Less is MORE

It's 2017. We have two beautiful girls. And life has been wild. We were thrown for a loop when at around 3 weeks old Lucy's colic began and my depression continued to get worse. She is now almost 12 weeks old and it has been a hard 9 weeks. It has been a hard 12 weeks. It has been a hard year. Adjusting to life with two has been filled with so many different emotions. I wish I would have been blogging these past few months, but literally have not had any time. Lucy doesn't usually let me put her down. And when she does, there is always laundry to be done or finally time for me to take a shower.

With all the new, and the way our life is now as a family of four, we have decided to make some big changes.

This year will be simpler, healthier, and fuller. We have started to make changes on a path to a more minimalist style of living. I have lost count after about 16 bags and bins of "stuff" that we have donated to Goodwill. And yet still, our home feels cluttered with "things" everywhere I look. The goal with this change for our family is that with less things, we will all have more clarity and calm in our home. Time is so much more precious now.

It has been amazing to go through our apartment and fill a new bag of things to donate almost everyday. I have already donated 3 full bags of Lilly Belle's toys and she has not even noticed anything missing yet. I am minimizing the girls room the slowest because I don't want this to be a traumatic transition for her, but a calm one instead. We have been able to significantly notice which toys she plays with and is learning from. The goal is that when we are at the place we feel comfortable with, that the girls will only have toys that are encouraging them to use their imaginations, learn and grow from. She has had more independent playtime now that her baby sister is here and I am usually still the one who cleans up her room. By choice lately, so that I can really see what she's been playing with and what she takes out. I will write more on this later as it deserves it's own blog post.

Not only are we working on having less physical things in our life, but we are also minimizing things like our schedules and choosing how we spend our time more wisely and carefully. I am realizing quickly that the way we did life before Lucy was born is not going to work with our family in this time with a newborn and a 3 year old.

Life is going to be filled with lots of time spent at the park with friends for playdates, going for walks, getting back into homeschooling (with a new simpler approach), quiet time playing at home listening to music together, running errands when needed, and I am going to start making time for myself to get some exercise in. We all feel happier when we don't have a schedule and when we are outside. Currently, our only scheduled events each week are Lilly Belle's dance class - which she is loving so much, and a breastfeeding luncheon I go to on Monday afternoons.

Less is so much more! It already feels better and we are only 20 days into the new year with this new way of living. I am really excited for what this year will bring to our family!