Loving The Results

I started this blog as a fun way to document the changes we were making (or experimenting with) in our home. About two years ago I was introduced to the idea of minimalism. My brain about exploded with excitement.

THAT'S ME! 

THAT'S WHAT I WANT! 

I'M NOT WEIRD! 

IT'S A THING

Before minimalism entered my life, I would spend weekly trips at Target and bi-weekly trips at Goodwill donating the stuff I had spent our money on. I was constantly trying to declutter and never truly making any progress. I had joined in the partaking of shopping as a fun activity, but my brain couldn't handle the influx of stuff when I got home. Once I heard about minimal living, I knew it was my answer. I didn't have to join the masses at Target, I could move my life in a different direction, and I did.

Our Changes

I stepped in my kitchen and said - What do we need? I ended up getting rid of a lot of stuff. We kept half of our plates, bowls, coffee cups, water glasses and silverware. We got rid of all specialty appliances, keeping only the toaster, crockpot, and blender. We gave away all our specialty glassware (margarita, martini, beer, wine). We aren't big drinkers so this didn't mean much to us. We drink beer from a bottle and wine in our cups that double a stemless wine glasses. In the end, we eliminated the use of a bottom corner cabinet, and five upper cabinets. 

After the kitchen came a lot of other changes. We got rid of a full set of living room furniture, two TVs, and five dressers. We kept only our favorite clothes and favorite toys (a keyboard, barbies, legos, dress-up/make believe items, stuffed animals and dolls, and a few games). We got rid of our fake Christmas tree and replaced that with a norfolk pine that stays in our living room year round. Our girls named our tree Elsa!

Our minimalist journey has also led me to discover Zero Waste living. I am buying as much food as I can in bulk. I wear my hair with my God given waves instead of straightening it. I wear no make-up most days, we got a worm composter, and traded our 96 gallon trash and recycling containers for the small 36 gallon ones!

But Why????

This is the big question we get. Why are you doing this? This is a big question, but I have learned I don't have to defend our changes. My answer is simple.

I Enjoy Living With Less

I really do. It makes me happy. I am less focused on my material goods and keeping my home organized. I still have to to clean up and put things away, but I don't have to dedicate days to doing this anymore. With these changes I have found more free time to discover my passions.

Two years ago I was asked - What do you like to do? What are your hobbies? I didn't have anything. I couldn't think of a single thing. 

But today this is different. I love painting, not canvas, but homes. I have spent a lot of time this past year doing something I only wished I could do - paint our woodwork white and repaint our walls a light gray color. My husband gave me his support and I slowly and with some growing pains grew a talent for painting. I am so proud of my accomplishments - that's a good feeling. 

I also spend a lot more time reading. I wake up every day excited to make a cup of coffee and sit down with a good book. I usually get a chapter in before my girls are hungry and then in the afternoon I take time to relax on the couch and dive further into my book. I have read 62 books this year. My favorites include:

Favorite Series

Stephanie Plum Series: Janet Evanovich
Lizzy and Diesel Series: Janet Evanovich
Crossfire: Sylvia Day

Favorite Books

The Fringe Hours: Jessica Turner

Jesus Feminist: Sarah Bessey

The Power of Habit: Charles Duhigg

Zero Waste Home: Bea Johnson

Notes From A Blue Bike: Tsh Oxenreider

My Year With Eleanor: Nicole Hancock

The Marriage of Opposites: Alice Hoffman

Walkable City: Jeff Speck

The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up: Marie Kondo

The other thing I have found is freedom for family time. Freeing up our finances and time has led to a lot of adventures. We now go on a Family Summer Road Trip each year.  Two years ago we traveled to Arizona for my sisters wedding. We loved our special bonding time on the road so much that we decided to make this an annual thing. This past summer we road tripped to Florida and next year we plan to road trip to the West Coast. Our fun goal is to make it to all 50 states with our girls. And then, hello Europe! Creating these memories has been so fun and fills my heart with joy.

I simply enjoy living with less. I started with experiments - pull out half the dinnerware and see if we don't use it, empty a dresser and see if we miss it, etc. The idea of living with less sometimes seems weird, against the norm, or impossible; but I have found that starting with an experiment allows you to give it a try. To say - this is temporary and if it doesn't work we can go back to the way it was and try again at a later time.

Now that I have experimented and followed through on most experiments, I feel confident in our changes and have seen the blessings that have grown from minimalist living.  

I can't wait to continue this journey next year. While I spent most of this year documenting my experiments, I will be transitioning to sharing more fruits of our lifestyle next year. The things I am enjoying - my new hobbies and more fun family times - mixed in with experiments or changes in our minimalist and zero waste journey. I am loving the results of all my experiments and I'm looking forward to continuing this journey in 2016.

I invite you to follow our journey and to share your journey with me. I love hearing how others are embracing and enjoying minimalist living as well!

Our Minimalist Christmas Wish Letter

Our journey towards minimal living has involved going through all the rooms in our home and donating or selling the things we don't need or love. We knew Christmas could be a step in the opposite direction with an influx of gifts. How could we minimize this influx? We decided to open our hearts in an honest letter to our family members. Gifts are an important part of Christmas (especially for the kiddos) and we didn't want to take that away. Here is our letter:

Dear Family,

As October comes to a close and the holiday season approaches, we (Chris and Jaime) have started thinking about the celebration of Christmas. We are living a more minimalist lifestyle, encouraging our girls to be using their creativity, focusing on enjoying experiences and each others' company, and instilling the love of Jesus and generosity in their hearts.

With these values in mind, we would like to ask for your support in the presents you gift the girls.

With living minimally, we ask that each couple give no more than one gift to each of the girls. It may not seem like much, but add everyone together and times 3, our home easily fills up.

With encouraging our girls to use their creativity, we ask that any gifts given inspire their imaginations to grow. We have a few ideas on this and if you would like a suggestion or clarification, please ask.

With focusing on enjoying each other's company, we are excited to spend quality time with our loved ones during the holidays and throughout the year. Instead of focusing on the number of gifts, we are focusing on the gift of togetherness.

Along with that, instead of giving a toy to the girls we encourage you to give the gift of togetherness. This could be a fun planned day with the girls - examples: to a movie, to a theater show, to the children's museum, to the zoo. These could be individual events/outings with each girl or all 3 collectively. They could be grandma/grandpa/girlie(s) dates, nanee/papa/girlie(s) dates, auntie/uncle/girlie(s) dates. We know the girls would cherish this special gift of time with you all. And once again, feel free to ask if you have any questions regarding gifts of time.

With instilling the love of Jesus and generosity in our girls' hearts, we are each filling a shoe box with a special gift, hygiene items, and school supplies for children in need in other countries. Samaritan's Purse delivers these shoebox gifts and shares the love of Jesus with them. In lieu of gifts for us (Chris and Jaime), please consider giving a gift to Samaritan's Purse. If you are interested in this, you can find out more at www.samaritanspurse.org

We look forward to this holiday season, spending time with you all, and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

God Bless,

Chris and Jaime

Have you ever expressed a change in gift giving with loved ones? How did you go about expressing your desires with an open heart and honesty?

x

Our Minimalist Stay-at-Home Christmas

Part of our minimalist journey is saying NO so we can say YES.

The Christmas season has been ever evolving for us over the years. Before kids, we traveled to family. After our first baby we still traveled. Then we had twins, TWINS! And we traveled less, but still traveled. WHAT?!!! WHY!!! Our Christmas quickly became a busy day with a late night of cranky little ones. It was a bit miserable to say the least. We realized after that Christmas that we really wanted a Christmas that was enjoyable for our family, that didn't end in cranky little ones (and a cranky tired mama).

So we finally said NO to travel. It was hard. Super hard. Many family members didn't understand and were disappointed. And being a people pleaser, I had a hard time with that. That first Christmas I felt more guilt than joy even though I knew we made the right decision for our family.

Now, two years later, we were presented with the option of travel again. In so many ways it seemed nice - seeing family I haven't seen in a while, being with loved ones on a special day, and watching aunties, uncles, cousins, and my parents enjoy our girls. It sounds lovely, right? But it would come with 4 hours of travel in one day. I knew that wasn't how we wanted to spend our Christmas. While we would miss the time spent with our loved ones, my husband and I were craving a relaxing Christmas at home.

With recognizing our needs and desires for a stay-at-home Christmas, I also realized that other than a relaxing morning of opening gifts and eating a laid back breakfast in PJs, I didn't know what our Christmas would look like. We didn't have anything to look forward to. What would we do with our day? So I made a decision to make a general plan for our day that would bring us a day of joy together.

The first thing I did was ask my girls what they want to do on Christmas. Their answer:

Make Christmas Cookies and a Birthday Cake for Baby Jesus!

I'm not much of a cook or baker, but for my girls I could dedicate our afternoon to baking! Then we planned out our meals. Breakfast: Donuts and Orange Juice. For Lunch....Once again, not being a cook, we decided to look on Pinterest for Christmas themed lunch box ideas. From this we came up with Tortilla Roll Up Bites laid out on a tray in the shape of a Christmas Tree, star shaped pretzels, and red and green grapes. For dinner I found an easy Christmas Tree Pizza Recipe using frozen dinner rolls! Super easy and fun! 

I knew what I wanted to do to end our night. I have dreamed of a Living Room Sleepover Christmas Night for years. We would pop in a fun Christmas movie, have sleeping bags and popcorn, and just enjoy this throwback to childhood sleepover days. We don't have sleeping bags or air mattresses at the moment. So my husband said he would brings the girls' mattresses and blankets down to the living room and set it all up. SO AWESOME! And my husband and I will utilize the couch and share cuddles with our girlies! AND THE JOY I FEEL IN MY HEART IS OVERFLOWING JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS HAPPENING!

Saying NO to travel for family has been a tough journey. Saying NO isn't easy. But we knew that traveling on Christmas would lead to stress and resentment. Saying NO meant that we are saying YES to our stay-at-home Christmas and I am finally looking forward to creating a Christmas Day that our little family can fully remember enjoying. I'm sure it won't be perfect, I will have a messy kitchen, and there may be temper tantrums, but it will all be a messy kind of wonderful because we are following our hearts and remembering the birth our of Lord Jesus.

Are you saying NO to anything this holiday season and making room for the YES in your heart?