Wait! Isn't that little diddy supposed to be counting down and not up? Regardless, up in number we go! If you've heard, you heard right; we will be HAPPILY, THANKFULLY welcoming baby #6 in mid-Feb 2013.
This surprise announcement brings a flurry of various activity to our home. We are now on a sniper-style house hunt. We take no prisoners. There will be no mercy. I may just trip you if you get in my way. (Fine. I won't trip you.) Our current house is small for our family the way it stands, but it hasn't been that big of a deal. We love the land and we love being in the country. What drives me insane is that when the kids get rowdy I feel like they are ON TOP of me and I can't get away! I'm thankful for the Lord's provision in sending us to this house. It got us out of the city where our children were playing around druggies and thieves and it made me nervous just to let them go outside. It made me realize that I really DO NOT want to live in the city, ever again, and it brought us to living a cleaner, more cost-efficient lifestyle as far as homesteading goes. However, now it would benefit everyone in the house's sanity if we had more room. I've been ultra-busy lately; tired from early pregnancy and finishing up my first round of graduate classes along with taking the girls to various softball practices and games. I also volunteered to help serve food at our church's summer youth program, which is proving to be SO fun! Children's ministry is right up my ally. Thankfully some of that will be ending in the next few weeks and we will get down to business as far as house-hunting goes.
Another activity that is necessary due to our upcoming bundle is car hunting. Yep, we OUTGREW our current van. So, we will be hunting for an 8 passenger vehicle towards the end of the year. We really want a Honda Odyssey, but we'll see.
We know the Lord will provide a bigger home and vehicle for us. Baby #6 was not a surprise to Him and He already has plans to meet our needs. "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you
were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the
nations."(Jer. 1:5)
So, somewhere in my busy life I need to find time to research how to properly go organic as far as eating. It occurred to me that I should probably be eating healthier than ever, especially considering this makes four back to back pregnancies. What is the best way to eat healthy? Organically. Obviously, we do some healthy eating already. It is what started our entire homesteading adventure; the desire to cut crap out of our food that doesn't need to be there. We no longer buy pink slime meat, nitrite filled-bacon, etc. BUT, we still buy a lot of yucky stuff. I love to make sandwiches and found out today that lunch meat is one of the most processed foods on the market. I also learned some things about eating stuff that is "low-fat".
No, this stuff may not cause cancer. But do you really want to gamble with your health, or the health of your kids? That's my big thing. Natural is obviously the best way to go, so just do it and don't gamble with your health! Yes, it is expensive. As much as I would love to make all of my own organic foods, it just isn't possible. We have the chickens for meat and eggs and usually we have a garden. Sadly, we didn't get time to put in a garden this year, but with all I have to do this summer that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. (Seriously, I'm busier than Santa on Christmas eve.) But everything else we have to buy from our local farmers market, our local butcher, etc.
Doing some research on the subject allowed me to come to some realizations. #1. There is NO reason for me to be buying that yucky processed lunch meat! MAKE YOUR OWN! Go to your butcher and grab a chicken/turkey/whatever and throw it in the oven, whole. (I suggested to hubby that we get a smoker. As you can imagine, he was on board for that.) When it is done cooking, slice it up! TA-DA. You have lunch meat that isn't processed. Sandwiches all around! On me! #2. Low-fat items ARE BAD FOR YOU. This includes low-fat milk. Taking the fat out seems to take a bunch of other stuff that they then just replace with things that are far less healthy for you than fat. So, we will be going to whole non-homogenized organic milk. #3. I'm wasteful. This is kind of my own personal revelation. I sometimes forget about veggies and stuff I buy and they go bad. Sometimes I'll even know they are going bad and still don't get to them. Why am I not freezing this stuff? We bought this huge freezer for our mild version of homesteading and I don't use it to save myself money? I'm going to start chopping these veggies up to throw in the freezer. In a family of 8 wastefulness is never welcome.
Also, I'm going to give bread making another shot. As adept as I am in the art of meal-making and dessert-making, for some reason bread eludes me. Since I'm not one to stop trying when I fail, the only reason I haven't tried again is because I didn't see the point in making one loaf for a family as large as ours. On the other hand, if I spend the day making many loaves, we might not eat it before it goes bad. But, I just found out today that bread freezes! So, a-bread adventuring I will go again! Maybe I'll take a shortcut and buy a bread machine. Hmmmmm. Bread machine opinions, anyone? I don't let failures stop me and I don't typically take shortcuts, but for the sake of cutting down time, I might take a bread machine shortcut.
Another adventure; fruit snacks. My boys love them, but man are they expensive! I buy the little Fruit Smiles in the huge box to try to save money on them. I absolutely cringe every time my kids eat these. They cannot possibly be good for them, but I fell prey to the handiness of them and the kids like them. There simply has to be a homemade, healthy, cheap alternative to them, though. I'm looking into it and will be trying those SOON as well.
Now my only problem is finding time to find some new and healthy recipes and make an organic shopping list. I've been interrupted like 7 times just during this blog as it is. It's a wonder I keep my thought processes together. Or do I? Hmmmmmmmm
Well, if you've slept through most of the post let me give you the highlights so you can get on with your day;
#1. New baby coming
#2. New baby coming causes frantic hunt for bigger house and vehicle
#3. New baby coming prompts even healthier eating than we were already trying to adhere to; i.e we are going organic.
P.S Chicken butchering happening this weekend. I hope to create a blog on how that goes!
If anyone has a good fruit snack or bread recipe, let me know. The bread needs to be nearly fail proof, since bread appears to be the evil stepsister of my typically excellent cooking capabilities.
Love and Smiles,
Chala
Check out this food blog! www.100daysofrealfood.com
