Goings On

So....Dan starts a new job tomorrow. He will be working with his best friend of the past 20 something years at a shop in Raleigh. This will provide us with health insurance in 3 months, which will be really nice and will provide Dan with a longer ride to work. I will continue to work one day a week, although it will change from every Friday to every Tuesday or Thursday. I'm also working slowly on my medical transcription classes and working as a medical transcriptionist. The pay is horrible right now until I get a hang of it. Hopefully, it'll work out.
Cody will be starting with school again in the next 2 weeks. I should be getting the rest of his curriculum next week and then it will be back to the grindstone for him. Fun, fun, fun.
I'm going to be selling some baby stuff soon. I have an adjustable Graco highchair, double stroller with carseat carrier, and a gliding rocking chair that I'll be hopefully selling. If you know of anyone with needs that could benefit from these, please let me know. I need to sell them to make a little money off of them. All type quality items!

Turn me into a country girl????

Okay, so I know we're living in the middle of the woods and all...but the critters are getting a little ridiculous. I think they're just so curious about us. Today Cody went outside to take the recycling out to put it in the bin and he saw a little head and tongue sticking out at him. When I went outside, I saw the culprit, trying to get a tan...Just a little black snack who came to visit. I actually don't mind if he stays - he can eat the mice that are sure to visit us soon.
Meanwhile...inside the house. I've gotten a job as a medical transcriptionist, so I'll be working from home a lot. I have my first "meeting" this afternoon on the phone while the little ones are taking naps. Dan has another job offer out on the table with insurance and we think better pay (we find out today), but the distance is a little further away...so we'll see.
Nathanael is obviously up to no good in this picture, huh? He was so cute today - out of all three boys - he was the only one to pick up all the blocks in my living room and put them away after being told. The other two started fighting about not picking stuff up... Go figure!

Andrew has been in rare form today. He's been spanked, sent to his room and grounded from cartoons for the day. It started the moment he woke up and hasn't stopped since. He just got up on the wrong side of the bunk bed I suppose.

I've started a body detox system today. Special herbal tea, lots of water, and lots of fruit and veggies for the next few days. So far, so good....I'm really enjoying having all the organic fresh fruits around.
Oh well...time to go change a diaper and get the little ones ready for nap...

Well, today went fairly well with the kiddos until this evening. As you can see from this pic shortly before dinner - everything was fairly peaceful. Then it happened...I like to call it the "call of ice cream." It starts out simple...

Cody: When I'm done eating can I have some...

Nathan (interrupting): I wan i keam! (we have non-dairy ice cream for him)

Andrew: I want ice cream too...(keep in mind he's the one with the most part of dinner still on his plate).

From there...the battle ensues. My only response - no one is getting any ice cream until you eat. Cody eats everything on his plate (an big, fresh ear of corn, a hot dog in a bun, and a loaded baked potato), Andrew tries to wheel and deal his way through...and Nathanael goes on the instant "I wan i keam" chant and dance. Oh the things my parents didn't prepare me for in life!!! It all ended fairly well though...with everyone getting dessert.

This was an actual moment when Cody was showing Andrew how to write his name. Very cute....it's nice to know that they can get along with each other every once-in-awhile.

Scary things to come...

So, on a serious note, this week we find out if Dan's current job is going to be enough to support us. If not, then we have to start looking at other possibilities. I'm taking a medical transcription course online and am waiting to hear back from a woman about working from home in the medical transcription field. We'll see what happens. I'm trying to have faith in my Father, and faith in my husband's decisions for our family. The take charge part of me wants to just take over, but I have to trust and have faith that God will work things out. It's going to be a hard journey though...I know that much.

At work....wee...

I think if I didn't realize it before, I do now. Since I started working full-time back in November b/c of Dan's employment status, I haven't been reading my Bible hardly at all, I haven't been enjoying my children as much, I haven't been able to enjoy the simple tasks of cooking, cleaning and loving my husband. Now, with me returning back to my job only one day a week...I'm realizing a few new things about myself. I'm good at what I do - housework, mommying, more attentive, better cooking, and definitely more looking at my "survival manual" (the Bible) a lot more. I think God has made His plans to me known - at least it seems that way...but we'll see. Just when you think you know what God's plans are...of course, they change....

INVITES

BTW - I know I e-mailed many of you an e-mail looking at this blogspot earlier in the week - I'm setting permissions, so it will only allow those of you who were invited to see and comment on stuff. That's the reason why you got the notice of this blog again....I have posted again since I first sent the e-mail....so read on.... Love to all of you!!!

It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

This morning Dan and I were discussing his hunting skills again. It would seem cheaper if he would just catch some of our own food. Plus, at least then there wouldn't be steroids and hormones artificially injected into our meats. I really like beef, ham, and chicken - and don't really like the gamey tastes of, well game meat - but it's cheap, lets Dan feel like the mighty hunter and gives us some added health benefits.

What's really interested is how we were discussing this this morning and lo and behold, what do Cody and I see??? 5 wild turkeys gobbling their way across our backyard. I tried to get a picture, but my camera really didn't like shooting through the glass.

I did get a pic of my crazy youngest children acting like the little Indians that they're capable of being. We're walking up the driveway today to take a walk through the neighborhood, looking in the woods...Cody sees something:

Cody: Mama, what do you think this is? (he's pointing at the ground)

Michelle: It's a tire track.

Cody: It's not an animal?

Michelle: No, it's from where the heavy truck tires came through when they brought the house.

Cody: Oh...

Andrew: Cody, you so crazy!!!

And these are the types of conversations that I live for everyday...those little talks about nothing, but will remain in my mind for years to come....Cody is always looking for some clue as to what's going on in nature, and Andrew is always rubbing it in when he's wrong....

Cooking up a storm

So, with the aspect of trying to get healthier in what we're eating, I've been making a lot of my own foods from scratch. Last night we had homemade pizza, with homemade sauce. The boys DEVOURED it, so I will label that as a success. Today, I bought some organic hummus with red pepper and I made some home made tortillas. I have to admit, I hated hummus when my mom made it when I was younger, but this stuff is good...and so were the tortillas. However, next time instead of using unbleached white flour, I think I'll use 100% whole wheat flour and see if that works as well. Yum......

Life as we know it.....

Here are all my boys...getting a pic of one at a time isn't so bad, but when I try to get them all together, problems arise.
I just have to say...I love broadband internet!!! Moving out here allowed us to get it and I love the faster connection - dial-up was horrible!!

Welcome all....

Wow, so I'm trying this for the first time and we'll see how well it works. I really want to cut down on costs, so I'm looking at the possibility of getting rid of the website that we pay for every year and just having a blogspot.
We recently moved our home to our 4 acre piece of wooded earthly heaven. We've discovered that the local critters don't particularly like our home being on theirs...we have quite a few ants that I'm battling over our home with. Not too shabby though - I've actually been able to unpack almost the entire house in the course of the past few days. It definitely feels more like home again.

The above pic was taken before the deck was built on to the front....

For those of you who didn't realize, we had been living with Dan's parents for the past 2 months. And while we were most appreciative of having a place to stay while our house was being resettled - we were really wanting to be in our own space again.
Over the past year I've been looking for more natural products to use in our home, but still be cost effective. I'm trying to be as preservative free as possible and make our diets a little better. I've been using herbal remedies for just about every ailment with great success - my latest discovery was something called henna. Which did this to my hair:

So...for 3.5 hours I had something that looked like something out of Nathanael's diaper on my head covered by saran wrap. When I rinsed it out, it was that vibrant without all the harmful chemicals and the awful toxious smell. I think it came out a lot brighter than I expected, but was a pretty cool, permanent result. The vibrance has died down a little, but not by much. I look like a stop sign in the sunlight - so watch out.
Our kids are thoroughly enjoying having trees around the house. And Cody's newest thrill of the day is riding his bike down our three acre length driveway to get the mail from the mailbox. I imagine the mail run excitement will wear after awhile, but for now, I'm taking advantage of it.