My Casa, My Monastery. I Dont Speak Spanish.

OK. I am still trying to figure out how to make my home into my monastery. One way to figure this out is to focus on what I seem to be lacking in my home. But that has proved depressing. So instead, I am going to remember what has worked in the past. If I carefully think back to my previous home, I can remember what made if "full of heart" as a friend once said.

Things that filled my home with heart:

• My colors, painted on the walls.
• WAY less TV.
• A purpose for every room. Stickley's function tempered with design.
• Chickens. Not going to happen in Town. But maybe a JRT.
• Going outside and feeling privacy.
• Observing the rhythms of the days, the seasons...
• Master bedroom and Dining room were ALWAYS clean and organized, even if the rest of the house was trashed.
• Meals made at home. Eating at the table for every meal. Always having extra for company.
• Knowing the kids can go outside and play safely in the early morning. Fence!
• Room to spread out, Room to display some items that I love.

Hmmm.... This is supposed to be positive. And in part it is. We had a wonderful house. Maybe I can find some pics to post. It was 2400 sq ft, not too big, but plenty roomy. An old farmhouse, made just before the four-square style in 1883. It cost nearly 700$ a month to heat the sonovabitch. I spent HUNDREDS of dollars in gasoline getting to and from Town several times a week. I hardly knew a soul out there because it was a small town where you had to be GENERATIONS old to fit in. My child was treated unfairly in the schools, because I was known as a flaming, leftist liberal. Small towns are not always as charming as you might think. In fact, the local Baptist minister actually declared me the anti-christ and put a sign on his church front that said as much without using my name. (He used my name in the newpaper editorial that circulated county-wide.)
OK. Yeah. That is why we moved. One reason of many. So here I am in Town, with family and friends, and so many people that you are bound to find SOMEBODY to get along with!