still simplifing

(Aaron and his great-grandpa taking a walk
Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful day!!)

Minutes keep ticking.
Days keep passing.
August is here already!

Around the end of last year God began to make it clear to me I need to work on simplifying some things in my life. I got overwhelmed so easily.

So that's what we've been working on here at our house.

But it's getting difficult.

It's getting down to the nitty-gritty. Obviously, at the start of this project seeing and eliminating things that were complicated, clutter or causing chaos was easy.

I keep praying and asking God, "what's next?"

Some days thinking "simplify" when I have a busy almost 3 yr old and a even busier almost 1 yr old sounds like a crazy feat. But I know it's not impossible. But there are moments, some days many moments that I forget it's not impossible.

Aaron will hear me sigh and ask "momma, you happy?" He's my personal in-house monitor, keeping my attitude in check. I try not to sigh, or sigh loudly, but almost 3 yr olds are very observant!

July was busy, but no necessarily complicated. Aaron is still 2 and I'd thought and somewhat planned on doing pretty structured tot-school time activities each day. Which I still might do. But not to the level I originally thought. I think I got a little carried away thinking and planning. Even though he will turn three next month I'm not going to throw too much school at him yet. I taught the 3yr old class where I used to work and loved it! Loved it! Such a great age! I'm excited as I remember what the third year of life looked like for all those little souls! All those light bulbs that I saw go off in their head as they learned something new or figured something out all by themselves!

This past month I've also been working on understanding my role as wife and mother. It often seems unreal what those titles require of me. But I've found my peace and footing for the day by starting it very early. Sleeping in always sounds good, but I know getting up early is better. I used to get up early all.the.time. to swim or run. Then when my first baby was born I slipped out of my early morning habits. Now getting that habit back feels great! I love my quiet morning time. It's my simple peaceful time to read my Bible and praying about the day ahead.

This was a long post for a Monday! If you're still with me, all that rambling was to say... Yes, I'm still on the "simplify" bandwagon, but the road seems to be getting difficult for so many reasons. Maybe by next month I'll have worked through some of them and more things will make sense to me.

May & June Simplified

If you read my blog very often you might notice I didn't do a "May Simplified" post.

The last two months have been full and challenging and good.

I want to continue to simplify, but I'm not sure "simplify" is the right word for what I'm really striving. "Simplify" is a popular word thrown around everywhere.

I'm going for something more, something deeper.

My husband recently gave me an assignment. He sent me off to go read John 14-16. I've read the Bible through many times, and I've read John many, many times! But I said OK and was obedient. I went off to read.

This time I noticed what Jesus was leaving the disciples with, what He was giving them... peace.

^14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you;
not as the world gives do I give to you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

^16:33 These things I have spoken to you,
that in Me you may have peace. In the world
you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world.”

Now I'm assigning myself homework to study into this more! So these "simplified" posts might be morphing into "His peace" posts.

As for the visible, tangible things that have been going on around here...

In May our kitchen and front room went from THIS (before) to THIS (after) I LOVE all the space and can't believe we didn't knock that wall down sooner! Why oh why did it take us almost seven years to do this? We still have little things to finish up here and there... then I'll hopefully get around to posting more finishing up photos.

Back in June I also deleted my Facebook account. Yes, DELETED, not just deactivated. I had several reasons to end my relationship with FB. I have no problem with others using it, but it's not for me. It's been two months and I haven't missed it, so I know it was the right thing for me to do.

An unexpected simplification came when our fridge died... AS we were walking out the door for a day trip in the next state over! Obviously, not a planned way to simplify things. (Now our fridge is decluttered and it's contents have been simplified!) Thankfully we didn't have a completely full fridge of food. We were able to use some fridge space at my parents and borrow a mini fridge. The rest we were able to deep freeze or keep on ice in coolers until our new one arrived.

I'm also still doing my mid-week prayer and planning mini-retreat. Recently I found I could go to a hotel lobby! (I learned this tip from the book The Mission of Motherhood... have you read it?) Sounds funny, but most places close at NINE! (sometimes I just need a little more time... I often can't get away until 7-7:30) But we have a really nice new hotel not too far from us! Just having the space cut out in my week to sit (away from home) to menu plan, read, journal and pray over the week ahead has been such a blessing! I keep prayer journals for both kids and it's often during this time I sit and write my prayers out for them. Wednesday's have really worked out for me to have that pocket cut out of the middle of my week.

In a small way e-cloths have helped simplify my life. Cleaning with just water! Can't get much easier or better than that! I now mop many times each WEEK! It's so easy and fast and now that our great room is so open and bright you can really see if the floor is clean or not! (not to mention I have a baby floor inspector living with us!) Another favorite cloth is the Glass & Polishing cloth that came with the bathroom pack! wow. They are amazing! I used to just ignore the fingerprints on our windows all.the.time. Now I get a little excited when I see them and I grab my cloth and quickly make the windows sparkle!

Thanks for reading this little glimpse of my progress.

I wait quietly before God,
for my victory comes from Him. Ps 62:1

Be still, and know that I am God! Ps 46:10

April simplified

This month was the prep work for our big project coming in May. We (well... I don't know how much I will actually be doing... besides keeping the little once clear of construction and feeding the hungry worker(s).) :-)

Our garage has been more of a storage-of-stuff place rather than a place for a car for a few years. Somehow kids did this, but I'm not really blaming them, they didn't pile the stuff out there. :-) We had a "garage day" cleaning like crazy. reorganizing. sorting. and giving & throwing things away. By simplifying our things, Project-Wall-Removal in May will go smoother. Once the wall is gone D will have to install new flooring... a clean, organized garage will give him a place to work!

new recipes for the month:
homemade granola bars
We LOVE these! I didn't have enough chocolate chips so I added about a cup and a half fresh blueberries! Total WIN! Thanks Jolanthe! We also didn't use as much sugar as it calls for and they were still excellent!
sloppy lentils
Another winner at our house! I completely did NOT have my brain on the night I made these and did pretty much everything wrong or backwards but they still were fantastic! Props to Lindsay!
crock pot ragout Another quick simple and yummy one from Lindsey!

I now am the proud owner of two sprouting lids... I didn't realize how much easier these would make soaking and sprouting things! I would have got them months ago! Definite. simplify. here!

It seems to be a common thing now... but again I took a trunk load of clothes and things to donate. It feels great! I love giving things away. I am choosing not to sell b/c I don't have the time to do all the prep work and I think it would be healthiest for me to just get rid of these things that are taking up precious square footage and not being used.

And last but CERTAINLY not least I began taking a weekly prayer and planning retreat, all by myself. alone. escaping. quiet. peace. relaxation. getting collected. praying over the coming week. list making. menu planning. It's been the best thing in the middle of my week. I go Wednesday so I can more accurately menu plan after picking up my weekly co-op food order on Tuesday. Again I'm linking Passionate Homemaking, but this month she's inspired me so much! You can read more about taking a personal retreat on her post. I would encourage all mom's to do this weekly or monthly! I also brought back my home planning journal. I originally made it using The Fly Lady's Control Journal. I liked it, but for whatever reason I didn't keep up with it. Now I've updated it using some suggestions from Lindsey. I think it will work for me this time around.

One final note... my sister sent me this article... something about it made her think of me in my quest to simplify, find quiet, make time and be surrounded by beauty.

So that's a glimpse of what's been SIMPLY going on at my house.

I wait quietly before God,
for my victory comes from Him. Ps 62:1

Be still, and know that I am God! Ps 46:10

March simplified.

This month I simplified my kitchen by getting rid of our microwave and toaster and replacing them with a small toaster oven. I knew the microwave was a bad thing and did dangerous stuff to our food but once I finally read into the info it was easy to know I wouldn't be using it so no need to take up precious counter space. My friend is doing a microwave experiment. Can't wait to see the results!

I also simplified things by sorting through ALL of Miss L's clothes. We've been blessed by many, many friends giving us their clothes. So many clothes that she could never have worn them all... and many were already too small and she hadn't even had a chance to wear them. It was quite the project that took over the living room like a baby clothes store explosion for a few days, but it was well worth it! Now her clothes are neatly boxed and labeled!

This month didn't have too many designated "simplifying" of things but we did go on a family vacation for a week. In a way, this was my favorite way of simplifying for the month. We have a 6mo old and a 2.5 yr old and I was quite proud of how little we brought with us! There were actually a few things we didn't even use! Like the stroller. It was a small umbrella stroller, but it was much easier to just carry Miss L in the sling. Sling instead of stroller... ALWAYS a great way to simplify! We knew there would be a washer and drier so we didn't bring clothes for every day, but I still found I brought too many clothes for Miss L and myself. (maybe it's a girl thing :-) ) I didn't bring my computer... but I did bring my vitamix. :-) I was able to check my email on my family members computers once in awhile, but it was nice to have that break. My vitamix on the other hand did not get a vacation. I think we used it several times everyday!

I'm excited for my first simplifying task for April... it's already underway and I think it has fantastic potential! stay tuned!

Do you have any good tips to simplify your life?

______________
February simplified.
January simplified.
Simplifying.

I wait quietly before God,
for my victory comes from Him. Ps 62:1

Be still, and know that I am God! Ps 46:10

February simple

This month I've continued to work on simplifying my life, which came in the form of organization.

1. I bagged up 3 trash bags of clothes we don't wear to donate. Some of these clothes hadn't been worn in 10 years! Why, oh why did we let them take up precious square footage in our small house?! I need to do plenty more de-cluttering, but this is a start.
2. My husband put up tons of shelving in the laundry room and TONS of shelving in the garage! Our kitchen is pretty big and open but with very little storage and no pantry. I'm SO excited about all my "kitchen" storage space in the garage! I'm working on finding a good place to store everything, a place that makes sense, that is logical.
3. I unsubscribed from a bunch more blogs in my Google reader. I just don't have time to read them. I'm going on a low information diet. Less is better!
4. Again I took a break from blogging. This break was less planned and more forced. We had some illnesses and I had a BIG book to finish for my book club... so blogging was pushed lower on my list.

This simplifying thing is actually getting pretty exciting! Being overloaded, over crowded, over scheduled is not.

I wait quietly before God,
for my victory comes from Him. Ps 62:1

Be still, and know that I am God! Ps 46:10

January

Hmm... what have I done to simplify my life this past month.

1. I've cut back on blogging.
2. I've read more of the Bible and less other books (I usually have about 3-5 going at once... I'm down to about 2) :-)
3. Less time reading blogs and on the computer in general.

I'm still working on these and I still have my moments of crazy... but still striving for simple.

I wait quietly before God,
for my victory comes from Him. Ps 62:1

Be still, and know that I am God! Ps 46:10