BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Living Simply Living simple is it really simple?

Hello!
I myself love the whole idea of living simple. I make most of my breads, cheeses, shampoo, hats, socks, and so on.. BUT it drives my husband crazy.
My dear husband says JUST go buy whatever it is. Yes, sometimes it's more work but I know for sure what is in whatever I am making and I enjoy doing it.
I would just like to hear other people thoughts on it.

Dora Renee' Wilkerson

I think part of "living simply" is what is behind not just buying all those things.

You don't have to drive in traffic, you don't have to face the Wal-mart insanity, you don't have to pay the exhorbitant gas prices.

And then also, in the making of these things, you are relaxing. It is taking stress out of your life instead of adding to it.

If you hated making all those things it would be a much different story, but the fact that you enjoy is part of what makes your life simpler.

I love how you put that!

Dora Renee' Wilkerson

I agree, Michelle! It depends on what your likes, dislikes, and priorities are. For some people, making the things that you do would be torture. People who don't enjoy crafting, cooking, or sewing etc, might define "Living Simply" as removing those jobs from their schedules by simply buying them.

But for some, the process of making things is part of the reason to do it in the first place. For cooking and baking, I am one of those people. A friend of mine told me the other day that she has never cooked a cake from scratch in her life, and doesn't understand why anyone would. For me, it's the creativity and the fulfillment that goes along with the process of baking that brings me joy.

I don't have any problem w/using a cake mix, that's for sure, but sometimes, I'm only baking for the joy of creating something. In that case, using a mix would defeat the purpose.

So--long story short Dora ... if you are doing those activities for the joy of it and they bring you peace, then by all means, they are simplifying your life. If they feel like a chore, then you may want to spend your time differently.

I must say, though, I am impressed!!!!! What am I doing with my time?

I agree with you both. It's just hard to exsplain that sometimes to other people (it sure isn't always cheaper so I can't use that all the time. Well sometimes it is but not all the time.)

For me it's knowning where something came from. I know just what's in it and I know when I make something it's made right.

Hey, not to change the subjust but I am looking over to the side here and there is a box that says "Who's Online" it says a few names..then 1 invisible, 58 guests and 22 Spiders.Ok, what is a Spider? lol..

Dora Renee' Wilkerson

You know, Dora, I've wondered that for a while! I don't know what Jellyfish and Elephant mean either!

OK - the Jelly fish and Elephant to the left are little codenames that designate how many posts someone has.

If you look up at the FAQ at the top, that is explained in there, 7th topic down.

"Spiders" I believe are what we used to call "trolls" - people that navigate around the system looking at all the sites, but never registering.

But I honestly do not know what makes a "Spider" different from a "guest" - but I am going to ask!

Thanks, Michelle!

OK - got an answer on the spiders thing...

Spiders are what search engines like google and yahoo send out to match up to word searches - so techniclly spiders are computer programs.

Guests are people thast have not registered.

Ahhh...the secrets of BellaOnline finally unlocked! Thank you!