I am alive!

Good Morning!  Whew...what a glorious morning it is!  So here's my very condensed excuse for being gone so long ~ I really needed a break ~ So much has been changing here at my house and in my life that I really needed to focus more on my family, and less on the computer.  We just got back from an awesome trip to Pennsylvania and I feel so revived and re-energized!  I am ready to get down to business and be the Proverbs 31 woman that God has called me to be!

We have gone from 4 bodies living in this house to 8 bodies.  That's quite a jump in numbers!  It's mass chaos 'round here most of the time, and sometimes I feel like complaining...or crying...or sometimes laughing out of sheer exhaustion!  But God has us here in this present situation for a particular reason, and because of this, I am trying to be very open to all of the changes that have come.

The one main problem I have had with this whole situation is the fact the our water and electricity bills have nearly doubled since bringing more people in.  Okay...so we can't ask people not to shower or wash the laundry, and we certainly can't turn off the AC due to the southern heat...but I think that I have figured out some ways to conserve.

The two main ways I have come up with to conserve electricity is this ~
Hanging laundry instead of using the dryer and crockpot cooking as much as possible.

Hanging laundry is typically a no-brainer, but with so many people living here it's a little harder to get every body on board...but I think we've got it.

Crock Pot cooking ~  my original thought was to use the crock pot for a whole week...then I thought what about a whole year?!  I have since rethought this and come to the conclusion that we need to be a little more realistic.  So I think we shall try to use only the crock pot, grill, and steamer for a month and see how that goes.  I have been searching out meals and it totally amazes me what you can make in a crock pot!
Monday we had amazing beef stew, Tuesday we had chili, and tonight we are having creamy chicken over brown rice.  I have some really great ideas for next week after we hit the grocery store.:-)  I will try to keep you updated on this experiment.  I'm very excited to see how it all effects our electricity bill.  I'll keep you posted.

I would love to hear any more ideas that you all my have to conserve electricity.

Have a very blessed day and I am so glad to be back!