My 30 Day Challenge

The Morning greets me with a relaxing and almost quiet morning with my baby boy. He is a mover and a shaker. Always wanting to be on the go or in my arms for a cuddle. we love our cuddles. Being a new mom is not an easy journey to start out, although my son is fairly easy to take care of he is not much of big crier which is nice, he can certainly talk. I realize my life will most likely never be quiet again. I do love me some peace and quiet though from time to time. Having a baby changes everything. It changes who you are from the inside out. There no going back to who you once were. This new little life has changed me into a mommy for the rest of my life. There is no reversing the mom affect. Everything goes off in my head as an alarm or an alert. I am constantly aware and partly awake listening for the baby sounds that come from the crib be it a yawn, a sign, a cough, chit chat my son is having, amusing himself with the sound of his own voice or the sound of movement coming from the crib which means he has moved himself sideways in his crib. Being a mom is like working a job that will never end. Sleep is like a rare commodity to allow ones self to sleep through an entire night without having to wake up and feed a baby or change a diaper or even have to put on a new onesie because the other one got a tad soaked through. I can't imagine a full nights sleep without having to wake yet. I vaguely remember a room to myself growing up where sleep was sweet, I could even sleep in once in a blue moon. I used to tell God, just let me sleep until 10:30 because one day this will all be gone and then I will have to be a morning person. He granted me my sleep because now I almost never sleep, even when I am sleeping I am sleeping with one eye open and one ear listening. 

Lately I've come this decision that I will be great at something new and that something new is to use what God has given to us and make it work here on this little country home with a lot of great space to work with. We have a fine and beautiful lush backyard with plenty of space to run around in and play. The dog has lots of space to run and play and of course we have 3 great locations to have a nice little out door patio time for lunch near the Rose Garden or out under the beautiful trees. It is an almost perfect little get away paradise if you ask me. We don't have to leave home to enjoy a beautiful stay here. With all that God has given us I have decided to use it as in opportunity to create our own backyard Garden.    

I will go a step further, I have decided that living the, (almost) Simple life is the desire of my heart. I thought about this to some extent. Who is to say that we need all these modern luxuries? It's nice to have {Almost} everything handed down to us. Whatever we need, it's like instant coffee, we want it we get it. But say we were to go to my Parents-in-laws house that modern luxury of going into town from the country might not be so instant. My first experience with this was my first morning there when I first came to visit. I woke up that morning and thought okay! Let's go get Starbucks!!! yay!! Nooooo there was noooo coffee! There I had to make my own! why??? because we were basically in the middle of no where and wherever being somewhere was, it was a bit of a drive to get there. So! I forfeited my coffee the entire week I was there, no coffee for me. I wasn't about to figure out making my coffee. I rather go to Starbucks they know how I like my coffee made.

So here I sit thinking about my almost simple life. I'm no country girl but I can certainly bring a little country to our little cottage home in the big city that we live in here in San Diego. My Husband thinks I'm cute, because he says, "We don't need to live like we are back in the 1800's," but I insist on learning a few country skills that might just fascinate both you and I. I've decide to go on journey to discover if I can bring a little country to our little cottage home in the big city. We aren't living dead in the center of city which is really nice but I can certainly see the big city from my room across the street at my parents house while I was living there. So that kind of gives you an idea of how far we are from the city. We are at most in driving distance from it. We rarely have a need to make any type of trip to the city but when we do, we are mostly passing by or stopping in for a nice dinner date and those are always fancy.

For the most part, which is really the main majority of the time we live in our beautiful home that is really close to the Ocean and we love it that way, for now. We love our Summer and Spring afternoons which is pretty much all the time, almost year around. We have plenty of space to run around in the backyard and do yard work or Gardening and it's nice from time to time when we have family over with children who want to play with our big Dog in the backyard. They love the Sprinklers in the summer and the dog happens to love it too. Like I said, it's like living in a tiny Paradise some where near the big city, close to the ocean but not on the Ocean. It's perfect for living the almost country life.

I love learning new things every day and every day I am making an effort to learn new skills and new things. I have found reading about Country women to be something that I have come to admire and appreciate, after all, I don't live on a Farm. I couldn't even begin to imagine what that life might be like or what all it would entail. I am sure I would find it to be much more work than I have going on here and so I am fascinated with their life style. I am not entirely sure I could live up to it. To take this to another step further I will add that I wouldn't even know what to do if I had to live in my Grandmother's era. I think it would be a lot more work than those women who are living the country life today. We have everything so easy. Our modern lives give us so much that I have wondered if even I take it for granted life skills that I would hardly know what to do with if I were placed back in my Grandparents age or for that matter if I were to have to Pioneer my life somewhere and set up a Homestead. I question if I would or would not know what or how to do a single simple thing that today we have that makes life so much easier on us.

For example Sewing, I still struggle with a sewing machine, I have to ask my Friend Amy to help me with most all of that area. Other wise no matter what I would attempt to try and sew together, I would just end up, mad or upset or just tossing the entire machine out. I would get my thread all tangled up and then jam my machine. How do I know this? I've done it on more than enough occasions. So, there goes my warmth in the winter and clothes to wear in the summer. Bye-bye clothes because sewing is not a skill I have learn to master yet.

As for planting, I am no master Gardener, at all. That is my Husband and my Mom - in - Law's department. They are basically just along for the ride as far as helping aid me in the right direction. Other wise I would have thrown the entire towel and quit while I was ahead. I was close to the idea of not moving forward this week when I looked at all the hard work I would be putting into this project. I was pretty close to, well, irritated to tears. All, I've had is a pile of dirt, vines, more dirt, bugs, and looking at what all I have done and dug up it may not have all gotten done in one day but I am certainly learning to love the work I am doing and appreciate the treasures it is giving me in the work I am putting into it. At the end of it all, I know it will bring a harvest of plenty. I am constantly talking to the Lord and asking Him to bless the work of my hands. It certainly brings a different kind of appreciation when I can't just go to the store to pick up what I need while I am still in the process of tilling the ground for the season of preparations that will come with planting. Everything is a step and with each step there is journey. I am learning to take that journey one day at a time and not get upset when it isn't as instant gratification as I would like. Starting this Garden has taught me that. It's no over night process and it's certainly not something you can complete in a day but it will produce for you a great harvest if you put your love in it first and than the rest will follow.

I suppose it's like that in everything though. First we put God in our lives and love with all of our hearts and then everything else falls into place. Not the other way around, everything doesn't just fall into place perfectly and then we fall into place with God. That's out of order. We put God first and seek first His Kingdom and then everything else it falls into place. Because that is the way God loves us. He loved us First before we ever loved Him and then He sent His son to die on the cross for our sins so that we might have Freedom and be saved from ourselves and from our sins and live with Him forever. We were first in his book and in that same way we put Him first, I think it's only fair. I think when we love Him first and put him ahead of every thing else in our lives, everything else adds up and falls right into place. Seems like when God get's put up on the Mantel of our lives there is a flow that comes with ease, I like that. The same goes with Planting and Harvesting, there is a season for everything. Just put God first and plant with love and then wait with expectancy that God will do it.

Not only have I opened this challenge with planting a Garden, I have made a decision to make my very own first batch of Sourdough starter to make my first ever Sourdough bread! Thank God this is a slow 5 day process. It's one less thing I have to worry about doing. I am one more day away from working out my First batch of Sourdough Bread. We shall see how that comes along. I am excited to taste the results, the efforts of what little work I have had to do in that arena.

So 30 Day's of living the Semi Country life is my goal. Can I do it? We shall see. One small step at a time. When I say, "Semi Country life," what I mean by that is learning a few Pioneer/Country living Skills that just may come in handy or even help save a bit of money in our pockets. I'm not entirely sure what all this will entail but for the few things that I will be trying for example Gardening from scratch and making my very own bread and going to our little Market store rather than run to Walmart at every chance we get those might be a few changes I will be making along this 30 day challenge. I still need diapers of course but there is a chance I still might learn the art of cloth diapering. I have not yet found myself there, baby steps. 

For now I have a Garden that is being prepared for planting, a batch of Sourdough starter going, a Tomato plant about to burst into a good batch of Heirlooms and just recently we have planted a grape vine, we plan to plant more soon. We have few nice flowers that I have planted right along the front of the house where we walk in and out of the house as well. I really like that a lot. One of the flowers comes from my Mom-in-law and the other is from my Dad but the one that is doing really well is the beautiful pink flowers my Husband got for me and I really like them. With some tender loving care these beautiful flowers are now starting to grow again where they have been given room to grow in a fairly large flower pot.

The little country home near the big city is doing well and today was a fantastic day. My Husband came home early while I still nearly fast asleep and resting well from a few times getting up with the baby last night. Later we had the gift of Oranges from the Market and that was a wonderful thing to have in the home. It was certainly a treat, especially because I have a sweet tooth for anything chocolate and so in this way he is helping me cut back on the love of chocolate that he knows I have. We enjoyed an afternoon of work together on the Garden and then sat back and relaxed with a fine meal of meat with cheese in a Tortilla, so good! with a side of sour cream! Can't wait until he goes hunting someday and brings home the fresh stuff, now that I am looking forward to. Over all it was a lovely day. Our dog ran through the sprinklers and we enjoyed the fresh breeze through the windows that comes with living fairly close to the ocean. Our day was blessed.