Beautiful Day

Today, was another unusually warm day. My girls, all six of them loved the weather; perfect for scratching around and following me, hoping for food. I unfortunately didn't bring any food this time. My hands were a little preoccupied with a camera and my crutches.

"Got food?"

"Where's the food? I want table scraps!"

"We'll go back to scratching since you are empty handed."

Thankfully my girls are forgiving when they don't receive scraps. They keep providing food for my family. We've gathered 91 eggs so far this month.

Simplifying My Spiritual Life

After my accident this past September, I've had a lot of time to slow down and reevaluate my life. You can read about my accident here. It didn't take too long to realize I didn't have my priorities straight. It was time to get back on track and put relationships first in my life. You can read about my priorities here.

Bailey Creek, California

In developing my goals for a simpler life I realized I needed a goal for my Spiritual Life (My relationship with God.) Having a relationship with God is an open journey not a marathon. It's not something you do once and then you're done. It is an ongoing process, a daily process. Personally I'm one who is task oriented, likes to do lists and checking tasks off. I've learned changes are needed in this area.

My goal to change this area is:
Establish and implement practices leading to knowing God and other christians by April 1, 2011.

Tasks to include in reaching this goal include:

• 15 Minutes of Bible reading each day, preferably in the morning—I get easily off track on this one.  
• Meet weekly with Spiritual Mentor for one hour and review Bible Study through May 2011. 
• Do Bible study booklet prior to meeting with Mentor.
• Attend church services every week, unless sick or an emergency occurs.
• Go to one church sponsored women's activity each month. 
• Volunteer every eight weeks for childcare during the first church services.
• Prayer; before Bible reading and study, over worries/concerns/decisions and with family, nightly.
• Participate in a weekly small groups Bible Study—I normally attend a women's group.

Meeting my spiritual needs is a high priority and a part of a simpler life for me. In meeting those needs I have to ensure I limit my activities and their frequency, avoiding going back to my previous, overwhelmed, busy life.  

Ruffled Ducks

Our ducks, Spot and Maxine, have been exhibiting unusual behavior. Spot has been trying to mate with Maxine, chasing her and her chasing him. They haven't tried to mate in the past, which led me to think they weren't happy with their home.

With it being a beautiful day today, I ventured outside to see what photos I could take of my ducks and chickens. I was hoping for fun, comical pictures. HA!

Stepping into the backyard I was greeted by hungry chickens and irritated, ruffled, hissing ducks! Both ducks came quickly at me, hissing and spreading their feathers letting me know I was intruding. Wherever I moved Spot was on my heels. I hobbled on my crutches to the chicken yard, ducks following. I went into the chicken house and found my girl Rockett brooding, two eggs and Spot blocking the chicken door, not letting me out. His feathers spread, hissing. I tried to move him with my crutch. He bit my ankle and lower leg twice as I pushed my way out! He came after me. I finally thought "He needs to cool off". I leaned my crutches against the fence and picked my heavy duck up and put him in a small bin of water. He went in a dry irritated duck and came out an angry wet duck. As he shook off the water I took one picture of him and fled.

Spreading feathers; Warning

Wet angry duck. Cooling off didn't help. 

Maxine hissing and eyeing me. 

"Let's get this intruder! Who cares if she buys our food!"

My ducks are usually not so aggressive. They hiss, follow us, trying to convince us to leave and nip occasionally. My husband believes they have come of age, 1 1/2 years, and it is their mating season. Hopefully all this aggression is hormones and we'll have babies in the spring! This would make getting bit worth it.

Better days. Spot and Maxine 3 days old. 

Happy together

Simplifying Cooking

I enjoy cooking, and love eating even more. Breads and pastas are my favorites. It would be easy to get caught up in spending a lot of time cooking and not focusing on my relationships. Once again replacing previous work time for cooking time.

Goal for cooking: Provide at least one nutritional, home cooked meal for my family a day with the focus being on family not the food.

Cooking is fun, especially when shared with friends. 

Tasks to include in reaching this goal include:

"Thank You for limiting meat!"

• Use frugal food tips, you can find them here.
• Bake (at a maximum once a week) snacks, breakfast foods, breads. 
•  Limit convenience foods—they are not a frugal purchase and usually not nutritionally sound
•  Limiting frequency of cooked meals; related to family not always home at the same time, all can cook and fix their own meals and quick alternatives are available i.e. fruit, baked goods.
•  Keep foods simple; eat raw vegetables and fruits, limit condiments and time consuming recipes
• use a Crock Pot.
•  Limit meat purchases, which are expensive and time consuming to cook.  
•  Have my family spend time cooking with me, if they are available. 
•  Prepare mixes for pancakes, cakes, muffins in advance. Just add liquids to mix and cook.
•  Plan out a menu with family on a weekly basis to decide which meals to cook, coordinate schedules and decide when to shop together for foods.
•  Plant a family garden. (Ours will be planted at the end of May beginning of June because of  weather. )
•  When a large fancy meal is desired, make it a family affair and invite guests.
• Try once a month cooking. Cook all meals for the month in one day and freeze. 

Grandma's cooking, the best!

Food is wonderful and needed for life. Being consumed by food to the point it alters your health and relationships doesn't lead to a simple life.

Goal Setting for a Simpler Life

Burney Falls, California 

I have been reviewing and evaluating my steps toward a simpler life. Trying to figure out where I started and where I am going now.  I believed I had made a lot of baby steps toward my overall goal of simplifying. I had performed some tasks, planned and cut things out of my life. But I never wrote my actual goals down in words to keep me on track.

I sat down today to write those goals; guidelines for achieving a simpler life. When writing goals I decided I needed to ensure they were: defined, realistic, measurable and had a final deadline time or date.

Defining a goal is deciding what I really want to accomplish, what the end result will be. Defining what I thought my goal was, I envisioned what a simple life would look like for me. I realized simplifying my life is not really a goal, but an end result of several other smaller goals. Defining these goals actually helps me get a real grasp on what I want.

Realistic—Can I truly accomplish this goal? Is it within my means to do it: financially, academically, emotionally; Do I have the will power?  Can I perform the smaller goals to get to the peaceful place I want to be? I believe I can by setting smaller goals and following goal setting criteria.

Measurable—How do I know I'm on track? Have I met some of the smaller goals; such as I will clean out one dresser drawer a week? One drawer is the standard I am measuring.

Deadlines help us finish tasks in a timely manner to meet these goals. Deadlines can be set by a certain date or amount of time, such as 10 minutes or one week.

After setting the criteria I wanted, I chose to breakdown my life into different areas. This way I could set smaller goals for each area and feel a sense of accomplishment.

The areas at present time I want to set goals and tasks for completion are: spiritual life, family relationships, housework, cooking, scheduling and errands and crafts/extra activities. As I go through these areas I may choose to include more as time goes on. But, for now I will start here and blog my progress.

Please share some of your goals, struggles and tips for a simpler life.

Road Trip Date and Photos

Saturday the weather was absolutely beautiful here in Northern California. The temperature was in the 60's, sun shining, and I had cabin fever. My husband for the first time in six years heard me say "I'm bored." He took my cue and out on a date we went.

My husband and I don't have a lot of time alone. We have a 17 year old son and 12 animals to care for. Our usual outings are to run errands. Many times we end up taking our son and dogs with us. This doesn't provide for a chance to nurture our own relationship.

God designed marriage because He saw, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18 (NIV). God has set priorities in our lives about relationships you can read here. Marriage is a high priority only second to our relationship with God. To have healthy relationships with God and our spouse we have to put time and effort into them.

Our outing began with lunch at a small local restaurant. We ate and visited with the owner. In this town everyone knows everyone.

After lunch we stopped by the kennel where we train and board our dogs. The owner has become a good friend of ours. I thought it would be a nice surprise if I took her some chicken eggs and one of my re-potted spider plants. You can read about my surplus of eggs and spider plants here.

After our visit with the dog trainer, off we drove farther north making various stops and taking photos along the way. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Windy Rest Stop.—Ravendale, CA

High Desert Pond (With Fresh Water Springs)—Ravendale, CA

High Desert (Fresh Water Springs From A Distance)

Not uncommon, Cougar tracks on a side dirt road. 

Shoe Tree.—Ravendale, CA

Cows get to run free here.—Ravendale, CA

Cows free ranging next to paved road.—Termo, CA

Horses at local horse sanctuary.—Dry Valley, CA

Some of the horses are domestic, others wild mustangs

'Eagle Lake' In California. Frozen along the shores.

'Eagle Lake' photo taken from 'Stone's Landing'

'Eagle Lake' frozen at dusk

Frugal Tips-Laundry

Friday's Frugal Tips—Related to laundry.  It may sound crazy, but laundry is one of my favorite housekeeping activities. Not sure why, but it may have to do with having clean clothes, using my frugal tips and also being outside to hang clothes. Tips I use consist of:

• Hang dry clothes either outside on a clothesline or inside on clothes racks. 
• Use 1/4 cup of vinegar in rinse water for fabric softener; Brightens clothes and gets rid of static cling. 
• Use cold water instead of warm or hot water; Clothes get just as clean.
• If you use a dryer, use a gas dryer. Gas is cheaper than electric (In many areas of the country).
• At the end of a wash-cycle, turn the knob back to spin (to wring out the extra water.) Clothes will dry quicker this way.
• After hanging clothes to dry, if wrinkled either dry in dryer for 10 minutes or hang up on a shower curtain to expose the clothes to steam (gets rid of wrinkles.)
• Use a little less laundry detergent than what the package recommends. I usually use 2/3 to 1/2 of what is recommended.
• Make your own laundry detergent (To help save more). Recipes here.
• If laundry wash water is not too dirty, dip out some of the water, before it drains out, to mop with. 
• Never buy dry-clean only items. 
• To preserve clothes, make sure you zip up zippers and button buttons to decrease friction on fabric.
• Use dryer lint to make fire starters in your wood stove. Find out how to make fire starters http://chickensintheroad.com/crafts/homemade-fire-starters/
• A little dish soap is a great stain remover. 
• Wash only full loads.  
• Reuse jeans and bath towels more than once to decrease laundry.
• Wash comforters in commercial washers only. A comforter is too big for a standard washer and can actually damage your machine. 
• If using dryer sheets, cut them in halves or even thirds.