Sanctuary
Individuality
Motivating
Purposeful
Living
Imaginative
Connectivity
Intelligent
Teamwork
Yert (Yes well, yerts (hut-like structures) are simple anyway! What else was I going to type for Y?)
The Simplicity Project (TSP) is big. What I am finding is that TSP is not made up of one big idea or plan. It is, however, made up of a lot of little ideas, attitudes, and of course projects. I haven’t dumped out every toy in hopes of restructuring the whole house in one day…yet.
I did what every good perfectionist procrastinator does – crafts! I have so much do to it seems a bit daunting and the results so incredibly faraway. So, I gave myself permission to get a little thing done. It is only a teaspoon of completion in a lake full of life goals but the reward of completing a project that was over one year old is priceless.
I made the blue photo frame on the left at a Mother of Preschoolers (MOPS) meeting four years ago for my son Ryan. When Molly came along, I purchased a second blank frame from the MOPS leftover craft cupboard with intentions of making a similar frame for my darling daughter. Now she is already 15 months old!
Ryan as a newborn. Molly at 12 months.
Both frames are just paper mache-type cardboard and are cheaper than cheap, but I think they look pretty cute with the personalization.
1. Limits If it can be done in 1/2 hour – do it, but only once in a while. It is too easy for me to start digging out crafts and seasonal decorations and never stop! The goal is to simplify my life, not layer it so badly I can’t see where I am going.
2. Satisfaction This should be fun. Hey if organizing, planning, and simplifying get me tied up in knots of regret and dissatisfaction they are not working. It felt really good to get a little thing done. Insert pat on back here.
3. The Lily Effect There is a story of a crabby, messy hermit that one day receives a lily in a vase from a neighbor. The messy decides to clear off his table to set the lily on. He washes the table then stops to clean off the chairs so he can sit by the flower. Pretty soon he cleans the whole house and starts doing maintenance work. Somewhere along the way he changes his heart and opens his home to his neighborhood. Doing one small thing can change your outlook on the entirety of a project or idea.
The kids are back! Where did they go? Well nowhere physically. However I can feel their sweetness return again. I go in and out of cycles with my kids of joy and frustration. I just spent the last few days joining the cycle of joy again. I hope to stay there too it is way more fun! Though I know there will be days…
The TV bit the dust (figuratively). It was very nice to have simplicity on the forefront of my mind as I unplugged the TV. Two whole days. Well it was a start anyway. I spent two days detoxing my almost four year old from morning cartoons (while Mommy gets ready for the day) and mid-morning cartoon (while Mommy puts Molly down for a nap) and an afternoon movie (while Mommy gets quiet time during Molly’s second nap).
The hardest part was admitting I was getting sucked back into a TV = Babysitter mode that I used while Molly was a newborn (last summer). Back then I really was okay with that lifestyle because I needed to do what ever it took to function and I knew it would be short lived.
So to break in down. I sought TSP out to help gear my motives in child-rearing, life-learning and house-keeping into a healthy and happy direction.
3 Steps in Keeping it Real, Real Simple.
TSP is well under way like dreams in my head. Dreams are the fertilizer for my idea seeds. My first idea seed was was to remove everything from the living room, including selling the TV, for a month. We have a beyond well-worn and stained carpet to rip out in that room and a new laminate floor to install (waiting the garage). Why not empty the space, update the floor and let our minds feel free to imagine what we need and desire from that room? Not having a secondary living space cramps that plan for now. I suppose it was too radical.
The actual definition of simplicity from Wikipedia is the following:
Simplicity is the property, condition, or quality of being simple or uncombined. It often denotes beauty, purity or clarity. Simple things are usually easier to explain and understand than complicated ones. Simplicity can mean freedom from hardship, effort or confusion. It may also refer to a simple living lifestyle.
I am not simple. My roles, relationships and re…(darn what’s a good r word here?) are all very combined. I respect the way God made my heart, soul and mind in a web of connections, complexities and creativity. So what am I doing with The Simplicity Project? Do I want to go live in a bubble free from challenge, growth opportunity or noise?
Q: Can I incorporate my suburban part-time stay-at-home Mom world-living God-fearing self into Simplicity?
A: The simplicity I long for is not a destination as much as a condition I can develop to see a bit more clarity and beauty along my dusty trail here on Earth until the moment I come face to face with the ultimate Beauty and all the confusion is washed away.
3 Idea Seed Fertilizers
