Blizzard...

The other day Elizabeth says "mom, remember when we had 3 ft of snow? Now we can run barefoot!"
I just realized I never posted all these pictures!! 

The pregnant goaties presented quite the challenge. They each needed a safe pen. 

These two had a lot of fun inside and out! 

Lots and lots of hot tea! 

Baby Charlie..

Carmella

Daisy

Ben

Hunter

Benjamin

Mustard and his ladies

Misty.. winter was hard on her. 

Snow storm fun... 

Prep in case the power goes off.. 

Headphones for the momma. 

SNOW!

Gretal

Sledding! 

This was def a storm to remember. But we never lost power. We stayed warm and cozy and all our animals stayed safe. We made lots of memories. 

Food Allergy Freezer Meals

We have been rather busy lately. Cooking Bubbie's special meals has become a dreaded task and the child has the worst eating habits! So I went to Facebook for some inspiration!

 I got lots of great suggestions from facebook! I was motivated to make some freezer meals. Because one little boy eats a whole lot less then my 4 preteens. This was actually fun!! Truly it is not a new idea but one of those moments when a tired mom brain feels great relief that someone else had great suggestions!

Bubbie lives on grassfed beef, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, goat milk and wheat. The other kids are gluten intolerant. It creates lots of challenges when cooking.

I made little mini (grassfed, raised by us beef) meatloaves in muffin tins. Then I made a mashed potatoes with locally raised potatoes and goat milk. I froze the mashed potatoes in muffins tins. Then I put one muffin of mashed potatoes, one muffin of meatload and a handful of carrots in a ziplock bag. Perfect meal for my little munchkin!! I made 12 of these meals.

Second I made a batch of Shepherds Pie. Grassfed beef with gravy (goat milk and flour) carrots and mashed potatoes. I froze these in a double serving portion so they can be shared with sissy.


Last but not least I threw some potatoes, carrots, onions and a roast from Ben, the beef into the crockpot, left it cook for hours and hours until it was all soft and yummy. I put these into muffin pans too. It allows me to freeze things in a less messy way. I ended up with a month worth of balanced meals! Sooo freeing! I can not wait to use these meals!

I am also trying to switch Nesiah to a healthier diet while trying to figure out what foods she is reacting to. So I doubled some of the meals so she can have some too.

This way I can cook daily for the 4 big kids and myself. I can pull out freezer meals for the 2 little ones. I will also have ready made meals for those times when Bubbie is a sitter or we get a last minute dinner invitation.  I am always stressing trying to grab something for him to eat when we have pizza parties etc..

Real Life!

Some weeks life is just exhausting!

Our Momma Goat had babies! I have pictures but they are not uploaded yet!

The babies got to cold and did not drink right away. We brought them inside and bottle fed them. But then I could not handle the mess in the midst of everything else. So we took them back out to the momma and every 4 hours around the clock for the next 24 hours I went out and helped them latch on Momma and drink! They survived the coldest temps of the season in the barn!

My kids broke my last lamp for the living room. Long story but my kids are getting to be big and it's been COLD for weeks now! My boys also broke the glass globe on the basement lamp and my laundry basket. Yes, I make them pay for the things they break!

                               

We live in a house with 2 heating systems. One is forced air and  heats the master bedroom (girl's room) and the other is hot water heat and heats the rest of the house.

The second unit is very old, older then me! It does not work well and uses up massive amounts of fuel oil. So for the past 4 years I have heated the main house with 2 Eden Pure heaters!

One evening this week, after years of using these two heaters, I plugged one heater into the wall and it smelled dangerously hot within minutes then shut off. I got rid of it.

When I went to unplug my second heater.  There was black charring on both the plug and the outlet! I threw that one out too. Now to shop for a new heater!

                                     

This week I realized that I was going to run out of hay AND my main entrance gate has 2 ft of  packed snow on both sides! There is no way I was getting that open and there was no way a truck would get up through the pastures from the other gate!!  Long story short, but after much prayer I called a neighbor that sells hay. He saved me by delivering a load of hay on Saturday!

 Tonight I made a big pot of gluten free ravoli, only to discover that instead of being filled with meat it was filled with BUTTERNUT squash! I REALLY dislike butternut squash!

I decided it was time for "book it" pizza! So I loaded all the kids in the mini van, everyone was fussing about the cold and squishing into the van. I was distracted and went to back up and BACKED INTO my big handicapped accessible van!! #livingmynightmare

Thankfully, the big van has massive bumpers and it didn't hardly scratch it. But the mini van has a nice dent in the bumper! But, hey we got pizza!

This has been the coldest, most miserable week for the season. We have spend hours keeping the animals warm/safe and the kids entertained.We made donuts and had a hot cocoa party in the barn.

We loved on the baby goaties. We drove on icy, snowy roads through snow squalls to pick up a bulk order of groceries. This is the stuff memories are made of!

Blizzard 2016

We had a blizzard... snow for over 24 hours straight. It just kept on snowing...

We prepped.. because being snowed in with 6 kids, and a bunch of animals is quite stressful. We prepped our generator, brought down our lanterns, dug out flashlights, charged phones and bought groceries. :) We made sure we had meds and back up meds. 

 It started earlier then we anticipated.. Beautiful snow... thankfully it was not windy. It just snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed. 

Saturday morning the hike to the barn was not to bad...

    
By Saturday night the Struggle was real. It was a HARD trek. The snow as up to my thighs. Literally over my knees! I was very thankful or the brand new pair of muck boots I had bought! (with my Christmas money that I was saving to redo my bedroom!)
Thankfully by Sunday morning we had a path packed down. We currently walk on top of approx 2 ft of snow. It is def an adventure but much easier! 

                                  
We repeatedly dug out the barn doors... We really had to be careful because it kept piling up..



The animals are all crammed into the barn... I will do a seperate post on that! But it took some creativity to get everyone in safely. The horses don't share nicely and the goats are all very pregnant!~

We love the beautiful sunshine on Sunday! 

Early morning sunrise after the storm..

This was our gauge of how much snow we had... it just piling up...

Some very kind neighbors came and plowed us out on Saturday around noon, then again Saturday evening AND again on Sunday morning! We were so blessed by their kindness!

The kids had a total blast on the massive snow piles! 

The roads were a mess...

My kitchen was a mess... 

The great outdoors however, was gorgeous! 

On Monday morning the boys dug out my van! 

Note the snow up to the middle of the gate! 

This blizzard will def be one we remember for a very long time. I am so thankful that we live out in the country. Yes, we have a lot of work. But our driveway and street are completely clear we are free to come and go. The kids had a total blast sledding with friends once it warmed up a bit. We have dug out caves, clean up piles of mud, drank gallons of hot cocoa and watched entirely to many movies!

Christmas...

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We had a fun, normal, low key Christmas. Such an amazing blessing compared to the stress of last year. 

We were blessed by so many people over the holidays! A friend's family brought the kids all new shoes and pjs. They stayed for dinner and games. The kids were so happy for their new friends and their blessings! 

Lee made this star for me! The picture is rather crappy but I was very tickled with the star! He used scrap wood and small nails to create it off a pinterest image. 

This picture portrays our Christmas season. So much fun, so much down to earth, not really perfect but good, quality family time.


We did not focus so much on gifts this year, we did not take much time off school. We just hung out and had lots of fun over a lot of days. We did fun things with friends, we watched movies and made memories. Taking pictures was not on the top of my priority list! 

Homeschool Art

Several weeks ago, we decided to take a fun day off.  Shopping, lunch and art class was on our agenda~ 

First we headed to Target. Now I rarely shop in stores with all my kiddoes. It is just not easy and I really do not enjoy shopping. So target is a rare treat for my kids. I had some returns to make then we browsed for a bit. 

After Target we met up with a friend at a local Spanish restaurant to try out their empanadas! We had a quick lunch before heading to the homeschool art class just down the street. The big kids had a total blast. Bubbie was not impressed. He was tired and cranky. Sitting quietly was not happening! 

The kids really enjoyed their painting time!!
We finished off the day with treats from a yummy bakery!! We have been working hard on sticking to a budget so not much fun has been happening. But I showed the kids the benefit of saving, as we pulled out our "fun" envelope and splurged on a fun day with no guilt!! 

Serving Others..

 BEcause we have been blessed we pass on the blessings. God has been good to us in the past number of years. We live in a community where people are constantly looking for ways to serve others. As a single mom with lots of kids I can not ever express enough gratitude for all the things we are blessed with.

So we have decided to pass on the blessings. We found a local homeless shelter that welcomes young volunteers. Once a month we visit the shelter and cook lunch for the clients. These are single moms, young women and men who do NOT have support systems or have made choices that have burned bridges with their support systems.

My kids love to serve here. They help plan the menu, grocery shop and then cook and serve. Their favorite part is dishing out the food for the clients of the shelter.

The best part: We do not have to clean up!! 

Elizabeth is making biscuits..

I love teaching my kids how to prepare and serve food to large groups. We have been blessed with friends who join us and help serve.