Hello all,
After a grueling, exhausting, irritating, and HOT week - we are finally finished moving! We did most of the moving ourselves, with the exception of a few hours of help from a couple friends. (which we really, really appreciated by the way) Also, just to keep things interesting, we had both girls running around underfoot and trying to eat any piece of wayward trash that managed to find its way to the floor.
We downsized from a two-story, four bedroom house to a travel trailer not much bigger than our old porch. This may seem crazy, but we are actually joining a movement of people that have learned less is more. We gave away probably a third of what we had, and now have everything we own in a 10'x10' storage unit and our 27' travel trailer. It's amazing how freeing it is to have less, I LOVE IT. I had read other people expound on the advantages of living small and caught the bug, but had no idea how we would reach that goal.
The travel trailer (a 2001 Fleetwood Prowler) is a temporary piece in the bigger picture of building our own home. We have land picked out, but not yet paid for, that we will be building a small house on with cash as we are able. We are currently parked at my dad's company's shop as we wait to have the ability to buy our land.
The girls have settled in nicely, and I can already see how this will do wonders in helping us learn better habits. While cleaning takes much less time to accomplish, (Yay!) it also takes much less time to get dirty. So, I've already begun the process of learning to truly keep up with messes as they happen. My next post will include pictures of our amazing new home, however, I don't have a computer so it might be a few days. I intend on taking a photo tour, if you can call it that, of the house to show how easy it is to make a space so small work for a family of four.
Hopefully, like me, through reading the experiences of someone else, you will be inspired to embark on your own journey to a simpler, more peaceful life. Enjoy
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
A Rather Lengthy Introduction
Hello, and welcome to our life trying to go off the grid! It's challenging, time consuming, daunting, and fraught with naysayers. It's also rewarding, encouraging, and absolutely wonderful. Since this is the first post, I figured I'd cover some of the bases including who we are, what we're about, and where we're (working on) going.
Who we are:
Handsome Husband is busy taking classes to start a new career since the first one was rather physically demanding and ended in back surgery. He is creative, opinionated, sweet, anti-social, and pretty much the best dad or husband we could ask for.
His current endeavors: leather crafting, jewelry design, and researching all the various things we need to know (ie: well digging, solar panel insanity, etc.)
Helpmeet Wife and Attached Momma is busy keeping kids from falling off of things, putting fingers in sockets, eating things off the floor, and other things that might harm them in any way. I also cook (mostly whole foods - we're still in transition), clean when possible, sew from time to time, and do a ridiculous amount of research about housebuilding, water harvesting and storage, off-grid power systems, grey water systems, gardening, and any other topics related to becoming more independent. Oh, and now I've added blogging to the list. :)
My current endeavors: Packing up the house, sorting through materialism that has accrued in our home, learning to make sewing patterns, caring for the first family garden.
Slightly Bigger Bit & Tremendously Thoughtful Toddler is busy asking all the important whys in life, learning to help wash dishes, fold clothes, and other miscellaneous household tasks. (and maybe slowing Attached Momma down, but in a super cute way.)
Her current endeavors: Locate her pacifier...again...for the fifteenth time today, learning to share happily and without prompting, adding new words to her vocabulary, and giving "peesees (pieces) of food to her little sister.
Little Bit & Super Sweet Smiler is busy crawling everywhere, experiencing the world (through her mouth mostly), cooing and popping out those first words, playing peek-a-boo, and slamming toys together.
Her current endeavors: walking (she took her first several unassisted steps today), teething, talking, and establishing her place and rights as a member of our family.
What We're About:
First and foremost, we love God and try to follow and honor Him in all that we say and do. This translates into our lives in a lot of different ways:
+ Trying to get out of debt and live debt free - according to the scripture which refers to owing no man.
+ Homeschooling - think life training from birth as opposed to only structured learning times with worksheets and other teaching guides.
+ Being good stewards of the planet we live on - which makes more sense to most people if you call it "going green" which is not technically our point, but we have a lot of similar goals.
+ Being good stewards of our bodies - also under "going green or organic" but only on a technicality. We don't follow any particular trend, we simply try to live in a toxin free environment as much as possible, eat organically grown and non-GMO containing foods, and we pass on vaccinations in favor of natural remedies and a focusing on maintaining health.
Where We're Going:
Picture a small, well designed and insulated house, passively heated and cooled, with a greenhouse attached with fresh food year round, a warm masonry stove for those really cold winter days, a contained power grid from both solar and wind power sources onsite, with water directly from its own well, a garden and animals out back, home canned goods in the cellar, and the kids playing out in nature all day. This is the home and life we want for ourselves.
These things take money, so we will be living in a rv for a short season of life as we build. We will build as much as we can on our own, only bringing in the professionals for the things we absolutely know we can't accomplish on our own.
This blog will be a landing spot for a wide range of topics from homeschooling, to getting off the grid. We have a different path for our life than most, and we welcome any constructive comments. You do not have to agree with us, and we will not take away your freedom of speech on this site no matter how different our views might be. However, we do ask that you refrain from any and all cussing, as well as any comments intended only for demeaning our family. It is possible to respectfully disagree and we ask that all visitors of this page do so.
That now said, check in soon for upcoming posts following our journey from dependent renters to self-sufficient home owners, on a (pretty tight) budget.
Thanks for stopping by!
Who we are:
Handsome Husband is busy taking classes to start a new career since the first one was rather physically demanding and ended in back surgery. He is creative, opinionated, sweet, anti-social, and pretty much the best dad or husband we could ask for.
His current endeavors: leather crafting, jewelry design, and researching all the various things we need to know (ie: well digging, solar panel insanity, etc.)
Helpmeet Wife and Attached Momma is busy keeping kids from falling off of things, putting fingers in sockets, eating things off the floor, and other things that might harm them in any way. I also cook (mostly whole foods - we're still in transition), clean when possible, sew from time to time, and do a ridiculous amount of research about housebuilding, water harvesting and storage, off-grid power systems, grey water systems, gardening, and any other topics related to becoming more independent. Oh, and now I've added blogging to the list. :)
My current endeavors: Packing up the house, sorting through materialism that has accrued in our home, learning to make sewing patterns, caring for the first family garden.
Slightly Bigger Bit & Tremendously Thoughtful Toddler is busy asking all the important whys in life, learning to help wash dishes, fold clothes, and other miscellaneous household tasks. (and maybe slowing Attached Momma down, but in a super cute way.)
Her current endeavors: Locate her pacifier...again...for the fifteenth time today, learning to share happily and without prompting, adding new words to her vocabulary, and giving "peesees (pieces) of food to her little sister.
Little Bit & Super Sweet Smiler is busy crawling everywhere, experiencing the world (through her mouth mostly), cooing and popping out those first words, playing peek-a-boo, and slamming toys together.
Her current endeavors: walking (she took her first several unassisted steps today), teething, talking, and establishing her place and rights as a member of our family.
What We're About:
First and foremost, we love God and try to follow and honor Him in all that we say and do. This translates into our lives in a lot of different ways:
+ Trying to get out of debt and live debt free - according to the scripture which refers to owing no man.
+ Homeschooling - think life training from birth as opposed to only structured learning times with worksheets and other teaching guides.
+ Being good stewards of the planet we live on - which makes more sense to most people if you call it "going green" which is not technically our point, but we have a lot of similar goals.
+ Being good stewards of our bodies - also under "going green or organic" but only on a technicality. We don't follow any particular trend, we simply try to live in a toxin free environment as much as possible, eat organically grown and non-GMO containing foods, and we pass on vaccinations in favor of natural remedies and a focusing on maintaining health.
Where We're Going:
Picture a small, well designed and insulated house, passively heated and cooled, with a greenhouse attached with fresh food year round, a warm masonry stove for those really cold winter days, a contained power grid from both solar and wind power sources onsite, with water directly from its own well, a garden and animals out back, home canned goods in the cellar, and the kids playing out in nature all day. This is the home and life we want for ourselves.
These things take money, so we will be living in a rv for a short season of life as we build. We will build as much as we can on our own, only bringing in the professionals for the things we absolutely know we can't accomplish on our own.
This blog will be a landing spot for a wide range of topics from homeschooling, to getting off the grid. We have a different path for our life than most, and we welcome any constructive comments. You do not have to agree with us, and we will not take away your freedom of speech on this site no matter how different our views might be. However, we do ask that you refrain from any and all cussing, as well as any comments intended only for demeaning our family. It is possible to respectfully disagree and we ask that all visitors of this page do so.
That now said, check in soon for upcoming posts following our journey from dependent renters to self-sufficient home owners, on a (pretty tight) budget.
Thanks for stopping by!
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