My Family aka The Village

My Family aka The Village

With more than half of marriages ending in divorce you are seeing more “Mine, Your, and Ours” type families or better known as a “Modern Family”. We here are no different we have a modern family.

I was divorced in 2006 and was remarried in 2008 to man that did not have any children so my transition was much more smoother my children really liked my current husband and he fell in love with them as well. My current husband is a very laid back don't get stressed out about things and a really easy to get along with kinda of guy.

So I just assumed it would be easy for my ex to move on and find happiness but boy was I wrong my ex who met and fell in love with someone that had four children had the complications of the children getting along with each other not sure if it was the green eye monster that appeared but I can tell you it has been a struggle and I feel for them both.

It's hard when you have to decide that your marriage is over and what that will mean to your children's future and deep down all you wish for is that your family will come out OK in the end. My ex and I have a great relationship now, it started out because we were always told we need to be for the sake of our children and then as the years passed and we learned to let go of the past we began to be friends again we built back our relationship based on friendship not just because of the children.

This year was big changes for my children, their father moved in with his girlfriend and her children and it has not been an easy transition. Most people would think that it would be the hardest for the adults to co parent but in my family its seems to be the children not being able to play well in the sand box with each other.

So how does a mother help her children move on when the parents have moved on? This is a question that I have been asking myself more times then I would like to admit, I want my ex to be happy because I believe in my heart that in the long run that will make my children happy.

This year we the parents have tried to accommodate all the children and their feelings but I am starting to think after spending Christmas the way the children wanted it we as parents might be doing more harm then good. I mean if we are always walking on egg shells and accommodating them how will they ever learn to play well with each other?

So this Mom is going to set a good example by getting along with everyone but I am no longer going to be so accommodating in 2014, I mean we as parents have to teach our children no matter what age our children are right? What kind of parent would I be if I allow my children to act this way and accept that they will always be accommodated in this world?

So I encourage you if you are facing a “Modern Family” situation that you first work on your relationship with your ex, be open to a relationship with their new partner, and work together to get your children on board with a blended family because the sooner you do this step the happier everyone will be.

Urban Girl With A Country Heart

Goodbye 2013

This is the last week of 2013, and like most I am sitting here reflecting back on my year. Most of us reflect back on a year to so that we can be grateful for what we have or the lessons we learned and I guess I am no different. I think it's actually healthy to reflect back it's good for the soul.

I thought I would take a few minutes to reflect back share with you.

1. I maintained my work at home job by the skin of my teeth. I love my job but I have always had issues with attendance but by the grace of God I was able to make it for a whole year. Jason had some issues with employment but he maintained his work at home job and went back to an old faithful job at the newspaper.

2. I welcomed new friendships and maintained old ones. Some are local and some are on social media. Friendships come in many forms and I enjoy all the support that I get from all my friends near and far.

3. I welcomed a new family member my nephew John Garrett and we said goodbye to some loved ones on my Mother's side. There is something to be said when a new life comes in this world it seems there is so much hope for our future then there is something to be said when an elder passes away, they take away all that wisdom that this generation will never truly know.

4. Kiddo had many first this year, she is growing into a very sweet young lady turning 14, my oh my where did the time go. She is now in the 7^th grade and going to dances, having a boyfriend, being a very active pre teen. I am so grateful for God bringing her in my life. She teaches me so many things each and every day.

5. My older children had big changes this year, they moved out each into their own apartments. I know there is a lesson for me to learn here which is letting go and letting them grow up and all I can say to this is I am trying.

6. In 2013, I started paying more attention to the political world and all the happenings that are going on in this country. My eyes have been opened for sure.

7. Also, a goal I was working on this year is out with the un-used this has been a goal that I have not been able to complete but will continue in 2014

8. I am grateful for the blessing of learning how to use coupons this year, this have been a real money saver for my family.

All in all 2013 was a good year for me to learn new things I encourage each and everyone of you to reflect back on your 2013 so that you can be grateful for the lessons you learned and the blessings you have.

Urban Girl With A Country Heart

Homemade Laundry Soap

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

Homemade Laundry Soap

With trying to get back to a more simple life & save money I have been researching making my own laundry soap on You Tube, Facebook Mom’s groups, and Pinterest. So after reading the many reviews, getting first hand insight I am going to make my own.

I am hearing this recipe can last upwards to a year for about $25. So I will buy everything and post the final cost and also I will date the container so I know how long it lasted. So look for a review of this recipe soon.

Here is the recipe: http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

12 cups Borax
8 cups Baking Soda
8 cups Washing Soda
8 cups Bar soap (grated)

• Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub.
• Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load. 

Just think you can make up batches to give away to your family and friends for the holidays, or someone going off to college, house warming gifts. Just fill a jar with a cute label with instructions add a bow and there you have a great gift idea for a fraction of the cost.

TIP: To save money sometimes you have to break a habit, mine was spending money on name brand laundry soap. Just because I had a coupon or it was on sale did not mean that I was getting a great deal. Plus buy making this as a gift for someone not only was I saving money but I was teaching someone else how to save money. 

Merge Purge Organizing Part 3

Urban Girl with a Country

Merge Purge Organizing

Part 3

When I am taking a break from life’s happenings, I always catch myself thinking about the fact that I am in the wrong era; I long to live the “Little House” life style. Think about it back then they lived in small cabins which meant less stuff. You only have what you used, a trunk of the most absolute family treasures for each person in the family that they stuffed under the beds, kitchens were not over loaded with electrical bulky appliances that only get used a few times a year, foods were cooked were more simple and did not require a lot of  extra kitchen gadgets, cabins were not over run by knickknacks they did not have collections like apples, cows, chickens, and sunflowers that took over the whole house that had to be dusted all the time and took up room, bathrooms were not decorated to the nines it was just a place to do your business and get out, they did not build on extra rooms for offices and crafts which is just one more room we store crap in and have to clean on regular basis. They did not put stuff in totes so it’s out of sight out of mind to the point you never even take it out of the tote to use it.

Let me just say, with trying to work on one of my goals of merge, purge, and organize in the past few weeks, I keep asking myself with every pile I clear, box I unpack and closet I clean out one question,” Why do I have so much stuff”? I am starting to think that I am a borderline hoarder?  Boy oh boy does that scare the crap out of me, can you imagine if something happened to you and someone else had to come in to help your partner get rid of your stuff? Let’s just say that I would so not want to be a fly on the wall when dear hubby blames me for all the hoarding so in a true fashion on an obsessive compulsive person I am on my merge, purge, and organizing quest.

I know that I will still be holding on to stuff that I will not use for the just because & what ifs. But I gotta tell you that I am and will be getting rid of far more than anyone or even I thought I would. I need to be clear I want to get back to basics. I want to live with the less is more theory. Cause if dreams do come true one day I will have my small little cabin in a nice wooded area that has a pond for fishing, I can grow my own food in my garden, and have few farm animals that will help supplement my food source. I am not naïve, I know that having a homestead is a lot of work but at least it’s rewarding work that I am using my energy for.

In closing keep this in mind, do you want someone else to come into your home and clean out your stuff? Do you want to be known as the family hoarder? Do you use the stuff you have? If you answered NO to these question? Then you need to join in on my merge, purge, and organize quest. I promise you will not be sorry you did.

*For help & support on learning how to clean & be organized I recommend the following website www.flylady.com

Never Too Old To Learn Something

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

 Never Too Old To Learn Something

Everyday I am amazed at all the things I learn, I guess its true what they say,” You’re Never Too Old To Learn”. With everything going on in our everyday lives we tend to not stop and think about all the things we have actually learned. Then all of the sudden something will come up and you know what to do “Bam” that’s because you learned something on something somewhere.

Over the past 13 years, I have been blessed with a daughter that makes me think of new ways for her to learn. In the process of my research for her I am learning more things myself. Discovering there is so many things out there I did not know.

So you maybe asking yourself, “Where all this rambling going”? Well, I think that any time you are trying to make changes in your life, big life changes like I am trying to do. You need to research on the subject; you need to rely on knowledgeable people, and the most important thing is to allow yourself to go outside your comfort zone.

Tips:

1. Use your thinking cap

2. Talk to knowledgeable people on the subject

3. Read Books- Free books on Amazon & Local Library

4. Watch You Tube Videos

5. Try it – Yes, you will make mistakes but you will also learn from them.  

Goals 1st Update

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

Goals 1st Update

It’s been a few weeks sense I sat down and come up with my goals to work on to get me from an urban girl to be more self reliant. I have tried to keep my goals in mind each day but more than that I am trying to work towards meeting my goals. Did you set your goals yet?

Just to recap my goals & progress:

Goal# 1 Get Out Of Debt- Well, this is the goal that seems like I will never be able to meet. However, when I meet some of my other goals I think this goal will see much progress.

Goal # 2 Start A Start Pile- I am making pretty good progress on this one, I would say that my family has at least a 30 day supply of food, medical, personal items, and water supply.

Goal # 3 Start A Garden- This was a goal that Hubby & I felt was going to have to wait till we were more educated and had more money towards starting a garden. After much research it was going to be a pretty penny to get started with having to buy the supplies to make our raised garden beds, heirloom seeds, and composting worms.

Goal # 4 Start Composting- After some research, I found some classes on Compost, Water-Wise, & Rainwater Harvesting through my county service extension center, the class is free and they will give you a free composting bin, thermometer, and 55 gallon rain barrel. So I am signed up and I am so looking forward to learning new skills.

Goal # 5 Learning Different Ways To Store Food- I have learned and I must say getting much use out of my Food Saver, if you don’t have one I would suggest you get one. Also, I am using mason jars and Mylar bags. My biggest is food dehydration. I am up to about 18 quart jars for of food that is for long term storage.

Goal # 6 Learn Different Ways To Cook- I have been educating myself of different types of cooking; solar cooking is the one that I have been working on. I am in the middle of building a solar box oven where you cook with the sun. I will be doing a whole blog with pictures on this.

Goal # 7 De-clutter My Home- This one I knew was a big project, but I am happy to report I have been making great progress with the merge, purge, and organization of my home. I have to take baby steps on this because other wise I would get overwhelmed and give up.

Goal # 8 Learn Ways to Save Money- Saving money depends on how you look at this one, for me I have been couponing and stock piling things I need I have saved a great deal of money using coupons. If you wanna learn how to coupon I recommend www.southernsaver.com  She has some great videos that walk you through step by step on how to coupon to learn how to coupon effectively. So I feel like I am making great gains on this goal.

Goal # 9 Secure & Repair My Home Hubby and I have not made any progress in this area. We do have a list of things we would like to do and once again I think some of these things will fall into place once I get the home organized.

Goal # 10 Get Healthier We are trying to eat healthier and we will be making eye doctor appointments soon.

So in closing, I have some tips for those that want to make changes I say that you sit down and write down your goals. Understand that to meet your goals you will have to make baby steps and most importantly remember to be accountable but also rejoice in your progress no matter how small or big

Not All Super Heros Wear Caps

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

Not All Super Heros Wear Caps

When I was growing up, someone always asked the question; “What do you want to be when you grow up”?  I always answered the same way, “I want to be a Mommy” I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a Mom now of course I did not know at the time that being a Mom was more than baring children it would require me to wear more than one hat sort to speak.

I am a nurturer

I am a organizer

I am a planner

I am a cook

I am a housekeeper

I am a educator

I am a banker

I am a taxi

I am a medical expert

I am a fixer of broken things

I am a soccer Mom

I am baseball Mom

I am a Girl Scout Mom

I am a Cheer Mom

I am a finder of lost things

I am a party coordinator

I am a mediator

I am a judge

I am more than just these things..

Do you ever feel like you forgot who you are? Do you ever wonder if your dreams that you put on the back burner will ever come true? Do you ever stop and say man I wish I could just run away for a few days?

For some reason over the past 20+ years, Moms are allowing their children to do very little or nothing at all.  Moms are doing it all for them or not doing it at all. Why is that? This is not good for you nor your children.

The saying “Help me help you” comes to mind. You may remember it from the movie Jerry McGuire. So, in teach your children independent living skills do not be afraid to make them put down their cell phones, video games, and shut off the TV so that you can teach them.  With each chore, lesson, and story your child will learn and become a very independent well rounded person in society.

What that means for you is; you did a great job as a parent. You will have more time for yourself as you are not doing everything. You can afford to dream and not only dream but make your dreams come true.

Living Semi Rustic For A Weekend

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

Living Semi Rustic For A Weekend

Kiddo and I belong to a Mommy & Daughter group called “Epic Adventurer Crew”.  We are a group of three Moms and six girls ages 10-17. Most of us have a connection we have or involved in Girl Scouts. We wanted to start this group to spend quality time with our girls and to teach them more life skills.

We took an adventure this weekend to a local state park for a two night three day camping trip. Sounds like it could be fun right? Well, I am here to say that this trip was a challenge for me.

First challenge, I was not prepared with my camp gear. Seems that after my last camp trip less than 60 days ago I did not put my gear back up in the proper places and re-stock what was used at the last camping trip. Lesson learned, if I am going to use it take care of it while in use, find a home for it when not in use not it’s easy to find when I need it again and last but not least replace what was used on my last camping trip.

Second challenge, Weather this weekend we were already starting out with very wet surroundings we had a tropical storm come through plus it continued to rain throughout the weekend. Which makes for wet fire wood, which was needed to cook with lesson learned store pre cut firewood in a garbage bag with twist tie so it will not get wet. Also, I learned that fire starters are very important when camping. 

Next, up with poor weather you will have gloomy & negative boredom; Make sure you stay positive so others will. You know they old saying “Smiles are contagious” with that being sad a “FunBox” also comes in handy deck of cards, crayons, coloring books, small craft projects.

Third challenge, this one kinda goes alone with the first two challenges. Make sure your shelter & supplies are secure, weather proof, and in working order. Nothing worse then a leaky tent & flat air mattress.  

In wrapping up, Always keep a positive attitude, reflect back with yourself and others on lessons learned, what you can do better next time and most of all remember life is too damn short to be negative.

Reflective Thoughts About Kiddo

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

 Reflective Thoughts About Kiddo

Can I just say where did this school year go? It seems like yesterday that Kiddo started 6th grade Middle School, We had a lot of firsts this year with Kiddo.

This is the first she Kiddo has ever had a male teacher and this year she was blessed with two male teachers. Yes, I was worried at first because as I have shared with you I am Chicken Little I am always worried about the what ifs. I watch the news and  I am sure you know can figure out what I was worried about.

Kiddo, attended her first of three school dances, Can I just say school dances brings out the drama queen in Kiddo, with who is taken who, and what are you wearing, and are you going to dance with so and so. Yes, my house was all the buzz for weeks leading up to the dances. Kiddo, had a great time at each dance and I survived all the middle school dance drama.

Kiddo had her very first so called “Boyfriend” this year. They attended the first dance of the year together, they exchanged Valentine gifts and talk on the phone endless hours. He even attended a few of her baseball games to show his support. Kiddo, also learned that girls hold a special power over boys, she was very much using this to power to control the relationship of this poor nice sweet boy; which many times I had to put her in check.

Kiddo did several firsts with her Girl Scout troop this year; starting with taking a train to visit Savannah Georgia to visit the founder of Girl Scouts Juliette Gordon Low home. This is her first time every going somewhere without a parent. She had a great time; I was happy & proud of myself that I let my baby leave the nest to spread her wings.  

Next up in our year of Kiddo’s first school extra curricular activity was cheer-leading she cheered for the school’s boys basketball team, she attended all 10 games, and learned like 5 cheers. I can tell you that she was beaming full of pride and it was great for her self esteem.

Wrapping up the year of firsts, Kiddo was able to complete both Fall & Spring baseball sessions. This was a first for her as she missed 2 seasons do to having a cast on her arm. Kiddo’s team was selected to play at a local AA Minor League field where they posted her picture on the jumbo screen and announced her name when she was up to bat. It would be a day never to forget for sure.

All in all I can say that Kiddo had a great school year and many firsts that will hold fond memories for years to come. I am so blessed to have such an amazing daughter.

*Income*Budget*Save* Part 3

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

*Income*Budget*Save*

Part 3

In my first two series we talked about knowing your true household income and setting a budget or at least an outline of where our money goes. As I shared with you I am looking for ways to reduce my household spending so I am no longer living in the red. In part 3 we will look at ways to cut spending. I don’t know about you but I will take all the tips & suggestions I can get. Below are what I call the Fav 5, I call them this because you always here these tips maybe not word for word but the general idea is there. So, my thought process is it must work if they have been around that long and talked about so much.

1. Set priorities & Stick to them; if those financial obligations are not met, we don't spend $$ on clothes, crafts, eating out, mani/pedi’s, movies, or road trips. This is something you will have to practice so much self control not only for yourself but for your family, they may not be on board 100% because they just don’t understand the financial challenges your household is facing. Let’s face it was hard for us to face our own short comings when it came to the family budget. So I recommend educating your family on the realities and your game plan. Remember you need a support team to be successful.
2. Don't get stressed; Stressing out about budgeting is not healthy. You must find a balance between being wise with your finances and being flexible where you can be. Remember if you are so stressed out that it is causing you health issue you are costing your family money not saving them money.
3. Cut your food bill; meal plan for every single meal. Base it around what's in the pantry, what on sale, what coupons you have. Keep in mind that stores cycle their sales about every 4 weeks.  If you can meal plan in 4 week cycles you will find the store sales match up with your coupons and you will get more for less. This step will have the most wiggle room in your budget just in case you need to shuffle money somewhere else. (I will explain about how to coupon in a future blog).
4. Don't pay retail; shop thrift stores, consignment shops, yard sales, Craig’s List also check out the following Facebook groups that do online yard sales in your area or Freecycle groups these are people looking to donate items to avoid filing landfills. Plus ask your friends and family they may not want something you need. Trade goods or your services for items or services you need. It’s a win-win for everyone.
5. Pay more than the minimum due. You want to do this on any of your high interest bearing bills. Now how I did this is I went through my credit cards picked the top 3 that had the highest interest rate and any extra money that I have (from using coupons and bonuses we have earned at work) I split between them. Paying more into them will save you money on interest and get them paid off much quicker. Being debt free is a priority for us is it for you?

This has been a lot to take in I know; remember I am a work in progress myself. My tips of the day just take it one step and one day at a time. Small changes lead to big changes. If you fail one day reflect back, learn and start over.

More tips & suggestion coming soon please feel free to leave any feedback, suggestions and tips that can help me and someone else.

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*Income*Budgets*Save* Part 2

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

*Income*Budgets*Save*

Part 2

So in part 1, I shared with you a little about my household income. Let me give you a bit more information so you can see what I am working with; when trying to create a household budget. Some would say that I should not be giving out this much personal information; I do see their point. However, I have always felt my life is an open book and by sharing my information it may relate to others and help them as well.

We are a family of three that live in the household which consist of two adult and one teenager. Our combined income averages about $35k per year gross means before taxes taken out.

After doing some research, I see the average median household income: $76,188 for my zip code. So what should this mean to me NOTHING! You maybe asking yourself; why did I look it up then? Well let’s be honest curiosity got the best of me, plus I like the fact I can live for the most part just like my neighbors on about half the income. So how do I do it? Where did I start?

Over the past few years I have been looking more closely at my financial spending habits and seeing that for the most part I had no self control & seemed to always be trying to keep us the so called Jones’s. Are you doing the same thing?

I am a firm believer that baby steps are the way to go when trying to break a bad habit. So I started there, First thing I did was really take a hard look at my families spending habits. Did it fall into the annual income? The answer to that, sad but true was NO. Our spending habits were just as out of whack as our own government’s budget.  

Here is my general household annual budget:

$ 35,000 Total Household Annual Income

$ 15,000 Housing Cost (Rent, Taxes, Repairs)

$ 20,000 Remaining Balance

$   5,000 Utilities (Water, Electric, Cable)

$ 15,000 Remaining Balance  

$   1,800 Cell Phones (not a necessity but under contract right now)

$ 13,200 Remaining Balance

$   6,000 Car Insurance & Repairs & Gas

$   7,200 Remaining Balance

$   3,900 Food @ $75.00 per week x 52 weeks

$   3,300 Remaining Balance

$   5,000 Credit Card Payments

$   1,700 Over Budget

$   1,500 Christmas/Birthday/Back To School/School Year

$   3,200 Over Budget (MayDay MayDay we are going down!)

As you can see this is very out of whack. Now, I need to make even more cuts to this budget in order for us to live within our current annual income. Up next in this series is some of the ways I am tackling this issue. I will be sharing with you some of the tips & ideas that I have recently learned on how to manage your family income stretch your hard working dollars.

*Income*Budgets*Save* Part 1

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

*Income*Budgets*Save*

In the state of our economy is it reasonable to assume you are in debt, unemployed, underemployed, and with no savings. I know for my household it has been a struggle for the past few years to find good gainful employment, pay off debt, and save money for anything. Are you in the same boat?

I myself after being unemployed for over a year took a job a part time job that I can not work over 29 hrs. per week, with no health benefits. Now, the upside of this job is that I am working from home; I do not have to budget any money for gas; with gas at all time high prices this is a money saver; I do not have the expenses of eating out lunch every day; I do not have to worry about a business dress code most days I am in my pj’s when I work. Taking all this in to consideration I guess than I am still about $5k a year less income then I was back in 2008.

Now let’s look at my husband’s income, he jumped on the band wagon working from home after working a job for 3 years 7 days a week and spending over $125.00 in gas just for his use on the job. So, now he works 2 part time jobs from home; once again no health benefits. Now, taking in the account for the high amount of gas he used weekly with his old job and the amount he earns with his 2 new part time jobs we are ahead about $ 3K a year for his income.

So if you did not get lost in the above information (math.. I hate math) you will see that are family sense 2008 has lost about $2K a year in income, so how do we make that up? First thing we did was pay off our car that saved us $4K a year sounds like we should be ahead right? Wrong!

Remember, when I was unemployed for over a year well we did what most Americans did or are doing living off of credit cards, So now we have more monthly payments going out to credit card companies than we did for my car loan. (Shaking my head and saying Why? Why? Why?)

So, now we are even more frustrated because well let’s face it’s our human natural to want to see quick results with very little work. In our minds, I was unemployed now I am employed, he spent a lot of gas now he does not, we paid off a car payment we should have money. Well I can tell you it does not work like that. We never changed our habits when we were having financial challenges. 

Now all that is about to change, I will blog a series on how to produce income, make a solid budget, and ways to save money. I hope you follow along with me as you see my transformation from a city girl in debt to her eye balls to debt free country living homesteader.

Having A Support Team

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

Having A Support Team

When starting a life change it’s always best to have a great support team. Let’s look at what the true definition of “Support” 1: to endure bravely or quietly : bear. 2. a (1): to promote the interests or cause of (2): to uphold or defend as valid or right : advocate

So with I needed to ask myself do I have a great support team. Who is my part of support team? How do they support me? Do they share my beliefs in this life changing transformation?

Based on the definition in whole, I would say that my husband has been selected to be a member on my support team. I am sure he will be relieved to hear such a thing..lol

My best friend Julie makes the team as she has not only opened my eyes to so many things she also shares many of my views and is a strong advocate for change. Deep down she is a country girl at heart. Please check out her blog. http://www.networkedblogs.com/blog/threehuggers

My daughter, who I affectionately call “Kiddo” a nickname I borrowed from my friend Julie, makes the team as well; with her many years as a Girl Scout she loves hands on projects, animals, crafts and much more. She is the reason I want to change our way of living. 

Now I have a few people in my life that wanna support me, I think in most cases it more out of love then sharing my beliefs but as the definition states to endure bravely or quietly this would be my Mom & Sister Mandi.  My sister Mandi is 14 years younger than me just starting her family and she also has a blog please check it out http://whendreamscometrue143.blogspot.com

Then I have a few what I will call passive support team members, this means that they love me enough or value our friendship enough to help me out on projects I can bounce ideas off of and they will give me great feedback or advice. These team members are just as important they may not see you your idea as awesome but they are open enough to try and show support.

So in closing, I would say evaluate your peeps. Pick your team members. Make sure your team members & passive team members know just how much your support means to you. Pay it back in some way. Sometimes the littlest thing can show that you love and support them just as much as they do you.  

Breaking Away From The Emotional Ties

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

Breaking Away From The Emotional Ties

Recently, I made some goals for myself in my quest to become an urban homesteader. The one that I started to tackle was the down sizing and reorganization on my home and storage sheds. This has been an emotional and daunting task for me because it’s many years of accumulated crap like how I cleaned up my choice of word for all this stuff just for you folks reading this.  

My goal is to try and get rid of stuff that I have that I don’t use or just don’t like, break away from the emotional bond & guilt that has prompted me to keep these items over the years when I truly had no use for them or in some cases even like them. Just because some very dear and no longer with us relatives used to own it or even my fear that what if I had to buy it again but not have the money to replace it.

I started to think to myself these items have been in storage out of sight out of mind but yet my dear loved ones still cross my mind almost on a daily bases. So do I need these items to remember them by? When I was honest with myself I said NO It’s HAS TO GO wow that was very empowering to me.

With my new empowerment I was able to toss 3 bags of trash and collected 3 boxes of stuff for a yard sale. I have set my yard sale date so that will allow me to finish this job and collect more stuff. I have in mind if for any reason I cancel my yard sale I will pack my boxes up and take them straight to the local donation center.

So my tip of the day: If you do not use something get it out of your home. You can even do the 3 & 6 month method. If you have not used it in 3 months then pitch, if you are torn and don’t want to toss it out at the 3 months mark box it and reevaluate at 6 months at that point if you have not used it or found a proper place for it then donate or yard sale it.  So when loved ones pass and you find yourself being given stuff so you can remember them ask yourself do I need it? Will I use it? Do I really need this in my house to remember them by? After all keep in mind you don’t want to be remembered by your loved ones as a hoarder in the family, when they have to go through all your stuff. 

Getting Started & Goal Setting

Urban Girl with a Country Heart

Getting Started & Goal Setting

It’s been a few days sense I posted so I thought I would share a few things with you. I am going on 6 months of a successful farming. My farm has garden, animals, and plenty of fruit trees. Sounds super impressive right? Ok, so I need to give full discourse here, it’s a virtual farming game on Facebook, but let’s be clear it takes time plus I have to remember to feed my animals and plant my gardens so it’s kind of giving me a great insight to how much dedication is needed.

So let’s face a city girl like myself; needs to get a more realistic approach to real homesteading. All the farm games on Facebook, watching You Tube Videos, and Pinning on Pinterest is just not going to be enough for me to go from City Girl to Ma. I have got to take action. So where else would one start I started with a list & goals.

I set some goals for myself; here are my goals:

1. Get Out Of Debt
2. Start A Stock Pile
3. Start a Garden
4. Start Composting
5. Learn Different Ways Of Storing Food
6. Learn Different Ways Of Cooking
7. De-clutter My Home
8. Learn Ways to Save Money
9. Secure & Repair My Home
10. Get Healthier

Now I am taking action first up is to clean out my storage bin. I guess that means I need to get my fat lazy butt up out of this chair and take in some fresh sunshine and start my three piles keep, yard sale, and donate. Keep you posted

My Introduction

Urban Girl With A Country Heart

I am a overweight Mom in my 40’s caught up in an urban rat race, surrounded by unhealthy choices, facing economical challenges on a daily basis, very worried about what is going on with our state of our government. You will come to learn that I am Chicken Little the sky is falling in my world on most days. I live everyday with if it can happen, it will most likely happen to me.

One day I started thinking about the; what if’s and how to’s on living a more self sufficient healthier life style. I knew I wanted to make changes break away from debt, clutter, and become more sufficient. Endless possibilities come to mind grown my own food, learn to use solar power, even have chickens right here in the middle of my urban neighborhood. I want to live more of a country lifestyle I thought to myself I want to be a urban homesteader.

Living in the city the only country living I was exposed to was on television. I grew up watching the show, “Little House On The Prairie” with Pa, Ma, Mary, Half Pint, Carrie and the rest of Walnut Grove.  

So I want to be “Ma” but where do I start? I guess I can do the urban version of homework and watch all the “Little House On The Prairie”, Look some stuff up on Pinterest, and watch some You Tube videos on how to become a homesteader.

In closing, I hope to take you along with me on my journey on my trails, tribulations, discoveries, eye opening experiences with loads of humor to mix when I go from urban life to homesteading life and watch my transformation from a Urban Girl to Ma.