The Intentional Life

I'm back. After a week off of decluttering due to some major road-tripping, I am back in the saddle. This week brought some steady warm Spring weather, the most we've had yet, so I figured this would be as good a time as any to tackle my closet. I'll probably do another post like this in the Fall when I need to tackle the Summer clothes again. A few years ago I came across this concept of a Capsule Wardrobe .  My dream is to have a wardrobe like that, but I just am not there yet. Between work clothes, home clothes, work out clothes, and grungy work outside clothes, I really couldn't pare my closet down to 33 items. BUT, a pare down was needed nonetheless. I feel like I can get ready so much faster when I have less to choose from. And I actually feel like I have more options when most of my clothes can be switched around and coordinated with each other. So, I go by a few rules to try to keep my wardrobe as minimal as possible: 1. Shy away from items tha

This week's decluttering didn't happen.  Most of the week was consumed with tying up loose ends and packing to head on a road trip to Boston. So, this week a break is happening, and I'm posting these thoughts instead..... We call it Good Friday. But what made it so good? High noon came and it went. Darkness. A ripped temple veil. Death. What's so Good about Friday? The war was over.  But Satan thought he had won. But, praise the Lord, Sunday is coming!   Songs minister to me, as they do to so many others.  I love to listen to this one on this day. So long, you wages of sin go on, Don't you come back again I've been raised and redeemed; You've lost all your sting To the victor of the battle at High noon in the valley In the valley of the shadow

This week is Spring Break in our house. We've had a few travels planned, but there were going to be a few days that we were going to be home. I still wanted to get my weekly de-clutter in, so, I enlisted the kids help since they were around. I know it's kinda like shoveling the driveway when it's still snowing, but this mess needs managed, even it it's going to be wrecked shortly after we finish.  When we were looking for a house a few years back I really desired a basement. For two reasons: a place to go during tornadoes and a place to put all the kids' toys.  Ironically, it kinda looks like a tornado went through.... Unfortunately, basements were out of our price range.  But, we found a Ranch with a one room attic space above.  This became the play room. Also, because it is upstairs and out of the way, it often is where things get dumped and set aside to be dealt with later. This was that 'later.' In my quest for minimalism, my childr

At one point in time I had stacks and stacks of magazines. Real Simple, Country Living, Dwell, This Old House, Food Network Magazine These were my favorites.  And I kept every single issue. And, once again, the Flood of 2013 took care of that stash. And made me realize that I really didn't need to keep them around anyways. But I really like flipping through magazines, having a stack waiting on me for weekends, road trips, and sitting outside in the sun.  And some of the articles are really good and I want to keep them. And some of the pictures inspire me and I want them around. But I don't like the clutter they create so there are a few things I've done to tweak it so that I can still get my magazine flip-though fix and still have those articles and pictures around that I like. 1.  The library. Our local one has quite a bit to choose from so I can get my fix from there. PLUS, they haven't recently made it possible to check out magazines through my K