My Word for 2015- Simple and Simplify

Yes I know that is two words in the title but they are both what I am thinking for this year and words that have already started resonating with me. I don’t normally do things like this of choosing a word, but I want things to get back to a more simple time, to simplify all the stuff around our house..to many more ways to simplify. It all started with Christmas. This year we scaled back a lot on what we were getting the kids for Christmas. I have cleaned out upstairs so many times this year and there is still too much stuff up there, so why buy the kids presents with a 1000 tiny pieces that they may only play with for a month or two?? My husband and I even didn’t buy each other presents so that we could do some updates on the house. This has made us way happier than just buy items that most of the time just wind up in the closet and not used.

Sure we still got the kids one big gift to share with the help of their uncle, because who wouldn’t love their own mini dune buggy to drive? But their other gifts were more useful and ones that would help us spend time as a family and get exercise and movement. My kids are starting to get old enough to understand some board games so we got them lots of new ones that we can all learn and play with as a family. Too often we get stuck just staring mindlessly at the tv and don’t actually spend real quality time with each other. I want us to go back to simpler times and not let tablets and tvs be our sole entertainment. And the skates that they got from my in laws have been a huge hit!

I want our house to be more simple as well. I am so bad about hanging on to stuff just because.. While there is nothing wrong with saving things for the memories, a lot of the stuff I was hanging on to was just junk or really just taking up space. I don’t want my kids to feel like they are without, but at the same time why buy all the latest and greatest toys for them to just break and provide no real value to their lives. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, my parents worked hard for what they were able to give us, but I never felt that we were lacking. My brother and I had a great childhood and didn’t need stuff to have fun, so why do sometimes I feel the need to get and keep stuff for my kids? I guess some of that is where we live and the culture and pressures that are so prevalent now.

Over the Christmas break, I cleaned out the upstairs again and got rid of 9 trash bags of stuff and the kids have barely noticed. That just shows me that it really is ok to let go of the “stuff”. We have also not been having the tv on as much as we used to since we changed over to a ROKU. I rarely turn it on when I pick up the kids from school and they in turn actually play more with their toys and each other.

I have also after having a hugely stressful December realized that I don’t want to keep up with the 100 jobs that I was trying to pull off. Sure I will still have odd jobs here and there to help bring in some income for my family, but I need to scale down how often I say yes when I just want to say no. I love blogging and would love to grow this blog more and in turn use it to bring in more income. It is something I can do from home and still be around to volunteer at my kids school and just be around more. While I have loved baking and still love to do it for my friends and family, I most likely will close down my baking business.

My allergies  have gotten worse this year and gluten is quite literally making me sick. Making cookies, rolling cake bites and other things have kept me sick for the past month+. That kind of extra money and stress is not worth me being sick. Yes I do make some pretty good gluten free treats, but I don’t know that I want to still use baking as a business anymore. This is one I struggle with…Who knows if I will change my mind about this at a later date or change to a gluten free baker exclusively. But I need to heal my body and the only way to do that is to stay away from gluten and sugar as much as I possibly can. Switch my diet and learn to love whole foods that nourish me.

I am excited about this new year. 2014 was tough. It had its good and bad times, lots of trying to figure out who I am, what I want to do, and where do I go from here. Lots of time realizing that I am not superwoman and I NEED HELP. I can’t do it all by myself and realizing that it does no good to my family for me to overextend myself.

sim·pli·fy