God in our lives, even when we don't know it

I generally don't talk much about God or the effect He has had in our lives, but today I just felt the need to do so.

My husband and I got married a few months over 20 years ago. We were both working low paying jobs, but my husband was in his final semester of college so things would be looking up. He graduated in May and he started looking for work. He had a few interviews, but no offers, so we continued to work our minimum wage jobs. Then in late October, be discovered the birth control pills didn't work and thaI was pregnant.

We were happy, but at the same time deeply concerned about just how we were going to pay for the doctor and delivery. The week before Christmas, we got a call. He was offered a job in the central part of the state (we lived in the NE corner at the time, where both of our families were) and he would start on January 7th.

God was looking out for us.

We stayed in a hotel for a couple of days and while my husband worked, I looked for us a place to live. We signed lease papers on Wednesday afternoon. The rent was affordable and we had the option to buy. So we did. Signed the mortgage papers in mid-May before our beautiful daughter was born the first week of June.

God was providing for us.

A couple of years later, we discover again that birth control pills still don't work. I was pregnant. We had wanted to wait another couple of years and we just were not ready for another child. After the shock wore off, we were happy. It was a difficult pregnancy, with a lot of swelling and blood pressure that just would not stay under control. And in March, our son was born. By mutual consensus between us and the doctor, it was decided that we really didn't want any more children and that birth control pills obviously were not the best option for me. So during my second C-section, I had a tubal.

Then in 1997, when my daughter was 6 and my son was 3, I got sick. Rheumatoid Arthritis. And in 6 months I went from one inflamed joint to barely being able to walk or hold a pencil. It took almost 2 years to find a combination of meds that worked for me. I had to take a pregnancy test to prove that I wasn't because the side effects would have been devastating. 90% chance of miscarriage and a 99% of massive birth defects if carried to term.

God knew when I needed my children, even if it wasn't on our timetable.

During all of this time, we had been trying to keep up with the Joneses, but now with medical bills to added to the burden, we knew that would have to stop. We refinanced the house and cashed out enough equity to pay off the credit cards. We haven't picked one up since. We have paid off all of our debt except the house. Then my RA finally got bad enough that I just couldn't work any more. I was a hard decision to not work any more, I felt useless and like a burden to my family, but it gave me the time to do things I never had time to do. I finally decided, after not working for over 2 years, that I needed to apply for Disability. I took 2.5 years of paper work and worry, but in March of my daughter's Senior year, I was approved. My husband's job had gotten iffy due to lay-offs, so with the back pay, we recast our mortgage, again, and got the payment down so that we could live on my disability if we had to.

Again, God was looking out for us. He has provided for us and watched over us, even in we had almost given up hope.

Now, my husband is concerned about his job again, but when our son graduates High School and goes off to college, we will be free to move back to the NE corner of the state to be with family as they get older. And our home will be paid off, so when we sell, we will get to keep the money and pay cash for the next one.

God is indeed good. In every way.

Learning now for a rainy day

It seems these days, I have been reading a lot about homesteading and survival skills. Keep in mind, that for the last couple of years, I have been trying to move away from rampant consumerism and toward a more self-sufficient lifestyle, but it has become more important to me lately. With the current economic downturn, it only makes sense to be prepared for the worst.

I purchased a CD set a few weeks back that has over 1000 publications over a wide range of topics. Some of them will just not apply to us, like building Bamboo structures in Indonesia or fruit tree growing in Nepal, but the basics can still be useful. I have read a "book" on how an attached greenhouse can not only allow you to grow fresh food all year long, but you can use the excess heat from the greenhouse to help warm your home in the winter. I have learned how to build a fireplace with a chimney that draws correctly and how to build a wood stove. I have learned that 1 acre of sweet potatoes will yield approximately 6000 pounds. I have learned how to build a rabbit hutch, a chicken coop, what kind of fencing to use for cows, and for goats. I have the technical specs for building a micro-hydro turbine, and how to use that turbine to grind grains.

Is any of this stuff useful to me right now, not really. But it is all very useful knowledge and might come in handy at some point. If for no other reason than that learning is fun. Some of the publications are in French and Spanish, so I could even print them off for the kids to study (those are the languages they are learning in school). Or I could use the Spanish ones to brush up on my own study of Spanish from high school all those many years ago.

Now, if I just had some place to use all of the stuff I have learned...

Disability News

I had my disability hearing yesterday and I think it went well. We are back in wait and see mode now. I don't really expect to hear anything until February or so but it would be a very nice Christmas present if the Judge is on the ball and gets his opinion in. But even if he wrote his decision last night and submitted it to SSD, it will take them at least a month if not longer to get the paperwork done. Our government moves at the speed of racing snails.

On a better note, I should have almost 3 years of back pay when it finally comes through. Plus whatever I get for the kids. That will allow us to stay in the house for a while should something happen to my husband's job. It will at least pay the house payment and electric bill. So a part time job for my Hubby would cover the rest of it. Or we could use it to pay off the house completely and not have a house payment at all. And when we do decide to sell, it would be all profit. Or, we could just keep it in savings and add it to whatever profit we get from the house when we do sell, allowing us to get a nicer place, free and clear of debt. Decisions, decisions.

Any way you look at it, if it comes through, it will release a TON of stress off of our shoulders. Our biggest worry over the last couple of years has been him keeping his job long enough to get the kids out of school. It doesn't matter where we live while the kids are in college, since they won't be here anyway. But if we can find a decent house with at least 5 acres, we wouldn't need as much money to live on. Especially since it would just be the two of us with occasional guests.

I know that I have talked about this before, but I want a homestead. You know the kind of place, an older house with character but not falling down around us, a big garden, wood stove for heat, basement/root cellar, chickens, pigs, a milk cow or two, a nice shop or barn that I can turn into a commercial style kitchen for canning and entertaining, maybe even a small guesthouse out back.

I would like to have a market stand if we can find a place with highway frontage where I can sell some of my extra produce from the garden and maybe extra eggs. I will have to look into the laws before I do that though. I am pretty sure I can sell the produce without any problem, but the eggs might be different. We will just have to worry about that when it happens.

I don't want to go too overboard but I think that once everything is settled and I can get some perennials established, it might be a good way to supplement our income. After all, if our only income is my disability, any little extra can only be a good thing.

Either way, I am excited again.

I can think of a lot of ways to be frugal, but most of them will actually involve food in some way. Yes, you can cut down on the energy you use and carpool to work, or sit in semi-darkness at home, but the easiest way to save money, for a family at least, is by cooking.

I know that it may seem odd, but even learning to make your own sandwich meats can make a large difference. My son heard the Mackenzie Brothers on the radio back in the fall and has been calling Canadian Bacon (a type of ham) "back bacon" ever since. About the same time, I purchased a large manual meat grinder intending to make sausages and bratwurst since they are so expensive to buy. I started gathering the necessary ingredients, one of which was a quick cure mixture found on the bottom shelf at the grocery near the salt. Morton makes a very nice one called "Quick Cure" that works like a charm. The package stated that the website has recipes. So I looked it up. Low and behold, Canadian Bacon was one of the recipes. Very easy to make, a pork loin, 5 days and a smoker. The smoker was no problem since my husband got me the smoker attachment for my grill as a Christmas gift. I cured my pork loin in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for the 3 to 5 days the recipe called for, then I rinsed all of the remaining salt from the meat and took it to the smoker. I smoked it for about 4 hours, until a meat thermometer said it was done (180 degrees) and brought it in. I cut it in thin slices like for a sandwich and it was just incredible. About that time the kids came in from school and we wound up eating about 3/4 of a pound of the meat immediately. I bagged up the rest of it and froze all but one bag, to use for sandwiches. So, ham for sandwiches for less than $2.00 a pound.

The Morton site also has recipes for other cured meats like salami and pepperoni. Those are made from hamburger and can be cooked in the oven. Very easy to make. And they are about half the cost of store bought meats. My next project will be to try to make bacon.

I realize that most folks just don't have the time or inclination to do this sort of thing. But think about it for a minute. If you make your own sandwich meats, you know how fresh it is, you know what is in it, and you can feel good about serving it to your family. Can you say those things about the food you get from the deli? Or how about those little pressed plastic packages from the grocery store? Just how long has that stuff been sitting on the shelf? And the cost! I can find ground beef for around $1.89 a pound. Sliced hard salami is around $3.59 for a 12 oz package. I can seriously justify the savings when we eat as many sandwiches as we do. And it freezes well. I can make up 3 or 4 pounds at a time and split it into 1 pound bags and just take them out of the freezer one at a time.

Making your own food is very satisfying and oddly liberating. I don't have to run to the grocery store every time I need to pack the kid's lunches. I know what they are eating and when I find the meat on sale, I stock up. Freezers are wonderful things.

It may take a little bit of time, but int he long run, it is definitely worth the effort.