Living Out Simplicity

I went to a very small high school in Michigan; our graduating class was under 100 students.  We didn't have a wide curriculum back then, pretty much the basics.  Although our academic choices were somewhat limited,  I was blessed to have some great teachers who cared about their profession, who cared about me, and who helped prepare me for life.  One of my favorite teachers was Norma Suess who introduced me to "Walden." Thoreau's theme of living simply resonated with me, even as a teenager.

A few months ago I wrote "It's Complicated" as the opening post for this blog, and began a journey to live my life more simply.  This started with some smaller moves, like thinning our my wardrobe and managing our food stores.   Chris and I will be taking a much bigger step together over the next few weeks by selling our home and downsizing our livings space to less than half of what we have currently.  

Our home has been a great blessing to us these past 6 years, meeting our needs by providing a young man with special needs the space he needs to move about, and place where middle-schoolers enjoyed hanging out.  (We've had lots of kids in our home over the years.)  We've even used our home for ministry, hosting GCC Arts Team and Administrative Council meetings and using it as a film location from time to time.  I liked this one particularly and fortunately, I didn't get a letter from my homeowners association:

Grill Guys | Up In My Grill from Granger Community Church on Vimeo.

Chris and I really enjoy the home we live in today and we will miss our neighbors, but we realize that we are both active people and that much of what we have goes unused.  We have a 4th bedroom that has a visiting family member only a few nights a year, a swimming pool that gets used about 7 days a summer, and a finished basement that sits dormant most of the time.   It's wasteful for us, consuming our time for upkeep and our financial resources, while giving us only a small return on our lifestyle (more space to roam about.)

Over the next few months, we'll be increasing our complexity (moving and renovating) so that we can get to a state of more simplicity.  We are a bit nervous about this, as it represents some big changes over the summer and because it will increase our physical proximity as a family.  But I am confident that we will be the better for it in the long-haul as we prepare for our son to someday move into a group home setting and our daughter to finish out high school and move on to college.

Chris and I appreciate your prayers as we move to the adventure ahead.