Little Okie Homestead

I'm Thankful For...Safe Travels Day 17 We are heading out to OKC today!  It's a long 10 to 12 hour drive from Denver (thinking 12 with the kiddos) but I'm excited! We have never been one a road trip before with the kids so this should be interesting! I trust that God will keep us safe during our travel & that it will go smoothy! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone! See you in a week!

I'm Thankful For... Day 10 Today I want to say I'm thankful for my sister in law  M ! Her birthday was the 9th & it got over shadowed by the stomach flu entering our house. I'm so excited that we get to head our to OKC to visit her over Thanksgiving!  The boys are going to love playing together! Just a few more days & we will be heading out! Can't wait!

I'm Thankful For...My Mom Day 9 This is a post that I couldn't have written on the day...why? Well because I was dealing with a baby with croup & a 3 year old that was experiencing the stomach flu for the first time. Poor guy woke up around 2 am saying his tummy hurt. He has been saying this a lot to get attention since Goose has joined us so I just told him to go back to be. Well before he could turn around to head back to bed he threw up all over the floor! (Yep, lost the mom of the year award again) I felt horrible!  I got him cleaned up, the floor cleaned up, & got him back into bed. A few minutes later while I was nursing he comes out saying his tummy hurts again. I put Goose down quickly which makes him start screaming because I interrupted his eating time, wake up the hubby on the way to the bathroom & try to get Monkey to stand over the toilet.  When he didn't throw up I set him to bed with a trash can just in case & went to get my ...

I'm Thankful For...Doctors Day 8 Normally I try & do everything homeopathic but sometimes you just can't risk it! Today was one of those days!  We have all been sick. It started with Monkey, then me, now the hubs & Popa have it & yesterday Goose started showing signs that he was next. His cold took off! Within 24 hours he was coughing really bad & it was so sad having to listen to him cough through the night. This morning we decided it was time to take him in to be seen.  We headed up to Children's Hospital because we had to go there to get Monkey's stitches out so we figured we'd have Goose looked at too. Doc said it was croup :( I have never had to deal with croup with Monkey (or really any cold) when he was this little. They gave Goose a steroid & he's doing much better now. We have a follow up appointment on Saturday with his doctors office to make sure everything is going well. For now I'm back on the couch ...

I'm Thankful For...The Right to Vote Day 7 Today I'm grateful to live in a country where I get to vote!  Even though who I chose to vote for may or may not get elected I know that it is a privilege! Many people fought for our rights to vote over the years & I'm glad they did! Now it's time to pray! Pray for our president & the decisions that he will have to make in the next four years! Pray for our country that we can stand together in these hard times! Pray for our media & the information they report to us. That is will contain truth over lies! Pray for the young adults that are just starting out to be informed! Pray for our children & whatever the future will hold for them! Overall it's just a time to pray for America to stay the way the founders intended it to be! A free market place where people like my hubby can start a business and be successful! A place where dreams really do come true! A place to call hom...

I'm Thankful For...Time With the Hubs Day 6 Today we were lucky enough to get some extra time with the hubs. Of course it was because he didn't have any work to do for the day but I will take it once in a while.  He's such a hard worker and is trying so hard in this awful economy to get his business started and hopefully be able to give others some jobs in the next year. It's hard! It's costing a lot of time, energy and money. It's sad that he has to work such long hours but today we were lucky to have him home early to hang out with us. And it meant that I got to go to the grocery store without the kids! Always a good thing for a  homemaker ;)

I'm Thankful For...Monkey's Heart Day 5  (almost caught up!) The past few nights we have started reading Bible stories before Monkey goes to bed. We always read books but we finally found our boxes and boxes of children's books from storage so we have our three children's Bibles back!  I'm so excited! Monkey has been asking to read these stories over his normal children stories that we read. I just love how God seeks their hearts at such a young age. I can't wait to see the work has in store for Monkey as he gets older. I can only pray & do my best as a mom to help him grow to be a wonderful man after God's heart. And maybe just maybe he will help turn his Daddy back towards Christ!

I'm Thankful For...Friendships! Day 4 Today I'm thankful for friendships!  I have had many times when I have needed close friends to surround me with love & support and I'm so glad that I get to help someone else today & tomorrow that are sharing some struggles that I have been through! I'm so grateful that God has placed this on my heart to be extra supportive to these women that are struggling! It's not easy to be a wife & a mom but with God's help we can get through anything!

I'm Thankful for...Prayer! Day 3 Today I'm thankful for prayer that lead me to be motivated to get up and get started on my workout!  I really want to lose my baby weight and the weight I have been carrying around for years now! So the plan? Well it involves several things that I'm praying God will help me continue. 1. Be in bed by 10pm every night that Goose will allow me to.  I want to get good sleep so I am ready to workout and get my day going everyday! 2. Spend time in the Word and Praying. I know that I can not do this alone! I don't have the motivation or the energy to do it without God's help! 3. Get up every morning at 5am. It sounds really early to me but if I'm up by this time I can get a full workout in, a possible shower (if not it will have to be later), I can then cook Hubby breakfast before he leaves for work and make sure he takes lunch with him. This is part of wanting to be a helpful wife. If I do this Hubby isn't ...

Day 2 I'm Thankful for our free crib Write your own thankful post, grab the button, & link on up to share what we are all thankful for! Our Family Bassinet Goose outgrew his bassinet by 3 months.  It was time to put his crib together and move in with his brother! Isn't he just adorable! Look at all that room he has to wiggle around in now! I think he looks pretty happy about the move! He's been in his crib now for a few weeks & he's doing great! He's not waking up Monkey very often & enjoying all the extra room to move around! With Monkey we got a handy down crib (which we still have) however I have lost the screws that hold it together plus it has the drop down side so it wouldn't have been the best to use. Someone generously posted on my local freecycle to give this crib and changing table/dresser away. I was lucky enough to be the first to respond & now Goose has a safe crib that has all the screws to sleep in!  ...

Last year I did a 'I'm Thankful for...' series through the month of November and I'm going to do it again. Link up with your thankful posts! Day 1 A few days late ;) Today I'm thankful for my hubby! This past April it became apparent how fragile life is and I very easily could have lost him. I'm very thankful that he is here with us being a great husband and dad to the boys. He's such a hard worker and trying to build his own business to provide for all of us. I'm thankful for all he does for our family and how much he loves each one of us! Here he is playing with Monkey at a bouncy house while walking with my family in the Memory Walk in remembrance of my grandma!

As requested via my facebook page this momentousness 300th post with be about our favorite moments with Auntie M! Pretty sure she was just joking about it but I figure that it would be a good thing to share how much we care about her and her family! She always takes us fun places! Sleepovers we always end up sleeping in a funny way! This one actually breaks my heart because we didn't know that his gallbladder was hurting him so much & that he would have to have surgery  just a few days later :( She brings Rex's fun cousins with her! Thanks Aunt M for everything you have done for us & coming to visit! We love & miss you a lot! Happy 300th blog posts to me! What to see what I was doing for the 100th and 200th blog post? Nothing special but fun to look back! No celebration on those milestones! 100th Post 200th Post

Being convicted by God is never fun. I know because it happens quite often if I would listen to it more. Most recently I was talking to someone to help me figure out some issues I have been having with our current living situation and with Monkey. I reached out to her because she knows my family really well but also has chosen to live the homemaking life style that God has called us to do. She also is raising 7 children in her home so she has been through every stage that I know I will go through with Monkey. Basically, she is what I would consider an expert in homemaking. (I have been watching legal shows lately that always have 'expert' witnesses.) Anyway, I knew that she would be completely honest with me and that she would have great advice. So I packed up my tissue, a trash bag, and my water and headed out in the car to talk to her in the parking lot on the phone so I could have some privacy. I expected to cry during our conversation, more from hormones than the subject...

What is more cute than watching your child model after someone like their Popa. Rex loves when Popa mows the grass. He runs and gets his lawn mower and follows along.  He knows he has to stay a certain distance from Popa so he is safe.  Then when he finally gets bored of following Popa around he sits on his slide and watches him finish. He loves just hanging out with Popa.

Dear My Pre-Parent Self, You could never have imagined what it would be like to be a parent. I know how much you wanted it and how excited you were when you found out that you were pregnant but I have to say looking back that you had no idea what you were in for. The love that you experience as parent is indescribable! You can never anticipate the emotions that come from having a baby. Monkey has been such a blessing in our lives and has changed it in ways that I would never want to reverse.  Then there is the part of being a homemaker. It was your dream from a little girl. Wanting to stay home and raise a family was what you always wanted. It hasn't been easy and we have made some not so good choices along the way but once again I'm so glad that we get to experience everything we have been through as a family.  You would be so proud to know how things are if you could see the future from where you are at. God has fulfilled so many promises for not only us but for...

Today I'm thankful for God's community! I never knew that people could be so kind and helpful!

Today I'm thankful for God's miracles. He has been doing so wonderful ones in our lives and I'm so thankful that he loves us enough to show us through His wonderful miracles! <center><a href="http://www.theheartofahomemaker.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd424/Kari_Snellbaker/BLOG-thankful-1.jpg"/></a></center>

Today I'm thankful for my parents. They are so helpful to us and I'm grateful that they live close. Today my dad let me borrow his car as ours is in need of tires and I had to take M's grandparents to the doctors. Also my mom watched Rex while I went.  Really I'm so thankful for them and all their help! <center><a href="http://www.theheartofahomemaker.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd424/Kari_Snellbaker/BLOG-thankful-1.jpg"/></a></center>

Today I'm thankful to be home! If you have been reading along we have been staying with M's grandparents and helping them out after Grandma's back surgery. Well last night we headed home to let them get back into their routine while we and M's aunt can be around to help over the weekend.  We were all so glad to sleep in our own beds and have our own schedule and routine back. Rex was able to get the sleep he has been needing and slept until 8:00! M slept late too which was good because neither of us have slept more than a few hours a night for the past 2 weeks. Of course for me I was up at 6:30 because that has been when my body is use to getting up. Oh well. I was able to get some things done this morning while everyone else slept. <center><a href="http://www.theheartofahomemaker.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd424/Kari_Snellbaker/BLOG-thankful-1.jpg"/></a></center...

Oh my gosh today I am thankful for hard work. We all know that raising kids isn't easy. You can make it "easier" on yourself if you let them raise them self and ignore them but we choose the opposite. We choose to implement discipline into our house as well as respect and manners. Well today it showed and to me makes it all worth it. Today while shopping at our 4th store after a very long day Rex showed me how great it is to have a child with manners and how they show when you lest expect it.  We were in one of the car carts at the store and Rex being the "helper" he is was getting out every time we stopped to ask what I was looking for and trying to help me. Well we were standing there looking at something and an older man was walking down the isle. And this conversation followed: Me: "Watch out Rex and man is coming." Rex: Look up at the man "Oh! Excuse me Sir." And got out of his way. Me (about ready to burst into tears: "Rex I'...