happy at home

SIMPLIFYING THE DESIRE TO SIMPLIFYI love to read about simple living. I could spend hours, DAYS even, on the computer, reading blogs about women all over the country who are simplifying their lives and their families lives in new ways all the time. I love to read their thoughts, look at their pictures, think about and get wrapped up in this internet world. I am inspired and encouraged by what I see and read. The wheels in my head start spinning as I plan new ways to implement the ideas I read about.
If I am honest, sometimes I am jealous of what I read on other's blogs...other people whose lives seem a little more "together" than mine. Women who appear to get more done than me, have more time than me, who knit and sew and take fabulous pictures. Women whose homes look so inviting and cozy. Women who are homeschooling a zillion children. Sometimes that can breed discontentment.

I week or so ago, I was on the computer, zoning out on a fabulous new blog I had just discovered, when one of my children came running around the corner, yelling my name. I didn't hear what he was saying. I was listening to HER, the fabulous new BFF I had just found on the internet with the awesome house and the great ideas. After a few minutes of incessant "mommy, mommy, MAMA!!", I snapped out of my internet-induced coma, to actually LOOK at my child. He had put my glasses on, and was standing there, desperately wanting my attention and approval and acknowledgment. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. Here I was, on the internet, reading about the simple life, the "good life", someone else's life...and I was letting sweet, funny moments of mine go by unnoticed.

We all need inspiration. Encouragement. Ideas. There are so many people in this world who are talented and creative and wise, and there is much to be learned. But sometimes, we...I... need to stop looking to make things better, best, and just enjoy how wonderful things already are. My little boy, with his twinkly, sunshiny eyes, is a delight! Too often I hurry him along, or hush him, or don't even hear him calling my name...I am too buried on my computer, reading about how to have simple, meaningful connections with my children! Oh, the irony!

It is time for me to be a more active participant in my own life...less escapism, more LOVING WHAT IS. Less noise that drowns out the happy chaos of a house full of boys. Less TV. Less computer. Less phone and fax and text messaging. Less connecting with people I have never met. More connecting with three little boys that beg for my company. More time for a husband that loves me. Sometimes, even learning and reading and thinking about simplifying needs to be, well, simplified.


*Image from celisa on flickr.com