Jessica @ Pioneerish

Several years ago my husband and I went through a series of miscarriages before we were able to start a family. Although I could get pregnant easily, I never seemed to be able to stay pregnant past the first few weeks. During one especially difficult miscarriage, my mother-in-law became severely ill. We ended up having to cancel a special family trip that we’d been saving and planning for. Instead of getting to explore Italy, we worried about whether she would survive while I lost our precious baby. As I explored answers for balancing my hormones, I developed a much greater appreciation for the importance of natural solutions and personal independence from the status quo. That desire to take charge of our own health and freedom is turning my family into suburban homesteaders. We don't have acres and acres of land, but we do what we can on our small lot. We homeschool, practice permaculture gardening, cloth diaper, ferment foods and do most of our cooking from scratch, birth babies naturally, have plans to raise small animals, are working on greater financial independence, and use natural products for EVERYTHING. I'm excited for you to join me on this journey!

Memories of a Loved One

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A Letter to My Grandmother Dear Grammie, We knew this day was coming, someday, yet somehow it felt like you might live forever. You were stubborn and bounced back after each close call, and it seemed like you might actually live to be one hundred like you told us all you were going to. I … Read more

Surviving a Busy Life: Schedules

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English: A typical Deutsche Bahn railway stati...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A major aspect of the recent difficulties I mentioned yesterday was the fact that our schedule has been out of whack ever since we moved in December. It’s always hard to get back into a routine after moving, and that fact compounded with the numerous repairs our house needed/still needs meant things have been extremely seat-of-the pants lately.

And I thrive with a schedule. I like knowing exactly when something needs to happen and how I should be spending my time. Otherwise I will find myself deep in the bushes when I should be washing dishes. (Not that it doesn’t happen with a schedule; it’s just harder to justify wasting time when your minutes are allocated.)

So last night over supper we re-created our evening routine, wrote it down, and stuck it with a magnet to the fridge. We can talk all we want about how we need to do better with our time, but if it’s not on paper in a prominent place, it doesn’t happen.

Something different we did this time was include time approximations with each task. Times may vary, of course, but here’s what our evenings look like with rough time estimates:

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