Simplicity Project #8

This week I took on a project that doesn't necessarily mean simplicity but rather cleanliness.
The refrigerator.
You probably can't tell much in these pictures, but I did throw a lot away. How many bottles of salad dressing does one really need? This is one of those projects that I absolutely hate doing and rarely do. Tonight was trash night so I thought it would be the perfect time to throw food away.
The Fridge Before

The Fridge After

After spending the 10 minutes it took to tackle it, I've decided that I will do this once a month, on trash night!

Speaking of once a month . . . as you can probably tell by the fact that I am behind on my projects, finding the time to do a simplicity project once a week was probably a bit of a lofty goal for me. As I said in my post last week, the minute your attempt to simplify things makes your life harder, you've missed the point. Therefore, I am admitting my limitations and turning this little experiment into a monthly blog post. I hope you will still be encouraged by my projects even though they will be less frequent. Hey, maybe because I'm only doing it once a month I will have time to tackle the big things again. But I suppose I shouldn't go promising things . . . it always gets my in over my head.

Simple Thoughts, Round 3

In the spirit of simplicity, I'll keep this short!

I'm behind. I fear I'm failing miserably at this little project I set out to do. . . and it's only March. But, alas, I am letting myself off the hook because the moment your attempt to simplify things makes life harder, you've totally missed the point.

So even though I owe you a project for last week I'm afraid to say that these really simple thoughts are all you are going to get because I spent the weekend playing nurse to a 10 month old including a short trip to the ER on Sunday morning. All is well now with our little Hope but it was a crazy couple of days.

Check back in a few days as I play catch up with a project for this week! You can bet your life it's going to be a small one! Hey, every little bit counts. That's what I'm trying to teach you people!

What People Think

I'm one of those people who spends a lot of my thought life wondering what other people think about me or things related to me. I hate to admit that I struggle with this fear of man, but I do. I just had a conversation with a friend today that left me thinking, What do they think of me? (In regards to a specific situation). It plagued me most of the evening until I was rocking Hope to sleep and had time to think about it further. Hope has a stomach bug so she got the rock-treatment tonight!

As I sat there, overwhelmed by the events of this week and the fact that my little one is sick to the point that I may need to take her to the hospital tomorrow, I thought to myself I don't have time to care what people think of me! A righteous disgust for the schemes of the enemy rose up in me as I considered how much time I've lost to worrying about what people think. I am a pretty much full-time working mom who has to worry about my child, my husband, my clients, my family, my leadership at church and my friends. How the heck can I fit in time to ponder whether or not my clothes are cool enough or if what I said sounded stupid? I can't. . . and today I declare that I won't!

After thinking about it with this perspective, I am so embarrassed by how much my silly fear of man has robbed my thoughts. What an idiot I am to have allowed this to take over my mind. None of us has extra time on our hands that would warrant such an unproductive and even destructive use of it. I know this is something we all deal with to some extent and so tonight I felt compelled to admit the struggle and encourage each one of us to consider how we might overcome it. For me, I believe tonight's epiphany will help me take these thoughts captive. Now, anytime I encounter these plaguing thoughts, I will think about how busy I am with things that really do matter as a reminder of how little this does matter.

Our great God has created each one of us with such a unique make up as well as a very specific life story. How dare we waste time trying to figure out why we are the way we are or why our story reads differently than someone else's. Let us trust His design and instead spend our days focused on what He thinks of who we are and how our story will bring glory to Him.

Simplicity Project #7

This week I tackled a very small but practical project. The "bottle station" in our kitchen. As I near the end of our season with bottles, I am not ashamed to tell you that I cannot wait until they are gone. No more nipples and other paraphernalia to scrub daily. Why in the heck each bottle has to have their own unique "flow system" complete with extra do dads to clean, I am unsure! I would take them out of the dish washer and just throw them on the counter. What a mess! This week I decided to tidy up and make a commitment to fill the bottles with water each time I take them out of the dishwasher, leaving them completely ready for formula that is room temperature. Just the way Hope likes it.
Before

After

I realize this is a very small and seemingly insignificant simplicity project. But you'd be surprised how much little things like this affect your state of mind. I would look over at all this junk and get stressed because I felt like it took so much energy to keep it organized. Then I just gave up and was left with this mess. It will take some level of commitment to keep it tidy, but it's definitely worth my peace of mind!

Simple Thoughts, Round 2

This is an entry I owed you last week. Had every intention of posting it then but life got nutty. I know you understand. Some thoughts about living simply. . . and then I'll post a project later this week. Enjoy!

My boss sent me a video last week that was presented at a recent radio seminar here in Nashville. The video's intent, I believe was to show its viewers how other forms of media and networking may be taking its place. Sad news for radio peeps, I know. . .but even sadder news for the rest of us in how much media has overtaken our lives. I sat there with a splitting headache as I watched how many millions of people are on Facebook and how many billions of messages they are sending (many of which, I promise you come to my inbox each day). There were stats on ITunes, MySpace, Twitter and XMradio but I think the most mind-blowing nugget of info was this:

"One, daily issue of the New York Times contains more information that someone from the 18th century would have come across in their lifetime."

And to that I say. . .WTH? (That's "what the hell?" for those of you not fluent in text message talk.)

I'm one of those girls who's always thought she should have lived in the Victorian Era. After hearing this little tidbit, I'm now pretty sure that the Big Guy made a huge mistake plopping me in the 20th/21st centuries. I don't want all of this information coming at me. In fact, I don't care! I can barely remember to feed and change my child (not kidding, I forgot to feed her one afternoon last month, did I share that with you yet?). I'm sure it's possible that my little brain is smaller than some. . . even most. But who needs to know all this crap?

I've wrestled a lot with this over the past few days trying to find the balance between a desire for intelligence and progressive knowledge and simplicity and peace of mind. I've decided that for me personally - I don't have to be on twitter (so sorry to many of you who love it and love to keep in touch that way). I just can't handle knowing who's going to the bathroom and who's having coffee at the moment. No, for me. . .it's just TMI (That's "too much information" - come on people, keep up!)

In order to keep my simple mind in optimal working order, I'll need to keep the information to a healthy 21st century minimum. I really feel the need to police the amount of data that enters my brain. But that's just me. Each one of us has to create our own boundaries based on what we can handle or what we enjoy. Some of my friends love being on Facebook and Twitter all the time and they see it as a convenient and efficient way to keep in touch. That is wonderful. And I guess that's the interesting thing about progression and technology. It can be a blessing and a curse - depending on who you are talking to and how well it is working for them.

So today I encourage us all to take a moment to stop and think about the information we allow to come across our brain everyday. Is it enhancing our lives or causing more stress? Is it edifying and uplifting? Is it contributing to our personal and spiritual growth? Is it taking away from real, face to face relationships? See I'm an old fashioned girl. I'd take a thoughtful, hand-written note over someone "writing on my wall" any day! Perhaps that makes me out of touch, but I'd like to think it makes me classy.

Lol. (Uh, that's "laugh out loud" - geez, even I know that!)