I think all of us romanticize the "pioneer days" when men and women traveled across the country in covered wagons, worked side by side to make a new life, spent all of their time together as a family. But could we do it?
Walk into your kitchen, or just picture it in your mind if walking isn't on your agenda today, and take a good look around. One by one, what things would you be willing to live without? And what would you absolutely have to have if you lived in the middle of nowhere with no one but your husband and kids?
My list...I could give up:
1. Parquet floors
2. Cabinets with doors
3. One of my 2 sets of dishes
4. Most of my bowls and serving dishes
5. The food processor and blender and toaster and coffee maker and electric knife and mixer
6. Overhead lights
7. Decorator items
8. Most cookbooks
9. Lots of pans
10. Lots of spices
11. Dishwasher
I MUST HAVE:
1. Stove - gas...or at least not wood!
2. Refrigerator
3. Running water
4. Hot Water!
5. Shelves and pegs for dishes and other stuff
6. Not a dirt floor
7. One cookbook
8. One set of dishes
9. Salt, Pepper
10. Enough lanterns to make good light
11. Iron skillet and 2 or 3 pots
What's the point? First of all, count your blessings. Even my "must have" list is more than most people in the world have. Second, I really could do with a lot less than I have. I live an abundent life...my cup is overflowing. (oops, better add some kitchen towels to that must have list if I'm going to mop up my overflowing cup!) And third, if I could do with a lot less, why don't I? Why don't you?
11 comments:
Excellent point. We are so blessed we don't know it.
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Count your Blessings
Words by Johnson Oatman jr, 1897
When upon life's billows
You are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged,
Thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings,
Name them one by one
And it will suprise you
What the Lord has done.
####Chorus:
Count your blessings,
Name them one by one
Count your blessings,
See what God has done
Count your blessings,
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings,
See what God has done.
Are you ever burdened
With a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy
You are called to bear?
Count your many blessings,
Ev'ry doubt will fly
And you will be singing
As the days go by.
####
When you look at others
With their lands and gold
Think that Christ has promised
You His wealth untold
Count your many blessings,
Money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven,
Nor your home on high.
####
So, amid the conflict,
Whether great or small
Do not be discouraged,
God is over all
Count your many blessings,
Angels will attend
Help and comfort give you
To your journey's end.
####
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Bless you, Marlene, I'm going to follow your lead, and link to you.
Have a wonderful day, and CHRIST-mas season.
Michelle
My plan: house from 2400 sq ft to 1100 (contents reduced by 75%) ; acreage from 112 to 12; already down to sharing 1 vehicle; animals - PROBLEM. Can't give up: 2 laptops, wireless internet, public radio, My kiln, MY loom, MY quilt frame, MY sewing machine, MY first-edition books - in other words an 1100 sq ft workshop that we will share. Right now he has an 1800 sq ft shop that neither of us can use because it is piled high with stuff we don't need. Even if he decides to keep the farm there is going to be some drastic downsizing and organizing OR "if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"!
When we remodeled our kitchen in 2000, I cleaned out my cabinets and was surprised at how much stuff I didn't put back. I'm on this kick to simplify my life. Less is more in my life right now. Clutter creates chaos. We are finishing up our last remodeling job (my bathroom) , my next project is to clean out all the stuff we never use and donate it to charity. Closets and basement... top to bottom.
That is a question I ask myself a lot. I have so much~many more material things than I need.
I could live without running water (we did for the first 6 months we lived here), but doing without the refrigerator would be hard for me. I cooked on our wood stove (not a cookstove) for twelve days during the ice storm of 2001 and by day 7 or so, I was getting the hang of it!
I'm wondering what people will have to do without if our economy keeps crashing. Will they be able to adjust? I'm especially wondering about the children who are used to getting everything they want. I think times are going to be tough, but I know the Lord will get us through.
The one thing I can't live without is my central air. Hot kitchen in the summer and cold tile in the winters. Not for me.
I try not to be too materialistic, and I can do without a lot of things, but I must be cool in the summer.
It would have to be a massive cookbook with all the conversions and cheats. :-)
Another "must have"-a quilt! Please come on over and check out my SIL's Santa Quilt...it's pretty special!
I count my blessings daily. I work for an extremely wealthy family. They have everything anyone could possibly want in the material way, and yet, they have nothing... They are extremely lacking in the things in this life that truly matter. I would not trade what I have for an ounce of what they have, not ever.
One time when we were moving from Germany to Colorado, the US Army lost our shipment of household goods. For 3 weeks. I had one small pot to boil water for instant coffee, and my mom's electric pot that you could deep-fry in. You know, with a thermostat. And I had plastic silverware and paper plates and bowls. Plastic silverware and a 350 degree pot don't go together too well. (This was before microwaves.) I had running water and a stove & fridge. But it was a challenge. I know I could do without a lot of what I have, but it's not easy to do anymore. So, I "thinned the herd" when we moved, and I'm happy with the stuff I have now. Not too much, but enough to be "civilized"!
Good lists!! Despite our weather now, I know it will get hot so I need to add a/c to the must haves!
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