Simplicity

Too Much Stuff is my go-to phrase these days. If it’s yours as well, click on any of these photos and they will take you to my struggles on materialism and living simply. Be encouraged. Toss it. Recycle it. Repurpose it. Shred it. Or maybe even put it by the side of the road with a free sign nearby…

Fighting the Lesser Gods

We spent too much on a kitchen faucet two weeks ago. I am suffering from Buyer’s Remorse. I’ve been trying to excuse it. I’ve been rationalizing it by telling myself that we have saved $$ on so much else for the kitchen by buying at restores, redoing old stuff, and repurposing other stuff….Click here to read more

A Short Treatise on the Accumulation of Material Goods; or Too Much Stuff

Have you heard that song? The lyrics stick in my brain these days and I hum it often –even sing out sometimes — when no one is listening! Delbert McClinton, John Prine, and Lyle Lovett sing “It’ll weigh you down, foolin’ with too much stuff.” You can listen to it here in this you tube video…Click here to read more.

Take a Stand Against Stuff

Dear Readers, I have lots to say about too much stuff. Stuff is taking over my life, and I am taking a stand! In the last post I promised that we would talk about Richard Foster’s suggestions for….Click here to read more.

Apple Blossoms, Lilacs, and Birdsong

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 … Continue reading

More Stuff on Stuff

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…. Click here to read more.

Gadget Stuff

This is part 5 of several posts discussing Richard Foster’s chapter on Simplicity in Celebration of Discipline.

I ~~need~~ want a new iPhone. There is nothing wrong with mine, except it’s old. A 3GS. If you’re not up on IPhones, that’s 3 models ago. The 4, 4S, and 5 have come out since. A few months ago… Click here to read more.

Stuff that Breaks Other People’s Backs

This is part 6 of several posts discussing Richard Foster’s chapter on Simplicity in Celebration of Discipline.

We bought a galvanized wash tub the other day to use next to the washer we are installing… Click here to read more.

The July Stuff Challenge

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

How did I do in July with trying not to buy much that might “break the back” of someone else?

I promised to let you know the results, and here it is early September… Click here to read more.

Listen, Your Stuff Is Talking

This is part 7 of several posts discussing Richard Foster’s chapter on Simplicity in Celebration of Discipline.

This past week a group from our church spent four days in Manasquan, Mantoloking, and Lavalette, three towns on the Jersey Shore… Click here to read more.

A Stillness in Time

I’ve been experimenting with black and white photography these past two weeks. Perhaps it is a bit ironic that as autumn’s colors are at its most glorious, I’m choosing black and white. It could be that my camera can’t capture the beauty of fall; but I think it is more of a mood. I hear friends say how much… Click here to read more.

Quiet

December isn’t usually a quiet month.

But for some reason, (God-appointed, perhaps?) quiet is my focus-word for December. It wasn’t supposed to be — December was to be Joy or Giving…

Yet here it is: one month left in the year and one word left for the monthly focus. Quiet… Click here to read more…

Sign for the Times

This week we will be in Kentucky,

working on other people’s houses

instead of our own…. Click here to read more.

Pinterest, Shminterest

Apologies to Pinterest addicts… I spend a couple of hours a week on Pinterest. I don’t check other people’s boards; I only pin something I like to my own. I have 15 boards, 212 pins, and 17 followers. In the Pinterest World, I’m pretty much a nobody. And that’s fine with me…. Click here to read more.

Updates, Schmupdates

I’m old.

Old enough that I don’t always like to check my age category because its’ too far down on the list.

Old enough that my time left is precious, and I don’t want to spend it re-learning what I thought I already knew…. Click here to read more.

Gifts of Time

I was sitting on the porch swing this morning feeling wistful

for summer gone and time wasted.

But was summer gone really careless use of time?

Porchsitting, Listening to Bird song,

Drinking in the green of creation… Click here to read more.

On Organizing One’s World

Slipshod or Precise?

Messy or Neat?

Planned or Random?

Just what does your dining room table look like? Yes, I know the only excuse for a messy dining room table is tax time…and ahem, yes, it’s soon upon us…. Click here to read more.

Eat Two Things

Supper or dinner–no matter how many people are in your family, or how elegant or plain the fare, the evening meal is important in the life of your family.

Sociologists have long told us that. We get to converse with those we love most about our days and share laughter. Families bond over meals. The modern family that doesn’t sit down together for dinner loses out on an eating-together-relationship that can’t be replaced by other activities… Click here to read more.

Thoughts on Blooming Out of Season

I hate winter. Grey. Cold. Cloudy. Sunless.

I may have never been diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I’m sure that I suffer from it. It would be perfectly fine with me if I could just hibernate all winter and wake up about March 21. To document this misery, WorldAtlas.com lists Pittsburgh Pennsylvania as THE CLOUDIEST CITY in the United States, … Click here to read more.

Plastic Wrap? Sandwich baggies? Just Say No

Lunches get packed around here five days a week. I take the leftovers; Mr. H.C. prefers a sandwich, fruit, and cookies. I have Pyrex bowls for the leftovers, but sandwiches just don’t fit well in the bowls. Plus, trying to cram three bowls into a lunch cooler that already contains an ice pack, a pair of safety glass, sundry small tools, first aid supplies, and yesterday’s banana isn’t easy… Click here to read more.

Hanging Out Laundry

There’s something peaceful about hanging out laundry. Standing in the sun attaching damp clothes to a rope with wooden pins is my favorite chore. It’s not drudgery, not like digging and asparagus bed or scrubbing the kitchen floor. Standing in all the green looking up at the cottony clouds scudding across the sky, touching the white cotton t-shirts smelling fresh as the wind blowing them dry. Click here to read more.

Retrieved from the Trash Bin

We were fifty minutes into the hour-long Outlander episode “The Deep Heart’s Core” when the DVD player stopped. Didn’t even give us any warning of weird blips or slow motion stoppages–just died. Just as Roger is about to escape from the Indians who are dragging him to New York far away from Brianna. Not only did it stop playing, but the disc wouldn’t eject. Visions of having to pay for a Netflix disc made us disgruntled, as well as the DVD stopping in the midst of the exciting part. It might take us a week to find out what happened to Roger…. Click here to read more.