Back to the Basics

Stress reduces the length of your life and decreases the quality of your life. As the seventh and final pillar of health, I believe it is just as important as the rest. I'm currently de-stressing my life and it is working wonders in my relationships with Zac and Teagan and my entire mood and outlook on life.

I started reading an excellent blog right about the time I started reading this chapter and the combination has really changed me. It's called The Lazy Organizer and I HIGHLY recommend it. I LOVE the way she thinks. She is so simple and so okay with being simple. I am trying to be more like her. In fact, she did a post similar to this one on her blog a bit ago and I decided to put my version here.

To me stress comes with pressure, pressure to be the best and pressure to be perfect and have a perfect looking life. I've decided that that I don't have to be the best at everything or anything, it is so liberating.

1. I am NOT a gourmet chef. I am a girl that cooks healthy, simple meals for my family.

2. My scrapbooks are NOT the cutest. I take pictures and pick the most important events to tape into a book where I write a little note about what happened. It's not breathtaking and that is okay.

3. The blankets, clothes, and bags I sew are not the prettiest. But they are functional.

4. My clothes are not the most fashionable, my outfits don't coordinate perfectly, my hair isn't the best, my make up isn't Hollywood worthy, but I do shower and look presentable for the most part and I do clean up real nice. :)

5. I'm not an Olympic athlete. But I exercise and move my body, and I love it.

6. My house is not spotless, and it probably never will be. But I clean regularly and make sure that our home is cozy and a breeding place for happy memories.

7. I'm not running a competitive, thriving company. I just tutor on the side to make some cash.

8. I don't own everything I'll ever need; things aren't stored for a rainy day or what ifs any more. It's okay to not have everything you want. I keep what we need and use regularly and I don't purchase things that don't fit those two categories. We are getting rid of toys, books, clothes, shoes, kitchen appliances and craft supplies by the box load. Sure makes clean up and dusting easier!

9. My child isn't in competition with every other child in the world. He doesn't have to have the coolest toys, clothes or hair and he doesn't have to know his ABCs first, read first, walk first, pray first, swim first, or hit a home run first. I just smother him with love, teach him as he shows interest, and give him lots of opportunities to be a kid. He is AMAZING and I wouldn't trade him for anything.

10. I'm not a "blogger" or "Internet tycoon." Starting tonight I do monthly family blog posts, my food blog is done, and my facebook is gone. I've been saving this post for a while because this one is really hard for me. I've felt really strongly for a few months now that facebook, in particular, is taking me away from my family too much. As much as I absolutely love keeping up with old friends and family, I just can't spread myself thin anymore. I tried hiding basically everyone besides family, but I'm realizing that I have an addiction. I sign in too many times every day, just to see if there is something new, pathetic, I know. They don't tell alcoholics to cut back to one beer a day, they say get rid of the drinks all together. If I was really die hard I'd throw my computer away, but I'm not there yet. For now it's farewell to my facebook and food blog and multi-weekly blog posts and bloglines.

I still strive to do my best, but I've released myself from the pressure of being everyone else's version of perfect. I get to be my own stress and worry-free version of perfect.

Thanks for reading my blog. It will be going back to private here in the next week or two. I'll probably stop blogging all together here in a month or two. Wish me luck on my journey to simplify our lives.