Home at last!

For years now I dreamt of moving back home to Arkansas and not only starting life over but living my remaining days in a place so full of greenery and nature and peace, that I could just barely stand it. And once we moved to Arkansas in November 2017 we found ourselves in Blytheville, in an urban area, at my Mom's house during our transition!

We had a few bumps along the way, we were in an urban hilly area in Pocahontas for about 4 months. We had planned to purchase that house because we just couldn't find anything else to buy in the hill land, in the area that I love where most of my family lives. It's very rural, full of farmers and country people and old Fords and more cows than you can count. But due to its size, there just isn't ever hardly anything for sale. And most land you could find would be an acre here or there or...200 acres! The home for sale were either way too much or not on enough land, there was always something that wasn't working out. And when it comes to accomplishing life goals, I can be semi-inpatient...especially when I'm currently sitting in a situation I'm unhappy with and wanting to get out of.

Well the way the cards fell; my marriage fell apart and right at the same time as that was happening we were sitting on the brink of financial ruin, unable to find a solution to hardly any of our problems, be that together or us apart. Then one day I heard about a rental house a friend had in that perfect small town where I wanted to raise my boys, in the right school district and it sat on 2 acres with 12 behind I could also lease. We went to see it and I fell in love. At the time I wasn't even thinking about it being a house for us, we weren't considering moving. As a few weeks went by, the idea of this home came up again and I strongly considered it. I talked to the owner and we made some plans. Within a couple of weeks we were moving. The move alone would save us about $1200/mth and that was the break we needed. It also put me 4 miles from most of my family and the boys in the school I moved them here for. So in many ways it was a win win.

But what really pressed upon my soul that I want to share in this post...is the people! The people came out of everywhere to welcome me, help me and maybe to them they were just saying hi but for me it was something I needed. It was almost like a confirmation in my soul that I had made the right choice. People stopped by to bring us veggies from their garden, they stopped by randomly to say hi, they helped us move, they helped me fix things! There for the first 2 weeks they were random people, family and friends, stopping by my house daily! It was absolutely refreshing! Put that on top of being blessed with a gorgeous eastern view of the sun rise every morning, surrounded by so many huge OLD oak trees (my favorite), the home feeling safe and cozy and I was and still am on cloud 9 and feeling beyond blessed.

The situations or circumstances that lead us to this place were anything other than beautiful and grand and they sure didn't involve great choices...mistakes were made, feelings were hurt, lives were changed...but here we are. And when you get to a beautiful place in life it's important to acknowledge everything it took to get here. The nights I sat and cried feeling hopeless and confused, not knowing how I was going to save my family. The days spent worrying about how I was going to pay this or that bill, longing for my life in the country. It all lead me down this path that lead me to this beautiful little home in the country side, rolling hills of pasture, neighbors with chickens and gardens and a beautiful spot to call my own until life takes me in another direction again.

Xoxo,

Elizabeth

#lifelongdream #goals #mistakes #thecountrylife #myfuturefarm #our2acres #arkansasozarks

Homemade Dog Food Recipe, for $6 a week!

Fur babies are very important to many people who have them! Some people just have their outside farm or huntin' dogs while others keep their dogs inside and spoil the tar out of them! I fall into both of those categories as we have an indoor yellow lab who sleeps with me, runs errands with me and travels with our family! And then we have a basset hound outside who is an outside dog, she's our alarm and Riley's dog!

No matter where your dog lives, if you're looking to make sure you're giving them as healthy of a diet as you can, then I've got a recipe for you! I've been making this homemade dog food for years and it's a good enough quality that it could just be "people food", it closely resembles the inside of chicken pot pie! But I use it to supplement and give it WITH their bagged, store bought dog food to give them added carbs and protein! They love me for it and it only costs me about $6 per week, sometimes cheaper if you can catch chicken on sale! So let's get to the recipe!

If you don't have an Instant Pot yet but have been thinking about getting one you can find it on Amazon right here --> https://amzn.to/2CYLhl0

 INGREDIENTS:
4 chicken leg quarters
1 lb of rice (preferably wheat, unrefined)
6-8 cups of water
1 tsp of Avocado oil (this oil isn't cheap but it's a super clean, healthy fat and worth the cost! You can find it on amazon here: https://amzn.to/2CY7TBY )
1 tsp of salt; I use pink Himalayan salt, you can find it on amazon here: https://amzn.to/2PMaxgT
2 tsp of black pepper
2 tsp of garlic powder
1-3 cans of any canned veggie you can find on sale that your dog will eat

COOK TIME: About 2 hours.

INSTRUCTIONS:
-Put your chicken leg quarters in an Instantpot, add salt, pepper, garlic powder, the rice and then cover with water until the chicken is almost covered but not entirely. Put the instant pot on the "meat/stew" setting for 90 minutes. Change the valve to seal the pressure. This will cook your chicken and rice both perfectly.
-When the timer goes off turn the valve to release the pressure and wait 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes open the Instant pot and your rice should be perfect, your chicken cooked and falling off the bone and a tiny bit of liquid left in the pot.
-Pull out your chicken pieces and put onto a plate so you can remove all the bones. I save all the bones and put them in a small pot to simmer on the stove in water for an hour or two to make homemade chicken broth, or you can just discard them.

-Put your chicken back into the instant pot, add your canned veggies (strained) and then add water up to the 10 cup line on the Instant pot and put the lid back on. Put it on the "meat/stew" setting again but just for 20 minutes and turn the valve back to seal it.

-When the timer goes off this time, change the valve to open it and wait another 5 minutes. Then your recipe is complete! I store this is an airtight container in the fridge up to 7-10 days and serve about 1 cup at a time mixed into my dog's food bowls once a day.

Xoxo, Elizabeth

#littlefarmbigdreams #dogfood #homemadedogfood #dogfoodrecipe #recipe

The best "How to Work from Home" eBook!!!

I did it! I poured hours upon hours into a book so full of everything I have learned in the last 8 years as a Work from Home Mama, Realtor, Entrepreneur and multi-small business owner!!!

You can buy my eBook on my Etsy store here!

I sat down one night fueled by a desire to share everything I had learned but wasn't sure exactly where to start. As I started typing it all just flew right out of me onto the computer screen, it barely felt like any effort at all. My late grandmother told me when I was 12 years old that I was going to be a writer one day. I have been writing on a semi-professional level for about 10 years now but had never approached writing my own book. Besides, what do you bring the world? 

Well I found it! Ironically, as long as I've been self-employed and through all the journeys that has brought me, I never thought about this being a teachable part of my life until a friend pointed it out saying it was what she admired most about me; the ability to grow and change, adapt, rebrand, learn a new skill and market it affectively, etc. 

You can buy this book on my Etsy store here!

You will find this book packed full of so much relevant information, I kinda sorta hope your head spins! Haha! But in a good way! I organized it and chunked it into categories that make sense, went over the top paying freelance jobs, how to write a killer resume, how to nail your pitch, how to deal with terrible clients, how to find the work, how to brand yourself, colors and methods to use in marketing and more! 

Are you looking to make an income from home? Have you dreamed of being able to put in 4-6 hours a day while your kids are at school? Maybe you need a job you can do a couple of hours a night after the kids go to bed? If you're looking for a REALISTIC way to make money from the comfort of your own home, around your schedule, owning and running your very own business...this book is for you! 

This book teaches you how to leverage the skills you already have to become a professional freelancer and how to do that to the best of your abilities! This book is crammed full of TIPS start to finish! It isn't a long read but the pages are packed with 12,200 words of wisdom based on my many years of trial & error, as well as my successes! 

If you love the book and are looking to join a community of fellow Mom bosses for weekly update videos and inspiration, please join my Patreon community, you can do that here : https://bit.ly/2Mc4sb8

And if you're rocking your #MomBoss game and want to check out merchandise I created you can find t-shirts, mugs, totes, stickers and more here : https://bit.ly/2CBT3So

XoXo, Elizabeth

I believe in you, you can do this, you deserve it, own it! Many blessings! 

#workfromhome #freelancework #ebook #newbook #selfhelpbook #businessbook #writing #workfromhomemama

Canning Squash to Later Fry

This recipe calls for you to PREP squash in order to can it and it preserves it in a way that you can pull it out months later, rinse it off and batter and fry it as if it was fresh! Fried squash is my personal favorite way to eat delicious home grown yellow crookneck squash so I had to try this method of preserving it via canning!

If you prefer to learn by watching you can check out my video on this entire process HERE!

You can use this recipe and can/prep as many squash as you want so you can just double or triple the water mixture if you need to make more.

My all time FAVORITE canning Book is The Ball Complete Book of Home Canning

This recipe makes enough liquid to fill and pack 6 Quarts!

Tools:
-Mason jars (size & quantity you desire)
-Lids and rings
-Hot Water Bath Canner
-Ladle
-Canner grabber
-Rubber spatula utensil
-Clean clothes

Ingredients:
-9 cups of water
-1/2 cup of Bragg Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar
-1/2 cup of white sugar
-1/2 tsp of pickling salt into each individual jar

Directions:
1. Combine your water, apple cider vinegar and white sugar together in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Once it boils for about 2-4 minutes turn the heat off under the pan.
2. While your mixture is boiling you can be cutting up your squash into thin chip like slices. Go ahead and pack these into your jars as you go. Leave 1/2 inch head space in the top of the jar and you can also use your rubber ended spatula utensil to push your squash slices down into the jar to get out any excess air pockets.

3. After your jars are full and your liquid mixture has come down from a boil, use your ladle and fill each with up to 1/4 inch head space with the liquid. If you run out of a bit of the mixture at the end spread what is left evenly amongst your last 2 jars and then fill the rest of the way with boiling hot water.
4. Put 1/2 teaspoon of pickling salt into each of your jars before you put the lids and rings on. Place lids on top with magnetic wand, screw rings on "finger tip tight" (which means screw just passed the point of resistance but not too far beyond that or your jars can break in the canning process).
5. Place jars in hot water bath canner, make sure all jars are evenly spread out on rack in canning pot and then insure that there is an inch of water OVER all of your cans after they're all added. If there isn't add enough water to cover all the jars by 1 inch.

6. Then put the lid back on your hot water bath canner and bring to a boil. Once it gets to a boil you can the jars the amount of time required by YOUR elevation. This varies all over the world so Google it and see how long you need to hot water bath can squash for your specific location!
7. Once canning process is done, carefully use jar holder to remove jars onto a clean dish towel on the counter and let them sit out overnight to come down to room temperature. After this point you can move them to long term store.

Tip: Once you're ready to have your fried squash just open the jar, wash off your squash thoroughly with water (to get the salt and ACV off) and then batter and fry just like normal! Enjoy!!!

Xoxo,
Elizabeth

I hope you loved this canning recipe! You can check out how to can pickle relish HERE!
You can see how to make the full recipe for the Pickle Relish HERE!
And if you prefer videos you can find the video on how to can Dill Pickles I filmed with my Mom a couple of years ago HERE!

How To : Canning Pickle Relish

We start out with the full recipe on how to PUT TOGETHER your pickle relish and you can find that HERE. But now we move into the canning process! You can see the full video on the canning process HERE if you're more of a visual learner!

Required tools:

Hot water bath canner

Mason jars (however many or whatever size you want)

Lids and rings for all your jars

Ladle

Clean hand towel to clean jar rims

Jar funnel

Jar lifter

Magnetic lid wand

Non-metalic spatula

Dry cloth or mat to set finished jars on overnight

This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite recipes in the Ball Canning Cookbook and if you don't have that one yet I HIGHLY recommend it. You can find it here

Directions:

1. You start the whole process by filling your canner 1/2 to 3/4 full of hot water and get it on the stove to start to boil because this can take some time, put the lid on.

2. You have to clean, sanitize and warm your mason jars. You can do this by hand washing them and then filling them with boiling water and sitting them on the counter OR you can run them through the dishwasher on the heated dry setting and leave them in the dishwasher and pull a couple out at a time as you begin to fill them.

3. Clean and prep your mason jar lids and rims by putting in a pot of boiling water on the stove for 10 minutes, then you'll transfer that pot over to the counter to your prep station.

4. Once you pickling mixture is done on the stove you want to setup your canning area by moving a few jars, your mixture, your tools and everything to one place.You also want to make sure that at this time your canning pot has come to a boil or is very close.

5. You ladle your mixture into a prepared jar using a canning funnel (I didn't in this video because I couldn't find mine but it makes everything MUCH less messy), you fill it up to 1/2 head from the top of the jar. This is called leaving "head space" and the jar needs that space inside the can to properly can. If your jar is too full it could crack and bust from pressure in the canner. (Again, you can SEE this whole process in THIS VIDEO )

6. Once you have filled your jar use your non-metalic spatula to push down into the jar and around the edges, you're trying to push any air pockets out.

7. Then wipe the rime of your jar to make sure it is clean all around, I do the outside too just in case I made any messes.

8. Use your magnetic wand to pick up a lid that is still in your pot of hot water, place it on the jar and then pick up a rim and put it on the jar. You want to turn it "finger tip tight" and this means don't do it super tight, don't force it, you push until you feel resistance and then just a tiny bit passed that and you're good.

9. Use your jar lifter to put the (now) warm/hot filled jars directly into your hot water bath canner. Leave the lid off from now on until your canner is full, place each jar in it as soon as you have the mixture in that way the mixture and jars do not come down in temperature.

10. Once you hot water bath canner is full then drop them down in the water (if you're using a tray) and put your lid on it. Make sure that once your jars are down in the water that the lids are COVERED with water, so if they aren't just go ahead and add more water until they are. Then put the lid on to start bringing it up to a boil.

11. Now you will "process" (means cooking at a rolling boil constantly) for however long your elevation requires. You can google this and find exactly the amount of time you need; some places it's 10 minutes and others it's 20 so make sure to do what is required of YOUR area.

12. Once the timer goes off, I turn the stove off and remove the lid and let everything come down in temperature for just about 5 minutes.

13. Use the jar lifter to take jars out of canner and place on the towel you have laid out on the counter. This is where they will sit overnight. Some jars will "pop" right away or within 5-10 minutes and that is a good thing, that means the lid has sealed. Some may take longer, which is why it is safe to wait overnight to be safe. Also within this time the jars come down to room temperature and are easier, safer to store.

14. The next morning you move your cans of gloriously home canned goodies to a shelf for long tern storage, preferably out of direct sunlight or exposure to much heat, including general cooking heat (don't store in a cabinet over your stove). 

Yay! Now you've canned something!!! Congratulations!!!

xoxo,

Elizabeth

#canningrecipe #fulldetails #canningtips #howtocan #relishcanningrecipe

Sweet Pickle Relish Recipe

This recipe is tried and true for our family, we have used it for years. If you watch my video on this process HERE then you'll see that I adapt it and tweak a few things as needed depending on what I have on hand. But in general, this recipe is a great guideline and if you are going out and buying what you need to make it go ahead and get everything on the list. But if you do have the option to go with colored bell peppers, please do, you won't be disappointed!!

Ingredients:

8 cups      : finely chopped peeled cucumbers
8 cups      : finely chopped seeded green (or any color) bell peppers
2 cups      : finely chopped celery
1 cup        : finely chopped onion
1/2 cup     : canning or pickling salt
3 cups       : white vinegar
2 1/2 cups : white sugar
3 tbsp        : celery seeds
3 tbsp        : mustard seeds


This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite recipes in the Ball Canning Cookbook and if you don't have that one yet I HIGHLY recommend it. You can find it here


Directions:

1. In a large glass or stainless steel bowl, combine cucumbers, bell peppers, celery, onion and pickling salt. Cover and let stand in a cool place for 4+ hours (overnight is fine).

2. Transfer mixture to a colander placed over a sink and drain. Rinse with cool water and drain thoroughly. Using your hands, squeeze out excess liquid. Set aside.

3. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar, celery seeds and mustard seeds. Stair well and ring to a boil. Add drained cucumber mixture to the pot and return to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until vegetables are heated through, about 10 minutes.

Then you will begin the canning process which you can find HERE...
I also put together a VIDEO on canning this recipe and you can find it HERE!

xoxo,
Elizabeth

#canningrecipe #recipe #relishrecipe #picklerelish