Siblings

While Lily sat in her bumbo seat this afternoon, Jacob decided to serenade her with his ukulele. She loved it of course, anything her big brother does to make her happy is alright with her. He showed me his creative art work, his legs being the canvas, what else! Thankfully it's washable, I have learned to always purchase washable markers and paint for this kiddo. I am just so amazed by the bond that my children already have between them. I encourage love, kindness, and gentleness to be given by each other. I want my children to grow up respecting one another. Yes, I do know that differences in opinion will arise at some point down the road and little spats may ensue, but for now I will relish in the sweetness between them.

 

Blessings~

T.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Make Do With What You Have - Make It Work For You

Aaron and I, for the past couple of years, have been planning, dreaming, and talking of our desire to "live off the land" and grow/make most of our food, make soap, have chickens for eggs and meat, and possibly a goat for milk. Basically going old school and living like the pioneers, ok well maybe not so drastic, we will keep our electricity. Now that we have a little bit of property and the means to live this way, we are slowly making strides of being mostly self-sufficient. Our spring and summer garden gave us quite a bit for which we are thankful, and now that summer is winding down we will begin planting the fall garden. The agrarian lifestyle is making a comeback, even in urban areas people are finding a way to grow their food and live off of what they can make with their hands. In a world that is based on the idea of more and convenience, it's easy to just go with the flow and not really stop and think about where your food and other common items comes from. We gave up on buying store bought bread and I now make our loaves every week. I made a sourdough starter a couple of weeks ago and have kept it going so that we have fresh sourdough loaves as often as we want. Sourdough is probably the healthiest form of bread there is as it is a fermented food. Lots of live probiotics, good for the gut. I learned something new with making sourdough, after a little research, true sourdough bread is not as sour as most store bought sourdough breads taste. So far it tastes great! I made a loaf of molasses sourdough last week, did you know that molasses is the only natural sweetener that has vitamins and minerals in it. Our chickens are finally laying, YAY!!!! They gave us the first egg two weekends ago, now they lay about an egg a day. Pretty soon though we will see two or more a day. We have two laying hens now and the two little ones will be mature enough to lay in the next month or so. This lifestyle is hard work but so worth it!

 

Blessings~

T.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Bubbles and A Cool Summer Breeze

Yesterday was a bubble kind of day. The late afternoon was surprisingly cool and breezy, that cool breeze blew in some much needed rain last night. I was awoken to the lovely sound of rain this morning and just about shouted Hallelujah! Instead I quietly breathed a prayer of thanks, didn't want to wake Lily, she has been sleeping so good lately. Jacob, Lily, and I enjoyed some bubbles and the breeze together. Jacob showered Lily with bubbles and kisses,  then showed her his airplane, explaining to her how it flies. Lily blew some bubbles too, spit bubbles. I love my babies so much, I want to soak up every minute of their being little and innocent. The sweetness of their play and love for each other, what  a blessing!  When daddy got home Max and Daisy playfully fought for his attention, and got lots of belly rubs and behind the ear scratches. It was a beautiful and happy evening for us all.

 

Blessings~

T.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice Casserole - Recipe

I thought I would change things up a bit and share a recipe with ya'll. I love how easy, quick and inexpensive this casserole is to make.

 

Ingredients:

 

3 large chicken thighs (I used the bone in, skin on - this keeps the meat moist)

1 large head of broccoli, chopped (you may also use a bag of frozen broccoli florets)

1/2 block of Velveeta, cubed

1 can of cream of chicken condensed soup

2 cups of rice

4 cups of water

pepper to taste

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, place the chicken thighs in a baking dish, sprinkle some salt over the thighs, cover with foil and bake until done. While the chicken is cooking chop the broccoli to desired size, add to a large pot and cover with water, place a lid on it and boil until soft. When the broccoli is done strain and set aside. Measure 4 cups of water in a pot, add the rice and bring it to a boil. Once it begins to boil place a lid on it and turn down the temp and allow to simmer until done (cooking time will vary depending on whether you used white or brown rice, follow instruction on the package). When your chicken is done place the thighs on a cutting board to cool. While chicken is cooling, add the can of cream of chicken soup to a saucepan, fill the empty can with water and add this to soup and heat . Once warmed add the Velveeta cubes, stirring until it is fully melted. When the chicken has cooled enough to handle pull the meat off the bone and shred. Add the broccoli and chicken to the rice, stir to combine. Then pour the cheese mixture over everything, stir to combine. Enjoy!!!

 

 



Summer Days

Hello all! I feel as though it has been forever since my last posting. Life has been blissfully busy with my little ones and working on the house. My husband is so crafty and has been using his free time to make the backyard look amazing! He is in the process of building us a pergola and fountain next to my potted flower garden. It will be our very own oasis! He is so resourceful, finding a lot of free, natural materials to build the pergola and fountain. We love free stuff! Who doesn't, really. He found some beautiful, fresh cut, white maple logs from our local incinerator, that is where we also get free mulch for our garden. I cannot wait to see the finished product. Our chickens have yet to start laying, hopefully soon. We have read that the heat can prevent them from laying, it has been 100 + degrees here lately. I am looking forward to Autumn! Lily is getting so big, she laughs and smiles all the time now. I just want to kiss her and hold her all day long. Big brother loves her so much and helps me out by talking to her when she is fussy. He tells me all the time how strong he is and that he can hold

Lily(under my close supervision, of course). My life is so blessed and filled with love for my family and my God! I do hope all of you are having a wonderful and blessed Summer.

 

Blessings~

T.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lily Claire's Birth Story

I am so pleased to share the birth story of our second miracle baby with ya'll, she is truly a miracle to us. We were so surprised that I was even pregnant again after 4 years of trying with no success. God has a plan and all things happen in His timing, a lesson learned through our journey of infertility.

 

 My pregnancy with Lily began with no problems, I sailed right through with little complaint. Towards the end of my second trimester things took a turn in a not so positive direction. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I was no stranger to this as I had it with my son. I was able to control it with diet and exercise. This lasted for a short while, even with dietary changes and walking my blood sugar was still elevated. Next came the swelling in my feet and ankles, I never did swell with Jacob so this was new to me. At my last several midwife appointments my blood pressure had gone from being perfect to elevated and quite concerning. On May 21st I went in to see my midwife to have a test run due to my elevated blood pressure. They very quickly realized that I was severely pre-eclamptic and the baby would have to be born very soon. I was admitted into the hospital that evening. I was only 36 weeks along at this point. The induction process began the following morning. I was so thankful to have my family present, they had come down from Oklahoma for Memorial Day. We had a big weekend planned of grilling and fun, little did we know that would not happen as we would be celebrating the arrival of our daughter.

 

The nurse began my Pitocin drip sometime that morning, true labor didn't really began until that evening. I did my best to labor without medications as long as I could, I did have an epidural. Things appeared to not be going well, Lily's heart rate had dropped and my labor was not progressing as it should have. My grandparents had come in for a quick hello and to pray over me. We all joined hands and began to pray, the sweet and powerful presence of the Lord moved into that room. As I began to weep I felt a peace sweep over me and I knew in that moment that everything would be ok. Soon after prayer my labor fell into a perfect pattern and picked up quickly. Not long after that my midwife came in and checked me, I went from dilated to a 6 to a 10 very quickly. There were a lot of people in the delivery room that night, my midwife, the OBGYN, a pediatric doctor for when the baby was born, several nurses, my original midwife from the birth center I started with, and several of my family members. My husband told everyone that when the baby arrived he would announce the gender, as we wanted to be surprised until the birth. I began pushing at 8:39pm, I was able to push Lily's head out but unfortunately her shoulders got stuck. The OBGYN stepped in and helped to pull her out. It took a total of 20 minutes. She came out blue and not breathing, her cord had been wrapped around her neck. She was born at 8:59pm and we later found out that our church was having a prayer meeting that night and right around the time of her birth they had begun to pray for me and the baby. More family was gathered in the waiting room and when they found out she was not breathing they gathered around and prayed. Color returned to her body and she began to cry with life. I cried and thanked the Lord for giving us such a precious gift. With tears streaming down his face, my husband announced we had a baby girl. Everyone in the room cheered and thanked God for this little life.

 

Lily weighed 8lbs 13.6oz, she was very puffy from the diabetes I suffered with during pregnancy. She was born with several complications which resulted in her transfer to a children's hospital NICU in Fort Worth. I was unable to hold my baby for the first 24 hours, thankfully her daddy went to the NICU with her and stayed by her side. I was unable to be moved due to the type of medication they had put me on for my blood pressure. I was released the next day and I went over to the NICU and stayed with Lily for the next 4 days. Every day prayer went up for her and every day something either came out or off of Lily. She had a feeding tube, two IV's, and monitors strapped to her little body. There is power in prayer!!! We were finally released to go home on Wednesday, May 27th.

 

We give God all the glory and praise for the miracle he performed in our beautiful little girl. She is now a healthy little baby and has such a proud big brother. We are so thankful to be home and together as a family. Thank you Jesus!!!

 



Coming Soon...

I waned to let ya'll know that our precious miracle baby #2 arrived into this world on May 22nd at 8:59pm. The Lord blessed us with a precious little girl, we named her Lily Claire. I will be sharing her birth story here soon. Things have been quite busy and tiring as expected with a newborn, so bear with me. We are so thrilled she is here and could not have asked for a better baby. She is perfect!

 

Blessings~

T.