One Step at a Time

Oh, January.

The month of resolutions and goals, aspirations and new-found energy.

It’s the time when the Blogosphere explodes with posts containing every list and inspiration under the sun to document what each individual and homestead is doing and planning while inspiring others to be their best selves in the process.

After all of the reflections and baked-good gorging of December, it really is a wonderful time to start anew.  It seems as though everyone is ready to charge ahead and improve upon last year…exercise more, eat better, try new things, do more, be more, tell the world about it.

I’ve done the whole resolution thing for years…I’ve talked about it, written about it, felt guilty about not fulfilling it all year after year, and debated about doing it all over again this year.

Honestly, I’m over it.

Here’s the deal, plan as we may try (and trust me, I am a planner), none of us really knows what the year will bring.  And inspiring as it may be to set (and read about and be excited about) all of these lofty goals, I think I’m going to try something a little different this year and focus on a theme instead of specific goals.

2015’s theme?

Simplify.

Literally.

Simplify the way we eat. Who needs complicated recipes with a million ingredients, anyway? So, we plan to eat more veggies and stress less about the process of it all. Beans, rice, homemade breads and tortillas, crock pot meals.  Sometimes the simplest meals are the most delicious, right?

Simplify our belongings. If we don’t love it, need it or use it regularly, it’s time for it to go.  We are certain that we will not be staying in this lovely, quirky, Hacienda of ours once our lease is up at the end of the summer.  We promised we would give it a year knowing full well that we need a different space configuration to fit the needs of our little family and the more time we spend here, the more it becomes apparent.  However, when we left our urban farm, we brought everything we owned with us and I am determined to not move it all again.  This is no small feat for a DIYing/homesteading family with all of our canners and tools and books and such, but there are things that can be pared down (clothes, yarn, and shoes to name just a few) and will be.  We have a few months to purge, so purge we will.

Simplify our expectations. Do we want to grow our own food?  Yes.  Do we know how that might look on our rented patch of property in the coming year?  Nope.  And I’m OK with that.  Well, I’m learning to be OK with that.  Maybe we’ll plant a container garden instead of building the soil and breaking our backs this year.  Maybe we’ll spend  more time and money at the Farmer’s Market.  Maybe we’ll preserve the bounty brought on by someone else’s hard work instead of our own in 2015.  There really are worse things, aren’t there?

2014 was such an interesting year for us, full of unexpected and incredibly intense growth, change and upheaval.  I am hopeful that by simplifying our expectations for 2015, some stability can be found.

I am so very grateful for the journey we are on…so inspired by our long term homestead goals and dreams.  I am also realistic in the knowledge that our paths are often long and winding, full of unexpected twists and turns.  It’s within these twists and turns that the deep wisdom and true joys of life are found.

And that’s what this whole journey is really about.

One step at a time.

Cheers to a simply bountiful 2015!

xoxo,
M