Simple

Categories: UncategorizedBy Published On: January 20, 201280.1 min read1762 words5 Comments on Simple

Friday…

Well we made it through the day. The kids had great fun sledding. The Guenther’s came over to sled as well. We live on a hill that overlooks the city….so they sled down the hill behind our house..pretty convenient..huh?
We made a mad dash to the store this morning to get sleds but all the good ones were taken..we did but a few tube ones but they didn’t make it through the afternoon. Our local Les Schwab has some better ones but they are 20$ a piece and I just can’t see spending that much …cause the snow doesn’t last that long around here. But I like that they are going out and getting exercise. The cow kettle was keeping hot cocoa water warm all day so they could come in and have a warm cup.
The Guenther kids are staying the night…so 10 kids here for the night. It’s perfectly fine because they all keep eachother entertained. Clarissa and Shelby did get into a bit of a squabble..Rob came into my studio a bit frustrated because he doesn’t understand girl drama. What it boils down to…Clarissa is dog tired. She has been up since 6am, she has been working her tail off going up and down a hill all day. Keeping up with the boys takes it out of her. She will be fine once she gets some sleep.

I started some of my DJ blocks. I need to have 4 done by tomorrow…which is my goal. Tomorrow the LQS is having their open house ..class kickoff party. So all the teachers are going to be there to promote their clubs/classes. I thought I should have some of my blocks done. I have to say I struggled with my first block a bit. It takes a bit to get into that paper piecing ..plus they are such tiny pieces I struggled a bit. Besides the first block I think they turned out pretty well.
I can always go back if I need to…but we shall wait and see..All I have left to do is my triangle block. I think they could get pretty addictive actually…I love to see how all my fabric unfolds ..I am going to use Kaffe and Amy fabrics and really I am not planning the placement of the fabrics…so it’s really all about color and texture.

I didn’t do very well on my eating plan today. I had an extra 100 Cals at breakfast. Which is fine. But then I think I waited to long to make dinner because I was just starving…and I had some bean dip and chips..and a few pieces of chocolate…oh and a piece of bread with buffalo dip. All of that adds up to a lot of extra cals…but it’s ok. I won’t beat myself up about it…tomorrow is a new day. It could have been worse I guess…I went over by about 500-600 cals. It’s so easy to do. Next time I am going to have a healthy snack…I get side tracked and once it hits it’s to hard to catch up. I just nee dto have something ready and on hand.

I spoke with someone today who said she had 45 quilt tops that needed to be quilted. Yes I typed that correctly 45. I have to say she is a girl after my own heart. It makes no logical sense for us quilters to make so many quilts in one lifetime ….right? I mean, I have probably made just as many ( probably more…I just don’t want to claim some of them)…I mean I have been sending out my own quilt tops to Jane and Darby. I have been working on so many of my own this last month during my slow period..and I still have many to get quilted… And my to do list grows everyday. There is so much inspriation I can’t possibly do as many as I want. I try not to count hwo many I have yet to be quilted…or that I have made over all because I need to live in some denial. But in the grand scheme of things…quilters are so generous aren’t we? I mean it takes so much time and money to complete QUILTS. Even a baby quilt that we make for someone ….lets just say regular cotton..no minkee or flannel we are looking at 100$ ( at least right? Especially if you have to pay a LAQ) That is a pretty generous gift. If we make a queen size quilt we have at least 500-600$ invested after all is said and done….from a book, materials, LAQ, Batting, & thread. We give these babies away after we have put all of our heart and soul into them. We give them away generously. I say generously because it is way more than money. A piece of ourselves is gifted with each quilt. We have so much of ourselves invested in these works of art.

When I look at a quilt I made, I can tell you when I made it, what was going on in my life at the time, good times, struggles..if I made the quilt at a class or at a retreat…at my kitchen table before I had a sewing room. I can tell you where I bought each piece of fabric I own…why or what I intended to buy it for….Why? Because we think about each single aspect of every quilt we make. Everything is intentional ..even if we are trying to be unintentional….am I right? Quilting offers so much more to us than a blanket. I say this all the time. Of course it offers so much to me..it is my living…it is my outlet it is one of my passions….I can’t imagine not having quilting. I am mightily blessed that this is a part of my life. So I love hearing how it is so special to someone else that she spend so much of her free time piecing tops simply because she LOVES it.

I am always evaluating things in my life…trying to figure things out..and working on myself. Even if there is nothing to work on..I will find something. I am not a hypochondriac in the sense of physical ailments..I actually ignore those. In fact I let things go for so long in my body ..I have a high tolerance for pain..So I actually don’t really ever know when something is physically wrong with me often until it’s to late.. I am the person who always thinks she is has some personality flaw she has to fix..or some deep seeded mental issue that stems from her inner self..LOL I know..I keep waiting for Dr. Phil to jump out of the screen to help me..but I sense he can’t take on a job that big right now..he has a world to heal. So I will have to deal with my therapist who always tells me nothing is wrong with me ….I am just like everyone else. SO I pay him to tell me I am normal. That’s always nice right? Well worth the money. However, lately I have been really thinking about …….Simplicity.

Simple things make me happy. What do I need to de-clutter? Do I really need to store Christmas decorations? I only use them every other year. I could easily have one little box with the homemade ones from the kids so they can have them later…and chuck everything else. Is decorating really a need? Or something I have to do? I could easily get rid of all the Halloween and Easter stuff as well. DO I need a china hutch or all the crystal in it? We use tupperware around here..or let’s be honest the knock off brand, rubbermaid. The crystal doesn’t get used. I had these grand ideas of using it someday..but let’s think about this?? I will have many,many grand kids..that crystal isn’t ever coming out. We got some of those free coke glasses a few months back at mcdonalds…we had a dozen…in 90 days we have less than half of them left..yep! Unreal right? Why do I need this stuff? I have 40 cookbooks…I will be honest and say I love looking through recipes…I really only use one or two of those cookbooks regularly because now..we have this spiffy thing called……wait for it… internet. It is so much easier to come to my desk and google a recipe..then to go searching through 40 cookbooks. I could easily get rid of those.
All the quilts I have …plenty will get donated or gifted…we an never have to many of those though…fabrics and tools…well those can’t be de-cluttered…I am like the “Gulom” ( spelling??…you know the weird guy on LOTR?) with ..MY precious. LOL Besides those will keep me warm and cozy while I am contemplating my empty house.

Wall decorations..I have many.
When we remodeled the basement..we only bought two things ..everything else we had around the house and we just shifted…I still have a TON of crap…why? Because this was pretty or on sale or whatever. I hate dusting..so I am slowly but surely going to get rid of that stuff….I think. Simplicity. Simple.Simple.Simple. Doesn’t that sound good?

What I have noticed is that I neglect useful things like towels. Some of our towels are 20 years old. Thread bare…we even have monogrammed/embroidered towels from Rob’s first wedding. It didn’t bother me because they were towels and they dried just as well as the others…LOL. Wouldn’t it have been better for me to buy big fluffy towels that we use everyday rather than something pretty to hang on the wall? Probably. It feels good to get better centered…thinking in a more balanced way. Does this happen as we get older and we appreciate the more simple things? I have no idea? What I do know is that something within me is changing. I don’t know it is has to do with age, reality or just realizing that to much distracts me from …..the important things.

I think I can make small changes …I am going to continue thinking about this stuff and make some things disappear…..I think a weight will be lifted. What do you need to de-clutter?

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5 Comments

  1. Teresa S. Lowery January 21, 2012 at 7:11 am - Reply

    LOL…JUST LAUGHING AT YOU AGAIN….LOVE IT! Kudos to you for zumba and diet…I blew it last night ..ugh..watched a movie Alabama Moon and left me kind of …well you know so I ate until I made myself sick and sleeply…just to go to sleep so I could block all things out>>> moving on new day! Hugs T
    Wrote this to your adventure with kids about freezing and you pulling your pants down..I have tried that with my grandson and he just laughs and says “Yay Beams”!

    • Charisma Horton January 21, 2012 at 11:10 pm - Reply

      Well what I neglected to write (I think) is that my underwear were also LIME green…so not only did tehy get HUGE grannie paties..they were bright green..LOL. Funny I haven’t seen their underwear since then. BEAMS!! That is hilarious!

  2. lindy January 21, 2012 at 1:44 pm - Reply

    ya i think i need to declutter my life to. DH and i have been trying to clean house but it seems as soon as one bag off stuff goes to salvation army more stuff seams to come in the house.

    • Charisma Horton January 21, 2012 at 11:05 pm - Reply

      I KNow it! I wonder how the stuff in our house multiplies??It’s never ending around here. I have to be on top of it…and send out stuff regularly. I hope you can de-clutter too!

  3. Vivian January 22, 2012 at 3:46 pm - Reply

    Hi Charisma,
    Been thinking about the de-cluttering thing myself. I just read Organized Simplicity by T’sh Oxenreider. I think if you ever have a minute to read you might enjoy it. It is free on Amazon for Kindle. Sounds like the kids really enjoyed the snow. We got right at 2 feet, which is about unheard of for here.
    God bless, Vivian

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