Update!!

Well, it seems I've become very naughty in keeping up with this ole blog! Lots of changes in our lives in the year of 2013 so far, at least it feels that way to me, and here 2013 is almost over!!

I guess the biggest change that happened, occurred a few months ago. We moved to an acreage!!!
Jamie and I were content with where we were...but this past spring, we both felt like a move was coming and that Yah would be pushing us a bit...lol.
We got an email from our landlord, that he was selling the house and that we needed to be out by Aug 1st. He sent the email at the end of May. But here's the cool thing...he didn't want us to pay June or July rent! So that was a huge blessing!! He was a great landlord for the 3 yrs we lived in Crossfield. Plus, we set a new record! 3 yrs is the longest we've lived anywhere!!
We looked for a rental in our price-range and couldn't find ANYTHING! There was absolutely nothing for rent in Crossfield at all! So we upped our "price-range" nervously...lol  We sent lots of emails out to many places listed on Kijiji, but only looked at one place...it was not a good one.
We were starting to despair. We didn't want to find a place at the last possible moment, like so many times before.
Then by word of mouth, we found out that one of the postmaster's at the Post Office had an acreage she was trying to sell, and if it didn't sell by July 31st she was going to try to rent it out!!!  What amazing timing!
We looked at the acreage the Saturday after the big flood in Calgary/High River. I fell in love with it! The house is much smaller, which we wanted!! We just have too much "stuff". There is a greenhouse attached to the house with it's own door...that is where our schoolroom is. It also has it's own heater, as well as a non functioning wood stove. It is so hard to describe it all.
It has 3 bedrooms, living room and kitchen/dining room as well as a full bathroom on the main floor with a deck off the front door where the bbq sits... Then downstairs there is a walkout basement with a half bath, laundry, lots of storage, a 4th bedroom and family room.
There's a double garage and a large open shed, firepit area with a picnic bench, and lots of trees and grass!!!! I think there's about 2 acres of grassy area. We have our own well and septic system, so we aren't part of any town water supply. We do however have electricity and gas....we are not off-grid....YET. lol
Outside there is a huge garden and then a second big garden! I may just use the smaller garden this next year as I don't want to totally overwhelm myself! LOL

We were having issues with our van and after taking it to the shop to get fixed we ended up having to just park it. And there it still sits, we just couldn't justify spending 3200 to fix a vehicle we bought for 3800. And so now we are driving a Buick LeSabre, my inlaws car that they had listed on kijiji. I miss my van but thankful for the car that didn't break the bank! We will still look for a 4x4 vehicle, seems wise when you live out in the sticks...but the car will get us where we need to go and if the weather is not good, we simply won't go!

Usually we go away for Sukkot, but this year, we were able to host it in our yard! We set up tents and made bedrooms available for some who didn't want to brave the cold weather.  Our Shabbat group joined us on the weekends but we slept outside in our tent all week long.  What a fun time!

It is now Nov and we are getting our 2nd big snowfall...the 1st hadn't even finished melting yet, so I'm thinking the snow is definitely here to stay.

We started school this year on Oct 1st. It feels good to have a month under our belt and we seem to have figured out a pretty good schedule. The kids are all enjoying Canskate, and are doing well with their schoolwork.

I guess that's all now folks!