top of page

Welcome to The Azalea Homestead!

Updated: Mar 21


Hey there! We are so happy you found your way here. My name is Brianne. I am a wife, mother, social worker, and now… blogger and content creator.


Where We Came From


For 13 years, my husband and I made our little 1200-square-foot starter house a home. During our time there, we welcomed our daughters, I went to college, and we lived on one very modest income. Through a lot of trial and error, I was able to find ways to save money, create homemade recipes we enjoyed, and make our house into a home.


Where We Have Been


In 2019, we both worked full-time, we homeschooled, and our girls were in many extracurricular activities. Like many of us, when Covid-19 hit, almost everything stopped. Because of my field, I still needed to be in-person and my husband began working from home. During this time we were able to evaluate and rediscover what it was we truly wanted for our family. Being busy, stressed, and overworked were not the things we were striving for, yet there we were - completely burned out.


By the end of 2020, we were both able to find new jobs that offered a better work/life balance. We were able to breathe. We were able to spend more quality time with our girls and each other. It was a new start.



Where We Are Now


In 2021 we were blown away by the housing market and finally had an opportunity to buy a house with a 4th bedroom. Did anyone else suddenly need a home office in 2020?


As first-time home buyers all those years ago, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. After spending so many years in our first home, the list of what we wanted and needed in our next one became very clear. Not just in terms of space, but what we’d hoped to use the space for. My husband needed a separate room for a home office and hoped for a garage he could tinker around in. Our previous backyard had a large slope, so I wanted a yard the girls (and dogs) could actually play in. I hoped for a kitchen that offered enough space for both me and the girls to be able to work together in. Thankfully, it all worked out.


Now that we had the space we needed and we could relax a bit, I knew it was time to get back to the simpler things. To me, that meant cooking at home more, learning new life skills, and focusing on our time being well spent. We have had to learn to say “No” to taking on things that aren’t a necessity or don’t add substantial value to ourselves and our family.


Where We Are Going

This past year, I finally got up the courage to do two things that I have always wanted to try: Canning and Gardening.

container gardening

I always found them both to be so intimidating and they required so much research to do properly. I am a “jump in with both feet” kind of person, so reading how-to books for hours on end did not seem appealing to me. So I knew I had to start small. I read a few books, I watched A LOT of YouTube and leaned on those who knew those worlds. The learning process and the trial and error were indeed tedious, but so worth it. The simple act of planting a few seeds just to see what happens and watching that turn into food for my family had me hooked. As this was my first year I had a lot of failures. All of my tomato plants died. All seven of them. But I was able to get quite a few zucchini and peppers. So, not bad for someone who knew very little about it all.



My lessons in canning were more successful. I started with something pretty easy, beans. Worked out great. Next up, a mixed berry jam. Delicious! I was feeling great, so I made a pizza sauce that turned out fantastic. My confidence grew and I was ready to can all of the things! I went back to one of my local farmers’ markets and purchased a 30-pound box of big slicer tomatoes. I was going to make so much spaghetti sauce - I was pumped and ready to go! I followed the recipe in my Ball cookbook and everything was going as planned. But then I noticed my sauce was not as pretty as it was when I made the pizza sauce. What had I done wrong?! Those of you who are not beginners already know. The tomatoes. I used different tomatoes. The pizza sauce had beautiful Roma tomatoes. My spaghetti sauce, on the other hand, had a much more watery variety. Fortunately, I learned a couple of tricks to help it get to the consistency I wanted. So here we are, still learning.


canned vegetables and sauces


Where I Hope To Be


I get a lot of inspiration from some of my favorite YouTubers. One day I thought, “What a blessing it is for those ‘YouTube Moms’ to have documentation of their recipes and gardening experience for their children”. It really made me think about the recent passing of my own mom. I hope for this blog to serve as a tangible collection of my favorite recipes and gardening ramblings for my girls.


Thanks for coming over!

 

Did you know that we have a newsletter? It features some of our favorite recipes and free printables that are only available to our subscribers! And don’t worry, we hate spam mail and value your time. You’ll receive an initial thank you email, and our newsletter is delivered monthly. You can help our small family business by sharing us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Click here to sign up for our newsletter today!



213 views

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page