Little Okie Homestead

I say this will a heart full of emotions from getting through our first full week of more structured homeschool. It has been a huge adjustment not only for me but mostly for Monkey. He loves doing worksheets and sitting at the table reading directions from the workbooks I buy at Wal-Mart and working by himself. But now it's time to bring in more learning than just practicing writing words and counting simple objects on a page and writing numbers. I've gone back and forth a lot on what type of education I want to give my boys. I know that I want them to love learning. I want them to love to read. I want to them have fun during their school work. I have looked at curriculum after curriculum and still haven't found any I really love. I thought Sonlight was perfect but then changed my mind. I wanted to try unschooling and let the kids learn as they play and enjoy life but they were begging for structure work. So finally I looked at Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool  again. ...

More and more progress just keeps being made! We can't believe how fast things can come together! We can't wait to see it finished. It's so funny! Each step we take forward we beam with excitement! We can feel it getting closer and closer...but then when we start to discuss what steps are coming next we once again realize just how much work we still need to do and how much money we still need to accomplish it! These days we wonder if it will ever really become a reality or if it will forever be a dream. These are the days that I think about starting a GoFundMe page just to see if anyone would help make our dreams come true. But then I think about why that page was created and I think that what I'm looking to accomplish just doesn't fit what the page is trying to accomplish.  But to move on to the more exciting stuff like pictures and the progress of the outside of the house being finished! This time I decided I would actually label so areas so you co...

We have made so much progress on the tiny house! It feels like it is finally coming together. Like it might actually happen and become our reality! We couldn't be more excited. But because I have been a big slacker with sharing updates here with you it's going to take a few post so that I can share lots of the progress with pictures. So here's we go from where we last left off. Don't remember what I last shared because it's been so long? Ya me too! Check out the foundation and the floor plan because apparently I have written about anything else! So the next step was to get the framing of the walls built. Thanks to the wonderful baby growing inside me and the fact that I have never in my life built a wall before I got to sit back and watch Hubby do all the work. I enjoyed watching the boys play and 'help' and reading on my kindle in the shade. Since Hubby has built walls before he was able to get the whole house framed in ONE day! It's paying ...

A few days ago I was in my bedroom listening to a podcast about the power of prayer. We all know that prayer has power, amazing power that we can not explain but it doesn't always mean we pray consistently or use it for the powerful tool it is. While listening to this podcast I kept feeling like I needed to make sure I was praying more consistently. It's one thing I'm awful at. I will pray if a friend asks for prayer and I will even pray for them for weeks or months if requested. But when it comes to lifting up my husband or my boys in prayer daily, it just doesn't happen. I forget to pray for everyday things, like keeping my husband safe while he's away at work, helping the boys maintain good attitudes throughout the day, and sanity for myself to work through the struggles that are bound to come up throughout the day with two boys stuck in the house because of the ice storm that just hit our area. So while I was listening to this podcast my brain started work...

I'm happily settling into my second trimester finally! It seemed like the first trimester would never end! This was the worst pregnancy that I have had so far. I have had nausea, exhaustion, crazy food cravings and plain just sickness. But that seems to have past. But with the second trimester has come a whole set of new pregnancy symptoms. I am getting headaches that knock me off my feet. The only way to get rid of them is to lay down, sometimes I have to take a nap for them to go away. I'm also having really bad ligament pain. I can't walk for long amounts of time without having horrible pain throughout that night. It's a little frustrating. BUT...along with the negative there is a lot of good! I have my energy back. I can actually am keep up on my housework as long as a headache doesn't take me down. I also feel more like myself again. My family is very excited that things are starting to return to normal. I'm cooking dinner when we are home, I haven't...

So I know it has been awhile since I have written anything but I have to tell you that I have sat down wrote part of post and then get called away for kids, laundry, dishes, meals, etc and things run into each other and I never get back to the computer. You should see my desk! It's covered in dust and spider webs because I hardly ever get a chance to sit down to do anything over here! I normally do my writing at night. It's when my brain just flows with ideas and I can write easily but I'm exhausted by 8pm (well really by 3pm but can't go to bed that early) so I'm in bed as soon as I get the kids in their beds. This week I'm officially 8 weeks and things are looking up! I have started to remember my vitamins daily which means that I'm getting help with my nausea. I've also learned that if I make sure that I don't get hungry that I don't feel sick. Another trick I learned from a friend is to do my best to stay away from sugar because it's...

I have been having a problem getting the email to switch over from the heart of a homemaker to In His Perfect Timing so I'm making some changes and I don't want you to miss out on anything. Please check back over the next few days and make sure that you are still getting emails from the blog. If not please resign up so you don't miss any of our adventures as I try to fix this. Thanks!

I shared our official plans on facebook but I know not everyone saw it so I want to make sure and share here. These are the final plans. Nothing can be changed now because we have already framed all the first floor walls. This is the first floor and we have all the walls framed. It's exciting to see things coming together. I can finally start to visualize what it will look like and how small it will actually be. I love it though! We are so excited to see it coming together and the boys are starting to be able to see it too. I think that's the most exciting part! Goose can give you a complete tour of where every room is going to be. Goose loves being outside hanging out with Daddy while he's working. I have been asked how in the world we are all going to fit in this tiny house and I'm hoping this will show some of the ways we are going to make it work with a growing family. The boys will both be on top bunk beds and we are making the bottom beds to fold up agains...

Our real life homeschool is very laid back during this part of our year. We love being outside and enjoying time with friends. Warmer months it's always easier to have play dates and enjoy the pool in the hot afternoon. We are starting to get a little more structure into our days though. Our typical monring looks like this: Boys wake up naturally. Normally between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning.  Boys read or play quietly while Hubby gets out the door and Mommy gets breakfast. With a baby on the way I have to eat as quickly as I can in the morning.  Boys eat breakfast. They normally make themselves cereal as they are tired of the eggs and bacon that I normally make them and they enjoy the independence.  Everyone gets dressed and brushes teeth for the day. Morning chores come next. Goose normally picks up the living room, bathroom and our room. There's always something on the floor that needs to be put back where it belongs. He also helps me getting laundry start...

I wasn't called to be normal! I was called to be different from the rest of the world and I feel it almost daily how different my family truly is! Homeschooling, homesteading, and homemaking are so far from the norm in our society. Then if you add in that I'm a Christian who is married to an unbeliever that adds a whole new aspect to being different. And of course our goal of tiny living. But it's working! Our family is a strong family unit. We work together, spend time together and make decisions together. We choose to make sacrifices to keep our family strong and connected and we love helping people around us when an opportunity arises. Homemaking is an important part of our lives and how we choose to be different. I'm not just a stay at home mom. I don't just merely stay home. I'm actively making a home for my family. I clean, bake, organize and create a loving and caring atmosphere for my family. I make choices on saving money by cooking most even...

It's that time again! For nausea, hiccups and headaches. Well actually this is the first time I have suffered from any of those but everyone will be happy to know that after 2 pregnancies I'm finally starting one with pregnancy symptoms! Did I really think I would be lucky enough to get away with a third one without any morning sickness, heartburn and whatever else most women experience? I was hoping so but I'm happy to have the few pregnancy symptoms to come along with this next little one! It's still very early. I'm only beginning week 5 but I want to share everything I'm experiencing as life is growing inside me! It's a wonderful time and I can't wait to see who God brings into our lives. Not just the little one but for a support system and other mama friends. So to start out these last few weeks have been great! I've experienced symptoms very early! I was exhausted for almost 2 weeks and could barely function. Then I got an awful stomach bug...

I was trying to read more each week and at least complete one book a week. That's not happening. I have so much to do between homeschool, housekeeping, homesteading, cooking healthy meals, and helping build the tiny house that reading a book each week is just not going to happen. So instead I'll just share what I'm reading and make sure to share a review whenever I might actually finish a book. Below is what I'm reading in order of importance. I'm a person that just can't read one book at a time. I also lose interest in books sometimes and that causes a problem with trying to finish it but I do try to finish books I start as long as they are benefiting me in some way. Currently I'm reading... Desperate by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson Strong Mothers, Strong Sons  by Meg Meeker The Five Love Languages of Children  by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell The Unprocessed Child   by Valerie Fitzenreiter

In homeschooling there are so many options... Classical Homeschooling Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Unschooling Unit Studies Montessori Then you start looking at all the different types of curriculums you can buy... Sonlight My Father's World Saxton Abeka Online Homeschools and Private Schools It can become so overwhelming! I went to school for teaching. I completed my associates degree in human services with an emphasis on early childhood education. I taught in all different age classrooms while getting my degree and had my own pre-kindergarten classroom for a year before I became a personal nanny. Then Monkey came along and I never returned to work. If anyone can homeschool especially at this age it should be me! I've taught this age before. The problem is I'm homeschooling because I don't want to send Monkey or Goose off to a traditional school that has class for 7 hours or more a day with homework. I don't want to simply do school at home ....

Building the foundation of our house on top of the trailer is one of the most important pieces of our tiny house. If our floor is not built properly or strong enough then our entire project will fall apart in front of our eyes! Hubby has studied all different ways that mobile homes and tiny homes are built and read about the most common problems people encounter to try and save us some future problems. First we needed to add 10 foot 2x6 boards to the trailer to expand our living space from 8 feet to 10 feet wide. (Picture 1 and 2 above). Of course the boys want to be apart of every step which we love even when it slows it down sometimes. And of course it's still summer so getting them to wear anything but underwear when they are home is about impossible. But with the heat I would be running around in my underwear too if I could ;) After we had all the 2x6 in place we add plywood on top to create a sub-sub-floor. (Picture below). One of the problems many people encounter i...

IT'S FINALLY BEGUN! I'm so excited that our foundation of our house has started! Besides the trailer the floor is one of the most important parts of our entire tiny house project! I can't believe that it's finally here! First we had to move the trailer. We were hoping to build it on the back acre of the house we are living in but it just wasn't going to work. By the time we got started working the grass was growing over-top of the trailer and doing any of the work under the trailer just wasn't going to happen. There would be way to many bugs and creatures living back there. Not to mention the fact that there is no electricity in the back and we would have had to spend several hundred dollars on extension cords just to get the power we needed to run the tools to build and we need every penny to go into this house. So instead it was moved out front to sit next to our house to give us easy access to power and some small shelter from our porch for tools ...

Since our move a year ago I've had lots of ups and downs. Moving out of Colorado where I was born and raised, where all my friends and family live, and the only place that I thought would ever be home was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make and follow through with. I knew that this move would make my life and my families life ultimately better and being out here has proven that to be true and it's only been a year. But looking back over the year there have been plenty of hard times. About every few months I start missing the life I had in Colorado. I miss getting together with other moms that are like minded homemakers. Other women that put family above everything else no matter what the sacrifice. I haven't found friendships in Oklahoma that easily but I continue to push forward with it and I'm starting to finally have a few women that I have developed a relationship with that I now call friends. These friendships alone are starting to make Okla...

Hubby informed me that he didn't like our couch that we had about a month ago. So being a good wife I found another one at a garage sale, sent him pictures and got the go ahead to replace it. Well about 3 weeks later he told me that he didn't like that one either but he found one that he really loved and wanted to bring it home...with my permission.   Well I couldn't say no because the couch we had was hurting his back and he needs to be able to relax when he's home. The problem is that the couch he wanted to bring home was old and didn't really match what I wanted for our new house. So I agreed to bring it home if he would let me recover it. So I went and got the couch and brought it home. We headed to the store to "just look" at fabric and they were having a HUGE sale and we were able to get all our supplies for 50% off. We couldn't pass up on that deal so we moved forward and bought everything we needed and planned to work on the couch Sunday af...

Vacation life is finally over! Being in Colorado for 10 days over the 4th of July was a blast and I plan to write all about it. My original plan was to write about it as soon as we got back but then plans changed. Instead I brought back a friend and her 2 littles along with my 2 nephews. We squeezed 9 people into our little house for several days. Once my friend headed back to Colorado we had 3 weeks of having a house full of boys! It was a crazy time for sure but made me excited to know that we are still growing our family. We are definitely not done yet. This house needs more pitter-patter for sure! Now that things are slowing down getting back to normal it's back to trim healthy mama cooking, blogging and getting ready to start school. We also are getting started on building the tiny house! Finally! We are going to be having some great things happening over the next few months and I can't wait to share our projects with you.  For now it's time to get the boys in ...

Where does MY Jesus live?  It all depends on me. He's always there at the door of my heart waiting to be let in.  Do I open it in the morning and invite Him in walk with me? Do I open the door but stand in the doorway so He can't fully be inside my heart? Keeping Him at arm lengths away.  Do I wait until I have had enough of things just going wrong before I throw the door open wide and ask why He hasn't been here helping?  It's a daily choice. It's a hour choice. Sometimes it's an every second choice. But He's there waiting to be invited in.  I think trying times are the hardest to remember to invite Him in. I think trying times it's sometimes easier to get lost in everything going on around that we forget to invite Him in.  We all go through trying times. My family has had their fair share of them. The one time that trumps all others is when Hubby was in the hospital for 26 days, Monkey ate peanut butter M&M's an...