Craziness

It has been a crazy last few days. We found out that Jeff's unemployment benefits ran out last week. He tried to file for unemployment, and it was denied. We had been told that his previous company would pay unemployment for a year, and then he would file for unemployment through the state. Well, the year thing wasn't right. It was stopped after 7 months. He was able to file with the state (praise the Lord for that!), but the time limit is pretty short. So it is crunch time now. Instead of looking in our area, he is now looking nationwide for jobs. As of today, he has sent out close to 500 resumes. Wow. Unless he gets a job here in the area by March, the house is going on the market in March. I'm okay with everything. I know God has a great plan, and a great job. I'm actually okay with moving too. I have no idea where we are going to be, but I know God will take care of us.

We are trying to have some sense of normal during all of this. We took Evie sledding the other day, at the same place where I broke my rib last year. I was a bit nervous going down the hill, but went down an easier one this time so it was better. Evie had a blast. She found a group of kids there (one was homeschooled too), and she had fun sledding with them. Jeff and I got to sit in the warming house and watch her :).













On a funny note, I wanted to share this picture. Yes, I know, it is just a bunch of shoes. If you click on the picture, you will notice one thing they all have in common....they all have laces that are half gone. Our kitten (who is almost a cat) Daisy is a sweet little thing, but has one weird habit. She loves chewing on shoelaces. Not just chewing them though. She EATS them! I went to exercise the other day, and found my tennis shoe had 6 inches gone from the laces! We have had to buy 3 pairs of laces in the last few weeks. So we are having to hide our shoes from her. Whenever I have caught her chewing on them, she has this look of ecstacy on her face while she is chewing them. Kinda like she is getting her drug fix for the day! She fits in with all of our other strange pets. Like Dolly, who drinks water with her paw and meows at you like she is talking a blue streak. And Sierra, who will bark at everything that moves outside, but if a stranger comes to the door she just wags her tail. Yep, Daisy fits right in!

Winter canning

We are pretty much snowed in right now, with about a foot of snow on the ground. It sure is beautiful! Evie has been going out in the snow all bundled up, playing with Sierra. I have been busy trying something new...canning beans! We have a whole bunch of dried beans that I haven't been using because it is so much of a pain to prepare them. I started looking online at how easy they were to pressure can, and so much easier to use after they have been canned. So today I canned kidney beans. I did 7 quart jars, and I have 10 pint jars in the canner right now. I am soaking 5 pounds of navy beans to can tomorrow, and after that pinto beans. So I should be busy for the next few days! Beans that I have soaked and cooked have always given us some digestive issues, but for some reason the canned beans from the store don't seem to bother us. I'm hoping the home canned ones will work the same way as the store bought canned ones for us.

No job news at all. We were blessed with the biggest tax refund we have ever gotten, which was such a God thing. It will help us a lot. We have been living on 401K money, which isn't ideal, but at least we are able to keep our house and stay here until Jeff gets a job. It has been almost 8 months now. That seems unreal. The jobs in this area have been pretty scarce. Jeff has been looking elsewhere, but we still believe God could bring a job for us here. The waiting is hard, but I really do enjoy having my husband home with me :).