Keeping it Simple Amongst Chaos and a Strawberry Mango Smoothie Recipe

   Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always, sings.”
                                                                                                                ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~




Have you ever noticed that when you are on a certain path all sorts of affirmations meet you at the exact time that you need inspiration.

Well, I have been receiving messages almost daily and not surprisingly, they are ALL directed towards walking a simple path. They are inspiring me to keep going even though some days it feels like I'm moving through mud.

The first one that I received, was during my book club meeting at the end of February. It was early days into starting my path towards a minimalistic life. After a stimulating discussion of Hermann Hesse's book, "Siddhartha," I passed around my little green affirmation cards to my sacred sisters. I held mine quietly, not even peeking at the message within, until each of my sisters had had a moment to relay what was on her card and how it spoke to her. When it came my turn to read my card, I was rather stunned at how significant the message was. It read;

                  "Keep it simple. Simplicity is the key to Brilliance."

Wow!

Since I had just started the journey, it was like a signal that I was on the right road. I have found in my life, that when I need some direction, the Universe never fails to send me a symbol or sign that I'm on the right road and here it was in a sweet message.

Last week, I was finding it really hard to make time in my day to tackle a specific area to de-clutter. Something always came up or someone needed to be picked up or taken some where, which broke the rhythm in my days. It was difficult enough to get my regular work done, not to mention any de-cluttering projects handled. You know, cleaning the kitchen from breakfast, making the beds, picking up the laundry and throwing loads in the washer, moving it to the dryer and then folding it and putting it back in everyone's rooms, sigh! seemed to be all that I could manage. Forget, trying to accomplish anything.

Then I remembered the message on my card and I decided that the only way I was going to get anything done was to tackle the smallest projects at a time. And that is what I did. Although, I had basically done most of the kitchen, there was one drawer that I hadn't touched. It's the drawer with the most memories for me in the kitchen. It's the drawer where I keep all of my cookie cutters, my cake decorating items. and my canning accessories.

As I opened the drawer, memories of Christmas's past flooded my mind, as I recalled making sugar cookies with my mom as a young teen for the first time. She basically gave me the dough and said, "go to town." That Christmas, I made my first Christmas trees, hearts, candy canes, angels, and oh my, nothing tasted so good as those chewy, soft, sugar cookies with a hint of nutmeg and topped with mint flavoured icing.

As I looked lovingly at the various shaped cutters, I thought of the first Christmas I let my own daughter, Alyssa handle the sugar cookie project. That was a big deal since I had been making them for 30 years without any help. Then there was the time that we invited her friends over for a sugar cookie icing party. Images of those giggling pre-teens with braces and pony tails made me smile. Those same girls would all be turning 25 years old soon. Where had the time gone?

The drawer I had been resisting de-cluttering as it holds so many memories

 As I looked at this drawer though, I realized it represented the chaos in my life and if I was ever to create and capture more of these moments, I had to quit holding onto the past and move forward with dreams for the future. I still had Grace, Will, Kathryn and Victoria to make cookie memories with. If I continued to keep the extra clutter in this drawer, it would take precious moments away from me spending time with our younger children. If left alone, this single drawer would suck time from my life, as I dug around looking for the special cookie cutters for any future project. With that thought in mind, I quickly was able to toss more than 50% of the drawers contents.

These are a few things that I got rid of...some I took to the little girl's preschool for their Playdoh station and their teacher was happy to have a Shamrock cookie cutter to add to this month's special occasions. 

Goodbye needless clutter

And here is the drawer now. In the tin to the right are my beloved cookie cutters. Now, it's a breeze to see exactly what I have and where it is which will enable me more time to gather my sugar cookie cutters and make memories with our kids...and maybe someday, our grandchildren.

Hello new memories

 
If you are on this minimalism path with me, you may have discovered this already but if not, I'd like to share some de-cluttering wisdom. Start small. If you don't have a lot of time in your day then break down what you can do in say, 15 minutes. Tackle one drawer at a time, one closet, one counter top. Also, try to start with a spot that doesn't hold a lot of emotional attachments. Our memories cling to our belongings and the energy lingers heavily which makes it hard to hear the music amongst the mud and scum of things. It's liberating to clear the space and hear and feel the harmony.

After finishing this last drawer in the kitchen, I moved onto the kid's craft closet and gee, I wished I had taken a picture of it before I cleared it out. There were games stacked on top of other games. Had our children tried to take something out they would have been seriously hurt if something had fallen on top of them. In addition, when I went to clear out the paint, crayon and felt pen supplies, I realized we had a lot of duplicates and that was wasteful.

Another message that I was walking the right path came when I found a basket of polished rocks hidden in the craft closet. Wrapped around each rock was a little piece of paper. I remembered now taking quotes from the book, "The Alchemist," by Paulo Coelho and giving a rock to my sacred sisters during the last time I hosted our book club meeting. I decided for fun to unwrap one of the messages and guess what was within?

"It's the Simple Things in life that are the most extra-ordinary, only wise men are able to understand them." ~excerpt from Coelho's book, "The Alchemist."


I had to sit down after reading this message. I held the rock, rubbing it's smooth surface and thought about all the guidance I had been receiving with regards to creating a simpler life for myself and our family. I whispered, "thank you God." I knew that I was on the right path even though little fearful thoughts had been creeping in as I cleared away our stuff. Thankfully, that voice was growing more distant as I grew stronger in my resolve to let go.

So that brings me to another point in this whole process, and that is really the nuts and bolts about clearing out clutter. I really should have addressed it before now but as I was doing this all myself I realized that one needs a place to put all the stuff that you are accumulating. A staging area if you will. Also, it really helps if you pull out everything in your closet, or drawer, whatever you are sorting through, so you can see what you have to work with. It will quickly be apparent what you do or don't want to keep. Eliminate the easy stuff first.

Then put back only what you use and what you love. The Minimalist guys say that another method is packing up absolutely everything in your home and then pulling only the things you need out of the boxes. After 3 months, or 6 months, whatever you decide is the time frame for you, whatever you haven't used, you get rid of. That's too extreme for me and too hard with 6 kids living in our house at the moment. It would be chaos while we were getting ready in the morning for instance.

If you are doing a big de-clutter as I am, (our whole house...all 3000 square feet of it...more if you count our Hobbit's hollow, aka the crawl space), you probably need a large place to put all the stuff you are parting with. Also, I have read that some minimalists set up boxes labelled, "donate," "sell," "not sure," and "garbage/recycle" but I have found it easiest just to have a garbage bag/recycle bag as I move from place to place. I put all the stuff that doesn't fit into that category, out to my staging place, which happens to be our garage. It would be most efficient not to have to touch the stuff more than once but in my case, I think whatever we don't throw out or recycle, will go into a garage sale to be held in April. THE MONTH..of the beginning of garage sales in our little town.

I'll let our little kids make and sell popcorn and lemonade. I'll have our older ones help sell our discarded items, and anything left at that point will be donated to our local thrift stores.

In the meantime, I'm (we're) going to be living amongst this clutter and chaos for at least several more weeks. My husband is out of town this week and I will be trying to make some headway while maintaining our daily family commitments.

I have also enlisted the help of our children. The little ones helped me go through their drawers and the belongings they keep in their bedrooms this weekend. It was very productive and fun as they had a little fashion show and tried on all sorts of clothes. As we made decisions about what fit and what didn't, what toys were played with and what weren't beloved any longer, we talked about children all over the world and I reminded them of a saying a very wise man shared with the world, 

        “Live Simply So Others May Simply Live,” Gandhi

 

I knew I was planting little seeds of generosity, love and peace as we cleared out their rooms.

Hey, and another wonderful side benefit to this was how fast Will and the little girls were able to pick out their outfit for today. It was easy and pain free. And the best part was that it saved time so we had more time to have some fun. 

Above are the two drawers the little girls share. Most of their clothes are matching which makes it easier for me to buy and plan their outfits. I stack them one on top of each other so when they pull out one top, they hand their sister the other top. Most of their outfits are the same but they do have some in different colours and they are very definite about who gets what colour. From the time they were really little they had distinct preferences. Kate is the pink girl and Tori is the blue girl. Makes it really simple....and as you know I'm all about that.

I try not to read too much about twin literature and probably dressing them alike will end once they start school but they seem to really enjoy wearing the same style of clothes although Tori really LOVES her leggins and Kate likes the days when she wears jeans. They both love their dresses and skirts. Anyway, like usual, I got sidetracked....the point was that getting the little people involved is helping them to see that less is more in so many ways and by consuming less, we have more resources to help others.

Here's a picture of Grace helping de-clutter our Playmobile collection. Do we REALLY need 100 pirates and castle people?  Harrison passed by the Den as Grace and I talked about downsizing the people and he remarked that having lots of people was the fun part about playing Playmobile. Hmmmm....do you think he thinks this about our large family too?

It's these little comments though that makes me pause and wonder what is really fun for our children. Clearly, we have too many toy/people when you have to sort for 5-10 minutes to find your fav pirate/king/queen. The one you really want to play with, that's too long in my books. 

Here's the quote I wrote on our black board this week. When I got stuck in all the mud and scum, it helped me remember whey I'm doing this.

For the people who are important to me in my life. My children, my husband, my sisters and their families and the friends who I never seem to have even time to have tea with lately, (sorry B...we will get together soon) 

And before I close I just wanted to share my Strawberry/Mango Fruit Smoothie Recipe with you. As we de-clutter our lives with our stuff, we need to make sure we are staying energized and remembering that clearing the toxins from our body is just as important. Little steps will take us eventually to the destination of a healthy body and home.

Remembering that while we are on the road to less, we are still living fully. It would be very easy to get caught up in the whole process of de-cluttering, after all who are we kidding, we live on earth and there is all sorts of clutter and chaos here. It's easy to let even the act of de-cluttering prevent us from living fully.

As long as we don't lose sight of why we are clearing and reducing the stuff in our life. Let's continue to consciously clear what isn't working in our lives and fill the spaces with more beauty, love and peace. That's my wish for everyone on earth. We are all deserving of this.

Okay, here's my Smoothie recipe...share a cup with your beloved or take it out in nature and drink it in..... Spring is almost here.

Hope's Strawberry and Mango Smoothie recipe

2 big people servings...or enough for one big person and three little people

1/2 grapefruit

1 orange

1 banana

10 frozen strawberries

1/2 cup frozen mango or yellow fruit of your choice...pineapples are yummy for instance

1/2 cup of crushed ice cubes

I had mostly fresh fruit but I used frozen mango and pineapple too

Here's the tough part....peel the grapefruit/orange and banana...place in a blender with the other ingredients and blend. Pour into glasses for your beloved and In JOY!

Before I go I wanted to share a book that I have been reading called, "The Simple Living Handbook," ....discover the joy of a de-cluttered life....by Lorilee Lippincott

It's a refreshingly simple and delightful book so if you are interesting in moving in this direction, I would highly recommend reading it. It may be the sign or symbol that you are on the right path and she certainly inspired me. Her web site is great too.

Here's a You tube video interview with Lorilee on the Midway Simplicity show...love this guy. (click on the hyperlink if you can't see the video below)

As I embark on another week towards minimalism, join me in listening to one of my fav cello pieces. I thought this was an appropriate ending as I started my post with a stunning picture of a woman playing cello amongst the clutter of life.

My son Mitchell plays this piece on his cello, beautifully and EVERY time I hear it, I always think how J.S. Bach was the supreme musical guru in simplicity. Please join me in listening to the "Unaccompanied Bach, prelude in G Major" played my Yo Yo Ma........love this (click on the hyperlink if you can't see the video below)

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt~

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope