Slowing Down

Smile. Breathe. Go slowly.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

 Two years ago, we took part in the No Impact Experiment & at the end of the week we wrote about Giving Back & Eco Sabbath. Spending time giving to others is something we've thought a lot about lately - we clean for a lovely, intelligent & kind man who finds life incredibly difficult. He masks his problems with alcohol, has tried on several occasions to stop & has even gone into rehab, but he is so lonely - as soon as he's back at home, the cycle starts all over again... We have come to really care for this chap & look forward to catching up with him each week, we always do a bit extra because we want to & he is always very grateful. So when people say - you're running a business, not a charity... We say - we wouldn't do it if we didn't want to... As long as we're happy to do it & it's brightening someone else's day - that's all that matters!

We are often asked if we intend to expand our business & we have talked about it lots over the years - the thought of taking a back seat while others do the hard work sounds like a nice position to be in, but we don't really want the hassle.
Growing our business means taking on more responsibility & right now, we're happy with how things are. There will be some re-jigging to do, but we probably won't be taking on any extra work.
We've written about this before, but after years of being in crappy social care jobs, working opposite shifts & passing each other on the stairs or handing the kidlets over on murky car parks, we made the decision to spend more time together - working for ourselves & without line managers breathing down our necks, demanding care plans & risk assessments...

When we still lived up north, we both cut our hours to home educate. It was more important to be there for the kidlets & for them to be happy too, we found it hard to pay our mortgage, a loan & all the bills - but we did it until out of the blue, an opportunity came along to come to Cornwall!

We live on less now, but we live so far away from any shops - we don't spend. We plan our trips into town to incorporate as much as possible & after a year of intentionally not spending, it has become the norm. We just buy the bare essentials & that's it.

We haven't had a proper holiday in over a year & both love to travel, so that's been quite a challenge, but what Sime did do is put money aside to be spent over the winter on treats like overnight stays & occasional meals out, which has been great. We're coming to the end of that pot, but have a new one already going strong to be spent on taking all the kidlets away for a week around next Christmas - it's exciting, as it's some years since we've all been away together!

And for now, we are just enjoying what each day brings - it was sad that things didn't work out with doggie, but it has meant a little stray kitty has been able to shelter in the house from the blustery weather. We may also be getting a temporary lodger of the human variety... We love the idea of sharing our house with others & there's certainly plenty of room to do so.

We have also decided to make Sundays (our day off) an unplugged/low energy day, no internet, no radio, no phone, no car & as little electric as possible. We already cook our dinners on the wood burner, so we'll continue to do that & we're collecting loads of driftwood at the moment, so are able to cook our meals for free! We replaced our bedside lamp with candles & our spotlights with LEDs, so we're using less & less electricity all the time, which we like!

Sundays are already slow & enjoyable - lie-ins, walks, reading, pots of herbal tea, good food & snuggling by the fire with kitties. The only difference is we'll not be connecting to the outside world... Wonderful!

Do you enjoy herbal teas & what are your favourites?

We both love nettle & a new discovery last year... Pukka's three tulsi!

We've just had 2 days in Exeter & as usual, Sime was snap happy - so we'll be sharing some photies soon.

Kay & Sime

xx