Charles and I have been having some serious discussions lately since Charles is considering retirement. It will not be this year and possibly not next year but soon after that.
We have always been very close and the older we get the closer we get. We are husband and wife and Best Friends as well. We never tire of each other and I feel that other than the fact that we love each other so very much, we are both creative and enjoy making life and adventure right here at home and that keeps us happy.
Charles, is a wonderful man, it seems as if he came from our Grandparents Generation instead of his generation. He is very interested in history which makes our life interesting.
This meal is breakfast and it is simply sauteed zucchini, onion, tomatoes and eggs poached inside of this by cracking the eggs over the hot sauteed vegetables and baking it in the oven until the eggs are cooked..
It came to me recently as I was washing breakfast dishes that I suddenly felt that maybe we have been looking at things all wrong.
Both Charles and I have been having a difficult time keeping up with things. It is a hot summer and the yard has been in need of a good pruning and mowing and Charles works hard with his job and then he spends his time home trying to catch up. Catching up seems to be what both of us have been doing.
When we were younger and both worked we still had the energy to work on projects at home or go places in the evening but we seldom did that because we are pretty much home bodies. Now we are early to bed folks.
I say things like, I will sew some curtains when I finish cleaning or putting something back together that I was sorting or organizing. Or I say I need to sew more masks which now is becoming a priority since Charles has worn these same masks over a year now. Now that I am older and I have to rest more often and many things take longer to do now. My brain continues to think like it did when I was younger but my body is not going at the same pace.
No matter what age we are at, this kind of thinking, focusing on what we want to do can lead to frustration because we mentally set our mind on what we want to do instead of just doing a good job of what we need to do and being happy with what we did get done.
If we continue to think this way then there is that disappointment at the end of the day. The thought then at the end of the day is another day that I did not sew or another day I did not work in the shop.
Our flower/vegetable jungle.
I have had a talk with myself and rearranged my priorities and thinking. Every day has its own needs. We just need to do what we have always heard and been told to do, take one day at a time.
I am happier with a orderly house than I am with new curtains. I feel better when my house is clean. It is a drain on energy when the house is not clean because that is always a worry, I need to clean this and that. Just get on with what is necessary to do. This is what they did long ago. Also long ago people focused on clean and did not worry as much as people do today with magazine perfect.
When I take away the "what I want to do" and do just focus on what needs to be done, I seemed to have more energy to do the things that need to be done and I feel that I am accomplishing more things and earlier this week I actually had time to sit down and sew.
I cannot tell you how many "want to do" projects I have started when the house needed cleaning. It can quickly lead to a huge mess and takes so much time to get it back like it should be..
I have realized that I will sew the curtains when the time is right. This is not a need to do, this is a want to do. If the need to do things are done, there will eventually be time to do the wants. It is a patience thing.
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If I did what I wanted to do all the time I would not be getting enough exercise and my home would be strewn and dirty because I would be sewing or knitting all the time.
When we realize we have lost our balance like I have done, we need to get it back. If we do what needs to be done, then stop and smell the roses while we are taking a walk. We are starting to get our balance back.
We can play music while we work if we feel we need something to pick us up. Then when the needed things are done we work a little while on the "want to do's".
In the past people lived at a completely different pace than we do today. Many things took longer to do but they did not live in an instant world that actually robs us of hours in our day.
They did their work and spent their time with other things much differently than we do today.
This picture above I have shown before but is worth repeating. This is how we traveled long ago. Roadside areas to stop and eat. We packed our meals and stopped at the roadside areas to eat. All along the highways there were places to pull over with picnic tables. They did this because fast food places along a highway were not built at this time. They had no idea at this time of how much things were going to change.
Most everything today has become complicated, money draining, bulky, and exhausting and something that really scares me is how todays typical home has electric outlets filled to capacity with electrical things plugged in.
We can go back to basics as far as we want to do. We do not need many things we have today that come with all these monthly and yearly fees and these expensive gadgets and products that are not necessary. We can live a more simple life and take back some of the lost hours and put that money back in our accounts. .
So I am working on getting back in balance and if you are out of balance, notice what is robbing you of your time. My problem was my want to do's draining me mentally making me feel like I was not accomplishing all that I needed and wanted to do.
Grandma Donna
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