Good things are a comin'!

It's amazing how you can think you have something figured out only to have things change overnight, unexpectedly!.  That's what happened to us!  Thankfully it's a good change!

Remember my post about getting accepted for the house we really liked?  Well, we LOVE the house.  It's beautiful.  And exactly what I have been wanting.  Except it's in a town I don't really like.  But, we were going to sacrifice.  We had made plans and given notice here at the old house to move out on the 16th.  Sign our 1 year lease and hand over a big wad of cash on the 16th for the new house.  Well, Sunday Chris went to work on a boat on some property that we always say we wish we had something like it to live at.  Well, the owner was there started to talk to Chris and asked if we would want to move in there.  Um, YES!  YES we do!

So, the owner gave the tenants notice (they haven't paid rent since last year!!).  We are HOPING they will do a quick move and not prolong it.  We have to be out of this house next week, which means.....no place to live!  LOL  How on earth did we get into this pickle???!!  Well, we found a short term living option which we would be able to use until about the first week of October.  HOPEFULLY we wont need it that long.  It's a very SMALL 2 bedroom cabin.  Teeny, tiny.  But  hey, it's a roof over our heads!  Normally the owners rent the cabin out to vacationers for $600/wk, but since we are local people who are not vacationing, they are giving us a screaming deal! 

So back to the cool "new" house.  It's on an organic pear orchard which is 22 acres.  We are going to be care-taking a bit for the owner since he lives out of town.  He cleared out a bunch of trees and plans on putting in an organic garden and is hoping to have an organic fruit/veg stand.  His long term idea is to turn it into a CSA.  Chris and I are going to be heavily involved with the project.  I can't wait!
Chris is excited because we finally get to have bees.  I am excited because we get to have goats!  Our chickens will be happy!
The house is a cute little ranch house.  Kind of reminds me of the house I grew up in.  I'm excited to get in and make it our home!

There is so much more to get into, but I will leave that for future posts.  I can say that everything we have wanted for a long time can be achieved by living here.  We didn't have the land or the money to make our dream come true, and the owner of the land needed someone with the same goals/dream as his to make his dream work.  I think it's the perfect marriage!

Baked Oatmeal

I have been wanting to bake something yummy for days now. I just haven't had the time to look for something OR to make it! So over the weekend I took a few minutes to poke my head around the 'net. One of my first stops was at Nourished Kitchen. I just KNEW I would find something there that fit along with what I was wanting to feed my family. Yummy AND healthy! I was right. Within a few seconds of being there I stumbled upon a recipe for baked oatmeal. Besides yummy and healthy I needed it to fit into two other categories: breakfast and snack food.


The smell while it was baking was fantastic. Let me say that it is warm enough to have the windows open already this morning, but I kept them closed because the smell was so delish that I wanted to trap it as long as possible! lol

I'm excited for Maggie to get up this morning! We both enjoy a nice steaming hot bowl of oatmeal in the morning, I think we are going to really enjoy this!

Delicious!

Ingredients:

■1 pound steel cut oats

■1 cup walnuts, or other nuts

■2 tablespoons yogurt, kefir, whey or buttermilk for soaking

■dash unrefined sea salt

■6 pastured eggs

■2 cups whole, fresh milk

■up to ¼ cup maples syrup (optional)

■½ cup raisins or dried cranberries

■½ cup dried unsulfured apricots, diced

■2 tablespoons cinnamon

■¼ cup coconut oil, plus extra for greasing baking dish

Method:

1.Pour the steel cut oats and nuts into a ceramic container or mixing bowl.

2.Add enough filtered water to completely submerge your oats and nuts. Add a dash of salt and a two tablespoons of fresh yogurt, whey, kefir or buttermilk.

3.Allow the oats and nuts to soak, covered, overnight in a warm place in your kitchen – about eight to twelve hours.

4.After the mixture of oats and nuts has soaked overnight, dump them into a colander to drain and place the mixture back into the ceramic container or mixing bowl.

5.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 13 x 9-inch rectangular baking pan with coconut oil or another wholesome fat of your choosing.

6.Meanwhile beat together eggs, milk, maple syrup (if you’re using it), until well-combined and frothy.

7.Pour the mixture of eggs, milk and maple syrup over the soaked oats and nuts, stirring well to combine into a porridge-like mixture.

8.Gently fold dried fruit, cinnamon and coconut oil into the porridge-like mixture.

9.Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan and smooth it out with a rubber spatula to ensure even baking and a good appearance.

10.Bake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit for forty to forty-five minutes or until the oatmeal achieves a pleasing golden-brown color on top, a knife inserted into its center comes out clean and free from liquid and the fragrance of baked oats, dried fruit and cinnamon perfumes your kitchen.

11.If you can bear the wait, allow the baked oatmeal to cool for five to ten minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

YIELD: 12 to 16 servings

TIME: 10 minutes (preparation), 8 to 12 hours (soaking), 40 to 45 minutes (baking)

More goodbyes and a hello!

Sad day at our house today.  We got rid of Mrs. Pteranodon, Aunt Bea, Gloria, Binky, Zoe and Joker.  It's always hard to say goodbye to pets, especially ones you really, really enjoy and love.  Because of the move we decided to lighten our load of animals and downsize.  Our new yard is great, but not nearly as big as what we have now.  So we had to be fair to the animals and let them go. 

I placed an ad on Freecycle about the chickens and got a response from a woman who was interested.  As we started talking I also mentioned the rabbits.  She wanted them all.  Of course I was happy about her wanting everyone, but was even happier to find out they are a homeschooling family, they like to grow their own foods, etc.  Sounds a lot like we are.  I knew they were the perfect ones to take the chickens and rabbits.

We still have our original 6 girls.  We kept the Giselle and Peter Rabbit.  I just couldn't totally get rid of rabbits! 

One thing we did do this week that was TOTALLY NOT in the plan was getting a new puppy!  I have wanted a Yorkie for a good 6 years now.  But having spent a lot of money on our English Bulldogs I said I would never spend a lot of money on a dog again.  Not that they aren't worth it, but because, well.....I would rather get a shelter dog!  Anyway......I happened to check out Freecycle (yes, I LOVE Freecycle!) and an ad was placed just minutes before.  A lady had 4 Yorkie puppies-purebred.  For Free.  I called Chris IMMEDIATELY, knowing in my heart he would be sensible and say no.  Well, he said yes.  So we are now the proud owners of a little puppy dog named Triton.  This guy is little and full of ATTITUDE!   If you looked up Little Dog Syndrome in the dictionary you would see a picture of Triton!

Here is a picture of my new sweetie-it's almost impossible to get a picture of him.  He doesn't slow down long enough to get a good face pic!

And of course you can tell that even though he is suppose to be MY dog, somebody else has taken him over.  In fact, between Maggie and Chris, I am wondering where I fall into this who ownership thing!  LOL

We have 9 more days until we move.  I haven't done a whole lot to prepare so my posting may be hit and miss for a little bit!  I have lots to do.  I am finally getting in the frame of mind though, so it will be a breeze from here on out!  I am so looking forward to our new home!

Lovers of Fat Quarters!

This post is for you!  I don't know about you, but for some reason Fat Quarters have always been a little passion.  There is something really fun about those little squares of fabric.  So many, many possibilities!  Well, speaking of possibilities, you can hop on over to the Gaerte Gang Blog and have an opportunity to win a Moda Layer Cake from The Fat Quarter Shop!  Danielle gives a ton of chances to win!  So hop on over and check it out!  The hardest part about this contest is picking out which Layer Cake you want if you are the lucky winner!!!

Moving: We found the house!

I'm so excited.  The house we really wanted....we got!  Did I mention how excited I am!  I am jumping around doing the happy dance.  Be happy you are reading about it and not witnessing it.  It ain't pretty, however it is fun!

Besides getting a beautiful new house, the most exciting thing is getting rid of Danielle and Alan.  Our neighbors.  Or as we refer to them, the neighbors from hell.  I heard a quote the other day that is very fitting:
"Going to church doesn't make you any more a Christian than going to the garage makes you a car".  How true this is.

They have been a great reminder to me that when you profess Christianity you need to really watch how you present yourself to the world.  You never know who is watching.  So, if you decide to get a big tattoo of "Forgiven" on the side of your leg, or the words "Holy Spirit" tattooed on the back of your arms, you better make sure you are living/acting/behaving accordingly.  I have noticed myself saying and doing things I normally wouldn't out of frustration with them.  I hate the thoughts I have had and things I have said.  It's amazing how quickly a situation can take over.
Enough about them.

I really hate moving, but I am excited and feeling inspired about decorating!  I like the house we are in.  It's ok.  But my decorating mojo has suffered.  In fact, it has done more than suffer, it left the building!  But, I feel it coming back. The ideas are floating around in my head.  The decorating blogs are once again at my fingertips.  Ideas are a comin'!  I have several projects on the back-burner.  Waiting to get boxes unpacked so I can start!  I love turning a house into a home.  I've got some really great inexpensive projects that are itchin' for me to do! 

But, I still have to pack this house before I can do anything with the new house!