His Faithfulness, Our Joy

A while back, I shared how we have been longing to move out into the country.  I wrote that post almost exactly a year ago!

Well, we have some exciting news!  The Lord has opened the door to make our vision and his will come to fruition!

We have a contract on a house in the country and if all goes well, it will be ours in July! 

This home needs a lot of work, but we got a fantastic deal on it!  Plus, it's on 4 acres with fruit trees, 2 barns and a chicken coop!  And the house has 4 bedrooms and a basement!

It's been truly amazing to see how the Lord has brought all this about!  It confirmed to us that it's His will for our family and He's worked it all together!

So I've been doing my research and now I'm ready to jump in to the country life!

I'm so excited to update more as I learn more of what the Lord has in store for us in the country!

LOOK WHAT JUST CAME IN THE MAIL!!!

I can't even BEGIN to tell you HOW STINKIN' EXCITED I AM about my new DVD's!!!

I want to scream...AHHHHHH!!! (okay, that's my virtual scream!)

Remember my very successful garage sale I told you about HERE?

Well, while the majority of our money went into savings, my sweet hubby let me choose between a new printer for my computer or these DVD's I've been coveting wanting!

So of course, I chose the DVD's!!!

A few weeks ago, Franklin Springs Films was running a major deal on the Homestead Blessing videos, so I got these 10 DVD's on SUPER sale!  

In my collection are the following:
~The Art of Gardening
~The Art of Sewing
~The Art of Canning
~The Art of Quilting
~The Art of Dairy Delights
~The Art of Bread Making
~The Art of Soap Making
~The Art of Candle Making
~The Art of Herbs
and I even got...
~The Art of Cooking (which teaches you how to make the following meals completely from SCRATCH-NO grocery store needed!) 
     ~Breakfast: pancakes, fried potatoes, fried apples & onions
     ~Lunch: pizza, tomato soup, salads & homemade dressings
     ~Dinner: pot roast & veggies, buttermilk biscuits & gravy, green beans, peach cobbler. 


For a girl who grew up a bit spoiled (yes, I'm admitting it) these DVD's are a dream come true, because our family's desire to become self-reliant, country-living homesteaders grows more and more every day!

The Itch

I've got it...The itch.

It usually starts this time of year and tapers off in late Fall. 

But this past year, late fall nor winter cured "the itch".  So right now, it's feeling pretty relentless.

Ryan was born with the itch.  I got contagious about 4 years ago.  And now the boys have it...probably worse than all of us!!

It's the "I wanna move to the country" itch.

Land!  Room for the boys to run and explore!
No worries about our busy, high traffic street!
A big garden!  A cow!  Maybe some guinea fowl!
Goats, pigs, sheep...homesteading!!!

Ah, yes.  Wide, open spaces.

As our boys get older, bigger, more curious (and more daring), it's seeming more and more like a necessity that we live on some land.  God has created boys with some amazing qualities.  But it seems as though "city living" squelches most of them.

Right now, we live on one of the busiest streets in our "city".  The boys love to be outside, but right now when my boys get "the itch" to be out (read: they are getting crazy-hyper), I tend to sit them down in front of a movie until I can go out with them...because I need to be able to watch them around our busy street.

I can tell them to stay in the back yard, but that's almost like trying to rein in a wild horse!  They want to ROAM!!!

But then I think, if we lived in the country on some acreage of how they could run wild...playing, building, exploring, working...  That would be good medicine for my boys!

My in-laws have always lived on about 5 acres.  And when my boys go to visit, they play hard and hardly get into any trouble.  They love being outside in nature!  It's so fun to watch!

As for Ryan and I, we would love to become more self-sufficient and learn to live off the land.  We'd love to be in the quiet country life... where there may be more work, but there is also more freedom.

Nature, discovery, stars, silence...peace.  Our hearts are longing for it!!!

So now, more than ever, we're asking for the Lord's favor, and that if land is His will for us, that He would open a door!

Psalm 119:58

"I entreat your favor with all my heart!"

Speaking of country living...my friend Grace (love her name!) is having a giveaway on her blog...one item is "Little House in the Big Woods"...I wanna win it!!!