Monday already...last Thursdays post!

I started this on Thursday and then didn’t have time to finish it so I am posting it now, only 5 days later!  You’ll all be pleased to know that I am fine now.  I have just been busy.  Thursday, Coralie was here, Friday I had Evan in the morning and then we went to town.  Saturday we were busy in the morning decorating the Christmas tree and in the afternoon we went to Sams to play with Ellie. Then on Sunday we were finishing off the snowman.  Today I have lots and lots to try and get done so that is why I thought I would post last Thursday’s entry!  I expect I will be back later! Anyway here it is ........

I’m pleased to say that I have woken up this morning feeling a bit better.  I think maybe I am just run down as it hasn’t progressed into anything really nasty like other people have.  I did spend most of yesterday lazing around and I took Echinacea and massive doses of vitamin C which I believe helps stop viruses and colds in their tracks. I will be stocking up on a medicine called Lem Sip Max which my Dad told me last night he has heard is very good if you really get something horrid.

The weather here is another thing, enough to make me feel really bad again when I opened the curtains this morning. It is very cold, very windy and absolutely pouring with rain.  All in all a horrible, miserable and very grey day. Why can’t we have some of the snow they have up north?  At least that looks pretty.

I’m going to try and have an easy day even though I didn’t do that much yesterday.  Most things are fairly up to date anyway. I did make a lovely cake yesterday afternoon using a new recipe.  It was banana and yogurt loaf cake with cinnamon and it is really good.  I think Coralie may pop in today; at least we agreed yesterday that she would phone to see how I was and then probably come over.  I don’t know if she has a car today or if she was planning to walk.  If she was going to walk she will probably give it a miss in this weather.

If Coralie does come in the car I’ll get her to take me to the shops so I can purchase cotton wool for my snowman.  He is completely dry now and needs to be finished. I have the black card to make his hat so that is something I may do later. I don’t feel like I have much energy.

Speaking of shops reminds me of some thoughts that I have had recently on shopping.  I have been reading some new blogs that I have found on the art of “simple frugal living”.  It seems that there are a great many people out there choosing to live much simpler lives based on the “lost art” of thrift.

I call it the “lost art” as most of us nowadays just seem to spend and spend without any kind of thought as to how much we are spending, why we are buying in the first place, in fact do we even really need what we are buying or are we just buying for buying’s sake and adding to our already huge piles of “stuff”?   Our parent’s generation growing up through the war years were all well practised in the art of thrift.  Money was tight for many of them and they had to learn to make ends meet by being very careful...thrifty.

In some ways they were more of a recycling generation than we are.  Take food for example.  Very little food would ever be thrown away.  The smallest scraps of meat would make a stew, bones were boiled for stock, mould was scrapped from jam and cheese, and nothing was wasted. My mum even used the veg water for gravy and of course she knew a thing or two as it contains all the leached vitamins in that water.

Think about clothes, everything was handed down to the next child in line; even we did that when ours were all little. In my Dad’s generation shoes with holes in were “mended” with bits of card.  I used to sew up the holes in my tights, things with holes in would be darned, and sheets that had worn thin were turned sides to middle and re-sewn.  All of this is recycling!

Those are just a few examples.  I am not advocating that we should necessarily return to those days just that in the current climate maybe it would be a good idea if we all gave more thought to what we purchase and for what reasons. We could save not just money but valuable time, by having a simpler thriftier lifestyle.

It’s a well known fact that clutter and too much stuff drags us down.  We have to maintain it, clean it, and possibly insure it. It’s a drag. I think most people know how good they feel after a major clear out.  It sort of frees your mind! Sounds bizarre but it’s true. I have been trying hard recently to clear some of the clutter from our lives.  It is especially important at the moment as more stuff seems to be coming in regularly in the form of baby equipment and toys.  Just when we thought we had done with all that! LOL!  Of course more stuff comes in at Christmas too.

So, after reading some blogs and getting some ideas, I have formulated a plan for next year.  Not a resolution as I don’t do those........just a plan. 

1.       Before buying anything at all, consider why I need to buy it.  Do I actually need it or do I just want it?

2.       Having decided that I must have it, consider can I make it or produce it myself?

3.       If not, can I get it second hand; try looking in charity shops, or online at Free-Cycle or EBay.

4.       If I only need it temporarily, can I borrow it or rent it?

5.       If I do buy it, then something else should be leaving the house to make room for it.

6.       Regularly de-clutter the house using the standard rules IE.  If it’s not useful of beautiful or of sentimental value then get rid of it. If you haven’t used something or worn something for the last 5 years then you are probably never going to!  Actually even the last year would count!

This seems to me to be a good plan.  Like a lot others, I am beginning to notice that I want to make changes in my life. Everything always happens so quickly and there never seems to be much time. It’s always Monday, always Christmas, always washing day, it’s always ages until pay day. I don’t like hearing  about people wasting food when so many in the world are starving and yet I throw away something from the back of my fridge which has somehow got overlooked because my week rushed past me.

It is time to slow down, why is the whole world in such a hurry?  Simplify and de-clutter are the buzz words.  I don’t want to go over the top so I am visualising something more like a pruning. My garden shrubs benefit from pruning (at least so I am told) so why shouldn't we too? Pruning should bring clarity and definition to our lives as it cuts away the old dead wood.

Our home needs to be the centre of our world. At the moment we expect a lot from it without giving it much time and attention. It is packed to the eaves with far too much junk and if we can simplify that it will be much easier and less time consuming for me to take care of it all.

I have been thinking a lot about why I feel the need to change. I have difficulty relaxing into whatever I am doing. I am always worrying about what else needs to be completed next. What is the answer? I have read somewhere that if you are doing the right thing at the right time then this doesn’t happen. How do I do the right thing at the right time?

 I read once that if you are worrying about something you can do something about then do that something and then you don't need to worry. If you are worrying about something you can’t do anything about then don't worry because it’s out of your control anyway. So it would seem that maybe the “right thing” is to do more and worry less.

So............. My non resolutions list for the New Year begins! Implement the 6 step buying (or not buying) plan, de-clutter regularly, get on with things instead of worrying about them and be contented that I am doing the right thing for me.

Back later!