My journey to simplicity

As a Christmas gift, I gave my niece and nephew each a gift card with a promise that I'd take them out on a date. That's lunch and shopping to spend the amount on the gift card. This is my idea of compromise for gift giving. The most important part of the gift is the time we spend together, which they seem to really appreciate. On Saturday afternoon, January 9, 2016, I took my nephew out for the shopping date. I had given him a gift card for a book store because he loves reading and that's a love I want to encourage. This book store also sells games and toys, kitchen accessories, notebooks, pens and pencils, musical instruments and many other pretty things. As we were walking around the store while he was choosing his purchases, I realized these kinds of stores still tempt me tremendously! I really LOVE pens and notebooks and musical instruments and books! So much so that I know I have to stay away from these stores unless I have a specific reason to go in. If I just wa...

I've mentioned in my 2015 review that I've started work on my first novel. I've been inspired to start writing fiction. Moi! I remember dreaming about this as a teen, but was never able to do it until now. I re-watched a TED talk the other night looking for inspiration for a challenge of some sort to do next. The speaker talked about doing something new for 30 days. If there's something you've always wanted to do, just try it out for 30 days. In his talk, he mentioned one of his challenges was to write a novel in 30 days (50,000 words). He would make sure to write 1667 words a day. He admitted the quality of his writing wasn't that great, but he was proud for having done it anyway. It seemed like an amusing challenge. So I started (before I decided not to take on new challenges ). I lasted for about 4 days. And what I wrote would never come close to pass for a novel. However, as I was writing whatever popped into my head, I stumbled upon an idea. The next d...

The other day, I was reading a post on Miss Minimalist’s website about a woman who had to go through a deceased friend’s home. He had no family to take on the task. Her description of the state of his home made him seem like a pack-rat (not to use the term hoarder). She said that it took her and her friends two years to get through everything. It was difficult and frustrating for her. It took her a while to get over the resentment she felt towards him for having to go through everything he held on to. That got me thinking of a question on a dating site I was on that asked something to the effect of “If you were to die today, would your loved ones be surprised by what they’d find in your home?” This may be a morbid thought, but I considered that during my major de-cluttering. Actually, I thought of that a long time ago when I had my Will done. When I pass away, what impression will my daughter have of me based on the stuff I’ve left behind? Would it solidify the memory she has of the wo...

Alright, so I got things done in 2015, but there were things I put off taking care of because they seemed like too much trouble (because, you know, getting rid of approximately 75% of my stuff and moving to the city from the suburbs is such a breeze!). For instance, my sewing machine needs a tune up to function properly. I will get that done. Especially if I want to get back into sewing, it’ll be more pleasant to work with a properly functioning machine. I have a couple pieces of vintage audio equipment that I don’t use and have no plans of using. They’re beautiful pieces and still work (though one needs a bit of a tune up), but they take up more room than I’m willing to allocate to them. So I will sell them off and I’ll use the money I get for them to buy a good quality Bluetooth speaker. I have an antique sewing machine that my paternal grand-mother gave me before she passed away. She was proud that someone in the family had a knack for sewing like she did. The belt needs to be...

Happy New Year!! Well 2015 has been quite the year for me. Because it's always good to do an end of year review, I've decided to share mine with you. January Feeling distraught over losing my father on October 11, 2014, and a little unhappy over other things in my life that weren't as I'd hoped they would be, I decided to take on my first Whole 30. Through this process, I realized that I have a strong reaction to dairy and sugar. Dairy gives me muscular aches and makes me moody (feeling down). Sugar also makes me moody and makes my joints hurt. Grains don't seem to affect me as much. Also, I had no idea, but apparently I'm very much an emotional eater. It was good for me to focus on this challenge. It got me out of my funk. At the end of the month, I met an interesting sweet man and we dated for about three months. The end of that relationship was a difficult heartbreak for me. But I got so much from it that I appreciate it despite the heartbreak. He was v...