Five Simple Things (June 23)

Hello.

Here are five things this week.

1. This flower.

This yellow flower was in our yard this week before we mowed and I wondered what it was and where it came from. At first, I thought it was a cute flower and enjoyed seeing it, but after some research I realized that it is not a good thing to see, especially in our yard. This is called shortpod mustard (Hirschfeldia incana). It is considered and invasive species and thrives in Oregon, California, and Nevada. It's a perennial and mostly grows in fields/pastures, roadsides, and sometimes in vineyards. The seeds are accidentally picked up by birds, or others wildlife and carried to different locations. It's native to Mediterranean climates and sometimes called summer mustard. I was glad to see only one of these in our yard, but hopefully it sticks to the field behind our house and doesn't come "wondering" into our yard often.

2. This screw.

We finished pulling up all of the screws we had along the flooring of the bus this week. The last screw we are wanting to keep to remind us of how much work we've done and how far we have come on our renovation. We are always doing something on the bus to get further along with our progress and you can always see where we are on our bus page on the blog here, or Instagram and Twitter pages.

3. This pottery.

I picked up this terra cotta kitty ornament at our local co-op this week and the best part about it is that essential oils can be used on the surface. A few drops on the porous surface releases the scent for several hours. I was going to use it in my car, but I have decided to hang it from the light switch on my bedroom lamp to diffuse the scent while I am sleeping. Plus, it's a kitty shape and I just love it so much. I can't find a link to this particular one, but here are some similar.

4. This house.

We were on our way home from spending a day in Portland and stopped to eat lunch at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Gordon House. The Gordon House was the only design built in Oregon and was built for Ed and Evelyn Gordon . The Gordon House was designed to help people better understand Frank Lloyd Wright's designs and educate the public on architecture. It was a beautifully crafted home and eating lunch on the lawn was such a nice way to close out our day out and about. We didn't take the tour, but walking around the outside of the house we got a feel for how wonderfully designed the entire home is. You can read about the history of The Gordon House here.

“Organic architecture seeks a unique sense of use and a finer sense of comfort, expressed in organic simplicity.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

5. These strawberries.

We saw a great showing of our strawberries this year and they produced the cutest little fruits. We moved them from a wine barrel they had been in for the last three years and since moving them, they seem happier. The container is a terra cotta planter with side holes all around for plants to thrive through the entire pot, not just the top.

One more thing:

This week I tried my hand at making caramels and instead of made something similar to a Sugar Daddy. It was caramel-y, but to was way too hard to be an actual soft caramel. We enjoyed what I made, but hopefully I can keep trying and get better at knowing the right time to cook the sugars and know when to pull them off at just the right time. I am going to try again, but for now, I am going to definitely take note of this recipe and recreate it again, because honestly, it wasn't that bad.

Positive affirmations this week:

Spending time alone with your thoughts sometimes has to happen to get a good focus on what you need to work on. This week I was working on spending more alone time and meditating. It has helped me realize there are a lot of mental thoughts that I carry around that I need to let go of. One being past interactions with people that have done, or said mean things to me that I couldn't shake. I am able to remember the moment, feel how it makes me feel, acknowledge that my feelings about the interactions are valid, and then let it go. It's a hard process to fully put myself back in those moments and relive the feelings over again, but it has helped me a lot with making closure with what I could have done differently, forgiving the person for their own issues, or insecurities, and close it out to be able to move on. You can forgive someone in silence and never speak to them again, or have anything to do with them. It's hard, but in order to create healthy boundaries, it's important to make these changes with yourself. You can do this! 🌈