Homesteading: Another Reason Why We Have Chosen to Move to a Home with Land, it's about saving money - Part 2

Earlier this week I made my way to the co-op where I purchase the majority of my food during the winter months. I hadn't been there in a while, trying my best to make the food we had in our home last as long as possible.  We've been eating up the last of the root vegetables and canned items we had in our "root cellar" from our garden last summer.

I had my grocery list in hand from the menu plan I made for the next couple of weeks. So very thankful I took the time to make a menu plan and a grocery list so I knew exactly what I needed, because if there is one place it's easy to overspend (at least in my world) it's at the co-op. I grabbed my cart and headed over to the fresh veggie area, bypassing most of the fruits, because I know that for the value veggies are more nutritious and filling. The items I was planning on purchasing were fairly simple; broccoli, cauliflower, greens and so on.

As I stood in front of some of the veggies I grabbed a bundle of broccoli and then looked at the price and honestly it's likely my jaw dropped. Prices had gone up and not by a little. I took my broccoli over to the scale to see how much it weighed. I quickly realized that for me to buy enough broccoli for a meal for my family I would spend a little under $15. Not going to happen. It can't happen, we can't afford to spend that much money on one item of food for one meal. I continued to move down the vegetable line and was amazed at just how many items had seen price increases in the last couple of months. How can people afford this... wait, many of us can't.

So now what? I could try heading to one of the local grocery stores and see what prices are, but for me food is not just for the stomach it's an investment into our overall health. I prefer a healthy family with our money going towards what we eat instead of towards the doctor. So for me personally standard grocery store food is out. It's simply missing the nutrients our bodies need. 

Our garden in August 2012

Homesteading: Why we have chosen to move to a home with land - Part 1

Since moving to a home where we have land, one of my goals has been to provide our family with all of our food right here at home. Why? I think first and foremost, my desire comes from the instinct to take care of my family, especially my children. For the past five years I have been learning about different food ideologies. There are many, including myself, who are very passionate about providing our bodies with the healthiest food we can. No matter where my research has lead me, one thing I could consistently take away is that our food today, whether organic or not, is void of much of its nutrients, caused primarily because of poor farming practices. So, what can I do? I could choose the route of adding supplements to our diet to help fill out was is missing in food. However, for me there is one problem with this approach. I don't believe we truly understand vitamins and minerals yet, especially how they work with one another within our body. It's why there is a steady flow of changing information on what to take for the best overall health. Instead I've decided I'd rather focus on growing the most nutrient rich food I can in a sustainable way and allow it to nourish our bodies.

Beyond the overall nutrition, I realize it's also not just enough to feed my children, I also feel it's important that they understand food; how it's grown, where it comes from and why it's so important for their bodies. I hope as they work in the garden, and this year start a garden of their own, they can begin to learn to appreciate nature and how God called us to be stewards of the land.

Check out the books we are currently reading to help us prepare for the spring growing season!

It's January. Thank heavens! I have been waiting for this blessed month since last spring. As winter has set in with the deep cold and snow and the holidays have passed, I finally feel like I can spend more time reading. As long as the weather has been nice I have felt obligated to be working outside on the many, many projects we have on our list, but with winter here there is not so much to do with the ground frozen solid and covered in a foot of snow. My husband and I are thinking through some changes in our lives as we consider how best to go about creating the homestead we desire for our family. We aren't sure exactly what this is going to look like yet, but we are trusting in the Lord for His guidance and relying on Him to show us the next steps we should take.

Since neither of us has a strong knowledge base in sustainable ways of growing our own food or raising our own animals for the table we are spending plenty of time researching. The spring season will be here before we know it and we have a lot of planning to still do to take the most advantage of the warmer days.

In the past, information such as what we are looking for would have been passed on from family and friends, generation to generation. But the last century has seen generational knowledge thrown to the wayside for modern convenience. It's sad how quickly we have lost much of our heritage. Not enough people have stopped to think about what it means to let go of the knowledge of forefathers. So, this leaves us looking for new sources to train ourselves and arm ourselves with the knowledge we need to find a little more self-reliance for the future.

While the internet is certainly loaded with plenty of information and a resource I use often, I prefer to have a solid core of books on the shelf for referencing as needed without running to the one computer our family shares. Frankly, I also far prefer to read a book than read on a screen... there's something about the feel of a good book in hand and a comfy chair that calls to me like a computer never will.

When in research mode, I rarely read just one book at a time. Perhaps a touch of ADD when it comes to learning! Instead my coffee table has a whole slew of books spread about on it. Right now, we are learning from the following books, all of which I am greatly enjoying and finding very useful. I am taking bits and pieces from each book and applying them to what we have in our mind and the land that we have. Some of the books do contradict one another just a bit, but overall they each fall in line and serve well in providing a wide range of ideas for creating the homestead we dream of.

Book Review: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods by Wardeh Harmon

If there is one food subject that really fascinates me, it's fermentation. I have been delving into fermenting different foods for several years now, but certainly have a long way to go before having a full grasp of all that can be done for food preservation through fermentation, along with the great variety of food and drinks that can be prepared.

 
When given the opportunity to review Wardeh Harmon's new book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods, I happily said yes. Wardeh maintains the site GNOWFGLINS. Already one of my favorites to check out for a variety of useful information for making foods from scratch, I just knew her book would be great. She certainly hasn't let me down. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised at just how much detail she included and the full extent of her knowledge.

Fresh Eggnog, very easy and oh so good

As we sat down for Advent, the snow was falling peacefully outside. We warmed ourselves by the fire and the kids gleefully sipped on small wine glasses filled with eggnog. They feel so grown up enjoying their special holiday drink.

For me it's not quite the Christmas season unless a glass of eggnog is being sipped on during the joyful time of decorating the Christmas tree, playing games together as a family near the fire and taking a quiet moment to celebrate Advent. While store bought eggnog may have a place, making fresh eggnog isn't hard and all the more enjoyed when the eggs come from your chickens and the cream and milk being used is from a wonderful raw milk source. You could almost call the drink healthy... almost. :)

This particular eggnog is creamy, yet light from the addition of the whipped egg whites. It's also not overly sweet, it more falls into the just right category for me. Some may prefer a bit more sweetness if more accustomed to store bought eggnog. If so, you can increase the sugar to a more desired amount. While it can stay in your fridge for several days, it's best enjoyed right after making it. It only takes about 15 minutes to make. 

A Simple Way to Make Apple Cider Vinegar

I am always looking for ways to cut our spending with food without giving up the whole, real, organic food that I find to be extremely important for maintaining healthy, strong bodies. In my search for ways to reduce our spending I'm finding that many of the products I have been purchasing are actually very easy to make and are often made with items that I'd normally throw away.

Insert apple cider vinegar here.

I always have cider vinegar in my pantry. I normally purchase an organic, unfiltered one that isn't necessarily cheap for the pocket book, but it's one of those items that has a variety of uses and I've found it essential to have on hand at all times.

I'm fairly certain that a couple of apples pies are going to grace more than one households table this week. So this seemed like a good time to share this "recipe". Organic apples are essential here. You don't want any unwanted pesticide residue in your vinegar.

It's time to start blogging again! What we've been up to...

It's been weeks and weeks and more weeks and I haven't gotten a post up. Life has been going at full speed for so long now that I think we've begun to forget what it looks like to slow down! But it's all good, because what's been keeping us busy are the kiddos and learning how to be more self sustainable on the land we moved to.

Our first eggs from the chickens we've raised and oh how good they were!

I hope this will be the first of many posts to share what we have been learning about and boy learning is something that we have been immersing ourselves in.

learning how to...

• home school our children
• create a healthy environment for our chickens
• build a chicken run and how to most effectively use it
• slaughter and butcher our own chickens

My children are learning first hand where their food comes from and we showed them how to slaughter and butcher the chickens they've been helping us raise.

• gardening using the Back To Eden approach (thank you to the person who shared this approach with me on FB)
• make a root cellar in our home
• preserve food in more ways
• butcher a pig and turn it into all kinds of delicacies

My husband and brother butchering a whole pig we purchased. My brother has been staying with us and helping us our. It's been a wonderful blessing.

• use all parts of an animal so nothing goes to waste
• use our land to raise other animals next year
• hunt small and large game

My husband's first deer and the beginning steps of butchering it for our dinner table.

• utilize what we have and being content with not having more
• help others with what God has given us 
• build what we need or want with our own hands
  

  

  Building a new kitchen table for our growing family.

Even more importantly learning...

• to be well balanced parents who are patient and loving and who focus on raising our children to know, love and understand who our Lord and Savior is
• how to completely and totally rely on the Lord for His guidance and wisdom in all parts of our lives
• how to have fun and enjoy all that we are doing, even when tiredness would cause us to feel and think otherwise

Besides learning we have also certainly been enjoying ourselves.

• Seeing our children run and play covered in dirt and full of imaginative play
• Watching our youngest make her first smile and seeing my oldest make her laugh for the first time

• Opening our home to a beautiful couple and watching them walk down the isle and commit themselves to one another before the Lord

A beautiful wedding in our backyard.

• Harvesting our own food and for the first time in our lives enjoying meals where everything on the table was grown and harvested by us

Unearthing sweet potatoes.

• Taking walks through our woods and land and seeing the many wonders of God through His creation
• Celebrating birthdays and new life

I had fun making these cute lego cupcakes for my son's birthday this year.

• Watching the sun rise and starting the day in God's Word
• All running to the windows or heading outside in the evening to see the amazingly beautiful sunsets that happen just about every day
• Watching the geese fly over, the turkey and geese mothers and their babies walking by on their way to who knows where, the snapping turtles wondering up the driveway, the deer grazing nearby, the chickens making themselves at home, the herrings roosting in the trees and the many other animals that make a frequent appearance
• Seeing my children use their imaginations as they play with sticks, rocks and sand and watching them explore what is around us

Looking at the sunset out our front window.

These last months have been both amazing and joyful, filled with thankfulness. But to be fare I don't want to make it out that life has been perfect, while it has been wonderful in many ways it has also be exhausting. I have squeezed a lot on our plate trying to prepare us for some goals for the coming year. More than one tear has been shed on my part and there have certainly been many a day where I've wondered if I can make it through it when all I and my husband want to do is collapse on the couch and take a break... oh and sleep. I had forgotten just how tiring it can be to be up all night nursing a baby (yep my little one still nurses several times a night) while trying to pack in an extremely full day. I have struggled with not knowing where everything is at and not being organized since we are still making a place for things since our move. It hasn't all been fun and games and it's been a lot of hard and tiring work, but it's been good... very, very good.

Stay tuned as I begin to share more of our experiences and of course a mix of recipes and some crafty and artistic creations. The posts may come far and few between at times, since my relationship with the Lord, being a wife and a mother all come before anything else and take a good deal of my time, but the posts will come.

The amazing experience of the birth of our little girl Amayah

Much has happened or at least many things have kept us busy since I had my last opportunity to write a post. As usual I have so many things I'd like to share and so little time to actually do it.

 Baby Amayah

A wonderful blessing made her appearance several weeks ago. Our beautiful daughter Amayah was born to us in our new home, creating memories that I shall never forget. She is doing amazingly well and I'm immensely cherishing the time to simply look down at her beautiful face and see her intense little eyes look back at me. Having a third child has been far easier  than I would have expected (greatly due to the homebirth and having a very healthy child). Our family has had a very smooth transition, with only our 2 year old struggling a bit in the beginning as she had to get used to sharing mom with a baby. Otherwise Amayah is covered in kisses daily by both her older brother and sister and of course mom and dad can't help but also do the same.

I can't write enough about the amazing experience of having a homebirth and so glad we went this route. While it certainly is not for everyone, having our little girl in the comfort of our home was perfect for us and an experience I hope to repeat if we are blessed with more children in the future.

The day of Amayah's birth unraveled fairly perfectly. The night before, I was pretty convinced I would be meeting our child very soon. Around 2 AM I was having fairly intense contractions, but they weren't regular, however trying to sleep or even rest during them wasn't working for me. Deciding that sitting still and waiting for things to happen wasn't going to work for the moment, I got up and started cleaning. Can we say nesting was in full affect? My kitchen was thoroughly cleaned and the other rooms picked up before I decided that I actually must lay down and try to get some sleep, especially since the contractions were still not staying consistent.

What I've been up to: unpacking, preparing for baby #3 & homebirth, gardening and many more projects

The blog has been quiet lately. I'd love to say that will change, but I'm one busy momma at the moment and living life versus writing about it is taking far higher priority!

One of my favorite plants as a child and it's growing right out our back door!

We have moved to a wonderful 19+ acre property and are enjoying the beautiful land and the inviting home that we feel God has blessed us with. We first found this property back in January and now that spring is here we are for the first time getting to see what is growing around us and what is exactly all here. One of these days I need to get a book to identify all the many wild plants growing that may be edible. We also get to check out the many wild animals. We now know that there are many deer, pheasant, wild turkey and a huge array of birds (with plenty of hawks and eagles mixed in), all hanging out right behind our home. Our neighbor, who we recently met, mentioned we can basically sit on our back porch and hunt! :-) I'd believe it too. We hear the many pheasant daily and have seen them on several occasion while working in our new garden. Now to just learn how to hunt!

Gardening and Chickens, starting a new adventure

It's been a long day of packing and baking a cute, little birthday cake for my soon to be two year old. My back has let me know that it's best to be done with the standing and the bending over trying to fill boxes, so I thought I take a moment to write a little post about some of the things we are planning for.

I have been packing, because in a very short amount of time we are leaving behind our little apartment and heading to a new home with land that we've purchased. I can't begin to say just how excited I am to be moving to a home where we can have a beautiful garden and some chickens. Down the line we may have more things, but being in my third trimester of pregnancy and only having so much time, the garden and the chickens are all we are going to attempt for this year. Now next... well that's a whole different story. I've already have plans in my head, but for now it's time to focus on the current coming seasons.

Photo credit: http://www.superizon.com/vegetables-garden-ideas-with-stylish-designs/

Walking With the Lord: Honoring the Sabbath

Sunday is my favorite day of the week, even with the stresses that seem to come with it. Trying to get kids up and out of the house and to church on time always is a bit overwhelming and both my husband and my patience is often challenged during this time. Even after church, kiddos can be cranky and tired, but what I love about Sunday is first, I truly do normally enjoy going to church. I think it's wonderful to be surrounded by fellow believers. More than that though, is that Sunday is the God ordained day of rest. It's the only day where I don't feel guilty if I don't get things done. It's the only day that, if the kids actually allow it, I can sit and read a book during the day and relax.

Yesterday was one of those more relaxing Sundays. The weather in Minnesota right now is more similar to weather we see in June instead of March. It was sunny, with a breeze and in the upper 70's. That pretty much falls into the perfect weather category in my world. After lunch was done we put kids down for naps. Thankfully our youngest actually fell asleep and even our oldest stayed in his room for a while quietly laying down. I took that time to sit down out on our balcony and read in the glorious sun. This pregnant, overly tired and worn out momma needed that. Needed it in the extreme.

We have a lot going on right now and it's been that ways for a while. It's been a period of time for us where we have so many directions to head in that we don't know where to go first. Not ideal by any means, nor something we like to see happen in our lives, but it is what it is right now and there isn't much we can do to pull back the reigns. Throw into the batch of things to do, illness that has been lingering in the family for over a week and even the toughest is going to get worn out. As much as we have to do, with certain deadlines creeping up very quickly, I spoke with my husband Saturday night and said we were going to set everything aside on Sunday and relax. In general we try and keep Sunday as a day of rest in our home. It's a time for family and for the Lord. However, the last couple of weeks we haven't been so good at following God's command for a day of rest and I've seen it reflect itself into our week(s).  It's easy to think that "we must get this done", yet forgetting to follow the guidance of the Lord. In doing so I have felt that the Lord has often pulled back some of His blessing on the week going forward. Mondays have started out far more stressful and by mid-week after not having any break I find myself short tempered and flat out exhausted.

Coconut flour yellow cake - great for birthday cakes! Gluten and grain free.

My husband's birthday was several weeks ago and one dessert item he's had a hankering for is good old fashion yellow birthday cake. The only problem is our son can't have wheat, so that nixes the majority of recipes out there. I know that I could have used a gluten-free flour to make a close substitute, but to be honest I'm not a huge fan of the GF flours on the market. They are often filled with ingredients that I'd prefer to avoid in our diet. So, instead I made a very delicious version using coconut flour.

I've messed with this recipe over the last year on and off again, playing around with different ingredients. This time because I wanted to provide something more similar to a traditional birthday cake I went with more traditional ingredients, like organic white sugar instead of honey and butter instead of coconut oil. I have shared a coconut flour chocolate cake recipe we use all the time. You can get away with a different variety of ingredients with chocolate cake, because the chocolate masks some of the flavors, but with a white cake a flavor like honey or coconut oil will be much more pronounced.

I'm now offering Norwex Products. If you are looking for a way to clean your home without chemicals, check these products out.

 

Last week I decided to take a new step and become a Norwex sales consultant. Why? Well, like many woman who are at home, I have been looking for ways to help earn a little extra income for my family. Beyond that though, we are getting ready to move and it has been very important to me to find ways to reduce our chemical use in our new home. It's ultimately been my goal to be completely chemical free, not only with food, but in our environment too. I knew that I wanted our new home to not only be clean, but safe for my children, our pets and my husband and myself. One of the best ways I could see to do that is by cutting out the chemicals I use when I clean.

While I do often use baking soda, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to clean and these are natural products, I have been interested in Norwex for a while after hearing some friend discuss their products a year or two ago. They went on and on about how much they loved Norwex's microfiber cloths. This had me intrigued, but until recently I hadn't actually had an opportunity to try any of the Norwex products myself. One of the items they are most known for, and what my friends said they loved so much, is the Antibacterial Microfiber Cloths. Norwex has incorporated some fascinating technology to create a line of cloths that can wipe away 99.9% of bacteria by just using water. Intriguing, right?

I've put my new microfiber cloths to work and I will very honestly tell you that I have been very impressed. I have other microfiber cloths from different companies, but they don't even begin to compare to how well Norwex's cloths clean. Honestly, I think I had a look of shock on my face when I went to wipe down my chairs at my kitchen table with my new cloth. They are made of unsealed wood, but over time and lots of use have gotten a patina on them from dirty hands and kids that dump things all over them. I have scrubbed these chairs numerous times with a scrub brush, soap and water. While that gets them cleaner, they still have the patina on them. Then I started wiping them down with my new Norwex microfiber cloth that only had water on it. With very little effort the cloth began wiping away layers of the grime on the chairs that had made the patina. Very cool.

Besides cleaning my chairs, I started wiping down the walls by the kitchen table. What can I say, I was in cleaning mode. Again, the cloth with only a bit of water on it, did an excellent job of getting grease marks off the walls from little hand prints.

Next, I grabbed my new window cloth to see if it worked as well as I had been told. I first did the inside of our glass balcony door that my kids had covered in hand prints. With literally no effort at all the cloth wiped the glass completely clean and far, far better than what glass cleaners do. To really put the window cloth to work I cleaned the outside of the door also. This was when I really became impressed, because I was able to very quickly clean the outside of the door and the cloth left no streaks. I think cleaning exterior doors and windows can be such a pain, because no matter how much I try they always seem to streak from the grime that builds up on them. I'll think they are clean and then go inside only to see another place that the grime streaked instead of actually came up. This didn't happen with the Norwex window cloth at all. After the door I went and cleaned the mirror closet doors in our two bedrooms. Still with the same cloth and without rinsing it. The mirrors came perfectly clean and again they were dirty from little hand prints (side note: I actually clean a lot, but I think it must take my kids less than 30 min. to have finger prints on just about every surface in my house. Give them a whole day and you'd never know I spent have the morning cleaning. Ah the fun of being a mom sometimes!) The last place I used the window cloth was on the mirror in the bathroom that always gets splattered from washing hands, faces and teeth. In about a quarter of the time my mirror was spotless and all I used was the window cloth and some water. That is my type of cleaning! Easy, no chemicals and with great results!

A Look at Home Births

Giving birth at home is once again gaining in popularity. Until the first part of the 20th century this is how women brought their newborns into the world, but as hospitals gained in popularity, especially in the 40's, home births went out the door for the more clinical style hospital birth.

I feel very blessed that we have an opportunity to have a home birth for our third child. I wish I could have done it with all three. Although, in all fairness, my daughter's birth was overall a good experience and one I would hope for again if I went the route of going to a hospital.

While home births are gaining in popularity, I think there is still a lot of confusion about them. I know I didn't fully understand how it worked when I first started looking into them several years ago. One benefit we have today is that now that home births are more popular there is more information easily available about them and finding an experienced midwife has also gotten easier.

Certainly there are many that would question why in the world you'd choose to have a child in your home. It doesn't take much searching to find passionate advocates for both hospital births and home births and both sides have a variety of statistics that they use to support their beliefs (see here and here for against home births and here and here for pro home births). For several generations now we have been trained to believe that hospitals are the only place to have a baby safely. There is a system that has been set up that we are to follow, starting with the beginning of pregnancy and one that continues forward through the life of a child. While I am not here to tell you that no one should have a hospital birth, that certainly isn't true in my opinion, I do think that home births should be considered as an option. Every woman should consider all of her options and educated herself to make the best decision for her baby and her. We were designed to have babies and have been doing so since humans first came into existence. Some people embrace the idea that our bodies can give birth without a lot of assistance and others feel lead to have as much help surrounding the birth as possible. Are either wrong? No. For me, the issue comes more about the freedom to decide what is best for my baby's and my body. Either route someone chooses to go, there are going to be not so perfect outcomes and even deaths. What would truly be fantastic is if the two styles of giving birth could more greatly overlap giving women a far greater advantage to delivering a healthy baby without the use of drugs or other unnecessary procedures.

When I first started looking into home births it was overwhelming to figure out how the whole process worked. If you follow the standard protocol, things are fairly simple and there doesn't need to be a lot of decision making. You find a doctor that is in your insurance plan and then follow what they tell you to do. Home births fall into a category of their own and depending on what state you live in, the laws that govern midwives and the freedom to have a birth at home varies.

Risotto with White Fish and Orange, a family favorite meal

I am over at Keeper of the Home today with one of my family's favorite meals. It's a great way to use homemade fish stock which is filled with excellent nutrients for the body.

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/02/risotto-with-white-fish-and-orange.html

Check out the recipe and if you aren't familiar with Keeper of the Home, check out Stephanie's site. It has quickly turned into one of my more favorite sites to follow.

Enjoy!

Garam Masala - an Indian spice mix that's great on a variety of food, especially when you are in the mood for something different.

I'm in this limbo place between being tired, but not wanting to go to bed nor feeling like reading at the moment. So, I decided to peruse drafts of posts that I have meant to finish, but never have gotten around to and realized I completely forgot to do this one. I actually thought I had. Not sure how I spaced out on this, but I wanted to be sure to share this spice mix, because it's wonderful and an excellent addition to curries or any dish you want a little extra bang in flavor. I often use this mix in scrambled eggs in the morning, which my daughter always seems to enjoy.

Garam Masala recipes vary depending on the region they come from within India. This particular recipe comes from the cookbook Curry Cuisine, but I think you can have fun experimenting with your own favorite version. The basics ingredients of most garam masala recipes are coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace, peppercorns and cinnamon.

What You'll Need

 ~ 1⅓ cup

3 tbsp coriander seeds

3 tbsp cumin seeds

20 green cardamom pods

10 cinnamon sticks, 1 in long (cinnamon breaks or cuts with a sharp knife fairly easily)

2 tbsp cloves

10 blades of mace

10 black caramom bods

½ nutmeg

1 tbsp black peppercorns

4 cinnamon leaves or bay leaves

1 tbsp dried rose petals

1 tbsp fennel seeds

Getting Started

1. Over medium-high heat, heat a dry skillet and then add all your spices. Roast them in the pan until they begin to crackle. Stir them until they begin to smell aromatic.

2. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Store mixture whole or grind in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle

Enjoy!

Walking With the Lord: Christians aren't so perfect

Several weeks ago this topic came up at our church and I have to say that it's a point that I have found that I must remind myself of from time to time. Why? Well, first I should say, of course I know that Christan's aren't perfect, we are human after all, but I have a tendency to hold up born-again-Christians to a higher standard than others and when that standard is not met, it can be disappointing and discouraging. It seems like they should know better. At one point in my life I left Christianity all together, not because I no longer believed in God, but because I had lost all faith in the hypocritical Christians that I kept encountering. This is by no means to say that I was some fabulous believer, hardly so, but we don't always look at ourselves first. It far easier to judge another person's actions before my own or at least it was.

The reality is Christians are just people, like everyone else. They are plagued with the same temptations, the same difficult circumstances and same desires as everyone else. Walking with the Lord is a journey. A person does not stop, hand their life over to Christ and suddenly become a whole new person, without temptation, fully enlightened, filled with understanding of God's role in their life. In the beginning people can and do make major transformations in their life, but when life settles sinful natures rear their heads and everyone at some point, most likely on a daily basis, struggles with living a life for the Lord.

Part 4: A look at how I believe my changing diet with each pregnancy has affected my children and the pregnancies themselves. (pregnancy #4, baby due in May)

Well, I certainly meant for this post to go up a couple of weeks ago. It turns out trying to buy a house, getting ready for a move, taking care of kiddos and everything else under the sun that is going on has kept me away from blogging. I do believe that my posts may be pretty intermittent for a while, so bear with me as my family and I make some pretty big transitions in our lives. All our awesome, but all take time and there is only so much energy and only so many hours in a day. 

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This is the fourth part of this series. To read about my other pregnancies check out the links below.

Pregnancy 1

Pregnancy 2

Pregnancy 3

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Pregnancy, birth and the life that is brought forth into this world is amazing, scary, empowering, difficult and in the end a true learning experience, that is, if you want it to be.

I am over halfway through my fourth pregnancy and this one has been a journey all of it's own. I chose the route of learning from past experiences and applied that knowledge to this pregnancy. I've known since having my daughter that I truly desired to have a natural birth, without any tests and ultrasounds. I didn't want to be back in a doctor or midwife office feeling pressured to do things I wasn't comfortable with, nor feeling supported by my view points and research. So this time around I've chosen to go the route of having a home birth and seeing a certified professional midwife (CPM). This child, thus far has had about the most natural life that anyone can have, seeing as how we haven't so much as taken a pregnancy test, although the ever expanding belly and the regular kicks tells us our little one is growing healthy and strong!

Watch the documentary FRESH for free this week!

My husband and I just finished watching FRESH and we both thought it was great. Makes me almost want to go and buy land to start my own farm for raising cattle and pigs... well almost. Truly though, it does only encourage us more in our endeavor to live a more sustainable lifestyle. While we aren't going to be the next grass-fed cattle farmer, we certainly are working towards a place where we can grow/raise much of what we eat.

This documentary isn't long, only about 70 minutes. Take a little bit of your time and watch it and see how you feel about the food system that America has created.

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FRESH - New thinking about what we're eating

http://www.freshthemovie.com/watch-fresh-streaming-1-week-only/

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One of the first lines in the movie,  

"When I was in college my roommate was from Pakistan and he said 'George you know Americans fear only one thing, inconvenience." 

What a truthful statement this is and is so many different areas of life going far beyond food.

Part 3: A look at how I believe my changing diet with each pregnancy has affected my children and the pregnancies themselves. (pregnancy #3)

This is the third post in this series.  To read about my other pregnancies check out the links below.

Pregnancy 1

Pregnancy 2

Pregnancy 3

Pregnancy 4

Pregnancy #3

My daughter who is almost 2

After my son was born I made some drastic changes in my diet. Falling in love with a brand new baby and realizing that they completely rely on you for everything and you are essentially the starting block for their health for the rest of their lives, can do that to you!

I started on the road to making my food from scratch and began spending a great deal of time researching nutrition. The Weston A. Price Foundation was a huge help in the beginning part of that journey. At the time they were one of the only organizations who stepped away from typical Western medicine and diet to look at how much our eating habits have changed over time and whether those changes have actually benefited us. I'd highly recommend reading up on Dr. Price and his research. While I think it's important to state that I do not adhere to all of the WAPF beliefs, it has been a very helpful guide. I also learned quite a bit from the book The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin. An excellent read and to this day has caused me to evaluate my eating habits through the Word of God. The Bible has a lot to say about what is wise to eat and not. Some of the information involves the laws given to the Jews in the Old Testament. While in the New Testament Jesus did away with those laws, that doesn't mean there wasn't a truly good reason that God had the Jews eat in a certain way. They were known for their good health and strength. I don't believe God gives laws and rules just to make life difficult. Instead I think they are always because He knows what is best for us, as the truly perfect Father that He is. This pregnancy was the beginning of me recognizing that eating God's way, with food, made by Him and not altered by man through genetic modification, commercial processing, over planting causing for the need of pesticides, herbicides and so forth, was the way that would make my family and my body healthy and strong. It frankly came down to recognizing that God does know best and man doesn't.