June's Simple Pleasures

"I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June." -L.M. Montgomery

Wow! It is about to be June 1st. June holds so many simple pleasures for us to enjoy. I am on a journey to simply my life and in doing so I hope to find the Simple Abundance that Sarah Ban Breathnach writes about in Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort of Joy click this link to find her book. . .it has changed my life and I know you will like it!

I first read this book after I had my oldest son who is about to turn 12. I put a few of the Simple Abundance practices into my life then, but now I am back at it full force. One of the things that I have tried to do is to savor the simple pleasures of life. This month I will share with you some of the simple pleasures my family is learning to enjoy and I will let you peek into my home as I work every day in some way to bring Simple Abundance to my home.

This weekend we enjoyed a June simple joy. . .watermelon! Some of my fondest memories are of eating watermelon with my family under the shade tree in summer. Go on. . .buy one today. Keep it in the fridge for 12-24 hours then simply cut it into chunks and share it on the porch or under a good 'ol shade tree. What could be better than this simple June pleasure?

Think about some of the simple pleasures that you take for granted. Write them down and begin to appreciate them more. Life's simple pleasures are often the best and the ones your family will remember most. . .welcome to June!

Simply Beautiful. . .try this!

Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort of Joy (This is one of my faves. . .click to check it out)"Undoubtedly, we become what we envisage." - Claude M. Bristol

Do you realize that you are simply beautiful? You are! Right now, today, just as you are. . .you are beautiful. How do you see yourself. When you look in the mirror do you zoom in on your best or your worst trait?

In this quest to simplify my life I have to realize that I am beautiful, deserving, and worthy of a spiritually, emotionally, and physically clutter free. . .simply beautiful life. I believe that sometimes we don't try to change or think we can because we fail to love ourselves enough to try. Women have huge self worth issues. . .I know I happen to be one of those women. In order to love myself I need to like what I see when I look in the mirror. That is both an emotional and a physical mirror. The physical mirror is often the hardest one to conquer. How you see yourself or envision yourself is what you will become, so for the next step on this journey let's work on liking what we see!

This is me. . .the real me! No makeup, no blow dryer. .  ..I am "primped" free in this picture. Guess what? I don't think it is horrible and I happen to see my very best trait. . . deep blue eyes. They are beautiful. . .maybe I can see myself as beautiful after all. . .what about your best trait. . .do you see it?

I dare you to go one whole day with no makeup. . .no "primped" hair. . . .ala natural!!!! Look. . .really look in the mirror and focus on your best trait. Every time you look in the mirror focus on that perfect smile. . .or those cute freckles. . .or that porcelain skin. I dare you to test this and see if that one positive point about yourself doesn't start off a chain reaction. A positive self image is powerful. . .Simply Powerful!

Ok. . .let me know if you took the test and went "simply" beautiful (all natural) for one whole day. . .I promise this is important . . .you have to see yourself and beautiful, worthy, and deserving of a simply abundant life.

Please share this blog with your friends and become a follower of this blog. I promise. . .you won't be disappointed. . .we have got an exciting journey to Simplicity ahead of. . .we have to know we deserve it first though. . .a SIMPLY beautiful life!!

Simplicity Test #1. . .Eliminate the Unnecessary

Simplicity Test #1

"The ability of simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." -Hans Hoffman

How do you downsize from a closet the size of a small room to this closet? I know some of you are cringing at the thought of this, but I did it. I simplified! I mentioned yesterday that we had downsized and bot did we. . .see this picture. This closet has my clothes and my husbands clothes in it. No, this is not all our clothes. This is just our Spring/Summer stuff. The Fall/Winter is in an under the beg storage container and our under garments, shorts, t-shirts, and jeans are in the wardrobe to the right in this picture and the chest of drawers (not pictured).

I did have to "purge" my closet of a lot of stuff. I am a recovering clothes and shoes addict. I am not kidding. You can see here that I still have about 50 pairs of shoes. . .I have away over 1/2 of them. I went through clothes and gave away everything that I don't wear or haven't worn in a year. Yes, gave it away and it felt great! You know what. . .even though the typical American woman has tons and tons of clothes, she wears the same 10-14 things over and over again. That is correct. . .so get rid of the stuff you don't wear. Have a garage sale, take it to a consignment shop, or just give it away (there is someone who could really use what you take for granted).Organize Your Life: Free Yourself from Clutter and Find More Personal Time

So. . .now I have done it. I have opened the world up to my private places. . . my closet! I did this because I am on a journey to simplify my life. This was one very important part of that journey. I am sharing this to let you know it can be done. It really can! You might be like I was and think, "I can't do with that few outfits. . .she is crazy!" Do me a favor and list the outfits you wear for one month. . see how many times you go to the same outfit over and over.

If you are interested in going on this journey, I would love to have company! Follow this blog and share with me your own experiences and we go together into the Promised Land of Simplicity. . .please share my blog with your friends and not that I will share links to certain books and great items that I just can't live without. Check them out!

Wells of Hope!

Organized!!!!

"The ability of simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." -Hans Hoffman

It has been way too long since I blogged. I hope to make more of a habit of it. We have been so very busy. Will just graduated from 6th grade last week. Matthew and Nathan are finishing up classes today! We are ready for a little break. Mommy will go to school straight through summer. We are praying for all of my classes to line up perfectly so that I will be all done in December. Please pray these details with us.

We have been busy moving. We moved closer to the boys' school. We love it! The move was also a downsize. We purchased a cabin that had been being used as a hunting lodge. It is so masculine, so it fits my family. . LOL! This downsize has given me the opportunity to organize. I had wanted to get organized and now I am forced to do it and I am loving it. We turned a closet into an office. This is where I am writing from right now! It works great. We used an old door from the barn as the desk and put file cabinets under it for filing. We are not finished, but it already is "home" to me. I open the doors to my little office and get excited about writing again.

This summer I plan to go on a journey. . . .a journey to simplicity. I invite you to join me by following this blog and let's see where this journey leads us!