I’m all about realizations this year….
So I realized that I am (what I have coined) “a happiness procrastinator”! I have files of magazine pull outs, with ads for what I will do in my ‘next’ house. Pictures of home gardens, solar panels, ways to organize your closet, green up your space etc. I have recipes of things I will make when I have this amazing garden. The next house will have a playground. The next house will have a barn. The next house will not have a pool. The next house will be so great…. I will be happier, life will be easier, I will be more fulfilled, life will run perfectly. I picture my family living off the land in this ‘someday’ house. We will have farm animals and the kids will frolic in the meadows:)
Come on now- We all do it! “When I finish school my life will start” “If I could only find Mr/Mrs Right I would be happy” “If I get married my life will feel stable” “when I have kids my life will be complete” “when my kids go off to college my life will start”. We become so lost in the fantasy of what this future will feel like, that we don’t find the happiness in the present. And you know that as soon as you accomplish that ‘one thing’, your brain will jump to the next slightly out of grasp goal!!
I started to hear that a lot of my conversations were about this lifestyle I will have in the “next” house. Well, there is no next house in the near future and I got to wondering. Could I be this ‘next house farm girl’ in my present house? Ok, so I have never lived anywhere but the city/suburbs of LA and Detroit. I have never spent any real time living anything remotely close to a farm life. But doesn’t it sound ideal once your a mom? I want to give my kiddles the best chances possible. That includes their health. But I’m such a hypocrite! I feed them healthy organic food, then I pull through a McDonald’s drive-thru once I have dropped them off at school! No joke!
But I really long for a life change. I’m sick of this awesomeness that hovers just over the horizon. I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate all these ‘next house’ ideals into my life now. One thing at a time.
I started a garden off one of my balcony’s a month ago. Not really much work on my part. There were already a bunch of dead planters just sitting out there that i dumped. Bought some organic soil and threw some tomato seeds in each. Pink, yellow, orange, green, purple and red tomatoes. I didn’t know until after, that you need to treat these seeds delicately and plant them inside until they have become seedlings. But you know what….it didn’t matter. I watered them every day and could now feed an army with my tomatoes. They are amazing!! I don’t even know what I will do with them. I don’t even like tomatoes!!! My twins eat them like apples but there are too many!! Anyone got amazing sauce recipes? Know how to jar/can and want to explain it to me? haha. Guess I planted them thinking nothin would really come of it…. I have started my farm life. A few planters but it’s a start. What will I grow from here?!
Which brings me to my first BIG project:
CHICKENS
Did you know that in LA you can have an unlimited amount of chickens on a residential property? They just need to be 20 feet from your house and 35 feet from someone else’s. I never knew that! haha. For sure if I can raise chickens ANYBODY can do it!! What am I getting myself into? I have not even the slightest clue! Is it worth it? Do you save money? Are the eggs really that different tasting fresh?
I’m looking for plans to build me a chicken coop!!! Really folks, if I actually accomplish this and it’s worth it….EVERYONE can do it.
I guess the worse that can happen is, they are too messy, too much of a hassle and too stinky. In which case I will eat them! Win/Win!
Any pointers before this idiot finally attempts her ‘farmgirl’ life?!
