Just an Ordinary Day

Hi my friends! It's just an ordinary day around here-

Dish washer loaded and ran, waiting to be unloaded

The rest of the dishes handwashed and put away

A load of towels almost ready for the dryer

Read science to two of my children

Started two experiments for biology

Started my grocery list

Made a plan of what I need to cook/when for Thanksgiving

Cleaned out leftovers from the fridge (which means more dishes to wash)

Got meat thawing for supper (Pearl's chili is on the menu)

The house is quiet as all my children are trying to finish up school by tomorrow so they can have a few extra days off for the holiday.

Today is much warmer than the last few days and the sun coming in the windows in addition to the quiet house are really making me want a nap!

I better get up and moving.

The washer just stopped so I guess it's time to reboot and get them in the dryer.

I also keep checking out my window, my THM order is scheduled to be delivered today :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful day! 

Even the ordinary days can be wonderful.

Blessings,

Rashel

Ironing, my least favorite chore

Good Monday morning friends!

I hope you are having a great day so far. 

Mondays seem to be a day of catching up and getting back into routine for us. My children are busy working on school, except the oldest. He is already gone to work for the day. 

Today I need to get laundry washed and hung out on the line; gotta get it done today before the rain moves in. 

In addition to that and just regular chores, dinner, etc, I need to get some ironing done. It is one of my least favorite chores, but hubby really prefers his shirts less wrinkly. 😊

So, I'm going to go tackle that first and get it out of the way!

I do have turkey breast thawing for dinner and looked up some ideas for a THM dessert tonight. Hubby really likes berry cobbler, so I'm going to try to THMify one for us.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a blessed day my friends! Feel free to comment and let me know what your least favorite chore is!

Week in Pictures

This past week we have been super busy just living life, which I love! However, that doesn't always leave a lot of time for sharing with all of you, which I don't love.

Today I thought it would be fun to share our past week (or so) in pictures. I hope you enjoy!

We had two baby bucks from one of our newest goats. They have some eye trouble, so we've been doctoring them regularly.

My Makeshift Pantry

My weekend project was to declutter and organize my pantry. Have I ever mentioned we live in a small home? Well, we do, a 900 sq. ft. home to be exact. It is a pretty open floor plan which helps but there is not one built in closet in our home - NOT ONE! I use a lot of shelves: homemade, pre-made and bookshelves - everywhere.

I decided a while back to use three of my shelves to make a pantry in my kitchen. 

Feeling Blessed

This morning during my quiet time I was reminded to be thankful - 

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 

1 Thessalonians 5:18

I try to always be thankful, but sometimes I fail miserably. 

As I was exercising today, walking/jogging on my driveway and thinking about some things, I was reminded how blessed I am . I am blessed to be married to a man that loves and adores me; and I love him the same. I am blessed to have children that even though they may have their sibling squabbles, they still enjoy being together and spending time as a family. I am blessed because I am able to stay home with my children, which is where my heart has always been. I am blessed to have a home and land to call our own, debt free. I am blessed because I have time to exercise and I am blessed with a wonderful view while I do so.

This is just a small sampling of all my blessings but I am a blessed woman indeed.

How are you blessed today?

Blessings,

Rashel

Organizing my THM fridge

I don't have much time today but did want to pop in and say hello and show you a picture of my THM fridge!  We are blessed to have two fridges, one is our regular everyday fridge in the kitchen and the other is our "extra" and is on our porch. Yes, we might be a little redneck. That's okay with me. We have a small house and no garage so if it has to go on the porch for me to have an extra, I'm okay with that.

I made some premixes for my fat stripping frappa, chocolate muffin in a mug and cinnamon muffin in a mug and put those in the fridge. I also washed my new 1/2 gallon mason jars my hubby brought me the other day and filled some with coconut flour, almond flour, flax meal, diatomaceous earth and chana dal. Some of those are in the fridge and some in my cabinet or on my shelves.

That is it. Nothing fancy but I do like how it is nice and organized and easy to see. You can see I write on the jars, I use a permanent marker and it washes off with soap and water.

  Those eggs are from my dad, we are blessed to get free range eggs for free from him. You can also see on the next shelf down in the back is some raw milk. Those two gallons have soured but I still use them when baking for my family.

Short and sweet today, too much to do!

Blessings,

Rashel

Some of our homestead critters

Today I thought I would just share some pictures of a few of our critters here on our homestead.

This is Tater, my daughter's dog. She is part Australian Shepherd and part Blue Heeler. She is extremely hyper but also very smart. She loves to chase folgers coffee cans, no joke. She will bring you one, wait for you to kick it and then go get it and bring it back to do it all over again. She is much loved around here.

Waiting, reading and learning

If you've been following me at all lately, you know I am starting my journey with Trim Healthy Mama, you can read about what that is here. My book is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so until then I have been reading the Facebook group posts, devouring the files on that group and printing lots and lots of recipes from others on the internet. I'm trying to be patient while waiting on my book, but truth be told, I am not a patient person when it comes to waiting on things I want like that. I am very thankful for all of the info I have learned on the group and from ladies like Stacy and Gwen. I also have a wonderful friend, Sara, that has been on the plan awhile and is answering some of my questions as well! I have been following the plan as well as I can for the last week, but I'm sure after I actually read the book I will be able to follow it even better.  Come on book get here!!!

Today I have been reading several websites, not only about Trim Healthy Mama but also some homeschooling websites. I have almost always been a very relaxed, eclectic approached homeschool mama, but this year at our homeschool convention I was very intrigued about unschooling. I had the privilege of speaking with one of the speakers for awhile after her class and she made me understand more than I ever had about how it actually works. I am reading more online now and reading her book I bought that day and seeing if it is the right thing for us this year. I will try to post more on that later.

Learning, aren't we always learning? I'm constantly learning about the THM way of eating, a new way to homeschool, how to can okra - which I detest but hubby loves and many many other things. I think that is what draws me to unschooling. I learn what interests me and I believe my children should too. Why should I care about a "list" "they" decided is what every child should learn? If God is going to direct them in their occupation, I believe He will direct them to want to learn what they will need for said occupation. Can you tell I am leaning toward unschooling?

Well, I just got a call and I am needed at our local horse sale to work.  I will talk to y'all later, have a blessed evening.

Blessings,
Rashel

I'm in the mood to clean

Yes, I am actually in the mood to clean, serious deep cleaning! Once in a while I really do get a strong urge to clean and today is one of those days.There are many days when cleaning is the last thing I want to do or to be quite honest, there are just too many other things to do. One of these days I hope to get to the point where my home just stays clean, I know people have those, but it is NOT me!

 My house is picked up and we've been maintaining without much problem but because I had not been feeling well for quite some time and then had to have surgery, the "real" cleaning wasn't getting done. So, today I am going to at least get started. My plan is to do one room at a time and go from top to bottom, cleaning everything I can. I won't be pulling stuff out of cabinets though, that would take forever and my house would still be in need of a good cleaning. No, I just plan to clean today, no decluttering - oh FlyLady would have a fit wouldn't she!

I have a question for you though, my sweet readers - when you really deep clean, how do you do it? Do you do one room at a time, do you do one chore in every room, then another chore in every room (like cobwebs, then ceiling fans, etc) or do you have another way altogether? I would love to hear what you do.

Since I will be working on my home today, I thought I would share just a few random pictures of my home.

This is my kitchen (um, duh). Have I mentioned we have a very small home, which means everything is close, very close!

This is a view looking from the kitchen into our living room. I didn't have a very good picture of the living room, so this is what you get for now :)

This looking into the bathroom/utility room. It is a pretty large bathroom which works well when it holds the washer and dryer, not to mention it is the only one and six people live in this house!

This is a view of our porch, however it is an old picture and things have changed a bit. But hey, it is clean and it gives you an idea of what it looks like!

Don't forget to let me know how you deep clean,

blessings,

Rashel

Haying time on the farm

It is hay season at our farm so I thought I would share a few pictures with you (my daughter took these for me). I hope you enjoy.

Some rows have been baled but this one is waiting its turn. My husband mowed it last night, then my oldest son raked it when he got home from work this evening.

Then hubby baled it when he got home. 

As you can see, none of our equipment is brand new, but it gets the job done and that is what's important.

All of our sons help out at hay time, sometimes they find more than just hay.

That is a little snake in his hand. Kind of looks like he is aiming to throw it at his brother doesn't it? He didn't, but my how they like to tease each other.

He did chuck that bale up there though. That is the littlest brother stacking and the middle brother is driving the truck. Daddy is still on the tractor baling.

The sun is setting on our farm.

Blessed to get the hay all stacked in the barn before dark.

Blessings all,

Rashel

Purple tomatoes are the bomb!

My husband works at a farm and home store and earlier this season he brought home several different types of tomato plants for us to plant. I tried to keep all the little tags with each plant so we would know what each kind was when it was ready to harvest. Oh my goodness, we have found our new favorite! In fact, hubby says next year it may be the only kind of tomato we plant. Yes, they are that good!

This is our new fave, Cherokee Purple Heirloom tomatoes. Have you tried them? 

Below is a picture of the purple on the left and a celebrity tomato on the right. Look at the difference in color. 

The celebrity was fully ripe and a nice red color, it just looks pale in comparison to the purple. Tonight was the first night I actually did a side by side comparison, sight and taste. I took a bite of the one and then the other, the best way I can explain it is this: the purple tastes like a yummy home grown tomato and  celebrity tasted like a store bought in comparison. Yes, that much difference. I can't even imagine what a store bought tomato would taste like next to a purple, ICK!

Here are the plants growing side by side in containers next to my house. They are on the east side, which means they only get morning sun. They are both growing well and producing well, I just wanted to show the difference in the plants.

Here is a close up of a purple growing, it is almost ripe. They are darker than I can get to show up in a picture.

Here is a close up of the celebrity. It's still a good plant and giving us lots of tomatoes.

I have no idea how a purple would do with canning though. Has anyone ever tried that? 

Do you have a favorite kind of tomato?  I would love to know what it is.

Blessings,

Rashel

Revisited on 2/15/14 and linked to Simple Saturday blog hop.

Starting to feel normal again

I am eleven days post op and I am finally starting to feel normal again. I was ready for the physical pain and tenderness after the surgery and I was ready to be on the couch for awhile while I healed. I was NOT ready for how mentally exhausted I would be. I had great plans of reading and crocheting while recovering on the couch and that didn't happen even one day! I tried to read, really I did, but I was so tired that the words blurred and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I tried several times but it was the same each time, so I resolved just to lay on my "daytime bed" and watch endless hours of "Murder She Wrote" DVD's from the library. There were days that I felt good enough to get up and walk to the garden and back or sit on my swing on the front porch, but for a good week, I was exhausted!

My energy, both physical and mental, is coming back slowly. I had my followup appointment yesterday and everything is healing great and I am doing well, praise the Lord. I am still restricted on my activities for a little while but I can be up and around as much as I feel like. I just can't lift anything, reach for anything, or do most of my housework for at least ten more days. The normal heavy lifting, bathing, etc restrictions will apply for another four weeks or so. (Don't worry I am taking showers, just not baths)

I feel today has been my best day so far. I actually walked down the driveway and back - it is .2 miles one way, so it was almost 1/2 a mile! Now, I did go really slow and I know that really isn't that far but it is a big accomplishment for me right now. The best thing about today is that I am mentally feeling better. I haven't felt like doing much of anything and I am starting to get my motivation back, my umpf to get things done. I have a feeling that God took my mental motivation away while I was healing so that I wouldn't over do it. I totally believe that. Now that I am recovering nicely and able to get around, I am anxious to get a few things done each day. I won't push it, trust me, I want to heal properly. I'm talking more about cleaning off my desk, making some yogurt, making my menu plan for when my "blessings of meals" from my friends stops, things like that.

I'm off to read a few blogs and hopefully get some inspiring healthy meal or snack ideas, then to make my menu.

Blessings to you all,
Rashel

Gardening between the Rains

It has been raining so much here lately that it has been hard to find any time to garden. Our garden sits in a low spot anyway, which is really nice in dry times but in wet times it can put a damper on planting. We finally had a few dry days in a row that alllowed the ground to dry up enough that I didn't have to worry about getting stuck in the mud, so we took advantage of it. We planted kale, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, tomatoes, squash and cucumbers. I have peppers to plant too but it started raining again and now I have to wait until it dries out again.

Yes, I have the sprinkler going even after I just mentioned all of the rain. After planting, I wanted to make sure the plants got a drink and we weren't expecting rain that day. However, I forgot the sprinkler was on, so the garden got a good drink that day! Anyone else do that?

The above picture is the front of our house. I have spearmint, parsley,lettuce, cilantro, cabbage, broccoli, kale, flowers and a few tomato plants planted here and on the east side of the house. I pray everything grows well this year!

We are getting more rain again and I am afraid everything will get flooded out, but I sure hope not. I'll have to wait and see if my seeds got washed away, if so, I'll just replant.

I pray you all have a very blessed day! Oh and for those of us in the Midwest, I pray for a day with no thunderstorm or tornado watches!!

Blessings,

Rashel

Choosing God's Path

Over the last few years God has really been teaching me some things and I would really like to share them with you. I believe we all have many seasons in our lives that God brings us through, some to teach us things and some for our discipline because of choices we have made. I know for me personally that through these seasons, God always draws me nearer to Him. My goal is always to walk closer to Him, but I know full well that sometimes I get off course, even when I think at the time that it is the right way.

(photo from www.123rf.com)

I've gotten off course in the area of food. In my search for the best for my family, I let it become an obsession. I became obsessed with what was the "best" way to prepare food for my family, what was the "best" kind of food and then the "best" way to eat that food. The problem with that is not that I wanted the best for my family but that everyone has a different idea what the "best" is. Then I finally remembered that I am to look to God and His word and what do you know, it talks about food. God's word says much about foods and I strongly encourage you to do your own study if you are struggling in this area like I was. So what  did God show me? I believe that my family is to eat foods as close to the state that God made them as possible (read that unprocessed). I believe that He showed us all things are clean under the new covenant and I don't have to live by old testament laws regarding clean foods (bacon is yummy!). He also mentions a land flowing with milk and honey numerous times and always as a wonderful place, so to me that means those foods are good foods. He also reminded me that nothing is to become an idol and when I become obsessed with food in any way (even trying to be healthy), it is wrong. When I am constantly thinking I need to soak this, ferment that, or not eat this with that, it isn't healthy. When it is always forefront on my mind or taking away from other things, it has become an idol and is wrong. When my food choices take away from fellowship with others because I "can't eat" what they are serving or fix my family the foods they love, it is wrong. I have to find the balance in food just like in all areas of life. So in a nutshell, I have chosen to eat healthy, natural foods as much as possible but not to worry when I can't. I also will have bad foods once in awhile and that is okay too, moderation and balance are key. I will not consume myself with things like soaking, fermenting, organic, or even proper combinations (which I have promoted before) but instead just do my best. I'm not saying any of those things are wrong, I am saying that for me, it became an obsession and was taking away from just living my life and enjoying my family.That is wrong.

Another area God has been teaching me is in my home keeping. I guess I have issues with caring what others think of how my home is kept (cleaned). I know part of that is how I was raised, our home was always clean and never cluttered, ever, that I can recall. Anyway, I've come to realize that I am okay with the way our home is, even when there is dust on the shelves and dirt on the floor (which is almost always). However, I always felt embarrassed if someone would stop by when the house was a mess, but you know what? It shouldn't matter! It is our home and we take care of it the way we want to, what is comfortable for us. Yes, my floors almost always need swept, we live on a farm and I have four children! Yes, there is dust on almost every flat surface, again, we live on a farm. Yes, sometimes there are blankets and pillows all over the living room, did I mention I have four children? Yep, my kitchen table is bound to have stuff on it, maybe school books, maybe mail, at the moment a VCR my husband was working on last night - our home is lived in. I have finally come to realize that it is okay, I don't have to impress anyone. This is our home and we will clean it when we have time, we will leave things out sometimes but as long as we are taking care of what God has given us, it is okay. 

Something else I learned through these things, it is such freedom to live as God wants us to instead of how others think we should. It was easy to say I didn't care what the world thought, but the real truth is that I did. Praise God that He is working on me in that area and setting me free from that burden, a burden He never intended me to carry.

(photo from www.123rf.com)

I pray that if you are carrying any burdens, especially those similar to mine, that you would lay them at the feet of Jesus. Cry out to Him and allow Him to break those chains so that you may experience the freedom that comes only from Him.

Blessings my friends,

Rashel

  

Flaky homemade biscuits

I have been on a search for awhile for a really good, flaky homemade biscuit recipe. I had two favorite recipes but neither was just what I was looking for, so I decided to experiment and come up with a new recipe based on those two recipes. They turned out wonderful! They rose beautifully and were so flaky and yummy! I was so glad we had some left after breakfast because they made a heavenly snack later with some butter and honey!! So, if you are looking for a good, easy biscuit recipe, give this one a try. I hope you like them as much as I do! If you do try them, please come back and leave me a comment to let me know what you thought.

Flaky Homemade Biscuits

(makes approximately 20-24 biscuits)

4 cups flour (I used unbleached white flour)

2 Tbsp sugar ( I used raw sugar)

8 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup butter- cold 

1 ½ cup milk (I use raw)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. It is okay to have some bigger pieces of butter.  Add milk and stir until combined as well as you can, then turn onto floured surface and knead only until dough is manageable, do not over knead. The more you handle the dough, the less flaky the biscuits will be. The dough may seem just slightly dry and actually flake apart, this is good.  Roll out to about ½ to ¾ inch thickness and cut into biscuits, I used a 2 ½ in biscuit cutter.  Bake until golden brown on top, it is approximately 10-15 minutes but will depend on the size of your biscuits. I usually bake until browned, then take them out, pull one apart and make sure they are done in the middle. 

Blessings my friends,

Rashel



          

My priorities are straight

 Since I haven't been posting much lately, I just wanted to take a minute and let you know I am doing well, as is my family.  My blog isn't the only place I have been MIA, I haven't been online much at all lately. It just isn't my priority right now. I am so thankful that God has helped me to get my priorities straight. I know for many of you that blogging or reading blogs isn't really an issue and I am so thankful for that, but for me it was. I would think I was just going to sit down and write a quick post or read just a few blogs, but it inevitably turned into hours on the computer. Those were hours I should have been taking care of my home and family. Oh, I always had the excuse in the back of my mind that I was learning important things I could do around my own home or being encouraged by someone in my faith, and while that might have been true, it was still wrong. I was spending all the time reading about new skills instead of doing those skills, or reading about being a Proverbs 31 woman instead of just being one.
  I know that I have written about this before and I could link to those other posts so you could read more about it, but I don't want to be your reason for spending too much time online. So my advice, turn off your internet and go DO something. You know what needs done, a game played with a little one, some towels folded that are piled on your couch or maybe you need to start supper. Whatever is waiting for you, go do it. Then when all else is done, you can get a cup of coffee, get back online and read a FEW blogs, but please don't let the blog world keep you from what is really important, the real world.

Blessings my friends,
Rashel

My Azure order for the month

I have just recently started ordering from Azure Standard and have learned that it is not nearly as complicated as I used to think it was. I wonder why I do that, why do I let myself get so caught up in the details of everything and thinking I have to do it perfectly before just trying something new? Ok, so I don't do that with everything, but I did do it with Azure and I have done it in the past with other things. I just get intimidated with big, new things sometimes when really, it isn't a big deal at all.

*Note to self, my son is very much like this and extremely dislikes trying new things, even to the point of tears at times, now I understand where he gets it. I really hadn't realized I was behaving this way until I started thinking about/writing this post. By the way, I am certain that my grammar in this post is horrific! I hope you will forgive me and love me anyway.

Okay, back to my order, because I know you are just dying to know what I ordered. I mean really that is the whole reason you even started reading this post in the first place isn't it? And it's the reason you are reading through all of my rambling, to know what I ordered and how simple it is, right?  Well, I won't make you wait any longer, here it is...........

(please don't look at the mess behind, focus on the products, thank you - I appreciate your cooperation)

So, the biggest brown bag is a 50lb sack of organic potatoes (22.50), isn't that just cool! The other brown sack is a 50lb bag of wheat berries (32.40). Yay, I was completely out. There are two 3-lb bags of organic apples (3.00 each), I ate one as soon as I got home and boy, was it delicious. Also, a gallon of coconut oil (40.55), a gallon of raw ACV (8.80),  1 lb. of chicken broth powder (4.75),  1 lb. of ceylon cinnamon (14.80), 5 lbs of sea salt (2.35),  39 oz organic small white beans (3.85), lettuce seeds (1.80) and roastaroma tea (3.65). 

 I discovered this morning I absolutely love the roastaroma  and didn't order nearly enough. I am trying to get away from so much coffee, but I honestly just love my coffee. This seems to be the perfect solution. The ceylon cinnamon is supposed to be a much healthier cinnamon and has many more health benefits than regular cinnamon. I recommend researching the different kinds of cinnamon for yourself, it's very interesting. One kind can actually be harmful if taken too frequently, but not ceylon. My husband is actually the one that researched it, started mixing it with honey to treat colds and recommended it to coworkers. We ordered three extra bags because his coworkers wanted to order some too! I ordered the lettuce seeds because I'm anxious to get my garden going, although it is too early yet. So, my plan is to try my hand at some indoor plants. I know the coconut oil seems expensive if you aren't familiar with it, but it is actually a very good price. If you aren't aware of the health benefits of coconut oil, I also suggest you research that. I no longer use shortening or lard, I use coconut oil. It tastes great and is SOOO much healthier for you. As for the produce, I can't always buy organic, so I have decided to focus on the dirty dozen and try my best to buy those items organic. Azure Standard helps me do that because they have great prices. We have been eating a lot of potatoes lately: potato soup, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, etc. Now, I can feel even better about  fixing them because they are organic! 

I better run, I need to go grind some wheat and make some bread now that I have more berries!

Blessings my friends,

Rashel

P.S. If you are like me and sitting on the fence about ordering from Azure, bite the bullet and do it. It is super easy and you will love it. They have people to help you with your first order and they are super nice. I didn't have any trouble finding a drop location near me and I even get reminders of my cut off and pick up dates. To be real honest, I actually think it is fun to go pick up my order, help unload everyone's boxes off the semi and meet the other families ordering as well!  If you have other questions about ordering, just ask me and I will try to help. :)

Out with the old.............

I really want to streamline things to make it easier to maintain our home. The first thing I have to do is declutter, MAJOR declutter! I had big plans of decluttering every room over the weekend because I thought dh was going to have to work, turns out he was off Friday and Saturday. (I'm not complaining at all, I would much rather he be home, I can declutter anytime). Anywho, all that to say that I only made it through one room, my kitchen. I did manage to make it through the entire kitchen, every nook and cranny. I emptied almost every cupboard and got rid of what we didn't need or use. I also reorganized/rearranged several of the cupboards to make things more efficient. When my children were younger, we put all of our plates/bowls in a lower cabinet so they were easily accessible for them to set the table, put dishes away, etc. Well, they are all a little older (taller) now and I was ready to put the dishes back in an upper cabinet. I am really happy with how things are now, although it does take some getting used to. 

I also searched online for some new organizing ideas and found a couple I really wanted to try. One of them I finished, but the other I can't find the right tools for yet. Here is the one I finished (with hubby's help).

 Here is a view a little farther a way to get the big picture.

My main goal was to free up counter space and make it easier to clean my counters. Mission accomplished. I found the idea here.

The other project I plan to do- if I can find the right tools is here. I can't find the right kind of broom/mop holders. I will keep looking but for now my spices are all in the drawer that used to house our silverware.

I took two totes of things to my shed for a garage sale in the spring and I gave away a grocery sack of food that my family was not eating. 

I'm not sure which room I will tackle next, but this time I will try to take before and after pictures. I didn't think of it until I was half way through and trust me, nobody wanted to see that chaos!

Blessings,

Rashel


linked with

Some goals for the new year

I don't really like "new year's resolutions" because I feel I make them on a whim and I never really stick to it and accomplish them, however, I do have some goals for this new year. These are just some things I would like to accomplish this year; in fact, I wanted to accomplish some of them last year! I decided to make two categories of goals, one for health and one for homestead. I did place them somewhat in order, but that is open for change as time goes on. My original plan was to work on one goal a month throughout the year, but  as I was making my lists I realized I really would like to accomplish some things sooner than that. Therefore, my plan now is to tackle one goal at a time and progress as I feel I am able. I don't want to take on too much at once but I also know I can work on some of these at the same time. So are you at all interested in what my goals are? Well, if not, you can quit reading now but I have a feeling if your weren't interested, you wouldn't have read this far! So here they are -

Health Goals

1.  Eliminate all processed sugar from my diet, this includes any food that contains processed sugars. I will allow myself honey, sucanat and raw sugars.
2. Drink my coffee black or use only stevia. 
3. Consistently drink 64oz of water daily.
4. Exercise two times a week. I know most people say three, but I am focusing on a doable goal right now.
5. Eat fruit at least two times a day. I have not been doing good at getting enough fruit in my diet.
6. Eat RAW vegetables at least twice a day.
7. Keep kombucha made.
8. Learn to make 2-3 fermented foods that we enjoy, using Nourishing Traditions.
9. Learn to make kefir.
10. Learn about 5 herbs and their uses.
11. Find a properly combined bread recipe. This is one of those I will work on throughout the months as I have time, I just hope to have come up with one by the end of the year.

Homestead Goals

1.  Follow my home management binder consistently. 
2. Work on Christmas presents throughout the year.
3. Keep track of all of our spending.
4. Increase my pantry/preparedness stock.
5. Declutter each room thoroughly.
6. Keep meals and bread in freezer at all times.
7. Keep up with my sewing.
8. Have a better garden this year and preserve more of the harvest.
9. Make a family favorites cookbook.
10. Make soap.

Well, there you have it. Those are the things I would really like to accomplish by the end of the year, hopefully sooner!

Have you set goals for the new year? I would love for you to share them with us.

Blessings,

Rashel

Back in the saddle

Wow, December was an extremely busy month for me. I waited too long to start on some handmade presents which meant I was working hard at the last minute trying to finish everything up. It was way too stressful for me and I didn't get to enjoy Christmas like I wanted to. I had too much work to do on our school break so instead of getting to play games and make candy with my candy, I spent all my extra time sewing and crocheting. Well, I intend to change things this year. I plan to get my Christmas organizer notebook out and start planning this month and work on a little throughout the year. I will try to post as I work on things and report any progress.

Today I am taking time to get ready to start school back Monday. I need to work on our schedules for school and for housework. We have not done well following a system lately and I really need a system to keep me on track. I also have to work on my menu plan for the next couple weeks and restock some of my mixes.

Well, those are my plans for the day. How about you?

Blessings,
Rashel