Lea is registered for school

We haven't gotten much done, I'll have to wait to switch tags/drivers license but Lea is registered and we're just enjoying our time being back. Its so pretty here and I brought my camera to the library but brought the wrong cord. But I will update as soon as I can, I promise. Hope everyones doing well and pretty soon I will start working on the new focus of the blog as soon as we move in and get the cable set up. I probably won't update until next week, I guess, so until then...

We're Here!!!! WE MADE IT!!!

I will have to upload pictures tomorrow at the library. Its so beautiful and our apartment is gorgeous and the view from our patio is just trees. I am envious of everyones gardens which are so big and green. I wasn't able to bring my tomatoes, there was no room, but we brought everything else we needed to bring and we're staying at a very nice hotel with the kitchenette which will save us a ton of money vs. eating out. Its a weekly rate and its well worth it. We probably won't be able to move into our apartment until next week because they still have some work to do on it with putting a new garbage disposal and putting in two doors then it will be inspected and then ready for us. But its very spacious and lots of closet space and very very quiet, we are so excited. Because its not ready yet, we may have to move out of our current hotel on Monday and stay at a cheap hotel for a day or two because the hotel we are in now is weekly rate only, but thats okay, either way we will be fine. We saw the apartment as soon as we got off the highway and then we had some running around to do like turning in a background check to the sheriffs office etc., having the lights turned on in my name etc. so today we had more paper-work to do and I also have to get my plates/drivers license switched over. The license is no problem but the registeration is because I lost it right before our move and when I tried to make a quick stop on Friday to get it the Michigan Secretary of State office was closed. We left Michigan at 2 a.m. yesterday but they were still closed on Monday too, but I've got to get my Tennessee drivers license for sure.

I have a friend and her three kids who will be coming down at the end of July for a visit so hopefully we'll get as much as we can done by then. Next week will be pretty busy. But it feels good, it feels right to be here. I'm gonna miss my friends Jeff and Crystal and hope they'll come visit us, I'll miss my second mom Diane and her kids and grandkids, one that was born yesterday while we were coming here. I will absolutely miss my mother! And it will be hard for Lea to be away from both grandmothers and her dad, but it does feel right that we came back. I am glad we did. Tomorrow I will see about changing the blogs name, and uploading pictures so everyone can see. Hope everyone is doing well, its been forever since we were online. We have to get our apartment first and then get the internet connected so it may be next week or so before we are back on permanetly, but I will update tomorrow.

SEE YOU IN TENNESSEE

This is the last post of A Single Mom's Adventure into Urban Homesteading until we move to Tennessee and when we get hooked up for the internet then the blog will be called A Singe Mom's Adventure into Natural Living. The cable/internet is scheduled for cut-off tomorrow so I'm posting this today.

I wanted to thank everyone that has visited and been apart of my adventure in raising chickens, gardening, and the ups and downs of my weird life. I hope that things will get even better after we move and that eventually we will be healthier/happier and after a time able to raise chickens and have a garden again. Until then we will be homesteading in an apartment. I am bringing my tomato plants etc. and will be container gardening, and will still be canning, still be making foods from scratch as much as possible but will be turning my focus towards eating and living a more natural life which is a full range of possibilities. So see you in Tennessee!!!!

I can hear an echo!!!

I no longer have a stove or deep freezer...my $500 stove sold for only $150 to a friend. I'm just happy its getting more empty around here. I do have the double burner I bought and an electric skillet so I'm good to go. Its starting to set in a little that in a few weeks we will be in another state again in another life. My mom went through all her boxes which surprisingly were filled with knicknacks that will be going into our garage sale. We got another $113 in my mom's change today. We have been racing around like maniac's for sure. Our cable/internet is scheduled to be cut off 6/13/09 so I will sign off on the 12th and place the Vacation Post on here. Just updating a little...I had a salad using our lettuce the other day. I need to put my tomatoes in larger pots. I will have to do that in a few days. They are outside hardening off.

Thats all for right now...

Hoping my Yard Sale Goes Better than My Furniture Sales

I have a nice cherry armoire I bought from a consignment store. It was used in Hotels and I just loved it. I tried selling it on Craigslist and got nothing. I dropped the prices down to just $45 from $150 and still nothing. So now I'm giving it away for free. Maybe its that alot of people have lost and are losing their jobs around here with the Auto Crisis touching nearly everyone here in Michigan that Craigslist is FULL of furniture sales with everyone either trying to get extra money or move that its too competive. I don't know what is going on in my area but its not going too good.

I'm hoping that the upcoming yard sale fairs better but I am trying to sell my stove which is only 1 yrs old and so far not a thing. I am hoping it doesn't come down to free, I am hoping to be able to use the money for our move but it may just come down to free. I am giving Lea's paternal grandmother our fridge, still not sure about the washer/dryer. I still need them but don't know anyone that has the money to buy one or even who needs one.

If I give it to the various charities, they will be able to sell it for programs so that is always a possibility. I've been packing all day today and trying to freecycle what we can't physically handle leaving the rest for the yard sale. I have my t.v. on milk crates right now-lol. Oh well...

Its starting to look really empty around here

I picked up my mom this morning and we took another load to the coinstar. This is load no. 4 or 5, and this one was another $100. I handed my mom $400 to go along with the moving money. We are nearing the $2,000 mark so far and hope to be at nearly $3,000 before we leave. She's saving the moving money for me and adding to it here and there. Then we came home and she started going through her bags/boxes again. She has added quite a few items to our future yard sale with all the knicknacks etc. she had saved in the boxes. While she did that I mowed the lawn and then straightened up my porch, which normally would be filled with veggies but this year will have only the tomatoes, onions and lettuces I have that are growing in the windows and which will be placed onto the porch so they can continue to grow, all in pots, to be placed on our new patio at our apartment in July.

I told Lea it is funny how things work out...you think you're doing one thing and the universe sends you in a completely opposite direction. I was moving to find a bigger speck of land for my chickens and now we're moving back to Tennessee into an apartment for 1 to 2 yrs and then we'll get another house and get back into chickens. I wanted to expand my garden and now I will be container gardening this year. Its weird how no other houses/property in our price range or location came available in Michigan, and how only this one apartment sent me an applicaton, while others were contacted but never sent one. Its like we are being pushed back there. We had one intention but the universe decided otherwise.

The good news is that within the next 2 years my sister and her family will be moving to Memphis, 8 hrs away from us vs. Colorado where she's 2 1/2 days away. I will get to see my sister/niece and nephew this summer. Lea and I are going to pick them up in Memphis where they will be spending a few weeks with their paternal aunt Carol and their cousins they've never met or haven't seen in along time. After getting them, I'll bring them back with me and they'll spend time with us for a few weeks before driving them back to Memphis where my sister will come via train to get them and stay a week before returning to work in Colorado. With my sister being closer eventually, we can drive to her house and spend holidays or vice versa. So, I am happy very happy about that. I am not happy about leaving my mother, friends, and church members but I guess my job here of coming here for my mother when she needed me-(blindness from diabetic caused cataracts), and all of the things that entailed for the past 3 1/2 yrs, is now over.

So, its a little hard for me to look around at the changes...where the chickens once cackled in their coop and run now has weeds that I mowed down, the only sign of them was a plastic egg I used to train them. The new residents will think its a Easter toy or something and may never know that chickens were housed there. My raised garden I built has weeds in it and my side garden has weeds as well. The house is becoming more empty as I try to sell everything I can and pack up the rest...and we're trying to finalize the yard sale details with a mixture of my things, Lea's things and my mothers things...furniture, knicknacks, dishes, clothes, whatever we can get rid of...we will. I think I spent my time well here and I know despite living in an apartment without an animal in sight I will continue to grow and learn. I may learn more about herbs and nutrition...like oatmeal smoothies...sound interesting? No, thats what I thought but I'm gonna start drinking them one of these days-(hehe)-for my health. I'm gonna work on my weight, I'm gonna work on alot of things so that when the time comes to jump back into the urban homesteading lifestyle, I'll do it with complete understanding.

So even though I'm sad to see things change so drastically, I know that change is also growth, so I'll have to welcome it!!!

I was in the car for 14 hrs straight yesterday

With running around paying on the car, taking more coins to the coinstar, this one was $100, with getting a brand new camera the other day and then finding it cheaper at radio shack by $40 plus dollars, so I took it back and got it cheaper, with buying a new cell phone from a carrier I can take with me down south, with Lea and I volunteering at church to pull weeds...though my allergies got to me-(I forgot to take the natural allergy pills), so Lea had to do the most for our part. With selling my bed finally and still trying to sell the rest of our stuff and trying to get ready for a yard sale, and buying a few more items at the natural food store, I am TIRED. I have to wait for the plumber to come today, the toilet is backing up into our tub-(fun times!!!), and then after cleaning up, having my friend change my oil, I am going to sit down and rest today!!! I bought some natural tension release pills I got from the natural food store yesterday and they worked wonderfully. I get tension in my neck and back and it is so rock hard its like bricks but this stuff had me 100% relaxed and the tension in my neck was gone. Its a Theanine Complex pill with Theanine, Gaba, magnesium, Taurine, and Holy Basil Leaf. Where was this stuff when I was taking 1,200 mg's of muscle relaxers a few years ago???

But pretty soon my cable/internet will be cut off because I'm not paying for it any further, instead I'm saving that money for the move so once I know its cut off or once I know when they are going to cut it off, I will go to the library and Post a Vacation notice on here. Have a great and prosperious day everyone. I have some packing to do...

What can I say...

Its one of those days when I have spent the entire day in the car. I dropped Lea off at a birthday party/sleepover last night and so this morning I drove all around trying to find the girls house because mapquest was wrong, of course. I just happened upon the house which was right near Lea's dad's house, literally like around the corner or so, and so then I took Lea to visit her ailing paternal grandmother. We have been so busy and engrossed in our own world lately that we really hadn't talked to her dad or grandmother in a few weeks, so it was nice for her and Lea to see eachother and to let her know that we weren't gonna just take off. She has M.S. and she is having difficulty with her legs. She will soon be in a wheelchair. She has a wheelchair now but only uses it when she needs too so it was shocking to see her looking sick and weak today. This is a woman that is usually up and baking up the storm and making various crafts to sell.

They're fridge is dying so I'll be giving that to them before we leave. I wanted to give it to them now but they won't take it until later. We have our deep freezer and we could do without the fridge trust me or just buy one of those plug-in fridges you use in the car and can plug into the wall but they won't take it yet. Maybe I can convince them to get it. I could even freecycle for a mini fridge or something.

But we've been all around today, to the store, then home, to the bank and now I'm typing this from the library so Lea can print out her school work. I have a printer at home with ink but no paper-lol. So, had to drive back to the library. We're gonna get something to eat out-(healthy)-and probably go get a keyboard since my keyboard died and trying to use the on-screen keyboard takes forever. So, have a great day everyone!!!

Selling stuff and cashing in!

I know I've mentioned before that my mother saves her change as well as dollar bills. We'll this is the second day in a roll that we took her change to the coinstar. My bank wants you to roll it up and my mother refuses to do that and would rather pay the coinstar fee than do that. So yesterday it came to $91-$8-(fee)=$83. Today it came to $125-$11.20-(fee)=$114. So, $197 in just change and she said we have about 5 more trips to go. All of the money from her jar is being added to my moving fund. This is all just change she tosses into a jar on a daily basis.

I am also trying to sell our furniture off craigslist. I should sell our beds today, I guess. I slept on my mattress and boxspring last night. It wasn't too bad...*I sold Lea's bed which is good cause it was in the living room after another woman said she wanted it, so I dragged it out of Lea's junky room but she changed her mind, so I was happy someone else got it. One down more to go...

Update on Lea's Natural ADD Meds

I had to update everyone to tell you that Lea is doing so well with the natural pills. There is a marked difference in her. She is calmer and pays much more attention to her school work and at home too. She is taking 2 ADD natural pills, one is a more commercial Attentive Pills and the other is Omega 3 fatty acid-(orange/chocolate flavored) cream, she squeezes it directly into her mouth. I will replacing them both with a DHA 500 mg pill after she uses them up. The DHA at 500 mg's is what the brain produces and may be lacking in us ADD/ADHD folk. So, by using the DHA 500 mg's she is replacing it and is able to concentrate like she never has. Not only that but she is taking a natural hormone leveler and she and I are both taking a natural arthritis pill made from Quertin and Nettles. I have to say I am so impressed with it. I've been using it for a few days now and it completely takes away mine and Lea's allergies. We are usually sneezing, having runny noses/eyes, scratchy throats and fluid in the ears this time of the year and sometimes with the regular meds that don't always work, but this combination has erased all that and lasts an entire day, and I don't have to worry about a reaction from it.

It has made me think about what other things I can replace...and I am looking at white willow bark to replace the pain medicines I use. I take 800 mg's of Ibuprofen sometimes 3 times a day. I am hoping the White Willow Bark which Asprin is derived will be that alternative for me naturally. I am also going to look into something I used while I was pregnant with Lea which was Oyster Shell calcium pills. I was and am still lactose-intolerant just like Lea so we could really use the oyster shell. We don't drink milk obviously, we don't drink soy milk because it imitates Estrogen, we drink Goats Milk and in the future I will be making Cashew Nut Milk from a recipe I found today: http://www.naturally-healthy-eating.com/nut-milk.html

So, I just wanted to let everyone know that the pills are working!!!