Retrospect

At the start of every new year is the tradition of making new year's resolutions.  Last year, my resolution was to simplify our family life.  In retrospect, I'm not quite sure I accomplished it, but I can say that things are definitely different now:
1.  I managed to grow or obtain from local farms enough vegetables to sustain us through the growing season and into the winter.  I still have a full deep freezer and a shelf of root cellared winter squash to go!  I eliminated as many processed, non-food foods as I could from our daily meals.  I shop mostly at local markets with a few purchases at the grocery store to obtain a few ingredients here and there.  I cook with mostly whole foods and keep them in as natural a state as I can (and have them be edible!).  I only use real butter or extra virgin olive oil.  I eliminated artificial sweeteners and sweeten mostly with real maple syrup and local honey (I have the same 5 pound bag of sugar that I bought LAST January!).
2.  I am slowly but surely going through and eliminating "stuff."  The girls have fewer toys, I have tried to clear out the clutter on my desk, and Jeremy...well, he has his own space for his stuff.  I have a long way to go in this area.  I still need to find a better system for organization, but I'll get to that later.
3.  I got a new job.  At the start of the year, I was actually planning to find a way to go part time.  I was only buying things I couldn't make or grow.  I saved money, and I had more time to sew, cook, and bake.  Yet, I wasn't able to give up my work and still cover our family's insurance needs.  I worked 3-4 nights a week, but my sleep schedule was erratic at best.  In June, I got a promotion working better hours but 5 days a week.  It has left me wondering how to live like a normal person, but I have more time each day with my family.  Before, I wasn't eating dinner or putting my kids to bed half of the nights each week.  Simple?  Yes and no.  I haven't quite figured  out how to work a full day and not be so tired.  All the hobbies I once had have been moved over to make more time for sleep.
4.  I decided that simple isn't always simple.  Some months, I am more than overwhelmed with planting my garden, harvesting and preserving, or cleaning out the closets.  Other months, I seem to have more time, but am still catching up on my sleep from the previous months.  A job with fewer hours per day seems great, but more days a week leaves me scrambling on the weekends.  And clearing out the clutter is not as easy as it sounds.
So, with my plan for living the simple life well under way, it's time to move forward.  Time to see how I can keep the simple life going while keeping it all in perspective.  And I'm hoping to find a balance in the way all the pieces of my life fit together.