Such a long time since my last blog post.
Why gone so long? There are many reasons, but the biggest is that we have been working toward simplifying our life. And does it ever feel great! Since we have downsized, purged and simplified, we have been spending more time with our kids, our friends, ourselves, and doing more of the things we love.
SO WORTH IT!
There are many articles, blog entries, YouTube videos, just to name a few, about the benefits of living simply and with intention. Believe me I have read and watched ALOT of them. It was an obsession.... and the whole Tiny House movement.... wow!
How did we do it? What have we gained and lost so far? How did we become enlightened...
When we were first married, my husband was working as a musician and landscaper and I cleaned houses and worked in retail. We always lived with intention..... So, when we needed to get some health insurance for our little family, he became the stay at home dad by day and a working musician by night..... I found a better job.
We have taken care of aging family members, raised our little family, worked, volunteered countless hours..... with very few vacations, little downtime.
We would not change a thing.... okay maybe bad food choices, exercising more and taking more vacations.... We have always tried to live our life with as few regrets as we could, but we do have some.
We love our life. We were able to raise our little family without daycare, teach our children by example to be loving and generous adults.... We have life-long friends. However, we are not perfect. Our life was not always easy, in fact there were times when it was downright unbearable, but we made it. Our little family is very close, very supportive of each other, very loving to one another and our growing little family.
During that time of our life, not only did we gather memories and friends, we also accumulated a lot of stuff. In fact we had filled a 2500 square foot house with stuff. As our children grew and moved into their own places, they took a lot of their things with them. That really helped to lighten the load.
However, with my husband being a musician, he had quite the collection of gear and guitars. We won't even discuss my collection of yarn, fabric, paint, canvases, paper, beads, wire, tools..... yes, let's not discuss that.
It took us quite a bit of time to learn that we did not need all of the material items we had built up over the years. With intention, we would clean out one closet, one cabinet, one drawer at a time. We would put back what we felt we really needed, move to the garage the stuff we thought we might need and donate (or trash) anything we knew we did not need at all. It took time, effort, thoughtfulness, even tears. Once we got going, it became easier and easier. We would then go through the items that were moved to the garage, asking ourselves did we really use or need those items in the last few months. If not (and most of the time we didn't), it was donated. We would go back through each closet, cabinet and drawer a second, third and sometimes even a fourth time. You would be surprised at the things we thought we needed would eventually be donated! This process took a couple of years until finally we were only using our bedroom, one bathroom (of four), the kitchen, the family and dining rooms.
During the time we were purging all of our stuff, we were letting go of areas of our lives that were filling up so much of our time. We volunteered so much that we did not have any time to ourselves. There were people in our lives that brought a lot of drama and drained our energy. Even a job change... again, this took time, effort, thoughtfulness and tears.
What amazed me was that once we had started letting go of things, people and activities.... we became more enlightened. We became more intentional, more productive. Best of all, we started to have joy back in our lives. Some people did not understand what we were doing, even acted like we were nuts!
We moved to a small, one level condo. No more yard work, very little house chores, very little drama.
Instead more fun, a lot more time with our friends, a lot more time with our little growing family and a lot more doing what we love to do.
ENLIGHTENED life....
Why gone so long? There are many reasons, but the biggest is that we have been working toward simplifying our life. And does it ever feel great! Since we have downsized, purged and simplified, we have been spending more time with our kids, our friends, ourselves, and doing more of the things we love.
SO WORTH IT!
There are many articles, blog entries, YouTube videos, just to name a few, about the benefits of living simply and with intention. Believe me I have read and watched ALOT of them. It was an obsession.... and the whole Tiny House movement.... wow!
How did we do it? What have we gained and lost so far? How did we become enlightened...
When we were first married, my husband was working as a musician and landscaper and I cleaned houses and worked in retail. We always lived with intention..... So, when we needed to get some health insurance for our little family, he became the stay at home dad by day and a working musician by night..... I found a better job.
We have taken care of aging family members, raised our little family, worked, volunteered countless hours..... with very few vacations, little downtime.
We would not change a thing.... okay maybe bad food choices, exercising more and taking more vacations.... We have always tried to live our life with as few regrets as we could, but we do have some.
We love our life. We were able to raise our little family without daycare, teach our children by example to be loving and generous adults.... We have life-long friends. However, we are not perfect. Our life was not always easy, in fact there were times when it was downright unbearable, but we made it. Our little family is very close, very supportive of each other, very loving to one another and our growing little family.
During that time of our life, not only did we gather memories and friends, we also accumulated a lot of stuff. In fact we had filled a 2500 square foot house with stuff. As our children grew and moved into their own places, they took a lot of their things with them. That really helped to lighten the load.
However, with my husband being a musician, he had quite the collection of gear and guitars. We won't even discuss my collection of yarn, fabric, paint, canvases, paper, beads, wire, tools..... yes, let's not discuss that.
It took us quite a bit of time to learn that we did not need all of the material items we had built up over the years. With intention, we would clean out one closet, one cabinet, one drawer at a time. We would put back what we felt we really needed, move to the garage the stuff we thought we might need and donate (or trash) anything we knew we did not need at all. It took time, effort, thoughtfulness, even tears. Once we got going, it became easier and easier. We would then go through the items that were moved to the garage, asking ourselves did we really use or need those items in the last few months. If not (and most of the time we didn't), it was donated. We would go back through each closet, cabinet and drawer a second, third and sometimes even a fourth time. You would be surprised at the things we thought we needed would eventually be donated! This process took a couple of years until finally we were only using our bedroom, one bathroom (of four), the kitchen, the family and dining rooms.
During the time we were purging all of our stuff, we were letting go of areas of our lives that were filling up so much of our time. We volunteered so much that we did not have any time to ourselves. There were people in our lives that brought a lot of drama and drained our energy. Even a job change... again, this took time, effort, thoughtfulness and tears.
What amazed me was that once we had started letting go of things, people and activities.... we became more enlightened. We became more intentional, more productive. Best of all, we started to have joy back in our lives. Some people did not understand what we were doing, even acted like we were nuts!
We moved to a small, one level condo. No more yard work, very little house chores, very little drama.
Instead more fun, a lot more time with our friends, a lot more time with our little growing family and a lot more doing what we love to do.
ENLIGHTENED life....