Simple Livin'

Simple living. I was going to say tiny living, but that doesn’t quite fit what I’m thinking about. In many cases, people condense their lives down from a typical sized home to a tiny house to live a simpler lifestyle. However, it’s perfectly possible to live simple in a normal home. Tiny houses are an up and coming trend that I’m always excited to learn more about. Sometimes when I feel like going down a good ole YouTube rabbit hole, I’ll watch video after video on tiny houses and van conversions. Anything from tours, day in the life, or sped up footage of the conversion itself. I love the idea of leaving a small ecological footprint. I also like the idea of having low costs of living, virtually no bills, and no debt. Living simple with only the essentials, not wasting money on needless things that make you lazy. Traveling is a big plus too. Sometimes my friends make fun of me and call me a hippy, but I stand firm in my belief that as Christians, we should be aware of our lifestyle choices and how it affects the world God told us to care for. I’m not saying that my using of reusable bottles and shopping bags is going to save the world from all its pollution doom and gloom, but I sure want to do my small part in not contributing to it when possible. I’m by no means perfect, I don’t think I could ever live the “no waste” lifestyle, although I admire the people who can pull that off. Look into it, it blew my mind. 

Anyway, when I first discovered the tiny house movement, I was convinced it was the thing for me. I wanted to live and travel in one around the states after high school. Obviously, I didn’t. Over the last couple of years, I’ve realized that the tiny house lifestyle just doesn’t suit my actual priorities of being a wife and a mother. It’s certainly possible to travel in a tiny house with children (trust me, I’ve watched countless videos on it) but it doesn’t match up with the type of life I’d want for my children either. To commit to a tiny house, you are typically committing to a life of constant traveling. You also face the problem of space once those little kids are not so little. Of course, you can switch back to a bigger home, but then you have to decide if the money going into a tiny house is worth just a few years of use. Beyond that, it doesn’t make sense for me even as a single person. To sustain that type of lifestyle, you need a job that can travel with you. As of right now, I want to continue taking care of children until I have children of my own. Who knows if that’s what I’ll always do, but it’s the plan right now. Anyway, sometimes I daydream about converting my little car into a living space. There is totally enough room for me to comfortably sleep in there. If I end up a lonely old woman, you’ll probably find me traveling around the world in a van, just me and my dog, doing some random occupation I managed to discover. There's also the option of living tiny in one place and having a consistent job. It's usually pretty easy to find a cheap or free place to park. I’m constantly needing to remind myself to put my trust in God, and these are just some of the wishful thoughts I create in my brain to cope with an unpredictable future.

"The Song of Semis"

I’ve been wanting to write since I got back to Moscow, but I haven’t settled on a topic. There are a few random things on my mind though. I started work and school a week after getting back and the world suddenly felt like it was on double speed. I enjoy being busy just as much as I enjoy down time. Too much of either can feel overwhelming or overwhelmingly boring. There is a healthy balance. Anyway, this year I have come to appreciate meals. That sounds kind of strange. What I mean is I’ve thoroughly enjoyed taking the time to cook balanced meals for myself. When life is moving a million miles per hour, it becomes easy to forget meals or resort to junky, processed, cardboard food. College students easily fall into these habits, including myself last year. When you have homework to do, places to be, and a tight budget, it can be hard to justify taking the time to cook a meal, sit at a table, and focus on appreciating what God has provided for you. This is what I have come to love this first month I have been back. I can’t say I am able to do this every day, but finding the time a few times a week has drastically improved my low moods.  

Another thing is cleaning. Is it possible to completely run out of things to clean? Apparently. The first week I was back, I had nothing on my to-do list. Everyone I knew in town was at school or work. I found myself deep cleaning every inch of our apartment. I dedicated one afternoon to just deep cleaning our vacuum, so that I could do more cleaning with that vacuum, and then clean the vacuum again. I’m not an excessive clean freak, but I had nothing to do and the place needed a scrub down anyway. Also, I like creating a home. It helps that being in a nice place motivates you to want to take care of it better (unlike a mold infested apartment). Although I haven’t had an abundance of time to clean as much as I want to, I’ve continued doing it daily just because it feels good. Yes, I have other things to do too, but it’s a nice break. It’s also a great way to do something nice for your housemates. Although, I have managed to take on a “mom role” in this apartment. I’m not complaining yet (except for the occasional “I feel like an underappreciated mom” joke), but I’ll check back with you after being the mom of two juniors in the coming months. 

Lastly, a short tale that Charli has titled “The Song of Semis.” In this story, semi represents both semi-trucks and semi-made plans. Charli, Rachel, and I had been planning to go camping for a few weeks. I use the word “planning” loosely, because we didn’t plan just about anything besides the dates. We figured out what we needed and went grocery shopping the night before. Likewise, we frantically looked for campsites an hour after the time we planned to head to CDA. Needless to say, the options were very limited. We found a campsite that promised trees for our hammocks and finally headed up. It was dark as we tried to navigate the seemingly roadless campground. The tent site had no trees. Well, I take that back. It had a few BABY trees (I’m talking two feet high) growing along the edge of a creek. Oh, and did I mention that this campground was right next to a highway? Cue the song of semis, all night. By this point we said screw it and took it upon ourselves to claim a different tent site a few spaces down with three small trees. It was actually cute because our hammocks formed a triangle and we built a small comfy space in the middle to all lay down together. I was skeptical that the small, creaking trees would hold our (my) weight, but we managed not to break any branches. However, we discovered the following morning that the trees had small fruit berries on them. They had fallen all over us throughout the night. I realized this too late as I sat up in my hammock and a few rolled under my butt and squished onto me. I looked like an old granny as I tried to clean my baggy pants with a napkin. 

We spent all of Saturday at Tubbs Hill. It was my first time there and now I’m kind of sad that I went so late in the year. It was absolutely amazing. Along with a super fun hike, the little beach spots were fantastic. We relaxed on the rocks, read, and ate a packed lunch together. In between all of this, we got to swim in the lake which was surprisingly warm. I could have swam all day if The City of God hadn’t pressured me into getting out. It was altogether a fantastic day full of belly laughs, sweet fruit, cute dogs, and goofy photos. With dusk approaching, we decided to head out (with a quick detour for ice cream of course) to our next camping spot. This one was to be much more promising than the first because it was recommended by some friends. It was a million times better. Remote, beautiful tall trees, and right by the lake. We weren’t allowed to use hammocks, so we made a bed with all our blankets and the girls built a fort around us with the hammock straps. When we looked up from our cozy bed, several tall pine trees stretched to a point above our heads. Not sure if that accurately describes it, but it formed a circle around our little spot and it was beautiful. We woke up early, ate homemade chocolate chip banana bread, and headed out for the late service at Trinity. It was a beautiful weekend and that’s all I have to say.

Dreams

Lately I’ve been lost in thought about how wild dreams are. I mean, it’s just crazy how easily they can affect us. Maybe it’s not like that for everyone, but it is for me. Too often I have a dream that sparks a feeling in me that sticks for days and days. Sometimes it’s good, most of the time it’s not. Usually it stirs up old thoughts in my mind from not so great points in my life. 

Okay, so for example, last night I had a normal dream. It wasn’t anything particularly happy or sad, just something that felt real, like an everyday life type of thing. Then, at the very end, I ran and jumped up into someone’s arms for a hug. See, that person isn’t around anymore, and I even knew that in the dream. After the hug, I gave them a look and paused for a second, realizing how weird it felt. The hug felt too real. I woke up and felt it all over my body right then and there, and it was just how it used to feel. It was like every inch of my skin had déjà vu. 

Has anyone else ever had that feeling of déjà vu on their skin? I kinda feel like I'm crazy.

I haven’t been able to get the feeling off my skin all day and it’s driving me just a little crazy. It’s not necessarily upsetting me, but it’s not pleasant either. Let’s pray for dreams of puppies, berries, Bob Ross, or ice cream tonight (all of the above would be marvelous!).

Disclaimer: I have good dreams too! I just usually forget them not long after I wake up. It's the bad that tend to stick like velcro.