Making it simple #3

Everlasting peas, in my garden

For a long time all my spare time, energy and money was going into planning our wedding. Now the wedding and honeymoon are over, normal life has resumed, and I find myself thinking, what kind of life would I like to have? Which brings me back to my desire for a simpler life.

Life is too complicated. I wrote a shopping list last week, ordered it all to be delivered, thought I had done really well and then spent another £20 the following day on things I had forgotten or not realised we were out of. And still I forgot the dog food and potatoes. Several times a month I find myself checking our bank accounts to see how much we have left for the month, subtracting from the balance any bills that are due. I have far too much stuff and far too little storage. Combining two homes into one tiny one two years ago didn't help. This year, for only the second time in the eight years I have lived here, I have not got around to planting any pots and baskets with flowers. I will really miss those this summer.

These are just a few of the things I would like to change. Life seems to consist of a to do list that says buy this, do that, cook this, find that, go here, go there, don't forget the other thing. I notice it far more now that I have limited energy. I have a ongoing list of errands I need to run and at the moment, the list for this weekend has around 20 items on it. Not to mention the list of a squillion things that need doing in the house. There is no way all that will get done, but it all needs doing. Last Christmas, there was so much shopping and preparation I had a setback with CFS that I didn't recover from until February. I think I need a more organised approach.

I like spending time with friends and family, gardening, writing, making things, taking photos - and don't do nearly as much as I could as I always feel there are other things I should be doing, there is always a mess somewhere to be sorted out, or housework to be done. Realistically, I often can't do much anyway, with my energy problems, but I think I could do more if there was some level of organisation in place. As it is, I don't want to be using up all the energy I do have on the everyday stuff and having nothing left for doing the things I enjoy. I want more time and energy, and quite possibly money for the good stuff.

There are many aspects to this. I would like to simplify finances, housework, meal planning, shopping and preparation, gift giving. I long for a more simpler organised life. I would like to travel more, grow some veggies, go for more walks (having driven somewhere nicer to look at first. Yes, I would also like to move), read more books (yes! even more), eat healthier food and less takeaways (ie find meals that are healthy but easy for me to make on no-energy days).

This is the reason I chose simplify as my word for this year.

There are only a couple of days left this week, but I think small goals are the way to go anyway. This week, bearing in mind today is Thursday, I would like to:

• Sort out all three of my bookcases. They need tidying, and there are bound to be a few books I can give away/sell. We did really well selling books on Amazon earlier in the year.
• Finally get our wedding thank yous written. The Prof will help.
• Plant our rambling rose bush 'Wedding Day' next to the front door
• Work on clearing up the garden. It's a jungle out there!

That's all I am committing to for now. Hopefully I might get some of those errands run too. 

Dreams v Goals

Over at Notes Across the Sea, Jen and I have been talking about our dreams. We both have a list of dreams that we wrote as part of  Mondo Beyondo, an online course that we took last year. You had to write down your wildest (in my case, not so wild) dreams, and after not looking at my list for many months, I have been surprised and pleased to see that some of the things on my list have started to happen, seemingly by themselves, certainly without conscious effort from me. I had forgotten what I had even written, all those months ago.

Thinking about my list of dreams today, I got to thinking about the difference between dreams and goals. Is there a difference? Although there is some overlap, I think, for me, goals are most often things like saving money, doing up the house, and 'down to earth' or practical things, whereas I think of dreams as more abstract and 'airy-fairy' - to do with travel, writing, creativity. When I look though, at my 'dream list' I see that many of the things I see as far off dreams can be broken down into small steps that I could take now. Whilst I have been thrilled to see some of the things I dreamed about starting to come to fruition, albeit slowly, I can surely make things happen faster with a bit of focussed action.

More on this after the weekend.