Happy New Year from Our Kaleidoscope Homestead! We hope your holiday season was filled with joy and happy memories, and that you’re feeling refreshed and motivated for the wonderful year ahead of us. The past few months have been very busy for us, and we have a couple of very exciting updates to share.
Our Homestead
The 2023 garden ended with harvesting lots of Brussel sprouts, which were enjoyed fresh, and some were frozen. We’re now planning for next summer’s garden by figuring out what to plant where, now that we have the experience of our first year at this property. We are also figuring out how to set up a grow room in our basement. The seeds did not do well in our little greenhouse/shed last spring. Our theory is that it just didn’t get warm enough for them to sprout, and when they did, it was too late in the season.
The chickens and ducks are spending less time outside due to the colder weather. We set up a second stall in the barn for them to go into on really cold days, for more room and little something different. They have continued to give us a lot of eggs, especially the ducks. They each lay an egg, almost every day. We have had so many duck eggs that we started a bartering arrangement with a local woman with a pie stand. Every time we accumulate a few cartons of duck eggs, we trade them in for a delicious, homemade pie!
Christmas
We had a wonderful Christmas which included driving around to look at the lights, making graham cracker houses and cookies, holiday concerts at school, and lots of presents. I did pretty well keeping the costs of all of those presents in check, with purchases from Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and some crochet presents. Each of the kids picked out a stuffed animal that they wanted me to crochet for them (I’m almost finished with those).
Teacher gift bags included homemade vanilla extract, one of my planners, a crochet cup cozy, and a jar of Wild Violet jelly.
We also have a new member of the family. My Christmas present was to adopt a orange tabby cat, similar to the one I had as a little girl. Mr. Smith and I actually drove two hours away to a very overcrowded shelter, that also happened to have low adoption fees, to pick up our new kitty.
Frugal Family Mini-Vacation to Washington D.C.
We just returned from a short roadtrip to Washington, D.C. My brother-in-law lives very close to this destination and recently purchased a new home with room for all of us. On December 27th, we packed up the kids and drove the bus to visit their Uncle. We were able to visit monuments, and The National Zoo, Natural History Museum, Air and Space Museum, and American History Museum. Although it seemed a bit busy to us, we were assured that this time between Christmas and New Year’s is the best time to visit.
Just like the last time we went in 2018, we were able to keep costs very low – as in less than $500! We had a place to stay and brought food with us, so the main expense was gas for the bus and tolls. Did you know that all of the Smithsonian museums in Washington D.C. are free? We did need to reserve tickets for The National Zoo and Air and Space Museum, but totally free and easy to do online (just try to get them a few days before your visit). We love D.C. for these free, educational, and fun attractions. Each location also allowed us to bring in packed lunches, with drinks. You just have to eat in the designated areas.
The trickiest part of going on this trip was finding someone to take care of the chickens. Thankfully, my brother offered to stay at our home and take care of everything.
We were gone for only five days, but enjoyed quite the adventure.
Work Negotiations
Why have I always been so afraid, to negotiate a better salary? I should NOT have waited so long.
In the fourteen years that I have been practicing as an attorney, I never before asked for a specific amount when review time came around at the end of the year. I decided that it was time to ask for a significant raise, in light of a number of factors, which made the request feel very justified. So I wrote out an email to my boss, pleading my case and requesting a specific amount for my new salary (trust me, I read that email so many times, and was super nervous to hit send).
My boss replied by saying that he was impressed by my email, and that he couldn’t argue with it. Moral of the story is, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for something that you believe is deserved. This raise will be very helpful as we come closer to our goal of financial semi-independence.
Crochet
This was the year that I started branching out with crochet, from a hobby to a small business. I only intended to do the one craft fair in our town, but ended up doing a total of four craft fairs. They were so much fun and my profits grew with each subsequent event. The last one in December was only four hours, and I made a profit of $178!!
I have been trying to start something new, which I’m calling “HookBookstagram.” The goal is to combine crochet and reading on social media. Make sure to follow me on Instagram if you want to see some crochet and book reviews together.
I also have some crochet patterns in the works!!
Podcasts
I was recently a guest on the following two podcasts:
Best of Both Worlds podcast: Harmony Smith on financial independence, lawyer life, and homesteading
2024 Plans and Announcements
The My Kaleidoscope planner is still available for 2024.
In addition, as promised, I will be launching a totally free mini-course on balance. It will be available in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
Our big financial goal for 2024 is to pay off the mortgage on our first home, currently being used as a rental property. The balance is approximately $36,000. If we can pay this off by the end of the year, then we will have one less bill every month, and will be much closer to our goal of financial semi-independence in 2025. My raise will help with this, but we will also need to do some side hustling. For now, I’m focusing on selling items on Poshmark and building up my crochet inventory for more craft fairs.
In 2024, we will be expanding the garden, by adding new types of vegetables. Other plans for this year include the addition of bees, angora rabbits, and mushrooms.
And (because that’s not enough to put on our plates), we’re planning another family adventure to a brand new location for all of us.
Happy New Year from The Smith Family!
May this be the year that you start to see the fruit of your labors, and find better balance in life.
Hey Harmony,
I found you on pinterest and loved your pins. I had to reach out.
You are a taskmaster! How do you have your life together with a toddler, raising ducks and chickens, and having the time to garden?
Do you even do crochet? That is some good time management skills!
That cat looks cute.
Thanks for sharing your plans and life.
Jason@motivationpay recently posted…Path to Self Discovery: 9 Ways You Can Find Yourself