Notefull Living

Finding my blogging ‘Niche’

Home and Garden Niche Ok Ok, one rookie mistake I’ve made and it hasn’t really been helping grow my blog is actually focus on a ‘niche’. I have no shame in sharing this, I thought my blog would be bigger by now.

For those not into the in’s and outs of blogging lingo there’s a thing you need to do and that is find your ‘niche’. Your area of expertise, or the thing that your passionate about. I honestly couldn’t find something that really suited what I wanted to share as my “expertise” for this little blog on the internet.

I guess going on a much needed break on our Mexican Vacation from my home did I not see this blog in a different light.

My blogging “Niche” was already coming through on it’s own: Home and Garden

I got some posts out that I do like to share my advice about, but they don’t relate to Home and Garden. They got barely any views.

Views do make a difference when you working to make an income from blogging. Since this blog is a fun creative outlet for me from my busy life being a stay at home mom views are great but I don’t go crazy about how many I get.

With a few tweaks of using the right hashtags and sharing more about our home and garden, my blog will grow. I’ve been WAITING to share more about our home, just life has gotten in the way to do that, like water leaks for example on an area I was ready to do the final photography on and well… I still have holes in my walls at the moment.

I look forward to giving this blog the direction it needs in expanding with the Home and Garden niche.

Notefull Living (2) I’m just someone who loves decorating our home. We live in the Fraser Valley, basically the Suburbs of Vancouver. I’m a big home body. Plus when the weather is good I’m outside. My husband and I already have a home we renovated and sold and the fun we had flipping that one. I’ll have that post up soon.

Speaking of Gardening, it didn’t take long for me to connect with other bloggers in this niche to find me. For those that have and read my blog, thanks for seeking me out.

The topics I was writing about on my blog was Faith, Family and Music. These are all things that are hugely important to me. I like sharing little bits of my Faith here and there on the blog.

In regards to Family, I sometimes share the odd picture without my kids faces showing for their privacy. I strongly believe in children’s privacy especially when it comes to the internet. Theresa Lynn Photography 023-21 Lastly, I’ve got my music. It’s tough to keep up with it with my family so young but I’m not giving up on it and already getting clients for my piano tuning, plus other things.

So If your a fellow Home and Garden enthusiast like I am, come along and SUBSCRIBE.

I honestly don’t feel like I’m a pro in any of these areas, just enjoy the journey of creating a lovely home for our family and an amazing time in the outdoors in my garden.

Carrie

Family trip to Mexico

Mexico If it seems like I was on a Vacation from blogging. That’s because I was just in Mexico with our whole family. This time last week we were heading back to the airport in Cancun to come back home to our very cold northern home in the Fraser Valley in Canada. It so happened to snow the week we got back.

This trip was a big first for me, I was just as nervous and excited as the kids.

So…Traveling with our family to Mexico. Well this actually included my husbands WHOLE family. Yup, it was a big trip. Lots of people.

Our family researched the trip from the beginning. Once the resort was picked out we found travel vloggers videos and watched all what we could find out. We were traveling with our kids and I wanted to be prepared.

The flight there was fine, getting to the resort was really good. No crazy driving or people hounding us at the airport which was surprising. We had lots of people warn us.

Getting to our room was good and even though there was a time difference we settled in pretty quickly. We got there in time for the buffet for dinner. We really tried not to buy the airplane bistro food, knowing we were headed to an all inclusive was worth the wait for food.

It’s pretty easy to fall in love with the atmosphere there. I loved the scenery, the pools and especially the beach. We didn’t clue in to wake up in time to catch the sunrise until our last day there. This was what we caught just before the sun broke through the clouds.

The Gardner in me wants to find out what this plant is? I absolutely LOVE the bright pink. The grounds where something else with all the tropical plants everyone. Plus the resident iguana that lived by our door.

Our second child was quick to comment his friends needed to come to mexico and visit us here. Although at the end of the week he was getting homesick.

Our family loved the ocean. Our boys were in and out of the water. We got our oldest for his birthday an underwater camera and we got some neat video of the fish in the ocean. My husband went snorkeling and got some video of the fish at the reef.

Our youngest didn’t know any different. It was challenging to deal with naps. She lived off watermelon and french fries at the buffet. I was excited to get this sweet picture with her by the ocean.

I learned a lot about going on a trip like this. My husband and I haven’t ever saved to go on one like this. We have focused and worked hard at buying a good family home in the Fraser Valley. Luxury trips like this weren’t an option.

IMG_0557 (1) There’s many stories and much more that I would share. There’s a more important post I will be doing about this trip once we get closer to summer.

Hope you enjoyed some of these shots of our trip. The resort was definitely nice. For me, it’s the scenery and the ocean that got me more excited then the luxury lifestyle the resort offered to give.

Yes, no cooking, cleaning, making beds for a week was nice, but it’s also great to be home.

Any suggestions as to where my husband and I should go for our 15th Wedding Anniversary?

Picking a Puppy

notefull living Blog

It’s happened! We officially own a puppy. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen her in my stories.

My husband and I have wanted a dog for many years. We thought about having one before we had kids and then decided against it. We had a cat before kids and she just attacked all our company. So once we got pregnant we had to re-home her.

Here’s our experience of Picking a Puppy.

1: Research

I can’t stress this enough. We spent close to a year spending time researching different breeds and watching lots of videos of dog trainers and their advice online about picking a puppy and what to expect.

I grew up with a dog, where my husband didn’t. So I have some experience with having a dog. Difference is, I grew up in the country. Living in town with a dog is a bit different.

We chatted with lots of friends who had dogs and chatted with lots of dog owners in our neighborhood or whenever it was possible in public. Most dog owners love chatting about their dogs.

Don’t buy a dog on a whim, take your time.

2: Preparing the Family

We have 3 kids, ages 7, 4 and 20 months. Something my husband and I do as parents when we are introducing something new to our kids is talk about it a lot. Give lots of info about whatever adventure we plan to go on and the expectations when we are there.

60BF3F2E-C36D-4EC8-BE11-84FC4B6BC1E1 We let our kids know a year ahead of time this was going to happen. My husband and I had agreed 2020 was the year to get a dog.

Our kids aren’t exactly used to pets as they aren’t around them a lot. Plus most of our friends over the years didn’t have any pets.

We got them around dogs a LOT. The more comfortable they got around them we started searching for a local breeder.

3: Finding a Breeder

This part was interesting. We were given lots of suggestions of places where people bought their dogs. Most them were out of town. These were dogs that we met and loved their temperament. The other thing we noticed…$$$ very expensive.

We did find a breeder in our neighborhood, again her price was more then we wanted to spend. My husband and I agreed we would feel more comfortable with getting a mixed breed and if possible from someone we knew.

We happened to go hiking with a friend and her dog was along. Remember I talked about introducing our kids to lots of dogs. With my friends dog our kids were super calm and not scared around. It just so happened her dog had a litter that next week.

The mom is a Shepherd/Lab.

4: Picking a Puppy

For us lots needed to happen before we even got to pick the puppy. Which means we are near the end of our journey of picking one and bringing one home.

We are an active family, we get out whenever we can. The yearly planning I talked about in my last blog post about scheduling plays into that. We knew we wanted a puppy that would be both calm and well mannered yet want to keep up with our busy family.

One of the best advice we got was to get out and meet the litter and just see them first. Plus, we got to meet each puppy one on one and that helped us narrow it down. Our boys each had a favorite which made the process a bit interesting. Thankful our boys are maturing and we were able to talk them through it.

We happened to find the runt of the litter, she was calm, listened super well and was well tempered. Plus her markings were super adorable, that made picking her extra helpful.

5: Picking a Name

Since we had talked about getting a puppy for so long we had a running list of boy and girls names going. One of our names was “techie”, picked out by the boys.

We ended up going off popular dog name websites and just running down the list of names.

The name we picked is “Kona”. This way the family she was with could start calling her by her name.

6: Taking her Home:

Kona has been with us for a few days now. It’s been a bit of an adjustment, mostly for the kids.

Night time has been challenging as most people warned us and we read up about that fact. Our oldest admitted putting his pillow over his head the first night.

It’s a learning curve for everyone. I’m liking watching our kids adjust to her and play with her.

A tired dog is a good dog. Here’s she’s chilling on the DIY Dog Bed I made for her. The boys sure have fun taking her outside and playing in the backyard with her. Right now we have snow, makes for it being extra fun.

We can’t wait for summer when we go camping and most of the “puppy” stage will be passed and she will be we will all be well adjusted to each other.

Hope sharing our experience was helpful. Do you have a dog?

Are you planning on getting one?

If you came just for the puppy spam, your welcome.

Schedules, and staying Organized

how to schdeule (1) Living a scheduled life is something I’ve learned the hard way is something we can all improve on and be better at.

I’ve always considered myself an organized person. Along comes our 3 kids and technology explosion and I was pulling my hair out. I wasn’t as organized as I thought I was. I was missing IMPORTANT doctor appointments and missing key scheduled things in our kids life and so forth.

I looked back and had to ask myself where am I going wrong. Why am I messing up so bad, what was working and what wasn’t?

I’ve written some basic tips that helped me, bonus I added a DIY!

There’s a TON of organization gurus out there. They offer great advice. Yet, we are all made differently and have to figure out what works best for us.

I tried for over a year to keep up with switching to the free google calendar. It’s free right, boy was a wrong. I guess the writer in me needs to write it down. I had a bit of a meltdown last year realizing my loath for technology wasn’t helping trying to stay organized using something online.

1: Get a GOOD planner:

After posting a desperate outcry to friends on Facebook I was reminded of my other writing friends to use a teacher planner.

I got one and it’s made a big difference.

Having this cute spot in our kitchen with the writing desk makes it easy to layout. The planner fits so perfectly. As much as I love beautiful detailed planners and paper products, I got mine from staples and it’s made by Emily Ley

My Husbands work uses the Google Calender so I still sometimes add things or he adds them. It’s still kinda used, I’m still trying to adapt. But for my sanity I went back to a paper planner.

2: DIY a Picture frame for Days of the Week:

Ready for an upcycle and a DIY? I love a good repurpose project that’s fast and easy.

I originally made this for meal planning. The paper planner I bought already has a slot for meal planning. This DIY became a “week at a glance” for the whole family and it’s been hugely helpful.

What you need:

Paper (larger needed if you have a bigger frame)
Permanent Marker
Ruler
Picture Frame
Paint

Paint the frame with 2 coats. Let it fully dry. Measure out your day slots and an extra space to write the month on top. Use your marker to mark out your lines. Then put the frame back together. Hang and use dry erase markers and your done!

I use different color dry erase for different members of the family. Or different events we have going on. I update this every Saturday night.

I have it hanging in a central part of our home so we see it everyday.

3: Use a 12 month Calendar

I got this idea from Jordan Page at Fun Cheap or Free. She uses google calendar, however I’ve already established that doesn’t work for me. Since I’m a visual person, we opted to buy a bigger white erase 12 month calendar. We hung it up in our bedroom.

This huge visual aid has all our core things that need to be on here. All my husbands work schedule, on call and paydays. Our holidays are on this calendar and most importantly birthdays. Kids school breaks and so forth. I think you get the drift.

We seem to get caught off guard when birthdays come around or holidays sneak up and we didn’t budget. Sharing that to let you know we aren’t perfect.

Having a visual aid like this is already helping us budget and plan better. Now we can plan those “last minute” camping trips or what weekends are best to hammer out a much needed reno.

Here’s to a better planned, scheduled and organized 2020.

Hope these tips are helpful, they are for our family.

What are things you do to keep organized?

Ending 2019 on a High Note

It’s almost 2020, Here’s my last blog post for the year! Thanks for you support and have a great night!

I love writing these posts. I’m starting to enjoy this side of blogging where I can look back and see which posts were my top posts. Having an overview look at how much things have changed, mostly for the better.

How was 2019 for YOU?

This year has been intense. That’s how I can describe it. To only give a small look at the intensity it had to do with the following: 2 Family Deaths, 2 Plumbing issues, unexpected electrical inspection, Financial tests like we have never experienced and much much more.

My husband and I both lost Grandparents. Truth is both Grandparents had long lost their spouses and have suffered with physical pain and I’m thankful they are relieved of that now.

There’s no amount of pictures or special videos that you can make in today’s day to capture the last moment I had with my Grandfather and my daughter as he was in Hospice. He turned with the little strength he had left and gave his youngest family member the biggest grin and she smiled back.

What a legacy both of these people leave behind for my husband and I.

I don’t believe in coincidences, my BIGGEST blog post of the year had to do with my own personal Grief.

Read it here: Surviving my Pregnancy Loss

I guess there’s something about sharing a testimony of a difficult part of my life to give YOU who read my blog a real “Heart to Heart”.

You all LOVED it. I suppose my approach to not be a “selling” blog means something still.

This biggest thing I’ve learned from being knocked down is to just get right back up.

Remember, I said this year was intense.

I will confess I was up to 4 cups of coffee a day and pretty much consumed a full Costco bag of chocolate chips in a month this past fall. Not ashamed to share my stressful glutenous outbursts.

This all still didn’t stop me for writing and creating content for here on the blog. I had big blog posts planned relating to our house for 2019. Considering a big water leak was involved in that area of our home…that post is still yet to come.

Instead I began a journey in our home to be more “Homemade and Local”. These were some of my favorite posts to write.

Oh! I almost forgot I started adding FREE printable for you! Check out: Creating a Homemade Home to get yours. Yes, the plates are something from my Grandparents. There is something “home style” about hanging old plates.

How am I ending 2019 on a High Note. My husband and I suspected at the beginning of the year that one of us would possibly loose a grandparent. We didn’t expect us both.

Our BIG RENO project is still in “Reno mode”, and the storage room reveal needed to get re-opened again.

Here’s what I told myself…

“No matter what hurdles keep me from doing what I need to get done,

I’ll not let that slow me down”.

I had hoped 2019 was the year I launched my piano tuning business officially. N.O.P.E. But, I’m playing my nicely tuned piano again as I finally overcame all this years DRAMA FEST, which I didn’t add on my list from above.

Since November, I’m down to one cup of coffee a day (not 4). Today I’m removing sugar from my day to day food that I consume. Our boys actually passed swimming lessons recently and our youngest finally started walking last week. I actually did a workout today, been trying to fit that in also since November.

Me and 3 kids doing a workout video with Jillian Micheal is a site to see. I personally don’t post my kids for their privacy. If you have kids and have tried fitting a workout into your day and are too cheap to bother going to the gym it’s entertaining.

One last High Note (aside from a nicely tuned piano in my home), my most liked Instagram post was my wedding photo.

Wedding Sept 12 374

Love this Man and the life we have, it is worth all the storms that we face together.

If 2019 was intense for you, especially if it comes an important thing like your marriage. I don’t know your story but know this, whatever storm your facing you can overcome it.

Just like the example set before my husband and I with our grandparents and our parents, it’s not worth holding grudges or being bitter, but forgiveness and working together that counts.

Our marriage is built around our relationship with Jesus Christ. Not everyone agrees with that choice that we made. Not sure what life would look like without that important relationship that my husband and I hold with HIM.

Thanks for your support this year and taking time to read and comment on my blog.

Christmas Time Preparations

Here’s our family Christmas Preparations.

Christmas Preperations It’s been a little quiet around here on my blog, at home not so much. I think we are finally passed all the big school concerts and church events. I had to keep my blog in hobby mode and take a brief pause with all the fullness since my last blog post.

If you follow me on Instagram I shared a few updates along the way.

December is pretty much 1/2 over now. For some reason the last couple of years since my son started school and a third little bundle of joy came into our family I’m actually not overly enjoying how overwhelming this time of the year is.

I’m becoming more into the idea to keep Christmas Decorations more simple.

Each year the tree goes up later and I try to make a conscious effort to get SOME decorations up sometime before December, as my kids are begging me too.

We LOVE a REAL Christmas Tree in our house.

We are blessed to live in the Fraser Valley and there’s lots of Christmas tree farms. We finally found a good local one.

However with my husbands work schedule we stood in the dark field with 3 other families holding our cellphones up with the flashlight to cut one down this year.

We actually had to “schedule” the tree cutting or it would never have made it up this year. _A real Christmas tree is worth all the love and attention it needs_

I absolutely LOVE this tree base that was passed along to us from my husbands parents. It’s so festive and crazy heavy (FYI). We went to the “Olde Farmhouse Market” recently and I was reminded of the old metal tree stands, now they are plastic. I don’t think this cast iron one is going anywhere anytime soon.

Never too late to DIY some Christmas Decor.

Remember the DIY Christmas book wreath?

I’ve been waiting to make one, just never have the time.

My son is helping me make this one. I really doesn’t bother me if this isn’t the pinterest craze anymore. This is my 4th one to make, the other ones I gifted them away.

I’m looking forward to having something music related this time. I was singing the hymns as I recognized them and shared with my son how much things have changed with church music. Yes, I’m old enough to say I sung from the hymnals as a kid.

What about the Presents? Can’t forget about those right?

Just like the decor we have learned to keep that simple too. There once was a baby a long time ago that got 3 gifts, seems like enough for us too. Our kids know the story and so far don’t seem too upset if they didn’t got more.

We are still making time for Homemade Christmas Gifts!

I’m excited to see this rocking horse completed that my husband is making.

When our oldest was 3, we were super tight for gifts and money in general. My husband scraped together a wooden airplane. It’s been probably the MOST played with airplane in the house that’s had many repairs and is now resting with the other “need to be repaired” toys.

Homemade gifts once was all we could give.

Now, it’s something we know will be loved and appreciated.

We are on the home stretch for 2019. Also only 4 more car rides for school drop off and pick up (not that I’m counting). Best of all time with family just around the corner. I’m ready to have everyone home for a while.

We usually break out a puzzle, lots of game and family movie nights. I have Christmas baking I’m supposed to do and the kids will decorate the cookies. These are the years we can’t get back and spending time now while they are small and soaking it all up is worth all the effort that goes into December.

I know this time of the year isn’t easy for everyone and just like us there’s someone missing. Love it if this little ones big sister was in this picture with her. She’s in our hearts. I’ve learned it’s better to choose joy then let the heartbreak weigh me down. We’ve learned to know who our community is and find ways to make new memories.

How about you?

What are things you do for Christmas?

Comment Below, Love to hear from you!

Last Minute Halloween Prep

Halloween is tomorrow, need some help with getting ready.?Free Printable available for the Kids!

First I just want to share, Thanks for the feedback on my last blog post. It’s a very personal thing to share and it’s just a part of my story in my life.

Soooo It’s that time at the end of October when we Celebrate Halloween. If participating in Halloween = Has to be cheap and I have NO TIME, you found the right post.

Tomorrow is Halloween.

Have a SAFE and HAPPY HALLOWEEN I have lots of positive childhood memories of Halloween. With what it is now, it’s not the same.

I grew up in the country and wasn’t bombarded like my kids are today with the gore that is plastered everywhere today. I have lots of interesting conversations in the car while driving around with my extremely observant children.

Commercialism and the overdone haunted like houses have seriously made me not so excited about it lately.

Our family doesn’t mind participating with Halloween it’s just not something we go out of our way to spend lots of money and have LOADS of decorations and spend lots on Costumes.

Since we don’t put much emphasis on the “Holiday?”, I’m ALWAYS running on the fly and doing everything last minute.

If that’s you and your doing things last minute, then your in the right place.

Here’s the top 3 things I do to still make it somewhat special and exciting for our kids.

Buy Pumpkins

I always make sure even to have the minimum for each kid in our family. We plan to grow a small pumpkin patch this coming year, hopefully I don’t have to buy them next year.

Make SIMPLE decor

I got a FREE Halloween Printable for you! I made this and printed it for my kids. They got SO EXCITED. They were quick to decorate our front door with it. My oldest son even found a book at school and was busy making ghosts. My table was in a frenzy or paper, crayons, markers and scissors yesterday.

Costumes

Can’t participate in Halloween without these. Well, sometimes kids do. I’ve seen them. I think we all have a good story of the perfect Halloween costume.

Here’s the thing. My kids may ooh and ahh at the rack at the store with all the brand new ones. I walked right passed. I’ve only bought one costume ever. I get lots of thrift-ed or hand me downs or yup, you guessed it handmade.

Pinterest to the rescue. It’s seriously saved us so many times for quick on the fly costumes that the kids love. Even better they love to help make them.

Amazing what you can create with a permanent marker and a t-shirt.

This year we started with a homemade costumes and trying to use what we have, however $6 for 3 costumes for ALL my kids was a pretty sweet deal. We choose to go with what we found at the thrift store. Kids wanted to sleep with their costumes on tonight.

Remember I said I don’t get to excited about it. I have barely ANY pictures of the handmade costumes. The kids play with them year round and they get trashed.

It’s so rush rush with Trick or Treating and hubby coming home from work and someone has to stay home to hand out Candy, I hardly get pictures.

So, I hope this was short enough to get some quick ideas and have something for the kids to do and colour.

Was any of this helpful? Let me know. Is there something you like me to expand on for a future post about kids and Halloween?

Let me know in the comments below.

Surviving a Pregnancy Loss

I need to pause my usual content and share something deeply personal today. Out of respect, care and concern for my kids I’ve changed how I post about them. In particular not sharing their faces for their privacy.

However, this child and sharing this story I have a few photos that are more open about who my kids are.

God was about to send our family a surprise. Not one I was ever anticipating. It wasn’t a happy surprise that’s for sure.

Our little Gloria was born too soon through a second trimester miscarriage. She is loved forever and not forgotten

So what happened 5 Years ago in January 2014?

First off, we were celebrating our sons birthday. Here in this photo you can see my already growing tummy.

For 17 weeks I carried our little one. I honestly felt like I was walking on a cloud the whole time, or living an awful dream. I was working to get my “second mat leave”. I felt sick the whole time, plus had started spotting.

Just to highlight something here. This month and today specifically October 15th at 7 pm is International Wave of Light. This month is Pregnancy Loss and Infant Loss Awareness month. There seems like so many days now in our culture are raising awareness for something. Now there’s a day, that I never wanted to participate in and I now do.

I went to work after a busy weekend with my husband off for a retreat. Here’s the part that’s going to sound funny. I emailed our midwife. Yes, e-mailed. Up until this point I was always spotting. Every trip to the ER or seeing our midwife we were reassured with a heart beat.

That email sparked a quick phone call back. “Carrie, I booked you into the hospital to see radiology, you need to go now”. In my email I shared that the spotting had changed color.

At the hospital I didn’t know what to expect. But that moment will stick with me forever. As the tech put it, “Your babies body is collapsed, there’s no heartbeat, they have been gone for a while, I’ll give you a few minutes so you can call your husband”.

Just like that the next hours where grueling. I bumped into a friend in the ER line who gave me a “why are you here?”. She opened up and shared losing a baby at 5 months many years ago.

Then I had to sit through, “how to give birth to this baby whose gone”. That’s an awkward conversation to have with a Dr.

I was brought up to the maternity ward. Which I have learned is a blessing. Got a room and was induced to deliver. FYI, yes that maternity ward is a blessing but also SUCKS. Especially when the women beside me gave birth at the exact moment I did. What a contrast, one room is rejoicing and the other side of the wall has a baby that’s the size of our hands not supposed to be here yet. Grandpa Reitsema Funeral

Looking back there’s so many things that happened that I didn’t know how to deal with or handle. We said no to a photographer. I was toooo angry at God that this happened. I couldn’t even hold her.

We said no to a support worker, we said we had a church community and we will be “fine”. Our pastor who was leaving to serve another congregation and asked if we wanted a memorial and I thought that it was odd to have one and said no.

Then at my grandfathers funeral while placing a carnation with my son did I feel peace about not having our own service for her. It made me realize then that as a Christian I believe my grandfather is in heaven and had more peace that our little girl is with him.

I don’t know how different our story would be had we said yes to all those things. I do know when we got back to our everyday life, it was super hard. I couldn’t go back to work. It was unbearable. I did try after 8 weeks, only to be faced with 2 pregnant co-workers. One was due 2 weeks after me. It was brutal.

I still remember dropping my son off at daycare and the tears started and couldn’t stop. My boss took one look at me and knew I wasn’t ready to come back.

I attempted a support group and walked out super heavy hearted. It wasn’t faith based and it actually scared me if I was ever going to get over it. Let alone as an empathetic person I can put myself in their shoes and hearing their stories was heart wrenching.

My husband and I on her due date went far away in the backside of Chilliwack Lake and picked wild flowers, prayed for our family and others who have been through this. Then we released the flowers one by one off the bridge we were standing on.

Almost 9 months after our loss I did find another support group. A Faith Based Support Group. This time I didn’t say no. My husband pointed it out in church in the bulletin and recommended I reach out.

I not only attended I got involved. I had said no to all the other support but, yes to this group. I had to pray about saying yes. Not that this is a sure thing, We got pregnant a month after I stepped into ministry.

I look back after 5 years and wonder how different my life would be if I had continued saying no. I quickly got into organizing and leading this group, I knew I was heard, felt valued and accepted. God has worked and called me to something I never felt qualified for.

The amount of times I got reminders of what I was apart of has been incredible stories with too many to share in one single blog post. I’m going to put this out there. Please comment below if there’s interest in reading the FULL STORY. This has been an experience where tragedy and walking with God collide and my faith is beyond stronger for it.

If you follow my blog you know I have had 2 more children. They are my rainbow babies. I walked through my next pregnancy and completely ignored the baby. Let me be clear, getting pregnant again is not a happy answer to the grief I went through for my little girl.

Medically through many other complications I’m no longer medically able and have been instructed to no longer have children. From just this one experience I’m ok with that.

Tonight we light a candle for our Gloria Joy.

It’s been a long journey to Peace. Triggers of grief still hit like waves, but they are much smaller waves now.

I’m not sure who this post will reach? Again, I’m open to writing the full story, it might take a bit to put it all in words, but I feel I’m able and willing too.

Are you lighting a candle? Do you know about lighting one? I know I’m not alone.

Love to hear your thoughts on what I shared. Again, not my usual content, just needed to be written.

Gloria’s Mom (Carrie)

Buying Local

We are becoming a locally based home. Buying local meat, veggies/fruit I can’t grow and much more. This is only the beginning of our journey. If this sounds like something you want to follow along with go ahead and subscribe to my blog.

My husband and I have got lots of dreams for our family. If you’ve been following along you might have noticed…country living is a big dream for the future.

You do not have to live in the country to get the benefits of buying local food from the farmers.

You do not have to live in the country to get the benefits of buying local food from the farmers.

Something I’ve been growing to understand more and more is the importance of shopping/buying local food.

This all flows with creating a homemade home. It’s a lifestyle choice and it’s about living a slower life and enjoying the life we create for our family. I binge watch people that post videos about homesteading. It has a big appeal to me. Some of my friends are doing that and homeschooling their kids. I have huge respect for them.

Here’s how we buy local:

Let me start with, why we started buying local? I’ve been on a health journey since college. I learned a long time ago how to shop smarter choices at the grocery store. It wasn’t enough, it was better, not enough. Now that we are passed having our children, which took a toll on my body, I can focus on my health. Not just my health but the health of my family as well.

I’m grateful we live in the abundant Fraser Valley.

From getting the harvest out of our garden this past summer and the changes I’m about to share, my health issues have drastically reduced. I’m having less “flair ups” as I call them. I’m still following up with my family Doctor. All I’ve ever gotten in the past is “your healthy and everything is clear” on the tests I’ve had done.

It’s important to become your own health advocate and pursue a healthy life.

We started buying local meat. A good friend of mine raises animals for meat. Here’s the link to Fellings Family Farms Facebook Page. Chatting with my husband, we decided to put a deposit on ½ a pig from their farm.

I Just got a call a few weeks ago from Lepps Farm Market that the pig was ready for pick up. Pictured below is pork chops in a mushroom sauce with green beans from our garden.

We have been loving making pork chops and ground pork for tacos. We ordered lots of bacon, what a difference in taste. It wasn’t wimpy bacon, that’s for sure. We are going to stretch that bacon over the year if we can. Let’s see how long it lasts.

What a difference this has made in our family already. I’ve learned we need a bigger freezer! It filled up our freezer. We will definitely be doing this again ordering meat from a local farm.

Tip: Make sure you save up for it and have room in your freezer!

I made homemade lard for the first time. I’m having fun experimenting with it. I saw that DIY Mommy Christina Dennis made this lovely fall snicker-doodles and it called for lard. I’m all for trying new things, so I made them! Here’s how they turned out.

I had fun setting up my serving tray with the Arbonne Detox tea, fall inspired mug and plating the snicker-doodles. FYI, this tea pot is made by a local pottery maker. I understand he doesn’t sell anymore but teaches now.

I always love to support local artisans and go to markets and browse the tables.

My husband is looking forward to pulling out him smoking supplies and making snacking sticks with some of the meat.

I can’t wait to update our favorite recipes in my recipe binder with local food. Plus try new recipes in the near future. It has to be local, homemade and farm fresh!

Again, this is only the beginning of our journey.

How about you?

Do you buy local?

If you live in the Fraser Valley which farms do you buy from?

Creating a Homemade Home

This post is dedicated to all the people (mostly women) who have been a big part of my life and inspired me to want to create my future home a homemade home.

I’ve been looking forward to writing this post for a long time. Something I grew up with and that I love sharing with my family and friends is something homemade.

It takes time to create a homemade lifestyle and home.

I hope this post helps you and encourage you to create your own home with a homemade touch. Remember, trying to change just one of these things I’ve written is still working to make a change towards a homemade home.

Here’s how I work on creating a homemade home:

Baking

This one seems obvious and is at the top of my list. Food is a big part of everyone’s life. We literally can’t live without it.

When we first where married I baked bread all the time. Once kids came around I stopped for a while. I have my favorite recipes I bake all the time. The other day our son was disappointed we bought the store cheese buns and I didn’t make my cheese biscuits.

Our oldest even asked for home baking over store bought snacks for school.

I’ve learned when my mixing bowl starts getting filled, little feet come along with the step stool to help and watch make it all happen. My husband even admitted the other day, when he sees butter thawing on the counter he knows cookies are coming.

Cooking:

Cooking from scratch is a wonderful homemade touch. When we first moved into our current home 5 years ago I had an abundance of tomatoes in the greenhouse. We learned to make our own tomato sauce and I was hooked. The flavor over store bought is something I can’t describe over a blog post. You just gotta try it.

Since then we have ramped up learning how to make regular staple items we get from the store from scratch. This falls right in step with why I love gardening.

DIY:

There’s so much in our home that’s a DIY. I can only cover so much in this post or it’ll be very long. More to blog about! The first time I made my own wall decor, I loved every minute of it. Remember the pinterest craze with the scrap paper flowers? I made mine with 3 canvas and had it above our bed in our townhouse.

Here’s my most recent homemade home decor picture I made. I’ve made this as a FREE PRINTABLE. My way of saying Thank you. If you are someone like me that appreciates homemade, this would be great in your home too.

Click here for the FREE PRINTABLE

Homemade:

In my opinion homemade and the phrase do it yourself (DIY) fit together. Although an item that’s homemade is different when it comes to slippers, clothing or building wood projects for example.

There's nothing like the joy of Grandma's Homemade Slippers Anything that’s made by hand that can be bought at a store where it’s made by a machine or mass produced is a win for someone who loves things homemade.

I can always appreciate the time that goes into a homemade item. Because I know it’s made with a love and passion that that person has for making the item.

I seek out anything that’s homemade or love being gifted with homemade items. Both my mom and mother-in-law gifted our family with a lovely tablecloth and cute little slippers for our youngest. I shared this on Instagram right around Christmas time.

I love finding local people who make and create stuff. If you see me out in town, I’m often seen with a homemade purse on my shoulder. I always love expanding my homemade created items.

What about sewing, cleaning products, laundry soaps and skin care?

I find managing home life with 3 kids is a lot. Currently my sewing machine is in need of an upgrade. I do want to venture into this area aside from cooking, baking, reno’s, gardening and home decor just come super easy to me and our family.

I’m curious to expand in these areas, like cleaning products and laundry soaps. Like I shared above, it’s just TIME. I’ve been discovering there’s lots of great companies that do a good job in covering this area for a LESS toxic world and life.

If you have been following my posts for a while. You probably know I’m a consultant for a skin care line. Here’s the thing, I’ve recognized this is ONE area in my life that trying to make my own skin care is just NOT my thing. It’s a science in making your own skin care. I have a HUGE appreciation for those that do. Skin care I’ve learned is very personal. Homemade skin care I have used in the past didn’t work for me.

Instead, I’ve always just stayed loyal to using what works.

I honestly don’t feel like I’m a pro in any of these areas, just enjoy the journey of creating a lovely home for our family and an amazing time in the outdoors in my garden.

1: Research

2: Preparing the Family

3: Finding a Breeder

4: Picking a Puppy

5: Picking a Name

6: Taking her Home:

Hope sharing our experience was helpful. Do you have a dog?

Are you planning on getting one?

If you came just for the puppy spam, your welcome.

1: Get a GOOD planner:

2: DIY a Picture frame for Days of the Week:

3: Use a 12 month Calendar

Here’s to a better planned, scheduled and organized 2020.

Hope these tips are helpful, they are for our family.

What are things you do to keep organized?

Thanks for your support this year and taking time to read and comment on my blog.

Buy Pumpkins

Make SIMPLE decor

Costumes

Here’s how we buy local:

How about you?

Do you buy local?

If you live in the Fraser Valley which farms do you buy from?

Baking

Cooking:

DIY:

Homemade:

What’s something that you make that’s homemade?

Is there something that I wrote about that you want to try?

Comment below I love to hear from you.