Living simply

Just a few short weeks ago, I figured out the secret to life.   It looks so lovely and neat in that post, I could have stamped a big, fat, curly-cursive "And They Lived Happily Ever After" at the end of it. 

Everything in that post was absolutely true and remains absolutely true.  We shifted our financial perspective and have stuck to our goals, overall.....pretty well.  We remain dedicated to frugality as it seems the right course for us.

But, money is just a small part of it--an essential part because I think shedding materialism from the list of what life has to offer eliminates at least a few crummy choices from the endless choices human beings have in regards to how to spend our time (most Americans above the poverty level anyway). 

Money is just part of the Big Picture.  The real goal is that of simple living in all ways.  Simple.  Deliberate. The secret to a happy, fulfilled life. 

Here's what simple living looked like in my journal a few weeks ago:




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*write out my morning routine and stick to it every morning
*order seeds, plan our garden, work out in the garden
*Homeschool planning and reflecting
*Homeschool documenting (which I haven't done in a while)
*Work on my history class
*Get to the mall (blech!!!) at some point to get a couple of shirts because I have eliminated everything I don't wear and I don't have ONE Thing I like to put on that is for warm weather.
*Write more in this space.
*Run/Get into really good shape for the River to River Relay in 5 1/2 weeks.
*Laundry
*Meal plan, grocery shop, and do some more recipe hunting to further reduce our grocery bill
*Cook more--healthier, whole food meals.
*Spend time just being with the girls.
*Do actual school with the girls
*Make time for more celebrations
*Savor bedtime with the Bryan and the girls.
*Write and illustrate Caroline a story for her upcoming birthday (because I know she would love it).
*Make Caroline a skirt for her bday (because she asked for one), which reminds me that I should also at some point work on finishing that huge crochet project I started for her a year ago.
*Keep simplifying/purging stuff. Right now: we can barely open the playroom door. And the Utility room? It currently holds the contents of our massive January purge and is on the verge of erupting to the point we will have to sort through it all again.
*Keep up with the impressive daily mess here.
*Carve out down time for nothing if it is desired
*Carve out journal/introspective/spirituality time
*Carve out husband and wife time
*Call or email some of my friends whom I have been neglecting (including my sister-in-law)
*Go visit/talk to my parents
*Go see my Grandmother at the nursing home
*Spend more time planning and organizing in general.
*Finish my other grandmother's biography I've got 20 hours or so into.
*Develop ideas for teaching a class next year to home-schoolers for pay.
*Work on some stress reduction techniques to help with my digestive problems
*volunteer in some way---because isn't most of this list perhaps too narcisstic and narrowly focused? which reminds me....
*I want to Write a Better Story. i.e. Work on being a better human being--giving more in all of my important relationships and contributing beyond myself and my family.
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Uh-huh.  How simple of me.  I would like to gently point out to myself (because that it who I am talking to :) ), that simple living is not synonymous with perfect living.

Not surprisingly, I have since swung wildly from this to-do list to doing almost nothing.  I lost my homeschooling groove, let the tomato seedlings suffer,  and stopped simplifying the house (I did keep exercising, though.  Thank you, Mr. Habit).  I checked out in a lot of ways.  I dropped almost all semblance of a routine and retreated to reading blogs and facebook on my phone in too much of my spare time.  cool, huh?

And then Gary got really sick with a mysterious illness and Bryan lost his job.

For weeks and weeks, I've tried to write a "survival guide" or a personal "bible" that would serve as an aid to helping me actually live this "deliberate/happy/peaceful life.  Lots of ideas spinning in my head, but I was so frustrated at my inability to tie them into the cohesive, neat whole I wanted. 


Jenna reading to Caroline next to our tiny seedlings.  The kids managed to learn and play lots even in my check-out mode.  

I'm now convinced I couldn't write it because I was in my goal-focused, perfectionist, narcissistic mode that leads me to care too much about what simple living looks like.  (And to defend myself just a bit, I also love and am interested in so many different things and get excited so easily, I can get a bit...overwhelmed with all that I want to do).  

I've got a bit of  perspective right now.  Based on past experience, it won't last forever, so I'm going to jump on it while I have the chance.


To be continued....