Thoughts

I haven't written in what feels like ages. I haven't really wanted to. It's not that I haven't had lots to talk about. There's plenty of thoughts, ideas, scenarios, worries, and so forth that go through my mind continuously. But a lot of them haven't been things I feel comfortable sharing with the public. I'm having a difficult time sorting a lot of these thoughts out and trying to figure out who I am. I had thought that this blog would help me do that in a public way, but unfortunately some waves were made by my opinions and that has caused my shy side to forge ahead once again. That's the thing with shyness, you take one step forward and two steps back. It seems to be that way with a lot of things in life actually.

A quick update:
I was struggling with depression for a large portion of the time I was away from my blog. I think my hormones were encouraging a lot of it as I was weaning my son from breastfeeding and for the second news.........we found out we are pregnant with our second little one! We are so very excited and it seems that this excitement has helped me get somewhat past my depression. I do feel some moments where it feels like it's ready to pounce on me again. But, for the most part, I have a wonderful distraction in my life to help keep it at bay.

I'm not quite sure where to go with this post now. I have so many things I want to say, but I'm not sure I want to say them yet. There's just far too much in this head of mine. I do hope to keep my blog up a little more often now, but one thing that I've learned about myself over the past year or so is that I am not a consistent person. I cannot stick to one thing for an extended period of time. I get very, very bored with it, or annoyed with any obligations. I used to get angry at myself for this, thinking that it was a lack of willpower or character. Well, it's certainly not a lack of character, in fact I think it's a shining example of my character. I like to live life fast. Not speed-wise, but content-wise (if that makes any sense). Thankfully my hubby is the exact same way. Hopefully our children can keep up with us!

Happy Earth Day!

This year, Earth Day is going to mark the beginning of some changes in my lifestyle. I will think of it as a kind of New Years resolution type of deal, except it will be oriented towards the Earth.

My mind is running wild with all the changes I'd like to make. I also just finished watching a moving documentary on Netflix. It's called American Experience: Earth Days, and it's a great historical film about the creation of Earth Day and the environmental movement that fueled it. I got chills watching it.

I've spent a lot of time over the past year or so trying to figure out what I want to do with my life- what is my calling? I know that motherhood is a big part of my life and is definitely a calling of mine, but I kind of feel that it is a natural calling of every woman. I've always felt like there was something else out there that I was supposed to go find. I now think I have found it. Something changed in me when I watched that documentary. The beast that had been laying dormant has now arisen. I need to make change. About all of the things that I feel passionate about- sustainable living, organic food production, environmentally friendly practices, and more. I have a deep spiritual connection to this Earth. When I go outside and feel the soft grass on my feet and hear the wind stirring in the trees, I just know that these are the things I value.

I am concerned. I am concerned for the future of this planet. There are some very ignorant people in this world when it comes to respecting our planet. Our resources are finite, but some people are not able to see this. We can only go on like this for so long before it is all going to come crashing down. The ravaging effects on this planet are already starting to show with global warming. And yet, there are still some people that believe global warming is a hoax. Our temperatures here have been unusually high- so much so that my hubby and I have planted some of our garden already. We did so a few weeks ago. Normally we don't plant until June 6th. We were almost two months early. As enjoyable as it is, it is equally as disturbing to me. I have a really odd feeling about what's going on. It just doesn't feel right.

Therefore, my number one resolution for this Earth Day is to find some sort of organization that I can become involved in. I'm not sure what my level of involvement will be yet, but at the very least I would like to be in the know about some environmental issues and perhaps do some "couch protesting" as I like to put it (via the internet).

Some other changes include planting a very, very large garden (twice the size of what we had before) and really making a big push to learn a lot more about preserving. We have dawdled in canning for the past few years, each year adding more that we do. I have greatly enjoyed our success from last harvest season and I would like to expand it to include more items this year. It is an indescribable feeling to be able to stock your cupboards with food that you not only grew yourself, but preserved it as well.

The rest of my goals are smaller and numerous, so I'll make a somewhat brief list of them:
-More eco-friendly methods to water garden (i.e. rain collecting buckets, water from the creek in our yard, etc)
-Eat more local foods
-Learn about more eco-friendly methods of living (I'm always on the lookout for these ideas)
-Continue to try to buy items second hand first and try to avoid buying things if we don't truly need them

I will try to post more often on my thoughts, progress, etc. I find it difficult to get time to write blogs as often as I'd like and sometimes when I do have time, I have too many ideas that I don't even know where to begin, end up getting frustrated and overwhelmed and don't write. Comments do help though, so please keep them up! It helps me feel like my blogging has a purpose other than releasing thoughts from my head.

Happy Earth Day! What changes will you make this year?

To homestead or not...that is the question.

Money. It's a funny thing. It can make you happy, it can bring you down. It can trap you, it can free you. It can prevent you from getting what you want, it can bring you what you want.

Regardless, we currently have a lot of it in our bank account. While many of you readers may think "How lucky!"- hear me out first. When my hubby and I end up with a large sum of money it actually causes us difficulties. While you may have read earlier in my blog that we are very spontaneous people, you will now read about it again.

We have had our hearts set on the idea of having a self-sufficient homestead for quite a while now. In our heads we have it all planned out- we get a parcel of land (30-40 acres is ideal) and we either obtain or build a super cozy, energy efficient home that is just big enough to house the family. On our land we are going to beekeep, tap trees, grow a huge vegetable garden, maintain a wooded forest so we have a constant supply of firewood, and the rest is going to be a large organic crop of some sort (wheat, flax, etc), cattle/livestock, or a fusion of the two. We will not have conventional jobs. We will be working for ourselves. Physically laboring on our land for the sole purpose of being able to get by. Money will be tight, so pleasures will have to be derived from simple things, such as reading books by the fireplace, or long walks in the back 40. The whole idea is tremendously romantic. We know it will be tough and we actually look forward to it. There is certainly nothing easy about a homestead. When we talk about our dreams to older generations who have grown up living such lives, they laugh at us, give us an odd look once they realize that we're not laughing, and then shake their heads. They have absolutely no desire to go back to the land.
So....are we crazy? Sometimes I truly think we are. And sometimes I also get a bit nervous about diving into such an endeavor, because we may not be able to get back out. 95% of me is ready to just do it. Right now. The other 5% is shaking in my boots and is kicking small stones around trying to delay making decisions. Unfortunately that 5% is somehow the part that makes most of the decisions.

We have been saving our pennies for a down payment on land. Whether it be land here, or land back in our hometown. We've been getting ready for it. We've had the itch to homestead. We've been daydreaming about it. We call each other up and talk about how exciting it's going to be to do it. We plan our immediate future and determine how long it will take us to have the down payment, then get our debt in order so we can take the dive. This fall we could have the down payment ready.

Note the word "could".

That doesn't necessarily mean we will. In fact, we may not even get past this month with our money. A funny, but somewhat sad way of putting it is that my hubby and I hate money. We truly do. We hate it so much that when we accumulate a large amount of it, we look for ways to spend it, then go out and spend it, so we're back to square one. Now that may not sound like a description of people who hate money. In fact, it sounds quite opposite of what I'm stating. Please allow me to explain further. After we spend our money and are back to square one, there is an odd relief that we both feel. We actually prefer to live poorly. We enjoy being frugal and our finances tight. For a while, we even purposely made our finances tight by paying down debt. Why on earth would somebody purposely make their finances tight? Because if our finances are tight, then we cannot go out and splurge on silly material purchases. The more stuff we buy, the more stuff that we feel ties us down. We don't feel very good about ourselves afterwards, yet the money just burns a hole in our pocket if we let it sit there. It's sick, I know. So to avoid this oh-so-fun circle of nonsense, we take preventative measures by keeping ourselves financially tight.

Except right now. We are rolling in the dough because we have saved, saved, saved. And oh is it burning in those pockets. In the past few weeks we have debated spending our money on an endearingly ugly 1980 Toyota Bandit, house improvements, a future homestead, a muscle car, a cross country roadtrip, a cross country roadtrip in an endearingly ugly Bandit, or a cross country roadtrip in a muscle car.

Our train of thought will typically go like this: Well, we should save our money up for a down payment. Okay, we should, but once we're on the homestead we may be dirt poor. So shouldn't we enjoy wild crazy trips while we can? Also, shouldn't we do these things when we're young and when Bean is young so it's easier to travel? Yes, I suppose. But if we do this, then we'll be delaying getting our homestead even more. Hmm. True. Well, what if we do house improvements? That'll improve our chances of selling this place and going to our homestead anyways. Okay, sounds good. How much do we do? Windows for sure. While we're at it, we should address the siding. If we do the siding, I want to do the driveway too since that's the first thing people see. And while we're at it.......Wait- where do we draw the line? Windows. We'll just do windows. Okay, sounds good. But do you think we could do the bathroom too? I really hate our bathroom and after all, we will be here a while......

And so forth. It just goes on and on like this. I think we live in our heads way too much. But at least we do it together and when you both live in your heads, it makes for some wild and crazy, spontaneous fun. Like spontaneous roadtrips in an endearingly ugly Toyota Bandit to see a rainforest, climb Half Dome, go to a Burning Man festival, and head home with our hair whipping in the wind of a hot muscle car from Las Vegas.

Guacamole

I've read before that avocados supply so many of the necessary nutrients, that a human being could survive on avocados alone. I'm not so sure I want to test that statement out, but I do know that I enjoy adding more of this wonder food into my diet. Avocados supply 20 essential nutrients and act as a nutrient booster to allow for fat soluble nutrients from other foods to absorb into your body better when eaten together. Plus the fats found in avocados are all those good, healthy fats (like EVOO and nuts). So eat up and get healthy.

Guacamole
-2 avocados, peeled, pitted, and mashed
-1/2 small sweet onion, minced finely
-1/4 c tomatoes, chopped fine (optional)
-1/2 t salt
-1/2 t garlic powder
-3 T lime or lemon juice

In a small mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. To prevent discoloring, put avocado pits in bowl with guacamole and cover top of dip with plastic wrap, taking care to remove all air.


We've been eating this stuff up weekly now. We even have straight up guacamole sandwiches sometimes. When I get extra time, I like to make homemade whole wheat pita bread and then toast little wedges of that to make homemade pita toast- YUM!

Online shopping fun

I recently came across an excellent article in a Family Circle magazine about websites to check out before buying things online. These websites can help you save money. I'd like to share these findings with you all (I'm just going to type up what the Family Circle article says):

-Promotional Codes : Thousand of codes for popular retailers, many of them originally uploaded by customers who received them by e-mail or snail mail

-Free Shipping: Hefty shipping charges can scotch an otherwise excellent deal. Look for merchants who ship gratis or rustle up a code for the order already in your cart.

-Retail Me Not: More than 400,000 coupon codes for more than 100,000 retailers. Bonus: a tool to add to your web browser that alerts you if you're shopping at a site for which there's a code.

-Red Plum: Not just online discount codes but also a database of printable coupons for local merchants. Just click on Shop Online and sign up by entering your name, e-mail address, and zip code, then hunt for exclusive offers.

-Ebates: Beyond supplying discount codes, this site offers cash back at over 1,300 stores when you start your shopping trip there. For instance, if you splurge at Victoria's Secret, you'll get a check from Ebates for 2% of the total order. Checks go out every three months as long as you earn at least $5.01.


Thank you Family Circle!!! Woo!

As with all websites, use your own caution. If you are not comfortable giving out your e-mail address, then don't use ones that require it, etc. I have only tried out two of these websites- retailmenot and ebates. Retailmenot is top notch. You search for your store, it brings up a page full of coupon codes posted by people and their success rate at using them. Perfect and easy. Ebates I have yet to see how it fully works. I signed up a few days ago and made a few purchases I had to do anyways and am now waiting to see if they show up in my account. If it does not work or if there's anything fishy, I'll be sure to let you all know.

Good luck and happy shopping!

Make your own vanilla extract

Don't ever buy artificial vanilla extract.

I know it's much cheaper, tastes close enough to do the trick, and isn't used very often. But let me tell you why you shouldn't.

It is cheap because the flavor comes from chemicals, not vanilla bean. Chemicals that are manufactured in a laboratory in mass quantities. Most of these flavorings are derived from petroleum. You heard me. Petroleum. Oil. Going into your body. Now it isn't hard to imagine what bad consequences that can have on your body, but let me indulge you nevertheless.

Many of these artificial flavorings and colorings are legal to use in the United States, regardless of the safety of them. Unfortunately, it looks like these big businesses are willing to sacrifice our health for their pocketbook.

Some of the health dangers that have been found in animal studies include: cancer, thyroid problems, allergic reactions, tumors of the brain, thyroid, kidney, and adrenal gland.

Diacetyl is an artificial flavor that was recently banned. It is used to give commercial popcorn it's flavor. Apparently it was found that it was harmful to the nose and airways of mice. For humans, it causes a dangerous lung disease called lymphocytic bronchilitis. Whoa.

If you are interested in some more information on common additives/artifical flavors and colors and their effects, check out this website.



So let me fill you in on a little secret. You can make your own vanilla extract. See the above photo? That is my first batch, started this morning. Here's what you will need:
-vanilla beans
-vodka or other alcohol (brandy works good)
-a jar with a lid

Put 3/4 c alcohol in your jar. Slice your vanilla bean open, but don't cut all the way through. Just enough to open them up. Make sure all that good filling stays on it/in it. Chop them in half if you need to to fit in the jar. Put about 2-4 beans in the jar, depending on how strong you would like it. Put the lid on and store for 2 weeks. Shake occassionally (every few days or so) and there you go! Homemade vanilla extract! It will not be as dark as the store bought stuff, but it will taste much better. Vanilla beans should be replaced every 6 months and as you use your vanilla extract, replace the alcohol as you go and you will have a continuous supply.

In case you are wondering where you can get whole vanilla beans, try checking out your local health food store. We don't get to one very often, as the closest one is 2 hours away from us :( so I actually ordered mine on Ebay. Yes, Ebay! I bought 12 organic vanilla beans for $5.00 total. It came from India! And it was the coolest looking package I've ever gotten in the mail! It was in a cloth package and it smelled INCREDIBLE!

There is no denying the incredible taste difference when real vanilla is used instead of artificial. I couldn't go back once I started using the real stuff.

Good luck and enjoy!

Recycling your electronics

If anyone is doing any spring cleaning and has some stuff they'd like to get rid of, I have come across some websites that may aid in that.

Gazelle: Here you can get cash for some of your old gadgets. They pay for the shipping and they even send you a box. Talk about making it simple!

NextWorth: This website is the same idea as Gazelle. They also sell used stuff, so if you're looking for a bargain and don't mind pre-owned, check it out!

My BoneYard: Here you can donate your used electronics. Shipping is free.

Call2Recycle: This place recycles old cell phones and batteries for free.

National Cristina Foundation: Here you donate your old electronics and they use it to train people who have special needs. Talk about a win-win situation! :)

Reconnect Partnership: This website allows you to drop off any computer equipment at any Goodwill store and you can receive a tax credit in return for it.

DigitalTips: This website allows you to search for places that give you money in return for recycling your old electronics.

I haven't fully investigated all of these websites as I haven't had to recycle any electronics yet, so please be aware that they may not all be free. I just wanted to post these links in case anyone could take advantage of any opportunities there may be in these. Always try to check and see if what you're throwing away can be recycled first! You'd be amazed! We found a place to drop off our recyclables, but it's in the next town over- about 20 miles away. We save up our stuff and when we're passing by the town we drop it all off. We also compost all of our food scraps, so between these two methods, we have drastically cut down the amount of trash we send out, which in turn helps save us lots of money since those trash bags are so expensive! I don't know about you, but I'd much rather spend my moolah on other stuff than paying to take out my trash. lol