What's been going on...

I know I haven't posted in over...well.....a year, but I'd like to try again. We have had a lot going on this last year and I'm not sure I could have posted if I had found the time  to. : ) I wanted to share some of the things going on in our lives, what we've been up to and hopes for the future.
This past year what sticks out the most in my mind is our move to a tiny 14x32 cabin with no water or electricity. You may think us crazy....and in a lot of ways you are probably right, but we found a way to make our dream happen and we took it. We dreamed of land and no neighbors. We wanted a homestead our children could grow up on. We wanted animals, livestock and gardens. Working with our hands to build up our homestead has been our dream for years. Back in October we found a way to make that happen. We didn't have a lot of resources and we avoid debt like the plague so our options are/were few. My parents own 40 acres out in the country and we talked with them and came up with a plan to have a small unfinished cabin brought in to the back of their property and that's where we would be. We gave away and sold about 65% of our possessions and made the move at the first of October. The cabin had no electricity, no water, no insulation, no (covered) flooring and no plumbing. We soon found out that the power company wouldn't run it's services out to us because it would cost them too much money and our monthly bill wouldn't be large enough to cover their expenses. Although that dealt us a pretty big blow we were determined to make it work. We started joking that we were 'off grid.....but not by choice'. Water and plumbing were a completely different issue. We had to save the money to have the water meter set and the water lines run back to our cabin. Digging a well was about the same costs. We also were trying to save for a septic system. We lived with 3 to 4 oil lamps for light. Bottle, jugged and tanked water to wash, clean, and drink. Our toilet facilities? A Lowe's bucket (*ahem*) and a very large hole in the woods. My parent's lived about 150 feet from us so me and the kids would walk every morning to wash our laundry and take showers at their house. Then we would come home and do school. For heating we used a good old fashioned cast iron wood stove. For cooking we used a camp stove and open fire (all outside of course).We had a TON of fire wood available to us (Splitting wood also happens to be one of my husbands favorite things to do...I kid you not!). I also went to the laundry mat, a lot! Laundry seemed to be the biggest issue. Well, that and the lack of a bathroom. We lived this way from October-February. We finally got the money put together to do a bathroom, water and an addition to the cabin. It started feeling cramped the longer we were there.
Something happened though. For a lot of reasons including: my growing weariness of the lack of running water, summer coming and in AR having to have an air conditioner (no electricity remember?), realizing how expensive 'off grid' appliances are and for a couple other personal reason we decided to start looking for a rent house back in the city.
God has blessed us with a cute little house in a little subdivision back in town. We feel completely spoiled and relatively lazy not having to work so hard just to survive as we did in that tiny cabin. We will never forget the lessons we learned and the family time we spent together in our tiny cabin without any outside distractions. (Did I mention no Internet or TV?) We have many sweet memories of spending so much time with  my dear parents. Mudding in our car to get back to our cabin (in the many AR snows we had this past season). The tree house my children and husband put together. My parent's nosy horses looking in our windows before we built a fence. My kids playing outside from sun up to sun down. Falling asleep together in our big bed at 7:00 because we were so tired after working so much that day. Working so hard around the cabin to get it ready for gardens......all this hard work done as a family unit was really enjoyable.
 I'm glad to be back in a home with all today's technology and I have learned: It is a lot easier to dream of a pioneer lifestyle in the safe confines of an air conditioned home with running water than it is to live it! Our dreams haven't changed but our actions to get there have. We are currently looking for land way out in the country to put a mobile home on. We have our eye on a couple of places......but everything has to line up right. We are still trying to avoid a lot of debt......so saving the money to get to the dream seems like a long process for us, but Lord willing we will get there!
We are still homeschooling and plan to start again in August. This will be our 3rd year in and I'm loving it! I can't imagine doing anything different. We will have a 3rd grader, kindergartener and preschooler. My hands are full and my hours busy but I love every single minute of it!

Have a blessed Wednesday!