I am so sorry. I realize it has been a while since I have posted a life update here on the farm.
We had to leave to go on a work trip but we were close enough for me to get to drive back home and spend a week with the granddaughters while they were on fall break.
We had a very fun week and got to do so many things. Just making memories and spending time together. We painted rocks, had manicures and pedicures, sewed, baked in their Easy Bake ovens, cooked, played board games, watched movies, ate popcorn, rode around and played outside on the farm looking for worms and bugs, checked on the cows, had tea parties, etc. You name it we probably did it. They got to help Daddy every day when he got off work to come take care of the cows. We even learned a little math while baking and cooking. I introduced multiplication. We slept in and took naps which they needed.
I got to take them to a pumpkin patch that I always take them to every year since the day they were born. I had printed off a scavenger hunt or bingo list to take with us and they really loved looking and getting to mark all the things off on their list. We got to pet so many animals and love on them. Of course, they thought they were going to get me in the corn maze which was huge and I knew I would never make it out of there. I had to be a kid and go down the zip line too. It was kind of embarrassing when someone had to help me get on the very high swing though but I had granddaughters to impress. But trust me when I say, I paid for it. We got home and I let them paint their pumpkins and then we decorated for the fall and Thanksgiving season.
Then the time came by way too fast for me to leave again and go back and join dear hubby because soon we would be leaving for the next job sight which was not so close to home I'm so glad to have been given this split between jobs so it wouldn't be such a long time for the granddaughters to have to endure. They get really emotionally distraught when we are gone for long periods of time. I started buying them a yearly calendar and taught them how to mark off days to the day that we would be arriving back home. This is a good visual for them to learn to estimate time, count and see how time flies.
Our next destination took us 3 days to get there. Dear hubby breaks down our time to 6 hours of traveling a day for me. We take many stretch and bathroom breaks for me. If we didn't, I would not be able to travel with him. After traveling for 6 hours, we would stop at a hotel for the night, rest and sleep. Get up the next morning and go again. We finally arrived and it took me a week to get my body sorted back out. I was so sore.
Such beautiful scenery here in Virginia. We are on the Chesapeake Bay side this time. Three years ago, we were on the Lake Anna side. He knew better than to tell me we would go through a tunnel under the water because he knew I WOULD FREAK OUT!!!!!!! I was breathing so hard and gripping my steering wheel so tight that my knuckles hurt. We got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half on the other side. Boy, it was a doozie. I was a nervous wreck, He has done this for years but I haven't and I'm still getting used to it.
We finally reached our hotel with great relief. I needed to just calm down and slow my breathing. Then we started unloading our trucks and getting set up. It's a good thing we got here before dark. After getting somewhat settled, we found a place to grab some supper.
The next day, I spent getting our room set up and liveable. Then my next job was to start menu planning and getting groceries. If you want to know my Meal Planning ideas and strategies and how I shop when we are out of town versus when we are at home check out my Meal Planning and Shopping the Sales Playlist here on our YouTube Channel
Shopping and planning for meals is way different than meal planning at home. I can't just go to our freezers or pantries and put a meal together. I have to shop for sales, find the grocery stores near me, and shop wisely.
Once I get everything together and bought, then I start cooking the meals. I make his breakfast, lunches, and suppers.
I don't just sit in a hotel room every day and get bored. I bring plenty to do and venture out sometimes when I find something that interests me. Luckily on this job, dear hubby is getting one day off a week and we go somewhere together. This one particular day, he took me to exactly where I wanted to go. He took me to VA Beach. Now I can literally say I have been Coast to Coast with this man of mine. We got to get our boots in the sand, write our names in the sand, and collect shells for our coast-to-coast collection back home. It was a wonderful day and even got to eat on the beach and enjoy a lovely sunset on the way back to our hotel.
I managed to get out one day and find a donut shop. Not just any donut shop. But a donut shop (I can't stop saying donut because it is one of my favorite things) that mixes, fries and decorates it to your liking right in front of you and serves it up warm. SHHUUUUUSH! Let me savor this moment.
I got the courage to venture a little further out one day and just enjoyed the scenery and a few visitors.
On one of my dear hubby's off days, we did have plans to go somewhere but he woke up not feeling really well and we stayed in. But he gave me the night off from cooking and we found a local place to get the chance to eat by the bay. Our plans are still in the making for the plans we had to cancel. It will be in another post.
One day I packed a picnic lunch and found a local park. Nice view. This is where I am sitting and writing this post actually.
This is what we get to see out our room window every day. This is zoomed in of course so you can see better. We have a very good view of the beautiful sunrise every morning on our side of the building. Oh, and yes, that is bread rising in the window under a beautiful sunrise. I found a way to make some bread in my air fryer using my 5-minute No Knead bread dough and a kneaded bread dough. That will be a video for later. I was conducting a little experiment here.
I found a really nice church to visit out here and everyone is so nice and making me feel at home.
If you made it to the very bottom of this post, I appreciate it so much and have enjoyed you hanging out with me. Thank you for letting me share my adventures. I will try not to go so long between posts next time.
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
Over the years, I have learned so many tips and tricks for surviving the chaos and busyness of the holidays. I would love to take this time to share them with you. This is a post I wrote 3 years ago here on the blog and I feel as though it is worth sharing again. At the end of this post, I will also post video versions of more or some of the same great information. I hope you enjoy it and find some helpful tips to help make your holidays less stressful so we can enjoy the real Reason for the Season.
2021:
No, this is not going to be a debate about when you can and can not put your Christmas tree up. If you want to go ahead and put it up, so be it. After the past two years, we have had, it is kind of refreshing. If it brings you joy and happiness, by all means do it. We can all use some joy and happiness after what all we have been through and what we are still going through.
I however have always liked to wait until the day after Thanksgiving. I like to celebrate each and every holiday and bestow upon it the attention and beauty it needs. I love Thanksgiving. My momma and my dear mother-in-law always made it special and so will I. We have always had big meals at my late mother-in-law's house and this year is going to be so different. I can already sense the mood in my dear hubby. These holidays will be so hard for him and our family. I've got to make sure it is special for him. I want to teach our grandchildren the importance of Thanksgiving and counting your blessings. I can't wait to get home and decorate with my fall placemats, and start planning our menu. My parents started joining us for Thanksgiving a few years ago. My momma always let us do whatever we wanted for Thanksgiving because she knew so many of us had in-laws and so many houses to go to that it was just hard. But she was very clear that we had to have our hineys at her house come Christmas night or else. lol. As they got older, I noticed how alone they seemed. Why it never hit me before I don't know. But a few years ago, I told my husband that was going to change. Although we were so worn out from one family get-together and not to mention stuffed, I told my husband I wanted to host a get-together for my momma and daddy. We ran the idea across them and they discussed it and agreed. Like, Hello? Do you need to discuss it? Get your hiney to my house or else young lady.. lol. When I did my cooking for my mother-in-law's house, I would double recipes and make two. That way I had both meals covered. This year I need to make it more special for dear hubby. I think I am going to let him pick the menu. I will fix whatever he wants. I also love spoiling my momma and daddy. She said we should have done this years ago. It's just she knew how tired everyone was from bouncing from house to house especially all in one day. She just didn't want to bother anyone. Well, like I said, I got tired of seeing them alone on Thanksgiving and we changed that. It has been special ever since. Just about the time we leave here, It will be close and I will have to deep clean my home first then get to work on my menu and start pre-cooking.
It is not just Thanksgiving that kind of gets left out sometimes, it's other holidays as well. Especially when you have so many close together. Like Valentine's and Easter. We kind of skip St. Patrick's Day. Oh well, I love to give each holiday their own special days and recognition. Man, speaking of St. Patrick's Day, I went all out that week, and each day we did something rainbow. You can go back and check it out. We had a blast.
The day after Thanksgiving I kick it into Christmas mode. I get dear hubby to get all my Christmas stuff out and I go to town decorating my home. I do the inside and he does the outside. I will start planning my menu and such.
Hence, the reason for this post. I know the Holidays can get stressful, but they are not supposed to be. The reason they get stressed is that we have become conditioned to believe that it is all about money and pleasing other people that we stress over "gift giving". Christmas is so commercialized about gift-giving that we go into debt trying to find the perfect gift for someone, and we feel obligated to buy someone a gift so as not to hurt their feelings. I am just happy with being with my family and that is all that matters to me. Of course, when you have children, it is a whole new ball game. Of course, I want them to have Christmas presents, Lord knows our grandkids get just as much from us as they do their mommy and daddy. Cause I can. lol. It is a magical time for children. But I put a lot of emphasis on the true meaning of Christmas and teach them what it is all about.
I'm going to share some tips on how I try to help keep the stress down for our holidays so we can actually enjoy them.
First, we start shopping very very early. Like around October early. Maybe sooner. You see, companies will try to trick you into believing they run the best deals on Black Friday. I have found that to not be true. I have seen things that I have wanted go on sale on Black Friday, when they ran a sale earlier in the year for around the same price and then I waited until Black Friday and missed my chance because they ran out. Start keeping your eye out for sales throughout the year. We know we have a whole year to get ready for the next year right? See, it makes sense. Do Christmas shopping throughout the year, catch sales, and order them, or go buy them and put them up. Make a note of who it is for and hide it. You can even go ahead and wrap it and be a step ahead. I do this with stocking stuffers too. My point is, that sometimes the sales throughout the year come out to be the same or even better than waiting until the last minute. This also cuts our stress of worrying if they are going to get delivered in time. We have to start early because we have one kid's birthday in December, mine and dear hubby's wedding anniversary, and then Christmas all in one week. Then exactly one month after that the other kids' birthday. We have done this since our kids were little.
Next is the timing for family get-togethers. Everyone wants to have something at their home and you find yourself rushing around from home to home in a matter of two days. When you have kids, this is a lot. Plan some things ahead and see what works best for your family. It is natural for children to want to wake up first thing Christmas morning in their own home and open gifts. Then it is hard to hurry them and whisk them away to someone's home a few hrs later then maybe one more place after that. This will create some irritable children, not to mention irritable and exhausted parents. My family has always worked around each other. For instance, My mother in law would have her Christmas with everyone on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning was our time with our children. Christmas Night was at my mother's house. Now, when grandchildren came along this added a glitch. Our first Christmas without our oldest son was hard. But he had his own little family to start traditions with now and we had to understand and cope. So we came up with a plan to have Christmas with them and our grandchildren on another day. So now, we have Christmas with them on the night of the 23rd and we let them spend the night with us and we do all the things with them that we would do and do with our own boys. Then we get up the next morning and they have their Christmas with us. They have the whole day to play and rest before that night which is Christmas Eve. Then they get to do it all again with mommy and daddy for their house. That way we get to have a special day with them and then they are free to enjoy other family members get togethers too. If it is stressful for you and your family members, see if someone is willing to change the day they host theirs and work with other family members. Maybe even combine get-togethers. It's a start anyway. This can even be done the week before if someone is willing. We have the whole month of December anyway. Who said it had to be on a certain day.
My next is my absolute number one tip and that is menu planning and cooking ahead. I start doing this the day after Thanksgiving as well. I plan my menu way ahead of time, like in late October. Then I will start stocking up on some of the non-perishable items a little at a time when they are on sale. Come the day after Thanksgiving I will start precooking a lot of my dishes and doubling batches (sometimes I have more than one home to cook for not just mine) and I will put them into the freezer. The night before one of our get-togethers, I will pull those dishes for that home to defrost. All I have to do the next morning or before the time to leave is just heat them up and put them into an insulated casserole carrier. Sometimes I do have things that will need to be last minute or at least the night before. Some things are just better fresh. But if it can freeze well, then it is going to go on my menu and be cooked early. I've had times when I have had to cook for 3 homes and church dinners for the holidays. Yes, I wound up tripling recipes to make it easier on me. This goes for my baking treats and desserts too. I always make treats for all the children on my side of the family and dear hubby's side too. That is a lot of kids. I try to keep it simple but I get such joy from it. It has to be something that will keep for a few weeks too so I can bag them real pretty and set them aside.
If finances are a problem, start at the beginning of the year and make a Christmas budget and set aside a small amount each paycheck to save for gifts. Wrap gifts as you purchase them and hide them.
All I can say is don't wait until the last minute to do ANYTHING. Start earlier in the year or at least a few months early. Commercializing and trying to get things done at the last minute is robbing us of our joy during the holiday season that we go through it in a blur and do not take the time to slow down and enjoy being with family. We forget what it is all about. Then before we know it, it is a new year and we wonder where the time went and some are just glad it is over. That is sad. Take time to enjoy the holidays and family. Because one day you will look back and loved ones will be gone and you will wish you had this time back.
I hope some of these ideas have helped you. If you do not get a chance to start early this year, because here we are only weeks from Christmas, make it a point to start in January of next year. Get a planner and write things down, start planning. Keep an eye out for sales throughout the year and maybe buy one gift a month.
Let's get back to making the holidays special again. As soon as we get back home, I sure am.
Here are video versions of some more great tips especially traveling for a while with children for the holidays:
I hope you enjoy it!
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
If you enjoy our blog and content, be sure to sign up to receive emails when a new post is published so you don't miss a thing. We would love it if you would join us. Enjoy your reading.
If you are curious about any products you see in our images or that we use in our kitchen, please feel free to visit our Amazon Store where everything is organized into lists for each category.
4D Farms LLC. is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Our storefront link is an affiliate link that earns our farm a commission at no additional cost if you click through and make a purchase. You can trust that we recommend products that we use in our own home and love and maybe some we wish to have. Our storefront is designed to help you locate items easily by specific, organized, and titled lists.
We hope you find something that you enjoy. We also have our channel designed by playlists so you can find your favorite topic to search for certain videos easily. We hope to see you there also. Subscribe to our channel so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. Be sure to turn your notification bell on too or you will miss them.
We also have a Novelty Merch Store for 4D Farms where you can find apparel, housewares, and novelty gifts for yourself, friends, and loved ones. We hope you like our custom-made designs by me and one of my daughters-in-law. They are our own and copywritten.
I apologize for being absent the last few days. I have been working on some more recipes for my Breadmaking for Beginners Series on our YouTube channel. I have so much coming up and I hope you will enjoy them. This day, I practiced making loaves with my 5-minute No Knead Bread Dough because I was also helping my mother. Just as a backstory, my mother was diagnosed with Leaky Gut Syndrome several months ago. The bad part is, that she hid it from me. She felt she was bothering me and didn't want me to know. She felt as though she was a hindrance. The only person who knew anything about it was her neighbor. Are you kidding me? She had already been sick for several weeks when I found out. I told her to never do that to me again. My mother has never been nor ever will be a bother to me or my sisters nor a hindrance. She took care of us all our years growing up, and now I felt it was my turn. She informed me of her and her doctor's regimen. Then I came in with a little more. One thing on her regimen was to cut out all processed foods. Now, she is like me, we LOVE OUR BREAD! I was in the middle of my breadmaking journey and that's when I included her. I quickly started teaching her how to make her own bread with healthier flour and ingredients. Fresh bread, not store-bought. Now, you may be thinking that she should know how to make bread. Let me say this, my momma was a youngest child who had two older brothers. She was a tomboy and had no desire to be in the kitchen growing up. LOL. She doesn't enjoy cooking and never has, but she fed us and we are alive and well. LOL! I still learned how to make simple things from her growing up just by watching her. Some women have no desire to cook and that's ok. Every woman has their own talents. My mother's talent is, being a PRAYER WARRIOR. She never failed to take us to church and taught us to sing in church. I could sit and listen to my mother sing all day. I still remember some of the songs she used to sing in church. God Walks the Dark Hills is one of those songs. Boy, as a young girl, she gave me goosebumps singing that song. It is still a precious memory of mine.
Sorry, for getting off track. I do that sometimes. I'm like a squirrel. Back to homemade bread. I started my momma out on a simple dough because she needed it simple and quick. She does not have a stand mixer. The 5-Minute No Knead Bread Dough was perfect for her to start out on. She has been practicing and really enjoying it so much. She is having fun and she is so proud of herself and her accomplishments. You know what? SO AM I! She has come a long way. She will send me pictures of her loaves and she is so proud and excited. She is doing well on her journey of healing her gut and getting so much better. We started making small changes wherever we could and changing a lot of things to HOMEMADE using better ingredients made a lot of difference. You see, we get spoiled with convenience foods and processed quick foods that are not good for us. So was her case. Over the years it caught up with her. It's going to catch up to all of us if we are not careful.
She made other changes according to her doctor and he was on board with my help too of just making some changes in the way we cooked and baked for her.
Here as you can see, we took homemade bread and turned it into awesome grilled cheese. She also loves taking her loaves and just having a slice toasted with some no-sugar strawberry jam. I am so glad she is on the mend and doing so much better. She has promised to never leave me in the dark again about her health. She sees how much I have helped and could help her change. We also went about in her kitchen and reorganized it so she does not have to take so many steps in the kitchen. What I mean is, we put things into zones. We arranged things according to where things were in her kitchen and put things in better reach for her. She does not need to be stooping down and lifting heavy items to a high counter. They are now level and this is just one of the many changes we made for her. She is loving her new organization in her kitchen and has thanked me more than several times. I am so glad to be able to help my little momma and take care of her and my daddy. After all, he is benefiting too from the dietary changes and organization. Now, can he find anything? Probably not. It will take some getting used to but he is loving it as well.
Just take a gander of this grilled cheese. It was delicious and my momma is learning to make different things with her simple dough as well. Now, we will move up a little and begin at the intermediate level. The timing of my breadmaking series could not have been better and I know God had his hands in it as well. We are learning together and having fun in our kitchens. She is going to be practicing making more things as well. She will be moving up to making a kneaded dough now. She said she will have no problem doing it by hand and she is looking forward to it.
Feel free to join us in our journey by watching my videos on our channel in my Breadmaking for Beginners Series. I will link some below that are new and a link to the whole series for you as well. We would love to have you and thanks for hanging out with me in this post as well.
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