The Family Dashwood….

In my heart of hearts, a cottage life in the country fits me best, never mind that we currently live in the heart of suburbia….I grew up in the Southern antebellum home complete with pecan orchards, and flower pathways, but I am much more a log cabin kind of girl….well…actually more a cottage behind the castle kind of existence.
Genteel poverty…like the Dashwood sisters my adulthood means no more daily carriages and hostessing large balls, but perhaps sweet luncheons, one true and trusted servant and a garden of my own…. You see, its not that I mind living frugally…I just prefer to hire some things done every now and then…..its a give and take. I mean, when I was single my budget for a maid came long before my worrying about how to pay for my food! I will mow the yard (cleverly of course in my sun hat)…I don’t mind changing my tires….painting any and all walls,…but every now and then I simply think its worth it to come home to a freshly cleaned home. Every corner cleaned by a person who actually excels in such a thing and does it so much better than I do. (btw…this is the tablecloth dh made for my Grandmother’s table and chairs )

Its motivational to me to actually save, or earn my way to that genteel lifestyle….even if means I have to work to get there! Today I have been moving my eclectic mix of yardsale furniture around the house…trying something new and redoing old…and I very much like it. I will have to have Dh’s help on rehanging a few heavy items, but for the most part its going to be an improvement today.
Of course a lady has to make a bigger mess to get to the lesser one….and that is why I am here, avoiding the middle part…known as WORK. (you simply have no idea what it took to show you this empty topped table!)

I have invited our youth director over for lunch next week…..and heaven knows she’s of the “cute” variety…cute house, cute glasses, cute family….so I’ve upped my ante to get it done here before then…and after all graduation for Son1 is coming so it needed to be done anyway!
While I chose this life and would again…. fully aware of what lifestyle I was choosing…..it is at moments like this that I too well know indeed I do not have a staff….nor men on a list who come to simply move it for me at my beck or call…or even a much loved family maid who would be sweeping up behind my moving larks….as my father might….
One has to be a little more creative…. find help where one can, utilize the things at hand, remake, reuse, and recover…. Unlike the misses Dashwood’s …..I am not poor by lack of inheritance, thankfully my natural father is still alive and well….my Father in heaven has all the riches I could imagine….I simply didn’t inherit the cleaning gene, nor marry for money, though his heart and character are of pure gold….The looks of my environment confirm that I haven’t absorbed alot of my husband’s genetically nasty neat ways yet either! Oh dear, I think I hear the bell ringing again for that dear sweet servant of mine…..

ME!