Simplify

I've been too complain-y about my girls lately.

That being well acknowledged, I'll just say that I think they are the coolest, nicest gals around. And I'll also say that, starting after this post (and in the spirit of the holiday) I'll write only positive things for the rest of the month.

Ok. On with it.


I'm coming off a bad month. Things were out of control. Work and responsibility piled up, my two year old behaved like a two year old, my girls were struggling with their listening skills and were not keen on helping out around the house, and my husband was traveling.

Details went hazy. Things slipped through the cracks more than usual - forgotten homework, overlooked deadlines, missed appointments.

And because Chris was traveling and working a lot I was not yoga-ing or running a lot. And one thing I've come to realize in the last several years is that running with my ladies is the only thing standing between me and a giant bottle of prescription anti-depressants. I just feel so angry and sad when I can't run. Period.

So I wasn't at my best.

And then one Sunday morning, in the middle of scooping out piles of chicken poop from the coop, I had... one of those moments.

I remembered that a few years back I heard about Simplicity Parenting written by Mr. Kim John Payne - a former Waldorf teacher and parental guru. And although I didn't (and don't) know all the details of his Simplicity Parenting ideas, I did know that reducing, slowing, and simplifying were big.

So I started throwing things away. Before the book even arrived I started purging our lives of excess.

I started with a 50% reduction in fowl. Yesterday afternoon the girls and I walked Ole Golly, Lavender, and Emma four houses up from us and plopped them in our neighbors large and spacious chicken haven. Their three hens stopped laying a few months ago; I'm sharing the egg love now.

The next afternoon while Gill napped and the girls slaved away in school, I crept up into Bela and Mae's room - a hotbed of domestic disharmony around here. I filled paper shopping bags and moving boxes with books and toys they will never notice went missing. I threw away broken shells and rotted flower petals, candy wrappers and filthy bits and pieces.

And I didn't stop there. I thinned out our own book collection, recycled magazines, trimmed the belongings in the basement.

When I come across something on the floor that I consider to be non-essential to our everyday lives, I chuck it in the trash. 


The theory here is that more does NOT equal better. More just equals more. And more means more mess. And more mess means crazy angry frustrated Mom.

And it's not just about the stuff in our house. It's about the stuff in our lives, and the way we choose to spend our time. Chicago Park District opened up it's Winter Program enrollment recently, and right before I hit the button to register Bela for another clay class, I shut the computer. No. No more! She's in chorus. She's in Girls in the Game. She takes circus classes. It's enough.

The funniest part of all of this is that I still haven't read the silly book. It's just sitting on my shelf next to the other parenting books I never read. Cluttering. But I'm glad its there. Like a reminder to me that filling our lives with extra activities and our home with extra stuff just makes life more difficult to manage for me.

I also know that this little book and the whole idea of Simplicity Parenting isn't going to solve what I consider to be one of my biggest difficulties: I long for a simple, well-organized life. But I'm also always looking for the next thing. The next class. The next hobby. For the girls and for me.

For now, though? I need to step back. Take care of the things at hand (like these mittens I need to finish knitting) and stop spending so much time managing the mess.