Simplicity

I am reading a really good book. Actually, I have read it once and am working my way through a second time. And yes, if I've talked to you about this, you're probably already rolling your eyes. Now Amy is posting about it? Things are really getting out of hand ;).

But it kind of summarizes this place in life where I currently find myself. And it explains a bit of what I've been up to lately. The book is called Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider. How many people do you know without a vowel in their first name? Now you (kind of) know one. Anyways, it is a great book. A really great book.

What is this great book about, you ask? Well, the subtitle gives you an idea, the clutter free approach to intentional living. The first part of the book talks about creating a family mission statement to guide all kinds of decisions about how you use your time and resources. I don't know if other people relate, but since making the choice to stay at home, I feel like I've been bombarded with options. And this is a good thing. (It's funny I used to wonder if staying at home might be boring. Ha.) There are toddler groups and classes, opportunities to work part-time in certain arenas, ministries, etc. etc. etc. When I was teaching, it was easy to focus on doing that well. The little bit of leftover time was easily consumed with family and friends. Now, time is a little bit trickier. There is a whole lot more of it, but not as much as you might think (when you count all that eating and sleeping time). It can easily be absorbed in dozens of great activities. But I don't want to look back on these years and see that I ran around from thing to thing, doing twelve things that I really was not passionate about. I want to choose every thing on my calendar because it fits with what we're about as a family.

So we wrote the family mission statement. We wrote the (surprisingly long) list of weekly and monthly commitments. And we put everything on the chopping block. It was a great process. The result? Quite a few changes are on the horizon in the next few months. And I'm hoping we do this continuously. It'll certainly be necessary, I think.

Part two of the book? The household purge. After a whole lot of motivating (and a little bit of guilt, but not too much ;)), she guides you through one room in your house at a time. We're only a few days in and have been thrilled with the piles of things that are leaving our home. How is it possible that in just 2.5 years of living in a space, we've accumulated so much? Clara is only some of the answer.

Is there anything as freeing as watching bins and piles leave your house, never to return? At this exact moment in time I can honestly say no!

Now I do acknowledge that this book was just what I needed to read at this moment in time. It might not be what you need. After recommending it to a few friends who have gone out and bought it, I'm a bit worried. It might not be all that great for where they find themselves in life at the moment. But then again, if you did buy it, I bet you'd get something out of it. Even if you already have a family mission statement and a perfectly purged home ;).