FLASHBACK FRIDAY: SIMPLIFY

The next book in our year of reading dangerously was a tiny little book with a great big message -- Simplify Your Life. Looking at my life now, compared to the one I had when I first read it, I feel quite proud of all I accomplished over the years. Well, in all but one rather important area -- getting my hubby on board with the program. That boy sure does love his "stuff"! 

FLASHBACK

A TINY HOME COMMUNITY COMES TO WIMBERLEY

The Muses and I have long been enamored with the new ideas popping up for nursing home alternatives -- ingenious ideas for aging out. We especially like the ones where friends band together and each build their own small home on one piece of property. We know it's not the place to be when you can no longer do anything at all for yourself, but it could be a great way to maintain your privacy and dignity up until that point, while still having help at hand in those temporary times of need. Needless to say, when Spirit Woman said she had seen a flyer mentioning a place called Hummingbird Lane Tiny Home Community, right here on the edges of our little town, well, of course we had to go check it out. So, we sent a message to owner Rose Burke-Duncan, and she agreed to a meet-up.

We expected to get maybe 10 or 15 minutes of her time. Instead, she spent the entire morning with us!

This 12-acre property has four sites, two of them already occupied. Turns out, however, she owns more property in the same community, and when she finished showing us this one, she was kind enough to show us that as well.

This is where she built her own not-tiny-but-small rock house, every stone gathered by her from this property.

She will soon have this house rented out, as she recently remarried and they have nine kids between them, so they're going to need a bit more space when everyone gets together -- especially when the grandkids start coming! Not only did she offer us a peek into the house...

she also gave us a tour of her bountiful garden and orchard...

and sent us home with pockets full of peaches, as well as some great tales about her amazing, wild, adventurous life!

She's nearing completion on a tiny house for this property as well, which she plans to rent out. Could it be yours? Contact her at [email protected].

P.S. Did I mention that both of these properties are in a community with river access?

HANG IT!

I hate hanging pictures. It's such a pain. And, even if you had them hanging perfectly straight when you started, all it takes is one person walking through our living area for half of them to end up askew. Plus, we just had way too many of them on our walls -- thanks to Hubby's reinvigorated obsession with photography -- forever being switched out and moved about. So, I decided to try something different. Something which allows one to switch things out at will, without the use of hammers, nails, screws or wires. These simple shelves can be ordered in all different sizes and several different colors.

I like it.

I really, really like it.

TRADING PLACES

Back when our oldest child was just starting high school, we came to a pivotal point in our marriage. Hubby was spending most of his time working overseas, and I was spending way too much time reading books about finding one's authentic self. We ended up with a wonderful marriage counselor who, along with Julia Cameron and her book The Artist's Way, got me into the "morning pages" journaling habit, which turned into a writing habit, which turned into this blog -- a critical tool in figuring out what I really wanted out of life, and in solving #2 below.

If I had a bucket list at the time (I'm sure I did. I always have lists.) it probably went something like this...

1) Find My Tribe

Exploring San Antonio With The Muses

2) Find My Voice

3) Find New Ways to Express my Creativity (thanks to reading The Artist's Way)

4) Learn to Cook and Eat Real Food

Daughter Lexie Helps With Distribution at The Bountiful Sprout

5) Become a Locavore (thanks to reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)

6) Try Growing Some of My Own Food

The Mexican Hacienda Kitchen Courtyard Cantina Garden Comes To Life

7) Live a More Reasonable Life (thanks to reading A Reasonable Life, by Ferenc Maté and The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing)

Our Water Catchment System is Installed

8) Become the Woman I Was Always Meant To Be (thanks to reading Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach)

9) Simplify -- Make My Life Less About Stuff and More About Experiences

10) Visit Tuscany (thanks to reading The Hills of Tuscany, also by Ferenc Maté, and Under the Tuscan Sun)

One day our counselor asked me where I imagined myself being ten years on, and I told him about my dreams. I told him I pictured myself living in the Texas Hill Country, doing all of these wonderful things, and that the only thing I had a hard time picturing was my hubby, doing them along with me, since those most definitely were not his dreams!

He then turned to Hubby and said "For more than 25 years Becky has been the caboose to your engine, following wherever you led, doing whatever needed to be done in order to further your dreams, has she not?" "Yes, she has." "So, would you ever be willing to trade places, and become the caboose to her engine?" "Absolutely!"my hubby replied. And he meant it.

Which is how we ended up spending the last ten years here in Wimberley, living out my dreams, and fulfilling all my fantasies. Well, all but that last one.

We kept meaning to do that one, but things kept happening to distract us -- like several trips to the ER; the discovery of river cruises which, unfortunately, do not go to Italy, but do go to Provence, which is just as good; weddings; Sudan; grandbabies; etc. You know how it goes. You also know how much my hubby loves shopping. Especially Christmas shopping. So imagine my surprise when, just the other day, he announces out of the blue that Christmas shopping for each other is no fun anymore since we both have everything we could possibly want or need. "Next year, why don't we just skip buying presents for each other, and plan a trip instead? Like maybe to Tuscany?"

Yes. Yes. YES!

FLASHDANCE FLASHBACK

I must admit, the first time I saw my grandson in a pair of rainbow-striped leg warmers, I found myself thinking "What on earth? Isn't he a bit young for a dance class?"  It didn't take long, however, for me to understand their amazing utility. You see, winter wear for babies comes one of two ways. Either you have a zillion snaps, up and down each leg, to undo before changing a diaper, or you have none at all, meaning you have to pretty much undress the poor kids completely in order to change them.

So, let's hear it for the unsung hero who first thought of combining a regular 3-snap onesie with pint-sized leg warmers in winter. Brilliant! Ab-so-lute-ly brilliant!

TRYING BLUE APRON ON FOR SIZE

Unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere, you've probably seen things popping up on line about a company called Blue Apron. When I started seeing friends posting pics of delicious-looking meals they had prepared "thanks to Blue Apron", I thought it must be some kind of cooking school or something. In a way, I guess it is.

A few weeks ago I got a message from my daughter saying she had received a $30-off coupon good towards a Blue Apron delivery, so they decided to give it a whirl, and this is what they got.

A box lands on your doorstep on your designated day, filled with everything you need to make three delicious meals (and I mean everything) all packed in ice in case you aren't home when it arrives. It comes with step-by-step illustrated instructions and every ingredient, pre-measured, right down to the herbs and spices. The only thing you provide is a bit of olive oil to grease your pan.

They enjoyed that first week so much, they ordered another, which came with an email inviting three of their friends to receive a box absolutely free, which is how I ended up with one. A great way to expand your customer base, no?

So, why on earth, you might ask, would a person who's been cooking for the last 44 years and is pretty good at it already, and who helped establish a food co-op in her home town just so she could get as much of her food as possible from local growers and producers, even consider having food and recipes delivered to her from who knows where? Well, timing had a lot to do with it, since just a few days earlier we had gone to pick up our bi-weekly order from The Bountiful Sprout, only to find it locked up tight. They had shut down, for good! Apparently, once the very last of the original founders stepped down from board, the organization sort of lost its momentum. Less effort put into scouting for new growers and producers meant less product to choose from, which meant less members joining and shopping, which meant more producers dropping out. I was devastated.

Also, though I do love cooking, I do not love deciding what to fix each night, and having to shop for every single ingredient -- especially the more exotic ones that will probably get used only once or twice, and many not even be available at our small-town grocery store. With Blue Apron, all that is taken care of for me.

Love the cute little bottles and packets, all of which are recyclable.

Basque-Style Cod with Sweet Pepper-Tomato Sauce and Freekeh

On the down side, though they do utilize fresh, seasonal ingredients from trusted farmers and artisans, only sustainable seafood, and meats raised naturally on antibiotic- and hormone-free diets, they are not MY trusted farmers and artisans, who are also my neighbors, and whom I can visit with at the farmers' markets and swap recipes with. Then there is the rather huge carbon footprint created from shipping these cartons all over the country. Of course, most of their customers aren't like me, and are replacing meals that came from restaurants and big chain grocery stores whose product was not locally sourced either. Then there's the cost, which is around $60 per week, for just three meals for two people each, which is probably more than what you are used to paying for groceries, but less than what you're paying for restaurant and ready-made foods.

Seared Chicken and Caramelized Vegetables with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Mashed Potatoes

I guess what I love most about this is that, with their step-by-step instructions -- even sorting out the timing of everything so that it all comes out ready at once -- along with their little videos and tutorials on-line which teach you skills like chopping onions efficiently or cutting corn off the cob, they are teaching non-cooks that it's really not that difficult, and sooo much more delicious, to eat real food rather than all that packaged, processed crap. Best of all, Lex and Nate have discovered it's something fun that they enjoy doing together! So, thanks Blue Apron, for bringing real food back into our kitchens, and the family dinner hour back into our homes!

Pork Chops and Spicy Chow Chow with Sweet Potato Salad

P.S. Oh yeah, just thought of one more benefit. With each "real" dinner I cook, the happier and more lovey-dovey my hubby becomes. So much so, that he doesn't even mind doing all the clean up. By the end of the second week, I had that boy eating out of my hand! And here you thought that thing about "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" was all a myth...

A TOUCH OF LAVENDER

In case you couldn't tell from the photos, Austin's and Areej's wedding had a lavender thing goin' on.  It was partially because the venue is, or was, some kind of lavender farm, although we didn't actually see any lavender in bloom. Mostly, however, it was because our Areej is passionate about all things purple.

Did I ever show you the dress I found for the wedding? Actually, I bought two. The first one was a rather stiff and formal, deep plum, silk-ish thing, found at Nordstrom's Rack. An "it'll do" kind of dress which was within my price range. But, as I was on my way from that store down to the book store, I spotted something in the window of a shop called Dress Barn, and I fell in love. (Hubby says I probably shouldn't tell people I found my dress in a barn.) Does this scream "spring at the lavender farm", or what?

I probably shouldn't tell you how little it cost, either. Suffice it to say, that little lace jacket I bought to wear over it? Well, that cost more than twice as much as the dress itself! Fortunately, I had no problem whatsoever returning the first dress I bought. What I love most about this outfit is that it also gave me an excuse to pull out some of my mom's beautiful old pearl jewelry, which almost never gets worn!

Speaking of lavender, check out these adorable party favors. The guests had one of each sitting on their eggplant-colored napkins.

A great recipe for using the edible lavender, to make Lavender Lemonade, is posted on their wedding page at The Knot, but for a more detailed version complete with photos, you might want to go directly to the source, Elise Bauer's lovely blog Simply Recipes.

There were lots of the gift bags left over, so I grabbed a couple of handfuls of each. I then planted several of the seed bombs in each of the planter boxes where I grow all of my herbs, on the balcony right outside my kitchen door. In fact, I just might have lavender to share, ere long, iffen those dang squirrels don't get to the seed bombs first!



P.S. If you know any other brides-to-be who are passionate about purple, Areej is selling round lavender tablecloths, burlap table runners with eggplant lace borders, eggplant napkins and serving table cloths, purple cut glass votives, etc., all freshly laundered and at a bargain price, here.

THE BIG REVEAL

We sweetened the enticement with promises of brunch at Hays City Store.

So, who did you guess would be the guy at the top of the ladder? Was it Nate? Young Austin? Wrong! It was the old guy! Partially my fault, I admit. When Austin mumbled something about Brown Recluse spiders, I really shouldn't have chuckled and said "Oh Sweetie, you don't need to worry about spiders. I'm sure the bats ate them all!" "BATS? I dibs the spot at the bottom of the ladder!", replied my son. Actually, I have always been quite grateful that he inherited a healthy dose of my common sense. I don't think I could have handled both he and his father needing to be carted to the ER on a regular basis. Speaking of which, when I saw my hubby up there...

yanking on those doors which were seriously stuck, after not having been opened for eleven years, I had such a clear vision of him tumbling backwards off the ladder and smacking his head on the concrete floor that I had to turn around and go back in the house. I just. Couldn't. Watch!

Sooooo, what do you suppose was in there? Treasure? Trash? A little bit of both, as it turns out, and not nearly as much as I had feared. There was:

Our Tent

and...

Some Car Ramps

neither of which we will ever use again. There were also a lot of seasonal decorations, from back when I had a lot bigger house to decorate, and had not yet fully embraced simple living.

Most of that will be going directly to the thrift store.

But, there were a few treasures too, which made it all worthwhile. There was a big crate of Legos, which we left in the attic, until Little Goober is old enough to play with them. And, this crate...

containing our most beloved baby clothes and a few toys, including the all-time-favorite Sesame Street house with Bert and Ernie and Oscar inside. (There are also a few more crates in our small indoor attic, containing the Brio train set, the Marbleworks set, and Lexi's American Girl doll and all her accessories.)

Most treasured of all? This!

Beautiful Rocking/Swinging Cradle Handmade by Hubby's Father

Well, that and the peace of mind that comes from finally having that dang attic emptied out!