Living the Slow Life:)

Hello everyone! I know it’s been a few days since I’ve posted…there is a reason…a good one I assure you. So many thoughts and feelings I wish to convey but with few words to describe…not something you want to hear from a writer huh? Enough jibberish…my husband and I have been discussing so much about our life and future recently…not surprising since we are to be a family divided in a very short time! Without boring you with all our minute but meaningful conversations, we have chosen to live the SLOW LIFE! Just a concept we recently happened upon in our search to become better stewards of the blessings God has graciously given us!
The slow life is just this…we agree to only recycle, refashion, and reuse what we already have! We will not be buying ANYTHING brand-new this year, with the exception of food, which if I can barter sewing or piano lessons for produce and fruit I will( I live in farm country):) If I NEED something I will go thrifting or yard sailing or barter services. The slow life will result in a multitude of satisfying and rewarding results.
1. We will live debt free.
2. We will be healthier for having provided our own food(making it instead of buying premade, or using our farmers, I’m sure they’d appreciate the support)
3. Our lives will be freer and less complex, allowing us to become more mindful of our fleshly desires and emotions, thereby giving us self-control to govern our priorities and whether our wants are wants, or whether they be needs.
4. By relying on our own creativity, resourcefulness, and God-given wisdom, money will lose its value and appeal, no longer being the central means to meeting our wants or needs.
BTW, this is nothing new, our ancestors only knew the slow, non-consumerism lifestyle. TV , advertisements in the mail, in the store windows, and even on the back of cars have driven us to become mad, frenzy consumer fanatics! The room we just decorated suddenly lost all glamour after flipping through the JCP Furniture catalog, the new truck in the driveway is suddenly not good enough, because they’ve upgraded the model and it’s on the car lot now! We go from one want to another, without being MINDFUL of how unthankful or foolish we must look like to God. ..or how much money we just spent….on WASTE! Yes…number five would be “no longer is wasteful”! Have you ever gone to the mall or wherever you shop and thought to yourself, “Where does all this stuff come from and where does it all go?” I have. My feelings…waste=unthankfulness. Why go out and buy new clothes when you can refashion or recycle what you already have? I know I’m thinking waaaayyyy outside the box and by now you’ve switched blogs, or figured me for a weirdo, but seriously for myself, I think we waste too much and forget to appreciate what we do have. I think about how much I’ve spent on clothes or things just because THE WORLD said this was not IN or the color yellow is outdated! Um..since when did the world decide how I should live, dress, or decorate my house! And because we’ve listened to the world, our economy has spiraled out of control beyond repair. We’re paying the consequences for our envy, lust, selfishness, and wastefulness.
I know that my family and I are embarking on a life style that is contrary to the typical American dream! But…when you are a child of God…not.the.world….you are living contrary anyway. Our thoughts, ways, and actions are no longer governed by the worlds. The world pushes us to be greedy, to be envious, and to lust, which only breeds discontentment, anxiety, and eventually financial destruction. Our world around us says money + possessions=character and wisdom. God says, “What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and loses his own soul.”
I’m still in the early days of our slow life…but I’m already enjoying the satisfaction of being content and appreciating the simple life. I am taking baby steps to the simple life we want to lead. We feel our money would be more enjoyed experiencing new places and time together and supporting missions than putting it into trivial things that will again replace itself sooner or later. Money has no value when it comes to spending time with my husband and children…our time together is priceless.
Here’s some ways I have learned to be resourceful:

Making my own bread, sauces, condiments, yogurt, and cakes, snacks, ect from scratch. Because it is wayyy less expensive, and buying from my local farmer.

Sewing my own curtains, clothes(how much I can) dish towels, pillows, to include refashioning some clothes, hence recycling.

Making my own laundry soap, hair soap, and toothpaste. Much cheaper to make than to buy and definitely healthier! :)

Researching and using natural remedies and preventives to keep my family healthy and virus-free
We recently started sewing our own grocery bags so not to waste plastic! Because we love wild animals and so much of it gets dumped in our ocean…toxifying our fish and water we drink…but I’ll leave that for another post! Haha….hush Cassie;)
My goal is simply to learn to be content, to find fullness in life by relying on my own resourcefulness and God’s wisdom in providing for my family. To waste not-want not. To teach my children to be good stewards, hard-workers, creative, resourceful, and most of all THANKFUL!

PS. No offence intended, just sharing my thoughts in life and some goals to pursue. I hope, however I did provide food for thought. If you would like recipes or how-to’s to the list of things I make above, please comment or email and I would love to share them with you:)

~Have a blessed weekend~