Making room for what's important

At 2:22 AM, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for our immediate area, siting funnel clouds in a nearby town, heading our direction at 45 miles per hour. Shortly thereafter, tornado sirens began wailing throughout our little city. My first thought, as I fought through the sleepy fog, was that some horrible accident must have occurred and the hospital near our house was experiencing a higher than normal volume of ambulance traffic. A couple of moments later, I realized it was the severe weather warning, but I thought it must be a mistake because it wasn't even raining. At almost the same instant that thought entered my mind, the rain started, and I sat bolt upright and grabbed my phone to check the weather. Jeff asked me what was wrong, and, as we both realized we already knew the answer, we jumped out of bed and hit the lights. One flickering of the electricity was all it took for us to start collecting sleepy children from the other bedrooms.

This house lacks a true safe room, so we made the split-second decision to put everyone in the master closet, following the tornado rules we've memorized as long-time Texas residents. I began literally throwing shoes and other clutter out of the relatively small space, in order to make room for my people. It was then that I realized I just have too much stuff.

I have been trying to live a minimalistic lifestyle ever since we got rid of everything and headed off on our RTW trip. But, suddenly, my stuff was getting in the way of my people, and it just seemed like too much. I was wondering how it even all got there and how I hadn't noticed it piling up before. But I hadn't noticed it before because it hadn't interfered with the safety of my family, and I had just been lazily letting it accumulate.

This morning, I woke up bound and determined to make room in my closet--and my life--for what's truly important. I'm not saying I'm happy we all had to gather in the closet in the middle of the night or that I want a repeat performance, though I'm ready for it if it's forced upon me. What I can tell you is that everything that's important to me was in my closet last night, and it darn sure wasn't my shoes!

Gift Giving Guide

Q. What do you get the minimalistic nomadic family in your life that just wants to get away from it all?

A. 96 square feet of road-ready freedom, with a bathroom, a kitchen, and beds for everyone.

Minimalistic Mindset

A friend asked me to share about how we have adjusted to fixed-location living, particularly with regard to minimalism. Maybe you've been wondering about this, too. (Or, maybe not. Which is cool. Just carry on with your regularly scheduled activities.)

As most of you know, when we were traveling full-time, we lived out of carry-on sized suitcases, filled with appropriate clothing for every season and most occasions and activities. We had what we needed, but there wasn't a great deal of diversity, and items were limited. We mostly loved it, though the girls did dream of variety from time to time. But, because we were moving often and interacting with people we would most likely not see again, many of the social pressures of our outer wrappers disappeared, and we rarely lamented our sparse wardrobes. It was the ultimate in minimalistic living.

By the end of our trip, our travel clothes were in pretty dire need of upgrades, as many of the items were worn out or no longer fit. Plus, we now live in a place with closets and dressers (which was so weird to me when we first moved in!), so the need for extreme minimalism has passed. Truthfully, there has been a fair amount of both rejoicing and weeping at letting go of some of the pieces that went around the world with us. (I still have not replaced my tennis shoes, even though I desperately need to, but I happily said good-bye to a pair of travel pants I was never really in love with)! We have replaced and/or added to our travel gear out of necessity (and social pressure, if I'm really honest), but our closets and drawers are nowhere near filled to capacity. Nor do we want them to be. We all seem to be satisfied with less these days. (Though, I'll admit, the girls are enjoying the increased variety!) And, we all still harbor a wanderlust that makes us stop and consider what is packable and what isn't. We try to be intentional about what we bring into our intentionally small house. And, we try to get rid of items we don't truly love or that don't fit properly.

As far as non-clothing items go, we try to apply the same principles, though, I confess, this seems a little harder to control. There are more toys, beauty products, knick-knacks, and miscellany around than seems necessary (but NOTHING like before our trip). And some of them are here just because they can be, because we simply have the space for them. Despite our best intentions, the clutter still builds up, and I often feel that we have more than we need. And sometimes, I sweep through the house looking for anything we can get rid of. Sure, the kids enjoy having a few more toys, but they still gravitate to simple playthings or create playthings out of whatever is around. Overall, I would say that minimalism has made itself at home in our lives. We recognize the difference between needs and wants, and we think intentionally about our possessions. In my opinion, one of the the great things to come out of our trip is knowing what we need and knowing it is enough.

Dunedin

We relocated to Dunedin today, which will be the southernmost point on our entire journey. We are staying in a fun little bed and breakfast on the "steepest residential street in the world," according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The owner warned us that parking at the house would be impossible, because our car would just slide down the hill, regardless of how many brakes we set, so we also got to have the experience of schlepping our bags up the record-holding street. I was once again thankful that we travel lightly! From the porch, we have a lovely view of Dunedin and the gorgeous surrounding mountains.

 A lovely send-off from Chirstchurch

Baldwin Street:
The Steepest Street in the World

From our porch, overlooking Dunedin

Sunset

(In case you missed it, I have just published a children's geography book about China, and I'm giving away a free copy. To be eligible to win, you just need to leave a comment on yesterday's post. I will be announcing the winner on May 17.)

Last Ski Day in Andorra

Our last ski day was fantastic, though definitely colder than the previous days, especially first thing in the morning. There were moments when I couldn't feel my fingers and toes, despite two layers of gloves, two pairs of socks, and hand warmers. I was secretly thrilled when some of the kids asked to take a break, and I quickly volunteered to be the parent to go with those kids to the lodge. Weston and Jeff decided to brave the cold and work in a few more runs. When the other kids reported getting a snack, Weston wasn't even jealous, because he said skiing was even more important to him than eating. Now, that's true love. (If you're curious, skiing is tied with football at Number One, on Weston's sport love scale.) And, even though things got a bit chilly this morning, I want to report that aside from sunglasses and gloves for three of us, we didn't buy any special winter wear for our ski trip. We had planned for these kind of outings with our packing and our gear performed beautifully. As someone who is ALWAYS cold, I had my doubts about being able to stay warm on the slopes, despite all the layering. But aside from my fingers and toes in the early morning and late afternoon (when the sun wasn't shining), I was really quite comfortable. It is so amazing to me to have everything I need for both a ski vacation and a tropical beach vacation in just one little carry-on sized bag that I can carry on my back. 

Team W, on our last Andorran ski day

Today was by far the coldest day on the mountain, especially this morning,
before the sun was peeking over the mountains and
while the snow machines were still blowing a blizzard of powder around.
By mid-morning, some of us needed to take a hot chocolate break.
(This picture will also serve as evidence of my presence on this ski trip.)

Ice "C"

"M" for Max

Because I know you need more cuteness in your life, I am going to leave you with a video of our little speed racer. This kid is a natural on skis, as you will see when he almost leaves his dad/videographer in the dust.

Necessities

When you only own a week's worth of clothes and a couple of pairs of shoes, you REALLY notice when things start to wear out, and since you are wearing and washing everything much more often than you would if you had a larger wardrobe, some of the things wear out faster. I had two shirts with fairly significant holes in them; most of the family had one or more pairs of holey socks; Clay's shoes seemed to be within moments of disintegration. It was getting pretty sad. So, this afternoon, we made the short drive over to the mall to stock up on necessities--new socks for Ruth, Weston, Clay and Jeff, new shoes for Clay, a couple of new shirts for me, and sunglasses for the whole crew for our ski trip next week. When you live in a minimalistic world, you learn to appreciate the few things you have, and something new (even a pair of socks!) seems like a really big deal. Clay, for instance, was so proud of his new socks and shoes that he popped them on his feet as soon as he got out of the shower and certainly would have worn them to bed if we had let him. We are learning to be thankful even for small things, things we might not have even taken note of before. What small things are you thankful for today?