A Happy Christmas and a brand New Year....

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed a lovely Christmas with friends and family, great food and lots and lots of fellowship. That's what happens in our family during the holidays. There are many meals shared and hours spent cultivating relationships between brother and sister, parents and children, husband and wife and with each of our friends.

As I said in my last post, we had a "handmade" Christmas this year. Each of us spent time considering what we thought our loved ones would enjoy receiving as a gift and then we set our hands to work creating those things. There were wonderful treasures given this year, but I think the most precious thing shared was a piece of ourselves as we worked away at making something special for each person. I really enjoyed the whole process and I think everyone came away from the experience with a more personal appreciation for the handmade lifestyle we are trying to live out as well as a sense of pride in themselves and their abilities to create something that could bless someone else. It wasn't always easy for everyone to think of something they would be able to create, but we all persevered and I think we were all pleased ...and maybe even a little surprised... at the thoughtfulness of some of the items given. I'm not sure I can convince the family to do this every Christmas, but I am glad we did it this time.

Here is a look at a few of the things we made:

 Miss B recently started a little business making lipbalms and hard lotion bars so she blessed each of us with one of each of her products. Hooray! These are really great!

 Little Mister enjoyed painting decorative wooden items for each member of the family. This is the cross he gave his big sis. I got a birdhouse! My favorite thing!

 Chickybabe and I had fun crocheting these fun little flyers! She made up a group for her brother and I made some for Little Mister and for Cousin Jacob. Now they can have a frisbee in their pocket wherever they go and toss them all they want without the fear of breaking things in the house :)

 Chickybabe also crocheted this warm hat for Dad. He loves it and wears it often.

 One of my favorites to make this year was this crocheted beard for Big E. He actually requested it as a gift after seeing it on Etsy with me one day. He said he had to have it! I am working on the beanie that goes with it. (The beard actually buttons to the inside of the beanie) Haha! What fun!

BUT....my all time favorite gift to receive was this lovely blessing! 

My husband refinished my coffee table the way I have been wanting to do it since we bought the set off craigslist nearly 8 months ago! It looks gorgeous, don't you think? Oh my gosh! I was soooooo excited! He is working on the matching end tables now and when they are finished I've asked him to refinish my computer desk the same way since it has the same style of legs. I cannot wait to see them all complete! Aaaaaaaaaaahhh!

Well, now that it's a brand new year I am even more motivated to start with a fresh attitude and concentrate on living a more handmade life. We are blessed with the ability to create. We do it every day whether we are aware of it or not. I am determining to do more with the blessing I've been given and to do it more purposefully than I did before. Living life on purpose. That's my New Year's resolution this year. How about you? What will you do on purpose this year???

Hello!

How are you? I'm glad you stopped by. I've been thinking a lot lately about getting back to the basics of life. I know it was probably instigated by listening to financial advisor Dave Ramsey, who has sparked a burning desire in both me and my husband to become debt free as quickly as possible, but we both have a natural bent toward wanting to live the Little House on the Prairie-type lifestyle. Somewhere along the way we've gotten away from that simple life and now we find ourselves drowning in "stuff" we were convinced we had to have to be comfortable.

Reading through Dave's Financial Peace books and listening to his advice to others on how to get out of debt so you can be a greater blessing to others has really brought it home for us that we just own way too much "stuff" and we need to clear it out. It makes me acutely aware of everything around me and I have to ask myself, "how much do we really need in life?" We have stepped away from our frugal pioneering heritage and chosen to live above our means in able to afford some of the comforts of life as laid out in our present day culture.

I wouldn't call us materialistic.....well, maybe a tiny bit. We don't have a $450,000 house (with a matching inflated mortgage) or two brand new cars sitting in the driveway. We don't own any big toys like boats or ATVs. But we do have a nice 2004 Honda Odyssey van that does well at transporting our family of 6 wherever we go and we have a house big enough for everyone to have their own room ($207,000 with an only moderately inflated mortgage). We own a flat screen TV, but it's not an HDTV....much to my husband's chagrin. My husband has a great job repairing alloy wheels and he is making more money than either of us ever thought he would, but we still live paycheck to paycheck because of poor money management skills and a lack of discipline to delay gratification. If we want it and there is a way to manipulate the money to get it.....we usually do.

Unfortunately, that leads to piles of "stuff" accumulated everywhere and the hovering threat of one major disaster bringing financial ruin. It's ridiculous and we are accepting all the blame for it, but now is the time to change our behavior. We need to get back to living simply, frugally and wisely within our means. I suppose that is what birthed this blog. It's a sort of online diary for me to help keep me encouraged in the pursuit of this basic lifestyle. I am open to advice and recipes and ideas for saving money, eating and living healthy and anything else you might like to share with me. Please leave comments. I love them.

And now.............the journey begins.