ohbloodyhell8

I am speaking of a very specific type of simplicity today.  Decluttering.  Why can I never finish this process?  I dread to think that I am simply that lazy.  I feel like every weekend I work on clearing a pile here or there or everywhere, but the next weekend, there always seemed to be a new pile in it’s place.

The piles create themselves as each day there are things I plan to sort through-they seem so important-so I set them in a pile.  By the time I actually get to it, they have become obsolete.  I am working on making it a habit to simply deal with whatever it is the first time it enters the house.  I am working on making it a habit to purge a pile a day until they are gone.

I look back over the week and I wonder why the piles are still here.  Part of it is laziness.  It seems overwhelming to try to add in decluttering at the end of the day.

But most days there just isn’t time for it at all.  One thing I made progress with is not berating myself over the clutter when I balance the existence of the clutter with what I did that day.  Today was a fun day.  I went solo to church and had a really fun, connection-filled Sunday school class.  (At least it seemed like the children made connections!)  Stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home to surprise the boys.  Mowed the lawn and then headed to swimming.  The boys had their last swim lesson and older son is swimming.  At yesterday’s penultimate lesson, the kickboard floated away from him and he swam over to get it.  I explained to him that if he can swim to get the kickboard, he doesn’t need the kickboard.  He made the connection.  🙂  Younger son can swim when he isn’t goofing off.  Once I pointed out to him that there were only a few minutes left, he focused and had a great lap.

Then we surprised my mom at work to wish her an early happy mother’s day.  It was Kite Day at her workplace but we got there after the bulk of the festivities were done so it wasn’t too crowded.  She was happy to see her grandsons and her daughter.  We met the two lab puppies and one really looked like Brigs when he was a pup.  And I didn’t even cry.  I actually smiled.  That’s a good thing.

When we got home, the boys tried out the kites their Nana gave them as I made crescent roll pizza  and mozzarella sticks.  We then settled in to watch a movie.  By the time they were in bed, snug as bugs in rugs, it was 10:00.

And the piles sit, staring at me.  Welp, they can watch me sleep.

As I reflect on the childhood we have been building for our sons, I smile.  I cry.  I laugh.  I pray each day that when they are all grown up, they look back and think of their childhoods with a big smile on their faces.  I hope they notice we tried to surround it with simplicity so they could nurture their imaginations.  Right now they just think we’re mean for not giving them a game system and unlimited time with the television.  They don’t think we’re mean when we tell them to read or play with their Legos or trains or dinosaurs, so I know it’s working on some levels.

Simplicity can be a clutter filled house.  The piles of boxes are not actually boxes.  Two of them are a music studio, some of them are part of an IFO (Identified Flying Object to the boys, a UFO to everybody else since they don’t know what it is).  Stacks of books sit in front of the book shelves because we have too many books.  Okay, I don’t think we have too many, but anyone who ever helped us move will say otherwise.  We just need more shelves.  There are booby traps on the bedroom closet doors and science experiments in the bathroom.  Baskets are filled with school work that is still too precious (according to me) or too important (according to the boys) to recycle.

Examining a quest with a different perspective can bring peace to it.  My quest for simplicity has been there all along.  Just because my simplicity is different doesn’t mean it isn’t simplicity.  As I have been coming to realize this glaringly obvious truth, I have found more time to work on the piles.  While those piles used to always get replaced with a new one, that’s not always happening now.

Simplicity has been running from me, alluding me for some time.  Either it’s getting tired and slowing down or I’m catching up to it.