How I am going to simplify

On Monday, I wrote about wanting to simplify my life. And that's nice to talk about, but I thought it would be useful to tell you what my family and I have done and what I am planning on doing.

What we have already done:

1. We have added a dinner of baked potato and salad to our dinner rotation.
2. When I am baking I am conscious of what I am using. Real sugar, real eggs, and unbleached flour.
3. I have started to grate my own cheese because it's healthier.
4. I have been buying soap from my friend because I know she is making it healthy.
5. Other body beauty items that are homemade or from healthy companies or homemade from friends.
6. We are paying attention to what we are buying. We look for items with less ingredients.
7. I am working very hard to say good morning/afternoon/etc. when I go in a place. I am trying to remember to ask how are you and listen more often.
8. We have gone to several Hickory Crawdads games and had a wonderful time.
9. I am genuinely happy for the people vacationing instead of being jealous.
10. We are using the little pool at Nana's house about every day.

What we are planning on doing

1. I plan to check sales in paper for meat to make roasts and actually make roasts sometimes.
2. I will buy dandruff shampoo from a friend who sells Arbonne. When I get that, I should have all the basics from healthy companies.
3. We will plan meals for 3 days at a time in order to be sure we are making healthy meals and not doing so much box eating.
4. I am going to look for ways to engage in conversation with people of whom I normally don't talk.
5. By the end of summer, I'm going to bake a loaf of bread that is totally from scratch.


So as you can see there are things I/we are already doing. And with a few tweaks, we will be closer to simple.

The Simple Life

Over the last several months I am coming to realize something that has been hiding in my heart. 

I want simplicity.

I know that I am on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Interesante (Spanish Pintrest sort of), Vine, and Blogger. I am on the tech team at my school. And from what most people say all that technology just makes things more complicated. So how can I be connected to everything and still have simplicity?

I'm not totally sure. At first, I thought making things simple meant disconnecting. I tried that and a little bit of disconnecting did help. However, completely disconnecting would mean that I would miss things like my friend's new shop. So completely disconnecting isn't the answer. Finding a balance is part of the answer and I'm pretty sure I'm getting there.

However, that is not the entirety of the answer. I want simplicity in eating and taking care of myself and my family. I want simplicity in the way my family finds fun. I want simplicity in my relationships with others and God.

To me, simplicity means health.
To me, simplicity means love.
To me, simplicity means God.

I want to change the way I eat. I want to change the beauty products in my house. I want simple ingredients that are healthy and without too much processing. I want to change the way I have fun. I want to see what is around me and have fun. I don't want to always be looking for the next vacation or the next big trip for fun. I want to have fun eating watermelon in the back yard or relaxing in the blow up pool. I want to change the way I relate to people. I just want to love them. I don't want it to be "I love them when..." or "Will they love me if...?" I just want to love on people.

This is such a big change. We have made our lives so complicated in all of these areas that simplifying them is actually a very hard thing to accomplish. It is rather intimidating to think of overhauling my eating habits and my beauty regimine and my definition of fun and my interpersonal habits.

I think I'll take it one step at time, like buying soap from my friend instead of the store. I'm going to try to plan meals more, so there is less box eating because it is simple. I'm going to enjoy the places I am now instead of wishing I was somewhere else. I'm going to listen to what people say and respond to them instead of worrying all the time about saying the exact right thing all the time.

I'm going to simplify things for my health, for love, and for God. Is anyone with me?

Good Stuff Saturday 6-14

Pictures and Videos

This photo from Sweeden and this one from Scotland speak to the size of humanity.
This one screams New Orleans

I am always fascinated by pictures of water. Iceland and Brazil
The Hagia Sofia has always fascinated me too!

Can you find the owl?
Can you count the penguins?

I just discovered this Tumblr and I think it is fabulous. This picture might be the best one.

And I think this is a fabulous idea to help us pray for other countries. And this is so enlightening as well.

Exciting Stuff

I will be buying this and this very soon!

Jaime and Boy Dads had me thinking the same thing from two different perspectives and they are both so important.

I am excited about this anti litter campaign and these sustainable products

This explains so much!

Other Stuff

Micheal Perkins always reminds me of deep truth. Sometimes I need to stop and be weak.

I get so frustrated when the latest 'hot topic' gets in the way of what America is supposed to be about like this.

I can always count on Michelle and Julie to remind me of the way things should be with me.

And Jason puts into great words something I have been working on in my life for awhile.

This week I am a writer

 Photo Credit: matryosha

Well technically, I am a writer more than just this week. However, this week I have really been living it out because I have been writing quite a bit. And I have more writing planned for today.

I have been writing a story about a blue flying detective, Sgt. Fiana Thrace of the Environmental Crimes Division, who is trying to find a very clever arsonist. Yesterday the story took an unusual turn when her clues led her to their species previous planet. Now what is she going to do?

So for today, I think you should head over to my other blog and read about Sgt. Fiana Thrace.

Part 1:
http://citrus-sunshine.blogspot.com/2013/06/environmental-crimes-division.html

Part 2:
http://citrus-sunshine.blogspot.com/2013/06/environmental-crimes-division-part-2.html

Part 3:
http://citrus-sunshine.blogspot.com/2013/06/environmental-crimes-division-part-3.html

And if you feel so inclined, I would be forever grateful if you left me a thought or two on the story either here or on the other blog.

Thanks.

Happy Wednesday!

Today is Wednesday and I'm supposed to post, except I forgot. But today I did get a haircut.

And I got some coffee for free from a Twitter Trivia thing I did a few weeks ago. Coconut and Fair Trade. Yay!

I hope you have had a good day too!

Searching for Higher Ways: One Word Update

You may have noticed that I didn't post anything on Friday or Saturday. We had a family wedding to attend, so I didn't have time to post. The good news is that I have several thoughts running through my head and you will get a proper post today.

 Photo Credit: Pintrest

For the last several weeks, I have heard sermons and lessons that keep reminding me of the same thing. Earthly thinking vs. Eternal thinking.

I re-blogged an old post last week that God's thoughts are not my thoughts. I have twice heard about the Israelite nation at the time of Jesus that expected an earthly kingdom. They genuinely thought that the Messiah would bring a kingdom here on Earth to make them happy. They didn't know that there is an eternal kingdom that the Messiah made available to them. They had an earthly focus to the extent that they didn't see the possibilities that God had in mind. They didn't see that you and I would be sitting here today reading this on the computer talking about what they did and learned for the Kingdom. They didn't see that the struggle of this life isn't the end, but that it is just the beginning.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not of this Earth. It is something eternal. It is something to last longer than time. It is inside a person because our bodies of from this Earth, but our spirit is God-breathed.

So for me today this means that my need for sleep for 'my health' is not as important as the health of my spirit and my soul. So I need to get up earlier and spend quiet time with God studying his Word. I don't need to worry about running when I get up or reading the blogs I follow or pulling weeds. I need to spend quiet time with God first and foremost. After I do that, then I can do some of those other things.

Because his ways are higher than mine and I need to be seeking his ways before I seek my own. Ultimately, my ways are limited to this Earth and his ways are eternal. So I need to defer to him. And I need to actually do it and not just talk about it. I need to live out my One Word: Hear. I need to be hearing God.

Today I did that. I got a tiny bit of insight. I need to continue that tomorrow and the next day and the day after and so on and so forth.

News for the week

This has been a crazy week! Unfortunately for you that means I have not had time to sit and process things enough to create a good post. However, I do have news about life stuff to share. So I'm just going to list my news.

1. I now have an Instagram, but I had to reformat my name because someone else has a similar one. I was sad. I found out who it was and they had some not nice photos, so I was even more sad. I wish I could buy the name! I also have a Vine account and got my regular username. : )

2. I made a peanut sauce for my dinner last night. It had too much salt and I didn't eat until like 9:45. So that wasn't great. It was dinner and eating was necessary. Next time I really needed to follow the recipe closer! And who knew peanut butter and soy sauce were so yummy together?

3. I wasn't able to get an iPhone 4 because it wasn't free. I was kinda upset about that and rather frustrated that the reviews for all the phones were bad. I talked to a friend who had a Kyocera Hydro and liked it. So I decided to go with the phone that was similar to that. I got a Kyocera Rise and I'm liking it pretty good after the first day. There is a smidge of a learning curve because it is a new phone, but no real issues with it.

4. I had to take Abbey to the vet because she's been limping for a few days. It turns out she has a torn ACL and will need surgery. That is pretty distressing. The surgery won't be cheap. However, if we don't do this she will develop severe arthritis in her hind leg. We can't let that happen, so we will be calling to schedule surgery in the next couple days. We have a plan of how to pay for it and thankfully it has happened in the summer, so I can be around more to watch her as she recovers.

5. I heard of this super awesome idea to post a picture and tell about it before and after. It was supposed to happen on Tuesday, but I missed that obviously. So I was going to do it today. Now I can't find a picture that has a story that I remember or that seems to be worth telling. So hold on for next Tuesday or Wednesday and see if I come up with something.