Here it begins

I am a hippie at heart, the view of a cabin in the woods, or a farm backed by mountains makes me long to live on the land. I am also a realist, I have a family and we have jobs, so we work within what we have. I am a mother to three beautiful children. Haven my oldest is a free spirit yet occasionally suffers from an attitude akin to that of a girl who was just stood up at prom. She is now seven and in second grade. Haven suffers from food allergies, along with a few other health issues that we are trudging our way through and is often the inspiration for the changes that are made in our lives. While she can make me crazy, I love her madly and think she might just change the world. Brittan is five and a quiet, thoughtful soul everywhere but at home. Here she is loud, demanding and animated, and has taken the role of middle child seriously. She is a deep and insightful child, and hearing her thoughts on the world could make you laugh or cry. We have seen Brittan come out of her shell in the last year, and her sweet smile makes any day better. Grayson is now three and a character. He is a funny little man, all boy in nature, but often caught wearing his sisters flip flops or a silly hat. He is a smiley boy, full of stories and sounds and crazy, leaping movements, and my life would be incomplete without him.

My career world involves teaching; I am a Full Professor at an online college and an Adjunct at an on ground university. I love what I do, and it allows me to have time with my family and still earn a living. My husband works in IT, and he works the night shift, but only four days a week. As much as I hate his schedule, it has been good to us, and gives us a unique opportunity to balance our lives as spouses and parents.

I believe very strongly in taking care of my family. Many posts here will discuss cooking, and how I obtain and store our food products. I am on a path to moving towards living locally, buying as much as I can from our local farmers and growing what I can here at home. I believe in knowing where our food comes from, and minimalizing the preservatives, hormones and antibiotics that enter our systems through our foods. I am in the process of locating locally raised beef, chicken and pork that I can purchase and freeze for the family. I am also joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group for next spring that will get us fresh organic produce from local farmers. We already stockpile berries and apples when in season, and I am expanding our own garden next year to help support our freezer stores through the winter. Lastly, I am researching chickens and plan to raise them for eggs beginning in the spring.