Simple Living

We are wrapping up a two week long trip to Tampa Bay, FL, and I am excited about heading home, even if it means returning to snow and cold for a few more weeks. Home is just so... home-y, you know? :-) And obviously, as you read here on the blog, I put a lot of effort into making our home a cozy and welcoming place to be. We are so blessed to have a large, beautiful home, with tons more space than we know what to do with. And I work hard to ensure that we are not simply amassing a collection of stuff that will mean nothing when our life is over.

But every time we go away for a week or two, I look around our hotel room and I am amazed. In this case we packed two suitcases, a backpack and a rolling carry on, and an infant carseat. And in those four luggage items, we fit everything we need for day to day life for two weeks. Now, obviously there are some exceptions. We're eating out almost every meal (breakfast is included at our hotel) so I don't need a kitchen, and that saves on a lot of space. But we have all our toiletries, several changes of clothes, some toys for Javi, and a few other niceties like a laptop and my cameras.

I've had to do laundry twice since we got here, as we have so few changes of clothes. I pretty much do that amount of laundry anyways, as the little man loves to coat us and himself in spit up and drool and other body fluids. :-) But it was one load of laundry, completed in about two hours.

We've shopped for snacks and a few breakfast and lunch items twice, and those items are filling up the mini fridge and the shelves above it. It's really quite amazing. This room is approximately the size of my kitchen and dining room, and has a king size bed and a split bathroom - and we are living in it with great comfort.

It really is a reality check on how much stuff we actually need. Obviously there are things that would make our life easier that we don't have here. But the reality is that our lovely house back home is filled with things that we don't really need. And that brings me to a few conclusions.

First, we are so, incredibly, bountifully, blessed. We have so much, when so many people around the world have so little. This reminds me to be thankful for the abundance that we have, and also to do more with that abundance for others.

Secondly, I want to continue on my quest to live a simple and uncluttered life. It was a real eye opener to me when Javi was born - how quickly the stuff started accumulating. And right now it is my responsibility to corral his stuff, later on it will be my job to teach him to live simply.

And thirdly, wherever I am, if I have my husband and my son, I have everything I need to be content.