Preparing for the ducks

We have a long ways to go to prepare for ducks this year, but today the work began to convert an old chicken coop we built a few years ago into a duck coop for our ducks. When we built it we used salvaged pallets. We were able to use it for a few months but ultimately it was too small and did not provide roosting space for the chickens. However the ducks don't need roosting space, and the coop will be fenced in the orchard providing lots of space for the ducks to run around. The coop will just provide shelter for the ducks at night and from the weather.

Solar Panels and Winter

We are currently in the middle of winter. This presents a few challenges with solar power. Every morning we wake up to a fresh layer of frozen condensation covering our solar panels. I have three ways to fix this. The first is to let the sun warm up the panels and melt the ice. The problem with this is we lose hours of sunlight that could be powering our batteries. The second method is to scrape the panels like we do our car windows. This method is long, cold, and our panels are pretty high, so it also involves balancing on a ladder. Since I don't like to balance on a ladder in the freezing cold I try to avoid this method as often as I can. The third and easiest method is to pour some warm water on the panels to speed up the process which the sun will finish once some of the panels are exposed. The problem with the last method is that we must have enough power from the previous day stored in the batteries to get water from our well which is powered by solar panels.If there is snow on the panels then we first have to sweep off the snow, and then we can work on the layer of ice which is always under the snow. It is definitely a conundrum. However, we love our solar power, so I wake each day with the sun and get to work finding the method that will work best for that day.

Secret Ingredient Rice

Iron Chef Family
Tonight we played one of our favorite games: Iron Chef and our secret ingredient was Rice!
We ended up with three teams! I was super impressed with my oldest son's ability to work with his little brother (age 10) and sister (age7) as he listened to each of their suggestions and composed a dish with the help of both siblings and no complaining. He was a great leader as he kept the dish moving and they all worked together as a team. I also want to note that my 7 year old daughter made homemade tortillas for the first time and did a great job.
On the other team I had two teen age kids who both came up with interesting individual dishes.
However the winner was a surprise third team that arose because of need. My six year old son felt left out and needed a team so I sat down and listened to his ideas of what he wanted to cook. He was insistent on eggs. Additionally he wanted to incorporate corn. So he ended up making an omelet that had rice, corn and salsa in it. It was delicious and he won the competition. Congratulations Seth!!!!

New addition to the homestead

We are super excited to welcome the newest buck to our family. His name is Radar. He is 3/4 Nubian and we are so excited to breed him to our Oberhasli this next year. Thank you Knever Knight Farm for this beautiful little buckling. You can see some of the great things they are doing here.

Thrift Store Shopping

Some people have turned bargain shopping into an art form. For me, it is just rewarding.
For years I would go to the local thrift store look at the prices and think I can buy this new at Walmart for the same price or cheaper. Then I moved. Here there are several thrift stores, and a lot of people who just don't like to throw things away. As a result they take clothes to the local thrift store by the bag. One of our thrift stores has so many donations that they put the majority of the clothes in large wood boxes in front of the store and offer all you want that will fit into a 13 gallon size garbage bag for $1. This week I was able to purchase over 10 white and colored button up dress shirts for my boys in sizes that will fit my 10, 6, and 3 year old sons from the bin. I am so grateful for the ability to shop at thrift stores here where I live. I have also learned that kids love getting new things and they don't seem to care if it was something that was previously owned by someone else, its still a treasure to them. What is really cool about this is that I can focus our income and accomplish our goals of getting out of debt because I can buy clothes for the kids without spending our get out of debt snowball income on the clothes the kids need. Yes I still have to spend quite a bit at the store getting items I can't find, however its a lot less. I encourage everyone to find a few ways that you can save money in your local area, but when you do make sure you beef up your money going towards your debts. For example if you love to buy books and you get a book from the library, take the money from the bank you would have spend and put it on a debt. Don't just save the money buy not spending it, go ahead and spend it, just spend it on your debt and get out of debt faster. You can do it.

We paid off our addition, one step closer to debt free!

We are so super excited. Just eight months after getting our second shed that we have converted into a tiny house we have paid it off. We have tons more to do on our property. We still live in the middle of the dessert surrounded by lots of dirt with very little green to be seen anywhere, and its difficult to just go out and plant things because the dirt is mostly clay everywhere. However we continue to make progress and its super exciting to have our home paid for, ever if we are still building it. We really enjoy the shed conversions that we have done and love trying new things. I have decided one of my next adventures is going to be building some unique furniture to sell. I am really looking forward to designing and building some fun pieces.

One super exciting thing we have been able to do is to do some upgrades to our tiny house. When we first moved in we built our home the best that we could with the resources that we had. Recently we were able to replace our bathroom door with a beautiful wood door that we got on clearance. Over the next few months we have some more upgrades planned, but we are using cash or recycled products for everything.

Getting out of debt

I love to read articles that tell me how I can get out of debt or save money. I don't know why I continue to be drawn to them. The truth is I find very little useful information. I read things like:

• Don't buy junk food (okay this is good advice but lets face it the healthy treats I love cost more than the junk food so although I love this advice, its not saving me money maybe calories but certainly not money)
• Don't eat out at lunch - take your lunch to work. Okay who can afford to eat out and where do you find all that money to go out to eat for lunch. Eating out is a treat for a date night or a celebration not a lunchtime activity. And for that matter, lets celebrate getting out of debt. Save eating at the fabulous restaurant for a reward when you pay off a bill, not as a daily activity.
• Give up an addictive habit (hmm I don't drink, smoke, or play the lottery). 
• Negotiate a lower rate on your credit cards. Come on, its those dumb cards that got you into trouble in the first place. Stop using them. Cut them us and ban them from your life. 
• Cut your cable bill. Seriously you have a cable bill. You are broke, struggling to pay your bills and you are at home watching cable. Something seems wrong with this picture.

And the advice to get out of debt can be just as helpful interesting.


So I have decided to post my own advice here for everyone to read, or at least those who manage to find my blog in its obscurity.
How to save money

• Use the library (if you decide you love a book and want to reference to it repeatedly then go ahead and buy it, but most books can be enjoyed and returned to the library)
• Shop at the thrift store. We love this, we find so many great things shopping at the thrift store, but its important to buy just what you need at least until you are out of debt. Don't buy things just because they are a good price.
• Trade services. Its great if you can find someone you can trade services with like babysitting for piano lessons. However if you can't try other avenues like learning from the internet. 
• Get rid of your cable bill and for that matter any bills that you don't need. Come on you know what they are.
• Take advantage of free music lessons if you can. The public schools often offer Choir, Band, Orchestra and sometimes other music that your kids can learn at the school for free or an extremely reduced rate compared to private lessons.
• Have family game nights instead of vacations for a while. 
• Take advantage of free community events. Actually if you want to go to a good concert or play you might actually enjoy one from the local high school.  There are lots of free (or super cheap) community activities that you can enjoy when you are taking a break from Vacations and getting out of debt.
• Plant a garden. Well this can be interesting. Here you must set a spending limit. The first time we ever planted a garden we spent $100 on supplies and didn't get anything out of it. Last year we buried a few seeds on a family night and reaped a whole lot of food.  The idea was we just planted a few seeds and didn't spend a lot of money. If we hadn't gotten anything, we wouldn't have been out much. However the first time we spent $100 and got nothing. 
• Work, work, work. I can't say this enough. I am a stay at home mother, but there are dozens of things I do a week that save my family money because I am willing to work and so something myself instead of pay someone else to do it. 

How to get out of debt
Stop buying things you can't afford.

• For most of us this means don't use credit cards EVER because if you don't have the cash for it, you can't afford it.
• Don't buy a car without cash.
• Don't buy a house that is more than 25% of your take home pay.
• Don't take out a second mortgage.
• Don't spend more than you make. Tell everyone NO when they invite you to do something that you just can't afford. And lets face it when you are getting out of debt you can't afford just about everything because to get out of debt you need to one stop spending and two put extra money on the debts until they are gone.
• Don't buy anything that isn't necessary until you are out of debt (with the exception of small rewards that you pay for with cash built into your getting out of debt plan)
• Do pay extra on your debt.
• Do pay extra on your debt.
• Do pay extra on your debt.
• DO PAY EXTRA ON YOUR DEBT.

However the best advice I can give is just as follows. Stop spending money on purchases that are wants not needs. Too often we are plugging along and someone tells us about a great sale, a fabulous book or an amazing once in a lifetime vacation we just have to take. Here I like to apply the advice of Dave Ramsey. Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else. There has to come a time when you tell yourself NO until you can afford to tell yourself YES. And finally, DON'T GIVE UP! If you have kids, love them enough to teach then how an adult is supposed to act. That is be responsible and stop spending money you don't have. Its a terrible thing to teach them by your bad example to spend money you don't have. Your really teaching them how to live a life of bondage to debt and your not happy there, why would your kids be. Rather work hard at getting out of debt and show them a better way. And there you have it.

The Essential Life

In February 2015 I began working on another aspect of our self-reliance goals. Although I greatly appreciated our modern medicine and the ability to go to a doctor when we were sick, I also wanted to not go to the doctor if I didn't need to. I wanted to start learning about herbal oils so that I could use natural remedies to help heal our family. I had to do this in two parts. (1) Acquire oils and (2) learn how to use them.
I decided that adding an automated purchase plan and allocating a portion of by monthly budget towards buying oils would allow me over time to acquire oils for my family. However a step I skipped at the beginning was purchasing a good reference book. A few months ago I was given a reference book that our family has found extremely helpful.

We have really loved the information and the easy use of The Essential Life.
However before we got this book we were left to discover for ourselves what oils we would use and when. I started with a kit that had several oils in it. Then I started purchasing the oils that weren't in the kit and learning when and how to use the oils. When my daughter was born 6 weeks early I started using Onguard daily to keep from getting sick as I was  in and out of the NICU daily. When my son cut the tip of his finger and stitches didn't work the end fell off. A friend suggested we try Helichrysum and his black finger began to heal and he started getting feeling back to the end. When my 2 year old son had a yeast infection on his diapered bum I was able to use Lemon to bring comfort and healing to his sore bum.  When I  suffered from an infection on my foot from a cut I was able to use Lavender. All of these times (and more) I was able to use natural herbal oils to help heal and comfort my family.  We still go to the doctor if we need to, but I have really enjoyed the ability to use the herbs that our Earth holds for the benefit of my family. As I have we have become a little more self-reliant.

Self-Reliance is about helping others

A large part of our homesteading goals have been focused on becoming as self-reliant as we can. Recently I have realized that this often means working with others. Self-reliance is not a solitary life, rather one in which we work as a community to survive. As we become more self-reliant we obtain more ways to contribute to our family's survival and that of our community. In this way building our skills and knowledge are extremely important and valuable. When we started our tiny house build our first focus was to get a home finished that would provide a shelter for our family. Since that time we have realized that helping others do the same is extremely valuable. I now look at our tiny house as a canvas for learning and sharing.

Progress we have made
Recently we were the recipients of a large amount of reclaimed wood. It has been a joy finding various ways to use this wood in our home. Here are some of our projects that we have been working on. Please keep in mind that most of our projects still need work to be completed. Almost everything in both of the pictures was built using reclaimed wood. The one exception is I cut out the city chair rail on the located on the right of the barn door and installed it before I got my reclaimed wood. However I would have loved to do that project with reclaimed wood. The bookshelf, the ceiling above the bed, the white painted wood on the walls in the bedroom, the barn door and the wall the barn door is installed on are all done with reclaimed wood. I have really enjoyed building these things for our home, and I enjoy coming up with fun solutions for our spaces in our tiny home. When I first started looking for wood that was free I saw many posts on using shipping pallets. Not only are these difficult to retrieve the wood from but most of the wood we found from these pallets was in terrible shape. I applaud anyone who is able to create beautiful furniture and builds from this wood. However I have yet to be able to do anything but build some really ugly enclosures for my animals from pallets. However, I was blessed to get some wood that was destined to be tossed after its use as an enclosure for some large signs that were installed. I felt really blessed to receive this wood, and I went to work as quickly as I could when I got the wood to use it in my home. I didn't want the sun or weather to damage the wood as much as possible. Although I love how my projects turned out, I feel that I have learned a lot; as I work on future projects I hope to refine my skills as a builder to make more beautiful pieces for my home.

Frontier House

It all started several years ago with Frontier House, a show featured on PBS. We weren't the only ones. I have actually talked to a lot of people who have been inspired by this show that was its own experiment. Three families were chosen from a group of applications to be on a show that would set them back to the days of the Homestead. It was in fact, a failure of sorts. They lived on their homestead in Montana for a summer. One summer is just barely a vacation, hardly enough time to  One of the families cheated and none of them lived on the actual homestead for very long, but it got to us, a lot of us. We started thinking could I do that? How would I respond to that particular situation? And there were lots more questions with only one way to get the answer, and that way was to start our own Homestead. It was rough on those families and it was apparent that homesteading was definitely not for everyone. However, it was so intriguing for some of us that the ideas just took root and grew for years until the opportunity presented itself to find a way to start our own homestead.

I remember watching one episode and the commentators on the show mentioned that one of the families cheated. They weren't supposed to trade with anyone outside the make believe community. However on a real homestead, you need to trade with anyone and everyone that you can. It is very important to establish your homestead community. This may include other homesteading families or it may be people or businesses outside of the homestead community.  As a homesteader we need to make a life for ourselves utilizing our homestead as best as we can. If I look back to the fictional series Little House on the Prairie we see that although the Ingalls family lived on a homestead where they were able to raise animals and grow food that they harvested, they still were dependent on their community for a lot of their needs. They more they skills they possessed translated directly into an increases ability to survive especially during financially difficult times. Likewise, any time we become more diversified or our homesteads become more diversified it increase our ability to survive with the ups and downs of any economy.

Homesteading can be a difficult life, and the more self-sufficient you want your homestead to be the more difficult it can be because you are working to create an environment where you are the provider. That means that you do the work instead of paying for food or consumer goods that someone else has created or provided. You are the person going out in the cold or the heat and taking care of the animals and the plants.

It can be difficult to understand a homesteader. Many of us are beginners. A rancher or a farmer often has generations behind them that led to their current lifestyle, however most of the modern day homestead are turning back the clock just a little and changing the course and direction of their lives. They are putting their course on a different path then the one they were raised on.

It is more difficult and that makes some people wonder why we homestead. Although there are a lot of similar answers out there, you will also find that each and every story is unique. I have talked in other posts about some of the reason why our family choose a homestead, but its important to understand that this life (this homesteading life) isn't one level. There are multiple reasons why we and other families do this. And despite the difficulties and the struggles there are also multiple levels of rewards.

It has been a very long time since I have posted on this blog. I did update my status after I gave birth to my last baby. I am super happy to have 10 beautiful children. Also this spring we paid off our tiny house, but we decided to purchase another building to accommodate our growing family. We have also added 2 pigs to our homestead. We hope that our goats and pigs will both reproduce next year increasing the size of our homestead yet again. In the meantime we are trying to quickly make our new addition as close to winter ready as we can as soon as we can and with our cash pushing our budget as much as we can as I am also trying to get ready for Christmas and this holiday season at the same time.

I am so thankful for all we have however trying to do so much with such a limited income has been very stressful for our family. We recognize that we need to find a way to relax a little more and make things work.

It is easy to get caught up in things that don't matter. I guess we really need to ask ourselves what does matter.

I hope Judy doesn't mind, I found her message on a post I was reading about a 31 day challenge on living on Zero which was actually just paying the basic necessities and for nothing else. My heart was touched as I read what she wrote:

Try doing that because you have no other choice. I lost my job and am only wage earner. Mississippi only get up to 211 a week to cover expenses. Have no phone at all about to loose my car food is down to nothing rent is month behind. About to be 2 mos. the up side I start my new job tomorrow an hour and a half away. I’m happy you did this. I thing everyone should for a month or two. You will really understand what others go threw these days. Honestly didn’t think I would find a job I’m 55 it’s not easy. I only hope I can get bills all caught up and this has taught me to not be so frivolous. I gave my children everything and anything paid for cell phones bought cars. Out of all that. When I needed the help only one of them did what they could to help me. I think we all need to be more realistic and allow our children to make their own mistakes. It’s the only way they grow up.

After reading her message I decided that I was going to write more about my personal journey to get out of debt and to stay out of debt. 

My husband and I have taken an extremely drastic approach (as some of my other posts show) to get out of debt and to own our home and live as self-reliant as possible. One day my mother asked what our driving force was and I had to do a little self-examination to figure that out. I realized that for me the driving force was my husband losing his job over and over. The first time he lost his job it was because the company he worked for went out of business. It was actually becoming common at the time. Several stores were either closing or reorganizing in an attempt to stay open.  The second time he lost his job his department was eliminated after a merger with another company. The third time he lost his job it was also from the company downsizing with the economy struggling, and since he was new to the company he was one of the first to go. He got another job after that, but he knew immediately with their financial practices that his job was only temporary.  Later he managed to get a good job that lasted 9 years, but during the last year that is when we made our move. We bought our homestead and started working really hard towards our goal of self-reliance. 

We had already ended our credit card use a couple of years before. We decided that spending money we hadn't earned yet left a bad taste in our mouths when we spent months paying for purchases that were ofter short lived. We also learned that there was always another way besides credit cards to take care of emergencies and our number one go to became prayer and our second go to was patience. If we couldn't get something we needed then we had to pray for help and be patient until a solution presented itself. 

However above all else we had to sacrifice. If we can't afford something we go without. Additionally we live in our tiny house that we have been building over the past two years. Sometimes our house feels really small, but most of the time it is big enough for all our needs. We have more than just our tiny house, we have 36 acres that we will eventually have fenced in and use for multiple uses when it comes to growing food and raising animals but right now we just have a few of those acres fenced in and that is enough for us to get started. In addition to our tiny house we also have two more sheds that we use. One has been converted into additional storage and living space and the other is additional storage. 

After my husband and I purchased our property and started our homestead a series of events led to a search again for a new job. This search lasted 8 months. We were able to use our tax return, a part-time summer job, and unemployment to get buy during those 8 months and finally he got a new job and we got a stronger than ever determination to get out of debt as quickly as possible. When we bought our property we purchased a shed for the outside of our tiny house, and that was our first goal (pay off the tiny house). Although we had cash flowed the building of everything inside we didn't have time before our first winter would hit to cash flow the outside. If we wanted to have it ready before the first winter hit we needed a jump start and would have to add two debts. The first was the shed that would become our tiny house and the second was our property.

I also want to mention that our surviving for 8 months was possible because we had already eliminated car payments and credit cards.

That first summer I woke up with the sun and worked until after the sun went down and collapsed in bed exhausted. My kids learned to work alongside me and together we got the house ready for winter. The second year we moved fences most of the year. We were able to do come work on the house but since my husband didn't have a full-time job we couldn't spend money on the house, but there was plenty of work still to be done. 

After my husband got a job in the fall and we recovered financially we started working on the house again. This time my teenage son became my right hand helper. It was so good to work with him and he began to grow emotionally as he helped more. Having my children work along side me during this process has given them learning and growth opportunities that I wasn't able to give them before. 

We still have a long ways to go and our goals is to pay for our property in the next few years and then to begin getting rid of our last debt (our student loans). We also want to add on to our home or build a new home that is a lot bigger but we want to cash flow all of that project and getting out of debt so that we can free up all of our income is a big part of being able to cash flow a big building project. In the meantime we have lost of work to continue to do on our homestead including a green house and summer gardens. We have animals we are raising and we have our property to tame. But most importantly we have a beautiful family to raise and I am so grateful for my children and this experience we share together.

I feel extremely grateful despite all our trials we have been extremely blessed. We have a daughter serving a mission and a new baby girl and we have our home paid for. We are only left with two large debts. One is our property and the second is those terrible student loans that we only have ourselves to blame for taking them out. However we continue to press forward and make progress even if it is slower than we would like.

It amazes me how I can have a wonderful productive day that is also a stressful day. I am so grateful for my home and our homestead, but how is it that I can look around and see all we have and all that is left to finish at the same time. Why can't we just enjoy the moment a little more often. Perhaps that is a gift and for those that don't have that gift, perhaps it is a learned talent.
I also think that Gratitude (like our testimonies) is something that needs constant nourishment.
I am grateful for so very much.

The cost of raising a child

According to the Washington Associated Press: 

A child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 until he or she reaches the age of 18, with families living in the Northeast taking on a greater burden, according to a report out Monday. And that doesn't include college — or expenses if a child lives at home after age 17.

Those costs that are included — food, housing, childcare and education — rose 1.8 percent over the previous year, the Agriculture Department's new "Expenditures on Children and Families" report said. As in the past, families in the urban Northeast will spend more than families in the urban South and rural parts of the U.S., or roughly $282,480.

I find this report completely ridiculous. First off these numbers include housing and I can tell you right now that a lot of people who don't even have children have homes and most of those homes have more than one bedroom in them. To be fair I think that housing should not be included in these figures because families with and without children all have to have homes and the size of the homes seems consistent with peoples personalities and not the size of their family. 

Second, more and more families are becoming extremely frugal. This means that clothing can cost a lot but there have never been more thrift stores available than there are today and most children aren't made fun of for wearing thrift store purchase instead savvy mom are creating children who are excited to show their awesome thrift store finds to their friends. 

Third, childcare is an expense that a lot of families bear, but a lot of families don't pay for child care. Having children might mean child care expenses, but that is usually a personal decision. I think that these expenses shouldn't automatically be included in the cost of raising a child because a family can choose not to pay for childcare expenses. I think the numbers that should be included are those that are essential costs and not optional for most families.

Fourth, education does cost (sometimes a lot) but the variation in costs here would make it very difficult to tabulate.

Fifth, food is a cost but adding an additional meal to a menu of homemade food is a very small cost. Yes a person could spend a lot of money raising a child, and I know people who do, but it doesn't have to cost a lot. 

It has been my experience that the majority of costs are transportation (vehicles and gasoline) and insurance. With increasing government laws more children means larger cars and additional insurance. 

Before we get too set on the numbers provided by the Associated Press I think we need to look at our own personal preferences and decide what having a child will cost to us based on our personalities and personal choices. 

Progress

As we walked along our dirt courtyard my husband responded, it just seems like we are back where we started last year. I wondered what made him feel that way, and yet I knew. Progress is such a powerful emotion. It is so powerful that we have an emotional response both when we make progress and when we don't make progress. We have come a very long way since we started our homestead a little over a year ago, but not being able to make progress on it at this time is emotional. I had this same discussion with my friend who I love and respect very much. We talked about how emotionally difficult it was to feel success with your finances if you are just living paycheck to paycheck even if you are in a better situation than you have been. She had managed to eliminate their credit card debt but was still living paycheck to paycheck, so it didn't feel different even though it was different.

So how do we fight this? How do we feel progress so we can feel the success that comes with progress and the joy that comes with it? I have two ideas. First, we must have gratitude and often. We need to search often for those things that we are grateful and we must than our Father in Heaven for them often.
Second we need to have areas in our lives that we do see progress. Part of the difficulty comes from tasks that we do where progress isn't possible. For example a sink full of dirty dishes comes and goes daily. A pile of laundry might disappear only to reappear in an hours time. For this reason goal setting is not only smart but it is essential to our happiness. We need to set goals for ourselves and work on them. Another dear friend recently announces that she was going back to school. She wasn't sure that it would change very much in her life but she was taking the step nonetheless. However, that is a step towards accomplishment and progress. That step is vitally important to her sense of progress that produces such powerful emotions.  Our goals however don't need to be big (although big is good) small goals can help us feel the same sense of power if we set and accomplish goals. Even though my friend who had paid off her credit cards was struggling there was a sense of progress she was able to feel when they were paid off. Its just hat we have to keep having moments when we win. We need to be always working forward. That is what our Father in Heaven wants. He doesn't want us to stay where we are, he wants us to be moving forward. It is important that in prayer we counsel with our Heavenly Father and ask how we can move forward. Ask for his help in setting our goals. I say this because it is also dangerous ( and way to easy) to do a lot of things that are not important and of little worth, so as we work toward that sense of accomplishment that is so powerful we must also do so carefully. We don't want to get the bigger home if it means in the process we picked up an extra job and now have to miss going to church to pay for it. We need to stretch ourselves and move forward, but we also need to make sure that we do so with wisdom and prudence.

Stepping Stones

Sometimes we get stepping stones that help us to cross a steam that blocks our path. I don't exactly know how we are going to survive financially over the next few years. My husband has not been able to find a job here yet, but we have had some stepping stones that have helped us at this time while we are working to get through this current obstacle and I am so very grateful for all the stones that have appeared before us to help us cross this stream.

Storms

I have almost always looked at trials as blessings and opportunities for growth and learning, but recently I have realized how very much I love some trials. Oh they can be so difficult, but that is where I find my strength and my weaknesses. I don't want more trials right now, but I appreciate how much I learn from them. In fact, if I was asked to go into a store and shop for my trials I would probably pick the easiest trials they had and the fewest I could get away with. I guess it is good that I am not in control because the amount of growth I would have would also be small and not very much. I am grateful I don't get to pick my trials, but I am more grateful that I have the Atonement, the Holy Ghost, and the knowledge of the gospel to help get me through our trials.