Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! This has been an amazing year! Just a year ago, Kevin and I made the decision to buy this house. We were both working full time jobs, opposite shifts but we had Sundays off together. It's crazy looking at our life now, and thinking of how far we have come in just one year. A year ago, I never really thought about money, when I went grocery shopping, I tossed in just about everything. I never made it through a whole week without having to buy something else to make a simple meal. Truthfully, I rarely cooked. I purchased easy to prepare foods for Kevin and Jay, ate the worst junk during my half hour lunches at work, and came home at one A.M. exhausted but far too wired to sleep. I would slip into bed around four A.M falling asleep right before my husband got up to start his day. My life was shopping, Starbucks, my job, and eating out most nights that we were home together. We disliked Jay's program, but we accepted that there wasn't much else that would work. Our house was full of stuff, but it wasn't really a home.

When we first bought this house, we figured it would be several years before we would actually move here. I will admit that when Kevin flew out in December to close on the house, I was secretly, or maybe not too secretly jealous of him. He took a video, which was actually dubbed a cross between the Blair Witch Project and a National Geographic special.

We visited Sarah and family over Christmas, used all my vacation days, then I went to Florida again in March. Finally in May, I had enough days left to make it a week in Maine. We came out here in Mid May, no water, no electric, thankfully the weather was good.

I am so thankful that we traded in our middle class, hectic, material focused life for this simple, people based lifestyle. I love that I now bake bread most every week. I have learned to make inexpensive but delicious and nutritious meals for my family. We have met some really great people who "get" why we love it here. After living in the same neighborhood in St. Peters for nearly twenty years, we never once did anything with our neighbors. Here we have made friends. We have both stepped way out of our comfort zones and I would say we have learned to do many things that in the past we would have paid someone else to do for us. Kevin repaired broken windows, hauled water from the spring when the pump failed, and has figured out how to improvise when he needed something to do a job. I have cleaned up and restored cast iron pans that a year ago, I would have tossed out or given away. We tiled a mantle, paneled a wall, wallpapered two rooms. I who used to scream if I saw a bug, have learned to use natural methods to get rid of flies and spiders.We have learned to compost, and build a fire warm enough to make us comfortable. We had mice, now we have two cats. When we walk our land, it is our land, we don't write a monthly mortgage check. We have to think before we buy something, but really, there aren't many stores here anyhow. By the time we locate what we were thinking that we need, we have figured out another solution. I am getting great at shopping in resale, and thrift shops. Kevin substitute teaches to subsidize our income. Jay is getting ready to move into a house with room mates that he actually has something in common with. He will have a day program that will teach him skills and provide him with recreation. We are all happy, and thriving. For that I am very thankful.