Glory Lennon

I live on a four acre plot of land in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania with my husband Tommy and three of our four mostly-grown children. Both Tommy and our eldest son, Brandon, own and run their businesses from home. They repair industrial vacuum equipment; helium leak detectors for Tommy and vacuum pumps for Brandon. I serve as secretary to both and as chauffeur for Justin, our middle son, who happens to have autism and goes to a day program for work training and socialization.

Tommy and I decided even before we married, some 26 years ago, that we were going to do things differently than all those around us. We were going to go back to the days of “Leave it to Beaver”. We planned on raising a family on one income so I could stay home with the kids. We wanted things to be simple, just like in the “good old days”. A radical idea, indeed, but that’s us, nutty to the core.

Not at all surprising to us, it worked well. Of course, this could have been mainly because we tried to be as self-reliant as possible. Not long before the birth of our third child, Tommy lost his job and went into business for himself. It was the best thing that could have happened, although we weren’t too certain of that at the time. We made do with what we had, however, and found we weren’t missing much. We felt like modern day pioneers!

Tommy, very much like my do-it-yourself father, is a Jack-of-all-trades and quickly took to being his own boss. I helped him as best as I could but my main job was being a stay-at-home mom. I had learned to be a creative homemaker from my mother. She taught me all I needed to know; how to crochet, sew, knit, keep hearth and home clean and well ordered, how to cook and mostly how to do things with as little money as possible spent.

On my own, I expanded my knowledge of self-reliance by teaching myself how to bake my own bread, how to quilt and how to grow and preserve fruits and vegetables from my own garden. Through my gardening, I learned so much about plants. It actually became an obsession which explains Glory’s Garden, my blog.

These almost forgotten skills served us well. Growing our own food, sewing clothes for the kids, making quilts, knitting sweaters and scarves, and making all our food from scratch saved a slew of money and made us a happier and healthier family. Tommy, being able to fix whatever got broken and keep everything running smoothly, helped immensely. Enough money was saved that we were able to take the kids to Disney World several times. We were living on the cheap, but living the good life too. Who says it’s not cool to be frugal?

Although I started writing short stories and novels as a means of entertaining myself, I soon realized people craved what I had in abundance, namely garden knowledge. With these two skills, writing and gardening, my career as a writer began and thrived, first with a garden advice column in our tiny town’s Promised Land Village News, then on such websites as Helium.com (where I am the Steward for the tree and shrub channel) and GreenThumbArticles.com where I’m one of their top authors.

It was with some surprise I discovered Self Reliance Works existed. What a concept! A one-stop shop for all things frugal and self reliant, just like we have been living all our lives. Tommy and I thought we were of a dying breed, throwbacks from a lost generation and maybe we were. But now I see there are others with the same craving to do for themselves.

So, it’s not amazing that I feel an instant kinship with all the others here at Self Reliance Works due to this shared interest in living the good life on our own terms, doing for ourselves, not relying on others for every aspect of our existence, and in many cases, doing without by choice and loving every minute of it. Isn’t it freeing?

I am rather excited to join this fantastic team at Self Reliance Works and I just hope I can contribute as much as I will learn from this wonderful website.