Return

A lot has changed in my life.  A lot of surprising sudden changes.  But finally I am ready to return to blogging.  Really just sort of wondering is there anyone still out there?

Not that I blame anyone for giving up.....it has been a long time.  There were things that hit me from the blind side that I had to deal and cope with.  I'm not really sure if I am finished, but I am getting closer to the other side. Maybe one day I can talk about it.

There are some new things in my life.  I am a Grandmother.  This is my new little guy!

 Also some new baby chicks.  Eleven of them.  My sweet little hen was such a good setter!  So proud of her!  She also is a good little Mama to her babies.

But.....   Some things haven't changed....I still love Jesus and my family.....and I still adore gardening, chickens, frugality, cooking, canning, crochet, knitting, art, and a lot of other things.

I am looking forward to writing and sharing.  I just didn't have the courage in the recent past.  Just maybe...just maybe....this will help return the courage that sometimes I feel I have lost.  Although I must not have....I am still here!

Finding Places To Cut

A favorite topic of the times is "this economy". What is "this economy"? I'm so very ignorant when it comes to these big topics. I always tell my husband, "That's why God gave me you. To help me see the big stuff."

It's not always easy to understand why things are the way they are or why certain things happen. Sometimes frustration fogs up my mind when trying to sort out reasons and facts so all that big stuff gets pushed to the back until inspiration to deal with it hits.

What I do find easy, is to evaluate the things I do understand and try to improve in that department.

Sometimes I am asked, "How do you find time to do all that?" Make my own laundry soap, tend to a fairly large garden, raise three children, take care of my home, make my own bread....and so on. You know all the stuff you read about in this blog.

I view all the stuff I do around here as my "job". Just as cost cutting and time management was important when I worked a secular job, it is equally if not more important since I made the decision to not work.

When my second child was born, I simply quit work and informed Byron I wouldn't be going back. Somehow we would have to make it on his salary. I needed to be with my children. As much as others wished to help, no one would love them or care for them like me. I needed them and they needed and need me. I am an event florist and I still do events when and what dates I want to.

Byron being the man he is was actually happy that I made this decision. It wasn't easy, but working together we identified those things we could do without and we cut cost where ever we could. Contentment is so much more important than stuff that it cannot be compared. It's amazing, but we are better off and happier now than we have ever been. We eliminated debt, cut up ALL credit cards (we do not have even one), and only buy if we have saved for it. For a great plan on how to do this look up Dave Ramsey.

The first step to cutting home costs is identifying what really is a need. Most of our Neeeeds...are wants. Does everyone in the household neeeeed a cell phone? Do you neeeeed television? Do you neeeeed a manicure? Do you neeeeed a four wheeler? Do you neeeeed lots of "friends" and parties? I have an acquaintance (a real sweetheart) who has admitted to not having saved a cent, but has a huge house and note, she gets a manicure every week, her toes done, her skin sanded, she eats out all the time.....do you see a ticking time bomb? By the way she also takes anti-depressants. These very same type people loudly complain about "this economy". Which I know is bad and worsening.

I find that when someone grows up and figures out the difference between a want and a need they just naturally know where to look to shore up the family budget and cuts costs. They also naturally will find contentment and in contentment they will find God. See I Timothy 6:6-8 at the top of my side bar.

Taking Stock

First read this blog entry from the blog "How Many Miles From Babylon". Good huh? I really enjoyed it.

I started this journey of self sufficiency accidentally. Five years ago, all I knew is that something wasn't working with the credit thing and I wanted out of debt....Right Now! There was something in me that cried against being beholden to pieces of paper that came in my mail box every month and demanded payment for things that I had used up months and sometimes years ago. Ceaseless, endless, day in day out. What was I working for? To be miserable?

Daily I would strive to obey the Bible, yet tried to turn a blind eye to the whole borrower being a slave to the lender thing. Thankfully the word of God is a mirror. It reflected right back at me the image of who I had become, and I was far from thrilled. James 1:22-24 KJV "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass (mirror): For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straight-way forgetteth what manner of man he was."

Attending church regularly, the mirror was held up to me constantly. I couldn't forget the mess I had created. I was forced to look at my spiritual self three times a week during the preaching of the word. Thankfully I wasn't left to figure this out on my own. Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." I began to ask, seek, and beat any door I could find. Only then did things begin to change.

It started when I stopped hiding and threw everything out into the open... Honesty with my husband, with my family and with my friends... No longer could I continue in the way I was going, no matter the opinions of others. I didn't need prestige or stuff. I needed peace and contentment. Doors started opening. From fear of the desperate hysterical person I had become, my husband actually stopped and listened to me. At first he listened to the whole "Debt Free Dave Ramsey Thing" to appease me .....then.....it made sense. Now our marriage has become two individuals working toward one goal, instead of two immature children keeping score. When that happens, watch out. A man and a woman can accomplish almost anything when in agreement.

Today I'm so happy we started five years ago on this journey. With the current hysteria going on in our world, I still have contentment. I'm not afraid. I John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us."

Sometimes it is good to stop and take stock (not the Wall Street kind). Remember where you were, where you are, and where you are going. It is important to remember the past, and then make goals and plan your path for the future. I cut a pot shot out of the newspaper before I was even married, and I still have it to this day. It said, "You can't make deals with the past, but with the future, everything is negotiable." Maybe you can't control it, but you can surely negotiate! Certainly you can't change the past, but remembering it prevents repeat mistakes.

Today:

Our marriage is stronger than ever.
I am content. (One should seek contentment, not happiness.)
We are debt free.
I got a solar oven for Christmas.
I am eliminating electric appliances as they die (so far the coffee pot and toaster oven).
I am reducing electricity usage to minimum. (We'd like to get an off grid system eventually.)
I have reduced unneccesary driving.


We have finished one third of our raised potager garden.
This year I planted, 2 fig trees, a guava, 6 mulberries, 12 citrus trees, 4 pecan trees, 3 pear trees, 4 banana trees, 2 persimmon trees, 2 plum trees, and 1 olive tree.

We have built our coop and aquired chickens. They give us 2 dozen eggs a day currently. We sell the excess and make enough to purchase all the supplies for them and give the girls a little spending money.
And....Our chickens are now giving us babies.

It's never too late to start, and there is never a perfect time to start living as self-sufficiently as possible. Have you started, or are you making plans to move in that direction?

The Rooster and The Hen

A Depression Era Poem

The Rooster and The Hen

Said the Little Red Rooster, "Believe me things are tough!"

Seems the worms are getting scarcer and I cannot find enough,

What's become of all those fat ones? It's a mystery to me.

There were thousands through that rainy spell,

But now, where can they be?"

But the Old Black Hen who heard him didn't grumble or complain,

She had lived through lots of dry spells;

She had lived through floods of rain.

She picked a new and undug spot, The ground was hard and firm,

"I must go to the worms," she said. "The worms won't come to me."

The Rooster vainly spent his day,

Through habit, by the ways

Where fat round worms had passed in squads back in the rainy days.

When nightfall found him supperless, he growled in accents rough,

"I'm hungry as a fowl can be, conditions sure are tough."

But the Old Black Hen hopped to her perch

And dropped her eyes to sleep

And murmured in a drowsy tone, "Young man, hear this and weep.

I'm full of worms and happy

For I've eaten like a pig.

The worms were there as always

But, boy I had to dig!"

Cookin' up a Storm

Cooking up a Storm

This is the cute title for our church's, soon to debut, cookbook. In order to raise funds to finish up the final restoration of our church after hurricane Katrina, Our church is publishing a recipe book. It will contain "recipes and remembrances from Katrina".

We are collecting stories and recipes from all of the areas where we were scattered. From Maryland to Mississippi to Colorado and beyond. This book will be such a wonderful historical reference from a positive point of view. I'm going to buy one for each one of my girls and give it to them when they get married. It will have some of my recipes of course!

The real kicker to the whole thing is going to be a bonus they are including, A raw video taken of St. Bernard Parish after the storm. Several of the men in our church were allowed back into the parish under homeland security. This is the most true video of the destruction that I have ever seen. They will edit out the dead bodies out of respect to the departed. ---don't cry Kristi----But throughout the video they will insert stories of overcoming. The spirit God put in us humans is just amazing.

The book should be ready sometime in June. I will let everyone know how to order one for themselves.