Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Fast Approaching

Not much has changed the last few months at our little homestead. Our electrician has put up the new box and wiring for our meter and we are waiting for code to come inspect it so our electric company can hook up the new one.
We did find out today that our first set of adoption paperwork has been sent it so hopefully by the end of March/Beginning of April this process will be over with!!:)
2 weekends ago my parents and one of my brothers and his family came to our house for a Christmas get together. It was nice cooking a big meal for them. This Past Saturday we went to my grandparents house for their annual party. So my mom and her 5 siblings and most of their children were there along with their children. My mom counted 55 of us there!!! It was a great time seeing everyone!!
Today I plan on wrapping gifts for my kiddos and making sure amounts of gifts are even. Have a great Christmas everyone and I will post our Christmas picture when I get one taken.

We're in!!!

It's been a long month but we are all moved into our house!! It's home and it is so cozy.
Yesterday my oldest son passed his road test. He has enjoyed running errands with his siblings. I'm amazed by how quickly time flies. In a year I will be planning my first graduation party. Then fall of 2016 he will fly away to college. 17 years have come and gone in the blink of an eye.
We're still waiting on paperwork to come back for the adoption of our 4 kiddos so we can sign the next set of paperwork. Our 14 fd is really struggling and grieving the loss in her life right now. We have started a new therapy together and I'm praying in a month she will find some relief.
Yesterday I was able to see all 3 of my grandparents. My paternal grandfather has stage 4 cancer but he's home. He was in good spirits. :) he turned 74 yesterday. Wednesday will be the 3 year anniversary of Gram's death so I'm sure this week is hard on him.
It was great seeing my maternal grandparents too. My grandmother is the most God-fearing woman that I know. I hope someday I'm half the woman she
is.
I've been looking at chicken coops online trying to decide what I would like to have in the spring. I also want a pair of ducks. I'm excited to be planning and seeing my dream slowly becoming a reality.:)
Time for me to run for today. I need to feed my kiddos some lunch and get ready for work.

Winter has hit us full force!!

We were going to move the last of our big furniture this weekend but we had to change moving the big stuff because of snow!! We received just over a foot here. My kids are having fun playing in it right now.

Almost in!!

We are officially half moved in. We should be moved in with the rest of our belongings this weekend enough so we can spend the night in the new house.
Then we'll be cleaning the rental house this next week and enjoy the new house!! I can NOT wait to cook in it!!
Our cat and dog are finally friends. They have been playing tag most of this evening and have kept us entertained.
I know all of our hard work and late nights will be worth it once we are in!

More Pics

Sylvester our newest member of the family.

Kids bathroom painted. We're going to do the trim a darker blue.

Kitchen Pics

These pics show my "tin" we just put up and the counter top we redid.

Moving Blah, Some Ponderings

I'm feeling overwhelmed with moving but we are slowly making progress. My husband and I are quite a team though. :)
 We both are exhausted but in 2 weeks the madness of moving will be coming to an end and we can get our new house all set up!!!
I can not wait to finish the boys bedroom and have that ready within the 2 weeks (Lord Willing)!!!
The backyard is looking amazing and this weekend we are going to figure out where I can have my garden next year.
I put away some of my kitchen items last night. I'm not sure if where I put things that it is where they will stay. I still have the rest of my kitchen to move. Which I won't move until we are just about ready to stay in the house.
 You know something, we're VERY blessed to have a place of our own. Oh the memories our children will have fixing it up ourselves!!!
Tonight we are supposed to start signing the first paperwork for adopting our 4 kiddos. I'll keep you posted!
Till next time <3

Progress....

hutch we stained

This is a treasure I have in my living room we bought off a dear friend.
Before

After

Bedrooms are complete!!

More pics

These are of the living room.:)

Little Touches

I started moving stuff into the new house today. I hate the actual moving process but am setting things up as I move them!
 Below is a pic of my laundry room with a few touches added to it. The irons are the treasures we found. The crocheted dresses and shorts are my great grandmother's that she made . The white socks long john's my grandmother made all the guys one Christmas and my great aunt made the little outfit out of dishcloths. The wash board is one of the first antiques hubby ever bought for me!

Here is the dry sink I moved today. 

Treaaures Found

Hubby and I felt like American Pickers yesterday. I'm looking for an Old Cast Iron kitchen sink with drain board. I was told about a cast iron stove for sale for $5 while visiting  in-laws.
It wasn't exactly what I was looking for but we found other fabulous treasures. We bought an old fashioned rake which is sitting in front of our new living room window where our flower bed will be built. We also bought 2 old irons that are very rusty but will be in my laundry room as decor. Also 2 decorative little milk cans I put on the shelves in my new kitchen as well as an old cast iron pot made to hang in fire place. It has a crack in it but I can't wait to hang it up in my kitchen. Last but not least hubby found a red wicker shelf that matches the white one pictured below with my spices. I finally have something to out the rest of my loose spices on when we move!!

pic of the house and back yard jungle

Shout out

To all the bloggers on my reading list. It's nice to visit other farms virtually!!! All if you want a great blog to read please visit my cousin's blog #BlessingsfromFelicityFarm. She and her Dh live in a rural town in Maine and farm.

It's official!!!!!!

We officially own a house!!!! I'm so giddy! After Many years of dreaming of a country little homestead we will be creating our little tiny farm over time.
Hubby and I were very blessed today with this house. It is a fixer upper and I can't wait to dig in!!! We will be giving our 30 day notice next week for where we are currently living but that gives us some time to move our stuff! (man are we blessed with STUFF)
I plan on going down to the new house tomorrow to take pics of it after my 2 ds leave for their home school co-op. I will be posting pics this weekend!!
They are prepping the road it is on as they are widening it so it will be very interesting to try and move while paving is going on.
I absolutely can NOT wait for hubby to clear the land out back and to plant flowers. Also I'm very excited for him to till a garden spot for us!!!
Please pray for our new home to pass licensing as we need to get our new home licensed until the adoption of our 4 children goes through. (Lord Willing December).
We are so blessed and keep checking back to see the Wyld Dream Farm in progress.

Today is The Day!!!

We go at 10 this am to sign paperwork on our house. I'm so excited!
We thought we were going to be signing yesterday but the lawyers were busy.
I will be posting pics this weekend of our dream come true for you to share with me.

Dreaming of plans.

I'm mentally planning flower beds, gardens for next year and what I would like for chickens.
Hubby and I are going to paint the kids rooms and carpet them before we move in. For Christmas I plan on ordering all 7 kids new bedding and wall decals for their room. Also I am going to make curtains for their windows. I want to get some chalkboard paint and have a chalkboard painted on their walls in each of their bedroom that way they can write down reminders and be artistic if they feel so inclined.
I'm blessed with 4 or 5 old 6 pane windows in the basement of the house. One of them will be painted with chalkboard paint the others will be turned into picture frames. They just need some hardware on the back to be able to hang in our hallway.
The rest of the house we will continue fixing after we move in.
I know for flower gardens I am researching perennials right now I think I would like to plant. I will be planting purple and red flowers as these are hubby and my favorite colors. I would like to purchase some Shirley Tulip bulbs in memory of my grandmother. I want to plant these along our walkway to the front door.
I'm hoping to plant a few lilac bushes in between our house and the neighbors along the property line for some privacy. All of my dream will not be coming true this year with what I intend on doing but it sure is fun window shopping online for them!!
I'm looking forward to settling down in one place and making it our own. To have a permanent home for when all off our children grow up to come home and visit. For our future grandchildren to come stay.
I'm soaking in the blessings today and pray your day will be blessed!

We have a date!!!

We sign paperwork on our house October 1st and Lord Willing we will be moved in by November 1st. I'm so excited!!!!! I can not wait to post pics!

Waiting on a Closing Date!!!!

Yes you absolutely read right, we are waiting on a closing date on our house. I was hoping we would have closed by now but alas sometimes we just need a light lesson on patience.
I'm hoping within the next few weeks to get into the house and start cleaning. As soon as we get a closing date we will give notice here and start moving things. It will be a good time to do a deep purge at the same time.
It's definitely not my dream house I thought I was going to have but I can't wait to make the inside have that farmhouse feel!!!
Hubby will start clearing the land in back of the house and will till a perfect garden spot and we will be figuring out where we will have our chicken coup in the spring!!
I plan on planting some tulips and other fall planted bulbs if we get our closing date soon enough!!! In the spring hubby plans on building me 2 beautiful rock flower beds in front of the house.
At closing I will post pics of our house!!!

9/11/01

Where were you 13 years ago??
I was on my way to my grandparents house 2 weeks away from having my 3rd son. We had stopped by a little mom and pop store to get drinks and snacks for my little boys. Dh had rushed into the car telling me the news. I remember watching tv with my grandparents for a couple of hours completely in shock.
When we got home that night we found out one of hubby's cousins was in the Pentagon when that got hit as well. Thankfully she was alright.
As well as remembering all those whose lives were lost, today is a special day for me. It's the anniversary of my hubby's and I first date. 19 years we have been together.
Take a moment to reflect at how far people have come in 13 years and the families who were left with a hole on their hearts.
I'm thankful for our military who lives their lives to protect us. Those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Yes we do not have a perfect country but I'm thankful for our freedom.

Update

We may have found a place!!!! Actually a place found my hubby! It's not what I dreamed to have that we have been house searching for but Hubby and I have dreams of turning it into ours. We should know by the end of this month if we will have this house or not.
I can tell you it's a 3 br 2 ba home that we will turn into a 5 BR 3 BA home. I have decided if this is our forever home, I will be doing farmhouse decorating to give my home that farmhouse feel. It sits on 2.6 acres so I know we can have some chickens and goats as well as a garden.
I plan on putting faux tin as a back splash in the kitchen and putting in a farmers sink. I also want brushed oil bronze fixtures. Lord Willing our dream of owning our own home will become a reality soon!!

More Snow Coming

We have more snow predicted to come this week. Honestly I'm ready 40+ degrees and mud season to come!!
We're still waiting for some proceedings to continue so we know what's going on with our 4 foster children.
I had the pleasure the last 2 weeks if cleaning a 95 year old neighbors house. His wife passed away almost 15 years ago. Cleaning his house has flooded some wonderful memories of long ago. He mentioned 2 of his favorite foods his wife had made for him so I googled a recipe for Crybaby Cookies and called my grandmother for her Salmon Loaf recipe. The Crybaby cookies my clan liked and he said he liked the Salmon Loaf. (none of my family likes fish)
I was given some more cookbooks this past week as well that from the 50's and one of my closest friend gave me her husband's Julia Child cookbook!:)
Have a great week!!:)

Snow Day

We had a great snow day today! We have been playing lots of games together.
Here's a pic if our homemade pizza and our cookie pizzas.

We ended the night with a few family rounds of Bingo and Charades.

Behind on the Blogging...

It's been awhile! No new news on getting closer to owning our little Farm but I do have some more decorating ideas!! I'm subscribing to Better Homes and Gardens, Country Living, Country Sampler magazines and have noticed chalk board paint is. Common theme this year. I love some of the idea! I want to have a memo wall in our dream home with chalkboard paint on top and the cork squares under it. I'm also thinking of getting dry erase Calenders for each of the children's bedroom doors, that way they know when their own practices are, vacations, etc...
I love dreaming of the future. :)
Congrats to the Seattle Seahawks on their blow out Super bowl Win!!!!!(even though I was cheering for Denver)

Friends in the South

My heart goes out to the families in the Southern US who are trapped at home due to the weather and out of work due to it.r
I pray your warm weather returns soon so your lives have their normalcy back!!

Favorite things Part 2

Oil Lamp

Tin back splash

 Cookbooks

 Buffet 1

Buffet 2

Some of my Favorite Things Part 1

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite things around my home.
I LOVE antiques. I have 2 antique buffets in my kitchen that store my kitchen goods.
I love Pampered Chef cooking tools.
I collect reproduction tin pictures and cans.
I also collect cookbooks. I have many cookbooks that my family no longer wanted and have gifted to me. I have some cookbooks that were my great aunts. My grandfather has a couple of cookbooks that were my grandmother's. I have baskets and recipe boxes full if recipes that have been handed down to me or from recipe exchanges.
In Part 2 I will post some pictures of my treasures.

I encourage you.....

.....to read one another blogs....to  glean from others knowledge.....to know every phase of life you are not alone......to visit places you typically can not go to...to enjoy your few minutes of online time. :)

MLK day

I am enjoying my day having housework done already and thinking of what I will fix for supper. I've been taking notes in my farming notebook for whenever we find the perfect place for us. I found a beautiful home online For Sale By Owner with land and fencing already up. But I know we're not quite financially ready to take the plunge yet.
We're looking for a 4-5 BR 1.5+ BA house with some acreage. I really want a farm house and have found 3 contenders so far. Each home has 20+ acres of pasture and woods. Hubby has promised kiddos if we find a place with enough land we are going to clear an area big enough for a baseball field that won't get in the way of the animals we want. I'm also looking forward to gardening.
I'm also hoping by the time we're ready to purchase a home i'll be able to stay home and not be working part time.

Relaxing Sunday

I was able to sleep in this morning which was rather nice. Hubby started housework which I'm just about finished with. I just need to go take care of our clean laundry when I'm finished with this post.
The boys are waiting for the Denver/New England game to start. When I'm done the things I need to get done I plan on reading my Better Homes and Garden magazine and catch up on reading your blog posts!!
Hubby is refereeing basketball today and I'm sure once he gets home he'll be asked to go plow. We have just over an inch of snow so far. I love lazy Sundays at home!!

A Little Research

I've been researching the how to's of hobby farming.  Seems none of us have farmed before I figure some research may be beneficial. One if the first things I've read was to set goals. I know I definitely want to have a Hobby Farm and start off small. I would like chickens for eggs and meat. I would like to raise pigs and a cow for meat as well as dairy goats. I'd like to have a small garden at first to have some veggies for the family.

In need of Natural Remedies PLEASE

This Fever/Flu has begun it's nasty grip in our family. 2 kiddos and Hubby are sick tonight. I noticed 2 other kiddos seem pale. I called my Aunt before the holidays and her family uses GSE as a preventative but do you have suggestions of what things to use and for what ailments??
For regular cold we've been using Cold*Eez as it's homeopathic. I would appreciate suggestions for fevers, flu, cough,colds, sore throats, etc....

Pause in the Day

We've had some crazy weather here in Maine this past weekend. Yesterday morning hubby and i decided to go to Dunkin for coffee and munchkins for the kiddos but due to freezing fog we had to turn around and go home because the roads were a sheet of ice. There were several accidents around and our interstate was shut down in spurts.
Hubby tried heading out to referee a basketball game but due to an extremely icy hill the Suburban slid into the snow bank breaking a brake line. Thankfully our other vehicle was just fixed!!
I want to share a cute picture of a gray squirrel that came right up to our kitchen window during the freezing rain.

Enjoying the Morning

I'm typically not a morning person but getting up with the kiddos to get them ready for school I enjoy. The 2 hours from the time the 3 get up until the youngest 2 get on the bus I truly love. Sometimes this will be the time I dig through cookbooks or search through recipes online to find something new to make for supper.
Most mornings the first hour I watch our local news and read all of the new blog entries on my reading list. I love reading about your days even though I may not know each of you in person!
Today I need to plan a grocery list so I can go shopping tomorrow morning. I need to search through some recipes as I try to do a new recipe once a week for our family. Plus I've ran out of coffee and i LOVE having coffee every morning.
Before I head to work today I need to run and buy some milk. I've been promising the kiddos homemade cinnamon buns and just have not made them.
Time for me to finish up the housework and get things accomplished before heading to work!

Strength

Sometime's life's trials are overwhelming. Sometime's I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs. But thankfully God sends me reminders. HE's here with me walking beside me holding my hand through this. I may not understand the why's behind the trials but I know it's to turn my eyes upon Jesus and ride this trial to its end even though this  has no end in sight yet.
Ride the Waves my friends, keep enduring the trials as I am there with you.

Vacation is Over

This past week has been pretty busy. The wheel baron on my SUV let go but I'm under the warranty so thankfully it was fixed for free. Having that fixed we found out we need to have the brakes replaced but it will wait another week or two.
The kiddos had an extra day off from school yesterday due to the rain freezing on the roads. The temp hot up to 50 yesterday and today it's in the teens with some wild wind. I've noticed our friends in the South are freezing like we are today.
Here's a pic of our driveway after having all the rain yesterday: