A Follow Up to Simplifying

If you read my New Years Resolutions, one goal for this year is to simplify. And I've seen that some of you might want to do some simplifying in your lives too. I came across a couple things I wanted to share with you real quick.

First off is this post about eating simply. There are some very interesting and convicting facts in this post and I would really encourage you to check it out. It's not a long post at all, but it definitely makes me think a lot about how much time and energy I put into cooking tasty meals and making sure there is variety coupled with how much time and energy I am putting into exercising to shed those extra holiday pounds I just put on. This doesn't mean that I won't still try new recipes and continue to learn to be a better cook - but again the key is simplicity. I would like to try to use simple ingredients that are healthy, keeping the purpose of preparing meals to nourish us, and not over indulge ourselves. And I still believe there are times to indulge and celebrate, but that doesn't need to be every day.

Also, my bloggy friend Kristin has just started a new little blog project called Living Graciously. A lot of the things she posts about here go along with the idea of simplicity. And she has started a fun little challenge. Every week day she posts a challenge and gives each challenge a point amount. If you complete the challenge that day you get the points and at the end of the month she has a little something for the highest point scorer. Monday the challenge was to take 15 minutes and clean out your messiest kitchen drawer. Not something that takes a ton of time, but is a small step towards simplifying. Things like this are good for me, because I oftentimes get overwhelmed with the thought of something like organizing my kitchen, but this was so easy and in 15 minutes I was able to clean out 2 drawers. Yesterday the challenge was to write a few thank you notes for some Christmas gifts you received. Something I needed to do anyways, but this gave me the motivation to do it that day rather than feel overwhelmed at the large list of things I need to do but don't know where to start.

I know that for some of you, something like this might feel like adding something to your life. But for me, simplifying is not synonymous with doing less or taking it easy. My natural tendency is to not do things, let them collect and then feel overwhelmed. So having Kristin's little challenges everyday helps me to take little baby steps at doing things I already needed to do and making life a little more simple one day at a time, rather than trying to do it all at once. Living simply is a lifestyle I hope to adopt, not a one time act of purging and organizing.  If you are like me and having that little motivational reminder everyday helps you, go check out Kristin's Guide to Living Graciously. And today is a great day to start because today's challenge is to take 30 minutes to yourself to do something you love!

Hope these are helpful to you. Do you have any tips for simplifying?