Embracing Change and Nurturing Family Bonds with Meighan

After experiencing a series of challenges and moving 27 times, Meighan and her husband, Paul, finally found their dream home in Sarnia. But just when things seem to be going well, a difficult decision and a surprising revelation leave them questioning their future. Will they be able to overcome the obstacles and find a way forward?

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Reinforce family bonds and cultivate intentional living for life enrichment.
• Unveil the hidden potential of homesteading for a self-reliant existence.
• Dive deep into the process of evaluating traditions and exploring truth in your faith.
• Embark on the path of gradual lifestyle adjustments for enhanced well-being.
• Harness the power of living in the moment and taking small steps to live a purposeful life.

My special guest is Meighan

Hailing from Sarnia, Ontario, Meighan is a devoted wife and mother who has made it her mission to bring families together through community initiatives. As a co-founder of Sarnia Family Fun, she’s played a pivotal role in organizing and hosting events that foster connections between families in her hometown. After moving to Brantford, Meighan continued her work in ministry and community outreach, navigating the challenges of balancing a demanding career with her family life. Her experiences have taught her the importance of intentional living and putting family first, making her a true inspiration to others.

Make One Change

Taking small but meaningful steps is a practical approach when embarking on a journey towards a more fulfilling life. Adopting incremental changes allows people to gradually adjust to their new lifestyle, ultimately leading to lasting transformation. Meighan discusses how small changes, like making one’s bread, can lead to a more sustainable and intentional life. She advises others not to feel overly pressured by the expectations of various communities, but simply to focus on the positive impact each small change can bring. Meighan’s experience reminds us that it is important not to compare ourselves to others but to celebrate each step taken towards a more sustainable and intentional lifestyle.

Making Life Changes for Family

Transitioning to a more intentional way of living and prioritizing one’s family can come with challenges and fears, but it is essential for those who want to live a fulfilling life. Adjusting to new routines can foster growth and adaptation, and support from immediate family members and friends can also play a significant role during the process. This way, individuals and families can navigate through the changes and focus on building a life they cherish. Meighan’s experience showcases real-life examples of how important it is to put one’s family first in order to inspire significant transformations. She and her husband relied on their faith, faced difficult decisions like leaving their church, and sought financial stability through various income sources. Their approach towards living an intentional life demonstrates the power of making life changes to prioritize family, resulting in a closer connection and increased happiness.

Creating a Life on Their Own Terms

Designing a life based on one’s values and aspirations allows for greater fulfillment and purpose. It fosters the ability to grow on a personal and professional level by focusing on what matters most. In turn, this can lead to a healthier and more balanced lifestyle that generates lasting joy. Meighan shares her story of intentionally designing her family’s life by pursuing their dreams of traveling and investing quality time together. As they focus on financial stability, developing successful businesses, homeschooling, and nurturing family relationships, Meighan and her husband prioritize what truly matters. Emphasizing their efforts to live life on their terms underlines the significance of intentional living in achieving meaningful harmony and contentment.

From Her Social Media:

Meighan Tyas
Jesus ✝️
Wife
Mama to one 👦🏻 & one 👼🏼

Where to Find Meighan:
https://www.instagram.com/megasorus/

OTHER EPISODES YOU MAY ENJOY:

08: Living Life On Their Terms Through God’s Lead with Kristy Janzen

06: Uncover the Story of How Brenda Left Suburbia for Self-Sufficiency

03: The Life-Changing Adventure of Living Full-Time in an RV

—————-

For more information, show notes and links:
https://moresunsetsplease.com/podcast

—————-

Here’s what I use:

Filmed using StreamYard
https://streamyard.com/pal/5952940241846272
Zeewer Mic & Stand
https://amzn.to/3IMQ0qE
Edited with DaVinci Resolve 18
Podcast hosted on BuzzSprout: 
https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1673515
YouTube Metrics tracked with TubeBuddy: 
https://www.tubebuddy.com/moresunsetsplease
Get Organized all in one place with AirTable:
https://airtable.com/invite/r/LyGkZs6O
Keep Everyone in the Know with ConvertKit Email:
https://convertkit.com?lmref=UfpqoA
Get Social & Scheduled with Metricool:
https://i.mtr.cool/KNIZTF
Easiest Website Hosting with Host Gator – get 65% off!
https://referral.hostgator.com/s/Kate
Looking for more, check out our Amazon Storefront:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/moresunsetsplease

*Affiliate links*

*****Support The Show*****

If you’d like to help our podcast, https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nevertookate  buy a “coffee” or step up with a monthly donation to keep these stories being shared. 

We also accept Venmo @moresunsetsplease

*****

Connect with me: 

Website: https://moresunsetsplease.com 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moresunsetsplease.podcast  
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moresunsetsplease 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@nevertookate 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/more-sunsets-please

************

Make sure to subscribe for new episodes each week with a new person or family, sharing their stories of how they stepped outside of the box to live life on their terms.

************

Transcript from the show with Meighan Tyas

00:00:26 You, Meighan. I am so excited to have you here at the More Sunsets Please podcast. Yeah, I’m excited to be here. Been looking forward to it. Yes, I am so excited as well, because you’ve got a great story and some great information and little tidbits for people.

00:00:44 Now, I always like to start off with where are you at right now? Well, we are in Sarnia, Ontario. I guess I was born and kind of raised around this area. I traveled a lot, like, moved a lot as a kid. Actually, I am 33 this year and I have moved 27 times, so I should get a badge or something.

00:01:05 Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I thought we moved a lot, but you take the cake beat. Oh, you totally do. My husband and I met up in Peterborough at Bible College, and we started out in Orangeville, but that was a short month.

00:01:23 A whole thing to that. But we lived in Hamilton and then made our way down here. Which, fun fact, as a kid, my grandparents are from around here. So I always said, this is where I’m going to live one day. And everyone’s like, okay, whatever.

00:01:38 Because my parents raised us more in the Windsor area. So I always said, no, I’m coming back here. And I would tell my grandparents. I even wrote it in the foundation of their house when they built a new house. No way my name, because I was coming back.

00:01:50 And sure enough, here we are. My husband and I, Paul, have moved a couple of times as well. A couple ten in our ten years of marriage. There’s a theme happening here. There is, yeah.

00:02:04 But we fell in love with Sarnia, and we had a quick little blip, which I’ll get to when we share a bit of more of our story after. But we moved to Brantford and then moved back. So this is truly home for us. This is truly home. We love it.

00:02:18 Yeah. Sarnia, Ontario. Yeah. Good old Ontario. Right on the border.

00:02:24 That’s right. That’s where we crossed, was in Sarnia. Oh, I know. I love our Sarnia border. It has been such a gift the last couple of years.

00:02:34 Well, in prior, I mean, Hobby Lobby is like 15 minutes from my house, so that’s great. Can you believe for my bank, before. We got here, I didn’t even know about Hobby Lobby. What? I didn’t know about it.

00:02:45 Oh, my goodness. And then I went into one thinking it was like a collection store. Like the hobby stores at home. No, my friend. Yes.

00:02:53 Well, it is a collection. Oh, my gosh. Decorative things for your house and a place to spend your money. All the money. All the money.

00:03:02 Not me, because again, we’re from Canada, so I’ve never gone into a store. And I was listening to the music playing in the background, and I’m like, wait a minute, Christian, I know this song from church.

00:03:17 They close on Sundays. They still do. Which is they still do. Yeah. And we’ve come across a whole bunch of places like that, which, again, would never fly in Canada.

00:03:26 No, that would never fly. Like, even Kate this weekend, how many stores were still open? Like Christmas? Everything still stays open for stuff. It’s wild.

00:03:40 Crazy good on them. Yes. Hobby Lobby and Cracker Barrel. Yes. They’re one of our favorites because they let us park there.

00:03:50 Oh, that’s cool. I didn’t know that. Yeah, there’s designated RV spots, so we call it cracker docking.

00:03:59 I’ll have to keep this in mind because one day is to buy a trailer and go, winter. Get out of Canada for the winter. We are not snow people at all. Kind of like keeping a mental tab of where’s the places to go. How can you spend the least amount of money?

00:04:16 Oh, girl, I got you covered. I’ll be calling you up. Yes. Because we’re all about keeping the pennies in our pocket. Yes, me too.

00:04:27 Especially the cost of things. I’m like, save me as much as I can. I know. And the inflation has been a killer because when we left Ontario, the cost of groceries in Ontario felt high. And then we came across the US and they felt low.

00:04:40 Well, they’re now the same dollar for dollars. They were in Canada, but now in American prices. So it’s wild to just groceries. When we came to Florida last spring, we noticed that for the first time. We go to Florida every year.

00:04:58 I’ve done it since I was nine. My grandparents have a condo down there, and so we usually go one or two times a year. But yeah, last year we did not budget for that. A real shock. But it was just great to get.

00:05:11 Out of Canada, so we didn’t care. Yeah, that’s okay. I had you covered on the popcorn bucket. Yes, you did.

00:05:19 Oh, goodness. All right, so you touched a little bit on it’s. You and Paul and who else is family? Our son, Sawyer, he’s five and a half and yeah, he’s a huge ball of energy, but we love him. Sure.

00:05:34 He keeps us running. Yes.

00:05:40 He’S great. I just sent him to the sKate park, actually. I was like, Go away. Quiet afternoon. Oh, that’s awesome.

00:05:47 Yeah, I’m sure he’s going to have a blast. Oh, yeah. Now that the snow or well, we didn’t really have a ton of snow, but now that the cold is gone and we’re getting sunshine and warmth yeah. We’re going to spend so much time outside. Oh, yeah.

00:06:00 And it’s cold here now after some insane heat wave. Now we’re into cold. And by cold, I mean it’s 75 and overcast, which is like 20. You know what’s funny is I don’t understand celsius. Oh, really?

00:06:18 People all the time. I’m like, okay, we’re entering fahrenheit weather. And they’re like, what are you talking about? I’m like, well, when it’s warm, I do Fahrenheit when it’s cold. I do celsius.

00:06:27 Don’t ask me to translate because I don’t know how, but my brain knows in the summer. I wonder if it’s because you were always in the south in the winter and so focused on the temperature in the south, because it is a big difference to hear, oh, yeah, it’s in the week, you’re like, okay, that’s going to be toasty. Whereas you hear 30s in Canada and you’re like, okay, that’ll be warm. Right? And then 35 is like, insanely hot.

00:06:54 Yeah, but wait a minute, you just said 30 was warm. I know. 35 is, like, insanely hot. Yeah. It’s more exciting to me to hear Fahrenheit in the summer, too, and like, woohoo, 80 degrees instead of whatever the translation is.

00:07:08 2020 something.

00:07:13 That’s funny. It’s probably a border city thing. Like, I always grew up on border cities. That’s true. That’s what I think it is.

00:07:20 Do you do distance the same? How do you do your distances? No, I still do those kilometers. Yeah. Okay.

00:07:28 Yeah, because that just makes sense. Yeah. Miles and feet and yards in distance has never made sense in my brain. And the thing is, when I go to the States, it’s usually my husband who drives, so I don’t have to think about miles. Yeah.

00:07:42 I just sit there. Yeah. I don’t even copilot. I am the music person. Nice.

00:07:52 Day of the drive, the snack lady, the plan, the hotels. That’s me. Nice. All right, let’s dig in. Let’s get into your story.

00:08:02 So you’re the very first one who is not actually the second one who is not an RV story. Yeah. And yours is very unique because you guys live in a sticks and bricks, as the RV community calls it. You live in a home, you live in the city, which others are trying to get out of the city, but you have a little unique twist. So let’s give us a little background on your story.

00:08:28 Yeah, so I’ll go back to probably, like 2020. That seems to be our pivot point for pretty much anyone. Just saying a little bit about my husband and I. We met in Bible college. My husband and I moved around a little bit, and then we actually interviewed for the same job, which is so funny, right after we got married.

00:08:48 And they picked him. But that’s okay. There was no hard feelings. Yeah. So my husband first went and pastored, and it was down in this area about 25 minutes from Sarnia.

00:08:59 Yeah, we loved pastoring, we loved ministry. We mainly worked kids and youth ministry, doing a lot of community outreach programs and things like that. And then then we moved from there shortly after we went through a whole thing and my dad passed away. And we just kind of evaluated our life. This was the first step, I guess, in looking at things a little different.

00:09:24 And my husband said, you know what, I actually want to go into construction. He had done it since he was 17, just as a side thing, learned about it. And so we were both, at the time employed after he left that church. And we’re just like, God, what do you want us to do? Okay, we’re unemployed here and people are thinking we’re crazy.

00:09:49 He came to me one day and he’s just like, hey Meg, I really think God’s telling me to start my own business. So if you know me at all, if you know him at all, we’re like, yeah, sure, let’s go for it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. This is kind of our view. And so, yeah, we launched his business and a little bit maybe like a week or so, like it wasn’t long.

00:10:13 I got a call about a church here in Sarnia for me to come originally just to revamp their kids program and turned into five and a half years there. And then that brings us to what, 2018, I believe it was shortly after our son was born and I got a call for a place in Brantford, a church in Brantford. So my husband and I had done something here in Sarnia called Sarnia family fun. It was purely an outreach thing. It was kind of backed by our church, like our volunteers and financially.

00:10:47 But the main purpose was to unite families in Sarnia. So if you know anything about Sarnia, it is a seniors community. But there are families here and we wanted to connect them and give them something to do. Like, we don’t even have play places. There’s nothing geared for families here.

00:11:03 So that was a huge success. Our last event we did actually was just over 3000 people. All the credit to God. I don’t know how that happened. There was a ton of people.

00:11:12 It was wild. And that led us to Brantford. Them hearing about it and wanting us to come and start the same kind of stuff there. So we moved to Brantford, which was very different for us. We are smaller town people.

00:11:26 My husband grew up in Shelburne, Ontario, which is a little country town area. I grew up just outside of Windsor in a little blip on the map of 1000 people. Cotton, Ontario, if you know it. So that’s where I was from. So we liked the smaller town and Brantford was a big change for us.

00:11:43 We had just bought our first home about a year and a half before. We were flipping it, it was in the south end. So we were like, okay, well, all these things were lining up for God to lead us there. So we went there and I pastored, I did kids ministry and community outreach. And then shortly before or sorry, once the pandemic hit, obviously I couldn’t work from church.

00:12:10 Like, I couldn’t go into work. So here I was staying at home with a full time job and a two year old who just so conveniently cut his naps. Like, I’m pretty sure, the first day of lockdown. So my husband was still working because he did construction stuff. He partnered with that company up there, and because they were outside, they were doing stuff that was essential, he was still able to go to work.

00:12:35 So how my day would look was I would mommy all day, and my husband would come home at 06:00 and we’d swap. He’d take care of our son, and I would then work until the middle of the night, and we had to get really creative, or I had to get really creative because you couldn’t have anybody help you anymore. So our kids program, when we got there, was about 20 kids or something, and by the time we left, it was just over 130 in that short time. And God was really up to something, and I didn’t want the pandemic to squash it. So I started working on these kids kits that my son and I, during the day, would drive around and deliver to all these families.

00:13:18 So I would build them at night, drive around, drop them off on their porch so they’d have something fun to look forward to and do with their families. It was exhausting, let me tell you. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. And so it was May of 2020, near the end of May.

00:13:33 And I had just went to my boss. I’m like, I am burning out. I was just being honest and communicating that I was burning out. I mean, we’re going through all this craziness. You couldn’t really have help.

00:13:46 And because we had moved far away, we didn’t have family even in the area that could lend a hand. So I mentioned this, and long story short, it just wasn’t received super well. And we started just talking, my husband and I. Like, our priorities are not the same as where I was working and what they were wanting through this. And we were just saying, you know what?

00:14:11 This is our son, and he is not going to be put on a back burner for a paycheck.

00:14:18 Not just for a paycheck, but for other people. We weren’t going to put everyone else before our family. And so it was sometime in June, because it was a hard decision to make. We had uprooted, and Brantford is a lot pricier than Sarnia, and we’re like, okay, well, how do we afford this on one income? We realized we couldn’t, but we didn’t know what to do next.

00:14:41 And so one night, it was about 130 in the morning, and I was working on these kids kits, and my husband was sleeping, and I was just listening to worship music. And I just really felt like God saying, you need to call the people who bought your house and asked to buy it back. It’s a house in Sarnia. Yes, asked to buy our house back. And I was like, okay, sure.

00:15:05 So like I said, whatever God tells. Us to do, we do. So I ran into the room and I was like, paul, this is going to sound crazy, but I feel like God’s saying we need to buy our house back. And of course, if you ever meet him, he’s just like, sure, yeah, whatever. Let’s try it.

00:15:26 Yeah. So the next day we called. We happened to know them because they were from our old church. And so we knew them and we called and we’re just like, hey, guys, this is super crazy, but any chance are you willing to sell our house back to us? So just giving a background to that, they had bought it as a second house to rent out to contract workers.

00:15:46 Sarnia is a very big they have lots of plants and things around here. They bring in contract workers all the time. So with the pandemic, no contract workers were allowed to come in anymore, meaning that they were sitting on a second house and mortgage, not bringing in an income. And so the craziest thing, they’re like, you wouldn’t believe this, we were just about to put it on the market. So we bought our house back and within I think it was a month and a bit, we had packed everything there.

00:16:14 We were actually only renting, so that made the transition really easy for us. And we moved back. And so, as I described before, we were flipping this house. So when we left Sarnia, we had everything done upstairs. But the basement was not even started yet.

00:16:29 So it was literally bare bones, not even framed in nothing. But we had purchased everything. We had the flooring, we had the bathroom stuff picked out, we had the tiles, you name it, the wood, the drywall insulation. And we moved back in and everything was left in the basement where we had left it. Can you believe that?

00:16:51 It was just okay.

00:16:56 Yeah. We did not doubt. How long were we moved away?

00:17:04 It was just shy of two years. Like a couple of months shy of two years? Yes. It was the weirdest feeling coming back into your house and everything was the same two years later. Yeah.

00:17:17 And the other amazing thing was the market here had gone nuts, but we got in just before it did that. So we bought our house back for, I think it was like 15,000 more than what we sold it for, which was not much. And then within the year, we had it reevaluated or whatever it’s called, and it had already doubled. And we’re like, Whoa, okay. That was a very good decision.

00:17:45 Yeah. So through that, I switched from full time working, like I had always been a full time working mom. That’s what I wanted. Ministry. I worked towards that.

00:17:59 And so I was in this spot where I was like, what comes next? What do I do? Who am I and so I was full time home with our son and we started homeschooling, which was another cool thing that was always something on my heart. But being a full time working mom, I could never figure out how to make it. How could that ever be possible, right?

00:18:20 And it was like God was just putting all these pieces together and answering prayers too, that we had been praying for years. So as pastors, it’s really ironic that you lead people, you’re around people all the time, you’re in the community, but for us at least, it was very lonely. You are the bringer together whatever. You bring people together, right? And you connect people and you’re like, hey, you would be a really good friend with this person and you have to meet.

00:18:52 But then you go home and you’re like and so our thing and our prayer for years, even prior to our son, was we wanted people to do life with that’s what we said. Just the real nitty gritty, the good, bad, ugly. What was so crazy come that fall, moving back, we’re back to our new sorry, we’re back to where we used to live. But all of our friend groups have changed largely because of our views through COVID.

00:19:25 Yeah, we did not agree with the. Things going on and I was vocal about it.

00:19:34 So coming back, we’re like, okay, well, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know if anyone thinks like us. And I was actually on Instagram following this group 100 million moms. And the one day there was a post. It was that fall, so fall of 2020.

00:19:52 And there was a post and it was just like, where are you from? So it was geared originally for Canadians to just encourage them and let moms especially know that you were not alone in your thinking through everything that was happening in the world. And so I just started scrolling through. I was like, someone please write Sarnia. I’m scrolling and I see my now really good friend, but her name is on there and it said Sarnia.

00:20:18 And so I just was like, what do I got to lose? I private messaged her. And I was like, hey, I’m from Sarnia too. I’m like minded, let’s get together. And so, long story short, she introduced me to a ton of people.

00:20:34 Sarnia has a very big minded community and homeschooling community. And we have just made friendships that I’ve never had in my life before, that we’ve walked with people through their really tough times and personal situations and they’ve walked through things with us and without judgment just being there. And it’s funny, we look back and we think prior to this, we probably would have hung out. Like, a lot of us don’t have other interests in common, but we have this in common and we have the same values for our kids and for our lives. And they’re just such great people.

00:21:17 Yeah. So that kind of brought us to where we are in that aspect of things, like where we live and our community. Okay, so let’s fast forward to what was last year. Oh, 2022. Oh, my goodness.

00:21:32 I know. We lived on our own for a year, and in early 2022, my husband’s, brother and family moved in. So brother, wife, three kids, and just for context here we live in a 900 square foot home. It is not big, but the pandemic, it was threatening jobs and it was all this kind of stuff. And things that we were hearing in the world were like, oh, we might be stronger in numbers.

00:22:04 Right. This might be a wise move. And so they were in the GTA, which we all know. If you’re from here, that is the place you do not want to be through this. That is toronto.

00:22:15 Yes, Toronto and the greater area around Toronto. Yeah. So they moved in. They actually ended up moving out just before Christmas and getting a place. Oh, they did?

00:22:25 Yeah. So they lived with us for it was almost a year. So they moved in February 2022. Moved out december 2022. Yeah.

00:22:36 So we shared groceries. We split meals, which was really nice that way because I only had to cook every other night. That is awesome. Sharing laundry load, right? Like going downstairs and seeing that your laundry is folded.

00:22:52 Not just switched, but it was folded. Wow.

00:22:58 Yeah. So those type of things I will definitely miss. And I know our son, he’s an only child, so he really misses that his three cousins were here all the time with him. He also loved getting his own room back.

00:23:12 We house shared to get through the tough parts of the last couple of years, we house shared. It was a great thing financially to do as well. Bringing two incomes together and sharing the cost of a home, the cost of certain groceries and things like I said, meals, obviously, sharing things like laundry soaps and toilet papers and all that kind of stuff. And then through last year especially, is when I started putting on my, I guess, little what is that? Little House on the Prairie Girl.

00:23:48 I haven’t gone that far yet to learn. Laura Ingles. Yeah, I always hear that name being thrown around. I’m like, I just got to watch. It because in my I never have either.

00:23:59 You’re not alone. I’m not the only Canadian who hasn’t watched it. That’s good to know. But I’ve watched it in a girl gable. I have halfway there.

00:24:08 I just rented it from the library. You have to check it out. Okay. Yeah. I’ll just bring it to Florida in a couple of weeks.

00:24:17 Do you have 9 hours? Because it’s 9 hours of watching. Oh, gosh.

00:24:25 Hey, kids, go to the pool for the day. The day. Bye. Bye.

00:24:32 Yeah. Anyways, I put on that kind of mindset of homesteading and the last couple of years I grew up, my mom mentioning a lot of things, alternative health wise, essential oils, and eating healthier things. And she’s been on a journey the last few years for her own health, too. So I started learning more about things, even like almond flour. Before I was like, what’s that?

00:25:00 I don’t know. Learning things like instead of sugar, I can use honey or real maple syrup. So it all started with just learning different things, and that really helped with the community we are in, too. And our type of friends are light years ahead, some of them with that kind of stuff. And so I’ve just been soaking in all this knowledge.

00:25:23 And last year it did get overwhelming. I’ll say that I was taking in so much knowledge and looking at our life and being like, oh, I give my kid this and this, or we eat this, or my dish soap and my laundry soap and my toothpaste. Where do we start? Well, that’s just it. You can get down some crazy rabbit holes of we’re going to die because of all the things around us and this and this and this microphone and my hair.

00:25:49 I know, oh my gosh, we’re going to die. We need to change it all. But as you know, it’s one piece at a time. Yes. And so I had to kind of like rein myself back in and say, I love what I’m learning, but I can’t change it all at once.

00:26:06 And the other thing I wanted to make true change, so I’m sure we can all relate. Like when you have a change you want to make, if you just dive right in and you try to do it all at once, you’re likely not going to succeed or you’ll succeed short term, but it won’t become the new you or the new way of living. So I started looking at things as just one thing at a time. So, for example, learning how to make bread. Okay, I’m going to learn how to make bread and replace buying bread in stores, okay, we’ll still buy tortillas or we’ll still buy whatever it is, but I’ll start with this one thing.

00:26:43 And so here we are a year later. We don’t buy bread in the store anymore. We make it all every Sunday is my bread making day. It’s actually now bread and snacks and a couple of other things. So again, instead of doing all of our snacks, I just pick a couple and I challenge myself each week to learn a new one and try.

00:27:03 Just so you know, they are not all hits.

00:27:08 I can believe that some of these things I tried. I’m like, you want me to mix? What, and this is supposed to taste like that? Yeah, no, I tried a new type of bread a couple of weeks ago. I was like, oh, that pretty, like braided bread, blah, blah, blah.

00:27:26 Right? And I tried it and it was hard as a rock. I was like, I don’t actually know what I did, but I haven’t gone back to it yet. And you know what, guys? That’s okay, too.

00:27:39 If it doesn’t work, don’t stress yourself out. Move on. Go back to what you know. Yeah. Last year, too, we got something like we got a dehydrator, which we kind of talked about a bit before, about we don’t like spending a ton of money.

00:27:56 Save as many pennies as you can. And so we didn’t buy the best of the best, we bought just a simple one. It was like $100 on Amazon and it works great. And so don’t think you need the top of the line fancy things. You don’t.

00:28:14 There is so much that works on the cheaper side. The cheaper side completely plastic in layers. One, it’s not the excalibur with the metal plates and the snow, but guess what? It does. It dries things.

00:28:28 It does. And it doesn’t kill you when you eat it again. That’s right. We also ate salsa this weekend, too. And I was like, you know what?

00:28:40 We’re still here, nobody died, we’re good. And you water bath canned it. Yes. So I have not attempted pressure canning yet. Okay.

00:28:49 I haven’t even really learnt about it. All I know is everyone’s scared. If you can use a ninja to pressure cook things, you can use the pressure canner. It’s the same thing. They just look scary because of all the knobs and the tubes and then this.

00:29:04 And the downside is, the good ones, that like getting a ninja versus a knockoff. You’re going to pay for it. So they’re not cheap by any means. If you can get around to it, worth it. So for now, we just bought a bigger freezer.

00:29:20 Yeah, hydro is not going anywhere yet. No, you got time. Yeah. We also built a much bigger garden in our backyard and then we garden shared last year, too. Nice.

00:29:34 So our yard, it’s actually a pretty decent size for being in town, like, Sarnia is not a Toronto area by any means, so your yards are actual yards, not just a little square foot of grass.

00:29:52 So we garden shared last year. My grandparents live out in the country not far from here and just as they’re getting older, they have a huge garden, but it is too hard for them to take care of all of it and then it’s two of them, so what are they going to use all the food for? And so on. And so last year we went and we took over about half of it and garden shared and got a lot more food. This year we’re probably going to do the same, except I will be more diligent on how to preserve everything.

00:30:26 Last year we were feeding, what, eight of us. This year it’s going to be back to three. So we’re going to have a lot extra to actually. Save. And we’re kind of setting like we’re working towards we still have a long way to go, but we are setting a goal that we want to be people who don’t use the grocery store anymore, just with the prices of everything, going crazy with learning about what’s in stuff they’re hiding, crickets and things.

00:30:53 We have a lot of reasons, but we want to get away from it and stop supporting big corporations. Yeah. So that’s our goal. We still got a long way to go to get there, but yeah. So this summer when we do our gardening, we’re going to make sure that we’ve learned more about how to preserve them and so on.

00:31:10 Actually, you can’t see behind me right now, but I attempted this year to plant early. I always see people online that plant early and plant inside, and I’ve never been that person. I’ve always just gone out the end of May, stuck them in the dirt and called it a day, and somehow it worked. But I was like, cool. Okay, people start early.

00:31:32 There’s got to be a reason. Well, I bought those little seed pod, dirt things, whatever. The little puck. Yeah. And I put a bunch of seeds in and in the tray.

00:31:42 It doesn’t look big. Well, I started it in February, so they started going wild. They outgrew their little pods very quickly. And I was running to every dollar store in town because I didn’t want to buy big expensive pot planters. So, yeah, most of my living room right now is all pots filled with dirt and growing veggies.

00:32:14 That’s great. You’re just going to have a really early harvest. Very early. So my plan this year, because we did this is one, probably never do it again, but two, we will have an early harvest for these ones, and then I will still do what I’ve always done and just thrown them in at the end of May there or beginning of June. And then we’ll have a later harvest with those.

00:32:38 So we’ll see. I’m really loving the experimenting with everything. That’s how you find out, right? Oh, for sure. Yeah.

00:32:45 And it gives good stories, right? Yes. Like, you have a full vegetable garden in your living room. My mother in law showed up this weekend for Kate and she’s like, whoa. That’S a lot of vegetables.

00:33:00 That’s a lot. Yes. Oh, my gosh. So you said you’ve done a whole lot of learning and researching what has been like the best tools for you as kind of a newbie at this whole homesteading mini studying city, steady, whatever. We’Re calling whatever we’re calling it.

00:33:20 So the best tool for me personally has been instagram. One thing I’ve done partially because of the last couple of years with speaking out and all this kind of stuff, it wasn’t great for my mental health to keep consuming all the stuff going on in the world that way. And also the hatred we’ll just be real that’s out there. When you speak up against things that are not mainstream, whether it’s schmovid stuff or even gardening and not going to a grocery store, there’s people who are going to comment about everything. And so I really purged my instagram.

00:33:56 And I started finding a lot of accounts, too, that spoke to certain things that we’re changing our lifestyle for, so homeschooling, homesteading, more natural medicine, those type of things. And so now my Instagram is pretty much all of that is what I follow. I found so many great accounts the last couple of years through that. And I love that I’m watching real people do it and real people sharing it. I like the fact that I get to see befores and afters of stuff.

00:34:27 I get to hear about their mistakes as opposed to reading a book where you kind of miss out a lot of that stuff. I’ve really, really loved that. And then there has been groups of influencers, let’s call them accounts that have gotten together with their years of knowledge who have done this prior to the last couple of years, and they’ve put together different downloadable kits. So in the fall, I got one about going for more natural holistic medicine and health care. So that was a really cool thing.

00:35:03 It teaches you everything from canning to gardening to, I don’t know, all those things. Yeah, Instagram has definitely been my go to, followed by Pinterest. Good old Pinterest. Yeah, there are so many things on there that if I’m looking up, like, I want to know an alternative for when we have a cold right, healthy alternative or a natural alternative. And so that’s another go to.

00:35:30 And what we’ve done is every time we come across stuff like that, we’re saving them on our computer. We’re printing hard copies when we can. Right. You never know if your computer is going to go down. We have it on a hard drive, too, if my computer did just die.

00:35:47 But the hard copies are great for if you had no electricity anymore or you’re moving off grid or I don’t know. Right. Yeah. See, and this is how your story doesn’t tie in with the questions, right? Because this is like, where have you traveled?

00:36:02 What have you done? Well, this is very different because you’re not doing that. You’re doing something totally different, but it’s still living life on your terms. Oh, yeah. That’s another thing, actually.

00:36:15 So I forgot to mention when we moved back to Sarnia, so my husband had had his business prior to for a couple of years. And then when we moved, it was just easier instead of finding all new clients and advertising and all this kind of stuff to go with a company. But when we moved back in our evaluating everything and in our experiences, unfortunately, we have had some negative experiences and hurts and things. And we just got to a place where we’re like, we want to put our family first. We want to do life on our own terms, our schedule.

00:36:49 No one telling me I need to be here, here, here at this time, blah, blah, blah. We were very much in a workaholic type state for many years prior to our son and the first couple of years of our son’s life. Like, when we had our son, I ran an outreach event only two weeks after he was born. So it was our big trunk or treat event. And it was I’m walking around, my mom’s carrying our newborn.

00:37:15 My husband and I are in onesies as our costumes because I just had a baby. Yeah, but I jumped right back in. Right? And so when we made that shift, that was a really big turning point for us, that we wanted to control our own life in that regard and make our schedules, be able to put our family first, be able to travel when we wanted to or could again. Yeah.

00:37:42 And so on the side with that, because I’ve always worked, I kind of started missing a bit of that, just being able to get out and contribute a little in that regard to our home. My husband absolutely supports me being at home. Loves it. If he had it his way, I’d probably be here all the time. His favorite thing is coming home and smelling like, fresh food and soup and whatever.

00:38:07 Yeah, he just loves it. And so on the side for many years, because my husband and I had really focused before our son on getting out of debt. He had a lot of older friends, and we just got to see between them and different people we knew in our lives who were light years ahead of us in experiences. We got to see and look at them and say, hey, what are some stresses that they had in their marriage? And so one thing for us was financial that we always saw.

00:38:36 And we’re like, let’s try our best to take that off the table. So we worked our jobs, but we also worked for many years, like a side job, too, like a side hustle in some way. And so I cleaned houses on the side of ministry work. And so when we moved back here, I was like, you know what? This will help bring a little extra income for us.

00:38:57 It will give me that little outlet I need out of the home. And always like, homeschooling or doing home things because that does keep you busy. But I just needed something just for me to go into. He had his business back, and I went and I started cleaning homes. Still doing it to today.

00:39:19 And I also work for a friend of mine. She’s a private chef, so I do a bit of her bookkeeping stuff, administrative and so on. It’s great. I can do it from home. I can travel, like so I sought out things that would still help us financially, but still fit our lifestyle.

00:39:38 And so that’s what we’re doing now. He’s got his business, and I’ve got mine, and we can still homestead, and we can still take care of our son and leave when we want to. Right? Yeah. Now, you had touched a little bit on the spark to make these changes, like so many, was all the 2020 shenanigans.

00:40:00 If you look back when you guys made that decision to make the change, did you have any concerns or fears jumping back and switching everything up, leaving the workforce as you knew it, and really actually even leaving the church in the way that you guys have always known it? Because that’s a big part for you guys is you went to school to be a pastor, both of you, and your views have drastically changed, and you no longer attend a church in the same manner anymore. No change. I’d love for you to talk on the challenges, the fears and the outcome. Yeah.

00:40:38 Oh, there’s so much I can say. I know. Yeah. You might have to remind me of a couple of things you just said, but that’s okay. Fears, a big fear was, in that time, I hadn’t really spoken out anything about everything, world stuff that was going on.

00:40:54 We had our thoughts. We still lived life normally, and we just didn’t advertise that we were. But then I got to a point with all of the changes that I really felt like God saying, like, hey, speak out. And I’m not a confrontational person. I don’t love it.

00:41:10 I don’t like people not being kind. And so a big fear in the move back, as well as starting to speak out, everything was the pushback from people. Just even the opinions, I guess, of moving back was like, are you guys crazy? Right? And we had already heard that so many times.

00:41:31 Like, my husband and I got together and married in nine months. You already knew crazy. Yeah, we already knew crazy, and we already knew opinions. But we even knew opinions from us packing up and moving to Brantford. Right.

00:41:49 People are like, oh, well, good luck. That’s not going to work. And then moving back, it was the same idea, well, you’re going to go to one income, you’re going to start back your business, you’re going to whatever. And we just had to put our faith and trust completely in God, as I’ve already shared. Right.

00:42:03 That is only a God thing, that we got our house back, and the stuff was there. And even to my husband’s business before we moved back, he got a phone call after we made this decision, and it was someone he had done work for a couple of years before. So when we still lived here, and they’re like, hey, how are you? They had no idea we even moved. And they’re like, we have a big job.

00:42:25 Would you like to come and do it. And he’s like, yeah, I’m just about to move back to Sarnia. They were like what? You moved? So ever since we’ve moved back in, whatever, the fall of 2020, he is not advertised at all.

00:42:41 Like, jobs have just come. Same with my cleaning. People were just reaching out and it was word of mouth. Yeah. So that fear was very quickly washed away.

00:42:51 The fear, unfortunately, of the confrontation and stuff that was there for a bit, but I just had to keep leaning on God for that too, for the strength. I have never been one to watch the news. I have never been one to look into politics or anything. And I dove in to know my stuff because I knew exactly what was going to come in, speaking out. And so I made sure that I was well versed in it.

00:43:13 I made sure that I studied what I could, found the sources, saved them on my computer. Here is the stuff to help combat that fear and those challenges that I knew were about to come. A really hard part was a lot of the hateful stuff that did take a toll, like on your mental health. So that’s where I got to that point. Like I said, with Instagram especially and social media, I got rid of most social medias because it just got so heavy, like the hate messages and things like that.

00:43:40 Yeah. So I started setting boundaries for myself, which was a huge lesson as well. Through the last couple of years for both of us. We’ve always been people who say yes to everything. And now we have become people who say yes to putting our family first and yes to other people when it doesn’t suck from our family’s energy, right.

00:44:01 And that kind of stuff, or go against what we’re feeling is our priorities. We’re not just going to do it to people please anymore. Stepping out of our ministry position too, we were one of very few who had that view and that was difficult. We started seeing things just even in all types of denominations that were not lining up. We were learning a lot more about our faith, about Christ, about historically and what the Bible says to do.

00:44:30 And we were seeing a lot of things that weren’t lining up. Like we just finally took a step back to think of things ourselves as opposed to just hear it and say, oh yeah, critical thinking, I guess, speaking on that. We came back and with that community of people because we weren’t allowed in a lot of churches too. We didn’t wear masks, so a lot of churches at the time didn’t let you in. We were also dealing with church hurt from our working environments.

00:44:57 We just took a total step back. We didn’t take a step back from our faith. That was one thing we really learned, is God and attending church were two different things, our relationship with Christ. Right. We still wanted that faith community because our community of friends was such a mix and it’s so wonderful.

00:45:16 But we wanted people who we could study the Bible with and who wanted to learn too. And that’s one thing we talk about so much is we spent 1112 years working in ministry. I worked in ministry prior to us being married and I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed to so many people I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people coming to Christ as the last couple of years. And the craziest part was I wasn’t working in a church. We got to be a part of a home church, which was so beautiful, a Sabbath type, a Shabbat group that they meet on Saturdays, that we’ve got to learn even more about simplifying just our life slowing down and having a Sabbath.

00:45:59 That was something we never practiced before. So a Sabbath, a day of rest that we’ve really adopted the last few years in our life as well. Because before we would work seven days a week right. There was always something to do. And because we were in ministry, there was always programs and your weekends were church programs.

00:46:19 That’s been a huge blessing, is stepping back into that. And I know one of your other questions was something for the future. So just kind of jumping to that for a second. Our hope and prayer from here is to eventually have a place. We don’t want a ton of land.

00:46:36 That’s a lot of work. I want some chickens and a cow I can milk myself and that’s it. But that is something we’re praying for now, is that God provides a place that we can move to. We don’t want to be right in the city. We want to be just outside of it still in this area that we would have a place big enough or even a driveshed big enough that we can host and start our own church there.

00:47:01 We’ve just seen a lot of the flashy and programized and all this and that’s not what we want. And that’s an area that we’ve really grown in. Yeah. So not only do we want the space to have the homesteading, but we want the space to bring people together in that kind of way. Right.

00:47:17 And there’s so many people right now, the past few years, when it comes to churches that because they were closed or because they had all these rules that a lot didn’t agree with. They’re just kind of floating around and not feeling included somewhere like, where do we go? But they’re craving that corporate togetherness and worship. Yeah. Which is what church really is.

00:47:40 Church is really just a gathering of Christians worshipping together, fellowshipping together. That’s church. Right. And then you’re praising God in all of it. It’s not a structured building that you go in, you stand up, you sit down, you do this, you do that in this exact order every single week.

00:47:59 You listen to somebody talk at you and then you leave. Oh, and give your money. Don’t forget to give the exact amount of money that they tell you to give. That still blows my mind. The church that took over our church I don’t know if I told you this or not.

00:48:10 If you wanted to become a member of that now taken over church, because I was a member of the church before they took it over, but we wanted to transfer our membership to the new owners. You had to give your income statements, and they would tell you how much you need to give oh my goodness. Every week. And it was a certain percentage of your income. Yeah, I’m not down with that.

00:48:35 I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure tithing is what you give, not what you’re told. You have to in order to we. Could unpack the Bible stories on that, but yes, I told right. But that was my first sign of our church transition before even COVID hit that, it was like, whoa, maybe I’m not meant to be at church anymore. Right.

00:48:59 And that took us back from going to church even before COVID hit. And then it hit, and they were refusing our kids from participating in programs because of masking. Sorry. They let them attend, but they would raise their hands and they wouldn’t say yes. You answer the question.

00:49:17 They would go to the person right beside I’m like, what is this? Yeah, there were some hosts, like we had already left. And it wasn’t the church that we were at, but it was other churches that we knew of. And they even had like a bracelet system. So if you had your you had your green bracelet and you’d get it when you came in the building, you had yellow if you had one of the bleep bloops, and you had red if you didn’t.

00:49:43 And there was rules for it. And this went to kids too, and it was mind blowing. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And people didn’t see an issue with that as being the young because it was in it.

00:49:55 Right. It was in the name of safety and the name of love. And I’m like, you know what? One of my best friends now, she came to church. And I know she won’t mind me saying this, but she came to church.

00:50:07 She drove 2 hours every Sunday. She was not a Christian, but through the pandemic, she was really seeking, like, there is something else. And so she looked for one day, she’s like, I felt like I needed to get in a church. And the only church that was open that she could find was over 2 hours away. And so she started driving there.

00:50:25 She’s got a family of five, and she went by herself at first, and because they were open, her now whole family of five have given their life to Christ. And it is just so amazing. And it also blows my mind that so many were okay shutting the doors or not allowing you in if you didn’t fit a certain mold and then called that love. I’m like, not the Jesus I know, but okay. Right.

00:50:51 He washed the leper’s feet. He didn’t say, oh, you can’t come in because you don’t have the right color bracelet. You didn’t follow the government’s terms of medical. You don’t have a diaper on. It’s wild.

00:51:06 And it’s so incredible because I agree. I find that those who have seen what’s been going on, whether they were Christians or not, the more they kept digging and digging into the root of what’s causing all of this and the root behind all of this, that it always brought them to Christ every single time. It may have taken a year or two or even three, and for some, they still haven’t found it yet, but they’re still digging because they know there’s something, and that’s what it is. Like, you and I both know this all comes back to good and evil. Like true, rooted good and evil.

00:51:47 Not the stories that we hear, but that’s how you know. And I think that’s why so many are finding different faith, different religion, different viewpoints as to what they had before. We always believed you had to go to church on Sunday. You did your stand up, sit down, your singing songs, listen to the guy talk at you, and you leave. Right.

00:52:10 And then you go about your merry way for the rest of the week. Yeah. And it’s just I don’t call that a Sunday Christian. No, right. We were Sunday Christians.

00:52:16 Yeah. And that’s what we were raised on to the point now where I just read the resurrection story to the kids on Sunday, and there was words in there that I’m like, wait a minute, I didn’t know that.

00:52:33 I’m over 40 years old and I’m just learning this as a Christian. And it’s just wild, absolutely wild. I have learned so much the last couple of years. And it’s funny. It’s wild to think that both my husband and I went to Bible college and there was so much we didn’t get taught, and we have just had our eyes open.

00:52:57 We’re still learning and what’s cool, too. And I said to my husband a couple of weeks ago, I’m like, we were doing a home church thing, and I said, I don’t know what it is, but when I come to these, I am so fueled. After I’m filled up, I am excited to actually crack open my Bible and learn things and dig in. But when I’ve shown up on a Sunday, not every time, we’ve had some really good experiences. But yeah, I feel different.

00:53:27 And it’s funny because even with the kids, right, I’m sure it’s controversial because everything is these days. We have an action Bible for our middle guy because he will pick up pictures more than he will just a straight up Word book. And so he picks up this action Bible, and he’ll pick it up all the time. All the time. I swear, he knows more in the Bible than I do at this point because he’s read this front to back so many times.

00:53:56 But he even turned to me yesterday, and he’s like, mom, how come I didn’t know that there was more than just goliath as the Giants? And I’m like, I love you so much right now. You’re asking great questions. Yes. Let’s dive into this.

00:54:11 Yeah, because he learned about Aug, and I’m like, oh, my goodness. I love that you’re asking this. Well, let’s dig in a little more, and everything comes back as a question. Okay, how about this? What do you think of that?

00:54:22 Well, does this make sense? And it’s teaching them more so from what we weren’t taught of to keep asking questions. Don’t just take what somebody tells you. Exactly. Solid gold, especially in the church.

00:54:36 And I hate to say that now, but at the same time, it needs to be said because we were taught so many things at church that just doesn’t it’s not even in the Bible. Right. And we’re taught all these things, and I’m like, what? Why do we do this? No, right?

00:54:53 And then, like yesterday, a friend of mine shared, why are you celebrating the resurrection today? Because it’s not today if you actually read it. If you actually read your Bible. Yeah, right. And it’s true, but it’s just all those little things that you have to step back and reevaluate and question more to find where you’re at in your faith walk.

00:55:17 Because it’s a reset. I hate that word, too. It really is. It’s a reset in our faith because we were just served all these things on a platter of this is what Christianity is. This is what you’re supposed to do.

00:55:33 Check all these boxes and you’re good to go. But it’s not at all, and I love it. And the other thing we’ve learned and noticed over these last two years is so many like yourselves are walking away from the structured church and are going with unstructured ways of faith. Right? And so many one of the podcasts I talked with the family, and he said, church is serving other people.

00:56:02 Church is helping somebody lay their floor. Church is dropping off food to somebody who needs it. Right. It’s so much more than just the stand up, sit down, talk at you and leave. Right?

00:56:13 And I love that because I’ve been asked so many times, well, where are you going to church? Where are you going to church? I said nowhere. We’re not going anywhere to a structured church right now, because especially in this area, being a tourist area, especially, they are all megachurch style, and it’s all so focused on the lights, the music, the stage performance, the raising of the hands and the talking, talking all the time. Well, it’s constantly being on, like you said, this performance, right?

00:56:46 So I just want to share, and this is probably personal to share, but I know, sorry. I fully believe that the experiences that we’ve had my husband and I have gone through a lot in our almost eleven years of marriage. But when we just speaking to the church thing, we were pastors in a church when my dad passed away, it was amazing. My mom’s church was so supportive. They gave meals all the time, all this kind of stuff where we were, which it happened to us, right?

00:57:21 And we were the pastors in the church. We were basically just, hey, get back on, keep going, whatever. Do your programs, do your things. And it was mind blowing then to say the other side of it, this fall, my husband and I, we lost a baby. And going and speaking to that home church and that community that we have now, we literally had meals brought to us every single day for I think it was two weeks straight.

00:57:49 And it was such big portions of meals, too, that we went out, we bought those food, like dividers, whatever, to package them and put them in the freezer. And we only just finished them, and we just had so much blessing poured out on us through that miscarriage that I just compared the two, and I was like losing my father was such a big thing. And of course, yeah, losing a baby is a big thing. But people knew us. We were pastoring in a church and our support was so little in comparison.

00:58:23 And so that is one thing that, like I said, it was a prayer of ours for years to do life with people. And that is what we’re drawn to too, with the whole home church idea is to actually walk through our faith together to ask all those questions, right? Like when you just show up and you sit in a seat, it’s a lot harder to be like, hi, excuse me. What you just said right there, can we just pause and unpack?

00:58:53 Trying to chase the pastor down after. Oh my God in these megachurches, they’re like cordoned off, heavily praised. And you’re like, what is this, idol? Yeah. And for so long that is what my husband and I wanted, probably me more than him.

00:59:12 He’s a lot more introverted. I’m clearly, as you can tell, extroverted. But I said this to someone a while back and I just said it was the craziest thing in terms of church world. We were at the top. Like, you made it right?

00:59:28 You got to be the big speaker at this thing. So I was lined up to speak at one of these big conferences for youth and kids. And like I had said before, we had these events that were tons of people coming to and. You should feel in that moment, right? Your mind thinks or tells you.

00:59:47 You should feel like you’ve made it, you’re on top of the world. But we kept feeling something was missing, and now we found that something. And looking back, it’s like, why did I chase that? That stuff is good and it can be, and it can reach people and all this stuff, I don’t want to discount that. But we have seen so much more helping the neighbor, showing up with the little things, being there for the tough moments and the celebratory moments in people’s lives that we have just created this everyday relationship with that.

01:00:19 Yeah, I personally just feel that this has been more impactful. And I’m so glad, I’m so, so glad that our eyes were open to that and we’ve just listened and taken the steps, not knowing what’s next, but just taken it and said, okay, well, let’s go with it. Right? So when you look back over these last few years, actually, your whole journey, because your journey really starts way back. It’s not just a 2020 and on, but when you look back through it all, I know there’s definitely been some god moments in there that you’re just like, oh my gosh, he totally pushed me in this direction.

01:00:53 But what are some wow moments when you look back over your whole journey? Just, wow, I can’t believe this is my life. So just before the pandemic, I had really hit that wall. That was my true breaking point before everything, where I started really realizing this is not the life I want. We had gone through so much in such a short time.

01:01:16 My workload was ton. I was a mom to a newborn and then a toddler. Well, full time, working well, moving, all this kind of stuff. And I just hit this rock bottom point. And this was the start for me that I look back on now.

01:01:30 Because in that moment how do I say this? There was a specific moment. We had just lost my grandpa. My husband was away, and I was going through this alone while still being required to be at my job and do all this stuff. I missed being there for those final moments, and that was really difficult for me.

01:01:48 I had to find someone for my son. And I got to this point where I was sitting there and it was like my brain couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t think. I just sat and I cried. And I was just like, God, I don’t know what to do.

01:02:03 I don’t know what to do. So I don’t recommend this for everybody, but I went and got a tattoo in that moment. I needed to do something that I could control in that moment to go and do something. And I actually put the words of a song, a worship song, and it’s, you make me brave. And that’s what I put on me with the capital y you make me brave.

01:02:25 And that has gotten me through the last several years as we’ve done all these changes that are not typically normal, that now that I look back, I’m like, wow. In that moment, I really feel God put those words and that song on my heart. How I did it, put it on my body. But I’ve looked at it so many times, I’m like, you make me brave. You make me brave through all of this, through these decisions, through going against what the world says.

01:03:00 Yeah. And so that would be in that moment, probably was not the wow, but when I look back, it was, if that kind of makes sense. Yes. Oh, yeah. That it was just a big moment.

01:03:13 And it’s so true that we don’t think in the moment when the hurt’s happening, when the hard’s happening, when we’re in the storm that down the road, we’re going to look back and go, that was our wow moment. I’m in a storm right now. There’s no way this is a wow. Yeah. Right.

01:03:34 Ironically, that’s what I just posted today, too. I didn’t see it yet. I haven’t been on that’s funny. But it’s true, even for us, going through all of this crazy right now of just sheer frustration and time and time and time and time and time, we know there’s some greater plan here, and it’s just we’re not going to know until we can look back. Yeah.

01:03:58 It will be, I’m sure, some form of wow, I bet. Wow, we made it through wow. We survived. Wow. Look, we’re married, right?

01:04:12 Wow.

01:04:16 Oh, my gosh. Let’s touch on this a little bit because you did kind of dip in there and out. How has this all impacted your marriage as you guys have gone through all of this? You’ve said you’re at eleven years. We’ll be eleven years this year.

01:04:32 Yeah. You know what, I’m going to say it. And people are like, whatever, I don’t believe you, but my husband and I truly are best friends. We get along all the time. And our not getting along is like, stop being dumb.

01:04:46 Right. And then we’re over it again. That was something we did that groundwork in that very short three months before we got engaged. But we looked and evaluated all these relationships that we knew of. We did a lot of reading and books, we went to mentors, all this kind of stuff.

01:05:01 So communication was a huge takeaway from that for us. And I think part of it, too, is our personalities. We’re very laid back. We’re go with the flow. If something doesn’t work out, well, we’ll figure out a different thing.

01:05:14 Right. So I think that really helps. The last couple of years.

01:05:19 It’S just. Been something that’s brought us even closer together. We’ve had such in depth conversations right. About all of these things happening in the world, all these things we were learning. And I am so grateful that we’ve been on the same page.

01:05:32 I did start some things a bit earlier. We wore masks, I think for like, two, three months, like, very early. We didn’t know we couldn’t, right? We didn’t know we couldn’t. And then I got to a point where I had already started researching more of that, and I told him one day, I’m like, no, I’m done.

01:05:53 Here’s my reasons. He was fully supportive, but he himself was not ready. Neither of us are confrontational people. Right. So that was part of it.

01:06:01 So we were able just to communicate that for our son, because we never put it on him. But for our son, if I was going to go into the store with him, that’s great. Mom goes in, no mask. If he was going to join us, he would have to choose not to wear it because we were not going to send the mixed signal or not come. Yeah, so we did that for maybe about two months, and I wouldn’t even call.

01:06:26 Like, that wasn’t an issue at all. We just approached it and said, here’s how I feel. Here’s how you feel. I respect that you’re still learning, but honestly, other than that, that was probably our only quote, challenge, or difference through this. Everything else we’ve been really on the same page about, and it comes down again.

01:06:44 Like, we communicate everything. I love talking. He loves listening. No, but yeah, he does share and has learned a lot on his own, too, and brought to the table different things. He’s the one who stays more about the news stuff and the world events, and I focus in on a few more things.

01:07:06 Yeah. So we’ve definitely grown a lot closer through the last couple of years. Yeah. Nice. The whole spaghetti and waffle brain.

01:07:13 Yeah, very true. Waffle. Have you ever heard that? No. Okay, so this is a book I’m just going to say it quick.

01:07:21 There was a book that I read as a teenager, girls are Spaghetti, Men or Boys are Waffles. And it’s always stuck with me, and it’s so true. Girls brains are like spaghetti. Like, I start here, and I just keep going, and I think of all the things, and then I trail over here and I deal with this and I come back. Right.

01:07:36 Men are like, here’s my square. Put your syrup. Got it. Next. Butter.

01:07:42 Right? Yes. And it’s just compartmentalized. I think that’s what it is. Yes.

01:07:47 There was a marriage course that we did that talked about that, where men can only have one drawer open at a time, close that drawer before they open the other drawer. Like, oh, that makes so much sense. I can’t do that. Like, what a gift. I know, but we also part of this whole learning thing.

01:08:08 Over the last years, we were created with roles. Oh, exactly. Right. We were created to raise children. Well, you can’t raise children with only opening one box at a time, one.

01:08:19 Drink on feeding you. But I’m not going to pay attention to the clothes, bath, brushing your teeth, all this right. Or multiple children. Yeah. Eating all the things at the same time.

01:08:33 It totally makes sense that we were created by a design on purpose. On purpose. And it makes sense. Yeah. And when we both work in those too, you see things run so much more smoothly.

01:08:47 Oh, yeah. And a lot stronger. So how has this changed your family dynamic going forward? What do you guys see? I know you talked a little bit about the property that you’d like, that you’d like to expand a little bit because right now you guys are city, steady digging that city and you’re hoping to expand.

01:09:06 What else? What else do you see going in the future for you guys as a family? Honestly, I think that kind of sums up we’ve always been simple, but I feel we’ve become a lot more simple. We want that. We want to grow our own food.

01:09:21 We want to get away from grocery stores and commercialize. I’ll be honest, I’m not going to sew my own clothes. I’m not going who knows? Two years. I’ll do it for you.

01:09:30 Yeah, I got the sewing down. What are you talking about? I make everything. But as of right now, no.

01:09:38 But. I would love for growing our own food homeschooling, our son having our own church. Like I would love to run and have our own church. The thing about the home church stuff we’ve been a part of is it’s often been other people’s homes, which makes it difficult for people to do all the time. For us, we’ve started freeing up.

01:09:57 Like our weekends are open and we would love to do it every week. Like a consistent for people to look forward to. Yeah. So that is something on our hearts too. And then traveling.

01:10:08 We love to see new places and do things. I mean, we’re coming to see you in a couple of weeks. I know, I’m so excited. But the kids are freaking out. Yeah.

01:10:18 And our goal too is we’ve always said we wanted our winters to be away from Canada, probably in Florida. That’s like a second home for us. And so that is a goal actually for next year even. Or this year technically. That after Christmas.

01:10:36 Yeah. We want to come and stay a couple of months and just take a really long break each year. That way we want to get away from the things we don’t like come back. We’ve set a lot of things up to do life on our own terms that way and just keep working towards that. That’s awesome.

01:10:53 Yeah. Because you guys have his business going, your business going, and then you’re finding ways that you can still earn that income while not doing the job. That’s always the biggest goal of living life on your terms is finding that income that you don’t have to be there to do it. Oh yeah, bonus. Right now it is possible as long as we can keep that going before we need to get fully off grid.

01:11:17 The whole purpose of this podcast is somebody out there could be living life in the same shoes as you and wants to be inspired and hear just how did you do it, how do I get out there and live this alternate lifestyle outside of the box. The first thing is have faith. Have faith that God’s got you, he’s got a plan for you and it’s going to work out. And if it doesn’t, then go to plan B, right? Life is such a beautiful thing and this gift, right, we don’t know how much time we have.

01:11:50 And so that has always been something we’ve lived by is we live in the today and not the years from now. So we’re not the type of people if you haven’t gathered already, to plan for when I’m 55, 60, retiring and then live my life. We’re the live it now. And I would also say when it comes to just making changes in your life, pick one thing. Pick one thing and start do that thing well, feel comfortable with it and then try something else because it can be really overwhelming like I mentioned before, to do all the things and take it all in at once.

01:12:25 So pick something that you know you could change right now. It could be like I did with bread. Oh, I don’t want to buy bread anymore so I’m going to make bread. I’m going to make two loaves on Sunday. So I’ve picked my day time to do it.

01:12:38 Done. If you have a bread machine too, like if that’s your jam, that’s way easier. I do it by hand because I like the taste better. But bread machine, dump it in, call it a day. Woohoo.

01:12:49 Yeah. Or whatever it is that you are feeling called more to. It could be even like we changed out. Well, we’ve changed out almost everything now. Like our dish soaps, our laundry soaps, our toothpaste, et cetera.

01:13:02 But I didn’t do it all at once. I started with one, whichever one I felt first, let’s say it was laundry detergent. I was like, okay, this is what we’re going to start making the swap for. I just started buying that instead of the other thing, right, that we used to buy before and then when funds made time for it. Or I actually just started realizing when I started making more things myself, you actually weren’t spending as much.

01:13:25 Because the thing is when you’re buying all of these things, like, let’s say food that has junk stuff in it, it’s like an empty calorie. So to say where you’re getting filled up but not fueled. And then when you start making your own you’re like, wow, I’m not as hungry so I don’t need to eat as much and I don’t need to, whatever. And that’s just one thing we’ve noticed. But we just started with one thing and there are still so many things that I need or sorry, not that I need, but that I would like to do.

01:13:53 But again, I’m going to work on one more thing and then when we’ve kind of mastered that or it’s become a habit. One more thing. Yeah. So start small. You don’t need to do it all and be proud of yourself for just changing one thing.

01:14:07 That’s a doozy. Because I know, especially jumping into this crunchy community, you can get gas lit from that community just as much as all the others, right? And because you’re not green enough, you’re not clean enough, you’re not whatever. So put that aside. Because they’ve been doing it for years.

01:14:29 And that’s the thing, right? We hear all those stories and we follow these people and we’re like, it’s so crazy, how could I ever that I could never do that? But when you actually hear their stories, they too started with one thing. That one thing for us right now, it’s slowly switching over from plastic containers to glass containers. Yeah.

01:14:49 Right. But you guys already did one thing by selling everything and downsizing your home, right? One big thing.

01:14:59 And in that, I’m sure because a home would have more space and things, you had to start getting more creative with what you use and what you didn’t use and so on. Yeah, there’s definitely some things that I wish we had with us. And there were some things that I’m like, why did we bring this? Why do we need this when we live small? And ironically, one of the things I wish I had was my stand mixer.

01:15:23 Oh, yeah, it’s in storage. But yeah, it’s that one thing. And I was so scared to jump into the crunch community. I was so scared to be a part of the homeschooling groups. Well, guess what?

01:15:36 Next week we’re going to start going to a homeschooling local group. Because I’m not afraid to be the person who doesn’t have it all together anymore, right. I don’t have to show up with all my organic foods in a paper bag or a reusable, blah blah, blah, right? I do not. Yeah, I can’t.

01:15:54 I live in less than 300 sqft. That’s not possible. And then organics, it’s not possible because our budget right, it doesn’t matter. But that doesn’t make me any less of a person. No.

01:16:04 Right. That’s the thing. Yeah. You’ve changed things that other people haven’t and they’ve changed things that you haven’t. And we all just need to celebrate one another for changing something, right?

01:16:16 Good for you. You changed something, right? Yeah. Just a change. The fact that you chose to make a change period is huge because look at how many have still sat and made no changes over the last three years and keep saying to you, wow, I really wish I could do what you’re doing.

01:16:37 Wow, I really wish I could do what you’re doing. Yeah. And you’re like, but you can. Just one little change at a time. Or jump and make the big thing and roll with it.

01:16:47 Yeah. Sell your house, get an RV, go to Florida. Yeah. Literally roll with it.

01:16:55 But it’s definitely, like, just make the little changes. I still remember I’m calling her out here. I hope she listens to this Realtor when we were putting our house up on the market two years ago, which I think it’s in contract right now for the next. The people are selling it just like yours. Less than a year later, they’re selling it.

01:17:15 Two years later, when we were listing it, she’s like, man, I really wish I could do what you guys are doing, but insert thing. Our mortgage broker. Wow, I really wish I could do what you were doing, but insert this. And sure enough, our Realtor has made some crazy changes and jumped with it and rolled with what she could and what she was comfortable with, and she made some pretty crazy changes. Well, thank you so much, Meighan.

01:17:43 Thank you for having me. So appreciate this conversation. It’s been a good one, and I think there’s lots of nuggets in there. If somebody is looking to find you, how can they connect with you? Best way would be Instagram, because I don’t really use anything else right now.

01:17:56 I’m actually working on starting a whole public page. I’ve spent the last couple of years protecting my page, but yeah. So right now, you could type in my name Meighan Tius. M-E-I-G-H-A-N. TIAs is T-Y-A-S.

01:18:13 You likely never find a Meighan spelled like that. And if you do, you have to tell me. My sister in law? Yeah. No way.

01:18:24 That’s cool. So my name on there. This is really funny. Remember, I was a kid’s pastor, please. But it’s Megasaurus because it was Meighan the Dinosaur because of my little arms.

01:18:38 Oh, my gosh. I didn’t know that. And here I am at 33, and it’s still that way. That’s amazing. But, yeah, you can go you can follow me on there, and then when I do, launch another page, all the info will be there, but that’s the best place for now.

01:18:53 That’s awesome. Your little arm. Yeah. They always said I had teeth arms. Oh, my gosh.

01:19:00 I love it. I love it. Oh, my goodness. Again, thank you so much for being here. This is such a great conversation, and I really appreciate it.

01:19:09 Thank you. Oh, I can’t wait to see you guys, too. Well, thanks again, Kate. Thank you for listening. If you’re enjoying these stories, please leave us a review as it helps our podcast reach more listeners.

01:19:20 For more information about this podcast with show notes, links, and more, please go to our website moresunsetsplease.com, but we want to hear from you. If you know of someone with a great story, send an email to info@moresunsetsplease.com and I’ll be sure to get back to you. Until next time, keep taking time to enjoy more sunsets.