Decluttering my life

Or more aptly put, SIMPLIFY! 

What is clutter?  Well, frankly what's clutter to me might not be to you and vice verse.  Clutter in life can be hard to bear.  I really don't like being in a house surrounded by clutter that has no purpose.  It sure seems that I am surrounded by it often enough though.  Too many things....  sometimes when you have too much stuff crowding you they push the stuff that really matters out, so all we are left with is chaos.

Do you every feel like this?  Don't get me wrong, I can fly by the seat of my pants, but I want a little order in the pockets. 

This year I started a long process of decluttering and simplifying my life.  I am a work in progress, but I am making progress.  Here are a few highlights of things I have done and things I am working on.

1. Start saying no, as hard as it is say it.  The word NO has to be in my vocabulary.
2. Prioritize so that the things that really matter aren't as stressful. 
3. Less Facebook time....  yeah no more facebook games.
4. Stop blaming.....  Even though someone may have done something I consider a injustice to me, I have recently really and truly gave it over to God.  After years of holding on to it in my heart.  I still have moments, but I don't have the pain I once did.
5. Blog...  yep, sometimes just writing about something can help to focus and first and foremost this blog is likened to a journal for me.  Of course I love getting feedback.  I love connecting with readers and reading their insights into things.
6. Downsize our closets--yeah we need to make more space and down size our closets.  Maybe then searching for something to wear wont be an impossible mess.  We did some in January, but need to do more.  The Hubs is convinced our clothes have offspring.........He might be right....
7. Organize better.  When my house is a messy clutter my mind feels like a messy clutter and my temper quickly follows suit.  I have just found that when the house is picked up and things somewhat in a place I feel better about myself and am more calm and I feel like I can allow myself to relax. 
8. Less TV.  This is harder than I thought it would be.....
9. Get a workable "chore" schedule for Bear, that she can understand and works for her.--This has been hard.  We have been through a couple different systems.  Sometimes I think I expect too much!
10. Simplify our diets and eat more WHOLE foods.  This is not a temporary change but a life style change and part of the plan I put before the family this year.  We need doable not some highfalutin diet or some "in" fad diet right now.  So many of those fads come and go.  What we are doing and attempting to do is change and revert to a more old fashioned way of eating.  I guess old fashioned is a good way to put it.  Eating what we grow.  Making our own from scratch foods, eating out less, etc.  I am continually shocked by the diets of people that do claim to be "healthy" and are thin.  I am also convinced that a lot of health issues that we have in this nation are because of processed and dead food that we are feeding our body.  Yes this means I will be fermenting more foods this fall.  Making my own yogurt again, canning foods, dehydrating again this fall, making our own fruit snacks, and keeping our refrigerator a bit more bare but full of better foods.  Hubs will soon be taking a bigger lunch (which we are changing how we call our meals as well, but I will post about that later--and why we are) and the evening meal will be lighter and earlier, allowing for a healthy snack if needed of fruit and or protein.  Yeah, some things I have slowly been implementing but in the coming weeks as we forge ahead in our simplification of life, more things will be changing. 

So each step is a daily choice. Somethings are easier to do and change and others take more time.  Nothing is done all at once.  But in the end, we will have made some very important steps toward simplification.  Now if we can just get rid of the TV......

A friend just announced to the world that they are moving onto a sail boat.  She homeschools her two littles.  Her daughter is a friend of Bears.  Please check out her blog Outdoor Family Adventure.  Let her know I had you stop by. I personally dream of doing something similar for a season, but on dry land.  I also know it isn't doable for everyone and while I dream about it I know right now this isn't for us.  All in God's time. Good luck my friend!

Love to each of you my gentle friends.  Many of you are inspiration to me in so many ways!