Homesteading in Paradise November 2018 Highlights

Better late than never!

Here's our most recent Homesteading in Paradise movie, featuring highlights from November, including fall scenes on our homestead, and Steve and my getaway to Sedona.

Spoiler alert: gorgeous scenery ahead!

Our number one priority

When you have three children, like us, it might be easy to forget about the relationship with your spouse. You're so focused on raising these kids and keep them more or less alive that your offspring becomes the number one priority.  

Many couples forget about nurturing the bond with each other.

When our kids were really little, I often freaked out because it felt like Steve and I were only roommates, co-existing merely to organize playdates, figure out who will take the trash out, or who has to deal with the babies when they scream in the middle of the night.

During our 16 years of raising kids so far, we figured out that we better make our relationship a priority as well.  We are lucky to have Steve's parents: they LIVE for their grandkids and are eager to take care of them for a week while Steve and I go away. (Thank you, Donna and John!!!!!)

So last week, Steve and I went to Sedona, Arizona, where we biked, hiked, ate our hearts out, and re-connected as a couple.

Have you ever been to Sedona, the land of red rocks and energy vortexes?  We were here before twice when we took road trips as a family.  

I's a special place for outdoor enthusiasts, especially when you're used to lush Pacific Northwest landscapes.  In Arizona, there are desert plants and animals, different rocks and soil, and amazing sunshine.

Except as soon as Steve and I got there, a winter storm moved through.  We spent our first day hiking in the rain, which was incredibly awesome, because nobody was on the trail.

I'm still feeling pretty high from our trip.  

It's hard to describe the beauty with words, so I'm just going to let the pictures talk for themselves.

Sigh... You know what I mean? Gorgeous, right?

We got to visit with our friends from Flagstaff as well, so that was an incredible treat.

And the great thing about travelling is coming home, realizing how much you miss your kids, and then getting re-absorbed into the whirlwind of family life again.

The kids had a wonderful time with their grandparents.  

Let me show you some pictures of the time before we left: Thanksgiving with Donna and John, knitting with Gramma, and our family dressed up for our friend's Sweet 16 party.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Also, I'd love to hear from you what you do to keep your relationship with your significant other alive and well.  Go ahead and share in the comments!

Big changes in our lives. And good news!

Exhale with me, will ya? I got some good news, and two other breathe-worthy reports on the horizon.

First things first. Many of you have been sending me your love, energy, prayers and light. It worked, people!

I saw the cardiologist on Wednesday to follow up on my diagnosis of Bigeminy (irregular heartbeat), and she said it's nothing dangerous, just a nuisance.  A nuisance!!!  

My heart is fine, and whatever I've been doing to regulate my heartbeat has worked. (Stress reduction, supplements like Coenzyme Q10, Hawthorne, Lemon Balm and Nettle tea, Gaba).  

Also, I gave up all chocolate, coffee and alcohol.  I'm the most boring wholesome person on the planet.  Kill me now. No, seriously, I'm happy that I'm fine.

Yay!  

What a wakeup call! I have realized that I'm not 20 years old any more, and that I need to let go of some things.  The goats went first, and although I miss them, I feel freer, less stressed about having to deal with all the milk.

Steve and I have been talking more about what directions to take with Marblemount Homestead.  I'll tell you more about that in the following weeks.

Now the other news.  You know how our homeschooled kids went to public school one and a half years ago?  It's a small country school in a rural setting, with lots of teachers and administrators who care, but also a place with severe problems.  

Many kids don't have mothers at all.  There are lots of drugs, too much trauma and abuse.  There's not enough money for the resources these kids need, and many kids are out of control and act out in the classroom.

It's heartbreaking for the kids, and it's incredibly tough for the teachers.  I've heard reports of out-of-control classrooms, kids jumping on their desks, throwing shoes, disrespecting the adults.

My son Luke is in a middle school class that's especially wild.  He is doing well socially and academically, but he's bored and annoyed.  There are no AP classes.  He's tired of wasting time at school in an environment that's so crazy-making.

So we will homeschool him again.  He will still spend time with friends and play sports at school, but we're taking over the academics, so he can learn properly.  He won't have to ride the school bus for three hours a day, leave the house at dark and return at dark.

He'll be able to focus on school work, and then build mountain bike trails and play music for the rest of the day.

I have so much respect for the teachers at our little school.  Many of them care tremendously.  We received emails from Luke's teachers and other leaders at the school, imploring us to re-consider pulling our son out of school.  But Luke's mind is made up.

So starting in the middle of January, I'll have a kid at home again.

Kai will continue the semester, and then do "Running Start" at the community college.

Eva will continue as well.  She's doing great in the elementary school.  Our superintendent cares about the kids and programs, and he's implementing a lot of great things, which hopefully will make things better for the kids further down the line.

Another huge shift in our lives is my new job.  Yes, a job!  I'll work from home as a professional programs specialist for Feminine Power, the organization where I received my coaching and leadership training.  

I will make my own hours while empowering, coaching and sponsoring women to step up their leadership.  Because I tell ya, this world needs us women to uplevel.  

Cool, right?  I'm excited and feel honored that I was handpicked for this job by some of the women I admire most in this world!

So there you have it.  Lots of news, lots of movement, lots of change.

Let me finish this post with pictures of the past couple of weeks.

~~ A visit to Bellingham:

~~~ First frost and last harvest:

~~~ Record rain fall (we had 3.75 inches in one single day!!!), but also some gorgeous sunny days, and walks with friends:

~~~ Snuggles with dogs:

~~~ And spinning and knitting:

How are you all doing?

Alive with Possibility ~ Corina interviews Julia Schneider

Here is a heartfelt interview about a very unique and super effective way to learn about why you might be struggling in life. It has to do with attachment styles.
In this interview with Corina Sahlin (that's me!) and Julia Schneider, you will learn how four very different attachment styles influence your life, how they have created pain, and how you can heal that.

If you want to go deeper, Julia Schneider offers a program where you can learn this and more:
- How to hear, understand and deeply trust your intuition.
- How to manifest the kind of a life that you truly desire.
- How to effectively overcome and transform self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviour patterns.
- How to cultivate and sustain healthy lifestyle habits that will support you in truly thriving and flourishing in every area of your life.
- How to cultivate and sustain incredible and life-changing relationships with the people in your life.
- How to work in your Zone of Genius effortlessly and on a consistent basis.
- How to evoke and effectively utilize your authentic feminine power.
- How to generate the kind of support that you need in order to powerfully co-create your destiny.
- So much more!

To find out more about Julia's program, CLICK HERE <---

Homesteading in paradise October 2018

Hello lovelies!

Here are the video highlights of last month's "Homesteading in Paradise" series.

This one is a MUST-SEE!

Gorgeous hikes, plenty of apple cider pressing, knitting by the creek, putting the garden to bed, chicken antics, and more.

Enjoy!

Cider pressing and fiber messing (aka spinning and knitting)

When we bought our land 16 years ago, we knew we wanted an orchard. So after clearing land, we planted a bunch of little trees: apples, cherries, pears, plums...

You have to be patient with an orchard - it takes a while to establish. But we have been reaping the benefits of our fruit tree labor for a while now. 

Case in point: this year alone, we pressed cider on three different occasions, with hundreds of pounds of apples from our place.

Some of this is getting made into hard cider, lots of it is frozen for juice.

This is a job for a few people at a time: some are picking apples, some are washing them, and some feed the apples into the chute.

Then the cut-up pieces are being transferred into the pressing chamber, and the handle gets cranked.

And then comes the tasting, where people elbow each other out of the way to stick a cup under the steady stream of fragrant cider flowing forth, exclaiming how good it tastes.

Also, enough containers need to be rounded up for fitting all this golden liquid. After filling them all to the brim, there's cleanup.

As it often happens in our wilderness neighborhood on a weekend, people tend to stop by to visit, and of course, they get pulled into the cider making operation, much to the delight of all the little ones.

Come along and see what happens on a day like this!

Picking apples, and getting the ones on the ground before the bear and deer eat them

Washing station

Feeding the apples into the cutting chute

It helps to have willing and enthusiastic helpers

Putting the cut-up apples into the pressing container

Ha! Suckers! You thought you would stop by for a chill visit? Well, so much for leisure and relaxing!

The kids love to eat this foam. Better than ice cream.

Filling the containers

Besides harvesting all the fruit from our orchard, we also got all the food out of the garden. Pumpkins, squashes, gone-to-seed lettuce for the chickens, the rest of the cucumbers... 

Now all that's left is Swiss Chard, Kale, and Collards greens, plus lots of carrots and beets in the ground.

Last week, I put the garden to bed. I really like covering the soil to protect all the lovely soil organisms and micro critters in there, so I either sow green manure or spread straw.  (Not hay, since it has weeds.)

Now that the weather has shifted to almost-frost, rain and storms, the time for hibernation has begun.

Hibernating for me means plenty of knitting and spinning.

I've been on a sock-knitting kick, since it's moderately mindless and relaxing, and oh-so-necessary in a house full of active people who need socks. All. The. Time.

Last week I went to the Northwest Fiber Fusion event and bought a gorgeous batt of wool that made my heart rate speed up when I saw it. I'm spinning it into yarn for a hat and fingerless mittens. I think they will be gorgeous.

Now it's your turn. Leave me a comment in the comment section below and tell me what hibernating looks like for you.