Welcome to the official Half a Year Anniversary of Simple Living This Week! I’d like to go back and look at what I’ve written in the previous ones, especially in the beginning which seems a very long time ago now.

I don’t know what you will remember when you look back on this time of lockdown, but I know what David and I will think about (at least at this point). How while the economy was collapsing and tens of millions of people were unemployed, we were so busy we could hardly keep up with work. There are so many people out of work, but David has barely been able to keep up with his the past several weeks. There are people who can’t find enough to fill their time and we fall into bed each night having worked diligently all day.

Believe me, we are not complaining. We are exceedingly grateful, especially since we don’t qualify as business owners for any of the business assistance or unemployment benefits if our work was slow to non-existent. But it shows how every person has his or her own life path. The journey God puts each of us on can be so completely different, even in the midst of the same set of circumstances. We also know that this could change at any moment and work could dry up for us so we push forward each day to try to lessen the chances of that happening (as much as it is in our control).

Anyway, that’s my way of saying that I feel like my special homemaking projects have been fairly limited. Other than the big room switch arounds we did a few weeks ago (which was a significant time and energy investment), I haven’t been doing much. And that’s okay. We’re all healthy, fed, and have a roof over our heads. We are blessed.

I’m also struggling to keep up with replying to comments and emails. I apologize.

I’m going to move my goals from last week forward to this week since I did very little with them.

Goal 1 – Organize our homeschooling and get fully back into our routine. Caroline and I did make progress getting back into the swing of things last week so there is that. But I’m behind in other ways.

Goal 2 – Try my Starbucks coconut mocha replacement recipe again. I tried it once three weeks ago and it gave me horrible reflux. I made a new batch last Sunday and guess how many times I tried it over the week? Zero. Now I have to throw that out, make it again, and try again. (Trialing foods is very difficult for me. It’s even more challenging to think about a reaction when you don’t want to go anywhere near a medical facility at the time and you don’t have time to feel yucky if a food doesn’t agree with you.)

Goal 3 – Purchase deck paint. We did call around last week and could not buy it because we live in a state with a semi-dictator at the moment (Michigan). However, the demi-god has decided the peons are now free to get out a little bit so we can probably go buy our deck paint now. It’s a shame we didn’t need marijuana or whiskey. We could have bought those for the last month. /snark

So what is on your agenda this week? Are you finding the days full or dragging on and on? What special projects do you have out? Any deep cleaning? I hope you’ll leave a comment and share what you are doing. You might inspire someone else with a creative or practical idea.

Encouragement and Wisdom in the Shop

Artwork: “The Fate of The Rose” by Edmund Blair Leighton