Bless This Tiny House

Prints

January 25, 2014

The kids inspired a new goal yesterday. Goal #10.

Take more pictures and PRINT THEM!

Sully and Story found THREE 4×6 family pictures and fought over who gets which one! You’d think I could end the mayhem just by handing them another pic. Nope. That’s all I have.

Oy, as a photographer and a mother, I feel so guilty. I hit burnout on the whole taking and editing pictures thing. So I haven’t downloaded anything in ages. I’m in the stage where you have to delete pics off the CF card in order to fit more. And prints? Pleh. Bottom of the list.

Here’s the goal. Order 50+ prints this month. (I’d like excess so they can do whatever they please with their copies.) AND continue to put an order in monthly. They’re dirt cheap. We should fill a wall or something.

Also, in an effort to preserve memories, I’m going record interview videos with the kids every three months. The interviews have been my favorites of all the videos! I want more.

Look out! I’ll be taping today!

Awesome Free Stuff!

January 23, 2014

The Craigslist Free Section. Goal #10

Love.

Yes, you’ll find a thousand vintage (read old and gross) couches, used toilets, ancient televisions, dirt, rocks, and firewood that is actually a tree needing to be chopped down.

If you can just hold out long enough. It’s a hunt! AND a race! Your favorite!

A brand new perfect condition something or other! Open your email as quickly as you can! Send the friendliest, most gracious message riddled with details about your muscular husband who doesn’t need help loading and is available at any time day or night at the speediest speed your fingers can click!

and BAM!

Your house is filled with rockin’ stuff that you didn’t pay for and didn’t steal.

Dresser
Vintage Couches (actually cool and not gross)
30 years of Architectural Digest (one year is worth $30 on ebay = fun find!)
Junior size tandem bike
Brand new huge picture window (for the tiny house!)
Bookshelves
Paint
Kids outdoor toys: water table, play house
Huge white board (I just have to figure out how to erase it)

I almost snagged a four wheeler once. Saw a real mechanical bull. And there have even been a few old cars. If you ever need a piano you just have to pay for the movers!

The goal here is to find more materials for the Tiny House. One window so far. Almost had another! Looking for tools and anything useful.
I’m on a mission.

The Vision

January 23, 2014

All the ideas are culminating, one huge volcanic goal, which could erupt any time. 😉 (Start building in a year; it’ll take 1-2 years to finish.) Simply blurting “we’re going to live in a Tiny house” isn’t enough. This life plan is about how we want to raise our kids, teach values, handle our finances, and glorify God.

The Tiny Kasl (haha) is just the beginning. The first of what will eventually be a handful of small dwellings. It will be built here while we’re living in our current MN single family home and it will be built on wheels. So when we kick off it will be our insta-house. Built, paid for, and landing wherever we put it.

Location will be about climate, job location for Ryan, and supportive of our lifestyle. This will include a great homeschooling and church community. I would love to have a few acres for gardening. I want to land in California. Within an hour or closer to the ocean-yes!

My checklist used to top with a dishwasher and laundry! Now knocked so far down the list of priorities I’m wondering if I’m still the same person! God is changing me. He made me a wife, a mother, and is continuing to transform and use me. He has used our church, prayer fasts, and our children to show us the path he has for our lives and each reveal is just so crazy. We could have never planned for ourselves such an amazing life! He is preparing us.

I Hit the Ditch.

January 13, 2014

Goal #2 *Homeschooling* is perfect.

Today I attended a Carole Joy Seid seminar. She speaks on homeschooling and it was 6 hours of WONDERFUL! Everything I needed at exactly this point in our journey. Tools, info, quotes, stats, more book lists, assurance, yes! Inspired!

Having only found out about it yesterday I didn’t have a ticket. I was pretty late. (That’s expected.) As I walked in my glass water bottle fell and broke in the parking lot. Then I had to leave to find a bank for cash since they couldn’t take my debit card. On my way back I hit the ditch on an exit ramp! Argh! Engulfed with thoughts that I shouldn’t even go; I was an hour late already and now I need a tow truck. Yelled “God, help me!” and the defeat was immediately replaced with vindictive determination! He rocked and rolled me right out! Yeehaw! Thank you, GOD! When I finally sat down I found out they had had mic issues the whole time I was gone and I’d only missed out on a few minutes. Yea!

Following the path God has for you will be challenging. Some terribleness out there will make sure of it. But! But, but, BUT!!! (I try to never use that word, it totally fits here though!) That’s where the goood stuff is and He will certainly prove to you that it’s worth it.

Dishes in Dishwasher

January 4, 2014

As you know, our biggest current goal is to build and live in a tiny house. Although the timeline for that extends two to three years, the transition starts now. We’re minimizing everything.

We’ve held two garage sales, I cleaned out the linen closet and threw a huge garbage bag of “just in case” blankets and sheets we’ll never use (too worn and stained for donation). I’ve gone through everyone’s clothes numerous times. The barn is filled with stuff for another garage sale in the spring. And I pulled out a huge tote of excess dishes from the kitchen. That was about a year ago.

I’m ready to do it again.

Goal # is for all of the dishes we own to fit into the dishwasher.

If we have more dishes than we can use we have too many. I’m still deciding if we want two or four extra place settings for when Grandparents are here. ! Ha! We’ll see what fits in the dishwasher! 🙂

Of course, there I’ll leave out a couple favorite mixing bowls, a few things that are not often used but still necessity. There will be no “just in case” items. I will not be hosting a dinner party. If the kids have a birthday party, we’ll make an exception and get fun paper plates!

Having minimal “stuff” in the kitchen will make everything function and flow much easier and preps us for a tiny kitchen.

Ryan is all for it! He brought up a big tote and I found another one. The goal is to fill both.

edit:
Mission Accomplished.
Well, the part about packing two big totes full of dishes! I still need to be sure the all fit in the dishwasher at once!

I’m peanut butter

December 12, 2012

I won!

🙂

I was shooting for a car. But! I came in second. And am acquiring quite a few things we didn’t have and didn’t need (besides the $ of course). Which makes it all the more luxurious and exciting! I love that Christmas is coming and we have a package coming in the mail. Such a treat when I was literally telling my husband that all I wanted for Christmas was help to move the bedroom furniture around. 🙂

We won a 55inch LED Smart TV, a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.2, a handheld wireless Dyson vacuum, Pickle of the month club, Ford knick-knacks, and $1,000. {!!!}

Pretty Crazy!

I’m really happy for the winner of the car. I befriended him on Facebook. He’s been attempting to win this car for months! I knew who he was through previous contests to win this car. The Ford Fusion. And he is so psyched! ~So that’s pretty awesome.

The contest was a three hour live youtube event. We stumbled in with two hours remaining and frantically put everything else aside to go all in. The goal was to send in a creative comment about the Ford Fusion and we could enter as many times as we wanted. Ryan and I submitted nearly 20 comments. My 2nd place comment was this:

“I’m peanut butter, the road is my jelly, and the Fusion is the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

You can catch a snippet here:

I kinda think God didn’t want us to get this car. Well, He really wanted the other guy to have it. We were SO close! The closest we’ve been to winning a car. This is a really cool part of the journey. These particular prizes are strange yet pretty ideal for our family. 🙂 We haven’t had a tv for a few years so that will be fun! (We’ll stick to watching whatever is online, hopefully without increase, only on a much bigger screen.) And the money is being used on a few necessities. The rest will hit the student loan debt. One step closer!

So there’s been lots of excitement around here!

All the while, we’re preparing our hearts and home for Christmas! New traditions for our family this year. Like having Christmas at our house and attending a new Christmas Eve service at our church with the kids! As they get older we can add more fun things to the list of family events, I love it! 🙂

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

Carrots

November 20, 2012

I have a small goal. Goal #8: Carrots

Every so often we buy a 25 pound bag of carrots.

The intention is to juice the majority of them. Sometime we juice all of them, sometimes just a few. Whatever happens there’s a race to eat them all before they’re done for. (This time it seems the carrots may have a head start!) And I put carrots in everything.

It’s on!

Usually I just start chopping carrots and the “what’s for supper?” plan formulates after that.

Yesterday it became Coconut Carrot soup. There’s really no recipe or plan, but if I tried to describe it, it would go something like this:

Saute: Many, many carrots (like 3-5lbs?), fresh onion and garlic, salt, and pepper in lotsa coconut oil.

Once everything is saute soft pour a bunch of coconut milk over it.

Boil -in a different little pot: a cup or more of coconut flakes in a bit of water until softish. Once it was pretty soft I blended it in the bullet.

Blend the carrot mixture in the bullet also.

Since the cups are small, I just blended each serving individually, adding a big scoop of the blended coconut into each serving.

Blend it all together, add butter, salt, and pepper.
Top off with honey or agave nectar. Sweet and garlicy = love it!

Anyway –the real goal here is to clean and organize my kitchen so it’s ready for juicing!

Counting Blessings

November 19, 2012

!. Coffee!

2. Blank Paper

3. I love it when Story is just as cuddly as when she was brand new!

Do I need a reason?

November 17, 2012

I’m doing these “Count your blessings” kind of posts. So do you want me to “count them” and rattle them off? Orrrr, should I fill you in on why they apply in my life?

???

Well, I just said that I’m thankful for online sermons. Because… we haven’t made it to church in a few weeks. Weekends get crazy. So I like to listen to what I missed while cleaning out a closet or whatever.

I LOVE our church. I soak up so much inspiration and information and it leaves me overwhelmed and jumping to make changes.

I’m sharing one of my recent favorite sermons. I had just gone to my childhood church the Sunday before and it was all about the mission statement and how the church is doing upholding it. I was so angered. I sat quietly fuming and crying in my pew with a slight urge to stand up and challenge things our pastor was saying and how he was saying them. That’s all I really care to say about it. (I have always loved my church and left so discouraged and sad.) And then the following week, at our current church, I got to hear this sermon:
What’s Next for Grace Church (Part 1) | Grace Church
It, too, was all about the mission statement. I was so refreshed and relieved. This is the church that I want my kids to connect with as their childhood and home church.

Anyway, online sermons. Yeah! Woot!

November 17, 2012

Today! I’m thankful for!

1. Online sermons.

This is how far I got yesterday. I might need the kind of plan where you start small and grow bigger! 🙂

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