Life is Simple... but we make it difficult. Why do we have this need to make it difficult? Why are our lives lead by "things"? Why must we have the next "thing", whatever that might be.  Then we have this need to show these horrible habits to our children who in turn show theirs the same.  Our lives are lead by stuff, things, junk, crap, and more crap. Summer just flew by and I never took enough time to notice it's beauty or enjoy its splendor. I ignored it by wasting my time online, on my phone, driving around in my car, and working, just to spend my pay check on the things I don't need.

Where is the logic in any of this? We spend all of our time working, giving part of it away to taxes, most of it to bills, and enjoying none of it. Those bills I mentioned are for all things we do not need. One does not NEED cable, or a cell phone, or the internet, or even electricity for that matter. To have our conveniences we basically sign our lives away so we can pay for them.

I, just like anyone else, have been conditioned to view this life as normal. The reality is IT'S NOT! Driving ourselves into chaos and risking our health and mental well being for stuff is not normal. Why is it so hard to stop our addiction to it? We are so conditioned and brainwashed it makes it almost impossible to break free.

I am sick of driving myself nuts over bills and work. I just want to live. I want to notice all the rays of sun that beam on my face in the summer sun. I want to hear the birds chatter and call to one another. I want to just be. But I can't . I cannot see those rays because my eyes are to busy looking at my status, checking my messages, or looking at bills. I cannot hear those birds because my ears are just hearing people complain about bills, or people telling me where they need to be at what time, or all the other distractions that are thrown my way.

I see the usefulness of technology. I see the wonders of the industrial age. I also see what it has done to us as people, how we interact with each other, and how we interact with nature. We have lost our connection to the world. Work without purpose, that is now our life. Where before our connection with nature was so strong, all of our work was with purpose.

I hope that each of us try a little every day to break free from the chains that bind us. Only we can free ourselves from the bondage we are now in. We are bound to technology and we need to be set free.

Hello everyo..... oh wait let me brush the dust off of this blog...<whoosh> <cough cough> ... there we go.

Hello Everyone! Where have you been you might ask? Well life... that darn thing called life took over again. A lot has changed since my last entry. Both boys are now going to be attending public school in the fall. Isaiah  needed it. I just could not give him the help he needed. I tried, I really did but sometimes in life you have except defeat and hand over the reigns. Caden wants to pursue Computer Programming so he will be attending vo-tech and joining his football brothers at the high school this fall. I am working  as a home health aide and still running my virtual assistant business. I am also an Academic Coordinator for Cultural Homestay International, and studying for my real estate exam.

My hope was to move to the country and life would slow down. It didn't. Which is very disappointing for me. I had such high expectations of this country life. I still have my chickens (more than before) and I still have my garden (as sad as it is) but it's not going the way I planned. It was going so well in the beginning I am not sure what went wrong.

Life is always changing. You think you know what your plan is but you have to be ready to change it up at anytime. This seems to be the story of my life but I am trying to get back to the dream we had... a simple life.

Simple versus "Normal"

Today I am having one of those days where I second guess things. My middle child's school, that he left when we moved, is having their graduation tonight. He should be a part of that class, had we not moved. He misses them and school more than I expected. If I offered to send him to the private school that they will all be going to next year, he would be thrilled.  The only way we could ever do that is if I went back to work full time. Which would mean, less time for the chickens, less time for the garden, less time for other work around here and my youngest would have to go to school... and that would be a nightmare.

I sometimes wish I knew nothing, that I had kept my head in the sand. If I knew nothing and just did things like the "Normal" people, I could force him to go to school, even if that meant medication. I could make him go to a place he is miserable at,  so we could have more money. I could work that 40 hour work week with that 35 minute commute, order take out on the way home, and sit with kids doing 3 hours of homework. I would never see them, I would never be home, I would never enjoy our land and what it can offer us. I would be back in the rat race.

Pinching pennies, saving scraps, shopping used, having chickens, growing my own food, and not being able to buy what I want when I want is the trade off for being home with my boys and helping my youngest figure this world out without him feeling beaten up and less than.

Times have changed. One salary, even a good one, is hard to live on. It is not 1960 anymore. Food prices and the cost of living are on the rise but wages are not. Good jobs are few and far between but there are a million jobs making minimum wages. People are struggling so it makes it easy to make that other choice, the choice of leaving the home and being "normal". We feel forced (like I do now) to make a choice we do not want to.

What has brought us here? We are slaves. Enslaved by the rat race. We moved out here to escape that, why do I feel like it has followed us out here, where things are supposed to be simple.

A Video Share

Please take the time to watch... and understand this is not a war against teachers or teaching but a war against a broken system. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uAZqMaBY2MI#!

Free the Food!

Here is a local Erie County family who just wants to grow and raise food... let's free the food people!

https://www.facebook.com/EcoHomestead

Homesteading... Does that make me a hipster?

There is a lot of chatter about homesteading these days. You can be a rural homesteader or an urban one. The trend is growing and it has seemed to catch fire.  The moms of 10 years ago who were once carrying Starbucks coffee cups, driving SUV's, and going to soccer games are starting to ditch the SUV's for Pick-up trucks, dark Folgers coffee in a therms instead of a Frap with soy , and 4H meetings and county fairs, instead of the soccer travel team .

I personally attribute the rise of self sufficancey to the internet. There is a sudden burst of inner farmer coming out of us. At one time it was normal to have a farmer down the street or at least you knew one in town. But as towns grew and turned into cities and people went from the outdoors, to in we became less in touch with where our food came from. When the big internet boom happened we were able to connect with people from all walks of life. The SUV mom, with the calendar bunched with dates of playdates, soccer games, and PTO meetings would sit down at her PC and chat with moms from all over the country, some who were living off the grid, raising cattle, and growing their own food. We are now able to experience other peoples lives and all we need is an internet connection.

With the influence of others from all across the nation, families are changing. From career chasing cubical monsters who had no free thought to a whole new generation of free thinkers who do not want to be tied to desk. There are more and more people trying to find their own wealth and spend as little money as possible trying to care for themselves and their families. The days of working 50 hours a week trying to climb the corporate ladder is starting to diminish and the need to for something more real is at hand.

So are you a hipster? Or are you going to stay chained to your cube?

Growing every day!

Our babies are growing like crazy! Soon they will being going out to their very own home that the fellas made for her. Caden has taken such a responsible role with them. He feeds and gives them water every day. They perch on his arm and never try to fly away. They really like him.

 The school year is winding down and bonfire season has begun.  My garden is slowly coming together. We cannot wait for our food to start grown. I will have many recipes for canning to share with you. We really are enjoying our life out here. We still have things we have no been able to do this year but looking forward to the years to come to start adding to our homestead.

 I am still taking classes online and I have starting working on my book again (the book has been in the making for 3 years now).  It is a wonderful story and I would really love to share it with everyone.So keep your eyes pealed for it on Amazon (don't worry my readers will be the first to know).

Here is a photo of Caden with one of our ladies, keep an eye out for more post soon on everything from End of year homeschool wrap ups to new recipes.

The Chickens are here!

Isaiah is the happiest little chicken farmer in the world right now. We picked out our babies today and brought them home. That child is just smitten over them. He has watched over them like a hawk. He said he needed to go take a bath , because he needs his rest, he is a daddy now!  I cannot wait to watch them grow and for them to start providing us eggs!

It does not get any cuter than that! 

Spring has Sprung

The hold winter has had on us is slowly letting its cold grip go. This weekend we enjoyed temperatures in the 60's. It was a very welcomed change. Carlos and the boys (and a good friend of his) worked hard on the chicken coop today. Everyone had a hand in the work, even Isaiah.

 With all the hard work I thought a great meal was in order.  I baked a chocolate cake first. I then got the courage to try and bake some bread. I have always been a total failure in this department but I finally found a recipe I could understand, follow, and use.  http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-italian-bread-59242

To go with this amazing Italian bread I made some sauce to go with it. Dinner was delish and all the hard workers enjoyed it very much.

And after all the deserved it. After dinner they went back out there and papered the roof so if it rained our little coop would not get ruined. It looks so awesome and I cannot wait for my little egg making friends to move in!