365 Days to Self Reliance: Day 10 - Update

So it's been a few days since I mentioned my goal of attaining self-reliance within the next 365 days well now 355. I've been pretty busy over the past week and a half as I've been starting to take a look at just what that might look like and mean for our family. After lots of talks with EC and the kids and reading and searching and praying here are some things that we've come up with.

So to review the 6 areas of Self-Reliance (at least in how I define it) and some of our goals for each area:

1. Education: This will be a big one this year. Since we're still at the start of our journey I want to make sure that I don't dive headfirst into an empty pool. I plan on studying a lot more about self-reliance and ways to meet the goals that we've made. We're also planning on continuing on with homeschooling the kids.

2. Health: I don't think I know anyone that wishes that they were less healthy. Especially with the challenges in maintaining our health that we've had over the past year I really want to work with the kids and myself about getting back to the basic routines of good healthy living (water, nutrition, exercise, sleep, cleanliness). I also want to learn more about how to manage basic health problems on our own - basic first aid and what to do when you're sick etc.

3. Work: We all are making a goal to work together on our home to be more self-reliant. I've been tossing around some new income ideas as well. Monkey has actually decided that she wants to start a micro-business selling crochet and knitted goods with half of the profit being donated to a local children's hospital.

4. Home Storage: The goal here is pretty simple and straightforward. We are planning on having a least a three-month supply of food, fuel, and goods in case of an emergency or unexpected need. Our goal will be to produce as much of it as we can and work on being able to do more of our own each year following as well as increase the amount of storage to a year's supply.

5.  Finances: Another pretty straightforward goal. Work within budgets and pay off as much of our debt as is reasonably possible. Part of this will include working with the kids to help them understanding finance and budgeting principles as well.

6. Spiritual and Emotional Strength. I think making a goal to get back to the basics here will also be good. Taking time to make sure we do prayer, scripture study, meditate, and take care of ourselves will surely help.