True Simple Living and Priorities

Ever since my kids were small, I have watched people talk about “simple living.” I guess the idea is that you back away from the craziness of public school schedules, both parents working full time, tons of sports, etc, and live a slower life at home. 

But then this then tends to turn into homesteading, making ALL things from scratch, and adding to their plate this way. I was starting to do that! I DO love making foods from scratch, having chickens, etc, but it’s definitely NOT simple. Which is fine! But I guess I fell into the “trap” of thinking that everything I was doing was “simple.” I was then putting a lot of pressure on myself for things to look a certain way. Something else that happens in this “way of life” is spending a fortune on groceries to make sure they are all organic, grass-fed/pastured/cage free, raw milk, natural and organic products, etc. Because we couldn’t really afford this, I was constantly feeling like a failure. People make it seem like if you’re using regular-old laundry detergent that you are killing yourself and your family. 

I’m not saying anything against the homesteading way of life and being “crunchy”; I obviously was loving it. But at this point in my life, I’m realizing that I need true “simple living.” And I need to stop feeling guilty for things that aren’t THAT big of a deal.

Between also homeschooling Karis this semester, having a new place to serve, and the opportunities to truly be able to adventure more often, I’m taking a step back from all things homesteading. Maybe it’s in my future again, maybe it’s not. I thought that was the only way I wanted to live my life moving forward, but when I took inventory of the things that are the most important to me, I realized that I was kind of idolizing that way of life and the people who share it with the world through their blogs, Instagram pages, etc. I thought that’s what I wanted, but now I’m realizing that there are things that are way more important to me!

The very top of that list of priorities is relationships! I want to be able to focus on my relationship with Jesus, my family, and the people that God has placed and will be placing in my life. 

My next priority is service and hospitality. I want to be able to focus on serving God and others, and make hospitality a priority (which goes along with relationships). 

Third is homeschooling. The main priority here is still wrapped up in relationships, but also that I would provide a rich learning environment for the kids. 

Adventure is another major priority for our family. The kids haven’t really been doing much of that lately. We honestly live SO far from a lot of fun adventuring (except for right here at camp- they aren’t interested in adventuring here much anymore). There we can drive a very short distance to get to so many amazing places in Colorado. And, we will be able to afford it a bit more.

Financial health is another thing that we are planning to truly work on and buckle down on. We plan to really focus on a solid budget (using the Qube system— it’s amazing!), paying off debt, and saving money. It’s more important to us to have financial health and to be able to adventure more than to buy organic, grass-fed, etc. 

Finally, like I mentioned in my previous post, health is super important, but it doesn’t have to be all organic, etc. It can just be simple. Meat/protein, fruits and veggies, healthy fat, and healthy carbs. Boom.

I will probably venture back to some of this when I have more time/mental ability to manage it, but I need to constantly remind myself that they aren’t required. I’m not killing my family by eating non-organic and buying products that we can actually afford. Those are all just idols that I was allowing in my life. In the grand scheme of things, they aren’t that important. Those things aren’t worth my mental health and the health of my relationships and finances. 

Simple living truly should be simple.