Read along in this column to see what kind of stuff I find to go along with my wild story this week. Some of it will be funny, some a bit more serious. You never know!
Look for books on simplicity at BooksAMillion
Subscribe to Real Simple
!
If the lack of humor on this site REALLY offends you try this one:
or buy some of his work:
Gosh, it's hard to call that work. It sounds like too much fun.
Wanna start your OWN web site? Here's my host:
Wanna see my new car?
Here's where I bought that wonderful new car. Tell Perry and Joe I sent ya!
I bought this new car when I realized I wouldn't be able to talk the hubby into letting me work on websites full-time from home. Not yet, anyway. Therefore, I needed a new car!
These websites are some of my favorites. Despite the fact that I can't see myself getting up in the morning to gather eggs before breakfast, kill the chicken before lunch, and quilt all night long, I do enjoy reading these sites for ideas for my own webpages.
I've discovered some graphics sites for making my pages a little more homey.
Here's a short list:
This is where my witness graphics and Christmas graphics came from
There are SO many more...I can't begin to list all of them either. But please, if you choose to use graphics from those sites, be respectful and give them a link!
Visit my BLOGS!
The Christian Working Mom's Blog
Enjoy!
November 29, 2002
Simply amazing!
After much studying on the subject, I have decided that the hot new thing is simplicity. Everywhere you look there's a prescription for finding the simple life.
Real Simple is one of my favorite magazines. I love the stories about how other people have learned to savor life and the multitude of ideas for fashion, decorating, entertaining, even religion. I highly recommend it. This month, there's a lady who lives in the house where her dad and grandmother were raised. I live in the house my husband grew up in, so I can relate to the feeling of "being home."
I guess I've noticed so much about simplicity because here lately, my stress level has been way up there. The hubby's medication levels have changed as his weight has dropped, which has affected his moods. The holidays are upon us, so it's time for shopping, fighting the crowds, killing the wallet. My job has been tougher than usual lately, too. I have doctors who just look for an opportunity to remind us how incapable they think we are. I have co-workers who can't go a day without arguing over something.
About a year ago, my husband brought up the possibility that he could go into sales instead of customer service within his company. The idea sounded horrible at first. I had no desire to move, I didn't want to uproot the kids from school. I didn't want to start another job! But then, I considered it again. He'd probably make enough money so I could stay home. I'd have to work for him, basically, I'd be his administrative assistant, coordinating schedules and sales calls. I was actually a little disappointed when he decided to stay put. I'd been looking forward to a simple life of supporting his business 100 percent, rather than me doing my thing while he did his. So, I'd readjusted to being content where I was, and most of the time, I am...except when there's tension on a daily basis.
You would think I would've jumped at the opportunity to go to work somewhere else. I actually had two phone calls from facilities closer to home. But those weren't cut-and-dried perfect solutions, either. One was a hospital I worked at a few years ago. Been there, done that, would rather stay where I am, as stressful as it is. The other was a part-time job in a doctor's office 13 miles from here.
I know, that sounds pretty awesome. No holidays, no weekends, no call, home every evening by 4 or so...and working for two doctors who seem much less demanding than the physicians I work with now. It would mean time to truly devote myself to working on my websites, updating links and ads and really trying to do some writing.
It's just not exactly what I need financially. Now, I work four days a week and take call about four days a month. The money is nice, but we're so accustomed to buying what we want when we want it that I don't know how it would work to cut my income in half. I may not know for sure what time I'll get off most days, but my supervisor is really good about letting me go home early when my grandmother isn't here to watch the kids when they get off the bus. If I get sick, I can go home. Or stay home! I have help when things are rough. It's not a terrible job - it just has bad days.
I could, possibly, work at my current job two days a week and the office two days a week, but if I'm gonna work four days a week and still take call, I might as well earn vacation time and disability insurance. In other words, I'm leaning toward staying where I am.
Still, it's tempting to think of how simple my life would be if I didn't have to make that 27-mile-each-way drive four days a week, if I had an additional 20 hours a week here at home. I decided to look on the 'Net for ideas about making it on less money. There are many, many sites on this subject. I can't even begin to list them.
I have come to the conclusion that a simple life isn't quite as simple as it sounds. For example, many of these "simple life" webpages are written by women who homeschool their children. That's a full-time job, folks. Nothing wrong with it - in fact, I can't think of a more noble profession than teaching. And, yes, it does allow moms more time with the children. But I LIKE my kids' public schools! They're doing a great job educating my kids! Do I really want to give that up? I don't know. I have a daughter who wants to play in the band. I don't know of any homeschooling marching bands around here.
I think I'm too accustomed to the simplicity of letting them get on the bus, go to the school system my taxes are paying for, and come back in the afternoons.
The Amish have such a beautiful, simple lifestyle. I have to admit I've been tempted to try it. But I just can't make the husband understand why I want to live in a house devoid of pictures, where I have to get up with the chickens to start cooking, where he would have to give up his life as a customer service representative and part-time musician to sing without instruments. He doesn't understand how cool it looks to be without the distraction of TV, the Internet, and fast food.
He's kind of like a guy I used to work for. If you look in the dictionary under "materialistic," my old boss would fit there. One day I rode with him to an off-site lunch, and we got behind a buggy full of Amish folk. He said, "If people want to live like Christians from the past, why did they pick the 1800's? It looks like they'd want to live like the people in the Bible!"
Most of these simple life websites advocate cooking at home rather than eating out. I like to cook, but most of my favorite recipes are full of fat and sugar. If you're dieting, there ain't much simpler solution than eating Lean Cuisine. It's a great way to eat hot food fast without all the fast food calories. (But, I have solutions for that problem as well.) Fortunately for me, the hubby likes them too. The kids are easy to please - they like frozen dinners too. Yes, I still cook. I'm off three days a week. That gives me plenty of time to make homemade meals, if I so desire.
Drive-thrus are easy, but as everyone knows, it's easier to get really fat eating fast food all the time. I highly recommend 3fatchicks.com for its great online fast-food nutrition guide. Yes, you CAN lose weight going through drive-thrus - you just have to know how.
Advocates of "the simple life" talk about how wasteful fast food is, and how it keeps you from doing truly simple things like...cooking? Washing dishes? Granted, it's not the best thing for the environment, but if you're looking for SIMPLE, it can't be beat.
Living out in the country is a big dream for a lot of people, but it's not always as simple as it looks. Back when I had one child going to soccer practice and one going to cheerleading practice two nights a week, I used to LONG for a nearby drive-thru to pick up dinner. (We have one about 6 miles away now.) I SUPPOSE if I REALLY had a simple life, I would've had time to kill a chicken, fry it, pick tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, green beans, and corn and cook all that up between homeschooling the children and taking them to their practices. But I don't know. Somehow I think I'd have been just as rushed as I was coming straight from work.
The country life might be more fun for me if I DIDN'T have to make that commute every day. I don't just waste time in the car, though. I use my commute time to listen to humorous CD's, pray, and practice singing. Sometimes, I use the cell phone. It's simpler than trying to write down what I want to tell people from a land-line phone once I get home.
Next time you long to live in the country, I suggest you visit it for a week or two. One day, after you've been out in the garden, planting (that food doesn't just magically grow on corn and potato trees - there's this concept called cultivation), you'll come in and since you've just started out and you don't have anything in the deep freeze or the jar safe, you'll need to depend on someone else for food. You could go out to eat, but you're tired, and you don't want to put 20 miles on the old car to go to a restaurant. So, you call Domino's.
They laugh at you.
No one delivers pizza that far out! I haven't had home-delivered pizza in YEARS!
I could give up some of the things I do all the time. I could quit taking the kids to their Tae Kwon Do and piano lessons. I could quit teaching Wednesday night lessons for the kids at church. I could stop working on the computer. Or, I could be honest with myself. I'm not a bad woman because I don't crochet or cross-stitch anymore. I still know how, I can still do it. But I don't. If I did, all I'd do with my crafts would be give them away as holiday gifts. That's tempting. But if I DID give them all crafts, they'd have the same problem I do - they'd just be taking up space. They'd become more clutter - the TRUE enemy of simplicity.
Therefore, it's simpler for all to give gift certificates to favorite stores and restaurants. It's not un-thoughtful. It's simplifying their lives by cutting back the clutter, cutting out the food preparation and cleaning chores, and saving them money they could use on something else. After all, as the old Amish hymn goes, 'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free. It's a better gift than it gets credit for.
A few years ago I compiled a booklet of my short stories and such, and called it "Patchwork" because it's my craft, it's my release, and while I don't think I'll ever make a quilt, I enjoy writing and I hope someone else does too! I gave these out for Christmas presents. Fortunately, I had enough cash to throw in a few gift certificates too!
Happy holidays!
Where do you want to go?
