65. More Stuff on Stuff

May 13, 2013October 20, 2014 / Apple Hill Cottage / 17 Comments

This is part 4 of several posts discussing Richard Foster’s chapter on Simplicity in Celebration of Discipline.

Of the ten practical ways to embrace simplicity in your life that Richard Foster discusses in Celebration of Discipline, this next one has made me most uncomfortable. I must confess here: it has taken me several weeks to write about this one. Oh, I started it. Three weeks ago I started it…

Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.

Foster is not talking about dangerous addictions here; he is talking about the generally good or fun things that people enjoy, that become obsessions or idols in our lives. Such as buying books, shoes, clothes, watching TV or other media, sports, games, Facebook, Blogging, Pinterest, or ________________(fill in the blank here.)

But please note that Mr. Foster says specifically, “learn to distinguish between what is a real psychological need, like cheerful surroundings, and an addiction.” That line made me smile — Right, we’re just making the cottage into a place with cheerful surroundings!

“My heart will be on books when my strength has failed.” –Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

But I spend a lot of time buying books. I’m a librarian. I buy books from Amazon, Half-Price Books, Powell’s, Abe Books, Barnes and Noble (I’m still in mourning for Borders…) Westminster Book Store, Christian Book Distributors and others. I buy them for work, and I buy them (ahem) for myself…Is it a real psychological need? Yes — for study, for serious reading, for reference; I don’t buy fluff. Well, not much.

And the other thing is — I like owning books. I like the way they feel in my hands. I love opening new books and reading the dust jacket. I enjoy the art on the dust jacket — if you ask me Nooks and Kindles can’t compete. But that’s another post…

And I do give them away. If I loan a book, I generally loan it with the expectation that I won’t get it back. (Unless my name is on the flyleaf; then there are no excuses, right?) I’m glad to give away books I love. And sometimes I buy myself another copy…

My nightstand is proof that I don’t need to buy myself another copy — I have plenty to read. And this is just one nightstand; I have another that looks just like this one at the cottage. (This feels like True Confession time…)

It’s interesting because that’s what Foster recommends — give away the stuff that you love to prove it has no hold over you. He tells a funny story about a young man who was so addicted to his morning newspaper that when it didn’t come one morning, he found himself plotting how to steal his neighbor’s paper. Horrified, he immediately called the newspaper to cancel his subscription. Cold turkey on newspapers! Not because newspapers are bad, but because he didn’t want to be obsessed.

And another suggestion for simple living that goes right along with this one is this: Learn to enjoy things without owning them.

Could I get my books without buying them? Yes. I’m a librarian, for goodness sake! Amazon just makes it so easy…

Bookshelf

Support your local library instead of Amazon. Rent a vacation house instead of buying one. Go to museums. Window shop. Rent tools. Lease a car, or better yet, take public transportation if you can. Celebrate public parks. Do free stuff. ~~Steal~~ share your neighbor’s newspaper (with their permission, of course.)

So, some of my books are going to have to go…One of the rooms I love in my city house is the library. Built-in bookshelves all along a wall — such a luxury — and we don’t have the space at the cottage. Though Mr. H.C. has offered to build me a wall of bookshelves in the living room… But boxes of books are so heavy. Should I give away the ones I’m saving to read some day; or my favorites that I’m saving to read again? Hmmm…

Is there something you need to be careful about buying because you buy too much? Is there something that you need to be careful about doing because you do it too much?

64. It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Kitchen…

May 11, 2013January 20, 2016 / Apple Hill Cottage / 9 Comments

Everywhere I look
Finished walls and doors,
beautiful shiny floors
What a grand place to cook!

Yes, yes, I know. Bad rhymes again. But every time I walk into the kitchen I feel like singing (and dancing on the checkerboard floor). We’re getting close to the drum roll, but not yet. Still no stove. Still no French doors. But we redded up the place on Saturday in preparation for visitors — it is spring after all — and it looks almost like a real kitchen.

This is the built-in floor to ceiling spice rack. The bottom shelves are larger to hold olive oil and larger bottles.

It was well that we neatened everything up, because we had more visitors on Saturday than we’ve ever had in one day. We even had our first international guests — our son-in-law’s parents from Spain are here visiting. Such a lovely time we had; I would have given anything to speak the same language…

His mom is an artist, and I was so pleased she noticed the kitchen windows. For outside the windows is the green green grass of spring, and inside the windows on the wall is Blooming Grove green.

The inside green and the outside green are separated by the creamy white of the windows, and I love it. I can’t manage a photo of it though. When I take a shot of the grass outside, the inside green is too dark; when I take a shot of the interior walls, the outside blurs. If someone out there in readerland is a photographer and can tell me how to do this, I’d be happy. In the meantime, you’ll have to look at these two photos and pretend.

the green green grass of spring

Sunlight, Shadows, and Metamerism

We’ve also put wainscoting on the short wall that flows out to the peninsula between the living room and dining room. We’re still working on the rest of the wall as it turns the corner. The beam that separates the two rooms has to go up first. This is good because it means that we can finally get rid of these 2x4s that we’ve been walking around and through for the past year.

Hey, the human species is very adaptable — we can get used to almost anything! (Washing dishes in the bathroom sink was tough though…)

We’ve put the island back in place. A dark oak cupboard will go on the wall next to the green door.

We actually ate dinner in the kitchen on Monday night — on stools around the island — even though the stove is still in the living room. It was still a little too cool to eat on the porch, but it is ready for spring.

Porch Swinging

And so am I! Give me a gray, rainy day in spring over a sunny day in winter anytime!

63. Apple Blossoms, Lilacs, and Birdsong

May 1, 2013April 15, 2023 / Apple Hill Cottage / 16 Comments

This is part 3 of several posts discussing Richard Foster’s chapter on Simplicity in Celebration of Discipline.

Ahhh, spring!
The flowers, the colors, the smells, the birds, the sun… It’s just good for the soul.

We’ve been talking about Richard Foster’s practical ways to simplify your life. And today we are skipping to #6 because this is an easy one: “Sixth, develop a deeper appreciation for the creation…Walk whenever you can. Listen to the birds. Enjoy the texture of the grass and leaves. Smell the flowers. Marvel in the rich colors everywhere. Simplicity means to discover once again that ‘the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.’ (Psalm 24:1)”

And when better to start this part of your new simpicity regimen than spring?

The view from my back porch…

My back porch workshop is open for business again, and I was painting out there on Saturday morning. Painting is a quiet, lovely, simple activity, and I was enjoying the birds. In the two hours that it took me to paint the shelf boards for the built-in spice rack, I saw a flicker, a dove, robins, a red-winged blackbird, a phoebe, a female cardinal, mockingbirds, wrens, a starling, goldfinches, and a turkey. What joyful songs they were singing… I had stepped off the porch just to turn my face to the sun, when I heard a bird sing “Look here, look here. Tuweet, Tuweet. Over here, over here, Tuweet, Tuweet. Right here, right here. HaHaHaHaHaHa.”

I laughed just for the gloriousness of it. I was sure that mockingbird was teasing me. But just a few minutes later, I was back painting on the porch when I heard him singing the same song for his girlfriend. She turned her back to him, totally ignored him and soon flew away. He stopped singing; he may not have won his lady love, but he certainly entertained me.

Somewhere in this fuzzy spring maple tree sits that singing mockingbird…

Mr. H.C. could hardly wait to get on his tractor for the first time. He was spending a lot of time mowing, but I was busy and not paying attention to how long it was taking him to mow the grass. He finally came and found me and said with a grin, “Want to go walk around the estate?” If you knew what the “estate” looked like, you would laugh. Apple Hill is not exactly an English country cottage on manicured grounds. In fact, where the moles don’t live, these do: Dandelions

But we have wanted to mow paths around the berry patch since last year, and Now Is The Time! So we walked around the newly mown paths, scoping out the possible berries, and discovered an apple tree that we couldn’t reach last fall because of the briers. Apple tree blossoming

Under the dappled light of the apple tree the air was sweet from blossoms, the bees were humming, and the grass was trampled low from deer sleeping there.

We walked home clutching handfuls of wild chives and sticks of apple blossoms to add to the vase of lilacs in the kitchen. apple blossoms and lilacs
How easy it is to be joyfully at peace on these glorious days of spring.