Computer Crashed

My home computer died so, my blog is still active, I am still working on building my readership and improving my writing.

But it may be a few days before I am up and running again

Technology and Children

I have a confession to make I am not a huge gadget guy, I do not yet have an ipod or a phone that has access to the Internet, I still have an old fashioned TV that is not paper thin, and yes I am the only 30 something year old that I know of that does not have a video game system.

I used to play games but I sold my last system, which was a Play Station years ago, and I do want a phone that has Internet access, I will get them at some point.

But what is bothering me is that I see kids all the time with their face buried in some kind of screen. The other day at work a kid not much older then my oldest (2.5 years) was sitting in the cart watching an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine on an IPOD.

It is not just that, I know kids and adults who are so hooked on video games that their marriages are in trouble and they are avoiding some of the real issues in their life, like paying off bills, marriage issues and their children, to go escape into some generally violent fantasy world.

My kids have never seen a video game, I am little proud of that, my kids may watch a little too much Disney channel or PBS kids once in awhile, but generally they playing something else as well.

I don't know maybe it is me, it is possible I am looking forward to getting out in my garden next year and making a little bigger and growing my own food. I will have my kids out there with me, helping, in their own unique way, but I hope to teach them something about sustainability self reliance.

I want enjoy christmas this year

I work retail, this time of year can get a little crazy. Many times I end up hating Christmas, and think it is all about buying stuff for people who don't need anything, and getting very angry because we are out of it.

This year I am really trying to focus on the real meaning of Christmas. Not only Jesus's birth but I want to feel the joy and happiness that it is supposed to bring.

So far I have been doing pretty good, we have plans to go some festivals. And do stuff that takes the retail out of it.

There is along way to go, but I am doing better

Solar Christmas Lights

My wife has been on my case about not putting up Christmas lights, I am not really into decorating all that much, I like to look at other people's lights, but I do not have much interest.

Well my last objection was that I did not want to use any more energy then we already were and lights were not a necessity.

AT work I found solar powered lights. Actually my wife found them and quickly brought them to my attention. Now I have lights, they were 20 dollars a box though and the strands are shorter than your average lights, but some battles are not worth fighting forever.

So one evening this week I will be putting up lights, and even though my goal is to be off the grid, at least these lights won't put me more on the grid.

Wanting to be a minimalist

The thought about being a minimalist is very exciting to me, I want to have very little enough to fit into a backpack sounds intriguing, or at least the stuff I need can fit in a bag.

After checking out the blog www.becomingminimalist.com the idea is even more appealing.

Of course my wife is not there yet, and she may never be, and I am coming to terms with that.
I love my wife and want to stay married, so the wise man always chooses his battles, in this case the battles have be very strategic.

As of right now I have a house and garage full of stuff and we have got rid of at least a pick up load of stuff this year.

I did not realize how much stuff we had until I started going through it.

Satisfied Mind

It sure is easy to find things to complain about:jobs, family members, co workers, the weather, not having the latest thing, what ever it is at the moment.

I have been trying hard to look at all the good things in my life, I have a decent job where I am will liked and in no danger of getting fired or laid off, unless things really bottom out, I have a healthy children and good wife.

A few good friends that would be anywhere I needed them to be.

I am saved by the blood of Jesus Christ so I can live freely, or at least try, and be tied to my some what troubled past.

All in all life is good

Decluttering

Well this is the first thing I really need to focus on. Out house is out of control with junk. I doubt if most it could even fetch a decent price on ebay or a garage sale.

I have to clean up the office area so i can move stuff from the basement to the office, that will take care of the basement and the office, then our bedroom, I don't know where to start.

My wife collects knick knack and has some obesession with pictures and picture frames.

We have boxes of frames with no, pictures it is insane. but I cannot get her to throw anything out.

and clothes, oh my the clothes, we could start our on uses clothes store.

this is all very frustrating.

Do I want to live simply or not

Maybe it is just self doubt taking over and me fear of change but I have been questioning my reasons for living simply and this blog, The blog because I get very few visits, mainly because I am not marketing it in anyway.

Am I living simply because I want to because it fits into my ideals and beliefs or because my career has not gone exactly where I wanted it to go and my income level has stalled for most likely the next few years while my company continues to restructure, that is what they call downsizing.

I do think about how my actions affect the environment and why do I still have so much more than other people not only in the world but even here in the states. is it fair or have worked harder or had better opportunities.

A lot going through my mind these days.

Conscious Living

As I read more about this simple living stuff, I keep reading about conscious living. I really did not understand it.

I was reading Voluntary Simplicity the other day and I think the light finally dawned on me.

I was dealing with child issues the other evening, both were crying for completely unknown reasons, my wife was freaking out for very known reasons, I was stressing as well.

Finally I just allowed myself to take step back realize what I was doing, I was spending time with my kids and trying to comfort them. Maybe I was not succeeding, but the kids knew we were there, and I was helping my wife, I was living.

And one of the problems I have been having is feeling like I am not living and that life is passing me by.

I need to crank it up a notch

I took step away from my blog here while it is in it infancy and decided it is really boring. I have not wrote about my interest in solar cooking and plans on building one in the near future.

Or the other things I am working on so, I need to get more aggressive with my simple living, I hope that makes sense.

Learning to live the simple life is a process

I finally got to read some in the book "Voluntary Simplicity" over the last couple of days, and it has already helped me in this journey.

It is a process, I was raised middle class if not upper middle class, by parents that had excellent credit and knew how to use it.

We had just about everything we wanted and definitely everything we needed.

Now here I am in a process of becoming a minimalist, i don't want stuff I want to grow my own food, connect with people at deeper levels, all the stuff I feel like I need to do.

But it is not easy, I have lived in a very consumer driven country and I work in retail which obviously needs me to want people to spend money.

This is going to take time and it is frustrating I find myself wanting the latest gadget and honestly I could afford at least some of them. I choose not to do it, it is not worth it spending more money on something I think will make me happy.

but then my friends are still buying stuff, the ones who still have jobs, and trying to get more stuff.

This is not an easy road and I have barely started down it.

Toys, toys and more toys

My wife and I decided that we were not going to buy our kids toys this Christmas. They have bunches plus two sets of grandparents that have a house full for them as well.

we have not done two bad and we have counted the tickets to the imagination movers tickets that cost 40 a piece most of Christmas.

But now the grandparents have started buying, against my pleas for not buying them anything.

I have wanted the grandparents to give us money to put towards their college savings, for the most part that has fell on deaf ears.

I am concerned about my kids becoming spoiled, most of the time we can't get out of a store with out buying our 2 year old something, which is something I am have been trying to put a stop to.

Composting is going to ruin my marriage

Okay I am exaggerating a little bit but my wife is not as into composing as I am.

Gardening has become a pretty obsessive hobby for me since I have started down this path of simple living.

My wife made fun of me when I my bin came UPS

One of the things I quickly hung onto was the benefits of composting. I can throw our food scraps in our bin, I can throw our yard wasted in it and it turns into dirt, face it that is basically what compost is.

The other day I threw a bunch of leaves in to the bin, I checked a couple days latter and after a little turning, It get hot again and smoke was coming out it.

I was very happy about my compost getting hot again I had run out of things to put in it lately and my pile was getting small and cold. Which means it was not composting near as fast. when I ran in the house and told my wife my compost was hot again she did not even respond.

That is okay next time she wants a 60 dollar hair cut that makes her hair look the same way it did before she cut I won't answer her.

Now I have plenty of leaves so I should be good until it get real cold.

Trick or Treating

Today my son goes on his first of 3 trick or treating events. one this week in our neighborhood and then 2 next week at each grandparents house. I don't know if this is a good lesson for my son.

It does however keep the grandparents happy.

Tiny houses

One of the other extremes I like to read about is living in tiny houses, some times you are still plugged into the power grid, check out my previous post.

But the energy to takes to make these homes work is much smaller than the average american home.

check out http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/

It is a good entry point to tiny house designs

Getting off the grid

When I think about simple living, my thoughts generally go to the most extreme examples and I dream of being unplugged from the power grid and gas lines.

At this point I am about as plugged in as one could get. Out power goes out longer than an evening and I am screwed.

I have looked at solar energy systems to run a house entirely it would cost between 20,000 and 30,000 dollars. I suppose you can say that they would pay for themselves in time but I would have to go in debt for it and make another payment, not our plan right now.

I am intrigued by all the advertisements for the ebooks that say they can show you how to build solar panels for 200 dollars with stuff you buy at Home Depot but I have a tough time trying to believe that it works.

I would love to drop off the grid and burn wood for heat and light my one room house with a candle but, again I have a wife and two kids and I don't it is going to happen.

I would like to start putting solar panels on my house and at least start minimizing my energy usage. Maybe in a couple years as our debt gets under control.

How does one get anything done, watching 2 boys

It is my day off work and I am home watching the my sons, one is a little over 2 the other is 4 and half months.

Now I love spending time with my kids, nothing is more gratifying, but the house is a mess, dishes need washed, grass needs mowed stuff needs sold, thrown out, put on ebay or craigs list the list goes on, and I do have a list and it does go on and on.

they never nap at the same time, and if by some mishap and they overlap I try to eat something. My wife is still working, read more about that in some earlier posts, so it is just me and two boys.

Nothing simple about watching 2 boys all day.

I spend my time wrestling, making oatmeal, changing diapers, filling juice cups, making chocolate milk, teaching my oldest how to share, and changing diapers while I try to keep the potty training going with the oldest, which by the way is not going well.

one is napping right now and the other is eating his oatmeal and watching Jungle Junction on Play house Disney.

I am going to try to read some more of the book voluntary simplicity today., wish me luck.

There is nothing green about raising babies

One of the many reasons I have decided to go down his path called voluntary simplicity, besides to drive my wife crazy is my concern about the environment.

It is tough to change frankly sometimes it is easier to fill up our landfills.

I referring to diapers. We use disposable we honestly gave cloth diapers a good go with the first kid, but some where in the chaos of being new parents we gave up after we bought our first box and marveled at how easy it was to rip them off, throw them out and put a new one.

The only bad thing we both feel guilty about doing it, so I am really hoping our oldest who is just a little over two gets potty trained soon.

Overwhelmed with simplicity

Is that an oxymoron, I don't know I am not an english teacher, but it does not make sense that is for sure.

How can living simple be overwhelming.

first of all, i am not living simple yet I am still figuring out how.

Paying off bills, cleaning out stuff, and often dragging my feet on some of it.


ahh

Time to start some planning

I need to formulate some kind of plan to get my house back under some kind of control. We still have stuff packed up from when we moved in after getting married 3 years ago.

Most of it need thrown out, sold or given away but some of course will be kept. Mainly because my wife wants to keep more stuff then I do, other wise there would be very little left in this house.

I also need to do a little work on this blog it is a little boring. Is it bad sign when I get bored looking at my own blog.

A little bit self sufficiency

Self sufficiency is one of the terms that always comes up when simple living topics are discussed.

Today I did some work on our 2008 Chevy Cobalt, nothing major I just changed the oil and rotated the tires it cost me 20 bucks for the oil and filter thanks to a deal at Autozone and a couple hours of my time.

Many people tell my including my wife, family and many of my friends, that I can go to a quick place and get it done faster for that price or cheaper.

That may be true but I feel that there are several reasons why a person should do things like that themselves.

First, you know what is coming out of your car and what is going in and that it is in correctly I have heard one too many horror stories. Plus you always end up telling them you only want a basic oil change none of the extra crap they try to sell you.

Second, you can look at other parts as you do it, to see if there are any other repairs that may be looming. The sooner you catch many things the cheaper they are to fix.

third, I think it builds a little confidence that you can fix something with your hands and do most likely, a better job than some one else. After all it is your car no one cares about it like you.

Should be credit card debt free by Thanksgiving

We owe 1300 more on our last credit card. At our current rate of pay it should be paid off by late November at the latest.

Then after that I am not sure whether to tackle our car loan or a smaller home improvement loan we took out to put in energy efficient windows a couple of years ago.

I am really leaning towards the car loan it is a bigger monthly payment and it would be nice to have a 2008 car paid off in the summer of 2010.

Our goal is to live off my income and use my wife's income which is around 1000 dollars a month after taxes and insurance to pay off bills.

It is a little stressful because it can tight between my paychecks because we are not even putting her money in the checking account it goes straight into a savings account.

But 1000 dollars a month to pay on debt is sure going to help get out of it that much quicker.

I don't have enough money to buy cheap stuff

I heard someone say that the other day and I really started thinking about it and it is true.

I tend to be a little, thrifty or as my wife says cheap and yes I am. I buy store brands over national brands for most things and these days when I need something I try to find on ebay slightly used.

But from time to time it is cheaper to breakdown and buy a quality item. When I was younger one school year I went through 4 book bags.

My parents were also sometimes a little cheap and did not think a middle school kid needed a L.L.Bean backpack. They bought four 15 dollar book bags that year, 60 bucks

After that year my mom broke down and bought me a L.L.Bean and it lasted me for 6 years, through high school and my first year or so of college and it only cost 35 dollars. That was obviously a better choice.

Now my wife has to remind from time to time to break down and save an extra week to buy the higher quality item to save us money in the long run.

Simple living has made life complicated: Part 2

Where does one start living simple.

How do I begin, since it is basically a life style change sometimes it is tough to know where to begin and at least for me a little overwhelming.

We have so much stuff some of it I can sell, some it I can give away, some of it needs thrown out.

But getting rid of clutter is just one aspect how about getting finances in order and paying off debt.

Then my thought processes are changing, When I do need to purchase something I find myself asking do we need this, can we afford, can wait and save extra for it can we do it ourselves with just a little help from our dad's.

There is a lot more to this then it appears, but I can see things getting easier down the road as long as we pursue this living simply idea for a couple more years.

Simple Living sure has made life complicated.

Maybe I should say the path to living simple has alot of complications, at least it does for me.

So many stories you read about people who have turned their backs on main stream living have no kids or a spouse or a spouse who is also set on creating a simple life. I have a wife and two kids and my wife is still unsure of all this simple living stuff.

I am throwing out and giving way most of stuff, she at least has slowed down buying. I think she can see the benefits of living simply but she is still dragging her feet a bit. I don't want to push her because if she feels forced she won't do anything to help.

So I am left with forging ahead and trying to show her the benefits of it, while not turning her off to it by pushing her into it.

I think I am going to make this a two part post

What does simplcity mean to me?

I am still working on this, it is a work in progress. And sometimes the progress is slow.

I am looking for less stress, more time with family and friends, raising not as spoiled children, kids should be spoiled a little, at least I think.

I want more times to explore other interests that I have these days, like writing, which this blog is part of. I want to raise a decent portion of my own food so I don't have to buy it and I know what is in it.

I want less stuff, less stuff to break, clean, fix, move around, it is stressful to me. This one alone is causing me loads of problems with my family. They like stuff including my wife, and my kids have more stuff than entire third world countries.

I am not sure what simplicity means to me sometimes and maybe that is part of the journey.

Well what ever it is I am on my way, like it or not, because I definitely need to make some changes.

Why am I blogging

I knew the first couple weeks of my blog would just be me gathering my thoughts and working out a few details so, I wanted to explore just why the heck have I started blogging anyway.

First I need to plan to live more simply, it is a little more complicated than I thought, throw in a wife and two kids and things get complicated quickly. My wife likes what I am thinking about but is still unsure, so I am trying to not to rush her but I still need her to hurry up.

Second, I think I have learned a lot about simpler living, or at least the opposite of that so I may be able to help some people along the way.

As I have read books about simple living, many times it seems like the people who are doing this have been great successes and have made a fair amount of money and can afford to live simply. What about the middle class people who are tired of living like they are not middle class, have woke up and realized they cannot afford it and they need to save and pay off debt. the more I talk people the more I find are in that boat and sometimes you just need a little nudge in the right direction.

Third, yes I would like to make a little money from this blog and put it all towards bills so I can get out debt that much faster. I have toyed with Internet marketing and business for almost 10 years and have learned a lot but not much success so i hope to combine all my knowledge and make it useful with this blog. This is the third piece of my plan to get out of debt and get my wife to be a stay at home that much faster. We have cut expenses I have had a couple of decent promotions and now I need to a little passive income to help out.

well that is all for now, time to start commenting on blogs

How did I get into this simple living thing: Part 2

I am not sure how many parts this article series is going to have. Part of the reason of starting this blog was to help myself make sense out of my thoughts which has become an overwhelming process.

I have started this journey to simple living because many reasons.

These are in no particular order.

Our addiction to oil, we drive two small cars a neon and a cobalt. My wife and I have toyed with the idea of biking, My biggest concern besides being the only bike on a road filled with cars is the fact I am a manager if I bike to work i would be very sweaty with no chance to shower, I am not sure how that would work, I still need my job.

Out out of control waste, we have started a compost pile in a bin by our garden. So now I am very excited about making dirt my wife thinks I have lost my mind. She told her mother, now she has another reason to not like me, and she is keeping a pretty detailed list. We are in the process of working out a system to recycle, one of the few things me wife and I agree on.

Too much T.V. couple with lack of person to person communication, I got a birthday card from a friend via facebook, I was really bothered by that, I think the digital age is out of hand.

My wife working and us having to have our two boys watched 3 or 4 days a week. The good thing both sets of grandparents are willing to watch them so we do not have to worry about money or who is watching them. We do have to worry about them getting too many jelly beans, at least they are Jelly Belly brand.

well that is all I can think of right now I know I will think of more and that will be tommorow, I think.

How did I get into this simple living thing: Part 1

I keep asking myself that, I sure was not raised that way, the first 29 0r 30 years of my life were lived in pursuit of a high paying job and accumulating lots of things. The down side to several years of my life were the fact I never found the high paying job that I wanted, I am doing okay but far where I thought I wanted to be.

In fact I spent several years very depressed because my life was not where I thought that it should be.

A couple of years ago I just started feeling tired of trying so hard, I was not becoming lazy I just did not care about the stuff I had and began to stop buying, start saving more and realized I did not need 90 percent of the things that I had. I also started seriously thinking about the amount of debt that I was in.

I did not think that I was normal so I did not tell too many people how tired and I how I felt I was not living just existing.

Then a couple of years ago I saw two documentaries, one was "Affluenza" the other was " Radical Simplicity" both were eye opening. I realized not only was I not alone but many people felt the way I did and it was a whole movement.

I had always to be part of a movement.

Since I have read "Your money or your life" and "Starting Simple" and I just purchased "Voluntary Simplicity" off of www.ebay.com.

It has been a little slow going at time, especially since I am married with two kids and my wife is not as into this as I am yet, but she is getting there.

First Post, or what this blog is about

There is no easy answer to what this blog is about, or more honestly what it is going to be about. In short is about learning to live a more simple life.

It can't be just about money, over the years I have let my life get out of control. I am pretty deep in debt, I have two kids and my wife has to work, although we have a plan to get her home in a couple of years.

It is about my health the fact I need to exercise more but a new set of DVDs off the television is not going to help. I need simple, I need what works.

I want to get to know people again and shut off the damn television and talk to people and really get to know them.

I want to get back in touch with my heavenly father Jesus Christ and really start trying to live for him again, this should be at the top of my list, because I feel as my walk with the lord gets stronger so much more will fall into place.

I have too much crap and I am in the process of getting rid of a lot.

Going simple is a little complicated and overwhelming at times. I am starting this blog to keep me on track and get to know others who are trying to do the same thing.

More tommorow as I just keep introducing myself and keep exploring what I am going to write about.