Homework

For a while now Dan and I have been excited about a big move we think God has for us. We're preparing our house for sale so that we can move back to Southampton County, VA where we hope to raise chickens (among other things) in a sustainable agriculture setting. Over the past year we've been introduced to some ideas and have put some significant time into researching these ideas, and we're excited about putting those ideas into practice. We've been doing that little by little where we are by altering our food purchases, growing some of our own food, and fixing up our house so that we can start practicing these ideas in a big way.

So, now that fall is here and carpentry work is heading into it's annual downtime, Dan has been doing double time around the house. Earlier in the summer he put in a new bathroom. This month he's put up some new light fixtures, replaced the outside fixture, repaired an outside outlet, primed all the bare wood from the windows he put in last year, repaired some drywall in our bedroom, fixed an overhead fixture in the bedroom that wasn't working, and we've done extensive landscaping in the front yard. Phew! That's not to mention the boxes we have packed and all the lovely pieces of junk we've freecycled or trashed. Our goal is to get it looking like a Pottery Barn catalog so we can put it on the market, but the closer we get, the more I like it!

I never realized how much junk we had until we started getting rid of it. The last few times we've been on vacation, we've marveled at how nice it is in the cabin with only the necessities and a week's worth of clothes. There's no excess laundry to pile up or dishes to stack, and the kids never seem to miss all the toys.

So, now we're just trying to create the same feel at home. Why have more toys than they can see at once? The overabundance just means they're never really enjoyed. Do we really need more than a week's worth of clothes? And do we really need to save clothes for later? For when the kids are older, or I've lost weight, or get pregnant again? Clothes just seem to appear at all times, so we're taking that blessing and using the clothes we need and passing on the ones we're not using.

And the rest of our things? We're keeping only the most useful, beautiful or sentimental of items, and passing on the rest to new homes. My new motto is: Just because there's nothing wrong with it doesn't mean there's anything right with it, either! And the things I can't bear to part with are being packed away into boxes in the shed. Hopefully by the time we've moved and begun to unpack, I'll be able to see more clearly which of them is truly valuable and which things just need to go.

How far does $100 go?

So, what are we eating from our envelope of cash? So far, we're attempting to make $100/week feed a family of four on real food, and it looks like the split is about $50/wk on meat and dairy products and about $50/wk on fresh produce.  Both of those numbers shift around a little to make room for toilet paper, grains and sugar, but the extras aren't weekly purchases. By real food, I mean foods that are minimally processed, and generally local, and as organic as possible. For instance, we get raw whole cow's milk directly from a farmer, pastured eggs, poultry, pork and some beef, as well as apple juice directly from Polyface, whole milk yogurt with no sugar added from Nice Farms Creamery, pastured eggs from Triple J and eggs, beef and turkey from Cedar Run. We get most of our fresh veggies from a retired engineer a couple of miles down the road who grows enough for his family and a roadside stand. We get a lot of fruits from him and the local farmers markets, but as we get into fall, I'm regretting not having found a way to preserve fruits throughout the summer. We're able to make butter, cheese and lard at home from the milk and meat we buy directly from farms. I still get grains and sugar from the store--various flours, corn meal, rice, and pasta. But, I try to cook with whole grains and minimize my use of white flour and refined sugar. What we're not able to fit in with all this wholesome food for only $100 is eating out or eating any prepared foods. We've done almost none of that since we started, but with all the family dinners, I almost don't miss eating out. Almost :)

One bummer is that our deep freeze quit on us about a month ago, so our ability to store up for later has been altered. I've since secured a dehydrator from the thrift store, and a canner from my mom, and we've put up some veggies and broth. I'm looking forward to making some fruit leather this week.

I have definitely been taking baby steps in switching to local foods, and I didn't start out trying to do that, but I've just realized in the last few weeks that we hardly ever go to a grocery store anymore. And that has me thinking about the things we do go to the store for, and whether they are necessary or beneficial. For instance, we spent some of our entertainment budget on some chocolate covered raisins from the drug store. I'm not talking about anything fair trade or organic. I'm talking about cheap generic chocolate covered raisins full of preservatives. They were yummy. And I'm not sure what I think about my chocolate fix--it's not like there's anyone in the MidAtlantic region growing cacao! My point is simply that I'm doing what I can to support sustainable farming practices and reduce the footprint of my food, but I'm not feeling legalistic or guilty about it. I'm just making changes where I can find them, and the more I find, the more I find.

Time for my yearly post..

Updating my status on Facebook has me wanting to blog these days, since I can only fit so much in a status update and I just know the world is dying to hear what I have to say. So here I am with the once-a-year update on our lives.

We're having dinner together these days. It's sort of an unexpected side effect of our new budget. We've gone to the envelope system, meaning there's an envelope with my grocery money in it, and when the money's gone, there's no plastic to swipe. I think Dave Ramsey talks about it, and it's a good exercise. We were using a debit card before, but for some reason having the cash (and handing over the cash) makes a dollar seem a lot bigger.

So, I'm making bread and homemade meals. A lot. I think we've eaten out a total of twice in the last three weeks. And even though I thought we were eating dinner together as a family before on a regular basis, we are now doing it every single night. And each night the kids tolerate sitting still that long a little better. And now they hold our hands patiently while we say grace, and there are tiny little voices echoing the Amen. It's not something we're trying to work on, and honestly I didn't realize it wasn't happening until it was. And it's just really sweet.