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.