Blogs are so addictive but can be helpful in deciding what you want to do with your life!

This week has been a very quiet week.  I have been pondering life and the choices that must be made and the impact our choices will make on the future of our children and of course us.  Also while pondering I have been exploring many new (to me) blogs and becoming absorbed into the lives of the people who write them.  Now of course blogging is only a tiny picture of someone's life.  People choose the parts of their lives they are willing to share and keep private those that they feel unable to share.  For me, this blog has been my little place where I can have a moan and groan about life on several occasions but also to share the fun bits.  I have mentioned before that Hubby and I would ideally like to move to a place which has more land.

For a long time now, Hubby and I have dreamt of being able to grow more vegetables and fruits.  We would also love to have angora goats.  Hubby would love to have a dairy farm but finances just won't allow that kind of thing to happen.  I would love to have a cow that we could milk though, just for ourselves.  I dream of having a decent size chicken coop, being able to produce our own eggs each day would be wonderful. 

Naturally though, we worry about being able to support ourselves.  To live our dream we would also like to move interstate.  Doing this of course would force the kids to move schools and restart their lives and their social circles, not to mention their part time jobs etc.  It would also create issues with our ex partners when it comes to visitation for the kids. 

We have a lot of work to do to this house to get it up to scratch for selling, this will take time.  I have been working at listing things on Ebay/Quicksales in order to declutter and also making lots of donations to the local op shops but there is still so much clutter to conquer.  Add to that painting inside and out and floor coverings that need replacing and we sure do have our work cut out for us.  We are thinking of giving ourselves 2 years to get everything sorted and then make a move. 

We have a lot of decisions to make.  Reading blogs keeps my dream firmly planted in my mind as I read blogs about large families making decent lives for themselves in country areas.  I desperately want to lead a more simple life as I truly feel suffocated here.  Suffocated by not only our clutter, but also the constant pressures imposed on the kids to have bigger, better, more of everything.  I want to scream and say "You just don't need it".  As I have mentioned before, our house contains the usual array of gadgets and I don't mind to an extent.  I just want to prove to the kids that this life in suburbia isn't all there is.  There is another way to live, one which doesn't revolve around screens.  All their friends are the same though, the world revolves around their Xbox or computer and it makes me really sad.  I try to limit this but it is always an uphill battle for me as I am trying to go against the "norm" of society and their friends.  I drag these kids out for walks and bike rides.  They enjoy these things once they are out but these days it isn't something that they choose to do willingly. 

Yesterday Mr14 was at soccer and Mr16 was at his part time job.  Hubby and I dragged the younger two out for a bike ride.  I had a sore back so Hubby and I walked and we went down along the Little Para River trail.  It was lovely with many rainbow lorikeets flying amongst the gum trees and the river had a gentle flow to it (the river is more like a stream or creek than a river at the part where we live).  It was beautiful and if you can block out the sight of the houses on either side and just absorb yourself into the 50-100 metre wide wilderness setting in the middle it is really nice.  The kids enjoyed not having to watch carefully for cars reversing out of driveways and stopping at each corner to wait for us to catch up.    Hubby and I have decided that this will be our regular weekend bike ride now maybe even taking a picnic lunch to have along the way.  This area is only a 15 minute walk from our house but is one that we don't get to very often,,,,yet another thing that makes me sad.  Our lives are just so full on that we have to remember to stop and make the time to just chill out and relax.

I apologise for yet another ramble of a post but there is so much going on in my little brain right now, it is kind of fried lol.  I'm sure though, that I am not the only one to feel this way so I know that there are many people who will nod their heads and agree with at least snippets of what I have said above.

Here are a couple of the blogs that I have been reading which have reinforced my desire to strive for a simpler life:

Gooseberry Jam
Killiecrankie Farm
Farm Mama
Hazeltree Farm

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!