A Little Something New

I was here for a while and then I got distracted. This week was my 77th birthday and I got an email from this forum. So I came here and thought gee, I'd like to stay in touch here. I am a writer and I'm working on a series of memoirs. The first two are up on Amazon under my name and the third one will be soon. It's about being an LSD research subject right after I graduated from college in 1964. That led me to simpler living, though I didn't realize it for a while. The fourth one will be about being the daughter of science fiction writer Cordwainer Smith.

My husband and I live in an old adobe house, almost as old as us, which we bought and fixed up a few years ago, in a town in New Mexico. Silver City has a lot of artistic people, a lot of Mexican-Americans, and it's an interesting place to live. I also like that it has no earthquakes or tornadoes, and the only hurricanes are the mild dregs of far-off ones.

Cool! Thanks for checking in! We'd love to hear from you more often!

Congratulations on your books.

Welcome (back)! Looking forward to seeing more posts from you about your experiences in living simply.

i love the Silver City area and the Gila Wilderness. Welcome back!
jim

The Gila is very pretty and a welcome respite from the surrounding scrubby desert landscape. When I lived in Las Cruces, it was a common destination for my hiking friends. Silver City was interesting even decades ago.

Loving this thread. It does remind me of the "old days" of the simple living forums and it is fresh to actually be talking about "simple living" again.

DH and I had practiced, (in our way. I know everyone is different), simple living principles for several years. Then, in 2015 my husband passed away unexpectedly in the space of a few seconds/minutes one morning from a massive, massive heart attack and I was left totally alone. I remember a panic-y feeling in those early days, realizing I was going to be living on 1/2 the income but with basically all the same bills! Now, it has been just over 4 1/2 years and I am still here living in our home and taking care of bills, repairs and whatever comes my way. I think the SL ideas of getting out of debt, paying off something large (mortgage) and living below our means really paid off in that way. We still enjoyed many things together, not feeling that we were depriving ourselves at all but being responsible where our money went and being able to save for the future. Which sadly now is this. So, having said all that, I look forward to reading this thread and fresh ideas of simple living. Hello to those who have returned under new names!

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Originally Posted by Sad Eyed Lady

Loving this thread. It does remind me of the "old days" of the simple living forums and it is fresh to actually be talking about "simple living" again.

DH and I had practiced, (in our way. I know everyone is different), simple living principles for several years. Then, in 2015 my husband passed away unexpectedly in the space of a few seconds/minutes one morning from a massive, massive heart attack and I was left totally alone. I remember a panic-y feeling in those early days, realizing I was going to be living on 1/2 the income but with basically all the same bills! Now, it has been just over 4 1/2 years and I am still here living in our home and taking care of bills, repairs and whatever comes my way. I think the SL ideas of getting out of debt, paying off something large (mortgage) and living below our means really paid off in that way. We still enjoyed many things together, not feeling that we were depriving ourselves at all but being responsible where our money went and being able to save for the future. Which sadly now is this. So, having said all that, I look forward to reading this thread and fresh ideas of simple living. Hello to those who have returned under new names!

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That is a real testament to what simple living is about, and can accomplish. I am sorry for your loss, and I too like reading the fresh ideas of simple living!

I have always told myself that a 1200-1400 sq ft house is PLENTY for us.

now i feel bouts of panic in thinking about the tiny bedrooms and bathrooms in our Hermann house. I mean, they are small! And then, we are probably fking them up further by i troducing two doors in each of them to access one bathroom.

yet, I ask myself about the bathrooms: why do you care? Our current upstairs bathroom, the big one, is our shower room, night toilet, and cat litter box room. There is a lot of white tiled space to keep clean for these limited activities. How much room do we really need for bathrooms anyway?

more later on small spaces and irislilies.

Since our house is older 2 of our bedrooms are small as is the original bathroom. We took the bathtub out and put in a shower stall because of the size. Our master bedroom is big because that and the dining room was added in 1970. We stole space from the dining room for our master bathroom.

Been a member of both old and new forums for maybe 15 years but never spent much time on them. Now retired, looking forward to interacting with the community.

Starting with reading Thoreau at the age of 15, I've been an armchair simplicity enthusiast all my life while caught up in the throes of consumerism. My fault, I know. Even went so far as to drive 1100 hundred miles back in the early 1980s to Maine and meet Helen and Scott Nearing. But I've never approached it seriously enough to try it for any more than a short time, especially with other family members also indoctrinated as consumers.

So here comes COVID-19. And sheltering in place. And I live in one of the first states that shut everything down, Ohio. So with no place to go, no place to eat out at, it's not hard at all to NOT SPEND. And I've never seriously tried and stuck to a budget for more than a few days. We're 2 weeks into out first budget and I'm glad to report we've finally started. My problem has always been starting, but better to start late then never!

I am experiencing withdrawal symptoms from not spending, or driving around foolishly, or eating out when we want! lol I'll be fine!