Inspiration all around

Gee, this bed rest thing is really improving my blog habits :) I have been devouring my new Alexandra Stoddard book ("Happiness for Two") and I am LOVING the quotes that she begins and ends each little chapter. Here are a few that have really spoken to me:

"He is the happiest, be he King or Peasant, who finds peace in his home." ......Goethe

"Can not we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way?" ......Emerson

"Who is the happiest of man? He who values the merits of others and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though it was his own.".....Goethe

"Someone who celebrates more lives more fully and loves more deeply."....Alexandra Stoddard

"Love dances in the freshness of the unknown." .....Deepak Chopra

"The growth in wisdom can be accurately gauged by the drop in ill temper." ....Nietzche

"Trifles make the sum of life." ....Charled Dickens

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing." ....Albert Schweitzer

"The Amen! of nature is always a flower." .....Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness." .....John Ruskin

I put four stars around that last one!! It really spoke to me in a way I hadn't thought about before. I know sometimes I am just weary looking at all the stuff we have accumulated over the years. It's especially bad in my scrap area, but my closet is another area in chaos right now and I know there are MANY items in drawers and cabinets that we never use b/c there is just too much to get through to find what we really need.
Actually, I would say my house is fairly organized. I am not one to shy away from getting rid of things and if you were to walk through our home you would find it neat and tidy most of the time....BUT, I have a burning desire to simplify this year. I want to get to a place where we ONLY bring things into our home that we absoluetly love, things that have a story or a memory behind them or things that are just plain necessary and useful.
I read an article in Town and Country magazine lately that addressed this issue well. It talked about how we as Americans are always accumulating more and more. We are obsessed with the latest and the greatest and there is never really an end in sight.
I don't want that for my family and I don't want to pass that on to my children. I want to teach them to enjoy what they have and when they do acquire new things, to pass on the old to someone who can then begin to enjoy it.
It sounds wonderful, yet I know it is a daunting task.....a task that will take effort throughout the year and a total shift in thinking.
I realized today while looking at my CC statement that the vast majority of my purchases were from Starbucks and Target. So much of that money could have been better spent!!
When I really stop and think about what I want for my life and for the life of my family, it is not things that can be purchased at Target (or anywhere else for that matter). Don't get me wrong, I know that every now and then, there is nothing better than browsing the aisles and bringing home something that just speaks to you, but I want to make my purchases more meaningful and less frequent.
My intention is to create a home that is filled with memories and items that inspire creativity, a love of nature, family, friends. I desire a home that is comfortable and peaceful and full of joy. So....for me that means more time reading together, taking walks together, making hot chocolate and watching a great movie, making S'mores over the fire outside, taking lots and lots of pictures, documenting our lives through scrapbooks, getting together with friends and family, celebrating more, elevating the ordinary by setting a beautiful table "just because", having fresh flowers in the house more often, lighting candles, planning little adventures, getting down on the floor with my little girl to draw, paint, color, creating art as a family, planting flowers together, praying together, writing love letters to my husband, sending cards and little gifts to the people we love, spending time outdoors, looking at the stars, laughing, playing games, creating a life together.
It's funny b/c so often we know what we want and then go about it all wrong. My prayer is that God will give me the wisdom and the strength to fight the temptation to accumulate more material things this year and instead fill me with the desire to increase our invisible wealth.

"If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having." ....Henry Miller