Good morning!!

My mind is racing a bit this morning – I have A LOT of stuff to get done!! I just have to stop in my tracks and decide what is important to the big picture and what isn’t! As you may know, I have been really trying to simplify my life/home/work etc. etc. etc. Some of it is working BEAUTIFULLY and some of it is proving to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. You see, I have a sponsor child in Mozambique. I have been sponsoring her for about 2 1/2 years now and I try to write at least one letter to her every month. She has basically nothing, and lives in a one-room hut with her entire family; so when I write to her I am not supposed to comment about what we have, or give too many details about anything that might make her feel bad about not having much herself. That really wasn’t leaving me with too much to talk about and I was really having a hard time not repeating myself to her letter after letter – how often can you talk about the weather???

Anyway, about 6 months ago, while trying to come up with topics for my little girl’s letter, I made the realization that my life had become more about things and possessions then it did about people and experiences – that is what started me on this journey. I wanted to, and am currently working on transforming myself into a people focused, experience loving person!!! I finally understood that when I die, none of these ‘things’ are going to go with me, why had a placed so much importance in them???? So, that is where I am and how this whole journey came about!!!!

There had been some basic housekeeping-type duties that were falling by the wayside, and it was really starting to depress me, so I started looking for ways that I could make those weekly duties much more simplified!! What I came with, so far, looks something like this:

• Make the bed and empty the dishwasher every morning
• If needed, cycle the laundry as soon as I get home from work and then fold the clothes in bedroom, so that they can get put away right on the spot
• Every evening set out clothes the night before to make getting ready in the morning a breeze
• Tuesdays is the dogs’ bath day
• Saturday mornings are cleaning mornings, including sweeping/ mopping/vacuuming floors, thorough cleaning of  bathrooms, and changing bedding
• Sunday is cooking day: pre-prepare foods/meals/lunches to help make preparing meals a little quicker and easier (for example: making a large pot of veggie soups in handy to-go containers so that you can just grab and go for lunches)

So far this has been going really well, and has made it possible to get a lot more important/fun things done during the week!!! Spending more time with family and friends, and more time getting out there and LIVING MY LIFE!!!! 😉

Other, bigger, simplifying things I have been doing have been:

• Getting rid of unwanted book
• Magazines
• DVDs
• Purging old/unnecessary paperwork in my office/craft room
• Deciding what craft supplies to keep/donate
• What clothes/accessories/jewelry I wear/don’t wear
• Really taking stock of what is important in my life and what is not

So far, not everything has been easy, but it has been worth it! I can’t wait to see where I end up with all of this, but I really want to get off of the materialistic rat race that I had seemed to stuck on. I think that is where my idea of living on a small farm stemmed from, and the more I dream about it, the more excited I get about actually winding up there!!!

As for now, my morning chores are done, and I am heading off to work!!!

Have a FABULOUS morning!!! 😉