The Cottage on the Hill

As always, I am looking forward to the turn of the New Year. I love the fresh start and hope to dedicate January to clean slating! I've already begun the clean and purge. There is just something about increased sunshine, cooped up winter days, the putting away of Christmas decorations, and this year the nesting instincts that has me geared up to really get a good grip on the house this year. We will be in this little cottage for at least another year. Having that clear answer from hubby, and his ideas for home improvements (more new windows!) has me excited! January 18th, I find out the gender of the baby! After hearing the heartbeat at my last appointment, I think I may be having another boy. The rate was 148 beats per minute. My boys tend to range lower, usually in the 150's. My daughter was in the 160's. Regardless which gender is floating around in me, once I know, I can purge the basement of at least half the baby stuff we've accumulated over the years. A...

with a house. My father's cousin is selling a post WWII house not too far away that has stolen my heart. It has many features I have on my list of what my dream house consists of, including a foyer with coat closet, a pantry in the kitchen, a dishwasher, a fireplace (2, actually), and a corner China cabinet in the dining room. Added bonuses are a dry, semi-finished basement, 4 bedrooms, all appliances included, and a good sized piece of land in the country. There is also a two story playhouse, a play cabin, and a large garage with attic storage! I am in love! It would take a miracle and so far hubby is silent on whether or not we want to.pursue it. So, I am doing the best and only thing I can do right now. I am praying about it.

Today, I turn 31! I planned on my 30's being my best decade ever, but 30-31 wasn't exactly a great year. Not horrible, mind you. Just not GREAT. The Lord worked through many hardships and stresses and that alone is a blessing. So, I'm hoping for a better 31! Nothing can top having a baby, though! It is only the morning, but I've already spent my birthday soaking in the tub, making blueberry muffins, and chatting with a friend on facebook. She promises to save me some cookies from her Christmas baking! Yum! Otherwise, I'm just spending my day with my kiddos and trying to decide between spending my birthday money at Bulk Herb Store or buy a shiatsu lumbar massager. Hmmmm....decisions decisions.

This weekend I woke up to a toothache. In between two of my bottom right molars it hurts. I'm not sure if it is a cavity in one of the molars, or the gums are infected. Until a see a dentist, I'm trying some at home remedies. The first thing I did was begin oil pulling . Using extra virgin olive oil, I swish and pull it through my teeth. After just one session, the pain went from sharp to a dull ache. I am continuing to oil pull 2-3 times a day. I'm also making sure I don't eat on that side of my mouth. I'm brushing, flossing, mouthwashing, and hydrogen peroxiding at least twice a day. So far, the pain is gone unless I touch that area. Pressing on the teeth is just a tiny bit uncomfortable, but when I floss between, it hurts. So I'm stumped. Is it my gums, or an in between the molars, gum line cavity? I guess only the dentist would know. I am also planning on starting a course of x-factor butter oil and fermented cod liver oil. The Healthy Home Econ...

BEFORE! DURING AFTER! New hair and 13 weeks pregnant! I welcome the change. I LOVE my hair! So many people thought I would be upset. That I'd cry, if not that day, then the next. I didn't cry. I smiled and I'm still smiling! I don't even really miss my long hair and am excited to do so much with my short hair. Also, the nice surprise, those curls and waves are natural! Who knew!?

I love being friends with weirdos! I grew up a weirdo from a family of weirdos. It instilled vast amounts of creativity and exploration. When I started re-enacting, I met more weirdos! Weirdos who knew how to brain tan, finger weave, play multiple obscure instruments from time periods past, play the Star Wars theme on bagpipes! I met historical fencing experts, herbalists, historical seamstresses and tailors, wig makers. I met people who still make hominy using their own homemade potash. I met people who collect fantasy-fiction memorabilia like its precious gems. I met zealots, Christians, pagans, liberals, conservatives, libertarians, brain surgeons, war horse experts, authors, the list goes on and on! Add to that the internet world, and the weirdos just keep increasing! I meet people from all walks, many of whom I'd disagree with on many stances, but there's just something about them that makes me like them! I like REAL people. People who are honest, even if I don...

A Wise Woman Builds Her Home is hostessing a big giveaway of Vision Forum gift certificates! Here's a chance to build up your CHRISTIAN BOOK library! Vision Forum has so many other great things, too. DVD's, music, toys, kits! The winners are going to have an easy time using up their gift cards!

I saw this book in my latest catalog from Victorian Trading Company and just HAD to research it more. I popped on over to amazon.com to get a better look and read reviews. It is now on my Amazon.com wishlist. The most I've ever been able to crochet is a chain. I tried it as a child and could never figure out how to do anything more beyond a chain. I preferred sewing and cross stitch embroidery. Both came more easily to me. However, this book has inspired me to perhaps try crochet again.

Oh, we all hear about Donna Reed or June Cleaver in the vintage housewife blogosphere , but no one talks about Morticia Addams! Ok ok ok , hear me out! Feeling very poorly the other day, I lay in bed and started watching reruns of the old Addams Family series. I started to think, "I wish I was more like Morticia ." It made me chuckle, and ponder as to why! Certainly, it is not for her darkness and love of all things gloomy and dreary, but a few characteristics did stand out: 1. Morticia and Gomez have an equal and loving.....and sexy relationship. I noticed in other vintage TV shows, the spouses seem to talk down to each other, though very subtly. The husband puts his all knowing foot down, the wife uses her feminine whiles and trickeries . Morticia and Gomez actually discuss on equal plains whatever the issue is. While other TV housewives seem to have a more platonic relationship with their husbands, Gomez and Morticia are obviously madly in love with each othe...

As they pop into my head, here goes: 1. I don't own Crocs and don't really plan on it, either. 2. I am very weak during pregnancy with bouts of strength (like moving and lifting 4 studded snow tires for my truck into the back of my truck!) 3. I want to live for a season in a travel trailer with my family. 4. I like to chicken scratch embroider, though I haven't done it in years. 5. I LOVE Indian food. 6. I am desperate for back and foot massages every day....and I never get them. 7. I want a whirlpool tub. 8. I've been watching reruns of the Addams Family. 9. I hope I'm having a girl. 10. I love vintage stationary.

I made Bettina's Apple Sauce Cake from A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina's Best Recipes for breakfast this morning. It was so yummy and so comforting. I love how the butter-based batter cooked up. Usually, the cakes and quick breads I make are fruit puree or milk and egg based. Always one to tamper with a recipe, though, I did use a bit less sugar, omitted the dates and nuts to make it more palatable for my children, used shredded apple rather than apple sauce, and accidentally poured in more vanilla than was called for. I also used white whole wheat and spelt flour. It still came out so yummy!

My childhood memories are dappled with reminiscing about that old kerosene heater we had. Granted, we had two of the rectangle ones, not the round ones like mine above, but I lit mine last night for a warm, comforting, familiar glance into my past. I remember curling up with my cat in front of the heater. Our old house was often so cold! I remember getting dressed in front of the heater. I devised a way to modestly change clothes so I didn't have to leave that warm glow. I remember evenings where the only light came from the kerosene heaters and the dials on the radio because my parents were trying to save electricity. I bought a kerosene heater recently when the threat of an early winter storm sent out warnings of loss of electricity. We didn't lose power, thankfully, but I decided to light the heater last night anyway. Oh, what fond memories it brought back. What comfort. What WARMTH!

Red Raspberry Leaf Tea with Raw Manuka Honey When you are pregnant.

Isn't this a great 8 week ultrasound picture!? Usually, I just see a jellybean in there, but this one came up so clear! Head, cute round tummy, arms and legs all tucked. And when I saw that heart beating away so strong, I just lifted up praises to the King! I have to say, it felt SO good walking into that familiar office and then seeing my little one so healthy and well. He or she was probably asleep because they didn't move about. I remember seeing my first bouncing around like a mexican jumping bean! I'm looking forward to another ultrasound at 12 weeks. Praise be to God for this amazing miracle, this LIFE growing within me!

Shhhhhh.......don't spread it around, but I have to admit that I am secretly hoping for twins! I doubt I am pregnant with twins because I figure I'd feel very VERY sick if it were twins, but twins sound good to me. I'll find out November 1st. I decided to stick with my usual OB and birthing hospital and he always performs an ultrasound on the first visit. I know there are those who believe in as few ultrasounds as possible, but I like seeing my little jelly bean as soon as possible. I also found a house in Amish country for sale for an unbelievably affordable price. (I know, first thought is what's wrong with it.) It's a cute Cape Cod style cottage with nearly 10 acres of land, a barn and two car garage. 4 bedrooms! I don't think it is going to happen, but we'll see.

Have you ever had any unusual or out of the ordinary pregnancy symptoms? I have the usual fatigue and nausea, food and smell aversions. But, this pregnancy, I'm also experiencing claustrophobia! I can't stand when people crowd around me. I don't like being in small spaces. Even taking a shower drives me bonkers because I'm in that enclosed space! It bothers me, but it is also kind of funny because I know how ridiculous it is. Thankfully, it is only temporary and this baby is so worth all the oddities that occur with each pregnancy. As a side thought, it is also kind of ironic that I have claustrophobia this pregnancy because our little cottage is too small for us now and will be uncomfortably tiny once the new baby arrives. We're praying and trusting in the Lord to provide us with a larger home one way or another. So, I'm curious! Please share your unusual symptoms!

I am unexpectedly, but happily pregnant again. Ok, well, I'm not happily pregnant. Well, I am, but I'm not. LOL! What I mean is I am happy to be having another baby, but I have to admit, I don't like being pregnant. I'll take labor and delivery over 1st trimester symptoms any day! Ugh! Adding to the difficulty is trying to decided where to birth and who will attend? Should I stick with my usual OB (who's pushed inductions the last two times? Thankfully, I avoided them!) Should I go with a team of midwives who deliver at my usual hospital (the same hospital that has a really crappy recovery, is overcrowded now and ripped off my insurance company)? Should I go for a midwife and deliver at a hospital that has a poor reputation, is far for my husband to get to should he be working out of town when I deliver, but my sister had a good birthing experience there? There are no independent birthing centers here and home birth is not an option. I don't know. It...

Do you remember those book lists that were put out listing the 100 books you should read? I wondered today, if there were such a list called 100 Books to Read to a Child Before Kindergarten, what books would be on that list? I asked on my Facebook page and got several suggestions: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Millions of Cats The Very Hungry Caterpillar Good Night Moon Pat the Bunny Guess How Much I Love You Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See Are You My Mother The Little Engine That Could The Poky Little Puppy Llama Llama Red Pajama Leading Little Ones To God My Aunt, a dedicated educator offered this list: The Dr. Seuss books, The Winnie the Pooh books, Corduroy the Bear books, Paddington Bear books. The real Grimms fairy tales (edit as you read to be developmentally appropriate) - not the Disney versions. Same with Anderson's Fairy Tales. Mother Goose. Where the Wild Things Are. Harold and the Purple Crayon. Owl Moon. Click Clack Moo. So many books, so little time... books b...

This video's emphasis on the "green" method of lighting in a poor area. But, what strikes me about this video is how happy they are with something so simple. Something many of us would shrink at the thought of, they are excited about! I see their houses and think, "what a way to live! Who am I to complain about my little cottage?" And yet, they seem content, organized. So little means so much to them.

I saw this image on facebook as an idea for a use for all those recalled cribs out there. I LOVE it! As a matter of fact, I have a recalled crib with one broken side sitting out in my storage shed. I'd love to do this with it, but I simply do not have room in my house for it.

When I was a little girl, my cousin and I were spending the day at Grandma's house. Grandma didn't keep toys at her house for the grandchildren, but that didn't stop us from having enormous amounts of creative fun. One game we liked in particular involved simply a broken phone, a calculator, a pen and mail order fliers from the weekly coupon inserts. For hours we'd pretend to take calls from customers, filling out the order forms and filing them carefully. Oddly enough, I was praised for my phone skills when I entered the working world. Today, I introduced the game to my oldest after we finished homeschooling for the day. He loved it! And then there's the accidental bad mothering turned good that happened last week. My 3 year old needed occupation, so I gave her the only sheet of paper I had on hand to draw on. I was busy with one thing or another when my 5 year asked for paper. Not wanting to be interrupted again searching for a piece of paper, I handed him...

Oh, for a fireplace. Our little cottage is sorely lacking in one. It just seems fitting that our little "hobbit hole" ought to have one! Of course, affording the installation for a real fireplace is well beyond our means. My attention turns to the electric and gel fireplace units you can get. I keep hoping their prices drop, but no such luck. Even our local Big Lots store sells them at a price I cringe at. So, I started brain storming again. It isn't so much the heat I want or need our of a fireplace as the ambiance. And ever since I visited a friend's house when I was first married and saw she had placed a grouping of pillar candles within her real (but unusable) fireplace, I was hooked. I loved it! Simple, inexpensive, easy, and lovely! So, how can I achieve that? I'm wondering how much it would cost to build a simple box fireplace out of wood (with some sort of flame proof interior) and surround it with a lovely mantle and surround? I'm thinking...

We have Netflix and aren't really looking into getting rid of it, personally, but I have heard from some of my Christian friends that they got rid of Netflix. Many of them had the same reason: You couldn't browse through Netflix at all without getting an eye full! It's a pain weeding through all the garbage to find the few good movies. Even their Faith and Spirituality section was loaded with assaults on Christianity. I agree with them! I remember a couple of times browsing through Netflix on the Wii and coming across DVD covers that were scary for my children or embarrassingly indecent or even outright disgusting! Netflix doesn't seem to have a filter for such things. There are other options, my friends. Here are two resources to get more wholesome and more Christian programming. http://www.christiancinema.com/dvdrental/default.php http://bluebehemoth.com/

Caroline's Kitchen/Dorthea Lange http://vi.sualize.us/view/randxm/7d76aaa575922aa2d5b561389076eba1/ I have to admit that I love that my mother and I have an open door policy. No knocking or doorbells needed. We just open the door and let ourselves in to each other's houses. Of course, we have the common courtesy of notification first, for the most part. Though, "dropping in" is welcomed, too. I think it is a beautiful and comforting thing between my mother and I.

I want this pattern.

I didn't realize when I started this year that homeschooling would awaken my oldest son! Throughout the last 2 years, I've noticed a decline in his enthusiasm, imagination and activity. I stopped wanting to help. He just wanted to sit and watch TV. Oh, he'd still play, but his play and his art lacked development and imagination. I worried and I knew why it happened. A very difficult pregnancy followed by a very difficult year of illnesses, challenging events, changes, etc forced me to rely on the "electronic babysitter" too much. It got to a point where if the TV was off, he didn't know what to do with himself! We had little improvements once things settled more, but it wasn't until I started homeschooling him that he blossomed and grew! He's a big helper now. He's more cheerful, joyful, reasonable, imaginative, responsible, playful....and he's soaking things up like a sponge! More than I could have asked for! And while homeschooling ...

As public school begins, even though we homeschool, I begin my germ warfare against the common cold. It is inevitable that as soon as large groups of children join together, illness breaks out. So, I started this September with adding an immune booster to our diet. Unfortunately, the common cold still got a hold of us. It took advantage of our weakened states from suffering the ill effects of contaminated well water after the massive rainfalls of Tropical Storms Irene and Lee. It took advantage of my 3 year old's weakened immune system from her extremely picking eating habits and gut problems. Thankfully, even in her weakened state, the immune boosters (and simply being a child) helped and she recovered within 3 days with nothing more than plenty of nose rubbing and fussing. The baby got it next with tell-tale fussiness, congestion that kept him up all night, and a runny nose. Although he's too young for me to comfortably give him supplements, he recovered quickly, too, t...

February 28, 1927 - September 24, 2011 He left a legacy of 3 Godly daughters, 10 Grandchildren, and 16 (and counting) Great-Grandchildren He left a legacy of a Godly husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He leaves behind my Grandmother, one of the most graceful and faithful women I know. He leaves behind 9 years of Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and lung cancer. He goes on before us to be with our Savior. Praise be to God!

I was preparing to go to bed when I hear some fussing on the other side of the children's bedroom door. Upon investigation, I see two books poking out from underneath the door. When I opened the door, my daughter was on the floor in tears. I asked what was wrong and she said, "They're stuck!" I bent down and picked up the books and asked if she'd like me to read them to her. She smiled and said that she did. So, we sat down on the floor together just outside the bedroom door and I smiled as I discovered what books she had chosen: As I read to her, she chimed in with comments and discoveries. She loved seeing what the little mommy did and ogled the little girl's illustrated bedroom. Hopefully next week my daughter will have a space to call her own, too. She loved that the baby in Baby Looks has a big sister. When I finished Baby Looks and closed the book, my daughter carefully took the books from me, tucked them under her arm and went straight to bed ...

Lately, I've been interested in the budding movement called "Slow Clothing" or "Slow Fashion." Wikipedia describes it as: "The term "Slow Fashion" was coined by Kate Fletcher in 2007 (Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UK). [ 10 ] "Slow fashion is not a seasonal trend that comes and goes like animal print, but a sustainable fashion movement that is gaining momentum." [ 11 ] The Slow Fashion Movement is based on the same principals of the Slow Food Movement, as the alternative to mass produced clothing (AKA “ Fast-Fashion ”). Initially, The Slow Clothing Movement was intended to reject all mass produced clothing referring only to clothing made by hand, [ 12 ] but has broadened to include many interpretations and is practiced in various ways. [ 13 ] Some examples of slow fashion practices include: Opposing and boycotting mass produced fashion (AKA " Fast-Fashion " or "McFashion"). Choosing artisan products to support s...