Over the course of my life, I’ve changed. A lot.

I never would have guessed that I would be who I am now. But looking back, I see the fingerprints of the Father all over my life.

I have never been very self-sufficient. Growing up, I was totally immersed in the fast food, big box store culture. For many, many years, this is how I raised my children. To be perfectly honest, I still rely on these things way too often. But now I see that I’ve been a consumer all of my life. The Lord didn’t create me to consumer, but to produce. I’m called to produce good things for my family. It is a joy and blessing to do so. Whether it is creating a wholesome meal, a dress for my daughter, or a fun birthday celebration, so much of our home life relies on a mother’s creative touch. (Personally, I still have so much to learn in the kitchen. This is probably my greatest home-based struggle).

Over the past few years, I’ve felt a nudge to become more self-sufficient. We’ve made a few little changes, like keeping chickens and using a clothesline. I grew a small garden, but my gardening efforts haven’t been too great so far. I need to learn more about cooking from scratch. Not only would this type of cooking save my family money, in a time of emergency knowing these skills would be very helpful.(Our chickens, Speckle and Fluffy. We can’t wait for them to start laying again in the spring!)

I’ve come to realize that if there was some type of disaster to hit our area, we’d be totally unprepared. Goodness, when the power goes out, I’m unprepared. As the wife and mama in our home, I need to start putting some systems in place.Now that we’ve paid off our house, we have the funds to start doing just that. I’ve begun to buy items for an emergency food storage, and we are preparing garden space at our new home. I’ve been researching off-grid power solutions, and old fashioned ways of living.

Related: Finding Abundance in Simplicity

This has been a fun and exciting time. While I love and am grateful for so many of our modern conveniences, I can’t help but wonder if some of the things I use or eat on a daily basis are harmful. I’ve come to realize that it feels really good to work with my hands and come up with solutions to everyday life with simple things. Sure, frustrations sometimes occur and doing things by hand takes a lot longer than relying on someone else to do it for you on an assembly line. But I’m going to try my best to learn how to do some things differently.

Have you ever felt the urge to learn more about self-sufficiency?