Oh sweet friends, this life we are on is a journey isn’t it?

I am hear to tell you that in the midst of busy, chaos, changes and decisions I have felt a simple yet consistent pull to SIMPLIFY. Simplify from the soul out to the world. Simplify my processes, my space, my to do lists. Simplify my thoughts, pace, finances and frustrations.

But it’s kind of ironic how COMPLICATED I can make the journey of simplifying… Trying to make lists for everything, plan every part into every day, and become overwhelmed with the hugeness of how much needs simplifying.

This is part of the problem. My life has always been chaos, running here and there making changes and trying new things without sitting back and evaluating the why behind the choices and where the value lies.

When we were at the Awesome Life Retreat last weekend we did a wonderful Clarifying Values workshop with Jeana from The Coaching Connection and the same thing kept coming up. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.

And so here I am, letting you know that I am starting further down this journey of simplifying my life. I know that it won’t be a perfect journey, and this is in an imperfect post, but if I keep waiting to have the perfect post, or the perfect plan, my life will be at a stand still.

Here is my basic plan to simplify :

Use one page per day and don’t worry about the rest. Write what needs to be done, our schedule, random thoughts, grocery list…whatever that day needs on that one page. If it doesn’t all get completed that day, carry forward to a new day and get rid of yesterday’s page. Let go of what didn’t get done, move forward to today. If I need to write down a huge master to do list to get it out of my mind that’s ok, but it’s not what I want to be working from. In fact, I want the to do list to get paired down in general so I have more time to just BE.

Start each day with prayer, journaling and quiet. I certainly was one for picking up my phone when my eyes opened in the morning to see what messages I had, what emailed needed dealing with and would instantly get overwhelmed with STUFF. Without intending to I was already setting myself up for an overwhelming thought day. By putting my faith as my foundation for the day, and starting with quiet in my heart (by waking up BEFORE my kids, not to the sound of them calling my name) I have found overall to have a better start to the day.

To me Simple = SLOW

I used to run around all day and feel like it was a huge accomplishment to just get a million little things done. Now I feel like the best times, the times when I am happiest, are the times when we are moving just a little bit slower. Having time for tickles, story reading, gardening and colouring. I am in the process of cutting out unnecessary busyness and running here and there.

To me Simple = Less Expenses, Less Stuff & Less Spending

Often the reason we feel like we need to be super busy is to make more money to buy more stuff, or to pay for more childcare, newer, different, “better”. But if we simplify the STUFF we have we can see how little we actually need.

I will emphasize that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS for me. I read the Secret Art of Tidying Up and it was a good read, and has certainly helped in the process, but where I struggle is in the time that it takes to go through all the stuff. I am actually writing this from taking a break from decluttering. This morning I filled the back of my Forrester with another load of stuff that is getting gone. Seriously I have lost count and we still have so much! I’ve been trying to in general buy less in everything, from groceries to clothes, books and toys.

PS I have been loving the Overdrive App for being able to download books to online “borrow” from the library. It saves money AND it means less books lying around the house. (Especially when more than half of the books I read I have been not been finishing!)

We are getting our house ready to list for sale (It’s an awesome house and we are definitely having mixed feelings on selling, but when we evaluate what we want in terms of our values : we want a smaller home, smaller expense, less driving and even still less stuff.)

We’re being picky. I do not want to be running here and there and everywhere to a hundred lessons and classes, we’re option for one thing at a time. One commitment per child.