The eggs have hatched. We have 4 naked little babies in the nest. I couldn’t get a great photo because I didn’t want Mama to get mad at me, but you can see one in front with beak and right leg. They aren’t making any peeps yet. Genevieve says they are always napping. I’m surprised at how big they are compared to the egg. Imagine being all curled up on yourself inside an egg! I have to be extra careful now to make sure the cat doesn’t get out. She knows something is going on… 👿
I Gave Up My Car
…sort of. Early this year when my son Tristan got his Driver’s License I gave him my car to use for school. In many ways this was a great relief for me, no longer needing to drive him to his magnet school every morning; not needing to pick him up from theater practice 5 nights a week.
Of course I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments.
- I already took the bus to my downtown job, but now I have to catch the closest bus, not the swanky MetroRapid bus that I would pick up at the Park & Ride.
- On Tuesday mornings I have to leave the house 30 minutes earlier so that I can walk the 1.5 miles to my appointment with my personal trainer.
- I have to plan grocery shopping more carefully since I either have to wait for Tristan to get home (which is after 7 pm) or I have to ride my bike to the store.
- I can’t just head out to run errands. Everything needs to be done at night or on the weekends
- I have to be careful about scheduling appointments, such as vet visits, etc. during the week so that I can make sure Tristan has alternate transportation arrangements if I need the car that day.
- I have to allocate more travel-time to get from place to place.
So How Is This Working Out For Me?
Well, while the weather was still cold I really enjoyed walking. We were blessed with a very mild winter and a beautiful spring and I was able to take advantage of that. I found that by walking I noticed many little things that I would have missed. It felt good and I felt more connected to my surroundings. I didn’t break out my bike unless I needed to head to the grocery store.
Now, however, the temperature has turned downright unpleasant. We’re hitting the 90’s and “Hot & Steamy” is the forecast. Walking is going to be out-of-the-question quite soon, so I guess I’ll be biking more.
Should We Buy A Third Car?
Not having a third car has proved to be a bit of a problem now that my daughter Genevieve is home from college for the summer. Tristan needs “my car” for his summer camp job Sunday through Friday. This means that Genevieve can’t go back to the job she had last summer because we don’t have a car for her to use (last summer she used mine). She’s been restricted to applying for jobs that she can walk to, which I thought would be great, but so far she hasn’t gotten a job offer.
I am really hoping to avoid buying another car for a number of reasons:
- I don’t want to take on a car payment for the next 4-5 years, especially since I’m working fewer hours.
- I’d like reduce our carbon footprint, not increase it.
- I don’t know what kind of car I would want. I really liked my minivan. It’s been a great car, but Mazda doesn’t make it anymore and in the near future we really won’t need the room a minivan provides. The car I might want to buy for me is not necessarily the same car that I want my kids driving. I’m thinking a small sub-compact manual transmission for me, but a safe, tank-like, already-been-banged-up vehicle for the kids.
I believe it was sometime in mid 2012 when a co-worker introduced me to Leo Babauta and his blog Zen Habits. I was a big iGoogle user and had my Firefox homepage set to my iGoogle portal with all of my widgets, including the RSS feed reader Google Reader. I think Zen Habits was the first blog I ever subscribed to and Leo really influenced a lot of the directions my life has taken since then. My favorite post is still Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life.
I now use Feedly and have quite a few blogs I love to follow:
- Zen Habits – The start of the journey.
- Slow Your Home – I love Brooke McAlary’s blog, especially the older posts before she switched to the podcast format. It is thanks to Brooke that I was introduced to Down To Earth.
- Be More With Less – Courtney Carver is very inspiring, especially for decluttering and living with less.
- Always Well Within – Sandra Pawula always illuminates the spiritual healing and peace that I am seeking in my quest for simplicity.
- Mark’s Daily Apple – I think the Primal lifestyle addresses a lot of the aspects of modern life that make us unhealthy and unhappy. Plus, Mark’s Weekend Link Love posts are always great reading.
- Down To Earth – Rhonda Hetzel’s absolutely lovely blog that has encouraged me to enjoy and take pride in homemaking.
- Green Living Ideas – A more commercial site, but still some good ideas.
Books:
- Practically Green: Your Guide to Ecofriendly Decision-Making by Micaela Preston – I got this e-book for free on my Nook e-reader but it really struck a chord with me.
- Down To Earth: A Guide to Simple Living by Rhonda Hetzel – A coffee-table-beautiful book full of inspiration and practical guidance.
For Green Cleaning and Other DIY Recipes:
- Don’t Mess With Mama -Tracey Black presents lots of DIY recipes and tutorials for cleansers and beauty products using essential oils.
- Clean Mama – Becky offers some good DIY green cleaners and lots of other home keeping advice.
For Blogging Encouragement:
- Just a Girl and Her Blog – Just the inspiration and firm nudge that I needed to get my blog created and start writing.
A Mama Birdie has moved into our mailbox. I noticed Monday evening that our mail was perched precariously atop the mailbox instead of in it. Apparently, unobserved over the weekend, mama built a very nice nest inside our rather unique mailbox. We’ve had nests in it before, but they were all abandoned. Rich thought I should clean it out, thinking it was a terrible place for a bird to put her nest, but I didn’t and then there was an egg! Then two! And now three!
Mama has flown out of the nest a few times when I poke my head in. She’s “a little brown jobbie” as my mother-in-law would say. I have to say the size of her eggs in proportion to her body is quite large! Ouch.
I hope the babies survive to hatch. Meanwhile I will be inconveniencing the USPS for awhile.
I’m back from a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, a birthday gift from me to my husband for his 50th birthday. Rich and I loved Hawaii – particularly the Kona region on my part, although Kohala comes in a close second. Aloha! Unfortunately, we’re not ready to retire and relocate there, so it’s back to the grind for us.
Today I am working at home in my “garage” office and finally couldn’t stand it any more. I had to write this post about the downsides to working at home. Why? Because my neighbor’s yard crew was here using every imaginable piece of landscaping machinery, seemingly right outside my door. It was driving me crazy!
So here are my challenges to working from home:
- Noise Pollution. Nobody seems to do their own yard work anymore, or have any idea what a rake is, AND everybody hires a different yard company. That means that every day of the week there could be another yard crew with their noisy leaf blowers, riding mowers, and hedge trimmers. Additionally, the houses in my neighborhood have reached that terminal age where it is cheaper to tear them down and rebuild than to remodel, which brings the accompanying demolition and construction noise. Hydraulic nail guns are the worst!
- Telemarking Phone Calls. The phone rings a lot more than I thought it would. So I ignore it. If it’s important they’ll leave a message, right?
- My Pets Are Attention-Junkies. They think I’m here to give them unlimited attention. I often have “cat-in-lap” syndrome. Additionally, the dog has now unilaterally moved her walkie time up to about 4 pm (it used to be 7 or 8).
- Home Office Investments. I wanted my “office space” away from the rest of the house, so I moved into our former carport/garage. I repurposed an antique drop-leaf table we already owned to be my desk, but I did need a few other things. I bought a rolling office chair and chair mat. I don’t personally own my two work laptops, but I invested in a large apple monitor and external keyboard and mouse. A real limiting factor for the first few months was our internet. My space was just too far away from the WIFI so we had to get extenders to improve connectivity.
- Lack of Boundary between Work and Home. This is kind of self-explanatory, but for me it is important to separate work space and work time from home life. That’s one reason my “office” is isolated from the rest of the house. Especially on days when the rest of the family might be home on holiday but I am working (no banking holidays for the self-employed!) I need to be able to “go to work” and have a quiet place to concentrate. On the flip side, when it is family time I want my work out of sight.
- Distractions. It is very easy to want to multitask or otherwise get distracted by all other aspects of life and home.
- It’s More Difficult to Interact and Connect with Co-workers. I contract for two clients. I have one company I work for only on Mondays, but until 18 months ago I was in the office everyday, 30 hours a week. I knew my co-workers and felt invested in them. That’s not the case anymore. I don’t know the newer employees and they don’t know me. With my friend Richard, whom I work for 4 days a week, we connect via Skype and meet in person about once every two weeks. I’ve known Richard for years and we worked together on the same team for a number of years, so this arrangement works very well.
- There’s Always Food Around. It’s tempting to snack and at the same time really boring eating whatever is in the house.
First fruits from the garden this season – beets, tomato, banana pepper and french green beans
p.s. and a Very Happy Birthday to my daughter Genevieve!
When we bought this property 10 years ago I committed to being a good creekside neighbor. Part of that commitment was landscaping with native plants that provide food and shelter for wildlife. We certified our yard as a National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Habitat. Sometimes that means uncomfortable encounters with that wildlife, such as when a coyote attacked a neighbor’s pet cat in our front yard. Our dog scared off the coyote but the cat ultimately did not survive its wounds.
This weekend I was cleaning leaves from one of the front gardens when I encountered a red striped ribbon snake. I’ve seen them around the yard numerous times because they like to eat frogs and fish, which the creek provides in abundance. This snake, though, had a large toad in its tiny little mouth. It looked like the hind right leg of the toad was firmly caught. Now, snakes give me the heebie jeebies, even though intellectually I know they are beneficial creatures. I thought about interfering, but the score seemed to be Snake 1, Toad 0. I called my son Tristan out to take a look and he asked me “Who do we root for?”.
We just let them be.
Tomorrow is Monday and I’ll be off to work my one day a week in an office in downtown Austin. Mondays always remind me of all the reasons I love working from home the other 4 days of the week. So here’s my little list as inspiration.
- No dress code. Now there are times when I like to dress up, but most days I just want to be comfortable, especially in the heat of summer (which in Texas lasts from May until November).
- No need for shoes. I alternate between fur lined slippers in the winter and flip-flops the rest of the year.
- Define your own work hours. I aim to work between the hours of 9 and 4, but if something comes up I can make up the time when I choose.
- Take a break whenever you want. I love being able to step outside and enjoy a beautiful day. Have you ever stared outside your office window at a beautiful day and then realized you missed it all?
- Control the thermostat! This is HUGE for me. I get so cold working in an office. They always seem to be over-air-conditioned. I’ve had to resort to taping over the air vents, keeping socks in my desk drawer and taking a sweater or jacket to wear INSIDE the office during the summer
- Save money on food. Coffee, lunch, snacks at home save a LOT of money over a coffee shop or restaurant
- No commute! Which leads to #8….
- No road rage! Have you ever stopped to evaluate how much bad traffic and long commutes affect your stress level and mood?
- Save money on transportation. Save money on gas and parking and put fewer miles on your car, or save money on transit. My bus ticket costs between $2.50 and $3.50 a day and that adds up.
- Gain extra time by not commuting. I’ve recovered about 2 hours of my day by eliminating the commute.
- Privacy. No one is looking over your shoulder; you can have sensitive phone conversations without anyone listening in. Really, some folks have phone conversations in the bathroom stalls, or out in the elevator lobby.
- It’s quieter. My desk space in the office is located next to the office kitchen and get incredibly noisy. I’ve also been located with the marketing department or other folks who are on conference calls all day. As rush hour starts we also get a lot of traffic noise. And it’s Austin, so sometimes in the middle of the afternoon we have rock bands rehearsing at the bar next door!
- Accomplish some household tasks. I can put in several loads of laundry or get the dishwasher running without interfering with my work rhythm.
- Be available for home service appointments. Is the repair man coming sometime between 12 and 5? No problem because I’m already home.
- Easier to make it to medical or vet appointments. It’s a whole lot easier getting a child to an appointment or a pet to the vet if I’m starting off my trip from home in the first place.
- Home security. My neighborhood is the target of a lot of break-ins, especially during the holidays. There’s also been a rash of cases where delivery packages are stolen off the front stoop. By working at home I don’t have an empty house that could be a target for criminal mischief.
- More flexibility to respond to the unexpected. Homework assignment left on the printer? Child gets sick and needs to be picked up? Or maybe something awesome pops up, like an unexpected visitor.
- Volunteer opportunities. This is something I haven’t taken advantage of yet, but I hope to. Lots of organizations need volunteers during weekday hours. With flexible work hours you can do something meaningful that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.
- The pets are happy because their peeps are home. No more lonely or scared pets. Our dog Bella is particularly scared of thunderstorms and needs her “baby gate” removed so that she can take refuge in a windowless hallway. I don’t really need to confine the dog that much anymore since I’m home and can keep an eye on her.
down·shift verb To voluntarily change from a work-focused lifestyle in order to simplify life, prioritize passions, and seek a fulfilling, balanced life
Last Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. I set off on foot from my house in the Rosedale neighborhood of Austin, Texas, headed for an appointment at my gym. After a productive workout I stopped in at a local coffee store, filled up my coffee bin with a pound of fresh roasted Italian espresso beans and headed off home again. Along the way I walked the hike-and-bike trail along Shoal Creek, took photographs of trees and bushes that I found interesting, and enjoyed connecting with my environment and neighborhood.
By 10 a.m. I was in my little office space in the former garage at home on a conference call with my co-worker Richard. Throughout the day, in addition to engineering tasks for my paid work I did various household tasks such as laundry, yard work and cleaning. Late in the afternoon, I rode my bicycle to the grocery store to buy a few more ingredients, then walked the dog and prepared dinner while waiting for my husband and son to get home. All-in-all it was a fairly productive and satisfying day.
Just a few years ago my day would have gone very differently – rushing to carpool my kids to school, fighting rush hour traffic to and from my full-time job downtown, driving kids to after school activities – always on a deadline to get someplace, or already late. I was stressed out by Austin’s awful traffic and usually arrived home wondering what in the world I was going to buy and/or make for dinner. Life was full of anxiety and there was always an element of guilt for any family appointments or household crises that required taking time off from work. At home there was never enough time to devote to cleaning, organizing, and upkeep.
Something had to give, and for a variety of reasons it made more sense for me to make a shift than Rich, my husband. I dropped my work hours from 40+ hours a week to 30 and became an hourly contractor. This did eliminate some of the burden of tasks and responsibilities . My time was just as occupied as ever with family activities, but at least I didn’t have to feel guilty about missing work time. So I downshifted my work, in a sense, but life didn’t get any slower and I didn’t really “upshift” any other aspect of my life.
Enter Fall of 2015 and my first child went off to college, followed a few months later by my second child (finally!) earning his driver’s license. Wow! Life is changing. I sometimes have “free time”. I don’t have to drive all over town – in fact, most of the time I don’t even have a car. And I have realized that my temporary downshift will be permanent. My career is still a satisfying creative and intellectual pursuit but it doesn’t feed my soul. My heart wants to be at home.
At the top of this post I have made a stab at defining what downshifting means to me. This is my downshift. I am working fewer hours, working from home as much as possible and focusing on new priorities. I want to make sure that we are conserving resources and protecting the environment, spending our money wisely and being good stewards of all that life has given us. I aim to serve healthy, real food and remove toxic chemicals from our home. And above all I hope to create a slower life that we can enjoy at home and with friends.
The purpose of this blog is to share changes and experiences as I explore interests in sustainable living, organic and native plant gardening, homemaking, decluttering and minimalism, life in general, and, above all to have fun!