Hello from the author

As a former mormon, if there was honestly one thing I took away from the church, its that we should always be prepared for the unknown. Growing up in the church i honestly hated going. Honestly cant really say what I took away from the church, but i do know that we should prepare for hard times for our families. Growing up i always had a fondness for old skills and trades, ya know like knitting, hand sewing, homecooking. Just the typical. But when i got married I took it up a knotch. With my parents, who taught me how to knit and handsew, we taught ourselves how to can foods, and preserve by dehydrating.

We spent many days teaching ourselves how to make jam, can meats, dehydrate fruits and veggies, and raise chickens. Have you ever had a true farm fresh egg? If so, then you know just how delicious they really are compared to store bought "organic eggs" -- which is a load of balogna if you ask me.

But there are other ways that I have taken up to help my family other than the traditional house wife style of homemaking and such. If you knew me in person, you would know that I like a good hustle. When I got engaged I thought to save money I would make my own jewelry for the wedding. And i really enjoyed it and was good at it, that i started to make it to sell. After a while i started to dabble in other things to help bring in some income. I made soaps, salves, and shave bars all with clean ingredients, took on commisions for misc things like sewing, and then i ventured into the bigger things when the pandemic happened. I bought myself a silhouette cutting machine, vinyl, and all the trimmings needed to do vinyl work.

i still do all those things but i also do other things like getting paid to do surveys, watch videos, couponing, and even playing games to earn gas money. Best part about it, i do all the research and the trials and errors to make sure i find all the good, reliable websites and apps so you dont have to go through the headache. Believe me, it can be a real headache.

I can tell you where to get all the greatest deals on supplies for my fellow crafters, how to coupon wisely using store apps, which survey sites are worth it if you put forth the time and effort.
Learn with me as i make the effort to homestead on 2 acres, with 3 kids and if we were allowed animals we would have them all. Ill take you on my journey of canning, dehydrating, recipes, sewing, and more. Just follow along as i take you with my on this homesteading hustle and bustle of a lifestyle i attempt to pull off. We can learn together.

--Mom Lawrence

October 2014 Massac

this year I was dumb enough to not get any photos of Massac. was too busy hanging out with my best friend who was able to come down for the event from Springfield Mo. its been so long since we last saw each other and since she and her family were able to do an event.

they came down for our wedding in may of last year but since then its just been Jessica and her boyfriend josh that have come down to events.

I'm so happy that she's able to come to events again. its been too long.

Miss Eileen the wonderful Massac photographer was able to get some amazing photos and add them to Facebook for the world to see.

Massac album 1
Massac album 2
Massac album 3
Massac album 4

this year, since I started reading and watching the series outlander I wanted to get more Scottish with my persona since we are a Scottish unit. and also have Scottish royal background. I wore a historical piece called an Arisaid. would like to find a piece of our clan Duncan tartan somewhere so that I can accurately portray a Scottish lass.

Summer Vacation 2014

Utah Vacation photos

the week before and of July 4th if that makes sense we took a family vacation to Utah to visit the Utah schmids. doesn’t that sound like a mouth full. it was a fun filled week. full of a bunch of ups and downs.

We all piled into the truck looking like the Beverly hillbillies. complete with Bobbi Jean in her dog house in the back of the truck in her own little cubby hole.

we drove straight through, taking turns sleeping and driving. drove through Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and down into Utah.

Once we arrived our schedule consisted of :
saturday - relaxing and sleeping
Sunday - Hill air force base air show
Monday - Cemetery Point beach
Tuesday - ATVing in Farmington canyon
wednesday - memory grove/ temple square/ dinner at "the pie" underground pizza place
Thursday - relaxing with the family
Friday - colonial days
Saturday - colonial days
Sunday - trip home

like I said seriously PACKED full of activities. all of us kids spent most of the free time at home playing endless games of farkle. some games we totally just kept going instead of stopping at 10,000.

and ofcourse theres no real vacation unless someone ends up at the hospital. poor grandpa the first day he was there he was in the hospital and on pain killers the rest of vacation.

friday and saturday, since it was Utah and no one does anything on sundays unless its church, the Dulaneys participated in a Colonial Days put on by a few close friends and families. it was wonderful and very well put on. very family oriented and hands on. more events need to be that way.

a lot of site seeing and family days. was a nice vacation.

Utah Family Vacation 2014 photos

a quest to fill life

Every month so far this year has really flown by, and every month has been filled…Whether it be fun or filled with numerous hospital visits, every bit has been filled. February started us off in the hospital for my father in law. Lasted from February into April at least and then off and on all throughout the summer with follow ups and new appointments for numerous complications.

June and July were a bit of a vacation outside of the hospitals and playing house. Got to spend a week in saint Charles. and then a couple weeks later got to spend a week in Utah with all the Schmids.

August I don’t really remember. September Cole set up a date for his own surgery, his very first. Spent the whole month worrying about how we were going to make it through while he was out of work for 3 months. He spent time battling the H.R. rep at work, who hates him because he's mean and doesn’t swoon over all the girls at work.

All of October was a count down month for the both of us.Making sure that the house was clean and sterile. I had a closing of the shop because its been a horrible year. Nothing sold all year but the small few very scattered earring sales. Its been hard to please people with the things that I liked making. It wasn’t until I put everything at 1/2 off that one person bought something.

My favorite returning customer. After the shop closed it was kind of a blessing. Its been 4 long, struggling years of making beautiful jewelry. Sure some have been ugly or poorly made, but I have truly come a long way, and I'm happy I'm working with my best friend.

Now that the shop has closed, we are able to work on many new and wonderful pieces. we both have come a long way and our creations are looking better and better each time.

November rolled around, Coles day for surgery came. Headed to the hospital at 630 am. He was in surgery at 8 am.They cut his Achilles tendon, sanded down the built up calcium on his heel, and then screwed his tendon to his heel to heal. He is loving the vacation away from work.

First week after the surgery he had a follow up. Everything looked wonderful, he could feel the healing happening.At week 2 he was fitted for a boot. Was painful to put that on and start to walk slightly. At week 3 he got his stitches out. He says it feels wonderful because there is nothing pulling on the scabs. So stretching and walking in a boot and just relaxing. He is healing wonderfully. Adores the fact that he can catch up on sleep, sleep as late as he wants, and plays games all day in his recliner with his new gaming set up.

Its been hard honestly the first week that he was home. wasn’t used to him being so needy. but its really been wonderful. I love him being home. its nice to wake up and him still be in bed next to me. ill be sad when he goes back to work in January.

I really do need to keep up on this whole blogging thing. its becoming harder to remember some things and when they happened.

wacky Wednesday flashback

well here it is. i was one of the few to be lucky enough to spend my last night as being single with some awesome people. My mom, my friend Shanen and her mom, Jessica, Randi, Erin, and Sam where all able to join me in my night of some super odd and funny things.

probably the first time my mom has ever seen me drunk, but it was still fun.

we played games, got gift bags, had a scratch off. and even had my own personal bartender.

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there was some dare or dare, some singing, some horrible horrible dancing done by me. and some drunk acting. also done by me.

we all did shots, had cups full of random drinks that were either WAY strong or really yummy. but it was the fun part of the night.

after the party me, randi, shanen and her mom headed back to the hotel. Jessica came along for a shower. we all got sonic at like 3 am.

drove around metropolis looking for fast food that wasnt sonic.

not even sure what time we passed out but the nest day thank god the wedding was in the evening or im sure my bridesmaids and i would have been not so glamorous.

June Rendezvous

every year in June is the annual June rendezvous at Fort De Chartres. Its usually a super hot weekend. but the last few years we have gone haven't been all that bad. if you can get passed a few tornadoes, some extreme rain, and sometimes sideways wind.

 

yes we actually had a tornado touch town not to far from the fort.

i don't think the sirens went off, maybe they did. but no one really did anything but watch it. thankfully there wasn't any damage done.

but its kind of cool that we were all so close and unaffected.

Friday night i had a few drinks, got kind of tipsy, but sobered up pretty quickly.

i got to hang out with these lovely ladies, who yes know how to have a wonderful time! we walked around to a few different tents near our camp. taste tested a few different things and then walked around the fort for a bit.

during the day on Saturday it was pretty chill and relaxing. our unit just hung out under the fly and chatted, made jokes, told stories.

all of us Dulaneys piled into the marquees for the weekend

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we had a few visitors, some friends from the camp behind us, Sam came down Saturday for the day. Jessica's boyfriend Josh got to spend his first weekend at this event. He really did like it and said he'd like to join up. last i heard they were gathering supplies to make their own garb and get themselves set up for coming to more events.

spent the day catching up and hanging out with “Daniel Day Lewis”

got our picture taken for the news paper article for the event.
Sam came around later that day and we all got together. we headed up to town in the pouring rain, got stuck behind the line waiting for the parade to pass, had some spooky things happen with the weather. we stocked up on booze and snacks for the night.

what a crazy crazy Saturday night. cant exactly explain everything that happened. though i was very drunk, i still remember everything that happened.

eventually we made our way to the grog party, which really turned out to now be much of a grog party. to be honest we probably got there on the downside when people were leaving.

Sunday was full of hangovers and uber relaxing.

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we had some run ins with some pretty darn scary characters.

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this kid walked around entirely in character. he pretended to be invisible when his hood was up and he had his weapons to fit in. he was a bit weird.

then there were these people. there were many more of them. and they even had their own little battle thing going on showing kids how to smack each other with foam swords.

there was one guy they called “thor” because he dragged…yes… dragged around a LARGE “period” hammer.
just before we started to tear things down the clowns came around

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doesn't matter just how long we have been apart or if we ever talk, we pick things up like it was yesterday and keep going.

Jessica even started a book club with a few of us ladies in the unit. we have started on Game of Thrones since its been a big part of our lives (tv wise)

my lovely hubby got me the box set one day while we went shopping. completely random…but i was happy.

1 year married

this is pretty darn late already in the year. but i have been without a computer for quite some time.

we got married last year on May 11. so this year for our one year, my ever so romantic husband took me and our 2 dogs to where we had our first date. Belle Smith Springs, just a part of the Shawnee National Forest. We walked the same trail we walked on. the girls got to play in the rock shoot puddles.

we walked past all the spots we stopped, kissed where we first kissed, and let the girls play in the creek where we took our first swim break. it was such a wonderful trip. i wish i could have gotten more photos, but trying to keep up and walk a dog i didnt have much chance to do photos.

it didnt take too long before the girls were dragging behind. our walk to the call was the longest part of the trip for the girls especially. as soon as we got into the car both the girls were passed out in the back seat.

at one point on the ride home, Ru was so tired she fell into the floor and slept in the floor on the way home.

happy early birthday

to my sweetest Ru-bug you are almost a year old. its been a wonderful year to watch your grow and play and learn many new things.

ha! yes this is my dog. shes my baby. we got you before our wedding and you are our little furry girl.

Ru Bug VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Ru’s first winter Dec 5 2013

last year was just full of snow and ice and horrible storms. such a cold year! our first snow of the year it snowed us in about a foot and a half almost. We were the last roads to get plowed, which makes it hard for Cole to get to work.

We got Ru earlier in the year after the snow of the previous winter, so she hadn't seen snow before. she was actually scared of it. She just spent most of the time standing at the top of the steps.

I had to sweep the steps off before she would even attempt to walk down the steps. it took her till dad got home to really get out there and play in it with angel.

now she loves the snow and every time it snows she wants to get out there and play every chance she gets. digging. running. playing.

4 wheelin and mudding

about a week ago me and the hubby went 4 wheeling with some friends of ours. My friend from work and her hubby.

We met up in Creal Springs at my friends family members house, unloaded the 4 wheelers, and set out into the woods. We met up with a few of their friends and parked ourselves at their camp 2 miles into the woods. there a few more of their friends started showing up and before we knew it there was about 15 people riding around in the woods with us.

this was the 2nd time I had ever been on a 4 wheeler..but the 1st time out on trails. Cole had rode before but about 15 years ago, so our friends went easy on us and took us on a cruise than go crazy like the others.

we got stuck in the mud not to far into the woods. my friend tina had to rock her wheeler out. and from there on it was easy riding.

we met everyone up at one point in the middle of what they call “the playground” at this point in the ride there wasn’t much mud to get caught in so we look pretty clean.

after this little rest we got to going. and that’s where the mud started to fly. 8-10 miles of trail. from 4 in the afternoon to about 9 at night we were out riding.

we had a really good time. when we got back to the cars, loaded the wheelers onto the trailer and I got into the light I could see I had thigh high mud on my pants.

tried to get a picture with the phone before we stripped down but the darn thing died and I was exhausted.

definitely something we both wanna do again and again and hopefully get the chance to camp out.

thanks Tina and JW Lott for the fun time!