series I'm addicted to when the kids are sleeping because seriously I can't wait several weeks to finish the last 4 episodes. Yesterday, I started playing Pandora radio through our TV to have music going through the house during the day. I like having the backg