I am a minimalist. I also have four kids, three of whom are not minimalists (the other one is three weeks old, so I’m not sure about his aesthetic yet). My olders love their toys, books, art supplies, random bits and bobs they’ve accumulated from birthday parties or the dentist’s office, school crafts… an endless array of things that are meaningful to them. C’est la vie!
However, we are six people in a four-bedroom house–and Eric works remotely, needing a full-time office space–so space is limited. To this end, and given our generous extended family, we realized a few years ago that we needed to cut back on gifts (both given to our own kids, and things we all receive). The stereotypical American Christmas is focused on the presents, but we needed and wanted something different.… Read More »
I’ve been taking more social media breaks lately, which has been so good for my mental health. I’ll log off of Instagram or Facebook for a few days (or both) and not stress about keeping up with what’s happening online. It feels absolutely freeing to only think about life offline for a bit!
A lot of homemaking is like that. You set the dishwasher to run. You pop some hand washing in the tub to soak. You make an appointment to have the air conditioner serviced… next week. You water your garden and wait for the seeds to grow. You vacuumed the entry, but someone tracked dirt inside two minutes later. Your friends need to reschedule a playdate. Your cousin has to move a phonecall.
Good afternoon! The two youngers are napping, E and e are at a ski lesson and I’m feeling a bit under the weather, so I’ve confined myself to the couch until my headache goes away at least. It’s 45 degrees and beautifully sunny out, and the birds are singing like it’s spring–so it’s not all bad!
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. I’m very into the idea of cutting back lately. Not just in the obvious ways (buy what’s on sale! Ask around for hand-me-downs!) but also questioning what I feel like I/we NEED to buy for one reason or another.