We are heading out shortly for a marathon appt. day for Colin. He is trying to hit his specialists before leaving for school next week.  (did I just say next week??) Unfortunately that means today we have a ten AM appt in town and then a 4PM appt in Denver. Say a prayer for the tiny person who is hitchhiking inside of me if you would. Long time to be vertical at this stage of the game for a pg woman!

   We have had so many wonderful people wish us and our new baby well. People know by now we weren’t hoping for a boy or a girl.  We were just hoping for a baby. In trying to convey understanding and concurrence with that hope we often hear, "of course,just so its healthy."  And we do so wish for good health, long life, and all good things for our children. Twenty years of living with Colin has shown us that sometimes less than desirable health can be an unforeseen blessing of the sort we could never have realized in the absence of such challenges.

   I remember years ago listening to a lady talking about her twins who were born quite prematurely. I believe it was in the 24 week range. When she had first learned she was pregnant she and her husband had daydreamed about these two little people and what life would be like with little girls, or little boys, or a mix. Like all expectant parents you naturally picture your life as it is, then picture your life with these hypothetical two and four and 16 year olds superimposed upon it. When the babies threatened to arrive early her thoughts changed to their health.  Just please let them be healthy! Suddenly those daydreams included images of NICU’s and medical intervention. Sadly, one twin did not survive.  The remaining twin was hanging on in intensive care and each week there was another complication. Before long her parents wish was, "Just let her survive."  That was not to be either. They discovered all too brutally that even life itself is not a guarantee. She swore if she was ever so blessed again that the least of their worries would be ten fingers and ten toes.

   And so it goes. You come to a point where you see perfect health as a luxury, one which you would gladly have your child enjoy, but one which you realize is out of reach, to one extent or another, for nearly all of us at some point in life. You gladly trade that luxury for the privilege of simply living with this little person. Nothing else really matters after that.

   I have watched Colin struggle with his body that so rarely does the ‘right thing’.  Sometimes I have laid in bed and wept for him.  Moreover I have wept in shame at my own frustrations, so minor in light of the load he was carrying. And I thanked God for every single moment we have been honored to witness the miracle of his life.

   We do so hope for excellent health of this new baby. Mostly though, we just hope he or she "is". Life is enough.

   I was fortunate enough to "meet" the folks at Woodstone Prairie along this blogging adventure. You won’t want to miss her Thoughts of a Mom essay. If you are not familiar with the reference to it, you may access A Trip to Holland here.  Now go hug your kids y’all!  I am off to to the doctors.

    Ahhh the simple life.  You know the one where you cut out all the complicating clutter, get back to basics, where everything is just plain easier.  Hold it! It’s not quite that.  Or ‘quite not’ as the case may be say Patrick Fannin and Heather Mitchener the authors of Simplify Your Life.  I am a fan of simplicity and have been reading new titles and rereading old ones to help me articulate to myself, if nothing else, what simple is and isn’t. 

In the introduction "Simplify" states quite unequivocally what simple isn’t.  Number one on that list is “easy”. 

   This sometimes comes as a surprise to people who endeavor to simplify their lives.  In our quest for saner living we take any number of steps that feel most right to us such as eating more naturally, homeschooling, making what we need, and doing without. What comes next is often bewildering. We no longer are running to the store for milk and eggs, but instead we are called to the barn twice a day or more to attend to our livestock.  Instead of running children to school and back, we are now creating personalized learning programs and checking math problems daily. Instead of spending our hard-earned cash at the box store we are spending our time sewing, cooking, and so on.  Bottom line, they say- simplicity can be ‘complicated and exhausting’.

The flip side is that the energy expended in simplifying is often more satisfying than the time savers we have been told will enhance our quality of life. It is the process of taking care of ourselves and others that is as important as the care items themselves. 

   This was related in another new book House Thinking.  Author Winifred Gallagher shares studies of polar bears.  Polar bears in the wild spend hours in the repetitious action of hunting for fish in streams. When they are taken out of their habitat and placed in captivity where they are given all the fish they need they don’t relish in their newfound freedom from labor, rather they become despondent.  Moreover, they begin to exhibit the symptoms of starvation.

   This should rightly make us pause.

   We are not meer animals reacting to instinct.  We can reason. We apparently are not completely separate from our natures though and those same impulses towards self-sufficiency seem to be built into us. Perhaps the reason we find the steps necessary to move towards simplicity to be so satisfying is that we intuit that they are filling needs far beyond the physical.

    Simplify Your Life claims to have captured the 50 Best Ways to make life saner. I might argue with that number, but there are some good guidelines given, particularly in the first half of the book. Following the "easy" train of thought, the next great myth they dispel is the need to go purchase more stuff for the paring down process.  That may strike you as ironic but it is true.  Many of us assume that in order to organize we need more stuff – crates, storage systems, new homes, new wardrobes, new careers.  I have been known to fall into that rut, paralyzed with the *stuff* I have collected and the lifestyle we had created and unsure of how to begin the climb out. Buying more stuff makes you feel as though you are making some progress. We are accustomed to initiating change with purchase. A better step, says the book, is to take inventory of your life and your home and determine which parts of same are contributing to your overall happiness and which are dragging you down. Then begin to cull the latter – ruthlessly.  You may eventually be led to make some of those other changes – in location, in vocation – but you will be in a better position to do so at that point.

    We have made the location/vocation changes in recent years. We are still in the decluttering phase and may well be forever. This is likely less of an action and more of a process. It is a filtering of sorts.  We continue to draw things and experiences to ourselves throughout our lives. Then we must discern which of those things and experiences continue to be a blessing and which become a burden. This discernment is making me look deeply at our belongings, our wardrobe, and the upcoming giftgiving season.

   I am by no means the only one thinking about these things. If you want to visit more folks who are articulating this process you can try Amy’s Blog  She has hired a professional organizer to help with the re-ordering of their nearly paid for home vs buying a larger place.  In her post today she references Tackle It Tuesday which is more inspirational than I can say! This article, The Big Cleanup is a great start and the companion blog Living the Organized Life helps present concepts in digesible chunks. A similar blog is Neat Living which is as much about goal setting and reordering life as it is about neatness per se. Consider these more about living life on purpose and beginning the necessary process of viewing our things through new eyes.

   I hope to share more of our journey, and those of the women who are also walking it, as time goes on. I lost a couple links to ladies who had ‘simplifying’ references on their blogs. My simple life gets ‘complicated and exhausting’ at times!  So please do re-send if you have thoughts to add and I promise to try harder to get it posted.  : )  I am indebted to the women who are helping me think through this process!

Ladies, grab your doilies and head over to The Sparrow’s Nest for this week’s "Oh! Pretty!" stop. (this week’s, this month’s, this year’s!)  I have to confess to sneaking into the kitchen in free moments to go see what is brewing over there lately.  WAY too much fun.  Mrs. Wilt represents those of us who were born in the wrong era, who think a hat would go nicely with that, who like stuff with chipped paint, who embrace the civilized life. And believe me, here in a house heavily populated with boys, plunked down in the middle of the wild west, we can use all the ‘civilizing’ we can get! : )

The pages are chock full of her delightful mix of helpful homemaking hints, childrearing ideas, beautiful handwork ideas, and inspirational photos.  If you are a fan of ‘pretty’ you will love this one.

I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
She’s just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change…

from: Daughters by John Mayer

My darlin’ girl turned 12 last week. Hard to believe but these kids have a way of aging without even asking. ; )  Here she is with her bday purchases.  I didn’t get the pics uploaded so here goes: