Category Archives: Finances

Health Faves and Holistic Alternatives

Posted by Mama Bear on February 3, 2016 None comments

 Several years ago I started looking for alternatives to some of the time, money and health issues we had and address things from a more holistic approach when possible. I was searching and praying for ways to support our health by looking at the way our bodies were designed to work.

Here are a few of our favorites so far that have been great options-

Celtic salt
Carob
Local Honey

Real Maple Syrup

Stevia
Gluten free flour

Simple Mills baking mixes

Holistically minded Doctor and/or Chiropractor with quality supplement knowledge 

Healthcare sharing membership plans

Our Young Living Membership:
Young Living’s essential oils are another whole realm of health that encompass many uses. They are wonderful for so many things for  adults, kids & pets from relaxation, pampering, beauty to health & wellness support, supplements and even household items. If you would like to order one or two oils to try I am happy to get some for you with my membership but I also highly recommend you start your own membership for the perks, discounts and accessibility. Here’s my personal referral link to a few of our faves https://bit.ly/3Dp5NsX

I am passionate about the holistic health arena and hope you find some of these helpful on your journey as well. I look forward to sharing more of what I’ve learned with you!

Our Debt Free Story

Posted by Mama Bear on December 15, 2014 1 comments

For those of you who don’t know our story I wanted to share a post that was featured on Money Saving Mom.

We began our debt free journey in the summer of 2006, almost a year after we had been married. Hard to believe it’s been 8yrs since we made this decision. Since this article was written we’ve had several major life changes including selling our home and moving into a 900sq ft bungalow rental house down the street, starting a company, purchasing equipment for our business, buying a fixer up house with some land on the opposite side of town(more about that here) buying a van, taking several trips including another trip to Hawaii and having another baby.  All the while we’ve strived to live on cash and avoid credit cards and loans. I will say we did end up deciding to purchase our home with a loan but hope to pay it off early and got a good deal on it since it needed some major work done.

I’ll let this past post featured on Money Saving Mom explain how we got started on our debt free journey and explain more about the other changes in some upcoming posts. http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/08/being-debt-free-is-so-worth-it.html

Highlights & Challenges of 2014: Pregnancy, Home and Family Life

Posted by Mama Bear on November 27, 2014 Comments Off on Highlights & Challenges of 2014: Pregnancy, Home and Family Life

Highs and lows of navigating life this year so far.

January – Got pregnant with #3 after making some health changes and seeing a holistic chiro.

February – Found out we were pregnant with # 3 due in Oct.
  Took the boys to Destin, FL and stopped to see family in Alabama on the way.
  Knocked the rock wall out of the dining room and pulled up the old wood tile.

March – Went to my first homeschooling convention.

April – Potty trained G.
   Got our first chicks.
   Went to Devils Den State Park in Arkansas. Walked the trails and took the boys to their first cave at War Eagle.

May – Lost one of our apple trees in a windstorm and planted several more fruit trees to replace it.
    Moved the chicks to their outdoor coop and run.
    Finally got the solar panels up and running and connected to the electric company.
    Bro in laws dog was hit and lost Mittens to an inoperable blockage.
     Built boxes for our garden and planted tomatoes, peppers, beets, carrots, cucumber, radishes, sunflowers, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, blueberries, raspberries, rhubarb and several rows of pumpkins (the rows of pumpkins we planted all got eaten by squash bugs😔).
    Found out at our gender reveal party we would be welcoming sweet baby boy #3.

June – I finally ordered a Young Living starter kit so I had an arsenal of high quality oils to give our family an extra boost in the health arena.

Went Blueberry picking with my sis in law.
   Took the boys mini golfing at Paradise Park for the first time

July – Picked 15 tomato horn worms off our tomato plants and fed them to the chickens (they make great recyclers) 😅
   We hosted our annual 4th of July party.
   Went to Kauai just the two(I mean 3)of us. Took a catamaran around the coast, did lots of snorkeling, rented a mustang, saw and hung out with friends & family.

August – Started Kinder homeschooling with J.
   Went to Destin, FL with some of the fam. Stayed in a condo. Rented a boat and drove to Shell island and saw lots of dolphins on the way back.

September – Got out first eggs from our chickens.
   Bought the boys a bunk bed and got lots of things ready for the baby including needing to switch midwives in the last few weeks.
   Corey injured his leg/back/hip pretty bad at work.

October – Finally welcomed baby boy #3 after my water had been leaking for about 36hrs before going into active labor. Active labor lasted about 1-2hrs and pushing stage almost 2 hours because he had his hand above his head. https://therewegrow.com/home-sweet-homebirth/

Royals went to the World Series.
Hosted our annual hayride/bonfire

And that pretty much brings us up to date…

Weird Ways to Save Money

Posted by Mama Bear on August 7, 2012 None comments

I have to admit, some of the things we’ve done or do that has saved us money would definetly go down in the “weird” file for many americans. For example, we don’t have cable or a flat screen tv. We use cloth diapers, natural health remedies and cleaning methods. We’ve bought pallets of food and gluten free items at an auction(we’re talking 50lb bags of cereal, oats ect) and filled our living room with cardboard boxes full of seat covers to sell on ebay. We bought a popup trailer on craigslist so we didn’t have to rent one and then sold it when we got back in town for more money than we bought it for. The funniest thing my husband has probably done was pick up chunks of ice off the walmart parking lot to put it in our cooler(for items we didn’t have to worry about where the ice came from of course)but we still got a good laugh out of it…

I told you they’d be weird 😉


 Have ever done something “weird” to save money?

Living Debt Free

Posted by Mama Bear on August 6, 2012 1 comments

For those of you who don’t know, my husband and I, by the grace of God, live debt free. It’s not always easy and this year has definetly thrown some challenges our way. We now facilitate financial classes occasionally and LOVE being able to encourge others in the journey by “throwing out a rope” so to speak.

Now I know not everyone wants this or feels its what their family should do and some have decided to stop it temporarily for other things they need to take care of but for those working towards this goal the sacrifices you are making now will have a huge impact later. Success very rarely happens overnight. It’s making right or wrong decisions on a daily basis. Making bad choices over and over will cause death by 1000 cuts. Set goals and allow yourself small rewards to help keep your momentum going. Be intentional and very soon, little by little you will be seeing the rewards and results of all your hard work. You can do it!