The Beauty of Living Simply

As a family, we have been at this thing called "simple living" for a long time. Decades actually...that makes me sound very old : ) We have through the years defined and redefined the very things that seem to make our lives more simple. Its not so much what you do or don't have as much as it is what you do with what you have or don't have. So many times I have written about the fact that living simply is carried in your heart. Your desires and goals direct what you buy, what your activities are and how you spend your day. For us, we end up doing lots of things the old fashioned way, it just works for us. I like the soft sounds of spinning my own wool into yarn for a sweater....I like the satisfaction of starting something from the most basic into something useful and pretty. I hang clothes outside in all kinds of weather, we don't own a clothes dryer, but lugging that basket of wet clothes outside is a workout, it keeps my muscles strong, and its very aerobic, bending down into the basket and reaching up to hang the clothes on the line, day after day, week after week. In the heat and in the freezing cold.

I like seeing Emery in the garden, working his muscles, keeping strong. Watching behind the cultivator is a beautiful sight for me, knowing it is this very thing that is work that helps feed us and at the same time is as beneficial as any workout at a gym. I love finding still warm eggs on the nest, knowing what the chickens ate, and that the eggs are fresh. I love the warmth you feel as you milk a goat on a cold winter morning. The milk bucket with steam rising. The smell of the barn, filled with fresh hay and sweet feed. These very things are tied to our lifestyle, to our quiet steady pace of life. We keep the stresses of the "gutta have" attitude that comes with modern life at bay. No need for 100 cookbooks, we eat simple foods that don't require much in the line of recipes. I can make bread without a recipe, and cook fresh vegetable and potatoes without turning to page 301 of some book. There is some sort of beauty for us in this easy going life. We have worked hard at getting here. Swam against the tide many times. Bought a house we could afford to pay off in 10 years, people thought it was too small, too old, too whatever. But we knew it would be a home filled with love and not worry about how to pay the bills. Didn't feel we had to have new cars or new furniture, these are the things that kept me home with the children, living on one income. This life, with all its simplicity is what kept us living without much stress and gave us time to impart to the children the values we hold so dear.

But before all that, I prayed for just the right husband, one who would share my dreams, my goals, and be a godly man, and that my friends has made all the difference.

Yup, there is beauty in simplicity.