Trading In or Trading Up?

Love these!

I love that our kitchen cabinets are filled with mismatched coffee cups, Corel plates, and glasses of various styles and sizes. My mixing bowls are not color coordinated, nesting sets from Williams Sonoma. They are all completely different, picked up here and there or donated from folks moving out of town. My well-honed, Jenga skills come into play when carefully stacking those bowls in the cabinet.

Everything in its place.

I used to be that person with several different 12-piece dish sets. You know the ones – Christmas dishes with decorated trees and dancing snowmen, everyday dishes (the blue, hand thrown pottery set from an artist in Ruston, Louisiana, was my favorite), and silver-rimmed, family china that used to be Grandma’s. I had placemats and tablecloths and cloth napkins that all coordinated with the different dishes.

Of course, the designer shower curtain matched the earth-toned towels and floor rug in my bathroom.  Oh, and there was always a bathroom theme that changed every few years – the ocean, a flower garden, even peaches one time.

Jenga bowls

Fleur de Lis flower garden

My front yard was mowed precisely, sidewalks edged, hedges trimmed, fleur-de-lis shaped, English flower garden immaculately filled with root bound, Miracle-Gro enhanced starts from a 10-acre nursery in Baton Rouge. Big, leafy ferns were hung on the porch, always in odd numbers (they are more pleasing to the eye). A seasonal, ornamental, silk flower covered wreath with bright bows always hung on the front door commemorating not only the four seasons, but also every major holiday from Mardi Gras through Christmas. The photographer from the local newspaper even stopped to take a picture of my front yard once for the Sunday Living section.

Even the six-foot-high, wooden, privacy fence held a cutesy welcome sign with purple and gold flowers spilling out of wall-hugging, black iron planters purchased at an antique shop in New Orleans.

One of the many front door wreaths.

I was that person. Been there, done that. No judgment. I’m just glad that’s all in the past. Every time I stood on a stool to carefully take down the china from the back of the top, corner shelf to use on a special holiday, I swore that someday, my china and my everyday dishes would be the same. Every time I cleaned the toilet… okay, honestly, I hated cleaning the toilet and never really imagined having a “dream outhouse.” Every sweltering Sunday afternoon that I spent pushing a lawnmower across red ant hills, I swore to myself that one day, I would live somewhere where I didn’t have to mow the lawn, all natural landscaping.

Even as I picked out those matching towels at JC Penney’s, my ultimate dream was to live in a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness. As I cleaned the litter box of our low maintenance cats, I dreamed of having a house full of dogs lounging in front of a fireplace. As I wrote out the check for my car payment, I longed for debt freedom. Locking the privacy fence gate to the backyard made me long to be somewhere with no neighbors.

Greenhouse on July 24, 2017!

True, I never imagined the part about toting water and showering outside, but at least I don’t have to worry about how much chlorine and fluoride I’m ingesting and I don’t have to scrub out the tub while kneeling on a ceramic tile floor. I never imagined battling flying insects in the outhouse or changing the oil in the generator, but I don’t have to clean the toilet or pay an electric bill. I never imagined living in a cabin on such a steep slope up 40-some steps from the river, but I don’t own a lawnmower. Granted, we do live within a half-mile of both the Unalakleet River Lodge and a vacation home, but both are only inhabited for a brief time every year.

I’m very fortunate in that I chose my lifestyle. I could choose to go back to the city tomorrow and be quite successful, I’m sure. Instead, I’m living a dream fulfilled.

My first zucchini from seed!

I don’t wash dishes until I run out of plates, and I’ve discovered that a simple, red, Folgers can really makes the best kitchen tool caddy. Toast is actually much more satisfying when spread with bacon fat and toasted in a cast iron skillet, rather than browned in an electric toaster before being slathered with margarine. NPR (National Public Radio) has some really informative and entertaining programming, believe it or not, and growing organic vegetables from seed makes me smile much more than those store-bought flowers ever did. My magazine choices have changed from Southern Living to Mother Earth News, and my living room is full of dogs.

So, yes, my coffee cups are mismatched and I need to pick up a couple more Corel plates at a rummage sale, but I’m wiser and richer than I’ve ever been.