(To be read with a smile...)

I enjoy the blog, Morning Ramble. Always, if I have time for only two or three blogs, I'll check out that one. I don't agree with everything she says, but I like the way she says it. heh. 

(Besides, how many blogs are there in which we agree with everything?)

The author lives in the Texas countryside and often writes about how simple country life is on her two acres. How she's living the simple life and it would be good if we all did.

Hmm. I'm thinkin' that country life in Texas must be way different than country life in New York.

Out here, Tom and I have never seen so much complication in all our lives.

Man. There's so much redecorating to do, so much yard work, that my meal-planning is almost nil. We eat out too much (taking time and $$). Or I heat quick stuff, easy stuff, and then wonder why I'm pretty cranky and not feeling great like I used to.

And we must travel ten (or so) miles to the nearest 'real supermarket' which means we had to buy an ice chest for our perishables (fortunately we found a plug-into-your-cigarette-lighter kind at a yard sale). 

Yet we also must remember to bring it with us (a real challenge). And there's all that extra gas ($$$) and trying to group and time our errands just so. And coming up with a complete grocery list so we don't forget anything--then forgetting some things anyway.

Then there's the tractor Tom 'had' to buy (jury's still out on that one). Of course, now it needs more attachments (more $$). Tom had to replace the tires for the tractor's garden cart we bought at a yard sale earlier (replacements which involved a few trips to the far-away tractor store because the tire size was off just one-eighth inch) which involved more gas, time and more $$$ and more traveling to the cities/traffic we moved out here to get away from.

Then there's the winterizing of the house--the new windows, the insulation, the glass block windows for the basement. More $$$ and more guys stomping all over my ferns up next to the house just as they were recovering from the last guys stomping all over them. And there's the picture window which must be replaced because the mysterious gas inside leaked and it's resembles an oil slick from the outside. But fortunately that's free and no extra $$$, just waiting for more repairmen (who will stomp all over our ferns).

Then there's all these rooms which I'm trying to repaint before my mother comes to visit from CA next week. Of course, I don't have to paint them all before she arrives, but hey.

And all of those change of address forms for our mail and memorizing a new address and a new phone number (at our age?).

And Tom lined up a company to add onto the barn but they've not come yet because we've had record amounts of rain this summer and they're all behind, not to mention the $$$ the addition will mean.

Then there's my having to move my whole vegetable garden out to the meadow next year (starting from scratch) because our neighbor sprays his lawn with chemicals just feet away.

And of course, we had to buy tons of stuff for the house and barn, things like furniture, beds and dressers (for the house and drawer-less, shelf-less barn), gardening tools of all sizes, even trash cans because in the suburbs we had city-issued ones and our town isn't that advanced out here. We must buy our own.

Of course, I'm not complaining-------

We wouldn't trade our nearly 4 acres for anything. Not yet, anyway. Just the fresh air, alone, makes the complication worth it.

But here's my point---Life will always be what we, ourselves, make it, wherever we happen to live. We so don't need to move to the countryside to lead a simple life--we can live simply inside a city apartment (Life in our apartment this past year was easy and simple beyond belief. It super-appealed to my inner laziness.)

Also, we don't need to get rid of everything we own to live simply ('less to care for,' etc.). Fact is, Life gets rough if you toss your bureaus/hutches and no longer have drawers for your clothes/important papers/tools/household supplies for repairs, etc.

 Trust me, I am so there.

So be encouraged. And please don't go moving out here to the country in hopes of discovering The Simple Life. Chances are, you're already living more simply than us country folk. 

Believe it, or not.



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