Life: Simplified {Project}

I really can not believe that 2014 is lurking in just a little over 24 hours! Although I hate to see more years added on my age...I have to say I am glad to say good-bye to 2013! It was a year of a lot of very hard life lessons, growth, new adventures, heartache, good, bad....I would have to say it was one of the most pivotal years of my life. With that being said...it was also so very very busy for our family. With that busyness has come heaps and mounds of "stuff". You know the stuff that you didn't have time to put away or find a place for...and then company was just 5 minutes away so you quickly stashed it somewhere...and then you forgot about it for 6 months??? Please say I am not the only one. It seems like there is more and more of the stash-and-go method of cleaning going on in our house. It may look great with company comes...but boy what they don't know is that the closets and drawers are bursting at the seams!

This same situation can be applied to my spiritual life, friendships, time maintenance, food, exercise...everything surrounding me and my family is a bit chaotic right now. It is all just way too much to maintain! The truth is I am not doing well at all keeping up with it all. The only solution I can come up with is to dive in and purge purge purge!

I have joined a group of bloggers to create the "Life: Simplified Project". We are all journeying through this period of simplifying our lives in 2014 together. As we go we are blogging and sharing our tips and experiences with you! Sound intriguing? Well you can join us too! If you are interested in joining our project, head on over to Christin's blog at Joyful Mothering  and leave your Pinterest name for her to add you to our list. We have a community Pinterest board which we are all using to share our posts, tips, and experiences. There will also be link ups along the way.

We all seem to have our own unique areas that we are focusing on. Here are the areas that I will be working on simplifying:

• Home: Decluttering and Minimizing
• Health: Food & Exercise
• Time Management: Emphasis on Scheduling and Social Media Time
• Family: Going back to the simple days

Over the course of the next few weeks we will be introducing you to the rest of the team and getting to know you as well! I have added a Life: Simplified Project tab to my blog so that you can easily find my posts and track progress...as well as search through the rest of our group of bloggers.

Thank you for following our journey! How about you? Are you joining in?

Live by Example

 

I thank God for giving me this example as parents of what sticking through marriage means. The good times, the bad times, the hard time, the rich times, the poor times, the healthy times, the sick times, the super trying wish you could run away times, the super rewarding love bubbling over times....all of it...my parents have survived 50 years of marriage...they got through being 17 and 19 when they were married. They got through having twins and a 2 year old by the time they were 19 and 21 years old. They got through the times that they were not living a holy life...and they have lived through 37 years as Christians in the ministry...and still counting. As I type this my dad is in Kenya for yet another missions trip...and my mother is hard at work sewing making handbags for my upcoming Allume conference trip next week. 

 My experience with my parents is not like that of my siblings...My oldest brother is 15 years older...the twins are 12 years older...and my closest in age sister is 9 years older than I. They grew up together fighting and playing together. I grew up with what seemed like a whole lot of aunts and uncles...becoming an Aunt myself at the age of 12. They grew up during the really hard times in their marriage pre-Christianity....I grew up with my dad becoming a pastor the year I was born. I grew up looking up to my siblings thinking every move they made was so cool and I wanted to be just like them! I had our parents all to myself....while they all had to share amongst each other.

 Growing up so differently, yet we have so much in common. Each of us 5 kids are married, and we each of 3 kids. I love my family, so much. Are any of us perfect, no....but I love the imperfections as well. The years of our families growing older...and our kids beginning to branch out into adult relationships....marriages of their own and kids of their own lurking around the corners...the days and years where we see less of each other is coming closer as we all strive to hold on to our own families for as long as we can before our own children branch out and spend holidays at their in-laws homes...I will cling to these days as long as I can! Just a little longer...please! We have a cumulative of 154 years of marriage all together!

Sisters.....oh my that is a whole other post. I love my sisters.

Blessed beyond measure...