It happened. Less than one month after going on the market – our current house is now under contract, and with that, the move to the farm and the building of the simple house is full steam ahead!
We are so excited to now start work on the Simple House at the farm
We have affectionately dubbed 2016 as the “Year of Chaos.” On a mission to downsize and simplify our life – we knew that there would certainly be an adjustment period where things might get a little hectic, busy, and crazy. (See: The Simple House Project)
Well, the aforementioned “adjustment period” is now well underway! The last 30 days have been filled with showings, inspections, paperwork and more on the current house, all the while taking on a whole new set of challenges with plan adjustments, permits and selections for the new house to be built at the farm. Throw in a senior graduating high school this year, the release of our book Growing Simple in May, and of course our full-time jobs – and I think that the “Year of Chaos” was the perfect name for 2016!
Choosing to Embrace the Challenge
So yes, all of that may seem ridiculous, and we certainly have had some crazy days lately – but we decided long ago that instead of allowing this year to cause stress and tension, we would embrace it and have fun with it. We both know that this is all just part of the process that will eventually lead us to the calm of a much more simple life at the farm – and that makes it all worth it!
It will be mornings like this at the farm that make it all worth it
Mary and I have always been huge believers that you have a choice every single day to either let a situation control you, or to stay in control of the situation. No matter if something goes right or wrong, you really do control how you react to it.
We know that there are going to be things out of our control, so why worry about them? Instead, we simply do what we can, and when something goes awry – spend our time fixing it instead of worrying about it.
Yes, things go wrong – in fact – a perfect example of that happened just last night. Some of you may have even received a blank email from us with the today’s post title as evidence.
The Final Cover of our upcoming Growing Simple Book.
While writing this week’s Sunday Farm Update – I made a huge mistake! I can honestly say this is what happens at midnight when one falls asleep while typing on the couch and accidentally hits the “send” instead of “save” button! Mary looked at me and laughed and said, “oh well, you just proved the point we make mistakes. Nothing you can do about it – so why worry.” And with that, I went back to writing the real post.
There are moments that we need to stop, take a deep breath, and realize that everything will be okay. Part of that is simply accepting that we are going to make mistakes like last night, laugh about it – and move on!
From Chaos to Calm
A few weeks back, when we were finalizing the Growing Simple book cover for printing – we had the opportunity to add one simple subtitle to the front cover – and we chose the four words “From Chaos to Calm.” That really does say it all for the farm, the book, the website, the house project, and most of all for us.
And speaking of the book, one final note – for next Sunday’s update, we have selected one chapter to share with all of you as a bit of preview for the upcoming release in May. With the book’s completion, we are so excited to finally have one more bit of the chaos turn to calm.
Here is to the Year of Chaos! – Jim and Mary
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