That question always makes me smile because oh, if you ONLY knew.
Most hours my mind is crammed to overflowing with all kinds of thoughts and feelings...
And well, some are inspirational. Some of glorious. Some of scary or even downright terrifying. Some are, well, much more edifying left unsaid!
But I will share with you what is on my mind right now: MINIMALISM.
Yup. That's right. The blogs i have had read lately come in all shapes and sizes...figuratively speaking of course! The TED TALK I watched with my students several weeks ago is at fault for my latest interest. It was titled "Happiness is Less" or something along that line. Really interesting actually. My kids had to write about what they would find easy to get rid of, hard and so on. Of course, by default my private students received the same assignment. Quite revealing reads I had!
A few other lines I have read/heard: Less is More, Small is Better, Less Stuff, Live More, and the list goes on.
Anyway, I got to thinking and reading and researching and guess what? I did not know it, but my type of personality has a name! I am a minimalist and did not even know it. Earlier this week I read about the 333 Project (a fashion project that challenges people to box everything in their closet up for three months EXCEPT 33 items, including outerwear). Humph, I am pretty sure I don't even own 33 pieces of clothing, including outerwear. I did not count but I am the kind of person that only buys clothes when I find myself avoiding events because I seriously don't have anything appropriate to wear.
And I have done that, believe it or not. I am finding myself doing that currently. I even made a shopping list of the basics I need yesterday. I really do need to go shopping but I HATE to...mostly because of the age old problem here in Brazil. When I find something I like, it is either poor quality or outrageously overpriced. And so I do without. It is less stressful to me that way.
And my home? I had an American visit me a few years ago and she asked if she could look in my kitchen cupboards (she lives in what I would call a mansion but is in reality a fairly normal sized home for 7 people and she probably was curious how I live here!). Her comment after doing so was, "Wow. Everything you have you use, huh? And it all has a place?" I was like "Yup. If it doesn't have home, it has to go!" That is a normal way of living for me. I guess that is how we live well as a family of four in a little over 500 square feet of apartment.
Only the last few weeks we haven't been living well. At least I have not been living stress free in my own home. I lost it last weekend after walking in my children's bedroom and seeing, well, a mess I prefer to not remember actually. My poor husband and children were like, what happened to the woman we know? I admit shamefully, I went burserk. Literally. I told them to be prepared because MONDAY MORNING, things would change or mommy might need to be hospitalized. It doesn't help that their 9 year old closet is literally falling apart of their feet but honestly, we have to live with what we have.
To make a long story short, my newest favorite blog empowered simplicity gave me the fantastic idea of a box for each child and in short, what fits in the box they may keep. So, you guessed it! The Girl has her purple box stuffed full, the Boy has his blue box half full and mommy has a HUGE pile of stuff to give away to various people. And we are all happy. What a relief. Deep sigh of relief. And you want to know what else? Their room has been "livable" by my standards for 5 whole days. Wow! Miracles truly do still happen.
And what's more, after feeling so inspired by the orderliness of the kid's bedroom, I moved on to my closet, the living room cupboards, laundry room and kitchen. Man, am I feeling organized this weekend! And whats more important is my head feels a lot less cluttered and my heart is way more at peace. I am much more prepared to focus on the last two weeks of my semester at High School and prepare for the holidays.
So, here's my encouragement to you. Consider the possibility that less is actually more. Better. Freeing. Good!
Following are a few pictures of some of our 'happenings' the last couple weeks.
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| A visit from our dear Vanusa who came from the interior of Sao Paulo State to spend a couple weeks in the city. We always enjoy the short but sweet times we have with her. |
Fun In The Sun: last Sunday we spent the day at a huge city park in Sao Paulo celebrating three family birthdays. Husband's grandmother, father and our sister in law all have birthdays inside of one week in October!
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| Myself and Grandma! |
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| Myself (yup I decided to show up more in my pictures!) and one of the most beautiful people I know, husband's aunt Dinha. |
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| The Dudes (aka as the BBQers!) |
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| The children had a wonderful day of course, playing, running, flying kites. |
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| He never did fall asleep but he laid there for quite awhile trying to. |
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| Caption not needed! |
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| Noah and Isaac playing with my husband! |
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| Our precious Isaac Jorge |
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| Flying kites with grandpa and grandma! |
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| Cousin Denise and myself (told you i am going to show up more!) |
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| I did not get a great picture of the birthday people, but there they are. I made the birthday cake but because i knew we would be at the park in the heat all day, I cut it early Sunday morning and wrapped individual pieces in foil to keep it cold longer. I made chocolate cake with homemade "doce de leite" and cashews in the middle. The icing was my usual chocolate and cream icing with grated chocolate on top. Yum, yum. The entire cake was gone in minutes! |
It is now November. My husband and I both finish up our semesters at school this month: he his next to the last semester of a 6 year engineering program and I my first year as a High School teacher.
Our children will start their summer vacations the second week in December. It is so incredibly hard to believe that 2016 is rapidly coming to a close.
Have a blessed weekend and until next time!
Jama
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