Well, I don't seem to be doing so well keeping up this blog.  I tend to need a lot of "think" time when I sit down at the computer to do these types of things.  Thoughts don't come quickly for me when I'm writing, so I put it off and put it off and put it off due to someone always needing something from Mom.  But right now I think I'm good for alone time in the next few minutes, so here goes.

I haven't yet really given a good description of me...

I'm 46 years old and have been married to my hubby for almost 24 years.  We have three children, ages 18 and 14 1/2 (sons) and 9 (daughter).  We've been homeschooling for about 5 1/2 years now. 

My days are busier than I like them to be.  I work only 12 hours per week in our church office, three mornings a week, but it seems to really take a chunk out of my time.  My husband has started a new insurance business (forced into it due to unemployment for over a year) so he needs help in the office, too.  Fortunately (and very oddly) the office is in our home at this point, so I'm always here when he needs me to cover the office and phone.  He works evenings four night a week cleaning offices, to cover our monthly expenses until the business gets going good, and gets home late, so we all tend to be night owls and late risers.  He's in his office, just a few steps from the bedroom, by 9 a.m.  I am at the church by 8 a.m. on the days I work, so I'm up the earliest.  The kids sleep in and I don't like it one bit.      But life's been worse, and I'll be fine.

Another thing that takes up a lot of my time these days is my new-found love for healthy cooking.  I am cooking almost everything from scratch these days and buying organic as much as possible.  My food budget, believe it or not, has not risen that much.  A year ago, I spent so many days with a headache, I just could not get in the kitchen to cook, so we ate fast food way too often.  That's just the way I lived and thought it was going to be that way forever.  Well, I decided at first to just begin limiting the MSG in our diets.  I quit buying canned soups first of all and started reading labels.  I have an on-line friend who is working toward her doctorate in Naturopathy and she has been a tremendous aid in answering all my crazy questions.  Lo and behold, a few months later, my headaches started disappearing!!!  I am almost headache-free at this point and that is awesome.  I have made so many, many food changes over the past few months since I've started feeling better.  Since I had so much fast food expense each month (and lots of MSG in those meals - a vicious cycle), our food budget is still not "low" but it has remained pretty steady and I feel 100% better to boot!  Considering the fact that we're just now climbing out of poverty level (due to my husband's unemployment for so long and now starting a business from the ground up), we're doing pretty good!  I firmly believe that for many people, organic and healthy is doable.  It's just a new mindset and way of doing things and LOTS and LOTS of extra time in the kitchen, and shopping all over town, and doing internet research, etc.  But I am so glad I took that initial step last year to simply limit MSG.  I firmly believe the Lord led me in that direction (in hindsight) so that I could feel better and start feeding my family better.  I have changed my way of cooking almost 95% and am feeling good!

And, of course, in addition to all that - I homeschool my kids. 

The Lord is so good, and I am so blessed.