Life lately... Inspired!

My life is one that a lot of people wouldn't understand I'm sure. Having traded a husband that has a corporate lifestyle and trades money for time - instead, we chose something different. I think its hard for people to understand why we would want something other than money. I'm certain some close people to us look down on us. We do odd jobs right now as we find our path. We are not choosing 'stuff' - we're choosing time together. In fact, on current 'odd job' path - we worked along side each other last week. Our children with us. Our family worked together for something we want! It was fantastic!

I realized all the money in the world couldn't replace the giggles we share over breakfast, or the lunch in the back yard on a blanket together on a Tuesday afternoon. Sure... money could by me the things I need to 'substitute' the loneliness of my husband being gone. Money is absolutely NEEDED, yes. I get that. But how much? I can tell you, I need less than most. I'm not trying to fill holes emotionally with stuff.

Lately I have been studying a lot of homesteading, homemaking, alternative to mainstream lifestyles. It's absolutely LIBERATING! I'm going to write some of my favorite things down... they are really important to me.

"Perhaps saddest of all is that Americans seem to have surrendered their entrepreneurial spirit to the god of employment. Success, in our country, is now defined by money earned, by promotions, by continued servitude to an employer. Our gauge of success and personal worth has become so reliant on external validation that women and men now find it difficult to believe that a life centered around the home can satisfy their needs for personal fulfillment and genuine achievement."

"It is time we come to think of our homes as living systems. Like a sour-dough starter, the home's survival requires constant attention. A true home is inhabited by souls who live, breathe, eat, think, create, play, get sick, and get dirty. It will either in an antiseptic condition....."

"...As long as it genuinely honors the four tenets of family, community, planet and social justice. Too many Americans, however, are finding themselves working as wage slaves in employment that fails to honor this quartet. We must realize that we can be empowered and find opportunity when we live opposite to the corporate-centered world."

"Once we have sacrificed our time to the extractive economy, there is even more money to be made, because we must use our hard-earned cash in order to purchase substitutes for the time we've traded. We buy take-out and fast food when we hon't have the time to cook dinner. We buy prescription drugs when we no longer have the time to take care of our healthy and get ample rest. We buy luxury goods for our loved ones as a substitute for spending time together."

"In the long run, we wind up cash-poor and time-destitute, while corporate America accumulates our wealth"

Now I need to stop for a moment..... Most people know me as a radical liberal and a radical conservative. Theres no middle ground usually with me. I'm really really liberal on some issues. And I'm dead stuck conservative on other issues. Its critically important that people understand that I believe in Capitalism completely. I hate the implications of what its loss means to my family.... but with that being said, I do not believe that MY dollar needs to contribute to this bullshit anymore. Companies are running around like fucking chickens with their heads cut off with agendas of dependence and domination. Its creepy!

So instead, I'm going to vote for Capitalism and rarely contribute to it. I'm hoping to take myself 'back to the basics' in a lot of ways. I want to learn to really live and build a home with my husband. We strength each other to spend our dollar wisely and with purpose.

We already have chosen a homeschooling route because we believe in better for our children, why wouldn't we chose better for our marriage and home as well?

Home many times did my husband come home 'late' because 'a big project was due'. Well, guess what, a bigger project was needing tending at home? How many 'firsts' did my husband miss with our oldest child? It got so bad we considered needing therapy to deal with the loss of connection and truly having enough time to not learn to co-inhabit, but to really really live together.

I have no idea what this life is going to look like, or what paths we'll take... but I know this morning I woke up along side my husband and felt inspired to tears! There is a dishwasher running, a dryer full of clothes waiting on me and fresh baked bread in my kitchen.

.... and today, I'll share lunch with my husband in our backyard with our children around us as we plan our tomorrows and really really live together.

I am so humbled and blessed.