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Our Life

July 6, 2010

The Buzz Around Me

Slurping. Folks are munching on watermelon at the table near me. This is the sort of thing you plan before you mop the floor.

Kitchen Happenings

I'm off of meal duty for a few weeks. The kiddos are making all the meals for a while so I have more time to work on extra projects. The Boys have breakfast and lunch duty (think Vitamix for breakfast and leftovers for lunch). The Big Girls (15 and 14) are taking turns making dinners - they cook as well as I do.

In Our Schoolroom

We have decided to take the Summer off of official school work!!!!!!! I am working on lesson plans instead.

The Garden View

I rented out our garden plot to the children. Whatever is growing is completely by their own doing. I am having the benefit of buying from them fresh organic produce, and they are earning back their rent money. All this with no nagging to get help in the garden...what's not to love?

In The Sewing Room

I just learned a groovy new trick for patching jeans! Rip out the outside pants leg seam to patch them, then sew it back up again when the patching is done. The timing is perfect, because Mr. Visionary just gave me some for my mending pile. Sigh. All in due time...

Home-keeping Agenda

I'm using the Summer off school to get things organized again. Closets, clothes, cabinets, nothing is sacred. I feel like I haven't really had decent order since the Twinnage (cute as they are) arrived.

Simple Joys

Mr. Visionary coming home in time for dinner. I had almost forgotten what he looked like in daylight.

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  • Archive for 'Frugality & Stewardship'

    I Just Love A Good Sale!

    Tennessee Farmgirl is having a sale on her Medicinal Herb Course that includes a bonus for those (like Me!) who have already taken her course. Run, don’t walk click over to her site quickly to see the details! From the post with the nitty gritty:
    Have you ever wanted to learn how to make a healing […]

    Eating Fresh On A Two-Week Grocery Plan

    When folks hear that I do our grocery shopping every six to eight weeks, they are often flabbergasted.  Without exception, their first gasping question is always, “How do you have fresh produce?”, as if it were the Holy Grail of feeding a family. Granted, fresh produce is very healthy for us. Even conventionally grown, non-organic, […]

    Free Health Books

    I came across these books online several months ago, but unfortunately didn’t print them, then the link where I found them went bad. They are available as free downloads, and this time, I really will print them. I’m sharing the link in case you could use them, too. We never can tell when they may […]

    Yummy Homemade Toothpaste!

    If you are like me and use flouride-free toothpaste without SLS and other yucky ingredients, you are likely paying a lot for toothpaste. Any of the brands we have found that meet the criteria we are looking for cost about $5.00 per tube, for a not-so-family-sized tube. (If you don’t understand why someone would want […]

    Homemade Prenatal Vitamins

    I stopped taking prenatal vitamins a few pregnancies ago because I don’t really feel comfortable with singled-out vitamins (out of their naturally occurring form, i.e. “food”). I looked around for a natural supplement as well, reading lots of ingredient lists and testimonials, but I either didn’t like the company well enough to buy from […]

    I’ve Gotta Tell *Someone*

    My seven year old son is particularly adept at dragging a day’s lesson of Explode-The-Code out for several hours. If I could find any verses referencing it (which, to his chagrin, there are none), I might be able to call it a spiritual gift. However, I am convinced that it is a gift to be […]

    Leftover Oatmeal Transformed

    After going through the trouble of making yogurt to save a jar of whey, buying from a co-op 50 pound bags of organic oat groats, rolling it into oatmeal, soaking the grain overnight in the whey mixture, cooking it and adding organic butter and coconut oil… I can not bear to throw the stuff away. […]

    Room Cleaning For Littles

    Here’s a question following up from the comments of this post:
    I’ve been enjoying the dialogue on your blog about training children with managing their rooms. Once again, I’m amazed at the things I’m just now learning (b/c I was never taught), but now thankfully, I’m finding those “Titus 2″ women out […]

    Regarding Raiment

    Six months they will be on the road. Living in a bus and sleeping in a new place nearly every night would seem to be discomfiting to these kids, yet they were the happiest, most well-adjusted children I have ever met. Ugandan orphans who travel the world singing and raising the money that supports them, […]

    More On Traveling Light

    I can’t help but notice, as Cheri did in the comments yesterday, that Father is developing a recurring theme in His people, and wanted to share a post by my friend Carla Lynne. Her family is further along this purging and refining journey that Father is helping our family along, and I count it a […]

    A Time To Cast Away

    So what do you keep? How much do you get rid of completely, and how much do you put away for later? I’ve been pondering this question frantically obsessively a lot lately, as we have been walking through this extensive decluttering effort in our home. Folks have also been asking for advice regarding their own […]

    Journey Through A Summer Storm

    Standing at the far end, I survey the lay of the land, noticing the steep cliffs on either side, assessing the dangers, and developing my strategy for passing through this area unscathed. I quickly suck in my stomach, perch on my tippy-toes and begin the journey, slowly sliding sideways, as the gorge is too narrow […]

    No Regrets

    It must have happened when I was playing with Babydoll in the Red Clover field. I don’t know if Babydoll or the puppies were the instrument that caused it to come out, but either is equally likely. It is thought-provoking how they have survived this long, through this many grabbing babies, many moves, and lots […]

    Resolving: Stuffage

    During the last 48 hours or so, as Mr. Visionary and I have had our opportunity to partake of the gastroinstestinal virus that has been passed through the family, I have had much time to stare at the ceiling (or the bathroom flooring) and consider. As I laid there mulling over how advantageous it is […]

    Redeeming Lunch

    Nesting seems to be covering many aspects of the daily workings of our home these days. I’ve been painting, cleaning, ditching stuff, and reworking systems to be more automated. Reinventing the wheel on a daily basis is not as efficient for me as reading a previously thought-out list of ideas. Read that: I don’t think […]

    Nesting Analogies

    All my mental wranglings aside, I cannot seem to come up with an apt analogy for my current
    obsession distraction. The official, generally accepted term for my condition fits on some levels, but is not an exact match. In this most recent flare up recurrence, I have also stumbled upon the hard evidence that not only […]

    Switching Over

    (Note To Self: Do not add items to blog sidebar unless you are open to the accountability of folks asking about it, i.e. you really have to do the things you write about.) 
    Several ladies have asked recently about what I am using for cleaning products. It is good timing, too, as after much trial and error, […]

    Loaves, Fishes and New Pants

    It is a fact. Life is not predictable.  The weather doesn’t always do what I would like, nor does the IRS. Diapers flood on the way out the door, and children don’t always grow at the rate I expect. Growth spurts happen typically when I least expect them. The first evidence of their arrival is an increase […]


    Live It Up Meals

    The more folks you have in your family, the more variables there are. Three toddlers increase the odds of being late to church more than one toddler. Three boys sharing a room create a higher likelihood of finding crusty dried critters under the bed than one lone boy. Life is like this.

    In some ways […]