And she's back!

Well yes I know it has been just MONTHS since I posted but I have some very very good news. A lot has happened in the last few months, the most significant of which is that my husband has gotten a job which allows me to be a stay-home mom. It wasn't the job up by our property, we actually had to relocate to the Seattle area, but it is definitely a step in the right direction! We moved at the beginning of September and have been staying at my parents house until our new home is ready.

We managed to find, by the grace of God, a house that is perfect. It's about an hour's drive away, but Tommy avoids most of the rush-hour and it's right outside a town that has less than 700 people. We share some acreage with the owner of the rental who will be our neighbor. There's lots of fruit trees, cane fruits, and tons of wild foraging for mushrooms and berries. It's kind of in the "rain forest" of Washington and so I think I'll have to be on the lookout for sparkly vampires, lol ;) It's also big enough that we can have another baby next year and still have an office (and the master bedroom has one of those BIG bathtubs!).

But I am really excited to start this new endeavor. Even though we're still kind of treading water here in this house, not really unpacking our stuff (and my only cooking devices are an electric skillet and a convection microwave), I've been able to make some good headway with the girls and I am absolutely just loving the simple pleasures of being able to do laundry as it gets dirty, not as I have time and constantly being behind. My kitchen gets cleaned daily instead of twice a week. My kids are happier and the girls really are becoming a lot closer now that they spend more time together. They are learning better habits than what we had energy to enforce when I was working... and the list goes on. I'm more active and I am eating better.

And I haven't even had a chance to do much homesteady stuff! Although I did decently yesterday making a pizza crust without a recipe, bowl, or mixer. Kind of a "dump" it all on the counter and knead it together" deal. I just can't wait until I can start baking our bread again, cooking up pasta sauce and chili to can into quarts, and all the gardening potential of the new house can't be beat! Granted, I probably won't have much luck growing peppers there, but our new landlords pretty much give us carte blanche with the place as long as it makes it look nicer.

Anyway, the other half of why I hadn't been posting is just because my laptop had died and our ancient desktop is so slow it takes several minutes for webpages to load... it's mostly good for checking facebook and email and that's it. But now that I got my laptop back (thanks to the best big brother ever!) I should be able to post a lot more regularly than I ever have.

5-year plan update

I've got a couple blog posts to do here tonight or in the next few days so bear with me, but I'll try and keep it somewhat topical.

The biggest most exciting thing going on is not only is my husband almost finished with school (not even 2 months left!) but he has had several interviews for a company up in Colville that is looking for a Design Engineer. He's underqualified for the position but the fact is, it's RIGHT up his alley (they mfg wood stoves), it's 20 minutes away from where we want to build our home, and unlike many of their applicants he won't be looking for something else once the economy recovers.

They did put off the hiring for a bit so we won't hear back for another couple months but I am praying hard for this... those of my readers who also pray please pray for us! This job could mean big things, not only getting up there to the property quicker (we were thinking it could take 3-5 years after he's done with school) but the income, if we kept our standard of living the same, could allow us to build a home over a period of a few years with NO MORTGAGE. Of course, that's if things were at optimum conditions but I guess I'm trying to say that it would be AMAZING if we could get up there.

As of right now, my parents are up there and I am so jealous! They have gotten their Maremma sheepdogs, and the dogs are absolute gems. They also have a wire coop full of chicks! My mom and I spent an afternoon building the coop while the girls were napping on a day I happened to have off and she was here for the day. It was a wonderful day.

Which leads me to another topic... my emotional state right now is not very stable. I feel like me working has been unsustainable for so long emotionally and so I'm starting to run short. Kinda like an oil tank (anyone heat with oil?) when you run it and run it and it starts to get low, there's all kinds of stuff at the bottom of the tank that gunks it all up. That's kinda how I feel. I could sure use some prayers to lift my spirits also... it's becoming very difficult for me to drop my kids off with someone else and then go sit at a desk all day long.

A nice sunny weekend! Part 1

Hi everyone!

Well this last weekend was great! Sorry about the long absence... no promises that it won't happen again, either :) I just don't have time while I'm still working but the good news is we probably only have another 6-9 months to go before I can officially be a STAY HOME MOM and won't that be great! I'm pretending that I'm one today... my little sister got married early last week and I took the entire week off last week and also today.

I've gotten a lot of project-y things done... mostly a lot of canning and we did some gardening in the beautiful weather. Sorry, no pics - my camera is officially kaput so I'll have to wait till I get a new one. I brought home the pressure canner from my brother's house (and alas, had to give him his excalibur dehydrator... sniff) and so I got lots canned. I canned up a bunch of ground beef, chicken, seasoned pinto beans and yellow potatoes.

So far we've tried the beef and the beans and they are both winners. I never thought I'd like canned meat and I don't know how well it would go over in tacos or something but put into a casserole it was quite good. And the beans were very good, lightly seasoned with salt, pepper and a shake of cumin but the flavor was light enough you could easily flavor them in any way you choose. I just wish I had some photos to share!

I also had gotten a new wheat grinder and so I tried that out, of course. The bread rose like it was no one's business! I didn't grind the flour quite fine enough for my taste so I used about 60% whole wheat and then 40% bread flour and it was great. I made just a standard honey wheat bread although I've been doing a lot of the "artisan bread in 5 minutes a day" breads and those have been delicious as well. I think I'll have a lot of fun with this tool once I get to stay home :)

Staying home...

Yesterday Eleora brought home a note from the daycare director that her teacher was leaving because she has the opportunity to now stay home with her kids. I am really happy for her, but it also makes me melancholy.

Now that spring is here especially, it seems like every single day I wish I could just stay home with my kids and hang out with them, teach them how to do stuff outside, get my gardening done, cook decent suppers where we can all sit together around the table (more than just on the weekends), keep up on laundry, the kids can get the proper amount of sleep in their naps, and so many more reasons.

Only one more year... actually about 13 months till Tommy is done with school!