I think it’s been a little while since we’ve posted any life updates and quite a bit has happened over the past few months so I thought I’d give a quick summary of what we’ve been up to.

Little Miss Shyanne has had several appointments and all has been well. She’s been growing and getting stronger every day. She is constantly meeting goals and going beyond expectations as is her style… she is AMAZING everyone! She did have a few days of feeling a bit puny after her recent flu shot but now she is better and full of energy again.

The other kiddos have been doing great as well, other than being a little crazier than normal which I am attributing to the fact that they’ve had more-than-normal sugar in the past few weeks so we are working on cutting that back again. With flu season approaching we have begun to take our Elderberry supplements again and the kids are still going crazy over their water kefir and we are still using our milk kefir on a regular basis. We bought our kefir grains locally from Facebook Marketplace.

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Our homeschool year is still going strong and we love the new sites we recently found. I’ve been able to declutter some of the books/materials that just weren’t working for us. I don’t even know why I have hung on to them for as long as I have because they just didn’t fit in with our styles. Sometimes we get stuck hanging on to things because we paid for them or because they were gifted and we feel a bit guilty letting go but it feels so good to let go! We recently set a goal to declutter 10 things/day and let me tell you that I can truly see a difference already.

Mr. Awesome and I have been making a serious effort to start eating better. We have been trying to eat as few processed foods as possible and following a more keto/carnivorish style diet with a lot of my old favorite Trim Healthy Mama recipes mixed in to give us a good mix of proteins, vitamins, and minerals. One of his favorite recipes is the bean cupcakes I posted about earlier. He has lost a good bit of weight over the past couple of weeks while I lost a bit to start with but am currently stalled… that’s okay though because I know my body is taking time to heal a lot of issues that I’ve been having with my shoulder recovery and stomach issues.

We know that we loved eating from our garden over the summer so Mr. Awesome and the boys recently made some chicken ‘tractors’ to go around the yard and they made one the perfect size to fit on our garden beds. We put the chickens to work scratching out the dead plants and fertilizing the beds so we could plant a fall garden. This is the first time I can recall actually planting a Fall Garden so it’s a new experience but everything is looking great so far and we are excited to be having some fresh veggies soon.

We’ve also planted a few more fruit trees as the best time to plant them was 20 years ago, and the next best time is today… actually, they say the best times to plant them are in months that have an ‘R’ in them as those months aren’t usually too hot. Along with the fruit trees we have been planting a bit of everything around them… beans, sweet potatoes, lemongrass, cabbages, pineapples, herbs, greens, marigolds, calendula, sugar cane, pumpkins, squashes, melons, ginger, and much more… I have forgotten what some of the things were so we’ll just have to wait until they produce to figure it all out. I really need to make a map of the different garden areas so I can keep better track of what I’ve planted and where it’s planted… we have done a pretty good job in the garden beds though and everything is labeled.

One of the most interesting things we’ve planted so far has been the Roselle/Rosella flowers. It grows into a nice-looking shrub-like bush with pretty white hibiscus flowers. Apparently, every part of the plant is edible and tastes a bit like cranberries… hence the name ‘Florida Cranberry’. We have tried the leaves cooked and they are pretty good although a bit on the tangy side so we mixed them with a few mustard greens and it tamed the tang level down a bit. We have also eaten the raw petals as snacks… yummy! We harvested a bunch of them yesterday before the kids could eat them all. We will try to make some jam, syrup, or drinks from them soon. I am linking a few of our favorite YouTube channels in this post so you can check out more information if you feel inclined to do so.

In addition to the gardens we still have our animals. Most of them are doing very well and the birds are loving being out on the fresh grass… if we didn’t have so many hawks and eagles we would probably leave all of them out to free range more often. At least in the tractors, they are safe and they get fresh grass every day.

You may remember the difficulties we ran into with our home insurance because of our animals. Unfortunately, we were not able to rectify that situation so our policy was canceled. Our mortgage company has put a policy in place that covers the house but not our belongings so we are fine with that until we can find a company that will cover us… which is very difficult with the insurance situation here at this time.

Getting to the house… we’ve had a few issues with the septic. As you all probably know this house has had many unexpected challenges from day one. Last month the septic alarm started going off after a bad thunderstorm so we assumed that it just got waterlogged as the alarm went off when we reset the pump. Well, within a week it went off again and we discovered that the ‘silence’ button didn’t work and the alarm did not go off when we reset it. We ended up getting a quote for a little over $1,000 to come out and fix the issue which included pumping the tanks and replacing the pump. It turned out the pump didn’t need to be replaced… the wiring was done incorrectly which had caused the alarm to malfunction. They did pump the tank and disconnect the alarm so we are good now. We just need to get an electrician to come out and double-check to make sure there are no other issues going on. Our alarm also has two red lights that stay on so we could replace the cover but I’m thinking they may help with predator control... lol.

Around the same time of the septic issue, our washer started leaking very badly… I haven’t been too pleased with the washer/dryer combo that we purchased when we moved as it has been one issue after another. I ordered a new seal but we found that we would have to take the whole machine apart to replace it; halfway through disassembling it we also realized that the seal they had sent didn’t match with the original so we decided to just buy a second-hand washer.

We were handwashing things on the porch and we had come up with a clever bucket solution (I couldn’t find a picture of them) for wringing out the clothes but then we decided it would be easier to walk the clothes over to the old wash shed where my old Samsung front loader is still going strong… it does have a small leak around the seal because a couple of kids ripped it but it has been a GREAT machine! When I do get another washer we will be ripping the floor out of the laundry room before we put it in as the floor has several soft spots that have been getting worse as we’ve lived here. Another one of the many issues that we discovered after the house was delivered but the dealer refused to fix.

We plan to buy a top loader washer as they have fewer parts for kids to break… I’d be willing to set up an old wringer washer on the porch with a clothesline but Mr. Awesome isn’t sold on that idea. I would like to have a nice little hand washing/clothes washing station set up somewhere around the back porch because sometimes things happen and you lose electricity or you need to handwash an item. We also need a sink for the kids to wash up before they come in from feeding animals and playing or for washing up after gardening and such.

This season just seems to be so incredibly busy and sometimes I feel like I am not accomplishing anything at all. Things have been pretty stressful with all the house issues and unexpected expenditures but I’ve been making it a point to get up early so I can have a little quiet time for myself. I have found a couple of podcasts that I really enjoy listening to in the early mornings while drinking my ‘coffee‘. I usually pop in one of my earbuds and sit down at the table to watch the sun come up… if it’s not too cold then I will sit on the porch to watch the sunrise… it’s usually pretty peaceful with the fog coming off the pond and the occasional crow of a rooster.

In the evenings I usually try to take a walk around our little property to check on the animals, see how our plants are doing, and just watch the kids playing and enjoying themselves. I love it when my timing works out so I can watch the sun setting because it just makes everything look so magical… we are truly blessed!

I’ve also set some new blogging goals as it does cost me a little bit to keep this blog going and it needs to pay for itself. The biggest blogging regret I have is that I deleted my first blog because of personal issues… I had invested so much time into and I was not able to recover all of my old posts but I know a few of them can be found on this blog.

The second mistake was using my last name in the blog title…. not a good idea. You may see some changes coming with that as I have changed a few things over on Facebook. I am proud that I have not given up on this blog and that despite many life challenges it is still going…. this is progress!

Even though this blog will probably never be a main source of income it has proven to be a great resource for myself and others and it gives me a place to point people to when they need recipes or more information about something that I’ve written about. I don’t ever intend to get so BIG that I forget my reasons for writing this blog. I just wanted to have a place for my kids to look and find recipes, tips, and memories when they need something. I doubt that I would ever go to a paid subscription type thing but I may continue to use affiliate links and referral codes to help keep the blog running without costing me anything. I may also look into the new feature of setting certain posts to ‘subscribers only’ … not sure yet though.

That about wraps up our recent updates… although I’m sure if I sat here long enough I could find many more things to tell you all about but the kids are anxious to get started with school as we plan to have a ‘light week’ so that I can cross off a few items on my ever-growing ‘To-Do’ list.

We pray you all have a blessed weekend!

Also, we would greatly appreciate it if you could add the folks at Help A Child Foundation to your prayer list… they have been experiencing some unexpected challenges and could really use the extra prayers!