Bethlehem is struggling this Christmas

Bethlehem is struggling this week of Christmas on the eve of the end of the first decade of this century we all rang in with such hope. Bethlehem is historically troubled. This Christmas is no different as the latest news reports say that Israel has shut the city down in a siege keeping all Palestinians in and all Christians wishing to visit there for the holy holiday out.

I read of the historic fights over the city with a sense of irony. Why in all these centuries has anyone not figured out that there might be a divine plan in the place being holy for all three practices of God's peoples. And the greatest irony of all being that the so troubled city was the birthplace of the Prince of Peace.

Something to think about...

A Condensed Life- Unplug

Life is so multi-layered. Cells phones, cars, computers, various internet surfing handheld devices, television, radio, drive-by conversations in office cube farms, drive-by fast food windows, overhead department of transportation signs, children who have forgotten how to sleep, backlogged voicemail, email, snailmail, shopping lists, to do lists, dayplanners, sticky notes stuck ad hoc.....So many messages received in a day.

Unplug....just for an hour. Hear the quiet. Shut out the mental noise. Breathe deep. Feel the peace. & know that God is with us.

A condensed life- one step

We have heard all the phrases:
Quality not quantity
Pare down to the essentials
Simplify
Find gratitude, not latitude
And you could probably contribute many others...

I have been trying the whole minimalist deal for most of the year. In areas, I can say I have made improvements, in other areas, not. It has been a journey of self- discovery. I found that it was odd- refocusing on an idea to an extent that I lost most of the others that were important to me.

I think that may be the object of minimalism but not the goal.

I went back to college this year so I have had little time for anything creative- no knitting, painting, blog writing. I am barely holding it together just staying on top of the mundane necessities of life like cleaning house, cooking meals, managing laundry. I am burnt out of hoping that this weekend will be the weekend that I get all the extra boxes from the move cleared out, get things clean, get up the christmas tree, finsh the christmas shopping. Who am I kidding? I have two papers and a final exam this week. I need to zone out, sleep, play SuperPoke Pets and justy chill. How to do it all....I even failed at FLYLady.

That is the crux of the drive to minimalism. The books, blogs, tv shows show you how to pare down a desktop, clear through clutter, but they don't tell you how to do it while being both a student and a mom. I NEED simplification. I just don't have the time to do it.

This is the dilemma....I need it....I want it...If I could go to a store and pay $100 and buy it I would.

Today I am going to forgive myself for the dirty dishes, the laundry in chaos, the unpacked boxes in the bedroom, & the empty pantry. Today I am going to remember that Christmas is the day to remember that God entered the world as a helpless, trusting infant and blessed us with His care for a short time.

The Difference a Good Environment Makes

After a month of struggling with Lupus, unpacking the apartment and dealing with serious space shortage in the midst of the usual administrative issues associated with moving (i.e. lost mail, bill chaos, budget unpredictability, lack of usual meals and comfort zones), we are finally settling in and realizing where we have landed.

I feel like one of those families on cable television reality shows who receive a team of experts to completely clear their clutter, fix their structural and organizational problems and give everything a high gloss of interior fashion. Except of course, I had to clear my own clutter.

Home is home again and no longer a constant source of stress and worry. We have no more wondering when the next thing would break or when someone was going to drop by unexpectedly and have to be headed off at the door. My home is happily open to my family and friends. The kid thoroughly enjoys being able to invite his friends over without a months notice. The kitchen is small but that actually makes it easy to manage. I expend less precious energy walking around and more time completing my tasks efficiently. The dishwasher is amazing. I am sure it is just a generic dishwasher but when the humans were the dishwasher it seemed to take so much time and effort just to keep the kitchen clean. The bathrooms are new and in good working order making them absolutely a breeze to keep clean. If something breaks, I have a support team in the apartment management to call. I don't have to go to the library to check out a book on how to repair anything or figure out what parts to buy.

Being in a house as opposed to an apartment had its advantages and I will miss my garden, but for me and my challenges the decision to suddenly uproot and start over in the apartment put me and the kid in such a better situation. The apartment is sweet and cozy and warming to come home. The complex is set in the middle of a rural golf course with geese, cranes, creeks and gorgeous trees. It is so peaceful and serene to go for a walk.

I am actually looking forward to starting my second job- making handmade goods to sell on Etsy.com and decorating and preparing for Christmas. I am going to love my new home decorated for the holidays and sharing it with my loved ones.

What a difference a good environment makes...Sometimes cultivating a good environment in not so much what you can create but what you can leave behind you.

Change is Good

Sweetcultivator is moving. Wait, don't change your bookmark. I mean the dear kid and I are picking up stakes and leaving an unfortunate house with too many series of adverse events. Our home is an older rental home in which we have endured no air conditioning, no heat, bad plumbing, floors falling through, water damage, black mold, lack of proper insulation and Nazi neighbors. I am tied to the area for two more years until the dear kid graduates from high school but then I already knew I wanted to move. We are giving up the house for the duration for a shiny beautiful apartment with energy efficient qualities, lots of windows and lots of beautifully landscaped grounds for walking. The swmming pool will be cool too, no pun intended.

I am going to miss my garden, like losing my best friend. It will be nice for a while to not have to chop weeds and cut grass but I had cultivated some treasures that without even a balcony, will have to be let go. I am giving a few that can be salvaged to a family member and selling my collection of tools and supplies. To stave off depression, I checked out a big stack of library books on houseplants and indoor gardening.

I already have a lot of plans in the works for growing herbs, indoor containers, etc. Maybe I'll even explore bonzai. The Sweetcultivator will still be cultivating and we will have a warm, safe, beautiful home again.

Change is good.

Storm Chasin'

After days of lupus ailments and tonsillitis, asthma-inducing high ozone levels, and hundred degree heat advisories, I had finally managed , after the third trip to Lowes for parts, to fix the weedeater to tackle the weeds in the garden paths. I am sure it has been noticed that this garden site has produced few garden pictures this year, mostly due to my shame of WEEDS! Well, I have digressed.

Thursday evening I finally was able to get out with the weedeater to clear and mulch the garden paths. There were some scattered storms moving through the area, but everything was supposed to miss us. I had kept the radar on the laptop in view most of the afternoon. Once my company work was done (I work at home two days a week), I lathered up with sunscreen and bug repellent, loaded up the tools I keep indoors and donned the hot weather gear. Out I went to conquer. There were some gray clouds and some thunder-booming to the north, but not to worry, nothing was supposed to come this far south for at least a couple hours. It was sweltering with heavy hot air but bearable with no sun. I spent some productive twenty minutes clearing paths and finding my little veggie beauties doing well and delighting that I could finally get to them. I got half-way through the garden patch when the air was getting full of moisture, the wind was kicking up, and the blue-gray booming clouds were definitely rolling closer.

Ok, I give. I put away the electric weedeater so I would not be electrocuted and decided to take a break, rehydrate, watch the weather. I decided we must have a storm brewing right over us and a quick romp indoors to check the weather was puzzling. Nothing was really showing on the radar. (And how much do we rely on all of our technical scientific data?) I went back out to start mulching paths. I decided the wind storm had gotten strong enough that working with the black fabric would be a problem. I decided to sit under my tree and watch the storm pass. A little rain would cool me down and I love a good summer storm. I heard the storm warning sirens go off and saw some lightning strike nearby. I am not an idiot so I moved to the porch. It would be a little safer but I could still stay out in the storm. The rain pelted and blew. It was like a hurricane force storm. I gave up and ran inside. To wrap up, the little storm that was not supposed to happen flooded the streets and left four inches of water standing in the garden paths. All of my staked plants, loaded with produce as they were, fell over and I have a lot of storm damage to clean up.

Moral of the story, be careful of storm chasing. You don't know who will really end up chasing whom.

The great pea experiment

After procrastinating and not getting my peas planted early in the spring. I decided to see if they would grow in the Mississippi summer heat...They grew but the vines stayed low and the peas were bland and not too sweet. I'll try again in the fall.