Sunday, September 23, 2012

Weekend In Review

The weather was heavenly this weekend - only about 85 degrees and we had a constant breeze. It's amazing how much you can accomplish when not suffering from the oppressive humidity of the south! Here's how the weekend shaped up!

- I decided it was time to harvest some of this delicious looking Romaine. Not actually harvesting till tomorrow before dinner. Spaghetti, meatballs, salad (that I don't have to go to the store to buy,) and homemade bread - also, no grocery store required! Yipee!





And doesn't it look like a Cabbage Patch baby just wants to pop out of my cabbage!!



- Even more exciting is that our coop is finally looking like a coop! Since my hubby can only work on it on Saturdays, it's been a slow process, but I love it. Can't wait to help our "girls" set up house!





And last but not least, my mom bought us this beautiful handmade basket for egg gathering. It's beautifully made and I adore it. For now, I grabbed a photo of it with some apples. Eggs to come!!



Basically, it was an awesome, prepping filled, homesteady kinda weekend!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Food all around us!

Did you know that there is literally food all around us? We don't know what plants are edible anymore because we've grown too accustomed to the drive-through at McDonald's. So what if McDonald's vanished - and the grocery store too. Could you eat that "weed" at your feet? Visit my friend's blog for an awesome give-away. I need these books. I need to learn! Link: New Life On A Homestead

Friday...On My Walk

Beautiful little yellow moth enjoying my wildflowers - caught him in mid-flight. Have a beautiful weekend!



Thursday, September 20, 2012

Cleaning House!

I've been on a mission lately to concoct my own cleaning supplies. Laundry is a BIG deal with a family of six and it seems that I was always scrounging around for coupons to buy detergent – the stuff is not cheap!! I also wasn't happy with the way cleaning supplies deducted from my grocery budget. I want to but more food – not Tide! So, I wanted to share with you a perfectly wonderful detergent recipe – I didn't invent it, but I love telling everyone about it! We have a High Efficiency washer, and my hubby really wanted to stick with liquid detergent. No scientific rationale, he just felt the liquid would perform better in our machine. He did once have a job as an engineer at Whirlpool, so I don't question his expertise!! I found the recipe here – Liquid laundry Detergent! If it works on all the 19+ Duggar family, then I was sure it would work for mine. It is working wonderfully! So, go on over to the Duggar family site and make some laundry detergent! My bucket will probably last at least 6 months!

On another note - I LOVE the Duggar family!!

Now to the dish soap. This is soap to hand wash dishes, not for the dishwasher – that's next on my agenda. I'm currently testing a recipe and it still needs some tweaking. While suds don't clean the dishes, I would like a few more suds. I'll post a recipe when I perfect it! At least it looks pretty!


Friday, September 14, 2012

Friday...On My Walk

Finally caught a photo of this beautiful Heron on our pond. He only stops by about once a week, and my kids usually manage to spook him before I get a photo. Not this time!

Quilting = Happiness

I love to sew.

If you know me, you know this fact and it's very old news! I learned to sew clothing for my daughter, out of necessity really, but now it's just plain fun. One problem that I have encountered is that my daughter simply has too much. I don't NEED to make her yet another dress. However, I still have the burning desire to CREATE – I NEED to be creative. As a natural progression of things it seems, I'm turning into my grandmother – and I'm quilting. My father's exact quote to me a few days ago, “You're turning into my mother.” I never met my father's mother. She died a few years before I was born. She canned, farmed, sewed clothing, quilts – sounding familiar? Maybe she had a talk with me before coming to this earth and encouraged me to continue her work, preserve a dying art. Maybe a bit of her is living inside me. I can't help but picture her smiling from above. This is one of her quilts – with my dad's hand print at age 4. It is a precious possession. Here's my first attempt at quilting – not perfect but you have to start somewhere. I already have ideas for more in the works. Quilts make me happy! My babies will be warm and cozy this winter!





Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Growth

Sometimes growing is fun – new freedoms, new opportunities. Sometimes it's painful – new consequences, new responsibilities. Once thing is for sure though, we all NEED to grow. Growing and learning is what can make our lives fruitful and fulfilled. I read somewhere recently that a day without learning is a day wasted. Our days are limited on this earth. The older I get the more clearly I see this. The cycle of life comes around at its own chosen pace, ready or not. I don't want to waste the minutes and days that I've been given – I want to grow. As I've chatted with fellow homesteaders (rookies and pros), there is an underlying theme that pushed them to continue – even when times get hard. They all want to be prepared and they all want to learn. Learn about different ways to grow crops, learn about better ways to care for their animals, learn more healthy recipes for their families, learn how to make their own soaps and cleaners, the list goes on and on. Homesteaders are a community of learners and growers. I think this is why homesteading how so fully “sucked” me in. I like and have a great respect for the people who make homesteading happen – the people who live everyday to learn, grow and prepare. They are among the elite, and I strive to be like them.

Our growing fall garden - it's really taking off!





The roof is up on our chicken coop!!! I'm so excited!!

Friday, September 07, 2012

Friday....On My Walk

Didn't do much walking this week. Spent most of my time tending the sick. Our house was wracked by a nasty stomach bug for the last few days. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say I've done more than my fair share of mopping, scrubbing, washing - you get it. EWWWWWW. The highlight of the week was my peach vanilla fruit leather created in my dehydrator. It's still sitting, waiting for us to be well again to actually enjoy it.

A photo of one of our sweet kitties. My shutter awoke her from a nap. Life is hard, huh.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Friday...On My Walk

This is my spot. MY spot. Of course, it's only mine until someone discovers I've gone missing - and they know where to look to find me. When cold weather comes I'll have to find a new hiding place - I mean, a new "spot." Or maybe I'll just take a quilt to the hammock.....

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Planting!

We've been working! Of course, every time we planned a time to get our fall garden going – it rained, and rained. Finally we got a sunny Saturday and got a good start. I'm really wanting to plant some pumpkin seeds, but that's all we have left to find. The kids loved it – and were especially amused at slipping and sliding in horse manure. I've read mixed reports about horse manure, but it was aged (for the most part), and it was free. We live surrounded by our neighbors horses (oh, how I love them!) and they let us wheelbarrow out as much as we need. We also bought a load of topsoil and mixed everything very well. We've planted cauliflower, cabbage, romaine, carrots, and broccoli. Now I would love some herbs and pumpkins! When it comes to gardening (and many other aspects of homesteading) I feel like a kindergarten student on the first day of school – I don't really know my way around or what to expect – all I can do is keep trying. Funny thing is – I'm SO enjoying this journey, manure and all!









Friday, August 24, 2012

Friday: On My Walk

My babies started school yesterday. I sit here in a WAY too quiet house waiting for the pressure cooker to heat up so I will be able to can some yummy glazed carrots. Just a few photos of my youngest - savoring the last few afternoons before a new school year.



Thursday, August 23, 2012

Plants that Heal..... Aloe Vera

I don't know much about plants and their healing abilities – another area of homesteading in which I'm a complete neophyte. I do know, however, that people survived for hundreds of years without a CVS pharmacy! There is healing in plants that we can grow in our own soil, we just have to learn what they are and how to use them. Here is yet another lost art. I'm sure my great-grandmother knew what herbs would good for stomach aches, or what would help a skin rash. I've even read that there are plants that are natural bug repellants! Wow. So much to learn.

One little plant that I do know a little about is Aloe Vera. I have pots and pot of the stuff. It just keeps growing and growing dozens of little offshoots. I have given it away and still have a ton. Aloe doesn't like the cold weather or frost, so pretty soon I'll have to re-locate it all inside.

Here are a few uses we have found for Aloe:

Sunburn treatment – it's soothing and cool and feels great on a sunburn. I'm sure it could be used to treat minor burns of any kind.

Eczema – My now 13 year old used to be plagued with Eczema. Aloe soothed his itchy skin. I managed to avoid all those nasty steroid creams by just treating him with Aloe.

Bug Bites? Okay, I don't know about this one, but my six-year-old daughter constantly breaks off little bits of Aloe to treat her mosquito bites. She says it helps the itching. It works for her so I say, go for it!

Bottom line, Aloe is quite handy to have around. I'm sure a quick Google search would yield many more uses for this versatile little plant!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Back to School

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I'm not sobbing yet. Keeping busy has really helped. Yesterday we made sure we had lots of good “lunch box” food. We chopped the celery and the carrots, cubed the cheese, etc. Everything is ready and easy to pack quickly. My boys start at 7:30 am, so we have to get out early! This past weekend I made mountains of waffles and froze them for quick before school breakfasts. I used THIS fantastic recipe from Michelle at simplifylivelove.com. Today, I plugged up my brand new dehydrator for the first time. Armed with my trusty “Dehydrator Bible” I'm dehydrating bananas for the first time. Hopefully these bananas will make good lunchbox treats as well. We've learned so much this summer and participated in so many new endeavors. I hope the new school year brings as much enjoyment. I will miss my babies.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

"Sew" Excited!

I love being a stay-at-home mom, and since all my children are now school age (boo, hoo), I have found that I have a little more “creative” time. In the kitchen, or behind a camera or sewing machine, I try to use my creative time to add a little extra income - I consider my little income to be a little budget flexibility – SO important to a family of six. This month, August 30, I'm participating in a designer launch – what we are calling “The Big Reveal.” A group of us moms who design and sew children's clothing have come together to form a group, “Once Upon A Wardrobe.” We will be auctioning all our beautiful wares together in hopes our creations will be bought and loved! I think it's so important to know how to sew, to cook, to do something constructive and beneficial to the family. Yes, I have a college education, I could get a full-time job, but that's not what's right for my family at this time. I really love keeping my home – my haven! Here are my one-of-kind creations I'll be auctioning on the 30th!

Captain Hook!


Feels like Fall! Comfy Knit Fabric


Witchy Minnie


Christmas Minnie (Many of our customers are BIG Disney fans!)


Pink Cinderella (Remember the dress the mice made?)
Here is our Facebook page! Join us! Once Upon A Wardrobe

Saturday, August 18, 2012

What's In A Name?

After lots of thought and consideration, I finally decided on a name for this blog – a name that I could stick with and be happy with for many years to come. When I thought of our home, the word, “haven,” immediately came to my mind. We've lived here a little over two years now. We needed to move, to escape animosity, to find refuge, to have more room for our four children. I prayed and prayed that if it be the Lord's will, that he would move us to a home where we could flourish and grow. We had lots of needs and this house, this land, fell into our laps. It has been one amazing blessing. We found our “haven.” I added “homestead” to the title, as a constant reminder of what we want to become. We are not a fully functioning homestead yet, but we are progressing. Homesteading to me means learning to make things from scratch, working the land, tending what animals we can fit on our property, and living more simply. Homesteading is a noble goal, and will make our home, our haven, even better. I'm so grateful for our homestead haven, and I'm excited about this new journey.



The Morris Tribe Blog Carnival

Friday, August 17, 2012

Friday: On My Walk...

As a child, imagination was everything. If I could imagine it, I could do it. I could travel to a far away lands, I could be a queen, I could beat up my brothers and not get in trouble! I spent countless hours in the treetops in teetering little tree houses made from wood pallets just imagining that the forest was my spectacular kingdom. My awesome banana seated bike was my noble steed and together we could do ANYTHING.

This is why I seek a more simple life. I have the best childhood memories and I want my children to have the same. I want them to use their brain instead of their fingers to push the “on” button of some techy device. Now, I do love technology, but children have the learn how to respect the technology they love, and still know how to survive without it.

Yesterday morning my boys woke me up at 5:45 in the morning to tell me they were going fishing. Ahhhh...music to my ears. Fishing, fun, electricity free. Here is a photo from one of my afternoon walks. This is my daughter's “tree house.” It's beside a tree, not in it, but she doesn't care. Last I heard she was running a mud pie bakery out of it and doing really well. Couldn't hardly keep up with the crowds of hungry customers....

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Summer Break

We are getting ready to go back to school – trying desperately to savor these last few days of summer vacation. My children and I are in agreement, that this was the fastest summer ever. It seems like just yesterday we were jumping and shouting for joy (literally) on the last day of school. My children are good students, they do very well. They tolerate public school and do the best they can. Homeschooling is just not an option for them – for lots of reasons. I so admire homeschooling mothers out there, but public school will have to do for us right now.

So, before I get all weepy over my keyboard, just want to share this photo. My 13 year old rigged the wagon to his bike seat and everyone rode and laughed and screamed until they were just plain exhausted. SO much better than a computer game – don't you agree? Sweet summer memory....

Friday, August 10, 2012

Friday: On My Walk....

I have a daily ritual during the summer. After dinner I go on a walk around our property – taking however many children with me who would like to come. I photograph things, talk about things, but mostly I just enjoy the scenery. When the days get shorter, I don't always get my walks in, but I always try! I thought it would be fun if every Friday I posted photos from my walks that week. Sometimes they will be captioned, but sometimes there will just be photos. I have so many misc photos – I'd love to include them on my blog! So, here's the first Friday edition of my “walk” photo.

These are peaches growing on our peach tree. Notice the problem?? After lots of investigation, I've discovered why our peaches never get big and really are never good enough to eat. The deal is: I didn't kill enough of them. Yes, you have to remove MOST of the peaches from the branches and leave just a few and they will grow big and yummy. Now they just have hundreds of tiny, bitter peaches and huge piles on the ground because the branches can't support.

Next spring, I'm killing lots of peaches! And then I'm canning the rest of 'um!



Joining the carnival fun with the Morris Tribe today. This is an awesome blog!
The Morris Tribe Blog Carnival

Monday, August 06, 2012

What's Up Doc?

So, I finally got brave enough to use my newly acquired pressure cooker/canner. The water bath canner seemed pretty simple to me, but the pressure canner was a wee bit intimidating.

I really didn't want to blow up my house.

It was really pretty easy though! I stayed glued to the pot and watched the PSI gauge like a hawk! I would have loved to have canned fresh from my own garden carrots, but I had to settle for a giant bag from the grocery store. When Lacey sees me put the canner on the stove, she immediately gets her safety knife out of the drawer and pulls up her little stool to the counter. She loves to slice, dice, and cook! I think potatoes may be my next canning venture – I like the thought of canning things I know my kids will eat. Carrots and potatoes go with everything!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Thrive!

It’s A Virtual Shelf Reliance THRIVE Party!

Welcome to Christy’s THRIVE party! I’m Kendra, an independent consultant for Shelf Reliance, and I’m here to tell you all of the great reasons that you should have THRIVE foods in your home. I want to start off by thanking ­­­Christy for allowing me to join you here today! In return for hosting this party, Christy is going to receive 10% of all party sales in FREE products, as well as earning Half-Off products! Yay!!   If any of you are interested in earning FREE and Half-Off foods, you’re invited to host a virtual party as well! Just let me know you’re interested and I’ll get you all set up. Now, on with the party… If you’ve never heard of THRIVE, you’re probably wondering what it’s all about. Well, THRIVE is a line of top quality freeze dried foods by Shelf Reliance.

Freeze dried foods are not the same as dehydrated foods. Instead of using high heat, as the dehydration process requires, freeze dried products are processed at temperatures down to -50 degrees F. Approximately 98% of the product’s moisture content is removed by vaporization, leaving the foods with their full nutritional components, tastes, colors, and freshness in tact. The benefit of doing this is the extended shelf life freeze dried foods offer, without the use of any additives or preservatives. Most THRIVE products have a shelf life of 25-30 years when unopened, and 1-2 years even after being opened! There are so many benefits to having THRIVE foods in your home, not only for long term food storage, but for every day use as well! Let me share with you how these products are saving me time and money in the kitchen. But first… why’d I decide to become a consultant for Shelf Reliance? Well, over the past few years, I have come to really strive toward four major goals that pertain to my family’s eating habits:
  • Eating More Nutritiously
  • Saving Money on Groceries
  • Spending Less Time Preparing Meals
  • Becoming Less Reliant on the Grocery Store
So, when I discovered a product that can actually help me achieve my goals in EVERY SINGLE one of these areas… I was in love. I was so excited that I couldn’t wait to tell everybody I knew about it. And hey, if I could make money while sharing my new-found love, why not?! I must admit though… it wasn’t love at first sight. In all honesty, when I first heard about “freeze dried foods” I was quite skeptical. For some reason I was somewhat put-off by the sound of it… as if the foods would be stale, and tasteless. How do you cook with freeze dried foods, anyways? But when I got my hands on a bunch of THRIVE samples and had an opportunity to try them for myself, every misconception I had previously held to was immediately wiped away. They were SO GOOD!! And when my husband and kids loved it just as much as I did, I knew these foods were going to become a main staple in our home. (You can read my thorough product review with close-ups of the foods, and even watch a video of my kids taste testing THRIVE for the first time, HERE.)

THRIVE Can Help You Eat More Nutritiously & Save You Time What is one of the major reasons why people don’t eat more nutritiously? We have all the fresh foods we could need available to us, so why do we still opt for fast food and boxed dinners? Time. It’s all about time, isn’t it? The fast paced lives we lead today are often the reason we just don’t have time to prepare nutritious snacks and meals at home every single day. Chopping fresh produce and meat takes a lot of time. But there are those days when we just need something fast, which usually means a swing through the drive thru, or feeding our family unhealthy processed foods. THRIVE has the solution to this ongoing dilemma! One of the great things about freeze dried foods is that they are already prepared for you. The produce and meat are washed, chopped, and ready to be added to any of your favorite dishes. The fruits in particular are delicious eaten straight out of the can for a quick and healthy snack (which is a fantastic way to get your kids to munch on something that is actually good for them!). The only prep work it takes to cook with THRIVE is allowing the food to reconstitute in a little bit of water for just a couple of minutes, then they’re as good as fresh! Another thing I love about THRIVE freeze dried foods is that you won’t find any additives or preservatives in the majority of their products. Green beans are green beans. Strawberries are strawberries. Period. No salt, no high fructose corn syrup or sugar… nothing. So you can be confident that you are feeding your family pure goodness when you use these items in your every day cooking. With THRIVE veggies and meats already chopped and prepared, there’s no reason you can’t have a quick, nutritious meal on the table in 30 minutes or less. Okay, we’ve talked a little about how THRIVE can help you eat healthier and save time, but now I’d like to share how THRIVE can also save you money!

Save with THRIVE! What’s the most expensive item in your fridge? Organic produce? Meat? Wrong! It’s actually the stuff you throw away!! Think of all of the produce and freezer burned stuff you toss every month. Spoiled grapes or berries, slimy onions, shriveled carrots or celery, sprouting potatoes and moldy mushrooms… so much of what comes out of the produce drawer in our fridge ends up being tossed straight into the garbage, doesn’t it? On average, Americans throw away over 25% of their groceries every single month. That’s HUGE! When you add up how much of your money is thrown straight into the garbage monthly, it can really add up to a significant loss. For instance, let’s say your monthly grocery budget is $500, if you are like the average American household you probably throw away around $125 in spoiled food every month. And I’m betting that’s money you could really use! Why not reallocate that portion of your monthly grocery budget toward foods that won't spoil? Having THRIVE’s freeze dried foods in place of the produce that typically goes bad in your home will save you big bucks every month. You’d never have to worry about mold growing in your berries, or your veggies spoiling because you didn’t use them in time. Imagine that… no waste!! Okay, so how else do we blow money on food? Eating out, right? How often do you eat out during the week? Again, it comes down to time, doesn’t it? Some days we just don’t have time to get a meal together at the last minute. THRIVE can help you on those nights when the family is starving and you have no time to put anything together. Instead of blowing a bunch of money to pay for somebody else to make your food for you, have several THRIVE Express meals on hand! Almost all of these hearty, complete dishes are table ready in 10-15 minutes, and can feed your family for less than the cost of what one person would spend eating out! Just dump it into a pot, add water, and heat. It’s super easy, and even my picky kiddos love these soups. (Just a head’s up, THRIVE Express meals are actually on SALE this month, and can be picked up for less than $6 per pack. A pack generously feeds four adults, and would be a real money saver compared to eating away from home.) Take a minute to check out the selection of THRIVE Express meals that Shelf Reliance has to offer, and then make a note to have a few of these on hand for quick and healthy backup meals. And how much of our money do we spend on impulse buys? How many times have you realized that you were missing a key ingredient in the middle of cooking something? I know I’ve done it plenty of times! And it always meant a quick trip to the store to pick up the item I needed. But running to the store for just one or two things isn’t a good use of time or money. You can’t forget to factor in the cost of your gas to get to the store and back. The pack of eggs you needed to run and get might cost you $1.50, but how much did the gas to get it add to that expense? Probably at least another $3.00. When it really comes down to it, that’s an expensive pack of eggs! Not only that, but grocery stores know how to enlist those impulse buys. They’ve strategically placed tempting treats throughout the store, in hopes of catching your eye and begging you to grab just a couple of other things before heading to the checkout lane. I’m sure you’re guilty… we’ve all done it! So, that one missing ingredient that you ran to the store to get can end up costing much more than you’d anticipated shelling out. Doesn’t it just seem wiser to have backup ingredients on hand for just such emergencies?! Lucky for us, THRIVE carries just about every basic staple you would ever need. Powdered milk, powdered eggs, powdered butter, powdered shortening, even powdered sour cream … think of the things that you typically run out of in the middle of a recipe; you name it, it’s there. Add a little water and voila, you’re good to go. As a side note, the powdered eggs aren't only easy to use, and are fantastic to bake with, they're actually cheaper to use than store bought eggs! With over 200 whole eggs per #10 can, using powdered eggs for all of your baking can save you a little bit of money as well. Not only that, but you can actually eat the cookie dough without any fear of salmonella!! That's enough reason to have some on hand, right there! Another way you can curb your impulse buys is by signing up for Shelf Reliance’s “Q”. The Q has been best described as Netflix for food, and is a place where you can do your monthly shopping online without the distractions and temptations of a traditional grocery store. Every month, you choose what you’d like to put in your shopping cart, and they’ll ship it straight to your door. It couldn’t be easier. But, more about the Q in a moment.

THRIVE Helps You To Be Less Reliant On The Store A recent survey found that the average American household has enough food to sustain themselves for three days. THREE DAYS! But what if bad weather hits, like the recent derechos that caused thousands and thousands of people to lose power for a week, and stores are without power and unable to help customers? What if gas prices surge and truck drivers can’t make deliveries to grocery stores? What if inflation sets in and we can’t afford many groceries anymore? Or, what if you experience the loss of a job and have to live on an extremely limited budget? There are so many variables that our food supply depends on, and a problem with any one of them can disrupt the entire assembly line. It is foolish to think that we will always be able to get what we need from the grocery store when we need it. Having food storage, or a Home Store, that you can “shop” when times are tough is not only wise, it can be life saving. I’ll share a little personal story with you. In 2009, the Lord started pressing upon me and my husband to start storing up food. We’d never in our lives heard of people doing such a thing, but with the slowed economy and all we thought it would be a wise use of our money. Turns out, it was. In March of 2010, my husband was laid off. Work was slow, and they just couldn’t afford to keep him on any longer. It took six months before he found another full-time job (which he was also laid off from less than a year later!). During that time, we used what money we were able to bring in to pay our mortgage and other bills. And because we had food stored up, we ate just fine through the whole ordeal. Now that we have experienced first hand how incredibly important it is to have what we would need to feed ourselves and our children when tough times hit, we will never again go without at least a year’s worth of food stored in our home. Think of it as food insurance. We have car insurance, and home owners insurance to help us if we ever run into trouble, right? But what I hate about those kinds of insurances is that you pay the bill, hoping you’ll never need to use it, though if you don’t use it then you’re out all of that money you spent! Let me just ask you, what’s more important… having a car, or having food? So, why don’t you have food insurance? Reallocating a little bit of your grocery budget every month toward building up your home store is an incredibly important thing to do for your family. And the best part is that you’ll be using every bit of what you buy!! Shelf Reliance has made building your home store as easy as 123...

The “Q” If you don’t know where to start with food storage, The “Q” that we spoke about earlier makes it super easy to build your home store on a budget. I can even help you set it up. First, you would enter how many people are in your household, whether they are children or adults, and the Planner determines their caloric needs. Then you specify how many months of food you’d like to build up, anywhere from 3 months to several years! Next, you tell the “Q” what you’d like to set your monthly budget at, and The Planner automatically puts items in your cart that would fit your family’s needs. The Q is completely customizable. If your family has special dietary requirements, or just doesn’t particularly like bananas per se, you can exchange that item from your cart for something else that you’d rather have. Every month you’ll get a shipment of food sent straight to your door, and your home store will soon be stocked with everything your family would need for your specified amount of time.

  Help Feed The Hungry When You Place An Order As if THRIVE foods weren’t awesome enough, the founders of Shelf Reliance have created their corporate charity, Thriving Nations, which donates 5% of all THRIVE profits to helping impoverished people in third world countries to become more self reliant by teaching them essential agricultural techniques and economic principles. You can feel good knowing that every THRIVE purchase you make is used to bless the less fortunate around the globe. Now do you see why I love this stuff so much?! Here’s Even More Great News! As a special perk for “attending” this THRIVE party, every one of you is eligible to receive an exclusive discount of up to 30% off retail prices on Shelf Reliance’s webstore! That means that you can get everything you would need to help save your family money, eat more nutritiously, and grow your home store for cheaper than ever! All you need to do is contact me at newlifeonahomestead@gmail.com, let me know that you were a guest at Christy’s virtual THRIVE party, and I’ll add you to my customer list. You will receive an email with a password that you will use to log in at Shelf Reliance. Once you’re in, you will always see the discounted price reflected on the screen, and you will get that discount on every order you place. But the BIGGEST discounts will be given for “Q” customers who set up a Q budget of $100 or more. Not only will you see the absolute best prices available on the web, you’ll also get specials including occasional shipping discounts, monthly “Q-pons” which you can use for even deeper discounts on your favorite products, and points rewards you can earn for free products. Alright Kendra, I’m ready to place an order. What do I need to do? Your Six Steps To THRIVE Success… 1. Make a list of everything you can think of that typically goes bad in your fridge, then make a plan to order the freeze dried form of these items so you never throw away spoiled produce (and money) again. 2. Make a list of the basic baking essentials that you tend to run out of in the middle of cooking, then make a plan to order their powdered forms so you never have to run to the store at the last minute again. 3. Make a list of the foods that you hate taking the time to prepare. Hate chopping onions? Get them freeze dried, they’re delicious! 4. Decide if building a Home Store sounds like a wise idea for your family. Then determine how long you’d like your Home Store to sustain you, and how much money you can afford to spend every month on your “Q”. 5. Email me to let me know that you’d like to be added as Christy’s exclusive party customer. I’ll get you all set up. 6. Log in to Shelf Reliance with the password you’ll receive in an email, and start using your discount! You can place a one time bulk order for everything on your lists, or you can set up a monthly “Q” and get all of your family’s needs on a budget. Please remember to place your order before the party's closing date on Wednesday, August 8,2012. If you have any questions or need help getting started, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll be more than happy to help you with anything you need. Thanks so much for joining Christy and I today!! It’s been a pleasure sharing THRIVE with you.