little house on the prairie

Had an afternoon of painting yesterday. Well, by afternoon I mean an hour and a half or so. Before I could sit down in the sunshine with my paints I had a lot of picking up to do while the source of all calamity was out with his grandma. It was a lovely hour and a half. If only more hours could be like that. I really like the colors in this one. I often find myself daydreaming about a grassy hill on a crystal clear day picking orange california poppies. I guess that's the source of inspiration.

There are a couple stories in the news this morning that have me intrigued. The first is about a New Hampshire man convicted of tax evasion. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is his house. He says he's not coming out. And the house is capable of running off the grid with wind and solar powered generators. I'd love to have a house that could totally stand on its own. Maybe that's why I love the idea of eventually building a house in Hawaii someday. Store the rainwater, use the wind and sun for power, passive cooling, grow my own food. If only I could get myself used to the taste of fish. We could fish and live like ancient Hawaiians on fish and poi. I'm totally fascinated by stories of people living up in the Kalalau Valley on the island of Kauai. Love the idea of surviving out in the wilderness. But who am I kidding? I couldn't survive without my Quakes rice snacks, Diet Coke and internet.

The second story is about a newly discovered planet. Any story about space intrigues me. But two things pop out with this one. The fact that it would take thousands of years for the fastest modern space craft to reach it. Wha?!? How in the world are we able to even see it if it's that far away? That's the sort of thing that makes me shake my head like I'm malfunctioning. The other thing is the fact that it orbits its star much closer than Earth orbits its star (that's the sun, right?). So its star would appear 20 times larger than our moon. (oh, did I just answer my own question? is our star the moon? - no, Google says the sun is our star) How pretty would that be? When I was little I used to get seriously depressed thinking about how any kind of major discovery about space and potential life outside of our universe couldn't possibly happen within my lifetime. On the flip side, the number one reason for hoping there is a God is so I can ask - is there life beyond Earth?

The husband has been really tired lately. Work work work. Some friends of ours are looking to sell their house here in So. Cal. and move out to the middle of nowhere. Yes, that is tempting. Scale down. Give up that Diet Coke and live the simple life. He could write and I could paint. The kids could learn to grow corn and fix the barn. What in the world would milk fresh from the cow taste like? How would hand churned ice cream made from milk fresh from the cow taste? Read all the novels each night instead of finding ourselves in front of the TV becoming addicted to yet another program. Ride a bike into town for the essentials that we can't make ourselves. Ah yes, the simple life.