I hope to chronicle my adventures as a homeschooling/wannabe farmer/opinionated stay at home mom.
We have a pretty busy household ---2 parents, Katie (me) and Kyle (my husband.) 3 kids---Willa (7), Harry (5), and Charlotte (1). 2 cats---Fiona and Steve. 2 dogs--- Ellie and Arlo. 1 horse--- Sol. 6 (soon to be 7) miniature donkeys---Beatrice, Citabria, Albus, Bananas (who is expecting a baby in the very near future), Olive, and Imperious. We had about a dozen chickens until recently. I sold then for five dollars apiece to the farmer down the road. Chickens who don't lay any eggs are really not worth keeping. So, off they went. We have a little old farmhouse with too much "stuff" inside.
Over the last six months or so I have dramatically (I think) scaled down on the amount of stuff we have. Toys in particular. I learned (the hard way) that the local Good Will has a 6 bag a day limit. (which is not too strictly enforced, but still...) It is kind of a stupid rule because they don't specify a bag size... Anyway, after a small investment in some big ass contractor size trash bags I was back on my way to pairing down. Now, you might think the kids would be bummed about having less but I think just the opposite held true. They were psyched to get rid of stuff. Okay, honestly--- Willa was psyched, Harry was PISSED and Charlotte was just happy that somebody finally dumped out the toy baskets so that she could get to all the junk that was at the bottom of them. The end result has been great. I have been trying very hard to aim for quality vs. quantity when it comes to toys. We use Rudolf Steiner's Waldorf principles when it comes to educating our kids and that fits in nicely with the idea of simplification. Almost all of the toys in our house are wooden and handmade. I am staunchly anti-plastic and not just for health reasons. Actually I think I am "staunchly" anti-lots of things. I am not exactly sure how I got to be so opinionated, but here I am. (Let that serve as a warning should you care to read onward!) Another thing I am is disorganized and this is something I am trying my darnedest to change. Schedules kind of fall into the same category as rules. It is almost as if I can hear them screaming to be broken or disrupted. Unfortunately my 5 year really seems to flounder amongst chaos and there lies the impetus for change. Oy! Rituals, rhythm, predictability---scary words to a scatter brain like me but those are the things I am working towards. Oh, and simplification.
Where was I?
Ah, getting rid of toys... Less is more. It really is. It is nice to have the extra space. The kids breathe easier with less. More room to play. More room to grow. Open ended toys made from natural materials. Plenty of room for imagination to take over. The best part is that when they have well made toys with real "value" they treat them as such. Things get picked up and put away and respected. (well, most of the time.)
My next simplification project is books. This one scares me a little. I love books. I know, I know, that is so cliché right? Everybody loves books. It would be very un-scholarly of me or something not to. I seriously have a book addiction. I buy them by the dozens. We have books EVERYWHERE in our house we even have book shelves lining the basement walls. (which was a big mistake by the way----mildew--ick!) Anyway, Simplicity Parenting has motivated me to declutter, EVEN with books. The author reminds us to think bout the images a book leaves kiddos with right before sleep and the messages/morals/whatever, that it instills in them. Books are powerful. So read the really good ones over and over (as kids naturally like to do) and skip the ones that are just so-so. Hmmm. Can I really get RID of books. I don't know. Maybe I'll just send them to a slow mildewy death in the scary basement. At least it's easier on me that way.
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