I have this theory that I operate under and it goes something like this: If I just leave it up to the universe, I will eventually get whatever it is I want. It might not be on my terms, but, in the words of Mick Jagger, “You can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need”. My husband simply says I have the ability to tell the universe which way it moves. I don’t think I’m quite that powerful, but I do like the way he thinks.

Lately I’ve been thinking I’d like to have another freezer in the basement, because I’ve filled the one we have down there up already – and yes, we do cycle through it, I clean it out at least once a year, but it’s still early August, there is so much more seasonal produce I’d love to put up myself and let’s face it, freezing is easier and cooler (no pun intended) than canning. I mentioned this to a friend and yesterday morning, there was an email from her, connecting me with someone who has a freezer to give away free to a good home.

I like to say we have a charmed life – there are alot of great things about our life, but flush with cash is not one of them. Sometimes getting through a month has it’s frustrations. Alot of what we have I have somehow managed to score a deal on. Our big splurge is food – fresh, local, organic. If I could get over wanting to know exactly where my food comes from, we might have a little more cash in pocket in every month. But I’m not quite there yet.

Part of our charmed life are these little reminders, like a free to a good home freezer. My house is full of things others have discarded because I still find life in them. Our living room curtains? Found at a yard sale this spring for a whopping 50 cents. My closet upstairs is chock full of my favorite label Talbots, 95% of which has been purchased for under $5 at some thrift store around town, usually with the original tag still on it. My sewing machine went kaput? Uncle Kevin thought it would be a great idea to buy Aunt Jenny a new one for Christmas and apparently bought her a few until he found just the right one and so I got a new one out of the deal too, because he had already wrapped it and it was too much trouble to unwrap and return. I wanted some peaches, but couldn’t quite figure out when I was going to find time to go pick them when Betty called and offered up that box sitting on her porch she couldn’t deal with, so I got it and canned a little over a case of peaches and got a huge cobbler out of it to boot.

Occaisonally I do have small meltdowns worrying about how I’m going to make this or that happen. And when I do, my dear husband always reminds me that if I just sit back and not worry about it, whatever I think is a problem will resolve itself. I just have to be open to the way it happens. And usually, it happens in a way that is win-win. Like my free freezer.