Hm.... Back in the saddle...

I've been reading some blogs on simplicity lately and it inspired me. I've been feeling the pull towards living with less lately and these blogs were like some sort of mental lip balm. I feel better having read and been inspired to live a less-cluttered life with more time for what's important to me.

http://www.bemorewithless.com/
http://www.welivesimply.info/ (good family stuff in here)

I am deeply intrigued by people like this:
http://www.missminimalist.com/

Some questions I have for myself (and you if you'd like to answer them!):
What do I want to make more time for?
What does "living simply" mean to me?
Because what I think I'm finding out is that it's about mental and physical clutter. Having too much around you and being too busy or thinking about too many things (which I tend to do).

One thing I'd most definitely like to do is reduce the clothing items I own. I've already reduced what I wear to a 3" section of our closet and haven't really noticed much of a difference. I pretty much wear the same thing over and over and over. At some points, I will wear the same t-shirt for 3 days in a row if I haven't left the house (usually happens during the snow storms).
Some interesting ideas I read about as for clothing:
One woman suggested having something like this dress in her wardrobe, so it would function as several dresses.
The One Dress looks like another way to reduce the number of dresses you'd need in your wardrobe, and is way cool.
And what about this version of the infinity dress? Or the convertible top?
All of these items begs the questions: How many clothes do we need? What of self-expression in clothing choices? How much of a hold does the fashion industry have on me/you?

I'm sure there will be more about this later. I'm out for now!

I Don't Knit

Nor do I plan to pick it back up. So I guess I'll have to buy two of these, then won't I? Adorable!

Recent Reading

The Jesus Storybook Bible - I was looking for a bible that was aimed at my almost 4 year old's age range, and something she could understand. This is a bit verbose for her attention span, but the messages are spot on.

One Thousand Gifts - I LOVE this book. It's written in a way that makes me want to slow down. To think slow, to talk slowly, to act slowly. To embrace each moment of each day and live it for what it is. Awesome.

So the bottom four I checked out from the library:
Feeding the Whole Family - I was looking for a good family cookbook and I think I've found it. Not that I am lacking in the cookbook department... just cookbooks full of things my girls will eat. This one is pretty good and I've already tried several of the recipes out of it. It's a possibility I'll add it to my repertoire.

Crazy Sexy Diet - This book has hit the diet world by storm. The author battled cancer and learned about holistic health in the process. This is the best book on nutrition and body care that I've seen in a while.

Appetite for Reduction - I love the author of this cookbook and have two of her previous cookbooks. Usually she's not shy on using more caloric items in her recipes, though this cookbook is her answer to those who say her recipes aren't low-cal. So far everything I've tried out of it has been really good and needed minimal tweaking.

Fast Fit - I'm looking for a good book to tell me how to fit my patterns to my body. I copied a few pages out of this book to have as a reference. Maybe they'll help. Who knows.

I LOVE to read! Now go grab you a book and sit down and read it!