We're getting there....

Well, one car is paid off as well as getting down to $0 credit card debt.  Student loans (graduate school) is going DOWN soon....it's next on my hit list.  We have also started planning our garden....o.k., who am I kidding???  My dad has this huge garden at his house that he sits and watches grow all summer while enjoying his rocking chair and cigar.  We are planning to mooch off of his garden, freeze and try to prepare mostly healthy, natural meals over the summer.  I really, really like vegetables, but sometimes I just get so tired of eating the same ones over and over again.  But, other than roasting, grilling, etc....the only other option I know is to put them in casseroles.  But those seem to always be full of processed stuff like cream of *****, cheese, butter, etc...  I need some ideas of things I can create with vegetables that my kids will eat.  I don't even know how to cook veggies like eggplant or brussel sprouts.
On another note....we just found out that once our adoption is complete, our post-placement reports went from having to do 2 total, to about 6 lasting until our child is 5 years old.  Once again, at a cost.  Good thing I'm going to be getting free food all summer, I'll need it to pay our social worker.  Hmmm....I wonder if she would trade her services for a bushel or two of brussel sprouts?

Spring Break Week of Awesomeness

I have been looking soooo forward to Spring Break this year.  After days and days of snow this winter I got in my head that I wanted to homeschool M1.  Not that the snow days made me crazy and I've officially lost my mind, but it just reinforced the idea that I wanted to be part of her education.  I have a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education and I taught in the public school system for several years.  Well, I've started this post about Spring Break and now I've gotten onto my homeschooling soapbox.  Back to Spring Break....we had an awesome week with M1 home.  Doug wanted to take her to Chicago to the American Girl Doll store but we decided to head down to Atlanta and make it a family trip instead.  We started our Spring Break watching Doug complete a 1/2 marathon which is ridiculous because he can do 13 miles without even training!!!  We headed to the American Girl Doll store, she and Doug spent time with his parents for a day, we went roller skating, 4-wheeling, had picnics in the park and on our farm, playdates and sleepovers, S'mores in the driveway over our fire pit and the grand finale was finding a sickly calf on our farm to literally "nurse" back to health.  Well, we gave him a bottle of milk (specially formulated milk for baby calves) and hope for the best.  We've had so much fun!!  Back to the homeschooling issue...this week made me realize how much stuff we could do during the day if she were homeschooled.  My wheels are certainly turning :)

A Fresh Start!!!

I've had it....with myself.  Do you ever get to a point when you know you have to make a change?  Doug has been saying for quite a while....it's time for the cable to go, we need to get back to the basics, etc....  Well, this wife was saying, "no, not my cable.  You don't know what it's like to be home all day.  I really, really, REALLY like these modern conveniences."  Doug would be happy living in a log cabin w/ no running water or electricity (o.k., I'm being a little dramatic here) and growing our own food.  Well, today I decided that I'm ready to go for it.  Now, I'm not shutting off the electricity today, but we're going to start making some changes to get back to the basics.  I'm tired of just coasting through my day...I want to live each day with my children cherishing each day and making incredible memories with them.  I don't want my children knowing more about the Disney channel than about me.  I want my house to make memories more than making entertainment.  We're working hard to pay off student loans and credit card debt.  We don't have much on either one, but I'm ready to be DONE with it.  We have a farm so why aren't we growing our own food through cattle and gardening.  I'm not quite ready for the whole pig and chicken farmer bit, but we'll see what the future holds ;)  Alrighty world, wish us luck.  I'll blog about our changes but I'm warning you that it will probably be gradual, or our children just might move out.