Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer

Most of you that know me, even a little bit, know that I DO NOT like summer.  I'm not big on summer activities (other than a skin damaging good tan!) - and I often marvel at the fact that I have lived for over 30 years in a place that has seemingly endless summers!  As I get ready to do indoor activities today, since outside it promises to be hot and steamy again, I have been thinking back to childhood.  My mom loved her hi-fi!  She belonged to a couple of record clubs so there was always a new stack of 33's on the turntable, she always cleaned house to music (I do too!).  I particularly loved Nat King Cole, and I learned all the words to his songs. 

I wonder why it is that I don't like summer?  I know heat is one thing, I prefer cool/cold mountain air, tall trees, sparkling lakes, sweaters and  bank fishing- oh and a fire in the fireplace.  But deeper than that I think is that I love routine, schedules and the 'order' that seems to be in place the rest of the year. While most people look forward to the relaxed days of summer, I actually start counting down the days until Labor Day - when my routine is back in place. 

I keep many countdowns on my phone and this is my favorite one right now - just 23 days until my home is transformed with  simple fall decor- quilts, gourds,  and pine cones that I have collected from the mountains .  Often I have to close the blinds and turn the AC just a little cooler in order to complete the ambiance.  I feel kind of weird that I don't embrace summer, I seem to be a loner in that respect..... those lazy days that Mr. Cole sang of just don't appeal! But what would life we like if we were all the same?  Variety and differences are empowering.  I spent so many years trying to fit into a mold that other people designed for me. I dressed and ordered my home as I thought my mom  and society expected.  (Yet she was probably the last person that would tell me to 'follow' - she was such an independent and strong woman, if I had asked she probably would have said  BE YOU!) What I wouldn't give to talk with her now and express how important my individuality is to me. I think she would approve.

If I want to grow my hair long at 58 years old, gray and not 'socially acceptable' - I can.  If I want to keep a tree in my home, (Christmas tree) decorated for each season just because it makes me happy - I can.  If I choose to simplify my life and not be driven by the 'more stuff' mentality, I can. If I want to work at Direct Sales - even when people think it is a scheme or a scam - I can, and succeed at it. Not with the goal of more stuff, but with the goal of provision so that I can live simply in a mountain cabin someday.  I wish I had been as comfortable in my own skin and with my own self at an earlier age,  life would have been much different!

What drives you?  Do you work yourself to exhaustion so that you can have more stuff?  Do you strive to save so that you can take an extravagant vacation, then are so tired you don't enjoy it?  I think that is why simplicity appeals to me so much - to be able to embrace and enjoy the simple pleasures that God provides, too bad our world revolves so much around the 'stuff'.  

So, as I endure these last lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer....... I dream of peace, on a mountain- wearing a sweater that I knitted.  

Tying one on- (or in our case OUT!)

My husband left the corporate world 8 years and 5 months ago.  Though he occasionally wears a suit, for the rare wedding or funeral that we attend, for the most part his days of dress shirt and tie are gone.  When we purchased this 1970's ranch style home in 2006, we completely remodeled the main body of the house, giving it an open floor plan and very casual feel, like us.  The bedrooms are tiny and the closets even smaller!  We downsized over 1,000 square feet from our old 1924 home  (which I completely remodeled and LOVED) and detached garage apartment in Del Rio.  Though we got rid of a lot of stuff in that move, not nearly enough to fit into this home.  The tiny closets, the garage attic and every imaginable space is jam packed with things I couldn't part with.  I have yet to tackle the photo box and my school papers. As evidenced in the post earlier, obviously my mother was the same since I have HER school papers!!

 

*Side note: my husband is not a packrat in the sentimental area, this man threw out his high school year books!  But heaven forbid he should get rid of a rusty old screwdriver when he has ten more just like it! 

When I tackled this simplifying and decluttering journey the first area was our master closet.  It felt so good to purge that area, and that tiny space is still quite full, but everything is neat and tidy and only contains clothing and shoes that we wear regularly.  There was, however, one group of things hanging around that I didn't remove - ties!

As I was putting laundry away last week I looked at those ties hanging on two different display racks (that they often fell off of and would end up on the floor) I asked myself why didn't I include those in the purge?  So I placed them all on the bed and when Waylon got home from work he said "here we go again!"  There were 50 ties in all, including 10 Christmas designs! Surprisingly he was a bit sentimental about the ties.  He could remember which ones Chelsea  (our daughter) had given him as gifts, he remembered which were the favorites that he wore to work at the bank, and would get the most attention.  Of those 50 ties he had very few shirts that they could still be worn with.  So we went through them together.  It was an interesting process because in the choosing he was being swayed by sentiment and I was pointing out to him that the ones he was choosing wouldn't even go with the few shirts and 1 suit he still has!  So together we came up with a small selection of ties to keep, that have an element of fun but also a couple that are basic and will work well should he need to wear a tie to an event.  He chose 1 Christmas tie to keep as well.  Now we have a very small hanger of ties and the majority of them have already been taken to the thrift store.

Since I have already done a round one purge on my craft closet an interesting thing happened as I was working with those ties.  In the past I would have looked at all of those ties and thought "I can make something out of them!"  There are many projects that use up old things to keep as mementoes.  While I probably would have had fun making it (IF I ever got to it!), it would have been one of those things that either sat in the box for years, taken out every so often to look at and remember, then tucked away again taking up space until someone else decided to get rid of it, who REALLY wants a quilt made out of ties!? 

My tight hold on material things is getting looser with every load that I take to the thrift store. I'm focusing on fond memories, and writing them down.  I'm cleaning areas of our home and finding that I am not feeling so agitated when I open a closet and things tumble out (think messy Marvin!).

Another area of progress: cookbooks!

I just donated between 65-70 cookbooks that I have collected over the years.  Many that were never used.  I loved to read them, but dusting and having them stacked 3 deep in precious little space got to be too much.  It was HARD because I remember buying them, like the Charleston Receipts book when I was stationed at Charleston AFB - never made one recipe from that book and that was 36 years ago!! I also had cookbooks from nearly every Bed and Breakfast we have stayed at over the years, yet never made one recipe out of them. I now have one shelf with the books I use the most, along with two recipe boxes of cards mostly written in my Mom and Dad's handwriting, along with some of my favorite family recipes.  I know I can read and enjoy many cookbooks, and stories, on the internet or use our local library and not have to move or dust them! 

Also gone: 10 men's and women's coats - one that I wore before I lost over 65 lbs - two of me could fit in it now!  All gone....... 

I share these stories because my ultimate goal in all of this is for my 70 year old husband to finally retire again.  I work my Direct Sales jobs diligently, and as I build those and get our house in order at the same time hopefully he will get back to the leisure and enjoying our home as he deserves.  Some of you may just be starting your life others may be like us and in the later stage - take a look at what is important to you and embrace it.  You may be surprised as you loosen your grip on things you have placed value in and find an even bigger treasure that is waiting for you.  I know I am!
 



Word of the day: orthography (the box - pt 2!)

orthography

noun, plural orthographies for 3–5.

1.

the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; correct spelling.

 

Imagine my surprise as I continued on with my de-cluttering and I found another blue box!  Exactly like the other one, but this one had a tiny note paper taped on top- with the combination!  (I tried it on the destroyed box from yesterday and it worked on that box too. If I had just been a little patient and found both boxes I could have opened them both).
 

 

This second box was obviously tended by Mom.  It contains lots of great papers: enlistment and discharge documents from both of them (Navy for Dad and Marines for Mom). The booklet from their wedding, complete with a full picture of the pastor in the front cover! Original Social Security cards, teaching certificate and more.  So fun to read through it all, very neatly preserved.

 

One of the real treasures was a bundle of Mom's report cards - all the way from 1st (!) grade back in the 1930's through her junior college/teaching school days.  From early on her highest grade was in Orthography.  Now I know why she loved writing so much.  But imagine my surprise from the high school and college report cards to see C's and D's!!  The woman that gave me so much grief if/when my grades dropped to a B and she had these!  Hmmmmmmm.  I also LOVED on the high school card: "whispers too much" - for 2 grading periods!  Too much fun. The elementary cards have wonderful words printed on the cards: instructions for parents, pupils and life guidance in general.  Imagine if we held our children (and parents!) to these high standards today - I believe our world would be much different.  The Pledge of Allegiance was printed proudly on the front of each card.

 

 

The instructions to the pupil on the front of the high school card are very interesting.  I love #4.  "Cultivate promptness, energy and patient industry. They are worth more to you than money or influence in securing success in life."
 

 

The words on the elementary card are also becoming a lost relic: these days it seems the teachers are expected to do all, our parents are so consumed with busy-ness and hectic lives that their children don't witness the "home and school" working together.  Also, for parents to visit school these days, to see what is happening in the classroom takes an act of congress, or at least a stack of signed papers to gain admittance to the teacher - oh and an appointment.  We are so overrun with violence and terror that our schools need to be on lockdown, so very sad.

 

 

I think this one got to me most of all. The back of the high school report card.  Notice it is to be read, signed and returned EACH WEEK!  By the time I was in high school in the 1970's our 'progress reports' came out each 6 weeks, and now it really takes effort to see what your student is doing,  we don't want to 'abuse the student's rights'.  The suggestion to talk over the report with the child, each week - in high school - imagine if we still had that kind of communication in our families.

 

 

I know there are many families today that do a fantastic job with communication and being involved with each other, but sadly we have lost some of these virtues and the accountability with our children.  It has been fun to explore these boxes, and I think what I take away from it is a greater desire to teach my grand daughters some of the values that are slowly disappearing from our culture.  I want America to be great again, like the country it was when my parents went to war in 1944 to secure our future.  Do I want to go back to the difficulty they endured? No.  But I'm sorely afraid that if we don't change as a nation things will be much worse.