Our Year of Less

I follow many blogs.  One of my very favorites is The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking.    In following this blog, I came across the writer’s other blog: the year of less.  Both blogs are written by a Jesus-loving stay at home mom/homemaker.  Go figure, I would read what she has to say.  I love her perspectives on things and she has neat little projects and adorable kids.  Anyway, I was very intrigued by this “year of less”.  After reading all about their purpose/rules and reading through a few of her posts I told Justin about it.  We, Justin and I, had been talking previously about our cell-phones and how we would like to get away from this technology-saturated society and get back to a simpler way of life.  We talked about how we would like to get a land-line phone for the house and have one, very simple, cell phone for our car…a car-phone.  In that discussion lots of other things came up and we realized how things were taking over our lives and how we did NOT want that to continue.  This is when I brought up the blog and we decided to explore this idea more.  Later we decided it would be our New Year’s Resolution to do so.

Our goals and purpose in this year are not completely in line with this blogger’s, but they are quite similar.  Our purpose, goals and guidelines are as follows:

PURPOSE:

“To live a simpler life by getting rid of things that take me away from time with God – and in getting rid of those things, being able to give more.”  -Justin
 

“To find ways to live simpler and more in line with Biblical principles, rather than ‘The American Dream.’  To de-clutter, enjoy what we have (rather than what we think we should have), spend more time with God and give more of my time, energy, resources, money and talents.”  -Jessica

GUIDELINES:

1.       Pray.
For each “thing” we decide to do or not do, we will consider it in prayer and ask for guidance in doing so.

2.     Socialize more.
We would like to spend time with at least one other couple at least twice a month.
Jessica would like to spend time with someone (another mom, woman, etc.) at least once per week – whether it is investing in someone spiritually, or just hanging out.

3.       Consume and have less.
We would like to buy less, eat less and spend less.
We would like to borrow or buy used whenever it is a possibility.
We would like to be wise in deciding what we should buy as an investment for the long-run rather than buying cheap for a short period of time.
We would like to reduce the amount of possessions we have in order to de-clutter our lives and our home.
All these goals will allow for us to spend more time focused on others that we care about much more than things.

4.       Consume consciously.
We would like to research and find reputable companies that care about people and the environment, and buy from them.
We will shop local whenever we can, get to know the business owners, and support our community.

5.       Healthy Living.
We would like to start a healthier eating regimen.
We are cutting out soda.
We will be more active as a family (take walks, ride bikes, etc.)
In doing these things we will (hopefully) lose weight and become better stewards of the bodies God gave us.

6.       Reduce our environmental impact
We will reduce, reuse and recycle anything we can.
We will teach our kids to do the same (as much as we can…they are very young).

7.       Spend time intentionally.
We will be more aware and responsible with how we spend our time.  Even free-time will be “planned”.
We will minimize distractions (such as cell phones, video games, etc.) to be more available and intentional with people around us.

8.       Self-sufficient.
We will try to make, grow or do anything we can, and teach our children to as well.

9.       Give.
In all of these guidelines our sole purpose is to give.  Whether we are giving more love to our kids, more time to God, or more things to others in need – we want to be givers, not consumers and not takers.  We want to be learners and teachers.  We want to be simple followers of Christ and not of America and its agenda.  We want to show our kids how to live for God alone.

Confession:

I am beyond excited.  We have already done a few days of this and it is SO exhilarating!  We have a list of ideas/concepts that we plan to do at some point.  We would love any opinions or ideas you might have!  We do have 365 days to fill, so it might get harder once we get to June!  We hope that you can journey with us, possibly learn something, and desire to be more simple in your lifestyle as well.  I don’t want to continue without once again crediting the year of less!  They are the source of most of our ideas, at least to begin with.  Thanks again Kelly Family for your hearts that love the Lord and desire to do His works in the simplest way possible J

((Side note: some of my words are randomly linked and I have no idea why...))