facing the unknown

We may be unemployed no longer, but I want to return for a moment to one of the facets of joblessness that we, and so many others have faced – the elephant in the room, if you will – fear of the unknown.

(pictures featured in this post were taken by Papa on our honeymoon trip to Ireland in 2004)

What happens when you lose your job, when the job market is horrible, and when you are forced to decide between housing and groceries? What happens when the answers are not clear and the future is in question?

I found an article in the July 4, 2011 issue of Time magazine on where the jobs are. In Papa’s industry of construction, the rate of unemployment is more like 16%, and for every job opening there are 12 workers looking for employment. That’s a lot of jobless people, and that’s only one line of work.

The future is unknown for so many Americans and fear is a common reaction, leaving marriages and families in shambles, and individuals with serious health problems, or worse.

To suggest that there is a certain way anyone should handle a job loss feels inappropriate to me because everyone is different; different expectations, personal and family needs, goals, etc. There is no on-size-fits-all plan that an unemployed person can carry out to get themselves back in line with success, and to suggest that would also be presumptuous for us, who are still living in substandard (though comfortable) conditions.

However, there were two things Papa and I did do that I think every unemployed family should do, for the sake of their family and their sanity.

Togetherness

Facing the unknown can be a bit scary, but it is imperative that you face it together, and you face it with a positive attitude. Money problems are one of the top marriage killers, but unemployment due to a layoff is not anyone’s fault, and arguing about it is not going to make the road any easier. We can’t see it as something happening to one of us that the other has to deal with. We are a team, and we will face the unknown together.

My grandparents took a trip to Alaska a couple years ago to celebrate their 50^th anniversary, and they blessed us with a copy of their book of experiences from that journey. In the front was a handwritten note to Papa and I that read:

“The world can be green and rich. It can also be dark and foreboding. Walking through it together is joyful when green and so much more possible when dark and risky, so clasp hands and walk boldly to see what wonders await.”

They also quoted from an old song:

“We ain’t got a barrel of money, we may look ragged and funny, but we travel along singing our son side by side.”

Perspective

Second (and how do you follow up with wisdom like that?), unemployment is not the end of the world. You can’t always plan when it will happen, or what you will do if it happens, but there are so many creative possibilities for living without a job that you have to be able to see the unknown, not as a scary place, but as an adventure, an opportunity for growth and change. Perspective is where it’s all at.

If you find yourself without a job, and you’re waiting in line at the unemployment office, unsure how to explain your situation to others, stop. Stop sitting in the fear, stop fretting about the unknown. You can do this! Start imagining the possibilities of a career change, a change of living space, or other adventure you’ve wanted to attempt but never dared commit to. What is the best thing you can do with the resources you still have? Run yourself into the ground trying to keep your house? Stressing yourself out to the point of emergency room visits? Fighting with your spouse about the expense column? Or is there something better for you and your family?

Perspective. It’s all in the perspective.

To quote from Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame:

“Today, to him gazing south with a new-born need stirring in his heart, the clear sky over their long outline seemed to pulsate with promise; today, the unseen was everything, the unknown the only real fact of life. On this side of the hills was now the real blank, on the other lay the crowded and colored panorama that his inner eye was seeing so clearly.”

Is the unknown really something to be feared? Or, is it an adventure waiting to be had? Clasp hands and walk boldly to see what wonders await.

2012, a year for growing roots

I love the New Year. It is fresh. It is new. It is full of opportunity. You start the year with a clean slate, except you get to build on the past; lessons learned, accomplishments made. I know creating goals are a tradition often kept at this time of year, even though these same goals are often broken before the year has gotten well under way, but I still like to create an outline of sorts that helps me to figure out what I want to do with myself for the year. As our family grows, this has also become a convenient time of year to review where our family is at and where we want to see ourselves this time next year. Without creating unrealistic goals, this has been a helpful way to guide us as we move forward.

For starters, I updated our Who We Are, Q&A, Favorite Reads, First Time Here pages, and even our welcome note. No longer are we in the middle of a move, or unemployment, and our progressive changes in lifestyle ought to be reflected in the background we have provided for you, so please check them out!

It has been a while since I gave you an update on where we are with the foreclosure process. Not intentional, I assure you; there are just too many things to write about! So, in a nutshell, this is what’s going on. While Papa’s new job has enabled us to bring home a little more mula, it is still far too little to pay our mortgage as well as take care of our family, so we cannot pick up the mortgage payments and attempt to get back to where we were in May 2011 when we stopped paying them. We are, however, still paying on the home equity loan we had, at least until our mortgage company and bank decide this is not necessary.

Foreclosure, we’ve discovered, is not as simple as handing in the keys and avoiding the payments. Papa has filled out countless forms, mostly repeating the same information over and over, as to why we are unable to make the payments, etc. In early December we were finally handed a notice of foreclosure by the local court house, saying that the mortgage company is threatening to repossess the house. We have not been issued an eviction notice, but because we told the mortgage company we’re not living there, they have winterized the house.

In the meantime, the mortgage company, and the bank who owns our home equity loan are arguing over whether or not the lien on the property for the secondary loan can be dropped in order to make the house available for short sale. At this point that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Politics.

However, with all that said, a relative of one of our neighbors, as the property used to be in the ownership of their family, has recently made an offer of $25,000 to buy the place. Our realtor agrees with us that it would be stupid for the mortgage company not to accept the offer, but again, it will be mountains of paperwork and countless phone calls, and who knows how many weeks before it is decided whether they can purchase the place for that little or not. We don’t know exactly how a sale would impact the foreclosure process or our relationship with the mortgage company or the bank, but it appears that one way or the other, the house will no longer be in our possession by the end of 2012. Time will tell.

Not entirely a nutshell I guess…

On the home front, our addition to the camper is closed in. Papa has installed windows, a temporary door, and closed in the edges of the exposed side above and to the sides of the camper so that it is protected from the elements. When we are able to save up enough money, insulating the porch will be the next project. We may begin heating with the woodstove anyway, to help thaw out the 50 gallon barrels of filtered and bleached well water, but we’re taking it one day at a time.

While we intend to have the porch complete in preparation for winter next year, Papa and I have been toying with the idea of (once summer comes) attempting to move the camper out from the porch, selling it, and using the income to build an additional room on the opposite side of the porch (where the camper was) to basically create a small home. The sale of the camper would more than cover the cost, and it would give us more freedom to create a furniture layout that works while we save up for our forever home. The downside: having to figure out a new water system if we aren’t using what’s in the camper. However, this is all in the talk stage right now. It may or may not happen.

Sometime before Chickie/Chap arrives, we also need to purchase a family car. Right now we are still using Papa’s truck and a borrowed car. I was hoping to cover the expense of a car with my herbal remedy sales, but the transition from unemployment to employment left us with no income for three weeks and the herbal money was pretty much what we lived off during that time. Now, we hope that the income tax return we get in February will cover not only our midwife expenses, but a used car as well. Something will work out.

I do want to stop here and point out something I know I’ve mentioned before, that while each of the difficulties we’ve faced are disappointing, there have been blessings throughout: we may be without a car of our own, but we have family who have lent us one to use in the meantime; we weren’t able to use the herbal sales as a jump start for a car fund, but it bought our groceries when we didn’t have an income; we weren’t able to finish the addition before winter, but we have a place to store water and we’re staying warm. There are just so many ways that God has provided for us and we are so thankful, because we know we don’t deserve it.

Moving on into the year – sometime in March we will welcome our fourth baby into the world, here at home with our midwife team. During and after this time we’ll be taking a break from homeschooling. I suppose that may sound funny to be thinking about considering Buddy is only in PreK, but I do like to keep track of all our projects and activities, and I don’t want to commit to that during my babymoon. I am also working on scheduling about eight weeks worth of guest posts during that time frame. This part I’m really excited about because there are so many bloggers who I know would be able to make a wonderful contribution to this blog. More info on this will be coming soon I expect.

Our homeschool year begins June 1^st and ends May 31^st. This year Buddy will begin Kindergarten and Girlie will begin PreK. Their education is largely based on experience – applying early reading, math, science, and social studies to family conversation, farm work, home duties, baby care, art and craft projects, etc. I have a few ideas for basic “book work”, but will be avoiding textbooks, fill-in-the-blank or rote work pages, and tests for a few years at least. I have ideas for posts on our homeschooling practices, which I expect to be sharing in the next month or two, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but I’m very excited about our early education plans!

In 2011 I took my five years of backyard herbal growing and home remedy making to selling them. It was on a very small scale, using herbal parties among family as our platform. Based on the performance of the sales, I do believe it is worth pursuing this as a home business. However, it is a lot of work, for which I am not entirely prepared to do with a new baby this year. Instead I want to focus on preparing more tea to sell to past customers, and researching business development for herbal sales in 2013.

Papa and I do want to expand our vegetable and flower gardens this year. Last year we produced enough food to have more than we needed to eat fresh veggies for the summer, but not quite enough to make preserving them worthwhile. This year we want to produce enough to can for winter eating. We also found a more local heritage seed company that we want to support when we’re ready to begin.

As for the chickens, we are pleased with the production we’ve had this year. On a good day we collect 10 eggs and a duck egg, on a bad day we find 5 or 6 eggs and no duck eggs. What we don’t use we sell to family and friends for $2 a dozen (with donated egg cartons). We have had to keep the birds in the coop for a couple days at a time to ensure they are laying the eggs where we want them, but they are mostly free ranging. This year we are planning to experiment with raising chickens – incubating a small number of eggs and seeing if we can get them to hatch. If we can, raising chickens for meat and eggs will probably become a long term project for us. And, believe it or not, meat rabbits have also been discussed around here.

Another change that I will try not to spill too much about because I want to devote it to another post has to do with a sudden jump in readership here at AFN. As I will share with you soon, it has been a surprise and a joy to see that not only are we attracting readers with similar views, but they are actively pursuing similar lifestyles, and apparently, we are helping them to accomplish their goals! I had a vision for this blog, but I honestly did not expect for it to take root as quickly as it has. Because of this, Papa and I are researching development of this blog to keep up with the growing needs of our readers. I am absolutely in over my head here, but excited all the same! Stay tuned to hear how you can help, and to learn what ideas we have in mind for the future of American Family Now.

Adjustment Period

It’s been two weeks since Papa went back to work. Initially it didn’t feel like an adjustment was really necessary. With odd jobs related to our homestead or helping out family and friends, his absence for the day was not unusual.

(making indian head dresses for Thanksgiving)

The kids and I went about our daily business, anticipating the return of Papa at dinner time with excitement, but managing just fine without him. Then 3 or 4 days passed and we all started recognizing those tell-tale signs of a major life change (which this is after 11 months of unemployment).

The kids were all more fussy, unable to explain their malcontent. The water tank ran low and I didn’t know how to fill it. The battery died and I couldn’t start the generator (Papa came home to find me cooking by the light of a lantern). And only one blessed hour between Papa’s arrival and the kids’ bedtime.

(Girlie in her Thanksgiving dress)

Once the realization hit that this was not an odd job day and Papa would be gone again tomorrow, the bitter-sweet reality of employment finally sank in.

This week he had two extra days off due to Thanksgiving; an opportunity for the kids to play around him outside while he worked on the homestead, and for Papa to give me some lessons in the plumbing of the camper. A gentle way to ease us into our new routine, but next week it will be Monday morning to Friday night again.

Honestly, I think we’re doing pretty well with this. It’s hard, but that’s to be expected, and we are finding a new routine. The afternoons are the longest, and planning dinner is what I hold onto as my hope for the evening and our daily family reunion.

(my 3 month old niece – isn’t she cute?!)

While this post is mainly intended to share what our experience has been like, I want to emphasize that this is not a sign the economy is turning around. Just this week I learned of one, and possibly two friends, who have been laid off, one because the organization he worked for has closed its doors for good. And rumor has it that a company we had reason to believe might hire Papa earlier this year has just laid off six employees.

Another sign the economy is bad – has anyone else noticed the huge push for Christmas layaways this year? And Christmas decorations on the shelf just after the school year began. Businesses are really concerned about their bottom line right now, and no matter how much they push their ads, people still don’t have money to spend.

I don’t want to sound depressing, but since we are trying to represent an average American family and encourage other families that are in the trenches, we feel it is very important for our readers who may not be experiencing the pinch that just because we have a job at this time does not mean the “recession” is over. We all still need to be wise with our resources, and be prepared for the future no matter what it holds.

On that note, you can expect that our new routine may change a little about what we write, but our lifestyle won’t change. We are still living in a camper because our income is still low and we want to save money if we can, and our passion is still to encourage and inspire other struggling families that they can thrive in this economy, no matter their personal budget.

If you know anyone who might benefit from what we share here, please send them an invite to subscribe! Our readership is growing quickly, and we’re meeting more and more people who are looking for ideas and stories. It is exciting to see these connections made, and we hope to see it continue to grow and bless others.

kissing unemployment goodbye

Eleven months and one day after Papa’s last day of work, he was hired for another woodworking company! That’s right, he’s back in the workforce, just one month before the state unemployment reimbursement would run out. What a blessing!

(photos in this post show some of Papa’s past work as a carpenter)

The company he is now working for is about 15 miles from our home, and coincidentally is the same company his dad was employed by for several years in the 80’s. Kind of neat that it has a generational twist!

The pay is not nearly as good as his last job offered, which means we still can’t afford the mortgage, but it is more than unemployment is paying us, so we should be able to save a little for another car (still borrowing one from family).

Papa will be using his carpentry skills, so he won’t have to learn a new trade, and the work that is required uses creativity; something that is very important to him.

We are very thankful, but it is also strange. No more late mornings, doing devotions as a family and seeing Papa off to his work outdoors or to do odd jobs for friends. Now he’ll be gone from 7am to 5pm every week day, as the sun rises and sets during the winter. Eleven months is a long time to be on such little income, but it has also been a blessing in some ways. We were just discussing how he has been home for more than half of Pal’s life, a precious gift to our young ones.

Some day we hope that we’ll be self-sufficient enough that our physical needs will be covered by odd jobs, leaving most of Papa’s time for family pursuits, but until then this new company is offering a chance for Papa to put his skills to good use, and the things we’ve learned over the past year will help us to save even more while he is employed. We are still planning to have an off-grid house built within two years!

Even though we are no longer unemployed, American Family Now will continue to follow the same direction it has – sharing our story as we learn to thrive in a poor economy, use our resources as wisely as we can, follow this adventure as a family, and hopefully encourage others along the way.

plans for winter

You’ve probably figured out already what we expect to be doing this winter (other than having a baby of course!), but now I’m finally going to lay it all out.

(pictures are of the walkway in progress)

Because the foreclosure process will not be complete for some time, we have the option of living in our house for the winter. Perhaps you think, especially with Chicki/Chap on the way, that living in the house is the smart choice, and for a while that was at the top of our list of options.

After weighing pros and cons, we saw that moving back would not be the “easy way out”. For starters, utilities would cost more than we can afford and vehicle expenses would increase bcuase of the location.

Earlier in the summer, renting an apartment closer to town was also on the list of options, but with no job that has since been crossed off the list. So we began creating a plan on how we could live as comfortably as possible in our camper for the winter. If it doesn’t work, we can back out, but so far (unless Papa is hired somewhere) this makes the most sense.

Key to this plan is an addition we will soon be building on the side of the camper. It will be similar to a camper/RV port, with a winterized “Florida porch” joined to the camper with insulation so it will still be removable.

In this room, which will be about the size of the camper, we will run our woodstove, have a small bathroom with our chemical toilet, shelves for our food storage, and our diningroom table and chairs. It will create space for living when we can’t be outside, reduce travel to the storage camper, and enable us to heat the camper without using the expensive propane furnace.

We will share more about the specifics of winterizing, such as water storage, building the extra room, and wood heat as time goes on. For now you can keep in mind our goal of living off-grid through the winter.

One more thought, just to keep things honest. Choosing to live in our camper through the winter was not an easy decision, nor did we choose this because we want to live on the edge in as desperate conditions as we can manage. We enjoy comfort and ease, but the reality is, Papa has been actively searching for a job since his layoff last December, and with no progress on that front our choices are very limited. We could live off credit cards, or impose our alternative lifestyle on family, but neither seems like a wise decision. Mainly out of a practical perspective, staying right where we are just makes the most sense.

Frugal, by choice or necessity

I like being frugal. I enjoy spending less and finding uses for odd things. Spending more than $10 on a book, or even buying a package of socks costing more than $5 is a splurge for me. Yet despite my interest in tightwad living, I’ve discovered there is a significant difference between living frugally for enjoyment and living frugally because you couldn’t afford shopping even if you wanted to.

hunting for bugs

Before I say too much about living with little money, I want to clarify to our family who reads this blog that we are not “in need”. We are eating good food, we are dressed in clothes without holes, and if we need to go somewhere there is gas in the car. This is a challenging phase of our lives, but we’re in good spirits and we’re up to the challenge.

Poor. What a hard word to say out loud. Although I have spoken of un-shamefulness in unemployment, talking about finances is politically incorrect, and a bit awkward. It comes down to this: we have very little money. Duh. Like I really need to state the obvious. We’ve been living off half our regular income for almost seven months via unemployment insurance. But it still seems odd saying that, and the reality of not having money has recently been hitting home.

Buddy and Girlie need summer clothes. I can’t just go out and buy several outfits each. I do have a box full of cloth and a few patterns, but time is also precious. So what am I to do? Today, while Papa took an orientation class at CareerCenter, I took the kids to Salvation Army and almost completely outfitted Buddy for the summer with change from our Memorial Day yard sale. Two days ago I finished sewing a play dress for Girlie, and after a couple more like that, she should be all set for the summer too.

It still feels good to spend less, to know we can live comfortably without buying everything new whenever we feel like it, but it has required a paradigm shift to understand that we can live comfortably even if we can’t afford to buy new things.

Why am I getting so personal and sharing this with you? Because in light of our mission, to encourage other families facing difficulty in this economy, I want to be completely honest. Part of thriving in the face of hard times is learning to adapt and go with the flow. Make lemonade from lemons, right?

Part of the strain on our limited budget right now is the final payments due on utility bills for the house, along with car insurance due this month. Honestly, I’m not stressed about it. What are they going to do, shut the power off? Um, we already asked them to do that, so I guess not!

Papa has begun a project for his brother that will take care of those bills and then we may actually be able to save a bit of cash in preparation for getting cars inspected, etc. In the meantime, all of this process has been planned and anticipated. It’s a game of scheming, organizing, and planning. Although we’ve been riding the wave and it is now hitting the shore, we can see another good wave coming. We just have to hold our breath a little longer.

I talked to Papa about finances this evening to hear his input on the non-physical aspects of unemployment, and we talked it out that this phase of budgeting is not as bad as it could be, and in fact we do have some money to work with. The difference is, instead of having money to spend on frivolous things on occasion, we now have to make our money work for us, investing it into what will last and/or get us closer to our goal of being debt-free, off-grid, and closer to the land.

If I wait a couple more weeks I could buy more clothes for the kids, or I could make clothes and put the money toward farming supplies and invest in homegrown food. There is significantly less money growing on the trees around here, but we can (and are trying to) be resourceful with what we have.

I guess what it comes down to is that similar to the emotional transition I made before moving, I’m adjusting to this new financial stage. Not complaining, just soakin’ it in.

 

Camper Update #2

Papa has been hard at work on the camper. This week we managed to paint the livingroom/kitchen area, although we were unable to go with the stripes idea. Wainscoting and curtain rods have been installed, and I purchased enough material to make curtains for both the living area and our bedroom. The kids will have individualized curtains made from material I already have.

The paint job was a rather risky process because we’re painting ontop of vinyl, but I’m so glad we’ve done it because it really does make the place feel more cozy and less plastic. I can’t wait to see how the curtains turn out, but I’m going to keep working on the second rug and get that finished up before I start the curtain project. One thing at a time!

camper living entertainment system

Rethinking Space

Editors Note: It was more than a dozen, 18 construction companies to be exact!

The job hunt has not been successful so far. Glen has called at least a dozen construction companies in the area and not only is no one hiring, but many of them have been laying off their crews. One contractor said that instead of potential customers, the only people calling him now are people looking for a job, and the unemployment office confirming that people have been looking for a job there.

And so, box by box we begin packing up stuff we aren’t using. Last night I came up with the brilliant idea of packing all the books we won’t be reading in the next year (after making a master list of course) and using the empty shelf space to hold all the kids games. Now I don’t have to go digging in the back of the art closet to get them out when they are wanted.

I’ve actually been trying to get more creative with storing arts and craft supplies. I’ve discovered that empty food containers, especially glass peanut butter jars make great containers for pretty things. Much better than looking at a cupboard full of cardboard boxes and plastic baggies! Now I’ll be happier keeping them on shelves where they can be seen.

As the time draws nearer to the date when we will probably be moving into a camper, the more I realize how much stuff I still have to sort through. Like the office stuff. Half a dozen, half empty boxes of envelopes of varying sizes, a box of highlighers I haven’t used since high school, a stack of 1 subject notebooks that I only use to rip lined paper out of and put somewhere else. Such disorder! I suppose I should go through this stuff anyway even if I’m not moving, but I certainly don’t want to wait until a few weeks before the move and get myself overwhelmed with all that needs to be done.

One other project I’m thinking about, is rethinking our bathroom space. If/when we are living in a camper, we’ll only have a medicine cabinet, perhaps a very little cupboard space, and everything else we’d normally keep in there would have to moved to a different storage area in the camper (if we want it in there at all). To reduce the inevitable shock, I’m thinking about the best way to act as if we don’t have the shelving in our bathroom that we currently own. That means, only storing things in the medicine cabinet that we use on a regular basis, keeping first aid altogether in a box, and limiting cleaning agents/equipment to what is most useful. We’d still use the shelves, but only for things we don’t plan on keeping in the camper bathroom.

It seems so silly to have to be thinking about this, and I’m going to do my best to keep the camper looking as neat and home-like as possible so that is is both comfortabe for our family and presentable to guests, but I know it is still an unusual thing to do. But choosing between adapting to a different type of temporary home and having Glen working overtime on two jobs to feed our family, the choice seems like a no-brainer. Sure we’ll miss the house to a point, but afterall, home is where your heart, and my family fills my heart right up :0)

The last of Christmas

I think I had a dream last night that after I published this post I still had more Christmas pictures to post. What a big family we have! These pictures were all taken at my mom’s on Christmas Eve. We had a big sleepover to celebrate Christmas and New Years, even though some of us couldn’t stay the night. Good food, good gifts, good fellowship, good memories. A great way to end 2010.

December was a crazy month. Even though the Christmas season itself was lovely and simple in many ways, a lot has happened that I have yet to write about.

As you know, Glen was laid off at the beginning of the month. Between our rainy day savings, Christmas money, and odd jobs Glen has been doing for family we are managing just fine at this point, but we’ve been having troubles with the Department of Labor. We are coming up on week four of sending in our claims cards and we’ve yet to see a payment. Supposedly it only takes two weeks from the first contact to first payment but I think they are getting bogged down with applications. If it was tax money we were getting it wouldn’t bother us so much, but unemployment reimbursement is money Glen has been paying in for what, fifteen years? It’d be nice to see some of that again.

The feds say 2011 will be the year of jobs. Ha! What a joke. Try calling ANY construction company in Maine and asking if they’re hiring. I think we’ve tried nine so far. And now that every construction worker has to be certified in lead abatement and buy a $1,400 vacuum cleaner so the local incinerator can send the lead up into the air, you’re gonna see more small time carpenters go out of business or lay off their employees, and a lack of new workers entering construction. New jobs is a farce. Save your money people, hard times are on their way.

In happier news, I spent my personal savings on the last two midwifery text books I’ve had on my wish list. The AHA’s most recent manual on neonatal resuscitation and Healing Passage by Anne Frye, a book on the care and repair of the tissues involved in birth. I’ve already begun purchasing equipment, but it’s nice to have the textbook stuff taken care of. Now if only I had the time to really study them!

Glen and I have been working through the house, sorting, trashing, boxing, taping, and labeling. Four piles: keep out, box up for moving, trash, or save for a yard sale. As I will be describing in more detail soon, it is very likely that we will be moving in the next few months, and the sooner we get this stuff taken care of the easier and less stressful a move will be.

Speaking of plans, I haven’t gone into detail about our ideas because I have wanted to make sure we’ve hashed things out enough and spoken with our family so that no one feels like they’re in the dark when we take it public. Of course, everything is still somewhat in the air because you never know what the future holds. God could suddenly provide a year long project for KB and then Glen could get his job back, but while we’re praying as if everything depends on God, we’re acting like everything depends on us, and we feel safer that way.

The chickens seem to be doing well enough in the cold. We’ve been told that chickens don’t like cold weather, but that cold to them is different than what cold is to us. Whatever that means… They’ve settled into their new coop well, and we have the heat lamp going so they stay warm. Still getting 4 or 5, and sometimes 6 eggs a day! A couple weeks ago we thought we lost two of them. They didn’t show up at sunset like normal, and Glen couldn’t see or hear them anywhere. We hoped for the best and locked the others in. Glen had a nightmare that some animal ate the three that were left. But we prayed and the next morning he looked out and saw one of them trying to get into the coop! He quickly found the last one hiding in an open trailer we have and thanked God we still had five egg-makers.

Atlas is cutting his third and fourth teeth, he’s begun crawling, and he’s starting to pull himself up to standing! I can’t believe he’s ten months old already. It’s too soon to be celebrating his first birthday!

I’ve been working on his scrapbook. I made one for Nemo and Daphney’s first year as well. I’ve begun settling into the project and have really been enjoying the leisure time in the evening to create something pretty with scraps. Perhaps I’ll show a few of my favorites here some time.

And the most exciting news of all? My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby in August, and my sister is getting married! We’re praying for both of them and looking forward to all the celebrating this year.

Yesterday I updated our “Who We Are” page, so do check out the tab at the top of this page and share your thoughts. We love comments! And you’ll make our day if you subscribe to American Family Now at the bottom of the page :0)

Happy New Year everyone!