Got Any Greatest Life Achievements?

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him...And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. "   --- Colossians 3:17, Matthew 10:42

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So last week a much-respected man announced he considered  ______ one of his life's greatest achievements.

Now, I'll not fill in the blank since it's rather controversial and who needs folks scrambling down rabbit holes, missing your whole point?

But simply stated, the guy said 'no' when everyone else said 'yes'. He followed only his convictions, not the fear-inducing information swirling over the Internet and tv.

And in this case, his convictions proved right, for him, and now he feels relieved, grateful, and considers that choice one of his life's greatest achievements.

Wow. For a week, that hasn't budged from my mind. 

I even asked myself, "What if one of my life's greatest achievements is that I've decluttered over 2300 items these past 5 years? You know, so that--when Tom and I are gone--Naomi won't have to mutter in a pile of old clothes and trash, "Why did they keep all this junk? It's gonna take me months to clear things out!"

I mean, what if a Life's Great Achievement doesn't have to shake or change the world? Or be appreciated by crowds or remembered in History? What if it doesn't alter the course of your familial bloodline or become something for which you're remembered?

Instead, perhaps a greatest life achievement is anything God and you did together. You know, an act of obedience, probably one you didn't even understand at the time or deem important even a tad.

Your encouraging words to someone who'd planned to end their days, but went on to live thousands more in gratitude.

Recipes you created and handed-down to family generations.

The times your words gave folks hope for the future instead of dread.

The way your consistent faithfulness gave people something to count on and a glimpse of Jesus' loyalty.

The gifts you created which made friends feel loved in a time they'd felt  unlovable.

The instances you used social media to encourage, uplift, warn, inform, instruct, all at Jesus' leading and in His timing, perhaps changing others' course of history.

The times you loved your family well.

This past week? Similar thoughts were mine, all because someone did not hide away and avoid us all, but instead, shared words from his heart regarding a choice he made.

Oh the power of our words and actions as directed by almighty God! 

And most likely, not until Heaven will we realize the majority of our greatest life achievements, what they even were and the difference they made. Even those appearing the most insignificant of all.

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver... A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit... Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person... The power of Life and Death are in the tongue..."

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

Leo Buscaglia

Are we using social media the way Jesus would if He was sitting at our computer or phone, for peoples' benefit and good?

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Now here's a very unique tiny home!  (But you gotta love artistic and boho style to really appreciate it.)  ツ

10 Cozy Mysteries That are Perfect For Fall

Cozy Cottage Reading Nooks

Top 13 Foods That Cause Inflamation

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After Tom came down with gout the first time, we had to change his/our diet. 

He's always loved pastries, but now, well, forget those. But never fear! Alternatives exist. We just have to be willing to search for them. To discover what is safe. 

Generally, if we want to feel well, we can't be lazy.

Anyway, here's an alternative pumpkin pie recipe I make a couple times a month, even having it for breakfast (why not?). Tom loves this and has experienced no gout flare-ups with it.

One 15 oz. canned pumpkin

2 eggs

1/2 can evaporated milk 

1/4 c. sugar

3 envelopes Stevia

2 tsp. cinnamon (or to taste. Extra spices make up for the low sugar, we've found)

2 tsp. allspice  (ditto)

1/4 tsp. ginger

pinch of salt

1 graham cracker crust

Add first 9 ingredients to a bowl. Mix well. Pour into graham cracker crust. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. (I bake this in our toaster oven and mine doesn't always finish cooking in the middle, but we like it that way. heh.)

        (Instead of whipped cream, we add plain Greek yogurt.)

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"I woke up this morning and found this in my backyard." 

---@WendellTalks

"Be the kind of person that makes people believe this kind of story could be true about you even if they don't know for sure."

Boris Spider ----------

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Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

Where She Made a Major Change, One She'd Believed Impossible

"It's the little foxes that spoil the vines... God can make a way where there appears to be none."

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Upstairs we have three beds and yet could I sit in any of them to read books? No. Why not? Annoying sloped ceilings. Maybe if I was 3 feet tall, I could read in bed, but at a whole 5'2" (rarely am I too tall for anything)? Again, no.

I realized too often I've believed any real changes here Simply Cannot Be Made. I imagine lovely things, then the reasoning begins. Deal breakers or building projects that technically we can afford, but which I just don't possess the patience to live through (being older, set in my ways and having experienced plenty of carpenters trudging through my house, thank-you, but no).

So usually? I quit dreaming. Firmly I tell myself to deal with it, accept defeat. Heaven and my perfect home will come soon enough.

Er hem.  

Well, for 13 years my brain said, "It's impossible to read in bed at this house," and do you know what happens when you declare something to be impossible? It generally is. For you, er, me. "Be it unto you even as you believe" and all that.

But then c-r-e-a-k. One day my mind opened the Possibility Door. 

"What if there is a way to read in bed up here, but I'm just not seeing it?"

"After 13 years?" "Yeah, after 13 years." (Months ago I told Tom, "I'm now into talking to myself. So if I'm not standing right in front of you, speaking to you, then just ignore me.")  シ

So I thought of ideas. Stared at each bed. Imagined solutions and oh my, actually found one!

If I placed the bed in my Secret Bedroom (aka my Closet Room) on the adjacent wall, the ceiling would be higher above my pillows and I could actually read in bed.

Oh my goodness. I'd found the answer. 

Now, I'd have to make the bed shorter, but that's ok. Usually I sleep curled-up anyway.

Whew. One morning I exhausted myself with the rearranging and the cleaning (dust! Oh, the dust.), but, with God's help, I did it. Changed that tiny room around, doubled the floor space, even, and now I can read in bed.

Hmm.  A younger me loved needing to discover inexpensive, creative solutions. But now, not so much. 

Perhaps there's a sadness that I lack that same energy? An annoyance that I'm growing older? Frustration that this small house seems to limit my ideas? 

Or is my lack of patience and acceptance setting the limitations, acting like clouds, blocking-out what could be? Could constant gratitude, instead, sharpen my creativity? (I think I know the answer to that one.)

Well anyway, may this be yet one more lesson to keep me from feeling stifled, limited and just too old.

May I recall that challenges can keep my imagination in shape, alive, and creative enough to find solutions to all problems worth solving and making Life sweeter--

--even while the outside world is anything but.

Growing older? Yes, some parts are negative, but along the way we've picked up far more positives which can help us overcome the bad stuff.

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Whatever Happened to Our Childhood Wonder?  I'm not sure she discovered the answer, but I admire her for going on a search. Too often we get all 'oh hum' and, sadly, release things (relationships, hobbies, good habits, etc.) before their time.

Oh! Did I already share this tiny house with you? I really like the antique feeling she gave it.

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Books I Finished Reading in July:

Murder and Marble Cake by Nancy McGovern

Pioneer Girl: Growing Up On the Prairie by Andrea Warren

Strangulation and Strawberry Cake by Nancy McGovern

Sugar and Sliced by C.A. Phipps

Don't Sweat The Small Stuff by Richard Carlson

Winterbound by Margery Williams Bianco

Always a Sleuth by Liz Turner

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"I sincerely believe we would accomplish many more things if we did not so automatically view them as impossible."   --- John L. Mason

And as I shared at Facebook--

Oh yes!

(We've had cooler days lately and it's been a nice return to who I really am. heh.)

(Beginning my celebration of Autumn in July really made all the difference. I've definitely found my new tradition.)

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Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. *** "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15

For Those Who Must Fix Problems

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me ... (I can) think upon whatever is right and pure and lovely and admirable..."   --- Philippians 4:13,8

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Maybe it's just me. Or perhaps it's this Hobbit Cottage, but man, I'm always having to tweak things. You know, to make my days easier.

The short version of this post? If that describes you also, the best thing is for us to learn to enjoy the tweaking, the challenges. The searching for clever ideas. The successes. 

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Soon after getting Happy and Poncho, I discovered Tom dishing out canned cat food one morning in the kitchen. "Hey!" I exclaimed. "I already fed them."

Tom replied, "But they acted like they were starving."

"Yeah, well, they're cats." I said. ツ  "I'll have to make an 'I fed them sign' that we can place on the counter." So I did, laminated it with packing tape, even. Problem solved. That is, as long as we remember to move the sign from the small basket to the countertop.

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Basically, our little house has no built-in storage. Well, other than in the kitchen. (Think I'm kidding?) 

So after much whining (and asking myself, "What have we done?"), I bought, over a year, 8 sets of white 3-shelf bookcases from online and 2 real-wood sets from yard sales.

Half became my pantry and the other half housed my books and miraculously? My complaints about this house diminished. Well, by half, anyway. heh.

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I needed to make gardening easier. So my Herb and Etc. Garden below our front porch became my Herb And Vegetable and Etc. Garden. It gets full bright morning sun, then sits in absolute shade from 12:30 on and yet? Our cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, salad vegetables, etc. grow in profusion.

And how simple to stand at the porch railing to water the plants, below, from a jug I filled in our kitchen.

Oh, and I sank largish pots about 2/3 into the ground and added soil to them. This makes everything easier for me for Springtime planting and keeps roots from strangling each other, etc. (Hey, it just does, ok?)

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Our upstairs ceiling is low, like, 6 feet?, so for years my hanging-a-chandelier-is-impossible thoughts were greater than my anything-is-possible ones.

But then I spied a photo where a woman hung a chandelier in a room like mine and wow! Instant inspiration. So much so, that I even found places for 2 chandeliers up here. 

1.) One chandelier I leave on daily to make up for the years of my giving-up.

2.) And may this remind us that sharing our ideas can inspire people to do what feels impossible for them.

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My former gymnast self used to boost herself up to kitchen counter tops to reach what she needed on top shelves. Then she switched to using a chair. Now she either stands on the floor with the 'grabber tool' and/or uses this adorable step thingy Naomi gave me.

I love that it folds up so it can be hidden.

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For awhile I'd awaken at night feeling nagged about chores needing doing. Eventually I placed an index card and pen beside my bed so I could switch on the light quickly and write down what was keeping me awake.

I'd read about that idea years ago, but the odd thing? I only used it for 2 nights. I've not needed it since.

Hmm. Perhaps what really helped was reading what Richard Carlson wrote: 

" ... we tell ourselves once we get through our To Do List, we'll be calm, relaxed, and happy. But in reality, this rarely happens. As items are checked off, new ones simply replace them.

The purpose of Life isn't to get it all done, but to enjoy each step along the way and live a life filled with love."

And may it be love and wisdom which keeps us happily searching for ways to improve both our own life and that of others.

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These days? It's too easy to feel out of control of what is happening outside. Instead, we can take charge of simplifying and improving our own life in many doable ways within our home, our yard, our sphere of influence.

I'll admit way too often it takes me years to come up with some fixes. The temptation becomes to ask why am I so slow? Gah! But lately I'm learning to forgive myself and to just move on and appreciate the new idea/solution while vowing to--next time--listen more closely to the Holy Spirit.

Always stay creatively-minded and determined to find ways to solve problems.

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Quick fixes:

I  wanted another birdbath (created one last year), but couldn't decide on a place where it looked 'right'. So I bought a hanging one, putting it on the empty hook beside the birdfeeder. 

Love it! I simply tip it to empty the water, then fill it (only an inch or so) with my watering can.

Since I'm practically spending this entire hot and humid summer on the red couch (and have no room for a coffee table), I needed something upon which I could place things like books, drinks, kleenex, my reading glasses, tablet, etc. 

On a tiny house video I spied a specially-made version of what I needed, but it felt too modern. Instead, I ran upstairs and grabbed a 1970's tray I'd found at an estate sale. Solves the problem perfectly.

Oh, and Poncho loves sleeping on our hutch. When he leaves the occasional scratch in the wood, I use some mineral oil and instantly it disappears.

And lastly (for today)-- because we can no longer take vacations (basically), I've returned to buying books which, hey, I prefer over vacations anyway. I used credit card rewards to buy these, below, and I'm enjoying each:

The Firefly Summer by Morgan Matson

The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sarah Brunsvold

Hems and Homocide by Elizabeth Penny

Summer of a Thousand Pies by Margaret Dilloway

(Being soo picky about the books I read, I researched these like crazy and am relieved that each is a treasure. Kinda like a miracle, trust me.)

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I've meant to share this gorgeous autumnal video with you for nearly a year! Some of the best fall scenes, ever.

Here's a brief documentary about Will Rogers which I found interesting.

Beautiful (Autumn) Home Decor

Parisian Style in 700 Square Feet

And I've shared this apartment before, but it'll always be a very favorite of mine.

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And to help hold a decent attitude this hot summer, I'm keeping my mind in places like this (and using the tv like a picture window where autumn already blazes outside)--

Happy and Poncho's family. Pretty, right? --

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Please remember: My posts are always about more than they appear to be. 

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 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15