A Simple Home Rocks!

Hebrews 3:4

King James Version

4 For every house is builded by some man; 

but he that built all things is God.

What a beautiful find yesterday!

Reading some marketers' mails online, and clicking on the appropriate links, I came across the very awesome Low Cost Log Homes of KY website.

The image you see above was its frontispiece, and it depicted EXACTLY my idea of a simple, sturdy, and straightforward home.

Just a simple, rectangular design, with a deck out in front.

A perfect, low-maintenance way to live and entertain simply.

I could stare at this beauty all day long, and imagine how lovely it would be to live in one.

I live in the Philippines, but somehow this American design is the one I wish to share with you, for it has captured my heart with its simple, unadorned beauty.

We know how people are, where many wish their homes to be as huge, complicated, or expensive as their neighbor's.

Well, I'm not one of those people.

I've designed and researched tiny, affordable rooms, and homes.  

I've even visited building trade fairs where I could find alternative home designs -- and I've found many.

In college, I've even applied to study low-cost housing in Asian Institute of Technology* in Thailand, in my desire to really get to the bottom of it.

Despite the Deans of Architecture and Engineering giving letters of recommendation on my behalf for the scholarship, AIT thought my grades too low.

Oh well, no one had high grades in Architecture anyway har har. 

My heart has always been closest to those who cannot afford expensive homes.

There is a way to live simply, and happily, and I can assure you, if your heart is right with the LORD, having a roof over your head, whether just a tiny, rented room, or a simple, basic home suffices.

In these days of covid, I can barely imagine how many families in the less fortunate neighborhoods, manage to fit in.

So, when I see a simple, sturdy, and straightforward home like the one above, and priced low, my heart soars, wanting to share it with your right away!

Even the website is tiny, and simple.

And yet, the links and tabs are all you need.

Nothing flashy or complicated, so refreshingly wonderful!

Exactly what my designer's heart loves, and respects!

If your heart is like mine, grounded, and yet looking up at God for all my simple needs, then please click this Low Cost Log Homes link once more.

*Just a little funny thought: Nearly 20 years after having applied to that AIT scholarship in Thailand, and being turned down, God comes in and makes me marketing communications consultant for a local university. And guess who was the dean there, this time? The VERY same head of that AIT university. Funny how things come around, eh? Anyway, the Dean and I had a good laugh about that one. Actually, he was speechless, but I found him to be a kind person, too! 

Of course, my revolutionary heart wished people would look upon the DESIRE, and INTENT of the student, and not on the foolish grades, or capability to pay tuition. Those don't really mean anything in my books, except it did in theirs. But I guess I can put up my own school one day, where grades are the last to be considered. I'd rather look upon the heart, the mind, and spirit of each student, praying that God show me how to serve each student, and family, and to help them reach their fullest God-given potential. Oh, that would be a dream!

(Image sourced from Low Cost Log Homes.)

Updated 24 January 2022

The Unpolished Part of Life

Philippians 4:12

King James Version

12 I know both how to be abased, 

and I know how to abound: 

every where and in all things 

I am instructed both to be full 

and to be hungry, 

both to abound and to suffer need.

The place was cramped.

The models were in a frenzy, rushing, changing clothes, fixing their looks, bickering, fussing, tense.

But onstage, they were polished.

You would not have detected all the mild chaos in the back room, where I had been in the thick of it.

When I saw them featured on tv, the more I was amused, for these models were true professionals, modeling our stuff with ease, and aplomb.

The reluctant designer -- moi -- not hot about fashion shows and diva models, was dragged into joining the fashion show at a Hard Rock Cafe in the big city.

This was the period I was done with my shops, and was thinking of quitting.

But, as is my quirky career, fate took hold of the reins, for I was often reluctant this, reluctant that, but when faced with having to do the work people thought I could do, well, I found myself succeeding, and that's really very strange.

Backstage is where all the real stuff happens -- the unvarnished, raw truth.

And I don't mean only fashion shows, but the work all of us do.

In shops and malls, on tv and magazines, it's all glitzy.

The products are polished, perfect, and packaged.

We don't really see the labor put out by people each day, so we may consume what we wish to consume, or afford to consume. 

We assistants, factory workers, designers, owners, and entrepreneurs, would also be working till late at night or up to early morning, making sure everything's in place.

The world also doesn't see the life each one of us lead, but only the work we put out.

That's the backstage I speak of.

And that's where most of my true writing comes from -- observing all the details that don't interest others.

There's no drama, just real, hard work behind the scenes of most anything we create.

You'd know, for you, too, put out the work you do.

As you can imagine, I have no interest in designer divas, or temperamental models, or slick ads, or expensive shops.

I prefer being with everyday workers like myself, and really feel the pulse of the people.

That's where the real stuff is.

It is rich with people's lives, strength, wisdom, and character.

Not to mention the everyday sacrifices few people see, or care about.

The kind the rich and famous don't wish to be bothered with.

Because if they cared, we'd all be up there on stage with them, too.

Thing is, I never liked the stage.

I could never "act".

Plus, I've got stage fright.

Updated 24 January 2022