The Cottage on the Hill

 Almost 2 years ago we started a plan to really focus on paying off/down our debts and building our business.  We've been pretty successful and are now in the home stretch.  One debt still haunts us, though, our last credit card.  When we started our journey, we had 4 credit cards and a personal loan.  We've paid all but that last, big, pesky credit card.  That's the one that we packed our medical-related debt onto nearly 10 years ago.  I was hoping to have it paid off by the end of this year, but the dog needed nearly $2000 in vet care, there were lots of vehicle repair bills, the washer and dryer both needed replacing...you know, the usual.  We've been hovering between the $10,000 and $11,000 mark.   As of the end of the year, with the scheduled payments I have set up, we should be around or just under $10,000.   My plan is to put everything I can into paying down that card by the end of March.  Here are my ideas: 1....

 What I wish I did to prepare to be a stay at home mom: I was young, naive, and, let's face it, life was very different 19 years ago than it is, today.  Back then, as a young bride, I was religiously and socio-politically conservative, believing strongly that it was best for me to stay home.  I also feared that if I took on a career we'd have gotten too used to the income to allow for me to stay home.  These were all "stuck" mindsets I wish I had the influence, education, and gumption to overcome.   Now that I am older and wiser, hindsight is 20/20.  I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, and my husband was supportive of that.  However, I should have been more supportive of him, of us, instead of focusing so heavily on what I wanted.   1.  I wish I had taken getting a career more seriously.  There were options.  For example, I could have simply finished at least an Associates Degree at my local college and then become a...

 I saw this old advertisement and just had to use it for this blog post!  It's old-fashioned and my last name is Scott! For me, March is the perfect month to start spring cleaning.  Winter likes to hold on throughout the month and any sign of spring means deep mud, both of which prevent me from doing outdoor work.  Once the fine weather comes, the mud dries, and the ground thaws, my house gets neglected in favor of the outdoors. I have 7 small rooms to tackle, which gives me 7 weeks of spring cleaning:  Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, Master Bedroom, Boys' Bedroom, Daughter's Room, and Bathroom.   I started early over the last weekend of February.  Last spring and summer I minimized and purged a LOT, but there were so many things I didn't go through, yet, or set aside, not ready to part with them.  However, we're coming up on 9 months to a year of that stuff just sitting there, forgotten, right where I left it last year.  Therefore, o...

  In my 40 years of life I have never not gone to church.  There were brief breaks here and there in recent years lasting no more than 3 months tops, but church on Sundays has always been a part of my life. Until now..... We may become part of the new unchurched. The unchurched is typically meant to describe agnostics, atheists, and apathetic people who don't attend services on Sundays or belong to any church or denomination.  However, there is quite possibly a growing group of unchurched people who identify as serious Christians.  They are Christians who would like to find a church community, but are struggling to do so. What is our struggle? We can't seem to find a church we can agree upon. I like Catholicism, but my family does not.  My oldest likes our former church, but I struggled with some of the theology and my husband struggled with some of the politics.  Also, the church was very community-based, which is great, but we live in a different communit...

Sometimes life gets challenging and finances get slim.  Sometimes we want to save up some money for a purchase or to pay down a debt. Sometimes picking up extra work isn't an option. As we look at our bills we are quick to realize that the most flexible and readily available change we can make is to our grocery spending.   We've enjoyed the benefit of a better financial situation in the past 2 years which has allowed me to increase our grocery budget and indulge in foodstuffs and household products I have had to pass by in the past.  However, I know finances are easy come-easy go, so I like to keep it in the back of my mind how I plan and utilize a more austere budget. Lately, my grocery spending has been very high.  With all the children home instead of in public school, and with hubby not working weekends right now, and thus he likes to shop with me and help me try new recipes, we've increased our spending significantly.  However, I would like to back off...

Now that I am 40 years old, I have stopped chuckling at my predecessors who warned me that everything changes.  Certainly not!  They just didn't keep themselves up, I would reason.  But, as is usually the case, I am eating my words. In my 20s and 30s I could get fairly fit without too much effort, and it would stick.  At 40, a good stretching routine on Monday would be undone by Tuesday morning and I feel like I am stretching myself out for the first time.  I'm also noticing that I cannot grow in strength and repetition as quickly as I used to.  In my early 30s I managed to go from a couple of modified push ups to 25 full-plank pushups within a month.  At 40, after a solid month of moving from plank to slow drop to the floor and I still cannot push myself back up! Light-headedness and nausea plagues me if I work out too hard.  I've had to limit myself to my stretching-pilates routine and walking workouts.  Sometimes, I can hit the exercise bi...

 One thing I love about those fix-up-the-home shows on HGTV is the reveal.  People walk into their completely done and perfectly staged homes.  There's no every day clutter.  There are no scuffs on the trim, dirt on the floor, dust bunnies under the beds, shoes piled up by the door, mail on the counter.  Even the fruit in the bowl is perfect with no flies buzzing around them.   All the rooms are painted and decorated to aesthetic perfection.  Everything is DONE! Oh, that feels good! I would love to be able to move out and have someone come in and redo my home to exactly what I need.  I could walk in every room and breathe and feel relaxed because it is so perfect.   But, I don't live in HGTV.  I live in reality.  Working class reality with 5 other individuals who don't really give much thought to aesthetics.  That can really get me down, sometimes, when I feel like my house doesn't rest my heart because it is never re...

  Woman Sweeping Her Home by Jean-François Millet I've wondered a lot lately if people who go through a tragic, traumatic, or life-changing experience, even a good one for that matter, have this desire to get rid of their old things.   I had mentioned in a post early this year that I turned 40 and felt like a page had turned.  No, not even  a page -- more like a book closed and I opened a new book.  I won't go into details as to my life circumstances except to say it is not marriage-related.  Hubby and I are still going strong.  But, with this closing of a book I find myself antsy to change so much in my home.  I wouldn't even really mind moving! I've purged a lot of my wardrobe and bought new. I'm repainting and looking at new furnishings or arrangements.   I'm interested in different books. My previous hobbies feel kind of ho-hum and I'm ready to get rid of all the old "maybe someday" boxes of stuff. I want to sell almost all of m...

  Is your spouse a keeper? I'm sure they are in your eyes. :-) But, what I mean is, are they the kind of person who likes to hold on to things?   They like to collect. They like to own things just for the novelty of it. They hold onto things hoping to enjoy them eventually. They're sentimental. They worry about the future and keep things "just in case." They are clutter-blind. They like having things about them, finding it cozy and homey. They are visual and don't like things stored away. And you?  You're more minimalist and can't stand clutter.  Perhaps you're the main housekeeper, too, and thus the management or cleanliness of the items falls on your shoulders.  Your spouse might pitch in from time to time, but because they aren't as sensitive to dust, mess, and clutter as you are, it isn't really on their radar to manage it. This can become a battleground in a marriage.  How can we find a compromise when we have a keeper for a spouse? I am a...

                                                            Photo by Cottage on the Hill Winter and I haven't gotten along very well in years.  It would be a painful, depressing time as the cold and damp would get into my bones and feel like it was freezing me from the inside out.  A few years ago I would dread the onset of winter, fear it, even.  Then, I started watching a remarkable woman who lives in the rural north of Sweden. Jonna Jinton lives in a tiny village near the Arctic Circle in Sweden.  Several years ago, she abandoned her normal urban modernist life to live a dream.  Her dream has come true, and then some! I first "met" Jonna through an adorable little meme video that went viral on Facebook.  As the northern hemisphere was nearing spring, Jonna's video of her trudging through waist-deep snow i...

  Now, television isn't something I am able to indulge in very often.  I have one TV series that I watch with absolute strictness, and that is Curse of Oak Island.  Otherwise, I watch The Mandalorian when I can and occasionally indulge in the classics.  But, boy, do I love those classics!  My love has been renewed thanks to Disney's Wandavision, which, I think, they "spoofed" the old TV shows quite well without being rude about it.  I'd be happy if they stayed in the Mary Tyler Moore or Dick van Dyke Show style.  It's just so adorable and homey!  It brought me back to my old favorites such as: The Donna Reed Show Leave it to Beaver Father Knows Best Ozzie and Harriet The Honeymooners I Love Lucy The Dick van Dyke Show I Dream of Jeannie The Mary Tyler Moore Show And the game show What's My Line I'm sure there's more. What are your favorite old time TV shows?

  Art by Tasha Tudor Spring always tempts me to the open spaces of my back yard that I can fill with seeds, seedlings, and plants.  The little homesteader in me wants food and flower growing abundantly in the sunny areas behind my house.  Of course, I never intend to neglect the front, and I usually do throw in some excellent plantings when the weeds are few in the spring.  However, the demands of tending the large gardens in the back take away from the ones people see first. The new busy days of my life, with work and business, homeschool and home repairs, provides me with little time to devote to my gardening obsession  hobby.  I MUST plan and focus for this coming spring. I decided to focus on curb appeal, not just for the benefit of first impressions, but because it is overall beneficial: 1.  It'll exercise my gardening creativity.  The spaces are unique.  I have to think outside the box. 2.  It'll exercise my gardening education....

  With Valentine's Day coming, I felt like sharing 3 of my favorite perfumes, an honorable mention, and one for the little girls in your life.  They make excellent, romantic gifts for the fragrance-loving femmes in your life! Coming in at #3 is English Laundry No 7 (for her).  This is a scent that is both classic and modern.  It's great as an every day wear, and for special occasions. My #2 is Estee Lauder Pleasures.  This was my first "big girl" perfume, a step away from drug store brands into the world of perfume counters.  It is oh so feminine! My #1 was Marilyn Monroe's #1, Chanel #5!  I feel sophisticated wearing this perfume.  It's an instant pick-me-up and self-esteem booster. My Honorable Mention is a budget-friendly fragrance from Yardley of London.  Their lily of the valley scent is a beautiful, feminine, pleasantly simple fragrance that feels young and fresh, innocent and sweet to wear. For the little girls in your life just starti...

                                                                         Painting by Edward Hopper I blame Covid. And winter. I am inspired by minimalists. And young women in young marriages with young families who've learned and shared their art of creating spaces and space. Growing up, I loved all the things.  Cluttered farmhouses, Victorian aesthetic, collections, museums pack full of artifacts, late 20th century consumerism all contributed to an idea that homes were cozy when well (and fully) decorated and displayed.   But now I live in a very small cottage instead of a large Civil War era farmhouse, and I have to take care of all the things (or handle all this inventory as Dawn from The Minimal Mom calls it).  It became overwhelming. Covid has kept my chil...

Elin Danielson Gambogi "Sunny Day" 1900  Growing up I remember going to people's houses or going to school and smelling the fresh laundry.  I loved the laundry detergent aisle at the grocery store and longed to have laundry that was a fragrant experience.  Frugality, for many years, dictated what detergent I purchased, which was often the kind that didn't have the greatest fragrance, nor would it last.  Nevertheless, through rebate apps, coupons, sales, and allowing myself a little more wiggle room in the laundry budget, I have explored the worlds of Tide and Gain .  However, as much as I enjoy both of these for massive fragrant laundry experiences, I was surprised that another option has become my current favorite! Not only is the scent amazing, but I love how my laundry feels.  I have terribly hard water and I don't use fabric softener or dryer sheets, but this detergent actually does get out the dirt, the ick, the stink, and softens the laundry n...

Fragonard, The Reader I tend to be what I call an idealist pessimist.  Basically, I would think of some aesthetic ideal that I wish I was, but be very negative and pessimistic because I could never live up to that.  That developed into negative self talk.   Dawn from The Minimal Mom  talks in her videos about how she would berate herself as being a messy person and instead decided to think, "No, I'm a tidy person.  What would a tidy person do?"  I've adopted this method for myself, calling it Proper Thinking.  It isn't negative talk to punish myself, nor is it positive speak that puffs me up.  It is proper thinking that is both realistic and productive.  For example, I didn't want to go to Church, today.  So, I thought, "I'm a Catholic.  What do Catholics do?  They go to Mass."  Therefore, I went to Mass.   Another example is when I feel overwhelmed with homeschooling my children.  I think, "I am a work...

No, this isn't Lady S, but she reminds me of her graciousness.  Miss Eleanor Urquhart , 1793 by Henry Raeburn   Two decades ago I was a naive working class teenager from a fairly rural area of the USA who managed to somehow befriend a university gent from Scotland.  When I was 16 he actually came over to visit me.  Then next year and 2 years after that, when I was 17 and 19, I went to visit him and his family in Scotland. The other day I started reading Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris  by Jennifer Scott  and realized I had my own sort of Madame Chic experience in Scotland! Lady S (she wasn't really a Lady as a title, like Lord and Lady or Duke, Duchess, Dame, etc, but her husband does hold an MBE!) was a poised, soft-spoken, kindly countenanced Highland beauty.  She welcomed me warmly, was a gracious hostess, and I always felt like she wanted to take me under her wing and polish me up a little.  ...

  Image made at Canva Thanks to Megan at Megan Fox, Unlocked  I decided to put together a 2021 Vision Board and share it with you! I guess the "vision board" idea is something that some people put together to speak something into existence.  That's not my intention.  Like Megan, I don't believe that a vision board or my own efforts can supernaturally make my wishes come true, but I do believe in positive reinforcement and a healthy mindset. I made a simple board on Canva.  I loved the simplicity of their platform, and though I could have done a better job editing my own work, I didn't have much time and am still pleased with the results.  It's pleasing to the eye and reminds me of my 2021 vision and goals without revealing my inner heart and deeper thoughts on the matters that are between God and me. I can comfortably reveal the gist, though. My word for the year is Growth. I could have used so many words, but Growth stood out to me. I'm working on growing...