How it all began....

There were 4 children in my family and my mother stayed home to raise us while my father worked, so therefore, we didn't have much as far as money goes.  In order to make ends meet and to provide a healthy life for our family, my parents decided that living off the land and making/doing as much as we could on our own was the way to go.  We used a lot of homemade products for every day life...laundry detergents, cleaning products, soaps and sometimes even clothes.  In addition, each summer, we had a very large garden, in which we planted a variety of fruits and vegetables and grew them all organically.  From the harvest of our garden, we managed to can and freeze enough food to sustain us throughout the fall/winter/spring until the next year's garden could be harvested.  In addition to the garden, we raised our own livestock of cows and chickens to provide meat and eggs for the family.  From all of this, I learned that it doesn't take a lot of money to provide healthy food and a safe, efficient living environment for a family, but it does take time, hard hands-on work, knowledge about organic products and lots of canning :)!!  Among the many things my parents taught me, being kind to the Earth was something else that I considered valuable....we always tried to keep our little world as clean as we could and not be wasteful. We reused a lot of things (clothes, shirts turned into rags, glass/plastic containers) and found many ways to make use of things that would have otherwise been thrown away. As time went on, and I started a family of my own, I wanted to use the tools and knowledge that my parents had instilled in me to pass on to my own family.  So, that's where I begin my blog....wanting some sort of an outlet in order to pass on to my children and the people around me the things I have learned and am passionate about...living a simple life....eating homemade, organic foods from my own hands and labor....doing my part to keep the Earth safe for my family and those who follow....and just enjoying all that God has provided for us!