The Simple Life

Just as the quote I coined that is on the side bar of my blog says "Finding simplicity is not a destination, but an ongoing journey". That is how we live and view our life–a journey– We began this journey 6 years ago–

For us simple living is not all about living on a farm with critters and all that comes with that, however I do believe it helps by getting "away from it all", but mainly its about finding inner peace and being content with where God has put you– Living in the country and having critters is icing on the cake–One aspect of simplicity to us is getting up in the morning, gathering farm fresh eggs and enjoying them for breakfast knowing you raised the hens, sitting on the porch drinking a cup of coffee and watching the goats play their goat games and listening to the rooster assert he is king of flock–its listening to the breeze rustle the leaves on the trees, its going out to the simple made hen house and finding baby chicks or running out to the goat barn and find a new goat kid has come into the world–its exploring the land you own(even a small amount) and litterally stopping to smell the flowers–It’s taking the time to cook from scratch and bake from scratch just like the good old days!–There is work involved in gardening, canning, making your own laundry soap, bath soap and cooking from scratch–-BUT the rewards for us outweigh the work–I can assure you I have worked harder outside the home than I ever have here on our farm and been rewarded far less–I lay my head down at night with peace of mind and a tiredness that means something–Our journey here has NOT been easy ,and has been dpwnright hard at times, but we are content with where the Lord has put us-–Hard yes, but the lessons learned have been many–

Simple Living is about doing more with less and having a deep appreciation for God and all he gives us, whether that be a little or alot–So many people I know say they cannot make it on one income–I ask them why–the usual answer is–Bills, I have bills to pay–why all the bills?–Well, theres credit cards, astronomical mortgage, high utility bills, car pymts, gas to run the children here and there–When you begin to chip away at those bills you find that if you didn’t have 15 credit card payments, and didn’t live in a huge home that was bigger than your family needed, and didn’t think you needed those big gas guzzling SUV’s you could live on one income–if you didn’t think your children had to be involved in every organization known to man just so they could ‘be somebody’ you could save —hmmmmm–I am here to atest that we live on a very meager income–Many people make a week what we bring in a month–and my children are somebody in spite of the fact we don’t do every club or organization–they are daugthers of the KING–and you know what–we have everything we NEED–And alot of what we want–We are debt free,other than our land pym-–We spend only cash–no checking account or credit cards, no line of credit at a bank or finance company–if we need a credit card we use those pre- paid debit cards–the money we have saved is huge–We do alot of trading with others–Yes, people still barter, at least in these parts–Nothing we do is complicated, its all very simple and clean–Making your own soap, sewing your own clothes, baking from scratch is NOT expensive it is very cheap in fact–My initial cost to making laundry soap was under 10.00 and for the 10.00 I can make tons of laundry soap––Simpler is more cost effective, at least here on our homestead–Homesteading can be hard work but for us its all in how you look at it–It was harder for me to go to work, pay a sitter to care for my children, work for a less than kind boss, and do litteral back breaking work(nursing homes, waitressing, and I have also worked in chicken processing plants) than to take care of critters, my land and garden and my home –There is appreciation in what I now do–The critters we have give to us in the form of milk, eggs and entertainment, and in turn we give back to them lots of love, God gave us the land, we work hard to take care of it and the critters give to the land, we have a very small yard(around 1/10 of an acre in order to not destroy what took hundreds of years to develop, and less is more–the less yard I have to maintain the more time I have for family and taking care of them–We garden for our health–what we can grow organically is priceless–we enjoy gardening, while some consider it work I think dh and I both look at it as a blessing and relaxation–its great to sit and pull weeds and just listen to the sounds of nature–I am not going to say life here is perfect–far from it–I am not going to tell you I am always content–I’m not–I am not going to tell you this way of life is totally easy–it’s not–we suffer disappointment, trials and tribulations like anyone else–but we have found something others spend a life time searching for–Peace–Peace with who we are, where we are going, what we stand for, what we believe, what we want from life and we no longer chase after the dream of having more–Many people spend their entire life ‘wanting more’ and ‘more’ aludes them–its never enough–Simplicity to us is simply deciding what is enough in your life, being content with where you are and thanking God daily for it all!::Until Next Time::
The Deliberate Homesteader