I appreciate Crystal encouraging us to share our goals for this year, and I have many, so I thought I’d share them as well. This year, I feel, is going to be particularly tough. I have been feeling the need to really start preparing for the worst; here are some of my goals with that in mind for this year:

• Settling debt: When we were forced to close our business this past August, we were left with a ton of debt as a result. Without the business’ income to help pay the loans, we were suddenly unable to pay the high rates, and were falling behind fast. Our debt payments were over $400/mo. WAY too much for us! I tried all I could to work with the banks to negotiate a better rate or a payoff amount, but they were unmoving. Our interest rate was 18%! OUCH!! So, we decided to pay off the debt with a home equity line with an interest rate of 2%! So now, instead of our payments being $408/mo, we are paying $40/mo. Much, much better! So now, the only debt we have is on our home. Though a little more now, much more manageable.

• Start my very first garden. You can read all that I’ve accomplished so far here!

• Publish a Christian Children’s Book that I’ve been working on for almost 2 years! I’ve actually had it ready and waiting. I just need to find a good illustrator now…

• Reducing our power bill. Currently it’s over $200/mo! I’m sure there are things that we can do to knock that down. I know it’s winter and all, but that’s crazy! My goal is to get it under $100/mo.

• Get some farm animals. If you’ve been following me, you know that I’m fascinated with homesteading and living self sufficiently (if you’re interested in this kind of stuff, you need to be reading my series: The True Queen of Frugal: Lessons from Butterberry Farm). One of my goals is to begin acquiring some useful animals around the house. I’d like rabbits, chickens, maybe goats, a milk cow, and maybe a pig… maybe. I’m hoping to have at least one of these by the end of the year.

• Plant fruit trees.

• Make my own cloth baby wipes, and perhaps try the Family Cloth idea.

• Make my home safer: adding fire extinguishers, a driveway alarm, teaching my kids fire safety, preparing an emergency kit, etc.

• Stocking an Emergency Pantry with six months to a year’s worth of canned goods, flour, sugar, etc. Including learning to can, dry, and freeze my garden’s produce for storage.

• Learning to sew. Something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

• Fix up our single wide and get it rented out. This would help bring in some much needed extra income.

• Investing for my kids. If you missed it, read more about how I’ve started investing HERE.

• Sell unnecessary items. We have lots of yard sale things boxed up and ready to go, but also lots of inventory and such leftover from the business. I am hoping to liquidate everything in order to put away some money in an emergency fund.

• Make a will. I’ve been really needing to do this for years. I really need to make a will, for the children’s sake.

Well, that’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure that I’ll think of more to add later. It will be good for me to have this all written down, so that I can come back to it throughout the year to remind myself of things I may have missed. I am really hoping to accomplish all of these things and more. Prayerfully, diligently, and maybe even a little naively at times. But I am determined to do my best!

You guys have been so sweet… I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from you asking how I am, and if I’m ever going to write again! I know it’s been forever. Here’s what’s been going on, and why I’ve been absent for so long:

After the big move, we were quickly consumed with the holidays, and all that goes with them. And, we ended up getting a big surprise for Christmas…

We’re having another baby!!

So, for the past couple of months I have felt horrible, morning (actually all day) sickness in full swing. It has been all I can do to get up and make sure the kids were dressed and fed, let alone try to do anything else. On top of that we all got hit with a horrible head and chest cold, and now me and little Titus are just getting over the stomach flu. One thing after another, but at least the pregnancy nausea has pretty much subsided, and today I’m feeling pretty good.

Needless to say, I’ve been waiting all of this out before I started writing again. I’ve had so much to say lately, so much on my mind. I can’t wait to share it with you all again. I’ll probably start off slow, posting a couple of times a week. Yes, I’ve visited with my friend Adelia, so I do have some more Lessons From Butterberry Farm to share with you this week.

Thank you for your thoughts, and kind emails. I can’t wait to hear more from you all again!

Your friend,

It’s finally here! Tomorrow is moving day. 8 months of working on this house and finally we are ready to move in. We still aren’t completely finished with the fixin’ up. But, we are close enough that we can get in and finish up the rest while we’re living there. Since many of you enjoyed my “before and after” pictures, I thought I’d share a few more with ya. I’m very proud of them If you didn’t catch my first post about our “repo” home, and before and after pic’s of the living area, check it out!

Okay, so here are a few more for ya:

Before: Master bedroom

See how nasty it was?! Obviously the carpet had to go! Lucky for you this blog doesn’t come with “smell-o-vision”… yuck!!

After:

Clean, new carpet. We pulled the strips off the walls, filled the holes, and painted them a nice neutral shade. Add some new trim, a fan, and it’s set!

Before: Bedroom #1

All I can say is “Blah”!

After:

This is going to be Titus’ new room. These colors might look crazy, but when I put in his bed set, with the pale yellow bedding, it will really look nice! My dad and I put up the chair rail and new baseboards (He cut; I nailed, caulked, and painted). Check me out:

You didn’t know I was so handy, did you

Before: Bedroom #2

Nasty, nasty, nasty!

After:

If you couldn’t tell by all of the girlyness, this is Jada’s new room. I free-hand painted butterflies and flowers around the boarder. It took me forever, but I love the outcome! And the fan I just adore. I had been eyeing it for months, and one day I went into Lowes to look for other things, and I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw the exact same fan on clearance for $40! I was so excited, and scooped it up immediately!

Here’s a closer shot of some of the detailing:

Jada loves her new room.

Before: Master Bath

Check out the floral wall paper!

It had potential…

After:

Much better. Though I still need a new mirror to hang there on the wall.

Nothing major. Just some new vinyl flooring, and paint on the walls. (Not to mention some elbow grease!)

Before: Bath #2

Who puts carpet in bathrooms anyways?

After:

This green will look great with my beige and white dragonfly shower curtain. I’m kinda wishing I’d gone with a different vinyl flooring, but oh well…

Before: Dining Area (Sorry it’s so dark!)

Filthy carpets. Mud splattered walls. Dark and dingy.

After:

Much better!!

So, that’s all I have to share for now. I don’t have good pic’s of the kitchen or den yet. When they are done I’ll update this post to show them too. The kitchen is HUGE though, compared to my little trailer kitchen that is. Can’t wait to show it to you as well.

Anyways, I guess I better go now. I still have lots of packing to do for tomorrow. It will probably be another week or so before we are settled and I have my office space back together again. I’m so excited to finally be moving in!!

Yippee!!

Your blogging buddy,

I am SO SORRY that I have just disappeared for so long! I totally didn’t mean to just drop off the face of the earth. I’ve just been extremely busy with things around here. I’ve decided that until we are moved into the new place, and settled, I won’t be doing much more blogging. Once we get all situated I will be back at it again though, so don’t leave me forever I’m hoping that we will be moved into the new place in two more weeks. Hopefully! I wanted to share a before and after picture with you guys of my new living room area. We still aren’t totally finished with everything. I still have painting to do, and baseboards to put up. But we are very close to being done! After 7 long months of mostly do-it-yourself remodeling! Check it out:

BEFORE:

Notice how NASTY it was?! Evidently the previous owners let a couple big dogs run in and out throughout the home and they tracked red mud everywhere. It was even splattered all over the walls! Along with who knows what else. Yuck! And that strange platform built underneath the windows… what was up with that?

AFTER: (well, almost done…)

Much better, right?! Yes, I painted those walls. And my dad pulled out that hideous platform thingy. But we did hire a professional to do the laminate floors. I wasn’t about to try to mess that up! So, it’s coming along. I’m very excited about finishing up, and finally being able to move in!

So, that’s a little taste of what’s been going on around here. I’ll share more with you guys later, when I can. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before I’m back at blogging again.

Miss you guys!

Sorry guys, I’m gonna have to skip Minimizing Monday today. I’ve had entirely too much to do lately! I’ve been painting my new house until midnight for the past 5 nights in a row, trying to pick up the painter’s slack so the carpets can be installed tomorrow. I’m DYING to be able to move into our home! Anyways, it’s after 1am, and I’m exhausted, so I won’t be writing anything new for today. But, if you need some inspiration you can always catch up on past Minimizing Monday’s. Perhaps there is one that you missed! And if you did any minimizing today, I’d still love to hear all about it in my comments section! Thanks for your understanding

Here’s the one we found inside!

Any Advice??

A couple of days ago I was outside with the kids, playing in the yard. I happened to look up towards a window in our home, and quickly noticed that there were a bunch of really big bees buzzing busily inside. I walked a little closer, and realized that the whole inside of the window was absolutely crawling with these enourmous bugs! This is a window that has been boarded up from the inside, so we hadn’t even realized that they were there before. I told my husband about the giants I saw when he got home.

The next evening, me and the kids had just come in the door, when my daughter (who is obsessed with bugs), spotted a big one on the curtain and tried to catch it. When my husband turned to see what it was he quickly realized that it was a giant hornet that she was after! I grabbed the kids and shut ourselves in Jada’s bedroom while hubby not-so-fearlessly did his best to smack the hornet with my flip flop. Not sure exactly what happened, but I heard lots of yelling and stomping around. (Goof ball!) He finally whacked the thing and sent it buzzing downward, but then he lost it. We looked all over the floor to find the body, but it was nowhere to be found. We went to bed praying that it was dead, and that it would not find it’s way into the children’s bedrooms.

The next morning I found it, dead on the floor just outside my daughter’s bedroom. I called an exterminator. I called several. Everybody wanted $150 to come out and spray them! I don’t have an extra hundred something bucks just laying around! But I have to get these things taken care of. They will only get worse, and the kids could be in serious danger if stung! My husband has been calling them Japanese Hornets. After looking online though, I’m pretty sure they are European Hornets. Either way, their stings can be fatal.

So, does anybody know any way I can get rid of these things myself? I’ve tried putting out a soda bottle filled with soapy sugar water. I don’t think I’ve caught anything in it yet. Is there anything else that I can do besides spray them myself. I’m not trying to get stung either! Please, if you have any advice, I could really use it! Thanks,

My sister has been working hard on her home business, Sashwhy’s Studio, and has enjoyed working on a number of new design. A few of her most current jobs have been:

Money Saving Mom

Freebies 4 Mom

Common Sense with Money

She has added a lot of new packages, including website designs, to her business! If you are a small business and need a website to get your name out on the web or need an online boutique, you should check her out! She’ll create a great design for you and will do it for cheaper than you think!

She is running a sale on two packages this week!

$75 – Informational Website

$200 – Brochure Website

Don’t miss out on this sale! You will have a hard time finding website designs like these at such a low price.

Also, if you are looking for a fresh new look for your blog, she does great blog designs (including this one! ). If you don’t want to do a full-blown makeover, she also offers “Ready-2-Order” headers.

So, if you haven’t visited Sashwhy’s Studio yet, go check her out!

(How’s that for shameless promotion for my sister! ).

I found this awesome idea at my new favorite site, Tipnut.com. It gives a very detailed tutorial on turning cereal boxes into gift boxes. What a great idea! Check it out when get a chance!

NBC is having a live vote on their site right now on “Should ‘In God We Trust’ be removed from U.S. currency?” This is our chance to let them know what us Christians think! I don’t know how long the voting will be open, so please go HERE quickly. If you have time, read the related article on the Atheist man causing all of the controversy. How very sad.

Hey guys, sorry I haven’t really written anything deep and meaningful lately. I’ve had a lot going on. I have to praise the Lord that my husband got his job back a week ago!!! So that’s a huge praise, and one burden lifted. We have decided to close our business though, a decision we have struggled with and prayed about. My husband runs a skate park, and as I’ve said before, it is his ministry. Unfortunately for the past three years of running it, it has become a huge financial burden on our family and has barely been able to support itself. We were forced to borrow even more money to get caught up on rent last month, and consequently decided that it was just time to let it go. My husband is deeply grieved at this decision, and the skaters are truly saddened as well. The part that we are really having to pray about is that we still have a huge amount of debt from the start up costs of the business, and we are unsure how we are going to pay it all off. I am really having to rely on God to get us through this.

Also, after both kids having Pinkeye, now Titus has come down with some unrelated, mysterious bacterial infection. He has been running a fever of 104* (with Motrin) for the past two days. I’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office, as they have had to monitor him, take samples of his blood, and give him shots of antibiotics (that whole ordeal is another post to come!). I have to go back tomorrow for more blood tests and shots. He has a really swollen, sore throat, and is having a really hard time eating, drinking, and sleeping. He can’t even suck his thumb to soothe himself, it hurts so bad! Poor little thing. I’ve been catering to him night and day. I’m really hoping praying his condition turns around tomorrow!

On top of all of this we are still in the process of trying to fix up our new home so that we can move in. I’ve been busy meeting with painters, flooring guys, picking out this and that… it’s crazy! I am trying really hard to stick to budget and me and my dad are doing a lot of the work ourselves, so it’s taking a while for everything to fall into place. Too much to do. (I realize it may sound bad when I talk about the debt that we struggle with, and then say that we have bought a new house, but I want to clarify that this house was a Foreclosure that we bought about 6 months ago. It was such an incredible deal, we couldn’t pass it up. It was in pretty bad shape though, so we have been steadily working to get it into move-in condition. We are living in our paid-for trailer in the meantime.)

So, you can see why I haven’t had much time to write anything meaningful. I’m so sorry about that. There are so many things on my mind that I would love to sit down and share with you… but they will have to wait at least until the baby is better.

Also, I am supposed to go to the beach with my extended family for a little vacation next week, if Titus is better that is. So, if I’m gone I won’t be writing for a few days. I just wanted to get everyone up to date with what has been going on. Thanks for hanging in there with me! I’m so ready for things to get normal again.

I do want to thank you all for praying for my husband, his injury, and our financial situation. Somehow, the Lord has gotten us through a really hard time; and I knew He would, I just wasn’t sure how! Thank you so much for your thoughts and words of encouragement. You all have truly touched my heart.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get just a few short posts up for the next couple of days. Until then…