Beautiful Morning

I am thrilled to report this post is the first ever written on the picnic table on the front deck where my view includes the silhouetted hills of Bandera, the rising of a pinkish gold sun and I am being serenaded by the dueling crows of roosters in stereo. The wind is from the north east and is blowing enough to sing through the trees and move my hair into my face but not so much to drive me back inside. This is the second day in a row I've been able to once again enjoy breakfast on the deck, one of my favorite things to do! It is a morning full of promise and blessings. God dances on the wind and covers my home and life completely!

Most of the time the blog posts are written in the wee hours of darkness, making an outdoor writing experience difficult. It is later than my usual writing time and I am taking full advantage of this glorious morning. My deck is not covered and, for the most part, sadly unusable during the summer months that end up rolling into fall. This makes this time even more special. So I want to share it with you when I can.

The vast number of birds songs gracing my ears is amazing! The cooing of several types of doves and the gobbles from a neighbor's turkeys carry on the wind from near and far. The playful sounds of the three pups next door makes me smile. The buzzing of something large flying behind my head is not cause for concern because I've decided it must be a dragonfly.....no, no, do not try to tell me differently, it is a dragonfly. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

The feral cats were fed before I brought out my food in self-defense. They are a hungry lot and think each time the front door is opened it surely must be time to be fed. I want them to depend more on their hunting skills and less on my dispensing of food, so they are only fed in the mornings now. I see evidence of their skills, so I know it must be working. While still not friendly pets, they clamor at the front door when they hear the lock turn each morning and make walking to the food bowl tricky but I prefer that to the instantaneous scattering like fearful babes they used to be. At this moment, they are spread out all over the deck, some perched on a bench, the others taking their favorite lofty spots to watch life pass below us. Our treetop perspective gives a feeling of being above it all.

Being in the country during dove season, there is the occasional gunshot, not a sound I relish but my hope is that any dove falling to the sound will make its way onto someone's table. God did give us dominion over the animals for food, even if we don't like the path they have to take to get there.

As the sun gets higher in the sky and the pink fades to a more brilliant gold, the gunshots are coming more frequently. Fly, little doves, fly!!

I have new neighbors in the village. A family moved in across the street to that pretty rock house. I haven't met them yet but I have enjoyed the sound of their young children playing. Yesterday they were imitating the roosters. Apparently said roosters can't tell time and crow randomly throughout the day.

This time of day, 7:32, usually finds me in my office working on some literary masterpiece....(picture me laughing hysterically)...but this morning is so beautiful and pleasant (and it is holiday after all), I just cannot bring myself to go back inside. The long months of unbearable heat have left me longing for such a time as this. Early morning sun is the only kind I can be in anyway, so I am making the most of it.

Life is starting to make its presence known in the village now. Cars revving up, the golf cart puttering down the street bearing the man that reads our water meters and dogs communication on the canine hotline compete with the birds for the airwaves. I'll drink down the last sip of my now cold coffee, gather up my computer and head inside to face whatever this day brings. Having been restored in the masterpiece of God's morning, I am more able to cope with the unknown to come. His mercies are new everyday!

Thanks for stopping in and sharing my morning!

It's the Little Things

In my pursuit of returning to a more simple life, I realized I've long made it a practice to seek out the little things that add a touch of comfort, familiarity or just plain make me feel good. I've never been a high maintenance girl or had to be entertained to be content. I'm fortunate enough to enjoy time in my head and I take it everywhere I go! LOL

I think we have gotten to a place is space with so many techie toys that many of us are unable to be content without them. We have forgotten how to just 'be' without being occupied by some outside stimulus. Nothing simple about that life. So this morning, as I was enjoying one of the little things I do for myself, I thought I'd share some of them. Hope you'll share yours, too.

Last Bite - As I eat a meal, there comes a point where I know what I want to be my last bite. Maybe it's a favorite veggie, or the last piece of meat, whatever. It's the flavor I savor as I walk away from the meal. My Honey & I were at a seafood restaurant where I was enjoying one of my favorites, oysters, and we were having an exciting conversation because we had just come from the hospital where we met our new grandson, Jacob! Needless to say, my attention was on the joyful event. I realized I had mindlessly finished the oysters. "Oh, no! I don't have one for my last bite!" This was the first my husband heard of my 'last bite' habit. He laughed and asked if I actually planned my last bite and I replied, "Of course, don't you?" He thought it a silly thing I did this but he ordered 3 more oysters just so I could savor my last bite. Since that time, I might add, he often makes a point to choose a 'last bite' and has learned to appreciate the habit. It's a little thing that brings me joy. No batteries required.

Post Breakfast Coffee - My blood does not really flow until I have sipped my way through my first cup of coffee. By this time, I've done my Bible reading and maybe even gotten the Truth in the Morning blog out. I may have a little more but am into my morning routines, so it usually goes cold on me. I don't really drink much during meals, I prefer my libation afterward. Thus was born my habit of Post Breakfast Coffee. I make a point of stopping all activity and sit down to compose myself while I enjoy that last coffee in peace before resuming my work. It is but a small thing I do to take time to breathe deeply and enjoy a short time of meditating on my day's game plan. I come away refreshed, refocused and with a sense of preparedness because I took a few minutes to take care of me. Big rewards from such a little thing.

We often think we don't have time to even think about doing things for ourselves because we have so much responsibility on our shoulders. Friends, we can not maintain to hustle and bustle of modern life without taking care of ourselves. Rarely will you find yourself with extra time so we need to carve out time. I was a single-again mom a long time and learned quickly that if I did not take care of me, no one took care of me. Out of sheer stress and burnout, learning to do the little things was born. I had no money for luxuries like manicures or getting my hair done, that was incomprehensible to me. So I learned to find pleasure in small ways that took neither time nor money away from my family. I discovered it was fun to uncover new 'little things' to appreciate. They are usually there all along, the key is deciding to take time to appreciate them.

Next time you're feeling like life is cheating you somehow and you are not getting all that you deserve or want, go on a treasure hunt. The 'little things' you find for your life add richness and joy when you make a point of taking a moment or two to appreciate them for the treasures they are.

That's my view of simple life from Hacienda Hill this morning.  

In With the New, Out With the Old

My goodness bad habits die hard! Or is it...hardly die? The things we do to ourselves by creating and/or evolving into bad habits! It's sad...


Our A/C unit needs to be replaced. The poor old thing is 20+ years old and we knew a few years ago its days were numbered. After coming home from an single overnight trip to find it frozen up and the house hotter than h....well you know...we knew we could not put it off any longer. An A/C guy my Honey works with is coming this afternoon to see the size of the house, size of existing unit and recommend what we need to get. We need his advice, I'm glad he's coming.

Early this morning, however,  I was singing the "woe is me" song thinking I would not be able to get much work done today because I would need to get the house in order for this company. As I walked to the kitchen to prepare my breakfast, I scoped out the place. Guest/My bathroom looks great - check. Living room would take maybe 2 minutes to dust & 3 to sweep. Kitchen maybe another 3 just to sweep, wipe counters/table. The official 'dining area' is sadly a storage area for our ministry while we search for a suitable facility but even that is nicely pulled together - check. That's it for public spaces in our home. A whopping 8 minutes worth of house foo-foo and that's it! Yet, here I was, bemoaning the labor ahead. You know why? Because it is a habit of stinking thing...that's why!

How many times have you wanted to have guest for dinner but didn't because you thought it was too much trouble to get ready? I used to jump every time a car pulled up my driveway thinking someone would want to come in. Sad, that! We had dinner guest a week or so ago. My Honey kept watching me, waiting for me to go into 'manic crazy mode' but I was watching my favorite PBS stuff and kicked back and relaxed. I could tell he was getting nervous.

"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Well, what do you want me to do to get ready?" he asks out of old stinking thinking.
"Could you vacuum the living room?"
"That's it?" he asks.
"That's it."
"Nothing else?"
"Look around, nothing else to do."

So he took a nap! LOL Having decluttered, clean out and pared down, it takes less actual work to keep the house company ready. Ah, a simple life on Hacienda Hill. Who knew? Honey & I are still in the stage where we have to work at keeping the good habits in play, it doesn't come naturally to us as it might you but we are down the road to where we want to be on this. I don't have to stress about it, yet I did this morning out of old stinking thinking. So, the newest habit I want to develop is not to sing the same old tired song of 'woe is me'. You have no idea how delightful it felt to realize there was no 'woe' to be found!

I even scrubbed my Honey's bathroom while in my state of sheer elation! LOL It is much easier for me to like my husband when we do not share a bathroom. *giggle* That may be way more than you ever wanted to know about us but I stay befuddled and confused at HOW he can get that bathroom mirror looking like that! I do not even want to know. I don't ask!

Journal Entry

Japanese Tea Garden Journal

April 7, 2011

Tho I am far, far away from anything that actually looks like a Japanese Tea Garden yet, I have found great satisfaction in my daily efforts toward that end. I mentioned that this has been a nine year long dream of mine. What I didn’t address was the impetus for finally starting. I think it important to know why we do what we do when we do it. It’s an integral part of living your life actually aware and plugged in to your own ‘present’ moment.

I was having a discussion with a dear friend that asked what I participated in to reduce stress, something I did ‘just for me’. It struck me that if a friend this close to me had to ask that question, whatever it was must not be evident in my day-to-day world. This friend KNOWS me, knows me well. If she didn’t know, no one would. This sent up all kinds of red flags for me. Then she asked me what I would do for myself if I could.

I ‘do’ all kinds of things. I ‘enjoy’ a lot of different activities. I am blessed to love my vocation of choice. I think part of my key to enjoying life is that I look for things to appreciate in the mundane chores required, as an example – how I enjoy hanging out the laundry on the line or the sense of immediate gratification I get from ironing. I choose not to see it as something I have to do but rather something I enjoy doing. But what do I “do” just for my personal pleasure, something to nourish my soul, if you will?

At first glance, I didn’t see anything. Apparently, my friend didn’t either. Then I thought about my daily tea ritual at 2 in the afternoon. I “do” that for me. Thoughts of my tea ritual led me to my dream for the Japanese tea garden and the serenity I feel when I simply contemplate sitting in the midst of this garden, away from the world and her stresses. That’s what I would do if I could, I would create my garden rather than just dreaming the years away. I would “do” that just for me if I could.

No, I can’t run out and buy the materials to put the fences up and building the actual Tea House may be light years away (even if it is small) in a realistic world but I can DO something. I can start! I can rake and prune trees and plot my vision in color on the computer…all of which I have done already. I walk the “fence lines” looking at the area from every angle to make sure my vision encompasses all the standard elements for a traditional Japanese garden. I ‘feel’ the emotion and peace I anticipate when I finally get to stroll the winding paths admiring the plantings and structure of the garden as I discover each new view all over again every day. I can do that. 

For years I have poured over pictures of Japanese gardens in anticipation of actually having one of my own. I will continue to peruse the pictures because it puts a ‘face’ on my vision, if that makes sense. But I am determined to longer just dream. Each day I am one day closer to my vision coming to life and I will “DO” something as often as I can toward that end.

            I hope you will “DO” something just for you, too!

Day 166! Time Flies

WOW, this is day 166 since we we launched Simple Life on Hacienda Hill and our resolve to live a more relaxed life, less cluttered with consumerism and moving toward a 'greener' lifestyle. We have made many changes and have many more to go. There are still old thinking and habits we need to eliminate and/or replace with greener, more efficient ways of doing things.

I am still in love with hanging the clothes on the line rather than using the electric dryer. Only one day, so far, have I not enjoyed the ritual. It was freezing, literally, and I had a load of my Honey's work clothes that needed to be hung out. Cold air dries clothes, too. It also makes your hands turn into red stumps of agony. We don't have many bitter cold days in this part of the world, so I do not perceive that to be an ongoing issue. We did have a recent stretch of foggy, misty days that threw a kink in my laundry schedule but we lived to tell about it without any major life altering issues. I just considered how the families of days gone by would have dealt with the same issue, and persevered in my determination to stick to my guns and commitment. I can honestly say it has only required planning ahead and more careful attention to the weather forecasts. All in all, it was a positive change to my routines and our lower energy bill. I have no plans plans to abandon this life change.

I have a few areas of less than productive results. My raised garden bed has all but been forgotten. It has gone to pot...no, not the brain cell killing, cash crop of pot (LOL) but as in neglected and weed infested. It will be but a few blinks of an eye before it is time to get the spring garden planted. I am not prepared! Nor is my sad, pitiful garden bed.

There is still a ton of 'stuff' of which to rid our lives and home. I'm sad to admit that a cabinet I previously cleared out and de-junked is full again! That's NOT the way to go about things. On a positive note, we've done some reassigning of space allocation. My Honey's studio has become my new office and is smack in the middle of redecorating, as in painting & wallpaper. Working on the book has occupied the bulk of my time and attention, as did the mission trip to Costa Rica. There are only so many hours in a day and I need to re-assess the way I am using them. We all have the same 24 hours a day, many people utilize them efficiently, many more don't. Some days I do, some days I don't. I need to find a consistent rhyme and rhythm that works every day for me. I'm not THERE yet.

I am currently trying to find a good balance and division of time to better meet all the needs I have IF I am to get the book ready for submission, my office cleared out of everything but the necessities of my writing profession and make it esthetically pleasing to my sensibilities and juggle the demands of life in general: meals to prepare, bills to pay, laundry to be done, dust bunnies to chase, clutter to clear, etc. It's difficult to remember that living a simple life is about ridding ourselves of excess so we can manage that which requires managing to maintain a peaceful, less stressful life when you're tripping over paint cans, boxes to sort through and stacks of papers you'd rather just chunk in the trash. There is practical work that must be accomplished if we are to attain that peaceful place. This is where I struggle...finding that balance. 

All in all, I'd say Day 166 finds us in fairly good place toward our goal. I am thankful for the positive changes made and am eagerly awaiting the changes to come. Twitching my nose won't get us there, so I must push on.

Let me know about the progress you've made, areas of struggle and ideas to share. I could use some good tips!

Mid-Holiday Check Up

How's life treating you? Crazy busy? Stressed? Falling off the Simple Life wagon? Oh, sorry, that one is me...

I have put myself in the 'pickle jar of overload' and my teeth are on edge from the bitter taste it leaves in my mouth. It's all my fault, no one to blame but myself. Don't you just hate it when there is no one else to blame? LOL

Living the Simple Life means ridding our homes, habits and activities of the non-essentials so we have time, energy and interest in the things are most important to us. In overload mode, it often feels that everything has PRIORITY stamped all over it. We become hypersensitive to demands on our time, real and imagined. Life feels like it is moving in fast forward mode and we are not keeping pace.

I've allowed 'busyness' to overtake me. I created most of it for myself. The particulars are not important, they just sound like excuses anyway. The question is, what am I gonna do about it?

I'm going to slow down and do less even though I feel I'm not doing enough already. That false sense of inadequacy is a byproduct of overload and excess. As my good friend, Cheryl, says...I'm going to 'follow the peace.' I need balance in my life or I get wacky. No one functions well in tilt mode!

I started putting my plan in action yesterday by spending some time with my friend, Helen. That was a good start. I also chunked the PRIORITY stamp out the window. Doing a self-diagnostic reality check helped, too. I was being hard on myself in the name of 'brutally honest'. What's up with that? Trust me, it was more brutal than honest! I am painfully aware of my shortcomings and blast myself daily for the standards I do not meet. I would not treat anyone else like that but sure come down hard an myself. Going to take some diligent monitoring to cut that out.

A quick visit with another friend, Pat, brought that to my attention. I saw and heard in her what I was doing to myself. I commented that I wished I could say my kitchen was as clean and looked as good as hers and she started protesting and complaining that it was filthy and she couldn't stand it. FILTHY?! There wasn't even clutter to be seen. It looked great to me, but she couldn't see all that was done and the beauty of it. I pointed out again how nice it was and she still would not hear it. Couldn't even make eye contact with me while we talked about it. I told her if that was filthy to her, she was banned from ever coming to my house again! Egad, what would she think here??

It hit me as I drove home, that's the same way I act about what I do and accomplish. No matter how much I do while I work, I only see what I didn't do. I place more importance on emails left unread, chapters not yet edited, and a long list of 'should have done's'  than I do on the good work of the day. I never allow myself to appreciate my accomplishments for more than two seconds before I start zeroing in on all that needs my attention. This can paralyze you into inactivity! I am cheating myself and rolling in the dust when I fall off the Simple Life wagon. Life is far too short and unpredictable for that. So this is me, picking myself up, dusting myself off, and focusing my eyes, once more, on living the Simple Life on Hacienda Hill...What would your mid-holiday check up reveal?