I haven’t been able to accomplish all that I had planned for while HB is gone. After the whole toe incident, a week ago today, I’ve had to slow it way down. I did allow this to discourage me for a day or so, but I feel good about what I did get accomplished when I first started out on this quest; that is, an organized kitchen with one large box of kitchen items, and an almost completely organized bedroom with three 39-gallon-sized bags, ready for the local thrift store. In spite of my unplanned down time the past couple of days, I’ve kept up with a bit of surface cleaning. The house does feel tidy and I can live with that.

I seem to be all about clichés this week, but I’m seeing that hindsight really is 20/20. As I reflect back over the past six days alone, I’m seeing how this little incident opened the door to do things that I wouldn’t have otherwise done, because my list was all about tasks.

So here are the things I have accomplished this week:

Spent an afternoon with my brother, sisters and mom. We all have busy schedules, so it’s not often that we’re able to get together and to do something fun. My brother happened to be in town, so we threw together an afternoon to have a late lunch and go to a movie. My sisters handed out bags of sinfully delicious movie treats and we had a blast. ♥

Met a friend for an evening coffee date. After a long day of work, I could have easily just stayed home to veg. The plan was to meet up and chat up some details for an Easter brunch, but that ended up being the smallest part of the conversation. Instead, we chatted about everything and nothing that we had going on in our lives. After almost three hours, I left there realizing how much I needed that girl time. ♥

An impromptu pizza and a movie at home. One of my daughter in-loves wrote me an e-mail to see if I had dinner plans. Nope, I didn’t. I told her to call in a pizza and I’d pick it all up on the way home. She came over with two of my grandsons and we just vegged together; dinner in the living room while we watched a movie. It was so relaxing, I almost dozed off a couple of times. ♥

Dinner with family. Not only is HB gone, but two of our sons went with him. This has left my two daughter in-loves at home with the kids. Well, these two amazing girls are making me a birthday dinner tonight. Are you familiar with the story of Naomi and Ruth? Well…these two girls are my Ruth. It’s one thing to be loved by your own children, but when you are loved by children from another mother…that’s a bonus blessing. ♥

Slumber Party. When I saw my mom this past weekend, I just realized how precious this time is with her. She’s been a widow for many years now and I couldn’t help but think about how empty the house has felt with HB away. So I invited her to come and join us for dinner tonight and then to spend the night with me. To make it even more special, I decided to also invite my only grand-daughter, because I want her to have something I never did…a relationship with her great-grandma. So we’re going to spend the late evening eating too much candy and watching something girly…probably “Tangled” because my grand-daughter believes she is the lost princess. ♥

I actually took tomorrow off, so I could have a nice three-day weekend. My intent was to spend it alone…my gift to me. I figured I would have a quiet cup of coffee, turn on some tunes, and well…do more cleaning. But instead, I’ll be spending more time with many listed above and tomorrow evening, I’ll drink too much coffee while I wait for HB’s plane to touch down around midnight.

As for my weekend list, it says…nothing.
It’s empty…a clear page of more relaxing with my very best friend.

Shouldn’t that be a picture of what a simple life looks like? Spontaneous, impromptu, decisions to do whatever we feel like in that moment, which includes nothing at all? Here I made a list of all that I wanted to accomplish to “reach” this goal, while missing the entire concept of what I should be reaching for.

I guess I need to be thankful for my dislocated toe because I never would have accomplished all that I have. My quest to declutter is still a goal, but I think I’m moving it down a few notches so I don’t miss out on other opportunities around me.

The chores will always be there, but spending time with family, friends, a good book, or a quiet cup of coffee…now THAT’s a true accomplishment towards simple living.