Finding Balance

My blog has been around for many years now so I repost some pictures because they are helpful with a new post and  because they are in much older posts.

Life was so very different long ago. Many people today would think that this picture above is a picture of people on a camping trip.

But it is not, it is a picture taken long ago of a family traveling and they have stopped along the highway to have their meal. When I was growing up whenever we took a trip to visit family that required many hours my Mother would always pack food for our trip.  

After I married this was still the common thing to do. Each state had pull off areas most always with a picnic table for those traveling to stop and eat a meal. We did not have fast food places nor convenience stores long ago and people planned ahead for preparing traveling food

This would be hard for people to imagine today in this very busy world with food places everywhere. I think of the costs today when a family stops to get fast food. This is an unnecessary expense to the family budget when all we have to do is plan ahead and pack food from home.

This was also a time before cell phones, tablets and electronic gadgets.  People actually talked in person without distractions that we have today.

I have lived before many things of today and I wish everyone could have had the experience of life in the past to fully understand how much better it really was without all the extra expenses and a much slower pace.

I feel many modern things have made life more complicate and waste much time and it is strange how people will go into debt for something that will keep costing with tack on fees and renewals. 

We can still make our life more simple and sensible just by doing so because even though we live in this modern time, we still have a choice in how we live it and how we spend our money. We can choose to just do things simple and without much of the costly items of today.

We live in an over stimulated society that has encouraged hyperactivity. It feels like it has been a plan to get us this way so we spend more because if people live in a rush they do not have time to do things slow and deliberate. Thus we end up spending more.

For those that are home, this is a very good time to work on a budget since we need to need to spend very wisely and know where every cent we have goes.  Charles and I write down what we spend in a journal and we keep track of our electric and water meters so we know how much we use on a daily basis so we know when we need to tighten up to slow the flow so to speak.

This is a good time to organize our home and make a list of things we would like to when life goes back to normal and do those things we can with the things we have such as mending and patching. Work on stains that need to be removed and cleaning and repairing the things that we have not had time for.

For me, I have a shift in priorities and I know I need to bring more calm to our home as I have notice our pets are picking up on our feelings as they seem unsettled. If children were in the home I imagine this would be the same. This pandemic is quite overwhelming because of the enormity of it all.

I find peace by thinking of how my Great Grandparents, Grand parents and Parents became stronger people for the struggles they went through with wars, pandemics and the Great Depression. I remember how steady they seemed and there was a gentleness I have not seen in a very long time.

It is a good time to research and learn all we can because knowledge is power and we need to find ways to stretch food such as make syrup out of a small amount of fruit which tastes wonderful over pancakes or waffles. Just add a bit of sugar and water and boil it down until it condenses while stirring constantly until it becomes syrup. This is blueberry syrup but it could be apple or peach or most any fruit.

  We need to stay steady because other things can still happen during a pandemic such as a storm and power outage.  If we do not remain prepared it will be much more suffering. I worry less if I know I am as prepared as is afforded. Charles and I have purposely not purchased items people have today and even rid ourselves of "Mistake purchases" to live with more practical items that would help us get through a crisis.

It is surprising how people will purchase most anything today because others are buying it. This can lead to extreme debt.

Much food goes to waste today but in the past people did not waste and understood the need to preserve the food they grew or bought or were given. Some people are catching on today that this is a helpful thing to do.

It is never too late to learn to preserve food. Enjoy some and put some back, it is like putting money in savings.

Schools are closed right now for a unusually long period. This is a good time to give children extra chores and set quite times for reading and studying. Again, we are not on vacation, this is a crisis. 

It is good to balance our day with chores and study time. We may need to teach children how to play encouraging their imagination.  They do not need to sit with electronics all day long.  Charles and I fondly talk about when we were children how he played with simple toys and how we made many of them ourselves with simple things from around the house and fallen branches.

I had imaginary friends and played house by laying sticks out to form rooms for a house. I would leave a place that was the doorway. Imaginary play is a wonderful thing.

Paper dolls are a lot of fun and making collages. If there is no glue you can make a paste from one part flour and one part water. 

It is a good time to read and learn how to do things that we do not know how to do.

Church may be closed but God is always with us. We can pray anywhere, anytime.

We need to conserve on everything, food, electricity, water.  It is not the time to spend money on anything other than the necessities because this could get worse even though we do not want to think this way.  We make do with what we have right now. 

If we have extra seeds we could share with others so they can grow food. Gardening would be a very good thing to do right now and a wonderful project for children to get involved in. There are spring and summer vegetables and fall and winter vegetables. 

This is a growing crisis, we need to check on our family and friends at home.  If we do not have sickness in our home and have food to spare there may be a neighbor that could use a hot meal or a sandwich. Give them a call and drop it off on their porch. 

Check on your family and friends by phone.

Living during a time before life became so complicated gives me the opportunity to share with you on my blog what it looked like. My pictures are very personal but I feel it is important for you to see what this era looked like.  

This photo above is before television, before any kind of computer, no cell phones. We did have "a" telephone but back then the telephones were party lines which means when you picked up the phone someone on another party line might be using the phone. The house was wonderfully quiet and words spoken were heard.

Charles and I want this life again here in our home today and why we have been transitioning to live more like the past. It takes time, to change back but it can be done.  You can too if this is what you desire because each of us have a choice of what we allow in our home.  

Grandma Donna