We have 11 acres, all very nice plantable fields and orchard. We keep a large organic garden every year along with a fruit/berry orchard. This year we started raising pastured free range poultry. We now have 15 Bourban Red Heritage Turkeys, 10 Embden geese, 12 pekin ducks, 6 runner ducks and 30 chickens ( red star/black star and silver wyandottes). Next year we would like to get some heritage pigs to add to our farm. We love it here, there is nothing like having a litttle farmhouse and a homestead of our own :)

Try Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me, it's a very funny romance and very well written.

Wonderful News !! I am so thrilled for you all ! Our family has been praying for you all nightly ! I am so glad to hear of such a great update !! We will continue to pray that your daughter heals quickly and has a wonderful wedding ceremony !

My family will be covering your daughter as well as your whole family in prayer ! May God bless you with HIS Perfect Peace !!

Ann I am so unbelievably thrilled for you ! I have tears of joy in understanding your happiness ! Such incredible news for your whole family !! Our family has been praying for you every night, I can't wait to tell them the wonderful news and to let them know that you are in the clear ! Blessings to you and yours !

Does anyone work for West At Home that can give me some information on the company and working for them ? I need to find something I can do to make some extra money while working at home in the evenings and I was looking into this company. I would love to chat with someone who can tell me the "in's and out's" of how to get started and also what you like about working for them and what you don't. If you don't want to talk on here, you can PM me privately. Thanks so much in advance for any ehlp you can give me !

My daughter loved using the mini historical American Girl dolls in her dollhouse. They have adorable outfits and you can purchase the books to go along with them. They have them on Amazon for about 15 dollars each with FREE prime shipping.

Hello Again Christine, I don't have any information about your trip, but I wanted to tell you how thrilled I am that you are doing so well !! My family has been praying for you nightly since you first got your diagnosis several years ago. I will continue to cover you in my daily prayers, I wish you the best ! May God bless you and give you HIS perfect peace !!

No makeup ever and no coloring of hair. I am 47 years old and would probably look better with makeup, but I just am not interested in wearing any. I'm too much of a natural person, I don't like anything extra on my skin then what I have to use.

I'm so sorry for her, you have such a good heart to want to help her out. God Bless you, I will be praying for you both ! For some reason, when you talked about how she longs for a nice bed and hot meals it made me think of that song in my fair lady. The one that goes " All I want is a room somwhere, far away from the cold night air......." And thinking of that song and her out in the cold tonight, makes me cry for her. I will be praying, I hope you can find her the help she needs. I have a brother who is very mentally ill and I so worry about his future and what will become of him when I am not around anymore. I don't want him to end up on the street either, but without insurance or money, that is what typicaly happens. Praying for you both !

Parks and Recreation really hits its stride in Season 2. When I first started watching season 1 I didn't like it at all and stopped watching after 3 episodes. Then my oldest daughter who watched it kept bugging me to give it another chance and insisted I would LOVE the show by season 2 if I hung in there. So I went back and started watching it again, this time I made it through all of the first season (only 6 or 7 episodes) and went right into season 2. By episode 3 of season 2 I was in LOVE with the show ! It really is that good ! Watch the first season knowing it is not that great (but the background for the charcters is important) then just keep going to season 2 and you will find you are really enjoying it and can't wait for the next episode. My husband and I got to a point where we would stay up until 4 AM on weekends doing marathon sessions of watching one episode after another of Parks and Rec, because I had to see what was going to happen next :)

From reading another thread I was wondering if each year your children completes all his workbooks/textbooks before you call it a finished school year ? I know for us, we school year round. We never typically finish a whole book in a given school year, we just keep going until we finish the book whether that is April, May or August. But we do end the school year every June 30th and start the new school year every first Monday in July. For example, if my child is still working on Saxon Math 5/4 at the end of 4th grade (June 30th), I will continue to have him work on Saxon 5/4 until the book is complete but consider him in 5th grade on July 1st of that same year. Then once Saxon 5/4 is complete, we will just continue onto the next book Saxon 6/5 and onwards. If my child has a problem in a certain subject or needs extra time to cover the subject because of some learning difficulties, we just slow down and take our time and do not rush. I am working towards excellence in their school work, not a goal of finishing in a specific time frame. How do other homeschoolers see a "completed school year" ? When do you consider your school year complete ? When the book is complete or by a certain date ? We are from Pennsylvania, so we have to hand in yearly portfolios, recieve a yearly evaluation by a qualified evaulator and do standardized testing in grades 3, 5 and 8. That is why I complete a school year in a specific time frame, even though the school books have not been completed at that time. How does it work in your family ?

I was just like you 5 years ago. We lived paycheck to paycheck and we were always, always treading water to stay afloat. My husband was the only wage earner and we had 5 children at home living on under 35 thousand a year. We weren't living high on the hog and we had no debt except for our mortgage, but we still only "just got by" every month. I deluded myself with the fact that we would be okay, we could save for retirement "later", emergency funds were for people that made lots of money, and until the kids were grown we would always be living week to week, so that I could stay home and homeschool our children. We muddled along okay, we grew lots of our own foods, lived pretty simply and shopped the GoodWill and yard sales for clothing and what not's and just squeaked by every month, but we had no debt so we would be fine. Right ?......Wrong ! Then the world dropped out for us, my 19 year old daughter was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The stress and fear for her health were overwhelming on us all. She needed several surgeries and months of recovery. My husband had to take off work to watch our four little ones ages 2, 4, 6 and 8 ( without pay) so I could stay with her in the hospital and during her surgeries and treatments. She had 2 or 3 doctor appointments a week for months at at time and he had to take days off for those times because the appointments would last for hours and sometimes were many miles away at treatment centers. We started living on credit cards to make ends meet. At the same time, the murphy's started hitting. Our underground water pipe to the barn had been leaking for months without us knowing and we recieved a water bill for over 3 thousand dollars. Then my husband was in a car accident and thankfully not injured, but we had to replace the car and that put us back another 2,500 for reliable transportation (beater car). By the end of that year, we were 20 thousand in debt on credit cards and trying to dig out with a very tiny shovel. My stress level was over the roof ! We had a difficult time paying on our farm and we were worried we would loose it to foreclosure. I felt like Scarlett O'Hara when I stood outside in our field and swore that I would get us out of this mess and never let financial difficulties destroy us again. Then I just got plain mad and went to work on figuring out how to dig us out of this mess. That is when we found Dave Ramsey and started following the baby steps to get us back on track. I found the book Total Money MakeOver at the library and read it cover to cover along with my husband. That is when our world started coming together again. The anger kept us going, we made a strict budget and we got rid of cable tv, only bought what was absolutely necessary, lived on lots of beans and rice, and sold on ebay and Craigs List anything that wasn't nailed down. I helped watch some kids to make extra money, my husband picked up a side job doing security work on the weekends for a furniture store. All the money went to paying down debt and getting us back on track. Today, 5 years later my daughter is a healthy happy married 25 year old mother of a 2 year old baby. We thank God for that blessing every day ! The last 5 years financially were very hard on us. We lived bare bones with no frills and we worked and made money doing anything we could find to throw extra at debt. But now, I just paid off our mortgage on our 11 acre farm last month, I have sinking funds in place, a 6 month emergency fund, 15 % of our income going to a retirement plan and we can breathe well again. The stress level is gone and the peace of mind that replaced it is priceless. The trama that we went through made us all so much stronger and so much more grateful for what we do have. We grew as a family as we went through the hardships and it made is all work together as a team. We are closer then ever now. I wouldn't trade those experiences for the world ! Get angry and get a take no prisoners attitude on your financial difficulties, it will help to keep you motivated for getting rid of debt and moving towards a life of living debt free and with financial peace.

For a long while it was just sporadic, when I was tired or after reading a lot. Then it became more and more and then I was constantly wiping my eyes cause they would tear so much while I was reading. I used to think my kids were not seeing numbers right when we did math together, I kept scolding them when it was me making mistakes of seeing 3 and 8's as 5's and vice versa. I just didn't realize how bad my eye sight had gotten until I could once again see clearly. Now all the eye tearing is gone when I read, I can happily do math with my children and not constantly have to look back over the problems to see if I missed adding numbers together because I saw the numbers wrong and I don't have to read the same sentence over and over again in my books to figure out why the grammar sounded so bad ( I had been making up my own words :) Get some cheap 5 dollar readers at Walmart, see if that makes your whole life open up again :)

I had this same problem for over a year. My husband kept insisting that I needed reading glasses, but I was too stubborn and refused to go and get some. I had equated having to get reading glasses at 47 years old to getting old and I wanted no parts of it :) Then my husband got smart, he brought home a pair of cheap reading glasses from Walmart for himself ( this is what he claimed) and set them on our computer desk. I picked them up while cleaning and just for kicks tried them on and my whole world changed ! I could see again !! :hurray: I didn't realize how bad my vision had gotten until I tried on reading glasss and could once again read clearly. Now I could kick myself for waiting that whole year to get glasses. It is no insult to getting old, it was just me getting crochety and stubborn ( a true sign of getting old :) Reading is back to being enjoyable again, my eyes no longer tear constantly, I even bought myself a kindle to celebrate !

We follow Dave Ramsey, so of course our goal was to pay our farm off early and live totally debt free. Dave Ramsey says the paid off mortgage has taken the status symbol place of the BMW in America today. After scrimping and saving and living bare bones for many years and sticking to a strict budget ( cash purchases and necessities only, no eating out, no cell phones, no cable/satelite, no pricey hobbies/vacations or extra-curricular activities, growing much of our own foods and eating lots of beans and rice, only shopping at GoodWill and yard sales, waiting on all remodeling jobs for home, selling lots of stuff on ebay and Craigs List, working side jobs for extra money), we were able to pay our 11 acre farm off in full last month. We followed Dave Ramsey's baby steps and first made sure we had a 6 month plus emergency fund, paying 15% into a retirement fund, and no debt of any kind (all vehicles are purchased used and paid for in cash) and we have no credit cards or loans. Now I will take that old mortgage payment and roll it into savings and sinking funds every month and have some fun splurges every once in a while. The ability to live totally debt free and to have that peace of mind is priceless to us !! My grandmother used to tell us " You have a today without, so you can have a tommorrow with". Her wisdom and perserverance through hard times during the Great Depression has been a real motivator to our family to stick to the plan and see it through to the finish line.

I am a total money nerd (see Dave Ramsey) so I set up sinking funds for tons of things we need to do or are saving to pay. My sinking funds are: heating oil : ( I put 200 a month in every month so that we can cover our cold winters without worry) car/home/farm insurance : ( I put in 150 a month every month and pay it twice a year) Christmas fund : ( so I know the money is always there to have a cash Christmas for the kids) property/school taxes : ( I put money away monthly so we can pay it in full when the bill comes in June/July) large appliance fund : ( I keep 500 dollars in a fund for any re-placement of major appliances ( but we repair instead if cheaper and possible) car maintence fund : ( I keep 1,000 in here to do repairs on our vehicles and tractor ) My husband does almost all his own repair work so it saves us money. medical fund: I keep 300 dollars in a fund to pay any co-pays or prescription plan ( our insurance pays half of prescriptions) costs for doctors/dentist new to us car replacement fund ( I keep 2500 in here to replace any not worth fixing car with a cheap beater car so my husband always is assured of transportation for work) We always buy used and we run a car until it is dead, so this fund is usually only needed once every 5 or so years. home/farm maintence fund : I keep 2000 in here for any problems or upkeep that might incur on our farm or home farm fund ( I put 50 dollars per month in here so my husband can have money available for farm things he needs ( new baby chicks, seeds, tiller rental, wood to build more pens or fencing, ectera) homeschooling fund ( I put 1000 per year in here to buy homeschoolng supplies for my 4 children) pool pass fund ( I put money away monthly for our yearly summer pool pass) vacation fund ( I put money away monthly towards a low cost camping vacation) home improvement fund ( I put money in monthly so that we can save towards one improvement that is needed at a time ( currently just finished filing our re-doing kitchen fund 2,500 dollars for this year. Next year it will be saving towards a new pavillion with removable sides to sell our organic vegetables and fruits under. My husband does all the work himself so it saves us lots of money. When we use one sinking fund I immediatley get to work on re-filling it so that the money is always available for when we need it. We also keep a 6 month emergency fund on hand for large catastrophic emergencies or when the "murphys" hit.

Wonderful News Ann ! I will continue to cover you in prayers for a speedy healing and a great outcome for the next surgery. Sleep well, you deserve a good peaceful rest after all the waiting !!

I'll be covering you in prayer all day tommorrow Ann. My oldest daughter at age 19 went through something very similiar with a mass on her ovary. She is now 25 years old ( with an almost 2 year old daughter) and doing great and had a wonderful and speedy recovery. May God Bless you with HIS perfect peace !! Please keep us posted !

Put it into savings to have a more secure future when my husband retires in 20 years.

We bought our 150 year old 4 bedroom 1 and a half bath farmhouse on 11 acres 12 years ago for 159,900. We put 50 % down on it after selling our brick 3 bedroom mortgage paid ranch home in the suburbs ( about 80,000 down plus closing costs) and paid 550 a month ( 25% of take home pay) for our mortgage on our farm not counting property and school taxes/insurance. We lived very simply and threw lots of extra payments at the mortgage and next month we will have the mortgage paid in full. We are so excited, because we don't make a lot of money (my husband supports the 6 of us on 35,000 a year) but we willl own our farm free and clear and the money that went to the mortgage will go towards long term savings for retirement and fixing up things around our farm that we didn't have the money to do for so many years. Other then the mortgage, we had been lving debt free for years (no credit cards, no car loans ectera) and so it will be nice to have some extra money to do some fun things to fix up around our home soon.

My husband is very complimentary about dinner, the house, ways I make extra money (ebay, craigslist ), homeschooling the kids ect... When I run into people he knows from work or his friends they always tell me how he brags about what a great wife and mother I am. Which always makes me so very happy ! I am also very complimentary towards him, so this may be why we both give compliments to one another. My husband is always building or fixing things around the house and I always tell him what a great job he did and gush over it. He doesn't say much when I do, but I know he enjoys it. His love langauge is acts of service, so I know he appreciates me complimenting him a lot.

Try Scandal, I just started watching this on Netflix last week and now I am hooked and watching the second season on HULU just to keep up with it. Since you like Grey's Anatomy, you should know that Scandal was created by Shonda Rhimes the same creator of Greys Anatomy. When I first started on Scandal last week I thought it was "way overacted" and too fast of a show for me to enjoy and I hate adultry and that was a central inssue of the show. But I stayed with it for 3 episodes (my system for giving any new show a chance) and the show started to grow on me. By the end of the first season ( only 7 episodes) I was hooked and coudn't wait to watch more. I grew to love Kerry Washington's character Oliva Pope and the President of the United States character Tony Goldwin. There is so many twists and turns in the show you never know what to expet and when you think you have someone or something nailed down, the show throws you for a loop and makes you re-think everything you orgianlly thought. Oliva Pope and The President are just like the old episodes from the very beginning of Greys Meridith and Derek. Once I was hooked, I had to find more. Then I found second season on HULU plus and I have been watching those episodes up until last nights episode that was broadcast on tv and available on HULU this morning. Watch the show, I think if you like Grey's you will love Scandal. Give it the first full season ( 7 episodes) to warm up to it, but then you'll be hooked. Best part, they have tons of old Greys actors on the new show Scandal and that was lots of fun to see my old favorites on this new show.

Cookware and Kitchen Supplies/small appliances, I always buy the best I can afford and sometimes I wait until I can afford and put money a little at a time away towards it. Such as Le Creuset pots, Kitchen Aid mixer, Zoroshi (spelling ?) bread maker, Cusinart Food Processor, Blendtec Blender. I also love good hand tools like my Kuhn Garlic press. Some toys for kids, like good little tikes toys, lego sets, American Girl Dolls, Playmobil etc. I try and buy toys that will hold up and can be passed down from kid to kid and then to grandkids. Homeschooling materials. I love to buy really good homeschool materials for my children. I buy the best I can afford either new or secondhand every year, I save for them and work hard to find ways to scrimp and save to afford them.

Covering you in prayer that all is well.