Everyday Reasons to be Prepared

It's currently the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I had the great displeasure of having to make a last minute grocery trip to Wal-Mart. I did the bulk of my Thankgiving shopping at the beginning of the month, right after I made my meal plan and made my grocery list, but there are always the little things that I forget until go time. I usually make the last minute trip the weekend before but I had to work making the shopping trip a little difficult. So I had to go two days before the day.
Let me tell you now, it was crowded, more so than it usually is and especially for a Tuesday. People were everywhere and I'm a person that does not like crowds. I saw how rude some people can be. Shelves were getting bare, especially for basic things like flour and sugar. I, saw a lady yell at an employee because they were out of the only brand of all purpose flour she wanted, apparently she couldn't wrap her head around using a different brand. Another lady was upset because they were out of the large containers of peanut oil and there was no other way for her to cook her bird.
Luckily I was able to get everything I needed without having to cry about the store being out. I hated the whole experience and the whole time I was thinking one thing "if I had a proper food storage I wouldn't have to be here." I couldn't help but wish I was more prepared. As I was thinking about being more prepared I couldn't help but think about the empty shelves. I know that this time shelves would probably be refilled within a week but what if this was more long-term. What if there was a food shortage or gas shortage or, more believable last minute Christmas dinner shopping. Now I'm even more in the mindset that I should start building a better food storage and a more functional homestead so I don't have to deal with all the people that have their heads buried so far in the sand that they can't cook a different way or use a different brand of flour.
I doesn't have to be a life changing or doomsday event to see the importance of being prepared, sometimes it's the everyday real life situations.

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

I finished reading Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. It is a good book with lots of information. It talks not only about organic gardening methods but also conventional gardening using the square foot method. His method is to space out vegetables perfectly to fit within 12" by 12" squares. The method is usually used for raised beds but it can be converted to just in ground, digging out or tilling up 4' by 4' foot squares to plant in.
The book brought up things like building soil, choosing the proper seed for your climate, and different watering methods for different climates. It also discussed vertical gardening, using and making compost, pest control, and specialized gardens for those with special needs (like a garden lifted off the ground.
I like that it discussed specialized gardens for children, ones that are smaller, grow fast, and require less attention.
I like how it introduced the idea without talking down to the reader like other books I've read. One of the neat things it included was the maps in the back that had the average first and last frost dates. Also the final chapter was a list of common plants and how much spacing they would need.
I enjoyed reading and really do want to try to implement this method in my garden next year, maybe then I might get a better harvest.

Toddler Pictures

My toddler got a hold of the camera here's some of the wonderful pictures she took.

168lbs

That's what I weighed this morning. I was really surprised. I haven't been eating well or drinking my water but I'm down over 15lbs. This is the lowest I've seen the scale since Claire was born. I wanted to cry when I saw it, even though it is not my goal weight it means I've progressed. I hope that me working plus breastfeeding will lead to even more weight loss.

August Garden Update (2014)

Well, yeah, this isn't going to be much. My garden is at the failure point again. The squash have been devoured by bugs. The only thing I have left is a few tomatoes and one cantaloupe that I hope will ripen. The blackberry did well and I got quite a few blackberries this year, usually just a handful a day. The peach tree did produce peaches but they got eaten, I didn't expect the peaches to get as big as they did but my tree surprised me. Also I discovered my grape plant is not a grape plant, it is a muscadine vine, I love muscadines so it doesn't bother me. Maybe next year, since I'm starting over my seeds, will be better, and maybe I'll bet my raised beds built. I'm currently trying to find cheap wood chips for a back to Eden garden. Maybe next year will be better since the babies will be older and much easier to take outside.
Happy gardening.

Making a Little Order Wthin all this Chaos

Our house is just chaos right now. It's a complete mess, I don't get much done, and the little ones have no structure. I'm serious, we tend to wake up around 11 and don't go to bed until 1a.m. which is not fun when sometimes I have to be at work at 7 in the morning. A new project I have created for my household is to create a routine and structure to our days. I was reading articles about how routine and structure can help children, they will learn what to expect every day and what is expected of them.

My first plan is to create a morning routine of just getting up, having breakfast, cleaning up, and getting dressed for the day, all without TV. I don't have a specific wake up time just trying to create a specific wake up routine. I also want to keep up with a 15 minute pick up for a few days until the mess is not as big.

I'm hoping creating daily routines will lead to weekly routines, like meal planning, weekly goals, and maybe a weekly blog post lol.

Setting up pictures

I didn't realize, until I started posting lots of  pictures on my craft blog, how difficult it was to set up the shot. I mean the lighting is not great where I'm at in my little crafting corner. Also making sure my desk is decently cleaned. Most of the time I just shove what I don't need into the corner out of camera range and then it creeps back afterward. Also trying to come up with new blog posts when I'm not actually working on a project. It cost money to make projects and I only get paid every two weeks so I'm worried that on the craft blog that I'm going to be doing a post every day while I have material and then it might go a week or two without a post. I could do tutorials and a sewing machine review but I only have one sewing machine. A discussion of notions is in order and basic needs to get started sewing. I've got ideas just need to get off my lazy backside and do them.

Work and Blogging

Work has really made it hard for me to blog. That and lack of motivation to do so. I don't know what to write most of the time. I rarely keep up with my goals and I rarely track what I read. My garden is growing, I've got a pumpkin and a zucchini already, also the blackberry bush is coming to an end of it's production, the birds are getting most of it. I've lost 12 pounds since I started working outside the home. I've also started eating better. Now one of my big goals is to stop staying up all night, which is hard when you have a toddler that wants to stay up all night. I need to come up with a plan for this blog but not now it's 12:30 and I need to get my toddler to sleep.

Starting Fresh

It's time for me to start fresh and reorganize things around my house. Tomorrow is Monday and the start of everything new, new goal making new ideas, new realizations. So time to start my goals for the week. I want to try and make my goal making a Monday thing but we'll work on my schedule as time goes on.

First goals

Myself:
1. Drink 6 glasses of water everyday (that's 3 bottles)
2. Read 5 minutes everyday
3. Get up at 11 everyday
4. Exercise at least 5 minutes a day

My Children
1. Read every day
2. Have breakfast without TV everyday

My House
1. Do a load of laundry every day
2. Keep the Kitchen sink clean

That's this week tomorrow I'm going to work on a cleaning schedule or just dig up the one I have.

What We Read This Week (4/13-4/19)

This week was much better than last week when it comes to reading. Although I didn't get 20 minutes every day but I did read more books to my kid's this week than last week.

What I read this week:
Inheritance-Christopher Paolini
I was able to read two chapters, the chapters are short so that's not very much.

What I read to the kids this week:
Hide and Go Peep - Tui Sutherland
Pilly Winks
Just a Day at the Pond - Mercer Mayer
I Spy on the Farm-Edward Gibbs
Olivia-Ian Falconer
Mickey's Birthday Surprise-Mary Packard
Frog and Toad Are Friends-Arnold Lobel
Rainbow Kittens-V.C. Graham
Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul Nature
Just a Little Music-Mercer Mayer
Pete the Cat: Pete at the Beach-James Dean
Pete the Cat: Pete's Big Lunch-James Dean
Splat the Cat Sings Flat-Rob Scotton

Hits:
She's in love with Pete the Cat I'm going to have to find some more.

Misses:
None this week I doubt we'll have any for a while because I only read what she brings me.

Goals:
for myself:
Read 5 chapters of Inheritance.

for kids:
Read at least 1 book a day.

What We Read This Week (4/6-412)

This week was fairly sparse when it comes to books.

Books I read myself:
Inheritance By Christopher Paolini

I only read one chapter. I read the previous three books in the series I felt it was time that I finished it up.

To my little ones:
Just a Little Music  By Mercer Mayer
Just a Day at the Pond By Mercer Mayer
Splat the Cat Sings Flat By Rob Scotton
Pete the Cat: Pete at the Beach By James Dean
Pete the Cat: Pete's Big Lunch By James Dean

Hits:
My oldest loves the Pete the Cat books I'm going to see if I can get some more for a descent price.

Misses:
There were no real misses this week, Pookie never really complains I think she just enjoys the time together.

Goals:
My goals for this week is to read one story to the little ones every day.

There's 1440 minutes in a day...(Pinterest UGH)

There’s 1440 minutes in a day it only takes 30 minutes to exercise!

You see this all over the Health board on Pinterest sometimes it will say 10 minutes, sometimes as much as 60, either way it says the same thing “Everyone should carve out time in their day to do this.”

I don’t like this saying for many reasons, first it’s wrong and it shames people who don’t follow it.

I want to point out that yes there are 1,440 minutes in a day, scientifically this is correct. The Earth makes one full rotation every 24 hours, there’s 60 minutes in an hour, and therefore there are 1,440 minutes to one full rotation. The statement is wrong for other logical, sociological, scientific, and mathematical reasons.

So let’s do some more math!

(Don’t worry it will be easy math)

Enter average Joe

Average Joe is a lonely adult, he is unemployed, living off a trust fund that was left for him, and has no family or friends, nothing to do outside of taking care of himself. He may have nothing else to do but he still has two obligation to himself. Scientifically, to survive, Joe has to eat and he has to sleep. It is suggested that adults get 7-9 hours of sleep a day, we are going to use the 8 hour average. For food we’re going to give Joe only 30 minutes, 3 times a day, to prepare and eat his meals. We could include the time it takes to plan and shop for the meals but to keep it simple we’re going to assume Joe gets a meal plan and groceries delivered to him every morning. While we’re on the subject we’re going to assume that Joe also has a maid that cleans his house, just to keep things simple, so he doesn’t have to take time to do that either. Now for the math, 8 hours is 480 minutes, 30 minutes 3 times a day is 90 minutes. 480 minutes plus 90 minutes is 570 minutes. 1440 minutes minus 570 minutes is 870 minutes.

8x60=480

30x3=90

480+90=570

1440-570=870

870 ≠ 1440

Our average Joe does not have 1440 minutes to spare, reality says he only has 870 minutes a day to make time to exercise. Joe can take the time to do a 60 minute exercise session. Now, most people are not like Joe, most people have obligations outside of sleeping and eating. So moving on to part two of out math story.

Joe gets a JOB

Joe’s trust fund has been dwindling, he suddenly realizes that to keep the home he loves, and his precious maid, he needs to get a job. Through some special connections he manages to get a good full time job. The job is another 8 hours out of Joe’s day. He also has to take time for the commute, it’s a good 30 minute drive he takes to and from work. He still has to sleep and eat the same amount of time. So added to his day is another 480 minutes for the 8 hours of work and 60 minutes for the commute there and back. 480 plus 60 is 540. Subtract that from the leftover time after sleep and eating, so 870 minus 540 is 330.

480+60=540

870-540=330

330≠1440

Now 330 minutes is still enough time to exercise especially since still has no social life or other obligations but what if he wanted to find someone to love and start a family, part 3 starts.

Joe gets married and has a family

(No more math this part is more subjective)

Joe made some friends, met a girl, got married, and had some children. His wife is a stay at home mom that looks after the home, does the grocery shopping, raises the children, and other such things so the only Joe has to worry about is his health and his job. Out of the 330 minutes he has left in his day he has choices to make he can make the time to exercise, or spend time with his wife and children. He could watch a movie with them, play a board game, or just participate in some horseplay.

Some more scenarios

-What if Joe’s wife decided to start working? This scenario would suddenly add some more obligations to Joe’s day. (Such as house cleaning and caring for the children)

-Most people only work 8 hours a day 5 days a week, but what if Joe decides he wants to start his own business, his work days would be longer (sometimes 12 hours) and he would have to work more days during the week (6-7 instead of 5).

-What if Joe suddenly has to take a second Job to keep up with his lifestyle, or to pay for his children’s colleges. 

Conclusion

I guess my problem with this statement is that it is scientifically incorrect and it seems to forget that most people have obligations outside themselves. Every family is different. Yes people can squeeze a little bit of exercise into their day but not everyone has huge chunks of time to carve out of their day and sometimes that 10 minutes could be spent doing something more fulfilling than exercising. This statement should say something different more like:

You only have 1440 minutes in a day, spend them wisely

Reboot

I surprised myself when I came back on here and realized how long I have been gone. I took a hiatus to focus on school and the new baby. Now lately I've been thinking about restarting my writing make now goals and work towards them. Especially since I finish school in May. I still really want to be a work at home mom. I've even been thinking about opening a shop on Etsy to sell some creations. I even started a second blog to follow some of my craft projects. I want to make clothes to sell mainly fantasy integration and  historical clothes, for not only people but dolls. I might use my youtube channel to follow some of my simpler life living. The problem is I'm probably going to have to get a job outside the home to help fund my new work at home endeavor. I know I may not be able to fully fund myself with just an Etsy shop, maybe the blog, youtube channel, and Etsy shop, combined with a homesteading lifestyle might make life easier.