Simplify

Simplicity.  I love the sound of it.  A clutter less house.  Everything in it's place.  A simple schedule with time to work...time to read...time to exercise...time to play.  Fresh food from the garden.  Evenings with friends and wine and great conversation.  This would be my simple life....except I have kids. 

My reality is baby toys all over the living room (only 5 minutes after I picked them all up). Children's rooms that look like a tornado hit.  Dog hair on the carpet even though I just vacuumed 30 minutes ago. Another night of eggs for supper because I haven't had time to get to the grocery store.  An overgrown garden with watermelon literally growing out in the road because I haven't tended it like I should.  3 children who are loud, adventurous and busy.  Time with friends with our children, wine alongside the milk, great conversations amongst the rambunctious play. A beautiful, funny, sometimes chaotic life.  But simple?  Maybe.  Maybe I just need to change my definition...

I'm loving the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider.  There are many choices we make as a family to live more simply but right now I am taking one phrase to heart. "Is it useful or is it beautiful?"  If an item is useful or beautiful it stays in our house.  If it is not useful or beautiful it leaves our house.  I tested this out with five year old Grant this past weekend.  His headboard for his bed is a small book shelf.  It is in such disarray that I cringe whenever I walk into his room.  So, I bought him an organizer with drawers that would fit on his shelf and gave him a trash bag.  I asked him to pick up every item on his shelf and ask himself if the item was useful or meaningful (I modified the phrase and used the word meaningful so Grant would understand the idea better.)  If it fits in the useful or meaningful category it can stay and be organized.  If not it goes in the trash bag.  20 minutes later I came back in to check on him.  He was loving it!  Grant said "Wow mom, I sure do have a lot of junk!"  We also had a good discussion about what made something meaningful to him.  Yes, his definition of meaningful and mine are quite different and that's ok.  Some rocks from his collection stayed, some did not. Some stickers stayed, some did not.  Many of his popsicle stick creations stayed.  Many of the McDonald's toys did not.  But he was the one who got to choose and only what was useful or meaningful to him stayed.  He simplified.  I was proud of him.