What Happens When Simple Living Becomes Too Hard

I was listening to a pod cast the other day that really resounded with me from another blogger who chose to move to the country and start homesteading. She spoke of how she kind of got away from her lifestyle for a bit and I have been sharing a struggle similar to hers in recent months. So I figured that this would be a fun path to venture down for today’s blog post. 

What Happens When Simple Living Becomes Too Hard

So right from the beginning when we started incorporating simple life tasks into our routine we learned like many of you that nothing about simple living was every really simple. Stores carry everything we need ready made and easily available but without the satisfaction of being able to take full responsibility for it on your own. Jelly for example you grab, pay for, open and enjoy. Except if you want to pick your fruit, make the jelly, can the jelly, store the jelly, and then use it. Add in growing your own fruit and man, you find yourself years into the process of obtaining one jar! For many of us that is what it is all about, the process, that is the part we have fallen in love with and the part that calls out to our soul. 

The world however is not made for people like us. This is a time where the quicker your move, the better. The is a focus on being busy not necessarily on production. How many of us can say that we have felt like we run around without stopping yet have nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Our kids feel it too! How many teams can they be on while going to school and playing an instrument. I feel that the busy isn’t the problem but the outcome is. Hard work is not the problem but the outcome is. I know that when I spend a year growing and putting up food there is a satisfaction that comes from that process of growing, creating, and storing food that will provide nourishment in the form of a good meal for my family that I do not always get from carpooling kids from here to there. Yet, this is where I find myself. My kids used to be little and love spending time with me and doing all the things I loved to do. Now they are getting older and creating their own little places in the world. They have their own hobbies, friends and views on how the world should work. The kids want to play sports that require travel and evening practices that start right when we should all be sitting down for dinner. I went to work full-time and that requires meals to go and early mornings rushing to get out of the house. Life has evolved from being that stay at home mom of young children. So now I find myself struggling with how to create the simple life I love while keeping up with the life we find ourselves living. To be honest I have to work, staying home is no longer an option. 

What are we to do? That is the stage we are in right now. That is why the blog has suffered a bit of silence over the last several months. Evening the blogging world it has become a very busy area as everyone strives to create constantly. Post after post, product after product, book after book. I love all of the things but that is not what I set out to create and I have struggled a bit with how to navigate this busy world online as well. 

What am I going to do about it? I could complain all day but I don’t think that that is very productive. I am going to take some practical steps that I will share with you and if you are just starting out this is a perfect time to join in and if it all became too hard this is a great time to join in. I am heading back to the kitchen to make meals for my family. I’m heading back to the garden to grow foods and vegetables that nurture my soul while I tend to the garden beds. I’m making many products for my home myself again.  These are the basics of our simple life and when the going gets hard, digging in deeper into that which grounds us is often the solution. Is there time? No, but it takes just as much time to schlep through a miserable, disconnected life than to fully engage when able in deep and meaningful life. Join me as a learn how to make Simple Life simple again, even if making it easy is not an option. 

Have you found yourself struggling with similar feelings?