"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as one, two, three and not a hundred or a thousand… We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without." – Henry David Thoreau

Perhaps a framed version would help - on the wall where it is the first thing I see in the morning.

Good things: YAYYY! found the Christmas lights - in one of the two boxes I managed to sort into better places today. And my good winter socks.

Also found a new pair of winter boots at the Sally Ann this week- bright red! And this makes Rob feel better about finding that the boots I bought - at the thrift shop - last year, when my good ones were still out west, fit him perfectly! So the ones that rubbed his heel raw on Monday are on the way out the door. Warm foot happiness prevails.

Beef stew on the stove for the next time he wanders in hungry - sometime between now and midnight. And split pea soup in the slow cooker for a change of pace. Learning to cook things that can stay on the stove for whenever.

Little by little, I am able to organize, and then accomplish these small things. Even remembering to cut open the onion bag while I had the scissors in my hand gave me a feeling that I am stealing back to my same old used to be. However, I also stand by, "I'm retired. I don't HAVE to do anything." I LOVE it!

Two houses two blocks away burned last night. Really nice Victorian era semi-detached. The one adjacent to ours has caught fire three times since '96; the most recent in September. Makes one think hard. Fire fighters stopped by this morning to check our smoke detectors.

Now to figure out how to use that cheery string of lights to let the world know we are a cheery home. Even though staying warm is challenging and I put my foot right through the kitchen floor last week! Put a piece of plywood and a throw rug over it and keep hoping the rest holds 'til spring.