Chantel's Blog

This whole moving thing is no fun. There are not a lot of rentals that fit in my price range and the ones that do come don't last long. I did find out that my lease is not up till July. This good and bad. It does give me more time, but is when I like to make my Seattle trip and it infers with gardening. But I do have some options to put your house up for rent and hope we can find a renter but not before I can find an other place. So I am looking for a new place, praying that every thing works out and cleaning the house for it to show. Since I know that it will be a downsizing. I have already donated, thrown out and recycled a good lot of stuff and still have a lot more to get rid of. And now that I need to get the house ready to show I really need to step up my cleaning game. I only have one room in my house that is under some control and it's not my room. My room is currently my indoor growing area. I have seedling in many different stages right now. So my room looks more ...

Even though it is only January the garden is in full swing. I have started seeds and already have many seedlings. I have plants outside in containers too. There are some advantages of living in Austin. Now I am not sure were my garden will be this summer because I am trying to downsize my housing. So as I search for new housing, I will be container gardening. And for now that works fine because I am growing a lot of herbs. I have started to sell some of my herbs at the local Famers Market. I am hoping to increase the variety of herbs to sell. I am also hoping to have some starts for sale in the spring. So the garden is keeping me busy not only with seedling. But my garden boxes will be making the move too. I have filled all my outside containers with dirt and I am starting to bag up the rest. I have only emptied a few because I have ran into some fire ant mounds and I don't want to take them with me. So I have been treating the spots and then have to wait. But my thinking is if...

There are many reasons to make a downsize. It is still hard. I like the place I live now, but it is time. Even though I am downsizing I still have requirements. I must have my own bathroom. I will not share with boys. And I need good garden space. I do still have a few more month on my current lease. So it does gives me time to look for the right place. So far there has not been much out there. But with February around the corner I am expecting to see new listing soon. And it also give me time to get rid of things that will not make the move. I have way more stuff than I need in my current home. So I need to lighten the load. I have started to go though things, like my homeschool books.(If you know anyone looking for Sonlight cores. I have second grade thru fifth grade for sale) I have also had one yard sale and I am getting a good collection of things for donation. So at the very least I should end up with less clutter.

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You could say I am a very picky eater. I try to eat healthy. No artificial colors, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, high frutose corn syrp or gmo's. I limit soy and proceed foods (but sometimes you need an Amy's meal night). And I buy organic when ever I can. For as long as I can remember I have stomach issues. And I have taken medication on and off for the past 20 years to try and help. But the meds didn't fix the problem, it help it from hurting as much. But I was taking a muscle relaxer 4 times a day. And if I didn't take it right on time, I would still end up sick. So knowing that there are some foods that I just can't eat. I thought I would play with my diet and see what happens. My diet had very little red meat and some chicken. So I thought that would be a good place to start. And so I cut meat out and I could tell a difference. Then eggs came out, until finally dairy. Ice cream was the hardest to give up, but I have found some good...

One of the things that I do is volunteer in a elementary school library. I am in the library about 15 hours a week. I know some people don't understand why I help where I don't have a child, but middle school doesn't need me. In elementary school on top of the normal librarian duties. The librarian also see every class, every week and does a lesson with them. So the school I am at the librarian see about 500 kids a week. And when you have a fourth of them are not reading yet. You need an extra pair of hands. And I have a great librarian to work for. I enjoy volunteering at the library for a lot of different reasons and its great occupational therapy. I do a lot more than shelving. I help with the kids, do the bulletin boards, book displays and more. One thing that we are doing is weeding books out. With a library that's 25 years old you find books that have been well loved and may just need some repair or other that just need to be replaced. I also find books that ar...