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Uncomplicate.

in pursuit of a simpler, more sustainable creative life.

Uncomplicating, One Day at a Time.

Uncomplicating, One Day at a Time.

August 5, 2020 Beth Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been off to a slow start here with the new blog.

You know, because life. All the things, like everyone deals with all the time. Navigating, juggling.

I’ve got a pile of ideas for posts covering practical creative stuff I think people will find inspiring. But this is also about me being real. About my mistakes and challenges and the hope maybe my experiences spark something for someone else trying to uncomplicate their own life.

I’ve joked (ok maybe just with myself) that with what’s been going on I should have named this blog “Complicate.” With a 93 year old mother with dementia living in Memory Care during Covid where family has no in-person contact: concerns over her well-being as she ages and fails more quickly from this, the strong possibility of becoming a primary caregiver in her final days and navigating hospice and in-home nursing care, all really weird and foreign adulting issues for my little brain. Attempting to help another person I care about get away from an abusive, destructive situation. Reinventing my waning morphing and changing art business. Flourishing summer crops need attention today or they’ll go to waste, others require extra attention just to stay alive, weeds on the property keep growing (like weeds). The pets just keep pooping and it’s not going to scoop itself. Right? All the things. The world keeps turning and stuff keeps happening. Big important stuff, tiny dumb stuff, all of it.

We all have our versions of this, right? Faced with varying levels of hardship and concerns, it just keeps coming at us all the time. You’ve got families, kids, jobs, lack of jobs, worries: what’s happening with school, church, sports, birthdays, weddings, all the things that filled your life before. Beloved local small businesses are dropping like flies. People are grouchy about having sweaty faces under their masks. Conspiracy theories are thriving. Everyone is mad at “the other side”. Everyone just that much more on-edge about each little situation, the general vibe of unrest hangs over us like a thick fog. In that fog we have this tendency to hang onto worry and fear over everything else.

Days go by so fast; seems like way faster than they did before. I mean, life does that anyway as we get older, right? But in this new and different semi-quarantine/whatever-it-is world, time is different, schedules are wonky. I’ve been taking breaks from social media for my mental health, but then lose track of the time that goes by during those breaks.  I start each day with an intended schedule and list of goals, but then the day is over and I let stuff slide: oops, time’s up, I guess I’ll just do yoga tomorrow (then I wonder why my bones are so crackly and I feel tired the next day). Stuff on my to-do list gets pushed one more day, over and over again. Maybe I should have been more realistic when planning those blocks of time in the first place, or: maybe I shouldn’t have gotten sidetracked with that one project, or: yeah but my slow internet made that task take way longer than it should have…. You know, it’s always something.

But it’s ok. The important part for me is to not beat myself up about it. Keep facing forward. Every day, every moment, gives us the opportunity to reboot, refresh, start over, move on, all of it. What complicates a lot of us is our habit of worrying about the past. Why did it happen that way, or: but that one thing held me back, or: I should have done that differently…

Seriously none of that matters in this moment and all the moments to follow.

Today is the best day ever because it gives me the opportunity to move forward and work toward all my dreams. My past is just a bunch of lessons I’ve learned and stuff I now have the opportunity to build on, and today I’m grateful for every one of those things.

Today I wish you all the peace and confidence and mostly gratitude to face forward and do the best you can. Because, that’s enough.


Mind & Body
covid life, daily gratitude, inspiration, pandemic life, real life

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bethlogansart

Just eating real food, that’s all. 😍 simply g Just eating real food, that’s all. 😍 simply grilled pasture-raised local lamb from @coffeecreekcommunityandgardens with what’s in the garden now: lightly dressed mizspoona, basil, mint, strawberries & peas…
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Gah. Food is good. It’s a celebration, and a blessing. And it should be. So grateful for amazing local farmers and stuff that actually grows in my own yard 😍 this is how it should be, right?
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#eatlocal #growwhatyoueat #eatwhatyougrow #eatrealfood #sogood #whatsgrowingnow #localfarmersrock #pastureraisedlamb #mizspoona #gardensalad #simplefood #slowliving #uncomplicate
And now, your Moment of Zen. 🌿🐝🦋 Happy F And now, your Moment of Zen. 
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Happy Friday, friends!
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#yourmomentofzen #stopandlisten #lookup #butterfly #bumblebee #sageblossoms #mybackyard #justbreathe #quietlife #summer #slowliving #justgooutside #uncomplicate #pollinators
Hi local friends! It’s that time again: when I p Hi local friends! It’s that time again: when I post super last-minute about the pop-up this weekend 😉
Whether you’re riding the new-improved trail or just visiting the area on a gorgeous day, swing by the brewery for a lovely beverage & cool local vendors + the one and only Miss Fer from the Pe Ell pub will be grilling burgers (and vegan ones too!). 
@joedaddydesigns & I will be there with our artsy stuff and the weather’s going to be amazing. 
Yay!
Check out @jonescreekbrewing and @ridethewillapa for more details 🌲🚴🍺🚴‍♀️🌲 see you Saturday!
Summer said to tell you hi. 🍓 🌞 🍓 This i Summer said to tell you hi. 
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This is about an every-other-day haul right now 😍 not enough to get all crazy making jam or anything, but plenty for us to eat and there was a yummy berry crisp the other day with the last of the rhubarb. So, the new bed is kind of a success so far: more than I’ve ever been able to grow in a season. Now, next year……
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The girls got a special Solstice treat yesterday ( The girls got a special Solstice treat yesterday (swipe for the whole thing, this documents about 5 hours of snacking in under 4 minutes) sound up for the happy eating sounds
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Funny TMI extra for you: I totally expected to be scooping purple poops after this, but wow…electric teal…if I were to draw them with a Prismacolor pencil I’d use Parrot Green 😆
Happy Solstice, friends! How are you celebrating t Happy Solstice, friends! How are you celebrating the longest day of the year today? ✨🌿🌞🌿✨
Good morning, teeny tiny messy webs and the teenie Good morning, teeny tiny messy webs and the teenier tinier spiders that inhabit them ☺️💕
Good morning from my happy place: just a quiet wal Good morning from my happy place: just a quiet walk through my little gardens, checking on all the things in-between watering (swipe for the mini-tour). So many works in progress…so many weeds, stuff that still needs planting, big projects to finish, stuff to clean up and put away. It will never all be done at once and that’s ok. And I need to remind myself that 5 years ago these garden beds were dense messy globs of snowberrry, thistle, bracken fern and 6’ grasses woven together with inch-thick blackberry vines all growing out of piles of scrap wood and random garbage on a ridge of railroad ballast. And every year, all that stuff tries to take it hack 🤣 it’s a never ending project but it makes me happy. 🌱
How’s your spring/summer shaping up?
#truestory I never knew I loved June or cottonwoo #truestory 
I never knew I loved June or cottonwoods so much until I lived here in June. 
It’s quiet now. The sound of the river has been replaced by the white noise of wind in the leaves and a gazillion bees, and the fluff floating about makes everything feel fakey and dreamlike and every so often I kind of lose track of time and space in the midst of it all…
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Friends, stop for just a moment and breathe in this magic time of year…what is it that’s making you smile right now?
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#springandsummer #cottonwoodsnow #fieldsofdaisies #smellsummer #justbreathe #livequietly #justgooutside #thismoment #uncomplicate #natureismagic #livetheseasons #cottonwood #pnwonderland
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