Thursday, September 14, 2017

Where am I going...

Many days are crazy busy around here, and this week has been no exception.

It is canning season, and school has started.  Between homeschool, preschool, one in high school, outside activities, farmer's market, therapies, and anything else you can think of, almost every day is running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  But I'm managing to make it through.  I had a nice talk with a good friend a couple days ago, and really thought out a few things, so I'm working on sorting a few things out in my personal life.  Removing some toxic situations and damaging relationships, clearing my head, and removing "things" that I just don't need in my life.  I'm doing a little more for me now too.

As my adult life has progressed and I have thought about what I would really like to do with it and what I would like to pursue, the idea of homemaking has become more and more appealing.  I have always wanted to live on a farm, out in the country.  I don't want a giant herd of cattle or acres upon acres of crops.  I want a few acres maybe.  Fruit trees, berry bushes, a large garden - or a few gardens ;) - and a few animals.  Goats, chickens for eggs, a pig and a calf to raise to be butchered later.  I love canning.  I love cooking.  I never knew there was a name for it.  But now I know what it is.

Homesteading.

Many of my goals that I have been working on, and many of the things I love doing fall in line with homesteading.  Besides the cooking and canning,  there's gardening, attempting to be self-sufficient, home remedies, hands-on. I've been attempting to embrace minimalism as I've been purging and downsizing.  I'm not afraid to make things myself.  I already trade and barter at Farmer's Market quite often with the other vendors just because that's how things are done there.  Fortunately between me and my husband, we are able to do most things.

For now I'm going to attempt to expand what I'm already doing to include more and see how much homesteading I can actually do here in town.  I really wish I could have chickens here, but unfortunately that's not a possibility with our location.  We'll just have to see what the future brings.


Wednesday, July 26, 2017

TODAY is Day One

I've been flipping this first post over and over in my mind for the past few days... where to start with it.  I've tried to blog before, but I decided to start over, from the beginning, with Day One.  This is my journal, my stories, of my real life.  My successes and my failures.  What it's like to live my chaotic life where we rarely have a quiet moment.  My chickens are 3, 9, and a dramatic 14, which means excitement enough, but add in Cystic Fibrosis, homeschooling, and ASD, and well, ya know, everything is just a breeze, right?

Welcome to Real Life!

Let me introduce my chickens.....





This is my Monkey - 3 years old, crazy adorable, cuddlebug, and has everyone wrapped around his every finger.


This is Scrappy - 9 years old, fearless, and always has us wondering "what next?"




















This is Princess - 14, feisty, coming into her own, but always a challenge too.




This man is my Hubs - the love of my life and the man who has made my life so much better.
























And me :)  I hate pictures, but I'm learning to deal with them a little more because life only happens once, and I need to be able to save some of the memories with my kids.  I don't want them to look and say "Why wasn't Mom ever in any of these pictures?"

And what do I do? Hmm, the question should be what DON'T I do!  I craft for a living.  I LOVE making stuff, especially upcycling.  I crochet, knit, embroider, sew, try to paint... among others.  The list of things I'd LIKE to try is long too.  And I cook and can.  I love canning - I will try canning almost anything!  Lately I've been experimental cooking - and you'll get to join me in some of those adventures - and successes and mishaps!!!  This is going to be... fun.... and interesting.... and.... a whole lotta true life and starting over and over again on Day One!


 

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Paper Clutter

Today was another rainy day.  Enough with the rain already!!  It's been raining for almost 2 weeks now, and I am craving Vitamin D in the worst way!!  My garden isn't sure if it's even growing season right now or if the seeds should still be hiding away underground where it's slightly warmer.  The poor tomato plants may be stunted.  I think the boys and I are feeling stunted.  WE need the sunlight and warmth.  WE need to get out and play in the sun.  Normally I wouldn't have a problem with the kids playing in the rain and the mud, but with the temps only being in the 40's, it's not quite warm enough for that.

Today we spent the day doing some cleaning around the house.  I focused on the paper clutter under the cleaning plan that I'm following.  As I may have posted yesterday, I'm not planning on following the 40 week plan over 40 actual weeks because I'd like the house to be clean before that.  I'm going to try to abridge the plan to make it through a little faster.  I don't know how fast, it depends on each step, but we'll see what happens.  Anyway.. here's the plan that I'm following.. https://organize365.com/organize-365-podcast/  I'm new with listening to podcasts, but I started with podcast #1 and am going from there. I came up with a total of 6 Sunday baskets!!


I know they're not all "baskets" but I just used whatever was handy.  I didn't get through all of them today because I was playing single parent while hubby was at the shop all day, but I did get through 3 of them!  I did a quick sort - his, mine, kids, and trash piles.  Then a more thorough where I went back through all my stuff and opened it and decided if it was keep, shred, or recycle.  If it was keep, I had to decide where it was going to go or what I was going to do with it and put it in the appropriate file/pile.  Turns out most of the stuff I went through was either shred or recycle.  I think that's what I'm going to find when I go through the rest of the stuff, which I'm hoping to do tomorrow. 

Breaking the cleaning down into these smaller manageable pieces is really helping me. Normally when I work on this stuff, my anxiety gets to me and drives me crazy because I get too overwhelmed and I need to walk away.  But so far this is working!! 

There is another podcast I found that is breaking down organization into little pieces, and I'm working that into my routine too.  It builds on itself.  It started with the first night - spend a couple minutes just picking up the bathroom before going to bed.  Put everything in the bathroom away where it goes, wipe down the sink/counters, pick up stuff on the floor.  That way in the morning the bathroom is clean when you go in there.  Now they added on Step 2 - pick up and put away 5 things before you go to bed.  Just 5 things you see sitting out that aren't where they belong, and put them away.

I talked to a friend of mine today who I had lost touch with for a while and has now moved back to the area. She is a personal trainer and I was asking for some advice because I'm getting desperate now that I've been diagnosed at pre-diabetic and have osteoarthritis in my knee.  I was doing my workout today - Hip Hop Abs - when the 2 oldest kids decided they had to start fighting and no one wanted to watch my Monkey, so I had to quit halfway through.  It's really grating on me when they have to fight like that ALL the time.  She only has 2 days of school left, so I'm sure they're going to be fighting  A LOT....