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Hello Dear Friends,

An expedition, walk, fly, tour, trek, junket, voyage, sail, cruise, road trip, these call to action words describe this fabulous word-Journey: a beginning without regard to the amount of time it takes.

 To makes one way.
Friends, I have to say that changing my lifestyle as been an exhausting roller coaster ride. Going from organzines as a young single woman too, just let it be, kids are messy as a mom, I'm too tired to fight this mess anymore as a divorcee and back to organzine and this surprising wonderful feeling of letting go.

Letting go of the clutter, letting go of the soul eating possessions that no longer have any meaning in my life and no longer service a purpose, but most of all letting go of the pain.

Once I started to remove the harsh ways of thinking about my past the ah-ha moment sparked and allowed me to set a course moving forward with grace and patience making my way

We are all phenomenal souls, telling our own stories

Staying on Track Living in Joy

Hello Dear Friends,

For so many of us the new year come with new promises to our selves.

We try with an open heart and bright big eyes to change an old habit, or to delete old ways of thinking. For some of us it may even feel like an grade school punishment, having to write it out on the chalkboard a hundred times.

I will not over eat.
I will not clutter my closet.
I will not fall behind in my life.

We wake with new energy and a new spark to do better, be better, to move forward all the while we try to never look back. Keeping the momentum going can be a daunting task. Adding yet another action into our overworked and not well rested lives can take the resolution right out of a person.

So, how do we stay on track?  For me, learning a new and wonderful skill takes a bit of time.
I will study and read up on my new task, a little research is an amazing tool,then I get my hands dirty.

I dive in, as I clear the clutter from my bedroom and now closets I take my time, not every chore can or should be finished in a day.
Emotional clutter can be quite difficult to deal with.  We get stuck in the thoughts swimming around our heads, and play the game I remember when. The dress my oldest daughter worn home from the hospital is hanging in this closet.  A box of drawing from Pre-K  to 5th grade is packed away in this closet. A set of towels my Grandmother gave me for my first apartment are in this closet. It's so easy to get lost when we start going down memory lane.

How to stay on Track:

Most of us work a solid eight hour work day, we get paid for a job well done. For you moms who get paid with peanut butter and jelly smiles, here's a shout out for all the amazing hard work you do. I truly miss those days.

My secret is I hire myself. I work on each job as if I were getting paid. A contract if you will to myself. By writing down which room I will be working in, and on which day for how many hours a day, I can keep on track.

I let a ringing phone take a message, I keep the T.V. off so not to get caught in a show as I walk pass. Setting a time for a lunch break helps with time management. I find that filling boxes and bags less stressful when I know that that at the end of my allotted time I will be getting paid.

I work only on one area at a time, closet, bedroom, kitchen and don't bounce from room to room by going back to the task I started the day before I can see a real improvement by weeks end. And knowing that what I donated to a family in need with make a different, now that's a pretty good payment.

Dear Friends, how do you stay on track?

Living with Joy
Rain

Living a simple Life

Living a simple life in 2017

Christmas was yesterday and wow was it a doozy.  2016 was filled with a shitty ex-husband and all he brings to the table. Trying to maintain a house that is really too big for my lifestyle, the yard takes three days to push mow and finding a job not only for the purpose of enjoying my eating habit but to continue to pay those pesky bills.

Reading is my way to self-medicate. My family is big readers starting with my Grandparents who could be found each night turning the pages of whatever paperback filled the interest. My Grandfather liked westerns and my Grandmother enjoyed romance.

My mom took a book everywhere she went, one small enough to fit into her purse and keep her company while she ate at the local Jim’s restaurant. Mom could make eating a club sandwich a two-hour event.

I have passed on this love to my children, we all read real hardcover books, many times more than one at a time. I have for many years carried a book in my car, following mom’s rule to never eat alone, and one by my bed to fill my head with amazing stories.

Last night I came across a blog that leads me to the Netflix documentary-the minimalists with Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus. How might your life be better with less?  

 (fewer things not less love)

So, I started thinking: What do I own that doesn’t fill my life with Joy?

I walked each room taking a mental inventory, I counted the pieces of furniture filling the space, a desk in my daughter’s room holding paper plates cups and clean clothes, she studies sitting on her bed. old magazines, and clothes that I or the children haven’t worn in years, dishes in triplicate furniture left behind after my divorce a garage filled with boxes filled with tools never use, old bikes Holiday decor I forget to put up, books from when the girls were little. It was time to edit.

2016 also brought uninvited habitual habits many of them bringing me right back into the comfort zone of pain and sadness.

Why comfort? Look to read that very interesting post soon.

Eating out too much, we all know that cooking at home saves money.

Trying to please my kids with movies and outings, when they would rather stay home.

Watching way too much T.V. when I should be painting and posting.

Mowing that huge back yard every freaking week, when I should be hanging with my friends.

Cleaning this overstuffed house, who needs three sets of dishes or three sets of chairs that no one sits on?

Living a simple life in 2017 is the title of this post, it’s a reference point to guide me through like a star in the night’s sky, guiding me to safer shores. Each month I will post my goals for moving forward with my new minimalist lifestyle, taking photos and reporting to you my dear friends on the journey so far.

Feel free to cheer me on, to pack a bag and journey with me or to start a simple life of your own.

Ask yourself this question: If you had to live on an Island would it really matter how many T.V.’s you owned?

I’m not asking you to give up your sentimental value, I’m not even asking you to give up that second set of dishes I’m only asking you from time to time check in with me, watch as I transform

my overstuffed life into a Living with JOY simple life.