7/17/2013

Unintentional Tiny House Living

Last year I'd come fairly close to living my dream.  We were renting a big, 200 year-old farmhouse in the country on a few acres with a gorgeous view, a huge garden, and some very large, well-established grape vines.  It wasn't perfect, but it had possibilities.  It was peaceful.



Then some necessary but painful things happened and everything changed.  We moved a few hundred miles into the tiny house we are renting now.  Our home here is very small.  It's not terribly cramped, but the quarters are tight.  We've had to make some sacrifices and pare down quite a bit.  None of these things are negatives, though.  "Stuff" is not what makes us who we are.  Living more simply is a good thing, and will prepare us for bigger and better things later.

The bills are cheap, which means I'll be out of debt much sooner; quite likely by next spring.  There isn't room (or decent soil) for a garden here, so mine is limited to containers.  For now, I have started some herbs in my kitchen and make due with what we have in exchange for the joy of the dreams that will come true in the future.



7/06/2013

Fun Saturday at the Home Depot and Local Farmers Market

We had such a great Saturday morning!

Our first stop was the monthly Home Depot kids' craft.  This is a free event for kids, which Home Depot hosts on the first Saturday of every month.  It's a great family outing for those of us with limited funds.  You can register online, or just show up.  It's really for kids age 5 to 12, but that's more of a guideline.  There were even toddlers working on the projects with their parents.

When you get there, you're given a kit for each child which includes everything you'll need for your craft.  There are tables set up with tools, sandpaper, and safety goggles.  The children build their project from the kit, using the included instructions.  My kids are pretty crafty, so they had a great time with this.

I'd forgotten my chicory coffee in my rush out the door this morning and had to settle for  the fast food kind.  Not nearly as good.

Each child is also given an apron they can keep, in case things get messy.  It was very warm and a little muggy today, so my kids opted to wait for their aprons until they were ready for the painting station. 

Meticulously detailing their cars.

This month's project was courtesy of the movie Despicable Me 2!  It's a cute little wooden replica of Lucy's car:

Isn't it adorable?  I just love the Minions.

For every project they do, each child also receives a certificate of completion and a special collectible pin pertaining to the project:


The Home Depot Kids' Craft Day lasts from 8 am until noon, but they were already set up around 8:30.  It's not rigidly structured, so you can just leave whenever you finish your project.  We finished up around 9:30 and were off to our first ever visit to our local Farmers' Market.  

While the kids snacked on fresh strawberries and blueberries, I scored some rosemary, basil, and sage plants to start a little kitchen garden.  Please excuse the mess, I was having far too much fun playing in the dirt.


Those are red onions in the jars.  As soon as the roots are long enough, they'll get planted to keep us in fresh green onions for a long time.  I also picked up some chocolate mint and apple mint plants.  The kitchen smells amazing!


Our other wonderful finds included this gorgeous bunch of fresh radishes, as modeled by Gracie,


as well as some incredibly good dill pickles, apple butter, and local honey.  

Soooo good!

Our local farmers' market is over half a mile long.  Several downtown city blocks are cordoned off every Saturday morning from June through November.  It's almost like a mini-festival with food vendors, arts and crafts booths, street musicians, in addition to the farmers' tents.  November through March the city continues the farmers' market inside the local City Center Plaza.  Year-round healthy, fresh goodness!

We'll be spending our Saturday mornings here from now on.  It felt good to walk around the entire market (several times) in the warm sunshine, discovering lots of healthy offerings from our local farms and merchants.  

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