Happy Tuesday, ladies! I hope you have had a blessed April so far. Today I’ve been able to catch my breath for a minute after a very busy few weeks.

We have been finishing up schoolwork, and are almost done! As much as I love homeschooling, having a little break in the middle of the year is nice. We do continue on with some things year round…I like to encourage my children to read good books all of the time! Little by little, subjects are being completed. Hooray!

I’ve been working on Etsy orders, which has been so much fun. There have been a lot of llama and Pooh bear birthdays lately! It is such a joy to partner with parents in some small way to make their child’s birthday special. There is a 10% off sale going on in my shop right now!

Besides general family stuff, two things have been on my mind lately. Finances and goats, ha! Two very different things, right?

After working really hard to improve our finances and live frugally for three years, we transitioned into paying for a lot of renovations for our fixer upper. These renovations are needed, but they are taking more time and costing more money than I ever imagined.

I’m at the point where I would like to switch back into frugal/savings mode in a big way. I’ve been watching Dave Ramsey’s YouTube channel and reading financial books for motivation.

I’m thinking really hard about planning a “No Spend May” for myself. Perhaps this will give me the boost I need to start saving instead of spending once more. We will need to continue working on our renovations, but I think a “savings break” will help to boost my moral.

One of our big expenditures this month has been lamancha goats. We have purchased four, and have put a deposit on another. Since we decided to bring bucklings onto our land, we are now building a secure fence for them. So far, between the bucks and materials, we are in about $800. We still need to put together housing for them, too. Right now they are staying in a covered ten by ten pen, with several walks throughout the day.

I was so good at waiting to purchase doelings until we had their set up in place. I haven’t been as patient with the bucklings, ha!

These lamanchas have been in our long term plan for awhile now, and I don’t regret implementing the plan…but financially, it isn’t very fun.

Before I know it, our set up will be complete. That’s what I keep telling myself at least. And our kiddos love the goats. Our eleven year old wants to be a “goat farmer” now.

We spent some time at our cabin, visiting with my mother-in-law this week. My son cut the grass while my little guys caught crawfish and salamanders in the creek. Such fun!

I also tried a chocolate chip recipe off of the back of a Great Value Chocolate Chip bag this week. It was a winner! I haven’t bought store bought cookies in ages, and I thought it would be nice to make a treat for my family without unnecessary preservatives. I used organic cane sugar, and one stick of butter instead of one cup as the recipe called for. They are already asking for more.

I hope you and your family have a great week. April is just flying by, isn’t it?

Blessings!

He who earnestly seeks good finds favor, But trouble will come to him who seeks evil. He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like foliage.

Proverbs 11:27‭-‬28

So much of this week has been glorious! The weather has warmed up in our neck of the woods, and we have been spending lots of time outdoors. I love this time of year. Semi-warm days without insects and poison ivy is just about perfect.

I’ve been homeschooling our crew, and have enjoyed reading to my little guys. I pulled The Children’s Book of Virtues from my stash and read parts of it to my preschooler this week. I’ve had this book for nearly 20 years now, and we still enjoy it.

I can hardly believe my oldest son is a senior, and will be graduating soon. Honestly, I wish it wasn’t so. Time flies by too quickly!

I cooked mexican chicken over spaghetti squash this week, and tonight will be serving chickpea pasta. My husband is pre-diabetic so we try to avoid certain carbs when possible. We also enjoy red lentil pasta. Sourdough loaf bread is rising as we speak.

I’ve organized mounds of things that we have brought over from our cabin. We “officially” moved in July, and I’m just now getting around to it. I still have a long way to go, but am thankful for the small bit of progress I’ve made.

I’ve enjoyed playing with my recipe box from Simply Earth this week. I love getting essential oil goodies sent to my mail box each month. I totally recommend this company!

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I’ve also taken a bit of time to start reading The Promise of Palm Grove by Shelley Shepard Gray. I love a good Amish romance novel.

We worked on trimming out the windows in our boys room. My husband is doing such a good job. We plan to stain the trim, which I’m excited about. We also laid out landscape fabric in our raised bed garden at our home, and installed a new security system at our cabin. Limbs were also burned. Hooray for clean up!

Landscape fabric is going down!

I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with my family. We will continue to work at the cabin, and hopefully my husband will build a new shelf in our closet to give us a bit more storage space. I’m also toying with the idea of once a month grocery shopping, and have been laying out a plan. Time will tell if I implement it next week.

Have a blessed weekend, ladies!

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Psalms 19:7‭-‬10

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Another week is almost over, and it’s been an enjoyable one.

Sometimes my days feel monotonous, but I always try to remember that there is such good to be found in each one. I enjoy writing these posts, because they remind me of all the little blessings that are here if I just look.

This week has been cold and rainy in North Georgia. Our current home is tucked near the mountains, two miles from the Tennessee border. A couple of days ago I took a short walk in our woods to discover our wet weather creek flowing, and a rope swing my seventeen-year-old had hung in a tree. Such fun! I hope my husband can run an inexpensive fence along the back of our five acres before long, because it borders land people use to hunt.

I’m baking my tried and true sourdough bread tonight, which is basically Jill Winger’s recipe found here. My kiddos love it as toast! It is rising on my counter as we speak.

Chili, baked fish, and chicken & rice soup have been on the dinner menu this week. Monday is breakfast night, and of course, Tuesday is Taco Tuesday for us. Having the first two dinners of the week planned makes it simple to decide what to cook the remaining days. Today I made mashed potato pancakes from leftovers for lunch, along with fruit and granola bars.

I’m watching my tomato seeds sprout. My lettuce and calendula are doing well! Our broccoli and peppers are doing okay. The banana pepper seeds I saved from last year do not seem to be germinating, which is a bummer.

I’m reading blogs and the Scriptures. I enjoyed reading this post about head covering from Abiding Home. I haven’t picked up a book this week, unless it was homeschool related, I don’t think. I haven’t spent much time reading at all, unfortunately. My daughter and I finished up the Radiant Purity Conference on Wednesday.

I drove to our cabin to continue cleaning it out. Our garage is a mess, thanks to a few rats. They chewed through boxes and made nests from homeschool work that I had saved through the years and my seasonal decor. This is a lesson learned for me, and I hopefully will secure our things better in the future. Cardboard boxes didn’t cut it.

My son put together a couple of inexpensive bed frames while we were there, and I was able to do a bit of decorating! This raised my spirits after working on the mess in the garage. My boys will sleep in the loft whenever we stay there.

I purchased a wide variety of items this week. Groceries, pillows, hand soap, mandolin strings, eye patches, and a dinner bell made the cut. My favorite find was pink himalayan salt at the checkout line in Bealls of all places. It was an excellent price!

I filed our taxes which took hours using Turbotax. I’m so thankful that it’s done.

I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with my family. We will continue to clean out the cabin, and hopefully will get the remainder of our raised beds built.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, ladies!

Be tenderly devoted to one another in brotherly love; outdo one another in giving honor. Do not be lagging in zeal; be fervent in spirit. Keep serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, enduring in distress, persisting in prayer.

Romans 12:10‭-‬12 TLV

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