Revamp and Revive

Hey, friends!

Well, we've been working on revamping and reviving the blog in hopes that we can consolidate and strengthen our efforts to reach more people and get the word out about adoption and our journey as a family. From here on out you will be able to find homestead updates, recipes, adoption updates, health and nutrition info and anything else I want to share with you all in one place! We will maintain our separate FB pages but the blog will encompass them all.

My goal for this year is to let go of stress and embrace joy and there are many steps that we're going to have to take to get there. Stress makes me physically sick and it's no fun at all. Stress is a joy stealer and God says that joy is strength. I need to be strong and happy. I need this for myself, for my family and for my community. I would love to hear from you if you've felt inspired to be rid of the chains of stress (which lead to poor health, poor sleep, hurting relationships and more!) and pursue freedom and JOY this year. What steps are you taking to go after this goal? It certainly doesn't happen overnight. For us, we are doing some major de-stuffing/decluttering/cleaning at the farmhouse as a first step. Clutter is linked to depression, especially for women, and I don't want any part of it anymore! Rob and I used to say that we were a match made in packrat heaven but, no more. We were made for more than that. I wish I would have taken photos of all we've gotten rid of so far, just to encourage myself that we really are making progress and to show you that it can be done!

We're probably 1/3 of the way done, maybe more, and every time I clean Will's room or my room or any room I'm looking for things I don't need/want/use/love and I'm donating, trashing or selling it as fast as I can. My goal is to be totally clutter free and free of things I don't use or love by the time we move to a new home (which may be soon, depending on a few things). I do already feel lighter and there are certain rooms in the house that rarely get messy anymore because there's nothing in there that doesn't belong. SUCH a good feeling!



If you're interested in learning more about the depression-clutter link, check out Nourishing Minimalism's blog.

If you have kids, you know how hard it can be to remain sane when there are toys everywhere and little collections of sticks and leaves in little boxes and "nature scenes" in random places but, fear not! Living a life of less is still an attainable goal and, actually, becomes all that more important! When the house is in order (which is not as often as I'd like... yet) I'm much less likely to freak out about Will's collections of things or his latest Lego station that happens to be in the living room. I have to look to my own stuff before I can really ask him to keep his stuff clean. I have to lead by example and that's harder, but better.  Allie Casazza speaks to this in her blog post here. Thankfully, Will has been pretty awesome about getting rid of things and I've been so proud of him for that. At this point, we really just need to get in the habit of cleaning up at the end of the day so that the mess doesn't get to be too much for him to handle by himself.

All-in-all I'm so glad we've embarked on this purging adventure. The more I get rid of, the more I want to get rid of. Things I thought I loved after going through a category the first time often still get removed after a 2nd look. I held onto so many things for "someday" or because it was a gift and those things can really bog down a home. I'm learning to let them go and it's freeing.  I look forward to the day we are done! Of course, after that it's very important to be very choosy about what comes into the house and be quick to offload things that don't belong but, hopefully that will be more manageable.

Other things I'm working on cleaning up are e-mails (I can't be the only one with thousands of unread e-mails!), photos, papers and phone stuff.

We'll have to address lots of different things this year to reduce stress include getting on top of health issues, both mine and Will's, spiritual health, more exercise, getting our house up to par and deciding about selling. We love our house and our property. We love our garden. We love our neighbors. So many things would be hard to say goodbye to. However, the reasons for a move may outweigh the reasons to stay. We shall see. In the meantime, we move forward toward the other goals and I think we'll know when the time comes.

For the few of you who read this, thanks for being awesome! I hope this will be a place we can have productive conversations and learn from each other. :-) For now I'll leave you with the following thought:

Stepping in Faith.

Wow, y'all. I figured that we would encounter opposition along the way, as so often happens when God calls you to something. There was no wasted time in finding this opposition right in our faces, right from the start! From the beginning, from the time we began to feel the stirrings of "it is time", we've had never-ending projects and financial goals that we thought we would accomplish before starting our home study. We thought we should probably have all of our ducks in a row and ready to go and maybe that's somewhat true. However, ducks don't seem to like straight lines and ours were (and are) all over the place. We kept feeling the pull to move forward but we thought, "after X is finished" or "as soon as we save X dollars" etc... None of this happened. What DID happen was opposition at every turn, constantly setting our goals back and pushing back timelines. Our timelines. Hmm.

Well, fast forward several months, many expensive Drs appointments and lab tests, a kitchen remodel that just won't end, broken down cars, revolting bodies, food intolerances, budget limitations, etc... later and here we are. Barely moved forward in our goals and way past when we thought we would have been halfway through the adoption process, something had to give. But nothing did... except us.

Tired of waiting and being bullied by life, we decided to go ahead and meet with Commonwealth Catholic Charities, the organization that would be doing our home study. I had an orientation meeting and got the application and information we needed to get started. We hung onto that application for nearly a month, still struggling to make the commitment due to finances, etc. Well, today I sent that application in! We decided to refuse to be influenced by our circumstances any longer. Do we have all the money we need? Nope. Is our kitchen done? Nope. Is winter coming and firewood season upon us? Yep. Seems like a terrible time to start? Sort of. But God's timeline is not our timeline. His ways are not our ways. The quicker we learn this, the better off we will be and the less stressed out, too!

This kid. Love him. He was so excited to be officially starting!

Please pray for us that all the right things will come together as they need to and that we will continue to trust the Lord for provision, guidance and staying power. I have no delusions about how difficult this process can be. I also know it will be worth it! Much love, Sarah

P.S. I want your opinion! I have this thing about not fundraising before we are finished with our home study, just to be sure we get approved. Am I being silly? Fundraising right before Christmas, especially the Equal Exchange fundraiser (can we say amazing chocolate and gifts?!), would be the perfect time. How do you guys feel about it?
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Small Beginnings.

Hi!

We are the Breinich Family and we believe that the time has finally come for us to adopt a child. Adoption has been in our hearts to do for years and we are ready to start moving forward. I met with the home study agency this week and got our first bit of paperwork to fill out: the home study application! Seems like such a small thing but, it feels huge! The next few months will be filled with tons of paperwork, trainings, meetings, appointments, etc... not to mention finishing our kitchen remodel and doing a major "stuff" purge. It's a lot to tackle and we ask for your prayers as we try to remain focused and sane. Haha.

As we move forward through the process I will update our fundraiser page and prayer request page to reflect our current needs. Thank you so much for being here and we hope you'll come along with us for the whole journey!

The Farmhouse.

In 1940 a new house was built. That house is now 74 years old and has seen better days. I sure do wish these walls could talk. This house was the original house on our road and once had 600+ acres with it. Our road is named for the family that once lived here and it is pretty cool to be a part of that history.

When it comes to old homes, I'm a visionary. My hope is to completely renovate the house while still retaining its charm. Part of this blog will feature these renovations. For now, I'd like to share the "before" photos. This is what the house looked like when we bought it in December. Brace yourselves. We have since painted the upstairs and it looks fabulous but, I can't share those photos just yet. We have plans for a giant open house in April or May and I want to keep it a surprise. :-)

Living Room

Dining room

The "breezeway". Best thing ever.

Our heat source. The old Jotul.

Future Office

Future Guest Room 

Only bathroom.

Can we say, "yuck!"?

Kitchen.

The front door key that the previous owners didn't know they had.
Just let that sink in.

Awesome, right?

Oh yea, baby.

Check it out! (That's not mold, btw, it's ... grease and dirt?)

The exposed chimney is actually pretty cool.
This is now Will's room and has been painted.

Needs a little love.

The "secret room"

This is now our room and has been painted.

Olive Eggers!

Who wouldn't want to open their carton of eggs and see a rainbow of colors? Blue, brown, dark brown, green, white and more! One of our goals here at our little homestead is to have beautifully colored eggs. I'm currently down to only one Easter Egger hen and she lays a pretty blue-green egg, when she actually lays. The rest of my girls lay nice, light brown eggs. The chicks I have in the brooder will lay light brown and white eggs. I'm super excited to have more eggs being laid come Summer but, I need more color! Enter, my project chickies. :-)

I have just ordered 4 Blue (true) Ameraucanas and 4 Blue Copper Marans! Ameraucanas lay blue eggs and Marans lay dark brown. They will be so lovely! My hope is that I will get a nice, Blue Ameraucana rooster so that he can pass the blue egg gene onto my Marans, thus creating Olive Eggers. The Olive Egger hens should lay lovely, olive green eggs. I could also breed the same rooster to a lighter brown egg-laying hen and get Easter Egger hens, which can lay blue, green and sometimes even pink eggs. I'm so excited about this little breeding experiment. (And I have no idea what I'm doing so, lots of research happening!)

On top of the beautiful eggs these new hens will lay, by buying the "blue" breed of both the Ameraucanas and Marans, they will also produce blue, black and splash colored chickens. Should be beautiful! Here are some examples of these colors:

Black Copper Maran

Splash Maran. (From http://www.maranschickenclubusa.com/)

Blue Copper Maran (What I've ordered)

Blue Ameraucana (Hopefully I'll get a roo like this)

Black Ameraucana Hen

Splash Ameraucana (Whitmore Farm)

I just love the splash color. There's a bit of science that goes into all of this and I know I have a lot to learn. For a basic breakdown of what breeds what, I found this chart on northwoodspoultry.com:

Blue x Blue = 50% Blue / 25% Black / 25% Splash 

Blue x Splash = 50% Blue / 50% Splash 

Blue x Black = 50% Blue / 50% Black 

Splash x Black = 100% Blue 

Black x Black = 100% Black 

Splash x Splash = 100% Splash

As you can see, the reason I ordered the blue variety is because you get the most color change possibilities. After the first few hatches, you can do more color selection for what you want and begin to shape your flock for bird color, egg color and, most importantly, health, egg quality and temperament. It's a lot to think about but, I'm excited for the challenge. Anyone else have any breeding projects going or any tips to pass on to me?

Goals.

Do you believe in setting goals? Writing them down?

I'm kind of a list person. If I don't write it down, I don't remember it. That's why I'm a terrible gift-giver. I never remember what people want! Oh well. Looks like everyone's getting a dozen eggs for their birthdays from now on anyway. Haha. Kidding!

Since being here on our little "homestead", I've felt mildly out of control. Like I have no clear direction. There are SO many projects that need doing and things that need buying and our time and money are tight right now so, things are kinda just getting done as we can afford them or as needed, which isn't really the most organized way to do things. For instance, we currently have 24 quail that we decided to buy on impulse (remember, no. clear. direction.) in a brooder and they will need to be outside in about 2 weeks or less. Do we have a quail pen? No. So, we have to make one. We're using an old goat pen and lining the goat fence with 3/4in hex fencing so the quail can't escape. They're so small! This project is costing a good bit more than we thought it would... this shouldn't surprise us. We have to get it done, though, because soon the quail will have to leave the brooder for a new home. This is an example of a project that now gets bumped to the top of the list that wasn't even on the list when we moved here in December. Other things, perhaps more important things, have to get moved down the list (as if there really was a list) as a result. We need to organize and strategize. I'm happy to have our quail but, no more unplanned animals! I believe that if we are to be successful in our endeavors here, we need to plan, plan, plan.

     The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, 

but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. 

Proverbs 21:5

I don't know about you but, I don't want to be that second guy.

So, what should our list really look like? I'm not sure but, here are what I think might be the top 5:

1. Fix the faulty pipes in the basement. *Potentially* catastrophic if we don't.

2. Install the new windows. They are sitting in the living room.

3. Start the seeds as soon as they get here! Which means, we need to get/make some seed starting flats ASAP.

4. Mend the pasture fence and ready the stall for a spring calf (or two). We already bought the fence.

5. Get on the delivery list for Countryside Organics. (Organic, soy-free layer feed + quail feed)

If I wanted to continue...

6. Have the chimney swept and caulk the top where it's cracked.

7. Set-up a temporary run by the coop for the pullets until they're big enough to put in with our other hens.

8. Build a chicken tractor/pen for my project birds. (Olive Eggers!! More on that later.)

9. Finish and SELL the Airstream! (This should really be in the top 5.)

10. Paint more rooms in the house.

Well, there's 10. I'm sure I could keep on going and going but, we've gotta start somewhere! I also have to be a wife to my hard working husband and a mother to my very active 3 year old. That's enough to keep me busy all by itself! Thankfully, he loves to "help" with everything and is just as excited about farming as we are.   :-)

What are some of your goals for this year?