Finding Your Bliss...

December 15, 2014

Well folks, our Christmas decorations are up and almost all of my shopping is done.  Presents are wrapped and under our tiny table top tree.  Other than the daily ritual of rearranging the tree and ornaments due to our mischievous cats’ antics, I’m pretty much happy with where I am as far as Christmas preparation goes.

Although I’ve still got some craft work in progress for the kitchen like making a small prep table from what I like to call “a family heirloom”, putting the last couple of rows on my braided rug, and making curtains I’m really happy with life. 

I’ve had some time to reflect on things over the past few weeks and I’ve come up with some astounding (at least to me) conclusions.  I know I’ve previously mentioned how thankful I am that I no longer have to commute to a day job for work, but it has taken a full year for me to get comfortable with the idea of not working for a salary.  Prior to quitting work, I was a bit worried that we would not be able to afford the things that we were used to having.  Then after I quit work, I put pressure on myself to get things done around the house to pay for my keep…like cleaning out drawers, closets, and other things that had fallen between the cracks while I was working.  It was Charming who finally sat me down and told me that it was silly to try to do all of that stuff at once because I had the rest of my life to get those kinds of things in order.  Huh?!?!  Since I tend to be task-oriented and somewhat compulsive, that really hadn’t occurred to me. 

So over the course of the past year, I have slowed down a bit and relaxed.  I no longer feel the need to clean the entire house in one day.  In fact, I’ve found that you can actually clean the bathroom toilet one day and then go back and clean the bathroom floors another day.  Who knew?  There are actually no rules to cleaning!  I’ve learned to keep the house tidy and live-able without the pressure of being a Stepford Wife.  (“The Stepford Wives,” if you remember, is an older movie where all the women in town wore perpetual smiles, always dressed like they were going out on the town, kept their houses spotless, and did whatever their husbands wanted whenever they wanted it.) 

Charming and I get to spend almost all of our time together.  Luckily, we’re best buddies so that works out well for both of us…no Stepford Wives or Stepford Husbands in this house.  I’ve also found that with some minor changes in our lifestyle like growing and preserving more of our food (which I love), cooking more from scratch (which I love), changing phone and TV systems to less expensive alternatives (I have found the difference to be barely noticeable), we have found that we can live a really good life on the cheap that I can only describe as “blissful”.  I truly wish that everybody could find the happiness that I’ve found this past year.

Our tiny table top tree, with Walker and Powder (our cats).

A close-up of the ornaments, many of which I knitted.

Presents under the tree with Walker contemplating
how to get to the ornaments on the tree.

Another reason to be happy is our new (and sometimes bad)
addition to our house.  Jax's behavior is greatly improved.
When we first got him, he had almost no social skills and had
had no training at all.

Jax is now house-trained and will bring us his leash when he
needs to go outside.  We are firm, but fair pet parents and
the hard work does pay off.  Life is GOOD!