Still Accepting. (Hey, These Things Take Time.)

"Keep your life free ...  be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”   ... Hebrews 13:5


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Many things got me through that mini mid-life crisis thing.

Whining and complaining did not help.  :)

In the quiet times of 'accepting acceptance', I worked on my sweet little bedroom upstairs, probably the best-loved room I've ever decorated/owned (which taught me much about myself and what I love).

I spray-painted the clothes hook thing, blue. Can you believe that's the only place I have for actually hanging my clothes? Not many women would stand for that and Tom should consider himself one fortunate husband, indeed. heh. 

I also painted the formerly-brown butterfly hook(above), white. (I do especially love the happy colors of that top shelf of books.)

Then, duh. After months of wishing for more book space, I finally thought to turn some blue shoe boxes the other way, creating space for double rows of books, one behind the other. Gee, was I excited about that (though, yes, a bit frustrated that it took me so long to think of it. I'm still processing, accepting, this ideas-coming-way-more-slowly-as-I-grow-older thing. Oh, how I used to be one quick, sharp, creative cooky--but no more).

But anyway--now that I've extra room, I can buy more books! 

Pro-activity. It helped me through what I needed to walk through.

Yet even with this room I adore, I still toy with moving someday. "I could always redecorate another room exactly the same," I reason. "One a bit bigger and with an actual window(!)" But it's looking like we're not meant to move. Details, details--I'll spare you. 

And of course, I could choose being bummed-out because, next month, we'll have lived at Hobbit Cottage for 5 years (can you believe that?) and this was meant only as a temporary place and Naomi is here which was never part of the tiny-house-plan and both Tom and I doubt (more highly than we dare admit) that we have the physical strength to ever move again and do we really wish to dip into our hard-earned savings, anyway, or start making house payments again?

--Or--

I could keep making the conscious choice to do this, below, another passage taken from Bubbly On Your Budget: How to Live Luxuriously With What You Have:

 It's very easy to settle back and say you can't afford whatever it is that's on your mind, thereby giving yourself an excuse for being thoroughly miserable. But however much you may enjoy this state, it's pretty tiresome to everybody else and never gets you anywhere. You'll come out much better in the end if you study ways and means, and throw in a little imagination."

Yes, and throw in acceptance and contentment, as well. How much better when we choose those, to swim to their deeper levels. And then, down the road, wake up, gaze around, and behold the imaginative, colorful place which, otherwise, would never have existed. Except for us--and acceptance.

That, also, is cool.

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“It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” 
― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People


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Now, this was spiffy. Remember Mike Wolfe of American Pickers? Here's a link to photos of the home he shares with his wife and daughter. I'm usually not a fan of so much white, but it totally works at their house. Love, love the old-fashioned phone booth!


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