Creating the Life I Want

I love my life, but it needs simplification. There's so much "stuff" going on. I wish there were an Independent Director of Simplification I could hire to help me get hold of everything.

Wild/random thoughts aside, how am I going to start living the life I want to live? I know, I know. It's going to mean rolling up my sleeves and just doing it. It's that right sleeve that always seems to give me trouble...

So let me see. To get what I want I should think about what it is I'm looking for. What do I really want?

More celebrations.
Celebrations at my house. I've never been one to coordinate get-togethers or holiday meals. I forget they're coming up (eh-hem... Easter? Oh, it's this weekend? Oh.) and then it's too late for me to gather my supplies and thoughts to do what I want (there were some lovely ideas at Lusa's Clean blog this month. I so aspire to create baskets like those!) And I don't want to do just the typical American major holiday celebrations, either. I want to have a family tradition for days like today (Earth Day), spring equinox, and summer solstice and the like. Things with "earthy" roots and which had traditionally been celebrated in the past by peoples long ago. Celebrations would include food, family, crafts (with heart. with purpose), and probably music. I miss music.

Create more art.
I was paging through a local magazine yesterday and read an article about a fiber artist here in Madison. A new mother. And her work was beautiful. Inspiring. I need to something myself. It's been far too long since I've been able to let my creativity really flow. It's the old story:  I'm so busy... :p (Also, as far as music goes, I don't have a piano. And I really wish I did. Not a keyboard, a piano. I turned down a free one a few years ago because I couldn't move it to my apartment. Now I wish I'd just hired professional movers! Hindsight.)

Read more books.
Books of quality. This was a new year's resolution of mine in 2010 and overall I'm pleased with my direction (my book club has helped!). But I still need more. Work that will challenge me, and inspire my own writing. More classics. More modern poets. Less Facebook.

More home cooking.
My handsome husband has been on cooking duty for this past year and has done a fabulous job, day in and day out. But I feel like I'm missing something, not cooking much myself. And my cookbook blogging self-challenge is suffering too! I want to feel that satisfaction of finding the perfect local ingredient at the farmer's market. I want to rediscover long-lost recipes hidden in fifty year old tomes. I want to relish a meal I made with my own hands and heart.

I want to get to know my neighbors.
We're feet away from each other, for goodness' sake. I know many of their names, but we don't really say anything to each other. And that family down the street, the one with the three little girls?  They play the fiddle on their porch, burn wood in their furnace, and grow a big vegetable garden--how fun do they seem?! I want us to be friends!

I want to try something new every day.
A new type of stitch. A new food. A new route home. A new vocab word. Something.


Is this my second trimester energy kicking in? Am I nesting? Am I freaking? I don't know. But I do know I don't want to fall into complacency. I don't want to drown in sameness. I don't want to lose myself in the rat race. And these are my thoughts.

Any personal experience with The Simple Life? Advice for me and my family? I'd love to hear!