Winter...

Winter was reluctant to show up in Ohio this year.

The view out of our front door.

Not that I am complaining,
 I'm a warm weather girl.
Winter could stay away until Spring for all I care.
However, if Winter didn't come.... we would miss the absolute best part about this Tiny house of ours.

Our Tiny House Is A Winter House!

The entire time we were tearing down and rebuilding this house we would talk about how wonderful it was going to be on a cold winter day when the snow was flying. We would be all snug in the house not noticing the cold, spending time together, drinking coffee and and watching the snow fly..with a pot of chili on for later in the evening.

 It is just, at its BEST in the Winter.

 It is so warm and cozy in here when the snow is flying outside.
The Winter months are also the cheapest months on our budget, especially the electric...Strange but true. :) We contribute it to the triple insulation, design/layout of the rooms and the super efficient furnace we installed.  
*We put a lot of thought and planning into every aspect of the house, to keep our over all living expenses low and to maximize on every bit of space.

Well, TODAY is the first real Winter day since the house has gotten relatively close to being finished.
The wind is blowing, there is a serious bite to the air and the snow is flying. We are only expecting about an inch...but that's ok.
We are all warm and snug....

See our unfinished dining room walls. Thankfully the dining room is one of the  next rooms to be finished. 

 Including the dog. :)

 The baby is enjoying her Christmas present. (The one I just now got around to putting together for her.)

That is my new 12qt stock pot. It holds so much!

 There are beans on to soak for chili this evening. (I just recently started to make my beans, instead of buying them, for recipes. A post is coming for that shortly.)

 There is coffee and chatting..while the wind blows...and you can't tell because this house is so warm and snug.
*Any other house we lived in, you could tell when it was really cold outside. The house just had a different feel. This house is very different. We planned it that way. No Winter chill is getting into this place. :)

The girls love their new room. It is designed in true tiny house fashion...Lots of storage built in!

And everyone is enjoying their space..in our tiny house.
*The girls room was finished just this week...a post is coming for that as well! Hmm...clearly I have a lot of blogging to do in the very near future. I had better get on it. 


Happy Winter Sunday, from our house to yours!

~Lyndsay

Paleo Cabbage Soup Recipe

 My cousin told me about this recipe.
 In fact she told me about it for over a year before I actually tried it. Because, honestly, just hearing about it over the phone, it didn't sound that great. lol

 I finally agreed to at least just make it to try once.

 I have to admit the first time I made it I was a bit skeptical. Once you put everything in the pot it doesn't look that appetizing. Then it all cooks down.
 The recipe itself is not difficult and the ingredients don't sound all that great together...
But...
Something magical happens once it all cooks down and the cabbage absorbs all the flavors. 
It's absolutely delicious!


This has quickly become a family favorite. Especially with the kids...but what can you expect from kids who eat Brussels Sprouts like they are candy? Addison (5) frequently asks when we are having this soup again...and she is the picky one.
The best thing about this soup..besides the fact that it is delicious, nutritious and fast (about an hour start to finish)..is the fact that is makes a LOT of soup!
  We can eat it for dinner one night, Dustin can take it to work for lunch and the kids and I can eat it two days for lunch. It fills my 12 Quart stock pan almost completely to the brim before it cooks down. Normally, after we have multiple bowls of this for dinner, it is not uncommon to have a gallon of soup for leftovers.

We are not a 'Paleo' family, but I never shy away from a nutritious meal..and Paleo is the place to find a lot of really nutritious, filling meals for my, ever hungry, house full of kids. :)

Paleo Cabbage Soup

Ingredients
1 lb Ground Sausage
1 lb Ground beef
1 Onion chopped
1 heaping TBSP Garlic (minced)
4  15oz cans, Diced Tomatoes (Or two of the big beef steak tomatoes, if you prefer to avoid canned items)
2 1/2-3 cups Carrots(sliced)
2 1/2-3 cups Celery(sliced)
2 cartons Beef Broth
1 medium Green Cabbage (chopped)
1 small Red Cabbage (chopped)

To Prepare

-Brown ground beef and sausage in a skillet, drain.

-While the beef and sausage are browning..chop and slice the onion, carrots, celery and both cabbages. Put all of it into a LARGE stock pot.

-Add the garlic, tomatoes and beef broth to the pot.

-Add the browned meat to the pot as well.

-Bring to a boil, turn heat to medium high and simmer. Let it cook down, stirring frequently, until the carrots and cabbage are cooked through.

Season the soup with pepper and season all salt (Or regular salt)

*We typically serve this with oyster crackers or crescent rolls.

Now that Winter seems to have finally arrived in Ohio, we will be having this in the meal rotation frequently.
One of the reasons I was reluctant to try this recipe, was the cost. It is around $20 to make this soup. However,  we eat on it multiple times..and the nutritional value is fairly high...I feel it is worth the $20.

Enjoy!

~Lyndsay
 THHM

Merry Christmas!!!

~Anna~

 See this beautiful little girl?
 Her name is Anna, and she is 14 weeks old. She is the fourth little blessing to be born into our own little crazy part of the world. :) This little one has taught me so much..well, truthfully, they each have taught me a lot.
But, Anna, she changed me in more ways than one. She was  my first 100% non medicated delivery. She was also my fastest delivery. (3cm-holding her in 26 minutes flat. Pit induced contractions, after my water broke at 38+1, and was born in 3 pushes. The Dr walked up just in time to literally catch her.)
She is also my first bottle fed baby. Due to circumstances beyond my control, she ended up on formula. She is thriving and doing well..so I have let it go and given it to God. I am normally an AVID breast feeding mother..I loved nursing my babies. But, it truly just sometimes doesn't work out. So I let it go...and have just focused on enjoying this happy ray of sunshine that has been placed into our family.

 Anna is such a sweet little thing. She is so calm, and laid back. She has been since the day she was born. She typically sleeps through the night, is always smiling at us and only cries when she is hungry. Also, the Christmas tree is her best friend, she will talk to it for half an hour! Such a precious thing. She is such a snuggler, I'm eating it up!
It is also so fun to watch her relationships that she has developed with her brother and sisters.
She is rotten with her brother, Alex,(he claims her his little buddy in training).
She treats her oldest sister, Emma, like her second Mother(which fits perfectly with that child's love of mothering).
Her older sister (Addison, age 5) only has to glance at her and you can see the excitement in her eyes. Anna just knows that she and Addison will be forever the adventurous duo. Partners in crime. 

 She is never at a loss for arms to hold her. She is a snuggler and also knows that the moment she makes a peep she will have at least 3 faces awaiting to tend to her every whim.

 She thinks her Daddy is the best thing ever invented...and saves her best smiles for him. The moment he walks in the door, her head is craning to the sound of his voice. According to Anna, Daddy hung the moon and stars and makes them glow at night. He also chose her name...

But she knows the best hugs come from Mama. She is my moment of calm in this whirlwind of activity we call our daily lives. She is my reminder to soak it up, because they aren't little for long.(She also knows Mommy is busy, and will sometimes hang onto my shirt for dear life in order to not be put down) She has learned quickly to call out "Ma" when the rest of the world is just too much. We sneak away to our recliner and rock the troubles of the world away.
She is precious, she is sweet, she is the girl with the kissable cheeks...she is Anna. <3

Speaking of, I hear her calling 'Ma' from the living room right now. Time to rescue her from the big kids and all their crazy.

Until next time...
~Lyndsay, Tiny house Mom.

Bacon and Brussels Sprouts

I grew up eating the occasional Brussels Sprouts...they were normally boiled, mushy, bland and seriously gross. 
This past Winter I set out on a mission to add in some veggies to our lives that we didn't normally eat. It is a new day and age and you can find a recipe to make almost any vegetable taste good.
When I came across this recipe I knew it would be a winner. I mean, seriously, bacon makes everything better! When I fix this recipe I get the big 2lb bag of fresh Brussels Sprouts at Sam's Club and there are zero leftovers! The entire family always goes back for seconds, and the kids eat them up like candy. I usually serve them with a chicken as a main dish.
So much better than the sad version of Sprouts from my childhood.

~Bacon and Brussels Sprouts~

Ingredients

6-8 slices thick cut Bacon
2 lbs of fresh Brussels Sprouts (I normally get them as Sam's club because they have them fresh all year long. If they are in season and on sale, I will but them else where.)
Olive oil
Garlic (1-2 Cloves crushed, I use the jar version..and one heaping table spoon.)
Salt and Pepper to taste

First, pan fry the bacon until well done. Drain the bacon and chop. Set a side. Save the grease, you are going to cook the Sprouts in it. That is what makes them so wonderful.
While the bacon is cooking, prep the Sprouts. Wash, cut off the stem and cut in half.

 When the bacon is done, turn up the heat to medium high. Add the garlic and let it brown slightly. Then toss in the Sprouts and let them cook. Keep them moving and browning. The olive oil is only needed if the bacon grease is not enough to keep the bottom of the pan moist. Sometimes I need it, sometimes I don't.

 Keep cooking until they look like this. They will be soft on the outside but firm on the inside..not crunchy..just firm. Add the chopped bacon back in, salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.

 I highly suggest putting a lid on this until the rest of dinner is ready...I have to do this in my house..or there won't be any left by the time dinner is done. My kids sneak in and steal them constantly.
I usually pair this with a healthy oven "fried" chicken and a baked potato.

Enjoy!

~Tiny House Mom

10 Months

I'm sitting here trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we have been living in our tiny cottage for 10 months. It has went so quickly!
So much has changed in that time. When we moved in we were living in the utility room, with a partially finished bathroom and kitchen. Only about 1/4 of the house was insulated and there was zero siding on the outside. It was an interesting time in our lives. We were cramped but organized and we made due.
Now...our lives look much different.
The utility room is now actually a utility room. The bathroom is so close to being finished (Post on that to come. It looks awesome btw). The dining room is functional, the living room is 100% finished...as well as one bedroom upstairs. (minus carpeting...that will happen all at once upstairs) We have central air(Praise Jesus~this pregnant lady needed it), siding, real furniture in the living room, a back door and a screen door on the front entry. Life is so different.
We have, what might appear to some, a long way to go. But, for us...it feels like the home stretch.
My plan is to start blogging regularly, about our progress on the house. I plan to go room by room as we finish and explain why we did what we did in each room. I will also be posting about our homeschool, children, new baby, debt free living, budgeting and life in general. Including pictures. I mean seriously, who wants to read a blog without pictures...especially a blog about living in a tiny cottage. Everyone wants to see pictures of that!
Sincerely,
Tiny House Mom

New Beginnings and Blessings

Shortly after the move to our tiny house in the Fall, I started to get sick. I had no clue what was wrong and ended up at the Dr. Office in tears from the pain. At first he was concerned it could be ovarian or uterine cancer. Tests ruled that out and I was given a handful of medicines to try to straighten things out. I was quite the mess for about 5 weeks. We finally discovered what the issue was shortly after Thanksgiving. I had a copper IUD and it had been shifting and moving around. It had poked my uterine lining and had caused an infection as well as thrown my hormones into quite the tizzy.
In the midst of all of this the Lord was also working on me. See...a few years ago we had decided that I shouldn't have any more children...even though it pained my heart to make that decision at the time. I was so sick during and after our youngest that I was terrified to be pregnant again. But somewhere in my fear I had developed a negative attitude toward having more children. Which is what I never intended to happen. I love all children and think every one is a blessing no matter the circumstance. I had hardened my heart toward more children. The Lord took the time while I was sick to show me and I had to really work to over come that feeling and the fear.
I had toted that I had worked too hard to get healthy to throw it all away. That, another would be a lot of work because we just got all the kids old enough to have fun with them. I had used all the excuses. The ones that I used to be pained to hear from others had become my mantra.
Once the Lord opened my eyes to how I had become it took me a couple weeks to come around. I was painful. But I realized that my health and safety isn't made by how well I eat or how many miles I walk...Sure it helps...but my health and safety comes from the Lord and if He wants me to be sick..I will be sick no matter if I am pregnant or not.
I had my IUD removed shortly after Christmas and refuse to ever go near one again. That thing did a number on me to the point I was concerned I would need treatment to heal the wounds.
Well low and behold shortly into the New Year we found out we are expecting our fourth child. We were both taken by surprise at first and frankly it took a while to wrap our minds around it.
I am almost 13 weeks now. The morning sickness was definitely not fun, but has lessened. I am thankful for this chance to have a baby again, although I am still a bit overwhelmed.
We got rid of everything baby when we moved. I know we will be provided for and everything will fall into place. I just have to trust in the Lord and remain calm.
Everyone is surprised when I tell them we are expecting again. They keep saying, 'but you said you were done' I have been replying...'I know, but God had other plans and who am I to question it.'

Blessings,
Lyndsay