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.  P...

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?