Capsule Wardrobes..

There are so many definitions of the capsule wardrobe online. I don't feel bad altering to fit my own needs as well. In my mind, a capsule wardrobe is a small, cohesive collection of clothes that fit together to form a unified whole. They exist in relation to each other, and can generally be worn together interchangeable, but not in a dull way. My intentions for my capsule wardrobe are to have something funky, interesting, and attractive that fits my way of life, and my limited storage space. 

I originally planned on having about 36 pieces of clothing, excepting shoes and scarves.. but when I went through my clothes and made up a list of the items I need to replace or repair, I came up with a number closer to 25 or 30 pieces of clothing. The wardrobe I'm planning for now is made up of 5 skirts, 5 dresses, 10 tops, and 5 variable pieces..leggings or jeans or something. I might end up with fewer of those. I didn't include shoes, but I'd like to end up with 4 pairs of shoes: flats, boots, heels, and muck boots. I also plan on having 4 or 5 scarves. I already have lovely cowboy boots, some fun red flats, and pretty brown heels..since 90% of my wardrobe is black though, I wonder if I should replace the brown heels with something more relate-able. 


But since we're in the middle of 'No-Spend January', adding to my wardrobe will have to wait a while. Right now I'm firmly in the reducing stage of the process. And reducing is so much fun! While I go about getting rid of the clothes that don't spark joy, I'm redoing my drawers, pasting pages from a crumbling book of Parisian photography over the old drawer-paper. 

I'm also creating a capsule board on Pinterest, so I can pick through clothing in my mind before buying anything. 

Has anyone else done a capsule wardrobe? I'd love any advice on making a smooth transition into clothing simplicity.

New Year

I try to bind each year to a word and let that word guide my goals and actions as I move through the months. This year, my focus is on Beauty. 

I'm always at least half focused on Beauty, so this year is more of refocusing, a deepening relationship with the word, and all it represents.

In part, I am talking about physical beauty, I want to take more time to nourish my body and adorn it. I'll be paying more attention to the health of my skin. I've made a rich, moisturizing cream with coffee-butter, shea butter, olive oil, rose-hip seed oil, and essential oils indulge my face each night. I'm wearing honey-clay masks regularly; and I hope to pick up body brushing again. 

I'm also taking more time with my hair and makeup most days and working on building a capsule wardrobe. My current wardrobe is small enough, but it lack cohesion and consistent beauty. Too often I go out looking sloppier than I want to. I'd like to reduce my wardrobe just a bit more, add some 'muck-about-the-yard' boots to save my shoes, and give my wardrobe a sense of wholeness.

But beauty is petty when it doesn't go beyond the body. In this new year, I hope to extend it through the things in my life and into the spirit of it. As I craft beauty in my self and my home, through building a culture of simplicity and hospitality, I hope it will make soul-beauty more and more a natural part of life. 

I'm reducing my belongings, and my family is reducing with me. We're clearing out the cluttering, half-wanted things and letting our little house breathe a bit more. Fewer toys, fewer clothes, fewer distractions. The kids are even getting excited about packing away the toys and clothes they don't love and sending them off to other kids. My daughter could wear three outfits over and over each week and be happy in them, she adores the soft, cozy clogs her grandparents sent her for Christmas and her glittery boots, but is only half-heartedly attached to 2 other pairs of winter shoes in the basket. The warm, red union suit her other grandparents gave her for Christmas is deeply loved, but two other pajamas can be packed off easily.

My husband is filling the house with artwork this winter. Some of it will sell on his Etsy site, Paperwine Industries, but some of it will replace less loved pieces on our own walls.

And as we clear out and simplify, we're building in time for prayer, reading, quiet, and especially play. We're adding in a daily noon Angelus, a personal rosary and divine mercy for me, and a family quiet time at 3pm..which I intend to be a tech-free time. I want to make sure I have order in my day, structure for my children, and time to play with them as well. I think I tend to neglect play.

I have a bullet journal and a dreambook to keep me focused on my goals for the year, hopefully they will help me make 2017 a year of living beauty.

Blessings this new year! What are your goals and how are you pursuing them? Tell me all about it!

Life Updates

Until this past week, I've neglected this blog for over a year. I've missed writing out my thoughts here, and sharing my life with faraway friends in this way. And with a little bit of extra time know and the fresh motivation a new year brings - I think I'm ready to dive back into blogging!

What have we been doing this past year?

Well, homeschooling is an exciting new adventure! Yarrow and I are working through a blend of kindergarten and first-grade level work. Most of the inspiration and direction in our homeschooling has come from the Charlotte Mason perspective, specifically through it's Catholic interpretation in the Mater Amabilis curriculum. I've edited a bit to fit better with our life and views, but the tone is ideal and the philosophy of learning is so very inspiring! 

We focus a bit more on regular reading of the Bible, poetry, art, and music than the curriculum calls for, and I've adjusted the history reading to focus on Native American, pre-Columbian perspectives for our first term. I'm hoping in the spring to include some interesting perspectives on post-Columbian early America, but still appropriate for a 5 year old. So far we've enjoyed "If you lived with the Iroquois", "All Our Relatives", and "The Discovery of the Americas" - all of these books we read aloud at breakfast, along with the Bible, Sing-a-Song-of-Popcorn (poetry), our current art book, a saint story, and our catechism lesson (we're working with the Faith and Life series). We don't read anything but the Bible every single day, we switch it up. And after breakfast we work on Yarrow's reading practice. She's reading "Harry and The Lady Next Door" right now, and so proud of herself for being 'A Reader.'

Ilya loves the read-alouds in the morning, and during work times he can usually focus for a little while coloring his name, or another word in bubble letters, practicing colors - he adores purple! - and tormenting the dog.

* * * * 

Along with homeschooling, I'm working on building my own interior life. "Mother Culture" is what Charlotte Mason types call it. I didn't know it had a special name. It seems essential to all people..and so easily neglected by us all as well. 

I have been neglecting mine, but slowly I'm building it back up. 

As we're transitioning to our less consuming way of life, I'm reading Marie Kondo's "life-changing magic" book..or I was, until I lent it out. Now I'm reading "The Joy of Less" and trying to change my direction from someone who constantly buys and purges to someone satisfied with the things she has. Someone attracted to less. It's difficult. I find myself wanting to create a false sense of perfection by getting rid of everything and then buying in all sorts of attractive replacements, instead of being content and patient in the slow work of building my home. It's a challenge!

* * * * * 

And I've contacted a studio that will rent out kiln space to me! Since I still have no where to throw this winter, all that means is that I can fire the bisque-ware that is languishing in my shed. But I can fire them! And perhaps I can get my wheel fixed up, cleaned off, and going again! 

* * * * * 

I read somewhere...and have absorbed the quote, if not the author..that "the gospel is never good news unless it is subversive." 

And with all my notebooks and planners, daily things, schooling, baking, reading, and praying.. that is the end goal. Subversion. To change the world from my own hidden corner of it. That my faith might find it's way up into the sunlight and alter the landscape. It's an exciting goal.

* * * *

Where are you in life these days? What has changed since we last connected? What are you doing, and where are you going? I would absolutely love to know.

Novice

The company my husband worked for closed for good this fall. We had planned for a winter without regular work anyway, and now that it's here - with no certain starting date for a regular income in view, we're beginning a new aspect of our homesteading life. Ideally, I would love to avoid the regular work-life for our family in the future. To continue a simpler, more intimate domestic monastery..with my husband painting and drawing, selling his work, and occasionally doing side work building chimneys or painting houses for our neighbors and friends.

But that sort of life takes something I don't have a lot of yet: self-discipline and a love of simplicity. I struggle with those. I still have the suburban-ever-present desire for more, and training myself to want less, to reveal in true simplicity, and not merely the trappings of simplicity is hard. 

I'm working hard to build that inner richness this Advent. My husband is working hard to create beautiful pieces of art and then find homes for them in ways that support our family finances as well. I love watching him work at this! I love seeing the lovely images in his mind take shape on wood and paper. I love having him home, giving him the chance to participate more in schooling Yarrow and shaping our days. And I'm learning to say no to myself. To purge out the unloved things without replacing them. To love discipline, consistency, and not run always toward the new and shiny things of the world. 

It's hard, but the payoff is amazing! A husband who can be home more, creating more, living more. And a healthier soul for me as well. I'm still a novice regarding simplicity. But I do think I'm learning and growing stronger each day. And if you want to help my learning curve at all..my husband's Esty shop is Paperwine Industries. 

Retreat Cake

I’m ready for August. My dearest friend turned 30 last weekend and, as always, our birthdays have merged in my mind so that I have trouble remembering that I am still 29 for almost two more weeks!

I’ve been easing into my retreat; I want it to be everything it can be and preparation is so essential for that. This morning we poured tea from pot to cup, aware of the process, we drank it with bowls of yogurt, flax, and blueberries fresh from the yard. Grapefruit is featuring prominently in almost every meal, and my pots of tea are always steeping something.

I’m forcing my days into order -gently..rising earlier to write in my journal and prepare for the day, limiting distractions, and shouldering responsibilities - the kitchen is a mess as I work my way through the organization process. One of my goals for the month is to bake more often - to have cake in house often - for Seth and Yarrow, as it doesn’t really fit in with a detox. I don’t mean that sort of cake that’s a sugary mess. Not ‘birthday cake’ or ‘wedding cake’..something versatile - that can fit with breakfast, lunch, or tea - something like Blueberry Corn Cake. I’ve made the recipe twice and we love it! Ready to pair with yogurt and coffee at 6am or with tea and cream at 4:30pm..this is cake that looks and tastes like love.

Blueberry Corn Cake

1/2 cup Wholemeal plain flour (I used 1/4 cup whole wheat and 1/4 white)

1/2 cup fine-ground cornmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup maple syrup (you could use honey if you’re not abundantly blessed with Maple trees..but you might want to reduce the amount..honey is sweeter.)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup Walnut Oil (I used melted butter because I don’t have walnut oil, I think any light-flavored oil would work as well..NOT olive oil though)

2 tbsp Milk

About1/2 - 3/4 cup blueberries

The cake bakes at 350 F. Grease an 8” pan with oil or butter. Stir together the dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and syrup, walnut oil, vanilla, and milk. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Toss in blueberries and stir lightly. Pour/spoon batter into cake pan and sprinkle on remaining berries. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the cake is lightly golden and springs back with pressed. Enjoy!

The Simplicity Project: Intentional Living - Meals and Beyond

I’ve been doing a lot interiorly to move towards a more intentional, thoughtful life. My attempts at meal planning are a part of that, and a sort of an image of the way of life* I’m working to build. Our meals are fluid in some ways - open to the changing seasons, to the flow of work and rest; but they are settled as well - tangible, rooted things. Catching the senses and holding them. Grounding. The rhythm is becoming more consistent, more reliable.

The focus on meals is informing life in other, small ways. Growing ways. I’m less likely to crave a night out over a night at home, more concerned with the underlying order in my home (always a weak spot for me, usually, if I can’t see it, it doesn’t bother me). I’m more aware of the ways in which a disordered routine negatively affects all of us. Which isn’t to say nights out or visits to and from friends are a problem, done well, and intentionally, they’re not; but I’m learning order and moderation and the ability to put my and my family’s need for a consistent way of life first. It’s a learning process, and one I hope will not be isolating to us or others, but something I’m willing to accept isolation to pursue - because it is essential to our little domestic monastery; and because I know that if I lose my sense of place, the rootedness and ritual of our domestic life, I will lose my ability to offer anything of myself to those I love, family and visitors alike.

We’re working in small ways at keeping that consistency, the rhythm of meals and life, day and night, sleeping and waking. After two weeks of groundlessness and disorder following a long and undirected visit by her grandparents, Petka has found her equilibrium again, napping gladly, sleeping well, confident in her days. I realize, looking back, that I failed her in that visit, left her without the comforts of the rhythms she expects in life. Her life doesn’t need rigid schedule, but it does need reliability, something she can cling to. So we are building something that will last now, something led by her needs, my needs, and my husband’s needs - and our obligations to God and to each other. 

Thoughts on Order

Today I dumped the contents of my baskets everywhere searching for a bag of fabric birds my in-laws may or may not have left at house. They’re our birds, we don’t have to find them. But my husband spent hours making them and they’re lovely little things. I want them. I want more than anything to have a house in which I’m not dumping the contents of my baskets on the floor every other day - hunting for things I’ll never find again. My pursuit of simplicity in my home has been on hold since the days warmed and the ground became workable. My garden looks delightful, my pigs are fattening, my yard is becoming a homesteader’s paradise - complete with patio and garden fencing..but my house languishes in disorder. So here we go again with a plan - one that involves burning so many papers and filling big bags for Goodwill, one that involves stockpiling wood for the kitchen oven and making a list of spices to stock up on; spices, flours, grains, and other staples, one that involves - more than anything else, a readjustment of my attitude toward time - toward the day itself. Because I think, to make order work in life, I need to order my mind more than is natural to it. I need the discipline to commit spaces of time to certain activities: cleaning, cooking, meal preparation, writing, and most especially, to prayer.

I don’t think I’ll ever be someone to whom order comes naturally. It will always be a decision: to put away papers instead of just tucking them out of sight, to renew the dog’s license, to feed the sourdough sponge before it over-sours, to actually see the things I’m putting in the trash..But I’d like to make a beginning this week. My desk really should be that beginning - it’s overwhelming, but O-so-necessary! I will sit myself down Sunday afternoon and order my things in earnest, with prayers to St. Somebody-the-Orderly for help and resolution. Are there any well-ordered Saints..I like to think not, but I’m sure there are dozens of them, laughing at me from heaven. I hope they’ll hold their laughter long enough to lend and a hand.

The Simplicity Project: Lent

I love lent. I look forward to it every year from Christmas until it begins. Each year we commit to a traditional Byzantine fast - a rhythm of eating that flows with the week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we are allowed no meat, eggs, dairy, oil, wine, or fish; Tuesday and Thursday we are allowed oil and wine, but no fish, meat, dairy or eggs; Saturday and Sunday we are allowed oil, wine and fish, but not meat, eggs, or dairy. And throughout the fast we avoid sugar and sweetness, except honey and molasses. I love the Lenten rhythm, it always gives me something to strive for and something to look forward to as we await Easter.

This year we are adding to our discipline a spending fast. While we will have to continue paying bills, buying gas and groceries, and paying for essentials, we are avoiding all other spending. My intention is to use this time to focus on Christ and on nurturing our domestic monastery in simplicity and beauty. I’m looking forward to a Lent full of beans and rice, black coffee, tea, long dark evenings at home, playing cards in the lamplight and preparing to greet Easter with fresh eyes. I’m going to use blogging to hold myself accountable, because, without it, I’m likely to sneak off to the store occasionally - so many weaknesses to overcome in life!

Simplicity, Minimalism, and Me

I’ve been working away at my simplicity goals recently: cleaning, organizing, giving away, and throwing away my many things. And sometimes, as I hunt around for advice on the whole process, I get a little lost among all the minimalism. I’m not aiming for minimalism - not that it’s a bad way of life, but it isn’t at all for me. I don’t want an empty, open house - without books on the shelves, spilling over onto table and floor, or without enough pretty teacups with which to welcome friends. I want a sort of simple opulence - and abundance of beauty without the mess of trinkets and ‘knick-knacks’. I want each item in my house to be either beautiful alone, or both beautiful and useful..but not useful alone (the chainsaw will have to go)..and I want to be promiscuous in my love of beautiful things.

The actual ‘Simplicity’ movement leans toward minimalism, and it’s become a bit of a game to pick through the advice of other bloggers for information that will help me to my goal - a fun game and one that is always changing - maybe I will purge 90% of my wardrobe, it’s ok, I have about a million cuts of fabric just waiting to replace all those old skirts! In general, what I find to be helpful are the tips about focusing on small areas for small periods of time (one deep drawer, or one trunk) and tossing all the things that are unloved and unimportant - even, in the case of clothes, if the have the potential to be loved at some point in the future. I’m also getting some good tips on storages, for those ugly necessities that can’t be gotten rid of - like tarps and water jugs and coolers - from pinterest. But my little checklist for “2013 Home-Improvement” is growing and growing, even as I check off little boxes each day. The pursuit of perfection never ends, I suppose, and I really wouldn’t want to live in a perfect house - I’ll alway need rugs to straighten and shelves to dust; last weeks flowers need to be removed and replaced. Imperfection is really an essential part of my simplicity plan - which is why minimalism doesn’t quite fit in.

But minimalists have some wonderful ideas as well. Reducing the connection to phones and social media, especially. I’ve been keeping my phone silent for parts of the day, to be out of touch, and turning away from the online world a bit and towards my own ceiling and sky. It’s easier to reduce drama when you’re nestled in silence (or, as much silence as Yarrow and Luba will give, but that’s not quite the same thing, is it?). I’ve even reduce my radio time - often it’s off until the Classical music program, and then off again as we set the table for tea. We’ve been adding things as well - more formalized meal times, and well-displayed food. It used to be more common, but the busier I got, the less I gave to each meal. Now, once again they are moments set out of the day for rest and refreshment..and maybe a book.

But it’s a work in progress..some days, I eat popcorn and cruise facebook while Yarrow tosses book after book on the ground and chases the dog’s tail all around the house. And we need days like that as well. At least I do.

Dzisiaj

 The nights have been cold and starry, in the negatives with crying wind and ice forming inside the door and windows.  There's promise of warmth to come this week, which would be lovely. I brought home the bacon and ham last weekend, and we're enjoying having meat as often as possible until Lent comes to make the whole freezer one giant temptation.

 

Our freezer is doing it’s job well, and when we ran out of propane we discovered that once it gets to temperature, if it has nothing to fight against, really, the freezer will stay frozen without propane. All our meat is solid, and the air outside is keeping it that way, with the freezer just providing stability, I guess. We check it everyday, and we’re ready to refill the tank at any moment, but there is really no point wasting propane, right?! Nature is such a friend sometimes.

Yarrow seems to be learning to fall asleep on her own, at least, during the day. It started in California, and has carried over a bit since coming home, mainly - I think, because she has a messed up sleep schedule and gets tired at uncertain times, and partially because she’s been sick, but there might be a bit of growth there as well.

I am slowly purging and rebuilding my wardrobe, there is a big black bag waiting for the thrift store, and a pile of fabric waiting for my hands - it’s been this way for a couple months, but the new year does bring some motivation.

 

This week after Christmas, with the tree down and the straw swept up, we are falling back (slowly) into daily rhythms and trying to avoid falling back into bad habits. I’ve been giving myself small decluttering projects. Yesterday, I detoxed the paper-drawer (they drawer we keep all - or most anyway- of our important papers and files). Today I am sorting through fabrics, and hopefully cutting some patterns.

 

I'm more than half through a tin of delicious 'Weekend Morning' tea, and I really don't want to finish it. I intended to drink it only on weekend mornings, but self-discipline has never been my strong point, and the tea is so fantastic, and so perfect with toast or scones or crepes or..anything really, that I've been indulging weekdays as well. But only with milk - it is a tea that pairs perfectly with milk.

2013

I’m not setting specific goals this year. But I have a direction, and I have my ideals set more firmly before my eyes as I move forward. I am making more from food, fabric, and the little bits of beauty in my home. I am wearing lipstick that works with my (Very New!) pretty brown hair - orangey reds and pinks and things I could never really rock as a blond. I’m learning to enjoy each experience despite distractions that grate on my compulsive little nerves and laughing more at myself. I’m older in more ways than time can give than I was last year. Older, more joyful, and a little sadder. I’ve become that person wounded by the violence of others - I have trouble discussing tragedies: abortions, shootings, wars. I cry at country songs, and Christmas songs, and even Christian country songs (an awful hybrid designed solely to make the weak among us (me) weepy). I swear more and drive slower than I did ten years ago. I also think more and talk less (really, I do) and am more and more uneasy spending time in big cities, or among too many people.  All in all, I can't wait to see where the year goes.

The Simplicity Project: Silence

It’s something I’m pursuing. The quite times when there is nothing but world around me, and the people in my day, when I haven’t got the radio, the computer, or the phone. The time to converse, to play, to reflect. I making one tomorrow, with my visiting family, and a nice block of solitude. It won’t be silence in the pure sense, Yarrow, Luba, and the family will keep the conversation going, but it will be media silence, silence from distractions that live in this very connected world of ours. I’m looking forward to it, and to looking through my home in that silence to see what I want to send away.

Letting Go

Everyone has a different thresh-hold for things. When what fills our house turns to clutter I lose the ability to see individuals in the crowd and begin filling big black bags with whatever I lay hands on. I’ve had to fish the checkbook out of the recycle bin before, one of my husband’s paychecks out of the trash, and just recently I almost donated my favorite black skirt because it’d gotten lost in the pile of rejected clothes. I’ve definitely regretted some of my purges - like the time I decided I would only buy records, and tossed all my cds, or the time I decided to give up makeup entirely. My enthusiasm gets the better of me sometimes; when I come to my senses I mourn my losses and move on, my memory isn’t good enough to mourn lost things for long.

      I like to purge my home seasonally. This autumn’s purge began yesterday, when I broke yet another wineglass and felt the need to clean and organize the rest of them. So far I’ve dumped a teapot that leaks, a dish Yarrow broke, five books I hate that have been taking up space in my shelves for a year, a collection of bent nails, and a few pans that didn’t store well in the shed. I love rediscovering my things when I purge, I have about a dozen frames in the shed, just waiting for pictures. I’m looking forward to making space for them in the yurt and in the kitchen.

Simplicity: Food, Meals, and Beauty II

 

I’m too often guided by whim. In an effort to simplify, I’ve been working on building a pantry full of food to add to our garden produce (mainly eggplant and tomatoes) to make a variety of foods that are simple, beautiful, healthy, and interesting. I want beautiful meals - meals that are more than just one dish, meals that are bright and sensual and satisfying in a holistic way, we will be less inclined to go out, or to run to the store “for just a few things” every other day. The biggest trouble is refrigeration, we can’t keep perishables for more than a day or two without ice. We’re still in the market for a used propane fridge, a small one, with just enough room for a couple leftovers, a few quarts of milk, and yogurt. The trouble with me is, I let this little limitation affect my attitude toward meal prep. I allow my mealtime aesthetic to be damaged by a simple limitation, one that a majority of cooks in the world, and throughout history have shared.

        Another limitation is financial, we aren’t wealthy, and I often want food that really isn’t within our budget. But planning meals well, and using the space I have to store ingredients that do keep is the best way to deal with that frustration. In the summer, with access to my own garden, I try to craft meals around what I have access to: eggs, tomatoes, summer squashes, eggplant, herbs, and others.

The point really isn’t to have an overwhelming variety of meals, but to have beautiful, filling, healthy meals. Meals that bring us together around the table with flickering lamps, good conversation, and love.

        My attitude toward our meals has been evolving, in a subtle way. The ideas are the same but the feeling behind them is growing stronger. I’m planning a winter of hearty soups, crusty bread, preserves, good cheeses, and an abundance of pork.

The Simplicity Project: Living Well

This is how I’ve been feeling recently

 

 

Fortunately for my self-image, the simplicity plan has a catagory for me. A few actually: learn to say no, eat healthy, exercise.

And all of those are actually a huge part of living simply, because gluttony clutters life. A late night coffee with Irish cream is lovely, but a whole pot is completely unnecessary. Now obviously, a whole pot of coffee isn’t exactly fattening, at least, without the added Irish Cream it isn’t, but it’s still ends up falling into a failure in simplicity, because when the pot is done, I’m in full insomnia-mode, stay up late cleaning under the counter, or writing jittery verse and by the time I’m asleep I’ve lost any motivation I might have had for getting up early and forming my day well.

The irish cream just adds to the trouble - who loses excess weight drinking irish cream? Nobody, that’s who. A definite failure in the ‘eat healthy’ catagory. A step in the right direction is my recently renewed attempt to take meals - actual, sit-down moments in time, in which food is arranged attractively on a plate, with a begining and an end. A tiny pitcher of irish cream runs out a whole lot sooner than a whole bottle, and it looks fantastic. Meals are more satisfying when they’re made into events (even if the event is rather small and simple: eggs on a blue plate and black coffee in blue and white cups).

Exercise has been my success of the week. I’ve been inspired by some friends to get back into running, and it has been amazing! With or without Yarrow, the solitude of the run is refreshing - in her stroller, Yarrow is content to sit and see. I’ve managed to start a running habit -whether I can keep it or not remains to be seen - and it’s a joy to me. With it, the rest of the day feels more my own.

Walking for the Mail

Our mailbox is almost half a mile from our house. It’s a lovely walk, in the morning especially.Even today, with the mist is hanging low and a dog or coyote is howling mournfully a ways off. The roads - our long driveway and the lane it flows from are private, dirt paths, framed with ferns and trees and blackberries. We pass four driveways on the walk, only two with houses in direct sight the rest are farther back. It’s late summer, I can pick goldenrod, daisies, and a small, rugged-looking white flower on the way.

I came back with mail! A letter from my sister, whose letters are always a joy.

The Simplicity Project: Time Well Spent

One of the most challenging aspects of simplification for me is time management. I’m awful at it. I plan life away in the early morning, or late at night, but the actual doing evades me. I have no discipline. I’ve been examining the troubles in my time management recently - the best way to put off actually changing the way I spend my time, and I’ve discovered some disturbing trends:

  

• I spend too much time planning! A good deal of my free time is spent with lists and journals piled all around me, while I put together a schedule for the day or the week, which is then completely abandoned, and so I’m forced to spend my next chunk of free time compiling a new and improved list - with the same results.
• I spend too much time rereading favorite books, “just to rest a bit”. But I get absorbed, and then the day is lost.
• And the worst offender - I spend too much of my time thinking 0f how lovely my life will be when I do actually follow the plans I’ve made for myself. It’s a lovely future I’ve dreamed up, but it does actually require activity outside of the imagination, and I prefer a more interior “activity”.

Fortunately for me, noticing my failings is helpful. It isn’t as simple enough that awareness causes instant change, but awareness helps. I’ve been working to include new, simple, easy to remember rituals in my day. My morning ritual includes breakfast with my husband, the angelus, feeding the pigs, washing, and exercise. I’m working add a half hour of writing to the morning, but mornings tend to be a needy time for Petka right now, so building in that ritual involves a bit of work. When the morning goes well, it’s easier to move into a day well spent. Noon is my toughest hour. It should be easier. The radio makes it obvious that morning is over - with the end of the classical music program and the beginning of the news - but somehow I always miss my noon angelus. Today was an exception, and these exceptions make for fantastic afternoons. Some of my other adjustments to improve the way I spend me time are:

• Writing my to-do list the night before, and breaking tasks into time blocks, such as putting the cleaning in the hours before the classical music program, so the hours during the program can be free for writing and playing; and leaving the afternoon free for most of the outdoor chores.
• Assigning certain tasks to certain days: baking and throwing on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, sewing and deep cleaning on Mondays, editing on Wednesday..so that I don’t overwhelm each day’s list with more than I can handle.
• Putting things I’m definitely going to do, like play with Yarrow and brush my teeth, that way, even if the day is a total wreck, I’ve managed something on my list. It’s very affirming.

I’m still a long way from my goal to spend my time well, but I can see and feel the difference that even a few small changes make. And I think feeling that difference is one of the most helpful things in the whole process, because it brings with it the feeling of success!

The Simplicity Project: Fasting

The Dormition Fast begins tomorrow, and in pursuit of my goals, the first of which being relationship with God, I’m participating for the first time in years. It’s a difficult fast to do because there really isn’t a cultural context for it here in New England, where we don’t have even one Byzantine parish. But this year I’m determined, and Seth excited as well. We’ll be giving up meat, alcohol, milk and cream -but not cheese and eggs, - sugar, and desserts.

The benefits of fasting are huge, and not just in a spiritual sense. Fasting is really an ideal way to bring our meals into an attitude of simplicity - at least temporarily. To cleanse and refocus the table. An aspect of my simplicity project I’ll be focusing on especially during the Dormition fast is the beautification of the table, and regularizing meals. I have a tendency to allow distractions to interfere with creating meals that are “holy times”, meals that are “alive with the goodness of God” as Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope) encourages.

So, here we go. Fasting along to a simpler, better rhythm in our mealtimes!

Simplicity II

The second recommendation from the simplification list is to evaluate your time. How do you spend your day? In this I am failing miserably. My time is often planned out in the evening only to be forgotten in the morning. There is a lot of time wasted on uncertainty, on slowly deliberating on what to do today, rereading the lazy books I love and then rushing around to catch up with my to-do list. I’m spending this week re-evaluating, and working hard to re-align my time with my values. In line with this recommendation is the next one, to simplify daily tasks. In my life, this primarily requires me to think through what I’m doing before jumping into it. To plan ahead at least a little bit, and save the trouble of discovering half-way through that I’m missing something, messing it all up, or that I don’t have enough time to do the job well. Simplifying tasks also means taking the time to do a task really well so that I don’t have to do it again the following day.

I’m looking around a bit today, and I can see my typical time wasters. My tendency to store way too much in the diaper basket, forcing me to clean it out every time I’ve laundered the diapers, my habit of letting the dishes pile up until they have to be washed before anything else can be done. My love-hate relationship to my early morning nap. I’m past due for a change.

Simplicity

This article has given me a lot to think about in the building of our domestic monastery. I am taking much of his advice, working with each suggestion, one after the other, as they relate to our life here, and our goals for life and land. His first suggestion: make a list of the four or five “most important things” - values, goals, priorities. What are they, and how are they placed in my life?

1. God. My primary value, goal, and priority is relationship with him. Now, and ongoing.

2. My family falls right below God. But what does that mean, exactly? I mean that my relationship to my husband, our life together is something I value more than anything but my relationship to God. Along with that - a part of it, and only slightly below it is my relationship to my daughter. The whole of it, our family life together, our shared solitude and shared community are priorities in my life, and I work hard to make them living priorities.

3. Beauty. A quick description would be that this is my commitment to building a life that embraces and nourishes beauty in the world. A clean home, a life full of books, and growing things, time for play all fall into this.

4. Art. Sort of a sub-group of beauty, but with a need to carve out a space of it’s own, art refers primarily to my writing and pottery goals.

5. Building a natural, semi-self-sufficient life. The homestead, gardens, animals, herbalism, food and fabric. Hugely time consuming, I know, but it isn’t time spent on nothing, it’s time spent enjoying my land, growing it, nourishing it, and crafting it into a thing of beauty.