'Tis a Gift to Be Simple...

'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free,
'tis the gift to come downs
where we ought to be,
and when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
to turn, turn, will be our delight
till by turning, turning we come round right.

I've always loved the above hymn and enjoy singing it in church.  It turns out this song was originally written as a religious (Shaker) dance song for use in their worship. The words --"To turn, turn will be our delight" and "Till by turning, turning" -- are dance instructions.

Many of you know that one of our main goals in moving to the farm was to live a more "simple" life.  So when I found this book, I was excited to read it from cover to cover.

 

There are many good "nuggets" of information in this book.  And I recommend reading it.  A good portion of the book discusses simplifying the amount and overall selection of your children's toys.  Those of you who know us well, and have been to our house often, see the boys toy room looking like this...

 

 



Just looking at this picture stresses me out (and is a little embarrassing)!  And how can a young child's imagination flourish in this pit of plastic, chaos and visual over-stimulation.

So... we cleaned up.  And four, large garbage bags later (3 to Goodwill and one to a landfill)...

 
Now we still have a lot of toys, maybe too many.  But we are making forward progress.  I foresee doing this process again after school is out. 

Thank you to Mimi for making the boys these Lego bags!  I hope they will keep more of the Legos together and less on the floor (because we all know how nasty it feels to accidently step on a Lego!)

I really recommend, to any parent (or grandparent), to downsize (and simplify) their kiddo's toy room and bedroom.  We now have a toy room with at least a quarter less toys.  And our new rule is only books and stuffed animals are to be kept in their bedroom.  This downsize process was not fun... and quite painful (sometimes literally when I was tripping over toys and stepping on random plastic items) but it was worth it in the end.  And do you know who had a harder time getting rid of toys? Me!  The boys had no problem at all giving away their "little boy" toys.  It was me, the mama, that was holding on to the toys (and the toddler/little boy memories that went with them).