I was just out visiting some friend’s blogs and felt compelled to share a message of how sometimes less is more. It’s a standard truth that can be applied to many things. I wanted to leave a comment on one of my friend’s blogs about some technical woes she’s having but the page wouldn’t load the required anti-spam word for me to type. So I figured I’d touch on what I wanted to say this way in hopes it would help her and maybe some others.

Often we begin doing things simply because they are available. As more becomes available we find ourselves delving into more of those things. In the long run we may be clogging some vital things without knowing it. The fact remains that just because you CAN do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you SHOULD. Let me share an example of something super simple but that illustrates the point well.

When I began e-mailing I delighted in the ability to so easily correspond with others. As it caught on, a new wave of customizing e-mails surfaced and I thought it was pretty cool. I could add stationery backgrounds, images, etc. After a while it became a little cumbersome so I backed it down to just adding a cute picture in my signature line. I was happy with it and although I hate to admit it, it was one thing that had some impact on my decision to use a different e-mail service/program that didn’t support images. Up to that point I had been using Microsoft Outlook, now my husband was encouraging me to try Gmail. Now the major difference is Gmail was developed by an Internet search engine company, namely Google who specializes in the area of Internet services. They understand how plain text versus html message formats work. The bottom line is that as cute as all my images and things were they were sent with every message as an attachment. Spam filters know that virus e-mails contain attachments and are set up accordingly. As soon as I made the switch I found more reliability with my e-mails reaching their destinations unfettered, and I began to really appreciate the way Gmail filtered my incoming mail. I’d unknowingly sacrificed functionality for frills before.

Blogging is a classic example of more becoming more. Plug-ins, gadgets, widgets….all these things are enticing and offer enhancements to the basic web page, to say nothing about ads. But they can also really slow things down. When I redesigned my blog a few years ago I moved all the “blog stuff” onto it’s own page so every page view wouldn’t be trying to download every unrelated but “cool” thing on my side bars. I can’t tell you the difference it made. I took control over my blog navigation and cut out all unnecessary elements. It was a good lesson.

I can’t remember if I shared it here before or if I just talked about it with someone else, but in the recent Indiana Jones movie there was an early scene that stretched believability to a breaking point. Sadly, it wasn’t necessary to the story line and it has now coined the phrase “Don’t nuke the fridge.” In other words, less is more. In my experience 99% of blogs nuke the fridge.

No matter the realm or situation, the truth that often less is more resounds with truth and clarity. If there is clutter in your life or surroundings, you’ll feel cluttered and messy. Sometimes we don’t recognize building clutter in our lives and projects but if it builds you can rest assured that eventually it will catch up to you. So my advice when you’re having problems is to step back and see if you’re nuking the fridge. It’s likely that if you work on simplifying you’ll regain much of what you desire, control being at the top of the list. *smile*

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It never ceases to amaze me how we’ll push simple cleaning projects back on our lists over and over. It’s not that they’re big, just that they’re undesirable.

Today’s tip: Just Do It

This morning I spent about 10 minutes cleaning my microwave. It wasn’t hard and it looks so much better! Two cleaning tools that I’d die without in my kitchen are my scratch free-scouring scrub brush with soap filled handle and disposable disinfectant wipes. The brush makes short work of scrubbing on all my kitchen surfaces with the aid of just the right amount of dish soap and the wipes are the perfect finisher. Both are great in the kitchen because both cut grease and we all know how fun grease is to clean up. *frown*

I’ve put off cleaning the microwave for several weeks and every time I’d open it I’d groan. I’ve probably cleaned the darn thing 100 times in my head! It only took once and it took less than 10 minutes but man it sure feels good. The payback of satisfaction and motivation far outweigh my procrastination reasons. There’s power in just doing things that need done.

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I just came across this link love on my dashboard and it made me smile really big.

As my friend Kailani just shared a post on the reasons people blog it was especially fitting for me to have this link show up today. You see, one of the reasons I blog and enjoy blogging is about making my own life a masterpiece and sharing what I learn along the way. So to see my blog come up on a list like the one Jacklyn shared really makes me smile because it’s a shout out from someone else seeing why I do what I do.

Today is a good day.

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I set up my Mii account on our Wii Fitness this morning and to my delight it calculated my BMI and weight in the normal region. Yay! Now, I didn’t really need it’s balance and muscle assessment to know that I’m not in great shape and my body is weaker than it should be but who knows, maybe it will help me work on that. One thing I learned with Dance Dance Revolution is that exercise in the form of some entertainment works well for me. So I’m hopeful. I also took heart in my first rounds of yoga exercises and balance games that I placed in the top three of my family members who have been doing it for a week now. I’m also delighted that the pool season is back because I can do so much more with my joints in the pool than in other exercise settings.

In other good news today I’m happy to report that I found another solution that is helping me with my summer vacation parental strain. As my husband and I talked last week, I realized that no matter how many things we did or planned to keep our daughter busy the fundamental problem wouldn’t be addressed. My ten year old daughter has ADD and that means her brain doesn’t organize things naturally, or at least the way most of our brains do. It’s why she’s always asking to do 10 things at the same time and why she spends 5 minutes of quiet time complaining of boredom. So I decided to take my last organization attempt during the holidays a step further. I printed out calendars from my Google calendar for each of the kids. One page was a month overview and then each week broken down on a single page with the hours of 6AM-5PM each day. My thought was if I made their planning visual not only would they better understand time and feel some control over their activities, they might also see how much they really have.

I’m happy to report that so far so great. They are both working at filling in their wants on their calendar and mom helps fit in some needs (a.k.a. chores) and catching the vision. This morning we planned out this week which took about 10 minutes compared to our first attempt last week which took about 20 minutes for 2 days. Progress. I’m finding it helps me too because the time we block for academic review and games is small enough that none of us go crazy. In fact, this morning they both asked if we could do it longer so that’s a plus for mom.

Speaking of time, mine is up so that’s all for today on the blog! *giggle*

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I’ve been a bit reflective lately, surprising I know. *snort* I’m seeing with more and more clarity how we create our own realities, frame our own expectations and then our very lives based on those thoughts and feelings.

This sounds supremely simple, yet every day the energies and resources spent refuting the truth are insurmountable. For what I hear everyday around me are phrases like: “Well, they’re just a jerk”, “The economy is in the tank so things are bad right now”, “I have no control over that”, “I guess this is just the trial I’m suppose to be going through right now”, “It’s not my fault”, on and on and on. The words shift but the meaning is always there, responsibility is always to be found elsewhere and there’s an excuse for everything, especially when it involves work.

Can you imagine how different things would be if instead of sowing seeds of negativity, victimization and redirects we spent more energy sowing seeds of positivity, empowerment and responsibility?

Yesterday I spent a few minutes reading some of the book “All I Really Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum. I’ve always enjoyed his writings and find re-reading them gives my spirits a little boost. Specific to the thoughts I’m sharing today, the concept of “Clean up your own mess” as one of his lessons fits perfectly. The seeds that are being sown too often and the fruits they bear are those of irresponsibility. Not only do we not recognize that the pickle we’re in is most often direct result of our own making, we expend valuable energy and resources justifying why it’s not our mess to clean up instead of just digging in and getting the job done.

Another common thread I’ve observed is how easy it seems to be to find and see this truth in the lives of others while dismissing ourselves. It’s usually more subtle but it’s still there. I see it manifest in discussions where I hear someone describe a specific problem and then turn it into a spiritual matter saying that faith and prayer will solve it for them. Of course, it’s not said that directly but that’s what I hear. Sadly, people with this attitude will never understand the concept of an answered prayer. For they will not recognize any answer that doesn’t suit them just as my 5 year old fights against every “no” he receives. Hopefully he’ll learn the lesson and carry it with him, hopefully he won’t forget that just because the answer isn’t what you wanted or expected doesn’t mean the answer wasn’t given or isn’t there.

For the past 5 years my husband and I have been implementing, to the best of our ability, a life of personal responsibility, positive affirmations and hard work. We stopped finding fault with circumstances and praying for a rescue from the financial storm we steered our ship into. We stopped using the crutch of uncontrollable health issues and September 11th aftermath as the reasons for our being in the eye of the storm. It didn’t matter because we were in the storm and while these things may have hastened our arrival, our course was set before they hit. Besides that, focusing our energies there sure wouldn’t help us get out of the storm. Not surprising, the journey out of the storm was proportionate in time to our getting into it the first place. There was no single miracle that pulled us out and dropped us on a sunny beach. However, there were daily miracles and daily progress. In fact, things have been beyond good for us, especially within the past couple years and they are growing every day. It’s not free, it’s not easy, it’s not luck. We just started sowing different seeds and now we’re enjoying a very different garden full of variety and sweetness.

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It seems that sometimes there’s just so much to do and so little time! At the start of a new year I think we tend to load up our plates even more with the enthusiasm that comes from a NEW year. The motivation is good, but sometimes I worry about the burnout that so often accompanies the big push. I wonder why it’s so hard to be as motivated on a Thursday afternoon in the middle of the month?

I am actually getting things done but never as much as I’d like, especially here on my blog. But I keep reminding myself of times and seasons and there will come a time when I have more of it to spend here! In the meantime I just have to keep my chin up and my feet moving to the rhythm of daily life.

What things have you found help you balance out the wave of New Year’s energy and project pile up?

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Success is brewing. I didn’t get back to my computer the way I thought I would this week - hence the rocky start because that really means I spent most of my valuable computer time catching up on e-mails and GoogleReader. Moreover, on Wednesday I sat down only to find a broken Internet connection which didn’t get fixed until yesterday. I can live without almost anything but to lose my connection online is like suffering double limb amputation! It’s all good now as things are back in place. On the bright side I’m looking back at some immediate successes and getting fueled for some fun success in 2008.

1) I got an entire script written for a group of over 30 youth in an upcoming youth cultural arts night
2) Had at least 3 fabulous food successes in the last week
3) Spent quality time with my kiddos and spouse
4) Got all the laundry caught up and the bedding washed/changed
5) Cleaned up my computer from old files and programs and loaded my new Adobe programs
6) Got my entire e-mail box cleaned up and archived and my blog reading caught up
7) Beat my highest bowling score of all time with the Wii this week *big smile*
8) Came up with several new ideas and goals regarding my blog for 2008
9) Found out how to make my fonts in Firefox look normal
10) Had an encouraging visit with my hubby last night about potential changes in the future - very exciting!

So now I’m ready to jump in and get things moving! As long as I’m sharing successes, I’ll have to post a little more on the ultimate success for neighbor Christmas gifts this year…the personalized soap dispensers. These were an absolute hit and so incredibly easy! Click here for the pdf file with instructions and tips, or Click here for an editable Word 2007 file.

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It was the last thing I had time for today. But how on earth can you say no to those baby blue eyes pleading with you to “Please, please mom can we make a gingerbread man? I’ve never ever tasted one in my whole life!”

Sometimes you just have to make time for things like this.

Clearly he’s delighted. As we dressed the snowflakes, trees and teddy bears with frosting he kept saying “Mom you are so awesome!” Now that’s more payment than you can deposit in any bank and it lasts longer too! So with all that praise I pulled out the big guns and wrote his name on one of the cookies. He gobbled it up with sheer delight.

I decided to share his picture here so his teacher can see it. He wants so much for her to see it but was very worried with how to do that because if he tried to take it to school he might break it. (You gotta love this kid who thinks of everything.) So I told him we’d take a picture to share. You see, they’ve been reading books at school about the gingerbread boy all week. On Monday he’s going to run away and the class is going to try to find him. Friends and relatives in other states are invited to send a letter or postcard pretending to site the gingerbread boy sharing where they spotted him and what he was doing. Then they will mark those letters on a world map as they search for him. If you want to join in the fun send me an e-mail or leave your discovery notes in the comments leaving me the state where he was seen. I’ll print them out and send them in for him.

How can I not be overjoyed that I took time to make a gingerbread boy with him? Just look at those eyes!

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I was just catching up on some blogs this morning and read several posts along the Thanksgiving theme. I suppose this is part of the great conspiracy to move Thanksgiving up to this week. But as I’ve read it’s got me thinking about things and knowing I’ll be leaving town tomorrow I wanted to take a moment to share those thoughts.

When my daughter was about 2 and 1/2 she hit a wonderful stage of comprehending things around her and calling them to attention. At night we’d hear her go on for easily 10-15 minutes with a prayer that went something like this:

“Heavenly Father, thank you my bed. Thank you my house. Thank you my blanket. Thank you my milk. Thank you my mom. Thank you my dad. Thank you my room. Thank you my shoes. Thank you my window. Thank you my sky. Thank you my door. Thank you my…..”

The innocence from those simple words of thanks were always welcome to mom and dad’s ears. And it caused us to reflect on many of those little details that we tend to skip over or generalize ourselves.

About 6 years ago I had the opportunity to really understand how much I’d taken for granted with my health. I note the details now, the ability to walk, the ability to breathe without pain, the ability to control my muscles without shaking, the strength to move at all, and above all the ability to feel pain. Yes, that’s an odd one I know but you know what, one day in my self complaint mode about the intense head pain I was experiencing it dawned on me that the option of not feeling pain could mean paralysis and as weird as things had been that was certainly not a possibility off the radar for me. So I was thankful for the pain because it meant I could still feel.

I’m grateful for the pain of infertility which lead me to paths of growth and love I couldn’t have known otherwise. I’m grateful that it took me to the right place at the right time to be where someone needed me to be, just when they needed me to be there. I’m grateful that those people in my life endured their own trials and pain to be where I needed them to be when I needed them too. I understand so well now the truth that sometimes our greatest trial can be another’s greatest blessing.

I’m grateful that at the same time I nearly lost all my health and life that we lost our business and revenue. While I’m not glad my husband and I had to go through so much hard stuff all at the same time, I’m supremely grateful that we could learn those tough lessons while we are still so young and that it happened in such a complete and all encompassing way to require dealing with it head on. Because of those experiences, today I have a completely new look and appreciation for self-reliance and financial blessings, I will never view things the same or trick myself into believing that things are really better than they are. I’m grateful that my son and his adoption came to us at this most ill-prepared and seemingly impossible time of our lives because it taught me that all things are possible. It confirmed my personal belief and knowledge that adoption was not about us finding our children but rather about them finding us and when that happened nothing could keep us from making it happen.

So today I pause on the details so often missed in our thoughts of gratitude. With so much to be grateful for it’s amazing that I ever find anything to complain about. It’s true that the surest way to pick yourself up is to stop long enough to count your blessings…EVERY blessing. It is amazing to see how much you have when you take the time to look.

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I seem to be experiencing a calendar malfunction. You see, I’m pretty sure that it was only a few days ago that I was spending a weekend with the family in our cul-de-sac enjoying a Halloween bash, but today my calendar is insistent that November is more than half over. It’s trying to convince me that Thanksgiving is actually this week, Thursday to be exact. Yeah, right!

Moreover, I was certain that I posted an article to my blog yesterday - okay maybe two days ago. Today my Google Reader is trying to tell me that I’m almost a full week behind on my reading and the calendar again is insisting that almost a full week has passed since my last post. WhatEVER. Stupid calendar.

I’m still arguing with it.

Maybe I’ve been abducted or caught in some time warp bubble? All I know is the last thing I remember is getting the kids dressed up for Halloween and preparing for a few days with my husband’s parents in town. They left the same weekend my parents arrived.

Today I dropped my son of at school with a reminder that Wednesday is a half day in honor of Thanksgiving. Clearly, there’s a conspiracy afoot.

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