WOULD ANY OF YOU ENJOY A MUCH SIMPLIAR LIFE?

I am just throwing my thoughts out today. For those of you who know me, you know that I love where I live. I love my neighbors, my friends, the church ward we attend, my kids school and my sister being right down the road, my family close by, and pretty much everything else about where we are. However I can't help but think that I would love a much simpliar life! A simpliar life can mean so many different things for different people depending on their own circumstances. I keep telling my husband I would love to go back to the older times when everyone lived off the land and traded expertise for the things they needed. I know some of you may think I am "NUTS" and some of you may already live a version of what I speak.

Let me give you a reason I feel this way. For instance at our home we get up at 6:oo for me to go run(sometimes) and for Halli to get ready for school. By the time breakfast is done and backpack together and her room picked up, Casey is on his way to do carpool and drop Halli off at school which is 7:45. I spend my day cleaning my home, planning dinner, taking kids to the park, and helping whom ever I can whenever I can. I am also starting to homeschool Camry. Halli has tutoring Mon-Thur after school. So by the time I go pick her up and do carpool on the way home we get home @ 4:20. We then have to squeeze in homework time, dinner time, family time, responsiblility time(chores) extra curricular activities, church activties and sometimes playtime(with friends)or our brothers and sisters into 3 hours. Then Casey gets home at 6 or there after. Every night I have so many things that I would love to do with my kids, however I always run out of time. I feel as though I don't have quality time with my kids. I adore them and it has just eaten me up that I don't have much time in life to teach them, love them, and help them grow. I feel the time is now and three hours a night isn't enough.

Now with this all said, I can't just up and move into the wilderness, but I am realizing that I have a lot of talented people around me that I can prepare myself with. We have some very talented people in our ward that know how to grow some amazing gardens for there own supply of food, grind there own wheat and make some many wonderful homemade meals. I have really learned over the past two years how important food storage really is and I can start learning from some of the most talented on how to prepare food storage for my family. I just want to learn how to have our family be more self-sufficient, and living on a minimal budget, so that my husband would be able to be home more as well. I would like to have some cows, chickens, and goats that would also help supply us some food source.

Now many of you know that my husband is a small town Idaho boy and he would love to get back there. Land there is still pretty cheap for acreage. I have looked at the cost for having several windmills to supply a home with electricity and the cost is minimal(they are known for wind there). Some of land I have looked at have a well, a septic and some also offer shares of irrigation(which would be really nice).

So after saying all this I have decided my dream would be to have a simple home for a large family already (paid off), cars (paid off) homeschool my children, a place where we would produce our own food from a garden, and have some animals. A place where our kids could run and explore. I know in saying this is a simpliar life isn't meaning that it is easier. I don't believe that in anyway, however I would love doing it together as a family. I know that some days my kids and I would love it and somedays may hate it, but overall enjoying the lessons learned and time together.

Now I do realize that not all dreams come together entirely, so I will have to work towards the optimal goal while obtaining bits and pieces along the way. Please those of you that know or understand my thinking either because you already live this way or because you feel the same way please share. Those of you that think I am "NUTS" please share I would love to laugh at how others think this sounds! Please also share helpful hits or lessons you have learned to give me a heads up! Thanks so much for listening