Living a Simple Life

“The smell of freshly baked bread, a simple walk to the mailbox and laundry drying in the sun are just a few things that keep me grounded to a simpler way of life.”

If you’re just embarking on a simpler way of life I invite you to take a walk through a typical day in my world.

Before I take you for a walk, let me say that life around our homestead is not always sunshine and roses.  Money is often tight, animals die, the kitchen floor needs mopping, the dryer might be running on a rainy day, and I may occasionally convince my hubby to pick up supper on his way home from work. Are we perfect? Absolutely not! But, for the most part, we strive to live as simply as we possibly can by relying on God and our own two hands.

Come on in…I invite you to follow me along on a typical day in my world.

5:00 AM – This is my favorite time of the day when the house is quiet and I can concentrate on the day ahead. The smell of coffee brewing and breakfast cooking always reminds me of my mother’s kitchen.  I enjoy getting my hubby ready for work with a hardy breakfast and his lunch packed for the day. It’s the simple things in life that make me smile.

5 Simple Steps to Simple Living

Over the years I have learned to do without so many things, I would consider myself an expert in living a simple life, but lately I have found noise edging its way back in. I had to stop and take a good look at my life and I’ve found five things I could do to bring the simple back into my life.

6:30 AM – After breakfast dishes are done and it’s time to make beds and take a quick look around to see what needs my attention. Laundry is usually first on the list, followed by my daily step-by-step cleaning routine.

The Clothesline Revolution

As the clothesline revolution makes a comeback, people are now connecting that household chore to simpler times. I look forward to the few minutes I get to connect with nature and breathe in the smell of freshly laundered clothes while taking in the sounds of the nature around me. I look at line drying as my way of helping the environment while it keeps me connected to a simpler way of life.

Daily Step-by-Step Cleaning Routine

I have used the same cleaning method for years and it has worked for me. My goal of every cleaning day is to start and finish one room before moving onto the next.  

Refreshing cleaner recipe using essential oils

Today we all have enough options when it comes to cleaning our homes. The natural cleaning products are very popular, which is why more and more people prefer to save some money and time by making their own supplies. In case you’ve never tried this before, it is never too late to change that. The essential oils play a significant role in many recipes, so now is also the best time to learn more about the individual qualities of each oil.

9:00 AM – By now the chickens are up on the back porch waiting for me to walk them back to the hen house for their breakfast. The cows are mooing to be fed and I can hear the pigs snorting up a storm. Baby chicks are often on my to-do list and need their warm temporary house cleaned. 

5 Tips for Raising Baby Chicks

I would consider us seasoned baby chick growers since we have successfully raised over one hundred baby chicks within the last couple years.

10:30 AM – It’s back in the house to get supper in the crockpot. I cut a handful of fresh mint on my way past the garden to brew a batch of my favorite Meadow Tea and I gather eggs from the hen house. Hubby also left a list of bee supplies that need ordered and I look over my seed order one last time.

How to Make Amish Meadow Tea

Growing up in Pennsylvania fresh mint grew everywhere.  In ditches alongside the road, in gardens, in pots and always in the kitchen gardens of the neighboring Amish women.  

The smell still has a way of taking me back to the days of riding my bike on our dirt road while jumping off and standing on the side as a buggy or car went by.  

Beginner Beekeeping Supply List – Enjoy Honey All Year Long

There aren’t many projects on our homestead that bring us as much satisfaction as our bee hives do.  For a small start-up investment in beekeeping supplies and the initial hives, this addition to our farm has really paid off.  We have two hives and on average we collect about four to six gallons of honey each year.   

My Favorite Top 10 Planting Companions

It is getting that time of the year!  Spring is just a few weeks away and I am already planning to keep my plants happy by allowing them to buddy up to their favorite friends!

11:00 AM – It is Chicken and Dumplings and Apple Crumb Pie for supper.

Old Fashion Chicken and Dumplings in a Crockpot

With the weather turning colder, it is time to break out some of my all-time favorite old fashion recipes!  I love finding and creating recipes that take only those ingredients that would have been available 100 years ago.  This old fashion chicken and dumplings in a crockpot is a perfect old fashion recipe!  Its ingredients are ones that any homemaker could make by visiting her farmyard, herb and vegetable garden. 

Old Fashion Apple Crumb Pie

I have been searching for years for an old fashion apple crumb pie that tasted like what I remember my Grandmother making, and I have finally found one! 

12:00 – As I eat lunch I look through a crocheting book for a simple pattern to start teaching my granddaughter to crochet. She is fascinated by my needles, so it’s time she starts getting some lessons.

Basic Homesteading Skills to Teach Your Children

Children are our future and the homesteading skills they learn from you will help them face the future as we see it. 

12:30 PM – It’s off to my office to get some work done.  Even though my main job is being a full-time homemaker, I still enjoy working a few hours a day as a marketing consultant. Before leaving my office for the day I pull up our Living Without Walmart dream list to see if I can cross anything else off the punch list.  Someday I hope to have every task is checked off. 

 

Learning to Live without Walmart – A Homesteaders Dream

As I was making mint tea from our herb garden, scrambling eggs from our hens, and frying potatoes from the garden, I was so proud knowing that our breakfast didn’t come from a store, but right from our own backyard.  At the same time, I was reviewing our grocery list and dreading the monthly trip into town.  I was tired of spending so much of our hard-earned money and needed to push our homestead to be even more self-sufficient.

5:00 PM – Off to check on supper and the animals one more time before it gets dark.

How to spend more time with your family

During your life often the things you treasure and hold dear are the relationships you have with your family. Those relationships need to be nurtured to stay strong through lives ups and downs. So it is important that you learn how to spend more time with your family right now.

Like most days here on the homestead, my days are filled with projects, gardening, animals and a few hours of office work.  Someone asked me once if I could change one thing about my life what would it be?  I honestly couldn’t think of a thing. I love our life and even with its mild ups and downs, we are happy and content living a very simple life.

 

Model Yourself After the Amish – Separate from the World

As a non-Amish Christian, you may think there is no way you could live and model yourself after the Amish. I am here to show you that even in our very modern world we too can separate ourselves from the world just enough to keep us grounded to a simpler way of life.

If you want some inspiration and want to learn to live a simpler life I encourage you to model your daily life and habits after the Amish. You may not fathom living without electric or even driving a horse and buggy, but we have found the simple principles they live by very appealing.

 

 

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