Ya know Jim came to the Lord in 1979..Well we had been thru Hell on earth,,But we made a decision in our marriage to go Gods way,,We had been the church route and it was like rehap..If you want it to work it probly will ,,but its not for everyone..JIm and i had a way of driving everyone at church nuts,,So we decided to leave them be,,in peace,,But we had decided to go back to the land,,We had done this off and on for yrs,,But we planned to have 3 more children and so we decided to feed them we wud have to get serious about making it,,And thank the Lord for Garage Sales,When Jim first came home i had very little dishes,,i had about one coffee mug..Jill had bot it for me,,it was white with big orange letters on it that said “You gotta Believe”..And thank God for that cup..And some how i got ahold of Country Living magazine,,And really in the beginning this magazine was like a new Revolution in living,,It was great because it showed you that what was right about your homemaking was what you liked,,It no longer dictated to you how your house shud look..No longer cud you only have 3 main colors in your livingroom.. The rule became ,,if you like it use it,,no matter what color it is..Well i cud hear Mom dictateing to me,,”A chair,,an end table.the couch ,,an end table with a lamp on it,? Well i loved this new country Living style,,i called it the Country Look..But it freed me up to know i wudnt go to jail if i put a chair next to my couch without an end table inbetween and with a lamp on it ,,Well when Mom saw my new Country Look she said “oH isnt that nice,” i kmow she was ready to kill me,,But this worked for me,,i had barely any plates or dishes..i had barely anything anyway,,So i started going to Garage Sales and i bot dinner plates,,Not a set,,i cudnt afford a whole set,,So i got a plate here and there,,So none of them matched but each was a plate i liked,,Mom said “CONNNIEEEEEEE NONE OF YOUR PLATES IN YOUR CUPBOARD MATCH’?????? ? Well Mom then went directly to the store and bot me a set of dishes,,But i really liked the mismatched ones and used them for every day,,And the ones Mom bot i used for company,,and holidays,,i also bot plastic place mats and they matched,,We didnt have but a little diningroom table..it seated 4 ,,So some of us sat at the table to eat and then i had a little toy table for the littlest kids..Aunt Mary,,Jims sister gave us her big table so that all of us cud sit together,,i still love my big country table..My kitchen only has the counter space of an ironing board,,and no room for a table..So i used my big Aunt Mary table to roll out pies and cookies on,i put a plastic table cloth on it over the wood surface,,But thank God for the Country Look as it gave me confidence to do what i needed to do to make a home with “Whatever”.. love connieh