I know you have heard me say before that my word for the year is SIMPLICITY. Did I happen to mention it was also my word for last year? Although I do believe I made huge strides last year I feel as if this year I have some room for improvement on my journey to live a simple life. I am going to share weekly what I have done to get closer to my SIMPLICITY goal. This week there will be two posts instead of one because I figured you all do not want to read a novel.

{via The Polished Pebble old home- LOVE}

What I love about blogging is finding others who share the same goals. The sweet lady over on Lavender and Lilies is also going through some great ideas to simplify on her blog. I am borrowing quite a few for myself such as "only buy it if you love it". She is talking about wardrobe, but I could easily apply this to all areas of my life.

{via here via the nest}

Emerson Made who was just featured in the nest might just be the posterchild of being organized and living simply. I love how she said "keep only what you need, and keep it in plain sight. No hidden junk". This one may be harder to obtain, but I am willing to try.

{part of Emma's assessment}

Emma took photos of her own home and evaluated what it is she liked and what needed changing. I love how she said "I feel like I have a road map now of what to tackle next and where to direct my money and energy". I too am adopting this idea. I feel as if I seem to make the same mistakes over and over in my home. There are countless times that I have bought things and quickly regretted them. I am hoping having a well mapped plan will keep me from making unnecessary purchase.

Seleta's 2011 words for her year resonated with me too. I really could just copy her list word for word, but I guess that would be cheating. The one that spoke to me most was to be more "playful". I find myself getting too serious at times and I am afraid that robs moments with my husband and kiddos that should just be fun. I analyze everything which is odd since I am quite laid back on the outside. Oh, and by the way I completely failed at this while doing this blog post. Got frustrated with the kiddos, ugh.

This year the Mr. and I also talked about our future and what would benefit us most as a family. Well, to make a long story short we are going to try to be even smarter with the money God has blessed us with. We already take living debt free quite seriously. Our only main debt is the house. So we are going to try to dwindle that down in a five year plan. This means my not forever house is going to become my long term house and my love of spending will HAVE to be smarter, not much extra to play with. I know in the long term this will be quite good for our family financially, but to be honest it will be hard because you all know that I dream of a move, but we are blessed with what we have so I am going to find joy in it.

Like I said a novel...