I know I have been a little scarce lately. It seems that this simple life I am after is keeping me awfully busy::sigh::but that will always be the way of it, won't it? I think that when I stop equating simple=easy, I will be more at peace.
Sometimes, I fool myself into thinking that if I get rid of all the plastic in my house, and pare down my errands to the essential, and I never go to Wal.Mart, that my life will be a fairy tale. And then my children will never get sick, I will never be grouchy, I will never have a sink full of dirty dishes. And that mindset just sets me up for failure. No matter how much I pare down, there are always going to be days that (in my sinful heart) I just want to END.
My two year old has been giving me fits. He is very, very trying. But, in the same way, he is also loads of fun. I love that child with a passion I can't even verbalize. But gosh, I am glad he is in bed, asleep!!
But, even hard days have a silver lining. Thanks to a challenging day, my evening of deliciously dreary weather outside, a cozy fire inside, and a mug of hot chocolate have been even more enjoyable than usual. I have been getting my computer fix (perusing amazon and all my favorite blogs), after turning it off since Monday night. Oh, which by the way, went great. I learned some interesting things from that little challenge. I think this will require it's own paragraph...
...Ok. I found that turning off the computer made me much, much more productive between the hours of 530-730 AM. As for the rest of the day, not so much. You see, I am very productive in the wee hours of the morning. The house is quiet, I am rested, and the world is my oyster. I can get more work done in those two hours than I can get done during the whole rest of the day. Which is why it is so imperative that I get up early for my day to go smoothly. Usually, I work for about 45 minutes, than sit down with the computer to do my devotions, and then check emails and blogs. Thanks to my little one-day challenge, I now see that is not the best use of my time, and I will not be turning the computer on during that time anymore.
As for the rest of the day, it was sort of a wash. My efficiency generally takes a nose-dive after lunch. Once the children have been fed, and the youngest two are down for their naps, I am pretty much worthless. I get very little housework done. The rest of my day is usually spent piddling, playing with the boys, cooking dinner, and just trying to keep the house from being destroyed by small children. I didn't see a difference there by having the computer off. So, that little exercise showed me that I should maximize those early morning hours as much as possible, when I am most productive, and save my computer time for during the children's naps, and after they are in bed.
There are lots of other things I want to blog about...books I am reading/want to read, how my energy reduction challenge went, thoughts on home storage and house size, whether or not I am going to homeschool, getting ready for my square foot garden, and home renovations. But I will have to save those for another day. The fire is dying down, which means it is time for me to tiptoe upstairs to peek on sleeping babies. Adjust the covers, run my hands over each soft little head, say a prayer for them, one by one. Another day is done, and I have much to be thankful for.
Goodnight.
*Image from hey_rabbit on flickr.com
So sweet, Laurel.
ReplyDeleteI love your musings....we are so alike.
yes, I find that I have somehow hoped that "simple living" will produce the fruit of the Spirit in my life :) Ooops! That's the HOly SPirit's job! :) I too always say that my day goes downhill from about 11am on. I have to get the important home/children/errands all done early b/c we all just melt and go downhill as the day wears on. I am guilty of wasting too much time on the computer early in the day and also want to reserve it for our quiet hour in the afternoon.
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