My name is Lára. My roots are Welsh, Scottish, and a wee bit of Norwegian, so you will see a mix of that on the website. It is a part of my heritage that I am extremely proud of!

Before I get more into my “About Me” I need to address something that some of you may have noticed – my name change. I’ve been wanting to change my name since I was a little girl. So, needless to say, it’s been in the works. 

In the last couple of years, a lot has changed for me in many ways. I have finally faced coming to terms with one parent who is a narcissist and the extreme emotional abuse, lies, and more that I am still uncovering and healing from. I have had to set clear boundaries and went no contact with that parent as the result of continued trauma and abuse. In a sense, I guess I could say my name change reflects that healing process, but it also reflects my ancestral heritage. 

Ok—now with all that said…who am I?! Who is Lára? 

Well, as I said above, my heritage and roots run deep and I am discovering more about that as I dig through the lies I had previously been told to discover who I truly am. It is definitely a journey!

I am also a small-town country girl and will never stray too far from those roots. Part of my journey in healing and finding out “who I am” has also been figuring out how to hold onto the good that I was taught, specifically by my Dad, his parents, and his sister. 

We lived across the road from my grandparents, my Dad’s parents, on our family land. My Grandpa was a farmer and I grew up taking care of chickens, horses, dogs, cows, pigs, goats, and various other farm animals.

My Grandma, who was also a nurse at the local hospita,l took care of the garden, canning, and preserving. These were all skills that were passed down to me. 

This was way before the time when information was readily available on the internet. We learned through experience and through information passed down from generations before. I enjoyed life out there and didn’t mind the chores that came with it either. We lived simply. Our life was almost from another world out where we lived and I am forever grateful for how I was raised. 

Throughout the years, we would go many days, sometimes weeks, without electricity because of power outages. My brother and I would play games and read by kerosene lamps. I loved it! I think sometimes it was the universe’s way of telling us to disconnect from modern-day technology. In fact, my Dad was still living back on the family farm and was hit by the ice storms of 2021 and went without power for almost 30 days in the holler! 

I was taught by my family to prepare, plan, and think past today and through tomorrow. My Grandparents learned this while living through the depression era and passed it down to me. 

I was pretty sheltered growing up. I think that is par for the course when one parent has a mental illness.

I did grow up in the church from the time I was born. I discovered I wanted a personal relationship with Jesus at the young age of 5 and continued to be very active in the church my whole life, despite a few bumps along the way. Now, with that said, I also have suffered some extreme trauma from church, THE CHURCH, and various churches throughout my life.

It has caused me a great deal of pain and I had to walk away from certain denominations and set clear boundaries. Thankfully, I continue to remain steadfast in my faith, despite my witchy ways, and we remain very active in our small community parish. I teach confirmation classes and have also been the church librarian and helped with social media. 

Just to back up a little, I attended Marshall University where I majored in journalism and public relations. I loved Marshall and I loved working for radio and television stations on campus. I even worked on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. I know, I know – controversial!

After college, I developed mono and as I lay in bed reflecting on my life, I decided to attend beauty school. Truth be told, cosmetology was my lifelong dream. I wanted to follow in my aunt’s footsteps as she owned a little beauty shop in town.

I attended Huntington School of Beauty Culture where I took the hair, skin, and nail programs. It wasn’t a requirement to take all three programs, but I did. I also graduated from Mountain State School of Massage therapy.

Little known fact outside of my inner circle, I owned my own cosmetology and massage business for years. I specialized in pregnancy and infant massages. I taught childbirth classes at my office and the local hospital and also offered services as a licensed Doula. 

This all started me down a rabbit trail to learning, studying, and embracing aromatherapy, taking what I had learned on the family farm, and becoming very knowledgeable in herbology. I will share more about that later! 

Eventually, I married a very handsome Army Soldier. I am so proud of his selfless sacrifice for this country for over 20 years. It was a wild ride, but we are still very plugged into the military community. It was a great life and we were incredibly blessed over the years. I love sharing our journey all over the world, which is why I also love to travel! It is also how my Christmas Around the World book was born and many other materials that we have produced here at HalfwayHomesteaders.com! 

Instant Pot Coca-Cola Ribs

I have been very blessed to be a military wife, mom, blogger, author, life & business coach, homemaker, and homesteader for all these years of marriage. My passion is my family. I am also enthusiastic about homeschooling. There is nothing better than seeing your child grasp something that comes so easy to me, but seems so difficult to them. I am currently homeschooling all 3 of my boys (18, 15, and 13)! They are busy and keep me on my toes, but it is so worth it! I feel I have a lot of guidance on raising a child and home-educating them through graduation. I currently have one that just graduated a year ago! 

I’ve spoken at numerous conventions all across the country about our journey of homeschooling and I have won many mentions and acknowledgments for the printables and educational materials that my husband and I have created. It is truly a blessing to be able to share our knowledge and experience homeschooling our kids with the world.

We are also keen on school choice and support parents who have chosen to not homeschool but enjoy our materials and trust us to bring them the quality curriculum and supplemental aids to assist their children on their educational journey. I have written many e-books and educational books, printables, and more, as has my husband. Two of our most popular are our Christmas Around the world Book which was developed after our love of learning about different cultures throughout Clay’s time on active duty in the Army. Clay also wrote our very popular e-book on the Fruits of the Spirit. This book came from lessons he personally developed to teach our own children. 

I am still a licensed cosmetologist and massage therapist and have been for 20 years now! I loved my experiences as a cosmetologist. I was part of the Wella crew and enjoyed being a part of the hair shows and having the opportunity to travel. Sharing my passion and experiences for hair and skincare nationwide has been an honor.

As I mentioned earlier, after attending cosmetology school and massage therapy school, I took skills I had been taught growing up about herbs, plants, healing, etc, and wanted to learn more! So I became a DOULA and specialized also in pregnancy massage. While doing this I gained so much knowledge to become an herbalist, aromatherapist, and more, skills that I was able to use throughout our time in the military, and skills that I definitely still use now! 

I am a certified life and business coach. I have certificates for various cooking etiquette. Although my knowledge of cooking was shared with me by my grandmothers and mom, I am mostly self-taught, but I enjoy taking cooking classes and learning new techniques from cake decorating to making the perfect sourdough bread to learning to cooking more plant-based meals in Fork Over Knives Style. We are definitely not vegetarian but we do like a good mix and have nights where we have alternatives to meat.

Living a simple life on the farm as a child shaped me into the person I am today. I have been gardening, plants, herbs, and aromatherapy since I could waddle around. I have been canning, cooking, and baking since I was in elementary school. My recipes have been shared all over the web on many websites including Buzzfeed! Cooking, and creating recipes and content for others gives me joy! I love performing cooking engagements, helping others with meal planning, and teaching others through hands-on learning. Make sure you check out my new cookbook on low-carb meals! 

I also love sharing my skills and knowledge of botany and plants, herbs, and aromatherapy (essential oils) with my audience and passing on all that I have learned and studied over the years! Embracing my welsh, nordic, and highlander blood, I am very grateful for the skills I have learned with healing, nature, and plants. This gets me in trouble with THE CHURCH though as many things I embrace like this are considered….witchy. GASP! 

My husband and I are loving our life here on our homestead. I am sharing everything I know about homesteading with you now! From my recipes to plans, from herbs to aromatherapy, from animals to marriage, parenting, homeschooling, and more—including sprinkles of our time throughout the military and our faith! I also enjoy sharing my struggles with healing, and trauma, and finding out exactly where that leaves me in this world.

 It was a way of life growing up for me, clear into adulthood! My husband is retired Army and he brings a ton of expertise to our homestead from skills he learned for survival throughout his Army career and his experiences with woodworking pre-Army and during his experiences while serving. He does a lot of work from making firewood, making mulch, handyman around the house, building raised garden beds, and the list goes on.

Speaking of my husband and his career, Clay is diagnosed with severe PTSD, combat-induced anxiety, and many other injuries and issues that came from multiple combat tours. I have also traveled all over speaking at conventions on our life with PTSD and through our ministry trying to help as many other families as we can. 

My hope is that this space in the interwebs will serve to bring each of you joy and most of all, bring the highest glory in the old ways and HIS way.

From my Homestead to yours,

Lara Signature 01

 

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My name is Clay. I am a Christian and do not hide it. I am an Ambassador of Christ. A husband to my beautiful wife. Father to my 3 precious boys.

I was a  Soldier in the US Army by profession for over 20 years. Retirement from the Army was just a few years ago and I am still filled with emotions. Being a Soldier was the only life I have ever known in adulthood until recently. It is a blessing though to be home and not deploy or leave constantly.

Soldier to Civilian (Part 1) - The Decision

I am using skills I learned in the Army right here on our homestead and will be sharing that information with all our wonderful readers here. Survival skills and many used in homesteading are important skills to carry out when you live off the land. I was an expert in my field, including expert marksman, and I am enjoying passing on those skills learned through 20+ years in the Army to my own family, and to yours. I also have shared my skills with many young men through Boy Scouts, Trail Life, and Awana. 

I have received a lot of awards during my time in the Army, but I truly don’t like to talk about them that much. Too many others cannot speak of theirs as they have gone on to a better place. My wife and I use our experience from my time in service to now, dealing with a broken Vet to help others hopefully find some peace in this life. 

Homesteading helps me tremendously as it gives me a focus. Animals are a good outlet for someone who lives and battles PTSD daily. My wife has spoken all over about our experiences. 

I am an electrician by trade, that helps out a ton on a homestead. While serving in the Army, I earned my Associate of Science in Business Administration along with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Information Technology. I also went on to earn another Associate Degree in engineering. Since I have all these degrees as my wife says, I use those here on the business side of the interwebs with editing, writing, and also on the homestead. 

I am currently attending Baptist Theological Seminary. My course of study is a Master of Arts in Christian Ministries – Pastoral Services. My next stop on the educational route is a Master of Divinity in Christian Ministries and Pastoral Services. The Ph.D. is years down the road, but still an option. 

I love discipleship and that starts with our own household, that is why I wrote and designed our Fruits of the Spirit Study. 

I am the editor here on this website and actually anything my wife and I produce. My wife says I get that duty because I have so many degrees, I digress, someone has to do it and I enjoy it. I also am the voice behind the emails that are sent out to our thousands of readers. I am a professional taste tester too for all my wife recipes, that is a hard job but again, someone has to do it! The boys and I will take one for the team. 😉 

 

Here are the numerous awards and accolades throughout my military and personal life that I will talk about. My greatest accomplishments if you will:

  1. Laying down my life and becoming a new creature in Christ.
  2. Marrying my beautiful bride.
  3. My oldest son.
  4. My middle (sometimes forgotten) son.
  5. My youngest son

My goal is to work in the ministry of Christ. I have fought the Lord for many years because of my past. I was a sinner that carried a heavy yoke and bared many burdens. However, God placed it on my heart years ago to pursue a profession of sharing the gospel through pastoring His flock. Although the Spirit was ready, the flesh was weak. As Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 10:27, Jesus destroyed that yoke! Not until recently did I accept His calling and take the first step. His will is my will.

Don’t get it twisted. I still have yokes because that’s what the enemy does to us – he yokes us up and adds heavy burdens. But Jesus says in Matthew 11:30, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” What a wonderful message and a wonderful gift from Christ.

God Is In Love With You!

 

Before we go, there is one thing I do want to mention:  how you can share the recipes off this site. There is a common misconception that recipes are “public domain” and that you can do with them whatever you wish. That’s simply not true. Keep in mind that, before a recipe lands on this site, it has gone through testing, creating and testing again. Not to mention the photography! (remember, photos are copyrighted by the owner and it is against the law to take someone elses picture!) It takes a lot of time and hard work to create a recipe, so please do not copy and paste any recipe found on this site. I would LOVE for you to share them, so here are some tips on how you can do that:

  • It’s Not Okay to use a photo off this site without my permission first. This includes sharing it as your own on any social media platform.
  • Ingredients are the only thing not protected by law. But, please, do not copy the ingredient list unless you absolutely have to.
  • It’s Not Okay to copy any part of the directions. That is copyrighted text. Please include something like “get the full directions here” with a link to the recipe.
  • If you are planning to adapt one of my recipes, please change more than just one or two things. Make it YOURS. And, remember to give credit to who inspired you. (you can simply say “recipe adapted from Awe Filled Homemaker” with a link to the recipe)
  • PLEASE contact me if you have any questions or want to share my recipes on your site! You can also email us directly at awefilledhomemaker (at) gmail (dot) com. I will be very thankful for the exposure, but I want to make sure it’s done in a way that will not get either of us in trouble!