Its finally over!!!!

Yesterday afternoon we finally wrapped up the last of the car accident stuff. It only took 2.5 months. I swear it feel like 2.5 years. Since we have almost been hit again with someone running a red light we decided to get a dash cam. I have not pulled the memory card out to see what it looks like on the computer but I started thinking about all the singing I do in the car. I love to sing and even though I dont think I am the worst singer on the planet I am not sure how I am going to feel if I do have an accident and the officer is looking at my video and I am singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Leppard.


I am so loving this sunshine. Its making my hands really want to dig in the soil. We have two days of rain ahead of us and then its three days of sunshine and Mr Ladybug home for a long weekend. I am pretty sure we are going to get some of the things we have growing inside planted and under hoops outside. That will give us more room to plant inside. Look at my lettuce. Its growing in a container that had donuts from Walmart in it. The peas will be going outside definitely before they start climbing up the other plants. On our calendar it has that we are to put out onions outside. I think Mr Ladybug planted over 100. We really love onions.

Mr Ladybug planted a whole flat of strawberry seeds.

My to do list was quite easy to accomplish today. Do you have to make yourself lists? 

I am really in the mood to craft. I have no idea what but be looking for something crafty from me.

Serious Randomness for your Monday

I think we are finally getting back into the routine from before the auto accident and all the car sharing that had to go on. I am very thankful for this. As both college kids headed out together this morning no one needs me to pick them up or run them anything. That makes for a quiet Monday morning which is usually what I need after a weekend. I realized its a short month so some bills will be due soon so I sat down and took care of that. How do you do your bills? I usually sit down on Friday and see whats due the coming week and pay them. But that short month threw me off when I realized there wasnt or has never been a February 31.

Mr Ladybug did make me a dessert this weekend so we didnt have to get a divorce. I found a simple recipe for a layered no bake lemon dessert and it was wonderful. I sent this picture to my sister who loves lemon desserts as much as I do and she replied asking why it looked like we just made it on our counter. I have an addiction to clear glass containers and didnt even notice how funny the picture was. I did reply to her that we did in fact make it on the counter because all my dishes were dirty.

Mr Ladybugs Lemon Dessert

1 package of lemon cookies ( we found lemon oreos)
3 Tablespoons of softened butter
1 cup milk
1 box of instant lemon pudding, 3.4 oz or close to it
4 cups of whipped topping, 32 oz total
1 cup lemon curd, more if you are tempted to eat it right out of the jar

Crush all the cookies in a food processor or in a gallon ziplock bag. Place half the crumbled cookies in the botton of a 9x9 inch pan. Mix in the softened butter. You dont have to press the mixture down hard into the pan it will harden a bit in the fridge.

Mix together the pudding and milk and then fold in the whipped topping. Spread mixture on top of the cookies in the pan. Top with about half the remaining cookie crumbs.

Mix Lemon curd with 1 cup of whipped topping and layer it on top of the crumbs. Sprinkle remaining cookie crumbs on top and add 2 cups of whipped topping onto that and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Sometimes you get a mouse or even two in your home or garage. We generally set up traps and our cat is quite the hunter. Yesterday he caught a mouse and took it to the bathtub. The Beagle thought it would be fun to help his brother out and while the cat and the dog growled at each other the  mouse went down the drain. My hubby turned the water on and let it run for a little bit and that was that. Then the boy went to take a shower and there was the mouse in the tub. Yikes! Even though we are not fans of mice whenever I have found one alive like in a bucket in the garage or something I have driven it to the park and released it. I had a popcorn tin that I was undecided what to do with and I got the house in there and drove him to the park. Mr Ladybug thought this was insane and that I should have thrown it in the outside garbage but I figured it survived the house attack, the beagle attack and the water torture and this mouse had a serious will to live. I hope he likes his new home.

Last night was one of those times when I had no idea what to fix for dinner. I try to always have dried tortellini, canned tomatoes and cooked hamburger in the freezer. It makes for a very simple and fast meal to put together. What are some of your quick dinner secrets? I really need them since I think I may becoming lazy in my old age.

I love a bargain and when I saw on FB a friend was selling these coupon books for her son I jumped on board to get one. I like to stick a post it on the cover and keep track of how much we save with these in a year. They are also a great way to try new places and not pay full price if they are not good. This one had an app download that you can get even more savings. I will keep you posted. Mr Ladybug loves Hardees Country Ham biscuits. Yuck, but I do love him so that will probably be our first money savings with it. I will keep you posted.

Whats your plans?

Friday is here which means the weekend is so very close you can smell it! I consider the weekend to start at 4pm because thats when Mr Ladybug gets off work. We have a very wild weekend planned. We are going to some antique and thrift stores on Saturday with our daughter and son in law. I have been looking for an old hand cranked coffee grinder that really works and I am afraid to get one without my mechanical husband.

I did all my grocery shopping yesterday so that today I could just do a few things around the house and not be rushing around. If you are a Kroger shopper there are a few good deals for your Kroger Plus card, If you buy 2 Burger King gift cards forHe  $15 each you get $5 off. Add that to the coupons that come in the mail or ones that you can get off their app and you can get quite a lot for your money. Ruby Tuesdays has buy two $25 gift cards and get $10 off.  Retail Me Not had some coupons for there with either free appetizer or buy 1 meal get one 1/2. Gotta stack those deals people.

I can not believe that next weekend we will be able to plant peas and onions outside. I think the rain is suppose to stop on Sunday so I am sure that we will be doing some things in the garden this weekend to prepare for planting.

I always run to the library on Fridays to grab any books that may look interesting and to snag a few movies. Sometimes we watch them and sometimes we dont. You feel less guilty when they are free. I grabbed American Made with Tom Cruise, Mark Felt with Liam Neeson and Dinane Lang and Wind River with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. I am also starting a new book series by Joanne Fluke. Its a Hannah Swensen Mystery and the first one is called Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. Any book you read that throws in recipes is like the best thing ever.

Mr Ladybug and I have been having a little arguement. I made him homemade peanut butter cookies for Valentines Day. I told him I wanted him to make me a treat as well. He forgot and then the other night he wanted me to make him no bakes. I did but told him he now owes me two tasty treats. If he does not do something this weekend hes in big trouble. He told me he would take me to McDonalds to get a hot fudge sundae. Hes not getting off that easy.

I hope you have a great weekend and have lots of fun adventures.

No Errands Today

I told you I would send pics of pigeon jewelry and here you go. Our pigeon breeding season is not going as well as we would hope. They start laying eggs in late December and we had that super cold weather that may have made it a little hard for them to keep the babies and the eggs warm enough. This little guy does not have a nest mate which is a bit unusual. They always lay two eggs and then hatch them. Since there is no competition for food hes a little chubby buddy which is exactly what I call him. There is another pigeon sitting on her baby but I am a little short to reach her and when I try she smacks me.

I do not have anywhere I have to be today. I am not sure how I feel about that. A little happy and a little scared that maybe I am forgetting something. I am hoping tackle the kitchen counters and come out the winner. No promises. Since I really want to start doing grocery shopping every two weeks I need to get a menu going.

Mr Ladybug and I decided to try Kindle Unlimited. We love to read and listen to audio books. You can try it for free for a month and then its around $10 a month. They also have magazines. I am currently looking at this book. I am not sure how extreme she goes in it but I do believe that we could all be more prepared for natural disasters. The little bit that I have read is very honest, like her talking about trying powdered eggs and that they were nothing like real eggs. I will keep your posted on any thoughts and good ideas I find. I tried another book about cooking on a budget and they lost me when a recipe called for dumping two cans of tuna into spaghetti sauce. Yuck!

We have some rainy days ahead of us. There is actually a flash flood watch from today until Saturday with a prediction of 3-6 inches of rain. Not that I have to personally worry about flooding I do worry for those near that do.

These guys have loved the warmer weather and have had lots of fun running in and out all day. I hope that there are some breaks in the rain so we can go out and not get too wet or muddy. The German Shepherd is Atlas the Beast, The chihuahua is Thor and of course we have Balder the Beagle. I absolutely adore them even though they drive me crazy.

I hope you are having a great day. I would love to hear your thoughts on being more prepared and on anything else that you would like to share.

A Little Bit Of Everything

Wow what a morning. We are normally out the door at 6:15am. The girl doesnt have class on Tuesdays and was sleeping. I dropped off the boy around 8:20 then ran some library movies back that were due yesterday but the library was closed for Presidents day so we had an extra day. I really enjoyed this Agatha Christie movie called Crooked House. I love mysteries and I love how all the suspects are introduced from the very beginning and you keep guess who it is.

I ran back home to see if the girl wanted to go to the feed store with me but shes was going to visit with her sister and will wait until next week so we can go visit the baby chicks at the feed store. I really want to get more but we dont need them but baby chicks are so cute. I did get a free air freshner while at the store and a new straw hat for Mr Ladybug. He doesnt know that the beagle chewed up his old one a few months ago. Shhhh maybe he wont notice.

After the feed store I realized that my tank said I had 13 miles to go on it. Stopped to get gas and ran into Kroger to grab Ale81 while it was on sale. Mr Ladybug drinks one every day. Then I realized I had to mail some racing pigeon bracelets. They are called bands but I like bracelet better, When I go out to feed them later I will post a picture of one of the babies modeling their new bling. Dont tell Mr Ladybug I talked about the pigeons this way. They are suppose to be athletes not my little pretty pets. One of them is named Mr Moo Moo, lets be honest thats a pet name. Got to the post office and it costs $3.50 to mail piegeon jewelry. Highway robbery!



Now the important stuff. The Garden........

I love my bees. I love that they are coming in with full pollen sacks on February.

This is our horseradish plant. I think we need to put it in a bigger pot. We will try to do it this weekend and maybe process some horseradish sauce.

Rhubarb, we have not had much luck with it until we bought some from a local nursery. It had done so well and I look forward to using it a lot this year.

If its been nice weather wise in your area I sure hope you have been able to get out and enjoy the outside.

A lot can happen in a week

I can not believe its been over a week since my last post. Lots of things have been happening on the Urban Homestead. Where do I start.........

We got a car! Monday was spent getting everything set up to pick up the car my hubby picked out. We had to drive a little over an hour to get it which isnt terrible but that had me driving back in our other car, in the dark. on the interstate with nothing but big tractor trailers all around. Not fun!

Tuesday one of the kiddos had a doctors appointment, nothing serious just a regular thing and I had to get insurance stuff taken care of. It was a weird day that nothing worked out easy. I am sure you know what I mean.

Wednesday was getting caught up on things that I had put on the back burner because of the previous two days and then I started not feeling well. I did fix a big Valentines Day dinner for my hubby and my boy.

Thursday I felt terrible. No temperature but chills and fatigue. It was the boys turn to have an appointment. I did start feeling better and my hubby took me out to dinner. I would also like to add that it like rained every stinking day and we got over 3 inches total. My yard is a mess and the dogs were stir crazy with being inside so much and I was stir crazy dealing with the crazy dogs and feeding all the outside animals was a challenge to not slip and fall. The Farmers Almanac was spot on when they said we would have a very wet winter in Kentucky.

Friday things got better. I had to go to the dmv for the title stuff with the totaled car. No one was in line. It was so nice. In and out so fast. I ran errands with my oldest daughter who is married and doesnt live at home and we had fun and got some cute clothes.

Saturday Mr Ladybug had to work and he drove the new car. The kiddos went to school to work and study and I was home alone, with the exception of the crazy dogs, and didnt have to drop off anyone or pick them up and it was awesome! I mopped floors because of all the rain but you cant tell because it rained all day Saturday too but I didnt even care.

Sunday we ran to Lowes, Half Priced Books where I got the rest of the Little House on The Prairie tv show seasons I didnt have, ran by a tile store but they were closed and had lunch at our oldest daughters and her hubbies.

I had been spending about 18 hours a week in the car and that was reduced a little last week and I think we will see even less time in it this week. Yay!

I loved doing the two week grocery run. I really think the extra planning helped me not feel too overwhelmed this past week. I was able to find some good sale on a few things and am pretty stocked up on meat. So my budget should be fine. I have not had the time I would like to work on the apps that I earn my free gift cards on but that is not part of my budget just bonus mad money and I should get back on track with that this week.

Lets get to the important stuff, the garden. Its time to grab potatoes if you havent and let them start sprouting or the correct term is chitting but if I say that too fast it sounds bad.  We have had ours our for a few weeks and they look great. As you can see the two doggie noses in the picture. One is a beagle nose and they other a german shepherd nose, They are quite pleased with the progress and were sad I paid attention so no one ran off with a potato.

We went to a seed starting class last Saturday and started bok choy and broccoli, they are the picture on the right corner. The one below it is my peas planted in toilet paper rolls I cut in half. Peas do not like to be transplanted and have their roots disturbed. This way in a week or two we can just dig a hole and pop them in the ground and are hoping to get at least a two week earlier crop. The bottom left are green onion seeds I saved from last year and the top left are three or four different kinds of cabbages. My Ladybug is very excited to try fermenting sauer kraut this year.

In the picture below you can see our lettuce, radish sprouts and the onions I clip on for cooking. We I need to thin the lettuce and so excited to have more things to eat that we grow ourselves so early in the season. If you have not started planing any of the things we have you still have plenty of time. We have also started cauliflower and Mr Ladybug has some experimental seeds I can not remember what they are.

You should be able to start your onion sets outside on March 1.  I will call around and see if any of the seed places have any out yet. Since we have started ours from seed we will probably not get any unless we see some that we dont have. March 7th is when you can plant peas and spinach outside. This is all so exciting. With our temps being around the 70 degree mark today and tomorrow we will be doing some garden bed prep tonight and I hope to hang some laundry outside as well.

Friday Fun

Yay, its Friday! if you are reading this you survived the week. Please celebrate responsibly, like only one mocha latte from Starbucks. We have an awesome weekend planned. I think we are going to grab a movie from Redbox. I am on my last rental with that discounted gift card. It was a good run tough 25 movies rented for $12 thanks to codes and rewards. We are going to our garden class tomorrow along with a friend. I think we will also map out a plan for our big raised garden. Dont quote me but I think its like 3 feet by 12 feet so that means we have 36 squares to plant things in. We planted the peas and cabbage last night. If the pea transplanting works well I may try it with the green beans as well. If you can get produce a few weeks earlier than normal its worth it in my book.

Look at all that green in the picture. We will probably harvest the radish sprouts, the ones in the blue containers, on Sunday. I found my broccoli sprout seeds so we will give them a try too. The wheat grass needs to be mowed. this will be the 4th cutting of it. We are going to try sprouting outside this year as well. I think I have found a good place to get seeds and will let you know how that works.

Today is suppose to be in the 50's and I think we may even see the sun! Make sure you get outside and soak it all in. Its suppose to be rainy over the weekend. I hope to see my bees our flying around. They use warm days to clean the hive. Bees are so fascinating.

I am headed to the grocery stores this morning. I mentioned yesterday I am going to give a two week meal plan a try. I use to do a monthly grocery haul so surely I can do two weeks without issue.

Last night as we were planting the peas Mr Ladybug said "why cant we just plant frozen peas" and I was like "because they have been cooked" and he said "really" and I was like "yeah" and he said "who knew" and I was like "ummm everyone but you". I seriously think he knew that but just says things to drive me crazy. I have a good mind to stick some frozen broccoli spears in a pot today and tell him I am pretty sure they will sprout roots.

Valentines Day

I love Valentines Day! I think it started way back in elementary school when you bought those little cards and your teacher gave you a list of everyones name in the class and you had to make one out to them. It was actually a pretty tricky way to get us to write. I remember my mom taking me to the store  to pick out the cards. I bet she was going nuts waiting for me to chose the perfect ones. If there was someone you really liked you debated whether to give them certain ones and all that fun stuff. I loved making the little things to hold all your cards and I remember coming home and showing my mom and granny each card and telling them who gave me which one. I was a very chatty child and as you can tell, I still am.

I had seriously thought about asking friends on Facebook if anyone wanted to exchange Valentines but was afraid no one would want to be my Valentine. Well I am pretty sure Mr Ladybug would want to be my Valentine and I am sure hes a huge reason I still love this holiday. I think I found a keeper with him. I even do little things for my family leading up to Valentines day. I have given them little canning jars with reeses hearts because they have my heart. I have also filled the jar with hugs and kisses. I have some cute treats to make and I think the boy wants to make a cake.

I went on and on about Valentines Day to avoid telling you about not having a meal plan this week. I made a plan  last week and I dont think I even cooked one thing on it except for chili. I also only spent $75 at the grocery store last week but had to do a quick run to get bread, milk and cheese. Not sure why I am not feeling the grocery thing but I better find some inspiration soon or we are going to have to eat the 15 boxes of cereal I have accumulated for a $1 each. We have eaten at home. I just dont know what I am fixing until its close to dinner time.

We are starting to look at cars to replace the one in the wreck. I think I am driving Mr Ladybug crazy. We were looking at one car and it had an antenna thing on top that looked like a shark fin. Once I got the idea in my head I couldnt stand looking at the tiny shark car. Then there are tail lights. I am not a fan of whatever jeep makes that have the X looking things for tail lights. If you have one of these cars I am sure they are fine but whenever I am behind one I just keep thinking about tic tac toe. Its very distracting. This morning we were behind a car and the tail lights reminded me of butterfly wings. I think  it was a Mercedes. I dont think we have to worry about replacing our basic Nissan Versa with a Mercedes.  I was behind a Volkswagon Tegua or something like that and the tail lights reminded me of aztec symbols. I dont even know what that means its just the first thing that came out of my mouth. My husband thinks our list of cars is getting smaller and the things that drive me crazy are really things that dont really matter. I dont think having butterfly tail lights is a safety hazard. I know nothing about cars and I dont really care as long as they get me from place to place. Even our current car, a KIA Sedona reminds me of a hippopotamus because once the son was shining just so that the shadow was in front of me and they way the side mirrors looked it looked like a hippo. Good think I think hippos are cute.

Tonight when Mr Ladybug gets home we are planting cabbage, cauliflower and peas. I am so excited. He asked me how many cabbage I wanted to plant. I really wanted to say them all but I am pretty sure we do not have room for that. This weekend we are going to a seed starting class and we are planting 24 plants. I donf even know what and I dont even care. I just want to plant stuff. It was a really great deal for $10. Plus there was a Groupon for the place and I will get to purchase $30 worth of garden things for $15. I CAN NOT WAIT FOR SPRING!!!!!!!!

I tried to post this earlier but it just wouldnt load. I had to take the boy to a dental appointment and while there I made a 2 week menu plan. We might just survive this winter after all. I thought I would see if I saved any money buy trying to go every two weeks. Even if I dont I should save some time and who cant use more of that? I hope you are encouraged by my cards. If someone with no drawing talent can do this just think what you could do. The answer to the card above about the acid with an attitude is "A Mean Oh Acid".

Lets start planting

A few years ago we found out that there were so many things we were trying to grow that needed to be planted earlier or later in the season, that dont need a ton of sun or that love the sun and hate shade and countless other things. For years we just went to a big chain store and bought stuff and planted. This does work for lots of things. Last year we read that you could plant potatoes as early as March 22 and we had the most luck ever with our potatoes. If you have a second planting around July 12 you should harvest potatoes mid September into October. The only thing hard about doing a later crop is that no stores have the seed potatoes. That doesnt have to stop you. You can go to your local store and just buy organic potatoes especially stores that let you pick the potatoes you want. If there are some that have tiny little eyes that are wanting to sprout grab those. You will need to purchase the potatoes 3-4 weeks prior to when you want to put them in the ground. Mr Ladybug and I just purchased our spring crop last Saturday and we have them out and ready to start sprouting now. We purchase Yukon Gold, a red potato and decided to try a Russet potato this year. We paid $1.29lb for them and got about 7 pounds. No seed carrying stores have potatoes out yet but they should.

Tomorrow we are starting out cabbage, cauliflower and peas inside. The peas are not good and being transplanted but I am going to plant them in toilet paper rolls so I can just pop the whole thing in the ground without disturbing the very picky rooting system. Peas and spinach can be planted outside March 8th. Peas are great to grow and they do not require a deep soil. If you get them in the ground in March you should start picking peas in May. The plants will do well until it starts getting warm outside in July. I am going to experiment with trying to grow peas in a more shaded area in the heat of the summer and see if I can get it to work. We really enjoy those peas. Most do not even make it to the house before we eat them. The last planting for peas is at the end of July but you really need to protect them from the sun. This will give you peas mid September - October.

Cabbage is something that we are still learning to grow. Last year we battled that wonderful cabbage worm. You know those cute little yellow, white or grey butterfly or moths that you see in the summer? They love to lay eggs on your cabbage and their little worm babies will eat your plants right up! We are going to protect ours with mesh this year.  Your cabbage can be planted  March 15th outside. Thats a plant  not a seed. They too should be ready to harvest in May. They like the peas dont do super well in the heat and since there are so many plants that want to be planted and harvested early you can plant them and harvest then plant your pepper or tomato plants in their place for the hotter weather. You should start your fall cabbage indoors around Mid June, protect them from the hot sun when you plant them outside in July and get a fall harvest late August-September. Mr Ladybug has that late cabbage marked for homemade sauerkraut. Cabbage can be grown in containers as well. We are trying three varieties this year, One is a smaller head that is suppose to withstand some heat. It will be interesting to see.

Caulifower is very much the same as the cabbage. planting is the same time but it takes longer to grow. We do not grow a lot of this we just like to grow things and try a few plants for fun.

I hope you have found this helpful and I would love to hear your garden stories. I bet you are glad to see a post that I am not ranting over car accidents. I almost forgot to talk about the above picture. Mr Ladybugs onions are doing awesome! Those will be going in the ground outside February 8th. The bottom of the picture is our third round of sprouts. We love them on tacos and in salads. The larger rectangular container has lettuce in it. The grassy looking stuff is wheat grass and we just cut it and eat and let it regrow. It can grow an inch a day.

How to be an urban farmer

If you look up urban farming you will see these amazing people who live in urban areas with these crazy large gardens and who make enough money to be an urban farmer for a living. Then there is me. I was reading how someone produced this crazy amount of food on their urban farm on only a quarter of an acre. I asked my hubby large our lot was and he figured it to be maybe an 1/8 of an acre. I do not plan on having my own csa out of my backyard. I just want to grow enough tomatoes to last me for a whole year.

I decided to get a good definition of a farmer and farm to see how I measure up.

farmer

       a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.

farm

1.a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often

livestock are raised for livelihood.

2. land or water devoted to the raising of animals, fish, plants, etc.:

a pig farm; an oyster farm; a tree farm

I think i am better off than I thought. I am a person who cultivates land, I have a house on my land. I have a chicken coop and a pigeon loft which are like little barns, We also have a garage where we keep our gardening equipment and all the feed. Maybe I will tell Mr Ladybug that we need to start calling it a barn. We have land devoted to gardening, egg production and raise meat rabbits. Urban is defined as relating to or characteristic of a city or town. Our population is 318,449 so I think that is large enough to be a city and if you  look at the map below I live inside that circle and actually less that a mile from smack downtown. So I am definitely an urban farmer. Go me!

Not everyone wants to put livestock in their backyard and some people actually think chickens and all birds are creepy. I wont call out names but she reads this blog and she knows who she is. You may not own your home and are not allowed to put in raised beds or plow up your yard. Some of you have HOA's and all those rules. Some are not even allowed to have clothes lines. You may live in an apartment without a yard. You can still be an urban farmer in my book. We started out with a little 4 foot by 4 foot square foot garden, then we doubled and we just keep adding on. This isnt even all of it. we have a back part of the yard with the chickens, pigeons and rabbits. Thats where our compost pile is along with tomatoes, green beans, blackberries, grapes, cucumbers and hopefully another strawberry bed.

http://gardenplanner.almanac.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=810449

If you wish to start gardening but dont know where to start I would suggest your favorite herbs in pots.  Carrots, radishes, green onions and leaf lettuces grow well in pots too. Get a potted tomato plant and you are growing everything you need for a salad.If gardening isnt even remotely interesting to you thats okay too but please  make sure you start taking little steps to reach your goals.

I have been amazed at how much money we are saving with me really sticking to our grocery budget. It basically means we have more money for gardening and we are okay with that. How cool would it be for us to not have to go to the grocery! This isnt really about saving money from doing everything yourself either. I think I saw eggs for less that $1 at the store. The cost of feeding the hens is more expensive than that. Its about quality. Same goes for the rabbit meat. I can get chicken breast for $1.49lb it costs more than that to raise the rabbits but we know they are treated humanely and their living conditions are much better than big commercial companies. It will take a long time before our bee hives even break even. It costs close to $700 to start a hive. The bees themselves are $175 and we lost a hive last year and our small one this year. This isnt about money its about doing the right thing and trying to make our little piece of the world a better place. This is something we are passionate about and thats where we put our resources. Especially our time. Remember that as you figure out what your passions are.

18 hours

My car has a feature where you can set it and know how many hours you are driving. Because I am weird I reset it every time I refuel. I almost had a nervous breakdown when I saw that I spent 18 hours in the car last week.  I think for the past year I may have averaged 6 hours in the car per week. I know some of you people who work outside of the home have that many hours and I am not saying if you do that there is a problem but for me this is a problem. Its still from the ongoing drama of the car getting totaled and I think I can see the end in sight. If its not the end it may just be the end of a few insurance adjusters. Just kidding but not. I know I can look on the bright side and be thankful that besides making me crazy I am lucky to be able to do this without it really being an issue. Some people could not. I like my routines and for the past two months my routines have flown out the window along with my sanity and patience.

This morning we wake up to a light dusting of snow. Underneath the snow was lots of black ice. We left out driving at 6:10 am to get my hubby to work and our road wasnt too bad. Turned on a few others and they were a little worse and then before we got to a main road I slid. Not terrible I wasnt going that fast but my hubby did tell me to hurry past the stop sign since the yahoo behind us was closing in fast and he was going to slide right into us. I swear if someone crashes into our second car I may just get out and beat them down. Depending on the damage I may even steal their car like in the video games. We make it safely to his work and I make it home. Saw a few cars that lost control but I was fine. Terrified but fine. Had I known I would not have driven. Had we had another car, hubby would have been on his own, He loves driving in the stuff and is much better than I am anyway.

As I was sipping my tea this morning reflecting on all the things that are trying to kill me I had a thought. I was terrified but I did it. I was slow and cautious but I made it. I even went out a second time and the roads werent much better and made it back. What else is fear keeping me from doing? When getting chickens we feared would our neightbors complain. They did not or at least not to our faces. Fear of getting stung by bees kept us from getting them. We got them and we have gotten stung but we are fine. I have a much less reaction to the stings than Mr Ladybug.

I am stronger than I know and so are you. We do not know how strong we are until we are tested on it. Just because it doesnt work out the way we have it in our head, does no mean that we fail. We can adapt or we can blog about killing insurance adjusters and beating up strangers who wreck into us. I would like to encourage you to step out of fear and into faith. Faith in yourself that you can do whatever is holding you back. Faith that even if it doesnt quite work out doesnt mean its not going to later after a few tweaks to the plan.