Eternal Hippies A Year Homemade and Beyond

Joe and I have a blended family. I have 3 boys and 1 girl and he has 2 boys and 1 girl. I have watched his girl, we'll call her Catherine, cause that's her name, grow up. When she was in middle school, it was the trend to call everything random.  I got so tired of her using that word that I decided to change it to marshmallow. Why, because it's a marshmallow world we live in..(it's from a Christmas song) With that in mind, I am posting Marshmallow pictures from my phone.  I was watching chicken videos and notice the KFC commercial next to it.LOL  Leftover roses from a function at work.  Because Myrtle Beach.  Creepy bear humping child as angel looks away. What is on the bear's mouth? And why would ANYONE make this? We saw it at a thrift store.  Flowers given to me for administrative professional day. Good thing I'm not allergic. Of wait, I am. Why not a gift card or just a card? I had to put them far away from me.  So, ...

I have been taking supplements containing CBD or Cannabidiols for the last 4 months and I thought I would do a brief summery. First off, CBD made from hemp is legal in all 50 states. It is extracted from the hemp flower and is known to help with all sorts of human conditions. I started taking it for the arthritis in my knees. I have found that has helped with other aspects of my life. The form I started taking it was a liquid that I put under my tongue. I have taken it in several doses as I worked to discover what my body needs. There is no exact amount to take as each person's body has different needs for CBD. Our bodies have CBD receptors and we even make our own form. But many factors in our walk through life cause our bodies to need extra. Age, weight, disease all come into play.  there are also many ways to get CBD into our systems. I have tried the oil, the cream (worked wonders on my knees,) the joint that is made from the hemp flowers and edible gummies. ...

If you hadn't noticed, I am an older woman. In fact, I am over 45....okay, over 50, not by much. But that's all I'm admitting to. Well, that and I am in the throws of perimenopause. Part of that wonderful crap-fest that is womanhood. The curse continues, and it's pissed ! For the past few weeks I have been suffering from very low progesterone levels, causing great discomfort and the expense of heavy flow menstrual pads. The worst started over a week ago after we returned from a trip to Gastonia. So I have been doing A LOT of reading on this stage of my life and WTF I am supposed to do to survive. There has been terms thrown around that sound more like symptoms of a terminal disease than a normal process of life. But the worst of these is, wait for it.....FLOODING. And it is as bad as it sounds. And for 4 days last week I experienced it. I really don't want to go into details, but it has left me weak, lightheaded and fatigued. I had to call out of work on the ...

Over the years we have acquired many, many, small kitchen appliances. And by many, I mean we could almost open a small restaurant. Most bought at thrift stores. Living in an area where rich people like to have second homes, the thrift stores here are treasure troves of last year's out of fashion stuff. Our latest appliance is an immersion blender stick. Still in the box, all packaged, never used. There has numerous items like that. If only we could get ourselves out of bed earlier, I'm sure we could find even more. I say this not to brag about the amount of kitchen appliances (and gadgets) we have, but to explain why we need a bigger kitchen. I have chosen each appliance for certain reasons. They have to have at least 3 ways to use them and they have to make being organic easier. What? How can an appliance make it easier to be organic? Two Examples: Kitchen-Aid professional food processor. We got that, with all attachments, for only $30 at the thrift store. 1-make our ...

We looked at a property yesterday and immediately fell in "like" with it. There were so many positives about the place and so few negatives that we decided to put in an offer. I was already imaging our life in this house and loved how close it was to both Joe's work, my adult child's place and where my mom lives. It had enough land to do some real gardening, but the house wasn't too big. It was JUST RIGHT! But our pre-approval letter had expired and our new pre-approval is now $5,000 dollars less. I don't know why. We pay our bills on time and we have been jumping through ALL of the hoops that the mortgage company demanded. I'll deal with all that later. Right now I'm about in tears over the frustration I am experiencing. We have wanted to buy a piece of property for years, but kept putting it off. Now the market is so limited I don't see how we can get any property worth living in. It feels like our dreams are so out of reach. So what do we ...

May has started. Obviously... but I am disappointed at my lack of progress in the areas of my life I want to change. My weight is the same and things are just not moving as I had hoped. On a positive note, I have been making our own meals, with Joe helping me. And the CBD products I have been using has helped with my knee pain. But I still haven't recorded me making my shampoo, and I've really wanted to do that. That big project has halted. I might as well tell you what the project is. We are trying to find and purchase a piece of property large enough (between 1-10 acres) to raise small livestock, to have a raised bed garden, to live as much outside as possible. When we are inside too much we turn lethargic and dulled by life's seriousness. I even want to cook as much outside as I can. That's part of why we love camping. As much as we love it, no amount of camping will change the fact that when we get home, it's the same small, cramped single-wide trailer we rent...

Yesterday, Joe and I took my youngest son, Patrick and his girlfriend strawberry picking at Indigo Farms. Indigo Farms is a family farm that straddles the North Carolina and South Carolina border. We didn't get there until afternoon, so the field was kind of picked over. But we still came home with a lot of strawberries. After settling up with Patrick (we paid them with strawberries) we still had two big bowls full. Joe capped and cut up one bowl and we froze them. We will most likely use the frozen strawberries for smoothies. The other bowl we put in the fridge. I had made some pound cakes in small loaf pans awhile back and froze them. Joe wants to pull out one of the cakes and make whipped cream to add to the fresh strawberries, for our dessert this evening. I will also be dehydrating some, making preserves and baking with some. We will be going back for more strawberries this weekend. Their market should be open as well. I need to get cucumbers...