My first time sleeping at the manor, using the internet twice a week & having everything I’ve ever wanted
We were exhausted but could not stop smiling.

Because it is our house. All the work we put into it will come back to us. It never seems to cease, yet we are proud to do it. It gives us even more feelings of achievement once the work is done. I am imagining what it feels like to actually renovate this house and turn it into something a bit more livable. 

What are some house projects that made you feel accomplished? The first time for me was when I built myself a drafting table to make hundreds of illustrations in the late stages of my art career. I remember sweating in my room assembling the pieces. Getting rid of it — til this day — reminds me of how much progress I have made in life and cannot wait to have more of that perspective.

Why We Keep Our Windows Are Wide Open

We kept all the windows open, because the place does not have much lighting, and there is an excess amount of shade from the way the house was built. Our theory is that there used to not be air conditioning in the house, as it was added later, and there needed to be a regulated temperature to stay cool by spreading the awnings of the front and side of the house further. 

Aside from waking up the same time as farmers do, we love rising with the sun so all the blinds were hiked high giving full view of whatever shines through the open windows. Nobody can see you out here, so it is still very private when you are 

My First Encounter With Fireflies

Before going to bed, we saw certain lights flashing. The problem was we knew there were no planes or cell towers nearby. Andrew got up to see all angles of flashing from every which direction. Looking carefully, he pointed out at all the little bits of flashing instances of brilliance were fireflies!

I have always heard of these fascinating creatures in movies and books, yet this is the first time in my twenty-eight years on this Earth that I have experienced them in reality. You always see someone catching them in a jar and using them as a lantern haha. 

They were flashing everywhere from the sky, to the trees, to flying down to the grass. I guess it is easier to see them at night, but I am not entirely certain whether they come out in the day. They were bright enough to notice, yet faint enough to miss them if you were not looking for them.

Sunscreen Overload And Bug Bites

Yesterday, I used this cheap six dollar sunscreen, and I feel like it may still be on my cat’s fur from when I last petted him yesterday. Now, I am feeling remnants of it on my arm. No matter how much I scrub, getting this zinc off is impossible, and I am definitely investing in the quality stuff from Supergoop again. As a matter of fact, I am going to save up for an annual supply and even minis for my family to take home or put in their bags when visiting. 

I also have so many bug bites in the most random places. Every now and again when I check, I wonder if it is a bug bite or simply a sunburn healing. I got another bit of sunburn yesterday no matter how much sun protection I put on. That is also another hint that I need to elevate the status of my SPF. That cheap stuff gets everywhere and does not do as much. 

Cleaning this place up some more will also help with getting rid of the bug bites, but we have to fix the floor, and save money for that to get the project started. I also have so many investing ideas for the coming next few years, and am very excited to employ all my latest business strategies I learnt over failing the past few years! Nothing gets my gears turning more than new knowledge to apply!

Influencers cleaning their already clean house

This was the first time I found an influencer online cleaning their house. Themself. And online. It was a whole brand of content I have never seen before, and it blew my mind. No wonder people liked my boring videos of me hand washing my clothes haha. 

I always thought people would not like it, but wonderful viewers find it to be quite relaxing. I am ever so grateful for my subscribers supporting me, and keeping in touch with such simple niceties. They remind me of the important things.

Once I found this YouTuber posting them cleaning their remarkably sparkling home, i read the comments to find that people were laughing at this vlogger because their house was already clean. But that is the point. It is a matter of maintenance.

If you clean your house little bits all the time, and organise it — it will always stay neat. Dazzling as a matter of fact. I would proverbially kill for a clean house like that. Especially right now living in the farm house that was not cleaned for eight years. 

The smell of dead skin haunts me, and makes me gag through certain sections of the house. I have been cleaning and steadily unpacking. Though, we desperately need a deep clean to support my daily spurts of spraying acid everywhere. Thank goodness for gloves otherwise my fingerprints would disappear only to be deemed a suspicion at airports.

I made a simple list for the cleaner to go over some key points that would thrill us in case her threshold of what is clean is disparate from our standards. Not that there are high or low standards in being clean, but everyone has a different idea of what parts of the house might be prioritised over others.

People here are salt of the Earth

My FedEx courier arrived drenched in sweat with his hair stomped on his forehead. He dropped off Mr. Dixon’s new Weber grill we are looking forward to use. He had a giant smile on his face, a Helga Pataky tattoo which made me smile, and he was a polite gentleman. People here work hard with a pep in their step, and the manners of 19th century elegance. I love this place.

Cutting down my internet browsing time

The data on my phone suddenly cut out while I was cleaning the house. This was the first day we moved into the middle of nowhere. Is it not funny how things like this happens? Haha. 

It opened my eyes to simplifying my life times a thousand and gave me this paradigm shift of my absorbing life happening in real time. I was getting so much done, paying more attention to everything around me, and it felt right. I was reading more, cleaning more, taking care of my loved ones better. 
At first I felt antsy like a peanut butter addict who needed her fix, but then I planned my life around this. My writing and reading were getting better too. Focus levels change drastically when you dopamine detox. 

New world order for me at my house: I only use the internet twice a week. This does not count for work where I have to be online. It is browsing and spending my life away scrolling through websites shopping on the internet or watching videos. The truth is the videos — no matter how much knowledge they share — are holding me back from doing what I regularly want to do.

From now on, I am only going to download what I want to watch, listen to, and be extra careful with the content I want to download, because it has to be worth it. We are signed up for Elon Musk’s Starlink as we are on the waitlist. It will only be for work as we have emails to read and send for work. Other than that, I am going to be a thousand times wiser about what is worth spending precious, limited moments online.

I have everything I have ever wanted

Now, I can focus on giving all my time and efforts into making a home for my family, and spoiling my loving husband! This is the most exciting time of my life. It is also the simplest time of my life. I feel like I finally have things figured out, but then life does that thing where it throws a wrench into your plans haha. Nonetheless, I am making the most of what i have right now. 

Thank you for reading this until the end. I am endlessly grateful for wonderful readers like you who make my words a little bit more special by knowing someone out there is reading it who is not my family.

Thank you so much for taking time to read the end of this post. I hope you find some inspiration in this and feel free to share with your friends as a free way to help my blog grow. Your support is endlessly appreciated. 

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