And so the next chapter begins!

So I stopped doing preschool/daycare last Friday (there will be pictures soon from the surprise alumni Open House that Mr. Simple threw for me on Friday night! I told him not to do anything, but he didn't listen.  It was wonderful to see some parents and children I hadn't seen in awhile!)

I decided that I would stop at the beginning of March because I might have a training gig that started in March. But then I heard that it might not happen until mid-March or so.  I thought maybe I'd have a week or so to just sleep in and have some lunch dates and go to some dr. appts and that sort of thing.

Then on Thursday, Flower's junior high was closed for the rest of the year due to minute amount of asbestos discovered and she would be off for 3 days and she was going to be relocated to a new school along with the other 6th graders from her junior high.  It will be a transition, for certain, but I've been pleasantly surprised with the organization the school district has had during this relocation process and although things won't be perfect (she likely won't have drama or a school play or her special choir group anymore) they really have done as well as possible given the short amount of time that they had to prepare and the fact that the students will be spread out to 3 different schools.

Monday, I had an early morning meeting with someone about Simply Living In The City and then an evening full of taking each child to a total different place on different ends of town in the course of 3 hours. 

Tuesday (yesterday), I was feeling sick (I have allergies/bad cold/sinus infection; I'm not sure.) and I was going to go to PromptCare, but I decided instead to go help Mr. Simple paint.  He is currently on a 2 and half week job painting the whole interior of a large house.  Then I came home in enough time to start the taxi again and drive each child to a different place for a couple hours.  And then I had to do some work on a part-time time writing project, so it was 10 pm before I finished that. 

Then I'm also doing a short-term part-time on-site writing job and I had to be there by 7:30 this morning.  I normally wouldn't have had to be there so early, but I still have to plan for the training gig to start up next week, and that will be here at home, but I'll be doing that M-F from 12:30 to 3:30 pm.  And so I worked from 7:30 to 11:30 am today and then I was off for another Simply Living In The City meeting at noon. 

And now I'm home - blogging, of course, but I have about 25 other things that I probably should be doing instead. 

And ugh, back to that money tree thing, the one thing that is going to be hard to get used to with freelance work/developing a business is that money doesn't come in at regular times.  I won't see money from the morning gig for at least 3 weeks from now, and I won't get paid the first installment on the training gig until a month after we start, and the part-time writing gig, well, not until the project is done.  And I probably won't get any money from anything from Simply Living In The City until the fall.  Of course, when it comes, it should be a pretty good amount. 

Oh, and Mr. Simple gets paid at the end of his jobs, when he has jobs.  Which, thankfully, he has had jobs steadily since he started painting.  But still. 

But I'm used to budgeting on a set monthly amount - that is how we've done our budget since we got married.  Now 17 years later, I've got to figure out a new way to budget.  Or at least I'll have to learn how to deal with the feast/famine money flow. 

It might sound like I'm complaining.  I'm not.  It is just different.  It will be o.k. eventually as we all get used to this new way of life. 

I must say, things are rarely dull anyway, here at the Simple House.

This will probably be my last post . . . of 2011

Knowing me, and my life, I probably won't get back here tomorrow.  And I have a moment to post right now, so I thought I would.

2011.  It was an interesting year.  I lost a lot of weight in 2011, but I'll be honest, I've put a little back on. 

Which goes to the second thing of 2011.  Instead of illness this year, this was the year of injuries.  I was doing fantastic with exercise until May of 2011.  Great.  I was running and I was doing my Body Combat classes and my Body Pump classes.  Loved it. And then I got tendinitis in my foot.  And despite trying to cut back and using anti-inflamatories, it still hurt. All the time.  So I decided to take a little break from exercise.  Just for June.  And maybe July.  It would have been fine. Except that I burned myself at the end of July.  Then I couldn't exercise for another two months.  Now, it would be September.  And I did go a few times in September.  But then, I had outpatient surgery in October.  I'd really start again in November.  Except then, I got crazy busy.  So here it is the end of 2011, and I really haven't regularly since early May. Ugh. But I have a plan.  And I will get back to it.  I was so consistent in 2010 and half of 2011. I know that I can get back to my exercise plan.  And it is so much easier for me to follow a healthy food plan when I'm exercising.

The kids went back to public school this year.  That has been different.  I don't know if I'll homeschool again.  I miss it a lot, but I always said that I wanted to do what is right for my kids.  But I'm hoping that it isn't totally the end.  I mean, Super is only in first grade, so if it is the right thing for him, maybe we will homeschool at some point.  Speaking of the kids, maybe I should update a little about them.

Flower? She is 12.  And in 6th grade.  And a great kid, really.  But I definitely see glimpses of teenager-hood coming through.  And she bought herself an iPod Touch this Christmas.  And the texting has begun. But she still likes to hang out with her family.  And she still loves to read.  And she still loves to sing. 

Jelly Bean.  Hmm.   It has been a busy year for her.  She is in 4th grade and has homework for the first time in her life. She started competitive swimming in September and she practices 4 times a week.  She is moving up to the next level next month and then her practices will move from an hour to two hours.  I worry a little about burn out, but she LOVES it and says that swimming is the only thing that makes her happy, so for right now, we are going ahead.  She turned 10 this month.  I can't believe she is already a whole decade!

Super.  Maybe I should rename him Super Wild.  No, he isn't that bad.  Most of the time anyway.  He loves Super Heroes now. A lot. So his blog name is more fitting than it used to be.  He is forever jumping off things too.  And he loves to create things out of scraps.  He calls them "his inventions." He used to make "inventions" by connecting his toys together in various ways. Quite the creative little guy.

I don't have resolutions exactly for 2012.  But I do have a checklist/to do list/plans for 2012.  Is that the same as resolutions? I don't know. A lot of it has to do with SLITC and turning it into a business. And then most of the rest has to do with incorporating simple living even more into my life.  But a big item on my to do list is to learn to enjoy myself more.  Relax sometimes.  Laugh more. Try not to be so serious all the time.  Make more time for friends.  Make more friends.  And maybe sleep more too. :)

So tired my teeth hurt . . .

I said that in a Facebook post earlier this week.  And I was.  And I am.  I have busier this December than I would really like to be.  BUT there are reasons for the busyness.  It IS intentional, which to me, somehow feels better than when I just let my/our schedule get filled with too many lovely, but not necessary, things. 

But my December has filled with watching children (this isn't new), taking care of the Simple Family (also not new), trying to live a simple life (also not new) PLUS I am doing some freelance training for 2-3 hours most days (new) AND I'm trying to build a small business (new).

What small business do you ask? Well, most of my readers probably already know about it, but I'll share here now too.  I was going to wait until things were a little further along, but I am going to go ahead and share what it is AND what I envision it becoming.

Over the years, I have taught some class in "simple living" through those Women Living Wisely classes.  However, my friend Joy and I stopped offering them a couple years ago.  I, however, continued to get requests over the years to learn how to do things like preserving food or crocheting or making laundry soap.  I wanted to, but never really got around to organizing anything. 

Then in August, after yet another person said something to me about it, I decided, I am going to do it.  I'm going to start offering classes.  And so I started a Facebook page about it (You can like us at http://www.facebook.com/SimplyLivingInTheCity) and titled it Simply Living In The City.  I called it that because it sort of went along with my blog here, but it also opened it up for me to talk about learning "simple skills" in any urban setting.  It is basically "urban homesteading" - but I am unable/uninterested in having chickens/goats/bees, etc. in my backyard so I don't talk about/teach classes on those topics.  And I decided to have a topic of the day, so each day I post something about gardening.  Or soapmaking. Or canning. Or sewing.  You get the idea.  I love hearing how other people are trying to live a Simple Life.  Their Way.

I decided to offer my first class on the third Friday of September.  I decided to do Preserving Food, since it was that time of year anyway.  I posted about the upcoming class on on the Facebook page. And my personal FB page.  And a local entrepreneur FB page.  And crossed my fingers.  And people came. 

I made a blog for Simply Living In the City (You can check it out at http://simplylivinginthecity.wordpress.com) for recipes and tutorials and handouts and pictures and videos.  I'll be honest and say that I haven't been able to update it as much and as often as I would like, but that will be changing after the new year.)  I will blogging most days over there - but don't worry, I'll still post here.  I still want to talk about MY family and how we are living the simple life.  Or to post 700 pictures of our trip to Disney World.  :)

I taught a class in October about Making Your Own Dairy (so, so easy, and so, so fun!) and then November was Beginning Crocheting and Knitting.  Yep, I learned how to knit! I've made TWO dishcloths so far.  (Hold your applause, please!)  And on this Friday, I'll be teaching a class on Making Your Own Soap.  They are held every third Friday, and I've got them scheduled through next August.

And after that? I'll be offering the same type of classes, but at the local community college.  Right now, I'm offering the classes for free, but next fall, I'll be making money from it.  Not a ton, but that isn't REALLY my goal.  I'd like to cover my costs, and a little more, but mostly, I just want to help people learn how to do things like garden.  Or use a pressure canner.  Or make a t-shirt quilt.

And that's not all. (Oh, that not all! LOL) I will be also opening an on-line store! I am hoping to open in February and you can go there to get all sorts of "Simply Living" supplies.  Cast iron dutch ovens, water bath canner, gardening netting, organic yarn, yogurt cultures.  That sort of thing.  Right now, I have to go to several brick and mortar/online stores to get all the "Simply Living" supplies I need, and I'm guessing that plenty of people have to do the same, and so I wanted to create a place where you could find everything (well, most things) in one place.  I'll keep you posted on our grand opening, hopefully sometime in February 2012!

AND I'm working on a book.  I've been working on it off and on, and now I'm definitely on.  I'm writing and looking for a publisher.

So I'm busy.  And in case you hadn't noticed, it is also the holiday season.  I am trying to find snippets of time to work on gifts, so that fills what very little free time I have left. 

But I'm also intentionally slowing down soon.  From December 21st until December 27th I'm not working on ANYTHING but gifts and spending time with my family. 

But until then, yea, I'm a little tired . . .

Preserving The Harvest: What I've done so far this year

I had very lofty goals for 2011 and I haven't fulfilled those goals, but I have preserved a fair amount. Here is what I have done so far:

Canned
12 pints of tomato sauce
35 pints of corn
21 quarts of peaches
12 pints of strawberry jam
12 half pints of peach jam
7 pints of veggie relish
7 pints of banana pepper mustard
12 pints of salsa
60 pints of applesauce
---------------
Still planned for canning:
7 pints of ketchup


Freezing
2 gallons of green bags
1 gallon of basil leaves
1 quart bags of dried:
-rosemary
-basil
-lavender
-chives
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Still planned for freezing:
6 quarts of apple pie filling

Drying
- apple slices
- apple leather
- basil
- oregano
- parsley
- lemon balm
- spearmint
- peppermint
- lemon verbena
- lavender
- sage
- tarragon

I haven't done any pickling yet, and I may or may not get to it. I also recently got a Food Saver, but haven't used it either. My canners and my dehydrator, however, have seen LOTS of action this year.

I grew all the herbs, onions (for the relish), the peppers (for the relish), the tomatoes (for the sauce and the relish), and the green beans. I bought the strawberries, the peaches, the apples, and peaches. I had to buy most of the zucchinis for the relish because my squash got squash bugs BAD this year. I also grew peas, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, swiss chard, broccoli earlier in the season, but we ate all of that fresh.

I also taught a class about Preserving The Harvest. I'll put more info over here very soon, but I have finally got Simply Living In The City off the ground! I'm kind of proud of myself! It was a really fun class and I enjoyed teaching people about it and talking with people that are interested in preserving and just talking to other people who enjoy a similar "simple" way of life.