Busy

There's a post I started a while back called, "Simple Living." It's a draft and I never got around to publishing it, and now it seems a little silly. Life right now seems anything but simple.

For the past two springs, life has been extremely busy. We own a landscaping company and as soon as the weather warms up the work begins. For better or worse, we are successful - people love our work. We even have to turn business away at times in order to get done what we have already scheduled. It's a good place to be in, business-wise, but it often ends up being stressful for us, the owners!

I have spent the past two weeks driving back and forth from our home in the country to the suburban city our business operates out of. The kids have spent a lot of time with my parents (they aren't complaining - well... the kids aren't, I don't know about my parents! ;)). Adam and I were conducting interviews nearly every day for the past two weeks. It was exhausting! I think we have found a decent team, though, and we have been pretty happy so far with the guys we have hired.

My out-of-the-home work is limited - I help interview people, I conduct orientations for new hires, I run errands occasionally. I also take care of some emailing, updating routes and schedules, turning in payroll, and a few other "office" type things from home. None of it is a huge deal but it can feel overwhelming when piled on top of all the other normal mom, wife, and homemaker duties I have.

So I end up wondering how I can *l i v e  s i m p l y* when life feels anything but simple! Here's what I've come up with:

Slow down. Rushing around doesn't accomplish much at all (usually). It makes me feel like life is chaotic and crazy and I get a lot less done. I like to take time in the morning to do absolutely nothing but drink coffee and read my Bible. Slowly starting my day tends to work a lot better for me than waking up and diving right in.

Find beauty.  I buy a bouquet of flowers at the store and put them in a jar on the table. I stop and look at the sunrise (if I'm out that early) or sunset. I notice that the trees are starting to leaf out, the daffodils have bloomed, and the grass is greener. I look at how the sun shines through the trees or how I can see through the clear water to the bottom of the pond at my neighbor's. Finding beauty in the normal, every day things keeps me from feeling total overwhelmed by the daily grind of owning a landscaping business in the spring.

Plan. For me, part of living simply means planning. If we have a plan for our busy day or week, and a plan for our meals, it makes things a lot more simple. A meal in the slow cooker means we don't stop for dinner on the way home if we are out in the late afternoon and evening. Planning out what needs to be done each day, means we aren't directionless but we can accomplish what we need to.

I've always thought that simple living and busy are mutually exclusive, but I think that I can still stick to the principles of simple living even in seasons of busy-ness.

(I have to say, though, that I am so thankful that we generally make our own schedule since we are able to homeschool and that makes things a lot easier! I like having the freedom to set our own plans - Lord willing - and not have to follow some government mandated schedule).

This Year:

I've come here several times since my last entry, wanting to write a post and the words either don't flow or I don't have enough time.

The last time I wrote in here was nearly two years ago. We had just moved to our little farm and we were excited to begin our homesteading adventure. The first year went really well - we had a garden that produced well and lots of chickens. By then end of 2014 we had made the decision to greatly expand our landscaping business and so 2015 found us too busy to plant anything at all. We still have chickens (and eggs!) but the garden and just about every other homesteading activity took the backseat for much of 2015.

As I look ahead to the rest of 2016, I'm already thinking about goals I want to achieve. I want to be intentional about each of these and I've been considering what is important to focus on this year. In the past, I've chosen a word for the year - kind of like a theme or something for me to focus on. This year, for 2016, the word that keeps popping into my head is:  d i s c i p l i n e .

Discipline. It's such a harsh sounding word. I actually don't even like it. I don't like that it's *that* word that seems to be my word this year. I mean, who wants to work on discipline?

I've found that this past year was difficult because I lacked discipline; in routines, meal planning and grocery shopping, budgeting and spending, exercise, homeschooling the kids, and cleaning the house. Nearly every day was so free-flowing that I felt stressed by the disorganization and lack of routine and planning.

2015 felt chaotic because I have pretty much failed at being disciplined about all that stuff - all that really important stuff - for a long time.

So, this year I hope to be more disciplined overall but there is one main area I will focus on: finances. I want to take that very seriously this year. I would like to be disciplined with budgeting and will probably move to a cash-only/envelope system for things like groceries, clothes, homeschool supplies, etc. I'll write more soon about that (hopefully!!).