AH... the simple things...

I always loved the simple things...

• I loved sewing my own clothes.... by hand! For one thing,t was easier to do that than to have the tension on the sewing machine go haywire and having to pull it all out and start again! The only time I used a machine was when I was making curtains or something that required long straight lines... I loved the feel of the different fabrics, and having the time to really look at them as I moved them through my fingers, feeling the needle and thread going in and out and around like a kite on a breezy day.. and It was good exercise for my eyes and fingers

• I enjoyed doing hand laundry. Not big, heavy things, but just things that I could put into a deep basin sink and slosh around. Kneading it like dough. hearing the swish of the water. feeling the temperature of it. Smelling the soap and water. I'd hang them on a line outdoors on a windy day where they looked like assorted, odd shaped, flags waving, and when I brought them inside, they had very few wrinkles and smelled of fresh air. Sometimes when they were small things, I'd put them on a drying rack in front of a heater, fan, or fireplace. It looked cozy, and homey. And I felt good fromthe little work-out for my hands and arms and back!

• Ironing was another thing I enjoyed. Oh I don't mean that I'd want to take the time to iron EVERYTHING, but if a shirt looks ok coming from the drier, it looks really nice when it's touched with an iron! Besides, it was the motion of it, and the smell of the hot fabric, the woosh of steam rising, especially on a cool night or rainy day. It was gentle, relaxing.. I could listen to music and feel like I was miles away... and come back feeling like I had a new wardrobe
  

• I discovered PAINT can make something old look new again, and a room feel like another whole place. I painted walls, toys, furniture, murals, designs on shirts, and they were all unique and one-of-a-kind. Yes, I did embroidery and all those fancy things too, but paint was the simplest way to make something look different, or to add a personal touch... good old acrylic paints. The feel of the various sizes of brush and the different textures of the bristles, and the motion of them as if my fingers were little figure skaters making designs
  

• I loved baking and cooking from scratch! Not using a prepackaged mix to make pancakes, for instance. I made my own icing for cakes. I made my own dough for cookies. My own soups...and all sorts of things.... except bread, for some reason. The smell of the flour and eggs, the toasty smell of lard on the griddle, or the sugar in the batter, along with an extract of one kind or another, perhaps, or of a steamy broth and vegetables simmering on a cool day... mmm... I didn't do it with everything, but probably half of what I ate was HOMEMADE. After a bit of practice, and establishing a routine, I found it didn't take long at all... and it sure tasted GOOD... and was healthier

• When I was growing up here in the country, there were many vegetable gardens and fruit bushes and trees. Many people only went to the store for things they didn't grow. They purchased meat in bulk for the freezers. They fished. Hunted for wild turkeys and such. Some had chickens or dairy cows as well. My friends and I didn't have to go indoors for a light lunch, or afternoon snack. We ate the fruit off the trees, and picked the berries. Noone minded if we did that. Some even encouraged it. ( Now people go to the supermarkets to buy fruit and vegetables grown who knows where? and they pay a lot for it... I hear it's because those bushes and trees are messy and attract bugs... ah, what a sorry trade-off... and kids go pop something in the microwave instead. ) yes, vegetable gardens can be a lot of work and I understand why people don't do that now, and there are laws so you can't keep cows and chickens, but apple trees, pear trees, grape vines, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries... oh... I don't know of a yard that can't have one or two of those!

• We went on family outings every weekend... and in the warmer months, we often packed a picnic and took along drawing supplies, or simple toys like marbles, a simple length of rope for jumping, bubble stuff, or a toy car or truck, but usually if we wanted a toy, we made it where we were... a paper airplane, a stick for writing in the dirt, or something like that. Stones were fun to collect too... some looked like horses or people's faces, some had sparkly things in them... We made little nutshell boats to send down streams... and we made our own sandwiches as well.... however we wanted them. And sometimes we just watched nature and were told things about it... but it never felt like LEARNING it felt like fun. It was interesting! We just meandered north or south, east or west, depending on the majority rule, and explored. We stopped where we felt like it, pretty much. we didn't need a picnic table or a blanket to sit on if there were none... we had the car... the trunk was the table.

• My parents got a cooler for the cold or frozen things, so we could go out of town to get groceries at least once a month, too. If we really liked the stores there, we might continue to go back for a year or more. Of course, we stopped and ate something we had purchased on the way home, sometimes in the car if it was cold or rainy, but usually at a roadside stop, or under a tree on the far side of a parking lot... where there was a view of a stream, highway, maybe a train track or a field with cows or horses..

• We liked to meander through little shops and art galleries,and occasionally malls or museums, looking for inspiring ideas or useful things to bring home. There were usually yard sales to stop at but they didn't call them that then. We'd limit ourselves as to what we'd spend and see what we could get with just that much, and no more. It was a fun game! We shared stories with the people along the way, as they shared some with us... we took our time... it was an outing... It had a purpose, but it was relaxing...
  

• The many things we did that were simple, or every day things, were the best, because they were the most abundant . Oh yes, I enjoyed going to THE GREAT ESCAPE and things like that... who wouldn't? but they weren't really MORE fun, just something different to explore... and they cost something... but these little outings only cost for the gas and perhaps a bridge toll, usually...
  

• but you know, I had just as much fun right at home too, because after going out once a week, home always looked a little bit different, and there was always something I could think of to change in it... and cleaning and rearranging things was like moving without the hassle. A bit of soap and water and something old was renewed and sparkled. Perhaps a new coat of paint too. A clean window made the whole room sparkle...

• I could go on and on because the list is endless really... but I'll keep it simple... Indeed, for me, it is the simple things that are an endless joy, to see them as adventures, as magical ... those everyday things that are here and now... And when shared by others who see the joy in them too, it's heavenly FUN