Public Speaking? | How to Adult Without Debt Blog Announcement

Recently, I was given an amazing opportunity to talk with some really cool teens about life, God, money and debt. 

This was the first time I had ever been asked to speak about our life story and how debt can make or break God's plans for your life. To be honest I almost turned it down. What's so important about our little story (Which is so much like everyone else's story.) that would matter to anyone? Maybe nothing, but I'm willing to talk about it, if people want to listen.

 So, I put together a slightly haphazard presentation, resisted the urge to vomit and made myself stay in that class room with those young adults, despite my urge to run away and hide behind my computer screen and blogger profile. I stayed until all the jitters passed and we got down to a real conversation about life. I've never been more thankful for my notes and bullet points. I lost my place and said 'Ummm' way too many times, and I probably had a bit more fun than they did. Truth be told they probably think I'm a few fries short of a happy meal. 

 I am so blessed humbled to hear and see a group of young adults open up and tell me what they think about life and how they feel, and to see their brains click and make the connection between the people in the Bible, today's society and how it all connects to them and their future selves.  

These kids have some big thoughts and they are going important places in life for God! 

People are forever talking down to and about our young adults of this generation as being worthless, unintelligent and disconnected from the real world. It probably is true to some extent, because that is what the majority of society has been speaking into them for the last couple of generations!

 However, there are so many of them out there who really want to do this thing called 'Adulting' the right way! 

 Just maybe we should stop talking about them and start talking to them about some REALLY BIG and HARD topics. Let's do it now before they are out in the world floundering around.

Is it possible to find your calling at 32? Because I've never had so much fun and felt so rewarded with anything other than being a homeschooling mom and wife.

~Lyndsay

After praying about this topic for a people of time, I decided to start a resource for blog for teens and young adult. It is called 'How to Adult Without Debt'. There is also a facebook page in the works. 

Please be patient with me while I work toward trying to spend more time here on this blog and on the new one as well. 

The Year Without a Purchase ~ Book Review

The Year without a Purchase: One Family's Quest to Stop Shopping and Start Connecting

  In January I mentioned giving myself a book challenge to read one book each month. I did great with this challenge in the first few weeks of January, finished my first book on less than a week and started the next one. Then I came down with the flu, along with the rest of the family. Reading was the last thing on my mind. I'm finally starting to feel better, and remembered that I gave myself some goals for the year. It was time to stick to them!

I decided that making a book review on each book I finish would be a good way to keep myself accountable. (Let's see how well I stick to this.)

 

  Book #1 was a super quick read, mainly because it was so real. I love down to earth and real life, and this book hits you in all the feels for that. I audibly laughed out loud on more than one occasion while reading 'The Year Without a Purchase'.(Affiliate link)

  It is about a typical American family ( A husband and wife with two young kids) who decided to go one entire year without making a single purchase, food not included.

  The author breaks the book up with many moments of real life hilarity. Let's be honest, saving money with a no spend challenge can get a little messy from time to time. Especially when we do not do our best to be prepared.

  One of the things that really hit home for me with this book was the fact that this family did not do this challenge out of financial necessity, they did it for their spiritual health. The financial benefit was just a bonus and an exercise in frugality. They felt they had fallen into the habit of spending money without a purpose and wanted to come back to their real purpose in life, their focus on God. 

  They wanted to learn how to be 'In the world but not of it'. (A topic I often ponder and tend to struggle with.)

  They decided to figure out what exactly was a need for them, only on the most extreme level. As a whole, our society is very confused on the topic of need vs want. Too many wants have become needs, while the majority of the world struggles to fulfill their basic daily needs.

  Don't get me wrong, this book was clearly not written to induce guilt. It did however help to shed a light on how to make an impact on your world from where you are right now. It gives hands and feet to the budgeting aspect of giving. It shows you how one family made some small and yet drastic changes to their daily lives to be able to give more to others in need.

  I think the best part of this book was the fact that they were very real and raw about their feelings through the whole process. Dustin and I have done 'no spend' challenges before and it can be very difficult and brings out many unexpected emotions. It is very revealing of who you are as a person.

  If you are looking for a quick and entertaining, yet heart searching book to read, I highly recommend reading 'The Year Without a Purchase'.

~Lyndsay

New Additions! Operation Homestead 2018! *Video at bottom of post*

 At our old house I had attempted to start a homestead of sorts. With so many little ones in the house it quickly became too much for me. I had to let it go for a season.
Now we are more than settled into our new house, our business is under way and the kids aren't all as little as they used to be. It's time to restart 'Operation Homestead'!

 Dustin and I had already been discussing building the garden beds and possibly getting chickens and rabbits this year. Then a fellow homeschool family decided to incubate some eggs for a science project. They live in town and can't keep more than a few chickens, I was more than happy to take them off her hands.  

  The oldest two children remember having chicks and chickens, but the younger two have never experienced it. They are so excited for this brand new experience! We brought them home a few hours ago and the joy is unreal. :)

   Dustin told Anna (2) that we got the chicks so we can have fresh eggs. She has since been telling them to 'Get comfy, cook eggs!' and keeps asking them 'Where's you Mama at?'
She asked me 'Where's their Mama at?' I told her she was their Mama now. She likes that idea. 

  Everyone is very excited to start this new step in our journey. I have missed having 'farm' animals around, gardening and tending to a mini farm/homestead are two things that bring me great joy.

From a homeschooling standpoint, this offers all kinds of opportunities for real life, hands on, science education. It also teaches them the value of hard work and the enjoyment of the rewards of caring for another living thing. 

 

 Plus this has brought a fun new thing to brighten our days after having not so great of a start to the year. Between sickness, cold and snow, it has been a long winter. Everyone was more than ready for a glimpse of life to prove that spring will eventually arrive. This will serve as a wonderful distraction from the greyness outside.
 

~Lyndsay

7 Quick Takes! A Recap of Life in the Tiny House This Week! The Secrets Homeschoolers Keep, Mom Fail and Random Thoughts!

 It's Friday! We made it! Thank goodness. Because I spent part of the week asking what day it was. It was one of those weird, confusing catch up weeks. I think, mainly because it was our first official week back to life, post holidays and sickness. I felt like a deer caught in the headlights most of the week. 

1. New Year, New Curriculum.

 I am terrible at sticking to some really boring less exciting curriculums. If we get half way in and realize it isn't working for us, we change it. Thankfully, we have most of our core subjects nailed down. It is just a couple that keep getting shifted around. 

 I tried something new with our reading/comprehension at the beginning of the year. The older two did it, but hated it. I got them to stick to it for the first half of the year. When we were prepping to start back they voiced their dislike of that particular area. I mulled it over for about a week and agreed that they shouldn't have to do it, if they hated it that much. They love to read and they do read a good bit. (A large part of their curriculum is independent reading.) I did not want to start making them hate reading. Especially after all the years of encouraging it. Honestly, I should have just left well enough alone this year and stuck with what worked last year.
  
 I also switched Addison back to Life of Fred for math. She finished the math I had for her before Christmas. I know which one she will be switching to, but I feel like we need to take a side road and do some Fred. Fred is awesome. 

We are still struggling in the History department. Why? Because I dropped the ball. (Real life, moment.)  This happens with History and Science, more often than I would like to admit. I have not found a history program that truly fits for us yet. So, I build our own. When I'm on top of it, it is great. I can build a curriculum. I actually enjoy it.

 Then, life happens, and they run out of what I have planned for them, before I am done planning the next section. My goal for this year is to plan the whole year of history in advance. That is how we do most of our subjects. 

We have continued to shift to a more heavy Charlotte Mason approach to our schooling. Below is a small snippet of what they are currently reading. (This is not their full work load.)

Emma

Alex

 

Addison

2. It's not messy, it's 'school mode'!

I was texting my friend Sveta this week, when I should have been doing school with the little one. Yea, I was playing hooky. You caught me. Any-who, we were discussing what we had planned for the day, and what we had accomplished that day. 
I commented that my house was fairly clean (had laundry going, etc, etc, mom stuff). She commented that her house was not clean. Which made me giggle because her house is never dirty. She sends me a picture of her living room as proof. It looked almost exactly like my house, but with different children in it. 
We both agreed that our houses were not exactly dirty at that moment in time. We were just doing school. Once school is finished all of it gets tucked away for the day. Then normal house reappears. 
 We decided to call it 'School Mode'. 

It is almost impossible to homeschool and avoid the daily clutter explosion that happen while school is in session. I refuse to call it messy anymore. Because it is not an accurate representation of our life.

As proof, I'm showing you our house in 'School mode'. It is what it is for about 4-6 hours, then it gets put away for the day. 

 


The cardboard in the background is a project that was in the works. When you live in a little house, school happens everywhere.


3. Jarred Cactus?

 All of the kids were sick for a little over a week. It happened to fall on the first of the month, (When I typically shop for the month.) and during a snow storm with a cold snap of single digits.. I was more or less house bound. Not necessarily because of the snow. Although, I hate driving in the snow. It was because of the kids. 
 I was wondering how I was going to get to the store and manage to get the month worth of groceries with all these sick people.
 Then it occurred to me that between Amazon, Walmart and Sam's Club, I could order 80% of our pantry, household and grocery items without leaving the house. 

Our prime pantry box

I only had to go out once. Dustin brought home pizza on Friday after work. Emma and I loaded up in the van. We picked up our site-to-store order from Sam's, then popped into Aldi. Because of the storm we ended up having to stop at Kroger also. People in our area still function on 'Panic mentality' any time it snows. They buy all the milk, eggs and bread. 

 We were gone maybe 2.5 hours and it was a lot less stress for me.

 Emma and I like to cut up and have fun. We have this rather dry and almost mean sarcastic humor, that I do not allow her (or myself) to use on others. When we go out alone I turn her loose with it. It is very Lorelai and Rory. We even sometimes pick an accent and use it the entire time. 
 We can't help it, it is in our personality. If I don't let her get it out, she uses it at all the wrong times.    So, we came to an agreement that we can use it on each other at certain appointed times. Then we have to turn it off. Plus it teaches her how to control the sarcastic humor that she was born with. Something that I took a long time to learn. 

Something that caught our eye, While looking for a certain type of beans and attempting to use all of the words from different languages that we knew, in one sentence, while speaking in a British accent (I feel the need to mention that I had not had a lot of sleep.)...we found this. It is jarred, pickled? (I assume) cactus?!

I feel the need to try this in the near future! Maybe while we are studying deserts and cacti. Because who doesn't want to read about something rather different (At least to us. We live very far from a desert region. ;) ) and then you get to eat one?!

 


4. The part they don't tell you about homeschooling.

 I'm sure you have heard the jokes about homeschoolers never getting out of their pajamas. There is also the joke about how socially awkward we can be and the media always likes to toss around the 'socialization' scare tactic. 

 What most people don't realize is, we are typically just as busy as the rest of the world.  Between work, the chiropractor, the orthodontist, hair appointments, the dog, basketball, the library and co-op(That is not everywhere we went.) we left the house and were gone basically every day this week. 

We do a lot of 'car schooling'. This is what it looks like. Mom tip, always bring snacks and water! The toddler will act much less like a feral cat. 





5. Speaking of feral cats...

  I think I mentioned co-op started back up this week. We were all so read to go back. I was prepared and excited. Probably more than the kids. 
We get to co-op, unload the car and Anna decides to turn into a thrashing, screaming, psychopath. It was like giving a feral cat a bath most of the day. I have rarely been so embarrassed by one of my toddlers actions. It was terrible. I wasn't even able to help teach my class. We ended up wandering the halls, eating our lunch early, and I spent the better part of the day apologizing to everyone in our path. 
  After she went to bed last night, I was telling Dustin about our day. He pointed out the fact that she was still on steroids and meds. #facepalm Her crazy behavior makes a bit more sense now. Major mom fail. :( 

She isn't usually like that. It was so bad. So, on a positive note. This is how she normally looks and acts.




6. The mug that matches our house perfectly!

While our friend Laura was visiting recently. She told me about a mug that was in the works at our local pottery place.  She said it matched our house and life perfectly. I had to stop in to pick up a special order item that Laura made, later in the week. I happened to see the mug before it went in for its color dip and glaze. I put a hold on it and asked for it in blue and white. Rachel Shepard (I will be doing a feature on her soon.) made this one. She is one heck of a talented potter!  There are so many talented artists housed in this building. It is non profit and they do loads of ministry and work in our community. If you are interested in learning a new craft, supporting a local business and ministry or just purchasing a one of a kind piece of artwork to sip your morning coffee from...go visit The Potter's House!
The kids are taking classes there this month. I'm excited to watch and maybe get my hands dirty as well.

 

7.  Friday thoughts

 I feel like all of this post was about homeschooling and books. That's probably not what you might have been expecting today. This blog is about our lives and our lives encompass a large variety of topics. As life tends to go though, sometimes our lives get more focused on one topic than others. That is how life works. Part of being a part of our blogging life is coming along for the ride with us. We have been focusing on less media, less tv, less electronics etc. Which means more books and more quiet.
We have been doing lots of reading, writing, reflecting and making the right choices in our lives, business and homeschool. It's January, that's what it's all about. 
Dustin is working a lot. Works is going good. When he isn't working, he is spending time with us and or reading his Bible. 
I have been focusing on reading more, making the habit of exercise stick, spending more time with the kids, and making plans for the future of our lives, this blog and our business. We are starting to move into the next season of life with no babies, no debt and the ability to follow our dreams.

We are making the plans and taking the steps now, to make the next ten+ years pretty awesome.  

 Blessings!
~Lyndsay

I'm kicking around the idea of doing a day in the life vlog once  month. As well as some tutorials. There are also plans for a room by room house tour. It has been so long since I vlogged and or even put my face in front of our youtube channel. It is like starting all over again with the butterflies and everything. 
There you go. That's why I haven't vlogged, I get camera shy. Plus the editing takes a while. I don't always have the time to take from my family.  

7 Quick Takes, A Recap of Life in the Tiny House This Week! Hippie Preacher, Big Thanks, and Don't Eat The Soap!

 September has been a whirlwind of activity.  Some of it was typical and planned, the rest..not so much.

1. The Hippie Preacher

 Once a year, we get a visit from Pastor Duke Hergatt. He calls himself the hippie preacher. He is a lot of fun to listen to. He is also a very smart and gifted preacher. He has read the Bible one hundred eleven times! He and his wife, JoEllen, travel all over the country each year.
 We did not get to go and listen this week because Addison had surgery this week. We are sticking close to home for about a week. Thankfully our church records all of the sermons so we have been able to listen in at home. Such a blessing! You can listen to them here if you would like. I know I never walk away from one of his sermons without having learned many new things.

2. Addison


 Addison's surgery was this week. Everything went smoothly. The incision is a bit bigger than the Dr had described. They were also in the operating room twice as long as they said it normally takes. The Dr said everything went fine though. Now we wait for things to heal, and for test results. Those should be in next week.
She has been a trooper through all of this. She was also rather funny to talk to post surgery. Boys are grouchy and mean after being put under, but girls are sweet and loving. She kept telling everyone how much she loved them and was so thankful for everything. On the way home she even thanked me for being such a safe driver. She's a cutie pie.
 We told her she could have any meal she wanted post surgery. She chose Arby's.
Clearly her procedure did not slow her down too much. Plus, look at the size of this curly fry!



 3. It's a good thing we homeschool!

 The last few weeks has served as a reminder as to why I am thankful we homeschool.  We

had a whole lot of craziness going on the last few weeks. Between birthdays, camping, Dr. appointments, a stomach bug that went through the house and many other things...we didn't always get a lot of school done.(Or Laundry, or cleaning. We ate out a lot more than we normally would. Hey, we do real life here on this blog.)  

You know what? That is one of the many benefits of homeschooling. You can take a break if you need it. You always catch up in the future. We actually had a scheduled week off in there somewhere, that helped. This week we are headed back in the right direction. I despise being behind, but also know that it is part of life.
So, those of you who are stressing about being behind or concern about starting to homeschool, because you are afraid things will get crazy, or you will get off track. Just do it.
 Life gets crazy, we get off track, from where we think we should be. What if you are right where you should be? It is all in God's timing. We are right where we are supposed to be.


4. All the love


 We moved into the tiny house in September 2014. Between renovating the house and having a baby, we didn't get out into the community to meet many people until 2015 or 2016. It took us a while to find our village.
I have to say that I have never been as thankful for our village, as I have been the last couple of weeks. Everyone has been so kind and helpful. Our pastor showed up at the surgery center. Friends and family sent gifts for Addison, lots of messages, calls and texts. A few people even brought food. One friend brought cookies and even helped with some school. Another friend picked up the oldest two and took them to their scheduled activities this week. Including co-op. That friend deserves a medal. Speaking of co-op. That is one heck of a group of ladies!
Between our church family, real family, friends and homeschool family/friends we have really felt the love lately.

Thank you all for all that you do! We love you!




5. Because he loves me, and wants me to be not crazy.


  Since we were sticking close to homes this week. I avoided store trips as much as possible. Since we shopped for a whole month at the beginning of September, it wasn't too big of a deal. We mainly just had to pop into the store for milk, eggs and of course we would get some produce from the farmers market.
  I asked Dustin to stop into the pharmacy for some milk and bandages for Addison. He brought the milk and bandages. He also surprised me with this. He said it made him think of me. Awe. He's a keeper.
He also added that I had had a hard week and figured I needed it. He knows me well!






6. There's a fine line between soap and dessert

 A wonderful mother at co-op, makes soap. It smells amazing, leaves your skin so soft and it is organic. She gave one to each of the mothers who had her children in a class. I grabbed a honey oatmeal. It is amazing. I was planning to message her and order some more. Then I had the thought of  'I wonder how hard it would be to make our own.' off to Pinterest I went!

 I did a lot of researching and reading. The basics don't sound too hard. I fully intend to give it a try in the near future. For now I will be placing an order with the other Mom. Clearly she has it figured out. She has at least 7 different types that she makes.

 By the time I was done researching basic soap making, I ended up back on Pinterest. It was getting pretty late into the evening. Then all of the really fancy soaps started popping up. I was having to check the actually descriptions to be sure it was soap and not a dessert.
Seriously, there is a fine line between soap and dessert. Look at these things!

 

After I started craving a cup of coffee and a slice of pumpkin pie...I figured it was time to walk away from Pinterest for the night.

Then I fell into the homemade make up rabbit hole. That's a story for another day. 

7. Things we made this week.

  Since we had to stick close to home this week. It gave me the chance to get some actual cooking done. We had Chili, Sausage Stuffed Peppers, and homemade pizza.

We also had some flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and there is also a big pot of apple butter in the works.

What was in your kitchen this week?

Hope you had a great week!

Blessings,

~Lyndsay