A rambling mind on a breezy day...

Left behind in the heart of Missouri...

Waking up to the soft twinkle of wind chimes and the smell of coffee is really not a bad way to start a Sunday!  It's unseasonably warm so we have the attic fan on and the windows open. Not even 6:00 am and the temperature is already 65 degrees.  Did someone trick Mother Nature?  It is the later half of November already!

I am enjoying it though.  I haven't had time to get my leaves raked nor put the garden to bed.  I seriously need to do something about my lack of time management skills.  I can't seem to tell people no when they are wanting or needing a special something to give as a gift.  And my poor house shows it.  I love to make things, I am passionate about creating.  Maybe not so passionate about chores. This could start to become a problem.

Today is going to be a busy one, I probably shouldn't have played most of yesterday with mini-me.  This coming week is packed solid, so the stuff that I normally do on Monday mornings will have to get done today.  I will be in a training all day before heading back to work until 9:00 pm.  It is simply going to be a long one.

I wonder if I thrive on keeping my schedule so full? I must I do it with great regularity.  I simply don't sit still well.  I honestly don't believe it is just me, I think it is more human nature to be busy and productive.  Now that isn't to say that everyone's interpretation is the same as mine, and that is one of the greatest things in the world, that we are all different.

I do admit that I believe our country was in a much better state before things got too easy.  As humans we used to have to work hard for what we wanted and needed.  Many of us still work hard, but its not the same.  Before the advent of grocery stores you grew and raised your food, you traded, or purchased at a general store or did without.  I get ill when I have to throw away something that has gone bad.  Particularly meats. A living creature died for that and the waste makes me sad, it feels senseless.

If you needed clothing, you didn't dash out to Wal-mart and pick it up, you made it. Everyone wasn't dressed the same and you made do. Same with your bed clothes and furnishings. We have so much waste anymore. So little concern in our rush to own stuff, we throw things away always wanting more and better. 

I am struggling with that right now.  I am trying to focus my energies on local and small.  My Christmas list is nothing like it used to be.  I don't want to spend hours in the mall or online looking for something unoriginal and mass produced.  I don't want to waste my hours searching for gifts that I feel the recipient will simply love and use, only to find out it went to a thrift shop, was regifted, returned or worse never even used stuffed under the bed somewhere.  I want and need things to have meaning.

I am not suggesting that we go back to the way it was.  It was hard or we wouldn't have found a way to improve it.  But now the pendulum has swung too far to the other side of things.  Now it is too easy.

We have kids making up games of beating people up, why?  They are bored.  They haven't been taught the value of things.  My sweet grand daughter may never sew again, but she has now experienced the value of making something useful for herself.  Kids need to be exposed to those things.  Maybe it isn't their favorite thing, maybe they won't ever do it again, but they have learned the skill.  They have been exposed to it.  Maybe if those kids roaming in packs hurting people, much like a group of feral dogs and cats, were exposed to things it would make a difference.  Taught skills and chores, made to rake the leaves or care for the people in their neighborhoods that were down on their luck, maybe they wouldn't be hateful and uncaring.

Today... well today there is a quilt waiting for me and a few chores.  Tomorrow starts things over again.  No I don't think I am alone, I am fairly sure there are more like me than the other way around!