Simple life… | 1000 Fields of Roses

Rise And Shine

Not long back from breakfast out. Some lovely friends gave me some money for my birthday back in February to go out for breakfast, but this is the first morning we’ve been able to get there…

Mocha for me and Earl Grey for hubs 🙂

House breakfast for two – sourdough toast with bacon jam, avocado, baby spinach and poached eggs. Yum!
Where is this, I hear you say? Go down to Rafter and Rose – they’re open most days from 6.30am. It’s peaceful, even with other people about (and there may not be that many!) This morning the early sun streamed in…

Noticed this pot on the next table.

Grow things! 😀
Thought about sitting at this table next time I come in on my own – seems cosy.

Good morning to you!
❤

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Simple life...

on April 5, 2018 at 8:56 am Leave a Comment
Tags: rafter and rose

World Happy Day!

Apparently today is the International Day of Happiness 🙂
It’s the first time I’ve heard of it… have to admit, I’ve had a happy enough day, though!

I’ve been meaning to share some images from a magazine I’ve been reading (Wellbeing Magazine) and today seems an appropriate day to do it…

Joy – a deep feeling or condition of happiness or contentment.
Something causing such a feeling.
This is my favourite! Joy, to me, is not quite the same as happiness (joy seems a deeper feeling to me – not so dependent on circumstance). I love this photo – kids just abandon themselves to the moment, with no thought of what others are thinking of them.

Simplicity – freedom from complexity, intricacy or division into parts.
The state, quality or instance of being simple.
Not ornate or luxurious, unadorned.
Life often needs to be simpler, but we feel guilty about slowing down. Don’t! You’re worth it. And it’s essential to life.

Beauty – the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind.
A meaningful design or pattern.
Beauty is also essential to life, and can be found in unexpected places… look for it, in all the corners!

Community – the people living in one particular area or people who are considered as a unit because of their common interests, social group or nationality.
Communities can be a mixture of all sorts of people in all sorts of places. They can blend with other communities, and take over the world! Or not…
Whichever the case, find your community. There’s one (or more) out there for you.

Freedom – the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants.
What lifts your heart and makes it sing? What did you love to do as a child? Find it, or remember it. Pass it on.

Friendship – the emotions or conduct of friends; the state of being friends.
Yay for friends! 😀 The quirky, the kind… the ones you just feel comfortable with. Also found in odd places and at unexpected times.

Vitality – the state of being strong and active; energy.
Mostly thought of as a physical thing, but can be mental and emotional too. It’s great when they all revitalise together, but work with what you have – be strong!

Balance – a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight or amount.
A mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behaviour or judgement.
Including all the others in your life can lead to this. It will look different in everybody’s life, though.
Step by step – one foot after the other – walk towards the good life. You’ll get there eventually…

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on March 20, 2018 at 10:16 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: wellbeing magazine

Just A Snippet…

…of what I saw on my walk this morning –

A spider’s web at a garage sale I went to.

Gumnut flowers, just opened up, on the way home.

I don’t know what this is, but it called to me…

There were also a lot of feathers, of varying sizes, in various places. I picked up a couple and brought them home. Such a lovely morning for a walk!

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on March 17, 2018 at 5:32 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: flowers, walking

Delight

I have been reading about the concept of delight lately. It’s a good word. The basic meaning just refers to taking great joy in something, but I feel it is also a pure, uncomplicated joy – a flash, felt in the moment, lifting the heart. There are many delightful things in the world, although we can become so caught up in the worries and cares of life that we forget to notice.
What have I delighted in lately? My boys are always delightful 🙂 The changing weather we’ve had recently has also brought flashes of delight – whether cooling, driving rain, or a sudden shaft of sunlight.
I find flowers delightful, especially the small, shy ones that peek through the leaves.

It helps if they smell sweet as well!

What else?
A baby’s smile. A butterfly alighting in an unlikely place. A new song that sweetens the heart. This tiny one –

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Sweet little ball of cuteness 🙂

Then there’s these –

Angel Delight

SONY DSC

That’s Fry’s Turkish Delight at the bottom.
Slight misuse of the word (it’s used for commercial purposes), but both have been comfort foods for me in the past, so I’ll include them…

How do we let ourselves be so overtaken by the unimportant things? I think I would rather catch the moments of transport, even if it looks like I’m wasting time.
May life delight you today! ❤

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on March 7, 2018 at 11:01 pm Comments (1)
Tags: angel delight, baby pug, turkish delight

Out Of The Dark

We had a blackout this afternoon/evening, for about five hours – on into the darkness, when we lit tealights and “played” Trivial Pursuit.

The boys’ idea of playing involves them asking us questions one after the other from the cards, and having a good laugh over some of the answers… I’m OK with Entertainment, Art and Literature, History, and Science and Nature, but I’m a bit less certain with Geography, and especially Sport and Leisure. I think I did well overall, though.
We giggled by candlelight for half the evening, then the power came on and we went back to normal programming…
It was nice while it lasted! 😀

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on February 26, 2018 at 1:13 am Leave a Comment
Tags: Power cut, Trivial Pursuit

Groovy!

😀

Feeling all hippie and back-to-the-earth today…
In part, that’s because of the eventual plastic bag ban here. The shop has started stocking paper bags (for 50c) which you can choose rather than plastic.

Like this!
There was a time before plastic when all groceries were bagged like this…
Usually I have various cloth bags rolled up in my handbag, but I washed those recently and forgot to put them back. Here’s all our purchases – also in paper.

It was an opportunity to rethink plastic dependence.
And also to stock up on sauerkraut. ❤

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on February 20, 2018 at 11:57 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: paper bags, sauerkraut

Taking A Deep Breath

It’s the beginning of the second week of term 2, and it’s been a good day!
The first week back is always stressful (at least the first days…), but we tend to settle down when we start to understand what we’re doing for the term. It’s taken a bit longer this time.
Today started off badly, and could have gotten worse. I spent last week trying to finish a subject from my course, so spent less time with Littlest Bean and his work than he needed – a recipe for stress! Today, I decided that I could concentrate on his work, so we spent this morning snuggling, talking through the questions for the day (and some for the week), taking the stress out of the day. Usually he settles in to his work within the week and then works well with minimal supervision. This term’s been a bit different…
It was so lovely spending the time together today! Both my boys have been growing so fast, and we don’t spend so much one-on-one time. Today was like a breath of fresh air – a sweet time with my Sweet Bean ❤

I’ve still had time to get some work done, but took some time to continue the “taking a breath” part of the day. Had a lovely soak in the bath this afternoon, with a scented candle and a good book. Here’s my book, warm socks and a snuggly dressing gown to keep warm 🙂

Breathe!
Life is good, when we slow down enough to see it…

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on April 24, 2017 at 7:30 pm Leave a Comment

A Stitch In Time…

So, most of my day yesterday was spent sewing…

My camping chair is not too old (or too cheap) but that doesn’t seem to have saved it from splitting…
I felt like I was about to fall through the seat at any time… I didn’t really want to throw the chair away, though – such a waste! The frame is fine – it’s just that the fabric round the front part of the seat has been stretching, and finally tore. Time to sew on some patches!

🙂

I thought it would only take an hour or so… it’s hard to manoeuvre round the frame. I had to take frequent breaks, because it was making me use muscles I haven’t had to use for a while. I kept sticking the needle into various fingers, as well – visibility was not always good. Time will tell whether it holds – there may be a weakened bit in the middle that needs patching.
My patching adventure didn’t really have much to do with my reading of this book –

Didn’t hurt, though!
It’s not about skimping and saving, so much as changing the way you see the world, and reassessing your priorities. Interesting, and inspiring! 🙂

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on March 26, 2017 at 9:48 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Chair Patch, The Art of Frugal Hedonism

Back To The Everyday

We’re back from holiday – actually, we’ve been back since last Wednesday, but various things have prevented me from posting…
School’s back, and we’re settling in to everyday life again.

We went to Caloundra for ten days – it’s quiet (and a lot cheaper) when the schools go back. We were quite close to the beach – here’s the view from our verandah –

Here’s the view inside the unit –

(The bedding is ours)
The place was nice – there were some little issues, but the view was gorgeous, the location was good, and we really enjoyed that sofa!
Every breakfast time was spent looking at the sea. There were some huge mugs to set the mood…

…Biggest Boy colour coded his breakfast.

Healthwise I had some days where I couldn’t leave the unit, but by the time my birthday came around I was coping, and we went to Maleny for the day. By the time our ten days was nearly over I was able to go down and walk along the beach, and I’ve been feeling quite energetic since we got back!
I treated myself to a haircut for my birthday, so it’s quite short now. Takes some getting used to! I spent most evenings on the verandah, listening to music and the sea. I was also able to watch the sunrise on one of the mornings –

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So calming, and so easy to spend time in prayer.
We had time to recharge, but it was great to come home – ready for a fresh year…

I was given some roses at church yesterday, for my birthday – here they are!

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on February 13, 2017 at 10:06 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Caloundra, Holiday

The Lights Stay On

We had a sudden storm this afternoon, with horizontal rain and leaves and branches dropping everywhere. No hail, and it didn’t last long, but a bit of a mess after. The power went out a while after, though – a tree down somewhere. It stayed off for a couple of hours. This was our light inside for a bit (battery operated).

It was still light outside, although the evening was drawing in. The boys were not able to do anything with the computers, so we had a bit of time just chatting with them in our room… littlest Bean was telling us jokes from a book. We eventually went down stairs and sat outside, each with our own book. There was more light and it was a lot cooler. Here’s our feet, with a mosquito coil in the middle (rain and heat bring out the mozzies…)

I loved the fact that they still wanted to spend time with us. I’ve been feeling a bit sad lately, with them growing up, with different pastimes, often not including us… I’m happy they’re growing up, and enjoying seeing how they grow and change. I just get a bit nostalgic sometimes, especially remembering Christmases when they were little 🙂
We had to light the mozzie coil this afternoon, but the power came on fairly soon afterwards, and we all drifted off into our various pursuits. It was a lovely, cozy, family afternoon while it lasted!

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