Provident Living - A Way Of Life

The wisdom of living providently has been recognized since ancient times. Joseph encouraged the Egyptians to store grain during the seven “fat” years against the lean years to come. From the ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop, comes a fable about the ant and the grasshopper, which illustrates in a very simple way the principle of provident living. In time of plenty, the grasshopper took no thought for what he might need when the winter came. But the ant worked busily, preparing and providing for a time when food would not be so plentiful. The ant could look to the future with confidence, while the grasshopper—if he thought about the future at all—could only hope for the best.

But living providently is more than just putting aside food for future need. It encompasses all areas of life. If we want to face the future with confidence and peace of mind, we must prepare ourselves in six areas: literacy and education, career development, financial and resource management, home production and storage, physical health, and social-emotional and spiritual strength. When we strive to prepare in each of these areas, we can enjoy peace of mind as we face the uncertainties of the future.

This quote is from an article that was published over 20 years ago. It was published when many people thought that it was "radical" to store food or at the very least silly, and a waste of time, space and money. Now it seems like storing food is the new "hip" thing to do.

But this quote says two important things - First, we need to store during times of plenty so that we aren't caught unprepared when things change. So hopefully, people have been storing food for the past few years, and aren't trying to start now during this time of high food prices and an uncertain economy. Second, provident living isn't just about storing food. It is a way of life. We need to focus our lives on building skills in many areas, not just food storage, so that we can live a more self-reliant life.

I meet with a small group of women every month. The name of the group is "Women Living Wisely" and we discuss/learn about different things from each of the six areas. We have talked about food storage, but we have also learned about yoga, stress management, ways to increase our creativity, quilt-tying, organization, adult education, and crocheting, just to name a few. I'm still a long way from being self-sufficient, but it has been helpful for me be able to meet with other women and learn from them and take small steps toward that big goal.

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch on Columbus Day. They had pumpkins, of course, but they also had a playground made out of hay bales, animals to pet, a trike race track, and a corn bin. It always makes me laugh how we live in a city of 150,000, but yet we can be out in the fields in less than 10 minutes.

Flower and her cousin - I love the harvester in the background

Super and his cousin (my sister has kids that are the same age as my kids, plus she has an adorable little baby daughter)


Flower on the haybale playground

Jelly Bean in the corn

Group shot - My kids, their cousins, and a couple of friends

The requisite silly shot - I always tell them if they do a nice one, I'll let them do a silly one.

It's Nice To Be Nice To The Nice

(From M*A*S*H, I've seen every episode at LEAST four or five times.)

Today, Mr. Simple came home at lunch time. I was hosting playgroup, and so there were many children running around, as young children are known to do. Mr. Simple said that he would just go out and get some lunch. I asked if he would pick me up some lunch too, although I was mostly joking. I wouldn't have minded if he did, but it wasn't necessary. I was going to be serving lunch to the children soon, so I could just eat what they were eating.

But Mr. Simple did bring me back lunch. And he brought me back a tasty green salad with grilled chicken. But the best part was the peas. Rarely are there peas in a restaurant salad or even on most salad bars (are they still called salad bars anymore? That term seems so 80s or something.) I know, because I look. Because I love peas in my salad. (And if you haven't tried it, you should give peas a chance. Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

So I'm sitting here eating a yummy salad given to me nicely from nice Mr. Simple. Thank you, Mr. Simple. It was nice.

Time Management Lesson from Laura

From "Make Every Minute Count" in Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Family Collection -

"There are just now so many things that must be done that we are tempted to
spend ourselves recklessly, especially as it is rather difficult to decide what
to eliminate, and we cannot possibly accomplish everything. We must
continually be weighing and judging and discarding things that are presented to
us, if we would save ourselves, and spend our time and strength only on those
that are important. We may be called upon to spend our health and strength
to the last bit, but we should see to it that we do not waste them.

'Oh I am so tired that I just want to sit down and cry,' a friend confided
in me, 'and here is the club meeting on hand and the ledge practice and the Rod
Cross work day and the aid society meeting and the supper at the school house
and the spring sewing and garden and - Oh! I don't see how I'm ever going to get
thru with it all!'

Of course she was a little hysterical. It didn't all have to be done
at once, but it showed how over-tired she was and it was plain that something must
give way-if nothing else, herself. My friend needed a little open space in
her life."

I need to remember to have a little open space in my life too.

Just so you know

the recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the back of the chocolate chip package is MUCH better than the recipe in the Betty Crocker recipe book. Betty has always come through for me, but today, Betty, Betty, Betty.

Of course, they were still good enough for us to eat - but definitely not good enough for us to share with our neighbors, like Flower wanted to do.

Tomorrow she will be making Pumpkin Bread (from the Betty Crocker recipe book.) She has made this bread three times using the BC recipe, and we know it is a winner.

Remembering Christopher

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day. I have sadly had three miscarriages (1998, 2002, 2006) and one stillbirth (March 28, 2008). So I have four little ones to remember on this day. But the one that I am remembering the most today is Christopher.

I found out I was pregnant in December of 2007. It had been two years since I had had my last miscarriage, and three years since Super was born. I had recently turned 41. I wasn't expecting to get pregnant. At first, based on my symptoms, I thought that it might be an ectopic pregnancy, but an early ultrasound determined that it was a normal pregnancy. I was diagnosed with placenta previa at 10 weeks, and was put on bedrest. Every day, I was just sure that I was going to lose the baby. The miscarriage in 2006 was at 13 weeks, and so I knew I wouldn't relax until I past that date. I had a dr. appointment at 12 weeks, and they did an ultrasound and said everything looked great, but that they wanted to do some bloodwork too. I had had this blood test when I was pregnant with Super, and it came back fine, so I wasn't really worried that the bloodwork would show any problems.

A week later, the OB's office called back and said that my numbers indicated that there might be a problem, and they referred me to a specialist. I went the following day. I was 13 weeks along. The specialist did another ultrasound and said that everything looked great, but it was really too early to tell if there were any problems by ultrasound. He said that the blood test indicated a 1 in 10 chance that our baby had Trisomy 18. I have a friend who lost a son to Trisomy 18 recently, so I knew that if it was true, it would be devastating. He recommended doing an amniocentisis because it was the only way to know for sure, but he left the decision up to us. We decided to do the amnio, but we couldn't do it until I was 16 weeks along, and that was 3 weeks away. We told our families about the strong possibility that our baby had Trisomy 18, and spent the next three weeks trying to prepare ourselves for it.

After three weeks of torture, I finally made it to 16 weeks. We went in to the specialist, and asked for an ultrasound before the amnio. The specialist said that if he had to make a diagnosis by ultrasound alone, that he would say that the baby was a normal, healthy BOY, but if we wanted the reassurance that everything was o.k., we would need to do the amnio. It was such a hard decision. We finally decided that it would be better to know for sure instead of wondering for the next 24 weeks and then finding out that he wasn't o.k. at the birth. The amnio went fine. The dr. said that it would be a few days before they got the preliminary results back. More waiting.

7 days later, I got the best call in the world. Our son was perfectly normal. I heard his heartbeat that day too. I was going to have this baby and it was going to healthy and happy and I was going to have the fourth child that I had always wanted. I could hardly believe it. My parents had come into town a few days earlier, and so we went out to eat that night, and finally told Flower, Jelly Bean, and Super that I was pregnant and that they were going to have a little brother! We sat around the table at the restaurant and talked about names, although we didn't come to any final decisions that night. I had a couple favorites and my husband had a couple of favorites. There was plenty of time to fight over the name :) I was just thrilled that the next half of the pregnancy was going to be uneventful.

A couple of days later, I went and had a pedicure and sat in one of those masssage chairs. The next morning, I woke up and felt strange. I hadn't felt the baby move yesterday, and I didn't feel him moving that morning. I tried telling myself that I was only 17 1/2 weeks and you don't feel movement that regularly, but I knew that something was wrong. I called my husband and told him that we needed to go to the dr. I called the dr's office and he agreed to see us right away.

I started crying before the dr. even came in the ultrasound room because I knew what we were going to see. And sadly, I was right. The dr. did the ultrasound and our little son's heartbeat had stopped, probably the day before.

We had only known that everything was going to be o.k. for four days. Four days. It was so unfair.

The dr. couldn't tell certain what the problem was, but it wasn't from doing the amnio, or sitting in a massage chair, or anything like that. It most likely was a problem with blood flow to the placenta.

I gave birth to our stillborn son on March 28th, 2008 at 5:09 am. His name is Christopher. I miss him so much.

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On Saturday, October 11th, our local hospital held a memory walk for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day. Flower, Jelly Bean, Super and I walked with signs on our backs that said "Walking In Memory of Christopher." There were, sadly, many other families walking with us. We walked about a mile, and then all of the people released a balloon. It was so moving to see all those balloons flying upwards. We watched them until we couldn't see them anymore, and then we walked back to the hospital and they had a service in the garden. People could read poems and share memories. Flower read the following poem:

Little ears,
Tiny toes,
Oh, I forgot, his sweet little
nose.
Though
I never met him,
I will never forget him.
Our
little baby
Christopher.

I'm still sad about losing Christopher. I think that the thing that I'm most sad about now though is not just losing him, but losing the chance to be a mom to a little baby, and watching a new life begin, and seeing Super be a big brother, and the girls holding him and being my little helpers, and just getting to watch another child of ours grow up. I'm sad that I didn't get to know him. I'm sad that the only way that I can visit him is at the cemetery.

But I will always be his mom, and I will always remember him. I love you Christopher.

How to find happiness and other great thoughts

Rhonda Jean says over at Simple/Green/Frugal Co-op,

That is what worked for me. I want you to find your own happiness. I can’t
tell you what will make you happy, only you know that. I can tell you that
happiness isn’t one thing. It’s a whole lot of tiny fragments that you find
every day that add up to a deep feeling of contentment and knowing you’re doing
the right thing. And I know that you won’t find true and enduring happiness in
any shopping mall, I can only encourage you to look in places unexpected, and to
show you through my blog that it is easy to live well outside the modern
perception of what makes a good life.

I’m not telling you to give up your job if you work outside the home,
I’m not telling you to live as we do. I am saying that whatever you do, fashion
it to suit yourself so that it gives you a life worth living. If you are working
hard at an outside job make sure you give yourself time to enjoy what you’re
working for. If you’re working at home, be mindful of happiness and what’s
around you, not just getting the job done.

Many people are stressed in their day-to-day lives and worried about their
future. I think that is sometimes because they don’t feel in control of their
own lives. Prices are rising, the climate is changing and often it all seems too
much. But don't let that stop you, don't be scared into standing still, because
that is the very time you need to do something. If you can gain independence by
changing in some way, do it. I felt a growing independence when I started
learning how to look after myself and I realised I did not need to shop to
provide all I needed to live. When I knew that I could step away from what I was
expected to do and instead do what I wanted, I started to build my own unique
life. I moved away from the life prescribed for me by outsiders, I took my life
by the throat and gave it a good shaking. In a sense, I grew up. I stopped
listening to what I was being told, I identified how I wanted to live and then
worked towards it, and that, my friends, has made all the difference.

A life worth living. Sounds like a good goal.