decorate for YOU (itty bitty thoughts)

decorate for YOU (itty bitty thoughts)

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We live on a dead end dirt road in the middle of farm country. I see maybe three cars a day—the people that live to the east of us have to pass our house to get to the main road.

And although farm families are thought to be cordial and welcoming and hey, come on over for supper any time, we don’t generally have a lot of people over. Our “circle” is pretty small.

So it stands to reason that people would ask why in the world I put the time and effort in to decorating my house for fall or Halloween when no one is going to see it?

Well, I’ll tell you.

It’s because I’m going to see it.

And because my husband and kids are going to see it.

I picked all the pumpkins out of our garden. They’re all jarrahdale pumpkins (I was given seeds by my friends at the We Drink and Farm Things podcast) but I think there was a little cross pollination going on with the desi squash and the delicata squash I planted.  Jarrahdale pumpkins are supposed to be blue-green, but I got a whole rainbow of awesome.

Here's the thing I've learned. Your life doesn't have to sparkle for anyone else. It just has to sparkle for you.

Which makes our front step look fabulous.

Halloween is our favorite holiday, probably because fall is our favorite time of year. When the kids were little, we renamed October as “Spooky Month” and it stuck. This year my 16 and 17 year olds carried the giant box of Halloween decorations up from the basement and then put on Michael Jackson’s Thriller as they put out giant spiders and vampires and light up pumpkins and all the things.

Here's the thing I've learned. Your life doesn't have to sparkle for anyone else. It just has to sparkle for you.

And we haven’t spent a ton of money on decorations over the years, we’ve just collected things at garage sales or thrift stores, or we’ve made things. But let me tell you, there is something magical about a new 89 cents plastic spiderweb tablecloth with a tray of candy in the middle.

Here's the thing I've learned. Your life doesn't have to sparkle for anyone else. It just has to sparkle for you.

We’re living the high life here at Clucky Dickens Farm!

Here’s the thing I’ve learned. Your life doesn’t have to sparkle for anyone else. It just has to sparkle for you.

And so

that’s why

it’s 5 am and—besides the dogs—I’m the only one awake in the house. No one will be driving by on my road at this time, but I go out anyway and click on the orange lights we’ve twisted around the two posts on our front step.

No one is going to see them.

No one but me.

And that’s enough to matter.

 — Amy Dingmann 9-27-20

Here's the thing I've learned. Your life doesn't have to sparkle for anyone else. It just has to sparkle for you.

Bookmark ITTY BITTY THOUGHTS and come back to check out what I post tomorrow! I’d love your thoughts on today’s post in a comment below or via email at [email protected].

Here's the thing I've learned. Your life doesn't have to sparkle for anyone else. It just has to sparkle for you.



25 thoughts on “decorate for YOU (itty bitty thoughts)”

  • Thank you for sharing your sparkle with us! I love all the colors of those pumpkins. They coordinate perfectly with your house!

  • Yes. YES! We are very rural too, and rarely have visitors, so my husband thinks I’m nuts for going to all the trouble of decorating for the holidays. But it makes me happy, and I just can’t imagine how depressing it would be to stop. Sometimes we’re so busy creating joy for others that we forget that we are worth the same consideration. Love this post!

  • I think that we should always have things in and around our house that make us smile and bring us joy. We especially need it right now.

  • Those pumpkins are gorgeous! Here in pumpkin country (Circleville, Oh has a yearly Pumpkin Show), we have a popular variety called ‘tan cheese’. They are pale tan/cream outside with vibrant orange flesh. It makes the most delicious puree.
    I’ve often used the ‘no one will see it’ excuse for decorating outside. You’ve made me reevaluate my thoughts about that.

    • I love pumpkins and it amazes me how many different KINDS there are! To be honest, I did use the “no one is gonna see it” excuse for awhile, but my kids busted me out of that. Thank goodness for kids, right?

  • You are so correct Amy! doing these things for yourself respects the inner you!
    I love your blog now. I feel the peace here that I not on Facebook. 🙂

  • Amy, I love all the sparkle and pumpkins and can only imagine your crisp morning air. Night before last I took a walk by myself after dark. Deliberately, I left my flashlight perched on the shelf in the coat closet. Out into the only only black night I ventured. About a mile away from the house I heard a familiar voice from high above me: It was the soft hooting of an owl that I named Tawny over a decade ago. I was SO excited to hear her! You see, Tawny appeared the very first time on the roof of our garage on
    Halloween night. I about broke my neck scurrying out of my dark house that night to see her. She is also one of my favorite animal friends.

    It is interesting to me as I read your posts how many things we share in common, including the affinity for Halloween. We also have been anxiously awaiting the decorating and the fun of tricks we play on each other throughout the month. I have one son who has collected and hidden spiders all over the house since he was three years old. I have discovered plastic and rubber spiders in the most unlikely places over the years, including the sugar jar and inside my shoes, jacket pockets and in my bed.

    The laughter we share over these antics is something I often wish I could bottle and give away. Per your blog, I now have permission to push the decorating a few days ahead of October first. I haven’t seen one yard, porch or window decorated yet…

    There is a school bus stop across the way from our house. Maybe the grade schoolers will have a bit of fun tomorrow morning looking across at my “haunted house.” Enjoy your sparkle. I sure did.
    ~~~ R

  • Love your decorating. I, too, decorate for just us. About the pumpkins. If this is the first year you planted seeds after receiving them from We Drink and Farm Things, the cross-pollination would have happened on their end. If it was cross pollination with your desi and delicata this year you wouldn’t see the results in the fruit until next year.

      • They are great colors. There are several types of squash. The desi and delicata are pepo, the Jarrahdale is maxima. Butternut is a moschata. If you want to save pure seeds it is safe to grow one of each type, but having more than one and saving seeds can be interesting to see what you get.

  • I do the same thing. We live in a one floor condo now but I decorate outside our door. Same reason I upkeep maintenance – not for the next person but our comfort and enjoyment

  • I live alone (well, except for the goats, chickens, dogs and cats) and I live out in the country too. I always decorate for the holidays, too. Just for me. If no one else sees the decorations, that’s fine as long as I enjoy them. I agree 100% with your article!!

  • I too decorate for myself, our house is far enough off the road that people going by would have a hard time seeing it. Fall is my favorite time for decorating. I love the colors, the textures, the scents, all of it. But the older I get, the less I celebrate Halloween. I just can no longer get into celebrating death. That just means that my original decorations can stay up for 2 whole months without having to make any changes in them.

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