Reading the post of a dear friend inspired my mind towards simplicity. How I long for simplicity!
My friend attended a personal silent retreat. That has been my dream for YEARS. If I could work it in to my life every year, it would be bliss.
I am sitting at my downstairs computer. Stuff piled everywhere. I walk into the area that used to be our garage. I can not walk without having to step over or around something - ever. In the laundry room I duck around piles of drywall, school desks and chairs that need to be refinished. Upstairs...toys, laundry, books, stuff, stuff, stuff. Out of size or out of season clothes that need to find a home. Bags of clothes for good will. I try to fight the stuff and the stuff fights back harder.
I live with a carpenter - who is really a full time retail associate and part time student with little time for home projects. That little time he has at home he wants to spend with kids or needs to spend on school. Renovations no longer hold the same appeal. Our fixer upper has not been fixed as fast as I would like. I am destined to live in construction for years.
I am so truly blessed to have a house full of love and children. I am so truly blessed that our needs are met and we have clothes and shoes and socks and clothes and shoes and socks (i meant to do that). I feel like I need a hoarder intervention. I am not a hoarder. I just need that organizing crew.
Does simplicity start in the mind or in the home?
This summer we are adding a 6 year old to our family. No, not a foster child...a friend we are watching for the summer. It has been a blessing! Our routine has been strengthened and now I am accountable. I can't just pound around yelling at my children. "M" does not have siblings and I think she enjoys our chaos. It is also helping to simplify. We are finding a bit of order. Time for projects. Time for snacks. Time for the pool. This is the first time our summer has felt like a summer. And...if you knew what my week has been like - you would know this is a pretty miraculous thing!
4 comments:
E, get your hands on the old and new copies of "more with less" (include the cookbook in your purchase!). They are from Mennonite Central Committee. Inspiring and loving and practical. "Living simply with kids" is also good, but not Christian. "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger" and "The American Paradox" are also inspiring me right now but I haven't finished them. More with less is the best place to start, I think. Keep a box to chuck stuff in, take it to the van, and take it to your local St. Vincent de Paul store or other good purpose 2nd hand store. Then do it again the next week!! We're ALWAYS working on getting rid of STUFF so that we can have more order, more life, less grumpy mommy! :)
HAHA! I have the More with Less cookbook. So funny you should mention that. My mother in law was actually a recipe contributor! I didn't realize they had books too. I will look them up. And I do have "Living Simply with Children". Time to pull it out again. And a spiritual book I enjoy (need to pull out again) On Living Simply St John Chrysostom if you are looking for any spiritual reading. :)
I don't like stuff. Seriously, I like our roof over our head and clothes on our bodies, but I hate extra stuff. I hate clutter. We throw out so much trash each week because I don't keep anything that is not useful to me. I take stuff to goodwill all time time! I give toys, books, clothes to friends that could use them. I have a garage sale every summer.
My husband is the opposite. He keeps everything. He has stacks of crap all over the place. The first few years of marriage, I threw out his stuff that I thought was "extra", but he got angry...after that, I started nagging him to get rid of or organize his crap...then about 6 years into our marriage, God gave me the grace to ignore his piles of stuff. There are just certain places in our house that I dump his junk and don't have to look at it.
Our home life is simple. We actually don't have any substantial surplus of stuff...it is mostly just little things, but all those little things cause me to be unsettled at times.
I try to keep everything organized and then if something comes around that doesn't have a place...I either find it a place or donate it or throw it out. simple as that. Works for us.
don't think for a minute that we are living simply, yet! It is a constant struggle for us. I am trying to get rid of one bag a week of either clothes, household stuff or book/toys. It is a challenge but giving me some sort of direction. Love, love, loved our get together today. wish you lived closer!
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