How To Get To Our Pages On Our Blog

 

I want my blog to be full of so much information that it will help someone in some kind of way. I am very passionate about helping people simplify their lives. If I see, hear of, or heck, even try some of these tips and hacks and they personally blow me away and make my life easier, OF COURSE I WANT TO SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOF TOPS!!!!!! I will instantly post on FaceBook, Instagram, Pinterest, our YouTube channel or something. We didn't or don't get to where we are today by not listening to or reading someones knowledgeable advice that is given in such a loving and caring way. My goodness, think of the older generations that have gone on before us. My Grandparents for example. I learned so much of what I do today by growing up on the farm and watching EVERY LITTLE OR BIG THING they did. I learned from my precious Momma. I learned from reading, reading, reading (before Google and YouTube)...lol.

This is the reason why I took 3 years designing, creating, writing, collecting links, etc to put on my blog to share all the wonderful things I have learned (alot from personal experience) so you could see and read it too.

The best part is, it is all right here on this blog. I know you're saying, "Where?" "All I see is journal posts like a diary." Look closer.......... You see those titles in the header at the top? Yes, those thingies..... They are extra Pages. The titles are links to extra pages on our blog that you click on and a whole new world...hmmmm....page will pop up. Whatever the title is of the page, is what you are going to find and I will be talking about that particular subject. For instance, I love being a Homemaker. Well, the title Homemaking is where you are going to find all kinds of information. If you want to know how to Can or Preserve Food, click on our Canning and Preserving page or title in the subheader.....viola' There you have it folks. But I will say, I love writing and you might want to grab a cup of coffee, tea or a big ole glass of sweet iced tea because there is alot of information. I can't give advice on something that I know nothing about, but trust me, these things I can.

I hope you will take the time to check them out and most of all I hope you find something you love and enjoy and book mark it. Please feel free to comment. We would love to hear from you. 

Thank you for your time and sincerely, I hope you enjoy everything about our blog. Be sure to follow us and sign up for our email list to receive notifications in your Inbox for every time a new post is uploaded.

Have a very blessed day. C ya'll in the next post.

Devastation

 It is with sad heart that I am having to write this post. 💔 

All day Friday, we had been watching the weather move clear across the states from the west to the east. That night at 9:30 pm we kept getting alerts and notifications on our phones to GET IN YOUR SAFE PLACE AND SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! 

We kept calling, texting and checking in with our family and friends. 

There was nothing we could do, but wait. We could not do a thing. You see, we were not there. We are in another state that had no storms whatsoever.  All I could do was PRAY. 

Family finally got back with us. A tornado had just come through close by and surrounding counties in another state with more family and friends.  My momma and daddy included. So much devastation. Thousands of people out of power, ours included. Our sons and daughters in law were hunkered down in one house thankfully. Our oldest who works for the local power company got called in to help fix our communities and counties power outages. You see, there is a myth, that people who work for power companies get special privileges and there's is the first homes to get power restored. THAT IS A LIE!!!!!

Everyone was ok, scared, but ok. But more bad weather was threatening and coming. Another tornado was on that ones heels. My son is out in the bad weather trying to get to work to get into a work truck. Lightning striking everywhere and thunder rolling. 

An hour later, here came the other one. Families scrambling to get back into safety. Some, never came out of their shelters from the first one. 

This, this is what rocked our community. Came within a quarter mile of our home on our end of it. 

I got this picture from a news source the next day. We finally got a hold of family again. Again, all were safe and our homes were safe. Some, not so. 

Our area and surrounding areas, have been devastating.  Homes leveled, people trapped in their homes, homes with just damage, and sad to say lost lives. Search and Reacue teams were sent out and still looking through rubble today as I write this. 

We see pics on Facebook and other places of the routes and disaster they left behind and my heart hurts. 

It looks like a war zone and I had severe flash back of when this exact same thing happened back in 2013. I know my boys were having flash backs to a younger selves when we were in the exact same house with a loving praying grandmother who was pleading the blood of Jesus over us all in 2013. Trees had fell on that house then and much damage. Same scenario. Just years later. My husband was out of town during that one too and when he was called home, as he drove he could not believe his eyes. But as he walked into his mommas house and saw me and his children and family alive, he was better. Same as now.  

We are so thankful none of our family or homes were gone. However, in a day or two, we will be driving home once again to a place we may not recognize but to our families who are ok. Scared, but ok. Our oldest son is still out working over 36 hrs now, no rest,  exhausted and his own home still with no power. Our power will eventually come back on. But our hearts are hurting for friends who have lost everything and even loved ones. The toll has reached 9 now. 

I don't have alot of pics to share out of respect for families. I'm sorry. 

Things can be replaced, but family can't. We are all ok by God's grace. 

Hug your loved ones tight. 

This Weeks Menus Are Fantastic

 I did my meal planning for the week and came up with some pretty good meals. 

I do have to say, I have made some pretty awesome meals in the air fryer and instant pot this week. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't make a whole chicken in the air fryer because I just did. It was so juicy and the spices were spot on. 😋 I also did a pot in pot method and cooked brown sugar and cinnamon glazed baby carrots and copy cat Newk's smoked Mac and cheese 🧀.  

Let's just get a gander:

Then the next night 

I slaved  over that  air fryer and instant pot all day......🤣🤣🤣🤣 I just had to say that.....But dear hubby has more breakfasts to last a week or little more and we are now eating Instant Pot Chicken 🐔 Alfredo Lazy Lasagna. 😋

Breakfast sandwich this morning with some of the deer bacon David made. 🥓

Then we had instant pot shrimp boil:

Me and my two goof ball sisters. This was one of the first store bought Easter dresses we had. My momma and MaMa Oliver always made our dresses. I'm the baby gotta love me 😅😅😅😅😅

Dear hubby came home from work and brought in this:

Dear hubby loved the granola bars I made last week in the air fryer, that he requested more. 

I love Video calls with our crew:

Well, that wraps up this week. Thanks for hanging in there with me. 

Have a blessed weekend. 

I Am So Proud

 I am so proud to announce that I think I have a way now that all my friends can now sign up to get email notifications of when new posts have been made on the blog. 

As you all know, some time ago, Feedburner was no longer available on Blogger. This left alot of us with loosing alot of followers and not knowing what to do from there. Well, I discovered Follow It. It is a Email Subscription Tool that you can now use to replace Feedburner. It  is easy to sign up for and follow all the prompts. TRUST ME, IF I CAN DO IT, YOU CAN TOO.   I am not a computer gooru, and I was so  intimidated to try it, but I did and you can now see it on the right hand side of the screen, under the Header, with a nice purple hue for the box...😃 

If you would like to sign back up to start receiving emails to get notifications each time a new post is up and running, please try the new sign up button and most of all, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF IT WORKS OR YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE.  I need to make sure it is working properly. But be patient as I am still learning this  new feature. I would like to apologize to my subscribers who were on my email list from Feedburner. I do not know how to transfer your emails over to this new site. They were probably deleted. Please feel free to re-subscribe. 

I hope this will help other creators as in giving you the courage to try it and get this feature for yourself. It was of no cost to me for the Basic set up. There are packages if you are a bigger blooger or business. 

I would like to thank each and every one of you who so faithfully follow my blog. 

Have a blessed day. 

Several New Videos On Our Channel

 I would like to invite you to check out some of our new videos on our channel. We have so much more content coming too. 

Be sure to give us a thumbs up. This helps grow our channel and feel free to share with others as well. Subscribe and hit the Notifications bell to let you know each time a new video is uploaded.

I hope you find inspiration and encouragement on any of our videos or blogs to help you on your journey.

Be sure to keep any and all comments respectful and nice.

As always, Thanks For Watching

Another 5 Minute Breakfast 

Homemade Lunchables

Get The Most Out Of Your Meals

I Had To Spit This One Out

Hope you enjoy.

Can't Think Of A Title

 I honestly can not think of a title for this post. 🙄 

The past few weeks have been busy and I have just had writers block. Cough it up to Menopause which is getting stronger by the way. I had no idea it causes so many issues. The new problem is irritability and not depression but just getting into my own feelings. I don't know how to explain it. I can handle anything else but this I guess. I am having to go through it naturally because the medication I take for RA cancels out the hormone replacement medication. The hormone replacement medication makes RA worse. So I'm kind of stuck. I am dealing with it the best I can I guess right now. 

Oh well, where did I leave off at? OK. It was Dakotas week and we got to spend time with the girls again. I got to get Atleigh ready for school and drop her off in the mornings then come back and play with Caroline and do school everyday. Dakota would go pick up Atliegh from school in the afternoon. He likes seeing all his old teachers he use to give trouble to when he was there. Lol 😆 

When Atleigh gets to our house, they feed the cows together  and probably licked a few minerals, and then we help with homework. 

How does this even happen? I put all the time, energy, and love into them for them to just be his best friend. 🤨😏

I did a little experiment and froze some potatoes whole and vacuum sealed them. Thawed them out and sliced them and baked them. They turned out perfect and didn't take as long to bake. Yummy.

Atleigh said she wanted to learn how to write in cursive. She saw her Daddys and Uncle Dallas' papers from Kindergarten in cursive and was intrigued. Not bad for her first try. My boys had some pretty handwriting.

Sometimes you just have to sit at the table with the little ones. ❤️❤️

The time came for them to go to Mommy's for the week so me and dear hubby spent this week getting projects done. 

It was time to close and clean up the fireplace for the spring. 

The weather was nice for a few days so I needed to prune alot of our rose bushes and clean them up. New life always makes me happy. 

Dear hubby got busy doing what he loves and that's taking care of our lawn and getting the garden ready for spring planting. 😀 

Dallas has decided he wants to try to grow a garden, so Dad went and tilled the garden spot for him too. It was a joy to see his mommas garden come back to life. It meant alot to him. That middle row still needs to be cleaned out but Dallas will get it.  Now he has a whole garden to play in. 

Dad and Dakota have been working on the fencing around that pasture for rotating the cows in the spring. 

I had a few extra hands that week. We needed to do some spring cleaning and dear hubby steam cleaned the carpets for me. It hurts my arms and back so bad, so he helped me out. 

Then I had our handy man add a few shelves for me on this case to turn it into a book shelf for the kids room. Now all of their books are in one place. 

This week was also Dr. Suess Read Around The World Week. Their Lolly sure is creative and I'm so glad ahe helped her dress up every day. ❤️ 

One day we had really bad weather, strong winds and tornado warnings. 🌪School was out this day because it was so bad. All my family was scattered in different places and power outages were already happening. Lolly sent me a pic of all of them so I would know they were ok. Sirens were going off and she grabbed them and put them all including her in the tub.  I was at home alone and got in a safe place as well. After everything calmed down we all checked in on one another. My momma and daddy was in their storm shelter as well. 

One day I took the opportunity to go help Dallas and Brylee go through Nannys pantries in her home canned goods. We were saddened when we saw that alot of the jars had lost their seals and the food had spoiled. We had to empty out alot of jars and it broke my heart because I of all people know how hard she worked to can those.  We did the best we could and donated alot of jars. I have no room for anymore. I got to keep alot and shared with my momma and daddy. 

Then the dreaded time came when dear hubby's work called. So we asked the girls mommy if the girls could spend one more night with us before we had to go. I went and picked them up from Lollys and brought them home. We got to play and they helped me put all their books on their bookshelves. They love it.  We got to watch a movie and eat popcorn that night. 

I had to take them home the next morning because they were going somewhere. 

We spent the rest of the time packing, cleaning out our vehicles, batten down the hatches, locking up and saying goodbye to everyone. Atleigh was already sending us her pouty face. It is so hard. But she knows we want be gone long this time and we will get to come home a few days before the next place we have to go to. Then I will be coming back and forth so I can plant the garden as best as I can and they can spend some time with me. 

We get to talk to them everyday and that helps. They still get to go to the house and feed the cows and play and jump around in front of the cameras being goofy so we can see them. 

We arrived at our destination and got settled. I had to venture out and go grocery shopping after I got a meal plan together. It is simple meals for instant pot and air fryer. You can do alot with those two things. 

My sweetheart loves for me to make him some egg bites so he can take them to work with him. He has even shared some before with his co-workers. 😁

I whip them up and fix them first in the instant pot then transfer them over to the air fryer to give them that little crunch. Then I bag them up and he has enough to last for a week.

I even made a little sweet treat one night. 

When I did my meal planning, I knew I only had so much space to store groceries in a small refrigerator so I had to plan carefully. I tried to use what I had on hand first and plan around that. I tried to get as many meals out of a few things as I could.  

The pack of tilapia I bought had 4 fillets so I got two meals out of those. I bought one head of cabbage and got two different Cole slabs out of that. One Mexican and one southern. The pack of chicken I bought had 8 tenderloins in it so I got two meals out of that,  one I haven't cooked yet. 

Squash, Zucchini and baked tilapia:

Chicken fajitas and Mexican street corn:

Fish tacos and southern coleslaw:

I have a few chicken tenderloins and Brussel sprouts left. That will be our next meal. 

I have some onions and peppers left so I will start my next menu planning from there. I miss going to my freezer or pantry and grabbing something home canned. But there are still ways to beat these awful prices on groceries we are faced with. It's important that we learn how to shop wisely and economically. I have so many videos on our channel about how I meal plan by shopping my pantries, freezer and refrigerator first and how to shop wisely to get the most for my money. Well, my husband's hard earned money. You can catch our channel at Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms.  

While I was out one day I picked up a few herb plants to use when I cook. They kind of brighten and freshen up my room too. 

Sometimes I go down and have my afternoon coffee by this pool. The weather here is about 10 to 15 degrees hotter than home. 

I am using this time to get alot of projects done that I can. I brought alot with me to work on. This is one. I started this 4 yrs ago and got stuck. Grandmother was going to help me finish it but she got sick and passed on us. I have just now gotten it back out and going to learn how to finish it. I will let you see when I'm done. It may be a while but I will. 

Dear hubby is off today so we slept in and going to rest and later go to dinner. 

Tomorrow is a new day to a new week especially now that the time changes. I am so excited to start longer evening hours. 🤗 

Hope everyone enjoys their day today and we will see you next week.