Hello, My Name Is...Singer, Banker, Homesteader, What?!?

Well, hello and welcome to my introduction.

It seems a bit awkward, since I've been a Steemian for just over a month now and I never really did properly introduce myself. However, I've been advised by several folks so far that this is important, so here I go.

I'm CrowbarMama, a homeschooling, homesteading mother of 4 who loves music and cooking nutrient dense food for my family. (Nourishing Traditions is a book everyone should have in their library.) We have some pretty complicated food restrictions so I often describe my time in the kitchen more as science experiments rather than regular baking.

As much as we loved our little homestead, a couple of years ago we decided to sell it and purchase a travel trailer as we hit the road in search of something that would better suit our needs. After nearly two years of living in a travel trailer, we are now in the final stages of building our home and focusing on the homestead again. It's been a long road, but we have enjoyed the experiences and lessons that come with building a home from the ground up. (This year, my personal goal is to become more knowledgeable and confident in gardening.)

We're a very eclectic family. We allow our children to explore their interests in an unschooling way, but we limit screentime in a Waldorf-ish way and the nerd in me still loves a good worksheet now and then, so I think we're pretty well rounded.

As for my background, I am a work in progress. I am the product of my many experiences and lessons (aka mistakes…lots of them!).

Aging doesn't scare me anymore, rather I am enjoying finally getting to be my true self.

I am the first-born of immigrant parents, who sacrificed to make a better life and provide better opportunity for their future children and grandchildren. As a child, I fell in love with music as it kept me afloat through times of turmoil and heartache. I fell into theatre quite by accident, but love it almost as much as music.

My daughter and I were cast as Mama Bear & Baby Bear in Shrek a few years ago.

In my late teens, most Fridays I could be found at the karaoke bar, where I was ‘discovered’ and asked to sing in a local rock band. This is a joke amongst friends since it was a small town and we never made it big so not much of a discovery, but great fun!

Eventually, I worked up from retail to banking, and shortly thereafter, promoted to managing my own office, while still fronting the rock band—those were fun times! Banker by day, rocker by night!

Banking wasn’t much fun when my focus had to be on profit and not customer service, but how could I just walk away from such a great position? Well, opportunity knocked, in the form of an armed takeover robbery. A terrifying ordeal, but looking back, I am so grateful as it gave me a way out of that life. Shortly thereafter, an opportunity to teach music and art to grade-school students appeared and I took a 70% paycut and was thrilled about it!

This is me playing songs for a co-op preschool class,with my toddler in tow, but my classroom music always started with a song on guitar as well.

I have always enjoyed helping, guiding and teaching others.

My younger brothers said I was bossy.

I said I had good management and communication skills.

I even went back to school to become a teacher. That is, until I realized I wanted to stay home at teach my own children.

My husband and I left our traditional suburban life for a homestead in the foothills 5 years ago and it was the best decision we ever made. We are by no means experts, but we now have experience with raising chickens, ducks, quail, hogs and milk goats.

We have basic butchering skills. We have now built 6 different types of bird coops without plans. We learned about fencing and predators.

We have dabbled in gardening, focusing on permaculture and hugekultur. We have successfully pressure canned and also fermented foods. (One of my recent posts was a tutorial for water kefir, the second ferment.)

We have learned off-grid ways to survive, that is to stay warm and have water and cook without power. We regularly practice firearm safety.

What I really enjoyed and miss most about our old homestead, was caring for my goats. I learned how to milk, castrate, disbud and trim hooves on goats.

The best part, is that our children have learned most of these things alongside us.

In many ways, the past five years have been the most grueling and exhausting of my life, but at the same time, the most rewarding. I'm glad I got to experience so much in my younger years, but this is where I am meant to be now.

There are so many mistakes that I no longer regret, but instead now hold dear. Those lessons were more valuable than any trophy or award I could have ever received. I believe strongly that we each make our own path and must do so at our own pace.

I am not here to argue or convince anyone of anything. I am here merely to share what my experiences have been, and in the off-chance that someone is experiencing something similar, they can know that they are not alone. I am not here to tell you what you should eat, how you should worship or where you should live.

I will share what has changed my life for the better. I will share the struggles I have overcome because it might give someone in a similar situation a glimmer of hope. I will share what I have learned about health and nutrition because I believe we as a modern society are sadly under-nourished despite all the abundance that exists around us. I will share the struggles I still face daily being a homesteading, homeschooling mother of 4, including a child who has complicated food sensitivities and is wise beyond her sensory-processing issues.

I do not regret my choices, as every one of them has led me to where I am today and that is right where I am meant to be. I now understand that what I focus on will become my reality. If I focus on regret, I will create more of it. If I focus on knowledge, then accordingly I will gain more of it.

I am a work in progress and I am proud to finally have the courage to stand in my perfect imperfection.