Keep Moving!

(courtesy of freefoto.com)


As the daylight lingers, your body longs for more movement and less "couch potato-ing." If you don't own any fancy home gym equipment, long walks around the neighborhood or high school track are FREE and beneficial physically, mentally, and helps curb depression!

I've continued minimizing my exposure to news, weather, and sports and have increased my movement. I feel so much better! Enjoy! Freedom!

Make the Bird Go Farther!

On MSNBC.com, Elizabeth Rogers demonstrates what many of us already do with one chicken to economize and avoid waste. Check it out!

Homegrown Veggies

Recently, someone at work remarked that I was like Michelle Obama in growing my own veggies. I responded by noting that Michelle Obama is more like me since I've been growing some of my own food for over a decade and she apparently just started - with a lot of help I might add.

It's so wonderfully amazing to plant seeds one week and eat food from those seeds a few months later. You don't need to own any land to plant since many vegetables and herbs will grow in planters and pots. There's nothing like a home grown tomato or herbs for cooking. I feel like I am walking in God's abundance when I can depend on Him to produce as He works with my willingness to plant, fertilize, and water: He is my source. I feel less dependent on farmers and drivers and markets to connect me with the sustenance I need to survive. Since I know how to cook and follow recipes, I don't need to visit restaurants or buy packaged meals which cost a lot more than cooking from scratch even after you factor in use of energy. Knowing bsically what ingredients are in the food I eat matter much more to me these days than even a few years ago.

If it still cold where you live, try planting a few seeds indoors this week. Browse the numerous gardening sites on sunlight, fertilizing, and watering for great results. Enjoy the abundant life available to those willing to act on wisdom and knowledge. Freedom!

Versatility of Ground Turkey

Trying to eat well during the recession? Consider ground turkey instead of red meat beef for various recipes. Also, consider eating less of the pound at one meal than you normally do and add more fruit and veggies to the meal. When I buy 1.25 lbs. of ground turkey, I am able to make six small to medium hamburger patties from it which becomes part of 6 servings vs. 4 with larger patties. I feel satisfied and full. If I make meatballs, I make them smaller and end up with about 30 instead of 15 large ones: Plus, spaghetti and sauce go on sale regularly.

I like ground turkey in burritos, tacos, and nachos. These are filling meals on the cheap especially because the turkey often goes on sale at least once a month in at least one store. These combinations are digestable, tasty, and appreciated by your body since they aren't too heavy on your system.

Your side dish can include sliced fruit - you should slice it yourself since it's cheaper than the market slicing it for you. Cutting back on consumption is healthy physically, financially, and emotionally as you begin to appreciate that you have more than enough for yourself and some to share with others. Freedom!

Now Reading Simple Prosperity by David Wann

I'm in the middle of this delightful read. He is the co-author of Affluenza. Wann presents many sound arguments and suggestions on taking charge of our lives vs. allowing the media and culture to dominate and tell us how to live. Freedom!

Remodeling Bankrupt Malls

In the middle of this recession, we can justify scaling back for the common good and improve the lives of the common people for good! If gigantic malls are going bankrupt, fewer malls might give way to more open space. Fewer restaurants might lead to more gardens for communities to grow their own food, prepare it together, and eat it together in well structured community centers in local parks. Fewer fast food joints would definitely lead to more healthy people. And, of course, with fewer car dealerships we could use those showrooms for more after school programs for kids and cheap to free weekend events for families.

For the hundreds of thousands who have become unemployed, more retraining in community infrastructure jobs like nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers, police, fire fighters, camp leaders, mentors, designers, landscapers and engineers who are skilled in building new parks, etc. If we increase communal efforts to raise psychologically and emotionally healthy families, training others to do it would create more jobs. Government would not need to create the jobs if creative and competent entrpreneurs are given tax friendly terms to do business and, perhaps, low cost lease agreements in old mall space or car dealerships for their headquarters.

Fewer malls could make way for more affordable housing and rehabilitation centers for the mentally ill homeless.

I see so many possibilities in helping ourselves and our neighbors with less of what we have allowed to become needs when the extras are merely unnecessary altogether. Many in the sustainable living village see it and live it as well. When we let stuff go, we open ourselves to exciting and more efficient lifestyles and it's all good. Freedom!

Psalm 131

1.
God, I'm not trying to rule the roost, I don't want to be king of the mountain. I haven't meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.
2.
I've kept my feet on the ground, I've cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother's arms, my soul is a baby content.
3.
Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!

FREEDOM!

Mass Media Reports on Frugality

A TIME magazine article decides to report how the nation has become frugal due to the Great Recession! Interesting read but nothing new to those of us who lived simply before the economic downturn. Freedom!

Full Moon Means Time to Run Away...From Debt!

A couple of nights ago we experienced yet another gorgeous full moon! Almost every time I see one, I think of the runaway slaves who escaped or died trying under the glowing clarity of the moon: They broke the law in search of freedom! Renegades to the core!

I used the renegade spirit as I spent 4 years running away from debt and finally broke free of the enslaving cycle. I "bought" my freedom and no one can convince me that voluntary debt is good for me and neither is a neanderthal FICO score. We must not only think outside of the box, we must insist on living outside of it altogether in how we use the government's currency parallel to our precious time and talents. The box remains a HUGE trap where those who benefit most are savoring the sour fruit of our own stupid uses of credit cards and wacky loans. They take advantage of our unwillingness to sacrifice, wait, save, then spend. I decided in 2005 I just would not live that way any more!

In my world of paying cash or living without it, I chronically experience serenity, peace, and joy: It didn't take a miracle, it took discipline and hard work. Less shopping for others and more time giving loving care, interest, concern, gosh, the simple time of day, leads to life sustaining connections that money cannot buy. Amazingly, a shared, simple homecooked meal with tax-free laughter and fun in the company of family and friends warmly fills up our senses and decreases our desires to overspend: Money cannot fulfill you! Stuff will never make you happy! We feel complete as the coins jangle in our pockets while we spend time together. One caveat in this recession: Many of us have a better understanding of what's really important. Let Freedom ring!

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Welcome to Tax-Free Bartering!!!

I had 2 very new and exciting small scale bartering opportunities this week between 2 co-workers: One of them shared homemade bread with me while another gave me a daffodil. In exchange, I gave them fresh organic lettuce/mesclun blend from my garden. It didn't start out as an official trade but when I received their gifts, I wanted to exhange. No US currency used so no taxes owed. Freedom!

I will lawlfully pay taxes I owe but I intend to take advantage of every opportunity I get to legally avoid paying them. Currently, government isn't taxing love, generosity, goodwill toward each other, nor being a good neighbor. Yes, the "little" man can get ahead when we choose cooperation over competition and use less of the government's currency. Love each other. Freedom!

A Tax Reduction Would Be Great

Since the government refuses to give us all a meaningful stimulus package like it did for the auto industry, banks, and Wall Street, how about a reduction in the tax rate schedule for all of us? The miniscule 6.2% in tax stimulus reduction on the first $6452 of earnings or $400 is so demeaning compared to the over the top tax brackets. We need a REAL break from the percentage they already take from us. We must start voting for legislators who serve our collective best interest. Take a look at the crazy tax bracket schedules and realize how ruthlessly our government takes 25-35% of our earnings PLUS some more? Certainly, we the people can do something if only going out each election making our vote count. Freedom!

What Did the Ancients Do? Ask Yourself Before You Buy It

Another strategy I use to curb my buying of and into superfluous goods and services: I ask myself what did the ancients do? I also ask myself, "What did grandma and great-grandparents do?" This really helps keep money in my pocket because if they were able to live and enjoy life without it, so can I. The media, banks, and government seem to consistently impose discontentment with life without stuff and services so that we try to become content by spending and "managing debt." No more of that for me. Freddom!

I Believe in Frugality but Not Global Warming

I have yet to see man control a hurricane, an earthquake, natural wildfires and floods. Man cannot control nature. It's a big myth, a lie, a falsehood! Man can't "make" a rose nor create native soil for food. There's so much that man cannot do in the natural, real world. Yet, man tries to profit from the thought of global warming as the earth goes through its natural cycles of warming and cooling. I once bought into it but now I just see it as another ploy to control me and my cash.

Planet Earth is a HUGE place! Even if you've only travelled a few hundred miles from where you live, one can easily see the vastness of land, sky. etc. While I want to do my part in wisely and frugally using my resources, it's not because of global warming: I just don't want to live wastefully and I don't want marketers insisting on what I must buy to do my part in "going green" especially when so many big businesses waste energy and resources. All 6 billion of us inhabitants aren't causing the so-called global warming dilemma either. Only "advanced" economies cause most of the "damage." Most people around the world understand not polluting the water you depend on for life and not creating an entire profit making industry to purify what nature/God already provides for our existence.

Many would argue that the melting of polar ice is a natural phenomenon occuring in our lifetime. Is it really our "duty" to save polar bears or are they suppose to naturally disappear? Hmmmmm....

I challenge you to question what you see in the natural world, study the ancients, read about "developing countries" and think about who consistently blathers about global warming. Question one: Are they profiting from their blather? Question two: Are they trying to control you when you aren't truly harming yourself or anyone else? Question three: How much more social injustice derives from both wasteful westerners and a parallel global warming argument? Allow your questions to help you create more questions and think for yourself. Freedom!