K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple, Stupid. My new motto.

I'm finding the older I get the less I want. There are very few things that I really value and none of them are "things": faith, family, friends, and travel. That's pretty much it. Once upon a time I aspired to having a big house and decorating it with cute things. I love our house, but it's too much. The upkeep is crazy time consuming, whether it be cleaning it or fixing something, and often expensive. And the chotchkies all over the place, aside from the ones we've gotten traveling or our personal photos, the rest is just stuff I have to dust. How often do I "treasure" that thing I found in Target 2 years ago? It may have spoken to me at the time, but now it sits on the shelf and the only time I look at it is when I have to clean it (and then it's with resentment). You should see my bathroom drawers and shelves, (actually NO that would be horrifying) filled with lotions and potions and makeup that I never use. I imagine most of it is bad at this point, those things have shelf lives I hear. My closet is filled with clothes, some are so old they are out of style (if they were ever in style, that's not really my thing either). If it's not jeans and t-shirts, it just hangs.

My retired mom decided a couple of years ago to throw all her stuff in storage and travel around in her motor home. She has had a blast! She spends a month here or there, travels to see her kids and grand kids and lives full time in that little house on wheels. Talk about having to simplify down to the basics. She cruises through her hometown to switch out summer to winter clothes or vice versa. I envy her being able to do that. Clearly, we are not in a place right now where that is possible. We have kids in school and Brian has a full time job, so that kind of travel is out for now. The simplifying is totally doable! We recently bought a camper and have gone camping a couple of times and had a great time. We essentially chose to leave our big house to stay in a TINY apartment for a few days and missed NOTHING. Obviously, living on top of each other like that would get old after a while, it's an extreme the other direction. However, it takes 5 minutes to clean the whole camper and the rest of the day is ours. We had so much more time to "play". I'm all about that!

My point, I suppose, is that I feel like I'm crazy busy doing things I'd rather not be doing... and I've done it to myself. Why have I created this high maintenance lifestyle? I didn't do spring cleaning this year, but I'm feeling a Fall dump run coming on... ;)

Until next time,
Julie