cozy as a baby in a pile of blankets

well….we’re about to month 6. we’re almost done with the house renovations (SO excited to share the anticipated ‘before and afters’, btw) just waiting for that pesky countertop and some final trim pieces… the dogs love that they get walked almost every day… ryan loves that i am actually cooking supper again on the nights i don’t have shoots. and i am finding peace. peace in my life that i didn’t know existed. sure, i am kind of missing the safety of having to be somewhere and getting a steady paycheck… and the inside jokes with coworkers… but this new life–getting to do what i love. all. the. time. my passion. putting every ounce of my heart and soul into making my client’s beauty sing.
i won’t say its been a struggle, but a journey these last months— learning to slow down…savor the little things. tend my own garden. soul search to find myself again without the struggle of spreading myself so very thin that i start forgetting what’s important. a huge part of this journey has been DOWNSIZING. since we  pretty much eliminated one of my [very nice] incomes, we chose a smaller house… a more low-profile lifestyle. less eating out (which moving to a smaller town really helps with that. i really miss qdoba, jimmy johns, and thai food!!!). we just moved everything from our previous house into this house and found that we had accumulated quite a cluster of crap. hence our mega huge garage sale scheduled for next weekend. things i’ve learned from moving and unpacking:
1. plastic cups multiply when placed in a box.
2. don’t pack tuperware with scented candles unless you want your leftover lasagna to taste like passion fruit.
3. if you wait long enough to unpack—it’s like christmas!
4. i found 4 strainers. WTF?!
5. i have a cloth napkin fetish.
6. even if i drank 3 cups of flavored coffee everyday, i would still have enough to supply the bank’s lobby for a month. hey—it makes a great gift. : )
7. when i hesitate to throw something in the garage sale pile, i remember that it’s only stuff. and since it’s only stuff and i haven’t missed it our thought about it, like, ever…then it’s time to give.
i had an epiphany last night (after hour 7 of marathon pricing session). why do we hang onto these material things?! so that our kids can play with them someday?! i don’t think so. our kids will have their own toys— they will be the only grandchildren on one side, so trust me. spoil-city.) are we keeping them because they’ll be worth money? (we’re almost both in our 30’s–they can technically be labeled ‘vintage’) but, nope. they are heavily played with, brought us great memories, and they are not fulfilling their destiny as toys sitting in a box. i’m finally giving away my childhood dolls. so we are minus about 30 totes of random household items and i am ready to free space. not only in our basement, but also my mind. i guess that is what 6 months of out-of-box living can do to you.
so i guess this random rambling story, which is much more than i every write on my blog, the message i’m trying to cast out into internet land is to SIMPLIFY your life. you won’t regret it. set rules for yourself and your life and you will be freer to be YOU. don’t make exceptions. stick to your guns. bigger isn’t always better. and the best part? since our mortgage is a mere fraction of our kearney house, we will be able to pay her off in 15 years and travel. : ) invest in quality time together, not just useless, suffocating, mounds of junk. (unless i can use it as a prop—which is whole other story.)
happy hump day!
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