Simplifying Life

moanymoany

Spammers are sneaky wretches - there is no way to control them, just deal with them as they arise - like spots!

groatie_queen

Sorry ceridwen, I din't explain myself very well.

If you come across text which is difficult to read, have a look at the top left of your pc screen. Under the forward and back arrows in the top left corner, there are 6 words, from left to right they read:

File Edit View Favourites Tools Help

If you click on Edit, a drop down menu appears.
Click on Select All

all the text will then be highlighted and will be much easier to read.

I hope this is much more use to you than my last attempt!!

Best wishes

GQ xxx

ceridwen

Reminded today on reading the news about Tibet of a book I have by the Dalai Lama and I read:

"Consider that at any given moment there must be hundreds of millions of acts of kindness taking place around the world. Although there will undoubtedly be many acts of violence in progress at the same time, their number is surely very much less."

groatie_queen

I had a little epiphany today, when I was on my hands and knees in the eaves for the umpteenth time. I expected to feel deprived by the 27 things experiment, but it has been a real blessing.

I've at last got my books down to the ones I truly love and can't live without. With the dead wood gone, I can see much more clearly where my true passions and interests lie - in healing, energy therapies, counselling, and holistic nutrition. And in poetry, embroidery, tapestry, knitting. And gardening and cooking, and self sufficiency.

It has given me a real shot in the arm, as I've been restricted by health issues for the past eighteen months, and I have about the same timespan to go in terms of treatment. It's easy to lose sight of who you are when you're not well, and it's done me a lot of good to do this 27 things exercise with my books and be reminded of my abiding interests and passions. Sitting there in the eaves, it was nice to remember and to set my sails for the future.

I WILL get back to helping other people to heal (having first worked on myself!), and to my garden and to a more active life, and the thing is, I'm so so grateful for every good day I have, and for the people who have helped me. And I guess if I hadn't had the not-so-good, I would still be sleepwalking through my life, instead of seeing it for the miracle it really is.

I've learned so much from having been forced to slow down, yes it can be very ftrustrating at times, but there have been compensations. When I had to go part-time, I worried about how to make ends meet - but OS and MSE have been such a help. Also, having survived a totally harsh and spartan boarding school existence in the 60'sand ealry 70's, the likes of which has thankfully passed into history, means I've ever since been very grateful for the least bit of comfort! And inclined towards simplicity.

The 27 things carries on tomorrow with my filing system....

ceridwen

hmmm....I like that phrase "setting sails for the future" groatiequeen - just been added to my vocabulary. Glad to hear you're "27 Things" exercise is proving so beneficial. Hope you continue on the road to wellness.

I'll stick in a :hello: at this point to Pixie Sue - who has found us yesterday after I kept wandering into her blog. Shes still finding her way round MSE at present - but I'm sure will be "along soon".

ceridwen

A very one-off (or maybe 2 or 3 off) simplifying thought for a lifetime here.

Having spent yet another weekend doing work on my old house -

A thought for the younger MSE members who are still in the process of buying a house in the first place - dont buy a "dump" unless you have a lot of resources of time/money/patience/taste for a challenge. It sounds obvious - but, if all you have ever known is modern houses then (if you're anything like as naive as I was about old houses) you dont know what you could be letting yourself in for.

If you have come from modern houses then you will look at an old house and think "okay - new kitchen/swop the roof/doubleglaze/add few extra powerpoints/redecorate - job done". Dont just look at what you can readily see needs doing and ignore how good the house looks in your surveyors report - chances are you wont have the true picture.

Check the electrics for yourself - everywhere/fusebox/the lot to see for yourself the state they are in. Check the central heating/hot water heating system yourself. Check every single wall (knock on them to see if they sound hollow - that means the plaster has died). Check every single floor - they might well need replacing (forget ideas of ripping up the floor coverings and thinking you will find nice wood plank floors you can just sand underneath - you may well find chipboard patching/fireplace bases not taken out properly/etc). Check you can just put up your curtain rails above the windows in a standard sort of way.

If you do all that checking before buying an old house you will save yourself endless time/money/temper later discovering just how bad a state your house is in - and endlessly throwing yet more time and money at the house that you had planned on using for other things.

I am never going to finish my house now - most floors will be left as they are and most rooms wont be replastered - as you come to a point where you think "no - end of story - time to reclaim my life - its good enough".

So - voice of experience - buying the right house in the first place is one of the single biggest things you will do ever to simplify your life (you will keep your spare time and cash for yourself and not find yourself doing sideline moneyearning stuff to get some more money to throw at the house).

champys

ceridwen wrote: »

A very one-off (or maybe 2 or 3 off) simplifying thought for a lifetime here.


A thought for the younger MSE members who are still in the process of buying a house in the first place - dont buy a "dump" unless you have a lot of resources of time/money/patience/taste for a challenge. It sounds obvious - but, if all you have ever known is modern houses then (if you're anything like as naive as I was about old houses) you dont know what you could be letting yourself in for.

ceridwen - I could not agree with you more! Going through a similar exercise here. However our 'dump' was not bought because we liked the house all that much: we bought it because of the land that came with it, the views all around and great surroundings. For the house itself, the target was to make it pleasant and comfortable to live in - not something for a magazine or the envy of friends and neighbours!
Even so, I find that I inevitably become more ambitious as time goes on (and I get all this inspiration from the Shabby Chic-ers), and really you are right, it consumes far more time, energy and money than envisaged before. Not least because everything they say in the books about French builders is true, and much worse. They do a splendid job in the end, but are almost impossible to persuade to come and do it....... so I am learning now more about DIY than I had ever wanted to know! (OH not being interested in the least as he likes to spend his time outside, restoring and tending to the garden and the bees. He's the sensible one, I guess.)

ppolly

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but wanted to share this 'simple life' story. I was on the bus at the weekend watching a mother with her little daughter. The daughter was getting bored, so the mother told her to cover her eyes for a suprise. the mother then very cleverly made an origami boat out of her bus ticket, and placed it in her daughter's hand. The look of pleasure and suprise on her face really made me smile.
On a simillar note, we had no money to spare for my birthday yesterday (end of the pay month) so my husdand made me some vouchers for tea in bed, cuddles, time alone and hot sex!

rosieben

ppolly wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but wanted to share this 'simple life' story. I was on the bus at the weekend watching a mother with her little daughter. The daughter was getting bored, so the mother told her to cover her eyes for a suprise. the mother then very cleverly made an origami boat out of her bus ticket, and placed it in her daughter's hand. The look of pleasure and suprise on her face really made me smile.
On a simillar note, we had no money to spare for my birthday yesterday (end of the pay month) so my husdand made me some vouchers for tea in bed, cuddles, time alone and hot sex!

a gift that's taken time and thought has so much more meaning than one that's just entailed handing over a wad of money.

I did the vouchers thing for my kids and dgd at christmas a couple of years ago and they really enjoyed them (home made cake, favourite meal, paint shop pro lesson (dgd), glue and glitter session (dgd!), craft project (dgd), babysitting, gardening, housework, etc etc).

ceridwen

ppolly wrote: »

On a simillar note, we had no money to spare for my birthday yesterday (end of the pay month) so my husdand made me some vouchers for tea in bed, cuddles, time alone and hot sex!

:rotfl: :rotfl: Well ....you can always suggest for your next birthday that he expands on that theme ....runs nice candlelit bath for you/soft music/massage.....maybe he might be able to run to a decent bottle of wine..........who needs more "stuff" anyway?