Take your Reptile for a Walk

This morning, we left the breakfast mess on the counter and the oatmeal to congeal. We went upstairs to play with a wooden train set, then we dressed our son in his Halloween costume. I say it's a dragon, my husband says it's a dinosaur and the neighbors said: "Take a look at that fine looking crocodile!" Bonus! 3 costumes in one. We took our "reptile" to a local coffee shop, got coffees,  and visited the fire truck at the station. We walked to the park and swung the reptile, then we walked back playing hide-and-seek along the way and admiring the colors of the autumn leaves. We held hands and made fun of ugly houses in the neighborhood. It was a beautiful, peaceful morning. Just the way I like them. The three of us, doing our thing.

Some weekends it feels like there's so much to do: cleaning, cooking, fixing the car, grocery shopping, etc... and that it will never end. When one thing gets fixed another breaks, and don't get me started on meals, sometimes I wish we didn't have to eat as often to survive. Once or twice a week would be great. Overall though, I feel I've come to relax about this. It will get done. Eventually. One day. When it needs to. I'd rather enjoy doing less and doing it with joy and intention then frantically trying to get it all done. Keeping things simple is also a great way to reduce feelings of "being SO busy." On Zen Family Habits, I picked out some of their 43 Simple Ways To Simplify Your Life.

My favorites are: 

1. Turn off your cell phone. I don't own one so Yay! That's easy!
2. Go to bed early. I hit the sack at 9pm. It's the only way I can stay sane. Sane Mommy=happy family. Insane Mommy makes lame dinners.
3. Purge as much unneeded clutter as possible. The less you have, the less needs attention.
4. Want what you have not what you don’t. This is hard at first, but try it. Tell yourself: "I have every thing I need and it's perfect for me."
5. Get outside. This relates back to going to bed early. Going outside every day keeps me sane. I'd like to go to wilderness more often though; less parks, more forests.
6. Let go of the self-imposed need to be perfect. So the floor is crusty and baby keeps bringing me the fluff off the carpet. It doesn't matter.  I just go outside.

Must do these:

1. Keep a bag for garbage in your car. I keep meaning to do this and forget.
2. Ask for experiences not things for your birthday and Christmas this year. This is what I read: Ask for Mommy Time for your birthday and Christmas this year. Not and hour. A FULL AFTERNOON, or even a FULL DAY.

Ones that don't work for me:

1. Get a label maker or write labels out by hand. Labelers are weird people and generally overuse their label maker. Label makers tend to become sign makers, and then the signs become lists of rules. I don't label- it's a scary thing.
2. Set your clothes out for the next day the night before. Place it neatly on the bed and step back to admire your selection. Weird. Just put on clothes. 
3. Be positive. Blah. Be angry or depressed if you want. Do it fully. Then move on.

Keeping it simple really is key. However that looks for you. It's easy: play hide-and-seek with a reptile, hold hands with the one you love, drink a decent cup of coffee, and marvel at nature. When all that is done, come home, vacuum the fluff off the carpet. Call it a day and go to bed early.

My Zen Garden

my stuff

I've never been a very big fan of coffee tables. Sure, I like being able to put my feet up, if you're allowed, but generally, I find that most empty surfaces tend to get cluttered. Coffee tables are the worse for that: books, cups, pens, toys, notes, keys etc... I try to contain the stuff with containers. I use a big tray.




My husband had this habit of putting his stuff on the fire mantel which would drive me insane, so I gave him a tray too. (notice how much smaller it is..not sure if that was intentional). I think it made me insane because the fireplace is usually the focal point of a room and the junk, sorry, the stuff, seemed highlighted there. I put his tray up on our living room sideboard to protect the fireplace and designed the mantel as my zen garden aka no clutter zone.

his stuff

Up until recently, I've been growing my "back yard": 3 pots with grass. Today I took them outside for some fresh air and decided to refresh my zen garden. While reading "Simply Imperfect- Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House" by Robyn Griggs Lawrence in my quest to continue adding some wabi-sabi to my life, I reread the chapter on uncluttering made easy. Two items stood out: allow only three items on each surface and keep windowsills clear of knickknacks and potted plants.

Okay so I was going in the right direction with having only 3 items, but not with the potted plants. So here's what I've come up with. My favorite school chair, a mini pumpkin and a river rock. So when the floors get covered in toys, counters spewed with dishes and stairs with shoes, I just have to look up for some zen.

My wabi sabi zen garden

Paper, Paper, Paper

The Pile
I've always thought that I was pretty good at containing and purging all the paper that enters the house: bills, receipts, cards, pamphlets, newspapers, flyers, bank statements, paper bags etc... but I was wrong. How do I know this?

The Realization
Last month, my husband and I started to clean out a large wardrobe (which we used as a place for junk) to make space for a desk. Aside from 3 staplers, oodles of pushpins and piles of picture-less frames, there was a mountain of papers. Piles of hydro, phone and gas bills, piles of bank statements, tax papers, investment statements, receipts, and warranties all with our personal information and account numbers printed all over them.

The Task
With the fear of identity theft we decided to shred everything. At some point we inherited a mini envelop size shredder, I think meant mostly for receipts. As I began shredding the piles, one paper at a time, as it clearly warns on the shredder, it became very clear that I needed one of those big shredding trucks . Most of the papers were not pre-folded to fit in so, I started to fold them, then I got super dry hands and paper cuts. And then I said: F***K! this is going to take forever. I guess it's payback for hoarding for so long.

I decided to take the pile down to the tv room and deal with it every time I watch a show which meant I had to ditch the shredder 'cause it was too loud. To save my hands I started to use scissors to cut out our "top secret" information. The pile got smaller and now it fits in a basket which I hide under the couch. (It's still there- I promise I'll get to it)


The New System
1. When one bill arrives, I pay it and throw away last month's.
2. I deal with each piece of paper on the first floor so that piles don't spread throughout the house.
3. I bought a small portable filing container where all our important documents live.
4. My husband and I get one shoe box each for back taxes.

So far so good. One basket to go!