When I was thinking of starting a blog I really wanted to share with you all how I try to incorporate natural and simple living into our daily lives. The more I thought about it the more I realized that natural and simple living have meant many different things to my family over the years and I can only imagine that I am not the only one who has ever experienced this. The internet is full of such a wide variety of people looking for ways to live a more simple life. There are people who struggle financially that living a natural life seems out of their reach, and there are people who are financially stable and are looking for more ways to live naturally.  I want this blog to be for everyone no matter your age or income. I hope homemakers, single parents, full time working parents, men, women, young adults, retirees and people in their middle years feel equally at home. I hope that we can share something that is relavent to everyone in part or in whole.

My goal with this blog is to share what I have tried that works for my family, things that I am hoping to try, and things that we have tried that really don’t work for us. I hope that as I share things you will also share with us.  I know that I have alot to learn but I also know that I have alot to share.

I am sure many of you have read my “About” post located here I would like to share bit more about myself and my family than I touched on in that post. I hope that through out my posts you all can get to know myself and maybe bits about my family too. I may share more about my daughter than my son or husband, as the men in my life are very private and I have to respect that.

I grew up in an very small town in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan. My Mother was a single mom with 4 children and even though she always worked, we were very poor. My childhood was spent thinking Kool Aid was juice, and government cheese made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. We were on governement assistance and even though my mom didn’t really talk about it I think she had W.I. C. also for a time. I remember going to the little store near our home that had a butcher shop and asking for 1/4 lb of hamburger and when money was a little better we could get 1/2 lb hamburger to put into the Hamburger Helper.

My brother’s and I were very fortunate to have had a wonderful Grandmother who loved us and did so many wonderful things for us, like giving us a dime and taking us to pick out Penny Candy at the Ben Franklin store and explaining that some candy was less than other candy and if we really watched the price we could get alot of candy for that dime. She would treat us to ice cream at the Dairy Queen, and to this day my favorite item from Dairy Queen is her favorite hot fudge sundae with Spanish peanuts. I remember fondly her taking me to the little diner she used to go to with her friends and treating me to a grilled pecan sweet roll that I could enjoy while she got to chat with her friends. Pure Heaven!

Growing up poor really made me understand the value of a dollar and how to make money stretch. I learned so many ways to be able to feed my family for very little money. I double couponed, I stocked up, I learned to make things from scratch, I learned to make substitutions when I didn’t have the items I needed.

These skills have served me well throughout my life. It enabled me to be a stay at home mother for several years, and even when the kids grew and I started working more and more it still helped me to be prepared.

So if any of our readers are struggling and are afraid to ask questions or ask for advice, please know I understand. I will never judge you, I will offer support and advice anyway that I can. You are not alone.