Exciting News!

I realize I've been quiet on here for a while now, over a month!  What gives, right?

Honestly, there just hasn't been a great deal of anything going on to discuss.  We've been working hard, cleaning up after another winter, and now, we have decided that it's time to finally start looking for our dream "forever" home out in the country.  Yes, it's time to put our little suburban house up for sale!

A while ago, I wrote a post about what was important in my life, and how those priorities have changed over the past several years.  Now is our chance to make some of those things happen!  Hard to believe, really.  We've been here for over seven years.  When we moved here, we thought it would only be for a few years, but the Lord works in ways that we can't understand and sometimes don't even realize.  We've had great neighbors (for a change) in this little neighborhood.  There have been some negatives, but overall it's been a good seven years.  But now, it's time to get out in the country, start our little hobby farm, and get away from the noise and concrete of the city.  Start another chapter of our lives, really.

I'm so very excited!! This is going to be an interesting adventure, for sure!

For the time being, though, posts will most likely be sporadic and short.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the Lord works all of this out for us, and hopefully soon, I'll be able to share the news of our new home.

An update on GAPS: I'm not really following it right now.  I got to the end of my rope with it last month and was finally able to find a wellness practitioner here in our city, and have started seeing him.  He is very familiar with my problems and knows about GAPS but is not a GAPS practitioner, so I'm not likely to go back on it.  I have lost 15-20 lbs. so far on GAPS and it has taught me how to eat better, which I'm happy with, but it was too stressful for me.  I am looking forward to seeing what this practitioner has to say once additional test results come in. 

Homesteading

While at Lowe's yesterday (why are we there so often??), I came across a magazine about modern homesteading.  It's becoming a growing trend among a lot of different types of people.  It seems more dangerous as time goes on to depend on others for our food, electricity, running water, heat, and so on...what happens if one or all of these things were to be unavailable suddenly?  Modern civilization would collapse upon itself.  There have been riots, earthquakes, and natural disasters of gigantic proportions this last year.  If a tornado wiped out your town, would you be able to live without the basic needs that would be interrupted (as in the case of Joplin, Missouri or Japan)?

Homesteading would be ideal in any of the situations mentioned above.  Many of you know that I've started trying to garden in our small back yard.  I love working the dirt and being able to grow food, and then being able to eat the products of my labor.  I would love to be able to have enough land to grow a garden that would supply us with home-grown, home-preserved food for the entire year.  Imagine your grocery bill cut in half!  I wish I had the time and space to be able to learn how to can and preserve food.  Plus, if you can can your food, your dependence on freezers and refrigeration would be much lower, should power be out for an extended period of time (which has happened to us before, and I'm sure will happen again).  It seems that there would be no greater pleasure than to have land that you can work and use to sustain your living.

I hate the rat race.  I hate having to commute to a job I don't like every day.  I think I would make a great hermit, actually!  I like to imagine living out in the country somewhere, secluded away from the traffic, stress, and frustration of everyday life as it has become.  I don't believe that we're supposed to work in big office buildings, with a little windowless cubicle as our space.  I can't for one second describe how mundane and tedious so much of the work and paperwork associated with an office job actually is (TPS reports, anyone?).  Yes, we all need to work.  Yes, we can't really get by in the world without money.  But the need for money greatly decreases when you are independent of "the grid"!  How much more satisfying would life be if you were only dependent upon yourself for your needs!  Our grandparents and great-grandparents (and all of the generations before them) lived this way.  They survived. Life was hard, but I do not believe for a moment that they would trade what they had for what we have today.  I am not saying I want to give up the modern conveniences of indoor plumbing, central heat and air, and all of the comforts of life as we know it, but there are ways to provide these services without being dependent of city power lines and water pipes.  Wouldn't that be awesome?

I love wide open spaces.  I love the idea of looking out my windows and seeing trees and grass and blue skies instead of looking at the house across the street from us.  I love the peace and quiet that comes with living in the country.  I think I'm one of those folks who would watch birds eating from the bird feeder outside of my window, and wait for the deer to come through the yard in the evening.  I love the idea of going to work outside in my yard instead of at an office where no one cares about you or appreciates what you do--you're just another body taking up space in the elevator.  For some people, maybe many people, this kind of work suits them fine, and that's great for them.  If you're happy with what you do, then obviously there is no need to change it.  It just isn't me.  Even when I was young, I thought it would be fun to have lived on a farm.  Perhaps I've always yearned for it, but lost sight of that dream as I got older and just did what everyone else did--got a job, graduated high school, went to college.  I knew no different.  There is a message that keeps popping up in my life: you don't have to do what's always been done.  Sometimes doing what's always been done is a good thing (don't quit using toilet paper, for example--the results will not be pleasant), but sometimes it's better to think outside of the outhouse, er, box.

Obviously, homesteading is not for everyone.  It is something that would take a tremendous amount of time and effort to make it work.  Not everyone would like being away from people, or using well water, or growing gardens and animals, or preserving harvests.  It would be really great if we could try it out before we committed to it.  Try before you buy!  Kind of like test-driving a lifestyle.  But I feel confident that it would be a good fit for me.  What's a good fit for you?

A few Internet references, if you are interested:
Daily Bread
Food Insurance
Daycreek
Backwoods Home
Mother Earth News
Christian Homesteaders
Always remember the Boy Scout motto (even if you never were one): Be prepared.


There are many verses about work and toil in the Bible.  Col 3:23-26 says," Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality."  A more severe blow was given to us during the fall in the Garden of Eden: "To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19).  Bummer!  We are destined to work and sweat and labor for our livelihood.  Sure seems like we should find something tolerably toilable!

This Ain't Your Grandma's Kitchen!

Stock Photo

When I go to the grocery store, I'm amazed at how much exists solely to make our lives easier.  Everything is pre-made, pre-packaged and pre-processed for our enjoyment.  I love making food from scratch, but life just doesn't allow time for that anymore.  How sad!  I know I'm not alone.  Many people work long hours and/or have children who are involved in an abundance of extra-curricular activities, making meals a rushed and unimportant event, which results in quickly-prepared food.  As I walked the grocery store aisles last night, I bought boxed cake mix and frosting in a can.  Blueberry muffin mix--just add water.  I couldn't help but think that I would rather make these things from the ingredients in my kitchen, but I didn't have time.

Wouldn't our grandmothers be so very upset?

Stock Photo

Our grandmothers might have spent hours in the kitchen to prepare a delicious, home-cooked and home-made dinner for her family.  Her biscuits were from scratch.  Pudding cooking on the stove.  Perhaps you remember your grandmother cooking on a cast-iron stove, feeding wood into the beast to keep it hot.  Maybe you remember her baking fresh chocolate chip cookies and drooling because they smelled so good cooling on the counter  (you might have sneaked one or two when no one was looking).  The ham that she baked for Sunday dinners with the family.  Scalloped potatoes from scratch.   Heck, mashed potatoes from scratch.  Fresh vegetables from the garden that she grew out back.  Pies made from apples and blueberries and strawberries that weren't previously living in a can on the shelf at the store.  Pie crusts that didn't come from the freezer case at Wal-Mart.  Whipped cream made from fresh cream in a cold bowl.

There was pride in taking the time to make such treats.  We have fond memories of those times today partly because of how delicious the food was, but more so because we remember the time and love that went into the preparation of those meals.

Photo from of worldofstock.com

I really enjoy baking and cooking when I'm trying a new recipe.  There's something fun and exciting about trying something new, but I don't do it every day.  Some days, we might just throw a frozen pizza in the oven.  Other days, we might just opt to go out to a restaurant and let someone else cook our meal altogether (which I really like, because I don't have to do dishes afterward!).  Can you imagine making a loaf of bread every other day?  Would you enjoy roasting a chicken every night?  How about kneading dough for making a pizza crust in your own oven once a week?  To me, that sounds like a lot of fun.  The thing is, our mothers and grandmothers didn't do it because it was fun.  Grocery stores back then stocked much of the same food items that they do today.  Generally, it was just cheaper to make them at home and save money, which was why our grandmothers did so--in fact, how many of you remember your grandmother raising chickens for food?  Today, the cost is about the same, so why bother making it? 

Now, don't get me wrong--I'm not against the ease and convenience of store-bought, pre-packaged items.  They truly are time-savers, but in exchange for ease we lose appreciation for quality.  I guess I just don't think that they taste very much like they came from my grandmother's kitchen.

I have a vast appreciation and interest in the way we as a society functioned before the "modern" inventions that we know today.  The main reason that I named my blog  "Hearthside Gatherings" is because of the image that comes to my mind when I think of what the hearth was in a home: a place where the family gathers together, maybe for conversation, games, cooking, or perhaps reading the family Bible.  Architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed his homes around a central hearth, because that was typically the main gathering place for families back in his day, and he felt that it was an important design element in a home.  Before central heating, a fireplace or wood stove was likely to be the main heat source in a home, and was a family's only way of surviving a long, cold winter.  There are two separate Bible passages that can apply to all of this: "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward" (1 Cor. 3:12-14).  Is the work you do for God and your family  pre-packaged, so to speak, and convenient, or is it a labor of love and devotion?  Will it last through the fire, when everything else is lost?  The other passage is from Revelation 5:6: "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth."  Are you centered around the hearth of your home, which should be Christ, as it will be in Heaven, or are you the center of your own small world?  Food for thought (hopefully homemade)! 
P.S.  Special thanks to my husband for his contributions to this entry! 

Frugality

Labor Saving/Money Saving

Now that I have to balance housework and a job, I've been looking into using items that will make housework faster, because I hate the idea of coming home from work only to do more work.  I also hate having to spend the weekend doing housework.  So I check regularly for coupons online that will allow me to pick up cleaning supplies and aids to help me out and leave some money in my pocket, too.  One such website is the Swiffer website, and by giving your address you will receive a coupon book in the mail for several Swiffer products.  I purchased a Swiffer sweepervac at Meijer a while ago for a grand total of around $8 (it was on sale, then I had about $15 in coupons for the vac), and I love it!  It runs on a rechargeable battery, and works great on hard surfaces (I have wood laminate flooring in our kitchen and linoleum in our bathroom).  I am also considering the Swiffer mop to replace the old Clorox mop that I purchased back in college and can no longer find refills for.  Another website that will occasionally offer coupon books is SC Johnson.  At the moment, the are not offering coupons, but they do have other tips for money savings.  While at Meijer one day, they had a display with SC Johnson coupon books, and I grabbed three!  Sometimes the opportunities are there when you least expect it.  Another website to check out is the Glade website--they are offering a contest to design a candle, and if your design is chosen, you can win cash prizes.  As in, up to $10,000.  So it's certainly worth checking out, and if you have time, design a candle!  Lysol, if you are a germophobe like me, is a great website to sign up for access to their product coupons.  You will have to create an account, and then you will be able to download and print out coupons for Lysol products (you will need to install a Coupon Printer program, like any online coupons).  Lots of great offers.  Proctor & Gamble often has a coupon insert in weekend newspapers, which is another good source for finding savings.  If you are looking for grocery coupons, check out these sites: RedPlum, SmartSource, CouponMom, Kroger (if you have one), and Coupons.com, among others.  They all have printable coupons that you can download.  (FYI: I have an e-mail account set up just for signing up for these websites.  I don't like getting spam, and don't want to use my regular account, so I set up a special e-mail just for this.)  Hope this helps!

Saving money is not just good sense, practiced through the ages; it is, like so many topics, talked about in the Bible.  The money we have is not really our own, but instead is a blessing from the Lord.  As such, we must treat it as something that God trusts us with to use for His purpose.  Yes, we have to use it to pay bills, provide clothing and food for ourselves, etc., but we are to use what's left responsibly.  Proverbs 21:20 says, "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has".