Hello Lovelies,

I’ve been so busy lately!  We’ve started the new year with a bang!  Every year I do an overhaul on our planning.  I plan a budget, organize and file paperwork, organize closets, purge, and clean out my home management binder.  I find what didn’t work and I strive to change it.  I’ve found by being organized, I don’t miss a beat!  Our annual budget is now done, annual decluttering and purging is done, pantry and freezer inventory is done, and we’ve created a 3rd method of income.  Not only do we both work full time, but now we’ve started making handmade natural soaps and products.  Soap is a blast to make and keeps me very busy.  Every good homesteader has more than one resource for income.  If I ever lose my job, I have others to fall back on.  With our goal of “a country homestead” just four years away, every bit of planning and preparation along the way will only make our lives easier.  We may live in the suburbs, but how we run our home and hobbies you might think we live on acreage!

Besides all of that, I am planning our seed order to plant in the Spring.  I’m praying that I can get something to grow and stay alive this year.  We do well with tomatoes but our soil and the Texas heat are terrible even with mulch and diatomaceous earth (DE) added.  I’m going to try container gardening and start a little later towards March for planting.  We started in February of last year and had two frosts after that, killing everything I worked so hard to plant.  We hardly got anything.  It pains me to waste that much money, time, and effort.  I’m sticking with just three plants this year instead of planting more than that.  I figure if I can perfect three, imagine what I can do with five? ten? or more?

With all of the planning I’ve done as far as our finances, our garden, our business, I’m anticipating 2017 to be an amazing year!  How do you plan your year?  Some people do not have to plan and some like me, DO!  I’d go crazy otherwise.

That is all for now!  🙂