A Simple Spring

There are days when I wish for things to be simple again… when people communicated through a corded telephone {gasp!} from a telephone table in their own home {in fact you can still see a prime example of one of those at my mom’s house..!} not from cellular phones at all hours of the day in all places…ahem.. bathrooms and the gym…

Mail was mail brought by the friendly postman {did they really exist back then?} and I waited anxiously every.single.day of summer to see if my Iowa pen pal had written me a letter… Hey there Heather Laver if you’re still out there somewhere how are you???

There were 4 channels on our tv… 5 if you turned the rabbit ears right…and you either watched what was on one of those channels or did a puzzle or {double gasp!} went and played outside!–Note: if the president was giving a speech, you were going to see it and too bad so sad but you were gonna miss Flipper…

Simple.

Don’t get me wrong, there are fun and useful things about technology — like this bloggy thing that I get to share with you, but everyone longs for a little simplicity sometimes. You have to carve it out yourself because nobody is going to do it for you.

Sometimes the best way to simplify is to lay it all down.

“Jesus has never ever asked us to be perfect. He simply wants us to be perfectly surrendered.” ~Lysa Terkeurst

Sometimes you have to pluck those weeds of self doubt, criticism, and a too busy schedule in order to prioritize what’s really important in your life.

We can make our lives as complicated or as simple as we wish. We have the choice.

“Be still, and know that I am God, will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” ~Psalm 46:10

Though my schedule isn’t looking too simple for Spring as of yet- there’s still a few band concerts, graduation ceremonies, receptions, birthdays, Mother’s days, workweeks, chores and all around daily grind stuff to deal with in the coming month, and admittedly I let technology bog me down sometimes- I can choose to do some things to simplify how my brain perceives it all at the very least…

So here are some things I’m trying in order to have a simple spring:

• A simple backdrop on the iPhone. Upon graduating up to the ‘smart’ technology in the past year, I was all about what pretty pictures I could have on the wallpaper/desktop, but when your mind is cluttered and you’ve got emails and texts coming at you 24/7… Simple wins… Pink = sunsets and bubble baths and I don’t get tired looking at the screen just seeing who’s calling..
• A clean sink. Every night I will try to have all the dishes washed and put away because there’s nothing worse than laying eyes on a full sink of dishes in the morning or on the way to bed at night…Confession: this only happened once this weekend {see pictures above and below for what may have distracted me..!}
• A clear closet. Too many choices is akin to too many voices. They just propagate confusion. So my mission this Spring is to combat the clutter and the 92 tank tops folded up all wonky in my dresser drawers. Only the strong, classic pieces will remain. Holy, ill fitting or just plain wrong for me clothes will filter out to the goodwill pile. Ashes to ashes, goodwill to goodwill. (75% of my wardrobe originated from there anyway so it’s only fitting…)
• A work smarter, not harder attitude. For the love of all that is good, I will make everyone’s lunch {including my own} the.night.before if it kills me. I know this will negate the last minute “Gonna be Late” song that I sing every morning as I fling salads and sandwiches in everyone’s appropriate bag. I will probably eat better as a result and not leave my husband without utensils (as much) because I won’t be in a post-slumber pre-coffee fog…
• Love. Love God and love your neighbor. Is my service labor intensive or relationally focused? Am I making time for my family and the things that really matter? {A sweet friend is throwing caution to the wind and choosing to live this out and I’m so blessed by her..!} Are we involved in Kingdom promoting services or activity for the sake of activity? We all want what we do to matter but I think it has to start at home with the people you love.

So that’s a short list of my simple goals for Spring. What are you doing to simplify in your home and life? I’d love to hear!

♥

…and a few more simple pictures from this weekend just because…