Back in the groove

Lately I've been experiencing a certain cognitive dissonance from my life revolving around moving.  To some extent, it was unavoidable -- the house needed a major clean out and spruce up, including painting, scrubbing, sweeping and even scheduling and babysitting some contractors who came in to fix some tile and a slightly cracked window. 


There has been loan paperwork to fill out and realtor agreements to sign.  Silly things need to be done before we can show the house -- replacing all our energy efficient CFL bulbs with regular ones in our bathrooms because they look better, taking our clothesline down so the yard looks more "normal," and keeping the kitchen in a constant state of counters-cleared-and-spotless in order to make the house more appealing to the average buyer.  It's been necessary, but removing the soul of who you are from the place you live is not fun.


And living the pristine, clean, model-home life left me feeling ill-at-ease and restless.  And I couldn't figure out why, except that moving is stressful and I was a victim of the stress.  Then I realized all the preparing the house, plus driving west to look at properties had, to some extent, taken me away from the things I love most -- homesteading activities.

So this morning I hauled out the coconut oil, olive oil and lye and cooked up a big batch of soap, and I will make some more laundry soap a bit later on.  I will bake some cookies for the kids in the solar oven this afternoon.  These are the things that define who I am, wherever I happen to be living.  Take me away from them and I feel somehow un-rooted.  To some, they may seem pathetically simple, but living simply is how I define my happiness.


I also have to exercise patience, which is faith put into practice. I believe that not only is this move supposed to happen, but that God has his fingers in the details, which assures all will be well for me and my family.


So God is doing his job, but I need to get back to mine.  By keeping up with the things that define who I am and what's important to me helps me keep busy, which in turn helps keep me patient.  


Motto:  When all else fails, have some faith and make some soap.