Being a mother is an honor. Even though motherhood came sooner than I expected, the impact of being a mother has forever changed my life. However, if I were to die today and no longer be around for my children, there are things I feel strongly that I would want my children to remember and know about life. As life unfolds we tend to forget and become distracted. Here are the principles I would want to remind my children of and stay connected to.

You are a Spiritual Being in Physical World
Honor your intuition
Have integrity
You are here to enjoy and appreciate this life
You are a genius
You deserve the best that life has to offer
The opposite of fear is love inspired by Marianne Williamson
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Give with Love and Gratitude
Feel good no matter what
Never put your happiness in something outside of yourself
See the good in everything and learn from your life lessons
Show compassion and the world will be compassionate towards you
This world is a reflection- give away what you want and it will come back tenfold

Don’t Listen to Outside Influences
Marketing : commercials, ads, etc. that distract you from your inner voice
Advice from the good opinions of others
Think your own thoughts
Be the solution not the problem

You are Your Own Leader & Lead With Your Heart
Let your passion guide you
Have a Vision
Stay committed and focused on what you want
Share your perspective publicly
You will advance further in this life when you focus on being kind rather than right
Do it Anyway inspired by Mother Teresa’s Anyway Poem

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Employ and Invest in Yourself
Be in charge of your life and career.
Let it be the thing you most love and are most passionate about sharing and would do for free just because you love it.
Never choose anything you clock in and out from. Do what is built into you to do that never turns off after 40 hours.
“The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.” – Malcolm Forbes

Take Care of Your Body, it is Your Transmitter to the Divine
Rest
Get sun
Breathe fresh clean air
Exercise and sweat
Stay properly hydrated and drink pure water from natural springs and produce
Nourish your body with plenty of dark leafy greens and fresh fruit
Be your own preventative health doctor, do not expect someone else to care more for your body than you do.

Surround Yourself with People Who Inspire You to Be More
You are the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with. You are the average in attitude, emotional stability, income, weight/health, education, etc…
Only spend time with those who encourage you and support you.
Give others the freedom to have their own thoughts and do as they please.
Be loving and supportive of others. It’s more important to be kind than right!
Build a tribe of close friends that you enjoy through your life.
Contribute and share your gifts with the world. Improve the quality of others lives.
Leave this planet better than when you arrived.

Choose a Sustainable Living Environment
Locate your home in a place that sustains life without the need of human intervention. The more you do this the less you will need from outside resources. This will encourage freedom for it will provide fresh natural resources such as clean air, plenty of water or rain, sunshine, temperate climate. Honor this place and leave it in better condition than when you came.

Your Home is Your Private Sanctuary
Be Prepared
Grow your own food for quality and purity, for love and variety, for freshness and nutrient density, for preparedness and health, for freedom and a healthy planet
Prepare your home for Natural Disasters with medical aid, water and food supply and alternative shelter and protection from heat and chill
Know how to treat emergency situations: first aid, CPR, etc..

Live Lightly and Simply
Let greed be for the fools

Experience True Wealth
Money is not true wealth, but love, time, health, pleasure, wisdom, and peace are!

Alex and Mehgan this is written for and dedicated to you. I am so thankful to be your mother and may your life be filled with true wealth. If you are a mother, please take the time to make sure your children know what is important, leave them your legacy now. Do not wait until it is too late. Who knows, maybe you’ll start blogging and leave that as your legacy for your children. Pay your wisdom forward.

What would you do if you experienced a natural disaster today? Would you be prepared? Could you tend to medical emergencies? We have seen the life threatening effects from hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and floods yet I don’t see very many people taking action to prepare themselves in case of an emergency…. including myself.

Recently, I needed to get something out of my first aid kit for my son and I noticed how depleted of medical supplies my kit has become. I went into a mini panic. I started to think, “What if I was in a life threatening situation right now? I would be screwed!” That feeling gave me a sick pit in my stomach that hasn’t really left. As a matter of fact, I keep experiencing things that are reminding me that I need to be more prepared. I need to be able to take care of myself and my kids in times of a natural disaster or medical emergency.

I started taking a look around my home. Questions began to overwhelm me like:

Water
How much fresh water do I have and how long would it last if the water was shut off right now? Where would I get water if stores were closed and roads were closed?

Food
What about food supply? How much do I have and how long will it last?

Medical Aid
If my kids or myself were bit by a rattlesnake or black widow spider (very common where I live) would I be able to treat it? What about a gash or CPR?

Questions kept flowing in reminding me of how foolish I have been and how ill prepared I am to provide for myself and my children in times of an emergency despite current events and disasters that have devastated many.

But these extreme situations are not the only thoughts I have been having. I also recently watched a program on the indigenous tribes of the Amazon and how over the past 15 years they have gone from being self reliant to totally dependant on outside sources to provide for their families. I was saddened to put it mildly. I went on a rant explaining how weak of a species we have become. Many of us ignore our human instincts and our innate ability to be self reliant.

We have got to stop expecting outside sources to take care of us and learn how to be self reliant. It seems we are a society full of co-dependant people and what we really need is interdependence (people who can take care of themselves and can contribute). People need to be able to take care of themselves and their families and sadly we are moving further and further away from that. Overall, we are no longer able to provide the basic needs if our life depended on it.

This post is a wake up call. A reminder to get back in touch with life sustaining methods, to be prepared (not paranoid, or frightened) in any situation. There is such a sense of peace and freedom when you can take matters into your own hands.

I want the peace of mind that if anything was to happen I could handle the situation well. I could experience it the hard and unprepared way or I can take the proper actions to where it really doesn’t devastate my family because I am not dependant on outside sources and I am self reliant. Here is what I am working on right now:

Teaching my children protocols for natural disasters (such as earthquakes and fires)
Obtaining plenty fresh water to store at my home that will last about a week (about 30 gallons)
Learning about the native wild foods in my area
Creating a diverse seed bank and swap seeds
Learning where to obtain fresh water by bike (findaspring.com)
Eating a diet that is not dependant on cooking (Thank you Raw Food Diet!)
Growing an edible landscape that would provide year round food and medicine for my family that could grow even without watering for a month (lots of fruit and nut trees and avocados)
Refreshing CPR and First Aid skills
Restocking the first aid kit with the following:
Burn kit
Poisonous bites and stings
Rashes, hives, and allergies
Cuts, Scrapes, Deep Gashes
Inflammation, bruising, sprains, strains, broken bones, dislocations
Food poisoning
Heat stroke, shock
Eye, ear, throat, & nasal canal care
Fever and cold kit
Camping kit
A quick evacuation kit in a backpack for everyone in my home that would sustain us for 3 days

A goal I have for my family is to be as self reliant as possible. We have decided to start making the proper actions and prepare for a self reliance challenge. Rather than wait for a disaster to force us to live without outside sources I think it would be fun and reassuring to see how a trial run would go. So here is brief rundown of the self reliance challenge:

Self Reliance Challenge
How long and well could you live if you:
Shut off gas, water, electricity to your home
Did not use trash service, sewage, heating, cooling
Were unable to use your car, cell phone, Internet
What if outside help was unavailable such as: police, fire, paramedics, overcrowded emergency rooms/hospitals, grocery stores, etc
What if you were unable to access your money and banks were closed?
How would you feed yourself and your family?
How would you bathe?

What about you? What if you needed to evacuate your home in 10 minutes? Would the important supplies be available quickly? What if you were forced out of your home due to flood, or fire? Where would you live? How would you stay warm or cool? I know it can sound silly to some, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and there is wisdom in learning from those who have experienced such hardships.

So, what about you…..tell me your plan B! How long can you go on the self reliance challenge?

Last year I wrote a blog titled, “Financial Slavery and Financial Freedom“. Then, in my last blog post I shared with you that I had been doing a “Life Detox”. One thing I did not mention was my financial life. In February I experienced a little taste of financial freedom when I paid my last car payment. That feeling of wanting MORE financial freedom inspired me to delve into my finances and see where I could make more improvements……and I did!

I pulled out my cell phone bill, my car insurance, home phone, cable, Internet connection and my last 2 remaining credit cards and went into research mode. Not only did I find errors, I was able to make corrections that will save me almost $5000 this year! This was shocking, and I got an adrenalin rush. How many other people are depleting their funds unnecessarily? When I realized it was about $5000 I began to realize how the pennies that were slipping through my bank account could add up to pay for a simple family vacation in Hawaii. Imagine receiving a family trip to Hawaii just for doing a little personal research on your finances…would you do it?

Here is where my $5000 was hidden.

Car Insurance
First I called my car insurance company. Since I now owned my car I wanted to change my policy from full coverage to liability, but in the process I had asked if they showed any driving violations on my driving record. I was glad I asked that simple question because they were charging me according to having 2 traffic violations on my record. So, they did a little research and found that I did not have any violations and that I had over paid by $620. By switching from full coverage to liability I would save another $427 a year. That comes out to $1047 just from my car insurance company.

Cell Phone
I looked into my plan and found that there was an error on my bill here too! I was being charged $50 more a month. It seems that someone entered things wrong in their computer system and they would have never corrected it if I hadn’t called. By checking in and reviewing my plan I am saving $600 a month on my cell phone bill.

Internet, Cable, Home Phone
Originally I was calling on my home phone because I needed to change my long distance plan. Then the operator informed me of a promotion they were running to bundle my Internet, cable and home phone into one package deal. I have been paying for Internet and cable in one bill and my home phone on another. I currently was paying $110 for cable and Internet and $65 for my home phone. The bundle is a 2 year contract, but it comes out to $124 a month. This saves me $51 a month which in one year is $612.

Credit Card Interest Rates
I decided I had gone this far in researching my expenses, I might as well see what interest rates I was paying and if I could decrease the rate. Of course somewhere along the road my interest rate of 9% had been increased to 20%. I was paying almost $120 in finance charges on one account alone. This was very frustrating to realize. I’d much rather have that money in my pocket than just spent on my poor financial decisions and now in finance charges. I asked my credit card company if they would reduce the interest rate and they said very kindly, “NO”. So, I looked into a balance transfer that offered a better interest rate. I found an offer for 10% that not only would I be saving $2367, but all the other saved money from the above accounts would allow me to pay off both credit cards (that total about $10,000) in one year as opposed to the typical 3 years one might pay off a credit card.

All these inquiries led up to a savings of $4626 over one year. All it took was a few phone calls and some curiosity. The scent of financial freedom has me hungry for more. I am now going back to a financial habit that I once was very dedicated with which was to write down my spending everyday. I always find that the pennies here and there add up and I tend to sacrifice the things I really want because I am blowing my money little by little on things that don’t even benefit my life in a great way.

I really hope this blog post inspires you to take a look at your expenses and to check for errors and find ways that you can improve your financial life. Who knows, maybe one day we will meet on the beaches of Hawaii and toast to the mantra, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”