When Simply Living Isn't So Easy

Snow has been covering most of the Northern Hemisphere and we too have our share of snow right now. It was pretty the first couple of days but now I'm ready for spring. Puncsetany Phil didn't see his shadow but winter hasn't seemed to listen and taken an even firmer grip.

Hanging out laundry on the clothes line has been more of a challenge. Any time that there's even a hint of sunshine, I do a load of laundry and hang it out on the line. I just do one load at a time though. The weather can change so quickly. Take yesterday for example. The sky was clear when I hung the load out but before it could get dry, it started to drizzle. I brought the clothes in and hung them on the clothes bars in front of the wood stove. During the evening I removed the dry clothes and folded and put them away. This morning I folded the last of the load and put them and the clothes bars away. Any further laundry will need to wait because it is snowing this morning.

Fortunately for me, I live in this part of Missouri. We don't get the snow that they get up north. My laundry isn't that far behind. One good day and I can get it caught up again. Hang out clothes while the sun shines is definitely a practice I have learned to keep.

This winter I have been enjoying the fruits of my labors from last summer. We've used up all of our canned green beans. Yesterday I enjoyed drinking a can of the tomato juice that I canned. It was so much better than the stuff I've bought in the grocery store. It doesn't have all the salt in it so I can taste the sweet tomato flavor. It's sad in a way that the lines of filled jars is disappearing but disappear they should. Next summer the process of canning fruits and vegetables start over again. It is all part of the cycle of the seasons.

There are some things that I have on the shelves that are not getting eaten however. The pickles that I canned don't seem to taste very good. It's not so much the flavor as the texture of the pickles don't seem to be right. The only home canned pickles that I have really liked were some crock pickles that a friend and I made some years back. Perhaps I'll try those.

The sweet potatoes that I planted to create slips to plant in the garden is growing well. I counted five slips so far. One of the vines is already quite long. During the day I put the pot, in which the sweet potatoes are growing, into the south facing window so it can get some sun. At night I move it away from the window to keep it from getting too cold. I look forward to when I can get more started for my garden.

The Deliberately Simple Life

Yesterday I making bread dough. As I worked on it, I was thinking about everything that went into making the bread and how it really doesn't take much time, it just takes time over a long period of time. I was thinking about how good it was that I was able to work at home, take care of the house, the wood heating stove, hang the laundry out on the line and be there for my family while I wrote. In a few days I'll be able to go to school from home too.

I will let you know that I don't make a lot of money writing but what I can also tell you is that I enjoy the life that I live. I enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I have no real need for anything. I have a roof over my head, my home is warm enough in the winter and cool enough in the summer. I have food on my table and I have my health. I don't take any type of medication except for an occasional over-the-counter pain reliever(and that is happening less and less often). I don't have a car payment, I don't have a mortgage or pay rent.

I know that there are people who don't understand, sometimes I think my own husband doesn't understand that I like my simple life. I've got no complaints. Not that I don't want to grow in areas because I do but I want to grow in areas that I feel matter to me and promote the kind of lifestyle that I want to live.

I have purposely avoided a lot of the consumer propaganda that has so saturated the media lately. It's all a lie anyway. The house of cards will fall. There is no way that an economy based on rampant spending is going to do anything but put us further and further into debt. It is true of a home economy and it is true of a national economy as well. No one can spend their way into prosperity.

My securities aren't in stocks or bonds or even in the commodities market. My security first lies in the fact that I look to the eternal source to meet all my needs according to his riches in glory.

Second I am learning to get in tune with the natural processes around me. I am learning to accept the weather as it comes. Part of that lesson comes in the fact that I hang my laundry out on the line to dry. I hang out laundry when the sun is shining and I don't when it's raining.

Third I have learned that I can assist natures processes rather than manipulate them. I have learned that the earth wants to be healthy and by feeding her the right nutrients she will reward me with healthy foods. My compost pile is part of her life cycle. I save the nutrients in the form of kitchen and yard wastes, encourage the decomposition process then return the finished (sometimes just partially finished) compost to the garden for the microbes there to make available to the plants. My garden instead of sinking down over time builds up higher than the soil around it.

I have heard that during the coming year the price of food is going to go up. If that is true, perhaps it will encourage more people to build compost piles, to make their own bread, and to start growing more of their own food. If so, I will be here to help anyone who is interested to begin to develop their own deliberate simple life.