What Matters Most?

What matters most to you?

Are you making choices each day to support that?

Every choice we make takes us closer to or farther from our goal.

Reducing our daily choices frees up mental energy for those 'big decisions'...but how do you reduce your daily choices?

Some people choose to eat the same thing for breakfast everyday...or wear the same style of clothing everyday (a self-imposed 'uniform' if you will), or limit tv watching to avoid advertisements (telling us to buy more, get more, do more...).

Reducing what you own doesn't necessarily reduce your daily decision-making, but it does free up energy because you don't have as much stuff to take care of (buy, put away, fix, clean, replace, look at, etc).

Lots of people have the 'sitting on a beach with no responsibilities' daydream...when you imagine that, what's there with you?  Your family?  A book?  A glass of wine?  Hardly anything at all???

If your daydream is a simpler life, choose to make your everyday life as simple as you can.

Where will your path lead you today?

Over-Packer Problems

As hard as it is to believe, I am an over-packer.  I know.  ...sigh...
I'm a very sensitive being, so I don't want to be uncomfortable.  
Couple that with Colorado's '4 seasons in 1 day' weather, and it's a recipe for disaster.

The camping season is upon us and our son's 3rd grade class is doing an overnight trip to Sand Dunes National Park this weekend...just me and the boy are going, so you'd think we'd have very minimal stuff (we're only staying one night)...wrong.  

rain jackets
hiking boots 
warm weather clothes
cool weather clothes
food
water
tent
sleeping bags
sleeping pad 
hats (sun & beanies)
gloves
headlamps
camping chairs
kite
hula hoop
sled (for the dunes)

Ok, obviously this is not a backpacking type of camping trip.  
And yes, I know a sled, kite, and hula hoop are NOT necessities for this trip.  
But they'll make it more fun :)

1 adult, 1 kid, 1 night
(the cooler & Camelbak aren't even in the picture!)

I'm pretty proud of myself for downsizing our huge bag of clothing to one small(ish) bookbag.  I realized that we probably won't change clothes if we're only going for one night, so I wiped out half of our clothing.  (Because I have a small 'emergency clothing' bag to leave in the car...ah!  I know, I really do have a problem!)

Clothing is where I struggle when it comes to packing--and I don't even own that many pieces of clothing!  Same with shoes--it's not that I own a lot, just have different 'types' for different Colorado activities :)

If you're going for more than a couple of days and you can wash and re-wear your clothing, that can help you to not over-pack in this area.  And if you can bring yourself to only wear one pair of footwear, obviously that saves space in your luggage.

Another area where over-packing tends to happen is with kid 'stuff.'  Toys, clothes, food, etc.  (talk to my husband about this one!)  Camping is perfect for reducing kid toys--nature has plenty!  For the ride in the car, we usually have drawing supplies and books...for the most part, that entertains our 9 year old and 4 year old.

Ultimately, I just have to suck it up and learn to deal with being uncomfortable.
I'm working on it.
Slowly.

How do you do when packing for a trip?  
Are you an over-packer, under-packer, or just right?  

Happy Mother's Day!

Ah Mother's Day...the day to celebrate "Mom"...the day to give mom a break.

But dishes need done, laundry probably needs put away, kids need fed...

We can't really clock out of the job of parenthood (although we sometimes fantasize about it!).

Our culture seems to have these holidays to remind us about 'self-care' and commercials about how we should celebrate them (buy STUFF!).

How about starting a new tradition: 

Get rid of stuff you don't need--then you'll have less to clean/buy/fix/move/use/think about...?

Instead of gifting your mom/wife/sister with more stuff to say "thanks for being a great mom!"...how about offering to help clear out some unused stuff and ease her burden of day-to-day chores to keep up with said stuff?

I know, I know--what a weird Mother's Day gift idea!  Just trying to think about what the mom in your life might really like as a 'thank you' :)

Our family did acquire more stuff this Mother's Day: a dog.

We lost our 15 year old mutt this past January and we've been wanting to get another dog, but waiting for our next dog to "find us" as we're not the 'buy a purebred puppy' kind of people.  

We came across Stella at an adoption fair last Sunday and agreed to foster her for the week.  

It didn't take long to realize that she's a great addition to our family.  So we adopted her for good.

To all the mothers reading this: I hope your day was filled with love and was (somewhat) relaxing! Everyday is Mother's Day as far as I'm concerned--I hope you're living the life you love :)

The best gifts on Mother's Day