Little Okie Homestead

Staying at home can create a sense of comfort. Allowing to stay in PJ's all day, enjoying just lounging of the couch and eating bon bon's. However for most of us homemakers we do not have this luxury of lounging and bon bon's. We have things to do with our children, house cleaning to do, and many thing outside of the house. Sometimes getting dressed in the morning just seems pointless. Excuses like I have to clean so why would I put on my 'nice' clothes or the baby is just going to spit up on me so I should just stay in my pj's since I will have to change later anyway. These are valid reasons on some  days to stay in our pj's but most  days we should get up and get ready just like if we worked outside of the home. It shows our husbands that we care about him and we try to make sure that we look good for him. It also shows are children good habits of getting up and getting dressed and ready for the day. If you read in Proverbs 31 you will see what a wif...

So I have been exhausted for about 6 or 7 days now and even though I have been picking up and keeping the house mostly clean I haven't gone through and really cleaned nor have I continued the process of down sizing. We have been overly blessed with a lot of "stuff" in our house. A lot of it is toys but in general we just have a bunch of stuff and I keep feeling overwhelmed by the amount of it in our house and so does my hubby. So we have decided to clear out things that we don't use, don't truly need, and anything we plain just don't want in our house and to donate it so that we can bless other people. Not only will this help them but it will bless me as well because I'm hoping that I won't feel so overwhelmed with everything! Yesterday I worked on the kitchen (I don't have pictures of that) and today I worked out our living-room and our 1/2 bath that doesn't have a working toilet at the moment. I scrubbed down everything in the bathroom so tha...

Media Monday (Wednesday whatever) this week is about Media in a Marriage, particularly my marriage. Media plays a huge role in our household and our marriage in mostly a negative way. Being married to a non-believer (or as I say still angry with God) creates some differences in how we believe things should be done. Personally I'm striving to cut out as much media as possible. Yes I have a facebook page, twitter, google+, a blog and several different email accounts. Plus a  business  that is run all online so I have a lot to get sucked into. I also have a blackberry that all notifications get sent to. We also have very basic cable.  The TV plays a big part in our evening and weekend family time. The hubby prefers to veg out on the couch when he gets home from work and doesn't really see anything wrong with it. I understand that he works at least 12 hours days but still we need him too. He also tends to watch things like Family Guy or the Simpsons...

So I know that I haven't completed this book study but I am still working on it. I have been going at a slow pace so that way I can make sure and get the most out of it. I have been praying my way through things and learning more and more about myself. One thing that I have just noticed about myself is that this week has been very stressful for me and instead of spending time in the Word to help get answers and help me through this particular couple of days I have been ignoring my God time. By doing this I have been craving more things and although I'm still praying my way through them and still eating somewhat healthy its been more difficult.  This week in chapter 6 Lysa says "Being ruled by something other than God diminishes our commitment and will make us feel increasingly distant from Him."   Which  has been very true these past few days. Thankfully I am aware of this and I will be making changes first thing tomorrow since today is almost over. I may try...

So I'm linking up with Minivan Diva with It's a God Thing Weekend. I'm glad to share with you all that God is doing amazing things in my life. He has been restoring my outlook on food and cravings through the book study Made to Crave (new post this week to continue the study). I'm happy to say that my craving are not so bad anymore and that I'm craving healthy food and when I'm hit with a craving I pray and God helps me through it and most of the time he just takes it away from me. I currently have lost 7 pounds in about a month! Go Team! (Team as in God and I)! Also he is restoring some marriage issues I personally have been struggling with. I'm praying my way through it and I'm getting healing and a stronger marriage through it. I also keep praying for God to change my hubby's heart to turn back to him. I know he's working on it I just wish it was a little faster.  So if you have great things in your life that God is doing than link up and s...

Family Friday's are always good posts but that's because we don't always have good things going on in our lives. Right now we have some challenges coming our way and are in the  midst of the beginning.  I find it hard when there are cases of extended family crisis' because I'm never sure what I can do or what I should do. Right now I have cousin lying in a hospital bed in a different state which presents the problem of not knowing what to do except pray. I know praying is powerful but I feel like it's family and I should be doing more. We haven't had much to go on during this time and finally were able to get some good news yesterday but still he has not woken up. He needs more prayers and I'm guessing time. He will wake up when he's ready and his body is able too. Right now I just struggle because I want to be doing more but there isn't much more I can be doing.  Then I have also been struggling with a possible cancer scare in my family an...

Tonight I was going to go ahead and write tomorrow's Thankful Thursday's post all about God's conviction and what a blessing it is along with His grace. Before I got started I started reading some other blog posts from today and wow did I get what I needed. See God's conviction is great but His grace is bigger. My  Media Monday  goals are just going ok. They started out great but today I fell again (no surprise there). Last night I stayed up way to late and edited my wedding photos. I have been married for almost 6 years and have been unhappy with them this whole time until a friend helped me figure out some simple ways to edit them to make the look nicer and I was so excited to have wedding photos that I loved and would be proud to display that I worked until almost 1am to get them done. Of course that was not nearly enough time so what did I do today...well I worked on them again way to much. I didn't get any Bible time today, no teaching time with Rex, didn...

It's that time again for Toddle Along Tuesday and I have decided to write about Healthy Eating because I think it is so important for our kids to get healthy foods when they are young so they continue to make good choices as they are older.  So here is what I did. First I made all my own baby food. I wanted to know what I was feeding Rex and this was the easiest way plus it was cheaper. It was really pretty easy to. I bought a Bella mixer (a knock off The Bullet) and I would just steam up my veggies and then blend them with some filtered water. This is what we started with. It worked out great because we would have enough for several meals and I would just scoop it out and feed Rex and save the rest for later. Then as he got older I started mixing things together and adding fruit. Then slowly meat. It was great to just be able to grab what we were having for dinner and pop it in the blender and then Rex had dinner too. He learn early on that whatever we have for dinner is what he ...

A giant TV race! Dancing to the fun music Think my mom needs to learn how to use the camera! God's wonderful art work!

So I liked the name The Tales of a SAHM but it really didn't seem to fit me or what I felt I was blogging. I have been pondering a new name and praying about it. I want people to know that I'm a stay at home mom but I really prefer the word Homemaker because that is what I am doing. I'm not just staying at home, I'm here making my house a home for my son and for my husband. I'm also sharing my heart with everyone that chooses to follow me. So here I am starting all over again and asking you to link up and follow my new blog that fits me better. Just a side note I figured out how to make my very own first blog button ever and I chose to even use my very own photo too. So yes that is my pregnant belly in the photo and I love the fact that we are making a heart around out baby. It just fit perfectly for this blog.

So each week I'm going to focus on one area of my life that I think the media is affecting me. I started with the topic that I think should come first. God VS. Media Before I started my blog and reading other blogs the media I used most was TV (not cable but Netflix) and Facebook. I know that about 1 1/2 years ago that Facebook was where I spent the majority of my time. Farmville, Farm Town, Cafe World. I was struggling to get use to the fact of having a little one around and being home all day without adult interaction. Then there was TV. I could just turn it on and find a movie or TV series that I wanted to watch and I could sit there for hours. At this point in my life Media was winning without a doubt and my life showed it.  I was down (not really depressed just not really sure what to do with myself and my day). Rex was a great baby and would just entertain himself for hours without needing me except for eating and diaper changes. He really didn't seem to care whether mo...

I talked to my aunt who has home schooled 7 children and 2 have already graduated. I asked her if she had any suggestions on things that I could do that would be helpful to start getting Rex and I both ready for the years to come. She suggested reading, reading, and more reading. She said to get Rex to love reading which in turn he will love to learn so I plan on reading no less than 3 books each day to him without including his bedtime story. We will be trying to hit the library on Saturday or Sunday when we can use the car to get there so I don't have to read the same books all the time. This is a small goal and should be easy to fulfill and I'm sure most days we will read  more than 3 because once we start reading we normally have to read all the books that he can get too until we have to stop for lunch or other activities.  She also recommended getting started with an alphabet puzzle so we headed to our favorite store today  Beyond the Blackboard  and s...

I'm still reading the book but this week has been so busy and crazy that I'm just trying to keep up with my normal things like raising Rex and cleaning and cooking that I have not been able to actually read it this week. I'm hoping that I will have some down time tomorrow. I have however been actually reading the Bible and even my Bible study that I'm currently doing with my mom's group so I have been reading.  With most of the things I have written I'm going pretty well with. I have been praying most times I craving and only given into temptation about 2 maybe 3 times which is good for me. I have been staying off the scale as much as possible but I can say this I have been dropped about 2 pounds and I'm fluctuating another 2. I'm not letting the number discourage me though because I'm using this time to get closer with God not to get thinner (although if that happens that will be great).  I did notice that the couple times I have given in to temptat...

I have been trying to figure out how to get started on the whole idea of homeschooling. Being the first in my immediate family to do this, not feeling like I'm really capable of it, and thinking about all the work that is ahead of me just keeps me wanting to forget that its going to be time before I know it.  Rex just turned 2 in March and I need to get started at least thinking and researching all the different types of homeschooling and deciding which is the best for us to at least start out trying. Not to mention the fact that he needs to start learning now! He loves discovering things and play learning in so many ways and I know that I need to tap into that now and get started. So in knowing that here are some of my personal goals to make it not so overwhelming. I'm going to write out why homeschooling is important to me and talk to the hubs about why he wants me to homeschool and I'm going to write out a vision statement for our family that we can review and revise as ...

Our family schedule seems to be so different from a lot people I know. With the hubs working (including drive time) about 12 hours a day it makes our schedule different or he would never see Monkey. So here it is... 6:00 or 6:30 the hubs leaves for work. 8:30 Monkey and I get up (bath time if none the night before) 9:00 Cook and Eat Breakfast 9:30 Leave for mom's group activity several times a week OR play time while Mommy cleans 12:00 Cook and Eat Lunch 1:30 Nap time for Monkey, Bible time for Mommy (most days) 2:30 Monkey is up. Watch Letter Factory (He's very cranky when he wakes up so he gets a movie to allow more wake up time before playing. 3:00 Play time/Story time/Cleaning together time  6:00 or 6:30 Hubby heads home and I start dinner. 7:00 or 7:30 We eat dinner 7:30 Family Play Time 8:30 Start Bedtime Routine       Bath time if we had a really dirty day or he gets in the morning      P.J.'s      Running (he...

We have a dairy allergy in our house (myself and Rex) and although I love cow's milk (I use to drink at least a gallon  a week) I can't drink any of it anymore. When Rex was born we made it through the first 10 months on breast milk and then we did 2 months on soy milk formula before we tried two cups of cow's milk and decided that he definitively had the allergy. So the search was on... So even before I read all the great things Coconut milk has to offer I did know a few things. One I wasn't going to give Rex soy milk because the the high estrogen levels. Even if study's say it's fine for boys to drink I'm not really willing to risk my child to find out for sure. Then there is the choice of Almond milk which wasn't an option because of the fear of the nut allergy being passed down to him. Then there is Rice milk which if you have ever had it there is no flavor or texture to it. It's like drinking cloudy water. So I asked around at the nutrit...