Entering the next change of life….

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I think the main thing that is on my mind and I feel lead to share with other women out there though is that I have realized this last weekend that I have started Perimenopause……

Yep, the young age of 44, 45 in October.  I knew all about Menopause, I thought, but didn’t really know anything about Perimenopause but boy have I read up on it this last weekend while away camping.

I think I have been in denial or just not wanting to acknowledge that something was happening for several months….I think at least since, November of last year.  I had just seen Dr. Oz’s new show one after noon and this was the topic of the show: Do you have Perimenopausal Rage? 

I have had some severe outbursts at my children, they come out of no where and are so extreme and are so unlike me…there has been impatience and irritability as well, the like of which I have never dealt with….I watched the show and saw, myself in the video and was astounded…there was actually something going on….It has been a hard road these last few months since my youngest was born, there are so many hormone changes that come with a newborn……

This last Thursday getting ready for camping, I lost it, I deliberately broke a plate in my kitchen by slamming it down on the counter….it was awful, it is awful every single time I have an outburst, it is a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when your children are scared of the way you look…you are just a two headed monster….I sat down crying my eyes out and went back to that video and watched it again….

I vowed that before I went camping this past weekend, I would get to the health food store and get myself some help, I need to get my body back in alignment….

It is frustrating to have all this come about so soon after the birth of my youngest and it made it so hard to separate and realize that there was something more going on…I have had the post partum feelings of no libido, just don’t even talk to me about being interested in intimacy…at least that is what my brain was saying, but my actions new better than to do that, I could not do that to my husband….

and there is also that post partum night sweating that happens….but that was at the beginning…I am actually having that again…so that is going on….Oh and lets talk about the insomnia…..my brain is just going and going and going…it just won’t shut off….  And to mix in all of this, I am up at 12am, 2am, 4am, and 6am, give or take 20-30 minutes on each one every night still….so that is not helping with my sleeping….

But when I watched the video again, I realized…AH HA!!!!  IT IS NOT ME!!!!  God is trying to get me to realize it is time to move onto my next phase of life…..so Friday I was mildly depressed as all could be…happy to find out what is going on, sad to realize that I am actually at the end of of those years of bearing children….not that I couldn’t get pregnant again in the coming years, but I had asked God to give me a sign if this was to be my last child, and this is becoming blaringly obvious that things are about to change for me….

I am so blessed to have come across the best sales lady at the health food store, it was her day off and she was there and she took the time to help a blubbering lady out who was distraught over the turn of events of her hormones and desperate to help straighten them out….

I left with a bottle of wonderful food based multivitamins that had the B complex series, the D vitamin that I need as well, the advice to take Evening Primrose Oil, which I actually happen to have had at home already from using during the end of pregnancies…that was recommended at about 1500mg 2x a day and then I could back off once I had a better control on things… I also left with progesterone cream. In addition she said to take the Fish Oil capsules that I had already at home as well. The sales lady, though said, with the evening primrose oil, I would be amazed within 3 days like a load had lifted off of my shoulders….

And here I am on Monday, feeling amazing, like this depression I have been walking around in has abated, that I am once again taking charge of my health, that I am not going to be this awful mom that my children remember.   The irritability, the edginess is gone, I just cannot explain it…I just feel somewhat back to normal!!! I cannot say how thankful I am that there was a program that I saw that made me realize that there was something else going on.  I praise God that he brought back to my attention to help me find the right direction.

The insomnia and night sweats, the lack of libido..turns out these are all symptoms of Perimenopause…it just helps to know that sometimes it is something you don’t have direct control over causing issues, it really is hormones and we need to take care to watch over them to make it safely through to the other side.

I am so ready to embrace this next phase of my life and see where the Lord will bring me, I know it is not going to be easy and may be a balancing act to get hormones in check, especially when I don’t have a doctor, but I have some great resources and by talking about it out loud with other Christian women we can all help each other have the best possible journey and still glorify the Lord.

If you have started this time of your life and have thoughts to share I would enjoy reading what has worked for you or if you have questions feel free to ask those as well!!

God Bless ya’ll~~

I know it has been a while…

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Hi everyone, I know it has been since January when I last posted.  It seems as though so much as been going on and then not so much and now it just seems like a fog.  I have definitely had a time adjusting to our newest baby and finding our new routine.

I have taken the time to hold onto these last stages with our youngest as I know these will be the last time I get to experience them.  I have been somewhat withdrawn from life just being involved with this Little Man, I am not 100% ready to just pass him off to the nursery workers to see to his needs, that is my job and I am relishing the time.  I am coming to a point though where I am ready for him to grow onto his next stage and am seeking the Lord for the peace of mind to make it through to the next phase, it is bittersweet to see him growing up before my eyes…..Even now as I sit here typing and see him trying to climb up my leg for the very first time.

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January we put our house up for sale, it is still for sale and I know it will when the Lord feels it is the right time for our family to move on.  I am ready to move forward, but at the same time, I am hanging onto those memories that has made our family for the last 11 years that we have moved here and started our family.  It will be a somewhat sad day when we have to drive away for the last time.  In the meantime, we have a landscaper coming next week to spiffy up the yard and just make it a little bit nicer in the Curb Appeal category.

I spent a week ago Saturday, cutting back our woods.  About 100’ in length and 4’ in width, and while my efforts made a dramatic statement on our side yard the even more dramatic effect was the poison ivy that I ended up with starting Sunday evening covering my eyes!!!  The pictures don’t do it justice but it has been a week of intense pain and annoyance as I have awaited for the Lord to heal my body of this terrible issue. My eyelids are actually a vibrant red color, which the flash didn’t show very well but you get the idea.

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I have been experimenting with my daughters hair trying to practice some braiding techniques.  There are so many wonderful ladies out there sharing how to use this wonderful art to beautify ones hair and glorify God…here are a few examples…

 

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We’ve had a round of birthday’s since the beginning of the year from my husband through three of the children….we’ve been camping several times…with the latest being this past weekend for Mother’s day and our Anniversary on Sunday….

This past camping trip, was great but made for some great memories with it pouring rain for half the trip, a power outage, and a bear…not to mention that meant 6 children in a trailer not more than 8 feet wide for all afternoon….sometimes technology is a huge blessing being able to find something to occupy them :- )

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I have more to write and more to the point of what is really on my mind and I will share that in my next post that I am already working on, but wanted to share some of what is going on and I am hoping I can get back into the groove of writing, I miss blogging and am hoping I am going to be able to find the time to pull everything together.

God Bless to you all.

I Won!!!

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I follow Crystal’s website Money Saving Mom.  I receive daily emails, hourly emails that mention the latest coupon goodies and deals.  Crystal recently published her book The Money Saving Mom’s Budget and it has skyrocketed up the chart on the best sellers list.

 

Back in December she sent out an email that several websites were hosting giveaways for free copies of her book.  I went to each site, there must have been about 11-12 now that I look back.  I entered each one.  Crystal has such a huge following, thousands of people out there around the world and I had just about given up hope of ever winning anything from her promotions….. 

Today in my mailbox there was a notification that I had won from The Frugal Gal’s blog.  Brittany had 5 copies that she was giving away and there were over 1500 entries for the giveaway!!!

While I may be debt free there are sure to enough tips in there on how to save money on couponing and other ways to streamline expenses that I can find useful.  I am so excited!!  If you are interested in trying to win a copy of the book as well, here is a link to Crystal’s site and all the sites that are hosting giveaways: http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/01/enter-to-win-on-of-copies-of-my-book.html  Good Luck!!

Here it is 2012….Oh Carmen…this one’s for you!!

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Hi all,

A New Year has arrived.  I pray the last year was full of blessing for everyone and that the year to come will be even more blessed.  I am so thankful for the merciful God we have that allows us these new beginnings; days, months, years.  It gives us a chance to reflect, to dig deeper, to grow more as we focus on the Lord.  A time to repent, to seek guidance, to set attainable goals, to re-evaluate, to separate more, etc.

In the big scheme of things though, I don’t have to worry about the month, the year, etc.  I only need to focus on this day….this is the day which the Lord hath made…Psalm 118:24 and Matthew 6:34…Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought of the things of itself.  I need to live this day to the fullest for the Lord, to do my best to glorify His name in whatever area of capacity that I experience.  That may be teaching, housekeeping, mothering, being a chef or “best cooker” as my children refer to me :- ), finance manager, etc.

Last year, around the first couple of weeks of the year, my husband and I sat down and made a list of things to do to get our house ready to sell.  It was a great list in outline form with neat little “bullets” and sub-bullets….yada, yada, yada….and how much did we complete??? Well not nearly enough!!!  I don’t think we can even say that we completed one thing entirely.  We did make a good effort of cleaning out things, made some huge donations to Habitat for Humanity and Goodwill…but that was the extent.  Being pregnant and trying to get rid of things….I think those two ideas aren’t meant to go together!!

So the new year is here and what do we do……PUT THE HOUSE UP FOR SALE!!!!!!  Yikes!  Well here is the thought process….The Economy is just horrible right now and especially the housing market.  We have lots of “to-do” projects to complete. Our neighbor around the corner put his house up for sale with a realtor.  They didn’t have a choice, his job moved out of state.  We have talked about putting our house up for sale ourselves.  After mentioning it to a friend over lunch recently, my husband came home and said maybe we ought to put our house up for sale as it would help out the other neighbor and theirs being for sale might help us out!!

It just so happens that I follow Money Saving Mom and she had a guest post about a couple that had sold their house by their selves. Way back when I first read the article and all their supporting articles, I shared it with my husband and I bookmarked it!!  I just love technology like that that is really helpful, bookmarks!!!!  Anyhow, I mentioned the articles again, went to some websites that were suggested, came back to my husband with details and then a few Sunday’s ago, BAM we went ahead and did it!!

Part of the theory, put the house on the market with a sign in the yard and that will motivate us to get the “to-do’s” list taken care of in a hurry!!! We figure since the housing market is in a slump and somewhat oversaturated with foreclosures, we could put it up for sale ourselves and we would be blessed if someone would be interested in buying it for a half way decent price.  If the house doesn’t sale over the next year then we would only be out a relatively small amount and if the market picks up then we could hire a realtor.  After all, we figure, we are capable of having a sign made, we are able to make flyers, we are able to set up an open house, etc.

Well one of the bookmarks was about how to get your house listed on the MLS listing on Realtor.com…basically you really want that as a For Sale By Owner as it gets you the most traffic, more so than just a few corner and lot signs for sale….  We sat down, made a few choices and signed up…well that listing actually gave us a broker…we didn’t realize we would get a broker, we thought we were the listing agents, etc.  I guess you would call it a discount broker…we paid the flat fee and we don’t have to pay the thousands of dollars to a real-estate agent.  I kind of like that idea, more money in my pocket!!

Weelllllll, who would have thought that living in a small town where you know lots of people because of your business…..that there would be ANYONE, upset at you for using a discount broker, which we didn’t realize it was in the first place.  My husband calls me this evening from work that he received a TEXT, yes a text, not even an actual phone call, which I consider the cowardly way out, from a Realtor that Tim has known for several years and considers a good acquaintance and great professional relationship….

That realtor states…”I am really disappointed that you used a discount broker and didn’t give myself and so and so the business”  WOW, can I just say I am shocked!  Can I just say, how unprofessional that is!!!  Can I just say, there is NO WAY that realtor will be getting our business when we decide to buy a house!!!!  My husband knows at a minimum 8+ realtors in our town and we got to talking about how to respond, one thing that came up was how would we be able to pick the right realtor and not show favoritism.  Anyhow, I put a nicely worded response together, emailed it back to my husband so that he could cut and paste it into a text or email it to the realtor.

I hope the email works and we don’t have to hear further remarks about what he can do for us, blah blah, blah….Every family has the right to keep as much money in their own pocket as possible.  It wouldn’t be so bad if the realtor had said “Hey, I see you have your house for sale. I hope all goes well, and if there is anything I can do to help you out down the road if you need it, just let me know.”  You know, keep the door open for future business instead of slamming it on his foot just now!!

Here is the listing: http://mlsmyhome.com/285259 that is the for sale by owner site and I should have the Realtor.com listing by Thursday.  The listing is essentially the same on both sites, the only difference is that on Realtor.com it will have all the MLS details that you can print out on one page.

For the last two weeks I have been working on our Dining room.  It had this plaid wall paper, floor to ceiling when we bought the house; not anything I would have ever picked out but sufficient to leave it be.  Well now it has some rips and the flower border has come down so I have been removing wall paper.  The wall paper is down, I need to scrub the walls, then spackle all the holes, and then sand and then paint. One of the freebies on Money Saving Mom was a free can of paint last year from True Value Hardware.  At the time I picked out a soft gray color hoping to be able to use it on the dining room at some point.  Hopefully it is not too dark and will look just right when I get to that point of painting.  I would like to do gray walls with silver accessories with white trim.  I’d like to have a silver-framed mirror on the wall you can see as you walk in from our Foyer and a few small floating shelves with silver accessories on them opposite wall that you could see in the mirror.  I’ll take pictures and keep ya’ll updated.

All I need to do now is get rid of this sickness that I have so I am not quite so tired and can do a little bit more vigorous work!!

My mom asked me the other day what we were going to do if the house were to sell right away.  I said well, it would be a little stressful but we would just get it packed up and take our travel trailer and go set up shop at the campground.  Our ultimate goal in selling the house is so that we can buy some acreage, a minimum of 5 acres and build a house on it.  If we can find a piece of property that has an old house on it that is decent enough to live in while we build that would be great.  We did see one that has a house on it across town, and there are some businesses on the same street as well.  What would work is we live in it to build our house and then when the house is built my husband could turn the old house into the business office….if the structure was sound enough….but all of this is just thoughts and nothing can happen until we get our house sold.

I looked into renting, in case we sell the house.  I could not find anything to rent that was significantly cheaper than our house that was a house.  I could find a 4br. apartment the next town over for only $310 a month but there is no playground…. no yard….do you see what I am getting out with having 6 children?  I think we would all go stir crazy.  At least if we sell and we live in the travel trailer at a campground….there is lots of open space, there is a playground, possibly a pool for spring time, there is a laundry mat.  There is no neighbor right next you with adjoining walls and the children could ride their bikes, etc.  I would much rather do that than live in an apartment for the same amount of money.  Travel trailer here we come!!!!! I am just continuing to pray that the Lord’s will be done and if it is His will that a buyer come our way sooner than later all the better and if we end up having to live here longer then what a blessing to live with all the improvements that we have been putting off doing for so long!!!

I am sure there are lots of other small details that I should be mentioning about what is going on at our house but right now they are absent from my mind, so I will let ya’ll go and wish you a blessed evening and day tomorrow!!!

Hot Pockets, Potato Pancakes, Pulled Pork

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It seems like life has revolved around the kitchen here for the last month…I think it must be that way for lots of families.

I decided to make some of my own hot pockets.  We need some snacks around here and it beats buying them in the store.  So I ordered one of these handy little dough presses…I actually ordered it on Ebay and was able to get free shipping.  I ended up making part of the batch as a breakfast pockets.  In my search for Hot Pocket recipes I had come across this one and it made a huge amount.  What better way to have a nutritious breakfast for my family and bonus, my husband could take some and have them at work.  Just a quick pop in the toaster oven and great way to get some protein.  I made the breakfast ones with eggs, sausage, red peppers, cheddar cheese and maybe some onions, I cannot remember.  These breakfast ones I would not mix the cheese in next time, I would add it on top and I would add a lot more cheese!!!

I made 21 of the breakfast pockets before I ran out of filling and you can see by this next photograph how much dough was still left over!!

  

Sooooo, I put the dough in the fridge for the day and the next day I made pizza filling.

 

I had pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms and caramelized onions and then topped them with chunks of mozzarella cheese.  The pizza pockets were a huge hit and I think the next time I make these I will just make a huge batch of the pizza ones.  This is a 6” dough press so it made a nice snack/meal for the children and two for the adults….of the left over dough I was able to make another 19 of the pizza pockets.  40 pockets from this one batch of dough.  If you are interested in the recipe for the breakfast pockets/dough you can find it here.  Hot Pocket Recipe

 

A few days later, we decided to have Potato Skins for lunch one day, they were FABULOUS, so fantastic, I didn’t get a picture.  I cooked about 5 potatoes and could have eaten almost all of the skins.  We’ll make these again for lunch as well, we loaded them up with cheese and bacon and topped them with sour cream.

The inside of the potatoes that I scooped out, was saved and then a few days later I made potato pancakes. Not quite your traditional way with the shredded potatoes, instead, we did more of a mashed potato version which was just as delicious.

 

 

We ate these with a dollop of sour cream and a side of homemade applesauce…YUMMMO!!!  If you are interested in the quick and lazy way of making Potato pancakes here is the recipe I followed. Instant Gratification Potato Pancakes

Instant Gratification Potato Pancakes

1 1/2 c prepared instant mashed potatoes (follow the directions on the box)

2 t dried onion

1 t garlic powder

1 t salt

1 t dill

1/2 t pepper

1 egg

1/2 c rice flour

2 T potato starch

optional: You can go craaaaaaazy and add some shredded cheddar to these, but I am that lazy tonight that I didn't even want to do that

Oil for frying

Mix together the potatoes, dried onion, garlic powder, salt, dill, pepper, egg, rice flour, and potato starch. Stick the bowl in the fridge while you heat 1/2" oil to sizzley (when you drop a bit of flour in). Using two spoons, drop balls of potato mix into the hot oil, scooping with one spoon and scraping the mix into the oil with the second spoon. Cook a few minutes on each side, until you can see the edges starting to brown. Drain on paper towels and eat immediately, or keep warm in the oven until it's time to eat. Serve with applesauce or sour cream. 

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This last weekend we had our Church Fellowship supper.  The fellowship was to take place after the Choir performed their Holiday Cantata.  Well I decided to bring Pulled Pork Sliders…the food was to be finger food and goodies and I thought this would be just perfect…..and judging by the amount of desserts, it’s a good thing…the desserts outnumbered the savory items about 3 to 1, so it was good that there was some protein for those that wanted it. 

This was my first time making this recipe and it is not one for when you are short on time.  It takes 8 hours just to brine and then it needs to cook in an oven at 225 degrees until the temp. reaches 200 degrees.  Well when I read the recipe online the person had cooked an 8 pound Pork shoulder and it took about 13 hours….. so I knew it would be a while and planned accordingly to have it ready for church…so here is the picture before it went in the oven…the temperature it started at…..then the temp reaching the 200 degree mark….

 

This is the picture of what it looked like when it was done cooking…..25 HOURS later!!!

I had no idea it was going to take that long to reach the temperature.  I cooked mine in a counter top roaster, figuring it would be cheaper in the long run to run the counter top instead of heating the whole oven…the trade off might be that it might have taken less time with the oven….in any event this turned out DELICIOUS!!!  Fantastic!!!  This is my go to recipe for pulled pork from now on….I was able to make 49 little sliders.  I made one tray of 12 for my family and set those aside and then put all the rest out on the buffet table at church.  The tray for us I waited until people had started going to the food line and then I brought the tray out of our truck and put it down and served up our family.

 

I was actually quite surprised/slightly offended/ a little appalled….that a fellow lady from church would say to me…”so you just grabbed the whole tray from the buffet line and served your family”…this coming from a lady that also has six children…..Wow….I don’t know anyone who would do something like that….I explained that No, I had made a tray for my family and set all the rest out for the church….A long time ago, I read in Elizabeth Elliott’s books that your family should come first, especially when you are making food…. so after watching this pork cook and smelling it, I thought it only fair that we get to taste what we labored over.  There were over 100 people in line for food that night, we would never have been able to taste it, if I had not set some aside for us.  Thankfully I had made a tray for our family and there were three left on the tray…we were able to provide some for our Preacher to eat as he always waits until everyone else has been through the line and there is usu. nothing left and he was so thankful to have something fulfilling to eat that evening!!

If you are interested in the pulled pork recipe you can find it here Perfect Pulled Pork. She has step by step pictures of the whole process which make it really easy to follow!!

Perfect Pulled Pork

1 whole boston butt

Dry Rub

1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix well and store in an air tight container.

Brine Solution

1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 qts cold water
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp dry rub mix

Add salt to cold water and stir very well until all the salt is completely dissolved. Then add the brown sugar, dry rub, and bay leaves and stir well to combine.

Pork shoulder preparation:

Rinse the pork shoulder and place in a large container, pour in the brine solution until the shoulder is completely covered. Cover the container and place in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Then remove pork shoulder from brine solution, pat dry with paper towels, place in baking pan that is bigger than the shoulder by at least a inch in length and width and at least 3 inches deep. Sprinkle dry rub onto the surface of the shoulder and massage in such that it adheres to the surface. Coat all sides. Make sure the fat layer on the shoulder is facing up before cooking! Place baking pan uncovered in a 225 degree oven on the middle rack. Insert a probe thermometer into the center or thickest part of the shoulder, but not touching the bone. Monitor the temperature throughout cooking (a digital thermometer with an alarm function is the easiest way to do this). Do not remove from the oven until the center of the shoulder reaches 200 degrees. When the shoulder has reached 200 degrees, shut off the oven and let the roast cool for a couple of hours before removing from the oven. If the bottom of the pan is dry (or crusted with dried spices) then cover the pan with foil to retain internal moisture of the meat during the cooling period. When the temperature drops to 170 degrees or slightly lower, remove from oven. Place on a large, clean work surface such as a cutting board, and remove the large sheet of crusted fat on the top. Pull apart with two forks, it will pull apart very easily. Serve for friends and family!

 

I hope you all enjoyed the food and try the recipes out at your home!!