Introductions

Ok, welcome to our life. Im Amanda. My husband and I have 3 wonderful blessings, E(m), R(f) & K(f). We own 3 crazy dogs, a couple of Jersey cows, a barn cat and a flock of chickens which is run by a bossy Guinea Hen. Oh wait. We have a beta fish. No home is truly complete without a beta fish. You know the kind. The one that sits in that tank (bowl) and no one pays attention to until you are fairly sure it is almost dead and then you bring it back to life by moving it to a warmer room in the house and feed it. Oh come on... admit it. Everyone has done it! This is our 3rd beta fish I do believe. Hey... DONT JUDGE! ;)

Anyway, moving on. We live in a rural part of upstate New York. By rural, I mean cows. There are cows around here. People hear "New York" and think city, but honestly the city is such a small part of what the state is. I've lived here nearly my whole life and I've been to the city twice. In fact my version of NY is pretty different from the rest of the worlds Im sure. Im from a small town. A small town that is known for something pretty big, but it's a small town. My graduating class had 110 kids. Livestock is common for the area. I was raised with a dog, cat and chickens. Since moving back up to this area my husband... I will call him "Farmer Joe" and I have been trying our hand at homesteading. Unfortunately for us we rent due to Farmer Joe's work. We've rather enjoyed living at "the farm" for the past 2 years. 80 acres of mostly woods with about 12 acres of cleared land. There is loads of wildlife. And the soil isnt so bad. We have done a garden the past 2 summers, getting bigger and better each year as we learn. Last year we harvested many tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, carrots and pumpkins. We even harvested some of our own corn!  Farmer Joe and his buddy Andrew hooked up a walk behind plow... think horse drawn plow to our 1959 International 300 Utility. Yep. It was a sight to see! They plowed a 40'x60' area for our garden. It wasn't so bad. We are very thankful for all that did come from our efforts by the grace of God.  This year we are being forced to  move, so it is hard to say if we will have a garden or not. Moving mid April makes things sort of "iffy", but we will still try. The cows, dogs, cat and chickens are coming with us and hopefully we will not have to move very far. We have a new place in sight if it's Gods will for us. So many "what if's". We are hoping to breed our heifer this year in the fall so that we can have a calf or two in the spring and our own milk. Adventures into the great unknown!

Live and learn. We are hoping to grow and relearn our past. Things like self sufficiency and hard work. We are a pretty 'eco-friendly' as far as things go. We are of course learning and striving ever onward on that path of "crunchy". The idea of caring for what God gave us, and to be good stewards of those gifts is our goal. Conscious of our impacts, and educated about our decisions. We are far from perfect, but we strive to be authentic in every aspect of our lives. Nothing hidden, nothing fake. Real life, real struggles, real blessings. Anyway, some of the things we do... we are Catholic (and happy to be), we cloth diaper, co-sleep, use natural (homemade) cleaners, baby-wear, attachment parenting, heat with wood, eat organic local food, recycle, reuse, very NON-GMO, no processed sugar in our diet (this is a new one), home birth, delayed/selective vaccines, non-circ, home-schooling, can our own food, shop at GoodWill "crunchy" sort of stuff. Some people think we are totally off our rocker... but we don't let our kids watch TV or play video games either. There is no TV in our living room. We simply don't watch TV as many Americans do. "TV" around here is typically a movie together, as a family to enjoy. It is very VERY limited. I would be surprised if our kids watched 1 movie a month. It is a special family activity... a reward - almost. I'm sure there are other things... can't think of them now of course. Some people think we are 'crazy dirty hippies". Really we aren't. We are just normal people, who look at life a little differently than 99% of the population.

Our faith is very important to us. Passing it down to our children is also very important. I joined the church is 2007. It has been a growing experience for me in so many ways. God has really and truly changed my heart. Oh if only you knew me as a teenager. I was brainwashed to believe (& repeat) all the things people who are afraid of and do not understand the Catholic church teach. Im very thankful for this metanoia. This year I've taken a step forward and have been diligently trying to attend mass 3x a week. I want to grow closer to God and have him as my friend... a personal relationship with him. More than one where I just talk and don't listen. The kind where I know Him more... instead of Him just knowing about me, my problems, my wants, my needs, my pain. BIG changes. As you can well imagine, going to any place with 3 young children and expecting them to be quiet, hold still and use manners for an hour or more is pretty much asking for it, but we go. Weekday masses are my favorite actually. Getting up at 6am doesnt hurt so bad when you get Jesus first thing in the morning. You should try going sometime. Mass is shorter and less crowded and better overall in my opinion. Farmer Joe and I have been reading "Rediscovering Catholicism" by Matthew Kelly. I HIGHLY recommend it. So my prayer every time I walk in those doors is that God may put just one thing on my heart to help me become the best version of myself. It is so stinking hard sometimes. Trip, fall, pray, get back up & continue on. But we've started a prayer journal and reading the Bible on a daily basis. Farmer Joe is way more on the ball with that than I am. What can I say? My excuses are lame.

So that is an 'intro' I guess to who I am. Who we are. Just another family, trying to relearn what is truly important. Thanks for joining us.

Learning is hard

Relearn: To learn again what has been forgotten.

Welcome to my journey to relearn. To relearn the things that our parents, grandparents and grandparents before them knew for certain. I'm beginning a journey to relearn life. To relearn the true importance of life, from faith to food and everything in the middle. Welcome to my life.