0 Simplify

Things have been quiet around here this week because we were camping. I thought about pre-planning some blog posts but in the end I didn't have the time. Enter blogger guilt. I want to be able to say that I can do it all (and do it perfectly) but I am realizing that there is just too much going on in my life. I was so relaxed when we were camping and so much more productive than I am when we are at home. By 9AM each day we were up, fed, dressed and on a hike. It is 9AM now and while we are up and fed we are all still in our PJ's and no where near walking out the door to go do something.  I didn't completely disconnect while camping, I still posted on my Facebook and Twitter, but I felt like life had slowed down a lot. After 4 awesome days away we came home and I feel like instantly life went back to clutter and fast paced. 

So I have resolved to make every day like we are camping. Now that doesn't mean we will be sleeping outside, constantly smelling like hot dogs and eating a lot of smores. It just means that I am going to find ways to slow down and simplify life. I think this goes hand in hand with living a more eco-conscious lifestyle so this should be something relatively easy for me to do. When one starts to look at their life and opportunities to reduce their environmental footprint the first thing that usually comes up is stuff.  How much stuff we have, how much stuff we don't need. Things that leave us feeling rushed, cluttered, anxious.

I am sure we have all experienced this in life. Where you sit in a room in your house and look around and count all the things you want to fix or change and then it just becomes too much so you don't do anything. Like with going green you need to approach simplifying your life by taking small steps. Sure I would love for our backyard project to just be done with the perfectly calming, relaxing and private backyard but that isn't going to happen right now. But I can do some small things like buy pool towels (done!), relocate furniture (done!) and make a plan for the new gardens. Small steps for longer term big wins. 

When we were camping I felt like a better Mom and Wife. Dumb I know because how can 1 small change in environment have that kind of impact. I just felt more engaged and involved. There were less distractions around us and seriously it was awesome. In day to day life my distractions are social media, cleaning, LAUNDRY, decorating and TV. My distractions should be colouring, truck derby smash up, movie nights, gardening and swimming. 

Fuck, this is really sounding like a Dear John letter isn't it? I swear it isn't. I'm not going anywhere! I am however going to look at areas in life that are time suckers and get rid of them so I can spend more time with those I love and doing things I love. Living every day like we are camping.

Less is more. Less is simple. Less is green.