Serenity now...

There are days I have to channel my inner George Costanza... you know, that short, bald head guy from Seinfeld. During moments of complete meltdown by the girls I just want to yell, "Serenity Now!" Doing so provides little to no serenity but it at least gives me a smile.


In my motherhood quest for simplicity I have learned the road is not a simple, straight-forward path. In fact, the road to destination simplicity takes many twists. Sometimes it overlaps itself and you find yourself almost back at the starting line located in Insanity City. 

Insanity City is a town of overstuffed drawers, piles of papers and general unorganized chaos. While it feels lonely in Insanity City, I imagine the true population is in the millions.  


Right now I am somewhere in the middle of the road on my destination to simplicity. I have boxed up toys no one cares for, I've sorted through a few drawers long forgotten and untouched and I have begun the arduous process of separating clothes by size and season. 


Yesterday, despite the threat of rain, the girls and I packed up and drove out to my 'happy place' where you hear birds rather than cars and throwing stones into a lake is just as entertaining as Scooby Doo. 


A visit to my 'happy place' makes me want to live in the country and grow my own food. I was enjoying the peaceful ripples from the water and dreaming of being a pioneer. That is, of course, until one of the girls needed the bathroom. And then I said, "Thank God for modern plumbing! Let's go home!"


So now we're back in our City house with fancy toilets, running water and piles of things unwanted.  Simplicity may never be completely attained with small kids in the house but I'm making an effort to at least give the idea a try.


And when the house returns to Insanity City, I think the girls and I will just visit our 'happy place.'
The simplicity quest is never ending it seems, and maybe that is okay.


Comments

Life of the Lorenzens said…
Very profound and true. I'm with you all the way...
May 3, 2012 at 10:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October things...

Image
It has not been the easiest October on record. Kate had a couple of hospital visits to Rochester but she is somewhat better at the moment. She continues with chemotherapy and has not been back to school for quite some time but she is doing her best to set aside time for online school work between naps, loving on cats, and hanging out with her family. I was able to get the girls to visit their great grandma in western Iowa a few weeks back. Here's Claudia shortly after arriving at great grandma's house. She is very into jewelry and lots of it. Grandma had several questions for her about the number of bracelets and thankfully Claudia loves talking about them. Many she has made, some were gifted to her...it's a lovely hodgepodge of middle school girl goodies. Clearly the girls and I were blessed with height genes from relatives not named great grandma. We spent time relaxing, taking four wheeler rides, eating candy and we also received a visit from my aunt and uncle. Aunt Deb
Read more

The dark day of June 27th...

 June 12, 2023 We typically don't share a lot of updates about Kate's health, primarily because she wants to remain "a normal teenager." However, we still get asked how Kate is doing and I started thinking maybe it's okay to share updates now and again. Most people care about her and our family, some others could maybe be labeled as "tragedy junkies," but I'm going to operate under the assumption that most people have the best of intentions.  Today is June 12th and we are quickly approaching the dreaded dark day of June 27th. Have you watched, "Gilmore Girls?" It's a witty, comforting television show from the early 2000's. In it one of the main characters has what is dubbed, "a dark day." This is a day the character dreads each year and in response he goes into hiding from the world with no communication. Well for Kate, and the rest of us to some degree, the dark day of the year is June 27th and that date is closing in on
Read more

The other side of the dark day...

 Kate's dark day of Jun 27th came and went like any other day. Kate swam 100 fly in the Independence meet and finished 1st (she was the only swimmer in her age group to sign up, but who cares about details) and then she and Matt hopped in the car to drive up to Rochester for next-day appointments. The worst part of Kate's dark day was probably Matt trying out the Grimace meal at McDonald's. It was death by milkshake and yet he drank the whole thing. Can't let food go to waste, or something.  We braved June 27th with dread and came out on the other side. We enter year three into the cancer life. Two years of appointments, scans, blood draws, IVs, endless chemotherapies, daily medications. It is difficult to remember life before all of this, when Kate was able to get up at 6 a.m. to swim, play basketball, ride her bike, go to school and chase her sisters. We've all adapted even though no one wants to. Hand to God I keep hoping to have a tantrum and wake up from whatev
Read more