Oh how we've grown!!!

Welcome back. I think it has been a few years. I have not written in this blog for a very very long time. 
I realized that the time I have not written has been sprinted by me in a second. As I slow down and realize how fast time has past I also realized that writing in this blog really did help keep me focused on what was really important. I am back to prove once again I can be Satisfied by living simply. 

coming into Roswell, NM (No Mountain's....weird)

To catch those who are unaware up...We moved to New Mexico in 2014. We originally started in Farmington, NM and finally landed in Roswell, NM. Before you give me the grief of stating the obvious yes we Believe in Aliens and seen a UFO for ourselves. 
The boys have grown up lots and lots and one is graduating this year (will continue below). I have a new job. Which requires us to move once again. Oh yeah and the biggest news we had a baby girl 1 month ago. Yep you read it right a Girl in this house of boys.  


So after moving to Roswell we found a nice house to live in.  It fit's us all and we are comfortable. Yet I was working so much and away from home so much because of traveling all over the state for my job I did not really get to enjoy it. I had fallen off the Satisfy part of the world. I needed to find what my happiness was all about. It was all about my family. Once I really thought about it I quite the job and started a new career.This will give me more time at home and with the kids and hubby. I am happier and my thoughts have revolved back to basics. Which brought me back to this blog. 

I want to catch you all up on our comings and goings however it could take a bit of time.  I will make this as short as I can. 

Krik has a great job with the Office of Medical Investigations as a Field Investigator. Basically he investigates unattended deaths in the county. He also is a stay at home dad still. His new challenge will be the new born baby. He is working hard to keep our household flowing smoothly. He has found us homes and even started to teach 2 of the boys how to drive.  



Jimmy is working on getting graduated from High school right now. Graduation is in May and Jimmy will graduate. Connection Academy charter school has been his school for the last few years. It is an online charter school and has been really good for Jimmy. He also works at Sonic and is really into drama. He is currently very involved with Roswell Community Theater. He has been cast in his first adult theater production. He just finished his service project to get his Eagle Scout.  I am scared his 18th birthday is only a few days away but I know he will do very well as an adult.

Cole is a sophomore at Roswell High School this year. He has a girl friend and just got his learners permit. He is excited about science and girls basically. He likes scouts and hanging out with his friends. He is a big help and growing fast. Cole also has found a voice in drama as he was voted vice president of the Roswell High Drama club. He is proud of his art and is very happy to be in biology this year. He is dabbling in music and wants to find what is passions are by good experimentation. He will be turning 16 in July this year.  


Byron is a freshmen at Roswell High School this year. He has so grown. He decide he is going to college to be a game tester of some sort. His technical skill is so much more advanced then mine. I support him in this effort as all he loves to do is play games.  He likes to play  Magic in terminate's. He wants to work as soon as he can because then he can buy more games and cards. He has friends and likes scouts. He has taken a shine to his sister. He is turning out pretty good. He will be 15 in June this year.   


Kanyon is attend Connections Academy in 4th grade. He is in love with his sister. He likes to be a helper in any way he can. He likes to watch you tube videos and play with his niece and nephew who we watch after school. He wants to be just like his older brothers and looks up to them even though they don't realize it all the time. He likes attending scouts and church. He is active and likes to skate board and play with friends.  He will be turning 11 in June. 

Lykota loves PBS kids shows like "Cat in the Hat" and "Dinosaur Train". He loves Dinosaur's of any kind and super heroes. His favorite outfit is his Super Lykota outfit (see below) He is not sure of his baby sister and really don't like it when she cries. It hurts his ears and he runs to get anyone to help stop her from crying. He is learning how to use the potty. He also likes going to chruch. He will be turning 5 in December of this year.

Introducing Mary. The newest edition of our family. She was born Feb 1st in Ruidoso NM. We are looking forward to seeing what her personality is. She looks a lot like both me an her dad. and she is very loved by all her big brothers, sister in law's, and whole family. She got blessed on March 5.   

Thins we have done across the state of New Mexico

Christmas Night 2015. 

1st tornado after arriving in Roswell

Jimmy in Actor Games

Roswell Zoo and Park.

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Cole at Trinity Summer 2016

Spring has Sprung

Spring has officially sprung here on the little farm we call home. Rabbits are having bunnies, Chickens are flying and trying to eat every bug they can gobble up, and Hubby and I have cabin fever.
I got the cleaning bug not to long ago. I have started to organize the homestead. Decorating is not far behind.
So far the inside has been done wonderfully.

 To get this much organization done with in my home is a small miracle  Almost the whole house is done now. My bedroom, Dining room, Front room, Kitchen (Including inside cupboards), laundry room, and family room have all been done.
That leaves the really hard rooms: Mud/ Storage room. And garage. neither of which I or the boys have had time to tackle just yet. But it is coming quickly.

 The bookshelf alone took us 3 hours to get straightened and done. But we are slowly chipping away at the cleaner side of life.
With the baby here now we have had the challenge of cleaning around the bigger :"toys" if you will. the Swing, port-a-crib, bouncer ect. They are easy to move but harder to keep looking nice if company happens to come over.

With my office in place I can keep up on bills , calling, family things that needs to happen. the best part of this whole thing is my phone. Jimmy had a birthday party and one of the boys needed to make a phone call.He picked up the phone and looked at me and asked. "Mrs.Myers how do you turn this on?" Then proceeded to figure out how to dial. I laugh to myself thinking of how cool I thought this phone was when Krik gave it me.

Look closely you can see even Baby Lykota helped out today. 

 The boys and I have been busy also getting the yard ready for our garden this year. Can't wait to get it in. Krik could not either. He went out a got himself 50 tomato plants today. .

Jimmy and I worked on getting the row's cleaned out so we can plant tomorrow. He would have helped but he had a minor heart attack on Sunday so he is under doctors orders not to do that kind of work for at least a week of not two

The boys are so excited to have the garden going in. Kanyon has asked to plant: Pea's, watermelon, and tomatoes. Byron asked for : cantaloupe  potatoes, and pumpkins. Cole asked for : Lettuce, carrots, and egg plant. Jimmy asked for: Romina tomatoes, jalapeno, and green peppers. We are planting all this plus squash a variety of sorts, onions, spices such as thyme, basil, cilantro, ect..
I love the fact I have such space I can plant as much of something as I need and as little of stuff as I don't want.

The last little bit I have gotten into cooking homemade from scratch meals. Breads, muffins, stews you name it I am trying it. For Jimmy's birthday party to save $ we had it at our house. The kids got to watch movies and make their own pizza's from scratch. I prepared the pizza dough ahead of time and they topped it. then we cooked it.

This was so much fun for the kids. they enjoyed doing it so much. I think they enjoyed eating them just as much.

 They munched down and had a wonderful time at his party. Jimmy turned 14 years old this year. He has grown up so fast.

yep they watched old tv show's classic Doctor Who and Star Trek Voyager. Yep I am raising Treky's. Love it too.

 Byron had his blue and gold banquet for Cub Scouts this month as well. He had to make a cake for dessert that night. He decided to make a tie dye cake from scratch. He made a white cake and colored it. Baked it and frosted it. Loved it too.

he worked hard on this. Letting it cool was hard for him because he wanted to frost it so fast afterward. He made chocolate frosting and it was a white and chocolate cake. I must say for his first time making a cake it tasted yummy.










 He won best inside surprise cake for the night.

Colorful it was and loved it we did.












Well as the summer wheres on I will keep you all apprised of how my simple life ride is going. Cooking is just a fun start to saving money. I even made homemade bread bowls to serve my stew in on Easter.

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Communication is the Key!

Once in a while life throws all of us curve balls. I think I have a few in the last week.
It is our jobs as adults to handle the curves with grace, compassion, and sustainability for the future. This week has been one of those weeks. Sustainability is my main goal. However, I am trying hard to use grace, compassion and tack to accomplish this hard task.

If I was honest with you and myself, I really want to scream out THIS ISN'T FAIR! WHY ME! WOE'S ME!
But knowing that is not the best tactic to tackles this particular situation I am using another tactic from my arsenal of self preservation. Kill them with Kindness.

Here is the situation I and my family is in in our Little House in Orem.

In the last 6 weeks I have blogged and posted we have got a cow for the food table next year. That plan has been interrupted, changed and damaged in all possible ways with one fail swoop. We are renting our little house. I would love to say we are purchasing this home one day. And this is the goal and plan. However, for the time being we are dealing with a landlord. This has been okay until the last 5 days or so.

Before we bought Cow, we spoke with our landlord about putting a cow in the pasture for the summer and winter. As we spoke he never once stated it could be a problem. Fast forward 3 weeks and 4 times of talking with him about the subject of the us getting a cow.
We have a brand new baby cow. We milk feed this cow for 5.5 weeks. Now it is time to put to pasture.
The same week she is ready for pasture their are horses put in the pasture. OK now the questions start.
We ask the landlord if he told the person who owns the horses that Cow would be put to pasture next week. Our landlord back tracks and says I will.
Three days later the women who owns the horses comes to water the horses. My husband tells her Cow is ready for pasture and we will be putting her in the next day.
The next day comes and we go to put Cow in the pasture and their are pad locks on the gates not allowing us to do this.
To frustrate this problem further when we call the land lord to ask for the key he tells my husband the pasture can not be used for our cow because the horse people lease it from him. (When we moved in the landlord did not specify that the pasture was not ours to rent. Remember we spoke of this with him 4 times before purchasing the calf. And when we did the walk through to rent this house he stated it included the pasture.)
Now their is a problem with this situation even further. I have a cow ready for pasture and no pasture to put her in. The horse people are using my water to water their horses. I am not happy about this situation. My husband exchanges words with the horse people because they are not taking care of the horses poop (and with the pad locks on the gates we can't either, Which we had been doing for them because I could not see these wild mares living in hoof deep waste and not having much room for feed due to that fact. My husband had been hauling out the horse manure as a favor to the horses.)Now they are putting the manure in the way of our irrigation water. Thus complicating things even more.

I am a God fearing women. I believe when asked God will present answers to difficult situations. I prayed on this situation. I got my answer. Though I really don't like it. But I know it is the right answer.

I put Cow up for sale. With in 5 hours she was sold. She leaves our home tonight. I am so sad yet happy she is going to someone who can give her the room she needs to roam and be a cow.

Now I must find the grace to move past this mishap with the horse people and landlord and try to be collected when I speak with them. This  is more difficult to do then I thought. I don't know my husband will be able to. He is so mad about the situation that he gets red in the face just thinking about it. Let alone talking about it. I get mad but I am trying to move past the anger. Letting go of anger has never been a strong suit for me. However, I know I must to move forward.

I am frustrated and yet sad at the same time. If find myself thinking this situation did not have to even happen. If your landlord would have just spoke up and said he leased the property to the horses and we could not use the pasture we would have never gotten Cow in the first place. We might have questioned him on why he said the pasture was ours. But the horse people would not have had to even be involved with the situation because we could have dealt with our land lord directly.

Communication is so very important in any situation you have. I am finding that honesty and openness is commodities I do not find  very often. As a result of this situation I am working hard on my own faults in communication area. I hope you can do the same in your life. The most wonderful thing about this is it is a skill. It can be practiced. Practice makes perfect.

Cat, Chicks, and Cows oh my!!!!

Well the last month has flown by me. I have not written here for a while and for that I apologize. This life of simplistic beauty has taken time, energy and effort that I have poured my heart and soul into.
I have had busy busy schedules for the last while and now summer is here it has only gotten busier.
On the up side I feel that living this kind of lifestyle is very very satisfying.

For starters Jimmy my oldest decied to build a fire pit for us to have campfires around. He dug it, and built it. It is just the right size.

All the brothers chipped in to help too. It has been a great fire pit and he did a wonderful job on it. Loving it.






The next thing we got was a few fun new animals on our farm. We have 11 chickens now and 1 cow and a cat.  The chickens give us farm fresh eggs. The cow is still a baby but will give us meat for the winter  months. The cat keeps all the other critters in line. He really is a true farm cat.

Cow and Kanyon

I will upload more pictures of the finished corral in the morning. However, this is what it started as. 

Then it turned in a wonder place for Chickens and Cow to hang out all day. 

Satisfying as animals are they are a lot of work. The chickens lay eggs each day and they get gathered. The cow needs to be feed both morning and night. And their hay needs to be changed every other day or so.  The old hay gets burned in our fire pit and spread onto our garden spot that Krik has put up for us. 

Today we planted 12 tomato plants. Tomorrow through this week we will put in 1 honey dew plant, 2 yellow squash plants, 4 cucumbers plants, 2 jalapeno pepper plants, 1 bannana pepper plant, 2 red pepper plants, 2 green pepper plants, and a hot mexican pepper plant. Seeds we will put in pumpkins, carrots, lettuce (2 different kinds), radishes, green beans, spinach, and then dill and parsley.  Thus my garden is complete. 

I will keep you all updated. 

NEWS FLASH! our little family on the farm will be growing by one coming this winter. Yep, I am pregnant and expecting (his, hers and ours) our 8th child.  As we move closer to the due date I will post more. 

My hubby has kindly asked me to add this last little bit. 

To all your husbands out their whose wives may think they want this satisfyingly simple life, it will kill a husband will all the honey do lists. :) 

I have no idea what he is talking about.  

Happy New Year!

I would like to take this time to reflect on the last year and all the blessing that have brought me to find this satisfying simple life.

I started this year not understanding the need for this satisfying simple change in my life. I spent more money then I made. I worked 40 hours a week and could not pay all my bills. To top all this off I was still in the middle of a divorce that had lasted since 2003.

 My bills piled up faster than I could pay them and I was threatened with garnishments if I did not find a way to pay them. I was ready to give up on everything. I went to my ecclesiastical leader (Bishop of the LDS Church) and I asked for a bit of help in the finance department. I explained to him I have been looking for a job closer to home since 2009. I have a job. I pay most of my bills they just add up to more then I make.

Prayer and Meditation can be a life changing thing. In my case it has been small steady steps in a way different directions then what I thought it would be.  I wanted a new job more then I could speak. I was praying for a new job. I needed more money! I needed a job closer to home! If you speak on long suffering I felt I was living it.  In 2009 I graduated with my Associate’s Degree from Provo College in Criminal Justice. Like most people at this time, I found it hard to find a job. I was blessed with a job but one that I felt I was grossly under paid for. Two years I have applied for every job that was in my field. I have gone on more then 40 + job interviews. Each time I was sent a letter stating they loved that I applied but they offered the job to someone else. That was until spring of this year. I started to think maybe I was looking at this whole situation wrong.
In May of 2010 I knelt down to pray one night. I got this overwhelming feeling of peace. I knew the Lord was ready and willing to help me all I had to do was ask for it. "Dear Lord, I want to be content with what I have. I want the things we have to be enough for us. For the boys to get what they need and for me to feel like I am providing great things for them. I want to feel satisfied with everything I have. I don't want more then my fair share. What I want is peace with what I have. Please make it so we are okay financially. So I can provide for the family without begging any longer. Please take away my feelings of guilt. I am still going apply for jobs. I am still going to go on job interviews. IF you want me to have that job please provide it for me. If not I understand there is a bigger picture for me. I put all my trust in your hands and I leave it to your will to help us get through this very very tough time. Amen."

As I fell asleep that night I thought what did I just do? Why didn't you ask for the job you just interviewed for? Why would you just ask for contentment? Silly girl the Lord will never answer such a silly prayer. Why did you waste such a golden opportunity? I fell asleep.

The next morning I woke and felt better than I had in a very very long time. I was not overwhelmed with the daily chores. I was able to get to work on time this particular morning. The kids almost seemed well behaved. At work I played music and started to sing along with it was I worked. The day went by fast and I felt refreshed in a job well done. I got a call from my long time sweetheart, Krik that night. We talked about starting a garden in Mapleton.
I had just started doing Bountiful Baskets on Saturdays at my home. This brought in fresh fruits and veggies each week for us because I opened my home up to it. I would always have food in the house for as long as I was doing this.

Krik and I, talked about how to be self sufficient and how I could start. Canning food was a great way to start. I could make homemade gifts, I could learn how to sew, and I started my garden these were just a few things that jumpstarted me into this great adventure. Then I feel off the wagon. That is when I decided if I write about it, I could stay on the straight and narrow. I started this blog. I called it the Satisfying Simple Life because that is what I wanted. A life that was simple and satisfying.  
I needed the right attitude to achieve this goal. I needed to be taught how to stretch a dime into a dollar. I was on the right path and I knew it. I was cooking at home. I had stopped eating out every night. I was working hard to keep up on the house work and find contentment in my life. I started couponing and making my money work for me instead of working for my money. This change has taken time, organization, and patience. Especially Patience!

The next big change came when Krik and I got married in Oct of this year. I had to make this wedding nice yet simple and cheap. I achieved this by making items for it myself, setting up jobs to work off deposits, finding students who needed internships, and a much more.

Then came combing the household under one roof.  We found a house in Orem. To say the least I was not sure about moving out of my beloved Mapleton. I was not sure I could handle this move with all the changes this last year. However over the last two and half months the boys have adjusted very very well. They love this new house. They are doing chores and working as hard as they play. Because of this move I have cut 1/2 my drive time. I am home in time for dinner most nights now. For the last few years Krik and I have struggled because we were in two separate households. Because of us combining our life and homes we are able to save money.

     

In Nov just before our move Krik had a heart attack and had a triple bypass. I have taken a lot of time off due to his illness. I with a cheerful disposition took care of my beloved husband. While off work my van broke down and again we have money issues due to the fact of repairs. But the Lord blessed us with such great blessings we had the money saved for it (the exact amount of the repair to say the least). I must reassert my thoughts again though. I thought badly when the van broke down because that money was supposed to go on my family for Christmas. Why on earth would it break down right now? I went back to my I need a new job mode. I am reading the good books again and I am praying for contentment in my time. I started immediately feeling the love that the Lord has for me and the family.
Now Krik is starting heal I am back at work. I am feeling a bit guilty about leaving him home all alone with the boys.
I know the Lord has blessed our family this year. Does it make it any less hard, no! However, I have been given the tools and skills so I can manage with whatever life throws our way. My family is my strength. We as a family can overcome anything. I know this to be true.
I want to leave you with what I have learned this year. My life is 95% attitude and 5% hard work. With a positive attitude you can do anything and achieve greatness.

Happy New Year! Hope your resolutions are as great as you are.

The Garden Idea!

The Beginning

As I start researching what was the best way of saving money, thus living a satisfyingly simple life, one theme kept coming up and up again. Gardening. Growing your own food.
 I remember weeding my moms flowers as a child and I hated it. She would plant a few plants of onions, tomato's, and zucchini for each year and that would be the garden.

 I hated this idea of gardening. It looked and sounded like a bunch of work and time I just didn't have. As time went on I finally spoke with Krik on this situation. He asked me if I was up for a challenge. I answered in the most sarcastic tone I could "Challenge! Really! I can do anything I put my mind to!"
Smiling he said "Then challenged you are." I was challenged because I have no idea what the heck I am doing. But my mind was made up,  I was having a garden this year.
I started in March. Early for most things. Spring gardens are okay that time of year but summer gardens must wait until after Mothers Day in May. So I picked my spot and started to plant.



 

A GARDEN

Ok so the picture above doesn't exactly look like a garden, Yet! This was step one. Picking a  really great spot to set up our family garden. I rent my home so I had to get permission from my landlords before beginning. They graciously let me have this space for my garden. As you can see it started out as grass.  Hey, I had to start somewhere right.

This is my first ever try at gardening and is still a great big work in progress. With the help from a friend of mine in the neighbor hood (thanks Cindy) and my dad's tiller I was ready to start. I started by figuring out just where the garden was going to be placed and how big it was. Then I started to till up the land I plotted for it.

While Tilling up the Garden Spot

So now I have tilled the garden up it is time to plant. I have choose to ask a really great friend how to plant my garden. Other resources I have found are all over the web. There are blogs dedicated to teaching someone how to garden. I used fertilizer and tilled it in as well. Now to plant.

After it was tilled and the spring garden was planted



So I planted 4 kinds of lettuce in the first 4 rows. The next two rows has corn. Then peas, then green beans, then carrots. In the back four rows is Indian corn we can use for corn meal and decorations. Now I won't lie this is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life.  In the back we planted potato's, Swiss chard, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, banana peppers, zucchini, banana squash, cucumbers and pumpkins. 

No it is not weeded to perfections. Although, that is something the boys and I are really working on. 

No the corn, and green beans did not even pop up out of the ground this year. Too much water and not enough sun this spring for that. Mine was not the only garden in the area to not have stuff pop up and get going. I was lucky to get what I did get. Peas, a few carrots, Indian corn, some lettuce, and potatoes. Summer Garden is in but I used mostly plants for that and they have yet to die.

Yes I and the boys all work in the garden together. 

To tell you the truth, this is something that KISS a lot of my problems away in one fail swoop!

This project not only helps on the pocket book it helps in a ton of other ways. 

1. Cost of grocery's through the summer and fall months
2. Entertainment with the family. ( when we are all doing our part we talk, and laugh together and forget we are working)
3. Excises for me. I am a little on the heavy side so I need all this I can get with my  limited amount of time.
4. Great fresh outdoors. I get fresh sun light and air while working in my garden.
5. My children learn about gardening while we do this. They are almost smarter than me because Cole was the one who came up with putting the water furrows in by all the plants so it will fill up with water and then saturate in slowly.

This is really my Satisfyingly Simple Life.
To be continued.....