Little Okie Homestead

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...

Last time I was here I shared what I learned by giving up social media  and I didn't realize how it would impact my daily life afterwards. During the month of February I truly felt like I had to make a conscious decision each day or several times a day to not be on social media. It was really hard in the beginning and I really missed my Healthy Mom's Group that I created to help us stay on track with being healthy and exercising throughout the week. Now that I have been able to be back on facebook and interact with my friends once again I find myself not doing it. I'm not checking in with regular facebook and I'm not getting on my mom's group site either. I just never really get on there. I even changed the rule I had for myself with no apps. I did load the app on my tablet but no widgets and it's not on a main page either. This makes me still have to think about getting on. I haven't been very successful with continuing with my workouts although I...

Well it's March first so do you know what that means? My month of giving up social media is over. I actually did learn a lot and I will be applying some new habits into my social media life because of those lessons. First let me specify that I deleted my twitter account and stayed off facebook. I still did some blogging and I did use you tube but only for my Bikini Body Mommy Challenge and to look for new hair styles. So what did I learn? I wasted A LOT of time on facebook!   I realized that I probably wasted hours each day on facebook! I have up on my computer. I have the app on both my phone and my tablet. It was so easy to just jump on to distract me from doing other things that needed to get done. I didn't miss anything! Although in the beginning I did feel like I was really disconnected from everyone as the month went on I realized how much more time I spent in actual conversations with friends instead of just reading their status updates. It was a real eye opene...

Showing Christ's love to an unbelieving husband can sometimes seem like an uphill battle. What I tend to forget is that it is a minute by minute choice. Each decision I make can show his love or not. Of course I'm only human so there are plenty of minutes where it's not shining through. But most days it can be quite simple. Anticipating my hubby's needs are one of the basic ways I can show Christ's love through me. Something as basic as refilling his drink when it is getting empty, especially on after a really hard day at work. Even making sure that the house is picked up before he returns home from work because I know that clutter gives him anxiety. These are just basic things but can make a meaningful impact. There can be really powerful opportunities to show love as well. I just went through that this week with my hubby. He had this job that seemed like it was never going to end. It was suppose to take 4 to 5 days and on day 7 he showed up to the job site ...

So we are starting week 8 (I think). It's been a few weeks since I have officially sat down and updated on how I have been doing. Week 6 I did pretty good. The 4 am workouts were starting to wear on me so I decided to try and get a workout in after my hubby left for work but before the kids got up. Some days that went OK and other days not so well. I did however get several workouts in with the boys awake and they went pretty well. Monkey tired to join in with me and it was quite fun to watch. Of course he couldn't keep up with the workouts and took many breaks but it was fun to have him involved. This week I plan to do cardio days at 4 am in the gym because they are easier than trying to complete in the house. But for the non-cardio days I will do them in the house in the morning. That way I'm not completely exhausted everyday. Now for week 7. I have no idea even what the workouts were for last week. I didn't even look once! I have good reason though. My hubby h...

Being married to an unbeliever is no simple task. I can't say it is more or less difficult because every marriage is different and I can only speak to my own experience. As I sit here tonight while my hubby is out working a night job for a week I'm reading " Winning Him Without Words " by Dineen Miller and Lynn Donovan. It has been on my wish list through Amazon for a while not and I finally thought I should just grab it from the library. See I've been looking for support from other women that are in the same place as I am. Even though I run a Christian moms group and go to church I have no one in my life that is a Christ loving wife and mama that has an unbelieving husband. So I thought maybe I should read some books and maybe I'll get support that way. So far the book hasn't taught me anything I don't already know. If I would have read this book earlier in our marriage maybe it would have been more helpful.With all that we have been through tog...