Slow and Easy

I have not been on the computer much. It is more a weather related issue than anything else. Our office is the only room we can't get a good cross ventilation in and it doesn't have a ceiling fan. So, it is the one room in the house that gets really hot. I am sure the two running computers don't help much either.

The rest of the house, and us, are holding up really well to no air conditioning. Who woul have thought NC in mid-June and no AC. The weather outside has really been helping us. This has been a very delightful late Spring.

Since I haven't been on the computer much I have been enjoying library books. In specific so household management and simple living books. Our big goal is to really get our spending back under control, but the additional get rid of clutter and reduce stress is another positive. Reading through I realized that we have already made steps along the path of getting rid of things that are not helpful spiritually or physically, in a sense to come back to what is important. Reducing from two working parents to one, so that I could be home with the girls. Then this srping we were faced with another one - move to a larger home with a larger mortgage - or reduce the stuff we have and live within our means. I am glad we finally chose the path we did.

This week we are going to start unloading the storage unit. I have been trying to prepare myself for that. Not everything is coming back into the house. I have been working on lists of what is important that we need back, versus what should be given away/sold. DH wants me to get rid of some of my books - oh how my heart breaks to think of it. But, more than half our things in storage are books. I know that there are ones I did not care for, there are books that we really don't need. And there is the used book store that I can take them to and get "NEW" books - yeah I don't think that is what he had in mind either.

Reading this stuff has had me thinking. I am not a doomsday, anti-tech person at all. But I have to say that there are a lot of necessary things that we don't know how to do for ourselves anymore. Food wise we would be in a heap of trouble if anything happened to the global economy. And that is just one example.

Anyway, I have a DREAM (as in different from a goal because it would be more utopia than plausible), to eventually simplify, get rid of the stuff that overpowers and controls us. To live closer to a natural living, as much as possible in suburbia - or eventually the small farm if we ever find it. To spend our time learning, living and experiencing a closeness with God and spiritual matters. I understand what pull people like the Amish, Huttites, and New Age Commune dwellers have on people. It isn't so much their beliefs as it is that they live them, while I know that I often find myself just wishing I could.

And, here is the thing, not having Air Conditioning has actually helped me to come closer to living the way I want. We have our doors and windows open to the world around us. We spend time on our back deck because it is shady and cool. We spend time together in the family room, because the den/office is too hot.

The gas prices are helping because we don't just get in the car an go here and there. We schedule our trips and plan for them. I put $15 in my tank last Thursday evening - I am planning for that to last us until this Friday. That is only about 5 gallons, but I have scheduled my week so we on't spend it driving. This gives us more time in the house or walking in the neighborhood. We have made our "big" trip to the library and grocery store, if we need anything else we will walk or DH will pick up at the store for us on his way home (he commutes and they have permission to park in a grocery store lot).

That is just the beginning. It is going to be hard turning around a hedonistics, middle-class suburbia life-style. But slowly, surely we are being shown how. And, slowly, surely if I don't try to do too much I, and the family, won't get overwhelmed.

Peace,

Amy