Way Down the Valley: March 2011

I have continued feverishly tossing things into bags all week in my great attempt to simplify our lives here at the ranch. "The ranch," our pet name for this modest one acre parcel here in southern Ohio that we have laid claim to. My apologies for going on and on about this whole simplifying bit, but it is about all I can think right now as I look with slanted eyes around each room of our house, "what else can go?" Clearly the image I have of myself during this whole process has not been missed by our sweet Carmel Adele. This is the picture she drew of me.

"It's you mama!"

Indeed it is my little darling, but hopefully it will all be over before too long.

For the next several days I will be sharing some pictures of what has been going on here at the ranch in between crazy mama's weed it out -get it out madness.

Until then.

...I am knee deep in this book and this quote is being applied to everything under our roof.

Do not keep anything in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. —WILLIAM MORRIS

Everything in our house is currently being questioned for its usefulness.

I always seem to be involved in some state of "purge" around our house . I usually start strong, ruthlessly pulling things from shelves and out of drawers and manically cramming it all into any bag that will hold up to the rigors of my bag-closing methods. This typically involves jumping on the bag to squish all of the air out and then quickly tying off the bag so the air I just squished out does not try to regain entry. In the end it looks a bit like I just wrestled down a pot bellied pig and wrapped it in spandex. Why would anyone do this? One of the many questions I might ask myself. I do not know.

But no matter how strong I start with this [she puts her fist in the air and yells] "get rid of it all" idea, I never end in quite the same way. I get to a certain point and then one of two things happen. One, the feeling of waste not want not begins to swell inside and suddenly I begin to feel as though I need everything. The old work shirt should be cut up into rags. That little shirt should be repurposed into a dress for Addie or Carmel. The emblem on that t-shirt would really work well for a pirate costume for Owen. I begin to say things like, "Certainly I'll get around to reading that book sometime soon." Or, "waffles sound good. Maybe I will use that waffle maker." And on and on it goes until I have managed to pull everything back out of my spandexed pig.

The other thing that happens is this incredibly unreasonable feeling of sentiment and by unreasonable I mean, outrageous. Really! I want to know who is more sentimental than me. I have saved everything that holds meaning to me and everything holds meaning when you're me. There's the usual, ticket stubs from the family trip to the museum center or zoo. Reasonable. Then there are things like Owen's first bandaid or, wait for it...his first tick...I know [she holds her head in shame] . So tell me, who else in the entire world saves their child's first blood sucking insect? Mosquitoes? Anyone? Anyone? No, I thought not.

And so the question is, what am I learning from all of this and my new book? Well I am slowly, but often reluctantly, coming to believe that my life holds no more meaning with or without these things. These things are taking up space and creating clutter all around us. Our lives will be no richer if we continue to keep the waffle maker, the extra end table, the books we aren't reading, the clothes we aren't wearing or the three additional soup ladles littering the kitchen. If I can push past all the feelings that keep me holding onto things then I believe it will bring more peace to our lives as we move through our days together in this tiny little house of ours.

But if you think for a minute that I'm getting rid of those ticks, you are wrong. Did I say ticks? Ah yes, I have Carmel's first tick too [she laughs a scary spooky laugh]...I know. Useful? Beautiful? Well beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The spandexed hog can go but the ticks are stayin' people!