Starting our own Thanksgiving Family Traditions!

Happy Thanksgiving even though it is after Christmas now! I figured I'd better post this before the ringing in of the New Year! This was our first Thanksgiving that we hosted in our new home. We planned on having dinner at 2:00 that is on Anderson time which ended up to be about 6:00 p.m.. I have learned through out the years(I think) to take a chill pill when we don't eat or get to places on time. I come from a family where everything had to be precise, The Anderson's have been good for my growth, they all go with the flow and well I see it makes life a lot easier! We had the Turkey done by 2:00p.m. but all the fixings were still cooking. Since I am not used to cooking with an electric stove I didn't factor in the extra time! Come to find out that leaving the turkey in the oven bag outside of the oven not only left the turkey hot but gave it 4 more hours to soak up all the juices. This was for sure the best turkey dinner yet and all of us kids were proud, we did it all ourselves without Mom there. We did use the Anderson Mom's cook book(A cook book my Mother law Victory made for us one Christmas with all of Grandmother Anderson's recipe's) that cook book has saved me one to many times and it possibly was the best Christmas present ever!



We were all happy when Mark (my bro-in law) came home the day before Thanksgiving for a Dr. app. The appointment was canceled unfortunately but Marks boss let him enjoy Thanksgiving with us before he had to return to the rigs the next day! Sometimes the misfortune events turn into fortunate ones!


My funny face needs some work!


Partners in crime my sis-law and I.

These two are more alike then they know and note to self to charge the beefy camera I kept having blurry issues!


Yes we are a video game bunch.. Thanksgiving is an exception because they only get 3 hours on Saturday!


Truly and Keynan crack me up!! they are so cute when they are together and some times so dang funny. There is defiantly adversity there while they play they go from laughing to crying in seconds!

Let the melt downs begin!

Kung-Fu/Ninja Birthday Party!!!!

I get asked all the time how do you tell the boys apart? There is never the question of are they fraternal twins because they look exactly alike. I see them as two different boys though that look completely different. I do have friends with twins and I honestly can not tell them apart so I understand some of the frustration of not being able to tell who is who! Another question I get asked a lot is if our boys have the same interests and unmistakeably they do(which might make it even harder to tell the differences)! I can say that Kung-fu or anything related to Martial Arts is on the top scale and has been since they were toddlers. We decided to throw a Kung-fu Birthday Party and to my surprise I enjoyed every minute of the preparation! Previous years I have dreaded and stressed and that makes throwing a party no fun. I think I lowered the amount of stress by planning months ahead. I also had Zach here and he kicked into high gear helping mode. He has always been here to help I have just finally learned to ask(go figure I thought all these years he could read my mind,lol)!

It just so happens that all the cousins like Ninja's too!! Here is the Ninja crew before cake and after the pinata!














Zach made these great headbands for the kids and I had to sport mine for the day! Thayne is my love bug I hope he stays this sweet and affectionate as he gets older!


Each year we buy a pinata online and each year the pinata's have been like steel to get open. One year even the guys couldn't bust the the pinata open. This years pinata went within minutes but I got a good shot of it on our table before it got destroyed! Note to self that the products online made in Mexico might not be as durable as those made in China! I was also proud of my Chinese paper lanterns they made for a good affect for the party!




Our Gi Cakes that Zach and I designed. I have to give Zach most of the credit. I baked the cakes and found the designs and he put them together for me!





We had a blast and I'm already starting to conjure up what next years theme will be! I really can't kid myself the kids always come up with their own theme,lol!

Thayne and Ayden turn 7!!!

I thought it was a great idea to start taking pictures of the boys on their actual Birthday. On the evening of their Birthday I took them outside to take their pictures. In the pictures they look like they liked having their picture taken. I guess they did once it was all said and done. I interrupted their playing time with their new bb guns to gel up their hair and to make sure they had socks on with their shoes. I was pretty rushed to get the pictures because they wanted to continue to play. I did get some great shots and I plan on each year from here on out to get a picture on their actual birthday! My boys are so use to me with a camera they don't even flinch when it is around. I don't even have to pose them.lol We had a good time and I even got some cute shots of Keynan and a great shot of all 3 boys!

Food Storage and preparing for Hyper-Inflation

Hey I'm going to be posting some of the info I am utilizing for our food storage. This will also be helpful for my family and I as we reference back to the links to help us prepare for what is coming. Recently, I went to the store here in town for some water. Unfortunatly, the store in our little town would not be receiving any water until the next week(this was without a natural disaster). I would have to drive at least 30 miles for water. I tried to boil some of our well water and it still tasted awful. My family drinks about 10 gallons of water per week so running out of water around here is a big deal. The same day Zach and I needed gas and the gas station would not have gas until the following week. Living in a small town has defiantly been such a great learning opportunity! I will tell you that experiencing not being able to buy water and gas in town was even more of wake up call. We are told that we must prepare for a natural disaster or an emergency.. Our food storage has been put into high gear! I have not gotten it quite organized so I won't be posting pics for awhile. Realizing though with a big family that you need a lot of storage and a lot of organization. Here are some great sites to inform you of what will be happening in America in the near future. I know we must not believe everything we read. We must take stuff with a grain of salt and decide for ourselves. My heart has lead me to this and no matter how many people call me a nut job, I will keep preparing my family accordingly. It is not an easy thing to prepare for either. We have learned to go with out out here. We are down sizing immensely. We have changed the way we spend money. We no longer use the credit system at all!(Besides our contract of deed) This has been hard to get use to at first. We have lived far beyond our means(new cars ect,ect) and we have made incredible mistakes. We have had to endure our mistakes all on our own. Now we hope to inform and educate even if no one is listening!

Here is some good sources to get started with food storage.
http://www.laurielclewis.com/A52-WeekFoodStoragePlan..htm


http://providentliving.com/


Here is a few sites to get some good information on our economy:
http://inflation.us/

http://peterschiffblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.dailypaul.com/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/

Halloween 2010!

We started off at the Bush Library for free trick or treating. The Library is in the town called College Station the same town Zach works and is about an hour away from our house. Even though we live in a small town it is nice to have major cities within a few hours. The Library was beautiful and I plan to do photo shoots there in the future. We then headed to a nice neighborhood in CS to trick or treat for the evening. What was great about Tx is that we didn't freeze our butts off. The weather was perfect and all the kids had a blast. I have to give hats off to my sis in law Tiff she sure is crafty. She bought the Viking costumes for the kids but spruced them up so each of the kids would have their own look. I'm hoping to prepare a little bit ahead of time next year. I always have great idea's but then I wait until the last minute and end up ordering online. Now that my budget is even tighter I regret not buying sweats for the boys costumes, so they could wear them this winter. It seems though that each day is a serious learning experience for me. Maybe I didn't notice it much before but what I have been experiencing is so enlightening that I can't even put it into words!

Delight Me Deals is here!

I have been home full time now for 6 months. I have had to figure out better ways to save for our budget. I am finding there are a lot of great savings out there if you do your research. I thought one night I am going to try to get something absolutely free. Since our budget this year doesn't allow extra money for Christmas, I thought this would be perfect to try to get something for free and give it as a gift.

The other night I found a deal on http://passionatepennypincher.com/blog/
The Deal was that If I ordered a 5x7 Card free at shutterfly.com. I only had to pay a total of $1.06 for shipping. At the end of my order I was prompted to share my 5x7 card on my blog which would credit my shutterfly account $ 25.00 which it did today. Along with the other special posted on my new blog http://delightmedeals.blogspot.com/. I now have a credit on My Shutterfly account of $25.00 and free shipping. The other idea that I like about this is, is that I can make a project in shutterfly and have it go to a family or friend for Christmas. A gift totally free with a little effort!

$ 25.00 on my next order :)

Brown Red Band 5x7 folded card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Appreciating, Gratitude and Patience.

I can't believe that in a few weeks we will have lived in Texas almost 5 months. The twins will be turning 7 and in the next few months I will be the big 30!
I have adjusted here unusually well. I usually tend to kick my feet a little bit when it comes to change. I was ready for a change and the chance to finally be home full time with the boys. I never suspected the months ahead would teach me more gratitude and patience .

If you have noticed I haven't posted fancy pictures of my house inside and out. Honestly because right now to the eye it is ugly and as my Dad has said," it is a shack". I call it our glorified Shack! It is not that I am embarrassed by it, it is more then I could imagine and I love it but I am waiting to fix it up more before I show it off!
When you spend the night in your car and you realize that without this home your family could of possibly been on the streets, it puts things in a whole new perspective. I know that we would never be homeless or go hungry because of the good people in our circle but still it is a reality check.
When we first moved in, I would catch myself saying negative things to myself that were harmful and ungrateful. I thought back when we were almost homeless and I quickly left those negative affirmations to blow in the wind.
These are some of the negative chants:
If only my husband could make more money, maybe me quitting my job was a bad idea, maybe homeschooling is just to far fetched I can't even afford books, we can't pay all the bills on a 1600.00 a month income, this is really hard being home full time with the kids especially without the necessitates of a car, washer & dryer, dishwasher, tv and internet. I would feel angry at Zach sometimes because he made so little. I wasn't even thinking there are so many without a job, even though it might not pay that well at least he has a job!
I thought to myself that this was really selfish of me to think I couldn't make this work, so instead of whining about it, I started to whistle. I know what we are trying to do is hard in this days society. I know staying home full time with my boys and home schooling was the goal we were after and I had to realize it was going to be tough and we had to make a lot of sacrifices.

I read 5 books,wrote a few letters, mapped out the kids homeschooling for the next year and baked a lot off cookies and other goodies, mapped out our garden and all the home projects that we will accomplish. I didn't have all the comfortable necessities of this day and age but I found I had a lot more time!. I was able to enjoy the now and I was able to be thankful for it even knowing times were rough and were gonna get rougher. I am grateful everyday for my family. I have taken a lot of things for granted in my life. I have let negativity sometimes cloud my thoughts and visions. I have been selfish to want and need bigger and better things. I am truly grateful for not having a lot because I've learned to appreciate what I already got. It will always be a work in progress to work on the fruits of the Spirit. I am learning to be even more grateful, patient and kind during these rough seasons but I realized without the rough we would never wear the ruffles:0) I have learned an even deeper meaning of patience and gratitude and I know in the future I will try to not take anything for granted.




The above picture is of one of the 2 tractors that had to dig a new phone line under ground. We learned as 5 work trucks pulled up with two tractors in tow that the job for fixing our phone line was a big deal. Since the roads are not paved here, I guess the lines get cut often. The engineer actually told me our line was getting placed quickly(If you call 3 months quick!) The kids and I enjoyed watching the workers on the tractor digging the line underground. I never had seen a machine in action like this so it was a fun day to say the least!
It took 3 months for our internet to get installed. I was actually doing pretty good because I could still look up and research stuff on our phone. What was hard is Zach missed out on 3 months of work during that duration and we are still playing catch up!

On to the next endeavor was handling some of the wash. For a couple of weeks I did the wash in the bath tub. I now know why pioneer women used wash boards. I would of loved to have one during this time but I made washing work without one. I will tell you though my abs got such a work out, I never want to do it again,lol
I did attempt going to the Laundry mat one day. To make a long story short I had a melt down in the laundry mat.It was 107 degrees outside. I had all three kids and not enough money to pay for $40 worth of Laundry (I hadn't been to a laundry mat in 10 years!). Some nice lady covered the change that I was short and next time I will make sure I don't start a load without knowing more about how to pay. This particular laundry mat was all electronic. You would do the wash and then the cashier at the desk would give you your slip. I didn't think it would cost $3.75 per load to wash and &2.00 to dry. I was paying attention to the kids and was preoccupied so I just threw the loads in and waited. Luckily a nice lady seen me melting down and helped. Of course she looked at me with a little pathetic grin but oh well. I was able to pay and go and I was grateful!


Finally after 2 1/2 months searching for a Washer and Dryer. We found a good deal on craigslist that we could afford!

Yippee!!!!