Saturday Sewing

I started this blog last year in a last ditch effort when I had to shut down my 2nd website/blog due to the fact that we had zero money to pay for it at the time because we bought that money pit of a house. Yes I know I haven't posted much, but honestly it took every bit of my energy to get our house sold and then moved back into our old home. It's been four months since we closed on the sell of our big house and I honestly feel like I'm finally in a place to where I can start writing again. Even if it's just for myself to journal our family adventures.

I'm still trying to figure out how I want to use this blog. Since I'm not currently on any social media and the only reason I was on social media was to keep a diary of sorts of our family life ~ I'm leaning more towards just keeping this place a just that: a family diary plus adding in a little bit of all the homemaking and homesteading wisdom I've acquired over the past 20 years. Which is why today I'm going to share about some sewing I've been doing.

I've been sewing for 13 years. I started sewing when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. During that season of life we were wearing modest skirts and dresses full time and I had just started cloth diapering and I was making my own. Sewing those items was much easier and more cost effective than buying. Even though my mom was/is an excellent seamstress I never had the time for all that when I was living at home; so all my sewing skills are self-taught via trial and error and the internet.

While we don't wear skirts and dresses full time anymore (one of those minor things I wish we'd never changed, but going back isn't always as simple as it seems!) I still enjoy sewing a multitude of different things. I don't get to sew as much as I'd prefer. But, when I get an open slot in my schedule to spend some time sewing, I take full advantage.

Lately my sewing pile is getting quite high. Despite having a million other things to do this past Saturday, I decided to camp out in my sewing room and finally get some things sewn. My top priority was finishing a dress for me and a pair of bloomers for my baby girl to go with a dress I recently made.

In a perfect world my goal would be to have a standard go-to dress pattern that I could make five or so to wear every day. A uniform of sorts. I despise getting dressed and buying clothes. I find dresses more comfortable and modest. I have been working on a pattern over the years, combining and altering to try to find that perfect dress pattern. I am so excited to get the dress finished that I made this Saturday, because it is pretty close to what I have been looking for!!

My main issue in regards to finding a dress pattern is that I don't want my dress to be frumpy, clingy, complicated to make, and it needs to be easy to tweak to add variety. Another MAJOR concern is that it flatters my figure. I find most dresses make me look pregnant even when I'm not 😡 After all I have had 9 babies and while I wear a 4/6 in womens, I carry my weight in my middle. I have NO waist. {{sigh}} Just being honest here, I'm not trying to be vain really. But it would be nice if my every-day dress didn't accentuate my figure in all the wrong ways.

My new favorite dress!

This is a King's Daughters pattern called the Ladies Melinda's Dress. I heavily altered it to try to tweak it to my needs. I purchased the pattern from Candle on the Hill. The fabric is from Hobby Lobby and I paid wayyyy too much money for it. But it's fun to splurge every once in a while. I original bought the fabric to make each of my daughters and me a dress for Easter. Sadly, my oldest daughter's dress did not turn out so I scrapped the idea and went another route for our Easter dresses.

Baby girl's new outfit 

I made Lydia's dress from Simplicity 5695 and the bloomers from another King's Daughters pattern called the Baby Dress Pack. I would highly recommend sizing up on the Simplicity pattern if you make this cute little dress, it was on the small side. 

Not only did my husband help keep the kids occupied while I sewed but he also surprised me with a massive bucket of my favorite treat to help spur me on to finish my sewing projects, lol.

Even though my sewing pile is still a mile high, I'm thrilled to have these projects completed. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can spend some time sewing because I'm 100% looking forward to tackling the next couple items on my sewing docket which includes a couple aprons and another dress for me. So what's on your sewing docket? 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Growing Your Own Food

The family garden used to be a way a life. It played a huge role in providing the bulk of the family's food supply. Eating fresh produce grown by the hands of the family was the norm. Unfortunately, due to the Industrial Revolution times have changed. People no longer have gardens. Sadly, many children don't even know where their food comes from. Such a sad state of affairs. And now the Industrial Age has led to the Technological Age which certainly has not made the situation any better. We're no better off as a country or as a people in the realms of how and what we eat. Obesity is widespread, the family unit is being traded for electronic devices, and our food is being artificially created. Do we really have to wonder why our health is deteriorating?

Well, for our family, things work a little differently. We grow a LOT of the food we eat. Our children grow up in the garden and in the kitchen. It's not just a matter of growing our own food, but preserving and cooking it. No, this is not an easy job. It takes everyone pitching in to make it happen. But, hard work builds character and the memories we make working along side of each other, AND knowing where our food comes from is far worth the extra effort.

Every year is different as to how much we grow and preserve. After all, ultimately only the Lord can  make our gardens grow. But we usually fill several hundred jars and 2 freezer full of food. And for that I am very grateful. We plan our meals around what we can, dehydrated, and freeze. Over the years we've learned how to really focus on eating fresh as well as from what we preserve. Our main garden is our summer garden, but we also have a small fall/winter garden and a small spring garden to help buffer our food supply. The majority of the produce grown during the fall, winter and spring doesn't really lend itself to preserving; although some years we do some minor canning during the off season.

The simple life can easily be confused with an 'easy life', but I can assure you, it isn't! It's non-stop hard work. Working when you're tired, sick, or there's yucky weather. Some days you really have to force yourself to be the voice of encouragement even when you're just as burnt out and exhausted as the rest of your family. But, the reward is oh so worth it. Knowing where our food comes from as well as cultivating strong family bonds through working hard together is a priceless gift we receive through this nontraditional lifestyle.

I'm often asked where a person should start with their home-growing food efforts and I aways say make a list of produce you enjoy eating and then learn how to grow it in your region. There's no sense in trying to grow something you aren't going to eat. Funny thing is the more you learn to grow, the more you want to grow AND as you are growing your own food the more you want to learn to cook and eat what you grow. It's a beautiful round robin of learning and adapting. At least this is how it happened for me. When I first started out homesteading I didn't even know the beginning of all the wonderful, delicious produce God created that we can grow with our very own hands! And I'm still learning every year!!

From there it's as simple as trial and error, perseverance and never giving up. You may be blessed and figure out gardening and growing your own food quickly, but most likely it will take time. Time to build your soil, learn your region, when the best time to grow, and so much more. It's a never ending process. I highly recommend keeping detailed gardening journals. Including what you did to your soil, where you planted crops, when you planted, the weather, and the outcome and any other notes you may find helpful for future plantings. Growing your own food isn't complicated it just takes commitment and dedication to work hard and follow through.

Despite the few people growing their own food these days there are endless resources available to learn how to garden. Anyone really can learn how to grow their own food. 20 years into this lifestyle and we are always trying new methods and planting new crops. Sometimes the new attempts work and sometimes they don't, but we keep trying and plodding forward adapting and regrouping to make our gardens the best they can be to meet the needs of our growing family. Lord willing our children will continue to pass down the knowledge adding to it as they work the soil, plant, and harvest the blessings God gives them.

At the very least may God restore in us all 

the desire to be good stewards of the earth He has given us. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Back to Basics

Sometimes life appears to be moving backwards. Not on purpose, but simply as a result of the reality life, which doesn't always turn out the we had planned. As Christians life can turn into a delicate dance of trying to discern God's will, giant leaps of faith, and praying with all your might that you've made the right decision. Sometimes we know without a shadow of a doubt that our choices are directly inline with God's will and other times not so much.

For most of my adult life (I am about to turn 39) I have longed to own a house and land. A house that wasn't prefabricated; a house that when in need of regular maintenance we could go to the local hardware store and repair it; a house where I didn't have to flee for my life and my babies live's in the pitch black Alabama night for fear of an impending tornado, and on and on and on the list could go as to why I deeply desire a 'site-built' house. The reasons for wanting land is just as long. We've been maxed out with our homesteading capabilities for many years now. Our space is limited. Furthering our animal husbandry isn't even an option. We do the best we can with what we've got AND we're grateful. But I know we could do so much more if given the opportunity.

Well, sometimes when you beg and plead with God unrelentingly for years, He gives you the desires of your heart despite it NOT being His will. The week of Thanksgiving 2017 we put in an offer on a massive 5,000 square foot 'fixer-upper' with 5 acres. We thought our dreams were finally coming true. Our patience and persistence had paid off, this was it, our homestead and final earthly resting place was finally ours! No more praying for land and a 'site-built' house. No more living in fear of tornadoes ~ this house was made of rock, brick, AND had a basement! The 5 acres was perfect for small animal husbandry and any large gardening we wanted to do. It was perfect, or so we thought.

Ecstatic, thrilled, over-the moon, elated, happy; those words don't even begin to describe the joy of finally finding our dream home and moving in. Sadly those emotions were short lived. All that could go wrong, went wrong. Within a few short months we wiped out our life savings and were in financial dire straights. What we thought was God's perfect will and design for our family was quickly replaced with the acute knowledge that we had made a HUGE mistake. The house which we thought was only in need of simple cosmetic fixes ultimately needed to be completely redone from electrical to plumbing and everything in between.

As first-time 'site-built' buyers we received a crude education on the harsh reality of buying a house in the American real estate industry. It's cruel people. It's hardly ethically and realtors will do anything to sell a piece of property. We were lied to and conned in the worst way. We learned valuable lessons on buying and selling houses that most people learn at a much younger age. We thought we had done everything right. We were God-fearing, honest christian folks simply trying to better ourselves and the future of our family. Well, apparently that agenda isn't the norm in this particular industry and any form of accountability is non existent.

Thankfully the Lord delivered us from our horrific house-buying nightmare within one year.
Since we were unable to sell our payed-for mobile home when we bought the big house, we were able to moved back into it after the sell of our house. (Thank God for unanswered prayers!) I won't lie; I was crushed and heartbroken beyond words. Why did this happen to us? Why? Sometimes there are no answers, it's just life. And life often includes set-backs and re-starts. Thankfully God promises he will never leave us or forsake us. Yes the journey can be painful and riddled with hurts that only God can heal, but God's mercies are ever real and present we just have to keep our eyes on the Cross, trusting that even when we make those 'wrong turns' He will always gently guide us back into His loving arms and perfect will.

 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)

If there's one thing I have learned through this whole house-buying experience; it's when you don't know what to do or where to go; go back to what you DO know, what's familiar and the last place you knew you were exactly where God wanted you to be. It's been four months since we moved back into our mobile home and I'm finally finding myself at peace with where God has us. I'm not convinced this is our final earthly resting place and I'm still hopeful one day we will have our 'site-built' house on some land. Will it ever really happen ~ only the Lord knows, but I won't give up praying for it, planning for it, believing one day the desires of my heart will be God's will too. But until that day arrives here we are back where we started 20 years ago ~ happily homesteading our little one acre.

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer

Be Anxious For Nothing

As I am building my blog and combining Modern Mommy Mentor with Country Mama to Many I'm trying to come up with a plan for how I want to post and share my thoughts. After all life seems to run so much more smoothly when there's a plan, at least for me it typically does. 

I have so many thoughts and ideas I'd like to share, and I am excited to get them out there. I'm thrilled to finally be writing again, I didn't realize how much I had missed it. This blog is the perfect outlet for a woman who more often than not finds herself isolated with limited adult interaction. (I'm not begrudging it, it's simply my season of life right now. But, sometimes, I'm just lonely and have so much to say.)

While I don't want to live in bondage to a writing/posting plan, I do want to organize my posts so that folks can know when and what to expect. It doesn't mean I'm posting three times a week or only on those days, this is just a guideline to help me process my thoughts. So I'm thinking something along the lines of this pattern:

Matters of Faith Mondays

What Works for Me Wednesdays

Friday Fellowship

So with keeping to this plan I'd like to share on this fine Monday about a topic that I struggle with quite often: Anxiety. Despite knowing that anxiety is wrong in the eyes of God, I still often find myself over come with it throughout the difficult trial of life. 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

But with Christ I have the freedom to break free from this bondage of anxiety and to replace it with peace and acceptance in that whatever happens is God's perfect will.

"Whatever is lawful is legal. Therefore whatever is legal is lawful. 

Whatever is lawful is ethical. Therefore whatever is ethical is legal"

I recently watched a movie where these words were being recited, in the opening scene, over and over again. Apparently, a very successful finance man was trying to convince himself that the business deal he was in the process of making happen was indeed ethical ~ it wasn't. But, because what he was doing wasn't illegal he'd convinced himself it was indeed ethical. Sadly, he ended up losing his job and so much more from just this one deal. If only he'd listened to his conscious.

We are in the process of selling our house. Mercy what a long and painful story, that I most likely will share one day, but that day is not today. We currently have a tentative contract based on the buyer selling their current home. But, as is due process for the purchase to be finalized when they do sell their home we must have a home inspection. 

Today is our home inspection.

To say I'm nervous is an understatement! to say I'm anxious is an understatement! My current state of affairs is a pure hot mess of gut-wrenching-I-seriously-can-NOT-do-this crazed woman! But, we have no choice, it has to be done. 

The sell of our home is dependent on this one man inspecting it. To make matters worse our realtor has warned us that we got the 'bad luck of the drawl'. This specific inspector, coming to inspect our home, has been the cause of many deals gone 'south' for our realtor. (insert massive sigh and the onset of hysterical crying)

Thankfully I am a woman of faith and I've got this, or more likely God has got this! He knows all about our financial woes and our fears, struggles, and anxiety in regards to the NEED of us selling this house ASAP. Trust me The Good Lord has gotten an ear full every.single.day. for months from me in regards to the sell of this house! But, we all know God does things in His own timing. So, I must remain patient and trust that He has my good will in the forefront of all His doings and either the inspection will go well or it will not. Either way it will be God's will and He will carry us through.

Funny thing is our realtor made some suggestions for us to do in the hopes of making the inspection go more smoothly. Are you kidding me? Seriously, is this legal? Is this ethical? Why should anything I do effect the outcome of the inspection of my home? Is this really happening to me? Why is adulting so hard?

Then my thoughts rush to our home inspection. Did the same thing happen to them. Is that why so many things were not what they said they were to be once we took ownership of the home? Did they sway their inspector and that's why we suffered the consequences of a really bad deal? (Oh, but the difference from us to them is that we've fixed all those issues that were 'missed' during our home inspection!)

I'm finding that throughout this mess that if I keep my eyes on Christ and continuously lean upon His Holy Word; my fears are as water rushing under a bridge. But, I'm not going to lie, when I stop and think about anything other than those precious bible verses I've memorized the anxiety nearly over comes me making me vehemently ill and unable to catch my breath. 

"For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13

Lord willing at the close of this day our home will have passed inspection and we will be well on our way to finalizing the sell of our home. If not then it just wasn't meant to be and I'm sure the Lord has something else all the more better for our future. We just have to keep remembering that simple truth! 

We are His and He is ours!

(through the good times and the not so good times)

So, how do you handle anxiety and stress? What are your favorite bible verse to quote during times of overwhelming fear? 

With Love and Hope,

Jennifer

How to Exercise When You're A Busy Mom

I am extremely passionate about being healthy and helping other women achieve optimum health. Here's another post from Modern Mommy Mentor regarding how busy mamas can make exercise a daily part of their lives....

Lets face it, it's hard enough to exercise before kids, but once babies are in the picture exercising quickly gets put on the back burner! A mom's job is endless: 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It doesn't matter if you work outside the home or not, the responsibilities of raising children is nonstop and demanding. The best way to keep up with this magnitude of responsibility is to maintain your health. Proper nutrition and daily exercise are essential to keeping YOU in the best health you can be to effectively manage your beautiful tribe.

The question remains: How does a busy mom maintain an exercise routine when she can barely manage all of her daily tasks as it is? Mothers can make every excuse in the 'book' not to exercise. Removing those excuses is the key to creating a healthy exercise routine which can carry you through motherhood and beyond. The following steps are simple yet effective ways to insure you are taking the best care of yourself through physical activity; so that you can adequately serve your family.

• Ask the Lord to help you establish a life-long exercise routine that is within your physical capabilities.
• Don't compare yourself to other women, especially fitness models who have most likely been 'airbrushed'.
• Commit to waking each morning before your children to exercise a minimum of 5 days a week.
• Choose short, yet effective workouts such as HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) combined with weighted exercise (use some dumb bells, they help to build strong bones and keep osteoporosis at bay).
• Invite an accountability partner to join along in your fitness journey. Share your victories and struggles with each other, but most importantly hold each other accountable to your daily workouts!

HIIT workouts have been my saving grace to remaining committed to a daily exercise regime. I exercise 6 days a week for 15 minutes with moderate exercise sequences which target my whole body. Through this type of exercise I have been able to lose 50 pounds and maintain the weight-loss for 6 years, and nearly 4 pregnancies. This types of short yet intense workouts are super easy to incorporate into a busy moms schedule. For more details on how I use HIIT in my busy mom life, check out this post.

One of a mom's most important assets is her health. Without a healthy body she is unable to sufficiently manage her home and serve her family.  Our families deserves the best that we can give them. When we purpose to maintain a healthy diet and remain committed to daily exercise our bodies respond with improved sleep, ample energy, positive mindset, as well as reduced sickness and injuries. I encourage you to make today the last day of excuses in regards to NOT exercising. The steps listed above are the exact ones I have used to remain faithful to my daily exercise routine for the past 6 years.  I invite you to use the same steps to make your health a priority with a personal workout program that can easily fit into your busy mom life.

With Love and Hope,
Jennifer

HIIT: A Busy Mom's Best Kept Exercise Secret

Here's another post from Modern Mommy Mentor in regards to how I strive to stay healthy....

Six years ago I was 31 years old and 50 pounds overweight. I have always exercised, mostly the latest video fad workout program or running. Yet, I could never seem to get rid of all the weight before we were pregnant again. It was a very frustrating cycle and not one I really wanted to continue repeating. I knew there had to be a better way to permanently get the baby weight off and keep it off.

Now with our debt-free, one income budget, there is no way we could afford a gym membership. My husband works long hours and I really don't like disappearing the moment he gets home to go for a long run. My only option, if I am going to exercise, is to do it at home. To make things even more complicated, we don't have the space for huge exercise equipment like treadmills or weight machines. In my desperation to once and for all lose my excess weight, I began an intense search to find a fitness program that I could affordably do from home, fit into my crazy busy life, and that would actually work!

In comes the best health and fitness program for busy moms: HIIT, which stands for high intensity interval training. After hours of research on the internet, the Lord led me to the most amazing workout program I had ever heard of. It sounded too good to be true! The proponents claimed that I could exercise 15 minutes a day, 6 days a week and rapidly lose weight. In complete desperation, and not believing this system would remotely work, I threw caution to the wind and starting doing daily HIIT workouts. And do you know what? I actually started to lose weight!!!! It was a complete miracle!

I won't over-exaggerate the truth here, I did decide to cut my sugar intake at this time. To my complete and utter disbelief, within three months I had lost 50 pounds!! Honestly, I was only exercising 15 minutes, 6 days a week and the only dietary change I made was to cut out my sugar, and I was actually losing weight. It was one of the greatest gifts I had ever been given and I made a commitment then, to do my best to share it with as many women as possible. That was nearly 7 years ago and I have never looked back. I have been able to maintain my HIIT exercises (altered slightly) throughout my pregnancies, which has enabled me to quickly lose the baby weight within just a few weeks of giving birth.

How I Make HIIT Fit into My Busy Life

• I create two monthly, 15 minute HIIT exercise sequences which include half cardio and half weighted exercises (typically with dumb bells). One Sequence focuses on upper body, while the other focuses on lower body.
• I invested in a HIIT timer which allows me to easily perform my exercises each day. You can also use an interval APP.
• Each HIIT workout sequence is divided into 15 exercises. 50 seconds of exercise as fast as I can do them, and 10 seconds of rest or set up for next exercise. I design my workouts so that I alternate 8 'cardio' (usually speed roping) exercises with 7 different weighted exercises like arm curls or squats.
• I alternate my two HIIT workouts Monday through Saturday and rest on Sundays.
• I make a point to wake up before my children each day to get my exercising done before they are underfoot and in the way. It's my time to focus on my health and keeping my body strong and healthy.

And that's it, a super easy exercise system that ALL moms can fit into their busy schedules. I mean, seriously, we all can squeeze in 15 minutes to do something for ourselves to help make us stronger and healthier, so that we can better serve our families. With HIIT there is no excuse, you can easily design your exercise sequences to fit your personal fitness levels AND you don't need expensive equipment, memberships, or huge slots of time carved out of your already busy days to exercise. A HIIT timer or app and a few dumb bells, that is all I've used for the past six and a half years to LOSE 50 POUNDS and keep the weight off for 4 subsequent pregnancies! Trust me when I say HIIT is the best kept exercise secret for all busy moms who desire to be fit and healthy! If I can make it work, so can you.

With Love & Hope,
Jennifer

Ditching the Clutter: A Busy Mom's Guide to Home Organization

I truly believe organization is the key to productivity and lets face it wives and mothers are responsible for doing the impossible. Our proverbial plates are often spilling over with things we must get done. Here's a post I wrote for Modern Mommy Mentor for how I try to keep the clutter to a minimum....

For anyone who knows me or who has read any of my blog posts; knows that I have a very type-A personality. I thrive on planning, order, and structure. When I started having children I had to learn a whole new way of living. I’d much rather have my children than the cleanest, most organized home, but there are some bonuses to preferring a systematic way of handling life. I find that life just works so much better when our home is organized.

The scriptures tell us that even God prefers life to be handled with order and decency. Should order be achieved in lieu of serving God and our families, no, but the two should work harmoniously together. When our lives are organized it allow us to think and work more effectively. We must first acknowledge and accept our need for organization and structure. Second, organizing our homes must be a family effort. Mom cannot be the sole proprietor of keeping a home organized. Husbands and children play important roles for maintaining an organized home.

Getting every family member involved as active participants makes organization easily achievable.
After acknowledging a need for an organized home and convincing family members of their vital role in keeping a home organized, the most important key to organization is STOP BUYING! Before I buy something I pray about it and wait for God’s answer, no impulse buying for this family. You might be surprised at how God answers when you start praying about your spending habits. I often find that after a week or two I really didn’t need the stuff I thought was essential. It’s amazing how much of the clutter starts disappearing when you stop buying unnecessary products.

3 Easy Steps to Ditch the Clutter

• Simplify, consolidate, and eliminate: This pertains mostly to the kitchen and bathroom, but it could easily be applied to any room. Many products can be combined to do the same job. Such as using one all-purpose cleaner or using a bar soap to wash and shave with. The mainstream media and marketing gurus have convinced us to use a different product for every task which promotes unnecessary and excessive spending. When in reality many homemade, non-toxic products can be used for multiple jobs and work just as well. Many utensils and tools can be consolidated.
• Baskets, totes, and uniformity: Loose objects go perfect in baskets and totes. My cabinets are organized with baskets holding an assortment of loose items, such as lids, canning supplies, toilet paper, essential oils, medicine, etc. My basket system is purely a time-saving necessity. Everything has a specific location which allows me to spend my time actually doing the tasks at hand as opposed to searching for the tools required. Uniformity works great too. When things are done in a specific yet simple way, children can easily learn to be willing participants in keeping their home organized. For instance, we have an array of different blocks. Each type of block is kept in a tote and all totes are stored in one specific location. Yes, they can play with the blocks, but when they are finished playing, they know where and how to put them away.
• Purge: Before Christmas and all birthdays toys are purged. My reasoning with the children is; "To get new toys they must get rid of some of the old". We cannot keep every toy they receive. Any broken toys are thrown away immediately. Books and homeschooling materials are kept in one location and purged yearly too. As for clothes and shoes, we keep a pretty simple variety. Each child has an average of four sets of 'play clothes', three sets of 'good clothes', 2 pairs of night clothes, and a weeks worth of under clothes. Shoes are kind of iffy, truthfully each chid has one good and one play, but somehow there are always seems to be strays that need to be put away in storage.

Organizing a home should not be a burdensome task, it should be done as an extension from a desire to create a peaceful home environment. From my personal experience our home operates much better when everything is in its place. The heart of organization begins with Christ and ends with families joyfully working together to keep a home running in decency and in order.

With Love and Hope,
Jennifer

This is a picture of the kitchen in the big house we bought and sold. This is not a staged picture, it was exactly what it looked like after each meal. :)