Hi,
I’m Lexi and I’m a suburb gal turned beginner homesteader within the last year. I’m a wife, homeschool mom (traditionally schooled myself), gluten-free eating, God-loving, adventure-seeking, crunchy type of woman. (‘phew that’s a lot of categories)
The journey to our homestead is a whole other post, but largely natural living is something we’ve been living since around the time my husband and I met in college. From doing a Whole30 to testing my own ACV shampoo in the early 2010s, I’d say instinct and my husband’s family had an influence on our interest in whole and healthy living.
We’ve long been living a lifestyle of natural living or what I self-proclaimed as falling under the crunchy category. We eat organic food, ditched many single-use items, cloth diapered our children, and the ultimate - I had a water birth in my living room with my youngest child (it was beautiful and I’d do it all over again).
While being crunchy is not new, moving to what used to be a cornfield and building it up from scratch is. Most people would consider us a counter-cultural family:
Interracial marriage - check
Millenial homesteaders - check
Homeschoolers - check check
Where Self-Sufficiency Fits In
Thus giving up our comfy suburban home to go back to the basics - aka a self-sufficient lifestyle - fits the bill. Though I suppose I’ve been this way for a while. I did force myself to go to a small, private college that none of my friends attended so I would be forced out of my comfort zone. Knowing I wouldn’t know who I truly was on my own as I’d been friends with many of them since 3rd grade.
Very few of our college friends or fellow millennials, heck even family can relate to the calling we felt (more so my husband, but now I love it too!). The calling to get back to the roots of previous generations. To have something we built with our own hands. Create a skill set via trial and error. A way to create a legacy for our children and our children’s children. We want to build something for them that very few still pass down in their family today.
Living Life in Rewind
Wildly enough there is a growing trend in homeschooling and homesteading. We seem to be early-ish adopters to this “rewind” lifestyle. It really is astonishing to think about how many of the self-sufficient skills our great-grandparents once knew are now lost to our generation. We were sent to public school to learn skills that are no longer taught. (hello financial literacy and basic homemaking? It’s a long list y’all)
I’ll do a blog post on our natural progression of finding ourselves here, but for now here we are. A family of four living in an unfinished (for now) tiny home and building the garden and homestead of our dreams.
Why a Blog?
I wanted to start this blog for two reasons. I want to memorialize all we’ve experienced for ourselves and our children as well as share all we’re learning or have learned along the way. We’re naturally skeptical of a lot of mainstream things and have learned a lot over the years. Having a diagnosis of celiacs disease was a natural fast-paced progression to having a keener eye on what’s in our food. Human physiology has always been an interest of mine as well. I studied pre-med and received a Master’s in Public Health.
Spreading the Love
We love teaching our children about healthy eating and what to watch for when eating out or shopping at the grocery store and we want to share that knowledge with others. We want you to raise healthy children and knowledgeably source your food.
Homeschooling (something I never knew I’d be doing) has led to a natural propensity of sharing knowledge with others. I learned about Charlotte Mason when I first began homeschooling 3 years ago and so many of my homeschooling resources and posts that I share will align with her methodology. We’re an AmblesideOnline family as well.
Charlotte emphasized time in nature for children as they develop. We know from trips we’ve taken to the ocean, mountains, and hiking that we’re more at peace the closer we are to God’s creation/nature.
God gave us the tools for a healthy life - whole foods, herbs, happy animals, etc. Let’s dive deeper into how the things He provides can help us take care of ourselves.
So, welcome. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this journey.
