Prairie Oak Homestead

Praising God for having His hand on this new medicine and treatment! He has ended my awful suffering! I have less pain that is functional now and feel as though a fog has been lifted. Praying it is allowed to last :)  The power was out this morning for over 4 hrs. It was storming. Most days like this with the rain would be excruciating for me. Today, just mild pain. :) I think I will mark off my raised beds and do some planting (if the rain stays gone now) :) "For the Lord your God is a merciful God..." Deuteronomy 4:31 For the record..I always knew God was a merciful God. It's just at this moment in time, I see His mercy in my life and not just others. :) Being able to function without horrible pain is such a huge blessing for me. I feel like my prayers over several years are being answered. Why now? I don't know, but I do know He does and my faith is in His wisdom.  I'm going to need that wisdom as to not overdo myself because it is so easy to

Sometimes feminine to my husband is jeans and a t-shirt. :) I haven't been able to wear jeans for MONTHS. It would hurt my legs to wear them and then there was the bone marrow edema and my knee was so swollen, it was uncomfortable to have anything touch it. My legs have atrophied so much.  The calves are tiny little sticks. Wearing jeans allows me to hide that part of my disease. :) You can still see the fatigue in my face. I'm hoping with this new treatment that will fade and I will have some more energy. I've got some livin' to do ya know! ;) Maybe by next Feminine Friday...;) Pin It

I wanted to find out more about the origins of my family, but truth be known, family isn't always blood. In fact, some of the best families are not blood related. Family is anyone who truly loves you, prays for you, encourages you, and there for you in your darkest times (even if they can only be there in spirit). Oh and I just knew I had a little Daniel Boone in me ;) (germany/netherlands is from my dad's side. All I know from my mom's side so far is Daniel Boone is in there somewhere) :) Pin It

I am so EXCITED! My doctor just called and after going through the research I took in, she has APPROVED taking LDN (low dose Naltrexone). I get to pick it up today and start it tonight. I am one happy girl right now! Thank you all for your prayers. Really. God has surely blessed me today with this news. :) Praying it is effective! I just want my pain to be less. :) Just wanted to share this great news. *doing the happy dance* Pin It

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This great post comes from See Jamie Blog. You should check out her blog...after you read this. ;)  Earlier in the year, I shared about my prayer binder . I keep lists of prayers for my children, for myself, for my husband, for friends, and so on. I found a few lists online that got me started, but I’m continually tweaking them to fit my own family more specifically. This week I rewrote my list of prayers for my husband, and I’m sharing because I thought it might be a good jumping-off place for some other wives, too. (I’ve compiled this from many different ones, and cannot remember all the sites I began with; sorry!) I feel like I have to have a disclaimer because of the topics of some of these prayers: Most of these things are not struggles for Ken, but I pray them to make sure they do not become a problem, and for encouragement in the many things he is already doing well. It’s when we think we cannot stumble that we are most vulnerable; I don’t want to

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday. She said she would look over my research and give me an answer the middle of next week...here's still hoping. In the meantime, I haven't been able to take any of my pain meds because if she prescribes this I need to have stopped taking the narcotic pain med 2 weeks prior. So I am in just a lot of pain...If she says no, then obviously I will start taking my pain meds regularly. Either way, next week sometime, my pain will either be less or starting to be. Hoping... Continue to pray... Pin It

This bracelet was made for me and I think it's so feminine. I love it. It's vintage and beautiful. The woman who made it sends 10 % of the proceeds to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America. You can check out her facebook page  here . :) Pin It

Good morning all!  Today is finally going to warm up more. I like it warm. :) I am hoping to plant this weekend. I'm ready to reap a harvest! :) Found out the other day that my husband has another opportunity to go to Haiti. Only he is going with people from another church. It's interesting how God orchestrated it. He will be going in October...and will be gone for our anniversary. :( Last year, we were both on the mission field in Venezuela on our anniversary.  Great memory.  My body won't allow me to go on the mission field right now and I'm sure when I will be able to unless it's a permanent thing.  The temporary back and forth traveling and the grueling hours is hard on this ole body. :)  I ask that you continue to pray earnestly for my doc appt on Friday. Pray she is open to prescribing the medicine I'd like to try and is for "off-label" use. I called our compounding pharmacy here in town and asked if they do it and they said yes. So

These are fantastic! I love these muffins. So easy to make and high in protein. And who doesn't love a little dark chocolate. :) Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins (grain free) 2 eggs 1/2 c greek yogurt (use cherry) 1/4 c maple syrup 1 t vanilla 2 1/2 c almond flour 1/4 t salt 1/2 t baking soda Mix wet and add to dry. Mix well with whisk or spoon. Bake for 15-18 min in 325 degree oven. Enjoy! Pin It

This post comes from  The Time Warp Wife. If you haven't visited her blog yet, you need to! She has a lot of great articles that have blessed me. I wanted to share this one because I think a lot of women can relate. :)   Desperately Wanting to Submit, but Can't Dear Darlene, I might be one of your strangest readers LOL... I don't necessarily have much of a religious background, but I FULLY believe in your views on marriage and our role as wives. The problem is... even though I believe in it... my marriage is far from it. My husband is a great man, loving, honest, hard working and kind... all of which are the reasons I married him. However... he isn't the most knowledgeable in a lot of areas such as finances, business, or even handyman skills... so I end up taking on the role of all of these. I of course have the time to do so because he has blessed me with the opportunity to stay home with our toddler... but because I am in charge of these

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The weather here is chilly again. I think we are finally getting our Spring. It got so warm so quick, now it's making up for it. We have our woodstove going again. I am SO glad we have it. I hurt so much when I'm cold and the woodstove helps me so much.  We had a couple turkeys go through our yard the other day... It's so fun to watch God's creatures around our property. :) It's a real blessing to me. Went to a funeral yesterday for one of our pastor's mom. You tend to ponder on life and death at those things. Yesterday was no different. I often wonder what people will say at my funeral. I hope to make a difference in someone's life even if I never know. God does. :) I am noticing my bird feeders need refilled. Our silly Doberman will nudge it and knock out some of the seed and eat it! Crazy dog... I would like to ask for prayer. I recently had another doctor's appt. for my RA. Come to find out my RA is doing ok right now, but my

Today,  in "Katie's Kitchen" (Catchy, eh? and only took me two years of blogging to come up with it...) we are cooking up one of our new family favorites. It is all natural, healthy and a great way to use produce from your garden. There are many variations, including mine. This one is based off a recipe found in the "Eating Well: One Pot Meals" cookbook. I added and omitted ingredients to suit our taste, including omitting the parsnips and doubling the eggs so that it would be more filling. Enjoy! Farmers Market Rice Cooking Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: 4 tsps plus 4 Tbs canola or peanut oil, divided 5 large eggs ( I use 1 turkey egg and 3 duck eggs for my version) but 5 large chicken eggs will do nicely 4 Tbs minced garlic 3/4 cup thinly sliced shallots 8-10 medium Brussel sprouts; trimmed and thinly sliced** 4 cups cold cooked brown rice (the rice must be cold or it will turn out "gummy" and the rice will be sticky. You can p

Sometimes I think that we lose sight of the respectability and the nobility of our position as a wife. We forget that it's a very important job. Adam needed a helper. It was not good for him to be alone. Our husbands also need a helper. I realize it's not popular to be a submissive wife. The world will lead us to believe that it is better to be self-serving. It is not... Serving our husband seems to have gone out of style. But, we as wives, are supposed to do just that. I think many of us have lost sight of the joy of our calling. We get bogged down with our daily duties as wives. Taking care of the children, homeschooling (if you do), dishes, laundry, cooking, taking care of our husbands needs, being cheerful, being a good steward of the money, farm work, keeping the fire going (in the woodstove ;) ), etc. These things, although mundane, must be done. If we have a servant's heart, we will see all these "mundane" things as an opportunity to bles

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Ok, my son was taking some pictures for me for my facebook page and blog. I had finished my Easter dress and wanted to share the completed project to my  facebook readers. While getting the pictures, there were some goofy ones in there that he suggested I share...so here goes. LOL  I have no idea what I was doing haha.  How it was supposed to look. Ok...this one, I just had a HUGE bumble bee fly by me LOL My son was cracking up at this one!  What it was supposed to look like with no scary bees! :)  I think I was trying to get situated LOL How it was supposed to look. This is the Easter dress I made. I will be wearing it to service tonight as we have an Easter service tonight and also tomorrow. We chose to go tonight so we can rest and enjoy our Sunday together maybe with a picnic (weather pending) :) I love to sew, but it sure wears me out a lot now days. With all my illnesses it can be difficult. But, I have learned to s

And.... One with me and my new glasses. They glare a lot so I don't wear them in pics. My son calls them my nerdy glasses lol...touche.  Stay tuned tomorrow for even goofier pictures! Pin It

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Found some great material at an Amish community store. I love their fabric stores. Such nice things to chose from. I will be working on this sometime soon. We took our son, Hunter, to the new high school he will be attending next year. He tested high enough to be enrolled in Honors Algebra, Honors English, World Geography, Biology, Spanish, a couple technology/computer classes, Health/PE, and can you believe drivers ed already??? Crazy. I'm still getting used to him turning 15 at the end of the summer...And I can't believe this is my last year homeschooling him. We have homeschooled him for 9 yrs (well really his whole life) ;) Of course we will continue teaching him life lessons every day. :) My husband got most of our garden boxes filled last weekend. I will be planting potatoes this week along with a medicinal herb garden. I'm so glad he helped fill those boxes as I was/am pretty weak. I know once the crops come in that I will be ok to harvest and can, but t

This recipe comes from Six in the Suburbs blog . Super cute. :) These cookies are almost too cute to eat....but they are simple and quick to make, so you can make a few dozen! (photo source ) You'll Need: Sugar cookie dough (pre-made is fine) Egg shaped cookie cutter (or make-shift small flat ovals with hands and sharp knife) Good n' Plenties (or pink lemonade Mike n' Ikes) White icing/glaze (simple whisk 2 tsp water and 1 cup of confectioner's sugar) Tube of white frosting for a plump firm tail White sugar crystals (regular sugar is OK too) Small tube of black icing (the one with small fine pointed tip) Directions: Roll out cookie dough Press cookie cutter into dough to create oval shapes Arrange on greased cookie sheet Bake for 7 minutes at 350 (watch to see if they begin to get golden brown at 6 mins) When warm, add icing to top with teaspoon, spreading evenly Press two pink Good n' Plenties onto "head" of bunny for ears (in

A very sweet blogging friend, Darlene Schacht of  Time-Warp Wife and New York Time best selling author, asked if I would write a review for her book "The Good Wife's Guide". I of course agreed! :)  The book's title alone had me sold. Those of you that know me, know that I have a strong desire to be the helpmeet God created me to be. When I saw the words "Enhancing Your Role as a Helpmeet" under the title, I knew I had to read it. I am not the most eloquent blogger or speaker or adviser or...so bear with me. I'm just gonna tell you what I thought. ;) I loved it. I really did. I have read several similar books, but this one was such an easy read and so applicable. It's real and honest.  She helps us be more responsible wives and keepers at home. She talks about the roles we have been created for as wives. She lets us know that we are not perfect, but we serve a perfect God who guides us in being a helpmeet and keeper at home.