Essentials

Secondly...

We have running water--and I no longer mean "run out to the well start up the generator and fill a 5 gallon jug up and run back" or" run to the car, drive 30 minutes to the in-laws and wash clothes and take a shower".

We have electricity (we were only with out this for three days, and thank the Lord, because it's been really cold here in South East Texas)

and an oven! (Well really, I was using a propane camp stove. I'm so thankful I didn't have to start a wood fire every time I wanted to cook or heat up water!)

There are many things we take for granted in this day and age.  I once had an Indian classmate who was new to the States.  As we compared cultures we found that while many people in India have servants--which we Americans would love to have--she told me many Indians believe we here in the States have robots that do all the work for us.  Then I realized in many ways we do have robots that do these things for us. We have a "robot" to wash our dishes, another to wash our clothes, another to dry them. Ones that clean our carpets and mop our floors. Ones that toast our bread and make us coffee. 

When we recently found ourselves having just a small taste of the way the American pioneers of the old west lived, the reality started setting in of their difficulties and the difficulties of those in third world countries. For example, they didn't have disposable diapers. Now, I have access to them but I hate using them.  I tried to use them during this time but I just kept having blowouts and it was ruining clothes.  But I digress.  Cloth diapers have to be washed every other day, at least. And we go through a lot of them!  To wash them you first have to start a fire, then boil the water to wash with soap and more water to rinse, then dry them.  The pioneers also didn't have handy dandy plastic covers so they had to wash even baby more clothes.  Then they had to repeat all of this just to do dishes.  And they didn't have electricity to do all this after dark.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  All this to say, the longer I lived without these three conveniences the more I realized how blessed we are to have modern amenities to make our lives easier and give us more free time.  What would Mrs. Ingalls have given for an extra hour in the afternoon to sit and read or sew!

I've never been so thankful to be able to turn on the faucet and have scalding hot water come out--or even just water.

Two Months Old

Wow. Today is Baby O's two month birthday! 

 I can't believe it's been two months already!  He's been such a blessing to our home.  Even at this early stage in his life I can see his personality differing from his brothers'.   He talks more than the others ever did.  I was always trying to coax them to coo and goo.  He's so loud that I had talk over him the other day while reading something to Mr. Homesteader.  When you sing to him, he coo's with you.  He always has a ready smile, even when he's poopy at 2am!

I didn't have enough milk with C or J and ended up having pump, take supplements and supplement with formula.  I still didn't have enough. So I gave up after 4 and 8 months, respectively.  Since then, what I thought was arthritis has been diagnosed as Hypothyroidism. Apparently your thyroid effects your milk supply.  Who knew?!  This time Baby O has more than enough and is growing by leaps and bounds.  

  He's huge!  He's got rolls on his thighs and arms and two chins.  I always said that the boys had more of a lizard belly than a Budda belly but O is a Budda baby.

This guy was not supposed to be.  The doctors told us if you ever get pregnant again, it will more than likely end in miscarriage.

 But God had a different plan, a plan to  bring about glory to His name.  He knit this little together in my womb and knew him before he was formed. (Ps 139)  Praise be to God the Almighy,  He has blessed us beyond measure!  

Holes Dug

A lot has happened around here this first week of January.  

First, a deck has been started.  My husband and his brothers and dad dug holes and poured cement footing for the 14 ft x 14ft deck and ramp we need to build to get my piano in the mobile home.

You see, we ordered a Rat Pack to store all our stuff in while we closed on the land.  We were supposed to stay with my in-laws for 6 weeks.  By God's sovereignty and grace, that turned in to 4 months.  We got special care after O was born and got to build relationships with Mr. Homesteader's younger siblings.  Now in order to save the rent money on the Rat Pack we need to build a deck to get my piano in the house. 

 Pawpaw and Uncle Awesome tag teamed most of the holes.

 Uncle Firefighter and Mr. Homesteader tagged teamed but battled giant roots.

 Even C and J "helped."

Typical J.

 Second...

Unpacking

There's a lot going on around here.  We've moved in, mostly.  The electricity has been turned on and the hole for the septic tank has been dug.  We even started building a deck to get my piano in the house! Things are starting to move along at a nice pace.

Last night Mr. Homesteader and I loaded up the trailer with stuff from the storage unit and unpacked it. It was 8:30 when we got home from a long day at church.  C and J hadn't eaten and O needed to nurse.  We walked in to a cold house and realized that the power had been out all day.  As we ate leftover fast food in our cold, dark house,  I looked across my new, already crowded living room and wondered how all the furniture and boxes of clothes would ever fit. Well it did fit, stacked nearly to the ceiling with a narrow walk way from the front door to the kitchen.

I don't know about you, but when my space is cluttered I just want to shut down, leave the area and not deal with it.  I mentioned this to Mr. Homesteader this morning, he suggested calling Gamma and KK to come help.  I did and boy was I glad I did!  Gamma encouraged me to just focus on the basics so I did. I moved the a dresser and unpacked a wall full of boxes and swept the mountain of dirt that gets tracked in when your front yard is mud.

They came over later in the afternoon. And while it took me all day to clear one wall, they had the living room rearranged and set up in the time before I finished feeding O. Then we organized the stuff on the dining table so we could eat dinner at a table and not on a tool box in the living room.  Pawpaw showed up later with dinner and helped set up the boys' room.  I had gone from overwhelming stress of living in a storage unit of a house to a home with a living room, dining room, and the boys' bed room set up.

We still need to put flooring down and paint and put decor but the living isn't a mish mash of boxes and an upside down coffee table.

Baby O is Here!

The day I wrote my last post I was staying home from church because I was sick.  Turns out it was morning sickness.  Because of the fibroid, I found myself getting lots of ultrasounds but what they showed was that it would not block the birth canal and I would be able to deliver naturally. Yea!

Nine months later we had a cute little snuggly baby that was 8lb. 9oz and 22inches long.  This was small compared to my other two who were 10lb. 4oz and 10lb. 8oz!

Baby O
November 7, 2013
8lb. 9oz.

Also since my last post we have remodeled and sold our house, moved in with Mr. Himself's parents, bought 30 acres, and a mobile home.  We will be moving out the land as soon as it dries up and the moving company can move the home without sinking in the mud. 

The Genisis

I didn't want to start out quite so personal but, alas, I must. For to begin a story one must inevitably begin at the beginning...

Last spring we were elated to announce an addition to our a small but growing family.  However, the Lord in His Sovereignty saw fit take our little 9week peanut to himself.  We learned through the miscarriage that I had a large and rapidly growing fibroid tumor and my only option was surgery.  To Mr. Himself and I this wasn't really an option as the surgery would leave us only able to deliver via C-section.  So I began researching.  I found that many of the food we eat and genetics had caused this and I would have to drastically change my diet.

No sugar, all organic, less meat products.

This was expensive and prompted further research into some of my oldest sons allergies which lead to raw milk and other raw dairy products.  Thankfully it's working.  His eczema is clearing up and his colds are becoming less frequent.  But again it's terribly expensive.

One day, on a whim,  I looked into how much milk a dairy cow makes, eats, and costs to buy.  I found that it was about the same as buying it and you had some left milk to make products and sell.  We only needed about 5 acres.....

Surprisingly Mr. Himself didn't baulk at the idea.

Meanwhile he had been listen to R.C. Sproul Jr. and The Basement Tapes he produces with his church.  He had been listening to them speak about freedom...freedom from industrialization, freedom.

In December of the same year we went spent a month with my family in Colorado.  Fort Collins is blessed to have many freedoms.  Some I agree with and some I do not :) One of their freedoms is to have livestock in the back yard.  Our eyes were open to the freedom to walk out our back door and get eggs that we know where they come from, and what's been fed to the mother hens.  We loved it.  On the way back to Texas Mr. Himself had me listen to The Basement Tapes.  I was hooked; I want the freedom from industrialization, to work along side my husband as he provides for our family's needs, to live self sustainably.  We were 20 minutes from our house and we decided to put it up for sale and move on land before a year had passed.

What began as an effort to improve our physical health has became a journey to improve our familial economic health.