A glimpse into my life as a stay at home mama of two on Monday, January 21, 2013:

8:00 :: I’m out of bed and go get a fussy Weston who is ready to nurse! While he’s nursing, Paxton wakes up and joins us in my bed. Typically while I’m nursing, I am thinking about our day, mainly about what’s for breakfast and lunch!

9:00 :: The boys have started breakfast already and are eating while I’m checking e-mail. {We recently moved the desk and computer into the dining area so it makes multi-tasking a bit easier!} Breakfast usually lasts 45 minutes to an hour! They are so hungry in the mornings and Paxton frequently says, “I still hungry!”

10:00 :: Now that the ‘breakfast hour’ is officially over and the boys are dressed for the day, I sit down and actually write a blog post. Lately, it’s very rare for me to even attempt to write a blog post during the day but they are happily playing together in Paxton’s room so I take advantage of the time. {This 30 minutes or so of them playing together gives me hope that the days will get even easier as Weston is getting older and is beginning to enjoy independent play and playing with brother!}

11:00 :: I’m sitting in bed nursing Weston while reading books to Paxton. Nursing hasn’t always been this easy during this past year but now that Paxton is turning into a pre-schooler, he loves, loves, loves when I read to him. After Weston finishes nursing, we all head to the dining room to do ‘art stuff’ {that’s what Paxton calls art time}. {Art time is super hard with a young toddler! Weston wants to participate but he tries to eat the crayons and color pencils. I often will give him our magna-doodle so he can participate but it doesn’t keep him happy for long. Because of this, art time is rare these days…about once or twice a week.}

12:00 :: We’re picking up art supplies and laying out our creations to dry. As soon as the art supplies are picked up, I start prepping lunch since it is noon.

1:00 :: The boys are almost finished eating lunch. {Again, it’s taken nearly an hour for the boys to eat lunch!} Notice Paxton is missing his shirt, some days it’s just so much easier to take the shirts off and let them eat without worrying about staining clothes. {Most days they wear play clothes that are already stained but this day Paxton was wearing a ‘nice’ shirt that I’d rather not ruin since he doesn’t have that many clothes!}

2:00 :: It’s rest time! Paxton is in his room reading and I’m laying down with Weston. My boys are not good nappers. Paxton typically reads and plays quietly during rest time but rarely naps. Weston needs a nap but prefers to be held or nursed while he naps so I frequently nurse him to sleep and then take a nap myself or read beside him. 

3:00 :: Rest time is over and Paxton wants to play. We used Old Maid cards to play ‘memory’. Of course, the game didn’t last long since little brother wants to be right in on the action which to him is in the middle of our game. We put the game up and play with blocks and read books. 

4:00 :: I’m finally washing up breakfast and lunch dishes while the boys eat a snack.

5:00 :: The boys are playing at the moment so I take advantage and start some seeds! This week we started cabbage and onions since they’re cooler weather crops. I’m looking forward to watching these grow. {And, notice my upcycled starting ‘pots’? Egg cartons and pots from plants we purchased last spring!}

6:00 :: Hubby is now home and we’ve spent the past 30 minutes in the garage preparing for our baby chicks which are arriving in a few weeks! {We’re going to have backyard chickens again this year and are so excited!}  I come in right at 6 and start dinner. We had stove grilled pork chops, baked fries and fried apples, yum!

7:00 :: Finishing up dinner, getting ready to clear the dishes and get the boys ready to pick up toys and read books before bed.

8:00 :: Paxton is reading with his daddy, I’m nursing Weston in bed and crocheting. A wonderful end for a January day! Weston goes down around 8:30. I’m ready to stop since I’ve been going for 12 hours at this point but I still have to clean up the kitchen, tidy the house and prep for the next day. John David and I typically spend the evenings reading, occasionally watching a show and relaxing.

That’s 9 am to 9 pm in January 2013!

In January 2012, I also recorded a day in my life. One year ago I had a 1-month-old and 21-month-old. In that post, I wrote :

During this season in my life, I’m focusing primarily on keeping up with the laundry, keeping diapers clean, preparing meals, keeping the kitchen clean and making sure my children are clean, dry and loved!

While the boys are a bit easier now, one year later, I’m still in that same season of life and those are still my main priorities.

My days Monday through Thursday are very similar to this one. I love the ‘calm’ days spent at home with my boys! I attend a Mom’s Group at church on Wednesday mornings and we’ll schedule a play date about once a month but for the most part, this is an accurate glimpse into my life.

Linked to: A Day in the Life of… at Simply Rebekah

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This space has been quiet during this past week or so since we’ve been spending almost every spare minute outside preparing for spring. We’ve had a few cold days but we’ve all bundled up and ventured out to work in the yard.

We hadn’t spend much time outside since late fall and the boys have definitely been in their element. They’ve been digging with their ‘digger’ they received for Christmas, exploring all around the yard, digging in the dirt and just being boys and getting messy.

We purchased a load of soil and added some to our existing raised beds. We have plans to build a few more beds so we can have an even larger garden this year.

One of the big projects we’ve been working on {mainly, John David} is clearing out the area between our chain link fence and the property line fence. It was full of brush and remnants of a tree that fell during a storm and we had to have cut down. We’re thinking about turning this area into a chicken pen.

One of John David’s big projects has been preparing a space for our baby chicks which arrived this past Friday! We all have enjoyed  the chicks these past few days and are looking forward to watching them grow.

We spent Saturday afternoon working on turning a flower bed into a raised bed space. This area was covered with mulch which we raked up {and moved to the front bed, thus mulching the front for free!} John David built a raised bed around the 3 strawberry plants which were already in this space and then built 2 small raised beds. We’re wanting grass to grow around the raised beds so there isn’t as much to weed!

We’ve enjoyed being outside, creating things and working together as a family.

Have you been preparing for spring in any way? 

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It is my plan to start sharing a more personal post each week, giving you a glimpse into how we live an intentionally simple life. I’ll be sharing a photos of the boys, glimpses into our home/routines, updates on raising produce/chickens and more.

A glimpse into last week:

Last week we moved the little table back into the dining room. Back in December, we rearranged rooms and put it in Weston’s room, it was rarely used in there. We moved it back and already it’s been used almost daily for snacks and art time. Little Weston looks like such a big boy sitting at a table!

Our baby chicks are growing. Their wing feathers are really developing, it has been fun watching them change almost daily.

We’ve made quite a bit of progress on clearing the brush between the fences since last week. John David has taken off a few trailer loads of brush already and the space is looking great. (The trailer was borrowed, so thankful for friends who let us borrow big items so we don’t have to rent/purchase them!)

John David’s dad came to visit this weekend and help with a project. Since rearranging the boys rooms, our former guest bed is now Paxton’s bed. Whenever we have guests, Paxton gets to sleep on a floor bed. He loves having guests not only because it’s exciting having family/friends in our home but also because he gets to sleep in his ‘little bed’. We typically place his bed in our bedroom floor, right beside the bookshelf which holds the majority of our children’s books, the little bookworm loves sleeping beside the bookshelf.

Not much work was done outside during the week, but once Friday arrived we got to work. Friday was beautiful and I was able to get outside and do some planting. (The rest of the weekend was chilly, so I stayed inside with Weston!)

We purchased a few more strawberry plants and now the raised bed lining our sidewalk is full of strawberries.

We also purchased some onion sets and got them in the ground. Since snapping this photo, the bed has been covered in a wood chip mulch/compost mixture, we recently watched the documentary Back to Eden and are applying some of the concepts shared in that film in our garden.

(The wooden dividers are in the bed to help us mark off the squares for our square foot gardening. I’m simply using them as a planting grid to keep things even!)

The big project of the weekend, and the reason Papaw came to visit, was building a chicken coop.

The men (including Paxton), started building on Friday morning and by Sunday afternoon were 90% finished. The coop was constructed using salvaged/reclaimed wood and materials (except for a box of new nails!)

The boys enjoyed playing in the new coop. I’m sure it will be a fun place space for them until our hens move in!Our new chicken coop and the 3 generations who built it together. (I plan to share more details on the materials/construction of the coop soon!)

And, my husband is one talented man, he designed this coop and then was able to build it.

That’s a glimpse into life last week!

Linked to: Homestead Barn Hop

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Life last week was a typical week without much activity outside of the home, just the regular hustle and bustle within!

Every afternoon when John David arrived home, we were outside working/playing. We go outside during the day to play but it’s nearly impossible to do anything productive while wrangling 2 littles by myself!

John David went outside to work early one morning before leaving for work and Paxton wanted to help. I layered him up (pajamas, clothes and coat/scarf/hat). He really thought it was something that he still had his pajamas on!

All of the sudden it seems like Weston has left babyhood behind and has graduated fully into toddlerhood, (maybe this is because he was 14 months old on the 22nd)! This week he really started imitating his big brother including dragging chairs over to the sink and counter to ‘help’ me in the kitchen. It’s incredibly cute but also makes preparing meals in our small kitchen a bit of a challenge when chairs/stools are everywhere!

This past week I needed an activity to keep  both boys busy while I did some cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. I remembered how much the 3-year-olds in my former Sunday School classes loved playing with rice. I had rice, pans, cups and spoons so I set everything out and gave them about 2 cups of rice to play with. This simple, inexpensive activity kept them busy for 30 minutes! Yes, there was rice everywhere but most of it was in a central location so clean up was pretty simple. (And, even now, 5 days later, there are still grains of rice in various parts of the house but that’s just part of life with littles!)

Thursday night, I nursed Weston to sleep and then just held him. Paxton had already read about 5 stories and it was an hour past bedtime so he climbed up beside Weston and me, laid his head down and was out. I just savored the moment of having a lap full of love!

I started on a project this weekend. We have 4 chairs that are on our back deck that we’ve had a few years but need to be sanded and re-painted. (It’s one of those projects that have been on my mental to do list for nearly 4 years!) I finally took action! I scraped and sanded 2 of the chairs this weekend.
I had to share this photo I found on my phone, taken by Paxton! At this moment, Weston was sitting in my lap because he kept running off, trying to dig up my strawberry plants. Paxton actually helped me sand the chairs quite a bit.

So that’s a glimpse into life this week. (Minus the diaper changes, grogginess from waking at 2:30 with a teething baby, staying in my pajamas until 10, dirty floors and so on!)

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‘Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!’

While we’ve always lived frugally and green, we haven’t always been completely conscious of our consumption. Lately, we’ve been making efforts on reducing our waste, thinking more about ethical spending and trying to repurpose things to avoid consuming something new.

One of the ways to avoid consuming is by taking time to mend the clothing you already own so you can keep on wearing it.

In the past few weeks, I’ve mended a dress sleeve that was ripped after being caught in the dryer, sewn buttons back on to my favorite dress, mended the lining of a coat and cut up an old pair of my husband’s worn out jeans to make patches for 3 pair that had holes in the knee.

It’s a great feeling to put in minimal effort and revive an article of clothing.

Now my two dresses are wearable again, my 5-year-old wool coat will continue keeping me warm for many more years and hubby’s jeans will continue to be useful!

Do you mend your clothing? 

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March was a full month for our family.

We started the month out of town celebrating John David’s mamaw’s 80th birthday. We ended up traveling back to East Tennessee two more times during the month.

Weston was 15 months old on the 16th. 15 months, to me, is when toddlerhood really begins. All the physical signs of babyhood begin to disappear and toddler personality really starts to come out! I am enjoying him at this sweet stage.

Our 5 hens started laying mid-March and we ended up with a total count of 48 eggs for the month! They’re averaging about 3 a day which is good but considering our boys can wipe out 5 eggs just for breakfast, we’re looking forward to our little hens starting to lay in July!

Since Weston is leaving babyhood behind, he and Paxton are really starting to play together! Of course, there are lots of sibling frustrations and fighting over toys but they also play peacefully together, some days for good chunks of time. I just love watching my boys interact and enjoy each other.

Our Paxton is a wonderful little helper. We spent some time picking up sticks in our front yard, getting it ready for spring! He did a good job helping me and we ended up with 3 wagons loads of sticks.

And my Paxton loves picking his mama flowers. We have purple weeds in his yard and he loves picking them for me. Sure they’re weeds but they’re beautiful to me since they were picked with love from my boy. We asked him one evening why he picked me flowers, his response, “mama is sweet.”

We’re all hoping April brings much warmer weather. It has been unusually cool in the south so far this spring. I usually pull out spring clothes at the very beginning of March and still haven’t done that this year, preferring flannel and sweaters to keep us warm!

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Throughout 2013, we have been making lifestyle changes.

In January, I had a week of sinus issues which brought me back to reading Nourishing Traditions and educating myself more on the Weston A Price Foundation approach to food. I was tired of being sick and knew that healthier eating habits leads to healthier bodies. (I want to note that we’ve not been sick since and the abundant Georgia pollen this year didn’t effect a single one of us either!)

We started making dietary changes, supporting local farmers and decided to start raising our own chickens in an attempt to have control over our food supply. In early April, we purchased two Nigerian dwarf goats (a dairy breed) to forage in our yard with plans to milk in the future.

This small scale backyard micro-farming as we called it, was allowing us to live our dream of farming on a small scale. John David and I both grew up on farms and have degrees in agriculture so the passion for agriculture is in our blood!

We were settling into a routine with all of our animals, feeling good about starting to become self sufficient and making plans for uses of goats milk (I was dreaming of making soaps).

Last Wednesday, I came home from a morning in town to find a notice on our door. It stated that there had been an anonymous complaint about our property and that we had one week to remove all animals from our property.

I was full of emotions, sad because I’ve grown a bit attached to our animals and upset that someone would call and make a complaint about our property without complaining first to us.

In our county, you are only permitted to have animals if you have at least two acres. Then you can have four animals per two acres. We only have one acre, therefore we aren’t legally allowed to have any animals other than cats or dogs. If you have more than 5 acres, you can have an unlimited number of farm animals provided you are selling animal products (like eggs).

The fact is, we were in violation of the law. We fully acknowledge that although we weren’t aware we were breaking the law. Last year, when we purchased our first four hens, we looked up the ordinances and could find nothing about animal restrictions in the county. The lack of ease in finding out regulations coupled with the fact that we lived in the county on an acre, we thought everything we were doing was completely within the law. (Now we know to call the county and ask lots of questions before doing anything!)

After the sadness, shock and frustration, we started making plans for removing our animals from our property.

We had already talked to our neighbors who own 6.5 acres of land adjoining our lot about using their field for our agricultural endeavors so we drew up an official agreement to lease their 6.5 acres. We were already planning on selling eggs but now we are definitely going to be selling eggs to make our little operation legal.

The situation has been a bit frustrating because we loved having our animals in our backyard and all of our animals got along wonderfully (the goats even slept in the chicken house at night!) We’re also saddened because there is not an easy way to care for our goats now so we’re planning to sell them.

For me, the biggest frustration is the feeling of a lack of freedom. Our little one acre ‘farm’ was a sustainable little operation but it’s illegal. It wasn’t too much to manage and gave us a bit of self sufficiency.

My emotions have been all over during this past week. Part of me wants to sell our home, move into town, just have a little garden and support our local farmers in their endeavors. Another part of me wants to purchase our own 5 acres and really make a go of small scale agriculture but the thought of that is overwhelming with 2 small children and a husband who works full time. I really like our house but things just feel different now without our chickens in the backyard, the fact that we have to cross a fence to get to our animals and the fact that someone has an issue with our lifestyle choices.

In many ways, I feel like we’re at this lifestyle crossroads. The questions ‘should we scale back’ or ‘should we scale up’ have been in my mind constantly.

While I have no idea how this story will play out, I just wanted to share what’s going on in our life, writing is helping me process everything.

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To me, the month of April marks the beginning of spring. The weather was still a bit chilly here in North Georgia but I started my spring cleaning on April 1, going through the house room by room deep cleaning, decluttering and making the rooms look nice. It took me a week to get to every room but I still have our hall closets to tackle.

I cleaned almost all of the windows in our house but unfortunately cleaned them before the pollen descended on our area so I now have to wipe out the window sills again!

On April 3, we acquired two Nigerian Dwarf Goats, Daisy and Blue (Daisy is pictured). Our boys love the goats and they get along wonderfully with our chickens.

However, we may be selling our goats since we had a complaint against our animals and have had to move them all off of our property. Thankfully, they are on the adjoining property but the fencing isn’t as ideal for the goats as our backyard was.

The 3 weeks of having goats in our backyard was fun though, they’ve very productive pets, eating grass and other brush!

As part of spring cleaning week, I tackled the boys clothes, swapping out winter clothes for spring/summer clothes. I was a bit hesitant to even do the swap because the weather has been so chilly but I kept out jeans that still fit and light jackets so they’ve had clothes to wear on cooler days.

Our boys have minimal wardrobes so this task is fairly simple. My process for swapping out their clothes involves pulling everything out, then going through deciding what to keep, what to pass on and if any of their winter clothes could be revived and worn in warmer weather.

I ended up with a small stack of things that might fit Paxton in the fall, a large stack of things to hand down to Weston, a few favorites to tuck away for a possible future baby and a stack of things to pass on. Small wardrobes makes swapping out, organizing and purging clothes easy!

My Paxton turned 3 mid-April! We celebrate birthdays minimally so we spent birthday week just doing fun little things celebrating him, like letting him stay up after bedtime, eating birthday cake and ice cream and going to Chick-fil-A. And, this mama spent a few days reflecting. The birthdays of my boys cause me to just reflect on the miracle of their lives, their births and the precious years we’ve spent with them so far!

We typically don’t purchase gifts for our children on their birthdays, opting for gifts of experience. Instead of going somewhere (like an aquarium or on a train ride), we built a sandbox. It’s an outdoor gift, so no extra clutter was brought into our home and it will provide hours of entertainment this summer and in the years to come!

My biggest accomplishment for the month was finally drafting a spring/summer menu plan! Basically, the plan is to repeat the same meals every two weeks for simplicity with a free day thrown in on Thursdays for trying new recipes and eating leftovers. (It may sound boring, but think about it, do you even remember what you ate just a week ago?)

I followed a meal plan very similar to this last summer but with some of our dietary changes, I created a new one from scratch. It still needs a bit of fine tuning and some details written down to follow (like when to soak grain, lay out meat) for ease of use but it’s already making meal time less stressful because there is a plan in place!

Those are just a few highlights for the month of April. We also had a trip to the local park, lots and lots of playing outside, time spent in the garden and a visit from grandparents for Paxton’s birthday. We’re looking forward to the fun (and hopefully warmer weather) that May should bring!

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Clearing your home of clutter doesn’t have to be complicated.

Too often I think I need to set aside a chunk of time, like an afternoon or an entire day, to declutter. And, I’m guessing, you also think decluttering is complicated and takes time devoted specifically to the task.

Last week, I decided to do a little experiment with simple decluttering, taking on a ‘declutter as you go’ mindset. Starting on Monday, I designated a space on a table to put things I came across that day that we don’t need while I was cleaning, tidying and looking through closets and cabinets.

With little time devoted specifically to decluttering, I was able to find things we didn’t need and by the end of the week had around 50 items that were leaving our home.

The results of the week:

Day 1 – Around 25 items including  2 old cell phones to donate, a throw and pillow, a pitcher without a lid, a few random items, a stack of DVDs to return to my aunt and exercise tapes that are on VHS (and we don’t own a VCR!)

Day 2- During the boys rest time, I looked through the closet containing craft supplies. In the 10 minutes or so that I browsed that closet I found 9 items including 2 pillow forms, 2 paintbrushes, an old t-shirt (I saved to upcycle but I haven’t done anything with it in over a year so it’s time to go), 2 old coloring books and scrapbook paper.

Day 3 – I was gone all morning and early afternoon on this day so there wasn’t much time at home for decluttering. While I was putting away the boys clothes, I found 6 things to go – 4 burp clothes, a pair of outgrown pajamas and a shirt that has never been worn.

Day 4 – I looked through the bathroom cabinets while cleaning the bathroom and found 2 lotions that we don’t use and a bug repellent containing DEET that will not be used. I also went through my drawers while putting away laundry and found a shirt, a hair ribbon, an old watch and earrings that I never wear. The total of this day was 7 items.

Day 5 – While packing to go out of town for the weekend, I found a swimsuit cover and t-shirt of mine I no longer needed and a hoodie that Weston has outgrown. I also found another container to put Paxton’s trains and train tracks in, eliminating the need for the basket they were stored in that the boys had torn apart! And, while rearranging a few dishes in the kitchen to make room for our dutch oven, I pulled out 2 cake pans that I’ve used maybe once in the past 7 years! Bringing the total of stuff for day 5 to 6 items.

Totaling the number of items for the week was surprising, 50 items gone with very little effort! I am definitely going to adopt the ‘declutter as you go’ mindset which should reduce, if not eliminate, the need for setting aside large chunks of time just to declutter.

Simple ways to declutter:

• Challenge yourself like I did for the next 5 to 7 days and see what you can get rid of each day. 
• Put a box in a designated spot and challenge yourself to fill it up over the next few days with unneeded stuff.
• Decide to find one thing a day for the next 30 days. This is a simple challenge that results in 30 things leaving your home (and often more because some days you’ll find more than 1 thing that can go!)
• Adopt the ‘declutter as you go’ mindset. As you come across things and you think ‘I never use that’ just pull it out and put it in a donate box instead of waiting for the next big clean out.

Clearing your home of clutter really is not complicated. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time to find things that are no longer useful to you.

How do you declutter? Do you think you have to wait for those big clean-outs or do you take the ‘as you go’ approach? 

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In 2011, I read an article on Sunset about a family of 4 who strive to produce zero waste. The article led me to the blog, Zero Waste Home, written by Bea Johnson. I was fascinated, inspired and challenged to start taking more steps to reducing our waste.

I’ve been a reader of Zero Waste Home since finding it and was excited to find out Bea was writing a book titled Zero Waste Home about their lifestyle. I received my copy a few weeks ago and couldn’t put it down.

Bea starts the book telling their story of downsizing from a 3,000 square foot home to their current 1,475 square foot home. Within a couple of years, they parted with 80% of their belongings and started becoming conscious of the amount of waste they were creating.

While the title of the book and the blog, Zero Waste Home, may seem like it’s just about trash, reducing waste, recycling and green living, Bea and her family live a very simple and minimal lifestyle. The book is not just a guide to becoming more conscious about waste, it’s an excellent resource for simplifying your life.

In Zero Waste Home, Bea basically walks you through your home and lifestyle, sharing ways to simplify and prevent waste in areas like the kitchen, your wardrobe, housekeeping and even handling holidays/gifts zero waste style. Zero Waste Home was written to share how the Johnson’s live their zero waste life and encourage others that there are steps you can take that can dramatically reduce your waste.

Reducing your waste is simple if you follow these 5 simple steps (the 5 Rs):

1. Refuse what you do not need.

2. Reduce what you do need.

3. Reuse what you consume.

4. Recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce or reuse.

5. Rot (compost) organic materials.

Keeping the 5 Rs in mind has helped me shift my views about waste. I’m consciously refusing more and really evaluating the things I consume and rotting more than just kitchen scraps.

Easy ideas to implement to reduce your waste from Zero Waste Home:

• Use rags in place of paper towels. 
• Purchase a glass water bottle (or stainless) so you can refuse plastic water bottles/disposable cups!
• Replace disposable sandwich bags with reusable snack bags.
• Start composting.

Since reading Zero Waste Home, I have taken some more steps to reduce our waste:

• Canning Jars/Pyrex for freezing – Instead of using plastic freezer bags, I recently froze bacon in wide mouth canning jars with plastic lids. And, did you know, you can write on mason jars with sharpies and they’ll wash right off, reducing the need for labels? 
• Attacking the junk mail! I’ve been calling, e-mailing and refusing unwanted junk mail. To refuse – just write “Refused – Return to Sender – Take me off of your mailing list” on the envelope and stick it back in your mail box! In the past few weeks, we’ve had several days of no mail!
• Almost Zero Waste Gathering – We recently had a cookout and instead of using disposable cups, plates and napkins, I put our camping plates, mason jars and cloth napkins in a plastic tote and brought them along. When we were finished eating, everyone put their dishes in the tote, I popped the lid on it, brought it home and loaded the dishwasher. This saved a tote full of disposables from going to the landfill!

If you’re interested in reducing your waste, simplifying your life and living minimally, Zero Waste Home is an excellent resource. I’m looking forward to reading back through my copy because I know I’ll glean more ideas from another reading!

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of Zero Waste Home.  All opinions expressed in this post are my own. This post contains affiliate links. 

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When I was preparing for marriage at the age of 19, one of the things to check off the to-do list was birth control. Like many women, I simply scheduled an OB/GYN appointment, was given a prescription for birth control pills and went on my merry way. There was no talk about how the pills actually work or of the fact that I was taking artificial hormones that altered my cycle.

Fast forward 4 years. We had started making small lifestyle changes, including less processed food and moving towards being more health conscious regarding medicines and toiletries. The biggest change was the birth of our first child. After his birth, I wanted to live a healthy life and wanted my child to be healthy.

One of those healthy choices was deciding to breastfeed my son. Keeping up my milk supply was the reason I decided to forego any type of hormonal contraceptives after his birth. Around this time, I also decided that I never wanted to take hormonal contraceptives again.

I exclusively breastfed for 6 months which delayed ovulation and when my cycle did not return once we introduced solids, we were open to the thought of another baby so we continued to just rely on breastfeeding. At this point, I had read the book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, and started trying to observe signs of fertility. My attempt at observing fertility signs and lack of thorough knowledge of the contents of the book and the casual attitude we had towards relying simply on breastfeeding resulted in the conception of our second child when our first was 11 months old. (We say our Weston was neither planned or unplanned, his creation was simply God’s plan!)

Since our boys are only 20 months apart, once our second baby was born, I thoroughly researched different methods of birth control. There were no mainstream methods that I was comfortable with for my body, based on ethics and artificial hormones. The methods I kept coming back to were the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) and Natural Family Planning (NFP).

I ordered a copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility (which educates about FAM) and started studying because this form of ‘birth control’ is what I was most comfortable with.

We’re just a few months in to fully practicing FAM but our confidence is growing and I feel empowered knowing where my body is in my cycle and knowing exactly when I ovulate and when my period will begin.

Interested in learning more about FAM/NFP? I’ll be posting more details on FAM and Suzette from Jambalaya will be sharing about NFP.

Note: This post is not shared as medical advice, it’s just a bit of my story and thoughts. If you have an interest in following these methods, you need to educate yourself on the matter. 

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In Let’s Talk About Contraceptives,  I shared that I was not comfortable with any mainstream methods of birth control. Researching natural methods of child spacing led me to the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). I ordered a copy of the book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility (TCYF) and started educating myself.

There are many positives to following FAM.  The main positive is that FAM is completely natural, no artificial hormones go into your body. It’s also quite economical, I spent about $25 for a copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility and a basal thermometer which is much cheaper than paying for pills/patches year after year.

Supplies for Practicing FAM:

• Charts (paper charts provided in TCYF/ or the free app Kindara)
• Basal Body Thermometer
• Taking Charge of Your Fertility (you could learn the basics online but I highly recommend this book for reference!)

The Basics of FAM:

The two main components for following FAM are taking your temperature and observing your cervical fluid.

At the same time each morning, before you do anything, take your temperature (this is your waking temperature.) Once you have taken your temperature, record it on your chart.

Each morning, my alarm goes off at 7 am and I immediately put my thermometer in my mouth. Once it beeps, I take it out, read the temperature and record it using my Kindara app. 

The second component is observing your cervical fluid. Cervical fluid can basically be categorized as dry, sticky, creamy or slippery/egg white. It is recommended to check your cervical fluid 3 times a day, including the morning and night.

I observe my cervical fluid throughout the day and record the ‘findings’ each evening on my chart. 

Charting plays a key factor in FAM, if you are properly recording your temperatures and cervical fluid classifications, then you will know when you are approaching ovulation and when you ovulate. This knowledge is informative both as birth control or if you are trying to achieve pregnancy.

You cannot simply rely on charting your temperature or observing cervical fluid, it is necessary to observe both of those factors to get an accurate picture of where your body is in your cycle. There are also general guidelines to follow regarding the times it is ‘safe’ to have intercourse if you’re using FAM as birth control that are too complicated to go into here. (They are detailed in Taking Charge of Your Fertility.)

This is just a brief overview of the basics, don’t use this information alone to try to naturally avoid pregnancy. 

My experience:

After reading through Taking Charge of Your Fertility, taking notes, beginning to observe my body and charting, I felt confident that we could be successful if we followed all of the guidelines.

Practicing FAM is quite difficult when breastfeeding delays ovulation, there’s really not much to observe. But, with careful observation, I was able to tell when I ovulated and my cycle returned 2 weeks later when my youngest was 13 months old. Having a cycle makes practicing FAM easy, I just wish I would have been educated about ovulation and a woman’s cycle before marriage which would have allowed me to completely avoid hormonal birth control.

If you are on hormonal birth control or plan to go on hormonal birth control, just know there is another way!

Note: This post is not shared as medical advice, it’s just a bit of my story and the basics of FAM. If you have an interest in following these methods, you need to educate yourself on the matter. 

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This is a guest post from Suzette of Jambalaya and a continuation of the talk about natural birth control.

Part 1: Let’s Talk about Contraceptives

Part 2: Fertility Awareness Method

When it comes to fertility and living a lifestyle that is pleasing to God as well as good for the earth, any form of contraception is in question.  Truly, the only sure way to keep our bodies healthy and open to God’s plan for our families is to follow and track the signs that our body uses to communicate fertility and infertility. As with anything else in life, there are seasons of ease and difficulty, but we have found that our marriage is firmly mounted in trust, thanks to using Natural Family Planning (NFP).

NFP is defined by The Couple to Couple League (CCL) as “using knowledge of man’s constant fertility and woman’s changing fertility to plan or postpone pregnancy.”  That is NFP in a nutshell.

To touch on the main points, but not to attempt to teach anything, as I am not a certified teacher and I have been practicing NFP just shy of four years.

A. Menses (period)

B. The short (and/or sometimes non-existent) infertility that follows is Phase One.

C. Following phase one, phase two is the “pregnancy seeking” phase.  Phase two is characterized by fertility, ovulation and more fertility.

D. Phase three (honeymoon phase) is the substantial phase of infertility.

I can’t give you a set amount of days for each cycle.  Before my first child my cycles were 28-30 days but post partum my cycles were 31-34 days.  The lengths of the phases vary according to the signs you record and your cycle length. I’m currently seven months post partum with our second child and this time around have no cycle as of yet.  We have been mainly using cervical mucus and cervix position signs, although my cervix seems harder to “read” this time around.  

How do you know when each phase begins and ends?

Using charts to record readings of the cervix, cervical mucus and basal body temperature (BBT) a woman is usually able to determine when she is infertile and fertile.

This method of fertility awareness doesn’t cost more than the ink and paper you will use to print charts as well as the cost of a BBT thermometer (approx. $10-15).  It leaves no chemical residue in your urine, it isn’t linked to cancer, and it fosters deep and meaningful conversation as well as respect and awe between couples.

Love your spouse, love yourself, love your children, love this one Earth and love your Creator!  Explore the option of using NFP!

Note:

This is a synopsis of the Sympto-Thermal Method.  There are also three other methods of Family Planning: Billings, Creighton, and Marquette.

This post is not shared as medical advice.  If you have an interest in following NFP, you need to educate yourself on the matter. 

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In the past couple of years, we have been more conscious of getting rid of the excess stuff in our lives. We’ve gotten rid of a lot and have changed our consumption habits quite a bit in this time.

Downsizing to a smaller, older home two years ago has served as motivation towards letting more things go because we don’t have a lot of storage space. Our 1,300 square foot home has a small kitchen and 1970s sized closets – there really isn’t much space for a lot of excess.

Of course the lack of space is not the sole motivation, our lifestyle is! We’re finding we both feel less stressed and more content in our home as stuff leaves. It’s much easier to maintain and keep clean when there’s less, which means more time to spend doing things we enjoy! Even our young boys benefit from less, it seems the less toys they have, the more they actually play with their toys instead of just dragging everything out.

We’ve found it interesting how our minimizing seems to make people somewhat uncomfortable. We have comments thrown towards us regarding our desire to have less either by getting rid of the things we have or not acquiring many new items. Many times these comments are said with a negative tone.

I can’t help but think why does it bother others so much because we are choosing to live a somewhat countercultural life that’s not obsessed with acquiring more and more?

Do people think we’re just crazy because it is so abnormal to live desiring less?

Do they think we’re depriving our child since we don’t want them to have a ton of possessions?

Does it just bother them because they are drowning in their own clutter and really want to live without the desire for more?

Regardless of what others think, we’re confident that we’re on the right path and our life is heading in the direction that we want it to. Less really is more. When you have less stuff, you have more time to spend with your family, more money to give to ministries and quite honestly, life just seems more fulfilling!

Are you attempting to rid your life of the excess stuff? Do you find others are bothered by your desire to live a life free of excess? 

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A few months ago, I shared about our lifestyle crossroads. We had a complaint against our property for our goats and chickens and had 1 week to remove all animals from our property. We set up a lease agreement for the 6.5 acres adjoining our property and moved all of our animals there.

Thank you for all of your sweet comments. Your kind words really encouraged me.

One of the encouraging comments was, “In a few days, you will be able to stand back and see God’s hand in this situation.”

These words were true.

I want to share an update with you.

A few days after moving all of the animals, we met our pastor’s father who owns a 125 acre farm just 3 miles from our home. He was looking for someone to help occasionally on his farm, managing the cattle when he travels and do some mowing. He also was excited about the prospect of working with John David to expand his beef cattle operation and allowing us to use his farm to raise chickens, goats and hogs.

Looking back at everything, we can see that the less than ideal situation of having to move our animals from our property has led to an opportunity that wouldn’t have come about otherwise, allowing us more room to potentially raise more animals.

Right now, we are content in our home on our acre, with ample room to garden and for our boys to play. We have our hens on the 6.5 acres adjoining us and our goats are on the big farm with hopes to purchase a hog in the future. We’re feeling like everything has worked out and that we’re no longer at a crossroads.

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‘Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!’

While we’ve always lived frugally and green, we haven’t always been completely conscious of our consumption. Lately, we’ve been making efforts on reducing our waste, thinking more about ethical spending and trying to repurpose things to avoid consuming something new.

One of the ways to avoid consuming is by taking time to mend the clothing you already own so you can keep on wearing it.

In the past few weeks, I’ve mended a dress sleeve that was ripped after being caught in the dryer, sewn buttons back on to my favorite dress, mended the lining of a coat and cut up an old pair of my husband’s worn out jeans to make patches for 3 pair that had holes in the knee.

It’s a great feeling to put in minimal effort and revive an article of clothing.

Now my two dresses are wearable again, my 5-year-old wool coat will continue keeping me warm for many more years and hubby’s jeans will continue to be useful!

Do you mend your clothing? 

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The past few months, I’ve been slowing down with blogging, social media and time spent on the Internet in general. I’ve posted sporadically a few times these past two months but mostly have taken a break from this space.

It’s been nice to have a break, to take all pressure off of myself that I have to write something and just focus on being a mama.

The nice things about breaks, they leave you refreshed and excited! While, I don’t plan on jumping in and posting multiple times a week, I am excited to start posting a bit more regularly and have all kinds of topics to write about swirling around in my head.

One of the things I’m most excited about for October is revisiting 31 Days to Living Intentionally Simple which I wrote last October. There’s a small project each day to help you declutter, simplify and organize your life. The changing of the seasons has me desiring to go through my home and simplify more in preparation for the holidays.  I plan to share about my progress on my Intentionally Simple Facebook page (and maybe a blog post or two!)

If you’re desiring a simpler home, join me! It’s amazing how a small project each day really adds up to a simplified home by the end of the month. If you’re curious what the projects are, here’s the link to a list of all of them: 31 Days to Living Intentionally Simple.

And, I’m interested in what topics would you like to see me writing about? 

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I’ve been busy during the month of October working through 31 Days to Living Intentionally Simple which was written and worked through originally last October. My home was in desperate need of some attention, decluttering and cleaning so I’ve been working on the daily projects.

One thing about simplifying over 31 days is the daily projects really are manageable. Most projects have been completed in 30 minutes and a few of the more involved ones have all taken less than 2 hours!

Here are some results from my efforts to simplify:

The project from Day 2 was Simplifying in the Kitchen. This involved cleaning out the fridge, freezer and pantry. Let me tell you, those spaces needed some work. The biggest area of improvement was the refrigerator. I love a clean, well organized fridge, it really helps to prevent food waste and it’s nice opening it up and not seeing a jumbled mess!

My master bedroom had once again become a clutter zone. It needed help and 3 days (day 5, 6 & 8) were spent in the master. The first project was simply to remove everything that didn’t belong in the master. This meant all the folded laundry was put away, toys and children’s books were removed, the storage tote with clothes that no longer fit our boys was removed, along with other random stuff that was in our room. By the time everything that didn’t belong was gone, the difference was amazing! I could have ignored the next 2 projects and the room would have seemed clean but I went ahead and purged the closet and dresser and tidied the room even more over the next 2 project days.

The result of my 3 days of work in the master is a nice, tidy room that is relaxing and not cluttered with all kinds of random stuff. I’ve been removing everything that doesn’t belong in this room daily which has really helped me to maintain the neatness in our master. If you do nothing else in your master, just try removing the things that don’t belong there and you’ll see it makes a huge difference!

This is a pile of everything that has been decluttered so far in October. That laundry hamper and bag are both full of random stuff but it’s all leaving my house forever!

I shared on my Facebook page a few weeks ago this problem zone. This sewing desk has been sitting in a corner in our dining room for a couple of months and anytime we have an empty, purposeless space, it attracts stuff. So, things had been accumulating.  I’ve put several things back where they belong, broke down the large box to recycle and returned a few borrowed items back to their owners.

Here is the space now, not completely clutter free just yet but I’m definitely making progress. Some of what remains is just because of laziness – we haven’t taken the time to put the items where they belong. An example, that white sign, which says ‘Splish Splash’ was painted for our bathroom and we just haven’t taken the time to hang it up!

I hope this scene reminds you that while we do live simply, we’re not perfect and still have problem areas! But, baby steps are the key in conquering the clutter.

Have you been doing any of the 31 Days to Living Intentionally Simple projects? Are you noticing a difference in your home? 

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With the changing of the weather, comes the bi-annual wardrobe assessment for our children. I have found that going through the clothes we already own, inventorying them and coming up with a list of items we needs saves money and prevents me from purchasing too many clothes. This keeps our wardrobes simple and our dressers and closets clutter free.

Here’s a glimpse into this process:

I pull out the bin with the next size up label.

I choose not to stock up on a bunch of next size up children’s clothes because the rate at which they grow is never certain. For our 3 year old, our next size up bin contains mostly clothes that still fit at the end of the past season, any hand-me-downs we may have been given and any items I came across that I know my boys would love (like guitar and dino t-shirts) that were super cheap on clearance.

The contents of his next size up bin contained clothing that still fit with ample room at the end of last season. Always remember to look back at the clothes from the previous season because some items still may fit!

Everything in this picture (minus the dino shirt which I picked up for $2.50 on clearance this past May) were clothes that he wore last winter. Having this many clothes that still fit definitely got his fall/winter wardrobe off to a great start.

Inventory:

2 pieces of outerwear

2 dress shirts

2 nice t-shirts

2 pair play pants/overalls

3 play shirts

3 pajama sets

The next step was to look through the clothes he was currently wearing to see if any of them would transition into the next season. A quick look through the closet and dresser came up with a few items.

2 hoodies

1 pajama set

1 sweater vest

1 pair of play pants

After assessing what we already had, I was able to make a shopping list of the things he was going to need. He needed jeans, a few nice t-shirts and a rain jacket.

Once I had my list, I started stopping into our local resale store frequently (where I have store credit) and was able to acquire most of the items he needed there. The only items purchased new were the rain jacket and a t-shirt with construction equipment on it. The rain jacket is part of his Halloween costume (firefighter) and was purchased a size larger in hopes of it lasting 2 years so it was well worth the $18 I spent on it.

Items purchased:

Rain jacket $18 (Carters gift card)

Carters Khakis $7 (resale store with store credit)

Osh Kosh Jeans $6 (resale store with store credit)

Children’s Place Jeans $6 (resale store with store credit)

Children’s Place Jeans with Stretchy Waistband $5 (resale store with store credit)

Black/Red Stripe Tee $.50 (yard sale)

Black/Grey Striped Henley $5 (resale store with store credit)

Guitar Tee $2 (purchased used)

Construction Tee $3 (Carters gift card)

Thomas Tee $.50 (yard sale)

Total spent: $53

Purchased with store credit: $29

Purchased with gift cards: $21

Out of pocket expense: $3

It really makes me happy that I only had to spend $3 out of pocket for his new clothes. Using gift cards and store credit really help to stretch our clothing budget. And, I especially love that almost everything we purchased was secondhand.

His entire fall/winter wardrobe includes:

6 nice t-shirts

3 pair good jeans

2 dress shirts

1 sweater vest

1 pair khakis

3 pair play pants/overalls

4 play shirts

4 pajama sets

5 pieces of outerwear (2 hoodies, 1 sweater, 1 fleece jacket, 1 rain jacket)

I’m not suggesting this is the perfect amount of clothes for a 3 year old child. It is, however, the right amount of clothing for our 3 year old and our lifestyle.

We attend a casual church and there is not a need to dress up every Sunday, he does not go to preschool so he mostly wears his play pants and shirts on the days we stay home all day and we typically experience mild winters in Georgia so there is not a need for heavy coats and thick winter clothing. (If we do happen to have a super cold snap, we’ll just layer him up for warmth with his hoodies and fleece jacket!)

Modeling his new khaki pants with a dress shirt and sweater vest from last winter.

Jeans and shirt from the resale store. Both gently used and purchased with store credit!

Benefits of a simple child’s wardrobe:

• Less clothing to organize and find storage for.
• Costs less. Not having a large wardrobe means you spend less on clothing!
• Easier to get dressed! It’s easier for the child to pick out their own clothes since they aren’t bombarded with a drawer/closet stuffed with clothes.

Do your children (or you) have simple wardrobes? 

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When it comes to preparing my boys wardrobes for the upcoming season, I use the same process to access their needs but readying my younger son for the next season is much easier (and cheaper) since I have a bin of hand-me-downs to work with.

Here’s the process for my younger son:

I simply pull out the bin of clothes in his next size range that his big brother wore and we pretty much have a wardrobe that is ready to go!

The contents of his bin for this fall/winter was mostly made up of hand-me-downs from big brother* but there were also a few pieces that were still large on him at the end of last winter (his sweater vest, a hooded sweater and button up shirt.) I also picked up a dino t-shirt on clearance for $2.50 back in May, it matches the one I purchased for big brother then too!

*You’ll notice there really aren’t a ton of hand-me-downs. I’m very selective when it comes to saving clothing, I only keep favorite items, clothes in good condition and a few play clothes. There is not room in our home to save everything.

Inventory:

2 button ups

1 hooded sweater

4 t-shirts

2 pair of pajamas

1 jacket

1 sweater vest

7 pair of pants

Then I assessed what he was currently wearing to see what would transition into the cooler months.

2 hoodies

1 rain jacket

1 sweater vest

2 pair of pajamas

At this point, there was nothing he really needed since I do laundry so frequently but thought another t-shirt or two would be nice for extra variety!

Items I purchased:

Jeans $1 (yardsale)

Black Tee $4 (WalMart)

Born to Rock Tee $3 (Carters Gift Card)

Total Spent: $8

His entire fall/winter wardrobe:

7 t-shirts/sweaters

6 pants

2 dress shirts

2 sweater vests

1 khaki pant

4 play pants (3 pair not pictured)

3 play shirts (not pictured)

4 pajama sets

5 pieces of outerwear (2 hoodies, 1 rain jacket, 1 fleece jacket, 1 thick jacket that’s not pictured)

This simple wardrobe is what works for us. Since we’re working on using the potty, he has several more pair of pants than his big brother (some days we go through 4 pair due to accidents so an excess of pants is necessary for a child this age).

Benefits of a simple child’s wardrobe:

• Less clothing to organize and find storage for.
• Costs less. Not having a large wardrobe means you spend less on clothing!
• Easier to get dressed! It’s easier for the child to pick out their own clothes since they aren’t bombarded with a drawer/closet stuffed with clothes.

Do you have a hand-me-down source for your children (either sibling, family member or friend)? Do the hand-me-downs make up a majority of their wardrobes?

Related posts:

Simple Preschooler Wardrobe

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