The Cottage on the Hill

For several years now, every winter I get a bad case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). This winter is different! Here it is the end of January (and where I live, winter usually starts around Nov. 1st, though we did have October snow this season, too.) and I do NOT have SAD this year!! What's different about this year? I attribute it to two things: 1. Less stress (not homeschooling has helped me have the time and peace to heal overall). 2.  Immune Booster supplements!  The kind I have contains not just Vitamin C, but Zinc, and Echinacea. I also added a women's vitamin supplement to my diet and that seems to be helping my other SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder). Take care of yourself, ladies.

Purchase at Target (not an affiliate link) It seems the millennial "everyone is special" has birthed the post-millennial trend of "you need to be exceptional." Just a quick browse through social media and people show their best faces, smiles, accomplishments, etc. As a child I enjoyed watching figure skating on TV.  At the time a perfectly landed triple lutz was a rare thing where everyone oohed and ahhed and the executor of it was lauded as an amazing athlete (usually male).  Imagine my surprise when I found figure skating on TV just a few months ago and the girls were landing quadruple/triple combos!!!! Just how limitless are we?! There is a lot of pressure out there to be exceptional. Do it "like a boss." Be a "bad@$$." "No excuses!" "Own it!" "Nail it!" I was walking through Target and saw this water bottle that says, "like a boss." It actually gave me a little anxiety to see it. I though

I joke that I am always wobbling between wanting suburban materialism and rural simplicity.   Over Christmas, I was at Target for the umpteenth time.  I finished my shopping and returned to my rusty mini van trying to shake off the lingering feelings of guilt I always get when I spend money beyond the normal budgeted weekly allowances.  I had to wait for a woman to back out and drive away before I could move.  She looked so posh in her newish black car, her professionally dyed hair up in messy bun encircled with a cute headband/earwarmer, and she drove one-handed as she sipped her Starbucks beverage.  As Target bags filled the back of her car, she didn't look one bit guilty for her purchases as she sped away. I wanted to be her. I wanted to shop at Target with abandon and not feel guilty for buying new towels, or grabbing that cute book for my kids, or snagging those clearance cute boots. On the drive home I thought about how I could live that life.  I decided it was

#Simplicity So very much has changed since I last blogged. I tried starting other blogs under other titles, but then I fizzle out and always end up coming back to my first love, this blog right here. I even thought of starting a blog called "T'is a Gift to be Simple," but that is just my theme for this year.  Perhaps next year, too.  Perhaps a forever lifestyle change, but how can I know that? What I do know is that I have a heart for this little Taigh Beag, this little Cottage of the Hill and all the changes that have occurred under it's little (and now, thanks to hubby and my brother-in-law, new) roof. We have changed churches. We enrolled out school-aged children into public school.  (And they LOVE IT!) We have a dog!!  (I'll introduce him in another post) We are officially out of the baby/toddler stage and hauled the last toddler bed out of the house two weeks ago. So, that is how 2016 ended for my big family in our little house. 20