Rural Simplicity

  Happy Birthday! To my little one year old! I wanted to share some first birthday decorating ideas with you. Her birthday is a few days after Valentines Day, so I took the  opportunity  to do a red and pink heart theme and save a little money by shopping the clearance isle. I bought her dress from Etsy , and made the headband myself.  I had a party of 17, including the birthday girl and one other child.  I didn't want to get overwhelmed with pink, so I used organic brown plates to separate the cake plate from the pink tablecloth. Note: name cards keep confusion at a minimum, and are a nice touch.  I love fresh flowers, they make a beautiful statement and will bring life and color to any party. I chose the pitcher to keep the atmosphere on an adult level. (Too much pink and glitter will have your eyeballs rolling.) Down the middle of the table I placed small dishes with 3 Russel Stover candies each, separated by mason jar candles.  I used this picture as a spr

I learned the simple phrase "Less is More" while working at a Christian camp back in 2009. I've taken that phrase with me for 5 years now and wow, has it ever taught me a few lessons! I was pondering that phrase a little farther this morning. Thinking about contentment and how often people say if I had ______, "I would be content" or "I would be happy" . But I think after a few thousand years of repeated history we might get around to realizing that "just one more whatever" is about as addicting as McDonalds, and M&M's. I like to play a game called "Can't Stop". Its a ladder game where you roll the dice and keep climbing the ladder. Whoever make 3 pieces to the top first wins. You could stop a few rolls in and save your spot until the next round or keep going, hoping to make it to the top, but you have a better chance of losing it all if you "Can't Stop". It's addicting to see how far you can make it

I own a housefull of items that are "handy". I own closets full of things that are "nice to have".  I am blessed? Overwhelmed?  This week I am without a car. We have been a two car family since, well since I started dating my husband. But not this week, no this week, we are giving a trial run to owning one car. I mean really, I live in apartment D, work in apartment B, and take my kid to work and do laundry at the bottom of the steps. I don't really NEED a car. The next question is... how do I get past the urge of just running out for a bit? We parked the car at the mechanics. It is out of reach! Okay so you caught me, this is no trial run, it's costing us big money to park our second car at the mechanics, but it's a thought I've been thinking about for a few weeks now. How much money could one save by eliminating a car? How much more communication and planning would my marriage hold if we had to share our mode of transportation? How much other s

As an heir of God I should be striving to be more like God himself, so that I may be a better picture of Christ to those around me, a better example to those I'm close to, and a better tool for the Lord to use.  One area that always needs work in my life is learning to be consistently content.  So I thought about how to think thankful thoughts all day long. I tend to run my day by the top of the hour. I set goals to have things done by the top of the next hour, I start and finish work at the top of an hour, I usually wake up and go to bed at the top of the hour. So I came up with a plan to think of something I was thankful for for that hour and then as the hour progressed (If I had time, or remembered to think about it)  I would break down that item and think of related items to be thankful for. Like this... 6:00 am  Thankful for Life!                a. thankful to be able to get out of bed                b. thankful to be alive and healthy 7:00 am Thankful for Breakfast