Hodgepodge of Thoughts, on Life and Faith

I've been really thinking lately, and struggling with a few things and wondering what God's purpose for us is right now in this season of life.

(This is a somewhat more "deep" post than usual...so if you're looking for crafts or natural living, today isn't the day. :)

We thought we were moving to Oklahoma in April.
It turns out, every door we tried to open was closed- we couldn't sell our house, we couldn't find a rental house, we couldn't find a job, we couldn't even get change of address forms from the post office! (I tried two different post offices, and both of them were out.) That was the final tipping point- down to the little details, it was clear that God wanted us to stay here.
We prayed and prayed about it and it was obvious we needed to stay where we are.
So we did.


God has totally blessed our obedience and given Tim an awesome new job, we have our cute chickens and are financially doing better than we have ...pretty much ever, even though things are still tight.
But...
I still feel discontented.

Like I'm missing out on some great adventure, and instead I'm stuck in this hot, sticky, sunny place with no beach and tons of humidity when all I really want is to see mountains and have cool nights and rain and be able to be outside for more than 5 minutes without feeling like I'm going to faint from the heat.
I feel frustrated because I really don't want to be here.
 We have several friends who are moving away and I don't want to be left here without them and without any family.
I wish we could still move, not to Oklahoma but somewhere else...somewhere cooler with mountains and wide open expanse where we can have a small farm, but it just seems impossible.

Yet, I just have to trust that God knows best for my life; for our family, that His plans are right and true and good even when they don't seem like it.
The theme of the year for us is "Trust" and boy, is God teaching me that right now.
I know he is good, but do I really trust him? Even when he leads me places I don't want to be?
The answer has to be yes, even though my flesh cries out "no" with each passing moment that it is denied.
I have to trust, because if I don't, I would be denying Him lordship in my life which means I wouldn't really believe he is; indeed my Saviour and worthy of all my trust, my praise. That He is worthy of all glory and honor and obedience...and I am nothing without Him.

A song keep coming to mind when I have days like this; it's by a band called Something Like Silas (they're not together anymore but they were really great)
It says:

"So I'll trust You, when I cannot see,
So I'll trust You, when the shadows hover over me
And I'll love you, when the distance leaves me cold,
And I'll love you, and I'll still believe that You are Sovereign Lord"

And then the bridge goes,

"I'm learning to trust, I'm learning to feel, I'm learning to love you, always."

And so, even though I don't know why we're supposed to still be here, I will trust.
This verse jumps out at me pretty much every morning, when I'm having my quiet time on the back steps, sipping my black, sweet coffee and watching the chickens scratch in the dew.

I am doing my best to dwell in His shelter, because that is really the only shelter we need.

"He that dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Psalm 91:1,2

Our Living Room + Pallet TV Stand

Hi!
I hinted on Facebook a couple of days ago that we had made something else with pallets besides our headboard. Really we didn't make something with a pallet...we just kind of used the pallet how it was to make a television stand.

So here is a tour of our living room, with our pallet TV stand.

This is looking from the laundry room into the living room. The door with the purse on it is a closet and the front door is right to the left of it, on the wall that the couch is on.
The white rocking chair we got from a thrift store for $10 and it's one of the best buys we've ever made. It's just the right height and rocks really nicely.
We also got the side table at a thrift store, and repainted it white. It was a dark fake wood before we spray painted it with appliance epoxy.
That thing in the floor is our heater, an old gas floor furnace that works great for heating the front of the house in the winter.
The hanging chandelier is from Ikea.

A closer view of our coffee table, made from the inside back of an old piano that we found on the side of the road. The kids eat snacks at it while watching movies, and they love jumping off of it onto the floor. :)
That basket is full of library books.

So here is the pallet TV stand. This view is from right by the front door. The wooden door leads to the laundry room, which used to be a covered porch years ago before we moved in. The bookcase used to be a window.
The chair next to the bookcase we found on the side of the road, and I recovered and repainted it. (it took me a year to get around to doing it, but I finally did!)
Our couch we got from Salvation army. I love it!
The yellow pillow I made, the blue one I made a cover for and the one at the far end of the couch we bought at Garden Ridge.
I made the curtains out of an old sheet from the thrift store, and the beautiful blue hanging Moroccan lamps (candle holders) are from my dear friend Laura, who got them for us as an anniversary gift.

This view is from the far corner of the living room, near our heater and the rocking chair that you can see in the first picture.

Finally, our pallet TV stand. Tim secured it to the wall using industrial magnet strips that he got at Harbor Freight, and we screwed the tv into the top of the pallet.

Our dvd player fits just right into one of the slots on the pallet, which we love. We plan to make the cords look a bit nicer, when we get around to it. ;)

So there is our little living room!
I'm sure it'll change in a few months, because we are always moving stuff around and re-decorating, but for now, that is what it looks like. :)

Of Children and Chickens

It's been really sunny and hot lately and we've been spending a good bit of our time outside before it gets TOO hot to do anything. Playing outside and holding chickies is pretty how we spend our afternoons around here.

( We've nearly hit the 100 degree mark already. In May. Eek.)

I thought I'd share some cute pictures of the fun the kids have been having, so here are ...the children and the chickens. :)

Ellie listening to music at the Levitt Shell

The Levitt Shell

It's Been a Whole Year!

Guess what?

I've been doing the whole blog thing for a year now.
One. Year.
Wow.
I didn't even notice until just the other day that I missed my "Bloggin' Birthday!" :)

(May 9, 2011 was the day Sweet Swan Songs was born.)


Happy Birthday to me!!

It's been great!
I've learned a lot about photography...
(oh, my some of the first photos are SO bad!)

Homemade Laundry Detergent...I've put up new photos since this one was taken.

Getting a new camera makes it SO much easier to take pretty pictures!! 

  done lots of fun projects...

Surprisingly, one of the most Googled posts is one of the first ones I did- the DIY No-Sew Desk Skirt

Made some delicious food!

Rocky Road Cookies

The blogosphere is so wonderfully welcoming, I love it!  I've made "virtual" friends (real nice people who I've actually never met in person) and gotten to have a whole lot of fun. Yup. Blogging is really great! :)

For this next year, I'm hoping to continue to just improve upon what I'm already doing, hopefully do some more herbal stuff as I'm learning about it, and move more toward a natural living/homesteading blog with recipes and sewing and adventures with the family thrown into the mix. I hope that sounds good to you all!
Please let me know if you have any ideas of things you'd like me to write about, I'm always looking for new interesting frugal ways to do things, or new recipes to try, etc.


I think I'll be putting a feature at the bottom of each post from now on with a link of this time last year's post.
 (This idea is taken from the fabulous blog The Mrs. whose posts always make me laugh and let me get a fill of my sarcasm-loving side of life. Plus, she's Canadian, which just makes her cool right there.)
The link for Homemade Laundry Detergent (above with the terrible photo) is from around this time last year.

I hope you all will stick around and experience another wonderful year with me, it's been fun and I'm looking forward to what this year holds.

~ Becca

Introducing...Lucy. And some other Miscellaneous Stuff.

Hi!
I haven't been on here for a few days (and I never finished the kid's clothing week challenge...oops)  because things have been a little bit busy around here lately.

We've been working on finishing up the chicken coop- they are in it now, even though it's not completely done yet- we still need to make a better door for them; but those little chickies are lovin' having more space to run around and roost and eat bugs and such.

Apparently there was a smudge on the camera lens. oops.

The mostly-finished coop- obviously we still need to finish painting it... We ran out of paint.

ALSO-

Eliana also started self-initiating potty training (hallelujah!!)
She'll be two and a half in a few days and we are SO ready for her to be trained. She started initiating it last summer, but then got scared and reverted back to diapers and has been adamantly refusing to even wear underwear ever since, until a few days ago when she all of a sudden asked to go pee in the potty.
She's doing really well! All day yesterday she went in the potty and didn't even have any accidents. She's still wearing a diaper at night so we can sleep without changing sheets halfway through the night, but I'm so proud of her. I hope it continues and we can get through to the end this time.
It would be so nice not to buy diapers anymore!


In other big news, we got a dog!

We'd been looking for one for a while but hadn't found just the right one- Tim is really allergic to short haired dogs (well really most dogs) and we wanted a longer-haired one but the rescue agencies don't really have any that suited our family well. Then a friend contacted us and asked if we'd be interested in taking their shitzu-poodle mix because she was requiring more attention than they could give her and we met her and fell in love...

So now Lucy is a part of our family.

And we love her!

She's small and cute and sweet and wakes me up every morning around six by jumping on me and licking my face til I get up. I'm still getting used to waking up that early, but I'm liking it because I have time to get some Bible reading and prayer in before the kids get up and then our days have just been going so much better. The kids are having a lot of fun with her too. :)

Lastly-

We're leaving in a few days to go to Oklahoma for a week to visit my brother and sister-in-law for his graduation from college, AND my parents are coming all the way from Washington (State) as well. I haven't seen my mom and dad for TWO YEARS- not since Eliana was 4 months old. So we're really really really really excited about seeing them!!
I'll try to do a post or two while we are there, but if not, don't worry- we're just having too much fun for me to find time!
I'll be back tomorrow with a Food Waste Friday post (eek!). :)

How I Am Weaning Myself Off Of Target

I don't know about you, but I have a terrible time spending too much money at Target.
Like, terrible. I can't help it.
I love Target.

I go in to get diapers or toiletries and come out spending at least $10 (usually like 20) more than I anticipated on a cute accessory, adorable home decor or a small toy for the kids, a snack, or some other thing that just called out my name in such a sweet voice I couldn't refuse.

Seriously, Ya'll.
At one point, I was going to Target almost every day.
Not necessarily to buy stuff, but when Ethan and Ellie were really little I went more just to have some contact with the outside world. Even if it meant ending that contact with the outside world with a screaming kicking toddler.

Then it morphed into sometimes spending money...then usually spending money...and then we were spending over $200 a month last year at Target on who knows what.
I couldn't even tell you what all I bought, but I was frittering away money that we didn't have to spend!

I mean, really! Why do they have so many awesome things?! I love their home decor- the candles, the prints on the sheets and pillows (which I never actually buy but always want) the simple white dishes, the cool designer clothing lines that are limited time offers, the dollar section, THE CLEARANCE SECTION...the marketing team sure knows what they are doing!

I've been feeling guilty about giving in to such materialism for quite some time but couldn't bring myself to stop....going....to....Target.

I think I'm finally conquering the Target-itis that has over taken me so unassumingly, wedging its way in little by little til it took over too much of my life.

(Hooray!)

My secret weapon?

First, when we were thinking about moving to Oklahoma a few months ago, where we were going to move didn't have a Target. This was almost a deal breaker for me. (which is SAD!) :)
WHAT?! No Target? Whatever will I do??

Um...save a lot of money that I would've otherwise spent.
Hm. Not a bad thing.
So I started weeding out my weekly trips to Target in preparation of (sniff) not having one available.
Turns out, we're staying put here in Tennessee, but I decided that even with a Target in close proximity, I was going to shop there less. Much less.


My next secret weapon?
Which is not a secret now...

At the beginning, it had to be drastic.
I started letting Tim take the car to work.
I know this wouldn't be an option for everyone, but we only have one car so if he takes it to work, I can't go to Target. How sad is that?! I had to physically ban myself from taking the car so I would stay away.
It worked.


Next weapon:

Shopping elsewhere for toiletries.
Sounds so simple, doesn't it?
 I felt like a genius when I figured out that other places have just as nice toiletries as Target does. duh!

I started buying our hand soap, "ziploc" bags, toilet paper and trash bags at Aldi instead.
It's cheaper, and I don't spend extra money on cute accessories sitting out at the ends of the aisle. So it could be doubly cheaper.
And, the Aldi brand of toiletries and paper/house products seem to work just as well.
In fact, I really like the hand soap better than Target's store brand.



Right now, I've conquered the addiction to Target down to going only when we need diapers, which is about every two weeks. Better yet, last time I went, I only bought...diapers. And wipes, because we needed those too. And batteries. But those were on the list.

I didn't buy anything extra.

YAY!!

Now, if I can just keep it up.....

Here are some good tips about smart shopping at Target, if you dare to enter the store.
I'll be keeping them in mind next time my daughter needs diapers.

Pretty Sunset

Our family likes to take little trips down to the river once in a while.
When the weather is as gorgeous as it has been lately, 'once in a while' turns into 'quite a bit'. :)
We went last night, and it was so pretty! It was mostly dark by the time we got there, and the kids enjoyed running up and down the hills, racing through the grass in the warm breeze.

We also went to the river around sunset a few nights ago.
Here are some pictures of how beautiful God's glory is.
It's amazing!

Nope, I don't know those people. 

Looking across the river to Arkansas

Looking slightly north

That orange is just beautiful!

Pretty, pretty!
I love sunsets. Such a gorgeous way to end the day. :)

Growing Store-bought Produce

A few weeks ago I shared on my Facebook page an article I came across about how one can re-grow store bought produce like celery, lettuce, onions after you've used up the majority of them by simply putting the root end into some water and setting it in a window sill so it can get some light.

I tried it with some organic lettuce and lo and behold, it worked!

After just a few days, little leaves were peeking out of the stem of my lettuce.
Being the genius that I am, I decided to plant it in our flowerbed. (lettuce needs dirt for nutrients, right?)
Unfortunately, the birds also need lettuce for nutrients and they ate it right down to the ground and killed it.
(sad face)

I decided to try the same thing with some green onions that I got at the farmer's market, although this time I am keeping them inside.
I put the white ends with roots on them in a jar with some water and.....

The next morning there were green shoots sticking out!
Amazing.
You can see where the new growth is- the dark green part.
Ellie thought they were pretty.

It's so cool how God makes plants still grow even after being picked for who knows how long! (although since these were from the farmer's market, they were probably fresher than onions bought at the store.)
Regardless, I am fascinated by it!

So.
Cool.
This is what they look like today, the second day they've been in the water.
It's raining today, so the lighting isn't as good.

So, don't throw away your leafy lettuce roots, celery roots or green onion roots. (I bet you could grow leeks too.)  Use organic produce. Stick the ends in water and watch them re-grow, and make your money go further!

Eleven Interesting (?) Things About Me

Hi!
So, a few other bloggers have been 'tagging' people to share 11 interesting things about themselves and I've joined in on the fun. I'm not sure how interesting these things will be, so feel free to go browse Pinterest if you get bored but here they are, in random order. :)

Eleven Things...


1. I am in love with doing laundry. Seriously. Really, I am in love with hanging my laundry on the clothesline to dry. There is just something so idyllic about seeing it hanging there, swinging in the breeze. It makes me happy every time I look out the window and see it there, in the back yard.

2. When I was in high school I was completely obsessed with hockey. To the point that I would spend 6 hours every Saturday watching 'Hockey Night In Canada' (even though I lived in the States) and had a note book with lists full of every team in the NHL, each player, the position they played, their jersey number and sometimes...their birthday. That's slightly creepy, now that I think about it. ;)
I would yell at the TV about calls made, knew the game inside and out and my dream for my 16th birthday was to travel to Detroit, watch the Red Wings play; then go across the Ambassador bridge and visit the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. I didn't get to do that, instead we took a day trip to Seattle for my birthday but I would still love to make that trip. It would be so much fun!

3. When writing, I use commas too often and have to go back and delete several each time I do a blog post. It drives me crazy!

4. I screech every time I see a cockroach, and it immediately grows (in my mind) to be about 3 feet long and huge and I imagine it scuttling up my leg, which makes it very difficult to get up the courage to kill it. However, I always do. Those things can not be scampering about my house! The kids also recognize "the screech" and come running to see the "oach"'. (Ellie's word for it)

5. I had my first baby (Ethan) in the hospital, had an epidural, gave up breastfeeding 2 days after he was born and fed him formula after that.
I had my second baby (Eliana) at home completely naturally, exclusively breastfed (she never drank out of a bottle) and I hate it when mommas judge each other over whether they have gone all natural or not.
I've done it both ways and can see benefits of both, and drawbacks of  both. Do what works best for your family. (Although if I had to do it again, I'd totally do natural all over again. But that's me. Although I've never done cloth diapers.)

6. I want to learn to crochet, make my own herbal tinctures and body care products like shampoo and lotion.

7. Sometimes I can be too serious. Thankfully, I have a husband with a wonderful, quirky sense of humor that brings out the funner side of me and kiddos that are always doing funny things to keep me laughing. :)

"Let's take a bath in a laundry basket and a toy bin!!" 

8. I absolutely love cheesecake. But I hardly ever eat it, because I'm too intimidated to learn how to make it myself. And I know it's really bad for me. But it's oh, so delicious.

9. I grew up on a small farm; skinning chickens, chopping and stacking wood, helping butcher deer and canning fruits and veggies. I am so thankful now for my Mom and Dad teaching me all of those things, although I wasn't always thrilled about it then. Once Hubby and I get some land, we are hoping to do all of those things for ourselves and pass down the knowledge to our kiddos.

10. I LOVE paperwork. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Give me a form to fill out, and I am one happy camper. There is just something so satisfying about filling in blanks. I want to get a 'data entry from home' job, but it seems like they are all scams. So if you hear of a legit one, send it my way. ;)

11. I don't like chocolate chips. Don't hate me. I like chocolate, I adore brownies, but I just don't care for the chips. They taste different to me. And they are tiny.

AND...

( I cheated. hehe. )

12. When my sweet girl Eliana (she's only 2!) raises her hands at church, worshiping God and singing...I cry. Every. Single. Time.

The End. :)

Homemade Handicraft Fun

Does anyone want to have a bit of fun, and receive a free Handmade gift from me??

My friend Jane over at Adventures in Dinner found a fun idea a couple days ago from another blog, and I decided to participate.

Here's what it is:

 the first three people to comment on this post will recieve something handmade from me this year.

the only rules are that they then:

do a similar blog post (or facebook status update if you don't have a blog) 

and make something special for those first 3 commenters

and send me something handmade in return as well.

Sounds like fun, right?

So, if you want to join in, leave a comment! Then you'll get something handmade from me (most likely some kind of bag or purse. Or you can request something in particular) within the next year. (most likely WAY before a year's time) hehe.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Death to the Pallet Table (or, there are times to not be frugal)

Last week, we bought a new table.

A cute, walnut finish breakfast nook similar to what we thought about buying last year and never did.

Instead of buying a table last year we were cheapskates and we made a pallet table ourselves.
It was really fun and a good learning experience- I love a DIY project to conquer, especially one I know nothing about.
And it only cost twenty dollars.
However.

The pallet table was...
kinda scratchy.
And rough.
And food got stuck in the top creases of the plywood, even though it was stained a nice deep dark coffee color.
And it was a little bit big for the space of our minuscule dining room.

And we only had two chairs to sit at it with, after we sold those metal chairs in the picture at a garage sale. (they were part of a bistro set)
 This part could have been remedied, but we are picky and have to have 'just the right chairs for just the right price' and never found them.

So, we bit the bullet.
We dropped two hundred fifty smackaroos on this table. (which, when you look at tables is really not all that much, but it's a chunk of change to us.)

um, so I just noticed this picture is a little tilted. Sorry. :)

And I
Absolutely.
Love.
It.
This table fits us perfectly, fits the space much better, and is just fun to sit at because you can slide all around the benches! And it's smooth and cleans up easily.

The pallet table is now sitting forlornly on our curb, waiting to be picked up by either another person who likes quirky not always practical things, or by the garbage men. More likely the garbage men, since it's been sitting there for about 4 days already.

Sometimes, it is worth it to invest in something you really want (or need) instead of just making do.
Lesson learned.
Just make sure you actually need the item instead of creating a need in your mind for it. ;)

Example: I don't need a Coach purse. Honestly, I don't even like them. (sorry if I offended some of you loyal Coach customers, but really. Do you NEED to spend that much on a purse? No.)

Anyway. We love our table, and it seats 6 or 7 people, AND it has storage under the seats! Which I have yet to figure out what to put under there. Blankets? Extra dishes? Probably it will end up being stash for the little's toys once they figure out that those benches open. ;)