Going Big

Last month Sam discovered (and fell in love with) a great book call Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less...and it's kinda changed our lives. That sounds a little dramatic, and maybe it is, but it has certainly adjusted the way he (and we) have tried to approach things for the past month or so. The main premise of the book is that greater happiness and success is found when we focus our efforts and "go big" on a few things (the most important things) instead of having our time/energy and resources splintered among many things (some important and some not so important). Thinking like this has caused me to reflect on what I think are those "most important" things.  I'm still nailing down my final list, but among those most important things is this blog (or some type of journal keeping). Journal keeping does so many good things for me. Aside from providing a record for my children and future posterity, it is a constant reminder to me of what matters most and has a special way of strengthening our family relationships as it reemphasizes the experiences and moments in our family that we value most.

The author of the Essentialism is also a big believer in the value of journal writing and gave this wise advice: "Write less than you want to". He says that if keeping a journal starts to take too much time in your day the chances of doing it on a regular basis are significantly reduced because it can quickly start to feel overwhelming. I can certainly vouch for those feelings. I haven't read the whole book and I'm not proselyting it the way Sam is, but I think this guy has some pretty great ideas so I'll try to take the advice to heart as well and wrap this up quickly in the name of hoping for future consistency.

These pictures are from Mother's Day, but I thought they were appropriate since these little people (or not so little!!) are my reason for "going big" on this.

They did not want to take these pictures and I think their level of cooperation shows, but I have them now and I'm not sorry I dragged them out there and tested everyone's patience for a few minutes. 

 These pictures are from a couple months ago, but I think I can still somewhat accurately recall what was going down in this final picture. I think it was actually the last one Sam took and everyone was D-O-N-E, done!  Ruby zoning out (I'm pretty sure the audio on this picture would include her saying, "I'm tired of taking pictures" (repeated 10 times), Max looking tortured (probably because I made him wear a collared shirt), Harlow clueless about what all the fuss is all about and Reed trying his best to please me after recognizing how frustrated I am getting. Yep, I think that probably sums it all up--except that I need to mention how much I love these children and even in the frustrating moments (pictured below) that I love them with all my heart and feel so blessed that they are mine. Here's to keeping it short and writing less than you want!