Soul Searching

I think I am going to spend most of my computer time writing in my journal for the next few weeks. I have had a lot going on the last few and I really just need some time to sort things out. I just need to find who I am right now and wrestle with God over some issues I am dealing with. I am okay so to my friends who read this blog don't worry too much just pray that God will give me some direction.
Thanks
Carrie

Horses, Dogs and Goats Oh My!

I went to my mom's friends house twice last week. I had a lot of fun I would love to just take my dog and pitch a tent and stay out there if the mosquitoes wouldn't eat me alive. She has 13 horses (I think that is what she said), two goats, two dogs, a bunch of cats and a bunny. I helped with what I could but there was not a lot for me to do when I was there. I helped put hay down for the horses and goats and I was able to bring a goat and a horse in for the night. I am going to remember to charge my camera one of these days and take it out there with me.

I would love to be able to share some pictures I took with you. I just hope I don't get annoying to Ruth the woman who lives there. My dog loves the goats but she is not fearful of the horses and it worries me a little. She loves the pond and I will need to get her out there at least a few times this summer to swim. The only time I have ever seen that dog get worn out for the evening is when she gets to go swimming.

Living this kind of life looks like a lot of hard work. It is physical labor but it is rewarding for those who love animals. I thought I would go out there and end up saying I can't do something like this but I came back feeling like I don't care how hard it is I would love to do something like this.

I also went to the garage sale and I made a small stack of money from stuff I would have just given away or let sit for a few more years. I don't know how much it is yet because we had 4 families participating and there was not a final count when we I left the last day. Everything counts these days. I will be saving every extra dime I can get my hands on because I want to have a big down payment on five or more acre. I will have to learn how to plan for everything which means I will also have to set back money for what I will need to purchase or build before we buy any animals.

Now that I have learned about work and for at least a little while longer I have two days at the shop I might be able to walk some dogs or something on the other days. I am not sure though if someone would want dog waling on just three weekdays. I need to find a few things I can do that will earn me some extra money but I don't have to tied down to for too many hours a day.

Still No Sleep

Well last night was fun. My dog got to run around a bunch and she got to swim. We didn't take any pictures my hubby had to control the dog around the animals. She wanted to play with the goats and was scared of horses at first but kept getting braver and I was afraid what she might do. If I want her to go with me I am going to have to take her like an hour early and let her swim her energy off.

I was not surprised she swam but I was kind of surprised that she just kept swimming as long as we were close enough to the pond. She just swam around in circles and got out and got back in. If we would have stayed there until she was really tired she would have behaved better but she was too interested in the big animals.

I am going to have to go without her if I want to help with anything. I may be going out to help with hay on Friday I am going to call her to make sure it is there and ready to be well whatever you do wit hay. I need to learn this kind of stuff if I want my own animals and I don't mind helping for the just the privilege of being able to get my dog tired in her pond once in a while. I don't have any where to take her to swim.

Anyway I went on a cleaning spree yesterday and played with the dog a lot and just kept moving a big part of yesterday hoping that I would be tired at bed time. I was but still couldn't sleep. This is the third night I have had trouble sleeping. I don't know for sure what it is but my best guess is I have a lot on my mind and I just can't shut it off. I don't really know what is going on at work and if I will be down to one day soon or not and if I am not is all the non-sense going on going to make everyone so crabby that I wish I was down to one day. I am not quitting my job I get paid well for a part time job so I will work whatever hours they set for me. I actually just want to know what those hours are each week. I may need to pick up another part time job so it has to be a set day or two.

So here is to hoping getting up at 6:25 am after only sleeping a good hour or two and going to work will make me good and tired tonight so I can sleep. If I have another sleepless night I am going to have to go get a sleeping pill. If it is nice maybe I will come home and mow the grass and go to the store and get a garden hoe and work in the garden.

Got The Cleaning Bug

I have gotten the entire downstairs clean in just a few hours. I spent the last week in a half doing a good cleaning on each room and keeping things picked up and swept. I have been doing a few of the things I learned from FlyLady lessons. I just adapt them to my personality. One of her big things is to put your shoes on it gets you moving, but I hate shoes and I still move just fine with out them. On the other hand she has a lesson on shining your sink and keeping it that way. So one of the things I check before I leave for work and before I go to bed is the sink.

I have yet to finish the book because I have yet to get past the first step for more than a week or two at a time. I cleaned, swept and mopped my entire downstairs in such a short amount of time though by keeping up on all the little things during the week. So there is something to be said for keeping a shiny sink and sweeping the dog hair up every other day or more.

Now I have to get things ready for the yard sale this weekend and if I have time I will clean the front and back porches but I do need a little break. I have learned something about myself in the last week or so that I used to know but somehow lost it in the frustration of a super messy unorganized house. First music motivates me so I have been listening to a lot of music that keeps me working. Second when I get things done in my home I feel better about myself and more confident. It is not so much about the clean house but it is that I got up and did things. It is just a feeling of accomplishment and peace comes from knowing that my house is getting organized a little at a time. Next week I will start tackling the upstairs but it is hard because my hubby sleeps during the day. He can sleep through a lot but I am not sure the vacuum in the next room is one of them.

I have even had time to spend in prayer and typing in my journal today. I know it sounds a little crazy but thanks to the music FLYLEAF I am feeling much better today and I am not only motivated to get things done in my home I am motivated to connect with my faith again. I have realized that I have been childish and petty lately and questioning God for all the wrong reasons. I am ready to make a renewed commitment to my faith. I remembered that it is God that I love not the religion and it is all about a relationship with Him not about rules and regulations. I realized that I can be who God created me to be and still be a Christian. I lost sight of that because I was listening to all the crap around me. Thanks Flyleaf for reminding me that you don't have to come from a cookie cutter to have faith!

So just on a side note I get to go to see what it is like to take care of many animals tonight. My mom has a friend from work that has goats and horses and many other animals and she has offered to let me see what it is like to take care of them. I offered to help for free so I can learn what it is like before making the plunge into country life. I am hoping my hubby will get up and go with me the first time because I want him to watch the dog while I learn. She said I could bring my dog but I don't know what she will do around so many other animals. So if my hubby goes I am going to have him bring the camera so I can have some pictures for you and to go along with my Country Living Posts.

Tuesday Troubles

So today I got up at 6:30 AM after about six hours of not so great sleep. I was of course crabby at first but  after I had some coffee and spent some time reflecting and praying I felt better and more focused. Then I decided to take my favorite car to work. My 1994 Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo, which is super fast and super fun. I don't have any pictures of mine on this newer computer but mine looks a lot like the one off to the side. Well except that the body changed in the later years and mine is starting to rust to death. It is made my day though to be able to drive it to and home from work. A few minutes of bliss as long as you don't get pulled over. There is nothing like the windows rolled down and hitting 80 by the time you merge on to the expressway and that is conservative. So there it is I am really glad my hubby didn't want to sell the car I am in love with the rush I get when I drive it. I love the manual transmission and the speed and sports suspension and did I mention it is all wheel drive.

Okay that was the good part of my day. I went to work and there is not much more to say. I would love my job if I didn't have to deal with so much crap. I work only two days a week and I write estimates and provide customer service to the clients of an automotive repair shop. The problem is that I work for my step-dad and he doesn't seem to like me. I was a married adult long before he married my mother so it is not like I feel some emotional connection to him like I would have my father who passed away in 2000. Lets just say it can make for a tense working environment sometimes. The other woman who works there is his cousin and I really like her but she can do not wrong and I do everything wrong in his eyes. It is kind of like the family that treats one kid better than the other. It just wears on your nerves after a while. I can usually take it for just two days a week but I was already feeling a bit emotional today so it really mad me feel bad.

I am not even sure how long I will be there so I am just going to try to make the most of it for now. I was never guaranteed those two days after my replacements maternity leave. I am thinking I might try something on my own like dog walking to replace the income. I would love to find a paid job learning to take care of farm animals but we will cross that bridge when we get there. Until then I will try to thank God for the small things.

So another nice thing is that I had time to play with my dog this evening. Then I also had time to hang with my hubby and make him dinner.

Is Sexy A Bad Word Or Something

Okay I have not had a good old fashioned rant in at least a few weeks. I have been turned down several times for Entrecard ads because they said my blog was not appropriate. Now I am sure some of them just don't except ads that are not related to their topic but I have had other people and places act like the title of my blog implies it is about sex.

I had some people I knew for years say that the blog was not appropriate and they didn't even look at it they said they knew by the title.

No offense but I am a married woman and I really don't think there is anything wrong with any woman wanting to look sexy for their HUSBAND. Sorry couldn't help it I just had to use all caps. Besides that is not what this blog is about, it is about being the the kind of woman Proverbs 31 talks about. I don't advertise it that way because I don't want my blog to become religious. I am a Christian but I don't believe my blog needs to preach to people. This blog is about my journey what ever it may be to being a great wife as well as a great woman. This blog is just about me and my life most of the time and it really has nothing to do with sex.

I realized if I used that word in my title that I could get some creepy people looking for a naked pictures or a few women who thought I was going to tell them how to weigh ninety pounds and stay that way. I just didn't think that the community at large and especially the religious community would think that anything with the word sexy in it was by definition bad. I get that some people have no idea who I am like most entrecarders but people that I know. I chose that title because it seemed catchy and I thought some people especially dieters might search for it. It started as just Sexy For Life and I felt I had to ad the part about fitness and finances.

Oh well I guess you can't win them all.

Why I Want A Farm

I am trying to do a little soul searching here so bear with me. It all started with my hubby saying he wanted a goat and the both of us not wanting our neighbors so close you can hear everything they say when they sit on their porch and you are trying to sleep. We also didn't want to live in a big house in a fancy subdivision where there are rules about everything. Some of the subdivisions even require that all cars are parked inside at night. We have 4 cars so we would need to build and extra large garage.

So originally we wanted at least a half an acre of land where we were allowed to have a goat (two as we have now learned is better) and we can park as many cars as we want. Oh and we love dogs so we wanted somewhere our dog could play without running into fences every few feet.

Sadly one of our reasons for wanting to not have close neighbors is also we are not very social beings. We don't want to socialize unless planned and we don't like anyone including neighbors dropping in. I know some people sit around their house in the ready to go out clothes but my hubby and i don't have kids so we hang out in nightgowns and boxer shorts. We are never prepared for company unless you call first. If you give me a few minutes to get dressed I am all good but I still don't plan my life around people possibly dropping by.

I am not sure how we decided we want a farm except we have been talking a little about being able to provide for ourselves. I would love it if we could work to save and purchase a farm with cash but I don't know how doable that is. I have many different thoughts on how to get started and the one that seems most likely is that we buy about 3-5 acres no more than 20 miles from where we are now and see what we can do with that before we decide to move far away and make a go of it without jobs. I only work 2 days a week right now so I could spend my days off caring for animals and crops. I would only need my hubby's help on things that were super hard and on the days I worked. He only has to work 5 days a week but he usually picks up some overtime right now and works 6 days.

As far as I can tell though farming is expensive on the start up. So whatever we do would probably have to be something we started slowly to provide for our needs and then worked into a business. Or we would have to get a great deal on an up and running farm with all the equipment included. If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time you know that I am not a big fan of debt so I am going to have to do a lot more research and once we decide the path we want to take I will need to plan. The problem there is my hubby is not the planning type. He actually gets irritated with me that I like to plan years ahead of time. Actually a lot of people get irritated with that so I usually just end up unhappy and frustrated. I don't know that it is a personality flaw because it must be a useful trait to some one. I also know that I don't want to stay here forever just because we the dream seems impossible.

So now to get to the heart of the matter even if we do this I have to make big changes in my own behavior. I have to learn a lot about farming but I also have to learn not to be lazy. I do a lot of stuff on the computer that is just a waste of time. I don't have a plan when I sit down on the computer and hours fly by. I am going to have to start with the time I have and learn to make better use of it. I can type blog posts in an hour or less a day. I can probably accomplish what I would like on the computer each day with an hour to two. I don't need to check my email every two hours or less and I really don't need to check facebook 50 times a day either. I do need to practice my farming skills in my small garden and work the landscaping in my yard to get used to outdoor work. I need to find someone willing to train me on the basics of caring for farm animals and maybe give me useful tips on all things related to farming. I need to get off my bottom and work hard to make this dream come true.

So after I finish my coffee today I am going to go outside and work if it is not raining and then I am going to come inside and clean up the mess we keep bringing in from the outside. I do believe the first step is getting my body used to manual labor again and planning my day so that I can get the most done. I am thinking that working all day will have an added benefit of weight loss too so it is all good, my days at work will be like days off since I sit a lot at my job.

By the way I am typing this on Sunday and scheduling it to post on Monday so I can make the most of my day off and stay away from the computer as much as possible.

Sunday Review

I am not really going to review anything except my week and my motives. First I may not have to spend a small fortune repairing the duplex but it may end up costing me the money I saved this month cutting the cable and phone. Not bad but I am actually more excited to see the balance of my farm fund go up than anything lately.

I am really trying to figure out how to save a lot of money without making my hubby feel like he has to sacrifice everything. I waited until he turned the air on and I didn't complain when he did. We have a lot of doors in this house so we are closing all of them and just cooling the main living area. My kitchen is could roast something without even turning the oven on but I don't care I will just cook on the grill. He doesn't really want to sell any cars but he knows he should sell the one that has sit in the garage for more than three years now. It moved when we did but that is it. I do like to keep three cars but the fourth one really needs to go. As it is there are two cars in the garage and two in the drive way and no space for guests.  I don't mind that he has a toy either they are all paid for cars so it is not a payment I am worried about but I do think it would be nice to put one of our daily drivers in the garage I even told him we can put that money in a separate fund and buy another car for him to race when we can afford the repairs and when we have more room and time for it.

So that is enough complaining about cars. Right now we have two Dodge Stealth's TT (one stock one modified) and a 1999 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 as well as our Jeep. I like them all but it is not practical to keep the modified one and let it sit for years on end.

In other news I mowed the lawn yesterday and I tried to use the edger thing to make the lawn in the front look nice. I am either just plain stupid or the thing is broken. I have never been shown how to use one before but I tried it and it didn't do a thing but make a lot of noise. So I got down on my hands and knees and just pulled the grass up. It has never been done so it took me a long time just to get one stretch of walkway so it looks like I will have to borrow a better machine or just do it a little each week.

I have not been working out either which is really bad but I have been doing so much house and yard work that I seem to be maintaining the previous weight loss so I am not going to fuss about it. I just dread the thought of going upstairs without air and getting on a work out machine. Now that the downstairs is cooled I may get on the treadmill for a bit. I do miss my elliptical though and have had thoughts of getting on it is just the heat holding me back now. Maybe I should just go up there and work out for 20 minute bursts.

I am just not motivated enough yet for my goals to all be accomplished but I am getting there it seems like I just can't get all the things I want done. I think I am going to write another post on the reasons I would love to have a farm and maybe how to accomplish more in one day since I have been super lazy compared to what a farmer would have to do.

Learning About Farm Life

Good morning to all. I have a busy day ahead of me since I got up late. I couldn't fall asleep last night so I didn't get up early.I spent the first part of my morning trying to promote my blogs then I ran across Swampy Acres Farms and began reading about chickens. There is a wealth of information on raising chickens on this website. The great part is it is easy to read and not to technical.

I am looking at at least 1-5 years before we can start looking at a farm or a property where we can raise a few farm animals. So I want to learn how to take care of any animals I might purchase well in advance. Since I live in the city and can't have any farm animals I can't even have a few hens. I don't have the room for them and my dog. I know they don't need a lot of room but I also know that it would be better to wait until I have more room and am less likely to disturb the neighbors.

I was actually hoping to find a way to learn about what it is like to raise farm animals. I don't really know anyone that has a farm so I have no idea how to learn other than to read. I live in the heart of Toledo Ohio but I know there are areas with in driving distance that have farms. I just don't know how to go about learning from someone who knows their stuff. This is not something that I can go to school for or apply for an internship. If I knew someone I would offer to work for knowledge and maybe some milk or eggs but no actual money.

I would like to research what kind of farm animals are reasonable to keep and save us more than they cost us. I am not looking to make a big profit on farming I am just hoping that whatever we buy will help us come closer to supporting our own living expenses. We don't have any concrete goals yet but we would like to have some chickens for eggs and for meat. We would also like to have some milk producing animals but that would be an addition after we learned enough to raise chickens. From what I have read they are not extremely hard to learn to care for. Don't get me wrong I realize they are work but they are not say the kind of work you have to do if you have a cow. Chickens are not super expensive to keep once you have all the fences and coops in place so they are (as far as I can tell) the perfect farm animal to start. Still I tend to like to know what I am getting myself into before I make a plunge.

I know we have lots of time to figure this out but it is not impossible that our duplex would sell and we could find a great deal on a small farm in our area. This is not likely but also not impossible the only good thing about the housing market anywhere near us is that if you are buying a house there are a lot of great deals. Selling a house is near impossible though.

Friday Finances

It is no secret that I am a Dave Ramsey fan and I would love to follow all of his principals. The only problem with that is that my hubby doesn't agree with him on everything so I have to compromise. It is not worth it to have a marriage issue over something like how much to put into retirement.

So what I first have to mention is that my hubby is not a big spender anymore and neither am I but we both have times where we really want a big item. Now we save for it and if we still want it when we have the money we buy it. The things we don't agree on are things like budgeting every dime and the amount of money that should go into savings and/or retirement.

I highly recommend reading anything by Dave Ramsey but I am learning to take his major principals and apply them as much as possible. So on that note I have done a lot of stuff this month to save money. I am learning to eat cheaper as this is a huge bill for me. I like to eat expensive meat like ground buffalo and steak. I am replacing some of the ground buffalo with ground sirloin when I find it on sale. It is not as healthy but it won't kill me to eat it sometimes. I am not good at cutting the grocery bill and I am trying to learn to do just that.

I have canceled my cable and phone so that saved $70 dollars a month and I quit selling Pure Romance because I am horrible at selling and I was just spending money approximately $50 a month. I have plans for joining a garage sale this month and I am giving up many of my treasured books. I am also planning to change our life insurance with term insurance so which will save us about 1000 dollars a year but I plan to take that money and put into an investment of some sort or towards the house we eventually want to buy.

I still really want to sell that duplex too because it is just such a big deal all the time. The good news is that the wiring issue I posted about yesterday is because my hubby who went over to fix the doorbell left some wires exposed and they just need to be covered wires. So the only replacement will be the wires for the doorbells. It will not cost a small fortune to fix the duplex. If we do all or most of it it will just be a few hundred dollars.

I have a good size savings that I have designated toward a house down payment and I was afraid that I was going to have to dip into that to fix things at the duplex. I have a 2 week check sitting here that should cover most of the repairs. It was going to go to savings but now it will go to repairs. No big deal since I only work 4 days in a two week period it will just take another two weeks to put that much in savings. Things could be so much worse so I am trying to be positive.

My hubby seems to be not so sure about moving far away now. We have a long way to go with saving and can decide that later. We live in an area hit hard by the housing market crisis so if we were to by some miracle sell the duplex we could find a great deal on a small version of the kind of property we would want and give it a trial run. We would have to commute to work a little further like maybe 30-45 minutes instead of 10-15 minutes. I saw a house with 2 acres for 80 thousand dollars only about 15 minutes from our house but I don't want to look too much just yet. We could raise some chickens and have a huge garden and still work our jobs and if we hate it we could stay where we are and just keep a small garden and just keep a few hens for eggs. 2 acres or so is still manageable as a yard and would be great fun for an additional dog.

Dear Lord Please Sell My Duplex!!!!

Well I can't even tell you how much I hate being a landlord, but now I just want to shoot myself. Okay it is not all bad but it is just not for me. Now I don't want to give the place away but I am tired of tenants who don't follow the rules and find all the loopholes that they can. I am tired of not being paid on time and hearing every story in the book about why they can't pay. Now it has not been bad since I have had two paying people even if they don't always get along.

So we accept government assistance now and it is easy enough and we get paid every month but we had an inspection. I want to fix the problems I don't have a problem with that what I do have a problem with is by the time I get the letter I only have 10 days to fix it all. My hubby and I both work and we don't even understand what they mean by some of the repairs but it looks like he wants our house rewired. If the wiring was not going to pass I would not have let the tenant move in to start with. I am not making any money on this duplex it just pays for itself and enough for all the minor repairs. I am concerned that if that is what they want that a very nice girl will be homeless. It will take more time than that to find a quality technician to fix the wiring. I have to call tomorrow and find out what the gentleman actually wants fixed and if we can get an extension if the wiring needs to be contracted. I am not sure I would want to hire just anyone to do this job.

This duplex is nothing but a big headache for me. It causes arguments between me and my hubby and it always costs at least as much as we bring in. We actually usually loose money on it just not a significant amount. When repairs need to be done my hubby always tries to get me to help him do things that are physically impossible for me like help him carry something that is 500 pounds up the stairs. Then he gets mad at me because he thinks I am not trying. The thought of having to help my hubby repair all this stuff make my head and stomach hurt. No my hubby is not a bad guy he is actually great about many if not most things but I really hate fixing things with him especially if we need to get it done fast.

So if you pray please pray for me to sell the duplex. It is really a nice place with mostly minor things to be done like a hall light that doesn't work, a new heater filter and a new plastic wash tub in the basement. So the moral of the story is if you don't want to be a landlord and you want to move out of the duplex you own you sell if first. My hubby was right and we really should not have moved before we sold it.

Dog Food and Cleaning

Well that is what is on my agenda today. I need to buy Asuka my awesome German Shepherd some chicken and organ meat. She is running low and I feed her on the Raw diet. I buy have found that Walmart has the best price on leg-quarters so I must make a trip there today. Then I have to separate and freeze them. As a fair warning to both raw feeding snobs and people who are against raw feeding I don't care about your crazy opinions. I don't want to hear about how I am killing my dog or how other people are killing their dog's with pet food.
It did my research and read many books and articles and chose this diet for my dog. I am not going to change it and I am not going to tell other people that feeding their dog a good quality dog food is wrong. Now I do get upset about dogs being fed really crappy food but it really none of my business to judge people unless they are abusing their pets. That being said I do love the results of feeding raw and I am willing to talk about it more if there are interested parties, but I will not be bashing people for feeding their dogs pet food.

My ultimate goal is to be able to raise the chickens that I feed my dog and myself and then we will know what goes into the meat and we will have easy access to all the organ meat we need. For now we have to get if from meat markets and stores as I have not found a poultry farm near by and we have to sacrifice and save to get to where we can buy a place where we can raise chickens.

Also on the agenda for today is to finish the cleaning of my main level of my house. I have been putting off cleaning for ever and just picking up. I really need to get a good dusting, sweeping and mopping in today. I did the kitchen on Monday so just two more rooms to go.

Hopefully I will have time to reorganize this blog as I have Friday-- Monday off. I want to change the labels for my stuff and see if I can figure out how to ad pages. I want to be able to organize things by catagores such as Gardening, Working Out and Sewing. I have many more and have not decided how I want that to work yet but as I organize my house I also feel the need to organize my blog.

Gardening Trials and Tribulations

So we planted our garden and we started strawberries last year. We have broccoli, cucumbers, green onions, garlic, and a variety of peppers and tomatoes. Things are going well with most of the plants right now but they didn't look so good the first week we took them from in the house to the designated plot in the back yard.

They were wilting and soon after they were planted some bugs seemed to attack them. With some rain water and bug spray most of them are doing well now.

There are a few plants that don't look like they are going to make it and the strawberries are looking great except for the RACCOON   damage. I need a night watch to keep them away. We have reinforced the fence to the veggie garden so they can't get back in there but we can't seem to keep them out of the strawberries. They break the branches and kill sections of the plants. The birds steal berries but they don't do much damage to the plants. There is enough to share with animals so I don't mind the birds so much but the raccoons must go. The strawberries are also attracting some bugs that I have yet to identify and I am not sure how to get rid of them. They seem to just be in certain sections of the strawberries and I am not sure why. There are some slugs and something that looks a little like a slug but is much faster. I don't think traditional bug spray is going to work but who knows guess I will be researching bug control. Maybe I should not worry too much about them because they are not actually eating the plants they are just gross.

I have tomorrow off and I have some errands to run but if it is dry I need to weed the veggie garden and pick out the murdered by raccoon strawberry plants. If it is not you I will have to work on cleaning the house and sewing.

I Love Mondays

So I have not always loved Mondays but now that I only work Tuesdays and Thursdays at a regular job I just love them. I have time in the morning to relax and drink coffee. Today should be a beautiful day to go work on pruning my roses some more and weeding the garden. I also want to mow the lawn.

My hubby and I worked for hours last night at the duplex. It rained on me when I tried to do yard work in at our house and we had a showing at the duplex today so we needed to get that done while it was dry.

It is only supposed to be in the 70's today so it will be nice weather for both indoor and outdoor work. I have a lot of cleaning and laundry to do too but I have all day. I might even be able to fit some sewing in as well. I worked on two items for a baby shower yesterday and sewed up a quick children blanket out of extra fabric to sell at the garage sale I will be participating in. It is nothing special just cute fabric with the edges rolled under twice and sewed together. I will have to wait for my mother in law to finish the baby shower items I want them to be really nice.

In other GREAT news I stepped on the scale this morning and even without working out I have not gained any weight. I have even lost the pound I gained in Florida. Which is a mystery to me because I have not been working out at all. I have been doing so much yard work that I have been too tired to do a good work out. I suppose that has actually helped keep the pounds from coming back.

On the money saving front we got rid of our cable service and phone. My mom pays for a cell phone for me I am sure as she writes it off as a business expense since I work for her and my step-dad. She didn't like me not having a cell and she got it for me. It was free and it only costs her $9 a month and it is free to call almost everyone that I ever call. I have a pre-paid cell we bought years ago for a trip that we pay 21 dollars every 90 days on and it has well over $200 dollars in minutes that we need to use too. We can use that for the calls that are not free. It will take us years to use up that time since we never talk on the phone. I talk to my mom and sister and they are both free.

An added benefit to not having television, unless we watch a DVD or something from Netflix, is that we actually sat down at the table for dinner last night. I am really going to like dinner at the table and talking to the hubby more. I am not sure how much he will like it but I did ask him several times if it was okay to take the cable box back. It is not that we can't afford it but if we want to move we have to sacrifice to save that money. On that same note I don't want to force Ryan to sacrifice in areas that he really doesn't want to. My hubby doesn't speak up a lot and I sometimes ................okay way to often just move on with my agenda when I don't get an immediate answer from him. It was a big step for me to wait a week and ask him again about the cable to make sure he was really okay with getting rid of it. I am learning from my mistakes.


Like always I love to hear tips and trick for saving and earning money as well as weight loss tips and I could really use some gardening tips as well.

I Lack Motivation Today

I am tired and I just don't want to get off my lazy butt. I am going to journal a little and get up and mow the lawn and work on my garden.

My awesome hubby drilled holes in one of our trash cans that we can not use anymore. We had a lot of stuff in it to start a compost bin and it just needed the holes. So now we will have a compost bin and we can recycle more of our scraps. The dog eats the meat scraps most of the time and the fruit and veggie scraps can go into the compost bin. The clippings from pruning the veggies, flowers and bushes can go in too.

It has been raining a lot the last few days and i have not been able to do my yard work. It is not raining now but it is cooler than it has been and I am hoping the grass will dry out enough that I can go mow the lawn at my home and at the duplex.

I have spent much of this morning thinking about what I could do at home to make a little extra cash. I am going to put some of my stuff in a garage sale soon so that will help. I am learning to sew so I was thinking of learning to make holiday theme items or romantic gift baskets of some sort. I have loads of craft stuff and fabric for romantic stuff. Since it has been just sitting here for years I am thinking that I could make a few dollars making things. Since I already have the stuff and it is just sitting here, any money I make would be worth it because I have already spent the money a long time ago and it would give me practice sewing.

I am working on some gifts for a baby shower right now so I really need to finish that first. I really think if I work hard at this sewing thing I will be able to make the extra money I would like to make. I want some extra to get closer to our goals.

Goats and Chickens

Okay I have the book I have on the side and I am going to read it. I bought it for my hubby a few years ago because he really wants a goat. Well we can't have one in the city and he knows that. Now I am thinking that we might be able to work towards having some farm animals so I have to learn about them.

I have a library book about chickens and a lot of gardening books. I would like to be able to make much if not all of my own food and cook a lot from scratch. So I am trying to learn. My hubby picked a huge amount of strawberries yesterday and he cut them up and I made a strawberry pie this morning. Well sort of......get ready to laugh............I messed up the pie. This is only the second pie I have ever made and I tried to fit too much topping in one pie and the top shell kind of melted off. It is a very ugly but pie. I tasted the filling from around the pie on the cookie sheet and it tastes awesome and so did the crust that baked on the pan. I should have a very tasty ugly pie. I overfilled the peach pie I made the first time and it didn't hurt but there was not as much liquid I really should have thought about that but I didn't. I did cheat and use frozen pie crust but one thing at a time.

It is still nice to be able to make something from what my hubby and I have grown. I can do this I know I can I just have to work hard to get things done. I have to start living like I would if I were living on that farm making my own food. I need to learn to make things from scratch (one thing at a time) and I have to get up early and take care of my plants even on work days. I am going to work hard to learn to sew better as well.

So if you know of any blogs or books about these things let me know! 

Extra Cash To Stockpile For My Farm

Okay so I sold two books to my sister today and got $10 dollars plus I will get $50 for spending half a day weeding at my moms house. It was hard work but I was active for at least 4 hours and then went swimming with my nephew for an hour after.
So I am not making a fortune with odd jobs and selling stuff but I am also not tied down to a job but two days a week. I have the weekend plus Monday to get my own yard done. I have sewing lessons for tomorrow morning and then I have a house to clean and a ton of yard work to do.
I left the donation widget up and called it my farm savings. While I would love for my readers to donate to my awesome cause I really don't need your money. Then again if you have plenty to give and you would love to see pictures of my future baby goats and chicks then by all means I will take your money. That being said the donation widget stays but I truly don't expect to earn any money from it. What I would like though is to get visitors and earn a little from my blogs again but that will come when I post more.

So it is time to help my hubby with his video game and then off to bed. He has promised to cut our fresh strawberries from the garden so I can make a pie in the morning. Thanks for reading!

Saving Money in June

Well I think I am going to start another section on my blog. I want to have a money savings goal. I am not going to share with you how much I have in savings but I am going to share what I am going to try to save on and what I am saving for.

First I am going to attempt to save with my hubby so we can move to a state that is warmer most of the year. We both want to have something like a small farm. We will have to learn a lot before we can do that. What we want for sure is to live on a big piece of land where we can have a few animals and a garden that will help us not be so dependent on the grocery store. That is all we have planned so far.

• Now in the last few months I have done a few things to save money. I quit selling Pure Romance because I am not good at sales and it was costing me like $50 a month to keep my discount and of course it was tempting to keep buying things for myself. So if you want anything I still have some stock.
• I cut my cable and phone bill and just have the internet that saved about $70 dollars a month.
• I lowered my car insurance to liability on the vehicle that is worth less than 2000 dollars to save $250  a year.
• I quit buying books and am going to go to the library from now on.
• I have been trying to use sunlight for lighting whenever possible
• I am not turning the Air Conditioners on until it hits the 90's and if we can tolerate it I won't turn them on at all.

Things I am thinking of doing

1. Garage Sale
2. Sell some cars (we have 4)
3. Cash out my universal life policies after I have good term insurance in place
4. look for cheaper internet
5. Find a way to cut my food budget we seem stuck at $600 a month but that includes the dog and all toiletries.

So now I am asking for some great money saving ideas if you have any or would like to write a post on this blog I would love your advice.

I Need To Learn How I Can Live Without Stress

Okay I do believe that I get stressed out to easily. I am ready to throw in the towel with my workout program not because I am not seeing results but because i have so many other things going on. I am having trouble feeling good when I am in my period about 16-18 days out of each month. I feel weak and I crave meat and chocolate. I can deal with that for a week at a time once a month but when it is every two weeks for at least 7 days it takes a toll on my self control and my nerves.

So I go to my doctor and she gives me birth control pills to help regulate me. I took them for a few days and end up sick to my stomach the whole time and vomiting three times before I finally went to bed at 5pm on Monday. I knew they made me feel ill before but I was hoping that it would just be a little bit of a queasy feeling. So since I really can't take this anymore I made an appointment to see the Gynecologist and have the ablation done that was supposed to be done when I had my tubes blocked. I have to wait until the end of the month but I will be having another surgery. I really don't need a period and I would love to not have one at all but I am just asking for a normal cycle.

So I also don't feel like working out right now but I am determined to get back to it very soon. I am not going to try to work out every day until this problem is taken care of. I am however going to have try to work out a certain amount of days plus keep busy on non-work out days. I really don't feel like working out after a full day of gardening and yard work so on days like that I am going to consider my chores my workout instead of forcing myself to work out on a day that I probably burned a lot of calories.

I think I stress myself out too much because of things that are bothering me. I feel stressed simply because I am having a health issue and I don't feel like working out. Now that my job is part time and not super stressful there just seems to always be something. Such as the raccoons that are destroying the garden and landscaping that I worked so hard to get started. I wanted to be able to make a lot of things with my garden and my plans are being thwarted by two little baby raccoons! They dug up my blueberry bushes (they were just twigs with roots at this point) and my hubby had to look for where they put them. They destroyed a bunch of my strawberries and they are trying so hard to get into my fencing around the garden that they are tearing it apart.