What We're Doing Now

When I began this blog several months (although only a handful of posts) ago, our little family was in a state of complete turmoil. In the last year we'd welcomed a newborn, I'd suffered a major injury - with the attendant recovery time and upheaval for all involved - and my husband was spending many all-nighters completing his degree at last. The four of us barely held it together through this; literally my goal each morning was "make it through today." It was doubly difficult because we couldn't clearly see what would come after... a good job? A poor offer? A move to be nearer friends? Staying where we were? Moving somewhere completely unknown to us? An offer we couldn't refuse? We just didn't know. We lived generally frugally out of complete necessity if nothing else, but we were skittish about committing to any sort of Plan, or any significant hopes about what the summer would bring to us.

Now, at last, the smoke is beginning to clear, and the framework of A Plan emerges.

Since this blog will be, in large part, a chronicle of that Plan played out in our lives, I will give at least a rough outline of it for now. As I mentioned in this post, we truly believe that rural life is the best place for us to be. For us as adults, for our growing children, for our future security. My husband and I grew up mostly rural, and since we were wed almost a decade ago we have kept that lifestyle. In fact, we've learned and practiced much more than we had grown up with, as well... I taught myself to can, we've gathered wild edibles and medicinal herbs, my husband is a self-taught blacksmith who makes beautiful products and loves every minute of it. We have come a long way, but for most of this decade we've been scraping along in various scenarios: somehow saving enough on one modest income to pay for a small house we could live in without rent draining us monthly; then welcoming our first child into the world (and paying out of pocket for our birth attendant when the insurance gave us the run-around); sending my husband back to university; giving birth to a second daughter. By the grace of God and some grim determination we managed to stay out of debt, but often we were on the knife's edge before we managed to save up more emergency funds.

Now, with an in-demand degree under his belt (this post is one long reminder I need to come up with some nicknames for our little family!), we're set to have a significantly higher income, and at last find ourselves faced with many choices. For many people, it's a no-brainer: take the new job and upgrade, upgrade, upgrade: house, phones, cars, furniture, clothes, restaurants. Enjoy life; finally live a little! It's an understandable impulse, but truthfully? We like the way we have been living. Freed from the headache of hovering a little too close to the debt line, there are very few extra things we want.

So as we enter this new phase of our lives - encompassing the next couple of years or so - we are combining several dreams and goals (effectively, we hope!). They include:

1: Determining where our next move will take us: If all goes well, our hope is that, sometime in 2017 or so, we will make another move and ideally set down roots in our basically-forever home. The exact details of this will have to be pondered and explored during this current phase, as we try to decide whether to move near our aging families, move near friends and the mountains, or whatever else. With no desire to job-hop or uproot our children any more than is absolutely necessary, this will be a very deliberate a prayerful decision, and should be for the long-haul.

2: Pursuing and preparing for a more agrarian life: Although the house we are (probably) about to move in to is more "in town" than we have ever lived in our adult lives - which will prevent certain activities like getting a new goat, extensive planting, and the like - there are still plenty of skills to cultivate and goals to pursue. When we are able (on long weekends) to visit with our extended families, we will have the opportunity to camp, gather wild edibles, possibly hunt, and other activities. Since this is one of the areas where we might choose to make our basically-forever home, we can also begin to do things like plant fruit trees and undertake other similar projects as soon as that decision is solidified. And even in our "town house" (ha!), there will be plenty of work to which we may turn our hands.

3: Building up alternative income: More on this later, but this has to do with polishing some skill sets and marketing some pre-existing skills to a degree that might allow us to live safely on far less income (and more time at home) when we make our next move. (In certain circles, these are popularly known as "side hustles.") Most notable is my husband's blacksmithing shop, which saw modest success last year and has (I believe) great potential if we approach it correctly.

4: Saving, saving, saving: Now, we're used to saving. We're used to making do with very little, but there are plenty of things we have spent needlessly on in recent years, even when income was very low. I am, for example, kind of glad we didn't keep close records to know how much money we wasted on going out to eat and take out food, but I can make an educated guess and even that's enough to make me feel a little sick. Dining out isn't always a waste, of course, but most of the time it can be avoided and replaced with a better (financially, heathfully, socially) alternative, and, face it, I don't know of anyone who never ends up dropping cash on restaurant food sometimes as the pure result of poor (no!) planning. The idea now is to spend only what is necessary to keep us healthy and happy, not out of miserliness, but out of a true love for the life we want to live. Every dollar rescued from needless spending is another dollar to pad our safety net in a few years, or an investment that will give returns indefinitely. It's less the Dave Ramsey mindset, and more the Mustachian mindset. Take the money you earn, and use it to set yourself free.

I think that basically covers The Plan for our upcoming months. I haven't included things like spending time together, learning/teaching, or anything like that, because those types of things have been the heart of our home since the beginning, and will be until the end, so they are not unique to The (Current) Plan. I am personally hugely anxious about our current relocation, but it's in God's hands, so we will see what comes of it in the end.

Returning

We have had many upheavals (good and bad... mostly good, though!) in our little family since last I posted, and without a functioning camera to make any photo posts, as you can see there have been no entries here. I am hoping to change that as we move into a new phase of our lives, though, so do drop in again when you can!

Right now I'm in the midst of reading a book called Surviving Off Off-Grid: Decolonizing the Industrial Mind. Perhaps I should hold off making any pronouncements about its value until I have completed it, but for now I will say I am finding myself somewhat disappointed. It has great reviews on Amazon, and -- more importantly -- it has been promoted by some bloggers I like very much. I was very excited about finally getting my hands on a copy and plowing through it. Yet, so far, I can't say I would recommend it. The author, Mr Bunker, is quick to make sweeping pronouncements about what all Christians must do, and more than merely conflicting in many places with Eastern Orthodox theology (of which I am sure he would be proud, actually), much of what he writes would have a great percentage of Christians throughout Christian history condemned. I hesitate about these things. Yes, there is value in the agrarian life, a life in which we can serve no lord -- no boss, no banker, no salesman -- but only God. I believe this deeply. I find myself nodding along with many of his arguments. But to make that extra step and insist that the agrarian life is somehow required of all those who follow Christ... that's a step I cannot take. I wonder what he would say about St Maria Skobtsova who lived in Paris -- and poured herself out for others. (There is no doubt what he thinks about St Constantine!)

Oh, well. I will be finishing this book soon and will save my thoughts for a more thorough review. Since my last review I've also read Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth (a light and easy read that might be good for someone who has never before considered spending less money or building community, but nothing beyond that, I'm afraid), Girl at the End of the World by Elizabeth Esther (interesting but poorly paced... empty and rushed at the end), and When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible by Timothy Michael Law (which I would highly recommend to all). I may or may not write a more thorough review of them, also.

In any case, until then, enjoy these last burning days of summer (and be blessed as we approach and enter the Dormition Fast if you are Orthodox!).