Simple Living Manifesto

 

Ok, today was not about simplifying my life!!  I had to deal with or I am still dealing with getting our rental back in order after a fire in the basement in September.  The company who shall remain nameless that the insurance company hired to restore our house are doing a less then satisfactory job.  I will just be so glad when they get the job done so I don't have to deal with them any more.  

Today was a good example as to why we need to down size and not have so many irons in the fire. 

On the bright side of things, I want through one of my book cases and sorted through my books and only kept the very best.  That was hard, books are my friends and I love each and everyone of them and having to choose which ones to keep and which ones to give away is like choosing between your children.  Ok, maybe not quite that dramatic but close.  I haven't decided if this has made me feel less cluttered or not yet but I have cleared out almost a half of a shelf! I kept telling myself that this will be less I have to pack when we move.  

I was doing some research on ways to simplify my life because when I look at it right now as it stands I don't even know where to start. I am not good at saying no and I just keep taking on things until I am so overwhelmed that I don't even do as good of a job as I could on anything and others just don't get done and they haunt me with worry and guilt.  I came across a blogger writing on simple living, I would like to share a quote that says it all for me.


    "A simple life has a different meaning and a different value for every person. For me, it means eliminating all but the essential, eschewing chaos for peace, and spending your time doing what’s important to you.
It means getting rid of many of the things you do so you can spend time with people you love and do the things you love. It means getting rid of the clutter so you are left with only that which gives you value." Leo Babauta 
Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

He goes on to list 72 ideas on how to reach the goal of bring simplicity to your life.  First on the list is deciding what your goals really are, what are the 5 top things that are important to you.  Wow, I thought that should be a really easy place to start... and the first three really were no brainers for me.  

1. Quality uninterrupted time with God

2. Quality time for my husband, my kids, our families.

3. Get out of debt/ learn to live with less and enjoy life more
4.
5.

I felt those were pretty solid goals and I believe attainable, number 4 and 5 how ever I just am not sure yet.

These two I want to think about, I have some ideas but not sure if they really qualify for the number 4 or 5 spot. But I believe that as I come to understand the beauty of living a simpler life my list will grow with that understanding.

I also took the time and printed out a schedule for the week hopefully this will help me stay on track and I will get more accomplished.  As much as I hate living with a schedule my dear Ukrainian student is encouraging me to try it.  He clams you get so much more done if you have a schedule.  I have to be honest here...lol I blow it the first day.  With practice maybe I will get better.

Wednesday is the start of February and my first month to live with in the new budget that Ivan has set up for me.  I am trying not to freak out... "I am kind of a compulsive buyer" (Please don't tell anyone I said that) but that is all about to change this month, so I am making a choice to look at my new budget as a challenging adventure. How to make my money stretch and last the month.  I used to have a book (this one I didn't really look upon as a friend) called the Tightwad Gazette I think I gave it away or yard sale it or something I wish I had it now.  So if you have one you would like to recycle please let me know I think I am going to need it.  HELP ME! 

I have been researching the whole extreme coupon thing and have not decided if it is the thing for me.  Very time consuming which I already don't have enough time in the day so I will have to think on that a little more.

Good night time to go to bed.  I think part of simplifying is the whole early to bed early to rise thing... that is going to take some work for a night owl like me.

New Things I would like to learn

I have been making lists of things I would like to be able to do, to help Ivan make his dream a success. I am sure I have a lot to learn but I don't want to forget the journey. So I want to share my thoughts with you as I set out on this new advinture.

This past month I have been doing a lot of reading about homesteading, myself.  I have been pleased about how much information I have been able to find on the internet which has been both helpful and inspiring. I have come to believe the change to this life style might be hardest on the women folk.  There is such a change in the way we do things now, many of the things we just take for granted.  So my thought is that I must educate myself to lessen my chance of discouragement.  One of the greatest changes for me will be that I won't be able to get to the store more then once a month and in the winter it could be longer.  So I need to learn how to plan and organize my food supplies and house hold needs.  I found a wonderful program that has helped me in that direction as fare as planning my shopping lists.  You can find this wonderful tool at: http://www.mountain-software.com/  it will still take some dedication in planning but this program is going to be a real help.  I believe that making your home as comfortable and inviting as possible it key to making this change a success.  So where to start?  I know that I will not be able to run to town every time I needed something so I have thought of some of the do it yourself things I could learn.

make bread

make cheese

make butter

soap making

canning and preserving

dehydrating 

laundry

supplying a homestead kitchen.

food storage

furnishing for a homestead home

herbs

herbal home remedies

gardening

my chosen home business

thrift store shopping 

 

I am sure my list will grow as I learn more about this 

Looking at my list I thought I would make bread making my first task.  Now I have to tell you it is not like I have never made bread before but my bread in the past was heavy and didn't rise very much if at all.  If we should decide to build a brick cabin my loaves would do the job.  If my family was going to have fresh bread I must to better then that.

After watching a number of you tube clips on bread making I begin to look for just the right bread recipe and finally found one on a web site called . The Family Homestead  Crystal also has a lot of other helpful information on her web site to help the aspiring Homesteader homemaker! I will share some of that later.

Probably one of the of the biggest things that I did different when making my bread was a suggestion I found on Youtube.  They combined water oil and yeast and let it set and work before ever adding the flour.  It has worked well for me to do it this way and my bread has turned out nicely.  I am trying to make bread once a week this recipe makes 5 large loaves. The family will pretty much use up that amount of bread in a little over a week.  I have found that it is good to put 2-3 of my loaves in the freezer because they mold much faster then store bought bread.  I have not sat down and figured out the cost for making my bread but I can tell you it is way cheaper then what I was buying it for.  I was paying between 3.75 -4.80 for around 3-4 loaves a week which works out to be around. 60.00 - 76.00 a month.  It is amazing the ways you can start saving when you start really sitting down and looking at what you are spending.  I had no idea I was spending that much on bread.  I am afraid to start breaking down the rest of my shopping!!!  (I might have to reconsider coupon clipping) 

The bonus is that the bread tastes so good and is better for my family!  Ivan wants me to start grinding our own wheat.... I will let you know how that goes later.

Ivan told Sarah that if we are going to live in the mountains she could have a goat . (Ivan hates goats) Ivan hates goats but love his little girl more and she loves goats.  We will probably have chickens too so I guess I need to add these to critters to my list. like can you dehydrate milk? Could eggs and milk help bring in any income?

It might be kind of crazy since we are trying to be vegan but I decided that I should try making cheese.   Since we will be having milk around I thought I should investigate different ways we could make use of it besides drinking it.  I will begin by finding the simplest cheese to make, and go from there.  I will let you know what I find.

Beginning The Journey

Ivan has been talking for the last few years, how he would like to get off the grid and move to the mountains.  Recently he has been talking about it more seriously, even coming home with magazines telling the guts and glory stories of homesteading. I have to admit that some of the stories and information on off the grid living inspire some romantic notions.  Like sitting by the fire in the evening spinning wool or quilting and chatting quietly together as Ivan works on some wood working project and Sarah makes another Christmas gnarled.  The boys are away to college and we talk together and make plans for their next visit.  Sound really nice, I can even hear the tea kettle whistling on the wood cook stove, the oil lamps leaving a soft warm glow around the cozy room the aroma of today's fresh baked bread still lingering in the house .  

I didn't have to watch "Frontier House" to know behind that romantic vision is a harsh reality of hard work and the struggles to meet the challenges of a different kind of lifestyle.  Can I embarrass it?  Can I except all the changes that will have to be made to make that kind of lifestyle work?  What will some of those changes have to be?

Is this what God wants for our family?

A new place to live

If it is bare land what will it take to get it ready to live on?

Finances

decluttering my life - What busyness do I need to let go of

decluttering my home - What can I live with out

What can I do to help supplement our income?

What skills do I need to learn to make homesteading work for us?

knowing how to stock the pantry

Need to lean to grow more of our food

 I almost feel like one of those pioneer women starting to pack her house, prepairing to head out on an uncertion adventure that her husband had signed the family up for.  What should she take what should she leave behind?  How would she need to adjust to fit into the new life away from civilization?  Unlike my pioneer sisters of the 1800's, skills that many of them had for supplying their families needs have been lost to modern conveniences.  How did they take care of their sick with no doctor near by.  How did they preserve their food to keep their pantry's supplied over the long winters.  Did they do anything to help supplement their families income?  These are some of the things that I will need to begin to explore. 

 As I contemplate my move to a simpler lifestyle and our future homestead I, like my pioneer sisters must consider what are the essentials that I will need in my new home, what skills do I need to acquire what should I take with me what should I leave behind?

  

The American Dream:  a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.

 

The American Dream; has really become the American Night Mare.  Perhaps we have carried this idea to the extreme thinking "Things = Happiness so we buy that we can not afford and we  borrow money with interest that we still can't afford.  We work more so we can pay the money back spending less time with our families and more time taking care of our things so we don't lose them.  All our "stuff that we have gathered around us has put many of us so deep in debt we can't see away out.

 As a wife, my husbands help mate, what can I do to begin to change things at home, so that we can get away from being enslaved by debt and all the busyness that steals from the impotent things in life?         

Well Diary those are just a few of the things that have been running around in my head. I feel like I am standing at a cross road in my life as I look at my two choices I wonder what lays around the bend in the paths.  Should I take the one that has been well traveled the way that looks clearly marked or should I venture out on the trail that seems less traveled and its path not so clearly marked?  Which will it be? 

Maybe, canceling our cable will be a good place to start.