Happy Monday, I mean Tuesday, I mean...WHAT day is it?

Good morning everyone!

If you chuckled over the title of today's post, then I succeeded. I don't know about how YOUR week is going, but I am quite sure that I skipped right past Friday, skimmed through Saturday and Sunday, hardly blinked on Monday, and now find myself trying to pull everything together and look professional for Tuesday. I should tell you I am writing this in my fuzzy pj pants and slippers, the children are all running wildly around the house looking uncombed and unwashed, and I am a third of the way into my first cup of coffee.

*sigh*

Are we SURE it is not Saturday?

A couple of you expressed concern that I had not written since last week and was I doing ok.

That was very very sweet, and honestly made my day.

I really have the very best readers and Welcoming House peeps ever.

After all, what is a writer without someone who wants to read what is written?

Thanks from the bottom of my heart!

Now lets talk about what life has been like on my little corner of the world the last week or so.

My oldest daughter is getting used to her abdomen brace, but it is not really changing the game for her headaches and dizziness. We have to make it through the next couple of weeks and then take some xrays for it to be confirmed, but we are holding on to the hope that the reason it is not working is due to her body taking this function back over, and until something happens  medically with the shunt (such as disconnecting it or doing a trial run without it) we will not see much improvement. Call us crazy all you want, but when you get medical tests back like we have on this kid in the last month, we are geared up to see this through. We are incredibly thankful for an amazing medical team, and eagerly awaiting the next step to see our precious daughter better and healthy again.

While the weather has been gorgeous and beautiful, we have been busy beavers trying to get our wood supply stocked up for winter, and our gardens finished and laid to rest for the winter months.

cutting wood for the winter...

Part of the harvest of black beans from the garden...

We also had our second to last butchering session with our rabbitry this weekend, putting another seven rabbits into the freezer, and canning up a bunch that needed to go onto the shelf instead of the electrically-reliant freezer. It amazed me that out of nine frozen rabbits we were able to put up over 24 lbs of meat, all wonderfully put into jars and waiting for the day we use them. We had the seven this round, and the final round in a month will bring us another 9. For the first year of solidly running the rabbitry, we will have had over 48 rabbits come from litters, all humanely and safely processed or sold to aspiring breeders, and all our breeder rabbits, fat, happy, healthy, and lovely.

Total success for the year, that is for sure.

More than that, I am now confident I can feed my family no matter how bad things get financially, and am currently researching how to do that with even less money put into it than we already have.

just the start of the meat canning we did this weekend...

And for anyone who is curious, YES, rabbit tastes like....chicken. NO kidding. :)

And right now the kids' favorite meal is rabbit tacos, which are exactly like chicken tacos.

I am quite excited to see how I can use this in different recipes over the coming year as we will most certainly end up with a lot more canned rabbit sitting on the shelf next to our chicken, venison, pork and beef.

And we are incredibly thankful for the provision that we have been blessed with.

The last thing that I am SUPER EXCITED about is the soon-to-come launch of the remodeled Welcoming House Blog. We have quickly outgrown our little spot here on the Web, and it was time to step forward to the plate and do something to give us room to grow!

In just a couple short weeks we are going to be celebrating the Welcoming House's new opening over on Word Press.com, and seriously, if you could see how absolutely AMAZING the new blog is....how EASY it will be to find a zillion things that you have been looking for.....how GORGEOUS it is turning out with the pictures, and the headers, and the bazillion ways that you can stay connected to us????

You are all going to flip over it.

**I already am, because I bet I don't get a single email again for a very long time on how to find something,
or if I can send a link, etc etc etc.

**We will be having awesome businesses linked up directly on the blog so you can do holiday and birthday shopping right there with a single click.

Not to mention all the other fun and super things that my design team has been working on.

**Can anyone say videos?

Yep.

We are working on making some short, fun videos for those of you who like to see and hear the canner rocking, or watch as I make up some of my most popular recipes.

I just cant believe it is all happening so fast!

And I am doing it all just for you.

So as Fall begins to breeze in, and the weather grows cooler,

Cozy up to the Welcoming House with a cup of coffee and your warm fuzzy slippers and come join me this week as we take a look back over the history and crazy roller-coaster ride of the Welcoming House from birth to today.

See ya right back here tomorrow.

And Happy First Day of October! :)

Blessings to you and yours,

Heather