A Simpler Life

Recently, my husband and I were basically forced into a more simple life. Honestly, it was something my soul had been craving for quite a while, but it took a financial struggle for me to finally accept it. You'll see a lot of stuff about homesteading, living a more self-sufficient life, a more sustainable life, pretty much anywhere you go online. Isn't it funny, that in a world where you can connect with anyone, anywhere, at almost any time, most of us are truly craving simplicity.

This journey started just a couple of months ago. And honestly, when it first began, I felt like a big failure. I had failed as an adult, and the world was coming to an end as I knew it. I beat myself up verbally for months, and I'm sure I made life harder on my husband as well. I didn't know what to do. How would we take showers with no hot water since our water heater was electric? How would I was clothes and keep dishes clean? How would I clean the house without hot water? How would I find my way around the house at night since I struggle to see anything at all when it's dark? How would we keep warm? How will we keep from dying from the heat this summer? How will I keep my rabbit from dying from heat stroke during the summer? So many questions, and under it all, my society trained ego screaming at me that I was a total and complete failure and could no longer call myself a responsible adult.

Have you figured out what happened? I'll explain. We live in a very small 400 square foot park model home, which I bought back in 2011. I had never felt like more of an adult, owning my own home and land, even if it was a small home. I was so proud because I paid my bills on time, every single month. Flash forward to January 2016. We had moved nearly 10 hours away from home because my husband thought he could find better work and a more stable life. That didn't pan out, so we came home, where we at least owned our house and only paid electricity and water. While he was struggling to try to find stable work, and I was struggling to get a brand new direct sales business running, we received a massive electric bill, one we couldn't even figure out how it got so high. $500 was not something we had on hand at the time.

I tried working out a payment plan with the electric company, and due to extreme miscommunication on the electric company's customer service's part, we ended up some how breaking the pay agreement. They called me multiple times day and night, left many voicemails. "If you don't pay in the full amount by this date, we're shutting your electricity off." I told them multiple times, "Come turn it off. We can't afford the amount of money you're asking for, and you're not willing to work something out with us, so please just come turn it off. Stop calling me and harassing me. Please just turn it off." Every time I would tell them that, they would recite the different options they had for us to pay them. "You can pay at a pay station, with your bank account doing an e-check, or we can take cards over the phone." They didn't seem to understand me when I said we just didn't have the money.

Finally, the day came when they shut the electricity off. I wasn't home at the time, but my husband found the lights off when he came home from work. Honestly, while my ego screamed at me about being such a failure, my soul seemed to spread out and flex a little, like it was saying "Finally! I'm free!" We've been living without electricity for 2 weeks now. And I can't lie, it's still a little bit of a struggle. Some days I'm so completely at peace, knowing that we are honestly living a simpler life. We are no longer tied to staring at the tv every night before bed. We no longer have to worry about what the price will be on the next electric bill.

We bought 2 oil lamps, and an oil lantern, as well as a couple of flashlights that we use in the evenings to read, feed our animals, and just be able to see each other while we talk. We still have things to figure out. I got on Pinterest to try to figure out what to do about our hot water issue, as well as heating and cooling issues. I've got several projects that are almost done that should hopefully make our lives easier once I get done with them. I will be making a solar hot water heater, a solar powered air conditioner, and a pretty cool clothes washer that is basically the same as a compost tumbler, just for clothes.

We were forced into choosing a simpler lifestyle, and honestly, with each passing day, I'm happier and more at peace. We still have each other. We still have our home and our beloved pets. We now have less pressure to make more and more and more money. Life is slowly starting to slow down and be less frantic and stressful. We search for so many things, and sometimes the best thing for us are the things we fear and are trained are "failures".